#and that is because i don't actually have any sort of plot relevant to him being a double

[itstimeforstarwars]

"i feel like for a bit there i had an au percolating about obi wan time traveling and becoming korkie's double in order to save satine" 👀 oh? (if you want to talk about it)

See okay I really haven't thought this one out a whole lot but there's so many fun things that could happen with it!

-Obi-Wan is 18. One day he wakes up and the Republic is at war, and the Jedi are leading it. He goes to the Jedi for help, because he has no idea what's going on, and they don't believe he is who he says he is. They already have an Obi-Wan Kenobi, you see, and this has to be some sort of Sith trick.

-Obi-Wan gets frustrated and seeks help from another friend--Satine. She doesn't know how to send him back to his own time, how to make the Jedi believe him (but she believes him, she always has), or how to stop this war that they both agree the Jedi shouldn't be leading, but she does know how to offer a lost child shelter. And Korkie needs help learning how to deal with the intricacies of the Senate, and Satine's good friend is Padmé, and Padmé uses doubles as bodyguards, and hey, do you mind keeping an eye out...

-Obi-Wan does keep an eye out. And then when some assholish Zabrak comes trying to usurp Satine, he's quite unprepared for Korkies unassuming bodyguard to fight him off long enough for General Kenobi to rescue everyone.

-Obi-Wan has no idea how close Satine came to dying that day.

Alternatively:

-Ben Kenobi is an old man, until very suddenly, he isn't.

-After dying on the Death Star, he wakes up on Mandalore. He looks very young, though he's not entirely sure how young. His best guess is somewhere between 16 and 23. He has a padawan braid. He cuts it off.

-It's the middle of the Clone Wars. He thinks it's...close...to the time Satine died. He's not entirely certain. The war has all sort of blurred together in his memories, into a mess of pain and loss and betrayal and Anakin--

-Anyway. Satine dies soon, and Ahsoka leaves the Order. Ben can stop that. He remembers this part. He can make it happen differently.

-He shows up on Satine's doorstep, looking like a lost little Jedi, with sweet manners and a very shell-shocked demeanor, and Satine knows beyond a doubt that this is Obi-Wan Kenobi's child. This is Obi-Wan's child, and he has run away from the war, and he has deliberately sought asylum from a neutral planet. And she says, mine now.

-He's not quite Korkie's age, but they do look very similar. If pressed, they could pass as siblings. Even twins, if no one looked too carefully.

-Korkie is 110% on board to hide a Jedi. It is possible that Korkie has hidden several other Jedi refugees before. Ben's not entirely certain; Ben also will not ask. If there are Jedi taking refuge on Mandalore, that only makes it more likely that they will survive the inevitable betrayal by the clone troopers.

-Death Watch is getting bolder, and Satine fears for Korkie's safety. She remembers another young Jedi protector, protecting another New Mandalorian noble. She should not ask this shell-shocked child to protect her nephew. She does anyway.

-Korkie teaches Ben everything he does not know about being a Mandalorian. Ben teaches Korkie everything he does not know about politics and lying by telling the truth. He also teaches Korkie to use a lightsaber. Just in case.

-And when Maul tries to take over, he finds himself taken by surprise by two unassuming young men who take great offense to an attempt against their aunt's life.

-And when Ahsoka leaves the Order, Satine sees another lost child of Obi-Wan's, and she again says mine now.

-Maul isn't dead. He's pissed off and in a dungeon somewhere but he isn't dead. He's spinning stories to Ahsoka about how Anakin is the next Sith apprentice, about how the mysterious Sith Master only took Dooku until Anakin could fully come into his power, about how the Sith Master had betrayed Maul, and of course Ahsoka knows it's all banthashit--

-Except Ben the bodyguard agrees with him, and isn't that interesting--

-Do you think the Jedi would let me come back to them if I kill the head of state even if he's secretly a sith lord--

Anyway, regardless of whether Ben travels forwards or backwards, this story would include:

-remarks about how Ben and Korkie look remarkably similar (and no clear conclusion on whether there's a reason for that, because I prefer my Korkies of dubious parentage and Force sensitivity)

-Korkie gets to use a lightsaber

-General Kenobi shows up and finds an identical Force presence and has a "Why are you me? I'm me?" kind of moment.

-Satine introduces Ben to Padmé who introduces him to Sabé who gives him a lot of tips about being a double once she realizes what's going on. They're great friends, even though Ben seems...odd, at times.

-Ben has no idea about the chips.

:)

But yeah I don't really have a lot for this story these are just the half-baked percolations. It's fun to think about when I have no idea what I'm doing with paw and galidraan.

[ghouljams]

Living vicariously through Bee, can we have Bee either impulsively purchases or has new livestock bestowed upon her, except…she has no place to put them. And Königs like god dammit (affectionate) and helps her build a ramshackle paddock to keep them in for the time being. Can include whatever kinky or plot shit you want, competency kink, size difference, stronk, whatever. I just need validation cause I just had to help my dad build a quarantine paddock in the burning sun this afternoon cause he impulsively bought more sheep 😭

Maelstrom you fuckin beauty I am so here for this. Bee is exactly the type to fall victim to the supply store chicks and bring home way too many because she wanted them to have friends. She is not made for farming but she loves animals and is so stupid. This is going to be very little relevant plot stuff and mostly me making König's life harder.

You call König as soon as you get home, worrying your lip with your teeth and staring at your new family member. You need to have a good long talk with yourself about impulse decisions and saying no to your neighbors. The line hardly rings twice before it picks up.

"What's wrong?" König asks instead of a greeting. You don't know why something has to be wrong for you to call him. Although thinking about it there's usually something wrong when you call him.

“You have to promise not to be mad.” You hear König exhale over the phone, a slow release of pressure.

“I promise I won’t be mad.”

"Ok, I- actually don't know where to start," you tell him honestly, that seems to work best with him. There's a short beat before he tells you,

"I'll be right there."

König stares down at the little pig you hold aloft for him to see. It’s eyes are almost as big and shiny as yours, it's little nose snuffles as you stare entreatingly at him and god dammit he can't say no to you.

"You need a paddock, and a shed." He tells you, already making a mental list of what he’ll need to grab from his place.

"Is a paddock like a little fenced area?” You ask, holding your squirmy piglet like a baby. König nods.

“Do you have a paddock?” Sometimes it feels like he’s really holding your hand through a conversation. You swear you’re not normally this stupid.

“I have a busted up fence behind the house.”

“Show me.”

-

König crouches next to one of the old fence posts behind your house, testing its stability before nailing up the wire netting he’d grabbed from home. He tips the brim of his hat with his finger to glance at the rest of the posts in the area, quick mental math buzzing and filling in where he’d need to put missing posts. When he stands again the roll of his shoulders as he straightens to full height is mesmerizing. You don’t think you’d properly internalized just how strong he must be. Watching him work is certainly… enlightening.

He’s really good at this, and you- you have nothing to add that could help. If you’re being totally honest with yourself, you would’ve been completely lost without him to here. Your heart clenches in your chest watching him twirl his hammer idly. You should really be doing something besides watching him. The flex of his bicep as he wraps his hand around the next post and shakes it, the tightness in his back as he raises the hammer and brings it down hard on the top of the post to force it further into the ground... You let out a pleased hum involuntarily. Are you proud of your ineptitude? No. Is seeing König work sort of worth it? Absolutely.

“You sure I can’t help?” You ask, more to be polite than to actually offer. König glances at you, the soft patterned sundress, the sandals, and shakes his head. No, the only thing you need to do is keep looking at him like that.

“Don’t need any help,” He sits back on his heels, staring at the fence post for a moment, before he looks back at you, “actually, if you had something to drink?”

You nod quickly, feeling like just the worst host in the world. You’d been so busy drooling over how hot your poor neighbor is you’d forgotten how hot he must be working out here. You can see the sweat on his skin, the wetness of his shirt where it sticks to him, of course he’s thirsty.

“I’ve got some lemonade, how’s that?”

“Perfect, thank you Hummelchen.” You smile at the nickname, whatever it means it feels affectionate and it makes you happy. You’ve never had a nickname before.

