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iam93percentstardust · 1 year

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one of the things that really bothers me about modern franchises, and in particular over the last 5 years or so, is their refusal to commit. what i mean here when i say this is that it's not uncommon for a major franchise to make a decision, whether about the plot or the characters, that should have had huge, world-changing consequences... and then just never address that again or worse, immediately go back and undo it. and i'm gonna pick on star wars and the mcu here because those are the two big franchises i'm into at the moment (and i think they're kind of the worst at this), but i don't want you to walk away from this thinking that this is solely a disney thing. i've seen this happen with game of thrones and supernatural and plenty of other non-disney franchises. spoilers ahead, you've been warned:

in ant-man & the wasp quantumania, scott and hope make the life-altering decision to stay behind in the quantum realm and defeat kang instead of going through the portal to return to their world. this should have been a huge meta decision for the mcu, and when i first saw it in theaters, my immediate thought was wow, what is this going to mean for the mcu going forward? are we going to get a movie/miniseries about scott and hope helping to rebuild the quantum realm? how are cassie, janet, and hank going to react to the losses of their loved ones (in some cases, for the second time)? is cassie going to become the "first" young avenger because she has to take her father's place among the team lineup (and i only say first because as of this moment, none of the other young avengers introduced to the franchise are official avengers yet)? except nope, because less than 2 minutes later, cassie had fixed the portal that had broken way back at the beginning of the movie and brought scott and hope back.

and it felt like such a cheat. i was so disappointed in that theater, not as someone who was invested in these characters on a personal level (because yay, cassie gets her dad back!), but as someone who has spent years investing themselves in the story of the mcu. what was the point of wasting screentime on scott and hope accepting their new lives in the quantum realm if it was just going to immediately be undone? the entire scene could have been cut to scott and hope making it back bare seconds before the portal closed and it would have had the same emotional impact. there was nothing added by making scott and hope (and us) think that there was no way back only to rip the rug out from under us and go "gotcha! you really thought we were gonna give this movie a sad ending? haha! you're so dumb!"

and this isn't the first time the mcu has done this. one of the biggest complaints about endgame was the decision to set it five years in the future with no consideration for how that would actually change the setting of the mcu. characters were brought back to the exact place they disappeared from with no consideration for how things might have changed in the interim five years (like planes that weren't in the air anymore, buildings no longer standing, even just something as simple as a chair being unoccupied). and then the mcu didn't even really have the courage to address how this would have shaped the world other than a few jokes and making the bad guys in the falcon and the winter soldier people who cared about how the world had screwed them over during the blip.

and things like this happen over and over and over again. the accords are put into place in civil war, but by the time we get to she-hulk, they're gone with no explanation because, as best as i can tell, the writers didn't want to have to deal with the worldbuilding that went into the accords. gamora is killed in infinity war, but heaven forbid quill not have an emotional investment in a film he appears for maybe 10 minutes in so now she's back in endgame. steve got to go live in the past with his ex-girlfriend (which is in itself a refusal to commit after the mcu both gave her a different husband and had the woman herself tell him to move on) but we need to establish that messing with timelines is bad because that's what the entire next phase hinges on so actually his ending was predestined and it's only everyone else who can't change time. whoever took this entire town and also wanda hostage and forced them to live out a sitcom fantasy is bad and needs to be stopped but wait, it's actually wanda and she can't be the bad guy yet, we need her for doctor strange 2, so actually everyone's going to defend her now and say that no one else could ever possibly understand her grief. thor has decided to accept responsibility as king of asgard, but we can't use him for any more movies if he's stuck in asgard, so actually he's decided to pass it on to someone whose entire leadership capability is developed offscreen. i could list more examples but this is making me angry, so let's move on to star wars instead.

with star wars, i look at first the oft-quoted meme, "somehow palpatine has returned." yeah, i shouldn't really need to go into detail on how that counts as a refusal to commit but. the last jedi was a study in how johnson refused to commit to anything that abrams had laid down in the force awakens, but rise of skywalker was almost like abrams had looked at the franchise and said "screw you for taking it away from me, i'm going to come up with the most bullshit stuff just to spite you for doing that in the first place. and i'm going to start by undoing the most important plot point of the first trilogy: the emperor dies." and yeah, disney's kind of tried to salvage this by dropping hints into the bad batch and the mandalorian about cloning, but that only really works if you're watching the franchise chronologically and not considering that both of those series came out after rise of skywalker.

and then there's the mandalorian, my sweet summer child, who is, in my opinion, the worst at backtracking their plot points. i'm not entirely convinced that any of the higher ups for this show really knew what they were doing when they started working on it and i'm not convinced that they know what they're doing now. yeah, there's the tie-in to the last season of clone wars, but the mandalorian has managed to walk back pretty much every single major plot point it's had. din is this legendary warrior who can't be beat, but no one will watch this show if he defeats everyone too early, so he's constantly getting beat up (tbf, sometimes some of the fights he loses makes sense like the krayt dragon and the mudhorn, but a lot of them don't. at all). moff gideon is dead, no wait no he's not, now he's imprisoned, no wait no he's not, now he's definitely dead, you can totally believe us this time guys. grogu can use the force and must be placed with the jedi, but wait, the only person still actively teaching the way of the jedi is luke and all of his students will be brutally murdered ten years from now, and we can't have that, everyone will be mad at us for killing off such a cute character and no one will buy baby yoda dolls (and also we have to set up luke's character degradation from hopeful, believes-in-love cinnamon roll to "i'm going to kill my nephew") so in between seasons let's have grogu decide to go back to din (and don't even get me started on how frustrating it is that a casual mandalorian watcher also had to watch book of boba fett to understand why grogu is back). din has the darksaber now which makes him king of mandalore, that's totally going to be important and what the entire series has been building up to, right? wrong! he might have spent the first two seasons making connections, learning about the world outside his sheltered upbringing, and demonstrating the various qualities that would make for a good leader, but the entire third season will be about din realizing that actually he's super unworthy and the darksaber should actually go to someone who... saw an animal in the water.

and it's really, really frustrating as a viewer! because how am i supposed to get invested in any of these plot decisions when they almost always get reversed? why should i care that mj and ned have forgotten peter when ant-man 3 has shown me that they'll remember him the next time they're all on screen together? why should i care that tech is dead when half of the last season of clone wars was about how echo was actually alive? if none of these decisions have any permanence, then where are the emotional stakes? why should i watch your movie if all you're going to tell me is that nothing matters?

#and also i want to make a point that the early mcu did permanent stakes really well #iron man 1 ends with tony announcing that he's iron man and that's something that still resonated years later #the entire second film hinged on that one moment #loki falling into the bifrost is what leads him to the chitauri which is what kickstarted the avengers #steve is woken from the ice and the first organization who presents themselves as someone to trust is shield #which sets up the betrayal he feels in the winter soldier #these moments resonate throughout the first two stages and the decisions the characters made MATTERED #so you can't help but get invested because what if it's the wrong decision???#anyway i'm frustrated with the state of franchises #alle talks #long post

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spidybaby · 1 year

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Begin Again | Part Three

Summary: Back to the start to fix the broken pieces just to find that you can get what you always dreamed.

Warnings: cursing

A/N: Hello! I want to apologize for the waiting. Most of that was because I got sick (I still am), but here it is. Hope you like it. Love you all 💛✨️

Part one | Part two

April 2027

The moving went smoothly, Elena and Paulo helped you with everything. Your parents didn't like the idea, but you shut them down.

You weren't supposed to start till the end of April, giving you enough time to mind a plan to fix everything.

You saw online that Pedro was on Manchester. Apparently, Manchester City wanted to buy him.

"No sobre pienses tanto lo que haces, estas haciendo lo mejor para ti." (Don't overthink your decision. You're doing what's best for you)

Elena was the voice of reason in this situation.

