#and her whole arc was about her becoming a better person and forgiving herself

[oscconfessions]

my distaste for the new ii ep comes from how annoying it made everyone be about taco, the ep was good but yeah i just realized that. anyway.

listen. I think that Taco CAN become a better person. I think that she CAN be able to move on and that she needs to let go of II as a whole. But that doesn't mean that all of her actions are immediately erased/forgiven either. Like the whole point of the episode is to show that Taco KNOWS that she's a terrible person, but like, being aware of it doesn't erase all the harm she did. And Taco KNOWS that herself. She says that she can't let go, and she DOESN'T want to get better either. That's the whole thing. She doesn't want to get better because she thinks she can't get better. And like. Listen

BOTH take aways from the episode are like genuinely horrid. "Taco should make up with Mic and Pickle" nope! She wouldn't! And she can't! She literally can't! She died from the stress the idea of confronting them caused her, and she doesn't want to because she's aware of how much pain she caused. Mic leaving made her realize she was terrible. "Taco is an irredimable monster" ALSO no. Listen. Taco isn't doing anything to become better. Blah blah blah "her arc is not done yet" we know shut up. My point is that Taco is aware that she's a terrible person and her whole song is about her having pity for herself instead of working on being better. MEPAD is the one who's pushing her to do those things, but that's because he's only aware of like, half of the context and doesn't know Mic's and Pickle's sides. Does this mean she's irredemable? Not really. Yeah she did a lot of harm on purpose and recognizing that WON'T kill any of you. And calling out the fucked up shit she did won't kill you either nor does make you a woman hater, everyone calls out shitty stuff characters do all the time, I am impressed that the "evil woman enjoyers" are so adamandant on saying that the evil woman isn't actually fucked up??? However. I don't think Taco is irredemable AND this comes from someone who very openly dislikes her. I GENUINELY want Taco to become a better person and to heal, I want her to let go of II, and of everyone there as a result. People don't seem to understand how her attachment to the past, and to the show, AND to pickle, is literally killing her at the moment. It is literally stopping her from becoming a better person.

Feeling "bad" about your actions doesn't make it okay. You can't keep doing shitty things and then feel bad about yourself like that makes it okay. That's the thing that Taco does. There's like SPECIAL emphasis on mic and pickle being happy and comfortable without taco being around, everyone calls out Taco because she's been stalking them, Taco did the whole questions thing just for. the sake of it. Like she didn't have to do that. Sure "I want you guys to see how bad the show got". Knife LITERALLY called her Ms Projector. But Taco CAN change. She NEEDS to forgive herself and let go for once and for all.

AND before someone compares Taco to Nickel or to any character to ignore the whole fucking point of the ep and of this analysis. They're not the same. They have their similarities but Taco did all of that shit because she wanted the money, and just because she could. Like have we forgotten that she wanted Mic to literally kill Balloon. Come on. A taser would've just killed him. Taco is NOT trying to get better, she says it on her song as well. She knows she did terrible damage and doesn't want to get better because she genuinely THINKS she can't start over at other places. Her unhealthy attachment to II is ruining her. And Nickel? He was like that because Balloon WAS a terrible person on s1, Nickel wanted to protect his alliance, and he KNOWS he was a terrible person now but you know what he did? He started to become a better person AND a better friend once he realized he was in the wrong. AND he's not aware like Taco is! He IS going to therapy and becoming a better person because he WANTS to be a good friend. Taco isn't. Taco kept digging further and further on her own hole despite the fact that she could've just. Start to get better ever since the ep started or moved on with Mepad but she didn't!!!! Because that wouldn't be Taco!!!!

and because i know people will only focus on me shitting on taco via recognizing what the ep pretty much told us. AGAIN. TACO CAN BECOME A BETTER PERSON. BUT SHE NEEDS TO LET GO OF II. AND IT DOESN'T ERASE HER ACTIONS TO DO THAT BUT IT MEANS THAT SHE GENUINELY WANTS TO BECOME BETTER. THE WHOLE POINT OF II IS THAT YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES BUT THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO LET THAT STOP YOU FROM TRYING AGAIN. TACO IS STOPPING HERSELF.

also i honestly don't think people actually like taco as a character i think most of you are like that with her because you think she's hot. "oh max you just hate women" first of all shut up get another argument for whenever someone calls out your shit and also don't you DARE forget the fact that people villainized candle for wanting to take care of herself + that people were HORRID about cabby winning and about her disability. like the treatment you guys give to women is genuinely horrid. DON'T get me started on the way people treat mic or how people infantilize suitcase for being naive/kind. i love fem characters (my main one is literally mic) and the way literally everyone started to treat taco as a shell of her character is genuinely upsetting when the whole point of the ep was to show that "taco is a bad person and she doesn't want to get better". do you guys ACTUALLY care about taco? do you guys see her as a complex individual? do you understand that she's a bad person? do you understand that she doesn't want to get better? do you understand that she NEEDS to let go of ii AND of the past in order to start healing properly? do you understand that you can still enjoy an evil character while also not having to justify their actions, ESPECIALLY when said character recognized that they're fucked up? or do you just feel attracted to her aesthetic? because i think most of you are just attracted to her aesthetic and the fact that she's "hot" to you. taco is a genuinely compelling character and deserves so much better than being treated as a hot woman who's main character trait gets forgotten every single time.

also the ep made me like her more actually but by jove is everyone stupid about her leave her aloneeeee she doesn't need to be excused she doesn't need to be condemned she needs to let go. she needs to accept that meanwhile she can't fix things anymore that doesn't mean she can't work to be a better person.

.

[clangenrising]

Following the previous question, how do you feel about redemption arcs from the "bad guys" in general? Even if they've murdered, kidnapped, the whole shabam, would you try to give your characters one often? Those in other media like movies you watched?

So, I think that there's a difference between a Redemption Arc and a Growth Arc. I would honestly be hard pressed to find a Redemption Arc that isn't a Growth Arc as well, but a Growth Arc doesn't have to be a Redemption Arc, the difference being that Growth is the pursuit of becoming a better, kinder person and Redemption is the act of repairing relationships with the people you have harmed. More under the cut.

Whether or not you, as an author, give a character a Growth Arc or a Redemption Arc really depends on the kind of story you're trying to tell and the character in question.

The story I want to tell with RisingClan is one about human nature and especially human nature in the face of complicated circumstances and imperfect choices. That lends itself really naturally to Redemption/Growth Arcs because a lot of my characters are going to have made mistakes and even done harm as a result of those complicated circumstances and imperfect choices. Scorch is going through a Growth Arc and has been since the start of the story but she isn't going through a Redemption Arc because none of the characters in the story have been particularly wronged by Scorch in a way that she needs to redeem herself for.

However, despite my story being inclined towards Growth/Redemption Arcs, not all characters in my story are subject to have one and the main deciding factor is "does the character want to grow/be redeemed?"

Ghost is getting a Growth Arc (and maybe a Redemption Arc with his daughters specifically) because he realized he was doing harm and wanted to change. Without this important factor, these arcs are impossible (or at least impossible to do well). It helps that nothing Ghost has done has been particularly monstrous -- he hasn't killed anyone in cold blood, he hasn't tortured anyone to death, he hasn't assaulted any of the other characters. He's just a kind of shitty guy who has heretofore been fairly unconcerned with the ways that his womanizing, lack of commitment, and complicity in an authoritarian governmental system have caused harm to the cats around him. And those are transgressions that people find easier to forgive than others.

However, if I had written Ghost to have done those things -- if he had ignored Scorch's lack of consent during their relationship, if he had murdered Smokyrose with his own two paws, if he were more actively policing the Chaff -- he still would have been able to go through a Growth Arc as long as he recognized that he was in the wrong and committed himself to changing his behavior.

One of the most important parts of Restorative Justice (a philosophy which I try to live by and reflect in my writing) is allowing harm doers to change their behavior and be accepted back into their communities no matter what harm they have done. As long as they are willing to change they are welcome. There's a quote I heard once that I can't seem to find again that basically says "If someone is a cop and then they quit and try to make up for the harm they did, we have to allow them to do that because if there is no place for them in a socially just society then what reason do they have to want that society?" Basically, if someone does something wrong and then that forever bars them from being allowed in society and deserving kindness then we aren't actually making a kind and caring society.

Now, that doesn't mean that, for example, if Ghost had ignored Scorch's lack of consent, that she would be obligated to forgive him and let him back into her life if he decided to change his ways. No individual is obligated to forgive someone who harmed them or be nice to them or what have you. But as a society, we must take care of them and allow them to make new relationships and forgive themselves. I believe that wholeheartedly and as a writer I like to put representation of that grace in my writing because it isn't very common in media to see restorative justice like that (although shows like Steven Universe and The Owl House are great examples of it).

However, that kind of Growth/Redemption cannot happen if the person in question is unwilling to change their behavior. Razor, for example, was never going to stop causing harm -- or, at least, a LOT of very particular circumstances would have needed to aligned and even then the chances are slim. He enjoyed hurting other people and he had no incentives to give up his power over them. In that case, there was no chance of him having a Redemption/Growth Arc. While in an ideal world, all harm doers would change their behavior and find a place in society, it is a sad fact that some people are causing too much harm and trying to "save" them cannot take priority over helping the people they are doing harm to. So, as much as I believe in Restorative Justice, I don't think it was wrong for the Clans to kill Razor because doing so was a matter of life and death for many vulnerable people he was targeting.

So, to sum up, I think that Growth Arcs are very interesting and satisfying in media partially because of my own personal beliefs in Restorative Justice. I think that Redemption Arcs can be good too but they're trickier since the victims of the character's harm do not owe that character forgiveness so you as the writer really need to make sure they earn it. As far as when to "give your characters" one of these arcs, I think it really depends on the character's personality if you're working with preexisting characters. I like creating characters who fit well into Growth Arcs but I don't think that they're "better" than other kinds of characters or anything, that's just my personal taste.

