#they're supposed to parallel the three though...

[goldenflame-au]

Meet Daypaw, Moonpaw, and Flarepaw!!

They are the kits of Harespring and Sol :]!!!

You can read the fic with their first appearances here!!

[crimsonphantasmagoria]

Veilguard is not about regret

I've seen a lot of discussion going around about the themes of regret in Veilguard. In particular I've seen a couple of related claims thrown around: one, that Rook and the Veilguard companions are supposed to act as parallels/foils to Solas, an example of how to deal with regret healthily, and two, that Rook is a terrible foil to Solas because there's nothing that they've actually done that's worthy of regretting, and anything that they theoretically should regret (like helping disrupt the ritual that freed the Evanuris, whether you think that's a deserving accusation or not) they simply don't. I'm here to tell you that both these perspectives are true, and it's because Veilguard isn't actually about regret.

Let's start off by talking about the companions shall we. Let's list off the regrets in their storylines. Bellara regrets not being more careful and not somehow saving her brother. Taash regrets not making up with their mother before her death. Davrin doesn't actually have one of his own, instead the regret in his storyline is Isseya's regret about what happened with the Griffins. Emmrich's storyline is more about wavering on the brink of a choice, which may cause regret, though I suppose we could include regret about where his friend has ended up in life. Lucanis regrets what happened to his relationship with Illario. Neve regrets Aelia remaining free, and the death of Rana's partner. Harding regrets not seeing through Solas earlier, and also I suppose the fate of the Titans, though I'm not sure I would categorise what she feels about that as regret.

Are you seeing a pattern here? Let's elaborate on it further. While in the Regret Prison, Rook is confronted by three regrets: the loss of the secondary team leader, the loss of the companion who disabled the wards, and the loss of Varric. And the solution to all of these regrets is this: it wasn't your fault. Those companions, they knew the risks, and they volunteered to go into danger. It was their own choice.

Now Solas. Solas has a great many regrets. He regrets tranquilising the Titans. He regrets taking a body. He regrets killing Felassan. He regrets killing the fragment of Mythal that was in Flemeth. He regrets creating the Veil. He may even regret starting his slave rebellion, given everything that followed after, though that memory is unclear what the actual regret is. These are all active choices he made. The only comparable regrets amongst the companion's storylines and Rook are Isseya's, and sort-of Emmrich's. I'll come back to Emmrich later. Isseya's regrets are actually a pretty good comparison point, except, as is obvious, that's not actually Davrin's storyline. Davrin's regrets on the Griffon front are more institutional, and feed into his storyline about having been made into a weapon, and what to do with yourself after your purpose as a weapon has been served. Actually a pretty good parallel with Solas! Except, once again, it wasn't really his choice, was it? And it's certainly not a choice about a horrifying atrocity he comitted.

Which brings us to Solas’s final regret. He regrets Mythal’s death (the first one). Except, that isn't his fault, is it? She chose to go and confront the Evanuris, rather than join the rebellion or run away with Solas. All he did was give her the information that they were interfering with the Blight, information that she would almost certainly have learned for herself eventually, and assuming she would have made the same choice to confront them would still have resulted in her death. The solution is: it wasn't his fault.

This is the regret that is being paralleled, by an overwhelming majority. And they're right, it isn't his fault and he should forgive himself for it. The thing is: this isn't regret. It's a twisted form of grief. Once you realise this, the whole theme starts unravelling, because not all regrets are created equal. I think this is why some people accuse the narrative of excusing Solas, or trying to sweep aside the things he's done: because it is. The whole message of Veilguard is that you should forgive yourself for the things you had no control over, except that Solas did have control over all those other regrets I listed out earlier, and I say that with a great deal of affection. He did that. He can't forgive himself because it wasn't his fault, because it was. Not all regrets are created equal. And the focus on the narrative of 'it wasn't your fault' means that people look for the person whose fault it was, and that blame lands on Mythal. Who does share some responsibility for some of those acts, but again the narrative is about deliberately pushing away culpability. I suppose one could make an argument for blaming Elgar’nan for everything? I think we should blame Elgar’nan for everything.

Indeed, the narrative focuses so hard on the idea of Solas doing everything because of Mythal, because of that twisted grief, that it completely loses sight of the actual reasons he had for doing the things he was doing. The spirits are trapped in the Fade, many of them yearning to access a world they naturally should have access to. The elves have been enslaved for millenia, and have lost almost everything about themselves, including their origins. Mages are either feared and reviled, or use their overwheling power advantage to lord over those who don't have the same access to magic. And let's not forget, two more Blights and the Veil comes down anyway, releasing the Turbo Blight (which he created) onto unsuspecting Thedas. Not to mention there were suggestions in Trespasser that there was something going on with the remaining ancient elves in Uthenara, who apparently vanished from existance along with his agents.

I mentioned earlier that I would come back to Emmrich. That's because his storyline, in my opinion, is the only one that actually depicts the theme they should have been going for with DA4, namely, when presented with a difficult moral choice, what will you do? What are you willing to sacrifice, and for what? In theory, as has been pointed out before, Bellara's archive choice might once have also been this: it is implied by the phrasing of 'free the spirit' that the Nadas Dirthalen was supposed to be a trapped sapient spirit, forced into servitude, rather that a fantasy VI, and the choice at the end would have been do you free the innocent at the cost of the knowledge you could extract? These naturally feed into: do you bring down the Veil, causing a great deal of sorrow and harm but also potentially creating a better, more equal future, or do you refuse to make such a great sacrifice of lives? At the very least, I think this theme would have stayed more true to the setup of Trespasser, as well as the design of the companion binary choice system, and who knows? Perhaps there might even have been a third option.

[wanderingmind867]

I don't think I hate Nico and Will Solace as a couple, but it's pretty hard to hate a character who you barely know. Oh trust me, I can do it. If I go looking for negative posts, i'm so indecisive that i'd probably enter a temporary hatred phase (before going back to not minding the character, and then having to beg forgiveness). Because I am indecisive, and I can sometimes swing from loving someone to hating them to loving them again.

But legitimately: as someone who pretty much only read PJO and HOO (Skipping the last two books in the TOA series), Will Solace is one of those minor characters I never expect to care much about. Like most of the camp half blood characters who we see very little of, he's just a character I look at without much love in my tone. No offense meant. Please don't take that the wrong way! Let me try to explain.

Will Solace really only shows up twice in the Heroes of Olympus series. Once in the Lost Hero, where he leads Leo to the Hephaestus cabin. And then he suddenly becomes a prominent supporting character for the last 80 pages of the Blood of Olympus. I love Rick Riordan's writing (like 85 percent of the time), but even you can see that this is sort of abrupt. Making a character we barely know become super important just in time for the end of the story makes him feel tacked on at the end. All I really know is that he's blond, reminds nico of jason grace, and he's a healer. Those are the three traits i've picked up on. So now maybe you see my problem?

