#It's the concept I don't understand we have no interest so we haven't actually looked at what the applications look like.

[antianakin]

Number 9 for the ask game! For both disneycanon and legends :)

9. worst part of canon

Man, this is a hard question to answer, mostly because there's so many things I could answer.

So I am assuming here that when you say "Legends" you actually just mean Lucas canon that existed pre Disney canon since "Legends" has never been and will never be canon in and of itself. If you were hoping to hear me speak about something that was ACTUALLY from Legends, I'm very sorry, but I'm not familiar enough with it and I don't think it works for the prompt anyway, so all of my answers are going to be from Disney Canon or Lucas Canon.

Some of these will land more in the realm of "the concept is fine/good, the execution was bad" and some will be more "the concept in and of itself is awful regardless of whether it was executed well or not."

In the Ahsoka show, the concept of Ahsoka facing her past with Anakin and how that's impacted who she's become is a great idea and it's really the only way to move her character forward, but the execution of it was so badly done that I wish it had never happened and we'd just never seen Ahsoka again or ever learned what she felt about Anakin. I've spoken enough about this show for anyone more familiar with me to know why I feel that way. If you haven't read my posts about it and want to hear more of them, you can search under the tags "ahsoka show" and "anti ahsoka show."

Turning the Darksaber into Mandalorian Excalibur is, perhaps controversially, a bad concept. It's introduced in the hands of a Mandalorian, sure, but it's also introduced specifically as a stolen Jedi relic. And between those two things, somehow the fact that it was in the hands of a Mandalorian got considered the more important part of it rather than the fact that it was a JEDI relic that got stolen from them.

And unfortunately turning the Darksaber into Mandalorian Excalibur has made the Mandos even more boring than they already were. It forces everything that was established about them in TCW to be basically erased and ignored. The whole aspect of them having a government of any kind, having a Council and a Prime Minister, is gone, and leaders are chosen by who can wield a stolen relic real good (or, more accurately, who can wield a DIFFERENT WEAPON well enough to defeat the person who IS wielding the stolen relic) rather than chosen more democratically by the people themselves.

The Darksaber also just isn't even being used very well in the narrative. It got handed to Sabine and we went through an entire lovely arc for her to earn it both the Jedi way and the Mandalorian way only for her to hand it off the very next season to someone who hadn't earned it at all. Then that person loses it and it somehow ends up in the hands of Din Djarin who seems to START an arc about earning it only for that to just get completely dropped so he can hand it right back to the same person Sabine handed it to last time and then it gets destroyed a few episodes later. There's not been any point to the Darksaber at all since it first showed up in Pre Viszla's hands in TCW. It should've stayed a fancy-looking stolen Jedi relic (and arguably should've just been handed back to the Jedi) if they weren't going to do a single interesting thing with any of the Mandos who ended up with it.

Moving on from the Darksaber, and looking at the Sequels, I think killing off all of Luke's Jedi students and destroying Leia's New Republic was a terrible terrible idea as a concept. I understand the idea of like... "Darkness always comes back, the fight is never completely over" but destroying ALL OF THE PROGRESS made in the last trilogy by the main characters just to force the new characters to do the exact same thing all over again is stupid. There are ways to do "darkness always comes back" as a theme without making Luke, Leia, and Han's arcs completely irrelevant. It doesn't feel hopeful by the end anymore, it just feels a little pointless because if everything is always going to be destroyed over and over again then why try to build anything at all? What's the fucking point of it all if none of the triumphs last long enough to mean anything?

And adding onto that, making the New Republic completely incompetent and also so horrible that they're basically the Empire in all but name feels equally frustrating as a concept because now not only were they destroyed before anything meaningful could be done with them, but it's not even a bad thing that they were destroyed because Leia failed long before Starkiller blew up those five planets. The New Republic was a failure from the moment of its inception because it's just filled with and run by cowards and greedy assholes who won't help anyone or do anything useful at all apparently.

I won't touch on R*ylo much because plenty of other people have, but everything about that was awful and it never should've been made canon.

While we're on romantic failures, I don't think Obi-Wan has ever needed a romantic interest, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be done well. But Obitine just wasn't it. Obitine was executed so incredibly poorly that it just made both characters radically less interesting and if I didn't already enjoy Obi-Wan as a character, his relationship with Satine would probably turn me off of Obi-Wan entirely given that he's literally a sexist asshole to her. Obitine never should've happened and if they HAD to do it, they should've gotten better writers to handle it so that it didn't ruin a beloved character as a result.

I'm sure there's more I could complain about, but that's what's coming to mind right now.

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

To the anon who sent me a link to another blog, I won't post your ask. I don't want to insert myself into a conversation happening in a space where I'm not part of. I don't even follow the blog and I try to stay away from answering asks that include links to other posts.

Suffice to say, I do agree with a lot of what has indeed been discussed there. I don't even think there's a point in labeling Muse as a sophomore album. We all know they worked on the tracks at the same time with Face. It is technically a second album, but in terms of production and chronology, it is like an extension to Face. So debates in terms of evolution cannot even take place.

I can understand why you brought that ask to my attention. I think it's healthy to look at an album/song/concept through a critical lens and when an actual Jimin fan is doing it, that's a good thing at least because that person is not going to trash talk him. Which considering the usual reactions, this is not that common.

I think that expectations for Jimin are always high and coming from everyone, including those who do not listen to his music. A song such as Like Crazy was not good enough. SGMB is of course not enough. SMFP2 was not good enough. I would say other songs from Face were considered not good enough, but I'm sure that only people actively interested in Jimin have listened to those. There's a criticism for everything so it's not like he can win in any way. And I know this sounds like I'm making him into some victim. That's not it. But I too use social media and I see it. That's just how it is. He doesn't get a vote of confidence for a myriad of reasons. At that point, you do have to wonder why people pay attention.

I don't have much to say about SGMB. Soundwise is similar to Closer Than This which I haven't listened, apart from the first time it got released. I don't think Smeraldo is as bad is it said to be. I think Jimin and his team were having fun with the name and decided to use it for a song. One that doesn't pretend to be something that it isn't. Having other expectations is just ridiculous and shows a lack of interest in what Jimin has been trying to do with his solo career.

Which hasn't taken off as much as I would like to. Him being in BTS and doing his military service have had a contribution to that. Maybe it will change once he comes back. Maybe not.

But I do want to point out that regardless of shortcomings here and there, I will cut him some slack simply because he's among the few who has been 100% involved in his album production. There's nothing wrong with choosing the songs and singing them. Not at all. But I will appreciate that Jimin was involved in writing the lyrics, and as a producer for most of Face and Muse. I think he took full advantage of that music camp. So what if he hasn't found his music identity yet? There's a timeline? Does it have to happen immediately? At least he hasn't reached a stage in which he has become complacent and have every song sound the same. If he finds that identity in 10, 20, or more years, then so be it. It is his journey.

Personally, I will refrain from making any in-depth analysis of Muse, not now and not immediately after release. I will take my time. It's the reason why I don't like writing reviews. I find that jumping right it, without having time to listen and digest the work does not work for me. Others can, and some critics are actually good at it.

For now, I just want to enjoy this period of anticipation, the music videos and the performances. I can't bring myself to get involved in debates or mean girl-ism over music. I don't have the mental bandwith for such things.

[masteraqua]

okay i need to take a break from thinking about it but i still want to share what i've been working on for my kh3 reimagining—now officially named KH3 Retry! get it? re-tri? you get it

so i've been thinking a lot about the kh3 prologue. if you saw my recent complaints about it, then you'll know i find the original sequence to be sloppy and forgettable, resulting in an incredibly weak start to the story. and so in light of that, i'm throwing the whole thing out and starting from scratch.

keep reading to see what i have in mind! 👀

i'm still working out some details, but here's what i know so far:

a teenage xehanort is the central character of the prologue rather than sora. i always found it bizarre that the main antagonist barely appears in kh3 until the finale, and i intend to correct that by starting the game with him, allowing us to get a glimpse inside his head to better understand his motivations and perspective.

as a direct parallel to kh1, we begin with a dream sequence. however, instead of a station of awakening, xehanort finds himself atop a gigantic alba & ater game board floating in a void.

i love the way the board is used throughout the kh3 opening as both a physical stage and a framing device. i'm incorporating both of those angles, but i'm also taking it a step further by making it playable. the tiered structure of the tiles would lend themselves well to teaching physics controls, don't you think?

the height of the tiles will change as the tutorial progresses, depending on what's being taught; walking/running, jumping, climbing, dodging, etc. maybe they'll form stairs or a labyrinth or even a pit if the situation calls for it.

here's some concept art! no i did not draw the board accurately, but you get the idea. baby nort for scale

after completing the mobility tutorials, the ground will begin to shake and towering chess pieces will fall from the sky to fill the board, nearly crushing xehanort in the process. this will lead into the questionnaire that influences the level progression system.

as this is xehanort's dream, the dream weapons this time around will be represented by chess pieces. i need to flesh this part out more, but the basic idea behind it is that everything in life is a strategy game to xehanort; move the right pieces to the right places and you'll win. so you choose which piece to play

here's a low-effort mockup of the pieces that can definitely be improved later

as xehanort traverses the board, setting up his strategy, he will see visions playing out around him of events that have yet to pass—events he will one day be responsible for. this ties in to all the pieces that are now on the board, since they represent different characters. this also has the added function of reminding the player of the story up to this point.

there are several cool shots from the kh3 opening to use as reference here. it's a shame they go by so quickly

after the questionnaire, there will be combat tutorials and probably a boss fight at the end, à la darkside and twilight thorn. i haven't thought it through yet, but i wouldn't dream of leaving out a big monster set piece battle. maybe he's fighting a representation of his own darkness? or somebody else's...