So, yeah!

[cupcakeslushie]

With the newest update, it's got me thinking a lot about Karai's role in this au. More on her actions and treatment of Leo and what lies in the future for her. It's been mentioned and made obvious that the "sibling" (i say in quotes since Karai doesn't even see Leo as an equal) relationship between Leo and Karai is nothing short on unhealthy and toxic. Thus, Leo learning what a real relationship with siblings is with the Hamato family. Karai wants to be the better soldier in the Shredder's eyes and seems to take any opportunity to bring down Leo. But something I keep thinking about is what happens to her after Leo has the emperyon removed and (along with the apocalypse future) after stopping the invasion. Basically, is there still a chance at some sort of redemption for her, or are her actions throughout the au unable to be forgiven. It's said that after Leo leaves the Foot, she tries to prove to Shredder that she didn't even need him to begin with and can handle herself just fine. The only time we've seen her act nice towards Leo is right after the session with Kitsune, where Leo is pretty out of it, but who's to say how often that happens. And then there's Leo himself and how he sees Karai after all that happens. Does he just try and forget about her, or does he hold any kind of resentment like Shredder. There's the question of whether he would be willing to forgive her for her actions. Though this isn't even taking into how Karai wasn't actually Shredder daughter but Splinter's instead.

I know that the answer to this is most likely spoilers, but I could into a whole character analysis on whether redemption is an option for Karai or if she's reached a point like Shredder. It would be interesting to hear you thought on what you can say. Though for the time being, I can wait to see what happens! Thanks for coming to my TedTalk, I hope you have a great day, and remember to stay hydrated! :D

Some of the future stuff is kinda spoilers, but I will say, she’s not a monster on the same level as Saki. She’s certainly not an angel, but she will have her own arc and we’ll see how the chips fall.

At the moment in the comic, Karai thinks seeing Leo fail is a necessary stepping stone to proving her own worth and she’s very bitter over Leo earning a commander title before her. Once Leo leaves, and she has most of Saki’s attention on her, she realizes that the Shredder will never be pleased, Karai starts to rethink her feelings toward Leo, and realizes how much she misses how they used to be. She also has no idea of Shredder’s full plan to create his own dark armor to imprison Leo.

In the past Karai, Usagi, and Leo were…friends (after a rocky start) for a very few short years. Usagi being probably the most distant, for the obvious reasons of hating Saki and the Foot Clan. But with Karai and Leo following him around, training together, and bunking together, he eventually stops taking his anger out on them, and becomes a reluctant participant in their childish hi-jinks. Unfortunately, that does not last long.

Around a year before Usagi manages his escape, Leo’s goofing around on a mission leads to Karai getting seriously hurt. As a result Saki punishes Leo so severely and Leo gets the crack on his plastron. Usagi goes to see Leo, but it’s like he’s a totally different person after that. Leo no longer smiles or jokes and takes training much too seriously.

Karai isn’t much better. She seems to meet Leo’s cold attitude with one of her own, and her teasing becomes much harsher and biting. They all grow distant and Usagi sees no other option but to try and escape. Usagi even extends his hand to Leo when the two cross paths, hoping that Leo would snap out of this strange, new personality he’s adopted, but when Leo doesn’t even react, Usagi turns and leaves for good.

Things get even more strained without Usagi around to act as mediator. The only time Karai allows herself to show she cares, are the moments after Leo’s sessions because he is so out of it. She assumes he doesn’t remember enough that she can be a little softer with him, and Leo usually never calls attention to those times, so who knows.

Once Leo spends time with his family, and sees how a healthy sibling relationship should look, he often wonders how things might’ve been different growing up in the safety of the Hamato Clan. When the family learns that Karai is actually their sister, Leo makes it his mission to save her from the Foot Clan.

[beeanca-writing]

That other anon was being an asshole, but I am curious about what you had planned for EfC? Not gonna lie, I'll miss the cast—would be nice to know what happens to who!

I'm still unsure what I'll do with EfC. I might come back to it once this current period of my life is over, though it'd likely be very different. First of all, it'd be a shorter story. I'd either get rid of some of the ROs, or find some way to better integrate them into the narrative (compare Harry, who you can have this huge, important backstory with vs Val, whom I love but is also just some guy, I guess?). It'd also probably be more focused on romance since that's usually what interests me the most in IF anyway.

I also might scrap a lot of it and stick to the storylines that interest me the most—mainly the Harry stuff. A shorter game dealing with The Hedonist returning to Court and having to face Harry sounds really fun to write, and it'd be a lot less complex to plan than this whole mess. Also, Harry is definitely a more developed character than some of the other ROs. For example, I love Camila to death, but she doesn't have much significance in the story other than "The Hedonist's friend" and I was never able to find her some meaning.

I'd also make The Hedonist even more of a fixed character by getting rid of all personality stats and focusing solely on their actions instead of worrying about personality. The stats were all carried over from CoG, and it's never been something I enjoy in their brand of IF. I was going to do this anyway when I first transferred the game to Twine, but stupidly asked Tumblr what they thought and, since most people preferred keeping the stats, I did that even though I didn't really want to.

As for to what would happen to the cast... In case I do come back to EfC, I don't think this would change much, so I'll put it into a read more in case someone doesn't want to know. If anyone has any more questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Grandma would die. Sorry!

Also, Cordelia was The Hedonist's twin who drowned in front of them, but that was a bit obvious, wasn't it? I'd definitely remove that from any rewrites, it's so unnecessary and cliché.

Henry would divorce Elizabeth to be with Nicholas. The Hedonist could either support him on this or not.

Due to the divorce, the rest of the family would be disgraced in Court. Evie's reputation is a little less affected if she's still with Harry.

As I mentioned in the past, The Hedonist can choose whether to stay in Court or not at the end.

The Hedonist and Evie can repair their relationship or not. Evie eventually makes an effort to become friends with The Hedonist, and you could choose whether to play nice or not. If The Hedonist romances Harry and you manage to have a good relationship, she forgives you, but asks for some time away from both The Hedonist and Harry.

I didn't really plan Camila's character arc well. She becomes a Republican rebel and can either still be friends with The Hedonist or have distanced herself a bit if they continue to be an asshole.

Sabina can choose to no longer be a nun if encouraged either by a friend or romanced Hedonist. If you romanced her but didn't encourage her to leave the convent, she dumps you. (Note: You later find out she was forced to become a nun by her family.)

Similarly to Sabina, Narcissa can choose to break things off with the Emperor if, again, encouraged either by a friend or romanced Hedonist.

Calvin's ending is the wildest one, actually. He finds out he's a father after the boy's mother passes away. The Hedonist can either tell him to abandon the boy or tell him to raise him (if Calvin is romanced, they kind of become a step parent).

Val can be encouraged to start studying to become a librarian. Also, his whole thing is that his father is the Emperor lol

Lastly, horse boy Harry will want to divorce Evie if romanced and marry The Hedonist instead. If you refuse to marry him, he divorces her anyway but doesn't stay with The Hedonist. A friend!Harry stays with Evie, I think? I don't know.

[invested-in-your-future]

I have curious to know more about that:

In your version what would Jaune fallout would be?

Would he be an outcast or a you suck speech to be better?

How would the team dynamic be especially after the situation?

If I were to alter stuff in V1-V3, the bully arc would need some significant changes - far too many things in a show are built around excusing him rather than making him confront his flaws.

I think I said most of these before, but if I were to put it into a list.

Starting with the Bully Arc:

DON'T have Pyrrha help Jaune save Cardin and actually show that while his mindset is toxic, Jaune has the conviction to risk it all when pushed - of course, since Pyrrha wouldn't help him there, Jaune would actually get hurt, making the confrontation a bit messier even if the outcome is the same. And Cardin seeing someone like him put his life on the line to save him would likely sting a lot more.

DON'T do the weird "Ursa Grimm like honey" at all - the show has literal bullies prey on people in the forest, and Grimm are attracted to negative emotions - this means we don't get the "harrowing" scene of Jaune throwing honey at people and the whole plot is a bit less silly - and that means Jaune is NOT here because of blackmail or anything - having Jaune risk his life to save Cardin despite him being a bully is good enough as it highlights the qualities needed for being a Huntsmen and there must be no possible upsides to Jaune doing this - Pyrrha won't change her opinion and she is not involved in the fight - there's no benefit for him doing it other than it being his calling.

DO make Pyrrha genuinely angry with Jaune and have Jaune actually openly apologize to her after the Cardin incident and come clean to her.

DO have Cardin threaten to blackmail Jaune, but resolve it with Jaune coming clean to his team first (ALL of them) and then resolving to come clean to Ozpin and co.

DO have Ozpin shrug it off, either when Jaune comes clean or when Cardin decides to rat him out because, to him, the forest events would be all the proof he needed that Jaune has "needed qualifications" - can even throw in some shady Ozpin stuff and imply the teams are the way they are for a reason too.

DON'T have just Jaune and Pyrrha train. DO have the entire team JNPR decide to work spar together and train together to help him and make him regain their trust by putting in actual work to earn his spot.

There's no instant forgiveness or reassuring Jaune that he's great actually - everyone involved agrees that it's a work in progress, but his willingness to come clean and work to be a better person is a good first step. Team building.

Oh look we just got done with Jaune Arc arc of V1 in, like, two episodes instead of four or five.

V2 stuff

Just erase the "trying to woo Weiss" arc for Jaune Arc. Completely. Have the feud be about Cardin shifting targets and fighting Pyrrha in that sparring match and Jaune being unable to stay in his lane when she handled them just fine herself.

Drop the "I can't dance part" from Neptune. How about Neptune, despite his womanizer façade, actually likes guys but thinks it would make him seem uncool if he asked a guy out to a dance. Here, you have an actual LGBT rep two volumes in without "having to build up a relationship", and it ties nicely into the theme of dealing with toxic masculinity and how it affects different people. And we avoid a scene where two guys treat Weiss like an object they own.

