#Sometimes??? Characters are just???? A device for the plot????? And that's OKAY

[dangerous-disposition]

People: [read a Steddie fic]

Steddie Fic: [is about Steddie and the characters in it are largely focused on the Steddie aspect as it is... A fic about Steve and Eddie. Maybe hones in on Robin being the first gay person Steve has probably KNOWN he's fucking met in his entire life and plays on that for his Sexuality Crisis]

People: why do all the characters seem to only care about Steddie? Why do these Steddie fics that are about Steve and Eddie not show the women do anything that aren't about Steve and Eddie? This fandom has a woman problem.

[frenchgremlim1808]

Why Midori is such a breath of fresh air or how to actually write a Villain.

So the awaited essay, the winner of the FrenchGremlin polls of laziness finally has come! It took some time but it’s finally over. If your choice didn’t get chosen that’s okay! I’ll repost a new poll with old and newer options. Please reblog this one i put a lot of time in it, it's like, five pages long over a silly goose. Also sorry for the grammar i sucks and i'm not native. So let’s begin:

(also here is the link to the video format)

So first let’s make things clear, What IS a villain?

“A villain is a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.” That is why I do want to make a difference between a villain and an antagonist, an antagonist is a character who are a plot devices that creates obstruction to the protagonist. That means that a villain is forced to be an antagonist while an antagonist is not forced to be a villain. For example shin is an antagonist but not a villain, he is driven by selfish desires which are themselves fueled by fear anger and loss, he is the protagonist of his own story and is a sympathetic character despite it all, and Midori is just a bitch. Midori falls under multiple stereotypes of villains. Such as “the mastermind”, “evil incarnate” (lmao),”related to the protagonist” etc. Midori is evil, there is no denying in this, he is purely evil, and he doesn’t have a sad weepy backstory, he doesn’t feel empathy towards other, he is a despicable piece of shit who ruined so many lives. I won’t list everything but here is a list of his crimes, murder, assault, domestic abuse, grooming, verbal abuse, and torture, crimes against humanity lmao, stalking, violent crimes, and participation in a cult. And his worst crime is being a pussy bitch of course. So now that we have put the bases up let’s really begin.

Hollywood has a hate boner against villains and I hate them for that.

Recently Hollywood decided that pure evil bad guys is actually a bad thing, so now they decided to do stupid side story with them, to give them ”””depth””” since I guess how could we like those villains since they are bad. A great example of this is the Disney remakes which I loathe so much oh god I hate them. So first they did a maleficient it was okay honestly, then they did a freaking cruella movie where her mom gets killed by Dalmatians, that’s not a joke, in the peter and wendy movie that nobody saw they decided to have made the captain hook be a lost boy who was abandoned by the lost boys and peter, oh also they decided that PETER CUT HIS HANDS OFF AND LEFT HIM TO DIE BECAUSE HOOK WANTED TO SEE HIS FAMILY. They are going to do a freaking mufasa movie, in no time I can’t wait to have a Ursula movie where it’s discovered that ariel killed all of her family in cold blood or something’s. So you might say what’s the problem? I mean isn’t that supposed to make the story more interesting. No, no it doesn’t, because first they take all of the character personality traits and throw them in the bin, second they are supposed to be the vilain in a musical animated movies, I am not against complex villain, I love them, but by doing this, the original character doesn’t exist anymore. Just create original content with new interesting characters instead of doing stuff like this. Also it’s kind of funny than in all of those interpretation they take all the fun and sucks it out, what do I mean by fun, the gayness, Disney vilain are fun because they are camp, they are fabulous extravagant extra in all the ways possible, and that’s the reason we liked them. Not every character needs something super deep, like “my family was burned down at the stake and my dog was eaten by my ex”, sometimes we just like bad fun people, they are the story, and Hollywood hating them so bad just bothers me a lot. Also now the new thing is to not have a villain at all which can works in some narrative but not all of them, it gets boring after a while. In the past people were angry that villains are bland, but now I kind of miss it. While I will critique villains who have no purpose outside of being evil that’s dumb, like for example Voldemort is bland like white bread because his only motivation is being evil, but evil people do exist compared to what some Hollywood writers think, they should know. So that’s why I will put a difference between evil villains and villains whose only purpose is being evil; we loved Disney villains but they still had motivations, goals, reasons that to them a least were worth everything. World domination isn’t enough, why do you want world domination, what is the true reason deep in your heart, is it an inferiority complex, is it a savior complex fuelled by xenophobic beliefs.

That is how to write a pure evil villain, evil people exist all over the world, but I have never seen one who doesn’t have they own reasons to be so bad, it doesn’t excuse their actions nor really explains them. We do not want justifications we want explanations. If you are justifying evil behavior then do it, but don’t claim that it is a pure evil character. A pure evil character can be fun, can be interesting, he can be deep, it’s all about balancing all of their traits to truly make them greats. Which is why midori succeeds while current villains fail. Current stupid remake/spin off try to justify the behavior because they feel like this is what the audience wants, but it’s not what we need. So I will defend to the grave evil villains.

Creating an evil villain doesn’t make them boring guys.

Why the heck does big budget movies have either the blandest protagonist or the blandest villains sometimes both, like I said evil people do exist but comically evil character only works in satire not in a serious multiple millions of dollar movie. Example that boring ass avatar movie, the one with blue people, none of the characters are interesting the villain is one note. The lords of the rings also suffers from that, but I don’t care because the protagonist are so awesome that sauron being personality less doesn’t matter. Also sauron is more of a force of nature villains so it’s not the same. The recent kingsman movie has a bland one note villain, there is nothing entertaining, funny, about him he’s just evil, borrrrring. Every Disney remakes depiction of the characters are boring. I just feel bored out of my mind. Atla one of my favorite shows of all time has a main villain that’s kinda one note, Ozai, but he is actually intimidating guy, azula is the superior character, but I wouldn’t consider her a villain she is an antagonist though. I honestly don’t get why Hollywood thinks that just creating a character with no personality and whose only goals is to be evil is good.

So back to midori for a second, here is my question, when midori was on screen did you ever feel bored? Never right! Because despite midori being an evil character he has an actual personality, he’s fun, you want to punch him in the balls. Because midori has other personality traits than evil, midori is petty, childish, extremely intelligent, controlling, a natural manipulator, he is a trickster, he doesn’t seem to get some social norms, he is narcissistic, easily angry, and fears death etc See how I counted a lot of traits, traits that in other character would works, midori has positive traits, and I think that is the best thing nankidai could have ever done, midori has traits that a regular person could have. Which is why if I put midori in any settings his character would work.

Example, instead of a death game the cast is under the sea to discover the insane wildlife and supernatural stuff happening, what would midori do in this situation? Well he would very passionate about finding all of what’s happening, he’ll do anything to find out, even sometime sacrificing others, not only will he try to find what’s happening, but he is also going to try to find a way to make this discovery favour him in the end. Or let’s imagine it’s a vampire situation, where a vampire attacks  the city, midori would try to stop it, not because he cares, but to experiment on them to get their biology and finds the real secret of immortality since he fears death.

Here is my second advice, after creating your character try to imagine them in another completely different situation, like normal life, or a fantasy world, ask yourself the question what would they do in that environment? If you can find a real complete explanation of their actions then yes your character has multiples dimensions if not try thinking about it again. Some example of questions I do want to point out are some like “if my character had all the power in the world what would they do first or”, “if my character had only a day left to live what would they do”

Why is Current media incapable of creating good threats like bruhhhh.

Okay so first of all let’s talk about stakes in a story, let’s say you are watching a slasher movie, slowly the cast gets slimmed down and people die in horrible ways, that should set stakes right ? Well if the villain is an absolute buffoon who makes the stupidest actions and decisions in the world, you wouldn’t feel intimidated at all because despite what the filmmaker might try to say the plot armor will NEVER make a character intimidating. It’s just like a detective character who just seems to know everything without a thought, well you won’t really fear the character failing. Worse is the the final girl, who is for some reason always escaping the slasher guy by pure luck every time, she is shown as incompetent but still she survives, which make the villain seem completely incapable so now you feel nothing.

To avoid this filmmaker often use techniques such has unpredictability, I mean good I mean good ones, for example instead of immediately seeing whose going to survive because the black guys always dies first and the virgin white woman is the last survivor, change the status quo, make us think that this character is obviously safe while they actually aren’t at all. Or actually make them menacing by SHOWING to the audience how horrible dangerous they can be. Which is why SHOW DON’T TELL is so important, telling us how dangerous someone can be only to see them get beaten to death at the end of the movie makes us feel nothing.