This is why I prefer Jason and Nico more, I think. Those two at least had some more narratively cohesive bonding. They had their intimate moment when Cupid forcibly outed Nico, and they've been close ever since. Even though they're not in any scenes together in most (if not all) of the Blood of Olympus, they mention each other a lot. There's more of a cohesive build towards romance here.

Will and Nico works (I suppose), but it's abrupt, and it's lacking in any real signs that the two deeply care. I mean… again. Will's only in like the last 80 pages. How do you learn to love someone when they have that little focus? Also, Nico and Jason are outsiders at both Camps. Nico doesn't belong at Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter. Jason doesn't really fit in at either place, too. So they have better parallels to me. Will and Nico don't have as much stuff for me to read into. It's just abrupt and fast and really unexpected.

[miwiheroes]

Dropping Byler Evidence Every Day Until Season 5

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ Day 5: Byler parallels with Jopper and Lumax . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

Decided to combine Jopper and Lumax into one post because a lot of them are similar and would actually be more compelling if they were all combined, being that Jopper and Lumax are definitely endgame (they arent in any love triangles or anything)

So again, I'm gonna name the parallel and how intentional it may be. Even if it's not fully intentional as a complete parallel, this still counts as evidence because using the same tropes for Lumax and Jopper as Byler means that they are all romantic.

1. I Lost You

The fact that Byler and Lumax's ones are in the same episode oh my god???? I honestly think this is intentional. While the 'I thought I lost you' thing is common in romantic tropes, to use it for three couples is very much insane and they must have noticed this. Putting the two in the same episode as well..... oh my god

2. Holding Hands

I think that the fact its a parallel is not intentional, but hand holding is just very very common as a romantic trope. It's also the truth that they actually create a separate SHOT for each of these moments too, to signify their importance.

3. A Team

(couldnt find a good screenshot with a caption for byler but there is alt text)

If you want two people to have believable chemistry, you make them work together well. It was never explicitly stated that Jancy were a good team, but you could tell. HOWEVER THIS IS JUST EXPLICIT they are spelling it out for u!!! Mike and El never really work together. They are a couple. But they aren't a team. They don't work together on plans, there's never any back and forth planning (like with byler in s3), and once again, it's never ever acknowledged by either of them that they work well together as a team.

4. On the Bus

Both heart-to-heart scenes use this song behind it:

Oh this is highly highly intentional. You do not just use romantic, TENDER EMOTIONAL music for one couple who are definitely romantic, and then put that in the background of a platonic scene. The creators are literally screaming at u guys here <3 THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE ROMANTICCC HELLO

(also both these scenes end with them smiling at the other and they get interrupted by a noise before anything else can happen)

5. We have to kill it

Sorry guys i totally forgot to include this one in the Jancy parallel post but literally fucking LOOK!! This is intentional to me because it is very specific, and if it's an accident that they all want to kill something and the other one agrees, then it still shows that these couples have chemistry because they are on the same page. AND one of them is reassuring the other, foreshadowing that they are gonna be a team in the next season.

Jancy are a team in season 2 after they have this convo in season 1, and Jopper are a team in season 3 after having this convo in season 2. So byler will be a team in season 5.

6. Staying in the Hospital

Honestly this one's just cute, and recontextualises the fact that Mike peers over Will on the bed, and stays by him (even though it doesnt really need recontextualising). The fact that its very romantic and cute for Lumax to do it should mean the exact same thing for Mike to do it.

7. Looking longingly at someone who's pulling away

erm this one is just so clear to me. Not exactly intentional but like- the thing with staring at someone longingly just to have them not look back at you is very slow burn romance. The fact that it's very obvious to ppl that Max is definitely aware of Lucas staring at her, but can't stare back because she's afraid to hurt him/ afraid to show her feelings again definitely parallels Mike too.

Also both Lucas and Max SIGH before going back to what they're doing...

8. TENDER EMOTIONAL MUSIC

so a tender emotional music scene for jopper makes it feel romantic:

Sooooo.... doesn't that mean that it applies for byler too?? Who had it done to them not one, not two, but THREE TIMES IN SEASON 4???

AND LUMAX HAS A SCENE WITH THIS TOO

Thanks for reading yet another long ass post :))) The next ones probably going to be Rovickie parallels because they actually have so many after doing my research so yeah

[shannonsketches]

I noticed that the element of the triforce that the individual characters are supposed to represent, is also their weakness. Zelda's wisdom is being stifled by doubt and lack of experience; she's eager to learn, but her zeal is not enough and relies on faith and Link to save the day. I'm not implying that wisdom and faith cannot go hand in hand, but she needs to be able to represent her element more. Maybe her wisdom is knowing when to wait and allow someone else to bear the task? But it takes away too much initiative from her. Ganon's element is power but he's the one who ends up losing almost every time. And Ganondorf on his own, isn't powerless! He's a king, he knows magic, he can wield almost any weapon, he's patient, conniving and intelligent and knows how to make best with what he has. He isn't weak! And yet, the whole split happened, because he was feeling powerless.

They locked themselves in a self-sabotaging cycle that's powered by doubt.

Yeah! So one of the reasons I really love the Triforce lore is that it’s a three-way mirror that reflects both what the user has and also what they need (very wizard of oz).

Ganondorf is a very powerful man, physically, and magically.

Politically, though, he’s next to helpless, which is an awful thing for a king to be. He’s a king of thieves in OoT, because the Gerudo are not a wealthy or thriving nation there. In-Game they don’t have a local living area like the other regions (or even a store — just one floating bombchu salesman in the middle of the desert) — they’ve got a post-war fortress full of guards, and a temple that is being used as a secret base Hylians can’t get to.

Consider also, Ganondorf is the most highly decorated of the Gerudo, and he’s not decked out in gold. He’s wearing mostly iron and topaz. Nabooru and Twinrova are the only ones who have gold fixtures/jewelry along with the higher ranked guards for their protective elements (which is why I think it could arguably be pale bronze or yellow brass, which is a common and highly durable gold alternative).

The Gerudo are implicitly just surviving in OoT, and Hyrule speaks of them like they’re monsters (except for the one guy in town who has a fetish). More than that, WW establishes that his real grief comes from the weather, which any mortal is powerless to control.

So Ganondorf is powerful as a person, but powerless as a king, which is literally the only thing he was born to be.

Be that as it may, though, he is a well-loved king, and a survivor, and a thief, so he also has to embody both wisdom and courage too!

Zelda is the most obvious mirror to Ganondorf. She is a very powerful woman politically and magically, but physically-- compared to Ganondorf -- she's terribly meek. That's the obvious read, that they're 1:1 Parallels, but her real weakness lies in her courage.

Zelda (in OoT) leans on her massive political power -- In the child timeline, she literally sees a foreign dignitary executed before he does anything wrong, based on a recurring dream she has.

