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words-writ-in-starlight · 5 years ago

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the untamed is on netflix, right? i think i've seen it. i'm enjoying your posts about it and my mom would love if i watched a chinese show (it looks chinese, i might be wrong though) but i'm kinda short on time so please pitch to me why i should watch it so i will be convinced and look past the lack fo time

Anonymous asked:

ok the untamed looks cool af how doesone watch it

A L L R I G H T I’m finally going to make a rec post, I’ve put this off long enough. You’ve definitely already started to watch it, clever, so please forgive me for using this as an excuse to pitch this show.

So, for starters, Anon, The Untamed is indeed on Netflix! It is in Chinese! If you (like me) do not understand Mandarin Chinese, the Netflix English subbing is…fine, it’s fine, but I recommend poking around in the fandom because every single form of address is changed to the character’s full name. And maybe I just spent too much time doing translations for my old Spanish and Chinese and especially Latin classes, but I think there are some things that, A, shouldn’t be translated or, B, should be translated awkwardly over being translated incoherently.

I digress. My thoughts about maintaining forms of address in their native language for the sake of clarifying levels of respect/etc are not relevant here. Chuck a note in my inbox if/when you get confused about everyone’s three names and I’ll write/link you a guide.

POINT IS. The Untamed is an adaptation of the novel Mo Dao Zu Shi, which is generally translated as “The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation,” and my quick pitch for it is: There’s a plot, sure sure, it’s the story of Wei Wuxian (his fall from grace to Most Hated Person In Magic!China, and then his resurrection and efforts to solve a murder), and if you like character-driven fantasy narratives you Will Like This

B U T

You know that post “but is he…you know…your narrative foil?” That’s this show. If what you crave is “one character committedly pines over another for twenty years even when the entire world hates that person,” please let me interest you in Lan Wangji, the love interest. They have a kid together. It’s a great romance. Literally what else do you want from me. I love a narrative foil, I love a tragedy, I love an epic love story, I love a found family. And good GOD do I love a character who self-destructs in an effort to do the right thing.

Wei Wuxian isn’t evil. He’s not even especially malicious. But when the chips were down and he needed to survive, and to save people, and to figure something out, he took the only avenue left to him, and it was—it was inevitable, really, that it make him the villain of the piece. He saved a lot of lives. Everyone except Lan Wangji hates him for it. He’s already thoroughly despised by the time he starts actually doing things that are objectively bad. Talk to me about it forever.

My usual list of free-form associative Things I Like That You Will Probably Also Like under the cut:

Wei Wuxian! I know he’s the main character but I love him so much that he gets a bullet point! He’s the kind of lighthearted goofball who’s perfected the “I Would Honestly Die Before Showing Emotion To Anyone, How Dare You Imply That I Am Not Sincere In My Perpetual Good Humor” mask, and it hits like a sledgehammer when that mask cracks. I would watch this actor flip between smiles and homicidal rage all day. He gets a hug from Son Boy in the last episode and I almost cried. 50000/10.

Lan Wangji! A great love interest! Noble to the core! Incredibly bitchy! I want five more just like him!

This is where I mention that China has strict censorship laws, so, despite the fact that they kiss and have sex and get married and the whole nine in the book, the show is all Intense Staring And Love Declarations Where They Never Say The L-Word. But like. Please trust me, it’s actually So Romance. If anything I think I like the romance in the show better.

Wen Ning!

I don’t have anything else to say about him, I just love him so goddamn much. He and his sister Wen Qing are stars and the rest of these sinners don’t deserve them.

COMPETENT. VILLAINS. I’ve spilled a lot of ink on this one lately, but I love competent villainy, I love villains who have Goals and plan to Achieve Them and actually pull it off. Jin Guangyao, the big bad of the “present”(the part where Wei Wuxian is resurrected and kicking around trying to solve a murder), is actually phenomenally good at his job and I support him even though I enjoyed watching him go down in flames. There are enough villains in this show for everyone to have their preferred type of villain, from Devoted Right Hand Man to Megalomaniacal Overlord to Freewheeling Engine Of Death. GREAT villains in this show. Which brings me to…

YI! CITY! ARC! I’m not going to tell you that much about it, but it’s dark and tragic and features my very favorite villain in the entire show, Xue Yang, who is just. *chef kiss* A horrible monster of a man. An unapologetic, cold-eyed shriek of a villain. The very best at what he does, and what he does is absolutely horrible, and I would watch an entire series about this five-ish episode arc. Also, I’ve adopted Song Lan/Xiao Xingchen from the Tragic Ships Shelter and someone should toss me a headcanon ask for them. Any AU your little heart desires. I love them.

THE MAGIC! I know it took me a long time to get here, but it’s a very character driven show and I am a very character driven person and I just wanted to yell about characters for a minute. But anyway, I’m told that the Untamed is a great onboarding point for this genre of Chinese fantasy novel, because they do a really good job of making the necessary points accessible. I had no familiarity with wuxia/xianxia/etc when I started watching this and everything about cultivation made sense to me, or at least enough sense to be going on with. It’s very lovely and fascinating and it’s where they put their Entire Non-Clothing Budget.

This is where I mention that their effects department clearly used their entire funding for, like, cool sword stunts and beautiful clothing. The wolf puppet in particular is just. Almost adorably terrible. If that’s going to severely impact your enjoyment, Idk what to tell you, man.

Related to the above, I love plotlines about characters losing control of their magic. That’s all I’m going to say about it.

Unreliable narrators, baby! They set up a lot of concrete facts about Wei Wuxian in the first two episodes that become obvious as complete bullshit as you go on, and it’s very satisfying to watch! See also, Nie Huaisang, the most unreliable narrator of them all, whom I adore.

Beyond all those things…it’s just got a lot of great relationships in it. It’s hugely driven by the affection people have for each other, or the places they feel they’vebeen deprived of that affection. It has a lot of iterations of the same relationship in wildly distinct ways, if that makes sense—offhand, there are maybe four major sets of siblings, five if you count the Jins, and they are all radically different and insanely compelling. The basic structure of Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji, the “black cultivator/white cultivator on a crusade to change the world” thing, appears a lot of times, and goes horribly awry in a slightly different way for all of them. That kind of in-universe repetition of themes, doing the same thing over and over again looking for the Right Path, is one of my favorite things to appear in a story—see also, the Kencyrath (twins, Dreamweavers, Knorth lords, loyal Kendar, etc), the Animorphs (warrior teams, deaths on the field, etc), any number of other things I yell about.

TL;DR: The story is great and the cultivation is fascinatingand the schemes are elaborate, but

#the untamed #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #SORRY CLEVER YOU'VE DEFINITELY ALREADY STARTED IT I THINK I JUST ANSWERED ANOTHER ASK FROM YOU #I GOT DISTRACTED HALFWAY THROUGH THIS POST AND FORGOT ABOUT IT FOR SIX DAYS #i cannot be trusted i am sorry #but yeah anyway #show rec #here's the post that i'm going to link people to if they're looking to know why I Personally am into this show #'what's the plot star' WWX WAS AN ADMIRED HERO. THEN HE WAS THE MOST HATED MAN ALIVE. THEN HE DIED.#NOW HE'S BACK AND HE HAS MORE PROBLEMS.#THAT'S THE PLOT #WHO CARES ABOUT THE PLOT I CARE ABOUT THE ANGST #that's not true i also care about the plot #but like. if i'm recommending you the show you'd best believe it's because of the above reasons.#a queue we will keep and our honor someday avenge #insert-cleverurl #asked and answered

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finefeatheredfabler · 5 years ago

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Fun meta asks for writers

Tagged by @anonwrite, thank you for the kick in the rear I needed to get started writing this morning.

1. Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it? It’s a high fantasy novel with aspects of psychological horror. It’s about a man trying not to lose himself in his journey to ensure that his dead husband is remembered. I have a decent outline and have written a few chapters, but there’s still quite a lot of details in the worldbuilding side of things that I’m trying to manage. I really love my main characters and am not looking forward to what I’m going to put them through, but I know the journey will be satisfying and compelling when it’s all done. 2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – There’s a big reveal scene where both the reader and the main character realize that he is actually the “bad guy” he has been wanting to destroy. 3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway) My entire WIP is this exact thing. It has been a pain setting up a world and a culture for the story to work in, but it has a message I want to share, so I’m trying to make it work.

