#also most these turned out to be so tragic... wtf me

[radiokathryn-if]

how would the RO’s be in a red string of Fate AU? (cut to Nate desperately trying to cut the string off his finger bc he’s engaged lmao)

So the Red String Of Fate is one if my favourite AUs because if the origins of the myth!

In the ancient Chinese myth (and please correct me if I'm wrong!) the string is actually wrapped around the ankle rather than the pinky finger like in Korean and Japanese folklore! That the string connects you to the fate you're destined to have and with the people you belong with to achieve that fate.

My favourite “take” on this story is how it applies to all kinds of people, and even multiple people! I think that because of my understanding as a person who is not only pan(sexual) and open to polyamory but also demi(romantic) with a unique perspective through my best friend in to an aroace mindset that the thout of soulmates being strictly romantic and forever only one person is a bit bizzare──humans are people people, not person people... if that makes any sense.

I love exploring different 'avenues' of what connection means to people and how to push conventional boundaries as to what fate and destiny could be. That you have thousands of strings and they are woven together to create your tapestry of Fate (and this is where my favourite mythology comes in──greek mythology!) that is ever changing because the threads fray when you lose a connection or they gray out when someone dies, not fraying because even though they're gone they're still important to you, that the brighter strands are the people who mean the most to you.

I adore it──the introspection into human connection. (I love reading through aroace and poly story's for that exact reason!)

But back to your question! In the classic sense of the Red String Of Fate AU where it's Romantic Soulmates:

You're right, Nate absolutely detests his string──the whole concept of soulmates really. What really gets him is that he hates the feeling of no control, that there's no choice to be made that his string doesn't lead to the one he asks to marry him. He learnt a long time ago how to ignore his string, how to ignore the tug when you leave his side, how to ignore the tingles on the tips of his fingers when you're closer, how to ignore you... it's sad more than anything else──that his need for control, his vision of life, deprives you of a soulmate connection too.

As stated before, Eva truly is a romantic at her core and the thought that she has a soulmate is something she dreams of. Life, however, isn't a dream world and she also believes in agency and making decisions for herself. Though if there's anything Eva regrets it's saying yes to Nate when he proposed to her. Young naivety can only go so far as an excuse when she long for the tiny ounces of warmth you bring her when you cross paths. She keeps it a secret, but the hope that you'll snap her out of the predicament she's in keeps her heart pumping and her fingers tingling!

Mica is a little bit of a different story, considering your connection to each other already. In terms of the Original Universe, Mica might be the closest thing MC has to a soulmate that universe has, platonically or romantically. Mica loves you. Full stop. The fact that fate says you're destined to be in each others life is just the cherry on top for them. It's always been easy to be in their presence, and they will never push romance on you──if you get there, that's where fate has taken you!

The concept of 'soulmates' is... strange to Detective Han, to say the least. They don't... not believe in it but they aren't particularly bothered to chase it either. I think when they finally actually realise what the tugging and the warmth and the tingling means is when they'll get a bit... tense around MC. They don't know how to navigate this and they'll eventually be ready to try──all they ask if for your patience and with time comes their love tenfold. (As fate would have it, it turns out.)

José likes the sentiment of having a Fated One, but putting it in their real world makes them a bit apprehensive. They don't like the thought of not having autonomy and while there's comfort in knowing there's someone out there just for them (and for them to give their heart to in return) the discomfort of not knowing can be a little much. They don't like the weight of expectations. It's difficult, when they make the choice to leave your side before your connection could really bloom─and it was certainly a tough decision─but they must believe that you'll come together when you're supposed to... they're just not sure if they actually do.

Ji Han grew up listening to the stories of these myths from his mother. It's something he yearns for silently. He wants you so much he'd do anything to keep you in his heart. But he's a gentleman first and lets you take the reigns──to go at your pace. In this world he might believe he can have his love at first sight, and if he has his way the sight of his love would be his last, to bless him for his next life to be with you once again.

With Fauve fate is... subjective. In this world she tends to wear gloves. She doesn't like the way she feels when she sees her string while she's... entertaining others. It's not necessarily that Fauve hates the idea of soulmates, it's just that she can't fathom that she'd ever get to meet hers. When she was younger she used to fantasize about her fated one, and her hopes for who they were always came crushing down when it never was who she thought, in the end. Upon meeting MC she may not even realise she just met her fated one until it's too late and after the decisions she's made surrounding you freezes her heart at the thought you wouldn't want her anymore. Dilemmas, dilemmas.

For Jackson, I've chosen to believe Fate gave him a second chance string. That his first red string led him to his daughter, Cilly, and the second will lead him to you. The problem, however, is that that first experience with Fate has left Jackson both weary and jaded to the idea. That while yes, it gave him his most precious thing, the live of his child, it also left him with a shattered heart and scars on his soul. Fortunately, he's not completely closed off, like Nate is, but like Detective Han he needs time to build up trust and let his walls down──for himself!

??? adores his string and the person on the other end of it. Growing up in the way they did left them alone most of the time, betrayed by their family and sent away. They hold out their hopes of love even when their body is cold from being so far away from you and worships the feeling of warmth as the two of you get closer once again.

Bonus! The Poly Routes

Jauve (Ji Han/Fauve)──They balance each other out very well here. Ji Han allows Fauve to accept and acknowledge her feelings towards Fate sooner than she would on her own──coming to terms with it more healthily and giving her more perspectives on how to goes about her choices around her fated ones than she does on her own. And Fauve makes sure Ji Han takes his time to properly love, to savour the feeling with time and introspection and creating connection before blindly jumping into it. They let's each other believe in more ways to love people, to bask in those feelings and to become better people than they thought they were capable of.

Eva&???──for ???, there's that sort of hurt in his chest at just how much they get to breathe when with MC and Eva. ??? never really thought they'd get to even have one soulmate let alone two! The build up of emotion they feel... is like it could burst out if their chest──explode their very being at any second. So they bask in the feeling of you, fingers digging a little too deep into their hold on your connection. For both of them it's all about second chances. It feels like fate has decreed to spare them more suffering and gifted them something so wholely special. Eva especially thanks whichever god's bound her to two beings, the scars and hurt from Nate seem to just melt away when you're around and she can finally relax her heart once again...

#peoplechangepeople🧡

[hauntingblue]

Kaido lore?!

[rillils]

STEVE & BUCKY'S LOVE STORY, UNABRIDGED SOMEWHAT ABRIDGED, part 2/3 (here is part 1)

picking up from where we left off:

some 65 years into the future, steve's plane is fished out of the ice, and they find him, frozen like a sexy hot-dayum popsicle, but still alive thanks to the same super serum that made him go from Smol to Lorge.

steve is thus brought back into the world, but it's a world he no longer recognizes after all these years; a world where all the people he used to know and love are long dead, and his own face has been turned into a tool for propaganda over the years. obviously, he has a hard time adjusting, and he turns to fighting again, joining this group of kinda possibly superheroes, aka the avengers.

lots of exciting new things happen, sure; but steve is still pretty miserable. until one day, a mysterious masked assassin dressed in bondage gear (but not really), and sporting one very shiny metal arm (!!!!), is sent to kill steve's sort-of-boss. and then to kill steve himself. oh no!!

in what is possibly the most gripping, most visually pleasing hand-to-hand fight sequence in the history of cinema,

(NO BUT SERIOUSLY, all jokes aside, if you've never watched it then please do bc it's!!! *shrieks* so fucking good!!!)

a fight sequence which also happened to unlock both steve's and an entire fandom's competence kink with that little sexy knife-flipping trick alone -- i know you know what i'm talking about, don't you lie to me babes--

as i was saying, steve manages to knock the mask off of his opponent's face. and who do you think appears before him? can you guess??

