#Th Intro Arc

[midnight1nk]

So, this week's episode...

[spoilers below cut]

WOOHOO we got another (assumingely) silly episode today, and the first one in pride month!! I do mean "assumingely" bc going over the math, I'm personally not expecting to get into the next arc right now. Maybe I'm wrong, who can say ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And about the Switch 2 already? fair enough 😌↕️ hope the people did enjoy their switch day

*cries in broke*

(the following is my live reaction:)

the intro, my beloved 💙

OH, are we getting a 4 and Tari episode? :D

at least you guys didn't preorder and have your receipt stapled to the box (and unfortunately the screen)

PFFT THE GAMER CHAT,,, it's so silly as a concept. like, screw discord ig, let's use this instead

sorry but 4's dance walking in was adorable *makes it into gif*

IS THAT STEVE? HI STEVE!! and also Waluigi!! (it's insane that Steve and Hatsune Miku are both in the new sonic racing game, I still can't believe it)

2000? That can't be it

A "gamer tax"? they really must want that pool huh

yeah, she right tho. until probably switch 3 comes out or something

Bob?

nuhnuhnuh, hang on. that's a switch 1, I could tell from the packaging alone. Which is funny, considering that there's been people complaining that the design isn't distinct enough from the first when packaging for the other consoles, eh. it's been like this for years (<- geeking out as a graphic designer, don't mind me)

SAY WHAT NOW? 30000?

it really is costing an arm (and a leg) for this one, huh?

CLENCH, he's back again from the manga episode!!

yep yep, what did I say? it's the old switch but it is a good scam for the people who are desperate, I give it that

Oh, Mario did? I'm already locking in my guess why

I WAS RIGHT. mostly bc y'know he stole it, BUT IT STILL COUNTS

L I N T

I mean, I'd say that's a fair compromise :)

ah yes, mario kart world *cries in no moneyz*

ok but like. can we have a moment to just this

they sat ^^ sad but they look so cute, especially 4

Clench: "You look like someone trampled all over your hopes and dreams." Real 😔

SMG4: "That's stealing." *WHEEZE* the delivery on that line tho, it got me

"blue dude" :)

wdym y'know a guy?

3, LET'S GOOOO!!

I didn't think we were gonna get the star trio + Tari & Clench this episode, this is great!!

also manicure? that was so real of you, 3 (not that we would ever see you with your gloves off but ), always having a day to self-care

ALSO also Clench, since when did y'know 3 like that? what did you guys play cards one night and Tari was just dragged around asleep? that kinda fits actually

Saturdays huh? WAIT HANG ON

so Saturdays really were just "Special SMG3 time", 3 having a self-care day for himself

and honestly, you gotta respect it 😌↕️ everyone really should have one of these bc of burnouts and such

sorry wha? oh yes, right. the review. let's keep going.

just 3 squishing 4's face -> (1) that's cute and (2) 3's all the 4 lovers specifically, just wanting to squish him with so much cuteness aggression (and that unfortunately includes me 💙)

This is good news. we can finally be C O W /ref

close enough, welcome back wotfi 2023

AGHLK:J Tari's just here for the ride

ooh, duckie :D

close enough, we got our "Tari's tech powers sends Crew into the video game"/laser tag episode, chat!!

(also love at 3 & 4 are just standing by the edge of th screen and tari not bc she's taller)

WE GONNA FUCKIN BALL

welp, that was easy (and well Mario isn't experienced in using a wheelchair)

I can't believe that the SMG4 universe got the bananza game earlier than we did smh /lh

GET LIGHTING, 3

that works too

"cheating"? oh 4, this is mario kart we're talking about, it's WAR

OOP parental controls works, nice job Tari ^^

4's so happy, look at him :)

wait, did 4 break them out? or gamer chat? 🤔 bc both work here for SO many reasons

😦 nvm yeah, if people are willing to buy Mario Kart at a high price, all the other games get a pass

Tari: "Maybe we should hold off." *dramatic gasp*

YES TARI, the point is to hang out with friends. yes, even gamer chat

AWWWWW 3 🥹 like yeah, dude, you're part of the Crew. you got friends

PFFT the "touch grass" bit again

*record scratch* hey now, wait a sec

since when did we have a fountain? and the flower bushes? the cherry blossom trees?

a pond?

now, don't get me wrong. this is very sweet, just look at them :)

very nice, especially with the sunset, but we didn't have this before????

FERRIS WHEEL CAMEO 🫵 (sorry, it's a me thing, don't mind me)

wha? did my computer break?

WHAT THE FUCKKK??!? it was all FAKE?!?! HUH???

I KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG, I could FEEL it

NO TARI NOOOOO JUST DROP THE CARD

welp sacrifices had to be done

"broke af" *points at self*

Congrats to daliahzayyen for your art being featured in the end credits 🎉 ofc, we got so much art for 4's birthday, they had to show it

.・-: ✧ :--: ✧ :-・.

Oh man, this was such a cute episode ^^ I seriously didn't expect this kind of dynamic with the character roster we got but I absolutely LOVE it. And even Clench got a role too!! I really did love the slapstick humor and the comedy in general, just the right amount of silly I needed today :)))

But the animation tho? THAT was so good! And I do know bc certain animators came in to work for this one, knowing their style and all. Like Braden (also known as BS6), he worked in the emotional scene in SOTC where the kids did the first choice of choosing between their parents. And I also know bc I came across one of his videos of him creating the sonic 3 scene, with 3 & 4 (which I'll go ahead and put it here for yall)

Or like Star, who apparently did some VA for Ness in the last episode. Like, Team, yall are crazy talented overall!! And I really do like sharing the behind-the-scenes stuff bc (1) I've always liked that kinda thing, and (2) it shows how much passion and pride it comes to the production of it all. Even for a "silly little meme" show, it means a lot that care was put into it. I can probably go on and on, but let's keep things in track haha

Anyway, yeah, a great episode and I very much enjoyed it as a 4 lover with some moments. But can we talk about the ending? Like WTF WAS THAT? Don't get me wrong, I don't hate it. But like, HUH????

Were they in a simulation, or a dream? For Tari, at least? And why? Now obviously, it could just be as simple as "an unexpected ending for the episode". I can accept that.

But yall already know I'm not normal with these kind of things. Could it be that Tari "imagined" it (depending on how you wanna see it) just so we wouldn't feel guilty in paying the tax? bc apparently, she was conscious so to speak in making that choice to begin with. It does remind me of the Christmas episode, with Tari unable to say no to her friends bc she's afraid of losing them, and how (in my mini-theory) 3 reading her story brings an interesting perspective as to why he doesn't get too close to his friends.

Maybe this ending is the same thing, but it's also to 4. After all, 4's been with Tari the whole time and was at the start. And with the goop!4 references showing up and all, it might connect. That 4 might imagine that things are doing to well and happy until the reality shatters for him and he realizes he only imagined it bc he wouldn't feel guilty what he's gonna do OR might do something with terrible consequences.

Eh, granted, this isn't that great of a mini-theory. That's just me needing theorist nourishment :P. But it seriously brings up the good point, being that one of these days, we're gonna have an episode we think it's normal but it turned out to be fake all along. Well, anyway that's all from me. Hopefully, I'll get out of the void soon, but remember: numbers always go first!

istg we might be in a simulation or smth. huh.

[raayllum]

What Is Up With Terry :: the Thread of Necessity

Intro

Terry is an interesting character in a lot of ways. He's unflappably kind and optimistic, accepting even to a fault, and he's an elf with no issue with dark magic yet doesn't seek out its use for himself. He's a non-traditional antagonist for starters, he's trans without being overly sanitized, and he most notably provides a sounding board for more overtly 'evil' characters like Viren in season four and Claudia in seasons five and six. Most of this is in service of Claudia's goals, with Terry not having many of his own goals outside of his support of Claudia and Viren; this is, mind you, not too dissimilar from Soren with Ezran in arc 2 as well, or even Amaya with Janai.

I also think he's a very important in a character in a lot of ways, for the ease with which he explores and exemplifies

You can love / support Viren and Claudia and that doesn't make you a 'bad person' in the show

You can be okay with dark magic without changing your mind and that doesn't make you a bad person either

You can kill someone in TDP and that doesn't automatically make you a bad person either

We know all of this is true (and will likely continue to be true) as we know in S7 there is an episode about Terry related to him still having a "true and pure heart," which is about as classical "good guy protagonist" speak as you can get. In those lenses, I think Terry was a fantastic choice in introducing a new character to not only contrast against Claudia and Viren, but also in terms of getting us to be more sympathetic towards them (particularly Viren) than we might've been inclined towards in arc 1.

That said, I think the most important thread that Terry carries is that he is a character who truly and wholly does whatever is necessary for his cause, nothing more, nothing less.

But what does that mean, tangibly, within TDP's narrative? Well, let's talk about it:

Necessity

The concept of necessity—I needed to do this, or I have to do this (even though I don't want to)—is one that has been central to TDP for a while. We see this characters who cite a lack of agency ("He was going to take Claudia's life, I had no choice" / "Every step I took, I took because I had to" / "I'm sorry. I have to do this") throughout the show, both dark mages and not, particularly Rayla, Soren, and Callum.

And in return for perceived necessity, as Harrow states, "I have done terrible things. I thought they were necessary. Now I don't know." We increasingly see people justify, or struggle to justify, worse and worse actions. Claudia's mindset has become very transactional, for example ("He saved you, and now we have to save Aaravos" / "It's a mistake! I saved you! You owe me your life!"). Generally speaking, the show treats these things labelled as necessary as unnecessary (hence the regret they experience, and even Terry disagreeing more adamantly than he ever has before).

This is, of course, because 4x09 and 6x09 together very clearly spells out what is important for Terry to believe something is necessary: it must be done entirely out of love, no more and no less.

I've seen you do a lot of awful things, dark magic things, but I always believed in you because you had a reason [saving your dad]. But what you just did, the way you tricked that Moonshadow elf? It was just cruel.

Maybe it started out as a story of love, but along the way it got twisted. [...] He isn't doing anything for love. He's doing it out of revenge.

To Terry, you do what you have to do but go no further; you don't give into anger, you don't give into revenge. You act entirely out of love, and keep acting out of love and let it temper you. This is why Terry resonates, I think, and seeks guidance from Viren after the mage's initial assessment of what's been happening, emotionally:

This is similar in practice to why Viren (and Claudia to a lesser extent) are characters with such fraught paths. Not only because of their dark magic use, but because of their denial. Viren violates Lissa's safety and trust to save Soren, but then blames Soren for it; Claudia heals Soren and brings back Viren, and doesn't understand why fixing things physically wasn't enough. "I had no choice" for them means "I have no accountability," and that's why they kept spiralling deeper till Viren broke out of it. He atones then not by swearing off dark magic (although it helps) but by taking full agency in the choice to do dark magic and in what manner (not sacrificing his family again) and without a desire for ego, which was his biggest character flaw in a lot of ways.

The reason I bring this up is to provide a contrast for Terry in a few ways, such as

Terry always being very emotionally open, rather than repressing or offloading blame onto other people

Mandates that he had no choice (4x03, 4x04) but to kill Ibis verbally, but is also aware that it very much was

Is able to accept that this was a choice and move on

Terry does what he believes is necessary. He feels things about it. He doesn't go further into outright self destruction, and he doesn't escalate to what harm is deemed unnecessary. That doesn't mean Terry's levelheadedness can't be a flaw (he absolutely should have told Claudia to give up magic in 6x04) or that what he believes is necessary always is / that his choices are perfect (they're not), but that in his contrast to Claudia and Viren, he continually provides that contrast. He can be held at sword point by Rayla, a total aggressive stranger, and still recognize that withholding her family from her is what he deems as unnecessary cruelty (but more on that later).

For now I want to talk about patterns, specifically two that he engages in with Claudia.

Patterns

The first pattern is unsurprising, perhaps, given that Claudia-Rayla have continually had parallels, given that:

1) Claudia keeps leaving him

This is, of course, most obvious in 6x01 when Claudia states her intention to do so, or even in 6x09 wherein Aaravos literally lifts her away from Terry:

But we also see it earlier on with even the choices Claudia makes in her mission. Terry is a passive person, much like how Claudia at her core is ("Tell me what to do" + 90% of interactions with Viren that aren't about saving him), and therefore Claudia leads the way, and Terry is happy to let her.

He never really considers that he might be a core part of her truth, and that she wants more active advice (see the way Rayla counsels Callum about his dark magic use, comparatively, in 6x03, or nudges him forwards elsewhere throughout the seasons). While Terry isn't wrong to encourage Claudia to think staunchly for herself, and in fact she very much should, it does leave her more vulnerable to the next first person willing to tell her what to do: Aaravos.

We also see Terry's passivity go even further back to one of his first episodes, as well as in the S5 finale.

Each entry in the pattern is a little different.

4x03: Claudia leaves / goes in alone and fails at her mission. Terry follows and saves her by killing Ibis at great cost to his personal emotional state.

5x09: Claudia leaves / goes in alone and fails at her mission. She goes further into Aaravos' clutches (the ocean here metaphorically) and returns of her own accord.

6x01: Claudia succeeds at bringing back her father but cannot make him stay. She leaves on her own in an attempt to break her family's cycle of abandonment without realizing how she's continually perpetuating it, but returns in a devastated and dejected state.

6x09: Claudia succeeds at her mission of freeing Aaravos, and the Startouch elf takes her literally into his clutches and away from Terry.