Do you know how insane that is? Do you realize how powerful she is?

Ganondorf is not just some guy -- he's a foreign KING. He's a KING that a TEN YEAR OLD had EXECUTED based on VIBES.

And we think she embodies wisdom because her vibes were (as we, the audience know) correct. But it's actually because as an adult, she understands that none of it needed to happen that way. That the only reason Ganondorf was able to pull off his stunt and get the Triforce at all was because she tried to control the situation, sending Link to gather everything Ganondorf couldn't get himself and put it all precisely where Ganondorf needed it to be.

Despite being a child at the time, by the end of the story, by the time she's Sheik, Zelda is taking full responsibility for what happened, and is doing everything in her now extremely limited power to fix it. She's so sorry to need Link, and at the end of it all is desperate to give him another chance to be a kid, and to be innocent, and to be happy, because she realized so quickly that she never should've involved him, visions be damned. She knows none of it was his fault or his business, and she's mortified that she dragged him into it in her own attempt to control the weather.

These other two items shift in other games -- WW and Twilight Princess show us a Zelda with tremendous courage and very little power, physical or political. And then the Wild's era, despite removing the Triforce narrative, shows us a Zelda with immense power and terrible guilt and insecurity -- her power locked behind her fear, and she is only able to access both when she embraces courage.

Which brings us to Link.

Link, on the surface, is a third wheel in a chess game between ancients. But the reality is that he's the base of the prism. He's the foundation that reflects both of the others.

There are MANY different personalities for Link, and personally my favorite gag is that Link is simply too stupid to be scared, but that's just a gag -- because something I've come to really enjoy and respect about him is that he consistently displays fear. Link embodies courage because he is full of fear and chooses to fight anyway. Link leads a good life. He is comfortable, he has family, he has friends, he knows peace. What makes Link courageous is that he is willing to give up his access to all of that if it means that everyone else keeps theirs.

Link will lock himself in a room with the apocalypse if it means he's the only one who gets hurt, and it's not because he believes this is his sacred duty, or his life's purpose -- he'd much rather be at home chasing chickens around or riding his pony through some pretty scenic route -- it's because he is so full of love for other people that he's willing to give up anything to keep them safe.

Link's not very powerful, but he is also unburdened by any desire to be powerful. Link's not very wise, but he is unburdened by any desire to be wise. Link is content in who he is, Link is happy to keep things simple. But Link is so brave that he becomes a leader, which actually makes him the most dangerous of the three.

Courage, unburdened, is fucking terrifying. To both Wisdom and Power. Because, unlike Wisdom and Power, Courage is contagious.

Link can empower and inspire and reveal truths others might not have been able to find on their own. Link doesn't need charisma or brutality. Link can build armies just by being observed.

"But Sketches, you haven't really said anything about how Link reflects the other two." It's subtle! But he does. I see it like this:

• Ganondorf reflects Link's relentless determination, refusing to stand down in the face of impossible odds. In this way, they're connected by their power and courage. • Zelda reflects Ganondorf's burden of being born in a crown, forcing them to learn leadership, and how to use their recklessness strategically, as children. In this way, they're connected by their power and wisdom. • Link reflects Zelda's sense of love for the faceless innocent, and her dedication to protecting all who can't protect themselves. In this way, they're connected by their courage and wisdom.

Because the inherent configuration of the triforce requires those connections to be balanced -- Separately they are overwhelmed by their traits. Ganondorf is willing to sacrifice everything he is in order to reach his goals, Zelda is so pre-occupied with preventing prophecy she ends up instigating it, and Link is so ready to step in and help that he never considers the consequences.

Every single one of them, left to their own devices, would rather see themselves destroyed than fail those who may or may not be relying on their success. They're all very similar, highly reflective characters who all represent compelling foils for each other and yes, display how their unfettered strengths are also the thing that damage them most.

[jewishgirlrevolt]

8x10 Review and Notes--SPOILERS

The parallel of Chim freaking out about Maddie, while Maddie is fighting to escape. Props to the editing department. Abigail Spencer is soooo creepy and gives an incredible performance. As does JLH and Kenny Choi. Like seriously this cast is so talented.

OK. At this point...Tommy has to be coming back. Cause he's been mentioned in three episodes since the breakup. Like this is further cementing that Tommy is coming back. In what capacity that remains to be seen. But I have reason to hope. Buck has never been this devastated over a break up.

Also that scene with Buck and Eddie in the truck. Eddie legit looks like doesn't give a shit about anything. And all due respect. He can take his long trip to Texas, good-bye, so long, take care. I'm still not a fan of his these last two episodes. He just looks tired, and exhausted and like he'd literally be anywhere but there. And Buck is clearly struggling. And he does not seem to care even a little bit. Not even a "hey. I know I'm leaving LA. But we're still friends" kind of line. Not to mention the way he acted like he legit couldn't give a shit about the situation. And any good detective knows the first 24 hours of a kidnapping are super important from what I understand. And yet, he goes "oh well detective lady probably went home. it's late." Uhuh and what if there's a break in the case? They should have a way of reaching her. I guess maybe he was supposed to be the calm one... but honestly... we didn't even need Eddie in this episode at all. But whatever. Maddie freaking Han is a boss. She went from killing her shitty abusive ex husband, to knocking out a serial killer to save her awesome soulmate of a husband. I just... JLH's acting skills are incredible. BUT! That all being said. No more bad things are allowed to happen to them. Can we take it a little easier? But also where has this writing been all season? This was incredible. Probably hands down the best episode of the season so far. I was on the edge of my seat. I was praying for Maddie to be ok. And I am so glad she and the baby are both ok. Also important note. Hen and Chimney are really BFF goals.

I guess I'm glad Eddie told Buck he matters to him. But how about an I'm sorry. "We both could have handled it better" Is not a good enough response. It is very clear after these last two episodes, that if there ever was any buddie, romantic or platonic, it's purely one-sided.

Give JLH an Emmy! One edit though: I hope at least next episode we get a Buck and Maddie scene. Cause this is his sister people. He loves her. I know they're allegedly having a scene later on in like 8x11 or something.

[starheavenly]

(this was about a million more questions than I meant to send sorry! I got ahead of myself, answer what you’d like, no pressure.)

You mentioned Pharma’s codependency with Ratchet and how some deceptions would fake injuries (or actually get injured) to see Ratchet. How do you think he reacted to that? / Was he allowed to help medical visits at all (not saying they allowed him to surgery of course, but more like a basic check up and etc) or was that only after the whole redemption/recovery happened?

Speaking of Pharma’s codependency; how did that work out when Deadlock started to warm up to Rachet? Had he gotten enough work and healing in that it wasn’t an issue or was it a mess? XD (Would be wild of Pharma and Deadlock got along before they added Ratchet)

I'm glad people are invested in these three; they're obviously my favorites! Okay, just had my morning coffee, so it's time for a wall of text.