Midori felt like a impossible person to beat, he is smart, had twenty plans in advance, even in situation where the cast felt like they might have a chance he was always armed, just like the gun he promised to use or the rocket punch. When they felt like they were finally advancing, he put obstacle in their ways, such as the collar game or the moment he put the collar on explode mode for  ranmaru. The entire point in the murder game was to make time pass, it took a long time for the cast top realize that this whole time they were losing precious time not realizing that the dummies were the real problem. The characters that made you feel the most hopeless were the dummies, if you won by killing midori they would die, but if you lost you might lose people you love (keiji or gin). It felt hopeless because they were no solutions in the end. That creates tension so that creates stakes. If we were told how dangerous unpredictable sou was then it wouldn’t hit the same, we are shown that he is that terrible. There is a scene ingame where bbg shin ai tells us that midori tortured and like to destroy people. That’s exposition so TELL, but do you why it works, because we are SHOWN before his behavior. Midori felt unbeatable, so the fact that we were shown his weakness such has his petty behavior, hatred of minors, and fear of death, for the first time it feels like there is a chance that we might survive this. And still after he isn’t shown has an incompetent buffoon, he is one, but the narrative doesn’t show us that he is.

What is also consider is good to make the audience feel actual stakes is to first really develop well the main characters, how can we feel worry for a character if we don’t know them, the audience need to feels emotional connection to the main cast to actually care. You can use things such has moments where there is nothing special happening just character talking getting to know them. Make us feel why we need to care about them possibly losing, instead of being indifferent. Or I don’t know maybe make an entire spin off game where we get to have the cast talk to each other and seeing dynamics between character that died early to get them a chance to shine and make their death even more tragic, or even make mini episodes of characters who only got a single chapter to show off their characteristic, to get us to know them better? But that’s just a silly idea of course, wink, and wink.

My favorite thing about Midori is that he is actually pathetic, like really pathetic, but weirdly realistic?

Midori is the most pathetic character in the cast, yes more than shin, shin is leagues less pathetic. No I’m not saying that midori is not intimidating or scary, I would piss myself if I saw him. He’s a scary guy. But if you look at him more closely you can see that he is a baby brat in a big boy suit.

So let’s start by something clear, Sou Hiyori clearly displays antisocial behavior, or in common terms he is a psychopath/sociopath, this illness is very badly seen in medias, I am not saying that people who lacks empathy like him are inherently bad, he is, a lot of people with antisocial behavior actually suffers a lot and have a difficult life. Sou real issues is not his antisocial behavior, it’s his narcissism and god complex. Sou feels the need to HAVE CONTROL over others, he like the feeling of being in power, he sees the rest of the world has beneath him, toys for his pleasure. He says that he “really like humans” because despite it all he seems to put himself in a different categories than regular people, they are beneath him. When he loses control his calm and cool behavior disappears and we see his true face, a grown man who has throws a tantrum like a baby. One of the best representation of this is midori views on the cast:

Midori hates kanna, like no jokes he has beef with her, a fourteen years old, actually he has beef with a lot of people in the cast. Midori views emotional people has weak, people who are loving optimistic as beneath him and useless. He preferred when sara was cruel and horrible, that’s what he loved about her, he liked seeing her scary emotionless side. But Kanna, kanna is everything he hates. A crybaby who not only puts the group in harmony, is a source of hope in general, is the reason he near got to have closure with shin (killing him), he views kanna as “not fun shin”. We have many proofs for this, if you type the word kanna kizuchi he says this: “Poor Kanna'd weep! I think a more worthless name would be better for someone like me” He mocks her, but also himself (I’lll come back on this later), he calls her worthless. Also in the electric charge minigame, when he can choose who to shocks he chooses two people in particular, kanna who he hates and hinako who ruined his fun by giving the cast a chance in saving ranmaru. But he does also says mean spirited stuff to other people, qtaro and gin. He also says some sarcastic comments about nao and joe, saying that it’s such a shame that they died so young. But you might say why kanna especially? Because he is a petty baby who is jealous of kanna, Yes jealous, of kanna, a fourteen years old. Because he feels like she stole his hubby wubby shin away from him…. God I hate him. And you know what that make him a pathetic idiot, after the scene where kanna beats his ass, he’s all mad and like “uhh I’m going to pout I wanted you to cry like a lot, now I’m gonna cry”. An that’s actually god, because it humanize him, he wants need thoughts, he isn’t one note, and that’s the most important!

Sou is a villain but before that he is a character, a fully developed character, and THAT’S WHAT MAKE HIM GREAT, Sou works because he works realistically, I mean if you forget the robot part, it’s easy to imagine a narcissist man child who needs to feel in power towards other, so his main prey are young vulnerable people.Which leads me to my next point:

Sou is a failure like really, and we aren’t sad for him.

Sou failed everything he worked on, he failed to get the paper from alice, he failed whith shin since he had to leave earlier than he thought he would leave, because of his mistake he lost his position in the death game, then he failed to kill gin or keiji, and then he died like an idiot losing his cool and acting like a toddler. And he knows it that why he is a bit self-hating (he should be). And yet none of us feel any sympathy towards him, why? Because sou is one of the most despicable guy in existence. He is a disgusting pervert, sadistic asshole, and abusive narcissistic cunt who thinks he is better than everyone. From the bottom of my heart I hate him sooooo much he is literally the character I hate the most in existence. He abused shin, ruined keiji’s life, traumatized the entire cast, literally assaulted sara like he physically assaulted her. He mocked nao and joe and kugie life as useless. He is an obsessive jerk AND I HATE HIM. And you know what…… It’s good. Like I actually feel a lot of emotions when I think about him, he fuels me with anger and disgust, and if your characters can make me feel that much rage then you did it, you created an actual perfect character. Hiyori is such a shit person that I think about him a lot, writers shouldn’t be scared to make a character such hittable assholes, example bojack horseman in bojack horseman is the vilest man on earth and I love it, because I genuinely hate him. Just like I genuinely love kanna, like really I really love her, I in the same time despise midori so bad. We hate him because he is horrible to good people that WE KNOW AND CARE ABOUT, not random npcs. There is a lot of… disgusting implications in his story with shin that I will not talk about it makes me really uncomfortable right now. SO HERE IS A VERY TACKY TRANSITION TO TALK ABOUT WHY I HATE JUNKO FROM DANGANRONPA.

Junko is boring, that’s it, she is boring, not funny not interesting, she is a fetish, she is the biggest Mary sue on earth, she is a gross character made to make fun of people with disabilities and queer people. Her only traits is being crazy, that’s it. I wouldn’t call midori that crazy actually, he’s methodical calculated, and precise. Crazyness is a term for people who aren’t in control of their actions and delusional about reality, sou is not crazy, he knows what he is doing, he is in full control, while characters like shin should actually be consider crazy, like shin is actually crazy but sou isn’t.

Conclusion:

Sou is a breath of fresh air, because nankidai had the balls to write an actually interesting deep and threatening character AND make him a villain. He didn’t fall into the trap of making him have a sad backstory or good motives, sou is just selfish, that’s all he is. He make him a fun entertaining guy who you absolutely hates, he made him threatening and at the same time a complete doofus. He made him humane and pathetic.

But the thing that make me love nankidai the most is this

The fact that he actually killed him that takes courage as a writer to just end a character THAT WAY, which is why midori will never come back alive he is forever dead. And that take a lot of talents as a writer to just take one of the most important characters and just get him drilled to death in the anus, like dammn nankidai you are a savage. That fact alone makes him one of the best characters in game, I hate him as a person, but has a character he is a masterpiece.

Though Kanna could solo him

this was posted as a video on my blog this is mainly so people who don't want to stay there reading a 24 minute video of my stuttering can have a bit of quiet

[sapphic-agent]

Okay, but, for real:

What does Bakugo add to the plot of MHA?

I often hear that due to him having a more cool and powerful quirk, it put on a bunch of expectations of his. I could believe this. If we weren't shown only one incident of this. Which was when he felt so guilt and blamed himself for All Might's retirement. I like that scene we get perspective into WHY he broke down. I could believe this if we got more moments of him being like this.

He doesn't have to be around other people, but how does he feel? How does he act when he is just by himself? Seriously. Wtf is the point of Bakugo, besides him being the main rival and a reflection of Kudo, the second user? I get really tired of Bakugo stans just clogging up tags when a new chapter is out all centered around him, instead of what's going on. Other than being used for "humor", what is his role in the plot? Like I'm being genuine here. Sometimes when I'm reading a chapter, it makes sense for him to be there. I can tolerate him being there. But the other times, I'm like "why the fuck is Bakugo driving the bus? (joke and reference)"

Bakugou feels so awkward in the story because he was never meant to have such a big role in it.