Each time it is her choice to leave, with only 4x03 firmly having Terry following without her returning by her own merit. Whereas Claudia plays out her family's cycle of abandonment with all its members—her mother, her brother, and finally her father—Terry plays it out with just Claudia, over and over again. This doesn't mean their relationship is bad or that some of these times are unreasonable—Terry is willing and supportive to let her go in 4x03 and 5x09 much the way Callum is supportive of Rayla in 4x09, 6x05, and 6x09—but it is a pattern that has then taken on a negative slant in S6 and will likely to continue to worsen in S7 before it gets better either in the season or beyond.

Then, we have the pattern of how

2) Claudia gradually stops listening to him.

This is probably more interwoven with the thread of necessity than the previous pattern, since as stated before, sometimes when Terry is letting Claudia go off on her own while it's imperfect in the narrative, it makes sense within their dynamic / resources. Like as previously mentioned, too, Terry is more often correct than he is wrong about the next moves people should make. He's right that Claudia will need help in 4x03, he's right that they should go look for her in 4x07, he's right that she needs rest in 5x02, and right to be wary and against Aaravos in 6x09.

In the beginning, Claudia listens to him.

But as the seasons go on, this gradually changes with twice back to back in 5x06.

T: It won't chase us anymore, you won. It's trapped. Please. C: You're right. It won't follow us. But not because it's trapped.

Season six is arguably the season where Claudia listens to him the least despite Terry reaffirming her agency most directly (6x04) as she ignores or doesn't listen to every reservation he has.

T: It's him. It's your Dad. C: Then I have to... T: No! Please! Please don't... I don't think you should see him like this. C: I have to! I came all this way to see him one last time. I need him to show me the right path. T: This won't give you answers. Only anger. Only pain. I'm so sorry. He's gone. He is gone.

And Terry, who does things only that are necessary, only out of love, would know the difference: unlike Rayla, or Claudia, or numerous other characters arguably in the show, he always has, particularly when given broader context the way he is in 6x09 (which hasn't always been true in his relationship with Claudia, either).

None of this is to say that Claudia is a Bad Partner or that your partner should always listen to you, either, because neither of those things are true in life or in TDP. Healthy couples in TDP disagree all the time in both healthy and unhealthy ways. Rayla left Callum when he explicitly made her promise not to, and Callum did dark magic to save her twice despite 100% knowing it's not what she wold've wanted.

But the first thing I want to address is the difference between Claudia leaving out of grief and trying to feel in control after losing everyone but her boyfriend, and Rayla leaving out of grief and trying to feel in control after losing everyone but her boyfriend because they are wildly different for one main reason.

Rayla left in the middle of the night while Callum was sleeping because "you’ll wake up and try to stop me… from doing what I know I have to do. Leaving. But I can’t let you stop me, Callum. No matter how much I want to. [...] And if you said even one word to me, I wouldn’t be—couldn’t be. If I stay even until your eyes open and you yawn your silly morning yawn, I’ll break" (TDP reflections, Dear Callum).

Terry, meanwhile, is actively begging and pleading with Claudia, and he is still abandoned. Granted, Claudia seemingly comes back within a day or two, not two years, so that does mitigate things, but the fact remains that Rayla thought she wouldn't be able to leave to protect Callum if she even heard him speak a word or yawn, and Claudia was able to leave to protect herself while having a full on conversation. Ouch.

Nor does this completely absolve Terry of the one time Claudia straight up asks him to tell her what to do, or what he thinks she should do, Terry doesn't (6x04). He's not wrong that she needs to choose the way and figure out what she needs, but him emphasizing that he can't tell her what to do and then immediately accepting her premises that Viren can and should tell her what to do is something that's already bitten both of them in the ass.

Terry also only asks Claudia to listen to him, really listen, and to tell her what she should do when he thinks it's absolutely necessary.

This is also one of the reasons why she and Terry are suited to each other. Both value and respond to necessity, scaffolding everything else on top of what needs to be done or doesn't need to be done. What's risky about this mutual understanding is the potential for it to stop being so mutual if they start to have different views on what's necessary. And as we see in 6x09, that's happening more and more. What is going to continue happen when Claudia keeps viewing Aaravos' actions as necessary, and Terry doesn't?

Questioning

So Terry is, presumably, going to increasingly be wary and against Aaravos. What is that going to look like?

We have a decent idea, honestly. As stated / noted before, Terry actually pushes back against Claudia fairly often. He's just rather gentle about it, and usually is trying to prioritize her wellbeing (or someone else's) when she isn't. Examples include:

4x09 over the coins / being cruel

5x01 ("You'd think if dark magic does this to a person they might not do it")

5x02 over resting

5x06 over attacking the dragon

5x06 over killing the dragon

6x01 over her leaving

6x04 with telling her what to do

6x08 over seeing Viren's corpse

6x09 in helping / freeing Aaravos

However, we're also yet to see him be angry in his questioning or when pushing back, which is what I think would be most interesting to see change (think the moment where Iroh finally yells at Zuko beneath Lake Laogai). His pushback with Claudia has gotten more and more consistent as well as more dire throughout the seasons, and just like how Viren and Claudia eventually disagreed and split up, I think Terry and Claudia will too. How permanent that split will be, I think, is up to her (I could see parallels happening between Soren and Terry teaming up to try and bring her home, with Ezran and Rayla doing the same for a brother-partner tag team Callum duo), but I do think that Terry's testament of "I love you, I will never leave you" is apt foreshadowing to see what it would take for him to break his promise, and do just that.

To what he knows needs to be done, even if that means walking away.

Misc. Season Thoughts

Terry also has some interesting things that don't fall under the necessity umbrella that I wanted to talk about as well. One of those things is

TERRY AND IDENTITY

This isn't to say I think Terry actively has an identity arc in seasons 4 through 6 the way other characters (Callum, Rayla, Viren) are, but that Terry like most of the main cast is linked to arc 2's continual increased emphasis on identity and choosing your own identity. This is true particularly in 4x01, which opens after the intro with Callum running through / clarifying his titles (or identity roles) and concludes with Viren and Terry being introduced to one another. Terry gives details on his name ("[Terrestrius] is a bit traditional, but my friends call me Terry") and then asks for clarification on what he can call Viren.

Later on in S5 and S6, we see Soren and Rayla respectively see through the 'monstrous' / threat of others by reaffirming their similarities ("I know what this is like. I know how you feel" / "This storm isn't your rage, it's your grief. I know how you feel") and bestowing agency through naming conventions. Rayla identifies the monster isn't a monster but a pet, and more than that, gives Esmeray back her name. Elmer does the same when he overthrows Finnegrin and Soren likewise affirms it: "We literally didn't [defeat him]. Elmer did."

Why is this relevant? Well, in an arc that's all about emphasizing over and over again to see other people's personhood by using their name(s), recognizing that you have a choice, and choosing who you want to be...

So often queer characters in media are regulated to their queerness being happenstance (i.e. they fulfil a certain story role regardless and just happen to also be queer) or it's all their character gets to be (a "figuring out queerness and/or a coming out" arc). One of the reasons I myself (as a queer and trans person) has always deeply appreciated Terry as a queer character, specifically as a trans character, is precisely the way that his transness is interwoven with TDP's broader themes of chosen identity, self-actualization, and knowing / name motifs. In having these themes and ideas for multiple cis characters, Terry's interplay gets to be enhanced by his trans identity and simultaneously let him enhance the thematic explorations the series has going on, and I think that's pretty cool. Identity is one of the main themes of s4, and for Terry as well, so it's nice to see the ways that's reflected.

I expect season 7 to challenge his identity further ("I'm going to be strong enough to do whatever I need to do and still have feelings") if forcing him to confront who he wants to be, who Claudia is becoming, and who he thinks they can still be together. In a lot of ways I'm expecting S7 to be a sister season to S4 thematically even as S7 builds on S5/S6 in terms of plot and character arcs, since S7 seems geared to be about identity directly even more than S4 was (and much more than S5 or S6 were).

TERRY AND COMMUNICATION

If season four is about identity, season five has a strong emphasis on communication. This is, again, likewise true for Terry, as he encourages Claudia to communicate in various ways across the course of the season.

The situation is urgent, and you're worried I'm not treating it that way.

Terry consistently having clear communication is also something that puts him in direct contrast to Aaravos, who is a master manipulator and very careful liar-not-liar in his own way. Terry is always open and while thoughtful does not really bottle things up; he communicates clearly with other people and is comfortable doing so, and is very good at validating others as well. Whenever he does push against Claudia, he always clearly explains why he's doing so or why he disagrees but leaves the choice of what to do next in making amends or carrying on up to her. Aaravos, meanwhile, continually withholds or omits information, and presents things in certain ways in order to get, well, his way.

I don't have as much to say for season six, given that Terry is only in about half the season (6x01, 6x03, 6x04, 6x08, 6x09) and one of those is entirely silent. I'd say his main idea in s6, like s4 with identity and s5 with communication, would be the theme of Questioning (scaffolded under 'supportive'). He's supportive of Viren and Claudia's searches for meaning alongside his own increase questioning of what they and Aaravos are doing and why. I'll be curious to see what his main character beat may be in s7 going forward.

Conclusion

There's more I could talk about with Terry (Viren dreaming in 5x03 of chasing after Claudia only for her not to listen, only for Terry to live out that worst fear in 6x01 directly, for example) but I think for now these are the main things I wanted to discuss without going further into speculation than I already have. I hope this maybe brought a new perspective or appreciation for Terry as a character and for his arc in the show so far! As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.

[scholarinbookland]

Like Crazy MV Analysis Pt 1: A Study in Modern Loneliness

My first impression, upon going into this music video fandom-blind in December 2024, was that Jimin’s Like Crazy character is portraying a layered picture of modern loneliness, framed through the lens of the aftermath of a breakup. I later saw his Fallon interview and a lot of FACE promotional interviews, and while I feel a lot of fan theories about the finer details of the themes of Like Crazy are at least partially accurate, I’m leaving those theories out of this piece to just discuss the character Jimin is playing and the two things that influenced the music video storyline: the narrative arc of the FACE album and the movie Like Crazy (which I have not seen but understand to be about outside forces causing a realistic breakup, as Jimin described it to Rolling Stone).

Disclaimer: This post series is LONG. Until you break down the MV, you don’t realize how many cuts it has. The whole video is clearly intended to be disorienting and hazy, like a memory lost to black-out drinking, and they’ve executed that well. I’m going to try and minimize the word count by cutting the descriptions of repeated scenes, describing each set and outfit once in what I’m calling my glossary and numbering them, and otherwise not mentioning scene cuts unless Jimin’s doing something different after the scene cut. I’m dividing my original, enormous post into three sections: introduction/glossary, MV scene by scene (with acting/scene analysis), and my thoughts on the storyline of the MV (symbolism analysis). I’ll post them all at once, and hopefully I have figured out how to link posts correctly. So here’s my introduction to the Like Crazy MV.

How the narrative of FACE plays into the Like Crazy MV:

In as few words as possible, I’m going to summarize the role Like Crazy plays in FACE. In the context of FACE, Like Crazy is telling the tale of a point where the protagonist of the FACE album is trying to bargain with the universe to keep the false happiness he’s trying to escape into alive, while the cracks begin to show and spread. That’s the emotional core of the Like Crazy MV.

The use of a movie as a framing device was brilliant from both a PR point of view and an artistic point of view. By having Like Crazy the movie form the relationship plot points of the song and music video, he’s given himself narrative license and also given the fans plausible deniability about his personal life. From what Jimin said about the movie in his Rolling Stone interview, he used it as inspiration because of how realistically it handled the breakup. So the storyline being told is that of a couple who end up breaking up due to the strain of a separation period, even after they tried to get back together and make it work. That’s the lens that I’m going to use to describe the MV’s plot and interpret each scene, with the disclaimer that I am not trying to claim it as Jimin’s story, merely the character he’s playing.

Sets and Costumes in the Like Crazy MV:

Costumes

There are three costumes in the music video: the denim on denim bedazzled outfit with the mesh white undershirt, the oversized white sweater and jeans look, the white vintage t-shirt and leather Mapplethorpe trousers. Each look is tied to a setting or collection of settings, with a purpose to each look.

Outfit 1: The main outfit is the bedazzled denim outfit. We see this look in all of the sets that have a blue color-grading (the intro set, the club itself, the hallway scenes), but notably, every set we see this outfit, a previous shot acknowledges the existence of other people around in that set. This is the “social masking” portion of the character, the part putting on a happy face and trying to revel in escapism. Given that there is a surveillance undertone to some of the club scenes, we could conclude that the character Jimin plays here is, if not an idol like Jimin himself, than someone who is either famous or feeling watched/judged. This outfit sees the most screen time and thus variation in the emotions the character plays.

Outfit 2: The white sweater with the large stylized letter R paired with distressed jeans, seen only in the “home” set, appears to intentionally contrast the use of mud in the first verse and the outro dialogue, where we see this set. It appears to be the “alone” outfit, the look used to evoke the feeling of clothes meant for comfort over being stylish. This character gets the least movement, but has to do a lot with eye contact to convey the underlying loneliness of the song in the scenes where this outfit is worn. This is the “feeling” or perhaps ���wallowing” version of the character.

Outfit 3: The outfit introduced last is sort of a mix between the previous two in formality: the leather pants make it clubbing attire, but the t-shirt takes it away from being as glam/polished as Outfit 1 and makes it a little more casual. We see this outfit in two distinct sets: the club bathroom and the set that I’m convinced is supposed to be inside his head, the black void on top of the screen with the kissing couple. It’s an outfit that he seems to wear while thinking or pondering. This is the portion of the character that is asking what exactly he’s doing, as illustrated both in the lyrics of the verse where this outfit first appears and the way this character interacts with the sets.