DING DING DING!!! EXACTLY!!! IT'S HIS LONG-LOST BAE BUCKY! who apparently doesn't recognize him??

confused and upset, steve fights to uncover the truth. turns out, the man is indeed the very same bucky he grew up with and loved. only, he didn't actually die in that tragic fall in the ravine; rather, due to the experiments performed on him while he was a war prisoner, he survived long enough to be found and captured by the enemy. who then proceeded to torture and brainwash him, using him as a tool for murder against his will, and literally putting him back in the freezer when they didn't need him.

which, as it happens, is how he stayed so young in the first place: he, uh, spent the better part of 70 years frozen. yeaaah, are the parallels paralleling or what, hmmmm?? preserved in ice like your mom's best lasagna from last week? plunging to a 'death' that isn't really a death? waking up in the future kinda screwed over? :D

ANYWAY

steve is even more devastated than before, now that he's learned that while he was asleep in the ocean, bucky was out there suffering. when he finally confronts bucky again (and it's fucking epic and also fucking heartbreaking, believe you me) steve is desperate to bring bucky, his bucky, back. knowing in his heart that his bae is still somewhere in there, no matter how deeply buried.

in the most critical moment(TM), steve chooses to stay behind, on a plane that's about to fucking blow up around them - just like bucky did for him all those years ago - because if he can't save bucky, then he'd rather die with him.

only, bucky is scared and confused af at the moment, and he attacks steve, because 1) he has a mission after all, he's supposed to kill this guy dammit, and 2) wtf is even going on here??? who IS this man, WHY does he keep saying that they've known each other their whole lives?? and WHY does bucky feel like he's actually seen him somewhere else before?????

AND HERE IS THE PIVOTAL MOMENT OF ALL PIVOTAL MOMENTS: for the first time in his life, steve refuses to fight back. like he literally drops his shield out of the plane and into the river underneath, in a very powerful and symbolic gesture, signifying his surrender: he's not going to hurt bucky anymore, no matter what. THIS FUCKER LITERALLY LETS BUCKY BEAT HIM TO A PULP, WITHOUT EVEN TRYING TO DEFEND HIMSELF, 100% ready to let bucky kill him if that's what's gonna happen here, because that's still better than living in a world where bucky's gone - a world where bucky will look at him and only see a target, or a stranger at best.

and then!!!!

no this is like, this is THE most romantic shit, okay, like you could try to convince me that it isn't for the next hundred years and i wouldn't buy it, because. BECAUSE.

at the very last moment, steve finally manages to break through bucky's brainwashing, breaking the metaphorical spell bucky was under. and do you know how he does that? i ask you, do you know how steve does that, my love?

by repeating to bucky the very same words bucky offered him way back in the beginning, when he proposed asked steve to move in together. till death do us part the end of the line, baby. romeo could NEVER

bucky, who was about to deal the fatal blow, freezes instantly, finally recognizing the man under him.

and when steve falls out of the plane, bucky jumps after him, instinctively saving his life instead.

but bucky can't stay. confused, wounded, vulnerable, and only just beginning to remember who he used to be and what was done to him, he slips away and hides from steve - and from all the other people who might be looking for him, and probably want him dead. you think this is gonna stop steve, though?? now that he knows that bucky is still alive, and that he remembers him??? now that he knows that bucky's not lost to him forever?? AS IF!!

(to be continued in part 3)

[miloscat]

[Review] Sonic the Hedgehog (PS3)

An embarrassment, frankly.

After playing Forces and actually liking it, I figured I'd give a chance to the franchise's biggest punching bag. Turns out that in this case, I agree with the popular consensus: Sonic 06 is broken and unfinished, with a messy story, bad controls, and crippling performance issues. I've heard it described as entertainingly bad, but I just can't go along that far; I had a miserable time with this game. Let's get into it, shall we?

Although I'm still not ready for my Sonic doctorate, I'm progressing well in my studies. I've played enough of Adventure to pick up that Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) is trying to be Adventure 3 in all but name (and speaking of the name, this game is not to be confused with the Mega Drive game, or the Master System game, or any of the handhelds or animated shows or comics or movies of the same name... the title is the first of many stupid decisions in Sonic 06). A big group of playable characters, more open levels than what would come later, exploration of hub areas, and a heavy focus on story and cutscenes with interweaving plot threads. It's fine in theory, it's just that every individual piece breaks down in various ways. As opposed to previous Adventure games, there are just three main stories (Sonic, Shadow, and new character Silver who is basically just Dragonball's Trunks) with the other hangers-on popping up only temporarily within certain levels.

Sonic's story, such as it is, revolves around Elise, a filler character who is a gormless and feckless human princess and frequent damsel in distress; she gets kidnapped out of nowhere at least five times and dies in a plane crash once, necessitating time travel-based rescuing. Elise’s role in the story when she’s not being kidnapped is alternately mooning, pining, emotional outbursts, and having a tragic backstory. Also, on several occasions Sonic the Hedgehog literally tells her she should smile more. Textbook misogyny, WTF. On top of this is the uncomfortable subplot about a potential romantic connection between her and Sonic, which always fails to feel earned or appropriate. The one saving grace of the character is the mildly amusing idea that her design is loosely based on the chicken animal that you free from badniks in the early games.

I know it sounds harsh but Elise almost single-handedly drags down the whole "story" aspect of this game. After progressing Sonic's mode you unlock the others and theirs almost feel like real plots, centering around stopping Iblis—the mindless beast of fire who ruined Silver's future—and Mephiles—a scheming creature of shadow—before they reunite. Even these stories don't really hold together though with their disjointed plotting, time-hopping, and contrived interactions. Not to mention the utter humourlessness, and the sheer awkwardness of everything from writing to line-readings to mocapped movements. The fact that it's seemingly incompatible with Blaze's backstory in Rush was annoying to me personally, and ending the story with a closed time loop "it never happened" resolution is just the icing on the rotten cake.

I must also mention another decision made in Sonic 06: why game look like that? It falls into the trap of early HD striving-for-realism and falling far short, but it also feels unfitting for Sonic. After all, the hedgehog himself and his anthro friends are as cartoony as ever (almost expressionless faces notwithstanding), so putting them next to the human-looking humans really jars, especially the redesigned Eggman. And speaking of, his robot army is at its most militaristic and entirely whimsy-free... just another in a long line of missteps for ol' 06.

Now all this could be swallowed if the game was fun to play. You should be able to predict that indeed it isn't. Sonic's playstyle is the stinkiest of the lot, particularly the autoscrolling running sections that feel barely functional and were the biggest cause of lost lives (I did not appreciate starting over a ten-minute level due to these abominable segments). His moveset is simple, just a homing attack and not much else, and without a targeting reticle it's unpredictable. He has some sloppily implemented extra powers that are unlocked in a shop; hilariously they're supposed to drain your special bar but due to some error they just don't, so you can use them infinitely for what that's worth.

Shadow is similar, with a combo attack and ranged stunning bolts, but also has a lot of vehicle sections which while awkward are playable enough; meanwhile Silver plays like an entirely different game. His psychokinetic powers let him pick up and throw enemy projectiles and physics objects. It's janky but his slower-paced, almost puzzley levels felt ever so slightly less like the game was constantly falling apart at the seams. There's 9 playable characters in total and none of their abilities work very well; among the others Knuckles and Rouge were pretty fun with their gliding and climbing completely breaking level design, while Blaze (another big reason I wanted to try this game, an opportunity to play as my favourite character in 3D) has a fun moveset with a double jump and a homing attack that actually keeps momentum and flings you around. Like everything in the game it's slippery and totally jank but in a way that actually feels fun sometimes.

I even sprung for the "Team Attack Amigo" DLC (now only available on PS3!) which remixes the levels for play as Tails, Blaze, and Omega (aka projectile spam bot). I should say that each campaign takes you through the same nine levels, sometimes making them new, sometimes reusing whole segments which gets old. The lowest point of the low are the boss fights, another area where the phrase "barely functional" comes to mind. These are tedious to the extreme with a lot of waiting, and several of them recur in each campaign. The worst is fighting Silver, who can instantly grab you psychically and hold you for a long pause before throwing you, and then catch you again as you recover with no chance to make any input. Wonderful!

The elephant in the room for Sonic 06 is its performance. I guess being rushed to release in an unfinished state actually has its downsides, which take the form of horrendous slowdown throughout the entire game experience. Having seemingly almost any number of objects or any amount of level geometry on screen starts making the game chug, the action not dropping frames but rather slowing to a crawl as you agonisingly float mid-jump waiting for your next input to register. And this is despite having pretty severe pop-in not too far away from your character. For what's supposed to be a fast-paced action game it's frankly unforgivable. And speaking of things that you wish ran faster, the loading screens are interminable not just for their length but their frequency: deign to do a side mission and you'll sit through a long load both before and after a character gives a tiny snippet of dialogue until you're allowed to try it, and if you fail then get ready to do it all again! They really add up!