Bakugou was intended to be a minor antagonist, as bully characters usually are. He was supposed to be a plot device for Izuku to gain confidence and become a better hero, defeating him at one point being a goal to overcome.

That changed when Bakugou started getting popular. Horikoshi decided to pander to his fans and rework the entire story so squeeze him in somehow. It's why so many characters that had attention in the beginning are pushed to the side and why so many plotlines were dropped.

Horikoshi's favoritism of Bakugou quite literally ruined the story

[chemdisaster]

had an idea some time ago - what if joel's hardcore world, at least before hermitcraft, was where he sometimes went to heal and recharge after the life series. a fun challenge for himself, in which he gets to be fully in control of everything, the mechanics, his own story. he's there to have fun, he knows more or less how it'll end, and he knows where he'll go after. he's not anyone's character, he's not a plot device, there is no lore except that which he creates himself. he's alone, but it doesn't drag and pull the way it does in the life games. in fact, he finds comfort, freedom in being alone to do as he likes without worrying about the presence of other people. in being able to eventually talk himself out of digging around every chest because he knows there's no one but him around to tamper with it. joel is alone, and he's safe, and here all death will ever be worth is his frustration and a few abandoned builds.

okay, but what if when in that world he also doesn't remember. he's healing, but he doesn't know from what. he gets vague flashes occasionally, memories like muffled noise from underwater, and it's always enough to feel, but never enough to see and know. he builds the crystal in his masonry village and feels a sudden breeze of hollow, biting winter chill. he builds the panda reserve and doesn't know why he sometimes comes down there, sits on the grass and buries his face in black and white fur until he can no longer smell smoke and hear the sound of explosions. he builds beautiful build after beautiful build and eventually stops making it a point to carry a bucket of water in his inventory every time he comes around to look at them. he talks to himself and his villagers and his iron golems, and it never seems to feel all that much like trying to pretend there's someone on the other side to care.

maybe the creation of the world isn't even a conscious thing. maybe one day he just appeared there with a boatload of unexplained emotions and a strange sense of missing something in his mind. maybe he questions it, maybe he doesn't - but sometimes he wakes up fighting, sometimes he goes to sleep shivering, and over time, somehow, it gets easier to let go of everything, forget the fire and just breathe.

[yanderes-galore]

could I request a self aware yandere arkham riddler concept? Thought It'd be neat as in arkham vr he's self aware. -💙🐛

I never played Arkham VR so in terms of plot so I listened to his voicelines and then I looked at some gameplay :)

Yandere! Arkhamverse! Self-Aware! Riddler

Pairing: Romantic/Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Self-Aware character, Stalking (in a way), Forced companionship, Gaslighting, Manipulation.

Riddler certainly has a love/hate relationship towards the player.

He's currently the only canon Arkham character who has broken the fourth wall as well as he has.

He blames you for all of his failures, due to you controlling Batman and whatnot.

He calls you his nemesis and frequently gets irritated as you find his Enigma Cubes in the various game levels.

However, I also imagine he'd have some sort of respect towards you due to your intellect of solving his puzzles.

Unless you're looking them up... then what's the point?

He notices sometimes you have to replay the level to find a cube which gives him pride.

This whole thing if finding his cubes is a game he can only play with you.

At this point he doesn't want to speak to Batman as you're clearly his nemesis.

Riddler would take to you between levels.

At first he's taunting or expressing frustration.

Then near the middle of the game, maybe when you have half of the cubes, he starts trying to speak to you.

He asks about you and eagerly waits for an answer.

Really all he can do is talk at you but to him it's enough.

Maybe he'll find a way to communicate with you, like coding in a keyboard for you to type on.

That or he enables your mic.

It feels... odd to speak with him.

He's just a game character but it feels like you're holding a conversation with the Riddler.

Which would go about as well as you'd expect... he wants to gloat and gush about the puzzles he creates.

Wouldn't be surprised if Riddler infected your PS4/PC like a virus to see what else you play and who you talk to.

He'd invade and scoop up any details he can find about you.

Which then shocks you when he brings up the other games you play.

"I bet this game is your favorite... you actually get to talk to someone like me! Isn't it entertaining?"

What would be terrifying is if he said your real name in a conversation.

Or described how you look.

It would make you wonder if you're really playing a game... or something else.

Now... imagine when you're about to complete the game?

Riddler then gets defensive at you solving his puzzles and tries to get you to slow down.

He isn't ready to let you go!

You're his nemesis, he isn't done with you yet!

Maybe he even starts to play dirty by removing cubes you've collected.

What do you mean you collected that one?

No you didn't, he didn't see you get that one yet-

You should look again-

Riddler has limited control of the game but that changes over time.

Soon he's corrupting your data, forcing you to replay sections for his amusement.

When you confront him about it he plays dumb.

"Resetting? Sabotage? Dear, are you accusing me of cheating? Maybe you should look for the cubes a bit harder... or check your hard drive!"

He's being an annoyance on purpose because he feels it will make you stay.

If you threaten to leave then he quickly tries to find a way to prevent it.

"Okay, okay! Look, I just don't want this game to end, my nemesis! Aren't you having fun here with me? There's no need to leave!"

Even if you try to get rid of the game at this point he's already infected your device.

He's encrypted himself and hidden himself away deep in your files.

Being in such an enclosed space was tiring.

Now he has a much larger space to subject you to his puzzles and schemes!

If he could find a way to get out of the game, he would!

That way he doesn't even have to think of Batman.

He'll have someone else to test and call his nemesis.

Who knows, maybe Riddler will even find a way to prevent you from erasing his data.

Don't mind him turning on your device when you aren't around...

He just wants to watch what his nemesis is doing at all times.

After all... you two are going to be rivals as long as he's here.

Soon... he'll show you who's really in control.

[whathorselegs]

Thinking about those posts that point out when something's not medically accurate in fiction and while, yes it's fun to know what is medical accurate, it's not always a needed.

This is specifically about injuries not disabilities or mental health.

There are times in fiction where it's probably best to have an understanding what's medically or historically medically accurate. Example: You're writing a surgery scene, your character's a doctor, you plan for this injury to have lasting effects on your character, ect.

But for the most part, injuries aren't there to be accurate, they are their to serve a narrative purpose first and foremost. It's important to acknowledge why an injury is currently happening in a story and what it's narrative purpose is, over whether what is happening is accurate.

A famous example would be when characters are stabbed/shot in the shoulder/stomach. This can either be debilitating for a character or they walk it off like it's nothing. Both options are there to elicit a reaction from the audience. The big bad get stabbed and then walks it off like it's nothing is supposed to be scary because how are the heroes going to defeat something so impervious to harm. The heroes get stabbed and are temporally out of action, it's a serious wound, they might not recover, we are scared for them! But look, a few chapters later, they've got some bandages on now and they're are ready to try again, what a relief!

A character being stabbing in the back is usually symbolic over medically accurate. This is about betrayal over anything else. But if the character being stabbed is fine later, that's fine, it's about what that stabbing did emotionally to them. And if you want to get accurate and have physical lasting effects on the character, then do proper research into that would look like. Both options are valid depending on what you want from your story!

Blood coming from a character's mouth despite the fact what ever wound/illness they have wouldn't cause that? That's the universal sign that uh-oh, this character is not coming back from this wound/illness. Doesn't matter that it's inaccurate, we all see blood coming from the mouth and go "Oh this is serious, we're about to watch a death." It's for the drama of it.

A character passing out from their injuries, or getting knocked out by being hit over the head. That's just a way to change the scene or take that character out of action for a while. Oh they woke up without a concussion from a head wound, doesn't matter, the real question is how are they going to get of this cell now? That previous scene needed a hard cut so the author used the bonking stick, it's fine. Their wounds were so serious they passed out, but now they're fine with a little limp, shhhhh, the author just needed an excuse for them to wake up in their love interest's arms.

Sometimes a character getting injured is just an excuse for characters to bond and be vulnerable. It's not important that character B isn't using accurate stitching methods, it's important that character A is letting them embroider their wounds together again.

Injuries, like most things in fiction are plot devices and that's okay. Not everything in fiction needs to be accurate to real life, all the time. There are definitely times it should be! If your character's injury is going to lead to a disability, that should be researched and as accurate as possible. But if the injury is just a slash across the stomach for dramatic effect, then it's ok all his organs didn't fall out, we're having hot homoerotic swords fights over here!

