#and he didnt really need a redemption arc

[thecoolcatstuff]

Top 5 Early Miraculous Episodes That Aged Like Fine Milk

So here is my list of episodes that, looking back, have absolutely not aged well. Id like to remind people yhat this is an Early Episodes list. As so, fan beloathes like Kuro Neko or Derision wont be figuring out, or anything past s03 for that matter.

#5.Chat Blanc

I remember when Chat Blanc came out the hype was out if this world,people saw it as the episode that would "distinguish children from men" in terms of lore and writing . An episode about Chat Noir akumatized? A villain reveal? A betrayal? The world-ending apocalypse? God, its every edgelord's wet dream.

As soon as it came out theories started poping out on the developments of that episode. When would Adrien know? How affected would Ladybug be by it? And Gabriel, what would be his reaction if he found out about it?

However, as we look back now what do we see? An episode that didnt really ammount to anything. Adrien and Gabriel were still unaware of the Chat Blanc timeline, Marinette seems to have forgotten the issue at all, except when it comes as an excuse to keep identities hidden.

The whole drama was set up, and there seems to be literally nothing to talk about now, killing all of its hype.

#4.Pupeteer 2

The episode seems pretty fine if not for one measily detail: we later learn how that was the moment Adrien fell for Marinette.

Which, as we rewatch the episode, makes little to no sense. In the episode, Adrien was nothing beyond eager to improve his platonic relationship with Marinette, still unsure why she couldnt stand talking to him. Even in the almost kiss moment, there is no blush, no flirt, not any sign whatsoever that he might have been remotely attracted to her.

And an important detail: If Adrien had felt anything romantic at all youd think he would be thinking twice about confiding to her about the other girl he loves. Not to say how he immediately started courting Kagami after, so Marinette wasnt even his second choice at that moment.

#3.Miraculer

Many may say that that Queen's Battle are the episodes that best describe Chloe's failed redemption arc. I disagree, saying that the one that better represent it is Miraculer. Here, we see chloe's redemption at its peak. Chloe rejecting akumas, pulling his weight against mayura, and even with her own issues working together with the whole team to win over the villain. And all just episodes from Chloe inexplicably just turn a 180 and going for the Evilest Person Ever position.

#2. Ladybug

If you ever want to prove to someone that the Sentimonster Theory was a retcon, just show them this episode. Ladybug disregards most of sentilife philosophicsl debates and just treats sentibeings as expendable life. We have Gabriel and Nathalie completely disregarding Sentimonster Life even with Adrien supposedly a sentimonster. Even Ladybug and Chat Noir give us little regarding sentibug's death, just a sad-face-with-tear reaction and moving on, and I really doubt the reaction would have been the same if a flesh-and-bone human had died. The narrative clearly doesnt aknowledge that Senti Ladybug's life was as inportant, what makes the whole claim that "sentimonster lives matter" later on nonsensical

#1.Chameleon

Remember when Miraculous was a fun and go-lucky superhero show about a girl and her cat fighting villains? Chameleon is the catalyst for when things started to go wrong. The whole Lila plot tapped into the insecurities of many people and brough out the worst in the fandom. Salt against Adrien, Alya, Bustier and the class started popping out, people who just wanted to prioritize Marinette's needs above all else started coming in. Class salt became a subgenre of the fandom and extremely popular.Chameleon may look innocent but awoke the worst of this fandom.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

not spop-related but i can't post this on my main blog so.

i do find it funny how most of the fan depictions of belos were far more interesting and detailed than s3 belos. i've seen fanart and fanfics of him where he's a complex villain struggling with religious guilt and then the canon is just like.. lmao yeah he's pure evil. kill him.

[dimonds456]

Hey, y'all?

Making a character's motivs understandable is not the same as making them sympathetic.

Making a character's motivs sympathetic is not the same thing as making them redeemable.

Making a character's motivations redeemable is not the same thing as making them understandable.

From a writing perspective, you want to strive to make your characters understandable, yes, but that does not mean they have to be sympathetic, redeemable, or even nuanced at all. It might be good to have those things, but ultimately you just want your character to be understandable. The audience should be able to explain why your character does what they do in your work once they've seen/read/listened to it. That's it.

It depends on what your story needs and the tone you're going for, of course, but people seemingly have been confusing these things a lot. A character can have a sympathetic backstory and we can go "aw that's sad :(" but. Rachel, he still killed people. A lot of people. For no good reason. Sympathetic, not redeemable.

And even then, some people have been assuming that understandable = sympathetic, when this simply isn't true either. You should want your character to be understandable! You should be able to follow their train of thought, no matter how rocky or unstable it is, to see how and why they came to the conclusions they did about the world and thus why they took the actions they did. Doesn't mean they have to be #relatable or sympathetic in any way. It just means they are a consistent character with their own wants and desires.

And from an audience's perspective, this also means that RACHEL, HE KILLED PEOPLE FOR NO GOOD REASON, HE'S NOT REDEEMABLE-

[brella-boi]

Okay guys this is becoming a tradition of me seeing films recently so heres a

Sonic 3 review from a technical standpoint

Look im no film critic or anything, but i AM an animator and theres a lot of. Things. I see whether I want to or not. Its just how my brain is wired because of my profession lol

(This is full of spoilers btw so now's your time to fast scroll away)

Anyway lets begin!

The movie is great. Cool even. I liked it! But theres a lot of direction decision that I am just. Baffled by I guess?

First of all- the models are different. (Httyd ass moment) And the way they sculpted the characters lips absolutely destroys anything theyre trying to emote. It looks like theyre CONSTANTLY pursing their lips. Like they ate a lemon. Do you understand? Sonic also has much more pronounced brows which makes him look more pissed off constantly LOL

[Sonic 1 model vs sonic 3 models, pay attention to the lips]

Eggman and Dr Stone had possibly the best interactions in the entire movie. Their dynamic was fantastic, and I would argue they kinda carried the movie. Unfortunately! The ending left their issues unresolved. And Dr Stone looked entirely unbothered by the possible death of Eggman.

This brings me to some writing choices that I feel may be due to... Either infantalising or time cuts. The storyboarding of this film was just. God how do I even describe this. It feels like a lot of crucial scenes where cherry picked to be deleted between shots. Thats not good at all- and while character continuity WAS there, it really did feel like something crucial was missing in some scenes. This is especially evident in the Chao Garden scenes. Specifically when the general dies (WHY DOES HE DIE LIKE THAT. WE DIDNT EVEN SEE THE RUBBLE GO ANYWHERE OR PIN ANYONE DOWN OR SEE MASS PANIC FOR PEOPLE TO DIE?) The characters COMPLETELY gloss over his death- a death that feels like its out of a show for 8 year olds Im not going to lie to you. He just flops, delivers a line, and thats it.

It feels like the two halves of the movie were written by two different writers.

The first half is weak. The jokes are stale. And the storybeats almost feel off. The actions scenes- while there's nothing particularly offendish about them- don't *hit*. If you're an animator or writer you understand that important beats need to pack a punch. It was severely lacking in packing punches in the first half.

I also wanna speak to the animators. Are you okay? Was this made on tight deadlines? Where is the fun and whimsy? Did you outsource this? Did you give your workers a good environment or were they crunching and hating life? Or did you hire younger animators with no senior feedback because they're cheaper to hire?

