#Just my ramblings

[valorianknights]

Here's my take on Emily's Demon form.

Ya know, if she falls.

(I feel like she will tbh)

[beneath-the-mask]

Hot take but if Miquella was a girl I don’t believe the discourse surrounding his character would have arose with the dlc ending. Or at least it wouldn’t have been so bad. Like his ‘crimes’ are definitely not worse than Marika’s and yet I rarely see anyone genuinely hating on her character for what she’s done. Because she’s an attractive woman and that’s all that matters to some people.

Like he’s not at all the worst we’ve seen in a souls game and yet people are treating him like the devil. Suspicious, if you ask me…

[cluelessrebel1988]

If I Ran The Zoo (or how I would plot out an Animorphs TV/streaming series if I had the time/ability/resources)

So this is something I've been kicking around in my head on-again, off-again for a couple years now, and I thought I'd put it out there, just for the lols (do people still say that?)

My thought process is for a 5 season arc, with each season being somewhere in the neighborhood of 13-15 episodes long, give or take. There would be a few changes with the order of things, and a few minor characters would play a bigger role. I'm not going to go episode by episode, but just sort of outline the big arcs for each season. I'm not in any way suggesting that this is the best way to do it, just that this is how I would do it.

Season 1

This season obviously would start the events of The Invasion and would primarily incorporate events/plot points from the first 10 books, including finding Ax in his crashed ship (though I would move that to either take place in the first episode, or in the second half of the two-part premiere), Tobais getting stuck in his hawk form (and getting an episode or two dedicated to him coming to terms with that), and introducing Erik and the Chee (Erik would be introduced as a friend of Marco's early in the season, with his identity as a Chee being revealed in the second half of the season).

The only major plot point from that run of the series I wouldn't put into play just yet is the reveal of Marco's mother as Visser One (although I would be very much establishing her through flashbacks, dreams, etc., so people will recognize her when Visser One does show up).

The main arc of the season would involve the Kandrona Ray and the events of The Stranger, with the team meeting the Ellimist and learning about the ray and its significance and plotting to take it down to try to end/expose the invasion. Erik and Ax tagteam providing info about the ray and its use, but it's the vision from the Ellimist that gives Rachel the final clue, again, as in the book, with that occuring at the end of the penultimate episode. The season finale is solely focused on devising and executing the plan to destroy the ray. The plan would succeed, which would prompt Visser One's return, revealing her host to be Marco's mother as the cliffhanger for the season.

Obviously, we would be exploring the kid's home lives more, with the relationship with their families and friends and the whole 'work-life balance' thing that comes with fighting a guerilla war against an alien invasion. Not to the point where they're having to fake illnesses to skip school every episode, but enough to show that it's putting a strain on their relationships. I would also explore Rachel's relationship with Melissa Chapman more and have Melissa be a bigger supporting character in the show. We'd also introduce Karen and Aftran in this season, revealing her to be a controller early on, but something that Cassie doesn't find out until the end of the season

Season 2

Season 2 would pick up a few weeks after season 1, as The Alien did with The Stranger. The kids learn that their hope that the invasion would reveal itself with the Kandrona ray destroyed were in vain and that Ax knew that. The premiere would largely follow the plot of that book, with the Animorphs attempting to integrate Ax into society and attempting to take the fight to Visser Three with the help of a Yeerk traitor, and Ax telling the others about the Law of Seerow's Kindness. Ax would get a lot of development this season, with the events of The Deception coming into play.

Tobias would help free the Hork-Bajir as in The Change and get his human form back as a morph, and the reveal that he is Elfangor's son would be included in this season as well (Obviously we're tapping into the Andalite Chronicles for flashbacks in at least one episode this season to help set that up).

Marco's main character arc would revolve around learning that his mother is Visser One, keeping it a secret, only to have the others find out later, thus incorporating The Predator and The Escape. Also Visser One is the big bad for the season, delving more into her conflict with Visser Three. The season would end with her supposed death following the Animorphs' thwarting of her plans

For Cassie, we cover the utilize adapted versions of The Departure and set up for The Sickness, with Karen/Aftran and Cassie perhaps getting trapped somewhere and forced to work together to get out of it, laying the groundwork for Aftran to be captured by Visser Three. The season finale would also center around the efforts to rescue Aftran.

Jake and Rachel will have arcs and roles to play in each of these stories as they each start to fall into their respective roles as leader and fighter, respectively. If they get their own arc, it would be around trying to save Tom specifically.