It overall also ties better into the cross-dressing segment because it now becomes Jaune basically going - "Look, I learned my lesson, and I am comfortable without stereotypical macho nonsense" to Pyrrha. And it's a message to Neptune that there's nothing "silly" about not adhering to heteronormative "coolness" - oh look, suddenly there's no need for a laugh track of everyone pointing out that a guy in a dress is oh-so-funny in this diverse and accepting world of Remnant. EDIT: also yes monty intended ot to be about him keeping promises but that still works - Jaune regressing at the start by whiteknighting is him faltering on the promise he made to the team on v1 arc of this version - so the message of him reaffirming his promises still remains.

That's just off the top of my head in what could make him more bearable without sweeping his flaws or his forgery under the rug.

There are PLENTY minuscule things to change that would expand upon his characterization in a way that doesn't detract from the actual protagonists.

BUT

Since I am keeping the first three volumes as-is instead, I am treating the Fall of Beacon as Jaune's wake-up call for self-reflection.

Jaune had quite a bit of time to rethink everything that happened in Beacon - what he did or didn't do, what he said, and his overall priorities in life.

Coming face to face with how insignificant he ended up being ironically had provided him with a sense of clarity - everything falling apart allowed him to look at it all from a different angle.

He did not like the person he used to be, and that's where V4r starts - Jaune views his staying at Beacon due to forgery as a debt Jaune can never repay, and he strives to be a better person - actually worthy of that chance. He also understands just how privileged and stupid his behavior during Beacon was.

He has newfound respect for Pyrrha for having put up with him all this time. He also is regretful over how his antics had prevented them from actually exploring what could have been between them till it was way too late.

There's no melting her weapons for himself, no hero's journey for him. After the tragedies that hit Beacon Jaune ended up with a more clearcut understanding of who he wants to be and how he wants to honor Pyrrha's memory, in turn having processed grief in a bit more healthier way than the others.

[etvie]

Unpopular opinion : this is a deep dive into August’s arc to explain why I have hope that he will become a better person.

His third year at Hillerska was a big slap in the face. He went from having everything he wanted to losing it all due to his bad actions. Throughout the 3 seasons, I think he slowly learned from his mistakes.

In season 1, we see a very arrogant August who thinks he’s on top of the school and that his actions have no consequences. He goes as far as telling Wilhelm that they could kill someone and no one would say a word.

He buys alcohol from Simon, knowing that he won’t be able to pay him and thinks it’s okay. He is also really fake, he has this whole persona that he can only maintain by taking drugs. At the end of season 1, he realises that people are actually going to hold him accountable. He leaks the video and loses something that mattered to him a lot, his relationship with the Crown Prince.

In season 2, he is very scared of suffering the consequences of his actions and wants to fix things. He lets Wilhelm punish him and strip him of everything he cared about in the hope that he will forgive him. When he sees that it doesn’t work and that he risks going to jail, he makes the bad decision to plot with Alexander, but it backfires and he loses Sara. He tries to buy Sara a horse to get her forgiveness but that doesn’t work either.

In season 3, this is when he really starts to reflect. He doesn’t know what to do because doing bad things makes people hate him and doing good things doesn’t get them to forgive him. Boris helps him realise that he sees things as transactional and that’s the problem. After that, he apologises several more times to Wilhelm, even though he knows at this point that he won’t get his forgiveness.

He opens up to Sara, he gets vulnerable and lets go of the persona he was trying to maintain. He is also very isolated from Vincent and Nils which I think is because he realises how shallow their relationship is. He isn’t happy about the titles he receives from his peers at his graduation ceremony because it’s not who he wants to be anymore.

His ending with Sara leaving him is the last lesson he needed. By choosing herself she shows him that everything does not revolve around him. Caring about someone means seeing things from their perspective and sometimes letting them go (kind of the same thing Wilhelm learned during season 2).

We don’t know if he will learn from this of course, so for me his ending is open. However, what we saw in the last season indicates that he wants to change and I hope he will continue in that direction.

[mymoviefaves]

So I was thinking. I think the Genshin Impact fandom (and a lot of fandoms tbh) need to learn that there’s a difference between redemption, and humanization.

Tl;Dr None of the antagonists in Genshin have been redeemed, even if they have backstories and they’re playable.

Spoilers for Genshin, She-Ra, Steven Universe, and AtLA ahead

A complaint I see about some story lines in Genshin is that the game keeps “redeeming” evil characters, and doesn’t just let them be evil, with the exception of La Signora who died before we could get much screen time at all, and will never be playable. But the characters most everyone would call “evil” who are playable, (Childe, Raiden Shogun, and Scaramouche) get quickly redeemed with no consequences for their actions, and are no longer evil characters. And there’s a worry that other evil characters that will be playable are going to get the same treatment.

Here’s my thing, I feel like they will get the same treatment, but none of those characters have been redeemed. At any point. (You could make an argument for Scaramouche but we’ll get there). None of them are even asking for redemption. All of them have been humanized though.

So I feel like the easiest way to do this would be to give examples of redemption and examples of humanization.

Redemption:

The first characters to come to mind are Zuko in AtLA, and Catra in She-Ra.

Zuko did horrible things throughout the first two seasons of AtLA, including a lot of attempted murder/capture, lying, betraying people closest to him, being a general dick even. We know that the reason he’s like this is entirely because of his abusive father, but just having that information doesn’t redeem him as a person. He has to earn that, and he does. He gains the trust of the gang, he shows kindness without expecting anything in return, he throws himself into this fight whole heartedly against the fire nation and the only family/friends he’s ever had aside from his uncle. I feel like I don’t have to go too deep into detail, but you get it right? He actively tries to be a better person and to make good on everyone he’s wronged. The gang and Iroh don’t have to forgive him, but they do, because he earned it. And it’s a “kids” show where forgiveness is kind of a big theme.

It’s a similar situation with Catra in She-Ra. She’s a horrible person. She’s selfish, manipulative, violent, and she tried to destroy the universe for attention. We know why she’s like this, she was horribly abused and manipulated by Shadow Weaver and the Horde. She’s sad, scared, and lonely, but obviously none of this is an excuse or makes her a good person automatically. She doesn’t get a redemption arc until the last season where she sacrifices herself for Glimmer, having absolutely nothing to gain from it. She has to literally become reborn, and much like Zuko she completely devoted herself to fighting the opposite side of this fight she’s been in her whole life because it’s the right thing to do. At no point did she just trauma dump and get the best friends squad and the princesses to immediately forgive her, it took weeks of earning their trust expecting nothing in return. Again, hard work.

Humanization:

I feel like this is where a lot of confusion lies. Especially with the black and white thinking found all over the Internet. “If bad person, than horrible evil monster who kicks puppies” “If good person, than perfect saint of a person has never done anything bad in their life”. That’s just not how reality works, and that’s not how good writing works. If your antagonist is just Satan incarnate, sure that could be interesting to play around, but that has to be the main conflict. Trying to overcome this force of nature.

Great bad guys tend to have interesting motivations, and are fully fleshed out three dimensional characters.

I’ll use a controversial example, but the Diamonds in Steven Universe. They. Are. Not. Good. People. Rebecca Sugar was never trying to make them good people. They do not get redeemed at the end of the show. They do not earn Steven’s or the Gem’s forgiveness. They come to a peaceful solution (because Steven is a pacifist and it’s a kids show) but they’re at no point redeemed.

They are three dimensional though. We find out that all of them are still reeling over the “loss” of Pink, and while their actions have always been hurtful they were always meant to be in best interest for the family. Does that excuse them? No. Impact is always more important than intent, and that’s why they’re the bad guys. At the end of the day and the end of the series, they’re still not welcome in Steven’s life even if they try to be better. The audience can see them as more than just evil cartoon villains, and that makes them interesting as characters, but they’re still bad people.

Another evil antagonist who is humanized and becomes a more interesting and well rounded character, Darth Vader. Stay with me.

Obviously Anakin Skywalker gets “redeemed” at the end of the original trilogy, but it’s obviously very bare bones. It was 1985, and not a great example of a bad guy getting redeemed. However, in the prequels we can see how this literal cartoon villain, dark castle on the side of a volcano, evil character, started as an optimistic, brave, and kind hearted little boy.

Say what you want about the prequels and their writing, but the way they portrayed the downward spiral of Anakin Skywalker was fantastically done if you pay attention and don’t zone out during all the political speeches. We know Darth Vader already, but at the start of the prequels we’re introduced to a literal innocent child. We watch him literally being manipulated and groomed to the dark side by Palpatine, have no outlet to talk through his trauma so the only solution he has is violence, and when he’s at the most scared and desperate he’s ever been, he fully falls into the role of Darth Vader and goes out to murder a bunch of little kids. Little kids the same age and with the same mindset he had at the beginning of the series. Does any of this backstory, trauma, and being a victim of Palpatine’s manipulation make him a good person? No. He’s fucking Darth Vader. He kills babies and tries to drag his own son down the same path as him. It does make him into a more rounded and interesting character though. It makes him human. A terrible human, but still human.

ANYWAY BACK TO GENSHIN IMPACT

Childe, Raiden Shogun, and Scaramouche have all been humanized by the story so far, not redeemed.

Childe is a Fatui harbinger. He actively tried to kill the traveler, and while he felt bad about it (there was a translation error in the English version) tried to kill an entire city of innocent people. He only half heartedly apologized for the attempted murder and just laughed it off. He still doesn’t see what he did as wrong, or anything he does working as a harbinger as wrong. He’s by all standards a bad guy. But, he’s genuinely a kind person. We learn that he’s a loving and sweet big brother who’d do anything for his family. We’re probably going to learn about whatever traumatized the light out of his eyes soon in Fontaine, but he’s never been redeemed of being a murder happy mafia caporegime. He’s still very evil, and probably will be until either he dies trying to save the traveler/Tucer, or realizes that the Fatui are just using him and that taking care of his family is more of a threat than a favor. I have a lot of feelings about this man. But that’s the thing, he’s an interesting, well rounded character even without redemption.

