#I think there are more interesting ways of doing it than making her a mustache-twirling villain

[agnesandhilda]

I’m taking notes as I read (sections of) the penelopiad for class and one just says “EURYCLEIA SLANDER”

[midnight---hollow]

Ok i need to yap for a second

I love how well written and thought out the ipc is in honkai star rail. I feel in general we dont always get the best discussions about capitalism and giant corps because said giant corps are usually sponsoring or are creating them most of the time so there is usually bias. I just saw some of the boothill story lore leaks and im not gonna talk about them here cus leaks but it gave me real big appreciation for how the ipc is handled.

Im personally a real big fan of complicated situations in my fictional stories. Ever since mob psycho ive gained a new lens of trying to find sympathy and reason for any situation, keeping my own opinions and preferences while still understanding the other side. I feel star rail has done a great job at show casing the many sides of the ipc even if i for one really dont like the ipc and its my least favorite organization

(I feel i should also say this is an opinion piece and im not informed enough on the real life issues as i would like to be. I just want to yap my opinion out and express why i find joy in this and maybe even come back later with more research to make another post but with references and proof to explain why besides what i remember and like. If i do get anything wrong then please inform me cus i would like to learn more about this and plan to)

|Spoilers for basically all the ipc related things in hsr|

I started out hating them cus i just dont like capitalist corps and they just rubbed me the wrong way. When the arum alley event happen i was originally pissed at it because even though it was confirming my beliefs of “big corp bad” it felt cheap and like almost every other story told by a big corp trying to tell us big corps are bad. Yknow the “look at this obviously in the wrong guy dont be like him, look at him get his comeuppances in the end and ignore how we actually are alot more complicated and worse than this super evil and obvious example”

arum alley then did something i didnt expect. It gave nuance to the story. It started out with that obvious example yes but the next one wasnt that obvious, the next part of the event talked about how some workers feel they wont be able to sustain their lives as independent workers and feel they need to work for the big corps for a safe job and it started getting into the logistics of big corp vs independent business. Yeah we where fighting them but there where reasons and concerns and fears to be given. It wasnt just big corp bad it was “yeah big corp bad but here is why and here is also how its good” and it brings up the questions on what can be done so we dont need to rely on big corp

Topaz and her whole arc is another situation i find interesting. Topaz is a character i dont care to much about to be honest but i think she plays a good role in this whole ipc debacle. To me she feels like she represents someone who used the system because they needed to and made it work and flourished in the system. Her planet was basically unlivable and she lived in a capitalist waste that failed. In comes the ipc and they are almost what her world was but better for they offer to help and save them. All they need to do is sign their lives away to join the ipc and they did and their planet flourished because of it. Topaz herself was able to rise the ranks into being a cornerstone. I think her story shows both the light and dark of the ipc because they saved her planet but they only did it because it benefited them, if they didnt sign their lives away it is very likely topaz and everyone on her planet would have suffocated from the toxins and died. They had no choice but to join the system and its stated in game that topaz’s planet is one of the few that where able to be saved.

That’s probably what i like most about the playable ipc characters, it reminds us that these big corps arent just mustache twirling bad guys, it reminds us there are people there just trying to keep going and some of them are genuinely trying to do right and think what they are doing is right. Again topaz for example, she genuinely believes what she was doing was for the good of belabog. She saw a planet so similar to her own and i think she did what she thought was right and tried to help them (i dont think what she did was right but i can see where she comes from in thinking its right) i also think its showing that when she learned their was a way out for belabog that allowed them to not give their lives away to the ipc she gave in and stopped trying to convince them. She risked her own job security to allow them that right and because she didnt force an entire planet of innocent people who just got out of a horrible situation to sign their souls away (including the children mind you) she got demoted. Im not saying that she deserves a pat on the back for doing the bare minimum esp after she tried killing us, she is a rich, a conerstone, owns an exotic pet that she throws into battle and design her gun after, is a high member of said capitalist big corps, im just saying this is a very nuanced and interesting situation that i like to think about because there are so many thoughts and arguments

The whole belabog vs ipc thing was interesting in general for me because i think it was just such a good concept to bring forth the conversation of the goods and bads of big corps. Technically the ipc does have the right to want their century old debt repaid (ignoring the fact we later learned the robots where never used i think idk the end was confusing ngl) yet also at the same time we as people have a hard time siding with them when belabog didnt even know they where in debt because they where so isolated because of the stellaron and they just got out of the stellaron crisis and are trying to make their world habitable and yknow survive. We cant blame them for being unable to pay a humongous debt when these where the same people who stood in awe as march shower them a photo of their planet that she took while on the express. It creates a situation where yeah technically the giant corp has a right to take that money because its theirs but its still feels so cruel to make them have to cough it up right now with only a few days time. Belabog is basically forced to sign that deal because there is no way they could have payed that off they where doomed the moment topaz set foot on the planet. I remember talking to each of the people in belabog and getting their opinions on the matter and constantly having to rethink my stance because there where so many good points for why they should and so many for why they shouldnt. I can go on and on about this but this bit is already to long.

Aventurine!!! Aventurine aventurine oh where to start. Unlike topaz i actually like aventurine alot he is just such a well written character but we arent here to talk about how amazing him and the games writing is we are here to talk about the capitalist cooperation he is a cog in. Aventurine in a sense has a similar story to topaz but its more cruel and less happy. The ipc didnt save him, the ipc what going to arrest him and its thanks to his luck and a deal with the devil (or in this case a bet with a snake) that he was able to become aventurine.

I havent seen the writen stuff for him in his characters story because i dont have him but i will say from what i saw during the main story, something i question alot is what the ipc did during the avgin genocide. This might be a small tangent but the avgins said they had the support of the ipc. What happened that caused for the entire avgin civilization to be wiped out when they had the help of people with better weapons and armor and equipment. Apart of me is nihilistic enough to think the ipc didnt really care for saving the avgins and might have used the katakans attack as a way to know out the two groups that where causing them the most trouble but at the moment i dont know if theres anything supporting this theory so its just a crack theory

Aventurines spot in penacony is again interesting. Penacony is a prison planet of the ipc, that was taken over and turned into a party paradise thanks to the hamrony, family, and a stellaron. Aventurines goal was supposed to be to put penacony back in the ipcs control and to be honest i cant tell if thats his plan or not because of how crazy and confusing the story was (i loved it) but that being said it is another example how how grey ipc is. It isnt just a big bad corp there are people with lives and in avens case, people trying to gain their freedom with any risks necessary. I also think again the ipcs role in penacony is like belabog, very interesting, just for different reasons.

Penacony is based off America and in this case im assuming the ipc is their Britain. I feel like if you ask most people they would say that the ipc is the only group in penacony they hope fails (minus aventurine again i feel everyone wants aven to succeed even if we want ipc to fall) but i think the family being as grey as they are (basically a cult and also a representation of newer day amarica and its “its us or them” mentality in a way. I can make another yap ses about that lmao) adds an air of mystery and confusion on who we want to succeed since they are on two very different sides of the board so if one wins the other loses. It makes it feel like a fight of two big corps against each other and not really knowing who to support. Do you want to support the capitalist or the cult, pick your poison. We need the rest of penacony for me to go more in-depth on my opinion of ipc here and to rant but i can say its already making me question and argue both sides with what we have seen so far

That was fun for me. I havent ranted on tumblr in a long long time but hsr has been my recent hyperfixation and again boothill makes me crazy. While writing this is made me start to think about how much i wanted to talk about the hidden story of immigration i feel penacony is aso trying to tell. I think penacony is handling so many deep and interesting topics and im very excited for the next update. This has made me hyped to talk about the immigration stuff but i want to do reaserch and gain a proper strong stance besides “thats just my opinion.” I think this is an interesting topic and yapping about it made me want to do more reaserch on the topics of capitalism and big corps cus i hate them but i also think its important to know about it and understand there is more to the issue than just stingy old white rich people. I havent even gotten to jade yet. When we learn more about her imma have some words prob

Srry this was long but anyways cant wait till boothill comes out so i can get him and his light cone

[inkerii]

So I had a different post up about the miraculous movie and how it wasn't perfect but - as someone who liked the series back when it was just Ladybug and Chat Noir against the world, and sorta naturally dropped it when the show started to introduce more heroes just bc it wasn't my thing - it felt nice and it gave me closure.

I was just gonna rewrite it in a way I liked better, but Jesus, whatever minor desire to pick the show back up again was very quickly snuffed out by how negative the a browse through the fandom tags felt. It's like people who like the movie are rubbing it in with a sort of arrogance, and the people who don't are almost gatekeepy with how "it's not the show" and how inferior it is bc of that. And I feel like wanting to talk about that instead.

Like. There are actual criticisms and praise going around but it gets lost in a sea of salt. It's kinda scary.

Personally, I liked it. It had some very cheesy lines, a couple scene transitions could have been better, What Have They Done To My Son, Plagg, and Adrienette's dynamic would have benefitted from a couple extra scenes (just a few tweaks showing him a little embarrassed or staring a little longer than usual in the Baddie Of The Day Montage(tm) would fix it, since I think they do a decent job of setting Marinette as special to Adrien given she's the only person we see him open up to about his mom, when we know he and Nino are friends and Nino already stated to always be there for him), to make the turning the ball invitation down + reveal hit harder, but overall it was fun. It was different.

What I truly cannot understand how this isn't Miraculous or how it doesn't really have a story. Sure, it's not The Series but in movie format, including the characterizations (they ARE different characters), but?? I feel like the core of who they are, or who they were back when the show began, still remains. Marinette still struggles with self confidence (which is in line with her season 1 self), and I particularly love how you can see how she HAS that spice bubbling underneath the surface, she just needed a push to embrace it and grow more confident (very Origins of her). Adrien is still closed off and quiet, and I love the implication that it was each other that gave them the push they needed to open up and be stronger and more social. I love how it was still Adrien's kindness that made Marinette fall for him, and Ladybug's bravery and selflessness that caught Chat Noir's eye.

Marinette is still clumsy and a little over excited, which we see in the first music, it just has a sense of WONDER to it instead of a frazzled energy like in the show, lol, poor baby. Adrien is still flirty and punny, he's still closed off, except show Adrien is trying to put up a brave face about it and trying to move on, and movie Adrien has lived with grief for longer and developed different coping mechanisms in regards to it. They're both very interesting in their own right, and I think the timing of Emilie's loss really explains the changes in him- movie Adrien is just past the meek attempts to be happy that show Adrien is still trying to do. He lost his mom and lived with an absent father for much longer than his show counterpart and it SHOWS. It's a different flavor of Adrien, but I think it's a neat choice, to have LB be the reason why he chose to open up. Show Adrien was interesting bc he chose to stand up to his dad in order to go to school, but he still felt alienated from his peers. The movie just makes that separation clearer but lets Adrien grow and hang out with his friends* and create actual bonds with them thanks to having first created a bond with Ladybug. It's a cool take on it.