Sets

I’ve chosen to describe the MV sets as 7 instead of 6 or less, because while some sets are clearly interrelated (the two hallways could be seen as the same hallway; those sets, the blue hazy opener and the bathroom could also be described as part of the club setting), each set change has a different purpose in the storyline. So in order of appearance, they’re blue haze, apartment/home, club, first hallway, muddy hallway, bathroom, and black void with kissing couple.

Set 1, or Blue Haze, is the opening shot of the MV. It can be considered part of the club set, but the blue-green screen behind Jimin sets it apart from the rest of the club scenes. We only see this set when Jimin looks very drunk and is not interacting with the people around him.

Set 2, or the home/apartment, is seen in the first verse and the outro dialogue section that closes the MV. This is the set that contrasts the rest of the MV, both in location and costuming. It establishes a life outside of the partying, to which he perhaps does not want to return. When not muddy, it gives off a very sterile impression. Side note: My favorite thing about this video’s art direction is that they’ve chosen to use almost complementary colors to contrast sets: the two predominant hues we see are yellow-toned and blue-toned. This set is slightly yellow-toned.

Set 3, or the club, is the driver of action in this MV. Most scenes take place in Set 3. I’ll describe it more in the actual MV breakdown, but it’s very blue and frequently blurs out background actors to leave only Jimin in focus. This helps contribute to the drunken feeling of Jimin’s character, as well as his isolation.

Set 4 is a hallway, presumably leading to the club bathroom. It and Set 5 are likely either the same physical set or intended to resemble the same hallway, but they have different symbolism that causes me to consider them separately. Set 4 seems to be about surveillance outside of expected locations. Once again, this set is yellow in hue.

Set 5 is a widened version of the same bathroom hallway, but with mud dripping and then pouring down the walls. I believe this scene is supposed to be a metaphor for dark thoughts or memories seeping in. This set is also yellow.

Set 6 is the club bathroom. This set gets taken apart and put together multiple times in the MV, which I interpreted as him diving into his head, especially in the lead-in to Set 7. Another yellowish set.

Set 7 is a black void with a screen on the floor depicting a kissing couple. I can’t tell if the video of the couple has been animated or is filmed through a retouched heat camera, but the couple looks slightly unreal. I believe this set is inside the head of Jimin’s character. This set is the only one that feels simultaneously yellow and blue: the floor around the couple is a deep navy-black, but the lighting feels slightly yellow. Probably the closest thing to a set that merges the two contrasting actions of the music video: self-reflection of the “what am I doing” vein and drunken escapism.

Link to Part 2

Link to Part 3

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s7 episode 14 “theef” thoughts

the good news is that it’s all up from the last episode, right?

so... hexes. on doctors. 

woah, i see the next episode involves scully AND CSM? together? journeying?? now, i’m very interested in this!!! but first we must deal with these doctors and their rare illnesses.

hey, if i time things right, i might be able to watch chimera- which says it takes place on easter, or around it- on easter weekend! that would be cool!

okay, back to the doctors, though. i wonder why the title is “theef”…

post-episode thoughts: oooh, a spooky one! how i was frightened! but it was a really great episode, so i cannot complain about being scared. i feel great relief at knowing the show can still produce wonderful episodes such as this, even after the ones i consider to be flops, like the biogenesis arc and closure and the last one that shan't be named.

i will think about mulder's scully impression forever and ever and it will bring me great smiles in trying times.

let's goooo!

we open on a beautiful california mansion. seems we have a grandfather, a husband and wife, and their daughter. and the father won an award for being the bay area doctor of the year. grandpa takes a picture of all of them together. it seems very sweet, but i am sure that there must be some evil going on underneath the surface. no one can get a house THAT nice by legitimate means.

he says that this is the cherry on top of how lucky he is, and the husband and wife kiss. his name is robert, btw. grandpa irv is going to stay on the couch. when he finds what looks like a stick figure made of… herbs? or blood, or something?? on the couch. eeeeww. he wipes it away- it looked like dirt- and a GUY WAS BEHIND HIM, NAAAAH, I DO NOT LIKE THAT.

their alarm system is going off. robert goes to investigate. irv is sitting there. menacingly.

OAUGH!!! he is hanging from the ceiling- NASTY. blood everywhere. scary scary music.

AND ON THE WALLS “THEEF” IS WRITTEN IN HIS BLOOD.

AH MAN, WE GOT A SPOOKY ONE TONIGHT!!! WELL!!! my timbers are shivered. the fuck!?! not the old man!! he just wanted to take pictures of his family!!

okay, so my first guess is that a rival doctor who didn’t win the award paid someone to put a curse in this family??? we shall see if that is true. 

nasty. nasty, gross.

intro time!!!! "government denies knowledge", reads the same text overlay as always. aww. these guys have a special place in my heart. 

mulder is investigating the blood on the wall. asking scully what she thinks "theef" could mean- “a name, possibly, or a code or an anagram?”

HE JUST TRIED TO DO AN IMPRESSION OF HER ASKING WHY THEY’RE HERE, LMAOOOOO. STOP. i’m SHOCKED, but in a positive way, bahahaaaa.

“mm, to be fair, i might have used the words, 'mulder, how is this an x file?'” “you see that, scully, you always keep me guessing” (he said this with so much affection it was actually stupid)

oh, we are so fucking back, baby. i’m gonna giggle myself to sleep.

irv was found hanged with his throat cut- and he was a doctor too, btw- his family was nearby but didn’t see or hear anything. they made the report, so it seems like it wouldn’t be them who did the killing, and if he hurt himself, who wrote the message? maybe he wrote it before dying, and "theef" means something to him?

she’s whispering at him “doesn’t make it an x file” and he whispers back “oh, there’s one detail that does” <- STOPPPPP. I’M GONNA LOSE MY MIND.

these two..... i'm giggling. they kiss ONE time and this is the result.

“this” “dirt?” <- LMAOOOO

he's showing her the smeared dirt where before we saw the stick figure fellow irv found. before he promptly met his end.

she asks if he really thinks it’s a magical murder… “now, i know what you’re going to say, scully-” “no, hexcraft. i mean, i’ll buy that as the intent here. certainly jibes with the evidence”

ooo, scully thinking hexcraft is a plausible intent is juicy. intent is different than method, though. so i wouldn't say it is her putting real stock in the theory that witches can kill people with their dirt and herbs.

he’s watching her as he puts the dirt in a bag, LMAOOO

she says they should talk to the family, gets up to leave, and turns and says “i’ll always keep you guessing” which makes him LAUGHHHHH OH. THESE DORKS!!!! they're so IN LOVE!

i almost didn’t watch an episode tonight because i’m a little under the weather, but now i am glad i did. 

robert says it was probably the greatest night of his life…. until… and scully wants to cut to the chase. in his time as a doctor, did irv make any enemies? robert says no. 

the daughter gets upset when they ask if her father, robert, has any enemies, saying he is a good man who saves people’s lives. which makes her a prime suspect to me. like, who knows what “theef” means? why does she assume someone is actually calling her dad a thief? it could be code!! she seemed a little too eager to defend him...

robert says that if he has any enemies, he doesn’t know them. hmm. a likely story.

we cut to someone cleaning a room, with the news of the murder playing on the TV. she hears someone muttering. knocks on his door- his name is mr. peattie. peat. like dirt. heh.

she tells him he isn’t supposed to be cooking. and he opens the door. 

AH! it’s the guy who appeared behind irving right before he died!! oh, i am spooked once again. people who show up places they were not momentarily before always get me frightened. 

“that smell like something you wanna eat?” he asks. he says it’s medicine. and then offers her a poultice for her back. “old peattie fix you right up”

so we are going back and forth from creepy to sweet agents to creepy tonight!!! okayyy!!!

maybe robert wouldn’t take this peattie fellow's insurance or something and he had to resort to medicinal healing?? or there was some sort of billing or clerical error that denied him treatment?? and that is why he hates him?? or maybe he thinks he should be doctor of the year for his poultices? hmm…

he has a bunch of potions and chicken feet in his room and is sewing up a little doll. oHHHH girl, i’m spooked tonight. maybe it’s the very quiet scary music playing as we see this. and he has another doll that’s been hanged!! is that supposed to be irving?? so…. many…. dolls…. and dissonant chords…. waugh!!

a more triumphal tune is playing as our hero scully is hard at work in the morgue, analyzing irv's condition at the time of death. mulder bursts in with news: the dirt they found at the crime scene comes from a graveyard. “it’s one of the most powerful hexing elements” he says. i would need to wife that man up so bad.

OHHHHH MY GOD she just says “uh-huh” into her microscope and he lowers his voice, smirks, and says “go ahead, scully, keep me guessing” <- HELLO???? i mean, we have seen some BLATANT flirting on this television program, but holy hell, that has to be some kind of record.

“kuru”, she declares. this word means nothing to me, but mulder knows what it is: a disease from eating brains. one that isn’t even supposed to really exist anymore!! but irv's brain is filled with the marks!! is he from a cannibal doctor family? and that is why they have all that money? from their secret cannibal doctor activities?

she thinks that he for sure had the disease and did that to himself. but mulder thinks that it was inflicted upon him. she nods, taking that in. 

back at the doctor’s mansion, the wife notices a picture on their wall is crooked. i feel bad- i don’t even know her name! she goes to fix it. oh, we learn it just then: her name is nan. and her husband is calling out to her.

NOT THE FUCKING GUY IN THEIR HOUSE AGAIN!!!

the photo that was in the frame is gone. she wants to know who took it. robert thinks maybe it was the police, who needed it as evidence. 

meanwhile, peattie is putting a picture of nan’s FACE onto one of his scary dolls!! he starts to sew it up. nan says she can’t live here, and neither can lucy (who must be the daughter), not after what has happened. did peattie just vanish?

robert grabs nan’s shoulders, saying that her father had an aggressive form of dementia- that is what the FBI found out in their autopsy, and he agrees. is… that really what they found out, robert? because i thought they found out about a cannibal disease. he tells her that they will get through it. 

GASP! he goes to get in bed and finds a dirt man in there!!! just like before. and when he turns around, his wife is turning into a zombie!!!

the effects kind of made me laugh, but also were kind of disgusting, EEEEWWW. lucy walks in and he yells at her to call 911. peattie is outside, mumbling into the doll.

i’m spooked!!! i’m scared!!!

nan is in a hospital bed, covered in horrible scabs. robert says he has diagnosed it as “diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis”, which must be a series of real words because my autocorrect knew them, but i have never seen them before in my life. scully looks shocked. he clarifies it is “old world type”, which probably means something important to someone like her.

mulder: “i take it that’s rare” scully: “in san francisco? it’s unheard of” 

i love scully showing off her doctorly expertise and mulder admitting when he doesn't know something <3 it warms the heart

mulder tries to tell robert he thinks someone directed this at his wife and her father. and robert demands scully tell him off for that. he clarifies he is talking about the use of folk magic, as if that makes it more believable (hint: it does not, but we still love you, buddy). 

“you mean like, baba yaga?” “i was actually thinking less eastern and more celtic. maybe scots-irish or appalachian, even” <- he’s such a neeeeeerd... i love him. i want to hold him close.

this, of course, does not go over well with dr. robert, who does not think he will lose in a battle of dirt versus modern medicine. even if scully tries to hit him with the “regardless of the particulars” and the invitation to accept their protection, he denies everything. you could see this coming. 

scully is not pleased. “oh yeah, mulder, win him over” she says. it's mulder, though- what else would he do but tell robert what he really thought? he is convinced that they need to stop the magic. he says he wants a second opinion. 

robert is putting up the MRIs taken on nan- and the markings spell out “theef” on her brain!!! peattie laughs. and appears behind him! “truth always hurts, don’t it, doc?” <- THEY KNOW EACH OTHER?

well, i guess not, because robert asks who he is. “what do you want for me?” “oh, don’t you be frettin’ none about that. i gettin’ my nickel’s worth” what does that mean…

he says it is about lynette peattie. robert doesn’t seem to know who he is referring to. he asks how he has offended peattie- and he says if he thinks on it for a while, it’ll come to him. and then he runs away. and seems to vanish. 

so robert looks "lynette peattie" up in his files alongside his assistant, and they can’t find anything. they try jane does instead- he treated 3 in the last few years. and he pulls a bracelet looking-thing in one of them that says “theef of mans heart” <- ohhh…. the dots... they are connecting

peattie is sewing up another doll, saying he will remember. talking about a dog. “he crawled up under that house the very day you left” <- what is going on…

someone approaches him. it’s the lady from before, thanking him for the poultice that helped her back. she would like a little more. she says it’s stinky. and he says stinky is good. 

the agents are in an occult shop. mulder asks for some alternative medical advice. scully looks deeply displeased.

he pulls out the dirt, which the lady working the shop declares to be “goofer dust”, used for conjuring. how would you make someone sick using that? and realizing that this seems very suspicious, he says they’re investigating a murder and flashes his badge.

scully’s face of disgust is soooo funny. 

“a voodoo doll!” says scully, sounding excited “no, they’re called poppets” corrects the shop keeper. LMAOOO, aw, poor scully. she doesn’t know all the demonic lore!!! give her some time to catch up!!

so to give someone a specific disease you need one of these, three rose thorns, a strand of hair, and a photo of the person. huh, the photo is a relatively new invention. wonder how they cursed people before then. but it explains the missing picture in the house.

if their guy is powerful enough to do murder, he is probably drawing off the power of a charm. so they will have to separate him from his charm.

who knew that charms are what give magicians their powers? not me! i would have thought that the doll alone could do the trick! but i guess it sort of makes sense. sort of.

peattie is at the hospital, trying to break a snack out from the vending machine. the assistant tells him he has to pay first before he can get some popcorn. and then tells him to put it in the microwave, and that is how you get the popcorn.