"No sé ni donde empezar." (I don't even know where to start)

"Escuchame, eres una de las personas más inteligentes que conozco, venga tía, tu puedes con esto, es normal no saber ni donde empezar, pero estoy aquí para ti, para ayudarte en todo." (Listen to me, you're one of the smartest people I've ever known, c'mon dude, you can do it, it's okay not knowing where to start, but I'm here for you to help you with everything)

You hug her, crying a little, she makes you feel less alone.

Your mother stopped talking to you once she found out about the moving, telling you how much of a mistake you were making.

Your dad was siding with her, even when he didn't say you were making a mistake, he did tell you it was a bad decision.

But you didn't care, you pack your stuff and moved back to Barcelona. You even unblock his family from social media and didn't follow them, but unblock them was a start.

"Vamos por un helado." Elena says, drying your tears, "polito, amor mio, vamos!" (Let's go get some ice cream, Polito, my love, let's go)

She was carrying the diaper bag and your son, to say he even had a matching outfit with her.

"Oye, vamos a la playa, quiero una foto con mi bebé. Polito, te pondré tu chamarra de osito." (Let's go to the beach, I want a photo with my baby, Polito, let me put you your bear sweater)

"Tu bebé?" You laugh helping her with the sweater. "Amorcito, tienes nueva mami." (Your baby? Baby, you have a new mommy)

She laughed and made her way to the front door, grabbing your purse on the way out and your phone. You followed her.

"Crees que Pedro haría algo para quedarse con Polo?" You ask once you got to the beach. Your mom words did have an impact, even if you knew he wouldn't. "Yo sé que no, pero me da miedo." (Do you think Pedro would do anything to take Polo away? I know he wouldn't, but I'm scared)

"Y/n, claro que no, por favor saca esas ideas de tu mente, Pedro y tu tuvieron algo tan especial, él jamás haría nada para lastimarte." (Y/n, of course not, please take that idea out of your mind. Pedro and you had something so special, I know he won't do anything to hurt you)

You only nodded, not wanting to overthink those words.

"Mis padres me odian." (My parents hate me)

"No creo, solo están preocupados." (I don't think so, they're just worried)

But worried about what?

"Venga, Dame a mi hijo, vamos a tomarnos fotos." Elena says, throwing the empty ice cream cup in the trash can near you. (Give me my son, let's take some pictures)

"Lo bueno es que tu lo pariste, vieja tonta." (The good thing us that you birth him, dumbass)

Elena dances a little with him, singing a Quevedo song. The song makes you remember Pedro, he loves Quevedo music.

You take the pictures of Polo and Elena and she then takes some of you and him.

"Ay déjame subir esta." (Oh let me post this one)

You see the picture, it was cute.

"Dale."

"La verdad la oferta esta muy buena, para mi que la tomes." Mario, who is Pedro's manager says, "O es que aún piensas en quedarte en el barça?" (I think the offer is really good, I think you should take it. Or are you still thinking about staying?)

Pedro was lost in his thoughts, Manchester was offering him 150 million euros, with full on benefits and even to keep the number 8.

But on the other side, Barça was the club of his life. He couldn't imagine playing for other club.

He played for another season, but due to a mistake in his contract, he could leave for free this summer.

"Creo que debo pensarlo, hablarlo bien con mis padres." (I have to think about it, talk with my parents)

His manager agreed and changed the subject. He was invited to a club, but he rejected it. Fer was not I the mood, and without him, he was not going.

"Vamos de regreso al hotel." (Let's go back to the hotel)

After the arrival, he and his manager went to their rooms. He was sharing one with Fernando.

"Cómo te fue chaval?" (How was it?)

"Mmm. Estuvo bien, es un puto dolor de cabeza pensar en esto, no sé ni que hacer." (It was good, but it's a fucking headache thinking about all of this, I don't even know what to do)

"Venga, vamos al bar del hotel, tomamos algo y hablamos, no te estreses Pedro" (Let's go to the bar of the hotel, let's have some drinks and a talk. Don't stress)

They both made their way to the bar, Fernando was telling him about a gift he bought for his girlfriend.

"Mira que linda foto," Fer says, showing him the picture Elena posts about a baby with a bear sweater. "Quiero un sobrino para vestirlo así." (Look at this beautiful picture, I want a nephew to dress him like that)

Fernando looks at him with funny eyes, Pedro only laughs, "eres un gilipollas, tu deberías darme un sobrino" (you're an asshole, you're supposed to give me a nephew.)

They laughed and forgot about the picture. Asking for drinks and some food to begin the night.

"Alguna vez has pensado en cómo serias cómo padre?" (Have you ever thought about you as a father?) Fernando asks.

That puts him in deep thoughts. He did think about it, even dream with it.

The little baby in your arms with the barça shirt, his number on the back of both yours and the baby's shirt.

"La verdad?" (You want the truth?)

"Macho, no como crees? Dime mentiras." Fer says as he hits him on the back of the head. "Pues claro tonto, por algo pregunté." (Man, not at all, tell me lies. Well, obviously, I want the truth, I asked for a reason.)

"Venga ya que la colleja no era necesaria." He laughs. "Siempre lo imaginé, usualmente era algo que hablamos y/n y yo, ella quería un niño, y hombre no te miento, yo también quería uno, pero luego miraba a nuestro primo con su hija y pensaba en una niña." He says, remembering all the late night talks you two had. (The hit on the head was not necessary, I've always pictured it. It was something y/n and I always talked about. She wants a boy and man, I do want a son too, but after seeing our cousins with his girl, I thought about having a girl)

Fernando looks at the way he talks about it, the shine of his eyes, he haven't seen that shine in months.

"Puedo preguntarte algo, pero no te enojas?" (Can I ask you something without you getting mad?)

"Mhm?"

"Por qué la dejaste ir?" (Why did you let her go?)

Pedro takes his eyes away from his brother. That question was one he asked himself every night since that December night.

"Recuerdas el anillo?" He asks, Fernando nods. "Yo sabía que ella quería que su padre estuviera de acuerdo con el matrimonio, la bendición, así que fui a pedirla, yo quería casarme con ella." (Remember the ring? I knew she wanted his father to be okay with the marriage, the blessing. So I went to ask for it, I wanted yo marry her)

"Pero?" (But?)

"Pero su padre me dijo que no podía darmela, que yo era un chaval con una vida muy distinta a la que el soñaba para el esposo de su hija. Me dijo que pensaba que ella algún día iba a darse cuenta y dejarme, como no lo hizo, solo esperó. Me pidió dejarla, diciendo que ella no quería irse de Barcelona por mi, porque no quería dejarme, diciéndome que sus sueños iban a ser siempre interrumpidos por mi, por mi carrera y me pidió dejarla ir, dejarla emprender su propio camino, brillar por si sola." He says angrily, remembering the words of your father. (But her father couldn't give it to me, I was a kid with a totally different life from the one he pictured his son in law would have. He told me he hoped for her to realize that and left me, but she never did, so he waited. He asked me to leave her, but she didn't want to leave Barcelona because of me, telling me her dreams were going to be interrupted by me because of my career. So he asked me to let her go, for her to shine on her own, to begin her own path in life)

Fernando was in shock. He always thought it was about a fight, maybe even a bad patch on the relationship. Even his parents told him he was making a mistake, but know it makes sense.

"Pedro. Por qué no me habías contado?" (Pedro, why didn't you tell me?)

He shrugs, not facing him. Drinking way too quickly.

"Pedro, por favor mirame."

He did, after a few minutes.

"Lo siento, por haberte criticado, haberte culpado y juzgado mal. No sabía lo que había pasado, ojalá me hubieras contado, para así apoyarte. Lo siento hermanito." He hugs him, the hug was tight, and Pedro needed that. (I'm sorry. For judging you and for blaming you. I didn't know, and I wish you had told me I would have supported you. I'm sorry, hermanito.

Pedro felt relief. The secret he kept to himself was now free from him.

"Has pensado en hablar con ella?" (Have you thought about reaching her?)

He shake his head no.