I still think my idea that half the Decepticons have a tiny crush on Ratchet is pretty funny. It was a little joke on the fandom since so many simp for Ratchet (me, it's me). I don't think Pharma ever noticed the correlation, though. Like I've said, I've moved on from the yandere idea, so Pharma isn't actively threatening people; he's just clingy. Maybe the cons stopped getting injured because they were wary of Pharma being around.

Honestly, I don't think Pharma is ever getting his medical license back. But at the same time, I think part of healing is accepting that you can't be the same person you were or do the same things you used to do. He probably just helps with tools and getting supplies. After a bit of recovery, he would get some of his snarkier personality back and be a bit of a backseat medic to Ratchet. He's healthier but still a control freak, that's for sure.

And Pharma obviously has a resentment to Decepticons in general, so he did not like Deadlock at first; but Deadlock didn't really care about Pharma nor Ratchet either.

This is a super silly detail, but Deadlock writes/talks to Cyclonus on Cybertron since they're all supposed to write to someone. Cyclonus is the one who convinces Deadlock to make more of an effort to get to know people (like how she got to know a little sanitation bot) Once Deadlock actually begins to try, he finds out a bit more about Pharma's whole deal. Deadlock discovers that Ratchet still cares about and helps Pharma even after what he did. Seeing how different Pharma was (a bit of a parallel to Drift/Deadlock), he begins to warm up to both of them.

(Pharma 100% cheats at their games of Go, by the way.)

And I know you didn't ask, but I didn't explain how/why Deadlock leaves Earth. He noticed how fond he was of Ratchet, and that scared him. He really didn't think he deserved any sort of redemption after all he'd done. Windblade and Chromia visit, and he steals their ship. Yes, there is Zenith!Wing. I have to design him, but he's a silly hermit who teaches Deadlock that there will be people willing to forgive him and care about him (also swords; he shows him how cool swords are). So Deadlock goes back to Earth as Drift! And my dratchma bias continues.

[osirian-rises]

HOA is so interesting when it comes to destiny, even for characters who aren't supposed to have one, and the parallels they have with other characters.

Nina, I don't even have to TALK about Nina being a perfect mirror to Sarah, but an interesting thing about Eddie is that even though there's only one episode where he's Nina's Osirian, throughout Season Three, if you look for parallels between him and Rufus you WILL find them. The suaveness that things will go his way, the pride that it's because he's special, he's the Osirian. Things backfire for him because he overestimated his abilities, like the vision showing him placing the staff into the ground. He also is very blunt in a way Rufus sometimes was, not taking a character's obvious discomfort as a sign to stop him from getting the information he wanted. "You're the girl from my dream. Did you have a grandpa, he was sick? Did he give you a key?"

But really, I made this post for FABIAN, with his parallels to Victor. They're supposed to be "The ones without destiny's" and yet their parallels give them a tragic one. They both lose the Chosen One, possibly for years considering he was nothing more than a mention at the reunion and it's not proven if he was married to Nina. Their own hubris is always what leads to their downfall, both in the way they became Sinners, but also how they buckle under peer pressure. Victor to his father, making him act terribly to Sarah. And Fabian to Nina's grandmother's poor advice, making him an unintentional asshole.

Food for thought.

[melbatron5000]

Minisode connections, again

I'm working on decoding the chiastic structure of Good Omens season 2. It's taking a long time because there's a bunch of crap going on -- not the least of which is I think I found two different structures, so that's fun -- also, I have to work and do human stuff, so I can't just sit around working on Good Omens all day, every day.

But something I noticed while counting beats to find the middle (middleS, plural, but that's another meta):

It's already been pointed out by others that the magic act in the Nazi Zombie Flesheaters minisode echoes the Big Break Up and Kiss scene -- which it certainly does.

But the Restoring Job's Kids to Life in Front of a Bunch of Angels scene also echoes both of those scenes.

First and foremost, they are all around sixty beats long. (About the same rate as a resting human heartbeat, interestingly. What else is 60 beats per minute, I wonder?)

Second, in each scene, something (someone) signals the start of it. In Job, the angels applaud just before Aziraphale enters late. In 1941, Mrs. H tells Aziraphale to get on with it. In the Kiss scene, the Metatron tells Aziraphale to go and tell his friend the good news.

In all three scenes, Aziraphale enters stage right and turns to his left.

In Job, Crowley murmurs to Sitis, "trust me." In 1941, Aziraphale mouths to Crowley, "trust me." I think in the Kiss scene, "trust me" is more implied by both of them. It starts out murmured, then gets mouthed, and by the end, is unspoken entirely.

In all three scenes, Aziraphale explains to Crowley what needs to happen. "It would be really helpful if you were an expert on human births. Gabriel here witnessed the first human birth." "Aim for my mouth, shoot past my ear." "He said I could appoint you as an angel."

In all three scenes, Crowley takes a shot and Aziraphale backs him up. Job: "Reach into his robes and pull out three ribs." *Aziraphale miracles the kids into kids again.* 1941: *Shoots the gun at Aziraphale* *Aziraphale catches the bullet* *Kisses Aziraphale to give him the records from Heaven.* "I forgive you."

All three scenes end with Aziraphale having successfully fooled his audience.

Now, I already figured out that the scenes that are supposed to parallel the Resurrectionists minisode are missing. Even Crowley knows they're missing. Time has jumped forward past some important events. I don't know what was supposed to happen to echo Resurrectionists, but something is, and it's gone. I think it matters, though. Otherwise, why would we have this:

All three minisodes on the matchbox. The box itself is from the Resurrectionists pub, it has a verse from Job on it, and the verse is 41:19 -- or, if you reverse the numbers Verlan style (which is like Pig Latin, but what they do in France -- thank you @noneorother!) 1941. I strongly suspect the verse itself may very well have to do with the missing scenes that should mirror the Resurrectionists minisode.

But I wonder why Job, 1941, and the Kiss all line up and echo each other, while the Resurrectionists is the odd one out. I feel like whatever scenes have been jumped over probably line up with something big and important that happens elsewhere in the story. Threes are very important in storytelling, a rule that should never be bent or broken. I really wonder HOW the missing scenes got jumped over -- did God do it? Did Aziraphale or Crowley do something which caused it? Given how Crowley reacts to it happening, I would say if so it was inadvertent. Is time out of whack for some reason? It keeps jumping forward, why is that? Did someone else force them past the missing scenes? Ugh, I don't know.

Several people have pointed out to me now that the 1941 minisode has a lot of wedding night symbolism in it, and I see that the Job minisode has a lot of first date symbolism in it, too! Ha! Including Crowley and Aziraphale out in the desert by themselves when they encounter Job talking to God -- what the heck were they doing out there? Making out, maybe? Is that why Aziraphale comes rushing in through the door late when the other angels arrive? Busy smooching your new crush, Aziraphale? The Kiss scene seems to be a divorce, but it's actually a long-married couple who can read each other like a book being forced apart.