You steal a last look at the flex of his biceps before scurrying back to the house. This you can do, piling ice high in a glass and pouring lemonade just to where you think it might spill. You pop another glass in the freezer for later and feel fairly pleased with yourself, thinking ahead for once. You grab the glass to take out to König, careful not to spill as you cross the grass.

He's back to working hard, tapping nails into fence posts, and making sure everything is as secure as possible for you. For you. He's doing this for you. Just like he does everything for you, and doesn't ask for shit in return. It would be hot if you weren't starting to worry you're taking advantage of him. He looks up when he hears you approaching, his eyes crinkling pleasantly at the edges. He doesn't seem to mind helping you out. You should really find a way to return the favor.

You hold the glass out to him, "Looking good!"

He hums, fingers bumping yours as he takes the glass causing some of the drink to spill over your grip. He wants to tell you you're more than welcome to stay and watch, that he likes feeling your gaze so heavy on him, so appreciative, but he stops.

You lick the sticky sweet drink from your fingers without thinking, a terrible habit you've picked up living alone. König's eyes trace the motion, the soft pink of your tongue as it slides over your fingers. His own fingers tightening on the cool glass, feeling the creak of it trying to hold up under his grip. You don't know what you do to him, making an inquisitive noise at his staring, wiping the wet of your fingers on your skirt.

"You need something else?" You ask, König's voice catches in his throat. You. You. God, only you. You're all he needs and then some. You really must not know. Fuck, he wants to show you, wants to make sure you know how your every movement affects him. Maybe then you wouldn't be so spectacularly naive.

"No," he finally grits. You grin, just happy to have helped even a little.

"Just grab me if you do, I gotta finish up the laundry but I'll be back for your glass." You pat the post nearest you with finality and turn back to the house. König watches you go, thumb rubbing at the condensation on the glass.

König's hand settles on your shoulder as you're pinning sheets in place on the line. It makes you jump a little, you'd been thinking and hadn't heard him walk up.

"Paddock's done," His hand is damp with sweat and dirt, his voice almost as warm as the air. You glance over your shoulder at him and have to pretend you're not staring. It's weird he'd lose the shirt and not the bandana but you're not complaining. He's littered with scars but they only add to the appeal of the cut musculature, did he walk out of a museum? He's gorgeous, and your throat feels dry for any sane words but "wow" and "Holy shit" and "do you mind if I just touch you for a little." You tear your eyes away from his abs to look at the paddock.

Perfectly straight fence and evenly spaced poles, your new critter already snuffling about in the grass. There's even water and food troughs, you wonder if he found those in the old shed or if he brought them from his place. Somehow the well fit fence makes him all the more attractive.

"You'll need a shed for it, but it should be fine for tonight." König tells you, you nod a little and swallow the drool you're working on.

"Piggy smalls can sleep in the house, he's little so-" you cut yourself off, the questioning concern in König's eye makes you think you've said something wrong again.

"Is that what you've named it?" You nod quickly and hear him snort.

"You like it?" You ask, just to hear him tell you no.

"It's very... you." He says after a moment, smile wide enough you can almost see the edges under his bandana. Butterflies kick up in your stomach and you twist your fingers into your skirt so you don't reach to try and touch him.

"Are you staying for dinner?" You ask quickly, before you lose the nerve to say anything to him.

"Do you want me to stay?"

"Yes."

He likes the way you say it, like a sigh. Like you could never say anything else to him. "Then I'll stay."

[cupcakeslushie]

Okay. I've been tip-toeing around this AU for a while now, but I just got caught up, and now I think I have a (decent) grasp on what's going on. So I wanna go over everything I know so far to see if I'm right or wrong on anything. Don't know if you'd be willing to correct me or not. Either way, I hope my mistakes can help you understand what to clarify to other fans like me. But, I also have some questions. You probably won't be able to answer most of them, but it's at least worth a shot.

First, where's Venus? Like, why is she not in your comics that are (sort of) separate frome the canon now story. The ones that skip to the future way after all the turtles reunite. Did she die? Did she escape? Is it because she wasn't introduced yet when you made those comics?

Two, why do you keep on making references to the future timeline? I know you're planning on possibly making your own stuff leading up to the events of the movie. It just gives me a jumpscare when I see certain...imagery in those comics. I guess you're hinting at what your version of the future apocalypse would look like, but it just hurts to see. Specifically in the comic explaining both the events and aftermath of the movie and the bad future timeline. It's starting to really confuse my brain as to where this story is headed. What's meant to be the main focus? The Hamto's reuniting? The aftermath? Or the future?

Third, did you make all those min-comics before you started the actual AU? Or did you do them during?

Fourth, are any of those mini-comics relevant to the actual story now? Or have you changed your mind on a few things? It's just that everything is so all over the place, I don't really know whether to trust if they're accurate. I know most of them are just there for funzies, but the longer ones concern me. I guess I'm just not used to the storyteller doing sequel, start, prequel, start, sequel, prequel, prequel, sequel, and then end. Or maybe it's just me, and I'm sleep deprived.

My little observation speech is gonna take a while for me to get out in your asks because when I get theoretical, my speech gets long, and my proper English goes down the drain. So I'll be back. I appreciate your work very much. Despite the pain it causes me, it's still amazing.

I’ll try my best to clear up what confusion I can!

1. As far as Venus. The answer is kind of a mix of, I was still figuring out her design and backstory while coming out with some of those early comics, and then, once I had that down, I wanted the boys to grow strong bonds as a main cast. That’s why a lot of the side characters are only making small appearances in the Sep!AU Life stories, as those are mainly for the boys reconnecting. (Usagi shows up the most because I love him and am totally biased towards him).

This maybe hasn’t been stated outright, but I wasn’t really expecting so many ppl to like Vee as much as they do, and now im trying not to spoil too much of her story. It’ll unfortunately just take us a while to get to the meat of it. Since the boys reconnecting takes up a lot of the early s1s2 story, Im trying to follow the familiar Rise blueprint of Draxum, Shredder, Krang, and then in s3 we’ll have crazy fun new stories with the extra characters.

Ive also decided to take this little nugget from one of the Q&As, and use it for Venus instead of Jennika. It was a much needed bit of inspiration to explain why Venus sorta disappears for a while and will go through some major physical changes (not yet revealed) before the family can figure out a way to reach her.

2. I’m not sure if you mean jump scared in a bad/triggering or neutral way, but if you need me to tag anything on those posts please let me know!

The glimpses of the future timeline, are being scattered throughout wherever they parallel the present story in little ways, but that’s only for now. As we get closer to the movie plot, bigger chunks of the future will be revealed, because the future versions of the boys will have a larger role to play in the present timeline. So we will need more backstory than what the canon got. And also I just enjoy drawing my future versions so sometimes I don’t think too hard on a reason. I just like throwing them at ppl with no warning or reason.

When s2 ends, I plan on collecting all the future related stuff that’s been released, and recapping it for easier reading. Right now, it’s just little sprinkles of foreshadowing to give ppl an idea that, ‘oh crap. The doomed timeline is a bummer’. In my mind, I guess i thought it’d be kinda like a fun scavenger hunt for clues, but maybe ppl don’t like that 😅

3. All of the side-stories were written as the main comic was/is being released. A lot of them resulted from asks that just spawned the need to expand on certain ideas, or a desire to give all the turtles their time to shine.

For instance, when I was doing Donnie’s section of the main comic, it was a good few months where we hardly saw anyone but him and Venus. I wanted to just mix it up, and give Raph some love with his ‘Raph Time’ short. When Leo was front and center in the main, we hardly saw the others, so Mikey and Donnie got their little ‘Secrets’ short (and it was also I fun thank you for EW making it so far in the tmnt sep competition).

4. Anything that has been reworked/revised or just plain dropped should have an ‘Edit’ note because yes—I have gone back and changed some things, but more so from the asks i got in the early days, and some movie idea drafts.

All the short comics done in the last year, especially the ones that are listed in my pinned post, are canon and fall somewhere in the timeline. They’re like supplemental reading though—extra meat to give the world and the characters more personality. They do have particular backstory plot and important info in them, but nothing that shouldn’t eventually be re-visited/repeated in the main story.

um I hope that cleared up some things! I know it’s kind of a crazy amount of lore. I’ve tried my best to organize it in the pinned post, huge timeline, and search bar tags, but I know it’s getting harder and harder for newer ppl to jump in as it just get bigger. Thanks for reading regardless!

