#also the characters are likable and not completely one dimensional

[sunuism]

watching the most toe curling feet kick-inducing bl drama rn

[hustlerose]

my Big Homestuck Opinion is that act 6 shoulda been about as long as acts 1-3, at the most. making it fully half the comic is unjustifiable, especially when much of it gets retconned anyway

if almost all of act 6 was removed and cut down, hs might actually be enjoyable (and feasible) to read all the way thru, but instead it adds another entire novel-length portion of plot, during which the comic basically spins its wheels while any narrative cohesion that existed before just completely falls apart

also the alpha kids are pretty shallow and one-dimensional as characters. they're about as deep and likable as the dancestors. they're not interesting enough to hold up for the full length of act 6

[constructedparadox]

🗣"FUCK YOU, SHORSEY!!" Those brilliant bastards at Letterkenny took an Atari-style blip of one dimensional comedic relief and respawned him into a fully rendered high definition protagonist complete with a backstory and a character arc. I would not have believed it if I had not seen it (and I would not have seen it if Hulu didn't remember how much I like Letterkenny and suggest the show bc I had completely forgotten about it).

In six episodes they manage to show that Shorsey is not just a talented and hyper competitive hockey playing asshole with unmatched shit talking skills and a penchant for pulling off violent dirty plays. It's revealed that he has a lot that he truly cares about: winning, loyalty, family, and his team. They take him past being enjoyable for being funny and make him likable for being himself. But he's still as ruthlessly insulting as ever so don't think he's gone soft. The show also introduced a slew of all new characters in a brand new town and they're just as uniquely endearing as anyone Shorsey left behind in Letterkenny. Since it's from Jared Keeso and company there were lots of well earned laughs to go with a rather interesting plot. If you're already a fan of Letterkenny I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised by what's been built out of Shorsey, so check it out

[ripaxed]

shed tell me all of your opinions on the tdroti ladies right now. this includes svetlana if you skip her i will scream. /lh

Oooh the gen 2 gals

Staci: She’s a fairly funny character in canon! I get a good chuckle from how other characters react to her (especially Dawn. I think it’s so funny whenever they get mad or annoyed). Also I think it’s cute that she styles hair :]. Though more of my affection for Staci comes from fanon. I greatly enjoy the idea that Staci is insecure socially and uses her lies to try to find validation from her peers. She’s sadly my least favorite of roti’s cast but that’s much more about of how much I like gen 2 than anything else.

Dakota: Dakota is genuinely one of my absolute favorite characters in all of total drama. I love her character concept because of just how popular Total Drama is in-universe of course a teenager would look towards it for fame. The additional idea of her returning as an intern is genuinely creative and well executed. I think genuinely all of her jokes land and they capture her personality perfectly to make her flawed and in need of growing but still completely likable throughout. Her and Sam’s romance is well developed and genuinely sweet, and love that it actively makes both characters better in my opinion. I have some mixed feeling about Dakotazoid, but I do like how plays into her character arc and I think her being a wrestler and living her dream of being famous through a new angle is delightful.

Dawn: TD D&D SWEEP Dawn is such a unique and funny character. I think she could interact well with basically any other character in the series. I absolutely adore how the writers used her as a tool for the audience to learn more about other characters. They’re a fun little oddity to think about. Easily one of the most memorable early (or earlish) boot characters in the show. My thoughts on Dawn that aren’t just rambles are rather concise but do not think that means I adore this character any less.

Anne Maria: Anne Maria is a very funny character that I think is under appreciated in a wide sense! She has such a fun little personality and I like this line she balances between being either very sweet or brash. It makes her a rather well rounded character in my eyes! She has so many memorizable lines More like Queen I’m-A-Dorka! and just moments in general. This is rather small I do like how Anne Maria sticks up for Cameron and Brick, it’s very sweet to me. Speaking of Anne and Brick I also like how she took his early position as being Jo’s opposition! They have a fun back and forth. Anne Maria is a very fun character that I wish had a bit more focus in the season proper. Also her and Vito are cute :>

Svetlana: Svetlana is an entertaining character! I have a notable enjoyment of athletic td characters that can dominate challenges. I wouldn’t say necessarily say she’s my favorite of the system but she does have my favorite moments of them I think. Svetlana helps you now. Yes, I am knowning this! Svet steals the show whenever she shows up and I like that its a genuine character trait. She’s a showboat! She knows she’s talented and is going to make sure others know!

Jo: What a standout character Jo is! Easily one of my favorites in the season proper. She’s such a bulldozer she easily directs the whole season into how it turns out. I realize I’ve. said this multiple times but Jo is genuinely such a hilarious character, I love her nicknames and I think she has an amazing va! Jo has a plethora of amazing rivalries between Cameron, Brick, and Lightning and I think that’s apart of why she’s so vital to ROTI’s dna! And I do appreciate an episode dedicated to showing off her insecurities! It makes her so much more two dimensional and an interesting character to think about! Jo’s amazing.

Zoey: What an odd character Zoey ended up being. A character that was presented with often conflicting personality traits that were quite possibly made unconsciously by the writers. Still however, I find those conflicting personality traits to be exceptionally interesting and makes Zoey a more complex character to a degree. I do find it disappointing her label as the Indie Chick wasn’t always used to its full potential, there’s elements of it in Zoey’s scenes of course, but she doesn’t wear her stereotype on her sleeve like her castmates do. Over all, the best way I can say how i feel about Zoey is that she’s an enjoyable character when not in the presence of her love interest. Which is unfortunate of course. However, I’d rather not leave this on a poor note so I’ll say this, I do really like Commando Zoey. I like that Zoey realized her own vulnerability in the game and did something about it. Her frustration with Scott and even with herself possibly manifesting in a hardcore challenge beast. She gets so in her head about surviving the competition however, she loses herself and puts Cameron into harm’s way. I like that she snaps out of it and effectively abandons her place in the game for her friend. I like Zoey when I think about her, but I don’t think she was used to her full potential in the season proper

[strawberry-sticky-autism]

Ideas for Precure Fanseries/Precure series in general

- Boy Cure who's a Cure for more than 1 or 2 episodes. - Physically disabled Cure (wheelchair-bound, prosthetics, cane-user). - Mute Cure! - Multiple boy Cures. - Another black Cure (either skin tone or theme colour). - Another white Cure (theme colour-wise, we've got plenty skin-tone-wise) - Nonbinary Cure? - Genderfluid Cure. - Another robot Cure (Ruru was good but we need MORE). - Puppet/doll theme. - Circus theme? - CLOWNS? - More redeemed villains, always. - Mentor figures that actually know what they're doing. - Less morally ambiguous royalty. - Space out the arcs. - Macguffins that have a purpose. - Worldbuilding~! - Do we need to make merchandise? - Even focus on each Cure. - Maybe we don't always need Macguffins. - Even focus on all characters, actually. - Don't make your villains feel one-dimensionally evil. - Complete. Your. ARCS. - You can make your villains irredeemable, but that doesn't mean you have to. - Cover heavy topics, but don't make it too dark or melodramatic. - Make up your mind on a tone. - Keep your main leads likable, but don't be afraid to give them flaws. - Blind/deaf Cure? - Alien Cure (Lala was pretty good so let's have MORE). - Give mascots focus too! But don't make them overshadow the Cures. - No more Plot Device/Deus Ex Machina Babies. We've got more than enough of those, just let the babies be babies. - Don't ship the Cures with the mascots. Just don't. - Don't ship the Cures with the villains, also. - Actually, don't ship the Cures with anyone below or above their age range. Seriously. - Don't shove heterosexuality where it doesn't belong. - Technology theme. - DON'T SHOW A CURE GIVING BIRTH ON-SCREEN I SWEAR TO KOTOHA- - Mama Cure! - More Trans Cures! - Art theme? - Dark Cures/Psycho Rangers? - Asexual Cures. - Jester? - More autistic Cures! - More autistic characters in general! - Autistic villains? Maybe? - Foreign Cures, better than the last time they were used.