it might be interesting if he's using the gazing eye keyblade during this part, because he doesn't actually have it at this point in his life. i think that'd be very ominous from his perspective.

after taking down whatever metaphysical monster has been conjured by his psyche, the dream will end on a triumphant but foreboding note. altogether i think this sequence would take about 15-20 minutes.

but we're not done yet! continuing the parallel to kh1, xehanort awakes in scala ad caelum. he's sitting by the window in the classroom, game board by his side. he gives it an inquisitive look, still thinking about his dream.

i'm still contemplating what happens next, but the gist is this: playable scala. we should get a proper introduction to the world and be able to interact with the environment in order to learn more about what xehanort's life is like here. i think this is important in the pursuit of humanizing him.

there will probably be some minor objectives to complete, something small, maybe a fetch quest. would it be too on the nose to have a mock fight against eraqus with a score counter?

i have some ideas for how to incorporate story elements from dark road, but i need to think about them more.

this section doesn't need to take longer than 20-25 minutes, i think; it just needs to be enough to get a sense for the world. it's very important to me that it isn't as time-consuming as the kh2 prologue.

the last shot will have the camera follow xehanort's gaze up to the sky, followed by the title card.

speaking of which!!! i made a logo :)

[catcas22]

Hi! Happy to know that you (particularly you! 😊) will keep working on your fics as if that DLC twist didn't happen (saw your reblog). the Unalloyed, still one of my favs. And now I think I'll finally start Prince of Death too, as a form of therapy ❤️ Thought to do this earlier, really, it's just that it's big, and I'm a bad slow reader, can't find time... But I'm always watching your updates, they get me interested. Always happy to see you on my dash

Actually wanted to reach out to you yesterday. I think we, those who like Miquella and have our own headcanons, fix AUs, should stick together 😊 For now, I myself don't know what to do with all this new lore... There are some new cool additions to the world, but... you know, yeah.

Hi! I hope you enjoy Prince of Death when you get around to it (I know it's a doorstopper lol).

Yeah, I'm happy to stick with my headcanon version of Miquella. The DLC certainly has some interesting editions (particularly regarding Marika's history) but I hate what they did with Miquella and Radahn.

Disclaimer: I haven't played the DLC yet, I'm going off of Fextralife and my mutuals. So if I get something wrong, sorry in advance.

The sad thing is that I think the DLC concept of Miquella could have worked. In fact, it could have been amazing. The idea of Miquella trying to ascend to godhood by sacrificing pieces of himself rather than sacrificing others, only to lose so much of himself that he forgets the compassion that originally motivated him, could have been beautifully tragic and fitting for his character.

Don't get me wrong, that's not how I hoped Miquella's story would end. But this is Fromsoft we're talking about. I don't want Lady Maria to make every possible wrong decision until the guilt consumes her, then die (twice) in service to a lie. I don't want Artorias to die alone and consumed by madness, only able to be put down like a rabid dog. I don't want Lothric to be executed and dragged to the Kiln despite his brother's best efforts to save him. I don't want Vyke to fall to Frenzy because he refused to sacrifice his companion. But all of these ends feel narratively satisfying. The tragedy feels earned, beautiful in a way rather than pointless.

The broad concept of Miquella's arc could have been a classic Fromsoft tragedy. But instead it ends up feeling... deeply stupid, once you look into the details. From what I understand, the entire thing could have been resolved by Malenia and Radahn engaging in single combat at an agreed-upon spot. If Radahn was the one insisting on a match, why did Malenia march her armies across an entire continent of hostile territory? Why involve two armies-worth of collateral damage? If Radahn needed to die to reach the Land of Shadows, why the everliving fuck did Malenia hit him with the one thing that would ensure he lived on for centuries in undying agony? Why did Miquella leave Malenia and the Haligtree to literally rot (before he cast aside his love, mind you) when presumably the whole point of his ascension was to save them? If Miquella was the one manipulating Mohg, why didn't he manipulate Mohg into doing the blood-ministration thing at his cocoon at the Haligtree instead of staging a fake kidnapping?

So in short, yes, I will be sticking with my interpretation Miquella 😊

Glad to have you and plenty of other friends on board!

[fizzing-imagines]

My mom's Billy | Billy Hargrove x Single Mom! Military! Reader

Notes: This is the ending Billy DESERVED, with some good therapy, a nice home and a family that loves him

Warnings: Mentions of abuse

Words: 4.1k

This was your first time in group therapy. It was highly recommend by your therapist to you, after having trouble connection to others. Her idea was that meeting people with similar experience to yours would help you. Two friendly-looking therapists happily greeted the group of eight, then introduced you. "We have a new face joining us today." Everyone looked at you, you could feel your face heating up. "Oh, uhm...Hi, I'm (Y/N). Uhm...my ex-husband abused me throughout our twelve year relationship. And uhm...I used to be a lieutenant in the navy, but I quit when my son Leo was born so I've been a housewife for five years. I work as a waitress now though." The female therapist of the two gave you an encouragement smile. "I, uhm, I left him a year ago. The divorce was actually finalised last week, so...now I'm here." You let out an awkward laugh, but the group also gave you an encouraging smile. A man with ocean blue eyes and curly, blonde hair stood out to you as he looked you up and down. His face was wrinkled, even though he didn't look too old to you yet. There was a stubbly beard on his face, a bit darker than his hair, and while his lips were full they were also chewed up. What stood out most were the hickeys on his neck.

"Thank you for sharing.", one of the participants told you. With a smile, you gave her a nod. "Have you thought about going back to the navy?", another participant asked you. Wow, these people were open. "I have, but I don't have a partner and my mother is too old to constantly take care of my son when I'm on deployment so that's off the table." It disappointed you, really. You loved your career and regretted letting your ex take that joy from you. "And daycare has gotten so expensive.", a man in the group said. "I have two young children, we have them in daycare." He continued talking about barely being able to afford having his kids looked after at a daycare, so the focus was finally off of you. But the meeting itself was nice, the participants were kind and understanding. Even though the man who checked you out in the beginner barely talked, until he was asked towards the end of the meeting. "Billy, you haven't shared today.", the male therapist said. "Anything you wanna say?" He shrugged his shoulders. "Not really, nothing interesting happened. Had a date, but she wasn't my 'forever person'" He put the last to words into air quotes. "Nothing else interesting happened, really." For some reason, he intrigued you. "Well, besides that this is your last session today.", the male therapist added. "Oh yeah, that too. My therapist said I've gotten a well-enough social circle to not attend anymore and I could really use the hour for more shifts at my job." Everyone said goodbye to Billy.

After group, you left the centre to get to your car. As you unlocked your door, you saw Billy walking over to your car. "Hey, (Y/N), wasn't it?" You nodded your head. "Well, since I'm not in group anymore I was hoping I could give you my phone number." Your cheeks suddenly felt hot - you haven't been asked out since you met your husband. It hasn't been a concept that was a possibility for you. "Listen, I think I get that it might be hard for you, so you don't have to give me your number." He took out a piece of paper and wrote something down. "But give me a call if you feel like going out on a date. I'd be happy to hear from you, you can reach me at any time of the day." You took the piece of paper from his hand and let out a quiet "Thank you." before he left to get into his own car. You yourself sat in your car for a good five minutes to process what just happened. Someone asked you out on a date? You really couldn't believe it. Eventually, you started your engine and drove to your mothers house to pick up your son.

After you got him into bed you sat in the living room and kept starring at the tiny piece of paper with Billy's number on it. You told your mother about it, and she encountered you to call him, but your brain had a blockage. But will it ever go away if you don't break it? The clock told you that it was already midnight, you questioned how you could sit there for hours with your own thoughts discouraging you. Slowly, you took your flipphone out of your pocket and dialed the number. After a few rings, you were greeted by a sleepy "Hello?" His voice was raspy, and you immediately felt bad for disruption his sleep. "It's...it's (Y/N)." The two of you talked on the phone for a good while, talking through details of what he wants to do where with you. Billy had good ideas, but you insisted on public places only. He was very understanding and suggested a nice restaurant downtown. When you said that you couldn't afford that, he said "Don't worry about money, I'll invite you for the evening." It made you blush a bit - you can't remember the last time you've been invited to dinner.

You two had a good date. Your mother looked after your son and let him have a sleepover at her place, meanwhile Billy picked you up from your house. He brought you flowers and showered you in compliments before even letting you step into his car. It made your stomachs flip up- and down, especially because you sort of accepted the fact that you'd never find love again. While it didn't have to mean that Billy has to be the one, it was nice to be wooed again. Dinner went just as well, you had nice conversations, went on a walk afterwards and he dropped you off at your apartment afterwards. "I'd like to see you again.", he said to you with a smile while standing in front of your entrance. It made your heart skip a beat and your cheeks heat up. "I'm free next Thursday, maybe we can get breakfast together?", you said while smiling at him. He took his hand in yours, said "I'll pick you up at 8:30." and kissed the back of your hand. You said your goodbyes and went inside your apartment. Once you laid in bed and thought about the evening, you couldn't help but grin until you fell asleep.

You looked forward to breakfast with Billy for days, and it went just as well as the first date. Billy took you out at least two times a week for the next month. What you loved most about it was that he never pressured you into any physical contact - the most he ever did was give you a kiss on the cheek. Everyone around you noticed how much happier you've gotten. It also rubbed off on your son, who turned from extremely shy and introverted to an extroverted ball of energy. Right now, you were at Billy's house, having a few snacks and talking about life.