[thatscarletflycatcher]

Sense and Sensibility (2024, Hallmark) a review

I had expectations for this movie. They were not surpassed. It didn't perform below them either.

Spoilers under the cut.

So, this is a short movie (1.24hr long) a tv movie, a hallmark movie. You must keep that in mind as a frame of reference for what I'm about to say. You cannot really compare this with theatrical movies on equal footing.

Where to start. Costumes and sets. It is Bridgerton's world and we live in it. Everything is VERY colorful and shiny and not very real looking; that was to be expected. I think that sort of semi-fantasy aspect didn't hurt at all, and it was consistent. If you are not going to stick to the time period, at least go ham and show me something really interesting. I'm looking at you, Netflix Persuasion. There are some dresses that are pretty, and some others that... aren't. Considering that apparently the costume designer had to make something like 60 pieces in a month, it's kind of impressive that it came out as it did.

One funny bit, though, in this respect, is that they complain about how small the cottage is like some actual estate houses aren't the same size IRL XD Allenham we only get to see from afar, and it is rather disappointing.

Music: nothing to write home about, to be expected. Yes, we got one of those Vitamin String Quartet modern-song-played-by-strings. IDK. They were a bit dorky in their heyday, I don't know why they are so sought after in these pieces lately. I digress.

The acting. Deborah Ayorinde was a really good Elinor. She definitely deserved better writing and direction. The rest of the cast was good enough; I feel some roles really benefited from their characters being a bit hammy already in the source material (Lucy, Mrs Jennings, Anne, Fanny, Robert), others were really struggling because of being given very poor dialogue (Mrs Dashwood), and others were just... not good (Willoughby and Brandon, sadly). Edward was... a very special case. I can only describe it as the actor having two expressions: one, an attempt at reaching Hugh Grant's adorkableness AND Dan Stevens' ease at the same time, and two [SCREAMING INTERNALLY], but I guess those two were indeed enough to make it work just fine!

Which leads me to the writing. We all knew this adaptation was going to live or die in the writing, and most likely die.

The thing is that most of it is written around repeating 95' and 08's greatest hits, while attempting to compress the narrative into an hour and a half. And that goes as well as you can expect it to. Some scenes are painfully rushed -Brandon's backstory was extremely awkward to get through- some things are over before you have any time to assess their real weight -Marianne's illness, and many others end up being... incongruous.

Let me stop a little on those. The movie keeps Margaret, and gives her the whole play acting as a pirate with Edward from 95', but then removes the only real plot relevant thing she does in the book. So why keep the character at all? (Willoughby asks for Marianne's handkerchief in exchange for Queen Maab, instead of cutting a lock of her hair).

Because 2008 makes Brandon suspicious of Willoughby from the get go, this one makes it so that they know each other and implies that Brandon knows dirt on Willoughby, but then plays the rest of the story straight, which makes it... pretty inconsistent.

Speaking of Brandon, we have reached adaptation #5 that cuts out the fact that he tried to elope with Eliza sr. This time the backstory is that his father promised to let him marry Eliza if he proved himself as a soldier, but when he came back, he found his father has kicked her out of the house. Yeah, that was utter nonsense.

The adaptation makes a clumsy attempt at including the dinner at Mrs Ferrars... but Brandon isn't there to see Marianne defend Elinor.

We needed to have a "Brandon rescues Marianne in the rain" scene, but in this case, she's not faint or anything, he just grabs her because she's sad XD

And the list goes on and on and on. It was to be expected that the shadow of both 95 and 08 would be large over this one, but it truly is to the point that the references and contrivances are almost constant. Which is a pity because I think most of the original choices were interesting.

For example, Marianne twists her ankle running after Margaret, to try and stop her from asking something embarrassing, which is a good choice in terms of showing that Marianne is passionate, but she has more sense than Margaret.

On his deathbed, Mr Dashwood makes Elinor promise that she will take care of her mom and sisters and keep the family together. That added pressure on Elinor works really well in the context of the adaptation, and ads a new layer of interest.

John Dashwood is written mostly as a hapless but not malicious idiot. This is similar to what From Prada to Nada did (though there it made more sense because of the father having two families simultaneously), but I'm not sure where was that going. They did cut the Palmers, so I suppose the choice was so that they could go to Norland instead on their way to Barton (it is never established that Norland is so far away as it is in the book, so I guess one could give it a pass), but in that case, I feel the most cost effective shortcut is... have them go to Barton? Because we do get to see Barton (Marianne goes alone with Brandon to see it close to the end, and they get engaged before Edward returns, don't think much about it, manners and such are... for this movie... loose guidelines. But it isn't super offensive most of the time).

Anne Steele is decent fun as she's supposed to be, but Lucy really suffers the flattening. The mastermind has been flanderized into just a mean girl, and that's a pity.

Oh, Edward is sassy at times! And the sassy jokes land! I have to say it is not my preferred way of doing the character, but he does show some sass at the end of the novel, so, you know, I'll allow it I suppose XD

Edward's return and proposal started pretty good, but it overstayed its welcome. I cannot emphasize enough that, when writing this kind of proposal, you must avoid the word love if you can, and if you must use it, use it once, and with great reluctance.

The movie chooses to dedicate quite a time to the reveal of Edward and Lucy's relationship, and it's honestly... decent? For a scene made out of whole cloth it stands on its own feet reasonably well. But there's no Fanny freakout. This is probably the most shocking plot twist in the adaptation. This very on-the-nose Hallmark adaptation decided to cut the Fanny freakout of all things. Impressive restraint.

One thing, however, that was sadly cut out was Elinor and Marianne's conversation about Willoughby at Barton. It is instead replaced by an unsubtle comparison between Willoughby and Edward, and an exchange between Brandon and Marianne. It is one of the several points where the storytelling relies on previous knowledge of the work.

These are my main, disordered thoughts. I leave you with this choice from the ending, that I cannot form a thought about:

At Elinor and Edward's wedding, on the first pew are in attendance, from center to side: Mrs Dashwood, Margaret, Marianne, colonel Brandon... and Eliza Williams with her baby in her arms.

As a summary, I'd say Elinor and Edward's story was good enough, the relationship between the sisters was sweet, there were some odd choices, some interesting choices, and overall the writing was severely downgraded by attempting so much to stick to the choices of previous famous adaptations.

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I have a myriad of minor chronic conditions and symptoms, but nothing that's actually been identifiable enough to be diagnosed by a doctor. That's a relevant piece of information, because there's a character who I'm writing with more severe/debilitating versions of some of my own symptoms, and I'm struggling with giving him any actual defined diagnoses because of it. The actual question here is: If I'm basing these symptoms off of things that are happening with my own body, and the character is not in a situation where he'd get a diagnoses in-universe, is there a reason I can't just leave it as a mystery?

I suppose the main reason I'm struggling with the question in the first place is that upping the severity of the symptoms in question means that, unlike myself, the character will be using mobility aids, which makes me feel like I should do more research on why he'd be using them. I have no idea why, once in a blue moon, my right leg just decides to refuse to hold my weight for 10-45 seconds, but I do know that if I know that if it happened more regularly/for longer periods of time I'd probably invest in a cane due to instability walking. I'll be posting this work in a space where people will be able to ask me questions about it directly and I can already feel the comments being typed lol. So, I feel like I should have an answer beyond just "His symptoms are based off my own and unfortunately I don't have a diagnoses", but like... do I actually or am I just getting in my head about this?

Hi,

It’s completely okay to have a character who doesn’t have a specific condition or diagnosis you can point to if you’re basing it off your own life experience.

The truth is that this happens all the time. I also don’t really know why my knee is awful and sometimes can’t hold my weight or is incredibly painful to bend, and I’ve been to doctors (who had suggestions but no specifics) and was prescribed physical therapy. I did the PT. It didn’t do much, but I tried it.

You clearly have an experience with your conditions and symptoms and just because you haven’t gotten a diagnosis doesn’t mean your disabling symptoms aren’t real. It also doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll never get a diagnosis, either.