“radiation… come from the heart of the atom. i think it be god’s own glow” <- very ominous thing to say...

robert is bringing their daughter lisa in to come see how nan is doing, and peattie hears this from his nearby popcorn perch. robert says she is doing so much better, that the therapy is working wonders. and nan is talking to lisa! so it does seem to be working, i suppose. but nan’s scared of the machine used to treat her that gives off the radiation. can't blame her.

peattie takes out his popcorn. then another poppet. puts that in the microwave. oh no….. so nan goes back into the machine, and i cannot bear to look. AUGH!!!! she is burnt to a crisp!!! NASTY

(it has been 2 cays since i watched the episode and i am still thinking about how disgusting this was 😭😭)

peattie pulls out the poppet from the microwave and removes nan’s photo…. omfg….

robert is holding a different family photo and crying. asking the agents how someone could arrange for this. 

“theef” was branded into nan’s chest. scully senses that he isn’t saying everything he knows about the case, and gently reminds him that they cannot help if he withholds info from them. so he recounts the visit from peattie and the request to look into lynette. lynette peattie was in a bus rollover, the worst of all the victims. they had to triage. and she was in agony. scully looks heartbroken hearing this.

so he gave her morphine. and she kept screaming. and her heart rate was climbing. so he kept pushing. “i took maybe the last 20 minutes of her life. it was a fair trade to make for the pain” :(

so peattie blames him for not saving her… and mulder puts together that it must be her father they’re looking for, because now he’s stealing robert’s family. mulder says they can protect him. 

jump to a new scene. “if lynette peattie were carlos the jackal, i would have had an easier time tracking her down” oh, scully, and your big black umbrella…. <3

lynette has no records at all, except for from an inoculation program in west virginia. and her father wouldn’t let her be vaccinated against polio. mulder declares this to be deepest appalachia- like he predicted earlier. so he knows his magical geography! 

mulder thinks peattie is getting the graveyard dirt from his daughter’s grave, and that he is drawing the power from her body. he thinks that if they ship her off to quantico, he would lose his power. can they do that? just take a body they think is being used for magic and ship it back to their workplace?

scully doesn’t seem sure what to think, but she has to hold two umbrellas right now, and it is a little funny. augh! the grave is empty!!!

the woman whose pain he helped twice before is knocking at peattie’s door, saying she is hurting again. he’s not answering the door. she takes out a key and enters. it smells bad. she sees something in the bed, apologizes, not knowing he was home. but…. AUGH. her scream…. it is a very dead body. and then he appears behind her. 

the agents are shipping off robert and lisa to a cabin somewhere, but peattie’s watching them from a bush. it seems scully is the getaway driver. and mulder is hiding back in the mansion.

a 56 year old woman has developed a bizarre illness, says the news…. no, not back pain lady…. she has flesh-eating disease. that is so wild!!

someone enters the house of the doctor family. while mulder breaks down the door to peattie’s apartment. the head of the corpse is gone!!!

scully answers her phone from a cabin deep in the woods alongside robert and lisa. mulder thinks peattie is looking for her. he says to keep an eye out- he’s on his way.

augh…. is peattie in the woods??? yes, he is. with the head of his daughter in his bag. soon, he mumbles. very soon. 

he breaks into the car…. scully whips out her gun. NOOOO, he finds scully’s badge!!! which has her photo on it that he can use for hexes!!! she’s got a perfect shot if he tries to walk in the doors, but i don’t think he’ll do that… and he finds a hair from her car…. puts it in the poppet. starts mumbling. pokes something in the doll’s head. and back in the house, she’s gasping. she can’t see!!

peattie comes in!!! and she fires two shots at him, but she can’t see!!! he has a gun. and goes after robert and his daughter. 

robert tells peattie he did everything he could to save his daughter. peattie claims he would have saved her if he was there- but robert shouts that he wasn’t. it was wrong for her to be buried away from her people, peattie says.

scully is looking for something. peattie pulls out the doll. starts to cut into its chest. and robert is moaning. scully is trying to figure out what is going on and mulder pulled into the driveway just in time. he sees the doll and the nails in its eyes. 

DID SCULLY SHOOT PEATTIE WHILE LITERALLY BLIND??? and then her eyes work again after he hits the ground. 

oh my god. talk about a sharpshooter. mulder rushes in with a gun, but it’s been taken care of with agent scully on the scene. she comes over to investigate the poppet with the eyes poked out. 

peattie is in the hospital. scully is watching over him, and mulder says lynette’s body is going back to west virgina.

“you know, mulder, i would have made the same call… as a doctor, if i was certain that i couldn’t save her life and she was in that much pain. i would have done what wieder did” he nods “it seems pretty clear-cut”

“except maybe it’s not” (he’s confused)

“you’re wondering if maybe peattie could have saved her life?” (she looks at him… then looks away. and walks out of the room)

“you do keep me guessing”, he mumbles to no one.

a final look at peattie. and thus concludes the episode.

ohhh, i was HOOKED on this one today. we started off very scary. and then we got a little flirty and sweet, and then we went back to scary town. scully saved the day, and had a moment of uncertainty when it came to her beliefs. she was maybe opening herself to extreme possibilities. and mulder didn’t press. just acknowledged her questioning and accepted it. 

GOD. to have your faith rocked… and for someone to bear witness to that. whew. it’s happened to them both, but we’re fleshing it out more with scully. it was sort of loosely fleshed out with the first two episodes of the season... but only loosely. but i guess it has also been fleshed out here and there from the start, what with the "extreme possibilities" line from beyond the sea... oh, scully… you are so special to me.

and mulder, with his encyclopedic knowledge of magic… so earnest in his convictions

and scully, who can identify a disease that barely exists anymore, and then save the day by shooting an intruder without using her eyes. who is doing it like her?!?!

i’m emotional. i love Them.

i really enjoyed this one!! peattie was a very scary villain and his motivation was rather tragic, but that doesn't make it justified- but it does make it a lot more interesting. especially because robert seemed like such a good guy who made the right call in a difficult situation. at first, the family seemed too perfect, that house a little TOO nice, and then when he said that line about irv having dementia, i thought he was covering something up... but at the end of the day, he was just a genuinely nice person who was terrorized by someone lost in grief. eugh, seeing lynette's body in that body gave me chills, but also made me so sad.

sometimes i forget this show veers into horror because i have so much fun with the episodes that do not do that, LMAO. but this was an excellent example of what a standalone episode can accomplish in that regard.

there is probably something that could be said for the accuracy or lack therof when it comes to the on screen depiction of Appalachian culture and folklore, but i know nothing about it, so i cannot make any comments. maybe in the 80's you really could have a daughter and live so far out in the country that you have absolutely no records of her existence except for a denial of a vaccination. idk, man. i am not the expert in these matters. if you are, please do feel free to chime in and let me know what you thought.

it only took us 7 seasons to see mulder try and do a scully impression. and then he looked SO in love with her all throughout the episode. i can't blame him. but also, his levels of occult knowledge were incredibly endearing to me today, too. i love them both and they love each other. and they catch people using magic as a team.

i'm very curious to see what happens in the next episode with scully and CSM... i don't usually get too deep into title analysis, but the "en ami" sounding like "enemy" and "en ami" translating to "to friends" in french is right there... hmm. the CSM lore thickens. who knows if we will learn any truth at all?! i'm generally wary of the episodes where he features prominently, but i'll keep an open mind.

[fishcow99]

thing that discord wont let me copy paste

in the blackbox i've been working in there are moving screens, maybe 7x7? and you can put things behind and illuminate them from the back to make images. so when the tree and the tower are first introduced, that's how we see them. most songs will have addiotional verses + bridges and whatever

in the intro, when everyone says hello, they poke their heads out from all sides of it at the same time, like the whole town comes to life at once. all the lines in that song are divided between: newsies, fisherman, the two old ladies, the two buskers, little timmy, and pinocchio. there's some other harmonies, mainly for the two old ladies together. 

This Is My Chance will kinda just be alexa standing there, pretty simple. 

The walk through downtown will be moved up to before HTSIM, with the newsie showing alexa around.

HTSIM will have the lights moving to show them walking around all sides of mountport. all side characters pass through at least once quietly to emmulate movement and crowds.

Lights pan up to simulate moving the scene to on top of the tower, and vice versa. lighting in the tower will be red toned.

I'm A Professional will also remain largely a stand and sing, but pinocchio moves around tina like the goblin he is.

Ticket To Nowhere. hoo boy. there will be a number of those old timey firm briefcases. tina is already sitting on one when alexa enters. they both stand, tina first, after the first chorus. when alexa stands up, she grabs the briefcase she was sitting on and lays it flat in the middle for later. when tina says “im turning off the light” the lights switch off. very low light until “cause here’s the thing you little girl”, at which point tina turns a flashlight on her face. at the chorus, alexa does the same thing. As the bridge starts, it switches to low-medium light as alexa and tina turn their lights off and put them away. at the front of the stage, there are four people on the ground holding flashlights of their own, the points creating a shape around her. for the first four big chords at the start of the bridge, they turn them on one by one. at the start of the second line, the begin to rotate around her, stopping when the line is done while they all point down in a line. At “there’s something about you”, the tree projection returns as the four lights slowly sweep up. the tree and the four lights fades on “not even you, you’ll see”. lights dim slightly as the chorus returns. the four first beats of the chorus have the lights turn on one by one again, all starting on the right and then sweeping the left on their downbeat, like on, sweep, on, sweep, and so on. they circle one by one up and over in an arc to the right on the second “ticket to nowhere”. on “cause getting in my way”, all lights hit alexa like a spotlight and she steps onto the briefcase. on “and that ticket”, she steps off and grabs the briefcase. alexa faces tina on the last line, and hands it to tina on the two beats after the song.

Buisness School will be longer and canonize the gay. dialogue will have built up to this moment so it makes sense.

WMCB will start as just alexa and newsie. after the first chorus, the towns people come in a couple at a time. instead of all the talking, in becomes a second verse. they do their own chorus, and then meet up with alexa and newsie and sing the chorus again at the base of the tower, a capella. tina has her own verse and as all the layers of the song come in, people cross the stage holding beams. when alexa’s “hi ho” section starts, the gets on one of the beams and stands or sits on it while two people carry her around. when the tower crashes, the lights just flash and cut because how are you supposed to do that. 

Ticket To Somewhere new is slightly longer. cool

Home Run becomes a full fledged song that details a bit of the game but mainly how alexa feels. with the first “no home run line”, she lays down her bat and steps forwards to join hands with tina and newsie. the line repeats and the chorus expands until every character is standing in a line holding hands. and that’s the end.

[unofficialcourtofowls]

The bad things happen bingo card that started it all

... and what our plan was to do with it.

So originally, as stated, this dark au was the exact same universe as Fire's btbh/sisters au. And as you can read (please do read), the first of those prompts has already been published. Growing Pains was the fill for "bloodstained clothes," and was written and published well before the dark au took the shape it has now. There were various plans for how the series would continue without the dark au overlay, but we're not going to discuss those because even Fire doesn't remember them. Rest assured, however, that regardless of if the bthb/sisters au and dark au remain the same au (we kind of think they won't), the bthb/sisters au WILL be continued to completion with all the prompts.

Now that you're probably thoroughly confused, we will forge on with the heads up that there are below so many spoilers for... we're unsure what all we're spoiling but it's getting spoiled anyway. You've been warned.

Oh, and another warning. As stated on the sisters au series page, and as implied by the name DARK au, there are heavy topics below, including death, sexual violence and trauma, and dehumanization. Absolutely none of this is supported by Fire or SK, but as many prefer not to engage with content exploring such topics, here's your warning.