I also really like what they did with Hawkmoth, though I don't think I can compare it to the show bc back when I watched it Gabriel was more or less just the absent father, mustache twirling villain that he was. This is where that * is inserted, I think the biggest change is that show Gabriel was more controlling of his son's life, and more demanding. Movie Gabriel straight up "lets" Adrien go missing for a whole night and only tries to talk to him the day after. He doesn't seem to mind Adrien spending time with his friends. He doesn't micromanage his son, though we still see hints of that control in how he talks about his designs, so its there, just a little hidden, that pride and arrogance. Again, it's a different flavor of Gabriel, but it works within the characterization of the movie and what they wanted for his character. Reminds me a bit of the Gabriel that wasn't willing to hurt Adrien (which apparently is an early series thing only, rip lmao) but was willing to go all out on Ladybug and Chat Noir.

So... yea. Maybe I'm just out of touch with the fandom and the show. Maybe it's because the characters have grown in ways I simply don't know bc I lost interest, and the modern MLB fandom understandably attaches those changes to the characters and wants to see it represented, which is valid. But tbh? I still love early MLB - not bc the "writing was better" or bc of Astruc v Zag shenanigans (are those still going? oh the war flashbacks) - just bc I vibed with the concept more. I love the show versions of these characters. And I think the movie is a different spin on them, but I think it does them justice. It has flaws, but the show also did, and I loved it anyway.

Speaking of just what I watched back then... I still think nothing in the movie tops the Umbrella Scene(tm), but I love that Ladynoir got a cute equivalent in the sparring one. I love the banter in both. I love the Adrienette moments in the show and I love how the movie expands on the inconditional trust between Chat and Ladybug, on how they're partners and always there for each other. I love Tikki in both. Show Plagg is my baby. I love what they did with Hawkmoth in both (movie and s1/some of s2). Master Fu as a cooky old man is hilarious. The cringe somehow got cringier in the movie. I think it's funny that movie Adrien gets to have his own "oh my god the second hand embarrassment, I want to cry" to balance out show Marinette lol. I love Chat still simping for LB and I love the cute little romance scenes, shipping fodder moments were always one of the strengths of the show, and we have it here in spades, so good for me.

It's just... as I said, it's different, but to me it's a love letter to the MLB that captivated me for years. It does its own thing, but I think I'm just gonna make a few tweaks in my head, mash Origins with the first half of the movie, then watch season 1 and a few select season 2 episodes, then go back to the movie to finish it up. I actually think that they complement each other quite well, even with the characterization changes, because, for example, the early seasons compensate for the movie's lack of Adrienette, while the show expands on the ladynoir side. If you use both, then the movie manages to effectively reverse the love square, allow Mari to grow past her awkward self, deal with the bits of insecurity in her that we still see sprinkled across the series, allow Adrien to stand up to and face his father, and give me a satisfying conclusion to the Hawkmoth plot and a cute little reveal.

I could go on over more talked about topics like the music (its fine. Christina inserts a certain breathlesness to Marinette that you feel Lou is trying to capture but she just can't. I got used to it tho, and Lou's voice is lovely) or the animation (gorgeous), like I did in the original version of this post, but to me what mattered most was the... For lack of a better word, the vibe of the movie. To me, it felt like a little time capsule bc it really embodies everything the fandom liked about the show during season 1 and its hiatus. I can't give it an objective score bc I think my 8.5/10 feels very biased, but I loved the nostalgia trip. I loved getting that closure. I'm still gonna go off and enjoy parts of both the show and the movie, because something something stronger together might just apply to them as well :)

[dark-night-star-light]

Spirit Animals: The Book of Shane (Reread pt. 18)

DISCLAIMER: WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SERIES EXCEPT THE LAST FOUR BOOKS OF THE SECOND SERIES (THIRD ARC). 

Masterpost

Who is Shane?

“It isn’t very often that a gorilla and an octopus have a polite conversation” (1). God, I forgot how much I love this book.

“‘Hello, hello,’ said a deep voice . . . ” (1). I adore Mulop. He’s probably the best Great Beast.

“‘A villain through and through. The perfect choice to destroy the world and hand it over to me’” (2). This . . . is not how villains think. They genuinely believe they’re doing the right thing. Especially Kovo. He’s not just a mustache twirling villain. He has complex motivations. Why’s he pretending otherwise???

“‘I see a boy who will regret his mistakes . . . and who will miss his only true friend’” (2). The Shane and Abeke crumbs are going to destroy me. “His only true friend” I’m going to start sobbing.

“‘Is there a soul in there with any hope of redemption?’” (3). Shane’s redemption arc is truly one of the best I’ve ever seen. Also, this book clearly hints at the Wyrm, so I wonder why the writers didn’t make Kovo seem even the least bit sympathetic.

“‘I am quite certain,’ said Mulop. ‘that he would disagree.’ ‘I am quite certain,’ said Kovo. ‘that I don’t care’” (4). Obsessed with this interaction.

I don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but I actually really like the fourth wall break at the end of the introduction.

Venom

I forgot about the quotes . . . 

The parallels to the main story are so good. Both stories start with the summoning of a spirit animal but the contrast between terror and happiness is so jarring.

 “It was only then that the true horror of the situation finally dawned on Shane” (11). I think it’s so interesting that Shane himself never summoned one. That’s such a good choice on the writers’ part.

Shane’s jerking awake and obsessive checking is so sad. It almost feels like a form of PTSD. I love how they characterized him and his bare room.

“It was only after he was satisfied that he had not summoned a spirit animal in his sleep that he remembered to breathe” (11). How would you not know, though? You’d feel it.

“The tapestries showed legendary scenes of Stetriol’s ancient past. On one, torrents of water flowed from the mouth of a frog, creating all the lakes and rivers. Another showed two lizards painting patterns on each other, one with a fine brush and an eye for detail, the other without care” (12). I feel like that means something. Also, that must be Stetriol’s legendary water frog.

“But the Great Beasts had cursed Stetriol. They were better forgotten” (12). I wonder if Shane believes in the Great Beasts’ existence. Also, it’s so interesting how the “God” interpretation works here for the Great Beasts too, seeing as how Shane blames them for Stetriol’s curse. It’s strange he never learned about the First Devourer War.

“Shane imagined that if she attempted to lower herself any more than that, she might never manage to get up again” (13). Shane is hilarious, actually. Just not in a conventional way.

“He wasn’t sure exactly how old she was, but during her history lessons it was easy to imagine that she spoke from personal experience. The oddest thing about her, though, was that she sometimes spoke of the future as if it were history, too” (13). Wait. Did Yumaris bond to the earthworm before the events of the series??? I thought she got it when she drank the Bile??? Also, wow, lots of potential for plot holes there . . . 

“‘You will be glad to have this blade,’ she said . . . ” (13). OMG WAIT. DID SHE SEE THE WAR COMING? IS THAT WHY SHE GAVE HIM THE BLADE??? I think I got it, guys . . .

“Yumaris answered, a faraway look in her eyes. ‘For words and learning do little to impress a jackal.’ Shane tightened his belt and gave his tutor a questioning look. ‘There are no jackals in Stetriol’” (13). Wait. Yumaris saw Zerif coming??? That’s how I’m going to interpret it . . . 

It’s funny how Shane sees Gar as this wicked man, then does nothing about it.

“ . . . rumor had it that King Feliandor himself had added them during his reign, sometime after he had taken to calling himself the Reptile King” (15). So, the people of Stetriol know something at least . . .

“That was only made worse after the great war and the Greencloak invasion, when the island nation’s shores were overrun” (15). Wait, so. Then that means they know the full story, right??? Also I don’t know if I’ve talked about it before but the parallels between the Devourer Wars and the World Wars. The first ones were both referred to as “the great war” and the second was directly caused by the attacking nation being sidelined after being defeated during the first. I almost wonder if the inspiration for the First and Second Devourer Wars came from World War I and II.

Okay, so Zerif’s sunburn makes sense given that he climbed to Muttering Rock, but how was he not fried alive???

So Magda appears to be a servant, but earlier it’s stated that they didn’t have money to pay servants???

I kind of wish they’d shown more scenes of Shane and Drina before the bonding sickness incident.

“‘A worm? A slug? Something small and worthless’” (19). Interesting that Drina says this, because Yumaris’s spirit animal is a worm. Almost feels like Drina has a strained relationship with Yumaris. Foreshadowing the fact that Yumaris is the one that held Drina down when she got killed by Gerathon?

[cut because block limit]

“‘It’s not fair,’ she said . . . ‘I’d be great. I’d be so great’” (19). That’s actually so heartbreaking. 

“But in that moment, he felt no pity for her, and no love - only hate. Then he saw the handkerchief she held against her mouth. It was wet and heavy with blood” (19). This hits so hard. Just straight observations with no emotions attached. It feels so hopeless.

This snake anecdote is interesting. Might talk about it more in my Shane analysis. 

“But then their mother was there” (20). Doesn’t she have the bonding sickness??? Maybe this was a good day.

“‘This is the prince of Stetriol,’ she said. ‘He’ll never bow to a mere snake’” (21). This could either be irony, considering what happened with Gerathon, or it could be symbolism, with snakes representing evil and his mother saying that Shane would never become evil.

“In her absence . . . ” (21). Is Shane’s mom dead?

“ . . . when the Reptile King’s soldiers had bonded with any animal they could get their hands on” (21). So he knows about the Bile, too???

“‘I am in charge!’ Shane shouted” (23). Yeah, gettem. Also it’s hilarious how this must look to Zerif, to have this child shout at him like that.

Why doesn’t Shane just show Zerif to his father? Like, yeah, he’s sick or whatever, but he can just have him thrown in jail afterward again.

Shane casually calling himself leader in front of Gar!!!

“‘We’re the most peaceful nation in Erdas. The rest of the world pretends we don’t exist’” (25). He literally knows the entire story except the part about the existence of Nectar??? Also, why is Gar so insistent on starting a war? Like all he cares about is building his fleet. But why?

“‘It is my honor as regent to stand before you today to christen this ship . . . ’” (27). Erdas had Christianity???

The Stetriol-post-WWI-Germany parallels are. Not subtle.

Isn’t this the scene where Shane realizes that Gar wants to send him away to war to secure his own power??? Why is that not mentioned?

The idea of a small eight-year-old child who’s determined to kill all snakes is simply adorable.

“He was armed for war” (29). *insert picture of small child in scraps of armor*

“‘He wants to hurt the snakes,’ Drina said . . . ‘Because they hurt him’” (30). It’s interesting how Shane’s mom teaches him about harming innocents with revenge as young as eight, but this scene never actually says he processed or learned that.

“‘Most snakes are harmless, Shane. And the one that bit you was only surprised. You don’t want to hurt snakes for being snakes, do you?’” (30). Parallels between the war on the snakes and the war on the Greencloaks? The Greencloaks hurt Shane first, so he tries to hurt all of them, even the innocent ones. 