"La verdad siento que me odia, la hice mierda, la deje y luego ignore sus llamadas, sus mensajes. Me dolió el alma, Fernando. Pero era lo que yo en ese momento creía correcto. (To be honest, I feel that she hates me, I fuck her up, after I dumped her I ignored her calls and texts, that broke my heart, Fernando. But I thought I was doing the right thing)

"Escuchame, tu hiciste lo que en ese momento creíste correcto, no te culpes más, pero creo que es obvio que no la has superado, aún piensas en ella." Fer says, patting his back. "Venga, déjame ayudarte a recuperarla y si no se puede pues ayudarte a superarlo, juntos en todo, como cuando niños." (Listen to me, you did what you thought was the right thing, don't blame yourself anymore. I think it is pretty obvious that you love her. You still think of her. So, let me help you get her back, and if that's not possible, let me help you move on, but together, like when we were kids)

"Te amo, eres el mejor." (I love you, you're the best)

"Yo te amo más, venga que tenemos que pensar en algo." (I love you more, c'mon, we have to plan how you're getting her back)

Pedro smiled, high five his brother, and begins with the plan for that to happen. Like fer said, together.

You were at the supermarket, you needed food for your fridge. Elena stayed with Polo. He was fussy, so you let him stay.

You got almost everything on the list. I'm picking a few fruits. Since Polo is now six months old, the doctor told you to start with some fruit based foods.

You grabbed some sweet potato, some bananas, and some avocados. Also some vegetables like broccoli, carrot, and some more.

You were so focused on picking some apples that when someone touched you to grab your attention you kind of jump.

"Ay Dios," you say, putting your hand on your heart, "Pablo?" You ask seeing him smile, trying not to laugh.

"Sigues siendo la misma tía que se asusta de todo al parecer." (You're still the same scary girl I see).

You laugh, hugging him. It's been a long time without seeing him.

"Cuando volviste?" (When did you came back?)

"Hace poco, a finales de marzo." (Not that long ago, end of March.)

"Y estas aquí para quedarte? O solo de visita?" (Are you staying or only for a visit?)

You smile, "Vine para quedarme" (I'm here to stay)

You talked for a while, and you both continued the shopping.

"Y dime, como vas de amores?" (And tell me, how's the love?)

You shrug, not knowing how to answer.

"Pues, sigo soltera. Los Italianos son muy intensos, te juro. Y tu que tal de amores?" (Well, I'm still single, Italian guys are way too much. What about you?)

"Recuerdas a Carolina?" (Do you remember Carolina?)

"La nena del agua?" (The water girl?)

He nodded, excited. "Hace casi un año estamos saliendo, ya no es la del agua, ahora es entrenadora de los niños en el club" (almost a year ago we been dating, and she's not the water girl anymore, she's a coach for the first starters in the club.)

"Eso está increíble, Pablito." (That's amazing, Pablito)

"Haz vuelto a hablar con Pedro?" (Have you talked to Pedro?)

If Pablo was known for something, it was two things, his anger on the pitch and not having a filter when he speaks.

"No, hace mucho que no hablo con él." (No, it's been a long time without talking to him.)

He nodded, understanding.

"Pero, de hecho he querido hablar con él desde que regresé. No sé si quiera hablarme." (But, I've been looking to talk to him since I came back, but I don't know if he would talk to me)

"Pero vamos, claro que quiere" (c'mon, he obviously wants to)

You smile at his words.

"Deja darte el número, tuvo que cambiarlo porque en un entreno le hicimos mierda el movil" (let me give you his number, he had to change it since once during training we fucked his phone)

"No me sorprende, siempre se hacian mierda las cosas ustedes" (I'm not surprised, you guys always fucked your things)

He grabbed your phone, saving Pedro's number.

"Te he guardando el mio igual, por si alguna vez necesitas algo, acá estoy." (I saved mine too. If you ever need anything, I'm here)

You hugged goodbye as you both went different ways.

You hurry to the line, wanting to get home so you can tell Elena the news.

"Sabes que me encanta de Manchester, el ambiente es diferente a España, no sé cómo describirlo pero es diferente" Fernando says, looking around. (You know what I love about Manchester? The atmosphere is different. I don't know how to explain it, but it's different)

Pedro laughed, agreeing with him. Mario only nodded smiling.

"Bien, entonces dame unos días y te daré la respuesta, si?" (Okay, give me a few days, and I'll have the answer) Pedro says referring to the contract.

"Tomate una semana, meditalo y si tienes dudas podemos hablar, poner un pro y con sobre la mesa." (Take a week, meditate it, and if you have any doubts, call me up, and we can put all the pros and cons at the table to make up your mind)

After that, they changed the topic, talking about a game they were invited to, Fer and Mario were talking about one specific player and how he got a yellow card for something that was a clearly a red.

Pedro's mind was far away from that, seeing the text he got from Pablo.

She was back, and she wanted to talk with him.

He was out of breath, wanted to tell Fernando right away, but he knew better and wait for the night to be over.

As they entered the room, he grabbed his brother's shoulders, shaking him while screaming in happiness.

"Me vas a descalabrar capullo." (You're going to hurt me, idiot)

"Mira," he shows the text message.

Fernando is now screaming with him, happy for the news.

"A ver, calma ya" (okay, let's calm down), Fernando says, taking a few breaths. "Si te quiere ver y Pablo le dio tu número, ella te va a escribir, es obvio." (If she wants to see you and Pablo gave her your number, she'll text you, it's obvious)

And as Fer finished saying that, Pedro's phone lights up with a text from an unknown number.

Pedro checks it and screams, showing it to his brother, who screams with him.

(Hi,

I hope you're doing great. I'm sending you this message to let you know I'm in Barcelona and I'll like to meet up with you to talk.

-Y/n)

"Qué contesto?" Pedro says, full of nerves. (What can I text back?)

"Trae pa ca', tonto," he says, taking the phone from his brothers hand. (Give me that, morron)

(Hi

I like to see you, we can meet wherever, maybe somewhere more calm to avoid paparazzi)

Back in Barcelona, you and Elena are sitting in your couch, face to face.

"Ya contestó," you say excited. (He answered)

"A ver," Elena says, taking the phone from you. "Contesta" (let me see, answer him).

"No sé que poner," you say nervios. (I don't know how to answer)

"Ay, dame aquí, tonta" (give me that, idiot)

("Do you still living I'm the same place." "Yes, do you remember the address, or do you need the location?")

"Crees que recuerde?" Pedro asks, seeing the answer his brother sends. (Do you think she remembers?)

"Callate, déjame ver que responde," Fer says, seeing the three dots. (Shut up, let me answer)

("No, I do remember, what about tomorrow morning?" "I'll be back from Manchester tomorrow at noon. Let's meet at night, if that's okay with you.")

"Cierto que vi que estaba en Manchester," you say as you read the text, "Dile que si" (it's true, he's in Manchester, say yes)

"Calmate," Elena says. (Calm down)

("I'll see you tomorrow at night" "7 pm?" "Yes, " "I'll see you tomorrow. " "Goodbye, Pedro.")

Pedro and Fernando were looking at the last text.

"Niño" Fernando says, screaming and hugging his brother.

Pedro is excited. He was getting you back. No matter how hard, how much he has to fight or work, he's getting you back. He's putting that ring on your finger. He's getting that dream family.

What he didn't know is that on Barcelona, Elena, and you are jumping and screaming on the couch.

"Dios, estoy tan nerviosa." You say as you calm down. "Necesito que me lleves, por favor." (Gosh, I'm so excited. Please, I need you to take me)

"Obvio, tonta." (Obviously, dummy)

You both look and start screaming again, until a cry make you stop.

"Oops," Elena says.

You laugh and go to collect your baby. He was crying due to your screaming, mad because his dreams were interrupted.

"Ya, ya mi amor, ven acá." You say picking him up, calming him. "No sabes, tu papi y yo nos vamos a ver." You say as he calms down. "Y estoy nerviosa, espero mañana puedas conocerlo." (It's okay, love, come here. You have no idea. Daddy and I are meeting up, I'm nervous, and I hope you both can meet up tomorrow)

You kiss him. Taking him with you back to the living room.