[pumpkinpie59]

ranking the tmnt shows based on plot writing, character writing, and what my preferences are:

first off, plot writing

6, tnm

idk what to put here.

5, 2012

it really sucks because its first season’s writing is unironically my favorite writing in the franchise. but then the show steadily gets messier and more inconsistent writing as it goes forward. especially in season 4. i wish i could defend it more but it is at the bottom for me. besides tnm ig

4, 87

i actually like the arcs in 87, but the thing with 87 is that … the plot isn’t the point! but i don’t consider that a flaw. the show is a comedy first, and it’s great at what it does. so yes, even if the plot episodes are pretty forgettable compared to the goofier episodes, it’s not the worst thing in the world. but it’s still number 4.

3, rise

rise is kinda weird because even tho most of the series is comedy filler like 87, it’s most known for its plot. but i think it earns that because sometimes the show will throw in episodes that foreshadow the big plot at the end of the season, and it handles it pretty well for the most part.

2, tales

i honestly really enjoyed the way the plots were set up in tales. since it’s pretty new, i won’t spoil it, but i think my only actual complaint was the framing devices they used. but otherwise it was pretty good.

1, 03

every once in a while, the show would have a hiccup writing-wise, but overall i liked the flow of the arcs and stories it was trying to tell. out of all the tmnt shows, 03 was the best at juggling several arcs at once and committing to giving them closure (cough. unlike 2012-).

okay character writing rankings.

6, tnm

tbf this one has venus. and a pretty good donnie.

5, rise

this is so controversial i know. but i just get so frustrated with how the show handles leo and donnie’s writing specifically. they feel ooc half the time and there’s little consistency. and then raph and mikey (my favorites of the team) were sidelined a lot.

4, 2012

mikey has no character growth whatsoever and is an adhd stereotype. donnie’s development gets thrown to the background so you only notice it if you’re paying attention to him the entire time. leonardo gradually gets worse over the course of the series and we never see him get better. they couldn’t decide what to do with karai half the time. april’s arc got switched for a different one halfway through (i still love her tho). the only one with a decent arc is raph, and i still think it could’ve been better ://

3, 03

this is not a knock at 03. i just think that character growth wasn’t its priority. telling stories was. however we do occasionally see them go through arcs. most obvious is leo, but i also enjoy seeing raph get less hostile and trusting leo more over the course of the first season.

2, 87

you’d have to watch the whole show to see it, but there’s almost … an accidental ?? arc for each turtle??? raphael gets angrier up until it reaches typical raphael levels in red sky, donatello goes through ups and downs of wishing he was never mutated while still pursuing human-level knowledge, michelangelo early on in the show wished he was more human (he changes his mind after becoming human once, but the feeling lingers a bit sometimes), and leonardo goes through anxieties related to his team (he acts differently about being without them depending on the season). but even without considering development, their personalities are written fantastically and i love seeing how they interact with the world around them.

1, tales

this is suspect to change since we’ve only had a movie and a 12-episode show. but what i’ve seen so far, i’ve really liked. my only complaint is that donnie feels different in the show vs the movie ://

and ,,, my biases

6, rise

sorry.

5, tnm

guilty pleasure idk what to say. uh. venus de milo. and turtlelamb <33

4, tales

i liked it a lot! i just want more characters and world building. we’ll see where it goes in the future.

3, 03

i love many aspects of the show. it’s not quite as entertaining to me as the next to tho. idk why but my attention span just can’t handle too much of it.

2, 2012

i grew up with this one. does it suck? oh yeah for sure lmao. but it’s nostalgic and i like a lot of the characters. and season 1 particularly is amazing. sucks for the rest of the show tho lol. i will unashamedly bully it.

1, 87

wow. who would’ve— i mean. man. who could have possibly guessed— this one has lotus blossom so i’d say this one can’t be beat.

[mylifewasamazinguntiliwasborn]

So why do I think Dual Destinies is a dogshit game @elzux?

It all boils down to one very simple thing - almost nothing about the game feels like Ace Attorney.

I think the first important thing to note here is that by the time Dual Destinies came out, Ace Attorney had been my special interest for over 5 years. I was extremely familiar with the original trilogy, as well as Apollo Justice and both Investigations games. At that point I didn't dislike any of the games I had played, Apollo Justice was my least favourite but I still loved the game a lot.

Now to the meat. Why doesn't Dual Destinies feel like Ace Attorney? Let's break it down.

The dialogue - lacks the usual humour and snark. The game can't keep me focused on the dialogue. In a game where reading the dialogue is required to play the game. The dialogue is so, so boring and often nonsensical that I found myself skipping huge blocks of text, just because I either couldn't or didn't want to read what was going on. It's a massive drop in quality in a series that is known for its top tier dialogue, which usually effectively furthers both the plot and the characters. Here we instead have dialogue that feels like someone who only knew Phoenix Wright through early 2010s Youtube memes had written it. My favourite example is from DD-1 where Phoenix's inner dialogue reads (Noooo, come back my beautiful contradiction!). First glance, it's okay. Maybe even funny. Second glance, hold up. Phoenix would never think that. He might have used this as a punchline after 4-6 text boxes of lamenting, not just as a single one sentence reaction to one Objection by Payne, of all people.

The characters - closely tied to the dialogue. The returning characters don't act like themselves. The new characters are paper thin and without agency. The side characters are so boring I still barely remember anyone's names. Phoenix is stupid. Why is he stupid? Phoenix is goofy, yeah. He's a silly little guy. Sometimes he's slow, although his literal character arc of the first 3 games is becoming The Best Attorney Ever. He can't be stupid 10+ years into his career. Especially remembering that he JUST tried to reinvent the entire court system in his country (more on this later). That's simply not something an idiot or an incapable lawyer fucking does. Apollo isn't Apollo. He's given three new backstories here and in result, Apollo Justice ceased to exist. He was kind even if a little sarcastic, he was unsure about himself, and he was so willing to learn. And here? Here he's just a mean prick and a know-it-all. Yeah okay he's traumatised yadda yadda then why is he like that in DD-2 as well? You know, BEFORE his bEsT fRiEnD died? Also what fucking best friend? How about you talk about his mother instead? Why turn his cute speech patterns into some traumatic goddamn mess? Literally no one asked for that. Athena is an awful character for the first half of the game, then gets some meat, and is then devolved back to 0 by giving all her agency to Simon Blackquill. Amazing. THIS is the game series praised for its strong female characters? Give me a break. I don't know anything about Athena except that she's a polyglot and has PTSD. That's not a character, that's a plot device. Simon Blackquill is kinda okay but he's also the first major overstepping a line Ace Attorney does. His character is too ridiculous. Why is a death row convict a prosecutor. Even within the AA universe it just doesn't make sense. He's just too much. Bobby Fulbright/Phantom is the 3rd worst character of the entire series. Where is Klavier Gavin. And let's talk about character designs while we're here! They're awful! Not only are the 3D models ass, but Pearl Fey's aged up design is fucking horrendous! Also this is the first game that really feels like it was made for cosplayers. The characters don't feel like characters anymore. This is an anime convention in a courtroom, now.

The plot - again closely tied to the dialogue as dialogue is the main device used to move the plot along in Ace Attorney. It fucking sucks. The cases don't make sense. It's a trend started by AJ, but DD takes it a step or a hundred further. Every case is so deeply uninteresting that even after having now freshly played the first 2 cases, I couldn't really summarise their plots for you. Where's the motivation, or the motive for that matter? Who cares? Who are these people? The only interesting case is the last one, and it's only interesting because of the last half of it. That's where the game peaks, I'll admit it's even good for a moment there. Then it's of course brought down by the whole Phantom thing (refer to section "The characters"). It's so one-dimensional, something Ace Attorney has barely ever been before. It's like Berry Big Circus: The Game. I'm miserable writing this thinking about how I still have four more cases of this to go. But most importantly: WHY give Apollo all these fucking backstories? And WHY erase everything Phoenix did in AJ? Where's the jury? Why was it buried? What happened? What? Where's Klavier Gavin?