I completely understand your hesitancy, though, because the truth is that some disabled characters are created with a vague idea and end up having some sort of Ambiguous Disorder that is just for plot reasons. That can be harmful and ignore the realities of real-life conditions and disabilities just for something to be more Appealing or Plot Relevant.

But it doesn’t look like that’s what you’re doing at all—you are in fact pretty well-researched, because you’re basing your character primarily in your lives experience and, in good faith, making them not exactly the same as your own.

“His symptoms are based on my own, and I don’t currently have a specific diagnosis” is a reasonable answer. It’s true, and it’s not dismissive or misleading in any way. You can also add “I did research on how A and B would make someone need/do X or Y,” as needed. Like specific mobility aid research, or potential conditions, or related symptoms.

Overall, you can feel confident in your creation of your character and that your depiction is reasonable, and it also might make you more comfortable to answer questions if you feel equipped to elaborate about the symptoms or the aids rather than about the diagnosis.

Hope this helps! :)

— Mod Sparrow

[serialadoptersbracket]

Round 3, Match 10: Jean Valjean vs. The Fix

Submitted kids:

Jean Valjean: Cosette; Marius; Enjolras; Gavroche

The Fix: Conrad Schintz, and then he adopted like, an whole orphanage, named Madam Loathings home for wayward interests

Propaganda under the cut! (Spoilers ahead!)

Jean Valjean:

“Cosette is a given, but let’s be real, as Valjean became wrapped up with the revolutionaries, he became all of their dad”

The Fix:

“Ok ok so. Spoilers for mentopolis: First some context that mentopolis is a show that takes place inside one guys brain, all the characters represent something in the brain, and the guy whos brain they are in, named Elias Hodge, is so so very sad.

Ok so, The Fix, the personification of hyper fixation, is like is someone who has spent most of his life working for people, where his job was to 'eliminate distractions' (He kills people, basically). Then one day he is told to eliminate a child. His name is Conrad Schintz (Or the Conscience, due to an accident that happened to the guys who's brain they are in when he was a child- Conrad stopped thing he was useful, aka Elias stopped using his conscience, so his conscience has not grown since the incident, leaving him a small child)

The Fix has never had to hurt a kid before, and he doesn't want to do that, so he instead goes into protecting Conrad. Conrad kind of hates himself though and also kind of thinks he deserves to die so that's not good.

The Fix gave this like, beautiful speech to Conrad once about how hes important, I wont give the whole thing but something along the lines of "There is a butterfly who has a tail that is there for if a bird was to grab on to the tail, it would break off and the butterfly would escape. I don't think you are the tail of the butterfly, I think you are the butterfly." (its better in the actual show). I cry. There is another speech about eagles he gives Conrad when Conrad offers himself, to basically die, but i don't remember it that well.

Other then Conrad though! So There is this orphanage, called Madama Loathings home for wayward interests. Basically its a bunch of kids that represent past interests of Elias. Its run by this women called Madam Loathing (represents Elias' self Loathing)(she is very mean to the kids). The Fix donates a lot of money to this place, and visits a lot, the kids there love him and think he is so so cool. There is this one kid named Ronnie Reptile. He loves reptiles, and The fix gives him reptile facts, its cute. In the first episode, The Fix tells Madam Loathing how any of those kids/interests could be rediscovered by Elias at any time, and madam loathing sort of taunts The Fix, sort of saying how ""Oh I'm sure I can tell the kids they will call be adopted by The Fix soon, but that would be kind of cruel, wouldn't it?"" Implying that that won't happen. (cause, The Fix is hyper fixation, and hyper fixation adopting an interest would be good, you know.).

Note that Conrad used to live at madam loathing's, because he was mis identified as just a simple interest and not Elias' whole sense of conscience, but Corad ran away with his best friend, a dog named Justin. He lived on the streets after that.*

So a bit later on in the series The Fix and Conrad have to go to to madam loathing's together (and another character is with them but he isnt relevant for this). When they get there Madam Loathing asks The fix if he is here to drop of Conrad here, and The immediately is like "Absolutely not, shut the fuck up." (I think that's the direct quote). I just really like that scene.

At the end, end of the series. Some plot stuff happens. The Fix met a women named Pasha N (She represents Passon), and they are in love, The fix proposes to her, its sweet, but then madam Loathing, who got some like, character growth I won't really go into here, and she says to The Fix how, she needs to go on a trip to find herself, and then she offers the entire orphanage to The Fix and Pasha, which is accepted. So in the end of the show, The Fix has basically adopted, that entire orphanage, so thats a lot of kids, along with Pasha, but she isn't in the show as much so I wont submit them as a pair. I didnt mention it before but The Fix is known for knowing a lot of facts and saying "Did you know." before saying a fact, which a lot of the time, it is a fact that is truly terrifying but thats a lot, and The narration at the end of the shows, says how The Fix and Pasha spend their lives with kids around them, constantly saying "Did you know? Did you know?" and it is very sweet. Conrad sort of had his own ending away from The Fix, but I still head cannon that The Fix adopted him too and Conrad comes to the orphanage sometimes.”

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

The reason I think Alastor should be in the wrong(or at least mostly in the wrong) in his and Vox's falling out is that I don't think their relationship would be worth exploring as deeply as it sounds like it will be next season if Vox was the primary reason they started fighting, because it would do NOTHING for Alastor's arc.

Like- okay, Alastor's arc is very clearly going to be about learning that trusting people is Okay and not a sign of weakness, right? He's literally the only character in the show that is very clearly about the power of friendship who refuses to accept any sort of help, like even the VILLAINS are constantly hyping eachother up! If they fell apart because of something Vox did, and their relationship is going to be super important next season, wouldn't that not really do anything for Alastor's arc? Unless Vox pulling some weird shit is the ROOT CAUSE of Alastor's trust issues, but, given what we know about his past and how his ego seems to be the biggest contributor to said issues, I don't think it is. Alastor would HAVE to have contributed SIGNIFICANTLY to their falling out if their relationship is going to mean anything to his arc, because otherwise it just feels more like a weird aside then anything else? Like "oh yeah we used to be friends but then he did some weird shit and now we're not friends anymore". It adds nothing. There's nothing emotional for Alastor to confront in this scenario.

Which makes for a more interesting story, the relationship between the mc and someone from their past who, while they miss, isn't the kind of person they want to be around anymore so they don't really feel bad about cutting them off who ALSO doesn't pose any real Active Threat to the mc, or the mcs relationship with someone who they respected a lot but cut off because they felt the two of them were getting too close and we can't have THAT, now can we? It's the second one. It's the second one because the second one HAS HIGHER STAKES! The first one makes for a good one episode plotline, but for a season long arc? Takes where Vox is in the wrong actually make VOX a more interesting character to follow then Alastor, because that makes HIM the only one with an actual emotional stake in the conflict. But this isn't Vox's story. It's Alastor's story. Alastor is the main character. Which means, for their relationship to provide anything of value to the plot, Alastor needs to have emotional stakes in the situation too. The best villains are the ones that force your characters to grow and become better people(unless you're doing a silly little monster of the week type of show but THAT'S NOT WHAT HAZBIN IS-), and the only way Vox being the main antagonist next season is gonna cause any kind of growth is if Alastor is being forced to reconcile with his past.

Anyways uh, yeah that's it. I could do a tangent about how their relationship lowkey parallels Fizz & Blitzø(a comparison I made in this post but didn't actually go into depth on bcuz it wasn't relevant to the post beyond supporting my argument + didn't have much backing at the time), but I do NOT have the brain power to go in-depth comparing and contrasting that stuff rn, bcuz, despite the similarities, whatever the fuck Vox & Al have going on seems to be a LOT more Complicated and Sad then an accident and some dad-induced miscommunication. So I'm just gonna leave it at that :)

[codenamesazanka]

what was the point of the i engineered your life reveal? it didn't have a resolution, and won't get one if shigaraki and afo are both dead now. not only that, shigaraki never got shattered in the first place? he didn't come back out of his own volition or reclaim his agency by himself?? it didn't change anything about deku's relationship with shigaraki. so what did it do other than to provide horikoshi with an easy way to kill shigaraki off.