I could go on: the camera is atrocious, the music is forgettable, Elise is incredibly cringe-inducing—oh wait, I covered that already. To be fair there is one bright shining spot and it's from my new old friend Tomoya Ohtani: the main theme His World stands among my favourites from Forces, a strong melody that mixes rock and orchestral with even some rap and makes it work! Watching the credits four times may have been the most pleasant part and it's all thanks to this song. So that's my big takeaway from Sonic 06: the rumours are true, it sucks big time, don't play it unless you're a real loser like me who doesn't value their time, it's a monument to Sega's staggering incompetence, but hey this one song is really good, maybe give it a listen!

[dross-the-fish]

what do you think of the 1994 Frankenstein movie?

I'll be honest, I hate on that one more for its wasted potential than anything else. I feel like it tried to adapt the book but then it kept adding stupid shit and missing the mark.

Let's start with it's biggest crime. Kenneth Branagh, our director.

Oh Kenny Branagh my beloathed. We meet again. I've had it out for you ever since I had to stomach your ridiculous Shakespeare movies in high school drama class. I've watched as you brought your overwrought hammy sensibilities to Agatha Christie's Poirot and now here you are, injecting all of your overblown histrionics into Frankenstein.

I didn't think it was possible to be too dramatic for Frankenstein. But by god you've done it. There is so much scenery chewing, screeching, writhing and sweating in this that I actually started to feel fatigued and clocked out mentally about half way through the film.

Kenneth cast himself as the lead and I hate this version of Victor so much.

Wtf is this? Why does he have abs? Why is he in his mid 30's? Where is my sickly waif who gets feverish at the drop of a hat? Why have you done this?

Also I know they're canonically engaged but I really dislike for Victor and Elizabeth to be horny for each other especially in this movie because they keep bringing up their relationship as siblings and it's just eugh, please don't talk about her like that and then remind us that she's your sister you fucking weirdo. Their relationship in the book comes off as super uncomfortable to me and I swear Victor is way more into Robert and Henry than he is Elizabeth. Naturally this movie decided it should have next to no homoeroticism.

"How do brothers and sisters say good bye?" - start aggressively making out. No I'm not joking this movie goes out of its way to remind you that they are siblings.

.... And then it goes there with it.

Victor actually proposes to her and then asks her to come to Ingolstadt with him or offers to stay in Geneva with her and it's at that point where I'm like: did you read this book? Victor dodged their semi-arranged engagement like the woman had cooties and didn't write to her for two years because he's an obsessive, neurotic wreck.

Oh yeah and Henry Clerval is in it.

Oh were you hoping for more of him? That's a shame because so was I.

I've mentioned that this movie is over dramatic. But that really can't be understated. It's like a mac truck crashing through an English garden. No subtlety at all. If a character has to feel something they're usually screaming at the top of their lungs. Victor screaming at the creature to live, the creature literally ripping Elizabeth's still beating heart from her chest and showing it to Victor. They decided the bride should be Elizabeth and that there should be weird tension between her and the creature. Then after she's brought back to life she sets herself on fire and starts running down the halls of the manor.

I should probably have found that more tragic than I did but I just found the whole thing silly.

Justine's death in particular should have been more heavy and somber. She gets dragged off by a mob and hung. The scene is violent and cruel but it lacks the tragedy of the book. We have none of Justine quietly giving up and Elizabeth vehemently refusing to believe she's guilty. It's one of the few character building moments Elizabeth gets and this movie takes what should be a touching, somber and heartbreaking scene and turns it into a spectacle.

Everyone's reaction to everything is to do the most extreme thing possible but they never actually earn it because moments were the film SHOULD have emotional weight are kind of glanced over. The book has a lot of themes of grief and isolation but the film doesn't really explore those aspects effectively. It never stops to have a quiet or thoughtful moment. Almost like it's afraid the audience will get bored if someone isn't shrieking at the top of their lungs and some action heavy drama is going down.

The pacing in this film is jarring. Kenneth Branagh has a love for lavish sets, beautiful scenery and his films, if nothing else, are opulent spectacles, there are moments in this film where the cinematography is actually quite beautiful but I always feel that it's wasted by clumsy execution.

There are also scenes that come so painfully close to working, like early on in the movie Elizabeth and Justine drag Victor away from his work to go on a picnic and he only goes because he's hoping for a storm. He puts down a lightning rod and has everyone get down so they can observe the strike. I thought that could have been really neat and a good way to set up Victor's obsession but the execution was so clunky and the moment the lightning strikes and the four of them feel the static isn't allowed to sit and breathe. It jolts to the very next scene with no transition.

There are things I like about Robert De Nero's creature.

I like his design, even if it's not book accurate. I don't inherently like the idea of him being a resurrected cadaver of a specific criminal but I do, at times, almost like what they do with it, like having him wonder who all of his various parts came from. De Niro is a strong actor and I feel like there were the makings of a good performance here and it was stifled under bad writing and directing. I actually like most of the scenes where the creature speaks to Victor and the line "What of my soul? Do I have one? Or was that a part you left out? Who were these people of which I am comprised? Good people? Bad people?" is spoken with such poignant suffering that you really see how lost the creature is and it drives home the tragedy of the creature's condition. The creature is begging Victor to see him as human and Victor cannot or will not.

But these rare moments of something good peeking out are few and far between and the movie devolves again into it's predilection for overblown bombast. Even the final scene where the creature finds Victor dead on Robert Walton's ship isn't allowed to have the gravitas it deserves because Victor's funeral ends with the ice breaking in yet another tedious action sequence and the creature floats out to sea on a chunk of the broken ice setting himself and Victor's corpse on fire.

This was a moment in the movie that should have been handled with dignity and regret and I got this:

There's really not much else to say about this film. I went into it hoping for a good Frankenstein adaptation and I tried to find salvageable scraps but there just wasn't enough good to make the movie worthwhile for me.

Anyway, sorry this turned into a whole review but I was bitterly disappointed in this film and ended up having a lot to say.

[chocolateteapotsvis]

Ohhh for the WIP ask, what can you tell me about Crane Husband?

Okay, Crane Husband!  A couple people asked about this one, so I’ll give the background here, and will link the snippets once I post them!

Also, uh, trigger warning for folklore being weird?  Forced marriage, self harm, and death mentioned, but nothing graphic.

Okay, so the inspiration for Crane Husband is the weirdly common and global folklore subgenre about animal turning into beautiful lady, and marrying our rando protagonist, often after he steals the magical robe that allows her to change shape and coerces her into doing his bidding. Which, like, WTF?  Ancient people telling on themselves about how they can’t get a date centuries after the fact. 

The Crane Wife specifically is a Japanese story, where a dude helps a crane, who flies off, and then coincidentally a woman shows up wanting to be his wife.  He’s poor, but she says she can make them money. She locks herself in a room with a warning not to look, and emerges with the most beautiful cloth he’s ever seen, but also not looking so great herself.  The cloth sells for a lot, and they’re much better off now.  Depending on the version, the husband starts pushing her to weave more cloth so that they can be rich, or their beset by debtors but the husband begs for the wife to stop weaving because of how sick she gets after every time she does it.  This goes on for a while, her weaving more, and becoming more sickly and pale, until finally, he spies on her while she’s weaving, only to find the crane that he helped pulling out her feathers and weaving it into the cloth.  The crane either dies or has to leave because he broke their bargain, again, depending on the version.

It's also a song by the Decemberists.

There’s something kind of tragically romantic in a way that speaks to my angst-loving side, especially with fairytales being so open ended and there being versions where the dude is more/less aware of what he’s letting her/asking her to do.  In the previously mentioned “man coerces marriage from animal disguised as a human” I’m just rooting for her to fuck him up, but this one starts with an act of kindness and then ends up badly regardless.

Barry absolutely seemed like the kind of guy who would help an injured bird, and I could absolutely see echoes of Hal’s terrible self esteem in the crane’s actions.  I was going to mix in some of the other myths too, with the cloak that lets Hal switch between being a bird and being a human.  The story is about Hal and Barry navigating the general plot of the story, with the added bonus of crane Hal having grown up on bird fairytales warning him away from humans, and also I’m aiming for a happier ending because it felt very attainable in the fairy tale despite not going that way.

Thanks for asking!

WIP ask game

[mxtxfanatic]

Do you mind if I ask, why you dislike YuWu? Feel free if you want to ignore my ask.

Yu Wu was not as masterfully put together as 2ha, mostly because of the terrible pacing, balance, and weak characters.