"Billy, can I ask you something?", you said as you leaned your head against the backrest of his couch. "Anything.", he said with a smile. "You really don't need to answer if you don't want to, but since you know why I was in group...why were you?" You've had your suspicions after being at his place a few times. There were no family pictures anywhere, except one of him and his stepsister, and a few childhood pictures of him and his mother. "Was about time for that question, huh?" He let out an awkward chuckle while thinking of an answer. "My dad, actually. He, uhm, he first abused my mother and eventually me. And when my mother left, I became too much like him. I was a bully, and was a dick to my step-sister. But I eventually got out, moved back here and got help. So my sister forgave me at least, but she still lives in Indiana." You knew that he lived there for a while, until he had an accidentally and came back to California. "Billy, I'm so sorry..." you said while reaching out for his hand. He took his hand in yours and squeezed it once. "I'm okay now, (Y/N)." Even though he just told you what happened to you in his past, he still smiled at you. "He's miserable now, we put him in a nursing home in some shithole town." His thumb started stroking over the back of your hand as his eyes looked into yours. "Uhm, I actually had a question...about your ex and your son.", he said while looking down. Something told you that that question was uncomfortable to him. "Sure, what's up?", you asked. "Well, I know what your ex did to you but...what did your son experience?" Knowing what Billy went through with his dad, this was probably for his own piece of mind as well. "It honestly started when he was born. He screamed at him as a baby to shut up when he cried, then he started pushing him when he was running through the house. But once he punched him, I packed our things and ran away with Leo. Pressed charges the same day and haven't looked back." Now Billy was the one to squeeze your hand. "You did the right thing (Y/N), I'm proud of you." You smiled and scooted closer to him, letting your knee touch his. Somehow, both of you knew what the other thought about - he pulled you into a hug and held you tight to his body, while you wrapped your arms around his torso and rested your head on his chest. You could hear his heartbeat, take in his scent; you felt like you were home. Billy was the one for you, you knew that.

On the next date, you two kissed for the first time. The one after that, he asked to be your boyfriend. Of course you said yes, how could you not? But now there was a problem: You'd have to eventually tell Leo. While you did tell him that you've made a new friend and meet up with him a lot, you never told him that you're dating again. That was your mistake, because now you'd have to tell him. The biggest problem? Leo was afraid of men. He couldn't be near male teachers or any of his uncles, even male cashiers got a massive side eye from him. So his mom now having a new boyfriend, after his biology father abused him for his entire life? It didn't seem possible to you. But you did have to tell him eventually, so you sat him down on a Saturday after you two got ice cream.

"Leo, do you remembered my friend Billy that I have been seeing a lot lately?", you started the conversations with. Leo nodded his head, then took a lick of his ice cream. "Is he coming over?", he asked then. "Well, maybe. I actually have to tell you something else about Billy." Your heart started racing, and you honestly didn't even know where you were going with this. "You know when we talked about how daddies and mommies love each other?" He nodded his head once more. "Well, when daddies and mommies separate, it can happen that they meet someone else who made them as happy as the other mommy or daddy made them. But when the other mommy or daddy wasn't a good person-" You were interrupted by your own son. "Like Dean?" Leo never called your ex dad, he always called him Dean. "Yes, like Dean. Well, then the mommy or daddy might meet someone who makes them even happier." Your son continued eating his ice cream quietly. "And Billy is that other person who makes me even happier, and that's what I wanted to tell you, Leo." He remained quiet for a bit, trapped in his own thoughts, before he talked again. "So is Billy your boyfriend now?" He didn't scrunch his face in disgust or anger, which was a good sign. "Yes, sweetheart, Billy is my boyfriend now and I wanted to tell you so you could get ready to meet him someday." Once again, he thought about your words for a while. "Does Billy hit you like Dean did?" Unfortunately, Leo knew too much about abuse too soon. "No, Leo, Billy has never hit me or insult me. Do you remembered when we talked about how Mommies and Daddies should treat each other?" He took a big lick of his ice cream before answering. "That they always cuddle and kiss and hug each other, and that they never hit or scream at each other." You nodded in agreement. "That's right. And that is how Billy treats me." For the third time, he was inside his head and thinking something over. "My friend Lee, his dad has a new girlfriend and he says that she's his step-mother now. Is Billy my step-dad?" Oh, you were not prepared for that question at all. You actually expected a tantrum. "You can call him that if you want to. But you can also just call him Billy." Leo went on to ask when he was going to meet Billy, if he could cook for him with you, if Billy liked basketball as much as he does.

So the day came. On the following Thursday, you and Leo were making two different pizzas for the three of you. He insisted on making a funny face out of salamies on one pizza while you added mushrooms, olives and spinach to the other one. Once you put the food in the oven, your doorbell rang. "He's here!", Leo said while running up to the front door. "Mama, can I open it?", he asked you. As you were washing your hands it wasn't such a bad idea. "Sure sweetheart, be nice!", you said over to him. Your son opened the door and greeted your boyfriend with a wide grin. "Hello, are you my mom's Billy?", he asked. His question made you chuckle. "I am your mom's Billy. Are you your mom's Leo?" He loudly said yes before leading him inside and telling Billy to take his shoes and jacket off. "Mom's in the kitchen.", he said to Billy. "Leo, go wash your hands and change your shirt. Dinner is done soon." You could hear your sons footsteps running off while Billy came through the kitchen door. "That was quite the greeting.", he said with a chuckle in his voice. "He's uncharacteristically excited to meet you.", you replied while drying your hands. The two of you shared a quick kiss before the timer for the pizza went off. "He even made you smiling pizza."

Leo's and Billy's first meeting went extraordinarily well. In the evening, after your boyfriend left, he asked you when he would come over again. And it didn't take long until he asked when Billy would move in with the two of you. Six months deep into the relationship, Leo and you moved in with Billy. He had two extra rooms and a big backyard that he couldn't use all by himself. Your son loved it, and he loved Billy. At some point, he started calling the two of you "My mama and my Billy", which made your boyfriends heart melt. Billy and you got married two years later, you took Billy's last name and tried looking into how Leo could get it too. Eventually, it all resolved itself.

Billy was looking after Leo while you were at work. He picked him up from school and was making him dinner while Leo was doing his homework. However, math wasn't his strongsuit so he walked to Billy with his textbook. "Dad, can you help me with this?" Billy stopped in his tracks as he heard Leo call him dad for the first time but swallowed it down to not make him feel uncomfortable. He helped him with his homework and didn't let anything show until he was alone in the kitchen and cried some tears; happy tears. He continued lunch with your, and now his, son like he always does. Once you came home, he immediately pulled you into a tight hug. "What's gotten into you?", you said with a giggle. "Leo called me dad today.", he mumbled into the crook of your neck. Your eyes went wide in suprise and happiness, then you laughed. "Seriously? Billy, that's amazing!" You passionately kissed him on the lips as he was still squeezing you against his body.

Later that night, you checked in on your son after he went to bed, just to see that he was still awake and seemed upset. "Leo? What's wrong sweetheart?" You walked over to his bed and sat down on the edge of it. "I called Billy dad today and he didn't react...", he mumbled into his blanket. Oh. "Why does that upset you?", you asked him while petting his head. "Because I thought it would make him happy. And I never had a dad..." You opened your arms as an invitation for a hug, which he gladly took as he scooted closer. "Billy was very happy, but he didn't want you to feel weird about it.", you said to your as you hugged him. "He thought that you wouldn't want to do it anymore if he was too emotional." Leo hummed, a sound he started making when he thought about something, before asking "Can dad come in?" You smiled and told him that that was possible, then gave him a kiss goodnight and left the room. "Billy, your son wants to talk to you.", you said to your husband as you stepped into your shared bedroom. "Alright.", he said while getting up and leaving the room. You went into bed and waited for him to return, which was a good 20 minute wait. When Billy came back, he was quiet and quickly got under the blanket next to you with no words. "Sweetheart, you're awfully quiet.", you said to him while taking one of his hands in yours. "It's okay.", he mumbled while getting closer to you. "Our son just had some questions. But it's all good now." The way he said 'Our son' made your heart melt. "Father-son secret?" You smirked at your own words, Billy let out a small chuckle. "Definetly.", he replied before placing a kiss on your cheek.

Life went on for months. Billy was the father Leo never had, he was happier than ever. Billy finally had the family he always wanted. And you were planning on going back to the navy - that was until a tiny plastic stick with two blue lines came in the way. You've had your suspicions before, considering that this would be your second pregnancy. But how? Leo was nine already and so used to being an only child. Billy and you weren't going to get any younger either - at age 37 now, you'd almost be a senior citizen by the time your child graduates high school. So you did what you always do: Go to Billy.

"Bil.", you mumbled as you stood in the doorway of your shared bedroom, test in your shaky hands. It was only natural to him to see how terrified you were, so close to crying but swallowing it down for the sake of your son in the next room. "Come here.", he said while walking up to you. It was only then that he noticed the positive pregnancy test in your hands. "You know, I always wanted two kids." was all he said before wrapping his arms around you. "We'll manage."

He stayed true to his words. You gave birth to baby Leia and went back to the navy months after. Leo was ecstatic to be a big brother, not wanting to ever leave Leias side at any time of the day since the moment he first saw her. He went so far that he volunteers to bring her to bed on some days, and for whatever reason she'd always fall asleep when he did without fuzzing. And Billy, oh god, Billy was so happy to watch his daughter grow up. Of course he saw Leo as his own son, but he couldn't watch him grow up from the day he was born. Knowing your and Leo's past, Billy made sure that he won't be anything like your ex or his dad. During your second trimester, he went back to his old therapist to see if he truly was ready to be a father. When Leia was a year old, you and your family were send to Finland for deployment. Once again, your husband stayed true to his words: "We'll manage.". Leo was send to an english-speaking school while Leia went to a regular, finnish daycare. If you were going to live here, you want her to learn a second language while doing so. Billy, somehow, got to continue working as a mechanic while you were obvious caught up with the finnish navy. Everything was beyond perfect and felt like a fairytale. The four of you were send back to America after six years in Finland, but to Florida this time. Leia cried a lot when she had to leave, including the entire flight back and the first night in America. You couldn't blame her - she's leaving the place she grew up in. You promised her to go back to Finland during summer break, and while that cheered her up it didn't help a lot. Once again, Billy stuck to his words. "We'll manage.". He did everything he could to get Leia out of her head, helped her with schoolwork, went surfing with her, took her on daddy-daughter dates. She got better eventually and found many friends. You, on the other hand, felt bad that this would eventually be ripped from her again.