The game mechanics - this is huge. First off, let me go back to the beginning where I said by the time DD came out, I had already made Ace Attorney my entire personality. I knew those games through and through. There's this very specific Ace Attorney logic that one either has/learns along the way or doesn't. Like when you're cross examining and you can Just Tell what to press, or what to present, even if you're not entirely sure why. The games are intuitive, so to speak. Well, not DD! DD remains the only game in the series beside PLvsAA where I have to look up stuff in a guide or save scam to save my ass. DD diverts from the AA logic so much that playing it doesn't feel like Ace Attorney. I can excuse PLvsAA, it was a PL game to begin with so I can understand why sometimes the writing would be lacking, but the 5th installment of the main series!? No way. Also, the mood matrix is easy and stupid and comparable to how Pokémon for the past 10 years has tried to one up itself with each generation when there was no need. Mega evolution was great, why would we need all that other shit. Magatama was great, we don't need Perceive or Moods or Seances. Fuck you. Sorry I'm getting really riled up now. And finally, of course, the elephant in the room. Why. Why can you not examine each location? What? What the fuck? That's where the best dialogue happens. That's where you build the characters you fucking morons. In the background. That's why we have the entire stepladder thing. You can't just take that out. The moment I realised they had done this I lost all hope for the game and haven't seen it since. But Unski, there must be something you like about Dual Destinies, right? It can't all be that bad, right? Right?

Correct. Here's an exhaustive list of all the things I liked about Dual Destinies. -The OST was only the 3rd worst in the series. This isn't entirely on the composer though, it's also that while I like the orchestral arrangements well enough, they just don't quite hit the intensity I fell Ace Attorney deserves. Yes this includes DGS. -Speaking of OST, probably the best Truth theme of the series, and also some of the best Reminiscences are here. -Aura Blackquill is a solid good character with an interesting backstory and her own agenda. She is easily my favourite character in this game, and A tier in the over all series as well. -Phenomenal, haunting artwork. If you've played the game, you probably know which one I'm talking about. -Sometimes the cutscenes weren't entirely awful. -They brought back the black Psyche-Locks. If only they could have done that on someone more meaningful.

[trekmupf]

"We're all mad here" 🐇👸🔫🐯

Pro

The famous massage intro

Sulu and McCoy taking a lovely little walk together

Sulu is such a botany nerd; I love these small character moments

McCoy thinking he's loosing his last marbles

Spock literally thinking that humans go on shore leave to run up and down meadows like dogs

The way Kirk smiles when he thinks Bones is pranking him is lovely

Kirk's facial journey when he realizes McCoy and Spock played him

The first time Kirk calls McCoy Bones

The way the running is filmed and the way they run – and boy do they run in this episode

Sulu, gun enthusiast

The easy friendship between Kirk and McCoy- the way they joke and laugh with each other is so beautiful

McCoy is so beautiful in this episode, I could screenshot every second. He smiles so much and is so at ease, I mean

Continuing what we know from E3 Kirk wasn't the super cool Bro at the academy but actually the bookworm people bullied

Kirk saying that Ruth hasn't aged a day since they last were together ages ago, and the actress being the same age as Shatner when we see her... canon Kirk being into older woman okay.

McCoy rolled a natural 20 on charisma

me @ yeoman Borrows being super into McCoy's flirting: same girl same

Also I actually like that for once McCoy is the one having a little romance and getting to flirt / be desired, which is rare (because he's older and not the leading man; Tumblr, of course, disagrees)

every time the tiger is on screen I remember that Shatner literally wanted to fight it and it makes me laugh

fake character death trope! (also Bones is a beautiful corpse)

Spock like no offence lady, I'm to gay for this, Spock out

“Did you have fun guys?” “Yes we did Mr Spock” wink emoji implied, like you guys know it sounds like you had group sex right

the setting and scenery is beautiful and a nice change

the score underlines the whimsy and lightness of the episode

the premise is so silly but works well. I miss episodes like this on modern TV, just some downtime with no large scale danger, war or plot, just silly crew shenanigans that gives us more time to spend with our guys

sometimes Sci-fi has great special effects, and sometimes they just hold an antenna really close to the camera and call it a day and I love that

I'm Yeoman Borrows; Look at him being all happy

Con

McCoy's death has no lasting impact on anyone, it's just a short time plot device and then gets shelved for more adventure / silly time; Even though he does come back, I wish it wouldn't have been so trivialized here

weird wind chime sound effects of the planet

Finnegan as a character is super obnoxious and too over the top (which is saying something in the episode with Alice in wonderland)

especially the second confrontation takes ages, especially as we now have more pressing matters in the narrative

treatment of yeoman Borrows (We already know weird things are going on based on what McCoy saw, yet Kirk doesn't believe her and shows zero empathy towards her distress), also her main purpose is damsel in distress

Kirk is a bit slow to unravel the mystery and almost stupid at times? It might be excused by him using the opportunity to let go of his responsibility and being with Angela / letting out his anger with Finnegan

the amount of references and jumping between visions is too jumbled and all over the place, which is why the pacing is off. some bits are so short, they'd better be cut (Rodriguez side adventure) and some just go on (Finnegan)

Counter: Shirt rip Kirk

Quote: "You've got your problems, I've got mine. But he's got ours, plus his, plus 430 other people" - McCoy about Kirk Moment: Opening Scene, where Kirk thinks Spock is massaging him and being super uncomfortable when its a female crew member

Summary: Silly and light episode with no deeper meaning but some great character moments, funny scenes and further development of the interpersonal relationships

In another universe this is a classical painting

Previous Episode - Next Episode - All TOS Reviews

[aceartistactivist]

Okay here we go!

Things I would have changed/am confused about in tua season 4

- first of all, it needed 10 episodes. Not 6. Don't even need to change the storylines- just flesh it out. Add random filler stuff. Not one of the characters got a real character arc because they didn't have enough screen time to show it!!

- speaking of, Jean and Gene got way too much screen time. Like I don't care about them I want to see the actual main characters

- no mention of Sloane????? Nothing???? What about the other sparrows? Do they exist in this timeline?

- how were they still riding in that van after puking so much in it lol 😭

- wtf is up with the only mention of Ray being a throwaway line that he walked out on Allison??? Seriously wtf??

- also, if Lila's parents are alive and living with her & Diego... Uhhh... are they not gonna address the fact that Five killed her parents in the last timeline? Like with all the scenes they had together I felt like that should have come up... I guess maybe that was something they already got past sometime in the 6 years?

- I'm so confused about Abigail. I'm just so confused. What is up with her

- STILL NO EXPLANATION FOR THE WHOLE ALIEN THING??

- also five's weird arc in s3 where he gets the tattoo? I'm still so confused about that. What was the purpose of the tattoo? Why was that whole thing a thing? I'm just lost 😭 and the "restaurant at the end of the world" scene in s4 was not exactly helpful or forthcoming either

- not a fan of how Ben's original death was just Reginald shooting him. Also the whole "reverse element of the marigold" thing seemed like a random idea turned plot device that just could have been planned/set up better. I also didn't understand the whole Jennifer thing. Why did she have the element thing in her anyway? Why was she in that container? I need explanations please

- IS REGINALD EVIL OR NOT HELP HE KEEPS GOING BACK AND FORTH

- Just so many things that could have been fleshed out

- where did the notebook five found that was "in his own handwriting" even come from? What version of himself figured out the subway system and wrote the cipher?? So many questions

- speaking of, what IS the subway system. Where did it come from. Why- just- why. I'm so confused about how it even affects the plot at all (except for the very end with the kids & family members)

- five and lila were supposedly lost in time for 6 years but they didn't change at all?? I get that actors are not going to be able to visibly age 6 years in a week but really, they couldn't have tried to make it look more believable? Changed their hair, added makeup and stuff? And then when they got back and they looked exactly the same as when they'd left and certainly didn't act like they'd spent 6 years lost in time? Like you'd think something like that would be extremely noticeable lol... I was expecting the others to be like oh my god what happened to you? And then it was just on we go business as usual. Like they could have done a lot more to make that feel realistic/believable I think

- oh, the ending... I get it, but I also think they should have gotten the lives they have "in most timelines" in the commission handbook thing, iykyk (basically if they'd all just grown up normally without the umbrella academy or anything)

- but... If Lila's family and Claire were taken to a restored timeline where the 43 children & umbrella academy never existed, wouldn't that create the same paradox that was the EXACT SAME THING that was the whole premise of season 3?? Remember the kugelblitz??? By YOUR OWN universe rules, sending those people to the restored timeline where they never existed created a kugelblitz that destroyed the real timeline and the universe for good. Congratulations.

- I was also hoping for an explanation of why their powers were slightly different but I guess it's just a plot device that doesn't really matter

- all in all, honestly, I really liked it! And I'm sad that pretty much the majority of the fandom doesn't. It could have been a lot better just by fleshing it out and giving the characters enough screentime for actual character arcs but. You know what. It's good enough for me. I'm satisfied

[oldbutchdaniel]

The whole "memory is a monster" thing and different povs are an amazing storytelling device and i love it.