Mo Xi, as a main character and as a love interest, is too insecure to stand beside a character like Gu Mang. Gu Mang is meant to go through so much shit that feels entirely unnecessary and is a direct result of Mo Xi’s weak convictions and indecisiveness. He can’t decide who he can trust, can’t decide how to act, can’t even decide what he, himself, wants, and it leads him to making such nonsensical decisions even up to the final act of the book. Speaking of, the final “moral dilemma” of the book had absolutely no stakes: it was literally a choice between 1) do the thing you always secretly wanted that’ll conveniently also save the world or 2) do the thing that will make you unhappy and destroy the world, but hey! you get to be immortal to experience despair for eternity as you rule a dead world! Wtf kind of dilemma is that??? The antagonists are actual scum villains, but one is redeemed because his mom was a little mean to him as a kid??? Shi Mei wasn’t even redeemed in 2ha, and he had an actual tragic backstory, so wtf??? So I couldn’t even find interest from the fucking villains.

Balance was shit. Why are we spending hundreds of pages in fluff land watching Mo Xi pretend to care about giving Gu Mang chores, meanwhile the final battle is approaching? Why does fluff land have as many pages as major story-pushing arcs, when just about nothing that happens in those domestic sideplots translate to material implications in the rest of the story outside of introducing other characters? And this is in every arc! Major suspense and energy build-up is squandered by the insertion of these domestic moments that do not matter in any way and don’t even serve to flesh out character. The same exact shit happens in every one of them: Mo Xi starts to be nice to Gu Mang, some outsider gets mad about it, Mo Xi realizes that he shouldn’t be nice to Gu Mang because people will get suspicious, Mo Xi is mean to Gu Mang which causes him to remember he’s “still mad,” Mo Xi’s callousness leads to Gu Mang being tortured in some way that reminds Mo Xi that he actually “still loves him.” Repeat ad infinitum.

And because balance was shit, pacing was also shit. Felt like most of the story was me reading a whole lot of nothing. I only perked up when action was happening, so either when another character took center stage away from Mo Xi, or when we were getting into Gu Mang’s past. Because Mo Xi is not a strong enough character to hold narrative interest. People wanna talk shit about mxtx LIs? Mo Xi is the actual main character of this novel, but his only redeeming quality is that the amnesiac LI with an overwritten personality turning him into a naive torture-magnet loves him. Said LI is more interesting than him—and almost every other character in the story—in every way.

[twoidiotwriters1]

The Curse of Oenone (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)

A/N: Im pleased to announce I finally know wtf I'm doing -Danny Words: 2,063 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter // Next Chapter Listen to: 'The Only Exception' -by Paramore

XVIII: Help Boy, I'm Craving Validation

Ara takes her time to change into her PJs, brush her teeth, and brush her hair. She's had a rough week and it's only been four days, so any free time she gets, she makes the best of it.

Hedge is taking the night shift, so she calmly knocks on Leo's door without worrying about the satyr barking at her to go back to bed. 

The door's open, so she lets herself in and finds Leo on his bed: He's reading a book, though Ara can't tell what it's about because the writing is normal and she's tragically dyslexic. Leo isn't, so he reads way more than she does, usually books only a Hephaestus kid would find interesting.

Ara examines his room, it has a worktable and a board just like the one she has back in her room in the Big House, he's pinned a picture of her next to his crayon drawing of the Argo II, and next to that there is a picture of his Cabin Nine siblings.

On the bed, there are scraps of stuff he's dismantled from Hephaestus knows where, and he has different kinds of tools hanging from the walls. Ara worries he might die trampled under all this mess the next time a monster attacks them. Still, she likes it here. It has personality, looks inhabited, and belongs to Leo.

When she looks at the boy Ara notices he's already looking back, waiting for her to say something. She wonders if she should be angry, she's argued with friends before, but this isn't like those times, they didn't even fight. She just feels weird about him after choosing him over everything that used to matter most to her old self.

"You okay?" He asks.

Ara believes he's trying to assess the damage. She's a machine and he needs to know how tough the work ahead will be. It's a weird analogy, but she knows it's accurate when it comes to Leo.

"No," she admits calmly.

Leo was probably talking things out with Hazel while no one was there to interrupt them, and he was gazing into her eyes, probably close enough to tell whether they were liquid gold or not... Ara shrugs off the thought grumpily. 

"To be honest, I'm not insecure enough to believe that you would cheat on me. Also, Frank is twice your size and could break your neck. You're not stupid."

"Wow," Leo replies. "You say the sweetest things."

"Do you want me to be angry?" She inquires. "Do you have feelings for Hazel?"

She's never seen Leo's soul-light during the times he's interacted with Hazel, but still... she needs to hear it from him, otherwise it's going to bother her for the rest of their quest, and she needs to focus.

"I don't want you to be angry, and I don't have feelings for Hazel," he closes his book. "That's not the reason why I'm drawn to her."

"You're drawn to her?" Ara gives a step back.

"Not like that—hey, just sit down?" Leo points at his desk chair. "It feels weird that you're just standing there, like you're ready to bounce at any moment..." 

Ara is thinking about leaving for some reason, but when he points it out, she feels guilty. Leo deserves to be heard, so she sits on his bed (trying not to stab her legs with metal scraps). Leo sits cross-legged and puts his book away. 

"I'll explain," the boy starts to pick up the nails, screws, and pieces of bronze from around her. "Hazel was born way before us..."

"I know that."

"Turns out she used to know this guy, Sammy," Leo makes a face. "Her boyfriend, I guess? But like, the kind of boyfriend you'd have as a kid—"

"She mistook you for her boyfriend from like fifty years ago?"

"Well," Leo pushes all of the stuff he's picking into his tool belt. "That guy was my Great-grandfather."

Ara takes a moment to process this. Sure, why not, she's heard crazier things. "And was he that similar to you?"

The boy grimaces. "Man, it was weird as hell. He was, you know... he had this old-school swag that'd be popular nowadays—and in the past, everyone seemed to love him. He had the girls giggling and..."

Ara never met Leo's great-grandfather, but she's not having this. "Well, you make me laugh a lot," she offers. "That's a big deal nowadays."

Leo looks at her with a pout. "You would've liked him faster than you liked me. I don't blame Hazel for hoping I'd be him."

"Who told you I didn't like you as soon as I saw you?"

Leo ignores her. "Anyway, I'm involved in this 'cause he—uh, sort of promised me to Hazel?"

Ara raises a brow. "How, exactly?"

He blushes. "He was sure I'd meet Hazel and said I'd help her, but I don't know how, and honestly, Hazel doesn't need my help at all."

Ara tilts her head in confusion. "So this is why Frank doesn't like you? Why Hazel looks at me like I stole her favorite toy?"

"I mean, Frank doesn't love that I look like Sammy, but he's got this curse too," Ara's heart skips a beat. "His lifeline's attached to a piece of firewood, and if that thing burns, he dies. Hazel has it for safekeeping. Frank gave it to her."

"So you're like a double threat," she muses. "Well... If I met someone who looked like your middle school crush and also happened to be a hunter of children of Olympus, no doubt I'd be cranky."

"I'd feel the same way if we ran into an Apollo dressed up as a firefighter."

"For the last time, I don't have a crush on Apollo," she scowls.

Leo leans back on his hands. "So that's the story."

"Wait," Ara leans forward. "That doesn't explain why you and Hazel were holding hands."

"Ah crap, I forgot that part," he sits upright again. "That's how she showed me the regressions."

Ara feels a little dizzy. "You can do that?"

"Yeah! She was a ghost for so long, that stuff just happens to her," Leo takes off his tool belt and folds it neatly, just to have something to do with his hands. Otherwise, he'll be tempted to reach out to Ara. "I even got to see Nico Di Angelo from up close. Weird-looking guy."

"Yeah, he needs more sunlight..." she says absentmindedly.

"So... we're good?" The boy's left leg is swinging back and forth on the edge of the mattress. "I'm honestly relieved. Hazel was throwing way too many mixed signals."

Ara makes a face. "I don't like how that sounds..."

He leans forward and tentatively reaches for her hand, giving her butterflies. "Don't look at me like that, cielo. I'm all yours."

Being who she is, Ara wants to hear more of that. Her body lights up a bit. "You are?"

Leo smirks. "Of course. I'm a limited edition and you got the only available item. The other one died almost two decades ago."

Ara presses her lips together to avoid laughing. "That's not funny."

"It's a little funny," Leo's hand wraps around her wrist and pulls her towards him, smiling playfully. "Sólo poquito..."

She ponders, moving closer obediently. "So you're not leaving me anytime soon?"

"Unfortunately no, you'll have to put up with me."