Four years later, you decided on a desk job at the navy in California. It took a lot from you to make this decision, but it was the best one for your family. You couldn't watch your daughter sit and cry for her entire childhood. California was the best decision for everyone, including your husband. He was happier, Leo was happier, Leia adapted after a few months. She loved California eventually, especially because her Dad could show her around so much more now.

"Dad, I have a confession to make." Leo made sure you weren't home. He was two weeks away from graduating high school, and already signed up for his future profession. But he told neither you nor Billy. "What's going on kid?", he asked while looking up from the newspaper he was reading. At this point, he needed glasses to even make out a single letter. "Mom didn't want me to, but I signed up for the marines and got in." Billy knew about your opinion in this. You didn't want your children to get into the military at all. It wasn't a taboo theme at home, but it was barely on the table. After what your ex-husband did to you, you couldn't bear to possibly have them go down the same road as you. "Why did you want to join?", Billy asked. He'd form his opinion based on his reply, he decided. "Mom saves so many people. I've always looked up to her, and I wanna be like her." Billy smiled at his sons words. "You know, I'm convinced that she'll be okay with it if you tell her like that."

You were. Leo went to bootcamp, your old bootcamp, where you dropped him off with a heavy heart. Billy and Leia came with you as well to send him off. "Stay safe, son.", Billy told him before giving him a tight hug. Leo promised to not die, and that was enough for him. Leia cried a bit while saying her goodbyes, and had to hold onto her father after hugging her brother. You were last, it was only logical to him. "I'll make you proud.", he promised you. "Leo, I' already so proud of you.", you said to him with a smile. "You'll do just as well. Bootcamp will be the best months of your life, promise." In motherly fashion, you gave him a kiss on his cheek before letting him walk inside.

Back in the car, Billy tried changing the topic as the mood was low. "Well, if my son comes after his mother job-wise, I hope my daughter comes after me.", he said to you and Leia.

"I was actually thinking about Infantry.", she replied.

[poppetsisters]

Now that my rage over the Doomcasting has simmered down, I just wanna gush over the Fantastic Four comi con stuff.

I'm not joking, when I heard that Michael Giacchino was doing the score, I SCREAMED. Not only is he famous for scoring The Incredibles, but he also did Speed Racer from 2008 which, if you haven't heard that score, it is one of the best scores for any film I've seen.

The period accurate footage is such a treat. I figured Matt Shakman's work on Wandavision was going to be indicative of what the Fantastic Four was gonna look like and yet it looks even better. I was nervous that Shakman's lack of feature film experience was gonna be a detriment, but his decades of work on TV gives him amazing instincts for character dynamics, which is one of the most important assets when making a Fantastic Four movie.

A lot of what we saw is pre-vis and may not actually be in the movie, but the retro-future vibe of the movie is perfect. The fact that MCU Fantastic Four is taking place in its own separate pocket away from all the bullshit really helps me feel excited for this movie. For once, the disconnectedness is something I'm EXCITED about, go figure.

Again, because it's pre-vis, not a whole lot of glimpses at The Thing's rocky form, in fact none of the powers were shown off for understandable reasons. I have no worries that The Thing is going to look good. As bad as Fant4stic was, The Thing looked pretty good in that film. Korg also never looked outright bad to me either, and they're probably gonna put more effort into how he looks anyway. Sue's powers are probably gonna be represented well seeing as invisibility is a really easy power to do VFX for. Fire graphics have come a long way as well, and that concept art makes me thing they may take a very stylised approach to his flame effects. Reed however is the one I'm really worried about. The only time stretch powers looked good was The Incredibles 1 and 2, but those were both stylised 3D animated filma. Live action has a much higher bar to clear with a heavy risk of uncanny valley Pedro Pascal. If you can make that man look bad, then you know you fucked up.

The Fantasticar is nice. We had the Dodge in Rise of Silver Surfer and the Bathtub in Deadpool and Wolverine, and though I like the Silver Surfer one (despite the shameless product placement) I get that they wanted a car that looked like a mid-century man's idea of what a flying car looks like. The only think is that I wish it could split apart into four sections, it doesn't look like it can do that. Oh well.

The spacesuits look good, the colours are exactly what I imagined they'd be on the concept art, but I'm waiting for the proper super suits to be shown off. Hopefully they have less interlocking parts and resemble the slightly thick and comfy spandex we saw in the concept art.

It looks like Pedro is keeping the moustache, which normally I'm not a fan of Reed with facial hair, but I also think it gives Reed a sorta Howard Hughes look that helps him blend in with the aesthetics of the world. The grey around the temples is good though, and it seems like he's also doing a transatlantic accent which frankly is very surprising.

I thought that Ebon wasn't doing an accent until I rewatched him during an interview. He appears to be toning down his natural tendency to draw out his A's and E's. It was only two lines of dialogue so I don't know, but what is very apparent is that he's not going for the outrageous brooklyn accent The Thing is legendary for in the comics, but something a little more subtle and believable.

Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn are both different flavors of British, and though Joseph only says one word, it's pretty clear both are foregoing their natural accents. That said, Vanessa's choice of, what I can only guess is a slight mid-western accent, is very interesting. I was not expecting that choice.

They added a subtitle to the movie. Fantastic 4: First Steps. I think they didn't need to add a subtitle, but since they did. I'll just give it a cursory analysis. I think you can derive FOUR meanings from the title: First Steps calls to mind humanity's first steps on the Moon, fitting for a space age tale. First Steps also feels like a good title for their first adventure. First Steps works metatextually as their first steps into the MCU (which isn't technically true with those two cameos in MoM and D&W), but the most important theory I have for First Steps is in relation to a baby's first steps. I think that Franklin is going to be in this movie as a major plot point. Serving what purpose, I'm not sure.

To finish things off, we only get a look at Galactus through a window, so not much I can comment on in terms of appearance, but I'm very happy that it's an actual dude and not shadows within a cosmic cloud. He looks very imposing and I hope we get more perspective shots like that to sell how big this guy is.

[thealias0]

I might have came up with alternate resolutions for both The Giggle and Empire of Death in the shower

I think that those resolutions are both really underwhelming and deserved more. So, let's start what i came up with The Giggle.

Originally, The Toymaker was defeated by him just messing up. No clever play from anyone. 14 and 15 haven't displayed one of their biggest traits, which is their Time Lord super intelligence. They only displayed their ability to play catch, which is just such a waste imo. My proposal: Game of catch goes just like it did in the episode, but eventually 14 and 15 look at each other in understanding. They have cooked a plan. 14 catches the ball and throws it to 15, but he misses and ball falls off the edge of the rooftop. Both act shocked and 15 immediately sprints into the building. Toymaker looks at what just transpired and laughs and screams. "Go ahead, run if you wanna play hide and seek next. You will not escape me anyways." Turns to 14. "Are you proud? Your next incarnation revealed himself to be a coward! I expect many things from you, Doctor, but that sure surprised me. Now, you lost the game, so now's time for me to collect my reward." 14 smirks. "I wouldn't be so sure, as I believe... it is still falling" The moment he said that, the ball hurling from the entrance to the building hits The Toymaker and falls to the ground. In the way stands none other than 15 visibly exhausted from running and expression of relief on his face. Toymaker visibly angry, scared and confused asks: "Wh- What?! How did you... No... don't tell me-" "That's right, Toymaker" 15 expeled. "There are no rules forbidding the usage of time machines" 14 finished the thought. Then the flashback plays out showing the whole thing from 15's perspective. He runs as fast as he can straight to the TARDIS passing himself on the way, travels to the time and place where the ball is supposed to land, catches it, travels back and runs back to the rooftop passing himself on the way back. The rest transpires as it did in the original. I'm not claiming it's the best, great or even good alternate ending, but i think it would be more satisfying than what we got.

The resolution for Empire of Death is one of the most disappointing events I've ever seen in Doctor Who. It made Sutekth into a complete joke. Are you really telling me that the supposed most powerful being in existence. A god so powerful and terrifying that even The Toymaker ran in terror, wasn't able to handle a fucking rope? I don't care if it's a "smart rope" whatever that means. Toymaker was able to turn bullets into confetti, people into bunch of bouncy balls and implied he could turn galaxies into figet spinners or whatever. Sutekth is supposed to be more powerful than that and he couldn't do anything about it? Sutekth deserves much better than this. So this is what i came up with. It isn't nearly as detailed as the toymaker stuff, but i hope you'll enjoy the concept. So, i decided to actually use the spoon to save the universe in hopefully interesting way. I didn't think of any good scenario yet, but here's my idea for the concept itself. What if Doctor defeated Sutekh by using his power against him using the spoon. By that i mean that The Doctor could psychologically manipulate Sutekh into believing that the spoon through some classic Doctor Who technobabble, power of love and fairy tale salt spilling mumbo jumbo became an actual weapon capable of defeating him. Sutekh being a god and having power over reality itself could subconsciously make that story a reality and unknowingly empowering the spoon with his own power, which then Doctor could use to defeat him.

So that's what i came up. I am not a writer, so i apologize if that's an unbearable slop of a read. I'm not claiming that the dialogue i wrote is any good, as im just not experienced in writing. All i did here was not very thought through and only served the purpose of conveying my core ideas about the alternate resolutions for those stories. Hope you enjoyed and have a nice day

[officiallordvetinari]

Language and the Mind on Deva Loka

So we've reached the 5th Doctor in our watchthrough, and yesterday we finished Kinda. Lots of good stuff in this episode, but I was particularly interested in the Kinda's relationship to language. We first learn about the Kinda through the eyes of human colonists, who see them as "primitives" lacking a culture and incapable of communication (because of course they do). However, we soon find that they are an advanced culture of sapient beings, and that this went unnoticed by the humans because the Kinda communicate telepathically.