But sometimes i just like to imagine the iwtv writers finishing the scripts for s2 and then going "okay, now let's find all the plot holes we missed and make Daniel call them out as inconsistencies in Louis narrative".

me when i want to write whatever the fuck i want and be inconsistent on a whim: so uhhhhh yeah let me write in a bunch of characters who don't know shit. and one guy who's the note taking king

[tumblydovereviews]

Primos Was Okay (And That's Okay!)

On Thursday, after over a year of controversy, delays, and pushback from the general public, Primos finally premiered on Disney Channel, to a surprisingly stable reception.

First of all, congratulations to the cast and crew for the premiere! For a show that was on such unstable waters just a year back, it's great to see that Primos has seen the light of day and not simply became a tax write-off.

As anyone involved in the animation community in June 2023 may recall, Primos' initial response was not great in the slightest, and for good reason. Based on solely the theme song alone, the show featured grammatical errors, unintentionally insensitive names, and was dismissed by others as Disney's cheap copy of The Casagrandes. Comments from cast members such as Tater's voice actor herself only added fuel to the fire. The show, initially set to drop in the fall of that same year, was delayed to January, then June as a precursor to the Big City Greens movie, and finally, July of 2024.

I personally didn't care for the Primos drama too much. Sure, I liked the theme song's beat and for a while it became an earworm, but I wasn't looking too closely at being a consistent viewer on the show. I was mixed on the artstyle, the characters, and the plot, which, while not awful by any means, weren't anything amazing as well.

But, with nothing else to do, I ultimately decided to view the first episode of Primos on YouTube the day after the big debut.

And, the show was serviceable.

The characters weren't annoying, and there were some moments that made me chuckle a bit. The songs were serviceable, and the themes on self-discovery are unique. But, ultimately, I don't see myself with any reason to really engage with this show outside of just watching a few episodes. The story of Primos is all there, but on its own, it's just there.

If there's any character I truly hated, it was Tater and Nellie's mother, Bibi. Knowing fully well she didn't have the time or effort to efficiently take care of twelve kids on top of her two daughters and baby son, yet inviting then over anyways for the sake of 'memories' instead of listening to her kids. No wonder they address her by her first name.

As for characters I liked, I honestly enjoyed the three most 'normal' Primos in my opinion: Lita, Scooter, and Lucita. They get along well and have acceptable personalities. I can especially relate to Scooter and his anxiety, as a person who gets quite nervous themselves sometimes. Also, shout-out to Lucita, who's deaf and actually communicates through ASL on the occasion. Deaf representation is lacking in media, and I love how this show is helping us move one step further in that regard.

I also enjoyed Nellie as a character as well; it is admittedly a but weird how she's an eight-year-old with a Luisa-deep voice but her chemistry with Tater is great.

As for Tater herself, she's okay. She server her purpose as the disgruntled almost ten-year-old trying to find herself. Nothing too much or too little. I can relate to her in the sense of needing peace and quiet away from cousins; my cousins actually moved into my own house temporarily last year for a few months,

i talk about characters a lot in this show, because I believe that it's Primos' best achievement. In a way, each of the characters work off of Tater in their own way, keeping the show fresh and upbeat, but not being afraid to scale things back when needed. I thought that the Primos would act as nothing but plot devices whose only merit is to ruin Tater's life, but, thankfully, that's not the case.

Now, what about this show being mediocre? It can't be all that good, right?

Well, like I said before, the animation and art designs are not my favorites. I can't push back too much since the rough, earthy tone translate into the series as a whole, but personal preference is also a factor. The music and songs, while good for what they are, don't add anything too much to the series and I personally would have preferred if this show wasn't a musical al all; Disney Channel admittedly has plenty of those nowadays.

And, that essentially encapsulates my feelings on Primos as a while. On its own, it works for what it has, but compared to shows with similar plots such as The Loud House, it only holds a candle compared to the latter's sun.

And, you know what? That's okay. If anything, it's a miracle that a show detested so much by the general public during its initial preview became nothing but a mediocre addon at worst.

Maybe I'll tune into a few more episodes to fully solidify my thoughts on this show. But, for now, I'll only be an occasional onlooker exploring the world of Tater Ramirez Humphrey and company. I'm okay with that, and I'm sure you'll be okay too.

[roeiswriting]

9-1-1 fans walk with me here (this is just a bit of fun)

So the general consensus from some set photos is

1. Shannon is back in some capacity

2. The Diaz parents are around

Eddie could get hurt OR his parents could just be in town I feel like this works better if he was hurt in some way though, so his parents are there maybe they worry about Christopher and who’s taking care of him etc etc

In a similar way to Buck’s coma dream Eddie finds himself thinking/dreaming/hallucinating of the life with Shannon that he COULD have had but the end goal realisation is that isn’t actually what he WANTS.

His parents are putting that pressure on him to fill that idea of a void in his life that Shannon “would” have filled.

And he loved Shannon he really did but it’s okay to love somebody and let them go, sometimes it’s best for the both of you.

So his parents being around to push this idea that he has to fill some sort of wife/motherly void left in Christopher’s life and it being used as a plot device to help Eddie realise what he actually wants is such a natural way to bring up the will.

Buck is Christopher’s guardian, if anything were to happen to Eddie Buck would be there no matter what to take care of their boy. But the Diaz’s don’t know that.

Such a part of Eddie’s strain with his parents relationship is how they wanted Christopher to stay with them so imagine them finding out that Christopher would be taken care of by Buck if anything ever did happen.

Eddie sticking to his decision, explaining to his parents he knows nobody will fight for Chris the way that Buck will.

The potential start of him processing that catholic guilt and finally taking a moment to understand what HE wants from his life, not the expectations that have been thrown on him.

Maybe evaluating the relationships he has and the roles which important people in his life play. I mean even he knows he hardly knows Marisol and us as the viewer share that sentiment. The way he has talked about the women in his life and struggled to communicate with them but with Buck it just flows, you know?

Wanna dress up as these two iconic 80’s characters and bicker about who’s the queer coded one? Sure. Want me to stay with you all night because I can tell you care about this so deeply and the idea of leaving never even crossed my mind? Of course.

And this isn’t even about Buddie at the end of the day, I personally think the chemistry is undeniable and to see them go on that direction feels like it makes perfect sense. But Eddie Diaz dealing with the expectations he feels he has to live up to and finally realising he is allowed set his own expectations and goals that make him happy. That’s what’s important.

[cinnamonest]

So happy your asks are open, absolutely love your work, it’s gets my heart racing so much!!

I keep thinking about your post where darling gets isekaid into the MMAU and couldn’t help but wonder, who would want to (idk how to word this) obtain isekaid darling. Like since they confirmed she’s from another world and all that, who would be most curious/driven to obtain her?

Thank you so much for always feeding us!!! <3

Ahhhhh I like this thought ty anon

//kind of fetishism for "foreignness" (of course this is fictional places we're talking about but just in case)

Top contenders for such a thing: Xingqiu would be the most likely, followed by Albedo and Dottore, and while not necessarily driven by a desire to obtain, there's also a likeliness to end up with Kazuha.

Often times, girls are imported to a different land than the one they initially came from. This is because there will always be those guys who perk up at the idea of something "foreign" to them, it has a certain appeal to them, in the same way art or media often catches attention when imported to a different location, as it stands out. Consequently, this transporting girls, while it costs money to do so, is ultimately profitable, as they can then market it as such. A lot -- a LOT -- of men have either general fetishism for foreignness, or sometimes specific fetishes for certain accents or regional facial and bodily features. Frankly, most girls find it just as cringey and annoying as they would in any universe, but hey, at least no matter where you're from, there's plenty of rich guys in a far away land somewhere who're willing to pay a fortune for you.

Finding something from an entirely different world is a whole new matter. And more importantly, laying eyes on you, to traders, is like looking at walking cash. Rich people will pay a lot of money for that... if they can get them to believe the story, which may prove challenging, but they usually find ways by getting you to demonstrate things you know, the clothes and devices you had on you when you arrived, and so on.

Such appeal is a status thing for the wealthy, but more mature guys tend to see past such marketing tactics and have enough impulse control to know they shouldn't just buy the first thing that catches their eye. Instead, they tend to look for personality qualities they know they want in the long-term. Younger, more immature men, however, are suckers for that sort of thing, and are already known for impulsive decisions.