She smiles, then wrinkles her nose and shakes her head with a heavy sigh. "I don't understand us."

Leo hesitates. "What do you mean?"

"When I was talking to Janus, I said I chose Annabeth's quest but in reality, I think it has to do with you more. I would die for camp, but when they forced me to choose you or go to them... I stayed. I feel guilty."

Leo feels glad at first, then remembers all Ara went through trying to protect her home, and regret settles in his heart. "I would've understood, Arae... I'm sure they do too."

There it is again, the way he says her name, so different compared to how the campers used to hear it and grimace. Ara wants to think that means something, that staying with him is the right choice, but the curse hovers above them, and she's scared. She's so unhappy all the time.

She could tell him about the curse, but it would take away the one thing that still makes him happy. So instead, Ara leans forward. Leo follows her every move, his gaze brightens as he realizes what she's about to do. Their faces are only one inch apart when Leo tilts his head, his nose brushing against hers. 

When she was younger, love sounded fun, but the more she witnessed it the more it started to become something grave. Then Leo does things, like trying to save a nymph from her fate, repairing her dragon, or even saying he would've understood if she'd abandoned him, and she's addicted to what she feels no matter how much it scares her.

Ara knows Leo thinks he isn't attractive, but she admitted just now that she's chosen him over her old life, which makes her feel too vulnerable. It's a different weakness than the one she's used to feeling, it turns her bones into sand. Leo could touch her with one finger and she'd cave in an instant.

Her anxiety gets the best of her and she ends up kissing his cheek. Their bodies glow golden, and Ara wonders if the tug she feels at the base of her stomach will ever go away. "I gotta go."

The boy pulls her back with surprising confidence. Ara falls right on his lap. "Stay."

All of a sudden, she can't speak. "Why would... what?"

Leo cups her face, his gaze is soft and adoring. "Sleep here."

Ara has half a mind to make sure they're on the same page. "Just sleep."

"Just sleep," he pushes a strand of hair behind her ear. "I cuddle you, and you can warm your feet and won't hear a complain about it."

"Wake up early?"

"At the crack of dawn," he smiles, knowing what she's asking. "Still have repairs to do."

"Okay," she whispers, melting into his hand. "I'll stay."

Leo kisses her. Ara wonders why she doesn't kiss him more often, it would make her days much easier to handle. Her eyes are growing heavy even though her heart is thumping against her chest, and maybe Leo is tired too because all he does is get her under the covers before collapsing beside her. She can hear the tool belt falling off the bed as they lie down but none of them care much about it.

He nuzzles his face on her neck, takes a deep breath, and mumbles. "You washed your hair?"

"It smelled like fish," she replies half-asleep.

Leo kisses her shoulder and then presses his cheek against it. "I like how you smell. I love you."

The words slip out of him so easily but Ara goes crazy over it. "I love you" falls short, she needs a new way to say how she feels about her boyfriend.

"Leo?" Her hand runs through his curls.

"Hm?"

"Goodnight."

They arrive at the pillars of Hercules the next morning, where Hercules is actually waiting for them.

"I'll go," Jason offers. "He's a son of Zeus. I'm the son of Jupiter. Maybe he'll be friendly to me."

"Or maybe he'll hate you," Percy replies. "Half brothers don't always get along."

"Thank you, Mr. Optimism."

"It's worth a shot," Annabeth intervenes. "At least Jason and Hercules have something in common," she looks at Ara. "You too, maybe he'll understand the urgency of the situation if he sees the child of Olympus is with us."

"Or at the very least he'll take pity on me."

"And we need our best diplomat," Annabeth continues. "Somebody who's good with words."

Everyone looks at Piper. Ara's a charmspeaker, but she tends to blurt out exactly what she's thinking at the worst times.

"Fine. Just let me change my clothes," Piper's wearing her pajamas because most of them were violently woken up by a cruise ship.

"You'll be okay?" Leo nudges Ara's side.

"Yeah," the girl tucks in her shirt, she doesn't like how it looks over her shorts. "Should I be nice or should I be like, 'Sup, dude, I'm your replacement!'"

"Just don't let him bully you, whoever he is, you're ten times cooler." Leo tries to help by pushing her hair back and removing a speck of dust from her shirt. "There. You look, er... Olympian?"

"Thanks."

"Take your cloak with you," he adds. "Maybe he'll be impressed if he sees all the blessings you've got."

"Great idea, handsome," she pecks his lips before leaving.

Leo turns to Jason with a huge smile. "Heard that? I'm handsome!"

Jason squints. "Did she sleep in your room last night?"

"Don't tell Percy."

Next Chapter –>

Taglist.

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[catscraftsandcommentary]

@everything-but-the-not-natural hey, you want to play "how accurately can I predict Leverage?" (I've still only seen through "The Two Horse Job." So halfway through season 1.)

List of characters because I am SHIT at names:

- Nathan Ford, former insurance investigator and current hiest planner, son died after being denied insurance coverage for an experimental treatment

- Sophie Devereaux, professional chameleon (but only during crime/high stakes situations), clearly wants to get with Nathan

- Eliot Spencer, close combat expert (but dislikes guns), excellent cook, and (former?) horse girl

- Alec Hardison, tech expert and hacker

- Parker, thief, gymnast, and INSANE

- Jim Sterling, former rival to Nathan and current insurance investigator

So! Predictions:

- Eliot used to be military, probably Marines or other special forces. He presumably excelled at regular military fighting and got fast-tracked to black ops. (He may have gotten pulled into being a contractor after his official term of service ended.) I'm betting SOMETHING traumatic happened to cause his dislike of guns - if I had to guess, I'd say that he was ordered to kill (via sniper shot) someone who was using a human shield (most likely kids or someone Eliot cared about). Bonus points if the sniper target turned out to be not a villain, which Eliot could have figured out if he'd been closer to the action.

- He probably turned to crime to escape being chased by the military, to support himself, and possibly to find someone to protect him from all the enemies he made while serving whichever military/spooky government force he used to work for. He ABSOLUTELY feels guilty about all the harm he did in his Tragic Past (not everyone he fought/killed was evil, but I doubt he knew that then), but he won't let on about this until much later, after he's started to trust everyone. (Parker will just offer to blow his enemies up. Alec will want to hack them.)

- Eliot will 100% end up cooking for the team at some point. Probably frequently. There will probably be a funny scene where he throws out all of Parker's and Alec's shitty junk food and then aggressively cooks them something from scratch. With a shit-ton of vegetables minced into a sauce, because HOW ARE YOU TWO NOT DEAD ALREADY?!?!?

- Parker strikes me as a foster kid. Foster or group home after she fucking BURNED DOWN HER PARENTS' HOUSE, WTF PARKER. And of course, being in a place with OTHER troubled kids just taught her all sorts of tricks (on top of the ones she'd figured out by herself). At some point, she learned to use money as a way of keeping score of her success in life - possibly someone bullied her *specifically* because they had money and she didn't? In any case, her moral compass is "I do what I want, whatever's most fun in the moment, WHEE!" With her skills, this is TERRIFYING.

- She will ABSOLUTELY steal shit to try to make her teammates happy - things they mention they like or are nostalgic about. Eventually she'll learn to care about people and show affection WITHOUT first resorting to crime. (...but it will take a WHILE.)

- Alec is harder for me to pin down, partly because none of the episodes have focused on his backstory yet and partly because I can't identify with him as much. But SOMETHING drove him to not only *use* computers, but EXCEL at them. I'd guess he was a nerdy kid who liked computers, and then learned that coding/hacking was a way to escape an unpleasant real life. The more he learned about coding and hacking, the more he realized that he could change his real life by doing that...and thus his start in crime.

- He also learned to play a role pretty well (when he was an office worker for a job, and the flashback where he pretended to be a black celebrity). He's probably got a history of people expecting certain things from him (due to racial or economic status) and learning to either play to those expectations (and thus escape notice) or loudly call out how inaccurate those are to embarrass people into backing down (as he did when someone noticed he'd changed costumes in an elevator). This chameleon ability will continue to be useful.

- At some point, he'll probably pick up some more physical skills from Eliot and Parker, since right now he either works behind the scenes or as a distraction.

- Sophie can do flawless performances of any character, but ONLY IN HIGH PRESSURE SITUATIONS. She learned that *somewhere*, and I'm betting that when we find out where/when, it won't be pretty. I'd bet she was neglected or abused somehow, and playing different roles was the only way she could get what she needed to survive. (And if she was caught being a fake, she was punished somehow, so she learned that she had to be FLAWLESS.) But because she's used to using this skill in high stakes situations, she can't call it up the same way when the stakes are low - like an audition or a theatrical performance.