Yeah, it does feel like an easy way to get rid of Shigaraki. Tenko got saved, but he came out of it still declaring he wants to be stay a Villain; he wants to be a Hero to the Villains. That will involve, yeah, destroying stuff again; that will involve making trouble for the heroes; that will involve helping people that society has decided should not be helped, should not be saved, so put that back where you found it.

How's Deku going to deal with that? How is he going to face off against a Shigaraki that isn't fueled by hatred and angry this time, but rather by a sort of heroism and love for his friends? Lucky for him, he doesn't have to! AFO came and shattered Shigaraki. Got rid of that annoying conviction too. No confrontation for Deku! No re-examining his values and beliefs and assumptions! Now he's only got AFO to punch into pulp.

I guess there's also the excitement of the 'twist'. Hot Dog! wasn't Horikoshi-sensei so clever? Isn't it great how shocking this was? Or people can pat themselves on the back for predicting it. Those are fun emotions for readers.

But yeah. What was the resolution? Shigaraki didn't come back via his own will or connections that tether him to the world or a journey of self-discovery or whatever. He didn't gain new insight and feelings towards his dad or family or personal history or beliefs or motivation or the future as informed by the past. He got shattered; but it's mentioned off-handed that Nana kept him together off-screen with no new insight or development to their fraught grandson-grandmother relationship; and now he can come back to help kill AFO for revenge, I guess. Is that reclaiming his agency? Idk. he dies right after because his body has been punched to pieces by Deku so he never gets to actually exercise any agency in the real world. Bummer.

And as you mentioned, love how Deku has no reaction to this. He just learned that the kid he just saved from tears and guilt and bloodshed over his dangerous quirk was actually give that quirk for a nefarious plot by AFO. Should he go back and revise any of his saving words? idk. Deku just found out that Tenko was literally conceived to be a vessel, that kid can be considered as someone who 'never had a chance'. Should that affect his approach to stopping Shigaraki? idk again. Not relevant to Deku's dynamic with Shigaraki.

Apparently not all that relevant to Shigaraki's character development moving forward either.

It really does feel like a way to get rid of the interesting, challenging villain to make way for the easily punchable, dismissible evil villain. Fight ended in three chapters and Deku never had to think or reflect or introspect much! good for him. Convenient this will also destroy Shigaraki's body so that's over and done too. Good work everyone. Horikoshi-sensei can finally go on vacation. I don't blame him for this, he deserves a vacation. I sympathize that he wanted the story to end. But man, my disappoint is quite immense.

[melonteee]

sometimes in your vid essays when you briefly diverge into the topic of powerscaling and such I find it hilarious in regards to One Piece specifically because that series is so allergic to that kind of discussion. like as someone who's well-versed in regards to How Powerscaling Works, OP straight up does not give numbers the way other series do and if you go to any powerscaling type wiki/website their OP pages are in fact just born from a million assumptions. One Piece will have a dude say "Im Big Dick McGee" and do one insanely cool thing that has everyone freaking out and powerscalers will be pulling their hair out because *they can't quantify that shit* and have to make a million assumptions as to how strong OP characters really are.

And i feel like Oda has the same mindset because he introduced the doriki system as an actual Power Scale System in water seven and then threw it the hell away mid arc with no reference to it ever again and YET because it's the single point of actual in-series power measuring youll find forums today still using it to make 15 more follow-up assumptions for characters in the current canon. no one can handle the silly goofines of this whole thing and thats not even counting how OP powerlevel discussions become lore discussions too bc how are they going to account for everyone being superhuman due to their planet being far more massive and thus having stronger gravity.

its so hilarious no other shonen could ever resist not introducing a consistent powerscaling system for 2+ decades

EXACTLY DFGHJKDF this is why I've been SAYING you can call One Piece a battle shonen all you want, because there ARE battles in it, but Oda so CLEARLY puts narrative over ANY sort of power system. Every time someone asks Oda any battle relevant question, he always answers with some bullshit JHKFGD like "how far can Luffy stretch?? oh about 20 gum gums" LIKE HHHH he so clearly DOESN'T care to stick to any strict power system. I mean the most recent huge fight was a TOM AND JERRY inspired fight for god's sake, Gear 5 throws any and all power scaling conversations out the window for all we know Gear 5 can do fucking ANYTHING.

I've literally seen One Piece guys and Dragonball guys fighting about whether Gear 5 could beat Goku, and it's like, mother fucker for all we know Gear 5 could just bugs bunny a kamehameha back at him JDFHGKD like we literally do not know the scale of Gear 5. Hell we don't know the scale of MOST characters in One Piece. I was SO confused as to why the term 'admiral level' was a thing cause we've barely seen the admirals...do anything?? Like yeah Akainu can turn into magma and whatever, but what else??? Why is this term even a thing if we haven't even seen the scale of what any of these guys can do JKFGDFGD I will admit I have a much more plot/narrative driven head but I truly cannot understand how One Piece power scalers get any of their arguments or data hhhhhh

[docholligay]

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Nonspoilery: This is a super fun read that is very much in keeping with how I like my fantasy. I wish it were slightly more on the con man side, but I recognize that those are very difficult to write because one needs to actually be clever enough to come up with the insanely clever plan that unfolds, and, you know what, I'm not there either. But it absolutely is a fun crimey fantasy novel, well written that expects you can actually follow a line of description and maybe even look up a big word, that tries very hard not to bore you with needing to refer to a glossary or map.

I will say, and I'll talk about this more below: There are basically no women in this novel. it's a little disappointing. I still overall think it's worth it if you like this sort of thing though.

SPOILERS BELOW:

THIS is the kind of thing pitchless draw was made for. You could not have talked me into reading this book. Unless you possess an incredible skill--I'm not sure *I* could have talked me into reading this book, and supposedly no one knows me better.

But I did really enjoy myself. This is a flat out FUN novel, that doesn't mind being long but never feels long. I LOVED the long bits of description in this book, I BEG for flavor in some many modern novels that strip away anything that isn't an immediate moving of the ball. Actually, one of the things I would say that's not a criticism so much as a preference, is that I feel like this book, and probably this writer, remembering his short story from Rogues, is more plot-driven than character driven. I am a girl who loves a really interior novel, and this isn't that, but it did not stop me from having a GREAT time. It's a romp.

I like Locke, and his whole backstory. I wish he were a woman. Specifically, I would love to see a femme con artist, second coming of Minako Aino, Becky Sharp ass bitch. THAT would be my dream for Locke Lamora. And I know my friends who have read this book all want butch Locke and I love that for you, and I know y'all have known me long enough to know I love a butch, but I deserve a treat as well, and I LOVE con artists, and goddamnit, if I could change one thing about this novel, Locke Lamora would be a femme lesbian and I would change NOTHING else. You wouldn't even have to. One fo the great things about Lynch not being a real interior writer is literally any of the mains could be a woman and it would change nothing.

This does segue into the big problem here--there's no women in this novel. It's a 700 page book and I could condense the lines said by women into like two or three pages. I actually DO get it. I think we're reaping a little bit of what we've sown, as a community, with the requirement for perfection in our representation that leads to very boring and safe choices. Everyone is a man. We're only swarthy at best. Can't be criticized for bad identity writing if you don't write them at all! ANd this isn't me being salty, I get how that happens, I have also sometimes fallen into making any character of identity boring as fuck or not writing them at all to avoid any criticism. And no one cares about ME, I'm not a best seller. I do think, maybe, people will get better about this. Pendulums and all. I miss the awkward, good faith 90s where you had the United Colors of Benetton and one character who randomly celebrated Hanukkah. We'll see.

ANYHOW NOT RELEVANT. But I do find it irritating that because of this, we don't see women in this huge story at all. None of the gang, even though it would have been easy as fuck to make, say, Bug a girl. Even doing something like making Nazca Barsavi the actual heir apparent, and to have her marrying Locke because she knows he won't try to be Capa, and she'll let him do whatever the fuck he wants, can play the henpecked husband while being the Thorn of Camorr, could be really fun and would do more for Nazca and also play up their friendship. It could make her death mean a lot more, if they were running their own little Barsavi con.