Additionally, Melissa is still around in her expanded role, but with a new friend: David, who would be introduced fairly early in the season in a recurring role (Melissa is also recurring at this point). She and David will have a B-plot where they become friends and are together when David finds the morphing cube, the discovery of which also occurs in the finale.

Season 3

Obviously, the primary source for the main arc of season 3 is the David Trilogy, with The Discovery in particular serving as the source for the season premiere. It plays out mostly the same, with the Animorphs learning that David and Melissa have the cube and plans to sell it online. They try to retrieve the cube before the two of them can attract the attention of the Yeerks, but ultimately fail, leading to the battle at David's house. They manage to get Melissa and David out of the house before they can be captured, and are forced to reveal themselves and tell them what's happening, essentially recruiting them into the Animorphs.

The events of the rest of the trilogy, with the threat to the UN summit or some similar event involving world leaders as a target that they have to keep the Yeerks from taking advantage of -- as well as with David and Melissa's reactions to being Animorphs -- would take up the majority of the plot this season. Obviously Melissa becoming an Animorph opens up some new potential for her arc, especially around her relationship with her dad and trying to come to terms with him being a controller (and the fact that Rachel has been keeping this a secret all along). She and David would have similar arcs around their parents being controllers, but while David ultimately turns against the Animorphs, Melissa does not (although David tries to convince her to). The season ends with the gang trapping David in a rat morph, as the books do.

One of Melissa's major character traits is her interest in technology, something she used to bond with her father over (working together to take things apart and then put them back together before be became a Controller to try to keep her safe) and I imagine her and Ax developing something of an awkward friendship as she tries to ask him about the morphing technology and other Andalite technology, with him being reluctant to share due to the Law of Seerow's Kindness. But, as he's grown closer with the Animorphs, he would eventually acquiesce and they would begin to bond. The two big relationships (Rachel and Tobias, and Cassie and Jake) also take major steps this season

The other major arc for the season involves other Andalites, incorporating The Arrival and The Other, with the reveal that other Andalites are on earth and some are there to help...or are they? The season would also end with Tobias getting captured by the Yeerks to begin the laying of the groundwork for the discovery that the Animorphs are not, in fact, Andalite bandits.

Season 4

The events of The Illusion and The Test would be adapted for the season premiere, including the introduction of the Yeerk resistance (led in this series by Karen/Aftran) and Tobias's capture and torture, with the main difference being that it is Tom (who has largely been a secondary or tertiary villain thus far) being the one who conducts the torture. During the interrogation, Tobias lets something slip that most of the controllers in the room don't pick up on, but Tom does, leading him to investigate and setting up for the finale, which would be largely and adaptation of The Diversion, with the race against time to save their families taking up the majority of the episode. Melissa is able to save her parents, her father proving to be an asset in the final season with his knowledge of how Yeerk technology works.

This season as a whole would focus on escalating the war between the Animorphs and the Yeerks. The stakes become higher, as are tensions following David's betrayal. Visser One returns, learning that Marco is one of the Animorphs and we incorporate the events of Visser, seeing the Animorphs rescue her.

Following Tobias's capture and torture, Rachel becomes more angry and vengeful, setting up for her arc over the final season (we've seen hints of her violent streak over the series up to this point, but it gets more intense this season).

Season 5

With their secret out, the Animorphs regroup in the Hork-Bajir valley and try to figure out their next move. The final arc of the series would play out largely how it does over the course of the final books, with the team recruiting more Animorphs to help them with their mission, and even trying to recruit government and military officials to aid in the fight. Tom gets the morphing cube, adding controllers with the ability to morph (other than the newly appointed Visser One) to the threat against the Animorphs. The final battle would be a multi-pronged attack, with the bombing of the Yeerk Pool being part of the final assault and not a separate battle.

Rachel gets aboard the blade ship and kills Tom before being killed herself. In an effort to make up for the harm he caused, Hedrick Chapman sacrifices himself to both ensure the Yeerk Pool bomb goes off and to save Melissa one final time (the pair of them were in charge of building/detonating it, along with Ax), and Jake orders the flushing of the Yeerk Pool on the the Pool ship, alienating Erek and the rest of the Chee going forward. All of this is in the penultimate episode.

The series finale follows the aftermath of the war in The Beginning, and, as the books did, the series would end with Jake, Tobias, and Marco (and probably Melissa) being recruited to help save Ax from an as-yet unknown threat.