Raiden Shogun has never once apologized or even asked for forgiveness for what she’s done to Inazuma. She doesn’t see her actions as evil, she just sees them as an over correction. She’s barely even able to see her citizens as people because she locked herself away from humanity for 400 years. When we get to know her and her backstory we learn that she has horrible trauma, and everything she’s done has been what she thought was best for Inazuma as a whole. We learn that she’s actually a very kind person who loves sweets and thinks the best solution to a love triangle is everyone dating each other. Does any of this redeem her and make her a good person? No. Very few Inazuma characters forgive her for what she did and the war that came from it. Kokomi is willing to be diplomatic with her, because she knows that’s what’s best for her people, but the second there’s a reason to, her and the rest of the characters effected by Raiden’s actions are ready and willing to throw hands. Will she ever ask for forgiveness or seek redemption? Probably not. But her being more than just the cartoon villain evil robot dictator that the Shogun puppet is, makes her an interesting and well rounded character.

Scaramouche/The Balladeer/Wanderer/Kabukimono/Kunikuzushi/Kuronoshi/Shouki no Kami/Babygirl is the only character so far that I feel like is in his “hey, Zuko here” era. Obviously he’s done plenty of evil things in his life. He murdered several entire families to wipe out a cultural art form because he was petty and hurt. He tried to murder the traveler several times, he helped set the vision hunt decree and war that came from it in motion, oversaw the delusion factory getting even more people killed, tried to become a god, attempting to murder the traveler again and attempting deicide on a toddler. Not to mention, overall, kind of a dick to just about everyone. He even asks “Am I evil?” And Nahida says “Yes.”

Throughout all of 3.1-3.3 we learn his tragic backstory, and how he was lied to and manipulated, and traumatized into going from “sweet and innocent puppet” Kabukimono to the Scaramouche we meet in the beginning of the game. Does any of that abstain him from everything he’s done in the past 400 years? No. But I think where we see the beginnings of a genuine redemption arc is when he decides to help the traveler and Nahida when he has no reason to. The next part of his redemption comes from when he found out the reason everyone he loved died, and the reason he became evil to begin with, was all based on a lie and decided that everyone he’s ever cared about might be saved if he never existed. And of course, after accepting all of his mistakes and the worst most evil parts of himself and still deciding to save the traveler’s life just before getting his vision.

Now, is he a fully redeemed and forgiven character even after all of that? No. Not even after all of that. The traveler is still suspicious of his motives, and doesn’t forgive him for anything. But at the same time, he told them to tell everyone effected by his actions who he is and what he’s done. He’s expecting them to come after him and he’s ready and willing to accept anything coming at him. He’s also been actively being helpful and kind to the rest of the Sumeru cast even when he has nothing to gain from it. Sure, his main reasoning for not hurting people anymore is that he has no reason to, but even if he’d never admit it he’s actively being a better person. He’s still a brat and an asshole to everyone in his life, but that’s just his charm.

Anyway, as far as I’m concerned about future playable antagonists and evil characters (Arlecchino, Dottore, honestly the rest of the Harbingers) I feel like we’re going to get their backstories, and they’ll become fully fleshed out, rounded, humanized characters, but they definitely won’t be redeemed of their evil actions by any means.

[survivalove]

hello! hope you have a good day! I love reading your meta.

as a fan of Katara, can you please share your opinion about the TSR episode? I love Katara very much, but this episode has always caused me discomfort, as if Katara's grief was used to hastily close this hole "zuko has redeemed himself and now they are friends." it seems to me that Katara and her grief (as well as Sokka's grief!) deserved a better attitude than to become a bargaining chip "we will write a hasty episode to redeem Zuko and will not return to this topic anymore." Yes, I understand that this episode is firstly dedicated to Katara, but it always seemed to me that it was written without due respect for her.

so I wasn’t gonna answer this because you mentioned voldemort but then like a hypocrite I broke my own rule and replied to an idiot so here it is:

while I think the premise of TSR is egregious I don’t think the episode as a whole is ruined because of it. I actually think it’s the climax of Katara’s entire arc as it builds off from multiple moments not just about her mother, but her as a bender, her power and always remaining in control of said power. not to mention all this time, she’s confronted and helped persons that have been oppressed throughout the war and now seeing someone who oppressed people for most of his life, of course inflicting unparalleled pain on her, but not letting him own that power and reducing him to (figurative not literal!!) shreds. very good stuff.

so yes, i enjoy it voldemort aside, however comma: the premise is indeed quite horrible.

i agree, the writers definitely used katara and sokka’s trauma as a means for this very middling redemption arc after 3, just as bad if not worse, episodes of the same stuff IN A ROW.

katara getting yelled at for not being so forgiving like everyone else, and then sokka’s trauma being used as a means of information for a trip he wasn’t invited on???

(can we be real for a second and admit that sokka and katara should have been the two persons on that trip in the first place?)

next up, my favorite line:

forgiveness is the same as doing nothing!

coming from the person that literally begged for forgiveness from every other person in the conversation, including katara hhhhhhhh

and then the racist comments to boot like 😭😭 may i remind you once again the premise is based on him needing to earn a genocide survivor’s forgiveness so of course he (the writers) couldn’t help himself and had to make fun of the other genocide survivor! he makes it so easy for me to be a hater.

(can we also talk about how some people like to frame this as him defending katara as if 1, katara can’t defend herself?? which she did and 2, didn’t need to be racist to do it???)

and then you have the sokka discourse which pisses me off because most people that harp over that line don’t even like him like that, and trying to pick and choose which sibling is correct when talking about their mother’s death?? both of their opinions were valid and it’s a reflection of their core personalities: sokka is pragmatic, rational and logical. he didn’t agree with aang because he suddenly adopted pacifism, he agreed with aang because yon rha no longer posed a threat to him and his loved ones and to him, confronting him wouldn’t be worth the effort or ease the pain of kya’s death. meanwhile, katara as we see throughout the show, dives headfirst into doing whatever she thinks is right (imprisoned, painted lady, waterbending scroll) she wasn’t concerned about the logistics, she was concerned about the principle and of course, having to essentially replace her mother’s role made her feel more tied to her death at large. one mean comment throughout sixty one episodes does not define her relationship with sokka. pretending otherwise is just annoying.

after that, i find the episode pretty enjoyable i can’t lie to you. getting kya’s story told and witnessing the satisfying climax to katara’s arc (which is far superior to anyone else’s in my opinion) makes the rest.. almost worth it.

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi: Whole Series Overview

I started this series in January. It took me just under nine months to finish and in that time, I've become the most relevant Higurashi blog according to the Tumblr algorithm. I'm genuinely upset that it's over.

All the way back in my first post for Abducted by Demons chapter 1, I said "This is a story about repentance, forgiveness, and second chances." When I said it then, I didn't intend to repeat it as many times as I did during the second half. But it just so happens to fully encapsulate what I think this story is about.

The first half of this series is about everyone screwing up and causing horrible tragedies either directly or indirectly. The second half is instead about them overcoming those faults and working toward a better future.

Now you might think "All their actions get undone and they don't remember anything. None of the bad stuff they do actually happens so there's no point to all this forgiveness stuff since there's nothing to forgive." But that's not really true. The stuff they do each arc gets undone, but everything they've done coming into each arc and the effects those actions have on them are still there.

Even if Keiichi doesn't murder his classmates in a paranoid fit, he still assaulted a bunch of children with a toy gun and accidentally shot a girl's eye out. Even if Shion doesn't kill all the village leaders out of a misguided desire for revenge, she still resents her sister for the mixup when they were little and the village for how it treated Satoshi. Even if Rena doesn't kill people who are trying to extort her father and hold her class hostage due to suffering paranoid delusions, she still blames herself for her parents' divorce and is always afraid she'll lose everything she loves if she isn't diligent.

Each of these bad timelines are what could happen because everyone doesn't confront the worst aspects about themselves and truly strive to become better people. The question arcs are all scenarios where those negative aspects of the characters are allowed to fester and act completely unimpeded. The answer arcs meanwhile begin to address them and bring everyone together. Most importantly, the answer arcs continuously assert that what you've done in the past doesn't matter as long as you are actively trying to be a better person now.

The turning point in the entire series is in Atonement chapter 11. We've had some allusions to Keiichi's past but this chapter airs out all his dirty laundry. And we the readers might think "Oh Keiichi is not a good person after all for hiding this from us" but when he confesses to his friends, they all agree that he didn't need to tell them this because he's actively trying to be a better person because of what he's done.

Shortly after, Keiichi is flooded with the memories of what he did in Abducted by Demons. For normal people who don't truly have the power to traverse worlds, this might feel more like a premonition of what could have happened if he didn't address his personal issues or kept himself distant from his friends because of them. And this drives him to reach out to Rena and show her similarly that she has people she can go to even with what her past is.

In the final chapter of the entire series, Dice Killing chapter 6, everyone comments on the idea of a world where none of their crimes and sins happened, and they all agree that they're better off in this world because it allowed them to become better people. They still regret what they've done, and it will affect them all their lives, but it's ultimately best that they learned from them.

This series has a lot of fun with throwing supernatural and occult aspects at the reader. We start the story with a premise that there's some secret death cult running the village. Then as we keep going, we get things like the dead coming back to life, doppelgangers, death curses, and the mortal incarnation of a god.

All these different elements become a tangled mess that the reader is left to try figuring out how they come together. And in the answer arcs, we get to find what is true and what is false. And it turns out most of these supernatural elements are actually mundane coincidences or misunderstandings. In fact, Atonement seems intent on proving there isn't anything supernatural going on by introducing a new element, mind controlling alien parasites, and showing how we could mistakenly think that's a thing.