So far, pretty standard sci-fi material. It's the next thing we learn that piqued my interest: the Kinda are physically capable of speech, although only certain wise woman use it. We meet two, the Wise Woman Panna and her young apprentice Karuna. The obvious question - if the Kinda have language, why do most of them not use it? (it's said that men are mentally incapable of it, but that still leaves half the population who could be speaking but aren't.) The obvious answer is that they don't need to - they're telepathic, so language as a tool of communication has no use to them. But that opens up a second question - why do any of them use language? And why are those people given such high status?

On several occasions, Karuna telepathically "reads" other Kinda and reports the results to Panna. These communications take the form of emotions, basic concepts, and some simple sentences:

Fear. And hurting. And confusion. Where is my brother?

Darkness. Understanding nothing. Hurt. Heal me.

It's not just that most Kinda don't physically speak with the mouth - their mental communications are structured differently to Panna and Karuna's verbal communications. It's not "thought-speak", it's more impressionistic. It looks to me like the wise women's minds actually work differently to their fellows. I think this is the purpose of language in Kinda culture - not a tool for communication, but a tool for complex conceptualization.

Language serves this function on Earth too, of course. The psychologist Lev Vygotsky analyzed children's language acquisition in terms of tool use. Infants are born into a world full of tools they don't know how to use - physical tools like spoons, shoelaces, bicycles; and cultural tools like timekeeping, table manners, and language. Children learn to use these tools because their interactions with other people are mediated by them. In Vygotsky's view, children often narrate their actions out loud because they are practicing the skill of thought, and haven't mastered the tool of language well enough to use it internally yet.

For another, more sci-fi approach, consider the view of language as a memetic organism that engages in symbiosis with humans - we give it a place to live and a way to reproduce, and it gives us a new way of interacting with the world. (We could combine the two ideas to describe language as a parasitic tool - now that's pretty sci-fi.)

For humans, this process goes mostly unnoticed. By definition, it occurs before we're fully conscious. The conceptual world of language is just the water we swim in. For the Kinda, it would be strange and unusual! Their conceptual world would be alien to us, and the wise women's conceptual world is at least partly alien to them.

Back up for a second. We know that only a few Kinda use language. In humans, language is learned by immersion from birth. Young Kinda are born into a community with language users, and yet they don't learn to use it themselves. That's not something that happens with us! What's different for them? Maybe it's paucity of input - if there are only two language users, the baby won't interact with them enough. Maybe it's simply that telepathy is so useful, there's no pressure to use neurological resources on learning language. Or maybe - if you'll permit me to speculate wildly - a telepathic species would never evolve the capacity to learn by immersion. They lack the language instinct. Such a species would still be able to invent language, just like they can invent anything else, but they might require more intensive, formal instruction to learn it - more comparable to human mathematics or engineering than human language.

So how does your average Kinda think about language, then? It's a skill of wise women, much too complicated for a layman to understand. Sometimes a wise woman will select a young child as an apprentice and take her away for training. Nobody sees the child for a long time, maybe years, and when she reappears she's... different. When you reach out to her telepathically, her mind doesn't feel like your friends and neighbors. Still recognizably Kinda, but strange, full of concepts you don't understand and going in directions you can't follow. The skill/tool/memetic parasite has moved into her head and given her wisdom, and now she is a new kind of thing. A wise woman.

So at this point, I'm thinking that this is all a bit Faction Paradox. Memetic entities, conceptual realities, culture and technology are that series' bread and butter. The writers of Kinda may not have been thinking about it in those terms, but a FP reading of the episode would be very easy to do.

And then, in the last part of the episode, something else happens. Panna dies:

DOCTOR: Panna's dead. (Karuna takes Panna's staff.) KARUNA: Idiot. Don't you know anything? Of course I'm not dead. ... TODD: Ridiculous. I mean, if she is Panna, the wise woman, then where is Karuna? Answer me that. KARUNA: Well, Doctor? DOCTOR: Er, well, it's a good scientific question. Where are you? KARUNA: I am her. DOCTOR: Both of you. KARUNA: We are one. DOCTOR: So, when Panna died, her knowledge and experience were passed over to you. TODD: But how? KARUNA: It is our way.

So, did Panna literally transfer her consciousness into Karuna's brain? Maybe. They are psychic. This raises some questions - did Panna have two consciousnesses as well? Did her mentor's mind make the trip to Karuna's head, or did it die in Panna's? Is this a Bene Gesserit thing where Karuna has generations of wise women's consciousness now?

Or maybe it's not as literal as that. To me, "it is our way" sounds like it's describing a cultural practice. Put yourself in Karuna's shoes. You were raised by this woman for as long as you can remember. She taught you all her knowledge of history, medicine, etc., and more than that, she taught you her arcane methods of thinking about that knowledge. She is the only person you know whose mind works like yours. And she has always made it clear to you that you are her successor, and when she dies, you will become her. Isn't it possible that when she does die, you just sort of... do? Nothing physically or psionically passed between you, you simply start being her. To humans, identity isn't shareable or transferable - one person cannot be another person. But is that a fact of nature, or is it another cultural construct? Perhaps the Kinda constructed it differently.

And this, too, is Faction Paradox! The Remote in that series reproduce with remembrance tanks, in which a lump of raw biomass is bombarded by the thoughts of the entire society until it becomes a person. Using this method, dead Remote can be resurrected, but the more it happens the more the person will become a reflection of the way people saw the original. Still, there is continuity of a kind. Immortality not through physical, biological technology, but through cultural technology. Conceptual cloning.

I don't really have a conclusion here. Uhh... Kinda is a good episode, and social technologies are pretty cool. Thanksforreadingbyeee!

[some-teeth-in-a-trench-coat]

please tell us more about moth wizard

With pleasure!!! (Although I have to keep it short because I need to sleep pretty soon BUT I can add more tomorrow)

Moth Wizard is one of my OCs and also the (temporary) name of the setting in which he is the main character.

Moth Wizard the character is a Jewish trans man who has learned magic and specializes exclusively in controlling moths. He is likely autistic and loves lepidopterans (moths and butterflies) and struggles with social cues and understanding what other people are thinking or able to infer from a situation. My boyfriend has recently been reading me the Discworld books (focusing on the Watch recently finishing Feet of Clay, which was amazing btw but I think my favorite scene was Dorfl's last one... reminds me of a certain story from the Talmud teehee) so if you're familiar, I find that Moth Wizard is a lot like Carrot Ironfoundersson. He's kind and humble and just wants to help, but can sometimes be totally oblivious to how others interpret a situation. The main difference being that Moth Wizard is not quite so charismatic, both in his social awkwardness and in his humble appearance.

The idea is that he's only the main character in the sense that we take his point of view and that he is in every "episode" (I think of the story in terms of a TV show, I'll probably never get that far but the IDEA is that I'm gonna do it all in Blender), but every story is actually about someone else, it's like he just walks in and becomes a side character to someone else's adventure, with a different adventure each episode.

Moth Wizard the setting is a post apocalyptic fantasy world. Essentially, although humans and most of the Earth survived, war and climate change and the hunger of capitalism escalated until most established power structures crumbled, and then on top of all that, suddenly humans could do magic! Basically, chaos. But not the end of humanity. And the survivors built new communities and generally speaking there is peace, or at least no group is large or organized or armed enough to engage in anything that can be called "war" and still seeing the smoke from the last time war happened, few are eager to change it. But that's politics, not what I meant to talk about.

People who decide to pursue magic are called wizards, and generally they will specialize around some concept, because it's just a lot more convenient. It was originally teenagers who discovered magic, because the way magic works is that you need to do it on purpose. You need to focus and genuinely try, in that special way that you stop doing as you grow older, because you learn that all you'll achieve is making yourself look stupid. To use magic in the world of Moth Wizard, you need to be vulnerable and put your faith in what you're doing, enough that you might cry if it doesn't work because of disappointment and/or embarrassment. And teens are great at that. Children have imagination, yes, but they're not vulnerable in the same way (and also I need some way to make sure children aren't going around summoning dragons or raising the dead), and usually they're not as desperately hopeless as someone experiencing puberty and all the horrors that come with it. Teens are perfect because (generally) they have pride to hurt and hopes to crush, but still haven't "grown up" to the point where they don't believe in magic enough to be truly vulnerable about it.

That's all I've got time to say right now, but if you want more Right Now, here's a link to a list of my most developed characters, each with a brief description!

And you can also join the "Moth Wizard fandom" community if you'd like, where I will occasionally post bonus content, and I'm hoping if more people join we can have discussions about it! Totally optional but here's the invite link for anyone interested!

Thank you so much for the ask, anon!!!

[anamericangirl]

Slavery is wrong of course in my opinion but when I look at the Bible God doesn't really seem to condemn it now does he? That might have something to do with the culture that produced these stories. So where was God for tens of thousands of years and why didn't he send his son to other places around the world? Please tell us also how Noah managed to fit a pair of every animal on earth on his stone age vessel and where I can find evidence in the geological record of a worldwide flood. Or should I take the more fanciful stories as metaphor? Like the one where the son is coming back to life for instance, or being conceived 'immaculately'. No objective morality does not mean there is no such thing as truth and I am certainly not obsessed with your opinion, just interested in what you think about these things. Thanks!

If you say slavery is wrong in your opinion then you're saying it's not wrong because your opinion doesn't mean anything. You thinking it's wrong is irrelevant in a world where objective morality doesn't exist. Because if objective morality doesn't exist then slavery is not wrong. Because there's no such thing as wrong. You just don't like it. But you can't actually say slavery is wrong or condemn the practice of it because by admitting objective morality doesn't exist you are admitting there's nothing objectively wrong with slavery.