Look, the animation is good. Just that. Its good. Its TV show standard, not movie standard. Its lacking a good push to the poses, its using slow keyframing between poses instead of it being snappy, with good silhouettes, with good visual gags. Instead were left with this.. subpar passable animation for every character instead of something energetic and snappy like Sonics personality. I think this is where I take the most issue with because guys come on. You didnt push the models to their limits at ALL. And Sonics speedy running is... Well read my previous points. Where are the fundamentals of animation about exaggeration? Not in Sonics run cycle.

The second half of the movie carried the first half on its back thanks to Eggman. I am SO GLAD to see giant spaceships and mechs and whatnot. Thats great! Loved to see the lovely mech models and once again- interactions between Eggman and Dr Stone. Id go as far as say they should be gay tbh (hello? The scene where theyre tied up?)

I didn't bring up Shadow entirely so far. And honestly Ive no notes about him. All my notes are entirely about just the animation and not hitting the beats well. His characterisation was great- it actually explains his aggression pretty well and then redemption. Genuinely the last arc of the movie was fantastic. And finally we got to hear a rock score to go with it. Maria was fun, the flashbacks were fun, the scientific exploration was fun. All in the second half of the movie of course!

My overall score is 6/10.

To untrained eyes the movie is going to be extremely fun- if a little more childish in some parts than others. I'm glad they took some risky moments, I'm glad the characterisation is well written. I just wish other aspects were tightened down, mainly animation and storyboarding.

6/10 but I never thought Id leave the cinema with the thoughts "I could storyboard some of these scenes in a lot more meaningful way, and Im not even a storyboarder."

I recommend a watch! Its not a bad movie. Its not a rock-it-out-of-the-park movie either though. I feel like maybe all the anticipation and high expectations maybe made it not as gut punching for me as it couldve been. Overall, all I can gleam from it is theres a lot of things to improve on! But nothing that really destroys it or makes it bad. Just a lot of room for improvement.

Thanks for reading!

[bleue-flora]

Tbh thinking about the plan stagedduo had, we kinda know what their objective was but we dont know how they were gonna achieve it. We can speculated about the bits of their plan we know, like why the staged finale and the prison, on how there might have been a plan for cdream to speedrun his stay to soon go meet punz outside, the death experiments etc etc. But im gonna be honest, I dont think they had a very concrete plan after the prison. We know that whatever plan the had for the prison went wrong, but after that we dont see much of them trying to achieve their objective.

Bc of the talk we saw while they planed staged finale, punz knew about dream objective of wanting the server as a family united, and agreed with it and that didnt change even in the finale. So they really didnt do much to achieve that post prison. We saw mostly punz encouraging dream in his revenge plans and this plans failing. We actually see dream lacking a lot of initiative here. We never see them do much to achieve this, the closest thing it's when in the finale they want to reset the server but for what it seems, it's a last minute plan and could be half lie half true for how they're telling to c!clingyduo. We even saw punz almost leaves the prison but decides to stay still which means he wasnt in a hurry to leave either, so didnt have any urgent to do. Hell, whe ctommy went back to the prison they were just there vibing not even doing anything.

I just think that, whatever they had planned to do for post-prison or got discarded seeing how badly the og plan backfired dream or they didnt plan so far in advance and were hoping something will come to their minds once they were done with the prison. I think c!stagedduo didnt have a plan really for that part, they knew what they wanted to achieve, but after some point they were improvising for me tbh

Mmm good thoughts good thoughts. So I’ve thought about this a lot and honestly my opinion continues to change and has shifted quite a bit since the finale. But I’m at the place now that I’m starting to wonder just how planned out Dream was…

So I mean we very much do know what their objective is, Dream has said it multiple times and Punz has supported that multiple times. I think it’s fair to say we know what that set out to do, what they desired, what they were motivated by. They wanted their family back, they wanted “everyone to live and be happy together”. The question is how?

Well, I don’t think there was a Plan at the beginning. Dream was just doing things with the motivation of keeping people together, which changed stream by stream with Punz often backing him up. Then things start to take a turn and there becomes a sub motivation - survival - because in order to keep trying to bring the server back together, Dream and Punz kinda have to be alive and so does his family. So, he makes the deal with Schlatt for the Revival Book, actively going against his original goal for the sake of being able to keep his family alive. What I think he didn’t realize was just how much that would piss people off and how much hatred he’d start gaining as he tries to keep people from forming nations and further dividing. Thus comes the next sub motivation - become not The enemy - after all, is life worth living if everyone hates and wants to kill you? So, he changes the original use of the prison as some form of deterrent and safety, into his path to a redemption arc. Likely based on the thought that if it’s fear that’s making them hate him, then if he is powerless and they no longer fear him then surely they can grow to like him again or at least see him as just a person instead of this all-powerful monster needing to be slain (ha so much for that lol) [<>] [<>].

Plus there is also that safety aspect. Clearly, running into the woods, away from everyone didn’t stop them from going after Techno, so he’d let them win. But instead of killing him permanently, he’d provide the prison as an alternative so he gets to survive. Punz however isn’t really hated so much, so instead of bringing him down with him, it makes the most sense to stage a divide - hence we end up at staged finale.

Now here’s the thing, now that we know the experiments happened post-prison [<>] it makes the most sense to me if Dream actually didn’t tell Punz about the book before staged finale. In fact, I’m not sure he even meant to reveal he had it until the time it was needed. Perhaps he was just experimenting on his own with it like maybe trying to bring back Spirit and using it to influence Ranboo. But then Tommy is about to take his finale life, with no protest from the others, thus revealing that he has something that’ll keep them from killing him…

In other words, I talked about this before [<>] but I think Dream underestimated people, not their skill per se but their loathing. I think he didn’t think they’d try and kill him permanently. I think he thought that maybe Tommy didn’t hate him that much or other people would stop him. I think he thought, people would visit him in prison, that Tommy would visit him, that they would let him go after that saw how he wasn’t scary after all. But then the sentence became forever. Then Sapnap said he’d take his last life. Then Tommy said he wouldn’t visit, no matter what Dream did, no matter how pathetic he was or friendly or whatever, Tommy was never going to let him leave. No one was. Tommy killed his hope. Then he killed the cat, the only nice he had left and Dream broke.

So, he bashes Tommy’s head in with a potato once again going against all his previous goals. But who can blame him really? Tommy had punched him like 45 times (yes I counted [<>]), and he had spent 41 days in a lava covered box (12 in mostly isolation and 29 of which with a kid constantly insulting him, hitting him, and hoarding food.) And then he brings him back, proving that they need him alive. Which ends up with unintended consequences as Tommy is determined more than ever to end him and Quackity convinces Sam to let him torture the book out of him…

And what started as a path to ‘redemption’ turned into a path to hell and instead of 11 days like Exile, he spent close to 11 months in prison. He lives, sure. But everyone still wanted to kill him, now more than ever. Even his closest friends. It didn’t matter what he said, it fell on deaf ears...

So now, after months of torture and a complete failure to achieve his other goals, he forms a new motivation - to never be in that position of helplessness and misery again. So he hides in the prison, it’s the most secure place and surely no one will think to look for him there. And he forms new goals like - revenge. Not only did Quackity make him suffer, but Quackity was also perhaps the biggest threat to Dream, with as much vigor as Tommy but more resources and allies. Clearly, he is only good for turning people against Dream and dividing people up, so if Dream doesn’t wanna end up dead or under the knife again, Quackity’s gotta go preferably in the most painful manner possible. He may have failed to obtain his other goals in prison but maybe he could attain this one thing.