Anyhow, the really fantastic behind the scenes worldbuilding was how I wish more fantasy novels did it. It didn't often try to explain things to me, it spoke as if I mostly understood them, or had cahracters say them in ways that made sense to the story (In this capacity, Lukas Fehrwright is fucking BRILLIANT as Someone That Must Have Camorr Explained). So I didn't feel like I was being sat down and told the history of a place I barely know, while having stupid fucking vocabulary words thrown at me. We never define any physik or magic beyond what needs be done because fuck you that's why. I love it. Thank you for not telling me what alchemical botany can or can't do. Thank you for dropping literally only what I need to kjnow about wraithstone into the plot. You have a crown in heaven.

Or I know I said I wish it would have been more con-ny and less "kill the new mob boss" at the end there, but oh my fuck, how much did I love the whole job at the counting house. I SCREAMED. It was so good, I had no clue where it was going the whole time and I would never have gotten there, but I LOVED it. What a great time.

One...weakness, for me, I guess I'll say, is that lack of interiority makes it hard to really feel the weight of some things. We don't get enough about Galdo, Calo, or Bug to feel anything for them, and I knew Bug was dead from the time he showed up. Actually, I thought we were going to kill jean Tannen, because that was the only relationship REALLY laden with emotional weight in the book. Didn't bother me enough to not recommend the book, as I'm mostly recommending it on fun, but I did notice.

ANYWAY, uh...any specific questions I'm happy to take!

Unfortunately, this means that @verbforverb nabbed me again. So, I had a great time reading the book but at what cost

[coeluvr]

I wanted to add my two cents about the option to decide if MC thinks Catalina killed Farah or not, after that other person's ask.

It's interesting to me because I sort of share that person's opinion in the sense that my first thought was "man, I wish my MC could be more conflicted", but at the same time, I actually had the same reasoning as what you explained in your answer to them, that "but wait, it's been years for him to think this out, ot course he'd have AN opinion, one way or another" - sort of would have been strange to not have one, when I thought about it.

I guess it's an instance of "dissonnance" between the MC and the player, since it's been years for the MC, but two chapters for the player, with a lot of time skips. It "feels shorter" for us players, so it feels more like "how can I chose already?".

For the desire of revenge, I think it's a bit of a different thing, because it would sort of depend on MC's personality and how it changed or not after what happened to them? At this point, I understand wanting revenge or not and it being a "one or the other" situation too - like, if MC is naturally more soft and gentle and not vengeful, and didn't change after what happened to them, then the desire for revenge that was initially felt would have gone away at this point for sure. Otherwise, since at this point the MC isn't very close to most people around, it makes sense for the desire of revenge to be there still. But in this case, I'm wondering... will you offer a "uncertain" choice later on? My reasoning revolves mostly around MCs who at this point still want revenge (so it doesn't apply to mine anyway), but may start doubting themselves when they get closer to one of the (Rosean) ROs. It was discussed a lot lately when people sent asks about the whole Helios thing, and people chosing love over revenge as to avoid harming him etc. For such MCs, it would make sense to start feeling conflicted, right? Or will you rather add the option to change opinions and why the MC did so?

Yeah, it's not even relevant to my playthrough, but it made me curious!

I'll begin with I'm not clairvoyant or psychic so I don't know 100% how I'll handle it so no need for pitchforks if this changes or if you hate the idea lol.

I think MC will naturally feel uncertain without the need of a choice due to the nature of the story. Currently, I think it will be MC naturally doubting things as they move through the plot and then the choices will appear where there will not be a neutral one because if we are always neutral we wouldn't have any development.

[woodchipp]

Since you're a Sonic fan and you've made a masterpost breaking down of Omori, how do you feel about characters like Mari and Maria Robotnik? Like both of their deaths and how they're handled, their characters as a whole, or any improvements you'd make if you feel it's needed?

While what we see of them in their respective games paints them as flawless, I'd argue it's intentional in Maria's case. She's just a normal, completely innocent human girl in an insane cast of characters. She has no special skills or high rank (like Shadow and the Commander), nor does she have the genius intellect of her grandfather and cousin, and yet it's Amy accidentally invoking her last words to Shadow that convinces him to help Sonic save the planet. She's flawless because she represents the best of humanity - she reinforces SA2's narrative theme that humanity's innocence is something worth protecting.

Being flawless isn't her only notable character trait, of course. ShTH provides the most insight into Maria's character: she thinks the Heal Unit, a machine her grandfather created to heal the sick and injured, is "[his] greatest invention", playfully notes the research experiments Shadow's fighting look "kinda cute", fondly reminisces about the two of them goofing around on the ARK and wants Shadow to help every person he comes across, be it a wounded GUN soldier or a wounded ARK researcher. She even shows compassion to the aforementioned research experiments, remarking that their eyes "look sad". She was also interested in Gerald's research in general. All in all, Maria could be described as a very curious girl with the attitude of a scientist.

Mari's flawlessness, on the other hand, is unintentional on OMORI's part and actively detrimental to the story. The game tries to portray her as flawed - the crux of the plot twist is that Mari's perfectionism was her fatal flaw - but doesn't put in the effort to explore said flaw; when it's not used as a convenient justification for Sunny's hissy fit, it's presented as cute and endearing instead. We're not shown what made her a perfectionist in the first place, we're not shown how her obsession with being perfect alienated her friends with time, we're not shown how she overworked Sunny and we're not shown how harsh she was with him when he made mistakes - in short, we don't get to see the negative impact her flaw was having on her life and the lives of the people she cares about.

Similarly, OMORI never shows Mari as a person with her own needs and doubts because she's pigeonholed into being the Team Mom in her every interaction with her friends (and her brother, which would have made sense if the game shown she was forced to raise him by herself because their parents were awful, but we get nothing of the sort). She has no defining traits or emotions besides Being Kind™, and the one time she shows a different emotion - getting rightfully pissed at Sunny for destroying an expensive violin his entire friend group worked very hard to buy - is right before she's accidentally killed by him.

TL;DR Maria works because her flawlessness has thematic relevance. Mari doesn't work because she's meant to be flawed, but is portrayed as flawless by the narrative anyway.

As for the improvements I'd make, I don't see the need to signficantly change Maria's death but I'd make Mari actually kill herself.

[okayto]

Mini-Review: Summer Time Rendering

To attend the funeral of his best friend and part of the family that took him in after his parents died, Shinpei returns to his small island home for the first time in two years. Hearing whispers that her body showed bruises around her neck inconsistent with the story of a tragic drowning while rescuing a child in the ocean, Shinpei becomes suspicious. There may be something brewing under the surface of this warm summer...

This is the perfect show as the northern hemisphere heads into summer: atmospheric, intriguing, balancing action and mystery.

STR first piqued my interested when I saw it referred to repeatedly as a show that didn't get the attention it deserved (a reviewer for Anime News Network referred to it as "among the best anime of 2022") due to being locked in "the Disney+ jail."

And having watched it, I agree: if this had been on a bigger anime-watching platform and released (in the US, at least) close to when it came out in Japan, it absolutely would've made a bigger splash. For some inscrutable reason, Disney got the rights but didn't release this in the US until months after it finished its run in Japan, without fanfare as a Hulu exclusive.

The upside to this is that you can more easily go in blind, and this is a show that benefits from knowing as little as possible ahead of time. Watching it weekly would've been an experience, but it lends itself to bingeing, as each episode advances the story--and mystery--even more, leaving the viewer hooked and hungry for answers.

That does, of course, make it difficult to talk about specific things I liked! The mystery is suspenseful, but it keeps up a good pace, balancing revealing more of what's going on with introducing even more questions. There wasn't a single episode where I got frustrated because it felt like the show was just playing up the tension; you're right there with Shinpei piecing things together, even if the thing is just "I can affect this even if I don't know what the outcome is."

Shinpei is a good main character, intelligent but not overbearing, and balanced with a cast that can variously match or surpass him in strength, intelligence, and relevant skills; if it weren't for the Plot Reason he's the protagonist, this would have just as well worked as an equal-ensemble show. Even Ushio, whose death was the catalyst for Shinpei's return, plays an active role in the story, helping prevent this from just being about a boy doing stuff in sad service to the memory of a dead girl.

As Shinpei uncovers more information about what happened, and through judicious use of flashbacks, Ushio's character develops, and she is a great character. In a show where scenes are sometimes sorting through the equivalent of two simultaneous chess games, it's nice to have at least one character who, while not stupid, uses her scenes to be refreshingly straightforward.