Actually, if you really looked at and studied the Bible it would be clear that God does not condone slavery as you understand it. And also, we know you have a tendency to read things and somehow come away thinking they say the exact opposite of what they actually say so your interpretation of what you've seen in the Bible just can't be trusted since you've shown you have very poor reading comprehension skills.

But also, if morality is subjective, why does it matter if God condemns slavery? Why should he? You've admitted there is nothing objectively wrong with it so God should condemn it because you consider your opinion more valuable than the opinions of people living in cultures where slavery is still practiced?

There's lots of evidence out there that you are free to look at. I'm not going to compile it all for you here because that's a lot of work for me to do for someone who just tries to mock me in comments all the time and doesn't really want to understand and have decided beforehand you are just going to reject and dismiss whatever I say before I even take the time to sit here and type it all out for you.

Like there's literally a bunch of literature out there discussing the evidence that exists of a worldwide flood and just because you haven't taken the time to look into it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Sometimes you have to do the research and not wait for someone to hand you the information.

And there's no "evidence" that can prove an immaculate conception. You scoff at the idea of God, clearly do not understand His nature and do not possess a mind open to what Christianity or the Bible actually teaches and then you expect to see evidence of a supernatural miracle.

Wondering what I think is one thing and that's fine, creeping in my notes to try and mock whatever I say as if your subjective moral opinion carries more weight than those of anyone else and ignorance of every worldview other than your own and your attempts to be condescending and insulting by using the term "sky daddy" when you don't know the first thing about Christianity is another.

[hexelein]

Little rant about biphobia in fandoms and the possibility of Eddie being bi below. You think Eddie is gay ? Perfectly fine but don't start arguing with me in the notes about it, especially if you haven't actually read what I said here.

Look I have nothing against gay Eddie but I think it's super weird how people insist he has to be gay. He's not even confirmed queer yet, and people already come at bi blogs for hc him as bi... Unless he is confirmed gay in the show or by the writers outside of it can you just leave bi people alone ? It's always like this when gay hc get popular in fandoms, and I'd like to remind all of you that bi people can have complex relationships with the opposite gender, and that up until now Eddies issues with relationships were all related to Shannon and the trauma he's had from how their relationship ended, and him wanting so badly to recreate what they had before their problems started. That's pretty much canon as of now and everything else is your personal interpretation. If he had relationships with other men he'd probably have the same issues. Hell even if he ends up with Buck he'd struggle a bit at first if these issues don't get resolved beforehand. I genuinely do get why people hc him as gay, but I also think it's extremely biphobic to say he can't be bi at all and that reducing and resolving the problems he has as just related to his sexuality wouldn't fit how his story was written before and would simplify it too much. Even if he was gay that point would still stand but a lot of you don't seem to treat it this way.

What bothers me most about this is the reactions of the fandom, and also the fact we already had a gay and married to a woman storyline with Micheal. And besides Buck pretty much everyone that is queer on the show is monosexual. Like all of that is once again a reminder how bisexuality is often treated in shows and fandoms: the last resort kind of queerness and less queer than monosexuality. Better not have too many bi people on a show, too complicated for people to understand how not every bi experience is the same. People have such a problem with the concept of bisexuality, the reactions to bi Buck also show that: we've had queer characters on the show, but when Buck came out a lot of people said they'd stop watching. This was specifically biphobia, not just homophobia. Buck also fits the bisexual stereotype so well, he's a womanizer, he's been very promiscuous in the past. He hasn't actually talked about his label either or specifically called himself bi in the show yet. People had hc him as bi right away, but with Eddie who has never shown any interest is other men it's he's gay cause he has problems with commitment and forming lasting relationships. It's just very disheartening to see even other queer people follow this weird pattern of who can be bi and who can't, mostly based on stereotypes and who was more promiscuous (this is also often the case in other fandoms ). Despite Eddies romantic relationships not working out we see him being intimate with woman, having interest in them and never any direct indication that it's genuinely his sexuality that is the problem here. Again I can see why people hc Eddie as gay as well, but to say he can't be bi is just denying that bisexuality can be complicated too. I've also seen a lot of people hc him as demi, which is also fitting but often enough it was demi and gay. Why can't he be demi and bi ? We've had so many stories about comphet and heteronormativity preventing gay and lesbian people from being true to themselves, and I'm not saying we shouldn't have those stories anymore, but I think fandoms tend to go with monosexuality by default instead of thinking about how bisexual people can also deal with similar issues in relationships, or that not all of our relationships have to be good to count. It's also just very annoying that stuff like that always ends with peoples reasoning for their hc going into biphobic territory... All I ask is until we have a confirmed sexuality for him, if we even get one, stop being so nasty about bi people seeing themselves in Eddie and stop treating your hc as canon. I swear this pattern is so common in fandoms... Maybe you should examine why you feel so threatened by the possibility of more than one bi character in a show that is or would be in a same gender relationship.

Obviously if he ends up actually being confirmed gay I won't argue with that. I guess what I'm saying is that the biphobic views some of you have and the way bisexuality is treated in general everywhere annoys me more than the possibility of Eddie being gay. And no being bi yourself doesn't mean you can't have weird views about bisexuality btw... Bi storylines always have the same mold and that's cause people aren't willing to listen to bi people and their different experiences. I also can't remember lots of shows that have confirmed bi4bi couples, especially not mlm ones. The ones we have people love to erase all the time. His story could fit someone who is bi and demiromantic/arospec very well (though I don't think they'd actually go anywhere in canon that isn't monosexual or bisexual) and we don't have much bi rep in the show, I'm just kinda hurt that this seems hardly an option for anyone....

I just think having Eddie be bi and his issues not being a result of his sexuality would be a break in how bi characters are usually portrayed and also make people realize that maybe there is a lot underlying biphobia in the community and fandoms.

[the-pobble-terrarium]

can I get an info dump on how you feel about princess celestia and or twilight

GIGGLES I'm glad to see interest in them !!! (assuming this is AU related)

I haven't fleshed out Twilight's and the Princesses backgrounds very much- mainly because I can't think of anything to change, but compared to in-show Twilight, the rewrite AU one is much more. quiet and threatening if you don't know her well- she's kinda got that thousand yard stare and she's more or less completely non-verbal. Her name also changes in the AU! From Twilight Sparkle to Meteor Strike!

(Here, have some old concept art!)

And as expected, Meteor- the socially awkward barely verbal anxiety horse is NOT happy when she's made a princess on the spot Speaking just off the top of my head, I think it would lead her to resent Celestia a bit for putting something so big on her without even asking, and she might begin to connect with Luna a bit more, sharing how it felt Celestia sort of just. Does stuff without asking- like she knows what’s best always. I think this would accumulate in them confronting Celestia and telling her “hey we know you think this is what's best but it’s actually not. Please ask before you make such big changes.” Celestia takes it hard at first but eventually understands sometimes she needs to take a step back and not assume.

If this where an actual MLP episode, it would probably go something along the lines of Celestia making assumptions on how to help without asking constantly, leading to a LOT of unhappy ponies confronting her on it and Celestia at the end writing what SHE learnt for once- "Sometimes you think you know what's best for somepony, but today I learnt it's important to ask before you make such big assumptions. A good friend always makes sure their friend is comfortable, rather than simply assuming they are."

Speaking of Luna and Celestia! These designs were originally made completely separate as a way to mess around with a "biblically accurate princesses" idea, but I think they could fit really nicely into this AU with a few minor tweaks!

(Sorry for such low quality, I had to pluck them from an old twitter post because I can't find the Sai file I drew them on)

That would also probably mean Meteor would gain "biblically accurate" qualities after her 'graduation' over time... Which would probably make her even freakier looking to outsiders LMAO

I also imagine the process of transformation is VERY painful for the immediate part of the spell (growing wings/a horn), and for the rest it takes time to form. What I mean by that is when a pony is made an alicorn via magic it's pulling magic from their body to form entirely new limbs, nervous systems, shifting magical components to specific parts- which is PAINFUL. And when these limbs are formed, they're small- over time they'll grow, like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis! They've emerged from their cocoon, but it still takes time for them to pump fluids into their wings before they can fly! Which means Meteors wings are more or less useless for a few months...

(“Really? I don’t even get to use these things??”)

[ivormybeloved]

could we get some more concept art?

Ofc!! Though it's not much since I haven't had time to draw a lot (and I sometimes mainly draw characters that I know have actual designs 😭)

Small concept Axel I'm working on (trying to figure out clothes, I'm keeping the deer skull def)

Some survived AU doodles (AU of Delusion AU because I love them. Also it's technically designs for them before experimentation) the second one is where my style CHANGED AGGJV

Also, small comic of how Ivor, Soren, and Harper could've avoided the portal in Survived AU

It's not quite understandable, so have this:

Ivor: "fascinating... I've never seen a portal like this.. Interesting. But.. Where could it lead?" Harper: "Ivor! Are you okay?" Ivor: "oh, yes, Harper! I.. I- I just found.. The most amazing!— [empty space??/Happy Ivor/can't sit still/happy squealing/def got the 'tism] Soren: get up, we have to go home. Ivor: Soren, I'm telling you, I saw something! Soren: we can look again tomorrow, okay? Ivor: ..okay.

Thank you for asking!! I'm sorry that I don't have much at the moment, Axel's design is back to torturing me again

[yellowcry]

If you were never kissed? So what?

Mirabel doesn't get kissing

Madrigay days prompt two: Kiss

Mirabel doesn't really get kissing. 

Why do people find it appearsing? To suck their tongues against each other? Get their faces together into far too uncomfortable space. The thought of having to suck somebody's mouth is gross enough to make her gag. 