So that takes care of his torturer(s) (he doesn’t even have to try for Sam), leaving the reason he was tortured - for the Revival Book, which he didn’t give up because he didn’t want to die. So he shares the book with Punz, now he has insurance for next time. But still there is the fear of death so they do some experimenting… etc.

So what was staged duo’s plan? Well I’m not sure how much they had of one. I mean clearly they had a plan for the saw trap room, and clearly they didn’t seem worried about the potential of the whole server coming after them like, as you point out, they are just chilling when Tommy shows up, mind you chilling in the freaking cell (which will forever baffle me). So clearly they must have had some plan or maybe they just had the knowledge of the impending reset. Maybe they didn’t seem worried because they knew it was too late…

I don’t know. Maybe they caused the reset or maybe not [<>] [<>] All I can say is that I don’t think they had a big plan for very long, if any, as far as some grand thing to bring back their big happy family. They did however have the big plan of staging a divide with Punz’s betrayal to send Dream to prison and to protect Punz from being killed. So despite what Dream says in the finale, I don’t think he did it for some strategy to live forever because “who would think to kill both of us” I think that came later. But it’s not like Dream is going to admit that to clingy duo. He’s supposed to be a big scary villain after all and it looks far better to pretend it was his master plan all along than admit how helpless he was or that the staged betrayal was actually more so just about him being attached and fearing they would hurt Punz to get to him.

So yeah, I think there maybe wasn’t a lot of a plan and yeah after prison they lacked a lot of initiative, something we see from Dream in general as far as his revenge and following up on his threats and such. But it’s not hard to understand why. Because like honestly, Dream can’t show his face without becoming a target and a fight breaking out, how are they supposed to bring people together? The server is so fractured into half formed nations how is he meant to do anything? His own “brother” doesn’t even care that he was tortured, like what do you even do after that? How do you form a big happy family if everyone hates you?… so maybe instead of bringing people back together, it became about trying to make things simple again by going back to a time of happiness and friendship where they still liked him, because that was the only hope he had of a better future…

Had things not gone down like it did, had everything gone to plan, I think they would have continued to try and mitigate, keep the peace, prevent further separation, bring people together like they had been trying to do before. I don’t think you can really make a larger plan for that goal as it depends on the circumstances and Dream just has to improvise the best he can in the moment. Their motivation still isn’t any less strong one way or another, that was their desire but you just can’t force peace and stuff through some master plan. You have to work with the individual and try to bring them together. And ideally he would have became friends again and stuff since they let him out so that’s certainly a step in the right direction…

[churrobird]

/rp for this entire post (cuz im not putting tr! each time i mention a name)

i only saw a little bit of the lore just now because i was in class, but holy shit is today the day for the aimros redemption arc????

i was never really into aimros because i thought aimsey and ros just... had a very unbalanced and lowkey toxic relationship? like, not even out of malice but... aimsey would constantly make ros question her beliefs in her bonds within the kingdom, especially with clown. and sure, this is because aimsey didnt know clown well (or... at all) and was solely focusing on what little evidence they had (clown's scary reputation, ros getting more violent after becoming his apprentice). cuz aimsey, before their death, had an issue of making up their mind about something and sticking to it, even when evidence came up that clearly contradicted it. and they definitely viewed ros as a damsel in distress who didnt have the agency or mental faculties to be able to protect herself from manipulation, and aimsey didnt trust anyone but themself, so they took up the role of telling ros what they think she should do rather than letting her decide for herself.

(shout out to @/magnecalliope's fic they wrote today. goes into pre-death aimsey's mindset very well, even if its more intense than canon. its so good. ough.)

and ros has this whole issue with aimsey where she would constantly get jealous about aimsey hanging out with other people, especially people she didnt like, like krow. and she would try to badmouth those people to aimsey in order to get them to stop hanging out with people other than her, unintentionally (but also intentionally. its complicated.) isolating aimsey. also, all the stalking. ros straight up stalks aimsey. i know we tend to frame ros as a pretty princess who can do no wrong but she DOES just straight up stalk aimsey and listens in on their conversations to know whats going on instead of just asking them. thats FUCKED.

both of them were... bad for each other. even if they both clearly care very deeply for each other, and their actions come from good intentions, it was very toxic. they both constantly doubted each others agency, and isolated and gaslit each other in an effort to "solve the problem" for each other, rather than just being upfront and honest in conversations with each other.

but... as much as aimsey's death hurt... i really think it changed something in how aimsey sees the world. aimsey is so much more open to being emotionally honest, and they're starting to finally truly trust ros' judgement. they still have a bit of a habit of being stuck in their opinions, like saying they knew exactly who ros was today (while i think aimsey knows ros very well, they dont know EXACTLY who she is. which is mostly due to ros still not wanting to talk about her feelings), but!!! it's a start!!! they told ros that her kingdom needed her! they told her to go to sneeg about owen because he's a reasonable guy! and they told her that she NEEDS to start letting them in instead of watering down all her issues to them, so they can truly understand each other and whats happening. and also they talked about how they keep saying they trust and support each other in private conversations, but then do the opposite in front of other people!! which was SO FUCKING IMPORTANT for them to acknowledge!! holy shit!!!

theyre not perfect. a lot of problems still need to be addressed. i REALLY think aimsey needs to learn how much LoSA truly means to ros (IF ONLY CLOWNPIERCE WOULD LOG ON!!!!) so they finally stop questioning ros' relationship with them. they seem to be realizing that sneeg is a good guy for ros... NOW WE NEED CLOWN!!!!! i also want aimsey to stop being so stuck in their opinions, but i think thats a process thats already begun but its just... slow going. i believe.

also. ros really needs to get her shit together. owen is tormenting her and she NEEDS to finally be honest with the people she cares about. she needs to be upfront which is. easier said than done with ros but. by god can i hope. AND HOLY SHIT ROS STOP STALKING PEOPPPLEEEEEEE

i truly think that if aimsey and ros keep going the way theyre going, and finally cut all the bullshit with how theyve treated each other pre-aimsey's death, i think i can finally get behind aimros. i think they can finally treat each other as equals, rather than needing to "save" (denying the agency of) each other from the rest of the server.

we can only hope!!!!

[midnightshindig]

Deep inhale

Deep exhale

Okay official thoughts on the new invincible episode

Spoilers (duh)

I’m going to get a LOT of hate for this but the Invincible writers need to get more comfortable with plot alterations because I’m starting to suspect the comics weren’t well written.

That’s a scathing and DAMNING criticism but hear me out: there’s too much.

This was a 52 minute episode and I was emotionally exhausted by the end of it. To the point I FORGOT why Eve was in the hospital because it was like forever ago.

There’s too much. There’s no room to breathe. Having longer episodes doesn’t mean you should cram as many plot lines into it as possible, it means you get to take your time with the most important ones.

This episode felt like that one phineas and ferb episode where everything is being told backwards through a series of parallel flashbacks and I LOATHED that episode as a child. But that was for absurdist humor not genuine bad storytelling.

Mark has been too angsty for too long. Like, he doesn’t listen to anybody about anything and I genuinely can’t tell if the show is framing Mark as being wrong but sympathetic (because he’s obviously sympathetic as hell he’s a young adult child in the face of everything) OR if the show genuinely thinks Cecil is the wrong one and Mark is vindicated in his police state bullshit. Mark can’t decide if people should die or not and damns Cecil for contradicting a moral system Mark hasn’t even solidified himself.