Small Shane yelling about how he’s not scared is so cute.

“‘Sometimes hate and fear are the same thing’” (30). Is this coded toward his relationship with Drina or the Greencloaks?

“ . . . Shane widened his eyes as if he cared” (31). Shouldn’t . . . he? Isn’t he kinda poor? Stolen food could be expensive . . . Also why are there servants now???

It’s so interesting how we don’t see Drina’s response to Shane asking her to leave with him . . .

“The planks that made up the fort had been painted pink and green - Drina’s and Shane’s respective favorite colors” (32). I’m going to assume that Shane’s favorite color is green based on the order the names and colors are listed in . . . his favorite color used to be the color of his future enemies . . . 

“He trailed his hand along a pink plank, curled his fingers into the gap, and with sudden violence ripped the board free” (32). He’s ripping away his childhood . . . ?

Oh, this is the scene where he realizes Gar’s plans to send him away to danger.

“If Shane refused to sail with the fleet, he would look like a coward” (32). He says . . . right before the exposition about his plan to leave Stetriol. Does he think that won’t make him look like a coward???

“Perhaps they’d even have a cure for Drina” (33). He’s right . . . in a sense. Even though it’s never explicitly stated, it's definitely implied that Nectar can’t cure bonding sickness, it can only prevent it.

Nobody: Literally nobody: Shane: *screams*

“‘Sugar water. Salt water. One maniac tried to convince my father to drink snake venom’” (34). But like. Why??? Was he unhappy or something?

“‘And during the day, it’s as hot as a cauldron.’ ‘I do not burn easily,’ Zerif said . . . ” (35). Only during the day??? Well, then, a lot of people should’ve been able to get to the top, right??? Just do it during the night . . . why is Zerif the only one who’s done this???

“‘One can learn all sorts of secrets,’ . . . ‘if one takes time to listen at the base of that great pillar’” (35). So Kovo didn’t hire Zerif, Zerif just overheard him talking???

“But Shane wasn’t allowed in the water. He knew he’d never be free” (36). Free, as in freely bonded to a spirit animal??? 

I forgot Shane’s mom died. 

“ . . . the Great Beasts were all but ignored in Stetriol . . . ” (37). Because Stetriolans believe the Great Beasts cursed them? 

It’s interesting how Shane thinks of the Four Fallen as “aid[ing] the Greencloak invasion” (37).

It really means something that Shane chose Mulop and Mulop is the only Great Beast that canonically saw the best in him. Shane and Mulop both have soft spots for each other.

Feliandor-Shane parallels!

“He looked over the portrait for a moment more, and decided he didn’t see much of a resemblance” (38). Shane! Fel! Parallels! Feliandor looking at the portrait of his parents and seeing no resemblance, but seeing that as a negative thing, and Shane seeing the portrait of Fel and seeing no resemblance, but seeing that as a positive thing.

“‘So smug,’ Shane said, feeling a little smug himself” (39). Heh.

[cut because block limit]

“‘Feliandor’s soldiers all used the Bile, and none of them suffered the bonding sickness’” (39). Okay, Shane came to the right conclusion, but did nobody tell him that the bonding sickness didn't even exist before the war?

How does Shane know what a talisman even is? Isn’t that some sort of secret?

The idea of the true king having the Jade Serpent is such a cool concept, and having the talisman be in the throne as a very literal interpretation of that is kind of interesting, because it kind of symbolizes how frivolous and material Kovo saw being king of Stetriol as. By “true king” he literally meant “guy who sits on the throne”, instead of something like “had the qualities of a king”.

“Would that mean Gar was the true king of Stetriol?” (41). See, this is what I mean. The narrative implies that having the talisman equals being the true king, even though that’s just what Zerif says.

Shane tries to save the kangaroo! That’s such a cool symbolism moment, representing how he truly just had good intentions.

“But there were no jackals in Stetriol” (43). Throwback moment.

“He refused, too, to admit that his wife had been sick” (44). Why did the king marry a woman with bonding sickness, anyway?

“But when his daughter . . . was similarly stricken, something in the king has snapped” (44) and “‘But the real trouble happened when he decided he could cure himself . . . He killed his own spirit animal’” (45) imply that the king killed his spirit animal around the time Drina got the sickness. It’s interesting how the combination of the death of a spirit animal and the bonding sickness compound on one another instead of canceling each other out. 

“‘ . . . I’d have to admit that the king is . . . unfit. That Stetriol is without a true leader’” (44). Not really anything wrong with that, though? He could just claim his position as leader.

Zerif refers to Shane as “Prince Shane”!!!

So Shane knew the entire story of what happened except the part about the Greencloaks having the Nectar. And that’s the turning point. That’s the moment he goes from being innocent to . . . not so much. 

Kovo’s message being so literal is perfect symbolism for how Shane saw being king as a surface-level thing. Just have a powerful spirit animal and no sickness and you’ll be a great ruler! Never mind any other qualities a king may need!

“The sense of triumph he experienced in that moment . . . ” (46). This reminds me of how he’s described to have “cold triumph” in his eyes during the showdown on Muttering Rock.

“ . . . bracing himself for her verbal abuse” (46). It’s so sad how he got used to that, though, even though he knew it wasn’t her fault.

“The curse had been broken” (47). Ironic.

“Shane stood on the beach that night and watched his sad little handmade boat go up in flames” (47). Symbolism for destruction of innocence, me thinks. The boat was made out of his childhood playhouse.

It’s so interesting how Shane didn’t get a real spirit animal, unlike Fel. Just thinking about how in another nation, he’d have been the only one in his family to not live up to expectations.

“He felt neither. But while their eyes were averted, he allowed himself a furtive smile” (48). Sort of makes me think that Shane’s morals immediately going out the window is about the destruction of his innocence more than him finally realizing it was an option to kill his father.

“What kind of person would want a spirit animal? A ruler, thought Shane. A king.” (48). This is what I meant when I said that Shane saw very shallow things as qualities of a good ruler rather than actual good qualities.

“Shane dreamed he’d bonded with a crocodile” (48). Ohohohohooho. 

“The creature had drowned one man and maimed two others before it had been subdued” (48). Kind of reminds me of that scene in Blood Ties where Shane sacrifices his own soldier to save Abeke. He doesn’t care who’s loyal to him.

“He woke slowly from an untroubled sleep” (49). Unlike the past two years . . . 

Also this story proves that Zerif’s jackal was a natural spirit animal . . . but we know he took the Bile. We also know after the war, it runs away, but wouldn’t their bond have been natural by that point? How did it leave him?

Vendetta

“The war was over, and he’d won it” (55). Gotta love the stark contrast between this section and the next one (Vengeance).

“But who needed to tell them apart anymore? What was the point of borders, anyway? It all belonged to him now” (55). Shane being up high symbolism for his ego?

“They’d both been lying for a very long time, hiding their true natures, like a crocodile hides beneath the surface of the water, waiting to strike” (56). The crocodile-Shane symbolism is just such a cool thread. It represents his corruption and redemption beautifully.

“The days he’d spent on the boat with Abeke had been … Well, they had been a pleasant respite from months of war” (56). I love how subtle this book is with Shane’s feelings for Abeke. You just get these little gems throughout that show how much he does truly care for her and how much it did hurt to betray her.

I like how it’s shown very clearly how hard the Greencloaks tried to fight to get the talismans back. Like they didn’t just give up hope at the end of Rise and Fall like the narrative suggests. No, they still tried to get them back. And they very nearly did.

“‘Have a care!’ Shane shouted. ‘Lose me and you lose the talismans’” (58). The ego that drips off of Shane in this section is just. Wow, this guy really talked back to a Great Beast. It’s honestly so well done.

“If there was one thing Shane couldn’t stand, it was feeling powerless. He’d had enough of that back in Stetriol. But he hadn’t truly been powerless in a long time. Not since he’d drunk the Bile and joined Zerif in his campaign against the Greencloaks” (58). I kind of want to know what Zerif’s motive in all this is? Why does he hate the Greencloaks? This is a great way of tying Shane pre-corruption and Shane post-corruption, though.

“‘Why not? Let them come in force,’ Shane scoffed. ‘I took them on single-handedly. What chance would they have against my army?’” (59). Shane is such an egoistic little bitch in this section, it's hilarious.

“‘You would not wish to displease Gerathon.’ ‘I know that,’ Shane spat. His face grew warm despite the blustery wind. ‘I know that well’”  (59). Ohhhhhhhh.

Shane’s fear of spiders parallels Meilin’s fear of spiders. They both started hating spiders during the same incident (Drina getting murdered by her own spirit animal). And Shane’s ego in this section perfectly matches Meilin’s near the beginning of the series, as well. 

“ . . . the most beautiful to Shane’s eye was the leopard of amber. It seemed to glow with its own inner light” (62). Well, warning that I’m about to read into this way more than the author probably meant for me to. The talisman is almost definitely symbolism for Abeke. It says “to Shane’s eye” meaning that objectively, the talisman probably doesn’t look that much better than the other talismans. Just like how, objectively, Abeke looks pretty average, but to Shane she’s more than that. It also says there’s an “inner light” which implies something that shines from within, not necessarily anything physical to see. Just like how Abeke has an inner charm. Also, the obvious leopard-Abeke symbolism.

Why does Shane have a vial of Bile??? Why would he need that???

“Kovo’s Obsidian Ape likewise enhanced his vision, but in a subtly different way than the falcon did” (65). I wonder how the Greencloaks got their hands on Kovo’s talisman and why they never used it before.

“[The Amber Leopard] made him feel at ease in this Niloan jungle Uraza had once called home. It was simply the most practical choice, he told himself” (66). Mhm.

“They had trusted their neighbors. That had apparently been a mistake” (67). Love the detached, almost unreliable way this is narrated. Out of context, you would think that Shane was not the one responsible for all the destruction.

“‘You killed me, whether you meant to or not. And that,’ he said, ‘is your nature’” (69). Probably more about Drina, honestly, not Gar.

“ . . . Shane jolted awake . . . ” (69). Hmmmm. So that didn’t go away then.

“Conor and Rollan had almost bragged about it when they’d told him” (70). Wow, Shane is an unreliable narrator.

“He was completely cut off from his sword, the talismans were a hopeless tangle on the floor . . . ” (71). This is why he should’ve kept the talismans on his person.

“ . . . feigning innocence before he remembered that he was in fact innocent” (73). Wow. Shane corruption arc go brrrrrr.

“The village, he decided, must have been protecting Greencloaks. It was the only explanation for the savagery with which the Conquerors had descended” (73). Wow, Shane really is such a manipulative ass in this section, and I love it. 

[cut because block limit]

“ . . . he couldn’t bring himself to pose as a Greencloak” (74). Shane’s ego is really getting in his own way, like my guy. Come on.