Feel free to add on!

[travllingbunny]

They really cut Lady Stoneheart out of GOT. What if they do the same with Alys River? 😣

"They" were Benioff and Weiss. Who, fortunately, have nothing to do with House of the Dragon.

Ryan Condal is a huge fan of the books and makes everyone on the staff read both ASOAIF and F&B if they haven't (the opposite of what D&D were doing) and so far we have seen evidence that HotD isn't cutting any characters of note. (Even Ryam Redwyne was there.(

Aside from that, Alys was never in danger of being cut. She is 1) Aemond's love interest, 2) the main person he interacts throughout his Riverland arc and the only one he interacts throughout it (the only other notable character he would have interactions with is Criston Cole, and it can't all be about their dynamic - and then they part, too), 3) their relationship is one of the most interesting things about Aemond in the books and the only thing that can make him likable once he is in the Riverlands, and without it he gets no character development, 4) very interesting in her own right and a character who brings new perspectives as a lowborn bastard wet nurse, Old Gods worshipper, someone connected to Old Gods/weirdwood/Harrenhla/Isle of Faces magic, and 5) has her own storyline after his death, as a widow/Witch Queen ruling Harrenhal and defying the new regime during the regency.

The only way you could cut her would be if Aemond was made to be a side character once he goes to the Riverlands, or if the showrunners hated Aemond so much and wanted him to be a one-dimensional villain so they wanted to remove any romance he has and anything that might make him sympathetic. (Or maybe those imaginary showrunners would've rewritten Alys as someone he rapes after taking the castle and that would be it.) Or they would have to be completely disinterested in telling women's stories. I think there's no need to point out that this is definitely not the case with HotD.

She wouldn't even be cut if D&D were in charge. But they would, no doubt, take the most sexist possible interpretations of her, take every misogynistic rumor about her from Fire & Blood as accurate (they would completely miss the irony) and make her something like show!Melisandre 2.0 only worse. Also not something I think I should be at all afraid of with HotD, based on what they've done so far with the female characters and the things they have said about the portrayal of women in Fire & Blood.

The "Alys Rivers will be cut" speculation seems to be simply wishful thinking from people who ship fanon incest ships, got into them so much that they are starting to forget they are not canon, and were upset to learn about Aemond's canon love interest from the book. With possibly some support from the folks who are really upset that Alicent does, after all, have a confirmed living grandchild at the end of Fire & Blood, which doesn't fit with the "ha ha her bloodline is dead and this is what makes our side superior" narrative.

I doubt that any of them really believe it, because that would require believing that Condal and the rest of the writing staff are genuinely into the idea of Targaryen blood purity and are trying to promote it by eliminating every non-incestuous romantic relationship from the book, and that they value that over good and compelling TV. If they believe it really... they need a dose of reality. Maybe they think the showrunners will try to fanservice them, but they forget that the general viewership is not the same as the "blood purity" incest-obsessed Targ stans on Twitter.

[bimboficationblues]

What's wrong with Xorn-magneto?

for the uninitiated:

Grant Morrison's New X-Men relaunched the series for the 00s after a period of creative floundering. Morrison used a lot of surrealist sci-fi concepts, gave the series a more modernist theme and tone, and deconstructed and challenged most of the core cast's prevailing beliefs and self-image. New X-Men is mostly well-received but is still a controversial run, both for the artwork (Frank Quitely, Chris Bachalo, and Phil Jimenez do great work, but there are a couple bad artists on some arcs and issues) and the writing (highly esoteric dialogue and concepts, and questionable characterization).

Probably Morrison’s most controversial decision revolves around the character Xorn, a Chinese mutant kept in a prison his whole life because he has a miniature star for a brain. Early on in Morrison's run, Xorn is recruited to the X-Men as a healer and teacher. He's a likable pacifist who struggles with the horrors of mutant oppression.

Except, flash-forward forty issues to the "Planet X" storyline, Xorn reveals himself to be Magneto. He recruits the high school losers of the Xavier School as a new Brotherhood of Mutants, engages in a exterminatory fascistic takeover of New York, gets royally owned by the X-Men, murders Jean Grey, and then gets his head cut off by Wolverine.

Later on, in other X-Men books NOT penned by Morrison, it's revealed that Xorn was not in fact Magneto, but an actual person masquerading as Magneto while under the influence of the experimental drug Kick. So, to be clear, “Xorn” was disguised as “Magneto disguised as Xorn.” This is because Marvel Comics editorial decided that having Magneto be quite that evil would make the character completely unusable/irredeemable for the future.

The reason I describe this as a massive failure of authorial intent is because Morrison insists that their creative vision was for Xorn to always, exclusively, be a masquerade for Magneto to carry out his subterfuge against the X-Men, and never an actual person. Unfortunately, following this assumption makes the story much worse.

It really undermines the character and threat of Magneto, loses a more interesting potential character in “Xorn,” and has little to say thematically. Magneto’s plan here (“today the geeks’ lunch table, tomorrow the world”) is extremely dumb and his aggressive, raving characterization is impossible to take seriously. We’re left with a caricature who is ludicrously arch, highly incompetent, and fundamentally insecure in himself, all of which is pretty “OOC” for Mags. Morrison doesn't think highly of Magneto as a character, and that's their prerogative, but the choice to revert Mags to the one-dimensional megalomania of the Stan Lee era, is at the expense of the more nuanced and thoughtful depiction that Chris Claremont had introduced who had a lot more to say about violence, power, protest, etc.

If Morrison always intended Magneto to be Xorn, they did a bad job setting up this twist/mystery. Backfilling “his star-brain thing is an excuse to use an anti-telepathy helmet” sort of works, but Wolverine never noticed the scent of the man who ripped the metal off his bones? Then there’s a whole chapter dedicated to Xorn by himself, where he behaves nothing like Magneto and engages in actions that Magneto would be incapable of. Magneto’s scheme here also relies on him doing elaborate yellowface, which is both practically and ethically questionable. It’s just not a very well-conceived twist as Morrison intended it

As written and intended by Morrison, it’s actually very easy to assume this twist is a put-on. There is literally a point in the final fight where the X-Men keep calling him Xorn and he impotently screams a denial, which makes it inadvertently seem like he’s lying. He is literally hearing “the voice of Xorn” in his head. The final battle revolves around how fraudulent this "Magneto" seems. He gets easily clobbered by the X-Men even though every previous time they’d fought, Magneto was nigh untouchable. If Morrison wanted Xorn to be just a disguise for Magneto, their writing inadvertently leaves a lot of ambiguity and doubt hanging over that conclusion. I doubt editorial had a hard time figuring out how to make the retcon stick - it’s practically in the text already.

It’s kind of up its own ass in the way Morrison’s worst moments are. There's a bit where "Xorneto” claims the concept of a man with a star for a brain is inherently silly and the X-Men should have known it was Magneto (though, if he believes it’s so dumb, why use it as your cover story?). This is the same comic run where one of the main antagonists is a sentient bacteria colony masquerading as a New Age televangelist and organ trafficker, and another is a psychic parasite that attached to and attacked a fetus in the womb. Hell, the Phoenix Force (New X-Men has by FAR my fave depiction of that entity) is on the same level of cosmic weirdness as a star-brained man. It’s not that strange of an idea!