On the heels of Growing Pains, as it advertised, the next prompt was going to be (and still is) "near-death experience." This is with a teenage Beck as Robin, and currently stands at 11.5k words wip that will be posted hopefully over the summer, but don't come for us with pitchforks if that's delayed. Here is the now-outdated opening, as a teaser trailer. Some of the events in this fic do intertwine with our dark au, but the owl side of this is so behind the scenes and ahead of time that it kind of doesn't matter.

third in the series was to be "locked in a freezer". this was going to be beck right on the cusp of becoming nightwing. she was going to get a boyfriend who was um. a lot like Fire's toxic ex, and essentially, while drunk(?) at a gala he accidentally(?) locked her in the catering freezer. it was a whole multichapter coming of age idea, with beck struggling between bruce being smothering and disliking her mans and her mans being red-flags-are-white-with-rose-colored-glasses. she wrestled over shirking robin shit for her man as he got clingier and clingier. we have pretty much no surviving notes on how or why or what exactly went down, but at some point slade wilson showed up and yoinked beck and there was a little "renegade" arc. yeah, we know its a lot. it did make sense at the time.

if you're tired of hearing about beck, you're in for good news! the next fic, which was to be "non-consensual body modification" starred jade todd. you know jason todd's history of stealing car parts? yeah, she's doing that. you know the headcanons about jason being involved in prostitution during his time on the streets? yeah. there's that. she stole from the wrong person and was trafficked into a brothel (much later revealed as being an owl brothel) which sterilized its girls (to explain how the prompt fits in). the silver lining is that here jade meets our wonderful beloved OC Clara. they forge an amazing bond and look out for each other, but get separated when they fail to escape at the same time. ultimately, jade steals the batmobile tires specifically to get batman's attention so he can help her seal her escape, and her debut as robin is working with him to shut down her former prison. she then ends up adopted, because this is batman we're talking about. jade searches for clara, but she is nowhere to be found. Here's the intro to that.

and now here's the thing. Fire had this brilliant (wacky) idea for the 25 prompts to be given 4 each to the 4 robins, and the remaining 9 would be for every combination of sister duos and then a big mega fic where EVERYONE gets whumped. so the next prompt "i have your loved one" was the first duo fic, and was nightwing beck and robin jade. basically, slade kidnapped jade and used her to extort beck. they're alright at the end, just... yknow. traumatized.

if you're death glaring the screen waiting for me to write about jade's death fic, calm down. there is no jade's death fic. at least, not her ethopia death. we skip right the fuck over that bc Fire wanted to challenge herself not to take the easy way out by affixing prompts to canon events, and so the next prompt is actually "Cassandra truth" featuring em drake. (for those confused - this prompt refers to the greek myth of cassandra, who was cursed to tell completely true prophecies but never be believed. as a trope, it basically refers to any character telling the truth but not being believed for very stupid reasons, or no reason at all.) this centered around the idea of "most abusers are the people close to you" and essentially showed a bunch of galas with em as a young teen being preyed on by her parents friends, being told by her parents that the friends are perfectly fine emily honestly stop being so rude you dont know what you're saying, and finally being supported by bruce and beck who as em enters their lives as robin notice the creepy guys and defend em from them as well as finally validating what she'd been trying to say. it of course ends with her being adopted.

next up - another sister duo! "cold blooded torture." this one was jade and daima in the league of assassins. which is still fuzzier than mold on a peach. don't ask us how long jade was there how well she and daima knew each other any details we are crying we don't know either. the main premise of this fic was ras using jade as a training dummy to teach daima how to do torture.

moving back to gotham, "held at gunpoint," another duo but with beck and em. there's very little documented on this but what we do have says that, essentially, jack drake goes off the fucking rails and kidnaps em in a fatherly power bid to make her give up robin. and beck's there. as rescue? i'm sorry folks that's literally all she wrote.

"denied food as punishment" was daima centric and in the league again. why's jade not there? dunno. she's not tho. basically Fire had run out of the really angsty ideas and was struggling to fill out the rest of the card and decided ra's was probably the kind of misogynist who would punish girl daima a lot differently than boy damian, at least for minor infractions.

more murkiness!!!! we neglected (sorry) to mention that jade has magic. its very weird shit. we will have a post about her magic and how it changes. but take our word for it, she has "empathic healing" (that's the prompt) which means she can heal others by taking those wounds onto herself. this was a pretty classic red-hood-back-in-gotham-robin-needs-saving-red-hood-fucking-does-it story. what sets up some really FUN plot later however, is that this results for reasons in red hood being outed as a girl. (red hood is still 100% masculine presentation, for context)

thanks to that outing, the worst human alive decides this girl red hood would make the perfect toy to break, which leads us to "defeated and trophiphied." this one's dark. jade spends several months in the clutches of this guy who wants something between a sex doll and a mafia wife. eventually he makes the mistake of taking her to a gala as eye candy, and jade manages to signal the family that still thinks she's dead, and they follow the pair home out of shock and paranoia. when beck walks in on what's happening she snaps the asshole's neck, as she should. jade comes home and spends a WHILE recovering phsycailly and mentally

while jade's healing up, beck be out doing shit, and she gets "buried alive." this was where we started showing our owl characters more, without calling them owls jsut yet. there really wasn't much plot to this, it was a one shot, unlike most of the others

the duo you've been waiting for! beck and daima! this is while bruce is lost in time and beck is taking over as batman. (yes bat man. she got some tips from jade.) the prompt is "strapped to a bomb" and honeslty that's about as much as we had except for knowing the riddler was going to be the visible big bad, and there'd be hints at the owls working with him

another barebones idea. "manhandling" with em. this was with her doing the CEO of WE shtick and a jackass board member acting how men get when there's women in power. don't worry, em put him quite solidly in his place.

next a funky one! SK really wanted to explore alfred, so "shot with an arrow" was alfred venturing through the timestream (which is actually not the timestream but the fae realm) to find bruce and bring him home.

the other duo you're probably waiting for - em and daima. this is after bruce is back and they're still at odds. "chained heat" - get your head out of the gutter - meant the concept of being handcuffed to each other. when the girls get caught spying that's what happened. this was foremost about em and daima's relationship and how it improves when they both get forced into showing how much they love and want to protect one another. when the fic ends, they have such an amazingly strong and beautiful bond.

and that, dear readers, for you ARE readers after getting through this wall of text, brings us to the fateful fic which got this all rolling. we have just posted the wip form to ao3 with any and all notes to help orient you to the time and characters, and want to give you the opportunity to learn alongside the bats as the plot develops. when that finally comes to a close (we have so many fucking chapters SO MANY) we will outline for you what else was supposed to happen, and link you to another post like this one explaining what the series after this monstser fic would have looked like.

Hope to see you there and back again!

Firebird and SkullKitten

[connan-l]

Now that Season 7's first trailer is out, it slightly validated some of my theories about which chapters is going to be adapted — so I decided to make a prediction of what Seasons 7 & 8 could looks like (I mean, we still don't have any confirmation for Season 8, but there's no way we don't get it, right?) I'm probably going to be very wrong but it was fun to try and think about!

I'm going to make the assumption that we'll get 13 episode instead of 11 because of something fun I found out: so far there's been 74 episodes of NatsuYuu (OVAs notwithstanding), which means that if we add two seasons of 13 episodes we'll reach the 100 :) So I hope we actually do get 13 episodes this time (I've also seen some people wondering if we'll exceptionnally get a 22 or 26 episodes season because of the 15th/20th years anniversary, which could be fun but I doubt they'll do that sadly).

Season 7:

Episode 1: Chapter 84 (Mini-Nyanko) Episode 2: Chapter 80 (Yorishima intro) Episode 3: Chapter 77 (Hakozaki 2) Episode 4: Chapter 83 (Kitamoto bookstore) Episode 5: Special 17/84.5 (Teen Matonato 2) Episode 6: Chapters 95 & 96 (Isamu arc) Episode 7: Chapter 81 (Flower bed) Episode 8: Chapters 92-94 (Miharu arc) Episode 9: Chapters 92-94 (Miharu arc) Episode 10: Chapter 87 (Nishimura) Episode 11: Special 8/31.5 (Chobi special) Episode 12: Chapters 88 & 89 (Souko arc) Episode 13: Chapters 88 & 89 (Souko arc)

Season 8:

Episode 1: Chapter 71 (Ake & Shiro) Episode 2: Special 14/67.5 (Birds & Reiko) Episode 3: Chapters 106 & 107 (Yorishima arc 2) Episode 4: Chapters 90 & 91 (Tenjou-san/painting arc) Episode 5: Special 19/89.5 (Matoba station) Episode 6: Chapters 85 & 86 (Tanatsutaki inn arc) Episode 7: Chapters 85 & 86 (Tanatsutaki inn arc) Episode 8: Chapter 99 (Origami) Episode 9: Chapter 108 (Chobi) Episode 10: Chapters 100-104 Homura arc Episode 11: Chapters 100-104 Homura arc Episode 12: Chapters 100-104 Homura arc Episode 13: Chapter 105 (Post-Homura)

For Season 7: I know some people wish the season could start with the exorcist chapters, but I think it makes more sense we begin with a ‘normal’ slice-of-life Natsuyuu episode rather than the more heavy stuff. It’s been seven years, after all; they need to reestablish the series’ characters and world properly, and I think chapter 84 with the clay mini-nyanko is th best one for that. I mean, in this chapter we have: Natsume returning a name, mentions of Reiko & the book, cameos of Tanuma and the Fujiwaras (the anime could probably briefly add Kitanishi, Taki & Sasada too), and a bittersweet story about a yokai Natsume befriends — so I think it’s perfect for a new start to a new season. Then it makes sense to follow this up with the exorcist stuffs in episodes 2 & 3. I'm hesitating which one would go first though; if we follow the manga chronologically then it would be the Hakozaki one, but I think they'll likely choose to reintroduce Natori first... I do believe it's important to introduce Yorishima early on too so that they can later adapt the second Yorishima arc in Season 8, to really establishes him as this new important recurrent character. (Though I wonder if 2 exorcist episodes side-by-side would be too much, so maybe they'll adapt Yorishima intro for ep2, then have another slice-of-life episode, then have the Hakozaki chapter.... who knows)

After that I’m no sure on the order, but there must also be the Taki brother arc for a Taki-focused episode, then the Kitamoto & Nishimura chapters. I think it’d makes sense to adapt both of the Kitanishi chapters in season 7 so that then in season 8 they could adapt the Tenjou-san/painting arc in order to make it feel balanced (or they could do the reverse and adapt Tenjou-san arc before in season 7, but I think it's better if it comes after). And then have the flower bed chapter as another slice-of-life episode (which I think is important to have before the Souko arc thematically). Not gonna lie it really frustrates me that they decided to adapt the Tanuma & Misuzu chapters in a movie, because now Tanuma doesn’t have his own arc like Taki has :( At least he still appears more than her in other arcs, but they’re not focused on him so it’s not the same.

So the Chobi special from Volume 8 might seems weird to be in season 7, and admittedly I doubt it'll ever be adapted (maybe in an OAV?? But who knows) - but I thought about it because of Chapter 108 which is also centered on Chobi. Having the Chobi special before Chapter 108 seemed logical to me, though there's more chance we'll get another special like Special 14 or 18. (UNLESS they manage to adapt the Chobi special with Chapter 108 in a single episode... I dunno).

And there's no way they don't adapt the second teen Natori special, which has to be before Miharu arc. I think the Miharu arc will happens either in the middle or towards the end of the season, but I believe having Souko's arc as the final would be pretty emotionally impactful, with ideally 2 episodes. It’s the origin of the Book of Friends after all, so it’s important to really highlight it (though I doubt they'll do that unfortunately, I think they'll likely try to cram everything into a single episode as usual with the 2 chapters arcs -_-).

For Season 8: I think it makes sense to start with slice-of-life chapters with this season too, but admittedly I wasn't really sure which one. The Ake & Shiro or the origami chapters seems the more likely. Then there's still Special 14, which could also make a fun slife-of-life episode.

The Tenjou-san/painting arc and then the Noren inn arc in this season was more fitting than the last in order to balance the focus on Natsume's school friends - and like I said earlier, even though chronologically it happens later in the manga I think they will adapt the second Yorishima arc as well here. I think it’d make sense they decide to adapt the special with Matoba here too (It could be in Season 7 I suppose? But then it would a wayyy too exorcist-focused season).

What I’m the most confident in is that they’ll decide to end Season 8 with the Homura arc, and that it’ll take 3 episodes. This is such a long, important arc, and if they don’t mess it up it would make an amazing final; especially if after that we don’t get another new season until at least a few years.

(Hopefully we won’t have to wait 6 years for Season 9 afterwards… There was 2 years between Season 2 and Season 3, and then 4 years between Season 4 and Season 5, so if Season 8 is released in 2025 then I hope we’ll get Season 9 in like. 2028-2029. please.)

Anyway, just for fun I tried to imagine what a Season 9 could look like too:

Season 9:

Episode 1: Chapters 109 & 110 (Kaka arc) Episode 2: Chapters 117 & 118 (Occult salon arc) Episode 3: Chapter 112 (Taki Matoba tea party) Episode 4: Chapters 113-116 (Younger Cousin arc) Episode 5: Chapters 113-116 (Younger Cousin arc) Episode 6: Chapters 113-116 (Younger Cousin arc) Episode 7: Chapter 111 (Tanatsukitanishi beach) Episode 8: Chapter 120 (Hakozaki 3) Episode 9: Chapters 121-126 (Portrait of a Girl arc) Episode 10: Chapters 121-126 (Portrait of a Girl arc) Episode 11: Chapters 121-126 (Portrait of a Girl arc) Episode 12: Chapters 121-126 (Portrait of a Girl arc) Episode 13: Chapters 127 (Homura cats returns)

This would make for a super plot-heavy season, but well all the recent arcs ARE very plot-focused lol. I initially thought that maybe the Portrait of a Girl arc could make it more to a potential Season 10 while the younger cousin arc could the final for Season 9, but ending the season on such a personal, Natori-focused arc like that would be a bit... strange. So! If we have Portrait of a Girl as a final, I think it makes sense for the occult salon arc to be at the very start of the season to introduce Shinobu and Clara (I vaguely thought it would be fun if they introduced them in Season 8, but the idea of a whole season where we start with the looming threat of Matoba's mysterious sister only to have her identity revealed at the very end is really cool too). I think the beach chapter too could be nice after the Natori arc as a sort of break before we got back into the heavy plot stuff with the 3rd Hakozaki chapter. I gave Portrait of a Girl 4 episodes here because I think it's what it wolud need to be properly adapted (it IS the longest arc to date after all, with 6 chapters!) but because of that I had to scrap the Hinoe chapter (which could then be adapted into Season 10). However I think it's more likely they adapt it into a three-episodes arc sadly (same thing with the Younger Cousin arc, they'll probably cram it into 2 episodes rather than three...)

And here it is haha. Can't wait to see how completely false my predictions will be lol.