But as the story shows how some supernatural elements aren't real, it doubles down on others. As we learn that aliens, doppelgangers, and zombies are not part of this story, we're also shown that Oyashiro is real, Rika is Oyashiro's reincarnation, and they both have something to do with everything going on.

And all these strange elements were ultimately a distraction. The main point to it all is there is a conspiracy to destroy the village and Rika's death is a core aspect to it. Once all the occult mysteries are solved, we get to focus on the main plot.

Digging into a bit of what I can surmise about Ryukishi07 based on his work here, he definitely believes strongly that a person's mental wellbeing needs to factor heavily into the actual culpability of their crimes. Nomura and Okonogi are the only ones in the story who are painted as truly evil. They did everything they did with full soundness of mind. Most everything else is done by people who are repeatedly shown that they would never do what they did if they were in their right state of mind.

Massacre chapter 1 refers to a heavy-handed example of Keiichi. We're introduced to him by watching him go mad and kill his friends. But subsequent arcs show us that that behavior is very much the exception. Ultimately, every person is a very bad situation away from doing something they would never do normally.

One of the notes in the epilogue to Festival Accompanying is Irie would release a thesis on how changes to the brain affect personality and it will make people reconsider whether people should always be blamed for their actions. So part of the good ending of the story is that mental illness and wellbeing are factored into how to approach the guilt or innocence of a crime.

The ultimate shift from researching Hinamizawa Syndrome as a weapon to researching treatment and prevention is also part of that good ending.

I've gotten this far and I feel like I haven't really talked much about actual media itself. So this is a manga adaptation of a Visual Novel. The arcs were all written and released concurrently over what I'd say are three primary waves. The first wave saw Abducted by Demons, Cotton Drifting, and Curse Killing release at the same times followed by Time Killing releasing after. The second wave was Beyond Midnight, Eye Opening, and Atonement. Finally, Massacre and Festival Accompanying released together with Dice Killing releasing after.

This would really explain why manga sites at the time hosted each arc as it's own separate series since they were treated as their own separate series. When it was given an English release, the volumes were released one at a time as part of the Higurashi series rather than as their own individual series.

If she were allowed to, I bet Karin Suzuragi would have done the art for every arc. Looking at the series by release order, she was involved in the manga adaptation from start to end.

Each question-answer arc pair having its own artist really added to the sense that each arc is a different story and these are different worlds. I don't know if there were any real-world reasons for why it happened, but Hinase Momoyama adapting Massacre rather than Jiro Suzuragi reprising her artist role for it ended up being one of the best examples of how different artists made each world feel inherently different. Massacre is a world unlike every other world and it ends up looking like none of the other worlds.

And I've pointed out multiple instances of it throughout the series, but the team involved in the adaptation knew how to use the manga medium to its maximum. From page layout, to visuals, to shading; the team knew how to give the make everything have the most impact on the reader. The team LOVES the Higurashi VNs and they wanted their favorite moments to leave the same impression in manga format that they felt when reading it as a VN.

Sadly, not everything could be adapted into the manga. There are details about the world that are told to the reader of the VNs that just cannot be carried over into the manga in an effective way. If you wanted to experience both, you're better off reading the VN first and then the manga. It would have the same impact as reading your favorite book and then watching a (good) movie adaptation. Your imagination fills in the visuals as you read what happens, then you get to enjoy those vivid ideas being blown up into a beautiful visual medium.

Two of my favorite personal challenges when putting all this together was choosing a favorite panel and giving each arc a different ending type during each arc recap. I didn't intend to do them back when I started. I originally just posted my favorite panel from Abducted by Demons to emphasize Suzuragi's skill at making mudane things creepy and I came up with the different ending types to contrast Abducted by Demons and Cotton Drifting. But then I realized that both of these would be fun things to think about for each arc.

To recap, this is what I said each arc's ending was:

Abducted By Demons: Bad Ending

Cotton Drifting: Neutral Ending

Curse Killing: Evil Ending

Time Killing: Apathetic ending

Beyond Midnight: Epilogue ending

Eye Opening: Zero ending

Atonement: Trap ending

Massacre: Lead ending

Festival Accompanying: Golden ending

Dice Killing: Tarnished Gold ending

I think that's everything I have to say about this series as a whole so I'm just going to end with a few notes I either forgot to mention or changed over time.

First, I mentioned Shion wasn't a main character in Eye Opening chapter 4. I bring it up several more times as a light joke throughout the series, and I want to mention that I originally intended to be far more aggressive about that than I ultimately was. I planned to put several instances of "(and Shion)" into every mention of the group whenever Shion was with them.

I realized early on that the degree I was going to use that joke would stop getting funny and start getting mean really quickly. I stand by my statements that she's ultimately part of the secondary cast and she's not anywhere near as close to any of the main cast as they are to each other, but they still consider her a friend and she's always welcome to join club activities any time.

I also wanted to tie Beyond Midnight to a few instances of talks about the future but kind of forgot about it when those moments happened. In particular, that arc can never happen in Festival Accompanying since it hinges on Hinamizawa being a ghost town in 2004. So I'd like to know what happens to Otobe and Towada in a world where their story can never happen.

I wanted to make one or two references to Eriko (The girl who was fed to chickens in Festival Accompanying) near the end of the series but it didn't work out. When I read Festival Accompanying chapter 4, I wanted to mention her during the very last chapter of the arc by saying something like "Everyone lived happily ever after, except Eriko and all the other children from the orphanage. They died horribly." And then when Hanyu tells Rika how everyone is living their best lives in Dice Killing, I was going to mention that maybe Eriko also got to live a happy life as well.

I'm pretty sure that once or twice, I mentioned Resident Evil when talking about Tokyo's plans to use Hinamizawa Syndrome for military use. If I didn't, then I intended to and forgot. I was going to add RE1's original release as one of the things Rika can look forward to in the future and was going to joke that it was secretly inspired by Tokyo's plans to use Hinamizawa syndrome in biological warfare, but I couldn't figure out how to fit it in.

I'm working on one last thing for this series before I begin my next one. I'm putting together a post where I try to show what events happened concurrently across arcs. I'll hopefully have it done within a week.

I hope you've enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed writing it.

back

[sweetcloverheart]

Clover Rants Miraculously: “Just Do It”

I often see the adage “Character X isn’t obligated to help Y be a better person” echoed in the fandom quite a lot (especially when it comes a certain blonde bully). Not that I disagree with it, mind you - heck, I’m a huge proponent of the idea of not forcing a character to forgive/absolve an enemy or someone that hurts them just because it’s what a “good person” does. I think it’s very important for anyone to learn “I can fix them” is not an obligatory reaction to someone being in a mood.

The problem I do have with this attitude is that it’s often hitched to the other idea that “X should just be good” (often also accompanied by “Well so-and-so has a similar backstory (except it’s often just a very surface level similarity) and they’re nice! Chloe has no excuse”). And while that attitude isn’t wrong, I feel like it doesn’t really address the issue with how Chloe’s “attempts” to be good could have been done/handled better

So I have to ask - how? How is Chloe supposed to just “be good” despite years of having it internalized to her that being a self-serving narcissist is the best way to live life? What steps should she take? How should she better herself?

Like, this is a show aimed at 7-8 year olds. Kids aren’t stupid or cruel from the jump yeah, but if often goes a long way to actually give them tools/advice on how to achieve the kinds of behavior/attitudes parents want them to embrace. Sometimes just saying “Just be nice” isn’t enough and some people do need the extra help/guidance.

“But you just said no one’s obligated to help someone that hurts them become a better person?” Yes I did - however, these two attitudes are not mutually exclusive in my opinion. Marinette isn’t obligated to act as Chloe’s therapist and hold her hand the whole way towards her redemption, true, and taking the steps forward is mostly on Chloe herself - but that doesn’t mean the former can’t try if she wants to, nor does it mean Chloe must be blocked from any and all people willing to give her the tools/instructions necessary to make these changes if they want to. There’s nothing wrong with a character receiving help to be a better person (especially if it can lead to them eventually continuing to improve on their own once the training wheels are gone). It doesn’t need to be “Oh all’s forgiven just don’t do it again okay!” or something along those lines. You can have Chloe being directly helped into being a better person than she is and emphasize that this is something she has to choose to do while showing that Marinette and co aren’t insta-forgiving her for all the bullying and torment for all those years.

Honestly, the majority of the issue comes solely from how the show set up the whole thing. I mean, let’s look at Chloe’s “arc” in seasons 2-3 for a bit - we had so many characters telling Marinette she needs to simply “be the bigger person” and give Chloe another chance because it might help her be nicer, but I don’t ever recall anyone actually giving...genuinely actionable advice on how to achieve this goal through these acts. No “maybe make her do some volunteer work and see if that helps”, or “Maybe help encourage nicer behavior by showing her the benefits of being nice and have her emulate you”, or “Maybe use your role as student president (or as Ladybug) to force Chloe to actually help out the class (even if it might fail because of her using her dad to get out of it)”, or even “Ask for help from her childhood friend who should be more involved in this plotline considering he is, y’know, her childhood friend”. Just keep “forgiving” the mean girl when she goes out of the way to humiliate you and give her a magic haircomb, and then hope for the best (and if it fails, we’ll blame you for not doing more/preventing her fall from grace even though we did nothing too and likely could of helped)! Yeah, Chloe only acted like a hero because of the Bee Miraculous and helped out, but what about being Queen Bee encouraged better behavior from her outside of “Well, Ladybug likes me! :)”. Who and what was encouraging her to bring out that same attitude in her civilian life? Why make the whole onus on Chloe’s self-improvement be on only her and Marinette’s shoulders when the folks pushing the former to play redeemer for the latter “clearly” saw good in her could have directly assisted? Having the cast “Give chances” can only go so far - they also need to give actual goals (or at least smaller achievable daily actions) for whosoever is being redeemed before we can say “Well, they tried”.