So if Job is a first date, and 1941 is a wedding, and the Kiss is a (forced) divorce, what is the Resurrectionists? What comes between a first date and a wedding? Traditionally, in love stories, a break-up has to come between those things. But other than Crowley being dragged back to Hell and forcing them separate, and then their argument over the holy water when he comes back, I'm not sure I see Resurrectionists as representing a break up. Does it? Maybe . . . ? And maybe more important, what comes after a wedding but before a divorce? Would we say kids? Mundanity and boredom? Infidelity? Given that it's a forced divorce, I wouldn't say those last two things. But kids then? What else could it be? Hmm.

Does the Resurrectionists minisode and whatever its missing echo is have to do with that progression in a relationship? Or given that Job, 1941, and the Kiss all echo beautifully and Resurrectionists does not, is that something outside their relationship and the progression of it?

Anyhow. More investigative work to be done here.

In between doing alive human stuff, I'm on the case.

[sapphic-agent]

Let's Talk About Shigaraki

I've had some time to collect my thoughts, so I think I'm ready to finally talk about Tomura.

Fair warning, this is more of a rant. Mostly because there isn't much to say except that Horikoshi hates this motherfucker, almost as much as he hates Izuku.

Tomura is a character whose autonomy and agency has been stripped by the narrative repeatedly. And that's not really uncommon in MHA (Izuku, Hawks, Shoto, etc.), so why am I pointing it out? Because Horikoshi's assassination of his character didn't need to happen. In fact, it feels like he bent over backwards to make sure it happened.

Anyone who's been around my blog long enough knows that the MLA arc is one of my favorites, I even put it in my top five MHA arcs. It did a great job of having Shigaraki progress as not only a villain but a leader and come into his own power. My one issue with it and what kept it out of top three was that it seemed to immediately undo all the progress Tomura made by making him want AFO (the quirk). Him gaining this quirk didn't tie into his goals at all and it flipped him from wanting to use his destruction to make a world for the LOV to be free in (Eric Vale's delivery of this scene in dub was fire btw, go watch it) to him just wanting more power. It was an extremely weird decision.

The PLA War further perpetuates this and it causes some confusion as to where Horikoshi was going with his character. Instead of a newly established in-control and ambitious villain, he turned Tomura into a puppet for All For One to use for his own benefit.

(Off topic, but that also felt out of character for AFO. Prior to this, he seemed to want Tomura to succeed and carve his own path, even taking the time to gently correct his outbursts and give him actual advice and guidance. You could argue that this was manipulation on his part, but it didn't feel like it at the time. Why would he want Tomura to be level-headed and calm if the plan was to use him as a husk for his own control? It felt way more like Tomura was initially meant to be his successor, not his puppet. This reads more like another Horikoshi retcon)

For some reason, it feels like the intention was to turn him into a victim for Izuku to save. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing... Except he didn't develop Izuku enough for him to be able to do that.

Izuku doesn't understand Tomura, he even admits this himself. He sees Tomura as someone who causes destruction for the hell of it. And you know what? He wasn't wrong going off his few interactions with him. But that's where we hit our problem; Izuku has not interacted enough with Tomura.

And honestly? There's no excuse for this. They're supposed to be our protagonist and antagonist. They're supposed to be parallels with one another. So why in the world do they only really have one intimate scene together?

(I have mentioned this before, but Izuku should have been the one kidnapped, not Bakugou. Bakugou being in this position provides nothing to the plot, especially because All Might would have sacrificed his power for anyone. Bakugou isn't a dynamic or integral enough character for this to benefit the character progression of Tomura or the rest of the LOV, but Izuku is. Him learning why they're villains would have really done so much for their characters, as well as his own)

This leaves their interactions during the Final War completely stagnant and stale. Izuku doesn't understand Tomura, and Tomura knows that. He sees Izuku as a goody-two-shoes with no understanding of how dark the world can be. Except Izuku does understand because he experienced it. But how would Tomura know that? And how would Izuku know how Tomura became a villain? There's no understanding between them which is why Izuku is unable to connect with Tomura like he did Stain and Gentle Criminal. Which is why him trying to save Tomura goes nowhere.

It didn't have to be like this though. Even if it was rushed, Horikoshi could have squeezed it in. He could have made the effort. He chose not to. Partly because he can't be assed to give either of them good development, but also because he avoids the shit Izuku went through like the plague. He hates to acknowledge it and when he does it's sugarcoated (and used for Bakugou's gain, not Izuku's own). Because of he gets into the nitty gritty of it, his favorite blond rat's "development" goes right out the window.

Horikoshi wrote himself into a corner here, which is why the Izuku vs Tomura fight is so lackluster. Their interactions mean nothing, so their fight means nothing. What's his solution to this?

To fucking kill Tomura and retcon his entire backstory to force AFO back into the plot.

The last shreds of agency Tomura had as a villain were ripped away. He can't even have his own tragic backstory at this point. Hell, Kotaro can't even own his own shitty decisions, blame is pinned on Nana even though him abusing his kids was his choice and AFO somehow had a hand in him having kids?? Ok.

(Abusive man not being held accountable without someone else- a woman- taking the shit for it, what else is new in MHA)

Also, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN AFO GAVE HIM DECAY?

In all fairness, this has been a theory for a while. But again, the entire point of his character in the MLA arc was that he took charge of his "cursed" power and made it his own. So AFO giving him Decay erases another part of his development.

(And to add to this, what exactly was the point of having him take a quirk away from Tomura? Why not make him born quirkless so a parallel can be drawn to Izuku (and even Aoyama)? What is it with Horikoshi and quirkless aversion? There are four characters born quirkless in the narrative even though they're supposed to make up 20% of the population: Izuku, Aoyama, All Might, Melissa. Only Melissa stays quirkless)

AFO just happening upon Tomura- desperate, shunned, and vulnerable- who just happens to be Nana's grandson makes him so much eviler and more despicable. Him seeing an exposed child and deciding to use him to be cruel to Nana's memory and Toshinori drives home his callousness. Making it so that he orchestrated it just takes away from that. Tbh, it just makes him look like a loser. So, both Tomura and AFO just suffered character assassination.

Back to killing Tomura, do you know how awful this comes off? This character claimed his own power and goals, only for that to be stripped by making him a puppet, the attempt to save him is drawn out and goes nowhere, and then he just fucking dies. Like he never mattered at all. Like trying to save him was a complete waste of time and there's nothing about him worth saving.

And people saying he deserved to die for his crimes, THAT ISN'T THE POINT. It isn't about what he did or didn't do. I couldn't care less about that. It's about how Horikoshi stripped him of agency again and again and then discarded him when he didn't serve the shitty narrative he created.