"Vente." You say to Elena, "ayúdame a escoger el outfit." (Come, help me pick my outfit)

You feel like a teenager getting ready for her first date.

The butterflies, the nervousness in your system, and the excitement.

Tomorrow, you're getting that family you both dreamed about.

Tag list:

@alwaysclassyeagle @footballerficsposts @gulphulp @cinderellawithashoe @jajajhaahaha @bellinghambby22 @pablogavisgirl @lunamelona @christinabae @fadinglovermuffintaco 💛✨️

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beautifulpersonpeach · 1 year

Note

Hi BPP! Do you think the backlash to Set Me Free Pt2 is going to negatively impact Jimin’s solo career at all? I knew antis were going to bark, but I’m honestly taken aback by how widespread the hate is, to the point it’s making it back to the people who worked with him. I’m also seeing streams and sales drop a bit more than I was expecting. Now looking at places like Reddit, the hype for his album has really dropped. That’s probably a terrible place to gauge reaction, but it does have me a bit worried. I know the negativity for like Dynamite was really bad, but that was a song catered to the GP with the entire weight of all of ARMY behind it, and Jimin definitely doesn’t have that, so I’m worried this negativity will actually impact him. (The song is a straight up masterpiece to me btw, my sincerest hope is that he gets some critical recognition for it, or recognition from opinions he cares about. I really want to see him keep experimenting with music like this and to know how much so many of us love it!)

***

Hi Anon,

This is the last ask I'll respond to on this topic, because though I don't share the same fear, I recognize many of you feel nervous right now for understandable reasons and I don't want to dismiss your concerns outright.

Story time.

D-2 by Agust D was released on May 22, 2020. Right away the mixtape was a hit in the fandom and most ARMYs (not all, it's a solo project after all) supported it. As soon as it was released, k-pop stans went to work and I honestly found it amusing how methodical they were: they started from the top of the tracklist to the bottom - they first claimed Moonlight was plagiarized, the accusation didn't stick; then they claimed Daechwita was plagiarized, that too didn't stick. Then they got to the third track What Do You Think, and they hit the jackpot. You see, the initial recording of WDYT included a sampled excerpt of Jim Jones' speech, and once that was discovered, it was like hate bomb went off lol. The hate, ridicule, and bad faith was so intense and so widespread, I recall many ARMYs had to deactivate their accounts. Before long, k-pop stans were claiming Yoongi had told an insider that he wanted to kill black people and queer Korean people...

Anyway the point is, the backlash on Yoongi was swift, brutal, and harsh, understandably. Jim Jones has been sampled several times in music, in fact Post Malone put out an album around that time that explicitly referenced Jonestown, and it's very likely Yoongi or the people in his team were inspired by Post Malone's album and sought to include a similar feel and connection in his mixtape. In fact Agust D's Set Me Free directly pulls sonically from the album. But as with all things k-pop, cultural references get lost in translation and the weight of that decision was significant in the aftermath. BigHit released a statement and apology, and the song was re-released without the sample.

Now we're in March 2023, do you think this event negatively affected Yoongi's solo projects and career? Perhaps it did, k-pop stans still fume that Yoongi never apologized nor accepted blame for it, but by the end of 2020 I saw no indication Yoongi had been worse off for it. Partly because of ARMYs' support, but mostly because k-pop stans had gotten their pound of flesh with a humbling and an apology, and had moved on to the next target for critical discourse (which funnily enough was Dynamite by BTS).

It sounds crude and cynical to say it like this, and it's possible I could be wrong, but I've observed this pattern too many times over too many years for me to think otherwise.

Hopefully I don't have to say this more than once, but please listen when I tell you that so long as a project comes from a BTS member, the default inclination of most k-pop stans is to hate it. Nearly all the hate you're seeing for Jimin's Set Me Free Pt 2 was nearly guaranteed to begin with, the autotune just made it easy as the excuse. I mean, there's a whole subset of k-pop fandoms who believe he can't sing despite years of proof to the contrary. Since 2018 (precisely after BTS was awarded the Cultural Order of Merit award), the best case scenario from k-pop stans towards music released by BTS, is for them to ignore it. If you're expecting any other reaction from k-pop stans besides avoidance or hate, you're hoping for too much. Personally, I don't think it's a big deal, but I do think you need to calibrate your expectations to the reality of the environment you're in. It's one reason ARMYs are so fervent in their support of BTS.

There are differences between Yoongi's case and Jimin's. Firstly, Yoongi was already a respected producer outside of traditional k-pop and had avenues besides idol music to further that work, while Jimin appears to want to operate as a k-pop idol firmly within this system which requires winning over and maintaining the support of k-pop stans. So in a nutshell, Jimin is more exposed to the fickleness of k-pop stans than Yoongi is, but at the same time, Jimin does appear to have a larger committed base of solo fans than Yoongi, so let's say most of that risk cancels out for now.

The solo era also complicates things because the biggest antis of the members, are akgaes of other members. In Chapter 2 the support for each member from the fandom is more fractured now, that's true. But I think going by Jimin's case at least, the core of the fandom is still firmly supportive of their projects.

If you're still concerned, what can you do?

Remember that a lot of what you see online doesn't translate into real life. As an example, when a portion of RUN BTS (the song) was leaked last year, k-pop fans were tearing it down, saying it sounded like crap and was autotuned to death. By the end of 2022, k-pop stans were saying RUN BTS should have been the title track for Proof, that it was one of the best songs released by BTS and the song showed up in multiple stans' Spotify Wrapped...

Remember that most of these people hate as a hobby and are content to simply kick up a stink before moving on to the next thing. And in k-pop that typically happens in a matter of weeks.

Remember that your own view ultimately matters most. How do you feel about Set Me Free Pt 2? What do you like and dislike about it? How do you feel about the ideas Jimin is communicating in his song? I've said before that hate is contagious. All it does is inspire more of the same. You can counteract that spread by focusing on the music and the artist. Celebrate Jimin and the bits about him and his music that you love. Joy is infectious too, and if you're feeling his sound, people will notice. And more importantly, you'll be happier and less worried.

Like with previous solo releases, ARMYs might hit or miss their goals. There's a lot about the charts that have changed since 2021, leaving a lot of it up to chance, unfortunately. I suggest you focus on doing your part. The fandom isn't trying to sabotage Jimin, and Jimin is not releasing music to get specific chart placements to begin with. ARMYs will support as best they can, panic-buy at the last minute (lol), and Jimin will still succeed regardless of the outcome. He has already made his mark. I'm not saying this to placate you, that's what I genuinely think.

If you'd like more gp support, then share his music with those around you. Jimin's a great artist and I'm convinced anyone who listens to him without prejudice will be intrigued at the very least. They might not like his sound or his voice, but he will leave an impression. Your enthusiasm will too. And many times that's more than enough.

With Like Crazy's release this Friday, if it's a conventional pop track, expect a rebound in reactions from k-pop stans. I expect many to say things like 'he should've released this first' or something to that effect. That too has a playbook but I've rambled enough already.

What I'm trying to say is, Jimin isn't new to hate. Unfortunately, I suspect he knows, more than anyone else, the backlash he was likely to receive putting out a song like that. And that makes the song all the more powerful and perfect in my mind. In my initial review of Set Me Free Pt 2 I said I wasn't going to talk about the lyrics and message, and I still won't. All I'll say is I think it's a good idea to take Jimin seriously. There's nothing to be gained fretting about k-pop stans, focus instead on Jimin. He's worked too hard and already done such a phenomenal job, for any of us to be distracted by something as inconsequential as k-pop stan chatter.

It's only March. We still have the rest of the year and further out to leave an impact with his music.

In my opinion.

#jimin #park jimin #set me free pt.2 #bts

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ask-the-royal-absol · 10 months

Text

Destino: Let's begin, peasants!