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like) I like this paragraph because it’s just the right amount of horror combined with hope. It’s the curse that kicks off the whole story and the thing that leads to both family’s downfalls. The implications of this one paragraph on the rest of the story are huge. (I’d be lying if I said this trope wasn’t inspired by Shakespeare). [Thurin returned to the cooling body of his mate, his hands covered in fresh blood and his face blacked with char. Solde's belly still thrashed with life, a child struggling to survive within a corpse. With a gasping wail of grief, Thurin slid the tip of his hunting knife across his wife's belly, freeing the child within. Though her body was cold with death, the baby was warm, hot as fire. It wailed and within its throat was the same fiery cry that Thurin carried in his lungs. He shushed the baby, holding it to his chest where it nuzzled against his heart. Thurin opened his mouth and a plea to the gods spilled forth. "From this day on shall our families be divided. Let no Ravenmind bind themselves to a Baerhart, and may the Baerhart line end in misery, and in violence. Let them know no peace until their line is ended." And the gods heeded his prayer.] 5. What character that you’re writing do you most identify with? My main character. He shares many of my traits and a lot of my faults. (Sorry, bud.) 6. What character do you have the most fun writing? My as-yet-unnamed Harpy character. She’s sweet, she’s family-oriented and she’s innocent. She’s a perfect foil to my other main character and she’s so much fun to write because her speech and mannerisms are so not human. 7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree? I describe things. A lot. Often too much. I would say most of my readers would agree, though some of them seem to enjoy it when I spend three paragraphs describing one thing, idk. I also tend to like to use several timelines and sink them within one another, so a character in one timeline maybe thinking about (and thereby briefly narrating) another timeline. 8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read? Yes. I often write things because they don’t exist yet and I want something to read that I know I’ll enjoy. 9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other? Longfic for sure. A combination of both, though my best ideas come from pantsing. I don’t really wish I was a particular one, I’m just glad when my stories turn out. 10.How would you describe your writing process? Pain. Pain and coffee. I write best when I’m bothered about something, feeling anxious or depressed. All of my most popular work was born out of some strong emotion I was feeling when I was planning it. I often sit down and write specifically to channel my emotions into something productive. 11. What do you envy in other writers? I’m pretty envious of writers who get good social media following and get published. 12. Do you want your writing to be famous? Yes, but that’s mostly because I’d like a reason to justify being just a writer and not having to have a full-time job. 13. Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself? Yes, I’ve written quite a lot of fanfiction because I know I can’t copyright or make money on it, so I don’t mind sharing it and it’s good practice for original writing since it requires good characterization to be enjoyable for readers. I keep most of my planned original works pretty close to my chest. I’ll share them when they’re published. 14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title? Once the story is done. I feel like titling it first biases me, though I have stumbled on good titles while writing and I save them and decide if I want to keep them once the story is finished. 15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)? Summaries. I am a person of many words and I have a hard time whittling down a long tale to a short paragraph that gets people interested in what I have written. 16. Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?) Worldbuilding! This most recent project requires extensive worldbuilding because it’s not set in our universe and it’s not based on any fandom. I’ve had to draw maps, come up with religions and stars and cultures. It has been INCREDIBLY helpful with getting me to want to write because it is intensely interesting even if the process can be overwhelming. 17. Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations? A lot of people seem to enjoy my fanfics, but I won’t know about my original works until I start sharing those more. So far on my fanfics I have gotten the reader reactions I set out to achieve, so I think the way they perceive them is relatively in line with my own expectations. I think a lot of my readers would be surprised to know that many of my stories were written to make a subtle point about something I care about (not a big in your face “moral of the story,” but something for them to think about). I don’t know how well I achieve it, but that’s what I try for when I write. 18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them. I have a lot of abandoned scenes that exist only to explore characterizations. Often I will have something truly terrible happen to a character to explore how they might react, but that scene will never see the final project because it doesn’t actually happen in the story. Sometimes I place them in a situation so I can experiment with how they might act in a slightly different setting, or how they might hold trauma, or what would make them snap. As far as abandoned plotlines, I think I’ve got at least one for each fic I have published on AO3. Current WIP has had a few cut or heavily modified. 19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?) Facial expressions. I focus a little too much on what the character’s faces are doing, where their eyes are looking, if they’re blushing, or pursing their lips or clenching their jaws. I know I need to rein it in a bit because it’s a very “fanfiction writer” thing to do and I’d like to publish traditionally one of these days. 20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?) I write a bit of psychological horror, so callbacks and clues are huge for me. My goal in my latest WIP is to leave behind clues for the big twists, but not enough that most readers figure it out before the big reveal. Ideally, I like for my horror works to require two readings. First to find out what happens, and the second to find out how the reader missed what was actually going on. It brings me so much joy when readers tell me they read it twice just to see where I left the breadcrumbs for them to follow. My latest WIP has a lot of literary devices I’ve been dying to use. Extreme character foiling, the use of prophecy, unreliable narrator, hidden timeline changes, foreshadowing. 21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?) Film would be challenging but doable, I think it would do really well as a webcomic or a podcast. 22. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them? I do. I don’t hate them, and I like most of them, though I frequently find typos, which is absolutely infuriating when I try my best to catch them and still end up mis sing them. 23. What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest? Something similar to the one I’m working on right now. It’s about identity and losing oneself in a search for success. 24. Would you say your writing has changed over time? I’d like to think it has gotten better with practice. I know I’ve developed a few bad habits writing fanfics, but I know my vocabulary has gotten better and I know I have improved a lot at characterization and story planning so I don’t write myself into a dead end as frequently. 25. What part of writing is the most fun? Writing character interactions. Full stop. I love writing dialogue and acting it out to make sure it sounds like something real people would say.

#writing #writing club #writing about writing

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opalgelance · 5 years ago

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thoughts on steven universe future

td;lr overall opinion: steven universe future is better than most of the original steven universe, especially seasons 3-5, but there are still some real iffy plotlines in future

i hate that the diamonds were redeemed but at the same time, the happy clouds blue and yellow putting gems back together scenes were so pure

it simultaneously warms my heart and infuriates me

but we finally got a blue diamond song, god i love her voice

EDIT: also steven basically tortured white diamond and nearly killed her and it was pretty disturbing bc steven is 1. in a really bad mental state, like way darker than i thought they’d show him go, since this is technically a kids show and 2. was also kind of trying to hurt himself, which both hit me really hard bc i had similar periods of blazing anger, wanting to self harm and harm others that i felt had wronged me when i was a teenager, but its also what white deserves

ncsndlljklkcndkls i want to enjoy this show so bad but,,, steven having ptsd makes him a violent douche??? diamonds killed who knows how many gems in their reign and never really felt bad about it in original su but now they’re supportive life coaches??? no thank you

on more positive notes, i loved how priyanka described mental health and how she treated steven throughout the entire check up, she was so nonconfrontational and whenever he felt stressed she deescalated the situation,,, it was so good

the animation is the best its been since season 2. the poses are clean, very well drawn, and on model. there are more action scenes than like 90% of steven universe and they’re animated way better, like theres actual fighting and motion asjksacbcbj no one is stiffly posed, no one has strange proportions, no one is drastically changing sizes in between shots (well besides steven in growing pains onward but when he does change size its supposed to be like that lol)

i liked seeing the real roses but didnt love it? i wish we saw more of the roses designs up close, and i wish they fit a little more with the other quartzes? it might be just because its era 3, but the roses were all way more unique than jaspers and amethysts generally seem to be. i like that they were more unique designs and had different personalities, but surely the diamonds wouldnt have tolerated that back in era 1 or even era 2, had the rose quartzes not been bubbled? also i get that they’re reminiscent of pink bc she created them, but hippie and superfan were so naive, more so than other quartzes. if each quartz group was slightly different, it would make a little more sense tbh like if quartzes were the entire gem army, but each group was slightly different. i always liked the idea that rose quartzes were either the defense or the healers of the gem army.

little homeschool and guidance were fun and genuinely enjoyable, considering not a whole ton happens in them. i wish townie episodes had been more like them. like you could replace the gems with random humans, but it would still be a fun episode? idk, maybe involving the humans in gem stuff wouldve made better townie episodes, like lars and the cool kids. it wouldve probably helped steven feel more “human” too, if the human and gem worlds collided a bit more in the series.