HOWEVER, if you take Marvel editorial at their word instead, I actually think the plotline works pretty well overall!

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 - Disc 4

There's some random art of Daisuke on the inside cover of this volume? What could it mean!?

Ch. 25

-Lol, awfully hard to take the name "Sigma" seriously nowadays. He kind of looks like the Utawarerumono dude

-Engrish strikes again! Sigma has an attack mode called "Masks square." Very difficult to decipher what they were going for with that one...

-Very lucky that the "Gabo" pun worked in Japanese and English. I really admire these clever translation moments ("Gabby" in English "ga-ga-" in Japanese).

-Pretty weird to see a Piemon with a human partner after seeing him as the big bad in the anime. Especially weird since he looks like an adult man being commanded by a kid...

-Not sure I follow what Sigma/Alias III's scheme is here, but it's probably generic anyway (like world domination/power/etc.)

Ch. 26

-In this chapter they explain what "chat" is and how addictive it can be. Awww, the baby internet era. They had no idea what was ahead.

-Typical incel dude, experiences rejection once and then spirals and joins a cult. Glad they hinted that he's capable of changing in the end.

-The art style in this manga kind of reminds me of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. (Mostly the eyes and big heads).

Ch. 27

-Onto the next Alias, Mari and Rosemon! Rosemon kinda looks like the LadyDevimon to Lilymon. I like both new characters' designs. Their stupid antics were funny too.

-RIP to Sigma's Piemon :'( that was pretty brutal. Arkadimon was creepy looking

-Neo's army looks OP AF. He even has a Venom Vamdemon!

Ch. 28

-I was a bit disappointed to find out that Mari's dumbness was an act :'( that was what made her likable tho...

-That was interesting when Leomon was like "what about me?" when his students were like "don't worry! Zero will save us." Sorry buddy, you're not the main character...

Omake - Double Tamer!! The Great Super-dimensional Battle!!

-Ooh, an extra long cross-over special. I love gimmicky stuff like this :)

-The mangaka explaining that the concept of parallel worlds is like a cheat code that let's you get away with a lot from a story-telling perspective was pretty funny.

-Don't really like how the mangaka were blushing over Hikari in bloomers...>>

-Parallelmon's powers remind me of America from the newest Doctor Strange movie. It's a fun concept. Interesting that they described him as "cool-headed." I guess he's kind of a neutral force?

-The fact that Taichi and Daisuke are both 11 but one of them was born in 1988 and one was born in 1991 kinda hurts my brain. I guess this implies that parallel worlds can also exist at a different point in time?? I thought "parallel" usually implied the same time but different versions of everything, no? Weird...

-They acknowledged the fact that digivolution works differently in Daisuke's world which was nice to see. Really shows the difference in mediums (since they probably keep the digimon in their rookie forms in the anime for ease of animation).

-Lol classic big Digimon boss battle, Daisuke's friends all get sucked into a void and the only way out is the power of friendship. How many times are they going to use that...?

-Kinda bugs me how Daisuke is so focused on the "fake Taichi" but barely acknowledges the fact that this Taichi has a completely different partner. (lol @ Taichi having an existential moment when Daisuke calls him fake).

-I don't really get how the digimental of miracles works...the other tamers "sent" it to Taichi, but I thought he already had that? What is it single-use or something?? (My memory for 02 is already fading, but I feel like Magnamon didn't make a ton of appearances.

That was fun, I think I would have liked to see characters other than just Taichi and Daisuke interact. Taichi and Daisuke are juuust different enough, but they're still both kinda generic shounen protags, so there's only so much you can do with this crossover. I guess this manga was released much later than I thought? The mangaka referenced Tamers in this omake too. I kinda assumed that this manga was pre-season 1 for some reason.

[conduitandconjurer]

least favorite sibling?

I don't actually dislike ANY of the Umbrellas. Admittedly, the Sparrows didn't do much for me (aside Ben, of course, once he and Klaus started hanging out), but I believe keeping them more one-dimensional was a conscious choice on the part of the writers.

However, the sibling whose character arc I have the most trouble accepting is still Luther. And I don't blame Luther for this, I blame the TUA writing staff for being off the mark. I can tell they intended for Luther to seem like he is breaking away from the misguidedly loyal, controlling "Number One" that Reginald (whom I DO hate, completely and unironically) forced him to play. They wanted his marriage to Sloane to be seen as a wholesome step outside of the toxic family echo chamber. They wanted him to seem like a big sweet golden retriever once he relaxed and just decided to be himself and not a leader (since frankly Five is a much better Number One and always has been). They wanted him to seem supportive of Klaus, the sibling who, in this season, had arguably the biggest existential weight on his shoulders.

For me, I could see that earnest effort, but it still fell flat. It just seemed like they were trying to make Luther ....dumber???? And less of an independent, functioning adult. And still someone who falls back on physical force to get his way, because he's too flustered to think of any other contingency plan.

Allison was obviously the villain of this season, but I'm not judging likability here (again, I like them all), I'm judging the success of a character arc, and development from one point to the other. Sometimes that involves DEVOLUTION into being a WORSE person, and with Allison, this was executed FLAWLESSLY. I watched her fall, I knew it was happening, I frantically wanted someone to help her, I hated what I knew she would do (and did do), but I still understood and sympathized with it. I felt horrible for her, but I could also not blame or demonize Viktor. To me that is the mark of truly superb writing. If both characters in a major plot conflict are sympathetic, and you can’t “pick a side?” That is the BEST writing (And no, I am not condoning Allison’s attempted sexual assault of Luther. That should be made VERY clear). 

And I wish Luther had gotten just a little more air time to just BE LUTHER, instead of become part of a very rushed romantic subplot (which was admittedly cute and touching and characteristically a stupid Umbrella sib move, but detracted from a real arc). Instead it's somehow funny that he's screaming at and bullying Klaus in the afterlife, and all that comes across to me is how kind and generous Klaus is to be in a place where he legitimately believes he is a "freak" who should just "stay dead," but still decides to comply with Luther for the sake of the family, and helps Luther contact Sloane while he himself is bleeding out on the floor of Oblivion. Everything about that scenario just highlights how great Klaus is (and I mean I'm not complaining, he's my favorite) and leaves all of Luther's alleged development only implied, not shown.

I know a lot of people disagree with me here, but it just didn't work for me. Luther is still the most one-dimensional character. And I think the staff knows this on some level, and that's why they had Klaus (the fan favorite) run off with Luther in the season finale rather than with Five or Diego, with whom Klaus has always been closer.

I also think Ben's character is left underdeveloped. But somehow with Ben it works better because he's also a tragic figure, and in 3 x 08 they cleverly had Klaus talk to Sparrow Ben about the sort of person his dead brother was, flaws and all. That one scene went far in fleshing Ben out.

I rambled. Hope this makes sense, LOL.