- We'll get to see more of her true (probably adorably awkward) personality - who she is when she isn't playing some flawlessly elegant beauty. When she's comfortable enough to relax like that around the team, THAT'S when Nathan will start to pick up that "oh shit, she likes me, this could be something REAL."

- Nathan used to be an insurance investigator for high value claims, but unlike his rival Jim Sterling, Nathan usually tried to FIX the situation instead of just screwing people over to save the company money. (For example, recovering stolen items instead of just saying "this was a conspiracy by the owner.") He thinks insurance companies should HELP people, and felt personally betrayed when his company refused to cover his son's medical care (I think someone mentioned that it involved an experimental treatment). He felt that the company should have covered his son's care - possibly that whatever loophole they used to deny care didn't apply, or just that "I've been such a good worker for so long, you should make an exception for me."

- Obviously that didn't happen, and the company was probably blunt to the point of nasty about it, which prompted him to quit. You've mentioned he has an ex-wife, so that may have been the last straw for her re their relationship. (First their son's illness, then the denied care/coverage, then using all their money to pay for their son's care, followed by their son's death.) When Nathan quit his - presumably well-paid - insurance job in disgust/grief, she saw it as throwing away their only chance to get out of the debt they'd taken on. Cue a huge fight, followed by a nasty and bitter divorce. So he lost EVERYTHING all at once - his faith in his job, his son, his marriage, his financial security...no wonder he turned to alcohol to cope.

- The functional alcoholism WILL be a recurring theme. It's probably his biggest character flaw at the moment, which makes it an easy way for the writers to trip him up or have the team criticize him. When he starts to cut back on the alcohol, that will be a major turning point. (But he'll almost certainly relapse at a plot-critical point.)

- Jim Sterling implied that Nathan had a more prestigious position than he did at the Sleezy Insurance Company (even if they were doing similar jobs). I'm guessing there was some sort of internal competition, probably tied to how much money they saved Sleezy Co or to how many claims they could justify denying, and that Nathan always beat Jim. (Bonus points if the winner of the company's competition got some sort of prize - a large annual bonus, a raise, a better office, etc. Which obviously Jim wanted and Nathan took for granted.) Jim is petty and bitter as hell about this, so he's going to happily screw Nathan and team over WHENEVER POSSIBLE.

[transboysokka]

What Am I Doing With My Life:

Chris watches Twilight New Moon for the first time

Okay “”new moon”” this must be the werewolf one then

These violent delights have violent ends omg don’t ruin a good quote Bella

Girl where are you is this the handmaids tale

Anyway she’s looking good

Suddenly having a delayed reaction to the end of the last movie when Jacob is like “my dad paid me to tell you to break up with Edward” like lmao what was that

Daddy Charlie

Nice to see an evolution to their relationship though

Also thank GOD the terrible blue color grading seems better

Digital cameras lmao remember when

Do her friends just like avoid Edward lol

Anyway the real reason Edward won’t turn her yet is he wanted her to be legal first

Oh no “Jacob” and the pushing her hair behind the ear

Yikessss

Hey aren’t dreamcatchers Ojibwe in origin

Alice and Bella are crushing on each other

Wait what can jasper do does he have any discuss ability or

Not to ONLY be nitpicking but usually Romeo and Juliet is part of the grade 9 curriculum in most us states, not grade 12

Oh my goddddd is that good omens guy, I’d know that nose anywhere

Bella’s gonna hurt edward so bad isn’t she lol

Her wanting to be a vampire is already getting so annoying though

why is she having a midlife crisis about being 18 like come on

Damnnnn they can’t even control themselves if she gets a paper cut like RUN girl

Wait is Edward like… a Christian? Lol tragic and awkward

He’s like “u wouldn’t be sexy to me if u were a vampire”

Nice (not) to see the terrible music streak continues into this film too

That shitty truck is my favorite character in this

Why does Edward keep dressing Like That

Lmaoooooo “I love you forever” “we’re skipping town, see u”

Definitely just dissociated a minute and came back like “WHY am I watching this??”

She fell asleep in the woods and now everyone’s looking for her lmao

Okay one decent song so far across two movies

Why is she so in love with Alice

Why is she so pathetic

Charlie is just Done tm and like same

“It’s just not normal, this behavior” TELL IT CHARLIE

Jessica is so real

BELLA WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING

Keep talking to Alice soooooo gay

So was Jacob NOT a werewolf at the start of the first movie? Is that what these suddenly buff comments are about?

I’ve said it before but lautners voice is SO annoying and it’s just bc it’s my hometown accent lol

Another bad song

“What’s up with you and age?” Seriously

God this weird ass edgy act

Oof three way movie date with child Jacob and awkward ass school guy

Wow this guy must be puking for a long time

Wow Jake chill Jesus

Wtf did he like JUST become a werewolf

Why is it raining for drama and sexiness

What was with all the Romeo and Juliet in the beginning… there was like apparently no thematic reason for there to be that big of a push for it

Anyway yeah Jacob doesn’t believe in shirts anymore clearly

Is this whole franchise just a gay metaphor

What is he trying to get her to remember??

Lol “it’s a huge secret” *guy gets angry and wolfs out in front of bella*

But WHY do they all need to go around shirtless lmaoooo

And why did Jacob have to cut his hair about it

Such a gay metaphor oh my god

One more good song

Oooh a good song fading into a bad song

LISTEN I know they gotta pay rpats but these weird apparitions are so overdone

Yeah this wolf thing also sounds dangerous…. Like you change if you get angry??? RED FLAG!!! REDFLAG REDFLAGREDFLAGREDFLAG

Are any of the other movies gayer than this bc if so I gotta watch them when I was maybe planning not to

Bella’s super dumb

Oh her girlfriends back

Or is this a trick

Oh lolol

Why would she just give up Jacobs secret like that lmaooo

Fuck I gotta keep watching these movies just to see what keeps going on with Bella and Alice

Wtf why would Edward call them and wtf is going on why is he so dramaticcccc

The Romeo and Juliet tie ins are coming back I’ll give credit where it’s due. Wasn’t expecting anything to actually come of it lol

They won’t even let him die lmfao he went all the way to Italy for that??

So suddenly Alice can see everything the fuck??

But can she see why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch

EDWARD WHY are you so goddamn dramatic

Definitely would not have expected this aesthetic from a twilight movie. It’s very action thriller

BRUH they are so confused about each other

I liked this move so much better than the first one so far and I now realize that it’s because Bella and Edward were apart for most of it lolllll

Edward put your damn shirt back on

Wow such Vampiric Council vibe

Oh yeah right why CANT Edward read Bella’s thoughts did we ever talk about that

Wow damn van helsing blood????

Damn why does EVERYONE have to be so dramatic

Oh this old song and dance again Bella just BE a human damn

What if Edward and Jacob and Bella all just fell in love together huh what then, problem solved

idk man I’d be so bored if I had to live forever with the same partner lol

wow I can’t believe I’m a nearly 30 year old man who wants to know what happens next

Like is this shit GOOD no but now I Gotta Know

[gamingstar26]

Yes, you are exactly right about totk!! A lot of my own complaints come from the story (or lack thereof). To be honest, it's a rare LOZ game that has a particularly complex or nuanced story, but in my opinion, the best ones more than make up for it with their characters.

My favorite game that I've played is Skyward Sword, and I desparately want to play Wind Waker, because the both of them have such fun and compelling characters that I don't really mind the simplicity of the narratives (and Wind Waker even hints at nuance the other games won't dive into!)

Tears of the Kingdom tries to use plot driven storytelling, but... expects us to be far more invested than most of us ever really are. There's hints of character driven story in there, but it all just falls flat in the end and feels really superficial, ESPECIALLY when you look at how they treat the women in this game. Zelda is JUST the sacrificial maiden (again) whose only autonomy comes from choosing to give up her autonomy. Mineru is JUST the smart character who magically technobabbles the solutions. Purah is JUST the scientist that tells you where to go. Most indicative of Nintendo's attitude in this, to me, is with Riju. The way they treat her, it's clear they want her to fill the role of the sexy one, but they know that won't go well if they go all out because she was canonically a young child in the last game. Still really gross, Nintendo you're not subtle.

All this to say that TOTK thinks it's more clever than if is, and fails to pull its own weight in any meaninful way.