Following this, the still unadapted chapters would include: Chapter 119 (Hinoe/Natsume crossdressing), Chapter 128 (current arc) that would fit into Season 10, then Special 18 (Nyanko meets little boy), Special 20 (movie special), Special 21 (little traveling yokai), Special 22 (Ribbon Nyanko & Mana Kitamoto), all of which could either fit in Season 10 or in an OAV.

[kaqcuille]

Apparently!

Kartik didn't actually play Manjulika mostly, it was a stunt double named Pia Soni, who was the faceless dancer in the intro, and then the masked manjulika. She also claims to have done the climax tandav to the Sonu Nigam song, and in her comments under her reels says that Kartik's face was added using vfx.

That means he just did the dance as Debu in the green dress during the flashback and just at the end while attaining moksha apparently

Idk why this made me so sad like I got really attached and impacted by a mainstream actor playing a transwoman's role or a feminine role and they couldn't even care to have him do the full thing! Couldn't he have trained in classical dance and done it himself? He's trained hard for his other movies like Chandu champion so why was this done like this?

I mean I hope this lady is not telling the truth fully because I don't wanna believe he didn't do like 90% of it, especially the dance as the ghost

But she has pictures with the cast and director and photos of getting ready

Maybe she was just a body double due to Kartik's double role in the same scene?

Idek why this is so upsetting to me ugh but I thought yall would understand this very very niche thing lol

Anyway here's her Instagram account you can look at her bts reels and comments: https://www.instagram.com/piaaasoni24?igsh=MWEzZ253a3A3dGFsbA==

I've literally dm-ed her to confirm 😭

Hey! Sorry we took a while to answer this, but you raised many important points that we (the mods) had to discuss and come up with an answer that covered everything we wanted to say.

So, first of all, we agree with your main point! It would have been much nicer if Kartik Aaryan had learned and performed the dance himself. This movie is far from perfect at representing various identities, not just trans. You would have noticed this yourself, but bollywood has a track record of being bad with representation and the movie itself does other reps very wrong. To name just a couple, overall Bengali rep (randomly using Bengali words and sounds intermixed with Hindi) and using bits of Hukkus Phukkus (a Kashmiri song) out of cultural context. It's not a movie where the makers put a lot of thought into any of the identities they represented!

So then, how do we at the kaqcuille look at this movie? When we interact which SKTKS or BB3, we do it not because either are 'good rep' but its because we find potential for exploration in their stories and character arcs. We've adopted them because we want them and their queer identities treated right in a way that appeals to real queer people (us).

It is understandable if you feel betrayed by the double's IG post when Debu's dance was such an important point in your gender journey. That frustration is understandable, it would have held so much more meaning had KA did it himself. That being said, doubles and small time actors rarely get recognition for the work they put in and a part of us is ok if the double gets due credit for a standard industry job that she did in a mainstream movie!

We also understand having high expectations of KA as an actor because of the work he puts in in his dance numbers and movies in general. But we recently found out that for dance sequences in SKTKS where his abs show, KA was starved and dehydrated for hours and that left a bad taste in all our mouths. We had to take a moment before we could go back to appreciating the work he put in for SKTKS. It is valid to have high expectation of actors and we wish doubles and extras were unionized and getting due credit for all they do and what actors are expected of by current movie standards didn't come at the cost of exploitation. But we must remember when we interact with Bollywood's content, that there is an underlying exploitative, capitalist industry and we are going to see intersection of a myriad of issues when mainstream Bollywood chooses an identity or storyline for its character(s).

We understand and agree with your main points and hope this answer provides some more dimensions to think about as you wade through this 💜

[lokavisi]

*~Housekeeping~*

Hail and welcome! The intro blurb at the top of the page tells you a bit about me but I wanted to get a little more in depth about the blog. My goal is to make my little corner of the internet here as safe and welcoming as possible, so I wanted to make some disclosures and set some boundaries. (Please read, especially for personal policy regarding minors!)

-First and foremost, Heathenry is for everyone. No matter your race, gender, sexuality, age, or ability. Fascism has no place here or anywhere else in Heathenry. I will not tolerate any such ideologies being spread here.

-A newly ignited passion of mine is fostering future generations of Pagans and Heathens. For that reason, I am accepting of minors interacting with this blog with some caveats. These are to protect ourselves and foster healthy boundaries.

1. Please limit interactions to likes, public comments, reblogs, or asks; no private messages. This keeps us both accountable for the appropriateness and intent of our interaction. I do not have the option for anonymous questions for this reason (and to generally try to deter trolls). I ask that these interactions stay related the topic of the post being responded to, working with Loki, or things relating to Heathenry/my other religious identifiers. I do not want anyone to ever question my intentions in wanting to educate you or other youth, nor do I want to put your safety in jeopardy.

2. Speaking of safety, the only time I will respond to private messages from minors is for questions regarding gender transition. As a trans person, I fully understand the need to discuss those things more discretely if it is not safe for you to do so publicly. I understand how challenging it can be to find safe adults and accurate information about the process. I am here to educate as best I can. If you have questions about the transition process, I will do my best to help you get accurate information. Please understand, however, that I am not a therapist and I will not discuss personal details with you. This is for our safety. The most I will ever share about my personal life is whatever is relevant to getting you accurate information (such as the process I went through to change my name or pursue surgeries).

-Related to the previous point, I will do my best moving forward to either tag and/or indicate at the top of my posts what may not be suitable for minors. (This will be based more on content than things like language. I figure if you're old enough to be online, you're probably familiar with a few choice words.)

-A lot of what I share on here is related to my UPG (unverified personal gnosis), practices, and beliefs. It is absolutely ok if your UPG or beliefs do not align with mine. However, I will not tolerate anyone trying to discredit my, or anyone else's, experiences. Keep all discussion civil and respectful. I hate doing it, but I will block people if harassment and the like becomes a continual problem.

-Life is too short to have a stick up your butt about comics and movies that people enjoy, so we respect Marvel fans around here. This does not mean that we are equating the Gods to Marvel's interpretations of Them, nor are we equating Tom Hiddleston with Loki. I am under no delusions here. That said, some people came to these Gods through Marvel material and it is something that can be enjoyed in and of itself. I have made a few posts about how the Gods can sometimes sneak Their way into that stuff and that's just fun (for me, at least) to see. Sometimes Thor likes watching those movies with me. I found watching the Loki series to be a surprisingly devotional act because of the character arcs and material correlating with a lot of the work I've done with Loki. None of this has to be your jam. Just don't be a jerk about it. (Also, if I use a Tom-Loki gif as a reaction or to indicate a vibe Loki's giving me, that's all it is. No need to get worked up.)

Other general notes:

-I tend to refer to Loki with He/They pronouns because of how They generally present around me. Whatever pronouns you use to refer to Loki are absolutely fine.

-If you are curious, the meaning behind the name Lokavisi and my choice to use it can be found here.

-Loki and Their family tend to get the most of my attention, but I have had experiences with and some connection to other deities in the Norse pantheon and beyond. I am also looking to "shake hands" with more deities and spirits for my own edification and oracular practices. (If I'm going to be sharing messages from Someone, I feel like it helps to know Them at least a little.)

-My main blog is @bifuriouslyqueer. So if you see that blog following you or liking your posts, it's me. If you care to follow (and it is absolutely ok if you don't), that's a little more DNI for minors. It is full of my pop culture hyperfixations, mental health and political woes, and general trash memes.

-Banner art is "Loki's Children" by AnywhereButReality on DeviantArt. Profile pic art is from @jessiarts

-If you would like a tarot, rune, or oracle card reading, please visit my Ko-Fi! If cost is a barrier for you, please do not hesitate to reach out so we can work something out! While I am broke and need money, I don't want to be inaccessible.

Alright, enjoy the blog!

[vampiresdontbelonginfairytales]

No-one is having flashbacks of some of their worst experiences at all. Don't even worry about it.

For new people or readers who need a reminder:

What is going on: Lamprey, who you saw in Victor's intro comic and also a few times since, is a human vampire who got stuck as a bat. He fell asleep as one and when he woke up he couldn't change back. This is because humans are a caster species and bats are not. So the longer a vampire or indeed any other caster stays transformed as a non-magical animal the more mana they lose, and if they lose enough they're no longer able to cast. The more magical a species the longer they can stay transformed. It also depends on the background level of magic in the area. Earth has a very low magic level and that's why Victor got stuck. The spell used a lot of his own reserves rather than the surrounding magic and he doesn't have a lot to begin with. Why does he need blood? Vampirism is caused by a failure to produce enough of your own mana. Vampires take the mana of others by drinking their blood, which is high in mana. Although, magic works like heat, it's not a physical substance. In the same way, both too little magic and too much magic damage or kill people. Too much heat? Burned. Too little heat? Freeze.

Next Previous First First in this arc

Comic text:

Victor: (clinging to wall as a bat, shaking) I... I c-can't change back. Lucinda: Has that ever happened before? Victor: N-No. N-Not... to me. Lucinda: (horrible realisation) Lamprey. Lucinda: Let's get somewhere less conspicuous. Um, do you want to..? (she offers her arm for him to climb on) (Somewhere much more secluded) Lucinda: Let me know if I'm being scary. When I got turned into a raven, it freaked me out that everyone was giant. Didn't Lamprey stay too long as a bat and that's how he got stuck? He didn't have enough magic to turn back? Because his magic drained away and bats are too small to drink enough blood to turn back, right? Victor: Th-That's right. Lucinda: So... Um, so... since you only just turned into a bat, wouldn't it work if... if you... drank blood right now? Victor: M-Maybe... But who would I... I-I can't just... Victor: (horrified) You... don't... mean.... Lucinda: (also horrified, shakily) You could... drink.... mine? Wow, those words really came out of my mouth.

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

WIP Questionnaire

Thanks @buffythevampirelover for the tag! This game looks fun!

Rules: answer as few or as many as you'd like!

1. What was the first part of your wip that you created?

TSP: Lexi was! TSP started out as a school project, and we had to create a character sheet for our first person narrator! That was "Alexia" who is now just "Lexi" (but her full name is still Alexia).

SOTL: The concept! "School for fairy tale characters" was basically it. I got discouraged a bit when I found out this concept already existed, but that didn't mean I couldn't do my own take!

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

My favorite types of intros for TV shows are original theme songs or very catchy instrumental music. 30-60 seconds is a good length. I'd hope that for TSP and SOTL. Hope this isn't a cop-out.

3. Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

TSP: My favorite characters to write for are Lexi, Gwen, Akash, Robbie, and Carmen. Lexi because the arc I gave her is an exaggerated version of something that speaks a lot to me. Gwen because I wasn't expecting her to be as interesting as she ended up being planned to be. Robbie and Akash because of how funny and sweet their dynamic is. Yes, I love them separately, but they're a package set. Carmen because she's just so damn interesting I love studying her under a microscope.

SOTL: I am barely into writing it, but it's Jack at the moment. Shocker, he has three chapters while Tierney and Úrsula have one each! But the reason is that he is average at everything, but he doesn't let that get him down! He's funny and relatable and a dork.

4. What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

TSP: Hm, good question. The only thing coming to mind right now is Young Justice (the cartoon). Starts out with this fun group of kids, becomes extremely dark. Ensemble cast. Sneaking around. Superpowers. Fight scenes. Drama.

SOTL: Insert fairy tale retelling here.

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

TSP: Juggling everything. The world building, I guess. Making all the characters distinct was something I struggled at for a while, but I'm getting much better at it. Trying to figure out how the world works is challenging, but I am having fun. But juggling all the moving parts to make it cohesive is a challenge.

SOTL: What is plot?!! Also battling my ambition to do every fairy tale ever. I'm gonna have to make a lot of background characters that will get their own side stories separate from the main series to get all that I want. I probably will do that.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

TSP: Yep! Alium has a lot of fantasy creatures, animal hybrids, and fun things I just made up. Custos the dragon is the only truly prominent one right now. He's a blue fire dragon and is adorable. I also have kitsunes. Animal hybrids include unibison, ferretsnakes, cowyotes, beaverducks. Things I made up include the elemental foxes and blue hedgehogs.

SOTL: Hofiwi is an anthropomorphic bear! She was cursed to be anthropomorphic, this is not a normal thing in this world. I love her and she's just planned at the moment. Can't wait to do more.

7. How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

TSP: Hovercrafts, dragons, teleporting, trains, and some other power-based travel

SOTL: I'm still figuring this out no one has gone anywhere yet. Dragons or carriages would be cool. Maybe I can mix them with something modern to fit the setting.

8. What part of your wip are you working on rn?

TSP: World building! Specifically the power database since that will be the backbone for everything.

SOTL: Reading fairy tales... I need to do that more

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

TSP: Powers, diverse cast, queer/disability rep

SOTL: same as TSP but fairy tales!

10. What are your hopes for your wip?

If I see one (1) fanart between either my life will be complete.

This was fun!

Softly tagging @mk-writes-stuff @jezifster @blind-the-winds @little-peril-stories @sleepywriter00 @mysticstarlightduck @sarahlizziewrites @writernopal @gottestod-writes + anyone who wants to join!

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites - giving a slightly harder nudge than usual cause I really want to see what y'all have to say! Still optional obviously

Blanks below the cut!