“ . . . Shane couldn’t leave him alone in the jungle. Could he?” (75). Reading on a bit further, you can tell that Shane kind of really doesn’t care about Achi and only takes him because he’s useful as a guide.

“But he knew what question Achi was waiting to hear, and he asked it” (78). Shane is manipulative and charming as hell.

“‘Abeke?’ Shane called, louder this time. ‘Abeke, if you’re out there, I can explain everything’” (80). God, I want to know what he would’ve said. Like think about the possibilities. 

“Shane made an involuntary gurgling sound” (81). THAT’S SO FUNNY.

Shane giving the Amber Leopard to Achi cements the Achi-Abeke parallels, in my head.

“He climbed even more nimbly now that he wore Abeke’s talisman - Uraza’s talisman, Shane corrected himself” (82). Ohhhh, so he does think of it as Abeke’s. 

“‘Did you ever hear the story about how the goanna and the perentie got their coloring?’” (83). Kinda wanna hear that one.

“Kovo escaped, but he lost the tail to the cats” (85). I wanna say, it’s pretty unlikely that this story actually happened in canon, because as seen in Tales of the Great Beasts, Uraza did actually like Kovo before they were enemies, saying that it unsettled her that he would work with murderers and calling him her neighbor. But a cute story nonetheless.

Also the story is kind of foreshadowing in its own sense, since in it Kovo is manipulative, but is still defeated in the end. 

“But that was the beauty of the Bile, wasn’t it? No one could resist it in the end. Not even stubborn, foolhardy Drina” (86). Foolhardy??? It’s still unclear whether Drina was in on the plan to get herself killed. In fact, it’s unclear whether Shane knew that the plan was to get Drina killed. 

“He didn’t need to bribe Achi, and he didn’t need to bully him either” (87). Well, at least Shane still has a shred of decency in this section.

“‘She was no Greencloak. She wasn’t even Marked’” (88). Wow, the Conquerors are straight-up stupid. How dumb do you have to be to realize that a non-Marked person means you got the wrong person??? And how dumb is Achi’s dad to gamble that they’d be that dumb?

“In [the jackal’s] jaws was a bloody crown, forged in the shape of a snake devouring its own tail’” (88). Wow, foreshadowing for Zerif’s betrayal for sure.

“‘He got the cats to stop fighting. He saved the day!’” (89). It’s ironic because Shane is clearly paralleling himself, but also he’s the one that started a fight in real life. 

“He was Uraza, and he was home” (91). Kinda cute, if you ignore the context.

“Not that it would have been a very strategic choice with a man-eating cat bearing down on him” (92). Right, but he’s used to sifting through talismans while running. He’s done it several times before in this section. Yes, he’s carrying Achi, but he’s also got Uraza’s talisman to take care of him while he searches. 

“‘And I lost the man I - a good man, Tarik’” (93). Well, that’s about as close to canon as we’ll get.

“‘I haven’t killed anyone,’ Shane growled” (93). Someone needs to teach this guy that killing can be indirect. And also, I don’t think that’s true. There are several battles that he’s been in, so I feel like it’s unrealistic to say he’s never killed anyone.

“‘So high and mighty. Not against sending an assassin after me, though, are they?’” (93). Yeah??? This is a war??? They’re gonna send someone after you, duh. Bro, what kind of logic is that???

“He acted quickly, and replaced the Amber Leopard with Kovo’s Obsidian Ape” (94). Kind of showing him throwing his morals out the window, since he was so repelled by the Obsidian Ape earlier.

“Black and white. Precisely how the Greencloaks saw the world” (95). As if you don’t??? My guy???

“‘Achi, it’s okay,’ Shane said quickly. ‘Grahv won’t hurt you’” (95). Wonder how true that would be if Lishay had called his bluff . . . 

“Shane had given him Jhi’s talisman and carried him all the way here despite the ache in his limbs” (96). Why did Shane carry him? Achi should’ve been healed? And why did Achi let Shane carry him?

“ . . . Shane turned to Achi and winked . . . ” (97). Bitch, he really tried that??? Like unironically??? I’m laughing. Man, I’m laughing so fucking hard.

“He tried to grasp at a fleeting sensation of victory, but it slipped through his fingers and was gone” (97). Kind of like how his victory over the Greencloaks in this section is short-lived and he lost anyway.

Vengeance

The quote. I’m sobbing.

“‘You won. We lost. Do you have to rub it in?’” (103). My guy. Do you know how war works???

“There was real hatred there. Real hunger for revenge” (103). Shane trying desperately to convince himself he’s not as much in the wrong as he is is simply splendid.

“‘Don’t play innocent with me,’ Shane countered. ‘I wrote the book on that particular trick . . . ’” (105). Paralleling the previous section?

“But he could always get more money” (106). How???

“‘Deadly?’ Shane echoed. ‘A frog?’” (107). Does he seriously not know about the whole bright-colors-warn-predators thing??? Huh . . . 

Why does he have a vial of Bile on him??? That is so weird.

“‘They came close, though,’ Shane said, fighting to keep his voice steady” (108). Not him still trying desperately to stroke his own ego.

“ . . . hoarded so jealously over the years” (108). One thing I notice across several books in this series is that whenever they talk about the Greencloak-Nectar situation, they always say “hoarded jealously”. Like, variety in word choice is not a thing apparently.

“‘ . . . What sort of snake?’” (109). This section is so appealing because of the mystery aspect. 

“But what if it didn’t stay that way? What if it could somehow do more harm? The Bile was Shane’s mess. And he was looking to clean up his messes” (110). Right, but he effectively does nothing. The Bile does lose all its power??? That’s so weird. But okay, I guess.

“ . . . stopped to trade for a bag of roasted nuts . . . ” (110). Where did he get the money??? He just gave it all away?

“‘You sound just like a snake I used to know’” (111). Yumaris???

Where is Shane getting the money to hire Anya??? Like huh???

Also Anya is described in an incredibly similar fashion to Anka. Like. I can see how you might get the two mixed up.

“As Shane’s parents and sister grew sicker, he was left entirely to her whims” (113). The relationship between Shane and Yumaris is so interesting and kind of contradictory in some places. 

The whole conversation about tools is probably a reference to Venom, when Yumaris insists that Shane needs many tools . . .

“If this year of war had taught him anyway, it was how much he’d taken for granted as a prince” (115). This is directly contradictory to his statement in Vendetta about how he’s not pampered despite being a prince. Character development or something, I guess. 

“‘“Bushmaster” is a code. And it leads to that jungle temple’” (117). How does he know that??? Is it something Yumaris taught him???

Feel like the venom-poison-snake-frog thing is symbolism for Shane and Yumaris. Shane is a snake, who’ll hurt you by himself, but for Yumaris to hurt you, you have to interact with her first.

“‘The bright colors are a warning to predators: I am dangerous and I taste bad. Stay away.’ ‘Sort of like a Greencloak,’ Shane said under his breath” (119). LOL.

“‘We don’t have bears here.’ ‘Tell that to the bear!’” (120). I love them, Your Honor. 

[cut because block limit]

“Outside of Stetriol, they were supposed to pretend he was no more than their commander’s nephew” (121). Even the Conquerors that aren’t Stetriolan know that???

“‘I’m thinking we throw Soyland to the bear and she lets us go’” (123). I’m with Anya there, not gonna lie.

“‘The bear was a victim in all this. Poisoning her isn't right’” (124). Redemption arc Shane go brrrrr. 

“‘“Bushmaster” was what we called this operation. We- We named them all after snakes’” (124). Oh, so that’s how he knew.

Also, what was the operation specifically?

I get that they have a common enemy, but Anya doesn’t react with much ferocity toward Shane’s reveal. Like. They haven’t even known each other that long.

“But there was no point in turning down the man’s gratitude, and he accepted it with a curt nod” (127). Yes. Yes, there is??? Yes, there is.

“Shane wondered briefly how many young men and women of Stetriol had marched into battle across Erdas” (127). Oh, so they are from Stetriol. Interesting. 

“Each and every drop was a drop made by their hands” (129). Wow, the paranoia starts already.

“And then there was Yumaris, who made an unusual choice” (130). Okay, so if Yumaris hadn’t already been bonded to her worm before, then how did she know the future before taking Bile? It said she spoke of the future like the past, so was she just making that up???

“Alone among the kings and queens of Stetriol. Food for worms, all of them” (131). I guess you can never really escape your fate, even if you become great.

“‘Sir,’ said Lovvorn. ‘Sire!’ said Alix. ‘Idiot,’ said Anya” (136). Cackling.

“‘Did she tell you I have a weak spot for girl archers? Did she think I’d be more likely to trust you if you reminded me of someone I care about?’” (137). Ooooooooh. Kicking my feet at the subtle references to Abeke.

Shane blaming Yumaris for Drina’s death as if he isn’t the one that came up with the plan in the first place is so damn blame-shifty. (He came up with it right? Feel like that hasn’t been confirmed, only heavily implied.)

“‘Gerathon was going to kill one of you that day. By stepping in when I did, I ensured it wasn’t you’” (140). Why was Gerathon going to kill one of them??? I thought it was Drina, so the plan could go . . . well, according to plan. But it really seems like Shane and Yumaris had no idea Drina was going to be killed??? So what was the original plan exactly???

“‘I wish I could see for myself how you’ve grown’” (140). Awwww.

“‘The world above will need a protector who can walk the line between good and evil’” (141). Why do they need to be evil???

What happens to Anya after this? Does she just go back? Do they ever talk again? Does she know Shane eventually dies?

Venture

“‘I’m not here to cause trouble Maddox’” (148). Why are they immediately antagonistic??? I literally don’t remember shit about this. 

“ . . . Abhay wasn’t from Stetriol - and he didn’t have an obvious grudge” (149). Wait. Are the men mad because Shane lost the war? Or something different?

“‘I am Maddox’s king’” (149). He just said it didn’t bother him to not be called a king like a page ago.

“‘People said that, at the end, you fought alongside the Greencloaks’” (149). How do people even know that? It happened at the Evertree, and nobody else was there.

“‘For us, the war never ended’” (151). Huh.

“Shane dreamed he summoned a wolf . . . he knew he’d never be alone again” (151). This is kind of heartbreaking, in a way. Like he’s been alone his whole life and only because of war is he making friends. And never ones that he really keeps.

“Others called him a traitor” (153). For fighting with Greencloaks in the end?

“She had a special knack for pointing out Shane’s shortcomings, and pride ranked high on the list” (154). She’s not wrong. Even in The Burning Tide, when Shane is trying to redeem himself, he wants to impress Abeke more than anything else.

“But, oh, how he wanted to trash this guy” (154). Yeah, me too, honestly. He doesn’t appear to be the most open-minded.

“Shane could swear the figure was wearing a crown” (155). Why is he watching her during a fight, anyway??? Like, dude???