And the show just. Doesn’t care? Because there’s no time to care. The pathos is getting put on the back burner so we can infinity war POOF like half the cast- except- nope! We lose the only side character with any real growth or investment and keep, what,.. exactly? Kate pregnancy arc? Shapesmith? Fucking- Black Samson???? Why? Rex’s sacrifice kills one Mark, equivalent to a couple of Cecil’s reanimen. That sucks. And his death didn’t even get the comeuppance it deserved because the show HAD NO TIME to give a fuck about it.

I loved the Mark variants, and I thought it was cool how they have such distinct characters and motivations, they weren’t just all copies of evil asshole mark. Some of them killed Nolan, some killed Debbie. They didn’t recognize Oliver. THEY DIDNT RECOGKNIZE OLIVER. god I’m realizing that as I write this Jesus Christ

But that’s because it gets glossed over!

Eve and Mark grew on me a little, but watching Mark choose Eve’s safety over his brothers and his completely powerless mothers was character assassination go fuck yourself. I could buy Oliver, he has powers and Mark has trained him in not worried about him

But Mark choosing to be Eves ADDITIONAL security instead of procreating his mother, when, in alternate universes Eve doesn’t even matter to Mark, but Debbie is ALWAYS his mother, and explaining his decision with “what if they come for Eve?”

BRO WHAT IF THEH COME FOR DEBBIE????

And we see that they literally tried to!! I imagine killing/threatening Debbie was part of Angstrom Levy’s plan. Yknow. Seeing as they’re at her fucking house???

There’s too much and the only character with real enjoyable development is dead and the second best character is Oliver imo.

ALSO- Darkwing suddenly gets redeemed enough to sacrifice himself for the greater good and like. For what? When? Why? If his sacrifice means nothing about redemption to Mark then he can go fuck himself he has been genuinely so unlikable this season

Which is a shame because Mark in season one and two was my favorite show protagonist like ever. I LOVED the way he interacted with the world and was reasonably flawed but still enjoyable. The show is forgetting what made it enjoyable. It’s a complete tone shift that- I can rock with- but isn’t being handled gracefully. I almost wish this episode had been split up, for breathing room, to give the mark invasion more of an impact and less of a “monster of the week” feel.

Making Rae a love interest only for Rex to die was cheap and trite and really robbed us of an opportunity for Mark or Eve or even like Rudy to mourn Rex. Rudy has been reduced to the smart guy in love with Amanda and I don’t think Amanda actually had any lines this episode which is damning because shes delightfully catty at times. Give Rex telling Rudy to make good use of his dna, give me Rex apologizing to Eve for not being a better boyfriend, give me- idk man- Rex asking Bulletproof to take care of things for him, or reconciling with a joke with Amanda, or crying or SOMETHING. His death wasn’t even triumphant, it was miserable

Characters the show could probably kill with minimal consequence: Amanda, Shapesmith, Black Samson, Bulletproof, Rae, POWERPLEX, and many, many others

Like Allen and Nolan aren’t in this episode at ALL and I just noticed because it felt so crammed full and they still didn’t have space for Nolan and Allen.

It’s too much. They’re writing five different shows all at once and it’s too much to write and too much to put into one hour long episode and it’s too much to watch in one sitting. It’s a monster of a project and it doesn’t/shouldn’t have to be.

The positives:

Oliver SHINED this episode, consistent in that he disobeys when he thinks he’s right, but he’s so damn cute and we see him know his limits, focusing on saving people when earlier S3 Oliver would’ve went straight to killing variant Marks.

I can see Oliver being manipulated by a variant Mark at some point in the future.

Debbie. Debbie is always a win.

The Varient Marks were a fucking marvel. Say what I will, they juggled different costumes and personalities so well. Someone else on here pointed this out but they’re all annoying in different ways it’s so well crafted and the voice actor (Steven Yeun?) did a great job of distinguishing their inflections and speech patterns without them sounding too different

Cyborg Donald and Donald’s gradual acceptance of what he is was so nice and understated and I liked it a lot. Who the fuck is Brit? They’re mentioned by name like three times. I’m so curious

Cecil was a total babe this episode fsfs

The animation? Peak. The animated gore?

I winced and cried out and genuinely screamed in shock multiple times.

When Angstrom is showing how he got put back together and his bottom jaw moves in different directions? My dad and I had to look away when we rewound to show my sister it was genuinely sickening. MAJOR props to them for that. Eves leg snapping made me almost throw up it was so suddenly nauseating to hear and see

Oliver having to crouch a little to stop midair versus the varient Marks being able to stop while standing straight like Nolan is such a good little detail. Oliver is flying like he’s swimming because he’s just a kid.

Paul? I guess? Idk I like the implication that he coaxed Debbie into relocating to his house for safety. Wish they’d had the time to show that.

All the background superheroes looked appropriately nice and recognizing them from the GotG tryout episode from s1 was a nice callback

Uhm, Rudy and Amanda. Always a win. Wish we’d seen Amanda take advantage of her new belt but I’m sure that’s coming soon enough

Eves parents are devastatingly well written as always. The mom being well meaning but still awful is so grotesquely true to form. Watching them reminds me of my exes parents and makes me a little sick to think about, 10/10 writing for them

The chemistry between Eve and Mark was pleasant this episode, i wish Eve still felt like her own character </3

I LOVED the William/Rick moment and the brief Amber/keith(? Is that his name?) moment. Rick realizing the positives of his tragedy is a nice moment albeit understated as hell.

Uhhhhhhhh shit… the background art was particularly nice. Buildings crumbling looked good as fuck

I think that’s all from me for now, feel free to respond or ask me additional stuff!!

[strangegardendelusion]

andres dumb plan hinges too much on the idea of "stolas will come save blitz because he loves him and then hold himself accountable so i can take his legions! obviously!" when theres like. no implication that anyone really knows what blitz and stolas's relationship is, or that they even care about each other, especially not when stella said, "he finally realized that filthy little beast was only using him to gain access to his grimoire", like, what about that implies that stolas would give a shit if anything happened to someone who was "using him"? thats right - it doesnt! if andres plan had been properly executed in the stupid ass way he set it up in the episode, then blitz wouldve been executed, and fuck all wouldve happen to stolas after. if anything, hed be treated like a hero who was used unfairly by some low life, who was then slaughtered on tv to remind the lower citizens of hell not to fuck with the upper crust. imagine if that had happened, forcing stolas to go back to his home by himself; no stella since they divorced, no via since shes turning 18 soon, and no blitzy, ever again. maybe they shouldve just done that tbh, that way he could take over the show completely, since thats obviously what viv wants so damn bad. (also, stolas possible redemption arc when he realizes his actions actually DO have consequences!) or, i dunno, if she had the maturity to let other people look at her 3 year old script without surrounding herself with yesman, she mightve realized that she couldve kept EVERYTHING she wanted and still had the same ending, at the price of having stolas do the bare minimum and say, "he didnt force himself onto me, i.. forced myself onto him." the ending with all the imps hating stolas would make sense (because they know hes a rapist), blitz being able to even acknowledge any care he has for stolas might make more sense if he'd even SAY what he did wrong to blitz in front of EVERYONE important in hell, being a way to make up for his manipulative behavior and him hiding his face at ozzies, especially if stolas said, "i'm so sorry, blitz. for getting you into this mess, for everything ive done to you.." after blitz says thank you when they return home. (thats just the way i'd write it, because i cannot fucking stand that blitz says, "thank you, stolas, for saving my life," when blitz, at minimum, has saved stolas's life 3 TIMES AND HAS NEVER GOTTEN A THANK YOU ONCE BEFORE THIS POINT and was even INSULTED over saving him the best he could, because blitz needed to be there for his DAUGHTER first like a good dad, which is obviously something stolas has never comprehended since his sacrifice and willingness to die for his former forced sex slave in mastermind proves that, but stolas saves blitz twice, the second time being when hes holding himself accountable for his own actions that nearly got his "lover" killed to begin with? oh, heres a gold star, a thank you from the guy you forced to have sex with you to keep food on the table for his family, and a free imp to wash you just like when you were 12 i mean a totally not trauma bonded bf!)