bluebird was... an ok episode, but im not sure how well it will fit into what i feel like the end will be, where every episode of future featured someone steven helped or affected in some way, and they all come together to help steven when he corrupts. or rather, i guess if bluebird did say something, it would feel more hollow bc steven didnt help them lol the gems and universes were just friendly to them, and thats it. it wasnt as bad as a very special episode (my least favorite episode of future), but it felt like a townie episode with no townies LOL at least we got a new fusion i guess

a very special episode was just,,, infuriating. there was that weird football scene where they just like,,, talk about screen resolution for a minute then play the full commercial for little homeworld we just saw last episode???? i did genuinely enjoy the rainbow scenes, but it just built up to not nothing. oh no, it was something alright. the whole episode was just future vision and then theres like a minute long psa??? it felt like that wacky randomness that would have happened in like, ok ko, teen titans go, or clarence jaskjcbkcjbskb

mr universe is tied with dear old dad episode as my least favorite greg episode. i get how both of them feel. greg wanted to tell steven about how he escaped from his miserable childhood and remade who he was, no longer a demayo but a universe. the problem imo was that greg became way too absorbed in the past. it reminds me a bit of s1 pearl, how she’d proudly recount gem battles and basked in the glory of fighting for their freedom, but she struggled when she had to recount the more unsavory parts of war. and that really affected amethyst, since she didnt fight in the glorified war pearl told her and steven about. amethyst was the byproduct of one of the bad parts of the war, and that became part of her identity, until on the run, where pearl finally realized that she needed to tell amethyst that she wasnt bad. amethyst’s creation may have fractionally hurt the earth, but that wasnt her fault. it wasnt her fault that she emerged too late to fight either. and it wasnt her fault that she existed. sounds familiar to to stevens rant in the van.

steven didnt ask to be made. he didnt ask to be the half gem half human son of a diamond. but he grew up being told about how great his mom was, and that while no one would ever say it, she was gone because of him. to create steven, rose had to die. it was roses decision, but as the product of that decision, steven feels responsible. not only that, but being told constantly about his amazing mother, steven felt like he had to live up to her, had to be like her, had to replace her in the gems and greg’s lives. throughout the series, steven is constantly either trying to be like his mother, until he realizes its ok to be himself. but then the question is posed; is steven even himself? or is he still part of rose? and once he finds out that he’s steven, and has always been steven, he’s still reeling from the realization that his mother was pink diamond. and that really shows in future, where steven is becoming like pink. at first he doesnt even know, because besides the jungle moon dream, him and the audience never knew about this side of pink. this angry, short tempered, diamond who lashes out mostly physically. and unlike before, no one’s telling steven about pink (besides pink pearl) hes finding out firsthand, and this pink mode is basically being forced on him by his gem. steven has little to no control over this form. hes not trying to live up to his mother, or wondering if he is her, like before. now, he’s losing control to whatever programming is in his gem.

but back to mr universe. in the van, greg is going on and on about how lucky steven is, and how free steven is, but how can either of them compare their lives to each other? the similarities just arent there. steven is right, greg and pink were “raised” in very similar “households”. both had their wishes and desires suppressed by controlling, abusive parents. we know pink was abused mentally, verbally and physically (being physically dragged away from the screen by yellow in jungle moon, stevonnie being grabbed and thrown into the time out cell by yellow, when she still thought steven was pink), but greg at the very least was mentally assaulted. but they diverge from here. as greg said, he thought disco was back. rose started a war. you cant compare them any further.

but at the same time, steven was raised completely differently. he was raised in a home with love and freedom, but he was also not given the opportunity to be a normal kid. theres a difference being forcing your kid to do something and not giving them the chance to try something. steven was never given the option to go to school (well in the comics he was but i guess thats not canon now since it seems like steven wishes he went to school?) he was never given the option to live in a house, or go to the mall with friends. the only other kids he knew were the boardwalk kids, but even then, he doesnt seem very close with them. for such an outgoing, friendly kid, steven wasnt given many opportunities to make friends. steven’s upbringing was very relaxed, yes, but it was too relaxed. he needed more structure, and more importantly, more humanity. i always thought it was weird, how little steven seems to have interacted with humans before connie, considering that his mother so desperately wanted steven to experience being human. yes the show is about gems, (and yes, i dont like most townie episodes), but steven was never shown doing a lot of “human” kid things inbetween episodes. the episode never started with him coming home from a friends house, he hardly ever spent time with friends other than connie in little scenes. like he was never called for a mission while playing cards with peedee, or coming home after an after school activity. any scenes like that were either just steven by himself, or with greg, and occasionally connie. but connie is a new addition to his life. how many years has he been doing fun stuff with only his dad for company, or by himself? yknow, “non traditional” childhoods and living situations are becoming more and more common in media, rather than the “two parents in a suburb house” thing, but steven’s life is beyond any unusual childhood any other kid would have. i mean he’s never even been to the doctor! which is probably for several reasons, like the fact that he apparently doesnt have a ssn, he can heal himself, has a damn gemstone in his stomach, and is half alien. but still, thats not something he has in common with other kids. no matter how much love and freedom he was given, steven was raised as an outcast.

i agree with the notion that both greg and steven were both right and wrong in mr universe. i guess they both have that in common with rose lol

greg should have read the room better, realized that his pep talk wasnt the support and apology steven needed to hear. but steven shouldnt have acted out in the way he did. i get that’s the “theme” of steven’s spiral, maybe for the younger audience to better understand how steven is acting? but crashing his dad’s van that gregs been living in for like 20 years? fucking SHATTERING jasper? that’s going way too far to prove a point. it would have been better to maybe mirror story for steven, where marty and greg are arguing, marty is watching the road and they narrowly avoid hitting a car. but crashing the car could have been pretty serious, especially for greg. now jasper, that episode shouldnt have been approved. steven should not have shattered jasper. he fucking killed her. rose/pink didnt even shatter anyone. and if it wasnt for steven getting another superpower out of nowhere, jasper would have stayed that way. he should have just cracked her gem, poofing her in the process. the rest of the episode wouldve played out exactly the same.

anyways ive been writing this for like 2 hours but i feel better letting it all out. if you enjoy future keep enjoying it! it’s definitely more like a B+ compared to season 3-5′s general C-/D+. but please take into consideration future has some themes that people personally relate to, like mental health, and that you shouldnt shit on someone elses opinions that are based on their own personal experiences. especially if you dont have mental health issues, dont keep pushing your opinion and telling people that personally relate to future’s themes that they’re wrong? thats fucked up man

#suf #steven universe future #suf spoilers

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tinkiisms · 5 years ago

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crossover ship wishlist

now, i’ve finally found an rp partner who is giving me the tink/jim i’ve long desired, but last night when i couldn’t sleep i was thinking of the rest of the crossover ships i’ve always wanted but never got the chance to write.

maybe describing my vision for them will convince ANYBODY to consider plotting with me!

in no particular order, i submit for your perusal....the perfect crossover ships w/ tinker bell.

TINKER BELL x PIPS:

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, this is literally the most perfect conceivable animated crossover ship possible, and idk why it isn’t more popular.

Both characters are sassy and fun-loving, attractive fairies who would certainly take an interest in one another. Pips is quite similar to the character Tink canonically has a crush on (Peter) which being more mature and actually her size/species, as well as Tink having a similar personality to the character Pips has a crush on (Crysta.) Neither ended up with their unrequited loves in their story, so it’s not even like x-over ships with like all the Disney princesses and other characters who found their “one true love” because they’re both SINGLE, READY TO MINGLE, AND LITERALLY PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER

I like the thought of the romantic tension we can have for them because they might both be wary to start anything, having had unrequited love before, but they definitely flirt and vibe with each other.

Also I have already made several edits for them--this is the kinda ship that I’m never gonna stop reblogging inspo for and writing threads, if I only had a partner to explore it with me.

TINKER BELL x CRYSTA

As I said wrt to Tink/Pips, Tinker Bell and Crysta have a similar personality. They’re both curious, easily distracted, and none too concerned with rules--and then their differences in personality just go toward giving them chances to clash and not be the same person.

They would definitely be a good bad influence on each other, exploring and getting into trouble, but helping each other out of it as well.

I don’t have so much to say about them bc Tink/Pips is really where I think the most potential is, but I also refuse to neglect the delightful possibilty of a wlw fairy ship sitting right there for the taking.

TINKER BELL x HICCUP

I’ve seen videos of Hiccup/Fawn--which makes sense on its own bc like, Hic&Toothless + Fawn&Gruff vibes, they're both bleeding hearts--but I’m SHOCKED that I haven’t seen any for Hiccup/Tink?? Let’s discuss:

They look good together, both favor natural color schemes with green. They’re both inventors which is something to bond over. They both break the mold in their respective society, going where none others have gone before/breaking customs that end up making their kingdoms that much better because they have open minds.

The potential plotlines because Hiccup gave a dragon the ability to fly again w/ his wing design, and Tinker Bell broke her wing in one of her films--so let’s say sparkly sister magic isn’t a cure for broken wings, but Hiccup helps her?? I just love it.

The angst, the drama, the romance, the fluff, endless possibilities. Canon divergence is necessary tbh--in general crossover verses I can play Tink as a fairy that can change to be human-sized (like in OUAT) to make for a better match with human characters. But other than that, we have a perfect basis for a x-over ship if I just find a writing partner with the right chemistry!

TINKER BELL x MARIANNE

OKAY ideal fairy crossover ship, yes. 1. Tinker Bell and Marianne have similar character arcs throughout their stories (Marianne in Strange Magic, and Tink from her series of films through the original Peter Pan timeline and then the Disney Fairies books.)