[catboyebooks]

it wouldn’t be fair not to also do a post about nanami, and i actually do have a lot to say about her. i’m going to have a lot more to say about her once we get to dr3, though, and for now i want to leave the dr3 stuff out of it. earlier i think i said i was unsure whether the dr3 reveal that there was a real living shsl gamer chiaki nanami who went to school with the rest of this group was a retcon or not, but i’ve looked it up since, and it is a retcon. (it’s a retcon i completely approve of and will defend, for the record, and i think i might actually have a bit more to say about this once we get into chapter 6, but that’s getting ahead of myself.) so this isn’t going to be about nanami (virtual) vs nanami (actual), we won’t be talking about nanami (actual) at all. Yet. It will happen

anyway. (under cut again, this is like 1500+ words)

there’s something a little bit off about the way nanami is written. it can be hard to put a finger on, i think, because there are plenty of other characters being much more overtly weird at virtually any given moment — nanami actually tends to come off like the only sane woman a lot of the time. she’s the moral compass of the group, the voice of reason, the mediator, etc. on top of that, she’s a cute gamer girl who gets adorably excited over nerd shit, is kind to everybody but particularly close with the protagonist, dozes off a lot which i’m sure we all find relatable, sometimes does wacky things like eat glue off a door… my point is, nanami’s likable, she’s easy to trust, and she tends to come across relatively normal compared to the rest of the cast. there aren’t really any glaring red flags with her. and yet something is clearly Not Quite Right. i almost don’t know how to describe this except that to say that nanami feels curiously two-dimensional compared to the rest of the cast, like there just isn’t much to her. 

it makes sense in light of the reveal, of course, but before you know what’s going on it does create a strange impression. on the one hand, when it comes to the investigations and trials, nanami’s a big help and comes across as intelligent and levelheaded. on the other hand, in any situation less high-stakes than a murder trial, nanami spends most of her time dozing off and demonstrates a profound lack of knowledge about anything not directly pertaining to video games. and sure, it doesn’t seem weird that the shsl gamer acts neurodivergent about video games or that she’d be sheltered and awkward about relationships, but this goes beyond that — nanami doesn’t know milk comes from cows. she falls asleep standing up on a regular basis. whenever she talks about her life prior to the killing game it’s in the vaguest possible terms and it doesn’t even come across like she’s being evasive, it’s as if she literally has no backstory beyond “my dad was a programmer.” 

ages ago i remember reading some interview with kodaka where he said something to the effect of that when he wrote danganronpa, he wanted to avoid the common thing you see in detective fiction where certain roles in the story are filled by stock character archetypes — the tragic victim, the deranged murderer, the stoic detective, etc. — because if the characters are flat, their purpose in the story is obvious and the mystery is spoiled. he wanted the entire cast to feel well-rounded no matter what role they had to play in the story. overall i think danganronpa does well at this, even the more minor characters / those who die early on feel like they have some depth to them, and it makes the way nanami is written even more glaring. she’s not a minor character, she’s part of the main trio and plays a critical role in this game, so it’s strange that she feels like such a flat character compared to the rest of the cast. makes sense once you figure out she’s not real, though.

at this point, much like we haven’t gotten the reveal that they’re in VR, it has yet to be revealed that nanami is an AI, but i think this is the point where it becomes obvious to the player, if it wasn’t already. there really isn’t any other explanation for why she couldn’t tell them she was the traitor; she makes it clear she was unable to, and could only help hinata figure it out via implying it. in fact, looking back over how she’s behaved during investigations/trials throughout this game, nanami never directly solves the mystery herself — she raises relevant questions, drops hints, and urges the group to think it over more when they’re getting off track, but she never directly states what she thinks might have happened or who she thinks might have done it. i think it’s safe to assume that this is because her programming literally did not allow her to take a more active role in solving the mysteries; she’s not really a participant in the killing game, she’s not even a Real Person(™), just a moderator AI.

i didn’t get to complete all nanami’s FTEs before she died, unfortunately, and i’m going to complete everybody’s FTEs after i beat the game so i won’t get into it too much right now, but i do want to talk about her FTEs broadly because i think it’s important to my point here. if you do all nanami’s FTEs (and we did do most of them, so i think you get the general vibe) they play out like a dating sim route that meanders awkwardly before ultimately dead-ending. in fact, as revealed in her final FTE, nanami is bad at dating sims. i think this has to be a joke about the nature of her role in this game; nanami is essentially a dating sim route that can’t be completed. every other character in this game lives, and none of the time spent getting to know them was “wasted,” but this nanami never existed in the first place and hinata’s attempts at becoming closer with her were doomed from the outset. 

HOWEVER. and this is a big However hence my use of all caps. i think it’s overly reductive to say that this nanami is just a nonsapient computer program, and in fact that’s the opposite of what the game is implying. the question of whether an AI/robot can be considered a person / a friend comes up repeatedly in danganronpa (regarding alter ego in dr1, and regarding kiibo in ndrv3), and it’s never definitively answered but overall leans towards “yes.” the characters in dr1 view alter ego as their friend, which is used against them when junko “executes” alter ego by destroying the laptop, but alter ego still managed to save naegi in chapter 5 and did so acting of their own volition. we’ll get to kiibo later but he manages to act out against his programming in a way that suggests he’s his own person, even though he’s designed to act based on audience input twitch plays pokemon style. in nanami’s case, she figured out how to indirectly confess to being the traitor, thus defying her programming for the sake of saving everyone else. there’s actually another moment where she seems to be acting against her programming, too — it’s during her final FTE, and, again, i won’t get into it too much now since it’ll be the subject of another post, but the gist is that nanami attempts to have an actual date with hinata despite previous implications that she can’t date him thanks to her nature as an AI program. 

unless i’m extremely mistaken, we haven’t actually seen the last of nanami in this game; i’m nearly certain she shows back up in chapter 6 during the final trial. i’ll have more to say about her then, so i’ll wrap this post up. closing thoughts:

issues of identity and of past vs. present/future are a recurring theme in this game, most prominently so with the main trio. komaeda relies on his ideology regarding talent/hope to understand his place in the world, but has that ideology repeatedly challenged and learns he’s a former terrorist before anyone else here does. hinata can’t remember his (lack of a) talent and this makes him feel as though he doesn’t know who he is and can’t trust himself. nanami, by contrast, has very little identity and personality beyond her gaming talent and some references to a now-deceased programmer father… at least initially. but as the game progresses, as she becomes closer to the others (to hinata in particular) and as their situation becomes even more dire, she begins to push back against her programming in a way that suggests she might be developing a sense of personhood beyond her moderator role. unfortunately, the nature of her existence doomed her no matter what, as even if she hadn’t been executed she can’t exist outside of this VR program (something nanami herself is fully aware of).

i’ll talk about this more when i cover the rest of her FTEs but for now let me just reiterate: t4t hinanami real

[pastelwitchling]

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

⭐⭐⭐.5

Credit where credit's due, I did enjoy this book a bit, so I'll talk about some of the good points as well as why this book not only didn't work for me overall, but also put me off reading anymore of Hazelwood's writings.