@ask-guardian-gallade

*Destino takes one look at Romeo and makes a disgusted face.*

Oh great. The walking stick over here decided to make an appearance. Your face reminds me of something. A Stunky's backside. Nobody wants to see it but it keep rearing it anyway. And you lost your arm too? How did that happen? Wait, let me guess. Your battling skills were so bad that you lost it to the first Pokémon you saw? I wouldn't be surprised if you lost it to a Sunkern. I've heard how pathetic they are. Perhaps you're a Sunkern in disguise, considering how weak you look. I could probably knock you over with a single breath. Snap you like a twig too. You should probably be more careful around other Pokémon. I wouldn't want you to loose your other arm because they gently bumped into you.

@spikyegg

*Destino laughs as soon as they see Derek.* You think that ensemble looks good on you? Haha! That's probably the funniest thing I've seen all day. You look like if a Trubbish decided to take a shit and proudly display it on themselves. And that head piece? That's probably the most flattering part about you. Then again, you're not anything special to look at. Main character? Of what novel? Because I doubt anyone would want to read a book with you as the protagonist. I think you probably misunderstood your role. You're one of those character who would appear for a second and get easily forgotten because of how little impact you more than likely have in this world.

@team-pokefriends

*Destino looks at Sophie, shit-eating grin on their face.* You know, I love it when other Pokémon create impossible dreams for themselves. Like you. Dreaming of being cool looking like that? How truly inspiring. The cape certainly doesn't help. Did you really think putting that ridiculous cloth on you would suddenly make everyone think you're cool? Perhaps you should change your dream to being the world's most deluded Slowking. At least that's achievable. And you're one of two leaders of a Pokémon team? However did your team mate allow that to happen? I mean, sorry to say this but it's clearly some elaborate prank they thought of to make you look stupid. I doubt I'd ever want you to lead a team if I made one. That's sending so many red flags. I'm surprised you haven't failed miserably yet.

@nobetternamethanthat2

*Looks towards Daniel, feigning surprise * Wow. I'm speechless. I truly am. I didn't think I'd find someone so ugly but here we are. I should give you a medal for going around looking like that. And the outfit too? Oh man, I feel sorry for anyone who decides to hang around with you. Then again, I imagine they're doing it for pity. And come on. At least style your hair a bit. Put a bit of effort into your appearance. I know not everyone can look as magnificent as me but at least try to have some dignity. I would offer to make you at least look somewhat decent but I doubt even my skills could help out in that department. How could you ever make yourself look presentable when each mirror you come across cracks at the sight of you?

@neverlandfaerai

*Destino looks at Agatha with a mock surprised face* The god of creation decided to make you look like that? I wouldn't be surprised if you were one of the idea they threw away and ended up accidently being created. I imagine they regretted that decision. I mean, who would even care for a decrepit creature like you? Do you even have any friends? Family? I highly doubt it. Why would anyone want to be around some washed up old crone? And please don't speak. It makes it much easier to maintain my illusions of your intelligence that way.

@ask-suicune

*Destino takes one glance at Zantzu and smugly smiles.* Well well well. If it isn't the water type who decided a scarf would be a good thing to wear. Perhaps you should get a bigger scarf to cover more of yourself up. And what is up with those ribbons? Born with ribbons coming out of your ass? Damn, I almost feel sorry about how ridiculous you look with those. And that hair. Purple. Did you dye it that colour to make yourself look a shred bit presentable? No? You were born with it? What a disaster for you. I'm surprised you wake up everyday telling yourself you look ok. Your scent is also incredibly interesting too. Did you attack a Stunky or did one just sneeze on you? I thought water types were supposed to be clean but the whiff I got of your stench makes me doubt what I've heard.

@askpokemoncrossover

Sai. You know, you amaze me. Being some mad scientist's fucked up creation must be so hard for you. That's not the case? How on earth would you explain your looks? I have the belief that every Pokémon can be strong. Looking at you though, I can see I was wrong. Those noodly arms would barely be able to get a single hit on an opponent. I guarantee that if I used my weakest attack on you, you'd flop to the ground in an instant.

And I doubt anyone would come running over to aid you. You look like the type of Pokémon not even a mother could love. Does anyone love you? If you said yes, that'd be the funniest thing I'd have heard in a long time.

@ask-lu-two-and-mew

Now, help me out Lucario because I'm really struggling to understand how you could ever think that face mask could work. That's natural? What an absolute shame that is. Perhaps you should cover up. At least then your friends wouldn't be embarrassed being around you. And a fighting type too? I thought fighting types were supposed to be these strong looking Pokémon that could hold their own against any opponent. I doubt you could even put a dent in a geodude. I imagine everyone else probably fights your battles as they would see how pathetic your attempt at fighting was and take pity on you.

Destino: Don't worry, I'll come at the rest of you later. I know you all crave my attention. I understand. Who wouldn't?

#destino's roasting session #destino you're gonna get your ass kicked with some of these #sorry no art #i did not anticipate how many of you would want to be roasted #gonna be honest i kinda felt overwhelmed by the amount of people wanting to be roasted lol #i know i said i would do art #sorry

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mortuarywriting · 1 month

Text

Wip Wednesday! I uh. Might've spent the latter half of last week making a silly thing that I'll eventually get back to but first. Dragons once again.

So yes, while a dragonslayer is a very unlikely title for someone to claim for themselves, the dragons that walk among the people will neither forget nor let their guard down for the scent that will send any dragon's instinct into certain wariness.

Ultimately the dragons want to live by their rules, be left well enough alone, and to support those in their weyrs that need the support and protection. A single dragon can be a valuable target, but a weyr has its own way of making itself impenetrable and invaluable.

Again, this is not saying dragons are bastions of moral purity. Regrettably there will be demographics where might makes right, or tradition dictates to the point of restriction. Most have embraced that humanity, more as a blanket name for the population, is prone to cycles.

A surge of innovation, a wave of luxury, a tide of oppression, the tempest of revolution, and once the fires are put out the cycle begins again- innovation in the wake of tragedy to try to fix what has been broken. Patterns, cycles, the cute phrase "history is doomed to repeat itself" thrown about but ultimately ignored. An individual can vary wildly but as a rule humanity?

Somewhat predictable.

And its in that prediction the draconic populace tends to temper themselves and hide in plain sight. Many dragons these days are bred out enough that their youngest grandchildren will have long lifespans for a human- and many humans don't know the hints of dragon blood that may flicker in their veins. Nothing that can spur any particular magic or draconic shift in itself, but enough that dragons may be more inclined to keep an extra eye out.

And that's where the dragons in power come in. Oh politics generally keep too close an eye and shift so regularly truly ancient or outed dragons work very hard to avoid the political stage. Dragons with the power and drive to protect tend to do so in ways they know will make impacts- maybe starting local support networks, maybe heading businesses, or maybe heading some flight of their own.

Here's the part where we discuss, more specifically, why dragons are so bad at dying for a cause.

In its most boiled down and concentrated essence, its really a simple answer.

Dragons are bad at dying.

A gross oversimplification, but as stated a dragon is not an insignificant target.

Many centuries ago (a few millenia really, but other than the mountains that walk among us who's counting?), when dragons were more complacent? A few industrious leaders of men marched their armies upon dragons.

Well, war is a great driver of innovation. Knowing your enemy means being able to devise a strategy around them.

Dragons known for being swift and staying in the skies for days at a time? Had to come down at some point, and catapult and trebuchet made that decision for them.

Where scales had been impenetrable by man, nature could be leveraged and tempered.

So it was determined that, perhaps, dragons should don human guise and enter these armies themselves. Make their way in and hide and keep the species off the chopping blocks.

And when something that good works? Others follow.

Bits by bit others followed suit. Humans... didn't need to know how much of their armies were actually human anymore, and the nonhuman population was safe enough, so that worked out.

But! I digress.

Dragons.

Causes.

Dying.

By all counts? They've had enough of it. If you're enlisted it's something of a gentleman's agreement- you've thrown your lot with a cause you chose and some may even defect if appalled enough with some strings pulled. Takes a lot to sway a dragon's mind, after all lives are a drop in the bucket and ends can justify the means easily when you consider the many against the few.

It's an easy path to tread. The ends justified the means. I was following orders. It's what was expected. What else could I have done?