Both start out quite hopeful and sweet, but when their first love breaks their heart, they kinda vow to never fall in love again and swear not to let themselves be hurt like that, they close themselves off from such feelings and develop a tough exterior. Marianne learns to sword-fight, and Tink carries around daggers--fighty couple with each other’s back potential!!

They both eventually open up to love--WITH EACH OTHER. And that would be so sweet oh my god.

The actress for Tinker Bell has done a couple duets with her friend who looks like Marianne and it makes my heart sing.

TINKER BELL x NOD

It’s been a long time since I watched Epic but I remember that Nod was another kind of energetically rule-breaking character who would mesh well with Tink. Again, they look good together. I just want to see how that goes because I can never get my sights off of other tiny-character muses for Tink to cross-over with...

TINKER BELL x TOOTHIANA

THIS ONE WOULD JUST BE SO ADORABLE. Tooth is adorable and Tink is adorable and if they were girlfriends it would be really sweet and perfect, that’s all.

TINKER BELL x HERCULES

I’ve plotted this one out a little bit with an RP partner years ago but we never really got past the first couple replies on our thread to start developing the concept.

I just love the idea of Tink and Hercules being long-time friends even before he realized his lineage, and then when he becomes all famous Tink is like “don’t forget about me” and they both just shine so,

I just think they’re neat

TINKER BELL x ARRIETTY

Here we go. Tink and Arrietty: both little explorers at heart who want more out of life. Both disregard what they’ve been told about humans because they find them interesting and not bad. Arrietty would be fascinated by Tink bc 1. She didn’t believe in fairies though her mom claims to have seen one once in her youth, so meeting her she would be in awe. 2. She wants to be a proper borrower who ventures out instead of keeping the house, and Tink legit lives in nature and makes inventions out of lost human things.

They would just have such an interesting dynamic, like Arrietty fricking running off with a fairy of all things to fulfill her dreams--

TINKER BELL x CORNELIUS

A commoner/royal dynamic I enjoy, because Tink is unused to be treated a certain way. Cornelius is really cute, and together they wouldn’t have as much of a sweet-sweet dynamic as Cornelius/Thumbelina but a little more dynamic and interesting to explore.

I also make edits...

TINKER BELL x THUMBELINA

Tink/Thumbelina would be really cute because imagine them meeting instead of Cornelius meeting Thumbelina, right? She would just see Tink and and be BIG BLUSH over her and Tink would be like “what is this feeling? oh no she’s cute” and I just love it

I already have a temporary tag for them where you can view some art/edits other people have made, but once i find “their ship song” it will get a proper tag

TINKER BELL x ARIEL

One of those things. Um, both fascinated by human junk, both part of a different world, fall in love with someone of another species, but here’s the thing. Ariel is sea, and Tink is sky. The plotting and development that would have to go down to get them both to meet in the middle, on land, is what makes the thought of this ship really interesting to me.

We can basically write our own movie based on the idea of a fairy and mermaid falling for each other.

basically if anyone decides to plot any of these with me, i’m gonna be making edits, playlists, aesthetics and reblogging ship inspo posts & musings bc i have a lot of muse for these potential ships.

i have either currently or in the past written platonic threads with some of these characters, so that’s one thing and good in its own regard but i’m not looking for it with this post lbr.

i’m interested in shipping rn bc tbh i have a lot of random fluff interactions going on but i generaly have a lot more inspiration to reply to things and hold multiple threads with a partner when we develop stronger relationships between the muses. (rather than casual introductory stuff)

like it just keeps me very intrigued in plots when more feelings are involved? & there are more places to go with romance bc you can have every plot a platonic pair can have + additional romantic-feeling based plots. no shame in that...i like ships :s

#⊹*⋅✧ | ᵈʳᵉᵃᵐˢ ᵒᶠ ᶰᵉᵛᵉʳᶫᵃᶰᵈ (wishlist)#if u have any other suggestions for crossover ships im all ears #bc im obsessed #it's been a while since i was really making edits #but i might have to get into it again

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hinge · 27 days ago

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Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

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calliecat93 · 6 years ago

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Top 5 Things I Liked About RvB16: The Shisno Paradox

Yesterday, I posted my Top 5 Things I Disliked About RvB16. I don't like talking about negatives, but I had things that I wanted to talk about. I did my best to be reasonable and fair,, and I hope that those who read it had an enjoyable read. But the good news is that with the negative out of the way, I can now talk about the positives! Yay!!!

As I said in the Dislikes post, I think that this was a good season. It has issues, and I do understand why some didn't like it even outside my problems with it. Bu I ultimately had a really fun time watching it and it left far more good impressions on me than bad. Plus no matter what, positive feedback is just s important as negative since it lets the showrunners know what they're going right and even they deserve encouragement. That's what I like to do, encourage people.

So without further ado, lets begin!

#5. Expanding the series mythos

I know that adding the Cosmic Powers didn't catch on to everyone, and I understand why especially before the AI reveal came out. But even before then... I was okay with having Gods and more mysticism. Is it different? Yeah, and with how the show had always been sci-fi for over a decade and a half, I can get how jarring it came off. But for me personally, I was with going this route. Why? Well... first, I always like that kind of stuff. I like mysticism and fantasy, so seeing RvB indulge in it I thought was cool and could even be funny. Now that one is pure personal taste, of course.

The other reason though? It's because the universe was FINALLY expanding. For nearly all of the series run, it had been attached to Project Freelancer. I don't know about anyone else, but I was ready to see new stories. With Church dead for good, Freelancer pretty much dead, and with Wash and Carolina now having some form of closure and now having new developments open, if the show wanted to keep going then it was going to have to try some new stuff. I kinda see this move as a back to basics move. Back to when the show was absurd, illogical, and just plain crazy. Remember, Church being an AI wasn't planned, he really was just a ghost initially.

This is what I can see something like Blood Gulch doing if it had the budget and wanted to do more character development. And there IS an explinaiton to it. The Cosmic Powers are AI stored in the Monitor Body that Caboose put Epsilon in. Which remember, Epsilon had a bit of a God complex during that time. It explains where the 'shisno' slur came form, the Cosmic Powers used it to describe the prophecy and the Aliens adopted into their vocabulary. It only adds new mythos, but explains and uses bits of old gags form RvB as a starting point like Recollection did with Blood Gulch. That is the kind of writing I like, finding little things to expand on, even if it wasn't planned to be.

It was just cool for me. It expanded RvB;s universe, using old things and creating new mythos form it. But most of all, this opens the door to new stories and character development opportunities. It adds to the possibilities, not limit them. With how several ongoing plots have closed the door, I was ready to see new ones open since there was still plenty of potential to bring out. Is it more out there than it has been in a while? Yeah, that's a fair point. But for me? It was enjoyable and nice to see new orotundities open. Lets hope that even more spring up in the future~

#4. Tucker and Sister Plotline

Okay, okay, I know that some had MAJOR issues with this. Mainly in regards to how Tucker's character was handled. He was an asshole, narcissistic, and really entitled about Sister. I know that MANY had issues with this, especially when taking into account his character development during the Chorus Trilogy. If you feel that way, I respect your opinion and I'm sorry that it felt like it was a downgrade. But... this is my opinion, and as I said during the season... I thought it was what he needed.

While Tucker HAS developed and become a good soldier, we never really saw him get over his womanizing and ego issues. He took his responsibility more seriously and become a better fighter who can and will jump to the call when needed. But he's still always been a narcissistic moron. It made sense to me, especially in Episode 4 when he and Sister talked about wanting to go back to the “good old days” where Tucker didn't have to worry about anything anymore. Back when things, like friends getting shot, just kinda resolved themselves with no consequences. With what happened to Wash and now being able to live out those days again... well, Tucker took it and it was understandable why. I admit, as I said in the Dislikes post, it could have been been emphasized and clarified MUCH better, but you can still spot it.

I felt that this was the natural next step in Tucker's development. For him to recognize that in the good old days, he was a pretty sucky person. He can't go back to that, as Sister made clear. Sister was THE perfect character to pair with him for this, and she also benefited from it. To me in S5, Sister was an unnecessary late addition that really only advanced Grif's character (and even then only slightly) and was just a way to add more s*x jokes. She was a wasted character imo... until now. While she's still overly s*xual, there's a sense of experience and maturity to her as well. She's had her own shit going on and yeah she wants to get away form it, but for her it seems more like to have a breather than to ignore her responsibilities. And really, she handled Tucker's behavior MUCH better than I would have.