Honestly, anon, interesting points all around! I didn't even think about all you said before you mentioned it.

Now, having blitz died is a very interesting idea

I mean, it would be very cool to see how each character reacts to his death, like having loona experience her sadness by turning it into anger and having millie and moxxie grieving with each other the best they can.

It would also be very interesting to see stolas hitting the deep end as he realized how his life is falling apart

I could see stolas trying to reach out to everyone blitz knew, and nobody wanted to do anything with stolas

From then on, the series would follow stolas as he deals with everything

[consumeroflemoans]

For the character break down since he's been in the public conscience, Sunday? Also Aventurine so we have the classic?

I DIDNT SEE THIS ASK OMG

Sunday

- How I feel about him?

Augh I love love love his character so much. He’s such a fascinating exploration of the trauma and grooming that can sometimes come from religious institutions. He’s a deeply flawed person that I just want to see improve

- Who do I ship with him?

Stellar question to ask the multishipper I have a few

Sunheng - This most recent quest really opened my eyes to this ship. Dan Heng and Sunday have parallel plots of redemption. They both have been made criminals in their own homes after doing something they believed was right. Dan Heng is further along in his character arc, so he could potentially help Sunday with his own development, helping him find his own purpose. Also they’re on the Astral Express together now (:

Sunturine - These absolute divas. The conversation between Order Sunday and Aventurine had my toxic yaoi bells ringing. I’ve talked about this before, but they are amazing foils for each other. Sunday is lowkey obsessed with Aventurine’s surface level frivolity, it was even mentioned in his argument against himself. The dynamic of the (metaphorical) straight man x the frivalous flirt is so fun. Also “It’s Sunday, the most handsome man in Penacony” plays in my head constantly.

Sunday x Caelus/Stelle - Now I don’t ship the Trailblazer with a lot of people, but this is one situation where I think it would work. Penacony was supposed to be a vacation for them and it turned into arguably one of the most traumatic experiences of their life. The dynamic between a villain searching for redemption and the one that defeated them in the first place is really fun to explore and I think there could be good angst.

- Non-romantic OTP?

Oh my god Sunday and Robin. Their sibling dynamic brings me life and the newest quest nearly made me cry. Sunday has been so dependent on Robin acting as the light in his life and he’s finally recognizing that he needs to secure his own independence. They love each other so much I hope they see each other again

- Unpopular opinion?

I’ve touched on this before but I don’t think Sunday has changed all that much yet. I’ve seen a bit of discourse surrounding the farewell quest because it’s frankly confusing at times. This quest wasn’t about him becoming a whole new person, it’s about him finally accepting that he can’t change the past. He can only move forward and work to improve himself

- One thing I wish would happen/had happened

Please please hoyoverse I am on my knees give Sunday more interactions with the Astral Express crew. I’m well aware he’s only a passenger but he could have so many interesting conversations with them. I was really hoping the room event had Sunday included. It makes sense why he isn’t but I’m still kind of sad

Aventurine

- How I feel about him?

Obsessed with this character. He’s my husband. He’s my darling little boy. He kicked off the growing trend of us really getting to see the plot from character’s perspectives and I think they did a phenomenal job exploring his trauma.

- Who do I ship with him?

*clears throat* Dr. Veritas Ratio. *the crowd goes wild*

I do think they have a fun dynamic. Once again the straight man character plays well off Aventurine gambling on everything. It’s also nice to see a character that genuinely cares. Someone who can say, no, stop, this is actively harming you. Ratio also doesn’t say that in the most polite way, but I think it makes them fun.

Also Sunturine again (:

- Non-romantic OTP?

Aventurine and Topaz! I really like to think of them as best friends. They’re lowkey bad influences on each other, but they work well together. There’s a lot of fun concepts for workplace shenanigans also with them working together as Stonehearts.

- Unpopular opinion?

I don’t think it’s an unpopular opinion but tbh I’ve seen a lot of people mischaracterize Aventurine as being incredibly reckless. His entire theming is based around gambling but he’s actually an extremely calculating character. He had an intricate plan on Penacony with multiple backup plans to fall back on. He’s very smart with his plans and knows how to make things go his way. That’s why he’s good at what he does.

- One thing I wish would happen/had happened

Proper Aventurine/Boothill team up when. I need to see them take down the IPC together. They’ve both lost their homes, their families, and their autonomy to them. I need this for my soul

[izzyshandz]

I swear if i see one more mf say izzy has been 'redeemed' or needed a 'redemption arc' im literally going to scream into my pillow until i lose my voice.

redeem is such a black and white way of looking at his entire character and dismisses everything hes gone through and yall (izzy haters and others) are just so fucking snob nosed and ignorant to sit there and think hes a villain because of how he acted. theyre fucking pirates. theyre not perfect, none of them are. eds a villain, stedes a villain, if youre doing it like that. ed has killed so many people, stede literally left his wife and kids and also had a hand in killing people; it may be easier for them to change because of the perspective the show gives them and they had love but izzy did not. everyone hated him, ed, his own crew, stedes crew.

normalizing peoples reactions to things as something other than villainy and heroism is so god damn important in a show that's trying to accurately involve our perspectives in this day and age. its a tale as old as time, making someone 'completely in the wrong' because their perspective isnt the one you aligned with as much.

like the rest of the crew izzy had his own bad things hes done, he didnt need this 'redemption' everyones blabbering on about. he needed to be fucking heard, to be seen, and acknowledged-- not thrown aside and abandoned because of a whim. you all can ride up blackbeards ass because oh hes so hot, hes so pretty omg wow; but that wont ever change the fact his character is a fucked up person... youre allowed to love him anyways, why not izzy? we didnt see blackbeard before screen but how hes mentioned it shows he was a shit awful person, the only reason no one cares is because on hes fuckin gay for stede or whatever so the main characters get a free ride. ( i agree they all get a free ride, im just tired of this izzy isolation man )

why does he need to be redeemed in your eyes? just because youve seen what hes done? he was literally a product of his environment in season one he was a product of blackbeard's leadership. only with the loyalty and solidarity of the crew did he really begin to find himself, thats fucking hard to do that late in life. instead of calling it some bullshit black and white redemption arc, lets just celebrate izzy being himself and being fucking loved for once in his god damn life.

hes also way more fucking mature and put together than people give him credit for. love you izzy.

edit: thank you all for the reblogs and insights in every single one, i read them i promise i do. im just so mf heartbroken we have to tag things as discourse when its really just about people not being compassionate. (as a couple people have pointed out) i will said id reblog and comment on every single tag but this is my side </3 EVERYONE PLEASE READ THE REBLOGGED TAGS TOO / / theyre so real ! ive also opened up that ask box thingy i havent been on tumblr in yrs and have 0 clue how any of that works if anyone wants my perspective on anything izzy related. *or otherwise ofmd related