Things I liked: - A lot of the humor. I did cringe at times, and just like The Love Hypothesis I think a lot of the jokes were more "I think this would sound funny" instead of "it's actually making me laugh so I'll put it in." Make sense? But ultimately, I did laugh quite a few times. - I do like some of the subtle bits of sexism presented in the STEM space, especially when a character would respond one way to Bee but differently to Levi. I think it was well-done and realistic without being over the top. - Levi. - The characters. The cats. All very likable. Especially Levi. Things I disliked: - I really hope both Schmac's idenitity and Guy's big reveal weren't meant to be a surprise because by the gods was this book predictable. Nothing came as a shock. This book panders so hard that the second I spotted the blonde guy, I knew he was evil. Same way with TLH which I was also right about. - Which brings me to my second point, and the thing that really lowered the rating. I've grown to be very, very sick of the white woman's self-righteousness. I don't like to harp on this too much, but when the main character who happens to be the whitest of white women to ever white harps on the love interest's music tastes because it composes of white male musicians, then I'm officially calling bull. For all the mention this book gives of Sausage Referencing, which is basically a woman's word and concerns only being right when a white man credits them as such, there sure is a LOT of White Woman Referencing in Hazelwood's work. This main character very much gives the feel of, "Look, poc and woc! Your concerns and feelings mean something because I say they do! I'm here to defend you, you poor victims, while also hyping up my own victimhood!" No, thanks. - This book is an exact copy of TLH, which I honestly wouldn't have minded at all if just a few details were changed. Like, oh I don't know, the main characters' appearances? She's tiny, he's huge. She's fair-haired, he'd dark-haired. Levi is Adam exactly, and yeah, Bee is basically Olive. Couldn't she be tall? Couldn't he be blonde? Oh no wait, I forgot blonde guys are automatically evil in Hazelwood's world. (Seriously, we don't need our hands held. It doesn't need to be an us vs them situation, in fact PLEASE STOP MAKING IT THAT. That helps NO ONE.) Couldn't some scenes and lines NOT be an exact copy/paste from TLH? You can write stories about women in STEM without making them all the same exact story. - I found it very silly that Levi has every tiny thing in common with Bee. She loves Star Wars? So does he! She's a vegan? So is he! She's a cat person? So is he! It just gets a little ridiculous. It would've been nice if we'd seen her start to like him thinking that they were completely different, but luckily, he's an exact copy of her, so it's fine. - The Marie Curie obsession was also ridiculous, in my opinion. As a writer, I have an idol I love and know everything about, too, but I also know about other writers. Because I love what I do and I love the craft and I love studying professionals whose work I admire. To say she loves science, wants to be the best of the best, and yet only EVER quotes, mentions, and references ONE scientist the entire book just feels a little one-dimensional. I really did enjoy this book. It was nothing mind-blowing but I don't think it was supposed to be. I think it was always supposed to be like fast food; something you have when you don't want to think too hard and which is passable enough for a decent time. I just think too much. If nothing else, I'm glad I got to it to officially help me step off the Ali Hazelwood train.

[hannahhook7744]

Wasted Potential in disney descendants part 1;

Okay, so I think we can all agree that despite the fact that we love descendants, it had tons of wasted potential. Mainly because of the writing and limited time they had to show us everything but also because of the bad/incorrect representation it gave some characters. The fact that they decided to state that the sequels, shows, and books to the og disney movies (as well as the ones in the franchise) weren't canon really didn't help. We will be talking about some of that today. Thank @eahravinqueen for giving me the idea in her ask. Okay, let's start with the core four first.

🐉Let's start with Mal 🐉; her entire character is full of wasted potential. And there is one simple reason: they gave her way too much screen time and made everything about her. Which ruined her character in more ways than one. They made her into a spoiled, entitled brat who showed absolutely no remorse for her actions at all. They completely threw away the fun artsy vandal who we loved and sympathized for, and turned her into a woman who was willingly gonna lock the isle kids forever simply because Beast, Belle, and Fairy Godmother wanted her to. They could have taken her character in so many different directions other than making her into what they did. They could have made her into an artsy vandal queen who was struggling to learn how to control her demigod and fae powers. One who wanted to make up for her past actions by apologizing and doing whatever was necessary to prove she was. They could have had her further her relationships with her boyfriend, her friends, and her friends' partners. But they didn't. They could have made her into an awesome Fae-demigod queen who was a perfect role model for little girls. But they didn't. They absolutely wasted her powers and talents and did not push her motivations further, making them and her less likable and one dimensional. Which is a damn shame. They didn't even show her relationship with her cousin and brother. How were we expected to like her when they kept giving us reasons to hate her? Oh and what the hell happened with her outfits? They use to be so cool and now they're kinda bland. They really watered down her character and made her into one who couldn't have a simple fricking conversation with anyone that would fix the majority of her problems. I mean come on, but moving on...

Jay got very little screen time and they hardly developed him past 'Thief', 'tough guy', 'jock', 'flirt', and 'protector' and I feel like they just could have done more in general. They didn't give him more hobbies and they didn't give him enough screen time to ,ya know, further his relationships with his friends and cousin Jade and possible love interest, Lonnie. And that's just a damn shame. They could have done so much more with his character. Like giving him genie powers and allowing him time to explore them. They could have shown where his infatuation with his bike came from and shown him exploring much earlier on than in d3. But they didn't. They didn't show any of that and made him play 2nd fiddle to Mal and that's just sad.

They wasted alot of good opportunities with Evie. They could have delved into her love for fashion more than they did, showed us more of her business, and some of her other interests. They could have done more with her love for chemistry and gave her, her mother's powers. They could have given her more power than she had. Delved into her relationship with Doug and others more. Done more than turn her into a side character who couldn't tell her friend was struggling. Hell, they could have even delved into who her father was and who Jay's mother was, but they didn't. They focused on Mal and wasted a perfectly good character. We didn't even see her role in helping Ben's isle initiative because they focused on Mal too much. They could have done more with her. So much more. She didn't have to play second fiddle to Mal but the writers' forced her to. And it's a travesty.

They wasted Carlos the most out of the core four. He was a techie and an animal lover and a fashionable guy who knows how to sword fight. He has a half fairy girlfriend and a big family, including 3 cousins he would get along splendidly with yet we never see his relationship with anyone outside of his mother. They don't develop his relationship with Jane that much nor do they do that with his friends or dude all that much. They could have used him for so much more. They wasted his brilliant brain so many times and didn't do alot with him. And it's quite the shame. He was just reduced to Mal's friend and not much more and it is very sad. Our brain boy could have changed the world and they killed him off, and reduced him to nothing but a secondary character. And I do not like that. Not one bit. Especially since he is wonderful with children and others, and especially since he is the smartest out of his friends and family. And I wish it wasn't that way. He could have had his own tech company or something. He and Jane could have become veterinarians together or something. He could have had a happy ending. But nope. They couldn't even give him that reason.

[filmmakerdreamst]

Why Xena: Warrior Princess Was Groundbreaking

If you remember Xena: Warrior Princess, you probably do for a few reasons. The tiny, tight-fitting costumes worn by its lead characters. That circular spinny thing Xena threw at people (it’s called a chakram). Xena’s fabulous ululating war cry. The bizarre mish-mash of history the show threw together (though the producers knew their stuff, deep down – Rob Tapert later produced the rather more accurate Spartacus for STARZ). What you might not remember, or might not know if you’re unfamiliar with the show, is just how important and ground-breaking Xena was when it first aired between 1995 and 2001.

The first and most obviously groundbreaking thing about Xena: Warrior Princess was, of course, the gender of its lead character. Xena wasn’t the first female lead of an action-adventure series – Charlie’s Angels and Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman, for example, had enjoyed success in the 1970s, while non-action-adventure shows led by women had been common for quite some time, with 1990s examples including Ellen, Blossom, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Cybill.

The way Xena presented its female hero, though, was a bit different. The opening narration describes how “a land in turmoil cried out for a hero” and then presents the hero in question with an emphatic “she” as we see Xena riding into battle. Lucy Lawless, aside from being likable and charismatic, gave us a heroine who looked like she could physically handle a fight (rather than a super-powered waif-like heroine) while still being extremely attractive (as the costume department and directors were keen to emphasize!). She owed a lot to Carter and Wonder Woman, but Xena’s capability, confidence, and independence were a breath of fresh air in the 1990s SFF television landscape.