Tomura and Izuku deserved so much better than this

[fullcoffeemoon-nem]

Timeline Theory

New upgrade here!!

First post: 09-21-23

Second update: 11-14-23

Third update: 05-01-24 (+ S2 Theory link)

Fourth update: 06-03-24 (+ S2 Theory upload)

Last update: 04-12-24

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Hi there!

After another re-watch and the head to pay attention to the small details, perhaps I have reconstructed a possible

Timeline of Helluva Boss

It would be better to define them as hypotheses. First of all, here is an outline of the episodes and their release dates.

I also included the one whose title we know, just for the sake of general overview. The theory for the moment covers 2 seasons out of 4 announced.

Here the synthetic timeline. From the estimate version I have removed the year here, we'll get to the reason.

Here I also report some of my thoughts:

Already from the first episodes there's a strong focus on clocks and time, it is much more striking in Oops, where Asmodeus' clock marks the whole day.

I'm not sure about the year, but also from the analyzes carried out later, 2021 could be the year of the narrative arc that goes from Murder Family to Ozzie's for sure.

(*) The Verosika's tour t-shirt was official and linked to the episode, at the moment I'm undecided on its validity at the year level, althought the date could be very possible.

However, my research started with Seeing Stars because it's the first episode to feature an almost specific date: the 20th of a 30-day month.

In my opinion it could be April chronologically and it's agreed with the information in the subsequent episodes.

The only problem is that the full moon would't coincide with what was marked by Blitz.

Noteworthy:

Blitz's calendar suggests that the full moon in that month is the 14th.

Stolas wrote in the Western Energy chat that Blitz was supposed to come that evening and that therefore the full moon was the 20th.

We are certainly either in 2021 or beyond given Moxxie's coin in Seeing Stars.

From the chat we can understand that:

About a month passes between the trio Ozzie's - Queen Bee - The Circus (1 moon)

About 3 months pass between Seeing Stars and Western Energy (3 moons)

Western Energy is placed a week before Oops and among these there's Unhappy Campers

From Millie's flyer we know that her and Moxxie's mission ends on Friday July 17th. We know from Blitz that this lasted a week, so it started on Monday 13th July.

According to what Striker says to Crisom, Western Energy should be set around July 11th and Oops around July 18th.

We should be in 2022 though, but in that case July 17th was a Sunday.

In Mammon's magnificent concert Blitz says on the call with Ozzie that it's a weekend.

There are two options:

It could be set on the week parallel (July 21-22th or 28-29th) to the events of Western-Unhappy-Oops.

It could be set on the following month (August).

Here we come to the gap:

(*) The Mammon's official t-shirt is clearly linked to the episode, but the date (2023) and month (October) cause the information to conflict.

So, at this point we have this options:

The official t-shirts are tied exclusively to the release date of the episode.

They are official only at the date level.

They're official and we're actually 2 years removed from Murder Family.

I think it is more canonical to consider a connection with the month of July shown in the episode and maintain the hypothesis.

Seeing Stars -> April

Wester Energy to Oops -> July

Full Moon → September or October 29th

In Apology Tour we have confirmation from multiple characters (and from the visit to Earth) that it is October 31th.

From the argument between Blitz and Stolas, it seems that it was 1 or 2 days after Full Moon. This creates some contradictions with the canonical month of the previous episode.

There are three options:

Full Moon Calendar has an "error"

It's been longer than it seems

Earth and Hell don't have the same chronological flow

I don't know which option to prefer.

From Ghost fu**ers the only information obtained is at the beginning of the episode:

Millie claims to Loona at the beginning of the episode that Blitz's crisis has been going on for over a month.

The client says that her murder occurred the day before, a Wednesday. So the current date is a Thursday.

We should be in November, if we consider that before this episode the 3 Shorts are placed probably at the end of the month.

(link Viv post about the Shors click here)

I was hoping Mastermind would give us some more details, but it seems either we're happy with the episode or we find different lines. Incredible, an episode with so many media, chats, newspapers, live broadcasts, posts and articles and not even a shred of date. We only have the usual clock that marks everything between the afternoon and the evening.

We have to wait for Sinsmas (obviously set in December) and hope that something more will be mentioned.

So that's what we now:

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As for the analysis with the theories on the trailer shown to us at the LVL UP on April 29th, for now I'll leave the post as it is. I don't think it makes sense to correct the opinions (only Sinsmas is missing), at most I'll modify it in terms of the relationship between Blitz and Stolas.

You can read it here.

I will let you now if I change it.

——————————————

In the end, I deleted Sinstagram post analytics for two reasons:

They hadn't reached this point in the serie

The Spindlehorse she disconnected from those accounts, making everything "useless"

( @timkontheunsure thanks anyway for the suggestion)

——————————————

What a mess...

What do you think about it?

Have you noticed any other details that could clarify the mystery? Make me know it and let's solve the mystery together :}

From Nem is all,

Bye~

[qoldenskies]

Do you have any writing tips? Especially for characterization/dialogue :>

uhhhh i am not a professional so take this with a grain of salt. here are things i think about a lot at least

i dont have any solid ideas on how i get my prose to be Like That, i am not super confident in it, but a thing ive tried to focus on it rhythm. this goes for dialogue too; if it sounds clunky in your mouth, unless its supposed to, it might be a sign to change it up and rephrase a little.

really long paragraphs are really, really, really really hard to read. fics that consistently have paragraphs that go beyond like 6 lines are borderline unreadable to me. i stick it out sometimes but a lot of the time the sight of a fat fucking Block will just make me click out immediately

its also always good to be punchy imo. i mean it depends on what style you're going for but i notice some of the best lines from my writing are just simple, single sentence-paragraph statements lmao

false starts and filler words are what i notice the most when it comes to stuttering, which is a thing pretty much everyone does unless they're speaking very intentionally (i keep it in mind for characters who are motormouths especially because our brains move faster than our mouths do sometimes). especially when people are stressed, they'll usually start with a sentence fragment and then say something completely different because they just found a better way to rephrase it <- its probably the thing i utilize the most. in general though people repeat words more than they t-t-talk l-like t-t-this, and even when i write more dirrect stuttering dialogue i try to make it. idk consonants i guess? sorry idk if this is helpful

i script a lot of my scenes before i write them out, which usually helps me keep things well-paced. i really only include action in the scripts when its in the midst of an action scene or if its relevant to the conversation in some way (or if i just have an idea and want to keep it in mind)

TAKE NOTES WHEN YOU GET IDEAS

save all your cool ideas for your active in progress story instead of storing them away for later. got a line of dialogue or an interaction that you want to put SOMEWHERE? see if you can fit it into your multichapter first, it might help you with ideas. more will come to you in the future with your later projects!!!

you dont need to plan everything out meticulously, most parallels in cw came to me in the midst of me writing them. the motif with raph and donnie and doors was a complete accident, as a good example. it fucks hard though lmao

also when plotting out multichapters i think in what i want to progress before anything else, so there's a sense of direction. with cw it was mostly what parts of cl i wanted to address, although i originally planned to make note of shelldon in like chapter fucking three and then it didnt happen until seventeen LMFAOOOOOOOO

okay thats all i got. im not a good advice giver .... im sowwy

[doverstar]

What is your favorite Chronicles of Narnia book and why?