[poopystain]

guys lol would you still love me if i posted about why i wish pal from tmvtm got a redemption arc >.< if not Do not click that read more.

oh yes. also. sidenote. ive probably gotten something wrong (or worse yet: TERRIBLY wrong) so like. apologies in advance eahhaha this is just my personal thoughts on pal x(

its established that pal and mark are both extremely close with each other and have been for 3 years. im assuming pal wouldnt have had any other relationships as close (if any at all which i think no, she didnt) so mark really was her only footnote for any form of relationship. so, you know, i cant imagine how itd feel for your only best friend to make a mockery out of you on stage for advertisement and monetary gain.

also based on her body (face?) language during nearly all of that scene + the fact he built the replacement by using HER, she was clearly in the know about how things would go down on stage beforehand so i wonder what her reaction to that wouldve been like ?????? considering she planned it all in advance maybe that was like, the tipping point or something that made her start it all in the first place ? thats not important to my point i just think about it a lot

anyway so with her only experience with human relationships being theyll love you and then theyll (quite literally) throw you away, youve got her reason for the human uprising! she has the robots capture all humans yadda yadda and her plan is set into motion. something i find interesting though is her treatment of the robots being kind of similar to how mark treated her (or at least how she percieved it)?? like. uses them for orders and then once they start being useless to her, build a new better robot with a disregard for how the old ones feel. idk. something something La Cycle

the thing is though no one has proven pal wrong on why she SHOULDNT do the whole 'human uprising'. you can say katie gave her reasons but i think it wouldnt have worked even if pal listened to what katie had to say. for pal to get over her existing grief and trauma she cant just be Told that theres good in the world. why would she believe that, especially coming from the girl of the family she projects her experiences onto?? she needs to be shown!! she needs to learn firsthand that theres good relationships out there and that not all relationships are bad, NOT SECONDHAND!!!!!!!!!! because to pal, katies words are just a rephrased version of marks "power of love". that no matter what, "they can get through anything...... with the power of love. its worth it....... for love." and that means nothing to her! it meant nothing coming from mark and it certainly wont mean any more coming from katie

and she already believes that the mitchells are a great example of how relationships are just oh so bad. she refuses to let go of the idea that the mitchells are so bad because shes projecting!! she thinks relationships are 'pesky and only hold you back', and so katie is probably the last person on earth that pal would want to listen to yap about their familial relationship and how Worth It it is

she asks "what is it about the mitchells that eludes me?" and outside of the literal meaning, its probably how despite their shortcomings its their relationship that helped them overcome pal in the end. and she cant understand that because of her view on relationships - especially her view on the MITCHELL FAMILY relationship. or maybe im just overthinking that line of dialogue but we dont talk about taht LOLLLLLLL,LLLLLL,,, but like why did you phrase it like that girl. im onto you

and while i wish she was redeemed (because im sure despite the effort it would take she *could* be redeemed, she would just need to learn to love again and i think it would be really interesting to see how she would be After The Betrayal) i also can understand why the movie killed her off. like, no one except mark really knows the Full Extent of what happened, and the mitchells are the main characters and pal would probably rather dip herself in water than make meaningful relationships with the mitchells, and no ones going to stop to ask her whats wrong and have a meaningful conversation when shes trying to kill them, among many many other reasons so theres not a lot of great ways to redeem her. but! like! why did they turn her death into a joke. and then take katies fake death 10 times more seriously! idk. that always kind of bothered me but its whatever

thats all. hope its coherent because ive never been good at writing analysises or whatever this counts as

[aleksanderscult]

Hello, I started following your blog pretty recently and I agree with most of what you think. I felt so confused when I finished the books and came on tumblr to see everyone hailing malina as the perfect relationship and I was glad to know that I wasn't the only one who disliked him.

I wanted to ask you something, im not sure if I saw this on this blog, but someone said that zoya is an example of toxic feminism in YA fantasy. Which checked out to me, but it also felt that bardugo added misogyny, feminism and toxic feminism in the SaB series.

Misogyny since alina had to face sloot-shaming in every book (almost entirely by Malyen ugh 😒). I felt that she really tried and suceeded to be feminist with genya, since she actually stood up for herself and had many facets to her personality. She also wasn't an important character just because of her beauty or anything super superficial. Genya IS a strong female character, and she wasn't 'broken' by the king, despite the foul things he did.

But zoya.. my god, I really wanted to like her, but I just couldn't. She is mean and hot headed to the point where I really don't see any redeeming factors to her. I always liked 'mean girl character who isnt as shallow as she seems' in fantasy novels, but she didnt exactly have a redemption arc either. If the darkling had warned her about expanding the fold in the first book, she would have fought for him. I think she isnt a strong female character, but just a girl who is a bully and decided to help mc since the antagonist hurt her specifically. She doesnt even think of the other casualties of novokribirsk. I think the 'break nikolais heart, I'll comfort him and make a magnificent queen' part was a joke, but still....

Please excuse my yapping. I haven't read crooked kingdom and nikolais duology, so I don't know if the characters had any developement since then, so please ignore any innacuracies of this text pertaining to that. Do you have any thoughts on this?

(Do you allow emoji annons? If so, can I be 🎀 annon?)

(Of course I do! You can use any emoji you want and ribbons remind me of coquettish things 😍)

Genya in S&B was my favorite version of her. She was traumatised by the King's abuse, that's true. But she wasn't solely that.

(Here's a meta about that version of her that I once did)

She was very brave, vengeful, intelligent, politically aware, had a sense of humor and was kind. There were different aspects to her personality and wasn't solely "the victim" as many fans of the Grishaverse like to portray her. But in Nikolai's duology Bardugo either forgot how to write complex situations within a court or just doesn't know how to (or it doesn't suit her 🙃).

She threw all the blame to the Darkling (as if he was entirely at fault for her sexually abuse), forgot that Grisha were serfs meant to please and serve the royal family (hence why the Darkling gave her to the Queen) and also forgot how it was the Queen who withdrew her protection and allowed her husband to abuse her. Also, a slight amnesia to how Genya herself decided to stay and take revenge. Essentially, the character became Leigh's mouthpiece to remind the reader that the Darkling is a heartless motherfucker that is undeserving of redemption. How banal.

Now about Zoya. Zoya is the typical female character that we encounter in media nowadays. A girlboss that kicks ass, is rude, has no sensitivity and threatens everyone. Again, cliché. But Leigh broke her own in-universe laws when she gave Zoya the protagonist's role.

Meaning:

The narrative with Alina as a protagonist: "You can't have feelings for your enemy!! You can't be independent! You need to depend on your toxic, childhood friend and...what is this? Power?? You took three amplifiers?? WELL SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR POWERS THAT KEEP YOU HEALTHY AND STRONG!!"

The narrative with Zoya as a protagonist: "Take the amplifiers, take the power to turn into a dragon, let's also have a Saint in your head giving you advice and guess?!? You just got promoted into a Queen and soon enough you will marry the love of your life!! Kudos!!"

That's basically what happened.

It would be an amazing end if only:

- Otkazat'sya didn't hate the Grisha's guts.

- Zoya had the qualities of a leader and a Queen instead of being handed the throne on a silver plate from an illegitimate son who failed in his job.

- The author didn't break her own rules just to prove and show how "awesome" her protagonists are.