Xena’s portrayals of race, gender, and sexuality may seem fairly normal or even disappointing now but were highly progressive at the time. While the show was white-dominated, there was a clear effort made to introduce a more diverse cast. One of Xena’s early love interests was a black man, something hopefully no longer of note, but still relatively unusual at the time. The show also cast a black actress, Galyn Görg, as Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, offering a nice change from the usual blonde, blue-eyed Helens we’ve seen on film and TV for decades. Similarly, Cleopatra was later played by Gina Torres. The series also set several episodes in Asia, featuring Asian guest characters.

The most significant relationship on Xena was, of course, that between Xena and Gabrielle. To a modern viewer, their relationship probably comes across as frustrating and disappointing, as despite many hints, frequent sub-textual references, and great chemistry between the two actresses, their relationship was never officially clearly stated to be romantic. They did, however, kiss as early as season 2.

Back in the 1990s, two characters of the same gender kissing was still a huge deal. Carol and Susan on Friends were restricted to hugging even at their wedding, while Willow and Tara’s first on-screen kiss on Buffy the Vampire Slayer was eventually worked into the deeply emotional episode “The Body,” after almost two years of subtext and more hugging.

On Xena, in the grand tradition of SFF TV (see also: Star Trek‘s “Plato’s Stepchildren”), a way was found to make the kiss more palatable to the networks. Xena was occupying the body of a man, Autolycus, at the time, so we see Xena’s spirit and Gabrielle’s come together for the kiss, played by the actresses, and then cut to Renee O’Connor’s Gabrielle kissing Bruce Campbell’s Autolycus, so the image actually broadcast is that of a man and a woman kissing. This may look like pandering and queer-baiting to modern eyes, but for the 1990s, it was a major step forward and the kiss was hugely important to LGBTQ Xena fans. Throughout the series, tricks like this were used to create a romantic story by the back door, so to speak. In another plot arc, Xena and Gabrielle’s reincarnated souls married each other.

Both characters had relationships with men throughout the series as well, but a reading of the show as led by two bisexual female characters who were in a relationship with each other was positively encouraged by numerous hints. In 1997, the same year as Xena and Gabrielle’s kiss, both Ellen DeGeneres and her namesake character on her own sitcom came out, something which sent shock waves through the entertainment industry, so this was a genuinely progressive move. And Xena told progressive stories about gender in other ways as well. Also in 1997, the episode “Here She Comes… Miss Amphipolis” featured a transvestite character winning a beauty pageant (in which Gabrielle acts as Xena’s “sponsor,” surrounded by men “sponsoring” their girlfriends).

Xena was groundbreaking in its format as well. Like contemporary show Frasier, Xena was a spin-off based on a character from another series and this produced a setup that might not have sold without its head start from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Our hero is not a pure and innocent champion of good, but a former villain trying to redeem herself for the bad things she’s done (this may sound familiar, but remember, the show pre-dates Angel!). This setup ensures that Xena never slips into standard Strong Female Character tropes. Strong she certainly is, but she is also fully three-dimensional, flawed (always trying to balance violent impulses and a desire for peace), looking for ways to use her violent skills for good and burdened by guilt. And then there’s her counterpart, Gabrielle – resisting physical violence for a long time, interested in art and literature but unable to tear herself away from Xena and the violence inherent in Xena’s lifestyle.

The show also popularized some of modern SFF television’s most beloved tropes. It was not the first show to break the fourth wall, or do a musical episode, or do a time loop episode, or any of the other tropes that show up. However, it did do a lot to popularize more experimental episodes like “A Day In The Life” or the famous first musical episode “The Bitter Suite” – which took the musical format completely seriously, a move unusual at the time – as the show used these in a manner and with a frequency that were unusual at the time (along with its parent show, Hercules).

The X-Files, for example, produced some great format-bending episodes, but usually only once or twice a season (with the exception of season six). Xena showed that a series format could be seriously flexible, including multiple episodes set in the twentieth century, hundreds of years away from the main setting of the show, as well as a wide range of other stories. Again, it was not the first or the only show to do so (Doctor Who is the most obvious example of a show with a seriously flexible format) but it made this type of television seem viable and popular.

Xena has had a huge influence on SFF film and television over the years. It takes only a brief look at a basic description of the show to see how much Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which debuted as a television series two years after Xena, in 1997, though the 1992 film pre-dates Xena) and Angel owe to Xena, and the debt was acknowledged in Buffy’s “Halloween” (“She couldn’t have dressed up like Xena?”).

It’s also worth noting that, before The Lord of The Rings showed the world how beautiful the New Zealand landscape was, the cast and crew of Xena and Hercules were ignoring the distinct lack of any similarity between the geography of New Zealand and Greece and showing the scenery off as best they could on relatively low budget television. Many of the cast and crew worked on the Lord of the Rings films as well – notable examples include cast members Karl Urban and Martin Csokas, costume designer Ngila Dickson (whose departure in 1999 presumably allowed her to focus on the films), and Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger, co-founders of Weta Workshop, who worked on a handful of early episodes.

In some ways, Xena: Warrior Princess hasn’t aged too well. The special effects can look a bit ropey (not surprising considering the show’s era and budget), the stories are often cheesy, and its episodic format has gone out of fashion. But the show is well worth a watch if you haven’t yet caught an episode. It has heart and heap-loads of humor (every episode ends with a joke disclaimer about who was or was not harmed during the making of it) and managed to balance dark and light pretty well, veering between pure comedy and deeply serious material with relative ease. The current SFF TV landscape wouldn’t be what it is without Xena and her chakram.

- Why Xena: Warrior Princess Was Groundbreaking by Juliette Harrisson

[narrativelysignificantturtleduck]

so a while ago @volkswagonblues left a reply on this post saying that jeong jeong was an example of "someone who is ideologically 'right' but whose character is absolutely not likeable, or at least not in the mainstream fandom-popular way". i started writing this response, but i totally forgot it was in my drafts until i wrote my iroh analysis. it doesn't seem right for me to have an iroh analysis post and not a jeong jeong one so here it is, the jeong jeong character analysis nobody asked for:

volkswagonblues's response hits on exactly why i find his character so fascinating - he's good, but he's absolutely not nice or well-adjusted about it. and he's definitely not mainstream-fandom "likable". it's rare that i see hate for one of my minor character faves (one of the benefits of having them), but i have actually seen people say they don't like jeong jeong. mostly, it centers around him being "wrong" about firebending, as opposed to the sun warriors. i can see where that comes from. jeong jeong has the noticable accent and proverb-y speeches of the ~mystical asian master~ trope, but his viewpoint comes off as pretty harsh and simplistic. this can confuse an audience expecting easy answers from a kids show - are you supposed to see him as wise or not? for me, i think asking "are jeong jeong's beliefs wrong?" is the wrong question. instead, you should ask: "why does jeong jeong have those beliefs?"

and the more you think about that, the more you see that he isn't actually wrong. firebending is the only type of bending where the bender produces the element from their own body rather than using their surroundings. it is someone imposing their will on the world, even more so than the other forms of bending. iroh sums this up nicely:

"Fire is the element of power. The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will, and the energy to drive and achieve what they want."

there's nothing wrong with that in theory, but in the show, this drive and power manifests as the fire nation's imperialist conquest, and the goal they're trying to achieve is world domination. as a former high-ranking military official, jeong jeong has seen firsthand the ways firebenders use their power to hurt people. the culmination of the fire nation's ideology is a plan to burn the entire earth kingdom to the ground - exactly the kind of wide-scale destruction he describes in his first cautionary speech:

"Without the bender, a rock will not throw itself! But fire will spread and destroy everything in its path if one does not have the will to control it!"