“Shane dreamed he summoned a panda. The animal wrapped him in its arms” (155). Awwww.

“‘The dirt is no place for pride, my king’” (156). If Shane wanted to help himself, shouldn't he have gotten up and not laid pathetically in the dirt?

“‘A natural bond. We grew up together’” (157). I wonder what Viktor thinks of Bile bonds in general. He grew up in Stetriol, so he’d probably be pretty torn.

Okay, so he thanks Shane for the Bile, but also wouldn’t he find it somewhat repulsive, seeing as he has a good bond with his own spirit animal?

“ . . . held no medicinal properties as far as Shane or Yumaris could discover” (159). I wish they’d shown more of Shane and Yumaris working together.

“Shane dreamed he summoned a falcon . . . He was untouchable” (160). Paralleling his ego?

“Here, at last, were the true warriors” (161). How were they picked? 

“‘See now, Karmo? I said you’d get the hang of this’” (162). Is Karmo being forced? Maybe because of his merging with his animal? But that’s a secret, right?

“He did, however, wear a tight bandage around his left forearm” (162). Oop, Shane got him.

[cut because block limit]

The woman with the nickname “Greenslayer” needs a backstory of her own.

Why did Yeffa not want Karmo to help Viktor??? There’s a reason, right?

“It was clear who they held responsible for the outcome of the war” (164). Yep, that’s it.

“Shane wasn’t wholly surprised when Karmo made a break for it later that night” (165). Why didn’t Karmo do that earlier, though?

“‘Shane as in Shane the Reptile King? Devourer Shane?’ ‘It’s just Shane these days’” (167). Shane’s humor’s at its finest when it’s unintended.

“‘King Shane is a no-good snake’” (168). The snake symbolism thread is just *chef’s kiss*

“Who would want to keep so many smelly, scaly reptiles on display?” (169). It’s ironic how Shane is the self-proclaimed Reptile King, yet hates reptiles in reality. Almost like he hates himself from the start.

“‘Zerif chose some real lowlifes. Devin was a bully. Ana was a thief. And Tahlia, the girl from Stetriol? She was downright vicious. We were all afraid of her’” (171). Kind of wonder where Ana’s from. Like, what’s her story? Maybe she was a thief because of circumstance, like Rollan.

“Faced with such devastation, Shane had decided that day that he would activate their secret asset in the next battle. Let the Greencloaks hurt one another for a change” (171). It’s almost funny how jealous he sounds. 

“‘My tribe has never had a Rain Dancer. That means we get less respect in Nilo than the insects and grubs’” (172). But Abeke’s tribe was the same before she was declared Rain Dancer, right? It doesn’t really seem like respect was Abeke’s tribe’s main problem.

“‘Finally getting called a hero, and it’s for all the wrong reasons’” (172). I think even if Karmo had succeeded in the Rumfuss mission, he’d probably have come around anyway in the end. Like he has now.

“‘The Reptile Queen?’ ‘That’s what she calls herself.’ Shane felt a weight in the pit of his stomach . . . It was the feeling he got whenever something bad was happening - and that it was his fault” (173). Oh, he figured it out immediately.

“Shane dreamed he summoned a leopard . . . And he knew he had been forgiven for all he’d done wrong” (174). Oh my God, I’m actually gonna start crying. This like. Perfectly encapsulates the tragedy of Abeke and Shane. Like Abeke forgives him but at the cost of his own life.

“‘The snake is you, if it wasn’t clear’” (176). God, this guy is stupid.

“Shane had once worn that crown . . . ” (178). How did she get her hands on Stetriol’s crown?

Okay, but how did Tahlia survive??? How did she get off the docks?

Shane didn’t know what the execution method was going to be, and didn’t have a plan for dealing with it. Which means that if they had just been planning on running him through with a sword or something, he’d have been screwed. Like, wow, that was straight-up stupid of him.

“One of the tattooed islanders lay unconscious at their feet, while the second one stood at the edge of the tree line, pleading with a huge emu . . . ” (182). Yeah, gettem. This means that the brothers are Piri and Timone. Which means they didn’t change and are still both corrupted as fuck. Nice to see that Timone has regressed with his spirit animal bond.

“She wouldn’t let go of her knives any more than she would let go of her hate” (184). It’s giving Conor and Cordelia in that final battle.

“‘The war is over!’ he cried” (186). Aww.

“‘But this time, we’ll be fighting on the right side’” (186). Shane’s redemption arc is so perfectly started in this book. I will never not be angry that he and Abeke never sat down after they met up again and had a genuine conversation about their feelings.

Final thoughts and rating (doing the negatives first this time):

Zerif and Yumaris’s bonds are weirdly inconsistent. Zerif’s bond is natural, seeing as he was bonded even before finding the Bile, so how come his jackal ran away? It can’t do that, can it? And Yumaris had a Bile bond, but had her powers even before she was bonded? So that’s sort of a plot hole. I also felt the last two stories were slightly more off-putting than the first two. They felt strange in terms of tone, which I get that they were supposed to be, but the resolutions to those sections felt so weirdly rushed. While I did enjoy getting to see what happened to Tahlia, she’s just such a weird villain. I can’t imagine her having enough finesse to put together an entire army, the way she screams at Shane and the way she doesn’t take his hand at the end. With Shane, you can see that he’s smart and careful and manipulative, but with Tahlia, I just have such a hard time believing she could stop acting like a child long enough to put together a two-hundred-person army. Anya was a strange character. I liked her while reading, but her ending was so out-of-place. 

Most of the negatives of the book are nit-picks, because there’s almost nothing wrong with this book, in my opinion. First of all, the parallels. They’re so good. I feel like Nick Eliopulos has such a different writing style, one that favors symbolism and parallels and other analyzation things over the story itself. It was really fun trying to find them all and made my reread almost as fun as the original. Also the Easter eggs??? Like the Piri and Timone thing, or the several hints about Abeke. It was fantastic. The story really rewards you for paying attention to the main series and this book. First two stories were at their best, with the backstory and the Shane-snake-crocodile symbolism. The complicated relationships in Shane’s life were also written so well, such as Drina and Yumaris. It’s clear that Shane both hated and loved both of them. It also shows why he cared for Abeke so much, seeing as that was one relationship that didn’t feel as complicated to him, at least in the beginning. Exploration of the Bile was done well, too. We can see that Timone, for example, is still bonded, because his bond was originally natural, but Piri’s killer whale apparently left him. Getting Karmo’s backstory was also a highlight. And it paves the way for Devin;s story in Tales of the Fallen Beasts. And Shane the unreliable narrator. Excellently done. His pride being his “fatal flaw”, so to speak? And that being a thread that carried the entire book? It was astonishingly well done. I could see it even when it wasn’t explicitly said. Shane as a character carries this book on his back. He is such an excellent protagonist (anti-hero?) to follow, and it makes me wish we’d gotten more page time of him in the main series, as well as more chapters from his perspective. He’s so smart, and the places where he’s figuring things out or using his wits just make him even better. This book is the one that made Shane my favorite character because he’s just written with so much depth and this book does a spectacular job of humanizing him. 

Rating: 10/10

[ambrossart]

It feels wrong to say “the girl who SA’d Henry” is my favorite character as if I’m like “yeah it rocks that she did that” but I just find her to be one of the most compelling characters in the story so far in the same way that people tend to find Henry sympathetic and compelling despite him doing literal hate crimes. Especially when her classmates were badmouthing her and even Evelyn couldn’t help gawking at her body, you get the idea that she is really messed up but the way she’s treated by others doesn’t help. The scene where you really humanized her and has her humming that melancholic song and being very compassionate toward Evelyn, sandwiched in between the rest of the story driving home that she’s just a lying creep and a loser and a predator, hit me in the gut. She reads as being so lost and in over her head. I do think there’s a trauma to being seen as a sex symbol as a minor (and this being the 80s I realistically can imagine how resentful other girls are to her) and I’m always filling in my own headcanons about how warped her relationship to sexuality is, and the long distance college boyfriend (who she probably had to grow up quick for) probably doesn’t help. I think the story of a girl trying to fill a role that’s expected of her and then regretting it when she’s shamed for it immediately after is so real. You don’t excuse her making false reports but you can understand why she thinks that’s the only way to salvage herself after she’s shamed for giving into the pressure people put on her to do it. Feels sad that she’s so desperate for anyone to sympathize with her or see her as a person with feelings that she’ll lie about it, and even then she’s just further hated for lying. I don’t know. I’m always so fascinated by more problematic characters, especially when it’s a female one. (I’m one of the assholes who voted Steph in the last poll so I guess I have a type! (Also to the other person who voted Steph: YOU’RE A REAL ONE)). Anyway! I love that you don’t write all characters as two-dimensional mustache twirling villains or Mary Poppins clones with the kind of boring character flaws that you say on a job interview. At first I was worried that Evelyn’s only faults were being TOO CARING or TOO PERFECTIONISTIC, but I think the tiny glimpses of selfishness she’s showing and the big reveal that she’s physically forced herself on Henry before have me more on board with this story than ever. 👀 I love watching the perfect “mommy gf” type character get deconstructed. I think everyone is in this fandom because we like how dark and inexcusable but still sympathetic the male bullies are in IT, but I think seeing female antagonists (or better: female protagonists doing meaningfully problematic things and having to atone for it) feels even more unique and interesting. Ok thank you, happy writing, queen, I am so excited for the next chapter 🙏

Don't worry, you're not gonna get any judgment from me for voting for her. Voting for her doesn't mean you condone her actions. Besides, Paper Men is a story full of problematic characters, so it would be hypocritical for anyone to judge you when they're probably thirsting for Patrick Hockstetter, the most problematic character of all. 😂

Your headcanon is honestly pretty similar to the official backstory I have for her. Unlike Evelyn, Manda Bosch blossomed at a very young age and has been sexualized her entire life. She lost her virginity in middle school. A lot of her early relationships were with older men. Her current boyfriend, Matt, is not significantly older than her, but he is older than her, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's only with her for the sex, and he probably cheats on her while he's away at college. Despite what Liz says, Manda is not a "dumb, drunk slut" who's out to steal everyone's boyfriends. That's just Liz being a mean girl. I think Manda's true self is actually very kind, flawed but kind. She offered Hannah-Beth some gum in class. She was very sweet to Evelyn when she had no real reason to be. These are sophomores and Manda is a senior. She should be ignoring them like everyone else.

But sometimes Manda gets lonely (especially with her boyfriend away), and she relates to men the only way she knows how: through sex. She knows that's what men want from her because that's what they've always wanted from her. Then you add way too much alcohol to the mix and it's just a recipe for disaster. She does falsely cry rape occasionally (out of shame), but I guarantee not all of those accusations are false. Manda has definitely been assaulted more than once, probably by men like Martin.