Also, why is it that only Marinette is making these efforts - where’s Bustier, who keeps claiming she thinks there’s good in Chloe when she prompts Marinette and the rest to turn the other cheek, to assist by reigning in Chloe’s bad behavior? Where’s her father, who’s totally willing to defy her order to send her half-sister back to New York but will still gladly shut down half the city because one particular person irked his daughter or stand back while she and his wife mistreat her, to finally put his foot down and stop using his position as mayor to allow her to act however she likes without repercussions? Where’s Adrien, who sees his childhood friend mistreating his classmates and friends (and future girlfriend), yet will defend the behavior with “that’s just how she is” and won’t intervene until it actually directly affects him (“Despair Bear”) or he learns about an event from years ago and only cares since that’s interfering with his relationship now (“Derision”)? Where’s Master Fu, who encouraged Marinette to let Chloe have the bee and stood to the side as the entire thing broke down and lead to “Miracle Queen” happening?

There were also no actions taken by the narrative to force reflection on her behavior - Situations like “Rogercop” (Getting her “best friend’s” dad fired), “Maladictator” (Causing her father to get akumatized over her flipflopped decision to leave the city), and “Miraculer” (intentionally hurting her “best friend’s” feelings/getting her targeted by Hawkmoth because of the ID reveal) should have been major changes for Chloe and put a halt on her status quo. Even “Despair Bear” (despite how much I like the episode), really only scratched the surface by having Adrien threaten to end their friendship and force Chloe to actually consider her behavior for 10 secs before going “LOL just kidding, she’s still awful” and sacrificed that small moment of potential character depth for the sake of a joke. Imagine how much more interesting it would have been if Chloe had gone for an insulting compliment to show she’s still mean but at least is trying maybe? Or have Adrien get upset that she went right back to bullying everyone and eventually made good on his threat at the end of season 3? Why not actually have more situations like that, that lose her friends and the privilege of her status that either forces her to reflect on her behavior or doubledown until she loses everything. Why can’t there be effort put in to try and make Chloe seem like she was trying (or not trying) and failing to be a good person - or having it actually look like the cast was failing to reform her by showing them actively doing things to force her to be nice and her failing at them/being a hero and refusing to help/be better despite Ladybug’s attempts to steer her in the right direction and have her lose her miraculous because of that (instead of the eventually made moot “hAWkmoTh kNoWS YouR iDEntIty” thing). How hard was it to show Chloe and everyone actually trying instead of just going “Well Marinette said Bustier and everyone tried to give her a chance (and no, I’m sorry - standing back while Chloe torments her classmates while also blocking Marinette/others from making any open opposition because they think that eventually the magical nonexistent switch in her brain will flip to “good little angel” if they just do nothing is not “trying” in any universe) so clearly she’s just evil” after spending a majority of the 4-5 season demanding the MC and audience take the “be the bigger person” approach while claiming Chloe has potential to stop being a brat.

[hijackalx]

Behold, my most favoritest durge in the whole universe:

Rowan!!!

*sitcom crowd cheering sound effect*

She’s a redemption arc durge and also my lil boo thang.

Some insight to her appearance:

The scripture on her face and black eye are supposed to represent her Badness (like a physical manifestation of her shame and guilt, no actual logical reasoning for it lol) and it also indicates the two different sides of herself that she struggles to balance. Her tear stains represent that struggle.

After she redeems herself (2nd photo), the scar on that side of her face still remains, a bitter reminder that her past will always be a part of her regardless of how desperately she tries to set things right.

Anyway, follow her in her journey of self discovery and better drip

*Dark Urge questline spoilers below*

Rowan is a human bard, her instrument of choice being the violin. I think that it compliments her personality since its versatility allows it to be either somber/haunting (classic violin), or spunky/upbeat (fiddle). Particularly during the beginning of her journey, she flips back and forth between these contrasts frequently.

She’s kindhearted, often willing to help those in need, but she is not a pushover. She doesn’t mind bullying those she deems as “bad” to get what she wants— or just bullying them in general (subconsciously projecting how she views herself onto them and punishing them the way she believes she should be punished for her urges).

She will expect something in return for her good deeds, as she believes good should be rewarded. “If being good is thankless, then who will want to be good anymore?” She’ll accept rewards in the form of assistance, gifts, and gold (obviously gold is preferred, she has to save up for a better fit. Being that swagless is just adding onto her list of crimes against humanity)

Rowan is a very difficult person to gain the trust of, and she does not initially tell anyone about her urges. She is very suspicious of everyone’s intentions and generally keeps her distance.

She has a hard time with Astarion, since she immediately senses that he has a lot to hide (again, projecting— she is hiding horrible things from everyone, and assumes the same of anyone else who is equally as secretive). They don’t typically get along to begin with, but there is a mutual attraction.

When he confesses his vampirism to her and hopes that she’ll spare some blood, she feels empathetic. Although they had not seen eye-to-eye before, she sees herself in him at this moment— both victims to their urges under circumstances they didn’t ask for. She finds it in herself to help him out.

Unfortunately, he kills her (bruh moment). She is angry once revived and pulls away from him again, feeling as though her trust has been taken advantage of. Ultimately, she decides to forgive him for reasons unknown to her (this is circling back to seeing herself in Astarion, and she is fulfilling her desire for forgiveness by forgiving him. She has 8 wisdom though so she has zero ability to realize this LMAO)

Not long after this, Alfira is killed at camp. She’s able to get away with it, but the guilt eats away at her day by day.

Despite her attempts to choke it down, the truth forces its way out, desperate to be known and understood. She decides to tell Astarion, someone who she hopes will acknowledge her struggles instead of shunning them due to their similarities. His acceptance of her draws her closer to him, taking interest in the solidarity between them.

Eventually, she finds out that red is definitely her color. Although, while the fits are hard, they are impractical (booboo armor class). Trooper that she is, she accepts it as still being an upgrade from before.

She gradually becomes less patient as time goes on, growing weary from constantly keeping a lid on her urges. She allows herself to participate in more minor cruelty as a result, hoping it will grant her some relief. She is still keen on doing the right thing, but her attitude plummets and she often takes pleasure in maiming those who are on the opposing spectrum of her morality.

Around this time, she is also approached by Astarion, who wishes to sleep with her. Since she is attracted to him, she agrees, though she doesn’t expect anything other than a FWB situation. They both end up catching feelings (bruh moment #2). They become almost inseparable and he takes her to poundtown every other night until he pulls away for Astarion reasons (y’all know I’m not writing all that).

It isn’t until her urges almost kill Astarion—the only person she’s been able to truly trust with who she is— that she solidifies the fact that she has to stop giving in to them, no matter how small, as they clearly snowball into something uncontrollable.

After this, she realizes it would be safer for everyone to know the truth, even if it means losing a few friends. Luckily, they accept her, lifting the excruciating weight off her back.

This brings her much closer to Gale and Shadowheart, who have been with her every step of the way and choose to continue to do so even after she confesses. She concludes that she was wrong about them, and that not everyone is out to get her like she previously feared.

As you can see, it’s only uphill from here baby. She finally turned her swag on, acquiring armor that not only looks cool as fuck, but also has a respectable armor class. She even got drip for the entire crew, generous queen.

With support from her companions, she’s encouraged to go through with freeing herself from her urges. Although, she refuses their help during her fight with Orin. She sees that they’ve played their part, and that this fight is something she has to go through alone one last time. She reigns victorious in the end, though this leaves her feeling a little lost. How can she continue living after the suffering she’s caused?

Instead of wishing to punish herself for her actions, she tries to atone for them. In order to do this, she leans fully into “hero” status, no longer accepting the title of “morally-debatable hero”. She helps whoever she can, accepting the good karma as payment rather than objects or actions. She finds that this leads to better things than an immediate reward.

She also stops torturing bad guys like a freak and becomes more reasonable in her reprimands (if she can get better, can’t they?)

I don’t think she has fully forgiven herself yet, and I don’t know if she ever will, but she’s on the right path.

😋✌🏻

That’s it for now. If you read this far you’re actually crazy as hell but also very cool and swaggy.

Rowan’s story isn’t quite finished yet, since I know the latest patch messed up some of the ending scenes, so I’m waiting for those to get fixed. Just know she’s at the citadel waiting to save the world like the good-aligned shorty she is (And yes her face has cleared up. I’m so proud of my bae 💗).

Feel free to share your favorite tav with me!!

Some bonus pics:

[nerdyenby]

I’m sure plenty of people have thought about it but I haven’t seen anyone dissect it so let’s talk about

Soren and Claudia as a reflection of Zuko and Azula

Obviously there’s the whole “kids of the big bad, son gets redeemed, daughter falls further into evil” thing but you can go so much deeper with it.

The Azula/Claudia parallels are pretty overt: villain’s prodigy daughter bases her whole identity around being good at what her father wanted her to be and becomes so desperate for approval she becomes functionally irredeemable (withholding the acknowledgment that she is a victim of manipulation and emotional abuse).

But we get to see in tdp what we never got in atla: the fall.

Azula was conniving and ready to do anything for her father’s approval long before we met her, and similar is true for Claudia, but we get to see a window into who Claudia could have been. We see her have friends and passions and interests and doubts. We see her looking for the best in people and believing what she’s doing is right. We see Claudia wrestle with the morality of her actions. We see her crossing the line and knowing it. We see her losing herself in desperation to get back a life long gone. We see her acknowledge that she has done unforgivable things and hating herself for her willingness to do them.