There is a level of violence that cannot be ignored.

Dragons.

Wars.

Artillery.

There is a level of complacency that will never wash out.

Dragons.

Atrocity.

Bombs.

Scales can be hardened and tempered over time, but remember maps of where war planes have been repeatedly shot are only ever from the planes that managed to return.

Dragons.

Blood.

Screams.

Some sins may never be forgiven. How many sit at your feet, how do you know the call you made was right?

For everyone that depends on you, it just has to be enough, doesn't it. That it wasn't has to be unimaginable. To get lost in what-ifs is to meet your twilight and send your soul on from your body.

So.

Dragons are bad at dying for causes.

Because every dragon asked has had to live for theirs, haven't they.

And the military is so full of humans, isn't it?

#rambles from the morgue

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jess-the-vampire · 2 years

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So there's been a theory going around that Caleb voluntarily left for the Isles leaving child Philip behind, as indicted by the portrait in Hollow Mind, and Philip found his way to the Isles as an adult to find him. Personally I'm rooting for this theory, because it goes to show how similar Caleb was to Luz in both positive and negative traits, both their mutual love of magic and leaving behind loved ones without any regard to their feelings. What's your opinion?

i think that theory does make Caleb out to be far more flawed as a person, the situation itself to be far more tragic for everyone involved, and overall to be a good parallel for him and other characters within the series.

because at this point in time it's so easy to sorta see Caleb as a flawless victim in all of this and while he didn't deserve his fate it's unlikely he's as flawless as fans tend to see him.

I think to an extent Caleb had his issues, bad stuff he had to grow out of, but this adds a whole other layer to it. That Caleb might of been looking to escape earth and live freely, something that lines up with flapjack's goals, but making this one selfish decision, like luz, didn't turn out how he'd thought it would.

Because toh explores the real impact luz's choice has, that there are reprecussions to living out this whimsical fantasy, and her mom is a clear example of it...because luz really hadn't considered at the time what it would do to her.

And same would go for Philip, arguably worse if Caleb was Philip's primary caretaker and if he was very young when it happened. It kinda makes you feel worse for Philip, because in this kinda circumstance...Philip might of thought his brother was killed, or kidnapped, mind warped, or that his brother really abandoned him for years....for witches.

And Caleb might not of fully understood the hurt that caused because he was so happy with his new life.

There's a likelihood Caleb had no idea how to get home so it was out of his control, but at the same time if he didn't even TRY to get back to his brother....how exactly does that come off to Philip?

That his brother didn't care about him? That they did something to him? Was this even his brother at all?

Caleb wanting to be free of his situation is not a bad thing, he would of been clearly making a selfish choice for himself, but leaving Philip behind in a clearly messed up community without a possibly good influence might not of really crossed his mind as a being a problem.

It'd be an unfortunate situation where caleb was doing something for himself but in return left someone behind to get worse without him, making his death an unfortunate circumstance of his actions.

i think it's an interesting take on the situation that sorta humanizes both philip and caleb a little more as characters?

because i love the idea of them both going in together, that makes for far more fun story ideas of them getting into shenanigans, but most ppl who tackle that idea usually have caleb almost be objectively good and philip objectively bad (Outside of those who had the idea of philip going from good to bad and caleb from bad to good).

and that's fine if you wanna do that, but i think it adds more to them as characters if caleb can have more moments of screwing up and philip has more moments of sympathy, it makes them feel more like people and their fates more tragic then one brother just being good and one just being bad.

So yeah, i kinda don't mind this idea, i'm personally not really crazy fond of philip sorta being seen as evil from the very beginning and that he always was a bad seed, i think it's far more interesting if you show him as a person and how he came into his opinions and the ways in which he regressed.

Cause at the end of the day, Philip is a tragic character in a way, he objectively thinks he's saving others and in turn he basically ruined his own life for no reason. It's not an excuse, he is at fault for how he handled all of this despite having the time to grow out of it, but it's sad his society and it's views are kinda one of the main reasons he has nothing now and he did all of this horrible stuff for it because he couldn't shake it and now he has nothing. it's a bad combination of his poor actions and the world around him making him worse, things he can't control and things he could've but didn't.

i think that's far more interesting then simplifying his character as just being a dick or just being evil, or caleb just always being good and knowing right from wrong.

So if they go for this, i think it'd be some interesting nuance for the show.

#the owl house #emperor belos #caleb wittebane #philip wittebane #luz noceda

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mayxthexforce · 1 year

Text

@mutatiio said

To say Obi-Wan had been having a bad week would be a broad understatement. The holo-novelas Anakin loved so much made faking your own death seem like such a problem solver; the reveal always dramatic, the 'dead' man always welcomed back with open arms, and things moving on from it and back to normalcy by the next episode. But as many of the concepts explored in those, it turned out that was not how it worked in real life. His Padawan and grand-Padawan were both, understandably, upset about his decision to keep them in the dark. But while Ahsoka understood, to an extent, and chose to move on from it and celebrate the fact he was not actually dead and they hadn't actually lost him, that it had all been just a desperate plan to prevent yet another terrible thing from happening, and that Obi-Wan didn't do it because he didn't trust them, Anakin had no such reasoning.

Then there was Maul: always the unremovable, and seemingly unkillable, thorn on his side. Always finding ways to make things more difficult for Obi-Wan, as if Kenobi himself wasn't able to do that all on his lonesome– he was, the strain he allowed this last mission put on his relationship with Anakin was proof of that. So far, the one benefit Obi-Wan had gotten from all of that was that spending time undercover and 'dead' meant days and days spent without having to deal with Maul. But that, too, was over. If he didn't know better, he would even dare say Maul seemed to miss him. If their squabble hadn't ended up on the ground so quickly, Obi-Wan would have gone as far as to point it out to his rival because, well, good banter could win you half the fight in a way lightsabers never managed– especially not when it came to Maul. But when he had the chance to speak, to lean in and deliver the verbal jab to Maul's ego through the frantic beating of his own heart right against his eardrums and in his throat, making his head feel like an echo chamber, he found his lips parting not to speak, but to allow his tongue to come out and press right against the former Sith's nose, licking blood.

Obi-Wan wasn't sure what drove him to do that. He wasn't sure what drove him in general as of late, and had ended up questioning many things, especially after seeing the look of betrayal and disillusionment on Anakin's face when his former Padawan found out he was alive. What drove him? What made him think some things he did were good ideas or worth crossing the threshold from idea to action? What the kark was he doing?

He chose the wrong time and place to question such things.

His physical grip on Maul's upper limbs faltered upon impact, but the pressure he applied with the force over the Zabrak's lower body did not. It took more than headbutting to make Obi-Wan's concentration falter enough to forget the growing threat that Maul's metal legs could pose, especially in a position like this where a well-placed kick could have probably broken a rib or worse. Still, it hurt. His nose miraculously got away with just a squish against smooth red and black skin that might leave it sore for a bit, but one of the horns really got him.

"You–"

Whatever banter or insult he might have been about to produce would remain a mystery, as he was interrupted by the copper taste of blood filling his mouth as it dripped right into his tongue but mostly down his chin from a cut left on his bottom lip, which was already beginning to swell and welt from the blow.

#may the queue be with you #||in character: obi wan kenobi||#& maul #mutatiio #||verse: a crisis of faith; obi wan kenobi||

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the-owl-tree · 1 year

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Do you have any thoughts on tunneling in WindClan?

it's an interesting concept with a really weak conflict!! which you know, could be said about the entirety of tallstar's revenge. There's no real rhyme or reason why some of the central conflicts happen. Why does Heatherstar wanna get rid of tunneling? Who knows! Why does ShadowClan keep randomly attacking?? Who knows! Why does Sandgorse retroactively get turned into a good guy at the end? Who k- no wait, it's because the writers suck.

I think the most fondness I have for the idea comes from, funnily enough, from the ideas that it's created from other people. I like the concept of tunneling as a representation of the cats overworking their environment, quite literally tearing it up from the inside for the sake of just having more. I also like it as its dissolution being something as a representation of how the Clans prioritize being battle ready over anything else. If it's not there to be an immediate boon during a battle, it's not worth it.