you could say that firebending is misused by the fire nation, but that feels like a No True Scotsman fallacy ("that's not true firebending!"). the fact is, firebending's unique qualities fall in line with the nation's imperialist ideology. jeong jeong hates his bending because it is inextricably tied to the war he hates.

like many, i once thought a trip to the sun warriors would be healing for jeong jeong, but i've since realized that's not what he needs. jeong jeong is perfectly aware that firebending isn't always destructive - he counsels restraint and control, not total suppression, and he even alludes to sun warrior beliefs:

"Feel the heat of the sun. It is the greatest source of fire. Yet, it is in complete balance with nature!"

going to see some dragons who tell him that firebending is about the sun and life won't change his mind. 'of course it's not inherently evil,' he'll say. 'but it has been used in terrible ways'. his feelings aren't about firebending in the abstract. they're about firebending as it is used. that it has the capacity to support an ideology of conquest, that he and others have given into its destructive side and committed such atrocities with it. he's right to hate that. (i also feel like he'd resent the sun warrior civilization for their isolationism. i mean, i would, if i'd put my life on the line to fight against my nation and it turned out there were a bunch of people who agreed with me but did nothing about it.)

so if jeong jeong and the sun warriors aren't philosophically opposed (except re: their involvement in the war), why does his view of firebending seem so much harsher? because - and here we come back to the original point - he's not likeable. he's a strict teacher and plenty of us (especially if we were kids when we watched the show) have a knee-jerk negative reaction to that. his speeches about the danger of fire are grandiose. but here's the thing: the speech where he says the most derogatory things about firebending is not one where he's teaching. it's one where he opens up to katara:

"I've always wished I were blessed like you - free from this burning curse."

this reveal that he wants to be a waterbender means that everything he says to her about his bending is less about what he believes about firebending in general and more about his own personal struggles. and in that context, it's heartbreaking:

"It forces those of us burdened with its care to walk a razor's edge between humanity and savagery. Eventually, we are torn apart."

this is the core of it all - jeong jeong doesn't just hate the fire nation and its war, he hates himself, hates that he holds that destructive power inside him. he doesn't seem to struggle with the act of bending (another reason why the sun warriors wouldn't necessarily be any help) but he clearly doesn't want to do it, probably because it reminds him of when he did terrible things with it. no wonder he calls it a curse.

and so here's what we're left with: jeong jeong leaves the fire nation military because he is right that the war is wrong, and he counsels control and restraint in opposition to the imperialist ideology of constant expansion and conquest. however, he is severely traumatized and full of guilt from his participation in said imperialist conquest, and that means he comes off as harsh and overly negative. right, but not likeable.

while i was writing this post, i was rewatching a lot of clips from the show, and i got curious about his voice actor, who i suspected was actually asian (unlike most of the voice actors). it turned out i was correct - his name is keone young, and he's had a very long career - but he's hawaiian and doesn't have the accent that probably made me guess that. he has this to say about how he portrays the one-dimensional accented characters he often plays:

“I want to portray that person with an accent who is real instead of a stereotyped version of it," he said. "I’ve always wanted to see myself as the one the story revolved around so that it was my story not your story. I always try to convey I have some kind of philosophy or point of view.”

(read the full interview here)

i bring this up because while i think jeong jeong's memorability can partially be attributed to the atla writers giving him a cool backstory and dramatic lines, what keone young says here about taking a character who's a bit of a stereotype and making them seem real, with their own philosophy and point of view...well, that's exactly jeong jeong. despite his limited screentime, we get a clear picture of who he is and what he believes. and who he is is someone who fully embodies his radically anti-imperialist politics, who has come to his beliefs from traumatic experience that's made him bitter. as the atla renaissance pushes us to reevaluate these children's cartoon characters with older eyes and modern-day politics, it's worth looking at a striking minor character like jeong jeong, who might not be fandom-likable but who has a lot of depth to offer and a perspective worth considering.

[strawberry-sticky-autism]

I posted 614 times in 2022

That's 614 more posts than 2021!

109 posts created (18%)

505 posts reblogged (82%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@pinkiemeowstic89

@cherrycreamfairy

@velvety-vixen

@hiya-im-mary

@a-little-ray-of-fantasy

I tagged 609 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#autistic - 84 posts

#autism - 80 posts

#important - 80 posts

#lgbtq+ - 74 posts

#actually autistic - 69 posts

#trans - 55 posts

#autistic headcanon - 53 posts

#autistic headcanons - 51 posts

#transgender - 45 posts

#cute - 45 posts

Longest Tag: 126 characters

#i'm pretty sure this is where i got the idea for the characters in my own fangan to pick up mementos of their deceased friends

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

See the full post

55 notes - Posted June 24, 2022

#4

Ideas for Precure Fanseries/Precure series in general

- Boy Cure who's a Cure for more than 1 or 2 episodes. - Physically disabled Cure (wheelchair-bound, prosthetics, cane-user). - Mute Cure! - Multiple boy Cures. - Another black Cure (either skin tone or theme colour). - Another white Cure (theme colour-wise, we've got plenty skin-tone-wise) - Nonbinary Cure? - Genderfluid Cure. - Another robot Cure (Ruru was good but we need MORE). - Puppet/doll theme. - Circus theme? - CLOWNS? - More redeemed villains, always. - Mentor figures that actually know what they're doing. - Less morally ambiguous royalty. - Space out the arcs. - Macguffins that have a purpose. - Worldbuilding~! - Do we need to make merchandise? - Even focus on each Cure. - Maybe we don't always need Macguffins. - Even focus on all characters, actually. - Don't make your villains feel one-dimensionally evil. - Complete. Your. ARCS. - You can make your villains irredeemable, but that doesn't mean you have to. - Cover heavy topics, but don't make it too dark or melodramatic. - Make up your mind on a tone. - Keep your main leads likable, but don't be afraid to give them flaws. - Blind/deaf Cure? - Alien Cure (Lala was pretty good so let's have MORE). - Give mascots focus too! But don't make them overshadow the Cures. - No more Plot Device/Deus Ex Machina Babies. We've got more than enough of those, just let the babies be babies. - Don't ship the Cures with the mascots. Just don't. - Don't ship the Cures with the villains, also. - Actually, don't ship the Cures with anyone below or above their age range. Seriously. - Don't shove heterosexuality where it doesn't belong. - Technology theme. - DON'T SHOW A CURE GIVING BIRTH ON-SCREEN I SWEAR TO KOTOHA- - Mama Cure! - More Trans Cures! - Art theme? - Dark Cures/Psycho Rangers? - Asexual Cures. - Jester? - More autistic Cures! - More autistic characters in general! - Autistic villains? Maybe? - Foreign Cures, better than the last time they were used.

Feel free to add on!

75 notes - Posted June 12, 2022

#3

Why Medix is Almost Definitely Autistic

- Extremely logically-minded.

- Takes metaphors literally. (From "Life of the Party") Medix: Can you explain why everyone is upset with me? I would think being a stick in the mud is a good thing. To let you know how deep the puddle is, for example. Whirl: It's just a saying humans have. It means somebody who ruins a good time for everyone else. Medix: By using a stick. Whirl: What? No. Medix: So it's the mud that stops the fun? Now I see.

- Has a schedule and prefers to stick to it. (In "Medix Surprise", he dislikes surprises as he prefers to have things planned out and he gets annoyed at the other Recruits when they clean up all the leaves for him, because now he has nothing to do for a while. He also gets upset in "Heatwave's Shiny Coat" when Heatwave doesn't follow the dog-care plan he has)

- Takes a bit to recognise sarcasm or joking.