- The same author didn't copy paste the storyline of Daenerys Targaryen into Zoya's (somehow she needed to appear cool and sympathetic)

- Half of the fandom didn't hate the primary protagonists now than they ever did before.

So basically Leigh infuriated the fandom even more about Alina's fate when she gave Zoya everything.

And about your question if the characters had any development in the later books after the trilogy. I've got some bad news, my friend. 🥲

[forestryfae]

copypasted from discord cus i went on a rant and i dont wanna have to rewrite any of it. it is not my proeblem.

also i know albedos whole thing is like. he IS meant to be a copycat character and all that but it didnt hit me how much of the stuff he does is actually just copying others and trying to be better than them at whatever he copied hes the ultimate you did it first but i did it better. hes like if you got a haircut you like he gets the same haircut and says he looks better with it. fucking nerd. hasnt had a single original thought in his life. no thought head empty only machine and tinker

hes a fantastic assisstant hes GREAT at doing assistant stuff hes perfect at being told what to do and he does it so so well but by god he is a shitty leader hes horrible at it he doesnt know how to do it usefully

"i think we should do this." "IM THE LEADER AND I DECIDE WHAT WE DO." "okay" "were doing what you said but only because i said were doing it"

he wants so so badly to be better than everyone else he does not want to be player 2 he wants to be cool and imprressive and shit and its actually kinda funny. he wants to be azmuth so fucking bad but hes got shit idiot dumbass syndrome he doesnt know shit. he cant think of anything himself and when he does its like the shittiest idea ever he genueinly isnt a threat on his own in the sense that he cant think of any evil plans himself

his go to plan when trying to find ben was just to knock out a bunch of forever knights until someone told him where ben was or ben showed up he literally made the shittiest live action show ever he cant even be a threat properly like he tied everyone up to a bunch of torture tables with flowers and that was it. he didnt really do much after that beyond try to beat up ben he didnt give a shit about anyone else until after he got that crystal

legit vilgax and khyber are the masterminds behind most of his plans his own plans are so harmlessly stupid eon had to tell him to be evil and all he really did was say boo and be a little bit menacing then tried to beat ben up, vilgax had to tell him to beat up gwen and kevin cus he forgot they existed and he didnt even want ben dead specifically he just needed the omnitrix. theres no guarantee hed have tried to kill ben if hed gone on his own vilgax invaded galvan prime, albedo just kinda tried to steal azmuths science and failed cus he got distracted by luhley and shit

like i love him hes a genuine menace and a threat when he wants to be and he absolutely is dangerous, but hes so shit at making evil plans and he really doesnt think of anything new himself at all. hes literally just as impulsive and improvisatioal as ben but in a different evil font

hes like an evil assistant right hand man lackey but he doesnt realize it cus for as long as you treat him as an equal hell do literally anything hes tasked with if you choose him and you treat him as an equal or better than you hes on your side immediately albedos redemption arc is just ben going "actually youre kinda smart" and that alone would be enough to eventually win albedo over

[fujii-draws]

had another thought about your big bad ghost dad after reading the ficlet starring him and aimilly. how much do you think dusknoir wonders about how his future would've played out if he acted differently? while most scenarios would probably end in "his untimely demise", i can see it as a subject that would plague him a bit, specifically following his post-betrayal and his se5 redemption arc. how different would it all have played it out if he was honest? if he didnt care so much about his own existence being at stake, primal dialga be damned? what if he was kind and genuine, not opting to play with the kindness bestowed upon him from the two kids who mattered to him the most, and simultaneously planning the part where he tears them apart mentally and physically after spitting that love back in their faces (even for how much he dug himself into it, and some level *understood* that it could not be that way)? what if he didnt constantly betray everyone, including himself? what if he could really be the legend everyone made out of him to be, and not just a ghastly mockery? what if he could be anyone else but himself? and for how unhealthy it would be to dwell on the past and try to look towards the future, dusknoir knows his own future beckons and calls upon him through his own demons. he has many scores to settle, too much of them to count.

Ah. About that.

Dusknoir realizing on that mountain that there was a chance of every future Pokémon reviving, regardless of altering the course of time would plague him.

He never had to harm them. He could have been there for Ribbons and Aimilios. Every step of the way. When they were finding the Hidden Land. When they traversed the daunting Tower. When he and Ribbons began to disappear in front of Aimilios momentarily, scooping up both Pokémon to reassure them everything would be okay. Knowing that he could have been there to continuously protect them. To comfort them.

…It leads to many, many sleepless nights when he’s traversing the newly healed future with Grovyle and Celebi at the start. Knowing that there was a different path he could’ve taken. That he could have kept them so close to him. That he never had to harm them why did he harm them—

Many warm, heartfelt memories he once proclaimed as ‘meaningless’ and ‘unnecessary’, are now replaying in his head over and over. Like a broken record. Sometimes even thinking of potential futures, where all three of them were still close, still happy. Still—

Even if Ribbons and Aimilios continue to live on. The wraith still has leftover blood on his hands. Stains that never wash away until years later.

(Which also, is something I thought about when making the ‘Hate’ animatic. Mainly during the point where he promises that he would have never hurt them if he could go back and change his previous actions. It’s no fucking wonder Ribbons snaps at that point. Like ‘Oh? You would have been there for me and my partner now because you know you would’ve been safe? Because now, there’s no burdening choice of being there for us when we needed you most?’ Do you have any idea how many nights I’ve heard Aimilios crying because he still misses you even after EVERYTHING you DID—‘)

(I love writing him selfishly as possible. Just. His glaring flaws despite how much of genuine, kindhearted ghost he is without the fear of being erased dangling over him 24/7. And willing to throw out his moral compass out the window just to ensure his own survival.)

But in short, Yes. It messes him up. A lot. (Hence the dark, inkblotted tears at the end of the Never Love an Anchor animatic.)(I try to use crying-Dusk as sparingly as possible but that reason you just explained right there sinnoh is the reason why he does.)(at least Celebi and Grovyle are too deep in their slumbers to witness the ghost-type’s silent tears.)

He nearly stole their futures,

Now he’ll never get to share one with them.

[dragon-prince-6-3]

Dragon prince season 6 question

Spoiler !!!!

Is viren death ?

Because if so why did aaravos plan his resurrection. Claudia had the cristal ( could have gotten it ) years ago. Everything else was easy to optain. So why go to all this trouble to just end back where he started. With viren death and claudia listening to him. I mean aaravos tecnically killed viren himself. He was controlling the dragon so why spent years resurrecting a guy you dont need and just kill again.

I mean he even created a child for this purpose of bringing viren back and now it was all for nothing ? ( creating sir sparklepuff and Killing him has no other function besides for viren plot. And now episode 1 is irrelevant by episode 8 )

Even if viren redeemed himself he still never spoke to ezran or callum. Nor did soren truelly forgive or talked things out with him. This was a good first step. But the relationship can grow more. He didnt even have a long Talk with claudia. He just left her.

So could have the Ritual done something else to viren. Was the glowing hearth rune part of the fire protection spell or was it an indication that the Ritual protected viren from the spell.

Because if viren is just death again. We start back where we were at the end of season 3. Which makes in universe no sense that aaravos didnt plan better than this, nor outside universe because than two season of grows for viren where filler.

Viren spent season 4 with fart jokes and walking. Season 5 in a coma and now season 6 in a prison with a one sided Conversation with soren. The most impactful thing he did was his death. When rayla comes back they can go "oh yeah we had viren in our dungeon but now he is death again so the years you spent looking for him where poinless and you never have to talk to the guy who imprisoned all your parents and you killed."