But in the text...there's not much to it? There's no real rhyme or reason. Heatherstar's reasoning is vague and unconvincing. I like the idea of a conflict in the Clan but it's done so poorly that you have to wonder why bother (which i could say about the entirety of tallstar's revenge but whatever).

anyways......very loose rewrite idea under the cut

Some loose ideas:

General notes: Sandgorse must be portrayed as bad in the end, why didn't this happen in the book. Why was he allowed to abuse his son for the entirety of a book then get retroactively treated like just a swell guy in the end. Palebird and Tallstar would have a goddamn conversation when he returns like holy fuck. Shrewclaw needs to apologize?? he straight up tells tallpaw to kill himself????? what is wrong with the books. Tallstar leaving Jake isn't treated as this sad but noble decision, it's a regret that stains Tallstar's mind for moons to come and impacts how he leads (he resents the Clan deep down even though it was his choice).

Move the issue away from it being tunneling and moreso the divide that it's causing. WindClan tunnelers have their own Medic who travels with them to give blessings and administer care, this Medic often comes into conflict with the Moor Runner's Medic and the two squabble on how to advise their leader.

At this time, Heatherstar is seeking to expand WindClan territory right to the strip by the mothermouth. This move makes her very unpopular with the other Clans, specifically ShadowClan. I think this conflict would strengthen WindClan's us vs. them ideals that Sandgorse tries to instill in Tallstar. Both Medics would see this as an opportunity to seize favor in the Clan by having their respect division help win the contested piece of land and (of course) this leads to more conflict.

The Moor Runners win of course and tunneling's very existence begins to come under question. Tallkit is a child during a very tense time with Sandgorse as such a vocal and aggressive supporter of tunneling resulting in him being isolated from his peers. The other queens try to help and support him with Palebird suffering from grief after losing Palebird.

The travellers aren't just a group of random cats who stay because the plot demands it. They should have some sort of attachment such as maybe having helped the Clan in the past or even being ex-WindClan cats who were sent out on some sort of pilgrimage. Either way, Sandgorse doesn't like them and Tallpaw takes after him in this regard.

Have Jake be part of the travellers or have him and Tallpaw meet earlier an establish a friendship. They travelled for like a week, they're barely friends.

Sandgorse and the Tunnellers Medic is killed in the crash resulting in a highly tense atmosphere where Tallpaw is pushed into taking on the role but decides to become a Moor Runner. The hostility from his former tunnellers and the lack of support from the moor runners is what also pushes him to leave (even though he tells himself he's going to get revenge for his father).

ty for the ask! sorry i veered off topic, i started thinking about tallstar ideas from yesterday and got ahead of myself.

#warrior cats #deer rambles #i love these kinds of asks #i feel like a little zoo animal who got one of those enrichment swings

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bnhaobservation · 8 months

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I think enji apology to Shouto was lame I don't think a simple sorry should be enough...

You wrote just a sentence but there's so much I want to say about the topic I hope you'll excuse me if you get a lenghty reply...

Now... I'll assume you're referring to the scene in chap 390, right? The one in which he apologizes to his whole family? Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

Now, premise.

I'm not a particularly forgiving person. Enji destroyed his whole family. If I were in the shoes of one of his family members I wouldn't forgive him, regardless of him saying sorry or not.

So yeah, FOR ME, sorry isn't enough. It doesn't even begin to cut it.

The problem is the story isn't about me but about the Todorokis and we were told long ago his family (except for Touya) has already planned to forgive him way before he were to say 'sorry'. So to them 'sorry' is a bonus, not even a requirement to forgive him.

I'll try to keep this not overly long so I won't dig into the reasons why a fictional family chose to forgive someone who did to them the things Enji did, despite him doing so little for them to make up for his wrongdoing. It happens in real life too so it's not completely irrealistic.

It's their decision... and it's Horikoshi's decision to depict them as so forgiving because the end goal was likely always rebuilding the family.

Now... chap 390 is not the first time Enji apologizes to Shouto and the rest of his family. The previous apologies which were shown were also lame so I don't blame you if you don't remember them (Enji is really, really bad at apologizing)... and possibly there were apologies which weren't shown as plenty of time went by between the moment Enji decided to atone and chap 390 so lot of things could have happened.

Many of us didn't expect him to apologize again to the family in such circumstances, we expected him to apologize to Touya because he was the only one who hadn't gotten an apology yet... and he's clearly very upset to say the least (and Enji didn't even seem to have prepared an apology or something to say to him...).

Yet Enji apologizes again, not just to Touya but to all of his family members, no more a group 'sorry' but a sorry for each of them (which is still lame because he skips a lot of his wrongdoing). Yes, Shouto is the only one who doesn't get to hear why he's sorry.

It can be that the answer on why Shouto doesn't get an 'I'm sorry because...' is Doylist, we, as readers, were told repeatedly what Enji did to Shouto, it's impossible we've forgotten so Horikoshi didn't feel to fill the balloon with a list, we know why Enji should feel sorry... or that Horikoshi just wanted to save this for later, so that it would have more impact and would be a Shouto & Enji scene.

It can be that the answer is Watsonian, Enji might not have gotten to finish because Shouto is fainting so wouldn't hear whatever he were to say after, or because his sorry, in Enji's mind, is meant to cover EVERYTHING he put him through (which was quite a lot).

Enji's atonement/redemption arc always left many people unsatisfied because... he seemed to do so little to earn forgiveness from his family... he doesn't seem to deserve it.

People complained about poor writing.

After reading it many times after chap 390 dropped, I've been wondering if, instead, the fact that Enji seemed to do too little wasn't indeed the whole point.

Let's go through a traditional redemption arc for a moment.

After doing one or more terrible deeds a character is pushed to regret them. The regret comes either because he didn't mean to do them but circumstances forced his hands or because something (usually traumatic or eye opening) happens that causes him to regret his actions.

At this the character starts to feel terrible for what he did and work hard to show how sorry he is, to make up to those he had wronged and earn forgiveness.

That's not how Enji's arc takes place.

When Enji realizes he has to atone?

When, contrary to his expectations HE, and not Shouto, ends up as Number 1, not because he has surpassed All Might but because All Might... retired... and he decided the role of the Number 1 might be protect the future but... ops... he ruined the future of some people, namely his family members.

Rei is in a psychiatric hospital, Touya is dead, Natsuo doesn't want to have anything to do with him, Shouto doesn't view him as a father.

That's not how a Number 1 should have acted.

His atonement arc seem to stem from his sense of duty at being Number 1, not from genuine regret for his actions because he understood his family's feelings and how he hurt them.

As readers we're bound to catch it up and... well, someone who apologizes merely out of duty and not out of genuine emotional regret often doesn't feel like deserving to be forgiven, the apology feels like a pro forma.

I think the idea is that, through the story, Enji learns to empathize with the pain he caused, how his family can't just shrug it off because it was a big deal to them.

As Touya said 'the past never dies', each of them will have to live with the consequences of Enji's actions, he can't just wash them away.

And, during his clash with Touya, Enji finally came to realize that it was his mistakes what lead to that situation and, finally, regrets his actions not because they weren't fitting of the Number 1, but because they were cruel to his family members.

That's why at the end of it all he apologizes not just to Touya but to his whole family again. Because this time he's truly sorry for what he did, not because it was something he shouldn't have done, but because he has grasped the enormity of the pain he caused.

It's a lame apology? Oh yes, but this time I think the core is it's heartfelt. This is the point in which Enji's redemption arc can really start because now he's ready to make up to his family, not due to his duty as Number 1 but because he, as Todoroki Enji, wants to make up to them. Now, Enji can work on earning forgiveness in a way that won't feel lame, a mere lip service.