I think the situation with Henry was a very unfortunate mistake. Manda was at the party with her boyfriend. He drank too much and passed out. Manda, drunk herself, wanted to be close to somebody—anybody—and she chose Henry because she assumed he would want it like all men want it. Henry, it should also be said, does project a lot of false bravado. Although he's not flirty like Patrick, he tends to make some pretty inappropriate and sexually aggressive comments to women. He did this with Evelyn when she was asking for the shirts back. He did this with Beverly in the movie. So Manda had every reason to assume that Henry would be fully on board. To be clear, I'm in NO WAY blaming Henry for this situation. It doesn't matter how he acts at school. Obviously, he wasn't comfortable and Manda should have respected that and backed off immediately... but she didn't. Then Henry got triggered and he got violent and things got way out of hand.

Fast forward to school on Monday, now all the senior girls are shaming her for sleeping with a SOPHOMORE, and not just any sophomore—HENRY BOWERS, who is not popular at all. If it were Patrick, the girls would slap her on the back and congratulate her, but Henry? Nobody wants anything to do with Henry. He's not the fun kinda dangerous. He's just plain dangerous. He's radioactive. Everybody knows to steer clear of him (everyone except Evelyn, apparently). And I think Manda felt embarrassed and ashamed and panicked. Plus I also think she doesn't remember a lot of what happened that night apart from him suddenly freaking out on her. If she did, she would feel extremely guilty and horrible for putting someone in that position because that's not who she is. She's not Martin. She's just someone who made a mistake... a very big mistake.

Lastly, to speak on Evelyn's situation with Henry a little bit: I wouldn't say she "forced" herself onto him. I do think she made a huge mistake in her timing. Henry was in a very fragile state that day. He was upset and in a lot of pain. That was NOT the time for her to put the moves on him. She was being very selfish and got caught up in her own feelings and that was wrong of her, but she didn't force him to do anything. He was a fully willing participant... until he wasn't. Henry withdrew consent and left because of his own issues. It had nothing to do with what Evelyn did. Her timing was awful, but she didn't sexually assault him or anything.

I know the details surrounding that situation are still a little fuzzy. They will be explained clearly because she and Henry will discuss it at some point. Until then, we'll leave it as it is.

Oh my god, I wrote way too much. I'm so sorry 😂

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

Ok ok, Rambling Anon again, glad I cleared that up first. Now for the rambling!

So I mean we always knew it but man Capcom making it REALLY obvious Ada has morals and isn't this irredeemable mustache-twirling villain some of the fandom paint her as. Like seriously they're practically quoting Umbrella Chronicles at this point. it's the same exact situation as with the G-virus: Ada is sent after a bioweapon, Ada then questions the destructive capabilities of the weapon, Ada betrays her employer. Rinse and repeat.

And to get back to my other point in my previous ask, re: getting in Ada's head. I love the little remarks you can read if you interact with stuff in OG Separate Ways, but if they keep playing up Ada's tendency to think aloud, we're going to get so much more on what she's thinking every step of the way and I am so here for it! I hope they keep some of her snark from the OG, it was funny reading her decor critiques and lightened the situation a bit.

And now Ada's infected!? That'll be interesting. I imagine it gets taken care of fairly quickly because she doesn't show any signs of that in base RE4R. We don't see her a lot, but even in the video calls her face looks perfectly non-infected.

OKAY HI AGAIN

oh yes yes okay i did read some of this last night but fell asleep lol

YES i feel like they're being so much clearer that ada does have morals but she's willing to cut a bitch if she feels like she's doing the better thing. there's no morality in re universe. it's true that killing one person might save 100 people or whatever. she chooses the lesser evil BECAUSE SHE CAN AND I FIND THAT SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING THAT JUST A PLAIN MORALLY GOOD CHARACTER

SHE HAS CHOICES AND DECISIONS SHE CAN MAKE

YES!!!! IM so excited to hear her inner thoughts and to get more characterization for her. re4 separate ways and re6 had the most for understanding her character and you can always tell whenever you talk to someone who's never played it and purposely misunderstands her character. i think that she'll be snarky! and sassy! but a bit cold and reserved at times. i think she'll try to be light hearted sometimes but feel like she wants to do what she can to ultimately save herself. someone mentioned that ada is always there to save leon- who's there to save ada other than herself?

i think the addition of ada's infection wasn't SUPER like. we kinda knew that it was a possibility. but to see it in the trailer and real makes it like WOAH okay she's actually infected. it's going to be an interesting change and it's going to affect the timeline a lot because we're free to speculate when she's infected and when she's cured. i think that ashley and leon both don't show signs of infection until a lot further in the game, so we also gotta think about that.

and ada wearing a fully covered outfit also hides her infection. we also have to consider that it's possible she's infected with a different strain. but YES SO MUCH TO EXPLORE AND DISCUSS AND IT'S COMING SO SOON OMG

[a-zif]

What hurt the most when returning to Archenbridge? Was Al Azif close to any of the corrupt clergy members?

i've been meaning to write down a more detailed explanation of the temple structure and politics that lead to azif running away originally and eventually returning to reclaim her home. unfortunately i haven't had the braincells to come up with names and stuff lmao

but the long story short is that she wasn't close to any of the clergy people who were corrupt. she was, however, close to the elder members who were considered too old to run the business and bureaucratic sides of the temple (which to be fair, are inevitable parts of existing in a trading hub like archendale). they were the closest she ever had to a family and was trained by them, but most of them had passed away by the time she was a late teens / young adult.

so in the period of time between her childhood and becoming an adult, most of those top leading spots were filled in by people coming in from other locations (so new to the temple, but not new to clerical work) so she wasn't close or well acquainted with them.

i described them as "a group of corrupt clergy members" for the sake of brevity but i do realize that it's giving cartoon mustache twirling villain (though from azif's pov that's what they are) when in reality it's just people who saw a temple with an aging leadership positioned in the capital of a very wealthy and well defended dale and saw an opportunity to join and rank advance and maybe have a more important role than what they had wherever other temple they lived in before.

which would be an okay approach and attitude if we were talking about corporate jobs in the real world, but it's not so having people mostly interested in serving their own interests and inevitably getting greedy and drunk with the financial gain they could get from these new positions felt very villainous to azif and like her home was corrupted. and in many tangible ways, it was effectively corrupted. think allowing less people to take in shelter because it "costs too much money" or only bothering to host the cultural events temples of lathander are known for unless they found a way to make money off them.

tl:dr: capitalism ruins everything.

[thegreatzombieartisan]

Choose Your Own Adventure: RoP show runners say Sauron’s S1 portrayal is only through Galadriel‘s perspective

I listened to the official RoP podcast which covers the 8th episode: Alloyed. Oh boy. Writing RoP meta is interesting. Just because a character or show runner makes a claim, it still has be evidenced within the show.

Show runner: "What if you can be asking yourself for years... did [Galadriel] jump off the boat because she sensed Halbrand nearby? Is [Sauron] calling her to him?"

I heard of this idea awhile back but it sounds more nonsensical to hear them discuss it. Wouldn't that be convenient — all of Galadriel's wretched antisocial behavior tidily explained away? She's blameless. Sauron the devil made her do it! lol. Let’s remove her agency. It'd only cost reducing Sauron's compelling character development and repentance arc into a mustache-twirling caricature. So I hope that’s not the case.

Noticeably, a reoccurring theme in this interview is the show runners’ denial of objective truth. And how can one write good characters without determining what motivates them?

Look, I love deconstruction, exploring possibilities, and theorizing too. But it’s odd for them to speculate on their own show like fan theory.

But the WTF revelation is this:

Podcast host: '... I'm sorry about your brother'. It feels sincere. Is [Sauron] sincere in that moment? Because it feels like he goes back and forth.”

Show runner: "Well the audience only sees Sauron through Galadriel's eyes in [S1] with the exception of one scene, where he's thinking of picking up the [pouch] or not. And when he's at the café but that's through the eyes of the people he's interacting with and who he fights."

I thought — along with every other person who watched the show — that the POV was omniscient. That is, objective truth.

Wouldn't the audience need to be aware of unreliable narration? Is this reserved for Galadriel and Sauron only? Or does it extended to other characters? What about the scenes with Sauron and other characters that are consistent with Galadriel’s view?

Now I’m wondering they’re going to back and show Sauron as he “really was” during these scenes.

Show runner: “There's a good case to be made that every single step of the way, [Sauron] sees her as his ticket back to power. That he's playing hard to get to get her to dig in, to get her to do what he needs her to do."

There's a "good case”—sir, you wrote the show! What happened? And no, that's not a sound argument to make for more reasons than I’ll say here. In summary, why would Sauron set up an elaborate ruse just to “play hard to get" when Galadriel was gung-ho to slap him on a throne since the raft? Furthermore, why did he get a job to remain on the island —a scene that couldn't have been through Galadriel's PoV? How does disclosing her whereabouts to Ar-Pharazon while knowing she'd be captured and deported back to ME — as well as watching her almost sail away from the island — serve his goals?

Plus, if Sauron can "call" Galadriel to him, why would he even need to "play hard to get"? After all, the master ring is theoretically his power of persuasion transmuted into an object.

All that being said

I don’t know if the show runners are kinda fucking with us for suspense or what. But it’s certainly made me anticipate S2 more.

[airplanned]

Plot Summit Thoughts

There was a talk by Sacha Black about villains at Plot Summit conference.

It was pretty cool!  And it tied in with a lot of other things I’ve been thinking about.  I don’t write a lot of villains, but my current novel has one in the background.  I wasn’t sure how much I was going to get out of this, but it ended up giving some things to think about.

My notes and thoughts on things below.

1.

She starts off by saying that the villain is the most important character in the book, and then immediately said, “I say things like that because it sells books,” which endeared me to her.  Valid. Get it.

But her thought process is this: Story is about change.  The protagonist moves from being flawed to being less flawed or to being fulfilled.  A character doesn’t want to change (because people are resistant to change, and also if your character can just go, “Oh!  This is a flaw I have that’s keeping me from getting what I want.  Let me fix it,” and then does, there wouldn’t be much of a book, and it wouldn’t be believable). So a character has to be forced out of their status quo in order to change.  This is from some source of conflict, which is (drum roll) the villain.  The villain is there to put obstacles in the hero’s way.

So without a villain there is no conflict.  (And she did a good job covering her bases here, because here she started using “villain” as an umbrella term that can also include “antagonist” and even “internal struggle.”  So even if you’re writing a story without a mustache twirling bad guy, these thoughts still apply on a certain level.)

This means that if your villain has no motive, your hero doesn’t really have a motive either.  And example that came to mind was everyone on Captain Planet.  They were all like “I’m going to pour toxic sludge in the lake, because I’m evil!  Mwahahaha!”  And even as a kid, I was like…That makes no sense.  And because the bad guys are just doing things, the good guys are just doing things too.  “Ope! Looks like we gotta go clean up a lake!”

 2.