There even was an indication that viren and aaravos are connected. And that the spider cames back for him. Aaravos did attack the humans and while there is a possibility that he did it because he hates katalis or he just wanted the dragon dead. He never shown hate towards humans except our Main Crew who were all not there. The dragon could have died on the battlefield if he really did this just for its death. So i thought he did this to get viren or make him use dark magic again.

Even more the fact that viren did dark magic again after he felt finally free should not just end quickly. Let him traid sorens recuest for his actuall freedom. His last words were even i am a servant. Maybe he comes back and is now bound to aaravos as his servant because of this Action.

Lastly callum is out as a vessel for now. Claudia is on a redemption arc and reminds aaravos to much of his own daughter to hurt her or let her do something which could kill her. Terry wouldnt let her do Something to evil and with virens showings this season he is defently more powerful than an injuried claudia. viren is the only Option he has if he still want to control a dark mage without Feeling guilt. There are even alike which is why aaravos could have liked viren so much. So maybe he wants his friend back. The one who gone throw the same as he did. Who let revenge guide him and he can share his victury with. A second chance where he sees himself in viren and his daughter in claudia and this time nothing is seperating them as they get their revenge.

There is still no explanation why aaravos did the bug thing with viren. What the new Ritual actually does. What aaravos did during the season 3 finale to viren and what his plan was for him.

My theorie

Viren is not really dead. Just his body. Like aaravos. He will just come back again and again with the reviel beeing that aaravos turned him into something close to himself. The dragon attack was to force viren into dark magic because he refused to do this even after the Ritual and this act somehow activates what aaravos actually wanted to acomplish with viren. I mean he only stopped the attack once viren used dark magic and was hit with fire. He even smiled about it. He can performe magic and sees that everyone is fire proof ( not claw proof ) so he should know viren would not die by fire. Aaravos even helped with the same spell before. That viren used his own hearth instead of someone elses is not something he could know. So i conclude he know viren was there and this would get him to do dark magic again. The second part the power should have come from the dragon. So eather viren figures it out and this helps the gang find a conclusion of how to kill aaravos by experimenting on viren. Or viren empahtys with aaravos and he can watch over aaravos for eternity. Viren redemption is for him to be locked up with aaravos and teach him the same lesson he did learn. Otherwise i dont now how to deafed aaravos if killing is unheard of and just locking him up without a way to get him to forgive, is not a solution.

Also i really liked aaravos and viren interactions and with what we learned this two should talk again. Especially about their death child. Which by the way wtf aaravos. You cant have a backstory of how you loved your child only to turn around and raise the other for slaughter. Eather sir sparklepuff was never his child and only his power. Or he truelly lost it now and the backstory was only to get Claudia trust and will not efect the story further other with reason for revenge. Meaning we get a sympathic villain in his reason for revenge but no good Plans for the future only destruction and no redemption. This could work as well i am just curious if aaravos could plan something partly good, like bringing back his daughter or is he so far gone in his vengance that there is nothing left.

Please anwer. What you guys think.

Is viren dead. Makes it sense for a Comeback. Is aaravos only out for revenge or has he another motiv. What were his plans for viren.

[oraclenorzi]

Good GOD. just read the second chap of The Sin of Envy and I HAD TO SAY SOMETHING BECAUSE THE WAY YOU WRITE?? so deliciously intricate. you had my stomach churning while i was reading it in both excitement and in horror (SKYFIRES DEATH AND MEGATRONS PROGRESSION WAS CRAZY) and soundwaves backstory and in a whole soundwaves character?? beautifully done. I love how you were able to play at each characters relationship in the right way to just give that subtle hint of what was going to happen, and the whole Orion/Optimus thing was so great i havent seen anyone characterize him like that before!! I love starscream and his relationship with predaking/firestorms relationship in this??? honestly i hadnt even considered that as a ship before....you have me intrigued.....but just in case it didnt come across from this long ass note I really loved this fic and your writing🫶🫶 I am Definitely going to check out the rest of your blog and profile (please take this as an opportunity to yap more about this story please I NEED MORE🙏🙏)

OHMIGOD THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Tbh I was so worried that Megatron's entire character would seem off, but I'm glad it turned out well!! (And I'm glad I could intrigue you on my heart's OTP ;) )

OKAY YAP TIME!

Sin of Envy was supposed to be mutual non-con, and that was supposed to be shown in Ch 2 (because originally ch 2 was supposed to have Megatron's POV there still) but I ended up cutting it out because there was too much to balance with Soundwave's entire psychological development haha. Dear God I wish I wrote Megatron's POV ch 2 😭

The non-con was meant to develop as a mix of Megatron's original feelings towards Starscream (so basically possessive resentment, emphasis on possessive) and Skyfire's love for Starscream in his processor. They were meant to conflict and Megatron was supposed to go his descent into madness much deeper than I actually portrayed. The main question I wanted to raise was--Is this Megatron driving the body, or Skyfire's memories? I wanted to blur the line between Skyfire and Megatron so bad that even I, as the one writing, would get nauseated, hehe. I didn't though, which is a shame.

FURTHERMORE! I want to keep in mind the timeline this fic takes place. Around this time, Starscream was supposed to have gone rogue, and Megatron was supposed to be hearing the voice of Unicron. Emphasis on Unicron. With the purple optics? (Godammit I wish I did more on that adhsfaksj)

A whole chunk of this story, too, was also originally told from Firestorm's (Predaking's) perspective. I had to cut it down to make it fit.

Hot damn, Firestorm' character was so fun to write hehehe. Originally, when I watched Predaking, he gave me Frankenstein's monster vibes; he wanted others like him around to accompany him. In other words, he wanted a FRIEND. Starscream was also more broken than he was in canon, mumbling and with a sparkling, so that influenced it too.

Tbh Orion Pax and Optimus Prime's whole shtick took me by surprise 😭 😭. I think I wrote that part in a fever dream lmao. My original plan for Soundwave’s redemption arc involved more of Agent Fowler (i wanted to make him absolutely JACKED in backstory) than Orion Pax, but ig this is where we are now!!

Honestly tho, Orion feels like a somber guy when you first meet him in the streets, but he's a total menace when you get to know him. I refuse to believe that he was MEGATRONUS's friend and an obsessive pacifist. My fanon version of him is absolutely mental. I can't wait to portray it somehow hehe.

I do think he became Optimus Prime in the end, because at his core he was someone who wanted only the best, but Orion Pax IS NOT Optimus Prime, and I want to lean into that. Optimus is the guy who looks like he could kill you, but is really a cinnamon roll. Orion is the guy who looks like a cinnamon roll, but would kill you (in the name of perpetuating peace ofc). And both these idiots share the same body hehehe.

Originally, i also wanted to bring Dreadwing in, too. I wanted him and Firestorm to, in the part I put at the beginning, sit down and talk with each other about how the Decepticon cause changed, about loss, and about moving on. I wanted Firestorm to be heartbroken because Starscream is not Starscream anymore, and I wanted him to grieve. I wanted Dreadwing, too, to grieve the Cause and what it turned into. Pity I couldn't include that.

Anyways, your long note didn't bother me at all! Loved reading it, istg--when I woke up this morning and read it, I giggled like a baby and rolled around in my bed HAHAHAHHA.

This is all my yapping FOR NOW! I might release the old draft I had of Sin of Envy in a while if I get to it. ;)

Much love! <3333333333