Sister became a character. Not just another excuse for s*x jokes. Not just for Grif's character (even if I wish they DID have some more moments in this), she was a character for herself. She didn't take Tucker's shit, and she ultimately threw in his face everything wrong with his mindset when he disrespected her. She wasn't cruel, but she was upfront and honest and later after cooling down, she had a calmer talk with him. Tucker NEEDED someone to throw his shit in his face, which to my recollection while some showed annoyance, no one ever called him out for it. This was the first time that this trait got put in a serious light, kinda like Grif's laziness and hatred of work last season. I thought it was VERY effective... sure the paradox may have undone it, but it was still something that imo was a long time coming.

Was the plotline perfect? No, and I can admit that even I got annoyed at Tucker and was hoping that he'd shape up. But at the same time, for a character to develop, sometimes we have to see them in a negative light and not like them for awhile. I didn't like Blake in V4 of RWBY, but I knew why she was written like she was and in the next two volumes I adored her more than I ever had before. I'm hoping that once the paradox stuff is fixed, that'll be the case for Tucker. But ultimately, I found their plot fun, it made me like Sister as a character, and I felt like Tucker got some long overdo focus on his more... problematic traits in a way that made sense. I hope that whatever happens with Tucker next will be more satisfactory for people, but in this case, it was for me.

#3. Donut became a character again

This kinda ties into the last one. You know how I just said that Sister finally became a character? Well she wasn't the only one. Donut... holy shit, DONUT.

Now this case differs form Sister as Sister was mainly the victim of unfortunate timing. Because she got added in S5, the final season of Blood Gulch, there simply wasn't time to do anything with her. Donut though... has been around since the beginning. He was at first some regular rookie, then after he got the Lightish-Red armor he became more flamboyant and dense. But his optimism compared to this teammates and being shown to have SOME competence (remember, HE killed Tex the first time), he was able to stand out. But after Blood Gulch and because he had to be shafted so much, he became less and less important and eventually just became the source of gay innuendo jokes. S15 even forgot to add him to certain scenes. Donut... really had no point anymore, and no one seemed interested in doing anything with him, even pointing out how he gets the short end of the stick and forgotten so much.

Well, clearly Joe listened because ho boy, he went and turned that around! While Donut wasn't in the majority of episodes, what we did get very much left their impact. You feel nothing but terrible for him. While he's a gullible idiot, he was sincerely trying to do what he thought was the right thing and help his friends. Friends who, as per usual, don't care or belittle him. The difference? Donut gets annoyed by it. Before, Donut didn't really react, or it was ignored. Now? Nope! He recognizes his treatment and is tired of it. This adds layers. It shows that Donut DOES recognize his treatment and that it DOES bother him. But at the same time, we see that he still cares for his friends as even when mad at them, he makes sure that Chrovos agrees for them to be safe. That really shows his devotion that they sadly have yet to realize.

For a long time, Donut had been both my least favorite Red and my least favorite of the Blood Gulch. Why? Because in my view, he had zero purpose. But this season completely turned that around. Donut got to show competence again. How the others treatment of him does effect him, but not in a way that makes him look unsympathetic. You can tell how Chrovos' manipulated him and understand how he fell into it outside just general gullibility. And they did so without getting rid of his past character traits, so if you did like Donut you don't lose that. And then the finale... well we'll get to that later. Joe said in an interview that he realized that since no one did anything with Donut, he could do essentially anything, and by golly did he. IDK where he stands on my Character Rankings, but he's now Number 3 on the Reds list (2 is Simmons and 1 is Grif, for those wondering), and hopefully the momentum with him just keeps coming hard into S17!

#2. Grif Development

While Donut had some good development, the character who by far had the most and the best is Grif. Last year already did a good job in having him get fed up, quit, realize that he needs his friends, and go back and help. The only downside is he spent the majority of the season off-screen. This time not only does his development take the natural next step (addressing his hatred of adventures and how he tends to try and avoid/complain about things), but we get to see it in full. To compare, last season Grif was in nine episodes out of 21. This time out of 15 episodes, he was only absent for one. So we get to see the Refusal to the Call in all it’s glory! Whoo~

I've gone on and on about Grif's development several times. I even did a huge ass analysis on this and S15. But to keep it on this season solely and in trying to summarize as much as possible, Grif's development was perfectly done. This was him trying to avoid the plot in favor of going after pizza, no matter how much shit gets thrown at him. But he of course, keeps failing at every turn and only makes it worst on himself. He doesn't try to fix the problem, he just keeps his focus on this pizza, and then provoking it's existence, until O'Malley happens and he's stuck with Huggins. Now of course, it's understandable why Grif does this, he's been through various adventures and just wants to do something mundane for once. And as usual, the universe just refuses to let him and it's affecting him.

After getting backstabbed by O'Malley and stranded though, Grif meets Huggins. She's a very positive, but stable character who at first he wants nothing to do with due to her being connected to everything that he wants to avoid. But once he comes around out of necessity, he... improves himself. Not only does Huggins win him over with her positive personality and really his own boredom, but Grif starts talking about his problems and how he feels stuck. Through most of S16, he's been shown as angry, frustrated, and prone to fits, including shooting at others. Something he wouldn't really do otherwise. And a lot of it seems to be because he didn't have a proper way to cope outside his inner circle. He needed someone to talk to not connected to his daily life and who can point out his flaws, but give him positive reinforcement and steer his focus in the right direction. Huggins did that by befriending him, listening to him, and pointing out how just avoiding and complaining about the problem does nothing. Grif clearly doesn't like hearing this... but he DOES listen, and he DOES shape himself up.

After Episode 9, where he and Huggins have those talks, Grif changes his attitude. Sure he can still be annoyed, but he's not complaining or trying to ignore the problem. He gets everyone else to focus, gets some kind of reward for his efforts with the Sword, encourages everyone to listen tot he Cosmic Powers word, and his attitude is overall more positive and lax. He's joking around, he's not lazing off, he's trying to get things done and fix the problem. And after finding out about Wash, while Grif does go along with the plan, you can tell that he was weighing the options and he does feel genuine guilt for pretty much betraying Huggins. But Wash is his friend, and as S15 showed in the end it's his friends that come first, the consequences be damned.

Grif has really, REALLY benefited from these past two seasons. A lot of his behavior has been given a more serious light, and in turn it’s given him more depth. Joe has actively tried to give him development, and damn he has done an awesome job. Grif's arc has been fantastic to watch, and add it to Geoff's absolutely perfect performance, and you've got a great arc that I'm hoping continues into the next season. This was almost Number One, but was just barely edged out... kinda.

What is Number One? Well, no point in stalling. Here it goes.

#1. The Finale

I guess putting an entire episode on here is kinda weird, but there's a reason. The four things I already listed? This is the culmination of all of those, and so much more. This hits all of those points very well. The mythos goes into effect with Genkins efforts and the resulting paradox, leading to what we can only assume is some altered timeline. While Tucker and Sister's stuff isn't quite prevalent here, it is Tucker accepting his missteps and his care for Wash that leads them to where they are and he shows his competence again, and Sister before got him out of his funk while having a much more civil talk to him. It's where Donut shines at his best, deciding to stick by his friends, fight O'Malley through time, and have what may be the most badass fight sequence/moment in the show. And Grif's development comes at full force as he puts all the pieces together, faces Genkins, ignores the pizza because of the mission, and once he realizes the reality of what's going to happen, he goes to stop it. It's futile, but hey he tried.

This episode was just executed so perfectly. Aside from Seasons 10 and 13, this may very well be the best season finale in the show. I mean the Donut vs O'Malley fight alone is frekain' amazing. Cinematic, well coordinated and animated, uses multiple sets and uses them to their full, and still had plenty of humor in it. It was just amazing with a frekain' great payoff. But even outside it, there were some great moments, For example, Simmons pretty much coordinating everyone in taking out the Blues and Reds. Yes, Simmons. His development has always been subtle, so seeing him step up after getting some encouragement form his future self was just fantastic. Really, the finale tied in essentially all the plot points, even the stupid ones, very well. Which is what any good finale should do, and they did so in a very effective way. When it was over, I was just left numb. I felt more numb than I did when RWBY V3 ended, and I was a mess after that. Suffice to say, it did it’s job well/

And of course, there is how it ended. The ending leaves so many questions for the next one, but it ends S16 so perfectly. The bad guy essentially wins and the reset with everyone's memories gone and Genkins replacing Church is extremely concerning. But it really ends the season well and hammers in the point. Don't screw with the past. You can't change it. You have to focus on who you are now, not who you were then. The Reds and Blues didn't do that, but their reasoning is very understandable and canon left implications that just maybe everything will be fine if they save Wash. They were wrong. Now, as the song says, everything is f*cked up. Can they remember and fix it? What's in this new timeline? What is Genkins going to do nos that he’s in power?

As the saying goes, only time will tell.