You don’t have the page count to give your side characters as much depth as the POV character.  There’s just no way they can be as fleshed out as someone who’s head you’re in for 300 pages.  But you can create the illusion of depth by giving them a “why.”  1. Why are they in the story in relation to the protagonist (to block them, to push them, to help them)? 2. What is their reason for existing outside the protagonist?

The villain also need a reason why.  Like, there’s this episode of Star Trek where there’s this ship that’s using aliens for fuel. Because they’re evil?  Well, no, because they’re lost in space and want to get home. They miss their loved ones and they’re all alone out here.  This fuel will get them home.  They’re still absolutely wrong.  They might not be redeemable.  But we understand where they’re coming from, and for that reason they’re a stronger villain, and that means our protagonist needs to be stronger or more clever than them to defeat them.  If the Star Trek episode was “These guys are using aliens for fuel!  Hey, that’s bad!  Don’t do that, bad guys!” that would be a pretty forgettable episode. But since it’s that they desperately want to get home, suddenly there’s a little bit of a moral dilemma, and our protagonist (who has the same want to get home) can see themselves in the bad guy’s shoes.  Suddenly the fact that our protagonist didn’t do whatever was necessary to get home seems like a much better thing.

3.

So there’s this plot structure that I find really interesting with the idea that in the first half of the book, characters behave consistently, and they are mostly passive. The plot *does stuff to them.* They are victims of the plot, which pulls or pushes them through the first half of the book.  That’s not to say that they’re sitting there being dragged around like a sack of potatoes, but it means their actions are reactive rather than proactive.  But this changes at the midpoint.  (so in Mulan, the midpoint is during the Make a Man out of You song where she climbs to pole to get the arrow.  Up until that point she’s reacting to what life has thrown at her. She made decisions, yes, like she decided to run away and take her father’s place.  But when she climbs the pole, she’s making a decision not really fueled by the plot pushing her.  She decides to fight smarter instead of stronger.  She takes control of the story instead of letting it push her along the way it wants to with Shang sending her home.  This decision and success signals a change of fortune and the rest of the movie has her being proactive.)

So it’s interesting to think about this fairly common structural framework with regards to the villain.  In the first half, the villain is moving the plot, dragging the protagonist through, and the protagonist is responding.  Then at the midpoint, the protagonist starts getting proactive.  (We can see this in It’s a Wonderful Life, where the midpoint is evil Mr. Potter offering George a job (everything he ever wanted!) and George turning it down.)

[happycricketbox]

I did it… I finished Persona 5 Royal!! Here's my unfiltered thoughts on it (a.k.a me entering my Hater mode)

That was so long!! WAY longer than it needed to be. I sorta dicked around but not much, and ended up with around 150 hours of playtime. Ultimately i think this is my least favorite aspect of it. Of course, i wouldn't mind playing as long as i need to, if the story warranted it. But it's not!!!!!!! I almost quit multiple times towards the end because i've grown weary of it and i'm sure whatever awaits me by the end will not be worth it. But i pushed through! Yaay.

That brings my second least favorite aspect.

Even before playing it, i already have reservations about the main theme of the game (society bad?? 😲). And playing it made it clear about how oh so apparent that theme is. Almost every single villain is a mustache twirling saturday morning cartoon villain. Maybe i am getting too old to appreciate this kind of story, but i couldn't stand it (and the cutscenes we got of Ann's wet thighs and Ryuji ogling at her boobs in the desert makes me believe that this game is targeted towards teens... i'm honestly still baffled, they're insane for that one) The way they insists how Phantom Thieves are so edgy and genius and cool. How they kept calling us the ""trickster"" of this world or whatever. It is so simplistic yet so pretentious. The story addition in Royal is a nice surprise though, but it feels like a somewhat alright arc in an anime i feel nothing about, lol. Main story aside, i also have problems with the side stories (individual confidants) in general.

At first i liked and appreciated the variety of characters we get to bond with, but after spending time with them it became apparent that a lot of these go towards pretty much in the same direction (we met > we learn about Problem > we solve it by defeating the Problem Source in mementos > Problem solved!). It's just... kind of lame? Like the characters didn't need to work to solve their problem. I wish they had more depth than just a poor soul tortured by the Evil.

Actually i do have a dozen other problems with it (like how the events are all HORRIBLE + the characterization of our teammates + pacing and what nots) but i'll cut this rant short because i'm tired lol. The best aspect of it really is the visual, as i'm sure many have pointed out, and i enjoy the gameplay elements a lot. I also appreciate the amount of supplemental things you can do in your free time (even though i'm supposed to ignore them for confidant grinding).

It's a game with eons of flaws and i can see why some would call it the worst of the bunch. I don't regret playing it, though. But i will NOT be touching it again. Feel free to check it out if you're interested in the Persona series, but honestly if you ask me, if you have 150 hours to waste i'd just tell you to read Umineko instead.

Thanks for reading :]

[consumeronionbulletin]

Crash Course in Romance (2023)

Really enjoyed this show. The writing and story felt familiar, but the actors were good enough that it still seems fresh. Could have done with 50% less obsessed crazy stalker people though.

What Worked

The leads were fun to watch both separately and together. The overall relationships were interesting and the drama does a good job of making something that should be rather dull (math class) seem exciting. Even the most detestable people in the show still had some moments of sympathy as well, which makes them seem like real people, and it also makes the show feel safer rather than super stressful.

What Didn't Work

The weird murder plot, but this was less offensive than most and they didn't allow it to take over the show.

The Performances

Jeon Do-yeon as Nam Haeng-seon. I'm not sure if it's groundbreaking to take a character that is super common in romance (the plucky young woman who just wants to take care of her family, but OMG life is terrible) and just age her up 15 years. Sadly, it kind of feels that way. In any case, this actor is great, she's apparently a big deal in K-film and I'm so glad we got to see her here.

Jung Kyung-ho as Choi Chi-yeol. He's not all that different from the character he played in Hospital Playlist (I enjoyed him in that), but his story is different enough that it still seemed interesting. Jung Kyung-ho did a great job as a lead, and I liked all the different character moments the writers put out there for him. Not all of them stuck (for example, the tragic student death that he seems to have forgotten about after five episodes), but overall it was more hits than misses.

Oh Eui-shik as Nam Jae-woo. Every time I see a character in these dramas who is on the Asperger's spectrum, I start to wonder if the writers are ticking a box or something. But as long as they make sure and put in the work to make the character feel real, then I'm okay with it. Oh Eui-shik did the work, and I was okay with it.

Lee Bong-ryun as Kim Young-joo. I enjoyed seeing her in Hometown Cha x 3 and she did a great job here (though her character is a little more one-note here). I felt her romance arc at the end was actually kind of nice.

Roh Yoon-seo as Nam Hae-yi. Really good job by a young actress who was only in her second drama. Hopefully, she'll have a long career, because she was fun to watch and the character was well done as well.

Jang Young-nam as Jang Seo-jin. The only other role I've seen her in was as kind of a bad person in IOK2NBO. She wasn't a great person here, but I had alot more sympathy for her, partly because the actor did a good job of making her relatable even during all the crazy plot stuff. I'm glad the writers left the character in a pretty good place overall.

Kim Mi-kyung as Haeng-seon's mother. I have already raved about how cool this actor is in other places. She was only in two episodes, and her character didn't even get a real name, but it was still just nice to see her on screen.

The High School Kiddos. I think they all did a good job. The writers didn't try and make them too cutesy or turn it into an afterschool special. They were fun to watch when they were on screen, and they all had good moments in the show.

The Gang of Bad Mothers With Money. I kind of enjoyed their antics, even if it felt like the writers were giving them the job of creating pointless drama at times. They were funny when they needed to be, and detestable when they needed to be, but none of them were too memorable.

The Evil Baddie Assistant Guy. Kind of a spoiler though it's not really a huge secret. I think the actor did a decent job of playing subtle with a character that slowly turns into a mustache twirling villain by the end of the series. I didn't need an interesting villain, in fact I'd rather not bother with him at all, but if you have to have a murder spree in your drama, this guy is an acceptable choice.

TL; DR:

Fun little romance / relationship drama with good casting that hit a sweet spot between familiar and fresh. Had some funny moments, and a few genuine feels but you knew going in that you'd end up with a HEA.

[docholligay]

If this adaptation is going to go down this particular path, I really wish it would have gone further into it, because really they just make Alice come off as a villain and I think it’s much more complicated than that. Alice has no frame of reference for how to feel about this, she just knows it’s ‘unnatural’ and wrong and she is so solidly into the world she knows and understands and grew up in.

But if she didn’t love Nan, still, would she even bother to tell her, “come on then, if you must” when she doesn’t want to hear about it? I tell you what, if I don’t care what someone thinks of me anymore, I am not gonna go, “Sure, please tell me about how you’ve discovered a new detail of childhood trauma that’s affected you” I’m not even going to say that in my flat, “Sure. Why not?” That is something that is only reserved for people I love. People I love, can tell me bullshit I do not want to hear.

It never really goes into this, and Alice is about to go a bit into mustache-twirling territory in a way I don‘t really approve of narratively, but boy it could be so interesting to see Alice try to tolerate this shit (Because to her, it is! It’s fucking nuts!) because she loves Nan. We do see something like that later with Florence’s family, though by the time we meet him, he’s fully come over to the, “Well, isn’t that nice then!” side of things, but it’s just such an interesting detail that I think we could have engaged with.

A girl I used to see, her family was more or less like that, though of course the idea had been by them before. She was a very rural gal, her family runs cattle, and it was very interesting the way they never called her gay, because gay was a thing city people were. People who had blue hair, and soft hands, and degrees in...underwater basketweaving and theory. THis is not to be confused with a denial of her dating women. She went with girls, I was her sweetheart, all that was true and we danced together at the Strawberry festival, but she was not gay, and if you accused her of such, people would say things like, “She’s a good girl and she works hard” I cannot possibly explain this to people who don’t have this sense of the world, but, it’s just like, I know this lesbian couple in this tiny town in Motnana, same story, they are,  “You know those two women that live together” and a huge part of the community, and so they can’t be gay because that’s something people not like us are. And they are like us. It’s weirdly accepting.

Anyway, i would have loved to see some of that weird tension here, if we’re going to go down this way in a way the book really doesn’t but it pretty much chooses to do nothing with the material expect make it a foregone conclusion that Nan would never return to her family instead of the sad tragedy of a thousand small cuts and i think it’s poorer for it. Let us think Nan sucks a little!