She knows other people like it. Her parents, Tía Pepa and Tío Felix. Even Dolores with Mariano. What was good in that? The fact that Mamá gave her kisses on a cheek every so often was awful enough (Or just awkward). Disgusting with oily saliva. It would be so much worce if she had to kiss on a mouth. Because according to Camilo, you feel way more sensations this way. Of course he would've known. He had a new crush, like, every other week.

Even looking at it was gross. Thankfully Dolores and Mariano weren't very physically affectional. Mirabel wouldn't stand it if she had to see them accompanying their parents.

"We aren't kids, you don't have to act like it's gross," Camilo chuckled, observing Mirabel's reaction to how Dolores and Mariano finished a passionate song with a romantic blow.

Mirabel rolled her eyes, of course, it was Camilo who was an annoying cousin. "I can't understand what is good in this." Honestly, she would rather to do anything else instead of whatever it was.

"Pff, don't act like you haven't kissed." Camilo laughed, leaning back on the sofa.. "Why are you so secretive about your crushes?"

Mirabel's answer that she didn't have any was cut off when Luisa picked her, sobbing. The teenager gasped, feeling as she was squeezed as a stuffed toy. "IT WAS SO EMOTIONAL!" Mirabel creaked over this immerse power.

And Luisa was too. Mirabel stared down, ignoring the bile in the throat. Why did everyone liked kissing so much? How could anyone find it appeasing? The mouth was to eat, not for this. 

 

She sat by the window, drowning in a rapid sun The rays jumped away from her glasses, falling against the painted wood. According to Camilo, evey kid of their age dreamed of their romantic interest to kiss them. And it just made her wonder. How many of their classmates were in relationship? Mirabel never thought of it, she had never thought about the fact that other teenagers were getting into relationships. She didn't have friends. Only a bunch of acquaintances and compañero, she had to knew everyone in the town to held the same level with her family. But she wasn't actually close to anybody in a sense when she would talk about their personal life. So there was no way to say if most people of her age were interested in dating. And in her family it wasn't much better. Camilo was very open about his passion for boys. Dolores dated Mariano. And while Mirabel wasn't much aware of her sisters, she heard Isabela and Dolores gossiping about Luisa liking somebody. It only left Antonio and Isabela. The first didn't even count, he was five. And Isabela has no stability to say anything.

The walls closed over Mirabel. The room was bigger than nursery where she stayed before, but nothing compared to the magic rooms. But, well, they planned the same size for everyone when rebuilding Casita so it would be fair. She lacked so many things. And if being giftless was something ay least common, then most people needed relationship. It left Mirabel dumbfounded as she tried to grasp onto the concept. 

"Hey, Mirabel?" Isabela peeked in through the coloured door. "We're going for a ride, are you with us?"

The first-born grandchild stared for a moment, taking in Mirabel's very unhappy state. Mirabel stared up at her. "Not really," She shrugged. "I'm a bit busy."

"If you're trying to overthink the cracks then Casita's fine. I'll personally beat it with a cactus if there's anything strange."

Mirabel fixed her glasses. Isabela had dated Mariano, right? She had probably knew what was nice in kissing stuff. And for now she wasn't looking for a date, so maybe it would be easier for Isabela to understand Mirabel's point of view. 

"I just thought about that scene Dolores and Mariano had played." And about Camilo's words, but it was left out. "What is so good about kissing? Did you like it?" 

She sees how her sister's face shifts to awkward. "This is really strange question to ask. Even in my rating."

"Well, you was in relationship albeit arranged, so I figured out you can know something."

"I didn't like it with Mariano, but it's fair as I didn't love him in the first place. And we haven't done it much. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm pretty sure Mariano wasn't comfortable as well." Isabela shrugged, taking a place next to Mirabel. It didn't really give any information. But, maybe Mirabel had to see this coming. Isabela wasn't in relationship because she wanted it 

Mirabel slipped. So was you supposed to like person? But what the difference would it make, the sensation should be the same. "It's strange, I can't understand why anyone would like this." 

"Well, I can't understand why anyone would date a boy and yet two of our cousins don't agree." 

Mirabel sighed, at this point she could as well believe that it was some prank and everyone was joking on her. Because again, how in the world of God anybody would like kissing?

Isabela sighed, nugging her. "Don't put your head down. Who cares about stupid kisses? I mean sure, I would like some nice lady by my hand, but there's so many amazing plants to discover."

The younger sister chuckled. Did she learnt anything about kissing stuff? No. But, maybe it wasn't what she cared about for now. At all.

[sineala]

It was quite the week for us comic Tony fans!

How would you rank the Tony issues from the haul? We had Iron Man #8, Avengers #3, I Am Iron Man #5, Avengers Beyond #5, Ults reboot (tho Tony didn’t seem to show there?), dunno if I missed any haha

Oh, man, it absolutely was a great comics week!

I'm going to list what I liked less first because I have a lot of feelings about Iron Man #8.

Ultimate Invasion #2

Technically Tony was in this, at the bottom of the first page of Howard's introduction, the one that was a straight-up redraw of Tony's introduction in Ultimates #2. Here he is:

I suppose that we don't actually know for a fact that this is Tony; Howard refers to him as his son but he isn't named. Like, for all we know, this is Greg with a dye job, or maybe Arno exists here. But I have to say that I'm pretty meh about the idea of an Ults reboot that doesn't include Steve or Tony (and, even more upsettingly, seems to have Howard instead of Tony); I suspect (at least, I hope) there will be some personnel reshuffling going on, but the amount that I have ever cared about The Maker is minuscule at best. Hickman just has his things he likes to write about and too bad if you wanted to hear about anyone else, I guess. (His original Ults run was not my favorite.)

Back when Time Runs Out was coming out, the solicits announced that the cover for Avengers #41 was going to reuse the cover of Ultimates #1, so everyone was excited that there was going to be an Ults crossover. At the time, I hadn't read any Ults at all, so I decided I was going to read Ults to prepare for this issue. The thing was, I didn't quite finish reading Ults, and I hadn't gotten to Hickman's run. "That won't be a problem!" I thought, naively. "I have in fact read Ultimates #1 and surely these characters are what this issue is about, since they are on the cover."

Then Avengers #41 turned out to be entirely about The Maker and Miles Morales and I was extremely confused. This was not what I thought I was getting. Why is it about these people? Where are the Ultimates? Why is a psycho version of Reed here?

Reading Ultimate Invasion is making me feel like I am having the exact same experience again, eight years later. I don't like it any better a second time.

I Am Iron Man #5

This is the last issue of this miniseries, and I really wanted to like it. For one thing, some of the variant covers have been absolutely gorgeous:

The creative team are clearly big fans of Tony and love him so much as a character and love his history and you can see that basically on every page of this entire miniseries and I'm glad Marvel gave us something that was so positive… but I haven't really been able to make any sense of any of it. They have some really interesting high-concept ideas -- like, #5 here was a look at the ethics of cloning -- but they seem to have a massive, massive disconnect at some point in the process between Having The Idea and Making A Comic About The Idea and I literally do not understand most of what has happened in this entire miniseries. I feel like if I asked them to summarize their comic I would probably understand the explanation, but reading the comic does not lead to understanding it, for me.

I was trying to explain this, and the best comparison I can come up with is all those issues of Doctor Strange that are mostly from the 70s where the creative team was clearly on All The Hallucinogens and you go to read a comic and it's absolutely gorgeous artwork but very little of the story makes any sense whatsoever and it's just like "okay, dude, you keep having fun doing your thing" and then you check back in a couple issues and Strange has defeated, like, the manifestation of his own ego and also possibly the concept of reality?

It's like that, but with Iron Man.

(Incidentally, the recent Doctor Strange miniseries Fall Sunrise was like that, if you feel like Doctor Strange comics have been making too much narrative sense lately.)

Avengers Beyond #5

Last issue of this Landy/Land series. Don't mind me; I really like crediting them. I really loved Derek Landy's work on the Cap-IM miniseries (I mean, who didn't?) and I think in both this miniseries and the preceding All-Out Avengers he demonstrated a really solid grasp of Avengers characterization, which is no mean feat in a series whose gimmick is that every issue starts in medias res. I think he's especially good at dialogue, and he really makes the characters feel like themselves without all that much space to work with, and a lot of the Avengers' solutions (like the Celestial blood thing here) seem like things they would come up with.

The downside, and this is not his fault, is that I really aggressively Do Not Care about the Beyonder. So I liked this despite that, which is a testament to how much I like his writing, I guess.

The other downside is every single page in which Greg Land has to draw a human face. I just. Sometimes he gets about 80% of the way but suddenly NOPE. The good news is that this series plays to his strengths in that there are a lot of characters with helmets and non-human faces and also there is a lot of punching which mostly doesn't show people's faces close-up. The bad news is that many of the action scenes still look like they're traced from porn, although at least not so much in this issue.

So I feel like if you can somehow ignore all of the art, like, all of it ever, you might like this.

Avengers #2

I really like Jed MacKay's writing, which is why this is getting ranked so highly for me even though really not all that much happened this issue. Plus, the art is good, and I felt that I could not in good conscience rank Greg Land's art above this.

Right now I don't think really enough has happened for me to be able to say whether this is a good run -- #1 was basically Assembling, and #2 here is Getting The Villains Together -- but I have a lot of faith in MacKay based on his other comics (I am excited to read his Black Cat run that I just got in book form) that this is probably going to be good. The dialogue seemed IC for everyone; I like how Tony is wearing his stealth armor here due to IM events. The villains remind me a lot of the villains in Death of Doctor Strange, which I liked a lot.

I do, however, empathize with the letter writer who says it doesn't feel like the Avengers without Steve. They could have two Caps. It would be okay.

Invincible Iron Man #8

Ohhh boy.