- Fixation on medic work (The Recruits think he loves bandages so much that it's a good idea to surprise with some) and animals.

- Gets along pretty well with animals/plants.

- Rather blunt at times. ("Critical Condition". Just, the entirety of "Critical Condition")

- Strong moral code (He became a Rescue Recruit for a reason)

- Hyper-organised. ("My cabinets are already fully stocked.")

- Possible stimming. (He bounces in the cockpit chair on the Sigma. He also dances to some pretty loud techno music)

There’s also this from the official TFWiki:

While not written as explicitly autistic, Medix was intentionally written in a way that left room for that interpretation. - From the Official Transformers Wiki.

https://twitter.com/bunfork/status/1427366530719834119 - Tweet from writer Ben Ward.

https://twitter.com/PeteSlatteryIE/status/1427370065415090179 - Tweet from writer Peter Slattery.

80 notes - Posted August 18, 2022

#2

“Lock, Stock and Peril” AKA the episode that proved that both Molly and Scratch are almost definitely neurodivergent. 

89 notes - Posted July 10, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

HOT TAKE

All magical girls (and boys) are neurodivergent.

143 notes - Posted May 13, 2022

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[darkqueenofshadows85]

Why I Love the Dark Era of Sonic

Greetings, mortals! Today, I will be talking about my all time favorite era of Sonic games, the Dark Era (2005-2009).

I will explain in detail what I love most about this particular era, and why I consider this, along with the Adventure Era (1998-2004), to be the absolute best era of Sonic as a whole.

Please keep in mind, this is MY OPINION! You don't need to agree with it, but please don't complain in the comments section if you disagree with my views on the Dark Era as a whole.

Anyway, let us begin! ^^

Writing and Characterization

The writing and characterization of the Dark Era titles is some of the best in the entire series in my opinion.

For example, Sonic was at his best in Unleashed and Black Knight, and Team Dark was written exceptionally well in 06. The characters were more fleshed out and had depth and likability, as opposed to the one dimensional cardboard cutouts they became in the 2010's.

The Dark Era also introduced a number of great new characters, including Silver, Blaze, Marine, the Babylon Rogues, Chip/Light Gaia, Caliburn, Merlina, Mephiles, and most of all, my beloved Black Doom ♡

On the subject of writing, I consider games like Unleashed, Black Knight and Riders: Zero Gravity to be on par with SA2 as some of the best Sonic stories ever written. ShTH and 06 are two of my personal favorites, though they do have some minor flaws, and Secret Rings, despite being the weakest of the five main Dark Era games, still had a decent enough story to keep me invested.

Tone

I believe the Dark Era earned its name due to the dark, grim atmosphere and mature storylines. People can complain all they want about the games of that era being too "edgy" or serious, but I believe that darker storylines absolutely belong in Sonic games, and "they're cartoon animals!" is not a good enough excuse to say otherwise.

The Adventure Era and the Dark Era were the prime times for the villains, especially the latter. Another reason why I believe the Dark Era has its name is because it focused on the villains' motives to inflict fates worse than death: rewriting stories and history (Erazor Djinn), using mankind as an energy source for intense purposes (Black Doom), conquering time and space (Solaris), and even trying to create a world without death (Merlina).

So, just to recap: the "Dark" in Dark Era refers to the tone in my opinion, not the quality. ShTH, 06, Secret Rings, Unleashed, Black Knight, the Riders trilogy, the Rivals duology and Chronicles all have a dark tone to some extent. The Rush duology is the only one I know of that has a bright colorful tone, but I digress.

Multiple Playable Characters and a Wide Variety of Different Gameplay Styles

As someone who grew up in the 2000's, I can’t help but miss the wide variety of characters and play styles the series used to have. Like the Adventure Era before it, the Dark Era had plenty to offer in the gameplay department. The guns in ShTH, the Werehog in Unleashed, the hoverboard racing in the Riders trilogy and the usage of swords in Black Knight are among my favorite gameplay concepts. I also thoroughly enjoyed 06's Adventure style gameplay, and my favorite part of the Rush duology was playing as Blaze. Why SEGA decided to take the exact opposite approach in the 2010's and completely ditch any semblance of creativity in favor of bland, repetitive gameplay and making Sonic the sole playable character will forever remain a mystery to me.

Awesome Soundtracks

Sonic is a franchise known for having consistently good music, and to me and many others, the Dark Era soundtracks have great music IN SPADES.

From heart-pumping rock songs like I Am... (All of Me) and Knight of the Wind, to uplifting, inspirational songs like Endless Possibility, the Dark Era games, as well as 2000's Sonic games in general, all have a wide selection of unforgettable vocal tracks to choose from.

Creative Concepts and Overall Respect For Its Audience

Another reason why I love the Dark Era is because it took the audience seriously and it always tried something new with the franchise. Compared to the 2010's, the Dark Era had an abundance of life and creativity, and you could really tell Sonic Team was really trying and gave a shit. The CGI in 06 and Unleashed was amazing, the Werehog was a fun and very creative idea to try two different play styles, and Sonic literally becoming king, restoring an entire kingdom and commanding an entire group of knights is probably one of the most badass things this franchise has produced. They really tried. And it sucks that critics like IGN, who are ignorant and lazy when it comes to doing their jobs, had a huge impact on the series going forward into the 2010's, and it suffered because of it. And don't get me started on the classicist elitists. Not everything can be the same from your childhood, guys.

Complex Themes/Messages

I believe that themes/messages are very important to the Sonic franchise's storytelling, and the Dark Era games had plenty of strong life lessons to offer.

ShTH, the first two Riders games and Chronicles are about the search for identity, Rush is about learning to open up to friends, 06 has a moral we need now more than ever: the future might be bleak and the past might be traumatic but focus on the present moment to make the best of it, Secret Rings is about not being ashamed of who you are, Rush Adventure is about appreciation for foreign cultures, Unleashed is about the duality of light and dark, and Black Knight is about learning to live life to the fullest.

What life lessons do any of the Meta Era games have to teach their audience? I cannot think of one.

My Final Thoughts

I never understood why people hated the Dark Era so much. It had a lot of great things to offer, and from the way I see them, gameplay and console-wise aside, those games showed a lot more than some previous ones have. They gave some of the characters more depth and interactions between each other (especially Team Dark in 06), introduced some new characters so they would have their own arcs to grow (Silver, Chip, etc.), the CG cutscenes in those games were amazing, they showed the main characters interacting with humans more, they gave us dark, twisted and frightening villains who are even more menacing then Eggman and would later on transform into god-like monsters, they showed cool narratives of each game's story and taught us strong life lessons about the world and how to live life to the fullest, and best of all, they even gave the main hero Sonic more character depth and humanity. The Dark Era made him into a more fleshed out character with both good and bad sides of himself, and showed us that he's not just a cool signature teen hero, he's a very noble, loyal, kindhearted, free-spirited soul who even though he has flaws, he helps out other people in need and would do whatever it takes to make sure everything and everyone will be provided a brighter future.

Too bad the Meta Era had to throw all that out the window... :(

Overall, I hope the series comes back to its former glory. I will never forget watching the cutscenes from Black Knight and being astounded by its world and visuals. I will never forget the epic opening cutscene of ShTH when Shadow meets Black Doom for the first time. I will never forget the amazement I had when watching Sonic transform into Super Sonic in the beginning of Unleashed, and I will certainly never forget the impact the Dark Era had on the storytelling of the series. Great, underrated stuff that sadly didn’t go forward into the next decade. Regardless, I still have some faith left in Sonic, but as always, we'll have to wait and see.