[likeabxrdinflight]

possibly the most interesting consequence of letting my therapist read through my trauma memoir is the way she still sees things in what I wrote that I don't. like I wrote quite a bit about the ways I was taught about and experienced religion that she pointed out were kinda fucked up in ways I didn't even think about. things like having little kids sit and pray the rosary every week, or dedicating an entire afternoon just to religion class, or preparing for first confessions- these things were so normalized to me I'd have never even considered them all that unusual in the context of a religious education. but they were details that stuck out to her as being a lot of ask of fourth graders (she was a lot more weirded out by confession than I'd have expected), and that fascinates me. because it was so normalized. all of it was so normalized, I think I've still only really considered the most extreme aspects to have been the most toxic parts.

the other interesting part for me is that the majority of this narrative is about the impact a very specific teacher had on me. the whole point of writing this was to sort of go back and re-live that experience and present it in a narrative way that makes sense of the story and helps me conceptualize it. and it served that purpose, I think. but throughout it, this teacher was a figure that I tried to write as honestly as possible because it was tempting to depict her as 100% a villain. and she is the antagonist of the piece in the end, there's no mystery about that, but part of this project, for me, was treating her like a human being and exploring what that meant for me. it's not about having compassion for her so much as for myself, for why I was ever vulnerable to someone like her. so I do not want her to come across like a mustache twirling cartoon villain- if anything I kind of want the hypothetical reader who knows nothing about me or my life to feel conflicted about her in the early parts of the story. I want the reader to feel torn between liking her and not being so sure if they should, because that was what it was like for me.

now my therapist was always going to be a little biased, given she already knows the bones of the story I'm telling. she knows the ending. but despite going to great lengths to keep this teacher feeling like a human, my therapist still told me that she came across, to her at least, as "cunningly manipulative" (her words). she felt like this teacher's way of teaching religion throughout even the earliest parts of the story was quite sinister. so either I'm just not doing a good job of keeping my present-day negative perception of her out of the narrative OR this bitch really was just that shitty of a person and I need to trust more in the reality that yeah, it kind of was that bad...

[burningexeter]

As an aspiring writer and filmmaker, what are the connections or "themes" that my work has and share with each other. It's actually much more simple on my end with this:

• They tend to always focus on unconventional type of protagonists fighting against the highest stakes there is. But despite that sounding fairly interesting for a simple paragraph, there's much more to it than that. First off, the protagonists or even the ensembles are not at all the type of characters you'd ever expect or think of being the heroes. They're the bullies, criminals, blue collar workers, CDC doctors, rat exterminators, cynical schlubs, elderly grandfathers or grandmothers, spoiled brats, cheerleaders, truck drivers, shady and sleazy private detectives, sarcastic grumps, priests, former deadbeat parents trying to put their lives back together, the sexy but quick-tempered goth girl, drug dealers, cartel members, morticians, dysfunctional families, the town drunk, struggling drug addicts or even a little girl with a burnt scar on the side of her face. These are all no matter what the numerous type of people who you don't usually see as the heroic characters who save the day. These aren't the strong jawed, posing, good-looking Hollywood heroes like Superman, the Guardians Of The Galaxy, Optimus Prime, Luke Skywalker or Wonder Woman — god no, instead these are heroes in the exact same category as Jack Sparrow from the Pirates Of The Caribbean Trilogy, Walter White from Breaking Bad, Koichi Shikishima from Godzilla Minus One, Aldo Raine from Inglourious Basterds and Trevor Philips from Grand Theft Auto V.

That said however, all of the protagonists do grow, develop and even at times become better people over the course of the story. Most of them all have moral codes (standards basically) and always end up doing the right thing.

As for the stakes, these aren't just the odds. These are big. Big stakes that affect them and even everything and everyone they've ever loved or cared about. The stakes in my work are always - and I mean ALWAYS - huge. And no, it's not "Oh, it's the end of the world and the final battle is in New York City" but they are big, deadly, dangerous, high-edge stakes.

• Another thing is that the events of any of my work are either caused, furthered or BOTH by the protagonists and characters' actions and thus are more than character-driven. They make HUGE decisions, they even sometimes depending on which or who make the wrong choices, they don't do what they should've done and regardless of whether what they did was right, all of this leads to repercussions that build and culminate to the climax and end.

• The villains are never these one dimensional, generic, mustache-twirling villains who are just 100% evil all the way. Instead, the villains are intimidating, scary, charismatic, intelligent, threatening and even at times tragic characters. The ones who are tragic show it through moments and go out on their own sacrificial terms while the ones who aren't tragic have codes to them and make their presence known whenever they're on screen. We're not talking about again strong jawed, posing, good-looking Hollywood villains like Loki, Lex Luthor, Doctor Doom, Evelyn Deavor (good lord, that pun name is just dumb as hell) or Hans of the Southern Isles — nah, god no, instead these are the villains in the exact same category as Jared Nomak from Blade II, Dr. Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2, Davy Jones from Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest & At World's End, Syndrome from The Incredibles and Dr. Thaddeus Sivana from Shazam!.

• Last but not least, all of my work have genuinely bittersweet endings where the villain or villains and threat are defeated for good with no chance of coming back but sacrifices are made on the heroes side therefore they don't always end very happily. It shows us that not everything has a happy ending regardless of what it is.

Here's an example:

I have this whole entire, fully fleshed-out idea for a Kim Possible reboot called Global Justice and this is how it'll end:

After Kim and Shego have a heated argument about the former's future now that she's about to graduate high school, Shego realizes that she was wrong and that her reasons for not letting Kim go are selfish of her. But when she goes to apologize to Kim and admit her mistake, she shockingly finds that Kim has gone behind her back and done something that sets in motion the events of the series finale.

The bittersweet ending here is that the main threat that's been built up since the ending of the five-part premiere is finally defeated, all heroes come together and the day is at long last saved with the surviving villains being put to rest.... BUT due to everything that's just happened because of her, Shego has lost all trust in Kim that's been built and earned throughout the whole series with the final scene in the show being this —

Flying through the night sky over a now safe Middleton in their purple car as a full-on homage to the final moment in the original series, Kim in the front seat and Shego driving are sitting in complete silence with their hair blowing in the wind. It's then that a guilty and almost somber Kim says "I'm sorry, Shego. For everything".

To which Shego replies with this....

"I know you are, Kim. You're my girlfriend and nothing will ever change that. I brought you into all this from day one and nothing will ever change that. I will always love you no matter what and nothing will ever change that. But after everything that's just happened, from now until I don't know when, my trust is something that you're gonna have to earn back".

Kim then hangs her head down in shame, visibly heartbroken, while Shego continues driving emotionlessly into the moon.

Cue end credits.

Kim ended up fulfilling her goal in the show but at the cost of a loved one's trust. And it's Shego of all people.

[intheseautumnhands]

Scattershot Blades post, because I watched yesterday and didn’t have the energy to comment.

I liked this one, but it also felt a little off? Like, similar to the way To The Depths felt a little off. I don’t know, this might be because I was yet again drop-dead exhausted and also life’s been weird for a couple days, so I might need a rewatch, it might be me and not the episode.

There was a Tabaxi, though, that was great, I love him, I want him to become a permanent friend of the gang. I have the same very minor, mostly joking complaint about Blades that I do OxPrime: I really wish some NPCs reoccured more often. I love both Luke and Johnny’s NPCs and I would be happy to see some of them more often. Some of them don’t have as much reason to (especially in Prime when they’re always on the move), but I feel like this one could be useful as a gang friend!

Speaking of reoccuring NPCs -- I first thought this episode was going to be, like, the collapse of the Dimmers as a whole, but I like where this went better. Kind of like that people associated with the society keep having room for shades of grey? It’s much more interesting if some people have their own motives, or are part of this for genuine reasons, than if they’re just. mustache-twirling evil to the core!

Also, two for one with Ironhook, who is fun. I expected him to be an antagonist if he came back; I guess now he’ll be an antagonist if he comes back again. XD

Barnaby playing overeager security was a really great way to handle things and fun to watch. And Lilith trying and failing to do her ritual was maybe the funniest part of the whole episode despite the tension around it.

Curious what next week’s going to be, if it’s going to be the whole gang, if we’re going to get K/E/Z trying to escape, or if maybe we start with the three-person and then they’ll bring Lilith and Barnaby in for the end. That “to be concluded” - I don’t know if that’s going to be re the cliffhanger, or the whole season. If it’s the season, on the one hand, not ready, on the other, I don’t think we’re at a point where ending the show makes sense, so we’ll probably get a season 3 or 2.5 or something? Unless they all die in this one, I guess.

I feel like I had something else to say yesterday, but my brain is flat. No fic thoughts, cause I am tired, and nothing really sparked me on this one specifically -- I want Dimmer Sister fic in general, I want Rosie and Josie to become weird questionable allies to the gang (and I kind of want them to meet the gutcutters?), and I want Cart-on-the-Road to show up in fic a lot, but that’s about it. Also I still haven’t written any of my no-true-pair fics so I’m trying to chill on coming up with new ideas for a bit.

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale Reviews: ML Season 4 episode 9: Gabriel agreste

(Like with episode 100. I will not do a live reaction, but i will discuss the bits that stood out to me)

Spoilers below

-Gabriel trying to figure out how Ladybug is C-blocking him is funny to me.

-Adrien taking care of Nathalie was sweet.

-Gabriel cant function without nathalie. "I DONT SOCIAL WELL"

-Marc and Nathaniel are AMAZING and their comic should win all the rewards.

-(The art for that and PRINCESS ADRIEN. PERFECTION)

-"Yeah we write romance"

-Chloé is just mustache twirling evil. Like she is a legit parody of her season 1 self. its so out there is makes me laugh

-RETURN OF MARINO!

-Zoe is basically just Good Chloé. Its okay. (not sold on it but she was at least important in this episode)

-Felix's relationship with his mother was the sweetest thing DONT TOUCH ME.

-Felíx went from little s*** to Chaotic Chad in this episode.

-Felix knows Gabe is sus.

-So is Gabriel hosting a Squid Game?

-The LOOK FOR FELIGAMI. Also that bit with Adrien and Kagami being alone and awkward.

-Gabriel legit made himself taller as shadowmoth. That is hilarious.

-Felix is a sentimonster? Well I am not surprised.

-FELIX RESISTED AKUMATIZATION! BRO, MADE RESPECT

-He cut the pants leg, so he can know the truth. GENIUS.

-Marino using her clumsy antics to stop Chloé.

-Collector revealing Chloé's secret. Like wow. She is just mean. They did her dirty.

-Kagami shoving adrien in a room to protect him and proceeds to fight an akuma. Kagami has my respect. (as always)

-Ladybug and Chat noir arrive on the scene and kick his butt.

-But Shadowmoth comes out ahead today.

-Also BOB ROTH, HE ACTUALLY HELPED MARINETTE. albiet unintentionally.

-The ending was interesting, and Felix knows way more than we thought.

___________________________________________________________

10 out of 10.

I think the pacing and drama was MASTERFULLY done. There was not a single character I didnt enjoy in this. Even Chloé's over the top villainy gave me enjoyment despite it being a complete 180 from season 2-3

I think this was one of the best episodes of season 4, and it fills in a lot of gaps while also bringing forth more questions.

(after Ephemeral poor pacing this was a welcome change)