And that's the list! To me, this was a super fun season that left me satisfied and wanting more. I know that it didn’t catch on to everyone, but for me as someone who was watching an RvB season as it was airing for the first time, I had a ton of fun watching it. That’s what matter sin the end, having fun. It gave that to me, especially since I was going through some pretty rough times during it. It helped me get through those days, and I am always going to be grateful to it for that.

On March 9th, RvB Season 17: Singularity will debut and pick up form where we left off. Do I have concerns? Maybe a little, but so far I've enjoyed Joe and Jason Weight's work. I have faith in them to deliver something unexpected but good. No matter what though, I plan to see the end through. Because you do not do a finale like that and not expect me to not come back. So S17, bring it on!

Thank you all for reading, and I hope that this was a fun read! I’ll try to get some more RvB stuff out before the season starts, so keep an eye out. Until then, I'll catch you all next time~

#rvb #rvb16 #callie reviews #rvb reviews

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head-and-heart · 8 years ago

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Being honest, do you think that Clarke was well developed in s4? (leaving aside what we saw after the time jump). L affected her too much and I feel she was kinda "stagnant". Maybe in s4 she wasn't that traumatized but still she was carrying what she learnt from her. For me it was like a roller coaster. Sometimes I was like yay she's coming back but in the next episode I was disappointed again cause she took several steps backwards, and Idk if it was influenced by the amount of L's mentions....

This is a very old ask, so I’m sorry for the late response. I wanted to finish my Season 4 rewatch before answering it and then Life happened so it’s been put off until now.

To be honest, I don’t think that you CAN put off what we saw of Clarke after the time jump if you want to address the topic of whether she was well-developed in Season 4. It’s kind of a crucial moment, it’s what her entire arc has been leading up to for the past four seasons so it just doesn’t feel fair to the story that the writers have mapped out so carefully to judge Clarke’s arc without looking at that.

I think that when you look at characters like Clarke or Bellamy or Raven (for example) you can’t always look at their character arc for just one season. That’s not the way this show is written. Usually their character moments from previous seasons lend themselves to their character arc of the season following that and then the season following that one. I almost think you have to look at their character arc’s as a whole over the course of the four seasons to decide if it was well-written or not, because this journey the writers have taken us on hasn’t been completely different each season. It’s all intertwined. And for Clarke, I think that’s especially true.

Your question is hard. I had to spend a lot of time thinking about it to decide what my thoughts were and here’s what I’ve come to.

I think that, yes, overall, Clarke’s character arc has been very well-written. She’s an intriguing character and she’s developed a lot and I can’t think of any moment that has ever felt out-of-character for her over the course of the series. Some of the problems with her character that arose in Season 4 felt like the same issues that arose with Bellamy’s character in Season 3A: there was too much story to tell and not enough episodes to give each character justice. For instance, while I believe her position made sense for her character, I would have enjoyed if we got a little more of Clarke’s thought process in 4x11 other than the scene we got with Niylah.

You say that you felt she was stagnant - while I can see where you came to that conclusion, I don’t necessarily agree.

People seem to assume that because Clarke went through the whole “love is weakness” and “the ends justify the means” phase in Season 2, that it didn’t need to be addressed again in Season 4. But just because she went through that arc in 2B, it was never actually resolved. She walked away from her people before she had a chance to address it, and Clarke’s Season 3 arc was more strongly focused on facing her trauma head-on and realizing that she is stronger with the people that she loves than without them. It was about the consequences of running away from her actions, instead of facing them, but it didn’t so much address her actions themselves.

So that “ends justify the means” thread that the writers played with the first few seasons (and really the entire show)? They never fully resolved it, so they picked it up again in Season 4. I think that’s where the confusion came from. “We’ve done this plotline already, why are we repeating things?” Well, yes, we DID go here already. But did we conclude it?

No.

That’s what Season 4 was about: addressing Clarke’s “god complex” when it comes to making decisions for her people, as well as showing that the ends DON’T always justify the means. This time, she didn’t walk off into the forest so she didn’t have to face the acts she’s committed. Instead, we saw her working as a team with the space squad in the finale as they worked together to try and save each other.

Which is probably a good place to start talking about the time jump, even though you said not to. Oops. I’m going to do it anyway.

When I look at Clarke’s overall character journey for the first four seasons (which I’m kind of viewing as a “Part One” to the show, if you can split it into two parts), it was about her learning to balance her head and her heart, instead of favoring her head. If you look at all the seasons, her repeatedly choosing her head first is something consistent the entire way.

The time jump is so essential to Clarke’s character arc because it shows that Clarke has accepted love, and not only does she not treat it as weakness, but she embraces it and uses it to fuel her will to live. We see this first by witnessing her radio call to Bellamy, which keeps her “sane” on a daily basis, and then by being introduced to her mother-like relationship to Madi. Clarke was sending lots of “heart” vibes during the final moments of the finale, and I love it. It feels like every single moment in character arc (including Season 4, by the way) has been leading up to this development. It just feels natural.

What’s interesting, I think, is if we’re going to see Clarke make the same mistakes in the past (”ends justify the means”) except this time she won’t make them because of her head, but because of her heart. A parallel story to Bellamy’s need to protect Octavia in the past few seasons, but this time with Clarke and Madi.

That would be a very interesting shift to see, indeed.

Anyway, I’m moving into spec territory and that wasn’t your question, so. To summarize: I believe that Clarke was for the most part a very well-rounded and excellently imagined and developed character during the first four seasons. That being said, there were a few moments that could have used a little bit more explanation or fleshing out for the audience that we did not get mostly as a result of there not being enough time.

I hope this is a sufficient response to your question!

#the 100 #clarke griffin #kate's ask box #meta: what all great things are made of #clarke griffin: i am become death

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sarahzahdegeneral · 8 years ago

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ok so the extent of my pokemon knowledge is like 2 months of pokemon go and like an episode that I watched when I was 8 but listen i got a story idea after seeing a few of the designs for some of the newer pokemon HERE GOES

(I put it under a cut because it was turning out long sorry)

so we start a new pokemon show right and it has its usual (?) little cast of cute characters, going around getting badges and befriending pokemon and stuff. Early on we start getting the idea that one of the girls in the group (let’s call her A) is a little unusual.

1, a lot of her pokemon seem awfully high-level?? even though she’s a beginning trainer?? (about halfway through season 1 we find out it’s because she inherited them from her ‘sister’).

2, she hates water. I’ll explain why in a bit. At the Beach Episode, she just sits on the sand instead of playing in the water and gets SUPER MAD when someone splashes her. (or stays in the house all day claiming to have a cold) (this is totally skimmed over and seen as a character flaw rather than a Plot Point). She also doesn’t have any water pokemon herself.

3, she is crazy good at directing battles, except against psychic pokemon (and maybe others idk how this works whatever). This seems like just a quirk, really barely noticeable, until at least the season 2 (maybe even season 3) finale when there’s an episode where it’s revealed that she herself has psychic powers that she’s been hiding from her teammates.

There are several episodes where this is kind of sidelined. She manages to (barely) keep it a secret.

And then. Through some series of events, one of the other team members (B) ends up hanging onto a branch over a ravine or something, there are no flying pokemon around--and A jumps over the edge, (/end episode on that cliffhanger), flies over, and rescues B.

Turns out, A is a Gardevoir. Because she really really wanted to learn, her trainer taught her to talk like a human, and she was her main companion. Unfortunately, the trainer died in circumstances probably relevant to the overarching plotline of this particular Pokemon show, and A took all the pokeballs, and ran. She had a meeting with all her trainer’s Pokemon, and while some decided to leave and be free, several stayed and were like ‘well you can speak like a human right......... why don’t you be our trainer”

So A figured out how to disguise herself as a human. She wears special (humongous) gloves to hide the fact that she only has 3 fingers, she wears a lot of clothing in general to hide her different-colored skin and slightly-too-skinny body, she dyes her hair black (after the Reveal episode it starts growing in green again at the roots), and uses makeup to make her skin tone more human-like (hence her hatred of water--she’s afraid it’ll wash off), etc.

the point of this story is to show intellectual equivalence between Pokemon and humans. In the Pokemon world, the monsters are at best beloved pets and at worst debased possessions. (I’m guessing there are outliers, but the attitude is still pretty much the same, no matter how close you are to your pokemon, you still own them). This would be an opportunity to showcase how bigotry can affect two groups of life forms.

I’m up in the air about her teammates’ reactions. I would guess that because we want to stay positive, they would accept her and all that, but it quickly becomes apparent that they don’t really accept her. They don’t trust her opinion on things, or they take advantage of her psychic powers, or I don’t know what else. I think they would start to see the weird divide: their human friend is actually a pokemon. But pokemon are pets..... ???