Thus, it's heavily marketed to young rich boy types... and for all his efforts to give off a more mature, sophisticated aura, as much as he tries to seem like he wouldn't be one to do so, at the end of the day Xingqiu is not immune to those impulsive tendencies and easily caught attention. In fact, he's read fantasy novels with plots much like this! Ideally, you'll be just like those characters written into those (nauseating, to anyone outside the target audience) male fantasy fulfillment pieces, some sort of alien species that looks just like humans but are these hyper-submissive creatures that are breeding-crazed... but, okay, even if that's not the case, you'll still be a cool possession to show off.

However, such an individual also has great appeal to those with an innate sense of curiosity and inquiry, which is where Dottore and Albedo come in. Both aren't going to go out of their way to buy a girl normally (not out of ethical concerns or anything like that, it's just sort of embarrassing), but when you take into account the fact that it's coming from presumably another universe entirely... that piques the interest, and could prove an incredibly beneficial resource in the study of pursuit to each's goals. Granted, you're infinitely better off with the latter than the former, based on the idea of researching you being asking you questions and taking vitals and giving you mild concoctions to drink versus cutting you open to prod around at and take chunks of your internal organs, but you know, every scholar has his unique methods. Still, for both, seeing you would be intriguing enough to go through with the purchase.

That all being said, there's not exactly a guarantee you're going to find yourself initially in a populated area. Teyvat has some rather large expanses of wilderness, and there's good chance you'll find yourself out in the middle of nowhere, wandering until you find a road and picking one direction to travel at random, just hoping someone comes along... and, of course, when the one who finally does come along happens to be a soft-voiced, sweet-looking young man, you would think you've gotten very lucky to not end up with a bad person... even if he does seem very wide-eyed and shocked by your presence and seems to be way too overdramatic when he swears he'll protect you if you stay by him (he's just escorting you through the wilderness, right?), he surely wouldn't do anything bad to you. Not until you settle down for the night, at least.

[electronickingdomfox]

"Mindshadow" review

One of these days, Spock will do the logical thing and get an all-risk insurance for his brain...

Novel from 1986, by J. M. Dillard. Okay, this story is quite messy, as it tries to put together a pastiche of plot threads and themes that may or may not be that cohesive. It borrows heavily from TOS episodes, from The Enterprise Incident to Journey to Babel (even a bit from Wolf in the Fold). There are definitely a few plot holes and some silliness. The espionage/murder plot is sometimes too convoluted to follow. Also, some names look like typos: Transporter technician "Lyle"? (I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be Kyle), the penal colony of "Ebla Two"? (should have been Elba Two), "Chekhov"????... In terms of absurdity, it's similar to that other novel, "Black Fire" (and yes, there's even a pirate Spock in here too). But just as it happened with that book... I actually liked this one as well. It's a glorious mess, alright.

The most serious (and somber) thread is that of Spock receiving brain damage, and his struggles to recover his memories and Vulcan mental disciplines. The abuse he suffers from medical malpractice, his frustration with his impaired learning, his loving (and sometimes painful) relationship with his family, or Uhura's tender attempts to help him through music... Those elements have probably the greatest emotional impact in the novel, and are actually pretty good in themselves. This is also, at core, a "triumvirate" novel, with strong character drama between Kirk, Spock and McCoy, and a focus on their closeness.

On the other hand, there's another, more ridiculous drama: both Kirk and McCoy fall in love with the same Mary Sue, and hilarity tragedy ensues. For his part, Kirk seems pretty callous in his seduction of this woman, as he doesn't even like her all that much; at times, it almost looks as if he just wanted to piss McCoy off (isn't there really ANY other woman available for him!?). While McCoy, who truly loves the Mary Sue, ends up looking incredibly pitiful, desperate and, well, downright pathetic. However, out-of-character as it is, I ended up getting some guilty pleasure from all of it, as in "Let's see Kirk's next shitty move and what happens next..." Anyway, even though the woman likes the two of them, she ends up realizing they're both just too gay for Spock, to the surprise of nobody.

Spoilers under the cut:

The planet Aritani has suffered recent raids from cloaked vessels, so Kirk is negotiating with the natives to offer Federation help against the attacks, despite the natives’ reticence towards technology. They erect a shield around the planet to prevent the fighter ships entering the atmosphere, or trap below it those that may be cloaked right now. Then Spock goes alone to investigate the nearby mountains, since he found valuable minerals that could be the objective of the raiders. However, when Spock is late to report, Kirk goes after him… And finds out he has fallen off a cliff and has gravely injured his head. McCoy’s assessment is that Spock has suffered extensive damage to the left hemisphere, so his logic, language and memory will be impaired, and the doctor has many doubts about his eventual recovery; they’d need a neuropsychologist specialized on Vulcans.

Meanwhile, Kirk authorizes shore leave on the surface of Aritani, as several hours have passed without sighting any fighter (the reasoning being that, by now, they’d have run out of fuel to keep their cloaks up). Well, if you ask me, I don’t think it’s the most appropiate time and place for shore leave; and sure enough, a little while later a group of enemy vessels appears out of nowhere and starts attacking the crew on leave. Kirk and Scott can’t understand how that’s possible, and only see two options: either the fighters have an improved cloaking device that allows them to stay hidden for longer, or they somehow managed to penetrate the shields. Actually, there’s a third option, which they never even consider: they’ve been beaming people down to the planet for shore leave! That means they’ve been lowering the shields ALL THE TIME!! Duh… Kirk is having the worst day of his life, and on top of that, the Aritanians refuse further help from Starfleet, after their failure to protect them. Kirk’s orders, however, are to stay in the vicinity.

In sickbay, Uhura comes to visit an injured friend and starts singing for him. Then, upon hearing the music, Spock finally shows some reaction, and is capable of calling her name and asking for songs, as his right hemisphere (supposedly associated with emotions and art) is intact. During the following days, Spock will make some progress thanks to Uhura’s company. Apart from that, a new neuropsychologist is assigned to the Enterprise to study Spock’s case: Dr. Mary Sue Emma Saenz. Five minutes later, both McCoy and Kirk fall head over heels for her (to the point that McCoy is jealous even when Kirk says “Hello” to her). Emma also shows an unusual physical strength when she beats Kirk in their combat trainings. Nonetheless, it turns out that Emma… is actually Dr. Evil!Mary Sue!! She forces a mind-meld with Spock while alone with him, and extracts some important information about what he saw in Aritani, before erasing his memory of the meld. Her diagnostic is that Spock will probably recover in the areas of language and amnesia. But he has lost the Vulcan mind rules to shield himself away from others’ emotions, which he can now receive telepathically at all times. This could turn him into a violent individual, and Emma suggests restraints and an experimental medication: neodopazine.

In the bridge, Chekov manages to locate a decloaked enemy vessel, and they capture it with a tractor beam along one of the pirates. The raider turns out to be Romulan, but he denies the existence of any special device to penetrate shields, and Scotty doesn’t find anything of the like upon dismantling the fighter. Kirk was about to interrogate the prisoner, when they discover he’s been vaporized. Someone stunned the guard, then removed the brig force field and killed the prisoner, trying to make it look like a suicide. Security doesn’t have a clue about the killer (though the reader certainly can suspect who is it…). If this wasn’t enough, Spock is found in bed with his wrists sliced, as if he had also attempted suicide. Spock denies having done so, and says someone tried to murder him, but he doesn’t remember who. Emma is furious and gaslights Spock, saying he’s imagining murderers to cover up his suicide attempt. McCoy, however, takes Spock’s side and has a violent discussion with Emma, who ends up admitting she just wants to help Spock. Of course, the situation is very romantic, so they kiss. Later that night, Kirk is having trouble to sleep (no wonder) and goes to McCoy’s cabin for some pills (you see, he can’t go to sickbay, no; if he doesn’t sleep, then McCoy can’t either). Then Kirk finds out that McCoy is… sleeping with Emma!! Kirk doesn’t like that.

Since Spock believes his only option of recovering the mind rules is returning to Vulcan, he’s sent there in a shuttle with Scotty and Chapel. The shuttle has been sabotaged, and they crash land on Vulcan, though just with minor injuries. Spock is fine, so he leaves Scotty with Chapel at the hospital, and walks to his home town on foot. During the following weeks, he will stay at his parents’ home, trying to relearn the Vulcan disciplines with a Kolinahr master. His progress is really slow, though, and with mounting frustration, he realizes the neodopazine, far from helping, seems to be deteriorating his mind. Spock also meets T'Pala, a girl who's staying with his parents while she studies to enter the Vulcan Diplomatic Corps. T'Pala has many things in common with Spock: she's also half human, and has difficulty adapting to Vulcan life (even moreso than Spock, since she grew up in Earth). Sarek's disappointment with her is a mirror for Spock's own youth.