This is so hard. I’ll tell you my top three and then which one is my current favorite, because it is subject to change, sorry!

I love The Magician's Nephew because it's exactly what it should be. It's simple, and it sets up the perfect origin story for the idea of Narnia, other worlds, and what that should look like if you're doing a fantasy story to teach children the truth through allegory. I love the shining gold and yellow rings as transportation devices, I love how easy it is to understand the Wood Between the Worlds and how the rings work, I love that Uncle Andrew has distant familial ties to evil magic, and that's why he even knows about all of this stuff, I love the relationship between Digory and Polly, I love the housemaid (who had never had such a day before) and I love that what Jadis and Andrew meant for evil, Aslan worked out for good, using a grubby arrogant little boy who had no idea what he was dealing with. I love the parallels between Uncle Andrew and Digory, and between Jadis and Polly. And bar none, absolutely bar none, the very best part of the entire book is when Digory is desperately wanting Aslan to help save his mother's life even though he screwed everything up, and he knows he doesn't even deserve to ask, but he wants it so badly, and it's not a bad thing to want, he's so sad about the entire situation and about the hopelessness of it all, and he looks up and sees Aslan crying. Because Aslan knows. He knows better than Digory does. I have to stop reading and cry every time I read that part; never fails.

I love The Silver Chair mainly because of Eustace but also because of the Puddleglum Speech. Eustace and Peter are constantly fighting it out to be my favorite character. I love Peter because of who Peter just naturally is as a character, but I love Eustace because I've been Eustace. (I've been Edmund too, but oh boy, have I been Eustace.) I love the way Jill and Eustace are called into Narnia, and I adore Puddleglum, and I will never forget his speech when the witch is tempting them all. I will never get a tattoo, but if I did, it would say "I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia." I love Jill wrestling with keeping her mind on Aslan's instructions, especially when things get hard, and I love Puddleglum being so dismal and silly the whole book, except when it comes to the really important point in their adventure, when he turns out to be the most faithful of all of them. I love Eustace's obvious change from how he was during his first journey through Narnia, and who he is now. I love Caspian saying you can't be a ghost in your own country, because he's finally home. I love the owls, and when I can't fall asleep at night, I think about Jill's first night in Narnia in that comfy room with the fire.

I love The Last Battle because, out of everything I've ever read about the End Times, this little children's book is the only thing that makes me think and feel the way I know I'm supposed to feel about Jesus' second Advent. I'm supposed to feel the way those final chapters make you feel - when they're all finally in Aslan's Country. I'm supposed to be overjoyed at the idea of going Home and being where I belong, and stand firm even when things get scary. I'm not there yet, but The Last Battle gives me a glimpse of what it would be like to get there, and I want that! [I know it's not all theologically sound - Emeth, specifically, and his whole story is the worst. I know Lewis was thinking about Matthew 25, and I know he had some other verses he believed backed up what he was trying to say with Emeth, but the whole thing, regardless, is way too confusing even if inclusivity were the truth (it's not, from what I glean from Scripture), and it muddies waters that people really don't need further muddied. So a failure in writing, I'd say (while covering my face because what do I even know, really?). But it's helpful because it reminds me that C.S. Lewis was not perfect and he got it wrong sometimes, and made mistakes, and that's a good reminder for me and others - often, everyone treats him like a second Paul, and he wasn't, and I think he'd hate to be compared to him.] I love Eustace being brave and kicking and fighting even up to the end, when he's literally killed in Narnia (I cry every time) and I love Jill turning her head so she won't get her string wet. I love Tirian so much, and I love that we get to see the Pevensies (sans Susan) and Digory and Polly and Fledge and the Beavers and Tumnus and Reepicheep - it's such a joyful, joyful finale, even when it's all scary for a little bit and hope seems lost. It's wonderful, and I'll stand by it as a whole (even though people don't like the "Susan problem" and even though Emeth was a mistake).

But for right now, all of that said, The Silver Chair is my favorite. It's my favorite now because of how it depicts pushing on in faith even when things are hard, even when you stumble and screw up, you get back up and keep trying and when it counts, you'll be able to stand firm because when your strength fails, the Lord's never does. Love it.

Thank you, great question!

[lisprokel]

wiege release making me think alot of things, and out of everything it fits the valentines theme which, i say is NOT a good thing!! it makes every sadder!! and i'm sad!!

I wanted to write my views on wiege earlier when it got released but i was busy and i forgot so let's hope people are still online around this time rn!!

One thing i noticed about the song is that you don't even notice it's there unless you are actively listening for it. I watched it over three times and i still haven't heard how the song actually goes, too focused on what was playing infront of me.

This is not a round, this is not planned, the music is merely background music even though it's the main part of the series shows how usually in events/holidays like valentines, we don't pay attention to the main events/problems in our lives.

We are simply in the moment, watching it play out infront of our eyes and let the things bothering us currently be at the back of our head. The music being the least concern at the moment, and focusing on the fucking lore which was given to us right then and there. The song blends in with what is being shown to us that i don't even realise it's the music itself.

THAT'S the parallel i see, wiege isn't really music fixtated cause it doesn't exactly catch your attention immediately, also to show that this was a spur-in-the-moment type of thing. They aren't singing for the audience, they're singing for themselves. Trip down the memory lane you could say. They are singing their hearts bare and it's not for attention.

And yes i am listening to the song while typing this out, and to think it fits the supposed valentines theme. It's slow, sounds romantic, feelings all stripped bare to it's deepest contents that you can tell by the emotion in the voices, you can even say it fits as a waltz song. I fucking hate how much this fits valentines, makes me think vivinos truly planned this months ago.

Valentines is the date where you show your most vulnerable self to the one you care about most, which in this case is hyuna and luka. You aren't going all out with it, not as an explosion, not as some ticking bomb, but bare and open for them to see. Wiege truly makes me feel vulnerable and that's what they are right now.

Luka with his child-like happiness at seeing hyuna again after god knows how long, and hyuna seeing luka with all the guilt she carries. I don't really know how to capture this exact paragraph at how they were vulnerable exactly but change it up a bit and imagine cause idk how.

I'm not really the best at explaining and analysis. I don't think i got some of these points as correctly as i wanted too but trust you guys can see the vision.