I have been looking forward to this issue since #7 came out, and I loved it (and the rest of the run so far) so much that I wrote 40,000 words of h/c set right after #7 because canon is whumping Tony so nicely that I thought he could maybe have some comfort. I don't remember the last time I liked a comic enough to write 40,000 words immediately after reading it. Maybe never. I wanted to get the fic posted before #8 came out and I did in fact manage this. Impressively, I don't think canon actually contradicts anything in my fic, provided you assume that there's at least a day before #8 starts. I also appear to have correctly identified several of the problems Tony is having in canon -- #8 establishes that Tony is not sleeping and not eating -- but it's just that Gerry Duggan has no interest in fixing these problems and I do.

I didn't think the whump could get any better than #7. The whump got even better.

Every interview I see with Gerry Duggan about IM, he seems to feel he has to apologize for all the pain he is putting Tony through. I don't know why he keeps apologizing. This is the good stuff.

So I had to do about a hundred pages of background reading to read this, because Hellfire Gala is something like 78 pages long and I had to read a FCBD issue too. It was totally worth it. I am very sorry to X-Men fans who are not Iron Man fans because I am sure they are cursing Gerry Duggan's name right now.

If you are going to read this Iron Man issue and want to have all the background reading, what you should actually read is the Avengers/X-Men FCBD issue from May, and then Hellfire Gala, and then Iron Man. There are several events that we get bits of from the X-side in Hellfire Gala and from Tony in IM, but the events themselves take place in the FCBD issue, which is definitely exactly where I'd put key events I wanted people to be able to find. Thanks, Marvel. And if you are a Steve fan, you are going to care, because one of them is an attempt on Steve's life. So if you don't read the FCBD issue first, halfway through Hellfire Gala you're going to be like "what do you mean, someone's trying to assassinate Captain America?" and, yeah, that's in the FCBD issue as well as a couple other attacks more relevant to the mutants.

I'm sure we were all expecting Krakoa to fall since the day it started -- look, we all know the mutants have a very, very bad record at creating mutant utopias -- but I have to say I wasn't expecting quite this much of a bloodbath and definitely not because Xavier decided to give into his captors' demands without checking if what they were actually asking him to do was happening like he thought it was. This seems to be a good argument for not negotiating with terrorists. I wasn't expecting basically the second Mutant Massacre, even masterminded by (an evil clone of) Mister Sinister. (I haven't read X-books in a long time but I have to admit that "Sinister is just not evil enough" was not a take I was expecting.)

Also I am STILL not over the fact that the evil mutant-hating organization is named Orchis, which means "testicle" in Greek. (I mean, yes, it also means "orchid." But if they wanted me to think of orchids they could have just named it Orchid in English and not Testicle.)

So, anyway, the result of the Hellfire Gala this year is that pretty much everyone who was at the Gala (as well as a bunch of other people) are extremely dead, except for Emma Frost and a small band of resisters (including, inexplicably, Wilson Fisk, and I'm sure we'll learn what his deal is eventually) who managed to teleport out to New York, which is where Tony gets involved.

(I am still not over the fact that Tony got an Avengers call for a DC terror attack, then got a call for Steve being attacked in Brooklyn and immediately zoomed to help Steve first. Priorities, he has them. Yes, I know, Steve was closer. Shhh.)

Anyway! You like Tony suffering? Then you will probably enjoy Tony fighting Sentinels, getting hit really, really hard, bleeding and getting concussed and begging for help and repeating that he's dying, as he wavers in and out of consciousness while lying on the street. If the issue had decided to make this the worst thing that happened to him, I would still have been perfectly satisfied because, look, I just wrote 40,000 words because I really liked how the last comic ended with Tony being upset that Rhodey had been arrested, punching his armor until there's blood dripping down his hands, kneeling on the floor. And now canon has made him suffer more!

But then! Then we get the very best terrible moment! Even better and/or worse than I could have hoped for!

Tony is at this point not entirely conscious, he thinks he's dying, and he's not very, uh, oriented as to reality, and that means that his poor suffering brain is making him think he's reexperiencing one of his past extremely traumatic events, and Emma, who is also now stuck fighting Sentinels, has decided to hop into his mind to help him out. So I was like, okay, maybe it's gonna be his origin story? That's probably pretty damaging. That's something anyone could come up with.

The thing is, Gerry Duggan has done the reading.

So the inside of Tony's mind is currently Iron Man #182. Yes. Tony is dying in the blizzard.

At this point, I had to stop and say AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. A lot. I think everyone else did too.

Like, I enjoy recreationally making fictional characters suffer and I don't think it would ever have occurred to me to do this. I am plotting the rest of an extremely angsty canon-divergent fic series ending in the blizzard, solely so that Steve can carry Tony out of the cold, and it would never have occurred to me that when Tony thinks he's dying his mind would take him right back to the middle of the blizzard and LEAVE HIM THERE, freezing to death, drunk and alone, with nothing. I could never have thought of this. It's perfect.

The comic doesn't actually tell you what it's referencing or that it is in fact referencing anything canonical, but if you are familiar with Iron Man #182's very distinctive cover art, this page is a very, very clear homage to it. (And I suppose there's a sense in which it's kind of a canon deep cut; the issue's a dollar-bin kind of issue and the arc itself has only been reprinted once, in pieces, and I think all of it is out of print now in paper. The people collecting and slabbing Doomquest et al aren't buying this one, as far as I know. We just love it.)

I think an argument can be made that the current one is more pathetic (in the sense of "creating pathos") than the #182 version, because for one thing the cover isn't itself canonical; that angle and alley aren't in the issue. Also, in Tony's dream version, he's surrounded by bottles. And he's barefoot. He's actually made it worse for himself than it was when it really happened to him.

And in case you thought this issue was done stabbing you in the heart, this is what happens when Tony wakes all the way up:

AAAAAAAAAA.

Anyway, then Tony surrenders -- because he has never met a self-sacrificing moment that he does not love; thank you, Gerry Duggan, for understanding this -- so that Emma can get away and he's now kneeling, unarmored, in the middle of the street, concussed and bleeding heavily, daring Feilong and his Sentinels to come on and kill him. Just your regular Iron Man cliffhanger.

I will take twelve more just like this one, please and thank you.

I'm still not over the blizzard.

I know it could all go wrong at any moment -- I have a lot of trust issues about Iron Man comics, clearly -- but we've had eight issues and as of right now I think this is definitely the best Iron Man ongoing run we've had in the past… fifteen years? Whenever Director of SHIELD ended.

(If any of you clicked on this and are not comics fans, you're probably wondering how fans of a character can dislike everything that has happened to them in the past fifteen years and still consider themselves fans of a character. This is just what comics fandom is like.)

[hellobitchlet]

Here are some thoughts on Natlan, as of finishing act 1:

- this will mostly be negative, so let's start with the positives. First off, I'm happy to say that I have, in fact, found something I find interesting in Natlan! I am SO happy that the abyss has FINALLY been brought back into importance outside of hard-to-follow deep lore.

- while I still don't like that Natlan is hyper focused on sports, the idea that the pilgrimage is a glorified way to get ppl to go to war is amazing. That is such a good concept, even if it being in the archon quest means that it probably won't be acknowledged after act 5.

- one of my biggest complaints about Genshin has been that extremely few characters have been important, and connected to lore stuff. So of course, I also adore the abyss stuff for the sheer number of characters who have participated in the war. It's nice that their characters aren't entirely focused on their participation in the war either, as that's one of the big differences that makes Yoimiya better written than most Inazuma aq characters imo.

- I'm happy that the writers have finally remembered Traveler's purification abilities, even though it came out of nowhere after being forgotten about for literal years.

- I have likes and dislikes about Kachina's mini arc in part one, but it was handled slightly better than what I'd expect from Genshin. The main positives; we were actually shown that she cries in short bursts a lot instead of being told, Traveler wasn't automatically allowed to be involved and was told no for once, and her relationship to Mualani is great and accentuated both of their characters well.

- and now, let's start with the negatives. My main negatives of Kachina's act 1 arc; the fact that everyone saw her as weak bc she's lost a lot and not bc she's a fucking child was stupid, the teams portion being filled with brown skinned ppl being mean to her was gross, and the whole thing felt slightly rushed.

- considering that Traveler and Paimon usually act as the voice of 'reason' (as in, telling u what u should think), it's greatly concerning me that they don't seem to see the pilgrimage and a fucking child competing in it as a bad thing. Why were they as initially okay with Kachina dying as Mualani????

- I'm calling it now: the pale skinned npc's shitting on Kachina were pale bc they're Fatui, not bc the writers realized that brown skinned npc's doing that would look racist.

- I understand that the npc who almost died is probably important to the pyro archon, and we did end up with a decent intro to how the abyss acts in Natlan out of it, but I was so bored with the People of the Springs that the 5 minutes spent with the abyss didn't feel like it made up for how bored I was for the 20 minutes spent setting it up.

- absolutely everything about the People of the Springs makes no fucking sense. How the fuck are they a tourist destination AND regularly being attacked by the abyss at the same time?? It's so obvious that they just picked the first stereotype about Hawaii they could find and carelessly shaped their entire identity around it for the sake of it.

- I seriously want to care about Natlan's unique archon situation, but why should I when we haven't gotten an old archon who actually feels like an archon and isn't hopelessly clueless since Inazuma? Like I know that this isn't the same as Nahida and Furina lore wise, but writing wise, I'm not super optimistic about our third young archon in a row.

- seeing how Iansan acts... I definitely think that I'll be crossing off the "Iansan is an adult" part of the Natlan bingo. This point is kind of including the beginning of act 2 that I already did.

If anyone who has finished act 2 thinks that act 2 will change my opinions, don't bother 'politely' 'correcting' me. Not because I care about spoilers, but because I can decide for myself whether my opinion changes :)