Verdict

English dub? Yes!

Visuals: Very nice! The story takes place equally during the day and after dark, as well as in a variety of locations, and it does a good job setting the stage, as well as balancing darkness and the need for the viewers to actually see things.

Worth watching? Absolutely. It's 25 episodes and uses all of them, neither feeling like it's dragging things out nor moving too fast. And despite its length, you don't have to wait until the final episodes to get any answers--Shinpei starts working things out quickly, and so the viewer does too. It's a solid suspenseful action show, and it was quickly obvious to me why I'd seen so many people say Disney did it dirty with its bizarre release.

Where to watch (USA, May 2024): Hulu (sub and dub)

Click my “reviews” tag below or search “mini review” on my blog to find more!

[accirax]

A Brief and Highly Speculative DRDT Thought

This damn character order. I don't get it. It vexes me.

Because, as far as I can tell, they aren't ordered in any particular way. It's not alphabetical first name order, alphabetical last name order, alphabetical talent order, death order, order of introduction, Class Trial seating order, gender order (like doing all the girls, all the boys, and then Nico), rainbow order of official colors... And, as far as I can tell, that remains true if you do any of the options in reverse, or if you remove Teruko.

I don't think they work if you remove Xander either, or even Charles too. I say that just because I think those three could be first as, like, a top billing sort of thing. At the start, I think you're meant to believe that (following standard Danganronpa protocol) Teruko is the protagonist, Xander is the support character, and Charles is the antagonist. As arguably the three most important characters, it would make sense to put them first. Of course, that's not exactly how their roles actually turned out, but that's what you want the audience to believe as a spoiler-free first watcher.

So, if it's not any of those things, what is it? I started thinking about what the most likely possibilities are.

#1: The Order is Completely Random

As in, DRDTdev took the finished cast, put all of the names (minus Teruko, and maybe Xander and Charles) into a randomizer, and this is how it turned out. That would be a good way to avoid giving us any hints as to the characters' development or stories. Honestly, fairly likely, but bear with me here.

#2: The Order is Something Story-Relevant We Haven't Learned Yet

And thus, once we get to Chapter 6 or whatever, we'd be like, "oh, so that's why they were put in that order." This could be something like "order in which characters were accepted into Hope's Peak" or "order in which characters met Mai." Potentially interesting, although such an open sandbox that trying to pin down what it means is basically as good as it being random.

#3: The Order is Order of Creation

This is the real "Brief and Highly Speculative Thought" the title promised. I think there's a chance that this order appears random to us because it's the order that the characters were developed in. We know from the July 31st Q&A that Arei was the subject of the "first ever drawing of DT," which could imply that she was one of the characters who was created/confirmed first. However, she's currently fifth, so, what about the characters before her?

Well, Teruko is the protagonist, so it would make sense if she was the first character DRDTdev created. She also has a lot of mysteries and secrets surrounding her, which, as the protagonist, are surely strongly interconnected with the main plot. Hell, it's even possible that the protagonist of altDRDT is Teruko's brother! Having brainrot about Teruko may have been what inspired altDRDT in the first place, which would mean that Teruko would have to exist for longer than altDRDT has. Why am I talking so much about Teruko. This is not a hard sell.

It might seem strange that your literal first death, the character with the least screen time, is the second one you create, but when it's a character as intriguing as Xander, it becomes less of a hurdle. The dramatic scene that occurs to bridge the silly times of pre-first death and the oh-shit entirety of post-first death is an important enough moment that I would believe it was conceptualized very early. It's a big tone-setting moment. Xander also seems to be pretty interconnected with Mai, as "Unnamed Student" once asked him to find something for her (it's uh... in that document somewhere). That implies big overarching plot relevance, which potentially implies early creation.

As stated above, Charles is meant to look like the antagonist archetype of DRDT, so it would make sense if he was developed third. Basically, "I have my protagonist and my support character, so who should my antagonist be?" Charles is alive for at least two Class Trials, and his fear of blood and bodies seems like something that would need to be planned around long in advance. He also has a lot of parallels to Teruko, which could be important to her development. Charles third doesn't seem like a stretch.

Ace fourth, however, feels like a bit more of a stretch. I still don't think it's impossible, though. Many people (including myself, more or less) believe that Ace will be a survivor. Being at the sixth Class Trial is reason enough to be important, but if Ace was designed to do something important at that Trial (god knows what), it could make sense if Ace was created early. Ace also has a number of important relationships-- Levi, Nico, and Hu, to name the most prominent. The fact that Ace is at the center of most of those conflicts, being the one inciting the main problem, makes me think it would have been much easier to plan out the daily life if he were in it from very early on.

And then, we're back to Arei. I wouldn't have guessed that our apparent second victim was developed as early as fifth place, but, that's canon, baby! I don't have to explain this one!

The characters being listed in order of creation would have a number of interesting implications on the roles that characters play. For instance, you would probably imagine that the mastermind would be amongst the characters you would develop first, right? If so, that would diminish the likelihood that characters such as Veronika, J, Whit, or Nico were the mastermind (that actually covers a lot of really popular options, damn). Conversely, it could implicate that characters like Ace, Rose, Hu, or Eden are more likely to be the mastermind.

From a writing standpoint, later characters may have also been created for the purpose of solving problems. Going back to Ace, let's say that (as Hu has already been developed 7th at this point), DRDTdev knows that Ace and Hu need to have a big conflict in Chapter 3 that, I don't know, leads to Hu being the blackened and Ace starting to regret his foul mouth or something. To solve that problem, let's create Nico, a character who Hu likes and Ace hates, who does something highly controversial. Hu defends this "Nico", Ace insists they're in the wrong, and the arguing causes Hu to snap. That's 1) a huge oversimplification of the character creation process and 2) wildly speculative about the future of DRDT's plot, but my point is to say that one character can be inspired by the needs of the plot and still be a cool and beloved character that perfectly fits in regardless.

(To be clear, I am of the firm belief that there are no losers/unimportant or underdeveloped characters in DRDT. That's part of what makes it so great!)

(And, when I referred to "loser" characters there, I am referring to my own writing, not anybody else's fangans.)

That's not to say that there aren't any issues with the concept that the characters are in development order, though. The one that most immediately jumped out to me was David being 12th. Like Charles, he also has a lot of parallels with Teruko, and his big reveal could be something that was in the cards from early on, like Xander's death. Honestly, though, I could seem him being a surprisingly late addition. If DRDTdev perhaps realized that Charles wasn't as antagonistic as he initially intended, he may have wanted a new character to become an antagonist in Chapter 2 to replace Charles. Or, once DRDTdev decided that Teruko wouldn't (outwardly) mourn Xander, he may have wanted a character that would to keep the idea of Xander as a good guy in the audience's minds. Maybe that's just me being delusional, though.

Min's 11th place creation is also kinda weird to me. On one hand, she is the Chapter 1 killer, so a character with a short lifetime and limited important character relationships could have been added closer to the end. Then again, if Xander (the victim) and Teruko and Charles (major baits) were created so early, it kinda feels like DRDTdev would have come up with the actual killer earlier too, right? Min also has connections to XF-Ture tech, which, if not that important to DRDT, certainly seems to be important to altDRDT. However, I guess those could have been "problems" too-- "who can I create that would kill Xander to save Teruko?" and "how can I incorporate XF-Ture tech into the story in a natural way?"

The inclusion of Bonus Episodes also adds some spice to the discussion. We don't technically know that the Chapter 2 victim and killer will get their own episodes once the chapter is over, although I think most people are assuming it at this point. Min, for example, could have also been conceptualized based on a need for an early bonus episode to drop some lore about American Hope's Peak. Thus, her talent of "Ultimate Student" could have been designed to lead to a conversation about the school in the future. The same could be true of some later killers and victims as well.

Also, going back to the "actual killer" bit, things may have also been confused if any characters were ever replaced. Maybe there was originally a different character intended to be the Chapter 1 killer. This hypothetical character could have been discarded entirely or moved somewhere else-- like how, in THH, the original Chapter 1 was Hifumi killing Hiro, but after the plans changed Hiro became a survivor, and Hifumi a third victim. It's another way to potentially explain the gap between first victim and first killer.