[scope-dogg]

I haven't posted a lot about Gquuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuux yet because I've been waiting for it to wrap up. Now it has. It was okay I suppose? Presentation is great, the whole what-if scenario was neat in many ways, but once again the runtime feels too short to support the plot and character arcs for both the returning characters from 0079 and the new characters at the same time, resulting in the latter feeling overshadowed by the former more and more the longer the series went on. Honestly it ended up feeling too much like an I-clapped-when-I-saw-it series in the end - I know Anno wasn't technically the director but it feels like he ghostwrote it, it feels like another entry in his tour around all the classic Japanese IPs he's clearly enjoying playing with, adding Gundam to his portfolio alongside Godzilla, Ultraman and Kamen Rider. Out of those three I've only seen Shin Godzilla and I don't think Gquuuuuux is anywhere near as good as that - that was a movie that wasn't just a retread or remix of the source material, it had things to say by itself and I just don't think GQuuuuuux can say the same thing - its twists on the source material are cool, but I can't really say they're more than that.

I want to talk a bit more about it that's spoilerish so the rest of it goes below a readmore.

I kind of hate when media starts playing with parallel universes? I don't mean in the sense of Gundam AU series like Seed, G-Witch, G Gundam or 00 that basically share concepts but otherwise don't really interact, I mean in the sense that different versions of the same reality with the same characters, especially where two of those universes interact. I kind of put it alongside time travel in that it can sometimes be the refuge of writers who've run out of ideas. Gquuuuuux uses this trope very heavily in its latter few episodes and I don't like it. Apparently it's basically a rip-off of Eureka 7 Astral Ocean which was well over a decade ago? Anyway, what I'm saying is that I don't like it, especially because it made them cram even more plot into a runtime that was already struggling to support itself. The way the last episode ends, it might be getting a sequel or follow up, though probably not any time too soon if I had to guess.

As I said though, I wouldn't call it a bad series, long-term fans of the series will at least appreciate the spin on the original timeline, I thought the mechanical design was pretty universally excellent, the action scenes were solid, and it's probably the most visually impressive Gundam series since Unicorn. But I still feel somewhat tepid on the whole thing overall - between this series and the next most recent Gundam series, Witch from Mercury, I feel like I slightly prefer the latter despite it's weak second season. As for what I want next out of Gundam, I think they should go for something that's a) less incestuous and b) less flashy with more solid fundamentals - more than 12 episodes so it can actually support a cast of characters, a plot and some decent worldbuilding without having to run at a rollercoaster pace.

[mimicmockingbirds]

Would love to know more Werewolf HC’s and how the pack dynamics work ft. the JuniorJackets with your werewolf verse im absolutely obsessed with it and how you’ve nailed their canon personalities/traits in how they respond to the change of becoming werewolves. Would Gen easily fall into the Hunts with Nat and grow her relationships there and importance in the pack? What type of wolf would Mari and Akilah be? What about the parallels between Mel and Shauna with the former fully embracing it as she is no longer weak? Aaaaaah so so so good!!!

These are all great questions! I just realized I originally made that post last year, before season 3, so I didn't really think of their roles since those characters didn't start playing a big part of the plot yet (besides their occasional snarky comments lol). Now that season 3 has shown some more of their personalities, I do think it's worth exploring how they translate to the werewolf 'verse!

My personal headcanon in canon is that Nat was the one to ask Gen to help out with hunting when she got too busy with other things, and that's pretty much how I imagine things happening in the werewolf 'verse too. Like, given the enhanced metabolisms of werewolf bodies, the group would probably need to eat more, so they would need to hunt more. And being a year or so younger, I feel like the junior girls' wolf forms would have more energy and stamina, and Gen in particular always seems at least present when things are going on, taking stock of things, so I could see Natalie asking her to join on hunts with Travis and Lottie, and the three of them help teach her their little system for tracking and bringing down prey as wolves. And yes, I do think her social standing would go up because of it, just on account of the confidence she builds from having a "job" to do, and helping to physically provide for everyone.

Akilah, I could also lowkey see being in the hunting group, too. We've seen she really loves animals and easily connects with them, so I could see that being considered an advantage the hunters want to use. Though, because of her soft-spoken personality, I think Akilah would kinda struggle with it, unlike Gen. Like she can't help but be gentle, and can't really commit to really sinking her teeth into anything, be it prey or even one of her packmates (like if someone wants to playfully roughhouse with her, or if Misty's being nosey with what they're doing). She just kinda gently mouths at things like domestic dogs do to move them. But with a little guidance from Lottie (kind of like canon), she does learn to be a good tracker, like Lottie herself. Maybe that bleeds into their dynamic as humans as well, wherein that's where Akilah starts indulging Lottie's interpretations of what the Wilderness wants and believing she has some sort of connection to It too

Mari gives me vibes of being naturally clumsy (she did fall into a pit twice, bless her heart 💔) and not knowing how to read social cues (re: her scenes in the cave with Ben), so I think that would play the biggest factor into her as a wolf. Like, she really struggles with shifting, not because it's painful/she's resistant like Jackie is, but because she just doesn't know how to control it, so she goes back and forth at random a lot (and probably tries to save face and play it off as intentional, but we know the truth). She also misreads a lot of body cues from the others as wolves, so she receives a lot of correcting from Tai and Van. But they go easy on her because, unlike Shauna and Misty, she's not testing boundaries on purpose; she just genuinely doesn't understand what she's supposed to do with this new body. She does push it with Shauna sometimes, though, just because Shauna is so aggressive, and Mari doesn't want to be seen as weak by comparison, but again, Jackie and Laura Lee are still alive in this AU (since it diverges from canon mid-season 1) so they play mediators

It's hard to say for Melissa, since again, this is an AU where Jackie is still around, so I feel that ripple effects into a lot of Shauna's behavior. I could see Melissa still having a crush on her, but mostly in a sense of "do I like this person or do I wanna be like her?" So, in wolf forms that would translate into a lot of just following Shauna around, maybe trying to imitate her rebellious behaviors, but to a lesser extreme since she just does it to be noticed, not because she genuinely wants to challenge the social order. This could probably add to her confidence as a human as well, so she could become more vocal, speaking her mind more. Again, mostly just to prove she can, and not because she's particularly unhappy with the way things are

And I know he's not in your ask, but because I just thought of him: I don't think Coach Ben in this AU would ever turn. He's so resistant to the girls' belief systems and more "feral" behaviors in canon, and tends to cope with that by isolating himself from them, so I don't see him ever getting into a situation where he could be bit or turned. Maybe in this AU he would completely remove himself from the cabin at an earlier point in time, and because of their enhanced senses as wolves, Nat and her hunting party would obviously find him pretty easily. But because most of the hunters in this AU are pretty laidback characters, they'd probably leave him alone at Nat's behest, which sows the seeds for some kind of conflict later; esp with the alpha pair, since Taissa probably doesn't want anyone wandering off, attracting rivals to their area like they inadvertently did when Van first got bit on their little sidequest, and Van starts feeling insecure about the pack dynamic staying together amidst a secret Nat wants her little splinter group to keep from them