1. What was the first part of your wip that you created?

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

3. Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

4. What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

7. How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

8. What part of your wip are you working on rn?

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

10. What are your hopes for your wip?

[splatcat64]

i had a really long convo with my friends about this but it really seriously feels like ppl get rhys and fionas characterization switched up HARD. this is bc of the u choose the path thing but also a heavy hand in the misogyny and racism (and general way ppl tend to approach pandorans due to being effected by how jack talked about them . LOL) fiona is such a sweetheart whos working her hardest to protect the people she loves + imo shes the one who helped vaughn grow into someone who adores pandora as well. it makes me blow up. i have a few songs that have been making me go nuts about her . hai i got excited sorry

NOOO DON’T APOLOGIZE FOR GETTING EXCITED I totally get it my god,,, this blog is becoming so tales centric I’m sorry not sorry here we go. If you haven’t seen tales and want to be mindful of light spoilers. ⚠️

This has been talked about on my side a bit but I tooootally agree, Both of their characterization gets switched up BAD and it’s absolutely insane, both Fiona and Rhys are good people, but flawed. Flawed, but good people, and it gets constantly jumbled around in the fandom. I feel like a lot of people have a really hard time grasping that “choose ur own adventure” protags still have a core personality set, especially telltale. I always use Lee TWGD as an example, because sure you can portray him as either very very confrontational, or more soft spoken and sweet, but in the end of th edgy he still killed someone. In the end of the day he still ALWAYS cares about Clem. It’s not any different for those two idiots, they still have their respective arcs and the such.

I feel like Fiona gets a lot of shit specifically BECAUSE she’s snarky and she. speaks her mind. And god forbid a POC/Black coded woman do ANYTHING. Jack really messed up ppls views on Pandorans but the look into Sasha and Fi’s life is literally just more, HEY, they’re people!! Maybe don’t listen to the GENOCIDAAAAL [big arrows pointing to the word] MANIAC. It’s thrown right at your face. People take wtv the fuck Jack says way to seriously when he lies. So much. All the time. And I don’t get why no one takes it with a pile of salt constantly. When really she does just have a heart of gold, most of her being mean is literally just playful banter like hello. Sasha’s meaner than her by a mile but Fi still gets slaaandered for it. And even tho Sasha does have her really mean moments I will defend her to the grave with strangers bcus “hating her” without a valid reason gets veeerry racy really quick and as a black person it really does rub me the wrong way sometimes. So much mischaracterization everywhere. It’s a weird mix of a patriarchal, misogynistic, racist deal with EVERY character in The Group and I’m just… how do you manage to mischaracterize everybody from a game that’s all story.

And the point I made in a post somewhere about how Rhys is written differently than a LOT of men in borderlands and ppl have ran with it and decided hey this guy actually sucks. Or hey haha this guy can’t do anything. He’s completely out of his element on Pandora, of course he’s stumbling somewhat but bro is brave as hell for that shit. He’s a completely capable dude, yes he cares about Fiona and Sasha and Vaughn. Yes they care about him. I feel like people also get it twisted because of Fiona and Rhys in the intros, but people gotta remember that they’re acting like that because the game was episodic and we weren’t rlly allowed to know that they’re super buddy buddy. That’s one gripe I have w the game is that they made Fiona seem like she HATED his ass in some of the future settings in the beginning of episodes and people took it way too literally. Please I beg they’re besties,,, you’ve never boxed with a bestie before??? Either way it’s obvious that it’s blown out of proportion especially after Rhys’ whole arc concludes. You’re supposed to be like oooh he’s like that cause we couldn’t know. You look at Fi and you’re supposed to like daaamn she really cares about him/them they were all just split apart after extremely traumatic events. [I’m gonna stop here with this point cause it’s starting to be a run on but people do not talk enough about how traumatic both Helios’ crash, the wreck, and Gortys’ first fight was for all of them.]

I’ve talked extensively with a friend about this too but Tales had a looot of budget issues during its making cause of Telltale nuking itself, and the game was meant to have more time. ALL of them were!!! I always think about maybe if they all got more time they’d be treated this way less. But yknow,, whatever I guess.

AND THE VAUGHN THING UR SO CORRECT GOD. I think she really help him crawl out of his shell for a lack of a better term, both the sisters tbh I feel like they’re a very rare and cute friendship pairing and I need to see more of Sasha daring him to do shit like in the Chimera dome. They all care sooo deeply for each other and people even manage to miss that like god. One of Rhys’ core traits if you don’t make him abysmally evil is loyalty. LOYALTY. Fiona hasn’t had many, hell if any friends since tales started, She is SUCH a caring person of course she’s gonna ride or die for her friends. Like that one scene on Helios where Rhys can ask her not to leave, And she’s like “If I wanted to leave, I would’ve done it a looong time ago.” There’s so many points in the game I could,d bring up that show how great all of them are, Fiona, after knowing him for not too long at all, tries to convince Vaughn to be brave, and that he can survive Bossanova’s race. Yes, she had to do that so they wouldn’t die, but she went out of her way to say it in a way that was reassuring enough. That’s sweet. If she didn’t care about them she wouldn’t have played cards on the roof with Rhys, or play bunkers and badasses with the boys, or I don’t know, let them LIVE IN WHAT IS ESSENTIALLY HER HOUSE FOR A YEAR. /ref ep.3 of tales. I’m being dramatic, of course there are factors that didn’t let her kick them out. But, my point stands.

That wasn’t meaaan that was playful reassurance, she’s telling him she’s THERE FOR HIM. They all care sooosososo much. If none of the, cared about each other, any “betrayal” wouldn’t mean that much. People get hurt like that because of their bonds and yes, YES I’m being opinionated but they’re like the found family ever, god. Fiona is fucking amazing and she wouldn’t put up with anyone if she didn’t either have to, or care, and after a certain point it’s very obvious that it’s not the first one.

TLDR; Tales is great, stan Fiona, stan Rhys, Stan Sasha and Vaughn,,, my glorious queens and kings. Forgive any typos or grammar I wrote this on a passionate whim,

[mariailoveyou-guerin]

nw ep4

the intro are we getting back my baby aram? If Perrin was #1 he would be fav

why are my 2 favs fighting

Now I see what’s happening rand finally sees and understands Aviendtha bc they are the same in sense both have duty but what to be something someone else but they can’t (enemies to lovers exellence for all 3 of them) yeah they might be my fav ship for both of them

Also like the idea of rand min too she was first one to genuinely help him and not be weird about it but min mat eats too although it’s giving Perrin egwene one sided!

rand eyes the way he’s seeing himself in her and feeling for her bc he knows duty now kinda oh I see how they building this ship up love it! though it was gonna be simple patterns pushing them together with a little enemies to lovers trope kinda but this is so much more I like it

I was not seeing the ship when i learned about them being endgame bc they so alike but also different + she was giving bi but then I thought oh she’s lesbian in the show now guess not, anyways My poor girl, having to be bare in front of all those people leave her alone

omg aiel people have powers aa I thought they didn’t that’s why Rand has powers bc his mom was aiel with the one power! that’s why aviendtha can bond herself to rand i was wondering how if she isn’t and aes sedai nor min if they dont have one power like aes sedai

this is all cool and all but when can we get to other characters especially one special guy? I like U rand but this🏜️thing has gone to long to much time is spent on it that could/should’ve been on any other place cough two rivers or character not saying it’s boring plot but its

gone way to long of time explaining it and on that desert and characters especially now that the interesting character Aviendtha has left the others are just rand moriane waiters like give us Nyn/Perrin since they have the most interesting arc this szn now I understand why they

were leading the posters, finally my favs getting their time to shine hopefully, this szn since they didn’t get it last szn well nyn didn’t and Perrin did have last 3-4 eps eating and so did egwene got great insane arc last season so I’m okay if she chills a bit even tho she aint

chilling now need Lan to have some and it seems he will get after that lady his people really in the tent saying how she would follow him to dea*th even tho she was raised as aiel her loyalty is crazy it’s what all deserves since he has the same type of loyalty for moraine and

sadly he dont got same in return bc she only has it for rand/dragon not even her loved ones! Need lan with his own arc of saving his🏠people especially now that he met one and saw how much loyalty they have for him without him ever being any sort of king to them!

and also Alanna idk what her arc is but loving it that it lead her to two rivers of all places I wanna know how and why so bad and finally Perrin has some aes sadei in his corner after all the stuff he gone through without any healing or aes sedai strength help just he himself!

as man/half wolf ofc with builder and aviendtha + Elyas need to see him again too helping/leading Perrin!+ he got his own Ariels egwene Mo lan! as for mat idk what his arc is nor nyn but excited for them both especially nyn after s2 where she was just lost/mourning like s1 Perrin

I don’t wanna ⏭️ but I’m this close like it’s dragged out 30m on that 🏜️rand mo aiels the least interesting part of this szn + characters who sort of never change or develop since s1 rand a bit more this szn but still it’s the same stick they have among themselves others since s1

finally now we talking getting somewhere (getting information I’ve wanted to know since ep1 of s1 who rand is who his real family is) and mo uncle was bad guy damn ofc he was an evil king (tree meet apple)not that mo is evil perse but bad they really connected her rand everything

not Perrin old self dy*ng trying to save Rand so very on brand in all his lives!

so they are all aiels everyone one of them who in return are the leaf people like aram see now this part is cool should’ve just skipped to them going to that place trial straight away where my poor girl is also 😔 do be something she don’t wanna be #twot

are you telling me now that Aram has the powerful thingy! Ikdr I knew there was something special about him besides his face and heart being gorgeous

rand has great taste in lovers with elayne as exception not that white man getting all those fine people as his loves! #TheWheelOfTime who is this hottie of boyfriend of his?

I don’t get it if rand was lews in his last life as the 🐉(who isn’t an aiel) then who is the red haired aiel guy who took the pearl N the other that was at the harvest since they all live in the same time as lews like they can’t be 3 that are the same 1 person at the same time

are you FCVKING kidding me I need this look of Perrin now and I need scenes of him as evil and behind the scenes of this fit whole look for all of them but especially them! I’m screaming they look so good I need whole eps of them in this fit and as evil plz light

Perrin in this fit please I beg 🫦 I need him in way that would send woman back to lews time, I’m just a hole Perrin Aybara #TheWheelOfTime nyn egw

where’s lan tho? He never left mo side to turn evil meaning he most be dea*th which is why nyn is evil it all makes sense #TheWheelOfTime the only way the others did was bc rand did

no way I turned the volume up to high thinking it was me turning it lower just for them to be doing all that rand and mo please 🙏🏾 I’m so embarrassed they gonna think I’m watching … at work 😔🥴

Omg what’s this what’s happening I can’t watch this at work? when did it turn into Bridgerton or 50 shades of grey not mo and Lanfear too! what is going on? yeah it’s gonna be on mute from now on! #TheWheelOfTime

Finally someone and something else but those 2! and they still inside and ofc egwene lan stay waiting love their love and loyalty to those people who keep pushing them away to save the 🌍 ! #TheWheelOfTime meanwhile the rest would let the🌍burn to save them just Liandrin/landfear

overall loved the ep would’ve loved it more if I saw yk but can’t wait for ep5-8 bc those are always his episodes I feel even more so after s2 where he was IT from ep4-8! first 40m was eh minus the lan aviendtha scene also liked aiel parts love learning about new people

best part of ep4 these images

[greatwyrmgold]

With Jujutsu Kaisen wrapping up, I decided to put my thoughts on each arc into words.

Cursed Child Arc aka JJK Zero

I can certainly see why this short series earned Gege Akutami a spot in Weekly Shonen Jump. Unfortunately, I don't find it that compelling.

I don't consider Yuta to be a compelling protagonist. Maybe I'd like him better if his relationship with Rika was in any way interesting, but it's not, and it's also central to pretty much everything about him.

Suguru Geto is great, though.

Fearsome Womb Arc Chapters 1-18; Episodes 1-8

It's a much stronger start! Yuji's a step up in terms of protagonist interest. Gege also does a good job of explaining the basics of his worldbuilding and power system, and finding interesting ways to train Yuji.

It's also the arc that does the most with Sukuna. If he kept taunting or annoying Yuji from within the prison of his flesh, I'd probably like JJK better. Especially the last arcs.

It's mostly just the intro arc, though. It does a good job of establishing characters and themes and plotlines, and all of that is necessary, but it's mostly solid execution of an unexciting necessity.

Vs. Mahito Arc Chapters 19-31; Episodes 9-13

Mahito is a really fun villain. He's shallow, without any well-reasoned ideology or complex plans, but he has a clear personality and desires that make up for (and explain the absence of) that sort of long-term thought. And that personality is a ton of fun, pairing well with a borderline do-anything powerset.

Mahito hasn't reached anywhere near his true potential (that comes in the anime adaptation of the Shibuya Incident Arc), but this arc is a strong start for him.

But despite the name, this isn't just the Mahito arc. It's also the Junpei arc! Seeing an ordinary person getting dragged into the secret world of jujutsu sorcery provides an interesting new angle on both the world and Junpei's guide. And then Junpei befriends Yuji, and Mahito kills Junpei, and it's just a really good little tragedy.

Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc Chapters 32-54; Episodes 14-21

This is a relatively lighthearted arc. There's technically a threat to Yuji's life, but mostly it's just a game with a cursed spirit fight in the tail end. A bunch of characters are introduced, including the unforgettable Mechamaru and the inimitable Aoi Todo.

It's a functional arc, a lighter moment for pacing reasons and a chance to expand the cast, but it's enjoyable. Especially the baseball chapter.

Death Painting Arc Chapters 55-64; Episodes 22-24 & 30

Eh. It's also a functional arc, but I find both the function and the arc less interesting. It introduces one character who does stuff later and establishes the main trio's current capabilities and has a few fight scenes. Okay.

The most interesting thing I can think of about this arc is how the anime adaptation toyed with the order of events a bit.

Gojo's Past Arc Chapters 65-79; Episodes 25-29

A highlight of the series. We get to see the origin of the series's most interesting villain (Geto) and his tangled past with the world's most powerful man (Gojo).