Anyways, in conclusion, I don't know if I really believe in this theory or not. I just thought it was interesting, and decided to serve it up to y'all as food for thought.

The creation and writing of DRDT is fascinating to me, so I'll have to ask you to bear with me as my theories get less concrete and relevant and more speculative and meta as the hiatus goes on. That's just the manner in which my brain is rotting at the moment. Are my discussions of reasons for character creation peeling back the layers of the Matrix, or am I just donning my tin foil hat and pretending to know more about writing than I do...? I guess only time will tell. Thanks for reading!

[switch]

Hi Switch! You're the Moriarty Expert I trust the most, so I thought I'd ask. Can you explain the reason you dislike Ruler Moriarty as if I'm an idiot/have little FGO knowledge? I play the game, but I barely know anything about meta, writers, or any sort of controversies and I figured you'd be able to give an objective rundown of why the character is bad for someone who might not get any out-of-game context. If you don't want to that's okay too!!! Have a good day either way

uhh to put it in the simplest possible terms, and with an immediate clarification that this is not about ‘he’s cringe’ or ‘i don’t think he’s hot’, there were three different ingame side-stories which all happened about 2 years before ruler ever released, and these side stories set up that there was going to be a Plot Event involving two different characters (sherlock and enkidu, we don’t know if these plots were planned to intersect or not), and moriarty was heavily involved in both. the basic setup was:

1. moriarty wanting the main character to trust him over sherlock if anything happens, being concerned that sherlock would be willing to do something extreme to save humanity that moriarty doesn’t want him to do (to clarify moriarty isn’t good in this situation and sherlock isn’t necessarily evil it’s just a whole thing i won’t get into here), suppressing the protagonist’s memories of this conversation so sherlock doesn’t get suspicious, and then he has a very vague and open-ended speech at the end about what’s gonna happen next.

2. moriarty outright saying he’s planning to turn enkidu into some kind of weapon and isn’t going to give the main character a say in the matter, and having a vague open-ended speech about what’s gonna happen next

these side stories are still in the game. they can still be read. but at some point, the culmination to the sherlock plot was pushed to happen much earlier in the writing process because the original chapter it was slated for got bloated, and some rewrites happened…

so after 2 years of being excited to see those stories play out, what we actually got was, uh, just ruler. all of a sudden. this new cooler younger moriarty who is an extremely different character just showed up with no foreshadowing because they did not have time to foreshadow him, made holmes kill himself, and… that was it. moriarty himself did not factor into this chapter at all. him being worried what sherlock was gonna do that he didn’t want him to? erasing the protag’s memories? enkidu? not relevant at all. moriarty’s side story i mentioned up there, which was supposed to be a prelude to this plot event, wasn’t even made universally available to players who don’t have him for this chapter (they usually do this for side stories relevant to main chapters), it was suddenly so irrelevant.

moriarty got a followup side story after this that… still didn’t address any of the still hanging plot threads. it’s just him talking about how he’s sad that sherlock is dead, but also sherlock is definitely going to come back since he killed himself at a recreation of reichenbach so obviously that didn’t kill him (okay). no open-endedness. a lot of moriarty fans felt like it read like a character retirement. and also kind of just like a commercial for whatever new sherlock unit we’re probably going to get down the line. absolutely nothing like his previous ones. the only acknowledgement of how weird this all is was just him going “oh, it just happened sooner than i expected” which frankly feels like the writers just looking directly at the audience to wave it away.

and, more infuriatingly, an interview with the writers shortly after (the same one that confirmed the rewrites/early sherlock plot happened) outright said that yeah, ruler wasn’t originally part of the plan, they kinda just made him because they wanted to see a young moriarty and decided to use him. they also stated that young moriarty still had a role to play in the story (he also blew up at the end of that chapter), which they never do for characters? which, like, okay, what about moriarty?? the guy whose dropped plots you can still access in the game??

so yeah anyway it’s been 2 years and moriarty is still in hell. i mean they still use him in marketing once in a while given he was one of the most recognizable fgo originals, but he never gets to show up in any events without being attached to ruler, despite everyone insisting at the time that he definitely wasn’t functionally being replaced, and all the relevancy is on ruler as the Real Main Story Character, so you can maybe understand why moriarty fans who actually read those side stories and that interview feel like we got shafted just so they could sell a new, coincidentally more conventionally marketable unit. so naturally we’re gonna be kind of pissed off by the character they did said shafting with.

also as more of an aside, moriarty is a really bad unit gameplay wise who hasn’t been buffed in like four years (and his only two buffs were actually kind of bad but that’s getting picky), and ruler is a lot better than he is. moriarty didn’t even get a pity buff or anything, so that’s salt in the wound. a bit more subjectively, ruler enjoyers are also chronically really bad at tagging him distinctly from moriarty so if you want to look up fanart of moriarty but not ruler you basically go to hell forever. moriarty even has a nickname thats contextually unique to him (shincha) but it gets used for ruler so much against all sense you can’t even use that to avoid him, it’s so bad. i filtered everything i could think of and i still just had to stop going into moriarty’s tags on here after ruler happened, which just makes me sad.

[olderthannetfic]

Have you ever written crackfic and do you enjoy reading crackfic or is it rather not your thing? (Question also directed at your readers of course.)

I usually don't write or read crackfic because it's just not for me, but I saw a scene today that makes me want to write a dead-serious M or E-rated fic about a "pairing" that is utter bullshit but still in-context makes sense and sounds hilarious and fun, ha!

BTW that scene is from the A-Team's episode "Incident At Crystal Lake" (3x25), where Murdock is fishing while sitting next to a male/masculine mannequin and flirts with it. XD I know it was probably just the TV series making a joke about Murdock's potential insanity and also maybe playing on same-gender attraction as a (homophobic) joke, but... that won't stop me from headcanoning him as a fellow bi or pan and shouting "one of us" in my head, although his flirting is directed at a mannequin and not an actual breathing guy in this example. Also I know it's probably not flirting but just wishful thinking on my part (or rather over-interpreting like a language-subject-with-text-interpretation teacher on speed), but at the same time... I mean... he asks the mannequin if he wants an apple (which is sitting on top of the box that's in his lap), makes the mannequin gesture "no", then says the mannequin is probably "saving your appetite" and that "it's in there if you want it" and then puts his hand on the mannequin's shoulder in that stereotypical couple-on-date-in-cinema-and-one-tries-to-make-a-move way and strokes the mannequin's shoulder, heheh.

--

Well... how are we defining crackfic?

One common definition is that lolrandom "I wrote this on a sugar high" shit that sounds like a 12-year-old. I have always hated that stuff and didn't write like that even as a small child. It's pointless to me because I don't find the style of humor funny or the characters relevant enough to their canon versions to scratch any of my fanfic itches, not even one for satire.

This isn't just "Wah, they're OOC": This is a fic that is entirely irrelevant to everything about canon way beyond just interpreting personalities differently. I used to see them sometimes from classmates who were just writing in-jokes about their friends using a vague backdrop from some media.

--

You can write about somebody having a "relationship" with an inanimate object without it being that type of crack—hell, without it even being comedy. There's some whole indie movie about a dude dealing with his social anxiety via pretending to be dating a sex doll.

If you wrote about Murdock having a fetish for mannequins or him working out his complicated feelings about men via "joking" about a mannequin, I wouldn't consider that crack.

If you wrote about him genuinely being in love with a mannequin in a tongue-in-cheek way as though this were a standard pairing, I'd consider that crack, but a different kind from above.

That Care Bears yuletide fic where one of them needs to be fucked back to emotional health and they all come shamrocks or hearts or whatever is crack of this type. It's goofy... but it's using a lot of well-observed bits of actual canon. I can enjoy that sort of thing if it's done well.

--

Ultimately, my question about the various flavors of "crack" is what is the point?

If the point is that it's funny, I'll need to share the author's sense of humor. This is the Achilles heel of all attempts at humor in art.

If it's just strange subject matter but written in a fairly standard way to be hot or to have a good plot or something, it's not really different from any other fic. I might not find it hot personally, but I'm a lot more lenient about that than about humor.

--

But if you're asking if you should write it, sure: write what you want.