All of this!!

I’ll add a bit more that I forgot to add:

Yea usually zelda games have simple plots overall (with some expectations of course) but they do make up for it with memorable characters, etc, etc…

My favorite zelda game is Ocarina of Time cause of the lore (also gameplay of course) and the how interesting it is to me and the overall themes it goes into being tragic and relatable, even tho the surface story is simple overall.(the hero of time games being my favs cause of the story driven nature yet also have fun gameplay) Also other games like skyward sword having a good engaging story with good characters (Groose is the best), wind waker being a simple coming of age story, but also having the king and ganondorf both cling on to the past, etc.

Like you said totk thinks it’s clever and fails to deliver on making us invested in a meaningful and exciting narrative, in a way it’s using tropes from previous zelda games like oot, botw, SS and link to the past without even knowing why they worked in the first place. While failing to reuse tho tropes in a more unique way like previous games have done. It’s true there are hints of character driven story it’s just ignored or mentioned in a half assed way.

Also like I said in the post the lack of consequences with the main story at the end, like Link’s arm just being restored even tho furry rauru had said it was beyond saving, and zelda being recalled back to normal, so her “sacrifice” was not worth it at all (master sword is also worse somehow like wtf zelda)

I’ve also noticed the way totk treats the main women it’s very not good, like you said with zelda she’s just sacrificial maiden turned into a dragon, mineru being exposition dump lady cause that’s all she does tbh, also has the worst Sage ability in the whole game, etc.

zelda being the worst one. (Tbh botw/totk zelda is mixed overall she’s overrated) cause she’s dumb as hell didn’t even recognize that Ganondorf and Calamity Ganon could be related, she does nothing until furry rauru and sonia are dead. Also being a terrible princess, she didn’t even do any meaningful things to hyrule’s rebuilding efforts other than build a school and some small memorials and fuck around doing whatever the hell she was doing pre totk. Also she stole links house damn it.

there’s also the way the gerudo are treated in the zelda series as a whole, but that’s a whole other topic others have done better at that. Like with totk and botw (mostly totk) being helpless yet also warriors needing help from hylians to even survive in their own home?! Like how ingame they explain that zelda of all people was the one to help them get to know the desert and how to survive better wtf? And the secret heroine side quest end, how it’s just some random hylian guy to be the hidden 8th. (There goes the 7 sages and the 8th being the hero of time theory)

Also the way the botw events are treated. they just pretend that none of the ancient tech never existed at all and refuse to mention anything about botw, only in small passes. And the side quest with the Hateno school mentioning the original calamity.

The depths having potential to be better but we’re just empty and massive instead, I like the bargainer statues those are cool as an concept. And the sky islands being boring and copy paste the same few islands throughout.

Holy shit this game makes me write entire essays of complaints. I’m sorry if I repeat myself I’m terrible at explaining stuff at times.

Now I’m going to play the zelda games I’ve never finished to cleanse myself of totk.

[moorishflower]

Wanted to let you know that I LOVE the conversation with Desire in Here there be dragons (which, btw, the title, the meditations on how to make the map infinite again in the face of like, current small/limited-world angst, woven together SO well). First off, excellent emotional beat, of course it would be Desire themself who could make Hob most clearly go "forget what everyone thinks is reasonable or possible for me, I *want* to understand wtf is happening right now". But honestly just kinda delighted at the other viewpoint into the Endless family drama about, apparently, this whole entire universe's existence.

Like, the whole multiverse premise (if I read it right), of a world in which Dream comes out the other side of being able to pursue what he wants AND change, AND do what he needs to do without self-destruction, the idea that he chose to do this so that he could have a universe within him where those two versions of him were one and the same, and maybe even possibly help bridge gaps between those versions of him in other realities? Fantastic.

But like, having Desire there for it for a bit also brings out some of the inherent comedy in the situation too because like. It is Just Like Dream to be on a universe reset and go "what would it take to make a universe where I circumvent the most tragic aspects of [canon events]" and to (somehow) go "ah yes, clearly the only solution for this problem is that we all be sea creatures". I just love love the irritation in Desire here as they all regain broader understanding/consciousness of their function and take a new form and then look around at this universe with new eyes and now have the context to go "Yo, Dream, what - and I cannot stress this enough -- the FUCK?"

Idk, it was just such a fantastic little extra moment of levity I was reading into the wonderfully somber vibe of some of these moments that is just so fitting for all the characters involved.

Ahhh hello hello! I am SO so glad you liked the fic, I've got a lot of feelings about the "change or die" aspect of Dream, and how that's his tragic flaw is that he either CAN'T change or can only change very slowly! He's set himself in a fixed narrative and, because stories are all he is, he doesn't have the authorial power to change it!

But you know who WOULD? Daniel.

I've made a big point to say that Daniel DOES NOT appear in Here there be dragons, because he doesn't! But there's another reality out there where everything proceeded according to canon, that Dream prepared his elaborate suicide attempt, that Daniel Hall the child became the vessel for Dream of the Endless and meanwhile Morpheus was allowed at last the chance to rest. Leaving behind people who loved him.

And what if Daniel, who was once human, who has a spark of human imagination and free will in him, decided to try and change that? There are countless aspects of Dream of the Endless, of which Daniel is only one, so what's the creation of one more? All that's needed is for someone to dream it hard enough. Say, someone like Hob, grieving his friend? Someone like Death, grieving her brother? Dreams only need a little push to become new stories. Stories very easily become reality.

Daniel doesn't appear in Here there be dragons because Daniel, in another time and another reality, is tapping his fingers together and wondering why the FUCK everything turned out sea monsters, but this is the most successful iteration of Morpheus-merged-with-Dream to date, and so he's just. Not going to poke at it too hard.

(The difference is the satiation of hunger and longing. Being allowed to be monstrous in your wanting. Being encouraged to be too much!)

(In another reality, Desire is HATING this entire thing because the thing that's allowed their least favorite sibling to actually grow and flourish as a creature? Is fulfilling his DESIRES? Is indulging his WANTS and his HUNGERS? What the FUCK, Daniel? Daniel shrugs. I don't know why you're so upset, he says. Look how much happier this other version of Dream is!

I don't care if he's happy, Desire says, I want LEGS again.)

[holyfacehead]

hiiii i like sending u asks so whos ur top three yj characters and why??

this might be the hardest question im gonna answer in my entire life.. *proceeds to respond with the longest word vomit ever known to mankind*

1.) i am a certified lottie matthews gurlie : )) she's just been such an interesting character throughout the series like i never really know what's going on with her (im pretty sure pookie doesn't either even if she insists she does lol.. istg every lottie scene is just me being absolutely flabbergasted and in a constant state of “WTF?”) and i know they all experienced varying degrees of trauma (i dont wanna turn this into a competition of who's had it the hardest pre and post crash) but i think lottie's character has one of the most tragic storyline, esp her life post-crash

2.) RESIDENT COLD GIRL JACKIE TAYLOR! this gurl was serving nothing but iconic vibes and lesbian comphet behavior and i am here for it. i was honestly surprised to learn that a lot of ppl dont like jackie cause she was a bit of a spoiled brat and while i do agree (cz she is LMFAO pooks literally died of pettiness) i feel like it's not necessary to paint her as either black or white cause she's also got a really complex character. like sure she has her mean girl moments (mostly because of the environment she was raised in and i think she wasn't really aware of that trait until shauna brought it up during their fight) but she's rarely ever malicious and i think she would've outgrown that trait given the chance. but also it could just be because im a sucker for mean-girl-highschool-queen-bee characters making me a huge jackie taylor apologist !

3.) misty quigley. no words of appreciation for her—maybe her (tho unplaced and is often expressed in the wrong ways)—loyalty and dependability, still tho she was literally just straight up batshit insane.. she killed 2 people (??), is responsible for them being trapped in the wilderness, and honestly speaking needs to be admitted to the ward cause that girl is psychotic but adult misty was so funny, she immediately became a fav.

ALSO must insert the yj background characters, i dont know their names i only know akilah and mari, but i love those girls so much season 2 was absolutely unhinged cause the mains are going through a horror show and these bitches r in the background like it's a mf camping trip playing cards and are like “.. oof bestie 👀 would you look at that? it's snowing pretty hard bet it's freezing cold out there 👀 ngl itd be nice to have a lottie mat-stew right now 🤤 but i do hope she gets home safely 😥... just.. you know hahah... if she ever happens to.. yk 🥰”

[h0w-ar3-y0u]

I LOVE the idea of a continuous cycle, especially in Greek Mythology. Specifically within the range of the end of one era leading to another. Almost everyone knows the story. Cronos is being fearful, eating his kids, and creating a cycling self-fulfilling prophecy. But what if like the Greek gods we know and love, the big 12, Nike, Eris, Hestia, Eros, and many others, suddenly started having new gods, not specifically to replace them, but maybe they need a vacation or just wanna retire.