Claudia is Azula’s arc in reverse. Instead of getting this terrifying, perfect warrior fall apart at the seams when losing control, we get a girl who knows there is a line treading closer and closer until she’s crossed it so many times she doesn’t bother going back any more. We watch Azula’s prefect image fracture and break, we see Claudia collecting her broken pieces, reconstructing herself into something unrecognizable. We watch Azula’s fall from grace, we see Claudia’s rise to power.

Soren and Zuko’s parallels are almost more interesting to me, because they’re a bit more subtle. They are not each other, you could not slot them into each other’s stories like you could with their sisters. They are distinct but that’s what makes them such interesting foils.

Zuko’s arc is of him breaking out of who he was “supposed” to be and finding who he wants to be. Soren’s isn’t. He’s an adult, he’s already decided magic wasn’t for him. He knew he didn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps, but he still wanted to make him proud. Soren is a warrior but he doesn’t try to be anyone he’s not, he’s a fierce fighter but he’s also an absolute goofball. He’s not the smartest, but he enjoys exploring new ideas and he wants to make people happy, he knows who he is. Zuko, however, is heartbreakingly clueless to what kind of person he is outside of his father’s orders.

Soren has a more defined personality from the get-go, but Zuko has to figure himself out on how own starting halfway through the series. Zuko’s life had been governed by a desperation to earn his father’s love and years of rage, he never got the chance to explore himself beyond this until season three. Soren, on the other hand, knows himself, but has his identity challenged and chipped away at. He is a crown guard, a protector, but he finds himself causing more harm than good. He’s loyal, he wants to fight to make the world a better place, but when he becomes paralyzed he knows that this is better — that he doesn’t want to hurt anyone and that he doesn’t trust his orders to not lead him astray. He wants to do the right thing and make people happy, but standing up for what’s right breaks his sister’s heart and pushes her over the edge. He is determined to help make a better future, one of peace and forgiveness, but that means protecting the king, even against his own father. Soren believes goodwill and faith are the key to a better world, but he can no longer trust Claudia, his sister and closest friend. He believes in letting go of the hurt of the past, but he’s mourned his father twice and he’s still alive.

Soren is a good man who wants to do the right thing, but every step of the way is a personal challenge. While Zuko is struggling to find himself and who he wants to become, Soren is fighting not to lose the best parts of himself when his identity is constantly being challenged.

Zuko’s banishment is a key part of his story, he was thrown out, forcefully separated from his family and forced to find himself on his own while his father’s shadow loomed over him. Soren, however, had been his father’s right hand in a way. He was right there, watching his father and sister slip further and further into dark magic that gradually eclipsed who they once were. He was by Claudia’s side as she did increasingly horrible things to satisfy their father, he watched as she slowly became someone he didn’t recognize anymore. Soren himself was ordered to kill for his father and almost went through with it. Zuko was never asked to do anything like that, probably because Ozai didn’t think Zuko would be willing or able to go through with it, but Viren believed in Soren. He wanted his son by his side, and for most of his life that’s what Soren wanted, too. Viren’s a messed up dude but, in his own messed up ways, he did care for Soren.

That’s part of what makes these families such good foils: that there was love there. Viren loves his kids in a possessive and controlling way, but he does want them safe and close; Ozai only ever wanted his kids to be useful. Claudia loved her brother, and Soren continues to love her.

Zuko and Azula have resented each other for most of their lives. There is sadness there, a sense of loss of what they could’ve had, but they never got to have a proper relationship. We get to watch Claudia and Soren fall apart, while we only ever got to see Zuko and Azula hate and pity each other. That is what hurts.

Look at their goodbye in season three, look at their reunion in season four, look at how they care for each other and how terrified they are of what’s happening before them. Now imagine Zuko and Azula in their place.

That is how you do good foils.

[jemmahazelnut]

Juvia for the character bingo?

I adore Juvia, I’m the only one who can speak about her and I know her better than anyone, even Mashima himself.

No, ok, of course I'm kidding, but premise: if you are a Juvia-and-Gruvia stan, this post is not for you, because I don't care about the version of a perfect and adorable Juvia who deserves the world because she's pretty and never done nothing wrong in life etc. Likewise, if you're a Juvia-and-Gruvia hater, this is no place for you, because I literally don't care if you think she's a horrible canon person who deserves to die and disappear off the face of the earth.

If you are Juvia stan and Gruvia hater (I know you exist somewhere), this is the place for you (or if you are indifferent to Gruvia, or if you like it but you are not avid shippers proclaiming Juvia as the ideal girl. Actually, idfc what you think about the ship, I just know that shippers and antis generally think in compartments and don't want to question anything, so if you belong to one or the other category, go on and see other posts).

So, now let's make two things clear before starting the discussion.

Juvia is not a lovely girl, nor is she a good person. Juvia is a fucking messed up person who has good intentions, but having not lived in a good place most of her life she has unhealthy relationships with many people, highly questionable behavior, and a very bad relationship with herself. She is also a strong and cruel woman who can kill, she will and she has already done. And despite all that, she deserves the love, but more importantly, she deserves a fucking painstakingly detailed development arc (and no, if you tell me there's no forgiveness for her, Ill get pissed, everyone have had a development arc, Jellal, Laxus, Gajeel, Cobra, Sting, etc. but Juvia doesn't deserve it? Don't even talk to me).

I won't explain all my ideas about her in this post, otherwise it would get very long because trust me, I have an Odyssey in mind, but basically:

Juvia is a girl in love with the idea of love. She has lived her whole life alone and desperately wants to make friends and find her life partner, so as soon as she meets someone who is even a little bit nice to her, she becomes morbidly attached, as indeed she did with Gray. But she doesn't just do it with him, she also does it with her friends, so Lucy, Cana, Erza, and other people in the guild. As soon as someone extends a finger of hers, she takes the whole arm and craves that affection that she always sees in others. At the same time, she's not good at showing affection in the normal way, so she does weird things, and usually she's overly pushy and willing to literally go out of her way to get anyone to accept her. She sacrificed herself for Cana, so yeah, she would literally do anything, and she doesn't understand the limits of people, so as long as someone gives her something, she takes, takes and takes. She is also very insecure of herself, so it doesn't take much, a miserable 'no' and she risks going back to being the lonely rain woman and that she annoys everyone with the weather she brings with her. When this happens, she leaves the guild because she is afraid to annoy her guildmates and return alone (Lucy and Natsu always join her and stand by her in those moments).

She has a complex relationship with Gajeel, but he's also probably the only real friend she has, at least in the beginning, because she doesn't feel this need to continually affirm her affection for him. She's not even afraid of him leaving, because Gajeel has already seen the worst of her in Phantom Lord, and he's stayed, and she knows that he will stay by her side because he's one of the few people who understands her. (Then Cana will also become friends with her in a similar way).

She is an unnervingly strong sorceress, let's not forget that she was an S-class level in Phantom Lord. She was cruel too, she killed people with the Water Lock, and she wouldn't hesitate to do it if she saw something that reminded her of her childhood.

Speaking of her childhood, she was awful. From an early age she was considered a cursed child because she brought rain everywhere, for this reason her parents put her in an orphanage. She had no idea, and after spending her early years in an orphanage with everyone staying away from her and bad-mouthing her, she went looking for her parents. She hoped to reunite with them but when she found them, they did not recognize her, and badly kicked her out of the house saying never to be seen again. She moved to a village and tried to live alone, but still everyone annoyed her and told her to leave. One day someone annoyed her so much that she seriously injured him by trapping him in a water bubble and suffocating him. Since then, she has escaped from there.

She tried to remove the magic herself, with dangerous methods that put her life at risk, but it was unsuccessful (I have a whole arc in mind on this omg). She even pushed herself too hard with her magic that she nearly died. Probably in a very dark period of her life she also thought about ending it. This until she entered Phantom Lord. There, for the first time, she found a place that accepted her, and she immediately understood that the stronger she was, the more she was accepted. That's why she trained hard and became ambitious, she wanted to surpass all wizards, she thought that as she got stronger, she would have more friends. And more or less, that's how Phantom Lord worked. She was also able to use her power to its fullest, because nobody cared to use good methods, she could kill and she did it without hesitation, especially when she saw cruel people who reminded her of her parents or the people who they bullied. She felt somehow at home.

She then entered Fairy Tail, and for the first time she saw the sun thanks to Gray, which is why she thought that Gray was her life partner and so she became attached to him.

From here my version completely changes from the canon, or rather, initially it's similar with her becoming obsessed with Gray (but not only with him, also with Lucy and Cana and the other guildmates), then as she goes on making mistakes, understands how to actually build a true and healthy friendship. She learns to love herself and to understand what she really wants other than 'not to be alone', and discovers that she is actually very ambitious, she wants to be strong, she likes to be strong, not just because she likes admiration, but precisely because she likes to be able to protect her loved ones. She's always fucking creepy when someone touches her loved ones, like, you know the scene on Tenrou where she's fucking creepy when Meredy talks about killing Gray? Well, yes, Juvia is like that, only not just with Gray, but with everyone in the guild, touch someone dear to her and she will kill you, absolutely and without remorse.

She also remains a romantic, a person who adores small gestures of affection, a clumsy, she loves children but never knows how to behave with them, she is a very manual girl, she knows how to paint, but above all she knows sewing clothes or building accessories, girls always come to her and she is always happy to give them gifts. She is also a mega emotional and sensitive girl, when she feels an emotion, she feels it to the nth degree. When she's happy she gets loud, and infects everyone with her happiness showing it to the world, when she's sad no one can cheer her up, when she's angry you better run.

She understands that her relationship with Gray is complicated and one-sided, and she tries to act better and walk away from him when he tells her he's not comfortable with her. When she does that, Juvia discovers that in reality she is happy even without him. Like, she's a friend of Gray, a close friend, but she understands that her love was in her head. Then they cultivate a beautiful friendship, which if you want can also become true love (or not, you decide, but there must be that passage of self-understanding first. Actually, I'm a bit indifferent to the ship but whatever).