And there you have it, my outline for how an Animorphs series could/should play out. As I said at the start, this is just my idea and others might have different thoughts about what order the arcs should go in and what significant changes (if any) would be made. Please be kind with any criticisms, and if you'd like to share your thoughts with me, my inbox is open. I also did a fancast for the series a few years ago if anyone's curious about who would play who

[lisaphantasia]

My hot take is that because there were 4 weeks in between part 1 and part 2 there was an abundance of time to listen to fake spoilers which made people stress and panic and it also meant fans created their own ideas of their perfect way for how the rest of the season would go and because it didn't go the way they envisioned it they were upset

I really recommend going from episode 1 to episode 8 as a fluid season now and instead of being upset about what things could have been better or what could have been added or taken away ... Please watch it for the story and for what we were given ... Because I'm telling you what we were given was a beautiful, beautiful story of love and angst and longing and about two childhood friends who finally fell in love with eachother and despite all odds found happiness. We also got gorgeous chemistry from Nic and Luke who were so true and real to the characters

Going into it with positivity instead of the opinions of others makes all the difference...

But I'm biased because I loved this season with my whole heart and it deflates my heart a little bit any time I go in the tags and see hate comments... At least leave it out the tag and let us enjoy ourselves without negativity

[panickedpenguin]

I am melting with the idea of Billy arriving in Hawkins later, after everything's said and done, people have died, like kids have died, and Steve is a depleted mess of a person who is desperate for soft things to ease his nightmares. Steve doesn't talk much, doesn't wear bright colors or flirt anymore, only ever hangs out with the screaming panic attack that is Robin.

Max begins to make friends with Lucas and Dustin, filling the void that is the loss of El and Will, being introduced to Mike who lives in the long-term ward of the hospital. Max meeting Steve and being suspicious of how quiet and sad he is, like he might kill somebody, like he might kill himself, because she's only ever known rage and never depression.

And then there's Billy. Billy coming in hot and bothered by this guy who used to be the town sweetheart, used to be the high school basketball star, apparently used to have a real nice car. But now he's a ghost, wandering around the police station doing secretarial work that just doesn't make sense to Billy. And that's how Billy gets to know him first, at the station. He's given a speeding ticket every week, he's fined for disturbing the peace and nearly arrested for disassembling a car engine on public sidewalks. But also for Billy's business permit and purchase of property and some tax debauchle including the previous owner of a 1976 chevy pickup. Billy was working hard to open his own garage and build a clientele of hobbyists and car builders. All this to say, he didn't want to be thinking about the sad eyes of some cop-wanabe.

None the less, he tries to get those eyes to show some other emotion. He tries to make Steve laugh, or grimace, or even get a good eye roll. When his small jokes and barbs don't work, Billy escalates to teasing and name calling. Some days, what Billy thinks must be the worst days, Billy has to resort to shoving Steve's folders onto the ground and calling him stupid for doing a woman's job just to get his eyes to show anything but black.

There's one time he manages to make Steve cry. There's one time he makes Steve grin and blush. It's a lot. Billy realizes he has a big fat crush and it's driving him mad.

So I'm melting at the thought of Steve learning how to feel emotions again, how to feel safe in his feelings and accepted as a person, all wrapped in the softest blankets while bad boy Billy kisses the top of his head and tells him to hush up, they're getting to the best part.

[stilesyouretheone]

I’m not good at reading between the lines. So I’d like to know. Canon wise, on the show, is Simon fully aware how obsessed Wille is with him? Does Simon reciprocate the same feelings back?

I have always felt that Simon fell in love with Wille’s genuiness and gentleness. But I never felt like Simon loved Wille with the same force that Wille loved Simon. For example, if the series would have ended with the last line between them ‘I hope you have a nice summer’ I don’t think that Wille would have ever fallen in love again. He would have been miserable his whole life and that’s not to say that he wouldn’t have married, 9/10 he would have but he would have never fallen for anyone else the way he did with Simon and he would have missed him his whole life.

For Simon, I think that Wille would have been the one who got away. He would have fallen in love again but it would never have been as deep as what it would have been with Wille. And he would also not so much missed him his whole life but he would have kept up with his life. He would have been heartbroken when he married and he continued that same cycle in every ‘milestone’ that Wille made public. He would have never reached peak happiness but it would have been close. He loved his husband and family but he would never had been ever been able to get over what would happened if him and Wille would have worked out.