With all the established relationships or without wouldn't it be cool to see all the possibilities? tbh, I've had this idea rattling around in my head for a while and I'm kinda attached to it, so I'm just gonna throw out some of my favorite ideas to the unforgiving vacuum of the void.

(Understand that this is with the most basic research and working under the assumption that any godly children that the gods mention already have are not a part of the era three group)

Athena and Artemis refuse to have children with men, so they end up doing basically what Zeus did with Athena and just attaching their little tadpole to Athena and just sorta waiting for what pops out.

Persephone wants kids so bad and gets baby fever like crazy, as does Hades, but they both worry so much about being bad parents that they decide to wait, becoming the designated godparents/babysitters of the pantheon. (Bonus, they finally decide to have kids because one or more of the kids (Probably Ares and Aprodite's kid tbh) start calling them mom and dad.)

Eros is The Best Big Brother (tm)

Hestia and Nyx. just bc magic and night are so good together.

Apollo being the one of the last ones to have kids cause he wants to make sure he's gonna do an ok job and also he wants the kids to be born out of love and it not to turn out horribly like so many other times. to prevent disaster he decides to go to Eris, Goddess of Discord and Strife, and plead to her to please leave him and his future family alone pretty plz. shes like ugh leave me alone you don't tell my tragic self what to do. Apollo's a simp and a himbo so he's like ok but not cause I think you're hot. they fall in love and shit and they end up with twins and Eris is super worried that they'll get stuck with a rlly shitty like cause of her and Apollo's like 'its fine baby itll all work out' and it probably does. (Bonus part 2: for angst maybe Eris starts fading away bcuz there's not real need for true discord in the modern world and all the aspect of her can be taken up by her children, confirming her fears and making apollo feel like shit to cause thats his wife and wtf man)

Hera wants to refuse to have kids with zeus but family and marriage and shit so that kid is kinda fucked from the get go.

Hermes never had kids himself but he took in anyone looking to get away from a bad situation.

Hephaestus wanted kids but never got to have them :(

Poseidon didn't really care if he had any more kids but amphirite got baby fever.

there's probably more i could say but i dont really care to.

Edit: if you have any ideas for this or just personal headcannons, please feel free to share!

[lappel-du-vide83]

SCREAMING BECAUSE I FINISHED LOKI FINALLY AND OMG???? MY MARVEL PHASE IS BACK (it never left) I DONT KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON BUT I LOVE IT

Also uh I have no criticism I think so be warned (this is not just a loki bias I just genuinely enjoy most media)

FIRST OF ALL CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW COOL GORGEOUS CREEPY AND KINDA UNSETTLING THE IMAGERY WAS?? LIKE THE TREE VINES AND THE GLOW AND THE RAINBOW AND EVERYTHING TURNING TO ROPES WAS KINDA???? AMAZING????

And ep4 holy shit my dudes I was actually starting to like Dox I loved her voice (accent?) and she just cared about the tva AND MFIng RAVONNA BOXED HER like because of morbid curiosity I want to see but god no I do not and that ep was kinda violent and then boom everything exploded

THE EP5?? SET UP FOR EP6?? I LOVE THEM

Personally I am a sucker for timeloops, my favourite trope even AND SEEING IT HERE IS JUST MSJSKWOPW AND THE SCENES ARE SO COOL DID YOU SEE HIM SNAP HIS WRIST AND SYLVIE FROZE OMG THAT WAS AWESOME

He is so op rn BUT HE IS SO DEVASTATING THAT IS THE SHITTIEST DILLEMA EVER LET HIM WIN WHY CAN'T EVERYONE JUST BE HAPPY

AND LIKE?? NOW WHAT?? DOES MY DUDE JUST SIT IN THE TREE?? DONT DO HIM LIKE THAT HE JUST WANTS BE WITH HIS FRIENDS I AM SOBBING

And also is that tree thing a reference to Yggdrasil or smt I'm not quite good with mythology but it kinda does

AND I FOR SURE WASN'T EXPECTING THAT ENDING

Ok we never really addressed the relationship between sylvie and loki but with like all of my problems running away is always an option and they're a pair that are amazing separate but not good together so I'm kinda glad they're just pals here

ALSO I NEED A HAPPY ENDING FOR HIM PLEASEEEE WTF WHY IS HIS LIFE DEVASTATING I CANNOT

Also the time looping (God I love this trope so much) brings its own set of problems and they said it themselves CENTURIES LATER WTF GIVE HIM A BREAK

But on bright side he is so bamf like scientific knowledge, time all the that good stuff

UEUE BUT WHY WOULD YOU MAKE HIM CHOOSE BETWEEN KILLING EVERYONE AND SYLVIE STOP IT STOP MAKING HIM MAKE HARD DECISIONS I'M GOING TO FIND THE PERSON WHO MADE BURDENS AND probably offer therapy

GAH EVEN IN THE END HE COULDN'T BE WITH HIS FRIENDS (FRIENDS!!!) AND I AM CERTAIN THERE'S SOME FORM OF IRONIC TRAGEDY THERE THAT I DONT GET

N e ways feel free to yell at me what you think I just needed to get the joy and devastation out of my system (pls I just want my little pocketable people happy)

Watch me realise I missed/misunderstood a huge thing after scrolling thru a bit 💀

Okay I was right I MISSED THE END LET THE TIME PASS THING OMFG??? I LOVE THEM I LOVE ALL OF THEM WHY ARE THEY SO TRAGIC AND SOMEONE MENTIONED OB(I would totally buy his books) AND MOBIUS AND GAH WHY CAN'T THEY HAVE HAPPY ENDINGS MFING KEY LIME PIE CAN'T DO THIS NO MORE

[glapplebloom]

Not as much as I could, but this is a slow burn...

Master Research Link

What I’ve learned...

Ugh... #31 really makes me not want to live in Townsville. So easy to blame the girls despite the obviousness that they never did those things. It is nice to see Mojo go Trick or Treating with the girls though. #32: Welp, Catwoman would steal the pants off of everyone if she was in Townsville. Meanwhile this Cat Burglar got a crush on Professor. Honestly, she’s probably the most non-Powerpuff Female to have a good development other than Keene.

So Mojo made a mini him in #33. But the real highlight was the Fuzzy/Mojo feud. There was comic exclusive villains like Spelling Bee (whose entire gimmick is she spells what she wants done) and Frog Master (whose reason for being a villain is he’s crazy) HIM basically had all of Townsville under his control in 36. And Sedusa finally does something in that same issue with Mind Controlling Lipstick. Though the Bikini Sisters in the Reboot do this better. For starters, it doesn’t wash off.

Remember Ace being a member of the Gorillaz for a hot minute? Turns out in #37, he was part of a boy band with the rest of the Gangreen Gang. 4evRGreen. And in the second story, HIM creates a music band so popular, even the girls love their music. A big weakness of the original series is that for a good number of times, they seem to act like one person. Like this issue, they ALL like the Slayhems. Even Blossom and Bubbles who you would think are not into Horror Metal. 

Issue 38 has them idolizing a TV Superhero. It is cute to see Buttercup being too nervous to talk to them. I know that feeling. But when a real monster shows up, they are Marks and think Tess could handle it. Tess, meanwhile, does nothing to suggest she believes she’s real. She’s a celebrity playing a character and playing the role while signing autographs. She does not deserve this. 

So Issue 41 has Buttercup obsessed with Garlic. Like super obsessed. It also has a Giant Monster capable of absorbing people. When it does the Powerpuff girls, it has all their powers, but also their quirks. Issue 44 promises the Talking Dog fighting the Talking Cat from that one episode. It better live up to that promise. Dog Chunks... Now with more dogs... DUDE! WTF!!! And the fight lasts for at most 2 pages. 

Best Feat I found... 

From Issue 34: The Monkey’s Paw (or Tragic Marker). A weapon so powerful it can rearrange the atomic structure of an object to something else all by spelling it. That is frikkin impressive!

Next Time...

If all goes well, all the DC Comics would be done.