And then I'll stop here, even if I have things to say about the relationships she could have with other people, primarily with the Thunder Legion (in my opinion she gets along very well with all of them and also with Laxus), with Gajeel (their friendship is complex and that's okay), with Lucy (they are bestie fight me), with Erza (Juvia admires her), with Lisanna (Juvia listens to what the Edo version of Juvia was like and thinks about herself), with Cana (a bestie much more sincere than Lucy, she doesn't mince words when she has to make it clear when Juvia acts like a bitch), with Mira (these two girls are actually more similar than it seems), and that's it, now I stop.

It would have been faster to write a fanfiction.

(However I don't think this version is very far from the canon.)

[tangledbea]

When i say parent characters, i mean The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, Brave, and Strange World.

Original ask, for those following along: What is it about over-protective/over-bearing parents in other Disney show and Disney movies that were done better than in Tangled the series?

The difference between the parents in the movies that you listed and Tangled the series are that those parents all had character arcs within their stories. They began their journey as overbearing and/or overprotective, but the audience gets to see how their attitude towards their child and their own behavior changes.

Triton realizes that it's his actions that caused Ariel to run away. He even voices out loud, "What have I done?" Once he's told the truth of the situation by Sebastian, he exchanges his freedom for hers. And, at the end of the movie, he gives her back her human form without her even asking him to, because he sees that it's what she wants more than anything.

Marlin is actually the main character of Finding Nemo. He travels miles upon miles, meeting other fish and getting into and out of situations, and he realizes that, while his fears are not unfounded, they are also not insurmountable. He is given the final push of realization by Dory when she points out that he's not letting Nemo actually live because of his overprotectiveness. And then, at the climax of the movie, he makes the decision to trust Nemo and believe he knows what he's doing, thus proving that the lesson has been learned, and that he won't let fear hold him or Nemo back anymore.

Queen Elinor is the co-star of the movie. The story is literally about her and Merida's relationship. Through the course of the movie, she comes to understand Merida's point of view, and through Merida's own steps to meet her halfway, she becomes more open and compromising.

The same can be said for Strange World. That whole movie was about generational trauma and mending ties. Searcher realized he was pushing Ethan in the same way that Jaeger was pushing him, just in the opposite direction, and even Jaeger comes around to understand that his point of view isn't the only one that matters.

However, in Tangled: the Series, Frederic isn't a main character. He's actually a side character, an obstacle for Rapunzel to get past, and doesn't get a character arc. We don't see enough of the world and the situations through his eyes to really view an arc. What he gets is more like falling off a plateau. He's overprotective and overbearing, getting worse and worse until the S1 finale, at which point he abruptly apologizes when Rapunzel comes to confront him and he's sad, and lays out the reasons for why he was acting that way. And Rapunzel forgives him. And because she forgives him, everyone else in the series does, too. (Which happens later on in the series, as well.) Her forgiveness and actions during the season finale abruptly make him realize (off-camera) that she is more than capable of taking care of herself, a point which he tells her at the very end of the episode, despite people having been telling him that all along.

After that, his appearances are few, and they literally had to wipe his memories to reverse his personality to before he was overbearing and overprotective just to make him more likeable to the audience. There was very little satisfaction in that. It was as if they were scrambling to try to get us to like him, since the audience had such an overwhelmingly negative and unsympathetic reaction to him. (Not universal, of course. There are plenty of people who get it and like him, but the vast majority of fans do not.)

So I guess the big difference is that we get to see the journey of those other parents, even if it's brief, and so we know they've actually learned. There's a lot of heel turning in Tangled: the Series, and it's one of its biggest writing flaws.

[overlyimmersed]

So I was having dialog in my head, as I do, and it didn't occur to me till way late that I should be recording it

so now it's too late to really write it out as a proper fic, but I'll just tell you about it. I feel like I don't give a lot of justification for the ship, cuz I ALWAYS DO THIS, so I really need to better illustrate that these two have something special going on...

it's inspired by a post I was reading on Pinterest about redemption arcs and the nature of forgiveness.

It's a conversion between Maranwe and Helbram, the tone is kinda low but not super heavy. It's more like negative pondering about the sort of condition of his soul kind of thing, rather then a whole ton of guilt. Like it's not like he's really interested in forgiveness from humanity in any sense, but in more of a nebulous way. Like general morality rather then any person's opinion.

He wonders if he could ever be worthy of any kind of forgiveness or if he can ever really be considered redeemed, and if it's possible at all to atone for all the damage he did, even though he's already put effort into that. And he wonders out loud how Maranwe was able to forgive him so easily.

Her response starts off simple, as most of her conversations do. She says it's because she's doesn't really believe in atonement. She goes on to explain that him feeling remorse at all is simply good enough for her. That she only went along with helping him atone because it seemed important to him and she never thought it was necessary. She doesn't believe that forgiveness from others means very much and true forgiveness can only come from oneself. If a person feels bad for the pain they've caused and stops doing it, that's good enough. They stop being bad when they stop doing bad things.

She supposes that atonement could be good for balancing Karma, if you believe it works that way, but she doesn't. And she says that the believe in seeking atonement and forgiveness from the people you've wronged come from the idea that you need to become worthy. She tells him that he's always been worth the world to her and "no amount of atonement or grace or sin will ever effect that" she says "I know your soul and I know your heart and I've never flinched at either"

He says he doesn't deserve her, and she reminds him "Mercy doesn't care what you deserve" and kisses his forehead.

Note; that's a phrase Maranwe uses a lot. She calls herself "an agent of Mercy" and believes that alleviating pain, regardless of it's cause or karma, is her reason for existing. Mercy isn't really effected by Karma, people can get mercy even if they don't deserve it and sometimes people that do deserve it don't get it. It doesn't work on the same system and she uses that statement to be like "it doesn't matter if you deserve it or not it's here anyway".

[sagespirit-wc]

since i (finally) finished reading wind i thought id give some of my thoughts on it. might be whiny <3

spoilers probably beneath the thing - beware

overall i think it’s ok! (for warriors). it’s definitely getting more interesting from a plot perspective but im personally less invested than i was the first few books and i think it mostly has to do with nightheart and sunbeam. i like them okay and i do think they’re cute together - and it’s really nice to see a healthy romance front and center in warriors (looking at you bramblestar).

one of my biggest things - which isn’t necessarily a criticism of the books but more a personal thing - is that nightheart has become a bit boring since his character arc. i think it was relatively well done and i liked seeing him grow up a bit and grow closer with his clan and family, but he’s just so … meh now. i really liked what a spunky little shit he was at first, it was very fun to read. i wish we got more protags that aren’t viewed by the authors as perfect golden boys that can do no wrong - but now he might as well be one.

they’re getting better at handling squirrelstar - i remember being pretty pissed about how they just completed changed her character at first after she became leader (which happens too much imo) but i think we’re starting to see a little bit of her old self shine through. i especially loved her whole thing with sunbeam when she wanted to see her family. i didn’t want to see bland perfect thunderclan leader #4 i wanted to see squirrelflight as a leader. so hopefully they’re sticking with that.

on that note - this is old news i think but im glad they picked ivypool as deputy. i’m definitely biased (i adore her) but i think she’s a really interesting character and id love to see her get more spotlight again. (it also fuels my delusions that if we get ivystar we’ll maybe get twigbranch as deputy - ill never forgive the authors for abandoning her and violetshine). anyway i think there’s also a lot of interesting stuff that can be done with ivypool as deputy/ leader especially with dovewing in shadowclan. i know they won’t make her deputy too but imagine ?!!!??

it’s been said many many times but holy shit there’s too many damn cats now - especially in thunderclan. like jesus christ i can’t keep track of them all - i miss when there were like 10ish background characters with their own personalities and dialogue instead of the occasional one liner from whoever the fuck this guy is and nothing from cats that used to be protags/plot relevant (looking at you twigbranch. alderheart.)

i still adore frostpaw and i love how confident in herself she’s become. honestly i want more of her. the nightheart and sunbeam (especially) chapters dragged a bit for me. she probably had the same amount of screen time (page time?) as she did in previous books but it felt like less this time to me.

there’s just. not a lot going on. which is saying something for me cause i could read an encyclopedia’s worth of just fun character dialogue and no action - but we’re not getting much of either. it just feels a lot less charming than earlier books/series. it might just be me growing up but i just read avos for the first time this year and i ate that shit up. it feels a lot of the time like they’re just padding this shit out to meet the page count. like if you only need four books to tell this arc’s story you know you can do that right ???

like fr what happened in this book actually plot wise - splashtail is leader now. frostpaw is in shadowclan. berryheart and fam are rogues and hurt and sunbeam is worried about them. frostpaw is slowly convincing people she’s not a liar. she and puddleshine see splashtail being shady. frostpaw saves windclan(???) and then they spy on river clan some more and watch him kill harelight. maybe i’m being silly but it just - that’s not like. a story. but at least something happened i guess, like it’s moving along. i miss the park.

some little things that they would never do that would make things a little better (to me):

- frostpaw and whistlepaw. enough said. would fix all my qualms forever.

- give splashtail a personality?? he just seems like a very generic villain too similar to the others we’ve gotten. just a tigerstar/hawkfrost rehash. give him something new !! at least make him more charming and manipulative, dont just lead with the whole fear/intimidation thing again. he just comes off as brash and a bit stupid which is fine but not that exciting

- more mothwing??? like they’re hinting that mothwing is connecting the dots between this situation and hawkfrost but i want more !! give her the chance to right things this time! i wanna see her beat that little shit up!!! a lot of people think she’s going to be riverclan’s new leader and i wouldn’t be mad about that - i do love her - but i also think icewing would be a fun fresh choice

- shadowsight and frostpaw friendship. i mean come on!!!!

anyway i’m sure i could go on forever but that’ll do. sorry im sure that was extremely negative and ranty but no one’s gonna read this anyway!!!