Both would have died with a life unfulfilled. But Wille more than Simon. Cause Simon would have loved again just not as hard. But Wille would have never gotten over his first and only love.

[faesfairies]

Can we just talk about how these two ships:

are basically the same ship in different fonts?

⬇️ my reasons, warning: spoilers ⬇️

• Both ships have known each other for years and are best friends.

• They are both “she fell first, but he fell harder” ships *swoon, my fav trope*.

• Both guys (Colin and Harvey) denied ever wanting to “court/date” their best friends (Penelope and Donna). We all know that’s a lie.

• Both women (Penelope and Donna) don’t think that the guys (Colin and Harvey) wants to be with them, and are broken hearted over it.

• Both women tried to move on by dating other men.

• Both guys are jealous (I mean, S3 isn’t out yet but can you imagine Colin being absolutely jealous over Pen and the guy who’s courting her??)

• Both women are redheads (I had to add that one in 🤭🤭)

• Slow burn. The tension. The denial. The sexual tension. The continuing denial…

(anyways, if you love polin you’ll absolutely adore darvey)

[meowcifer-nails]

To elaborate more on this without spamming op's post, if you think about it, Harry himself is not entirely unlike Lena.

Even if thorough the whole game you manage to pick the least shitty options possible in terms of his behavior and thoughts, even if you stray as far as possible from the racist routes, even if you do your best to play him as a kind person whenever possible and to always be nice to Kim in particular, there is a specific instance (I'll keep it vague but if you know you know) where you might say the wrong thing on 'accident'.

[Important to note, this is NOT an outright player choice, you will have NO clue about how badly you are about to fuck up if you never came across it and weren't spoiled about it. You can go the whole game denouncing racism at every chance you're given to do so, and it will not change this outcome. ]

If this happens, Kim will not only be furious about it, he will snap and remark on several things Harry ALREADY did or said that made him wonder about Harry's stance and prejudices, telling you about how he overlooked it both because he wanted to be professional and because he assumed it was at least partly influenced by Harry's condition, but still hurt him nonetheless.

Now, I'm fairly sure he points out more things if you picked more "bad" dialogue options through the game, but it's important that you will still get called out even if you didn't.

Harry canonically says and does racist things even if he (or you, the player) means no ill by it, simply out of ignorance. It's not entirely outright, you might not even notice them, but he does and you cannot avoid this. He canonically disrespects Kim because of his ethnicity on multiple occasions, whether you want to or not, whether you notice it or not, but one thing is for sure: Kim sure as hell fucking notices. He just doesn't SAY anything about it all that time unless you fuck up so badly he cannot hold back anymore.

And once Harry is faced with this, he is stunned, because he never had a clue that he was hurting Kim. You can at this point pick the way he responds to this, but not the fact that he is shocked by the news, because he was never fully aware of it.

This is part of what makes the commentary of this game so good in my opinion, because not only it examines the more outright racism (the big 3 main racists) as well as the less aggressive and seemingly benevolent kind (Lena being the prime example), but also the kind that's so ingrained and subtle that someone not only does not do it on purpose but has absolutely no awareness of it, and having this be examined using the main protagonist is such a powerful way of showing it, as well as the way they throw this at you (a lot of the ways the game "punishes" you for picking "bad choices" is simply to let you know you are disappointing Kim, so this particular instance feels extra bad because it turns out you've been low key disappointing him all along without even realizing it).

[raphaellight]

A misconception about Adventures of Merlin (specifically, about Uther)

I had a epifany lately regarding Adventures of Merlin. Everyone is giving Uther a hard time for his treatment of magic, yet it struck me:

He isn't that BAD as it seems.

NO, NO, HEAR ME OUT

He is ruthless, cruel and hatefull classist, also hypocritical for seeking magics help when it was about someone from his family. What I get at, that's not what made him unique inside the world builded in the show. Let's call up some trivia facts.

Merlin knows better than to admit he has magic, even tho he lived all his live outside of Camelot's kingdom (he doesn't do a great job at it, but you get my point, he knew he can't show his magic). And it wasn't because of the execution he witnessed at his arrival. It shocked him, but didn't suprise him. He never question it later.

With-hunter doesn't live in Camelot. He came when Uther called for him. He must have doing his business elsewhere.

Headhunter that brought Freya to Camelot never specified where he caught her. He brought her to Camelot, because Uther payed.

No other kingdom used magic in the open. And it wasn't exacly because of Uther, he was respected, but Camelot wasn't an empire dicating rules for everyone else. It was one of many states present.