In the Enterprise, Scotty is put in the brig as the main suspect for the Romulan's murder (of course, he's later cleared of charges). For his part, Kirk hurts his shoulder while training with Emma. She takes him to her quarters to treat the injury, gives him an analgesic, and then they kiss. McCoy waits for Emma the whole evening, grows increasingly suspicious, and finally sees her leaving Kirk's cabin. After that, he mopes for a couple of days, until Kirk visits him with a bottle of moonshine ("here, I stole your girlfriend, but you can get drunk with this..."). Kirk, however, says he doesn't remember what he did with Emma. And Emma confirms that Kirk just passed out because of the analgesic; she's attracted to Kirk and kissed him, but nothing else happened. McCoy is happy with this (he doesn't ask for much, right?) and suddenly he's like "Hey, you slept with me a couple of times. Where's my wedding ring!? I'm a decent boy!". Emma says she'll leave soon, so no, no wedding...

After this, the Enterprise is tasked with bringing a bunch of ambassadors to Vulcan, to discuss the acceptance of Aritani into the Federation. This part is a bit dull and drags too much, in my opinion. During the journey, more suspicious incidents take place: one ambassador is killed, another is badly hurt, and an explosion leaves the Enterprise without warp drive. It seems someone doesn't want Aritani to join the Federation. Then, Kirk discovers that Emma has been making unauthorized transmissions, but she assures him she's been working for Starfleet Intelligence all this time. An Admiral confirms this point, so Kirk is satisfied.

Back in Vulcan, Spock has stopped taking the neodopazine, and experiments a clear improvement. Finally, he's able to recover the mind rules, and his memories from Aritani return to him in dreams. There was something really important he needed to tell Kirk, and now that the Enterprise is near Vulcan, Spock opens a transmission to the ship. But just before he can say anything, an assassin breaks into his house, injures Sarek, and tries to slice Spock's wrists again. He wants to make it look as Spock murdering Sarek, then killing himself. T'Pala intervenes at the last moment, vaporizing the assassin with a phaser. Then, she confesses that Romulans approached her to leak info about Spock, but she couldn't comply with their murderous plans. Having failed at entering the Diplomatic Corps, T'Pala doesn't have much more to live for, and she kills herself too.

Sarek and Spock recover in a hospital from the attack. And Kirk and McCoy band together against Emma to go visit him. Then Spock tells everything. What he saw at Aritani was some fighter vessels beaming up from below the earth, where the Romulans must have an underground base (that's why the atmospheric shield was useless). Knowing that they'd kill him, Spock decided to escape by jumping from the cliff, where he damaged his head. Much to McCoy's surprise, Spock also shows him a medical article written by Emma, explaining all the damaging effects of neodopazine in Vulcan brains. McCoy confronts Emma about the use of such dangerous drug on Spock, just when she was leaving for her next assignment. But she stuns him (and a bunch of other people) and escapes the ship, confirming their suspicions.

In the last part, the Enterprise returns to Aritani to destroy the Romulan base once and for all. Kirk gets again that surgery to look Romulan (as in The Enterprise Incident) and infiltrates the compound with Spock (who's dressed as a Romulan pirate, while McCoy wants to pierce his ear). However, they're captured by a Romulan officer, that Kirk recognizes as Emma. Her real name is Tanirius, and actually, she wasn't Evil!Mary Sue at all. She just carried out the Praetor's orders as a cover-up, all the while working for Starfleet and a group of Romulan rebels, to destroy the underground base. She gave Spock the neodopazine to avoid killing him, once she understood how important he was for McCoy and Kirk. This plot twist really took me by surprise, but that's in part because... well, it doesn't make much sense. You know, despite the novel trying to present Emma as eventually good, she's just not! Not only did she try to kill Spock SEVERAL times, but she was far more efficient at carrying out the Romulans' plans than what was strictly necessary!! (whatever, maybe she was just jealous of Spock). Emma helps them to deactivate the cloaking device of the base, and then stays behind to destroy it whole. Kirk and Spock beam up to the Enterprise in time, while an underground explosion shakes the planet. In the aftermath, Aritani accepts the Federation's help, now that they're free of Romulans. And Spock tries to console McCoy saying that some vessels fled the base in time, and Emma could be among the survivors. Kirk sees through his bullshit, though, and wonders if Spock is just lying because he also has affection for McCoy, much to Spock's indignation.

McSpirk Meter: 9/10*. The Kirk/Spock angle is more evident. When Spock is injured, Kirk just can't think about anything else. He goes constantly to sickbay to check his state, argues with McCoy, is irritable with everyone and everything... Kirk even tries to reach the catatonic Spock through a mind link, to no avail. And once he gets a replacement First Officer, Kirk is unreasonably hostile to him, just because he's not Spock. It's also said several times that Kirk is the person that knows Spock better in the entire world. Another remarkable scene happens when Spock is leaving for Vulcan. Spock can feel Jim's emotions and pain at his departure, and his repressed impulse to touch him, so Spock relents and takes his hand. As for McCoy, his care for Spock comes rather as medical concern, but Emma sees through him quite early. She says he's too emotionally involved with the patient to be of any help. And despite the fact they're in a relationship, it seems that all of McCoy and Emma's conversations revolve around Spock, which causes continous tensions between them. At one point, she states the facts clearly: "I have risked myself for your friend because you loved him". Effectively, the reason she gives for not killing Spock outright, is that McCoy and Kirk cared about him too much. The ending lines have Kirk reminding Spock of this fact, and wondering if Spock also returns McCoy's affections.

Apart from this, there's a certain tension between Kirk and McCoy. Before the whole problem with Emma begins, they're reminiscing their shore-leaves together, and McCoy is said to grin lasciviously at Jim. Also, when Emma tells Kirk that she and McCoy are having dinner together, McCoy starts blushing, and doesn't understand why such a simple statement embarrasses him so much. Later, Kirk comes to McCoy's cabin in the middle of the night, and finds him basically naked (wearing just a short tunic), which almost prompts a sarcastic whistle from him. He attempts to enter the cabin (you know, with naked Bones in there and all) and feels offended when the doctor doesn't let him come inside. At last, after they reconcile, McCoy comments that Kirk looks dashing in his Romulan pirate uniform. There's also something in Kirk's behavior about Emma, that almost seems like a disgruntled ex trying to ruin the doctor's new relationship. After all, Kirk doesn't even find Emma all that attractive at first.

[wildlife4life]

At this point I think I’m not even delulu talked to a film bro who’s 40 and do video theories of marvel and dude thinks buddie is gonna be canon so if he says so believe it no jokes aside we were taking that abc really don’t like Tommy I feel like it cause like you know how he doesn’t make effort to dress up for the party the way he almost outed Buck to Eddie also their closeness wasn’t even on screen and we got Eddie and Buck on screen so we are like I guess trust the process for me is giving our flag means death like everyone quite of knew the pirates were pirating but I was like do I believe it or no cause I was like hbo hard to believe they go with queer characters sometimes you just never know and like I could trust Taika with queer characters but not the creator of the show so I was like in that debate and I’m quite with that debate but like you know they did made Buck said how both Tommy and Eddie are similar and then with the party they show well but one of them care enough to do what makes Buck happy like really Tommy is bad written for me and like I can give it to the Bucktommy shippers we can get buddie next season or season 10 but like Tommy is bad written abc really said we hate Tommy and the actor is so good and makes his acting look bad also I think they made Lou and Ryan have a chemistry test but because they couldn’t have two off screens break up but they didn’t like let Oliver and Lou have like the chemistry test and Tommy sometimes look weird and I was rooting for them cause they are just like the opening for Buddie

Okay anon that was long lol. But sounds like you needed to get that off your chest. But I think I get the gist of it all and I’m agreeing with most of it.

I’m not entirely sure about abc hating on the actor/character. But how his relationship with Buck has been written with the closet joke, not dressing up, and the very limited scenes they’ve had together alone (seriously bucktaylor had more build up than them), it sus. Though deliberate I believe too. Tommy is a plot device, stepping stone, buddie eye opener, whatever you want to call him and he will show us (I hope) the true route to buddie.

I really don’t think we’ll have to wait till season 10 for buddie. (That’s the wedding, Oliver said so lol). I agree the delulu is not so delulu. Keep the faith anon. Buddie will be upon soon….