We see a crucial mission for the young jujutsu sorcerers, one which plays a critical role in turning them from the boys we see at the start of the arc to the men we see in JJK0. We see them playing around together, reveling in their friendship and power and the certainty that they could change the world together. We see them realizing the limits of that power, we see their visions of the changed world diverging, we see the friendship fall apart.

We also see a couple important characters get introduced, and some cool action scenes, including perhaps the first time Gojo goes all-out. But that pales in comparison to the character work done here.

Shibuya Incident Arc Chapters 79-136(!); Episodes 30-47

Some people consider this arc to be Jujutsu Kaisen's peak. I have...mixed opinions. When it hits, it hits hard, but it has some serious flaws.

I want to start with some compliments, though. The fight scenes are cool, some of the character moments are good. Mahito is at his peak of both power and creativity; his fight with Yuji and Todo is a blast. Nanami's sacrifice is moving. And that's about all I can give unalloyed praise to, so let's move on to some big criticisms.

First and least profoundly, the arc is entirely too long. It's about 40% of the entire series up until that point, and over a fifth of the entire series. An absolutely comical length of time. Which wouldn't be too much of a problem if I liked all 58 chapters, but. Well. I do not.

Second, around this time I was starting to develop a profound distaste for shonen battle manga "war arcs". You know, the series tries to escalate its stakes by moving from little battles to really big battles with most of the significant characters. That's a topic for another post, but I don't like the plot structure.

One big problem that "war arcs" have is that there are entirely too many superfluous fight scenes. "War arcs" don't usually have larger or more complicated fights, or at least not for most of the runtime. They just have more fights, sometimes running simultaneously, occasionally interacting. And a lot of these fights are either between two minor characters with little to no pre-established relationship, or between one important character and one jobber. Filler fights.

Also, you know how I praised what a good villain Suguru Geto is? This is the bit where we discover that the Geto of JJK0 and Gojo's Past is a different character than present-day pseudo-Geto. Also, you know how I praised Mahito? He gets a great swansong, but then pseudo-Geto eats him and extracts his cursed technique. In the course of one arc, Jujutsu Kaisen throws away its two best antagonists. This doesn't cause problems until later arcs, but I'm still counting it against the Shibuya Incident.

Who's left? The boring shadow of pseudo-Geto, and Sukuna. Who also makes a showing in this arc, but it's kinda dull? Not visually, of course, but he doesn't do much. Sukuna kills some sorcerers who disrespect him, then a cursed spirit who doesn't respect him enough, and in the process kills enough civilians that Yuji questions whether his execution would have been a good thing. That's a good character beat, but Sukuna is just kind of a bad guy who does bad things.

...

Oh, right, the Mechamaru swansong was technically part of this arc. I liked that. It was a neat twist (we get why Kokichi made that deal and thought he could make up for it by beating the bad guys once he was healed), and made a pretty decent tragedy. It's not enough for me to forgive the arc throwing away Mahito and Real Geto.

Itadori's Extermination Arc Chapters 137-143; Season 3?

The setup is solid. The elites of Jujutsu Society are reacting to the Shibuya Incident, mostly by excommunicating people who could threaten their power. They order Yuta (the JJK0 twink) to prove his loyalty by murdering Yuji.

The execution...eh.

Perfect Preparation Arc Chapters 144-158; Season 3?

Wild that this is considered one arc. It feels weird to both combine them into one and exclude Iradori's Extermination. This is definitely my favorite post-Shibuya arc, though!

First, Yuji and company contact Master Tengen. This is an exposition arc, but it reveals a lot of interesting worldbuilding details and explains the interesting parts of pseudo-Geto's plan.

Next, the jujutsu elites execute Principal Yaga. They threaten him, try to make him reveal the secret to creating cursed dolls like Panda, making it clear that this was about nothing more than their power. Even in a time of crisis, that's all they're good for—seeking more power.

Third, Maki gets revenge on the jujutsu elites who happen to be related to her. It's awesome, both because of the cool fights and because it's a good peak for Maki to conquer. The family that shunned her for her weakness is ruined by her strength.

And it's one of the keystones holding up jujutsu society as we know it, the society that so thoroughly failed to do anything about obvious crises in favor of consolidating power. This arc alone does more to correct a rotten status quo than everything that happens in MHA combined.

Finally, the weakest part. Panda and Fushiguro convince some Jujutsu High student we've never heard of to help them. It's fine. I guess.

Culling Game Arc Chapters 159-221; Season 3/4?

Take everything I dislike about the Shibuya Incident, remove the villain shuffle, and turn it up to 11.

It's even longer than the Shibuya Incident. It has more fights, and the fights often involve characters who matter far less. It's also less structured than a "war arc," which can be good or bad, but here it means the plot often feels directionless—especially when one of those pointless fight scenes is going on.

The arc has a good concept. Setting up the Culling Game is the only interesting thing pseudo-Geto does. Some of the fights involve characters with interesting powers, and some of those powers are important to the last arc.

The Higuruma/Yuji fight does some interesting character work (and Higuruma has one of those important powers). Hana Kurusu seems like she should be a good foil for Yuji. But every good thing in this arc is drowning under a deluge of stuff, so Hana did not leave an impression on me. I can't even remember what her or the angel actually want.

Shinjuku Showdown Arc Chapters 222-271; Season 4?

Maybe I'd like this arc more if the Culling Game hadn't exhausted me. I doubt it.

Gojo is freed, and next chapter he starts a two-volume-long duel with Sukuna. It's supposed to be cool, and maybe it would be if it didn't take two volumes to wrap up.

Then there's the fight between the other good guys and Sukuna. It's arguably JJK's best "war arc," since it isn't a series of disconnected fights between minor characters. It's a semi-planned engagement between a bunch of minor characters (and a handful of important ones) and Sukuna. But it also goes on too long, and so much time is spent explaining the jujutsu mechanics of everything going on, and so many minor characters attack Sukuna and get wrecked, one at a time.

I think they beat up pseudo-Geto somewhere in there? Or was that

I actually dropped the series for a while in this arc, so you could argue I can't really judge its quality. On the other hand, it's the only arc that made me drop the series. On the first hand, that had as much to do with the Culling Game as the actual Sukuna fights.

Which JJK Arcs Did I Like Best?

My favorite is a tie between Vs. Mahito and Gojo's Past. Each of them explored one of JJK's two great villains, each told a reasonably self-contained tragedy, each moved major characters' arcs forward. If I had to pick, I'd pick Gojo's Past, but I don't have to.

Third place goes to the Kyoto Goodwill Event. It introduces some important characters, moves Yuji forward, and was absolutely essential for controlling the pace and tone of the early series.

Perfect Preparation is a close fourth. It's not really a cohesive arc, but I love some of what it does and like some of the rest.

In the middle are Fearsome Womb, then Cursed Child, then Itadori's Extermination, then Death Painting. They do what they need to do well enough.

Third-to-last is the Shinjuku Showdown. Out of my three least favorite arcs, it feels closest to being enjoyable. There's a lot of fat to cut, but nothing needs to structurally change about it. And it probably wouldn't come off so bad if the prior arc hadn't left me exhausted.

Speaking of which, the Culling Game is next-to-last. I like the concept, I like pseudo-Geto's plan (less than Real Geto's though), but there are too many filler fights and cul-de-sacs.

My least favorite arc is the Shibuya Incident. It had higher highs than anything below the top two, but it set the tone for the worst excesses of the Shinjuku Showdown and the Culling Game. Worse, it removed the two great villains headlining the old villain squad, while also gutting the B-tier baddies like Dagon and Jogo. It left the series in the hands of Sukuna and pseudo-Geto; Sukuna has many hands and Kenjaku has had many sets of hands, but none of those hands are as capable as those of Mahito and Geto.

If someone stopped reading JJK at Shibuya, if they never watched past season 2, their opinion of it would be way higher than mine. But I didn't stop. I kept reading. I saw the fruits it harvested turn to mold and lamented the potential it squandered. The Shibuya Incident isn't my least favorite arc because of anything in the arc, but because of its impact on the series.

[ragnar0c]

Moved most of the first arc to Scriv... This is so good... I have no idea how to outline but having everything in one place is awesome....

The fact I don't have a name for chapters 8 and 9 😭 Th names for chapters 4-6 and 8-10 might change....

Terrible news for angst fans, but the premonitions are very spread apart and... I think... BIG ON I THINK... Hana only has 10 (???) of them. A few are reoccurring. The rest is Hana messing around and like forming bonds or something 🥰

Stuff I've noticed as I've compiled things.

CHAPTER 2 IS SOOO LONG. NOT DOING THAT AGAIN UNLESS I NEED TO

I tend to have a really short intro scene in most chapters, 500 words, then a long middle and end.

The intros are fun, kind of where I build things up and I hadn't noticed

Chapter 7 is the most completed besides the first 3 chapters 〒▽〒... I think it might be as long as Premonition II... so the first may be a lie. But like in a good way.

But scriv has inspired me to work on chapter 5... and inevitably 4 more... ! I have a lot of days off next week. I might work on it and read more.

SO far a lot of positives, but wait until I check how many times I switch to passive voice or contradict myself

[arkus-rhapsode]

So... I kinda miss FE7's 10 chapter long tutorial was structured

So like many people I've had a chance to replay FE7 on Nintendo's NSO program. FE7 is still a great game, even with nostalgia goggles off. But something that is of course legend at this point in the FE fandom is the 10 chapter long tutorial.

This serves as Lyn's story and essentially a prologue to the rest of the game that stretches teaching you a lot of mechanics for 10 chapters. Now I experienced this once before so I was ready to grit my teeth and bare it. And the crazy thing is as I was playing it, I realized just how much this 10 chapter prologue made me care about the characters in a way the recent FE hadn't.

Now look, I like modern FE. This isn't me saying everything was better back in my day. But something about them that just isn't like the GBA era is that they introduce characters to you as clusters that you control off the bat. This is something that really started around with Fates, you'd be given a lord and then their two retainers. Maybe you'd have to assist them after some space was put between you on the map, but for the most part, you were handed a bunch of units that would train you to use multiple mechanics on a single map. FE3H was probably more extreme with this handing you an entire class of kids before you really even get a chance to know even the lord character.

But then when I played through FE Engage, the Yunaka chapter had genuinely shocked me. Engage up to that point had basically done the same thing Fates had done. Hand you a bunch of characters with different classes and test you with the map. But with Yunaka, the chapter was actually narratively structured in a way where she was the primary focus and showed who she was, then you got to the map which utilized her abilities. And by the end of it, I had felt like I really got a taste of her in a way I really hadn't with characters like Chloe, Louis, Celine etc.

From a meta standpoint, FE is a game with permadeath, so only the lord characters really have plot shields and arcs that are overarching that builds throughout the game. But since this is a strategy RPG with a bunch of characters, a lot of those characters really only have their introduction to make an impression on the player. Even now with the support system to flesh them out, an average non lord character will really only one chapter for recruitment. Now the obvious reason modern FE is giving you three new units a chapter is to teach you multiple mechanics. To avoid another 10 chapter long tutorial. But the thing is though, if three characters are all being introduced at the same time, namely the cutscene before and after a map, there's only so much characterization you can spread between them. I talked about Yunaka earlier, but her whole chapter genuinely felt like an exclusive highlight of her. Then I think about one of my other favorite characters from Engage, Lapis, and her intro is really nothing. Most of her intro chapter is about Alcryst and as far as I knew she was just his serious retainer. But then I actually grinned out her supports and found her to be one of the best characters in the game. And the sad thing is I almost didn't do it because I felt like I didn't really find her endearing in her intro.

This is basically the same problem I had with Fates and to a lesser extent 3H. But, to be fair, 3H was structured in a way that the emphasis was on socializing so even though I got a bunch of characters I knew nothing about, the game encouraged me to learn more through social activities with them.

But then I look at FE7, while yes the pacing of introducing mechanics is more stretched out, the chapters of FE7 genuinely feel like they endear me to the cast to point I want to know more about them. The levels are structured in such a way that the narrative portion pre battle its usually only focused on one character, but then there is also a recruitable character on the map who is in the middle of their own story. They feel like a natural inclusion while not detracting from the new character just introduced this chapter's time to shine. And like all FEs, a lot of these characters aren't really plot relevant going forward. I never have to use Dorcas ever again if I don't want to and it really changes nothing in the narrative. But when I play chapter four, I feel for Natalie and Dorcas's stories. I want to see more of them.

Now look, Im not saying I want to go back to the 10 chapter long padding of introducing mechanics, but I feel like with how FE is going with trying to hand you a bunch of units and then wanting you to learn more about them through their supports and not narrative chapters like the lord characters, I would like for those introduction chapters to maybe get more focused.

Instead of a lord and their retainers, maybe have a different dynamic? I think modern FE has had a bit too many characters recently who are just a lord and those they trust most. We can have an intro like Celine, Chloe, and Louis, but maybe structure the map more to be like an interactive episode than just a barrier between my party and getting the three new units. And if the recruitable units feel too much like a hassle, I feel like PoR and Awakening were probably the best middle ground. Slowly dripping in multiple characters a chapter while building that chapter to characterize them like the Maribelle and Ricken chapter.

Just one of those things where I understand was changed to make for gameplay convenience and even developer convenience. But with FE, I always want that balance of character and gameplay so these are more than just functions. I'd have been happy if I spent longer in like Firene if it was just to get me to know the characters more. Or play levels with a bit more of a difficulty curve if they were structured to play out in a less straightforward and more narrative way.