I’m guessing she would go solo for a while after that.

But either before or after she goes solo, she gets captured, and we have an interesting episode looking into what it’s like to be inside a pokeball.

She does not get rescued by a human. Maybe one of her pokemon rescue her, or she gets away herself. Maybe both: her Lucario could maybe find her pokeball and release her, and then she beats the crap out of whoever captured her (how dare) and then probably evolves (maybe she’s been wearing a Mega Evolve necklace this whole time idk) (cool thing where Lucario throws her the necklace and she catches it and evolves herself).

And then she runs away and just decides to find a haven. She once again disguises herself as a human and pretends to run some sort of pokemon sanctuary because she knows that humans would only respect another human because the pokemon in the sanctuary would seem like that human’s property.

She’d end up looking kind of like a sexy villain though, and eventually her old teammates find the sanctuary (this is several episodes after they were separated, maybe the season finale). They don’t recognize her.

She challenges one of them (probably B, whom she rescued) to a pokemon battle. Usually when people come across the sanctuary she cuts them a deal: if they can defeat her in battle, they can take one of the pokemon (this never happens). If she wins, they have to leave all of their pokemon--unless they swear to keep the place a secret, in which case they can keep the pokemon and leave in peace.

So A and B start battling, and slowly B starts recognizing the moves, the way she directs the pokemon...

and I’m not sure exactly how the battle ends, and at this point I’ve spent way too long typing this up so

bye

#pokemon #gardevoir #pokemon go #pokemon fanfic #sorry #writing

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ravel-puzzlewell · 8 years ago

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why is everyone complaining that Mass Effect Andromeda is "big"? how is that a problem when there's more game to play?

The size is not a problem in itself. The problem is that bioware doesn’t know how to work with “Big”. Hear me out.

So bioware obviously tries to move into the open world direction, with DAI and now comparing MEA to DAI in terms of “BIGGER!!!1”, and I think it’s such a shame, because bioware sucks at open world\sandboxes. I don’t even mean it as an insult, it’s just a plain fact - bioware are it’s best at contained, story-driven, linear structure. Their best games have distinctly different locations each with a gimmick and with a linear plotline that starts at the entry point, motivates your exploration of the location so you can pick up the side quests, ideally has a theme and involves one of your companions and culminates in the final decision. After that, the location is finished. You report the side quests and that’s it, you’ve exhausted all your options, you leave the location and never look back. Well, maybe you return once for plot reasons for 5 minutes, but you don’t engage with it meaningfully. And it’s not a bad thing! This is “40 min TV show episode” kind of structure that can work great and it does in the entire Mass Effect series. The story is simple, usually with one or two twists, but it keeps you engaged because it’s tightly knit and clearly presented, the involvement of your crew members gives you emotional stakes, the distinctly ~weird~ location and NPCs there make you feel like you’re actually seeing different places and seeing different cultures. It’s *fun* and that’s what matters.

But if you take out the location-based plotline and add a lot of empty space\padding to the mix, it all starts falling apart. Because bioware only writes superficial weirdness, this weirdness becomes bland real quick, the gimmick wears off and becomes annoying, NPCs blend in into the endless background, and you go “oh thank GOD it’s over” when you leave the location. Imagine if in ME3 Tuchanka had the size and structure of Hinterlands. The hardcore severe planet would turn into a boring wasteland, instead of epic badasses that represent the spirit of a planet Thresher Maws would turn into a boss fight grind (like dragons in DAI), without your friendship with Wrex the stakes are low, without the linear plot creating AND keeping up dramatic tension, you’d just wander around and randomly stumble onto the cut-scenes.

Bioware thinks that you can just make locations big and take out linear structure and boom, you’ve got yourself a sandbox. But it’s wrong. You can’t just take away the scripted plot-line and NOT replace it with anything. Good open world RPG requires you to make locations not just distinct, but layered, interesting to explore, it adds ties between locations that are meaningful, the quests start in one location and run through multiple of others organically, so you have to travel back and forth and when you revisit them, it doesn’t feel like backtracking. Not everything is played out at the moment you enter the location, some NPCs only become important when you get new quests in other places, so the exploration is dynamic, layered in time. You keep re-discovering things, adding new layers to the context. Bioware just cannot write things like that. They can’t make differences between locations subtle, but meaningful, which is why I literally cannot tell any forest locations in DAI apart, they don’t know how to make quest-lines span between places and be layered in time, they don’t know how to keep players’ attention without a strict narrative tunnel. The only distinct thing between locations is visual design, but even that can’t take you far. There’s a location in DAI that is very visually striking - white snow, red lyrium, black rocks. Beautiful, unusual, interesting. But I wouldn’t be able to remember what happened there with a gun to my head. What was my quest? Idk. There was a dragon I think? And for other locations that don’t have such striking visuals, the situation is even worse.

Take the location with Civil War in DAI (I think it’s Dales? But not sure) I literally cannot remember what were the differences between the sides there. Hell, I can barely remember the sides! It’s the Orlesians and… other Orlesians? But they are called “Free”-something. Why, idk. And there are also the Dalish clan hanging out nearby, but they don’t have anything to do with the Orlesians. Why was I in this location in the first place? I have no idea. To be clear, it’s not because I have shit memory. I have great memory, I can remember meaningful details from the games I played once ten years ago. It’s just DAI didn’t give me anything meaningful to remember. The conflict is not set up, they just let you wander around aimlessly, the sides are both boring and bland, the location is just kind of an open field littered with undead and wolves. When you let players discover different factions just by stumbling onto them without a straightforward narrative, you better fucking make sure they are a) very distinct b)very clear about what their deal is. Show me anyone who can mix up the Legion, NCR and House in FN:V.

Imagine the same location done in a traditional for bioware linear structure. You enter the location and immediately see two groups arguing. Each side has a charismatic leader and these guys are yelling at each other, which gives you exposition. One of them is, like, a well-groomed Orlesian noble and the other one is a rude peasant Robin Hood. You enter a conversation and get more exposition, what their deal is and how they are in conflict. One of your companions support one faction and the other one - another. (idk, Vivienne and Dorian vs Blackwall and Sera, frex) Then both of them invite you to their camps and leave. You have a narrative already. You visit their camps, get to know them. Get some sidequests from both sides. While exploring you meet the Dalish, who are bitter because the Dales were THEIR land and now shems are fighting over it. You do some quests for Dalish. At the mid-point the game makes you choose a side and the last plot-arc is about breaking the resistance of the other side and deciding what to do with them. If you do some side quest for Dalish and pass a Paragon speech check, you can find some holy scripture that Andraste made about Dalish owning the land and you can grant the place to Dalish. That’s it. Yeah, it’s cliched and yeah, it’s cheesy, but it’s clear and it has narrative and stakes. It gives you basic framework for roleplay. Bioware never could write complicated plots, but they don’t need to. The plot doesn’t need to be complicated, it needs to function in the chosen form. If it doesn’t function, then big locations turn into empty spaces with fetch-quests.

Also, being “BIG” was never Mass Effect’s appeal in the first place. People loved it for the tight Star Trek-episode structure with a new planet every hour, weird gimmicky aliens and meaningful interactions with the crew. Not for LotR-style of “3 hours of walking through an empty field”.

#bioware #meta #dragon age #long post #Anonymous #asks tag #dai spoilers and grumps #nope bioware

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dwightcarolinesource · 8 years ago

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Can you tell me what happens to Dwight while he's in the Navy? I just binged both seasons and I can't wait til season 3 to know!!!

Okay, well… brace yourself for a very brief and disjointed summary of Black Moon (I practically inhaled this book rather than reading it properly because I wanted to see Dwight so badly lmao)

Spoilers for s3 plotlines under the cut– obviously I don’t know if it’ll happen exactly like this in s3 (it probably won’t) but this is broadly where its going

WELL for starters Dwight is barely in most of Black Moon himself till almost the very end, but the other characters talk about him a lot and he’s definitely not forgotten by any means and I have a feeling the show will approach his absence at least slightly differently than the book does anyway but we’ll see

Anyway, his ship, the HMS Travail, is sunk either before the book starts or very soon into the book and we and Caroline find out about this through Unwin Trevaunance of all people. He comes back very briefly to ask Caroline to marry him again, she says no obviously, but they end up talking about the war in France and he tells her a few British ships have been sunk including Dwight’s and Caroline’s obviously pretty damn worried and for a very long hot minute no one is sure if Dwight has survived or not

SO Caroline, currently nursing Ray Penvenen who is dying, goes to Plymouth and sees Verity to try and find out more, and Verity is so sweet to her and I love their friendship so much <3 Verity uses her Navy contacts through Andrew to try and find out if anyone survived but no one seems to know much other than the fact that the ship is sunk

Ross asks around his own contacts (can’t really remember who) and pays someone to see the list of people who were taken prisoner by the French after the wrecks and hurray, oh happy day! Dwight is on it, meaning he survived the sinking even though his Captain didn’t.