Uther was hella respected among other kings, one of the reasons being, he conquered Camelot which was ruled by magic before his rulership.

That shows us, when we look, Uther wasn't a source of hate towards magic. Camelot was known for it's ruthless laws against it, but we never hear about a kingdom, where sorcerors and sorceres are free to practice. Best we've seen were individuals allowed to practice magic as long as it served the kings business. Uther was just a representative of the believe, a leader of a nation that didn't want magic. There was a backstory to it, magic brought Arthur to life, but took Uther's wife. Except, that only made him hate magic more. If it had started the hate itself, Camelot would have to rule over everyone else in order to enforce no magic laws outside it's borders as other Kings wouldn't be so kean to stop magicians from healing people and bringing better harvests every year. Also kings would definitelly treat him very differently thruout the show, kissing his ring and bowing before him, not sit down with him to negotiate the fates of kingdoms.

Uther was bad, but the misconception is that, he is the unique villain inside Merlin's world, while he was just the best at doing what everyone else did as well. Opressing people with gift of magic.

I wrote it partly because it strucked me, but partly because I saw a post hating Uther. Don't get me wrong, he was usually despicable tyrant. But he wasn't always a villain. There were at least phew instances, when he showed he cared for other people, he was very generous for his people, he was a great and smart leader and for last, correct me if I'm wrong, a lot of magical trouble Merlin had to overcome was not tied to any revenge on Uther, just evil people using magic for their own benefit. And that's why he is one of my favourite characters to ever grace the screen. He was a really complex character that just so happened to be in the wrong more than in the right and had his flaws dominate his virtues.

I'm planning to pull a series of posts about hated characters, presenting new perspectives and examples of characters that aren't beloved by everyone, stick with me if you want to see more. Definitelly gonna touch on more magical characters.

[synthsays]

Guys, speaking in macsummers terms, Sean singing "you are my sunshine" to lenny. Because his last name is summers 🥺🥺 and Sean would make a million corny love jokes about his last name like "it could be winter for the rest of my life and I'd still feel warm because the only summers I need are right here 😏" THEY ARE SO SILLY

[shewantsitall]

Sobbing over Mom City bc “you’re not lost you’re just not sure what direction you’re going in yet”

[beneath-the-mask]

I wonder how different the ending of the dlc would be if Miquella hadn’t abandoned his love, if he hadn’t abandoned Trina. Would we still be able to reason with him? Appeal to his better nature? Just imagining being able to bring Trina in with us as a way to defuse the situation, being able to not fight and just talk, makes me feel insane.

What if we could show Miquella just how much of a monster he had become, that all this isn’t right, by bringing Trina back to him. How can you bring an age of compassion without your love, Miquella?

God I am mourning the story we could’ve had for this dlc.

[hostess-of-horror]

Having played Oblivion for the first time, I have realized how vastly similar it is to Skyrim yet at the same time very different.

To put it simply:

Skyrim is a massive LARPing session where everyone tries their damnedest to make their roleplay very "serious" and "gritty".

Oblivion is a neverending Renaissance Faire that was created by a bunch of theatre kids.

[maybeeatspaghetti]

Google said Halloween is for the aces & aros

[samthehyena]

The togachako brainrot is so strong I can't consume media normally anymore. Like I'll be watching Bridgerton and my brain will start going "consider a regeny togachako au". Or with pretty much any book I read I'll start thinking "this would hit even harder as a togachako fic". And don't get me started on how the root of my Chappell Roan obsession is that when I heard "Casual" for the first time I thought it was so togachako coded XD

Anyways I guess I just have to accept my fate as a tragic yuri enjoyer or sth. There is no escape 😅

[jackslesbiansubconcious]

it’s been nearly three years since Inside came out an I have not stopped thinking about it. Just the fact that Bo came back at one of the most stressful terrible times to give us a piece of completely raw human emotion kills me. every time I watch Inside (especially the outtakes) I cry, it’s just so real an vulnerable. It speaks volumes about our society and culture, just the way we interact with other, ourselves and media. Its gorgeous! The cinematography and lighting make me scream and he did it all himself!!!!!!!!!! It’s amazing! And then he just went away again. I’m not sure if he knows how much it impacted people (he probably does), but he just went back to being normal. It’s crazy and I hope he is well. ok gonna go keep thinking about this. Also I didn’t proofread this so sorry if it’s bad/strange.