Meanwhile at some point I can’t remember the details of, Ray Penvenen dies (awh) and Caroline becomes mistress of Killewarren! She takes in some French emigres fleeing the war and bullies some rich people into contributing to Ross’s scheme to help poor relief in the area and its great. At some point she goes to London to petition Parliament about the possibility of putting up a ransom for Dwight’s release but they tell her it’s not advisable or something.

The war basically ends which technically means the prisoners of war (Dwight) should be released but in practice they kind of aren’t? idk I didn’t pay attention to the details. Very very eventually, a letter from Dwight to Caroline gets through to her explaining how the ship was sunk and where he is (a prison camp called Quimper) and Caroline and Demelza are thrilled about it but Ross is privately like ‘that dude is not going to survive if he stays in there much longer… TIME FOR A RESCUE MISSION’

(which takes a frustratingly long time to plan– the whole time I was reading I was like ‘GOD JUST FUCKIN GO AND GET DWIGHT WHAT IS TAKING YOU SO DAMN LONG’)

But eventually, Ross and Demelza’s brother Drake, and a bunch of other people who have basically benefitted from Dwight’s doctoring in the past go to France to get him

And it’s a long and dangerous journey and they almost get caught several times when they get into the prison and it takes a long time to figure out where Dwight actually is in the camp but eventually they figure out he’s near the infirmary (duh)

And when Ross calls out to him, Dwight wakes up and thinks its one of the other prisoners who needs his help because he’s been doing his best to look after 100s of prisoners probably at the expense of his own health with only like four other people with some medical knowledge to help him and he’s so good and pure and I just love him so damn much oh my god !!! what a cinnamon roll !!!

By this point, Dwight is extremely weak, emaciated and exhausted, and the poor lamb can’t really believe he’s being rescued and says briefly that he has to stay to look after his patients because he’s one of the only ones who can (he’s such a angel i cry) but then the other prisoners are like ‘go! for fuck’s sake what are you waiting for!??’

so he does, and the escape is even riskier than getting in and Demelza’s brother is shot with a musket ball in the shoulder (but eventually recovers) and one of their crew winds up dying which Ross feels enormously guilty about

But they get back to their ship just about and after a final false alarm where they think they’re being followed, they get out and get on their way back to Plymouth and Dwight regains a bit of strength on the way from eating properly and daylight and fresh air but remains quite weak and thin from the rest of the book (and actually into the next book The Four Swans)

When they get to Plymouth, Verity puts up Ross, Drake and Dwight in her house and insists they stay until Drake and Dwight are ready to travel because she’s a wonderful angel.

Ross sends word to Caroline that Dwight has been rescued and that they’ll be back in a few days, but being Caroline, instead of waiting– she rides through the night in the rain to Plymouth to see Dwight

Their reunion (!!!) is the cutest thing I had ever read until I read something that happens in the next book lol. Basically Dwight is like ‘… I love you, my own heart, I’m so happy to see you… do you still want me even though I’m weak and half-starved and have a beard now and am generally a shadow of my former self? I would understand if you didn’t… but pls love me… pls…’

And Caroline is just like ‘So I’ve already decided we’re having an October wedding, and we’re inviting everyone and I mean everyone, that cool with you??? ’ it’s honestly amazing

A few days after, she takes him back to Killewarren and they basically live there together permanently after that because she wants to nurse him back to health which to me was just !!! a dream !!

(In the next book it’s mentioned that although they live together before marriage, they’re very careful to keep very separate in terms of living arrangements and intimacy for the sake of convention. But since in the TV show they had sex in the finale, I’m hoping that when Black Moon/The Four Swans comes to the screen, they’ll just be banging on every vaguely horizontal surface in Killewarren but that’s just me lmao)

and that’s basically it for Black Moon. It’s actually my favourite book so far I think, which I wasn’t expecting considering Dwight is only in it in person 465 pages in but I really enjoyed it and I can’t wait to see it come to life on screen!

#this is the worst summary of any book ever #like i said-- hazy on the details because i read it so fast #but tl;dr dwight is a cinnamon roll and needs to be protected at all costs #but luckily hes got caroline who is more than up to the task

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herotheshiro · 6 years ago

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so i’m finally reading the full ending note of from points of three and

are you fucking w me? the original version of the story had an endgame of all three of them in a relationship ?? i know the author was like ��i don’t want to overstep what i’m able to do so i’ll just go w a more cliche ending instead (i.e., 3 ppl in a triangle but only 2 get together)’ which like ok i get it but we could’ve had it all .......

also i love the note from the author being like ‘if you ever meet someone like heejae irl, they are trash and should not romanticized’ ... DRAG the snake bastard !!

author: i actually didn’t originally plan for sunyool to get a love interest. i made up haeyoung on a whim and then i ended up liking him me: ...JUSTICE FOR SUNYOOL.........

SUNYOOL MET HEEJAE THROUGH HEEJAE’S SISTER ??? SUNYOOL HAD A CRUSH ON HEEJAE’S SISTER INITIALLY ??? BITCH !!! Y’ALL KNEW THIS BACK IN 2018 WHEN THIS CREATOR’S NOTE CAME OUT AND NO ONE TOLD ME ??!!!

me looking at the ending gifts from other artist: i’m so glad ppl loved sunyool .......

i only looked at the creator’s note after i was looking through some of the chapters (which was after seeing a scene on IG lmao) and i’m realizing i honestly don’t remember too much abt the story i.e., the development of heejae and jisuh’s relationship. now that i know that the story was really centered around these 2 and the power dynamic bw them, and not particularly the threesome of heejae/jisuh/sunyool i think i might read this story a little differently now than i did back then. although even back then i acknowledged that sunyool basically got thrown to the side fr once heejae and jisuh verbalized their feelings for one another ... i mean i would’ve been aware of the power struggle plotline/story bw jisuh and heejae even w/o the author stating it, and i might’ve even said some stuff abt it in prev posts on this blog. but the fact that that was the explicit intent of the story changes it a little i guess? hmm

also as i’ve noted several times before, i never actually finished reading from points of three so when i finally actually read the ending chapter (i was jumping around) in its entirety just now i was like ‘oh this ending... seems a little anticlimatic/mellowed out’ (i had known back then how it ended so it wasn’t a surprise or anything) but then again it was after months of breakup and jisuh and heejae’s power struggle kind of coming to a head (i had also skipped rereading the entire section where jisuh and heejae are a domestic couple so i was coming right off of bdsm stuff) ... and it did make sense to be like ‘this is just me [jisuh] giving him a second chance ... if he strikes out again then it’s over fr’ rather than HEA esp since they both have kind of weird views of having power over the other beforehand (bruh ... when i was reading jisuh’s dialogue being like ‘i’m pleased i made you miserable. it’s weird to say but seeing you cry over me makes me happy’ ... i was like YES... JISUH YOU GO MAN... if y’all remember, i was supportive of jisuh’s revenge plot so lmao). but also the entire epilogue showcasing a bdsm session bw jisuh and heejae post-main-story ... good shit man

i don’t actually know if i’ll ever take the time to really sit down and read through from points of three from beginning to end. while i appreciate how the author used its plot elements to tell a story, it’s a little intense for me rn tbh and i prefer more mellow emotional stuff like idk running anime. i remember i was really into from points of three back when it was still releasing the main story’s episodes and even now i will still pretty confidently say that from points of three is prob one of the better written manhwas out there but i just don’t know abt getting into it again at this point in time. i really do want to finish it fr bc i do like the story and i think the author deserves to have their story completed but ik i’m prob gonna see the story and characters differently than i did like 1-2 yrs ago (i.e., i prob won’t see the story as a perfect one ... but i mean that’s natural. there’s no perfect story, every story has its flaws) and that’s always something you kind of don’t want to happen. also i did enjoy reading abt the author noting the ways they used plot things to depict certain storylines (like bdsm as a frame for the power struggle and how it illustrates jisuh and heejae’s developing relationship), but having to be aware of subtexts existing and purposely done by the author exhausts me and makes me feel like i didn’t really appreciate the thing enough if i didn’t really see it so that’s another factor (like i felt bad that i didn’t really realize the subtexts of running anime until like way after i had finished it). i know that’s like... an extremely academic way to look at stuff but it’s been ingrained in me to think critically like that re: creative writing so ... (sighs)

maybe one day soon though !!

#i do love that they're doing a side story for sunyool but i do want to see their works outside of a from points of three context #i think at this point in time from points of three is their only work. i wanna see what other stories they write !!#rant #reading

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