The problem is that, with the manga ending, we might get to see very little of it but, I like to think, this time Enji will genuinely try to gain his family's forgiveness, to do something for them with care toward their feelings. And this, of course, includes Shouto, and includes seeing Shouto as more than just a future Hero, Shouto is his child and his own person, not merely another Hero in the Hero industry and Enji has mistreated him horribly (he was a child of 5 for crying out loud and he caused him to throw up as he trained him! He isolated him from his family, didn't let him play with his siblings, had him watch as he beat his mother so that Shouto felt guilty over it and over Rei's following mental break up and didn't dare to see her for 10 years!).

At least, that's my speculation in regard to Horikoshi's intentions.

Of course I might be wrong and it can be that Enji's atonement arc is just badly written and therefore his actions, including his apology, come as unsatisfying because they're poorly written. I'm not Horikoshi, I don't really know what he's thinking and my guess is as good as anyone else.

We can only wait and see.

Thank you for your ask!

#Ask #Todoroki Enji #Todoroki Shouto #Todoroki Touya #Todoroki Rei #Todoroki Fuyumi #Todoroki Natsuo

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onlyjaeyun · 30 days

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Dude I fucking loved CH wth 🤭

I'm being so honest right now, you had me invested from the very beginning, there's something about the way you write your characters that make them feel like actual humans, and I loved every second of it

Starting with oc obviously, i was completely enamored by her, bc yeah she's an absolute baddie, she's good at her job, knows what she's doing, is loving, honest, smart, and so freaking pretty. But she also has some heavy ass baggage, is still learning how to navigate her way through life, puts her loved ones (found family) above anything else, which we know has its good and bad side, and is learning to love and honor herself in a more healthy way

The pain was real whenever the angst waves came around, seeing all the shit she had to put up with, and never prioritizing herself, but that only made me love even more those steps of growth, confidence, self respect, and accountability she kept on taking after every hardship. (I legit started tearing up at the part about owning her pleasure, and understanding that regardless of whoever her sexual partner was, the decisions, vulnerability and enjoyment are hers to own and live to the fullest).

Same thing with all the relationships in the story, from the Nishimuras bond, history, and fight to actually be left alone by that bitchass family, to each of the friendships, between the boys, with yn individually, and with tsuki 😭😭😭 I love them so much you have no idea, they're SO FUCKING ADORABLE, AND REAL, AND GOOD AND REASSURING TO EACH OTHER I CANNOTJDJDIW

Anyway yeah, those are the type of friends people need, their advice, company, humor, love, admiration, respect, protectiveness, and sincerity. I just thank for taking so much time into developing each of their dynamics, personalities and quirks

And how could I not, our main ship, my babies HoonYn and their entire fucking story, interactions, chemistry, and bond had me giggling, crying, punching the air, kicking my feet, and sobbing of frustration, pain, and pride all in the span of 5 hours (yes I read the entire series in one sitting, no I did not sleep at all, yes it was absolutely worth it)

Anyway, I feel like that's a whole lot of rambling and I'm barely making any sense -also I'm sleep deprived and English is not my first language, so I apologize for all the mistakes here-, but overall, I just wanted to congratulate and thank you for conveying so many struggles we have to get through in the daily, you didn't shy away from the mental health struggles, the flaws of the characters, the shittines of life itself, the absolute NEED for honest and understanding communication in ANY kind of relationship, and the inmense impact a friendship can have in our lives, as well as our own strength, determination.

I really don't know if this ended up making any sense, but yeah, thank you for your hard and amazing work, you're a great writer fr, please take care of yourself and have an awesome day <3 <3 <3 <3

🥺 asks like this with such detailed feedback is just..like an actual live letter you guys

thank you SO so so so much, i know i sound like a broke record at this point but there's just not enough words of gratitude could use to show you just how much i appreciate this and you. thank you for taking the time out of your day to send me this and for being so kind, sweet and enthusiastic about it.

asks like theye give me a glimpse of my work from your POV and it never fails to make me so excited and happy and just so so so excited, i hope you know this is everything to me. im so happy to know just how much you've enjoyed reading it and all the characters too so rhank yoj for all of this, i love you so much 🥺🥺🥺🥺🤍☁️💫

#; mailbox 📬#; cold hearts

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thevoidcannotbefilled · 2 years

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One thing about reading too much fan fiction without reading other stories that I think legitimately affects people's perception in storytelling is overwhelming necessity to fill in every answer. The missing scene as it were.

Fan fiction has a tendency to want to go through every detail, every motion, every part of their day, every interaction. And you know what? This is fun! Reading about your blorbs doing mundane tasks is fun and leads to fun dialogue.

However, I find in fandom there is a tendency to want that extra scene. That extra what if that in actuality would make the current story weaker.

For example, I had a fic where the point of it was to 1) focus on the relationship between two characters and 2) explore the pov character's feelings on what they are going to do the next day bc it would be a huge impact on their life. The fic ended when the pov character was less afraid of their decision and there was an emotional resolution to the scene.

Then most of the comments on my fic were "man I would like to see what happens the next day".

And!!! It's nice to see people excited for this AU I made but.... that wasn't the point. I had no clue what would happen and I didn't really care either. The ambiguity of the next day was part of the whole point. The next day was a new chapter and regardless of how well or how badly it turned out, there was a resolution, and by making another chapter the ending of the original story would be weaker.

Making more isn't bad. Having fun and mashing characters into fun scenes is also good but at a certain point, is wanting more better for the stories you want to tell? In many cases, isn't what you don't know is as, if not more impactful than an answer?

I'm rambling, but I find the necessity to give all answers in fan fiction an odd thing. Both in setting up too much details in the beginning and the lack of being able to leave a scene be.

#fan fiction #not saying the fandom I was looking at when looking at this post #but saw a post like 'i need to know what x did to y' and im just 'no!!!! the implication is so much more impactful to the story than any-#-concrete answer could be!!!!'#anyway rambling

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annalyticall · 1 year

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Thoughts on Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect Trilogy

Well. It's over.

I'll keep it real with you chief, Mass Effect 3 was by far my favorite of the three games. That might be controversial given what I know about the divisive endings (basically the only thing I knew before I started these games), but as a newcomer to the series, Mass Effect 3 had a lot of what I was looking for from the previous entries. I also realized that fundamentally I can't compare these games to Dragon Age because the truth is I still like the Dragon Age games more individually but I do like Mass Effect more as a unified trilogy.

Again, I played Shiv Shepard, colonist Sole Survivor, Sentinel, and Paragon. I played her with survivor's guilt in ME1, with a burning hatred of Cerberus for bringing her back from the dead (and for the Akuze thing) in ME2, and a mix of burning hatred of Cerberus and a survivor's guilt over Earth in ME3. I don't think I ever mentioned this but I intended Shiv to be Irish/Korean, full first name is Siobhan

You see that bit of red? Those are renegade points I got every time I talked to the Illusive Man.

Major Story Decisions: Continued relationship with Kaidan, let Mordin cure the genophage, killed Councilor Udina myself with Kaidan on my side, secured peace between the geth and quarians, killed the Illusive Man myself, and chose the Destroy ending (which I'll get into later). I entered the war with 8000 war assets and the only character deaths I saw were the scripted ones (Mordin, Thane, Legion, Anderson, presumably EDI). I also beat James' 182 pull-up record.

The Pros and Cons lists are a little tricky for this one since I found a lot of the good came with some bad and a lot of the bad came with some good, but I'll try to keep it all in neat bullet points.

Pros

Satisfying Ends. From Mordin curing the genocidal disease he helped perfect to the control-hungry Illusive Man driven crazy by the same control he sought to have, everyone gets a nice and neat bow on their character arcs that had been set up since the beginning, or at least since Mass Effect 2. Honestly, playing ME3 made me like ME2 more than I had before since I could now see the consequences of my actions on the characters I grew close with in the previous game. Speaking of...

Consequences. Moreso than Dragon Age, it's fun to see how much my choices from previous games impacted my experience throughout the trilogy following a single character and her friend group. Of course, it's not going to be perfect - I AM miffed that my major game-ending decisions of ME1 and ME2 like saving the council, rewriting the geth, and destroying the collector base ultimately resulted in very little change in the story. Weirdly, it was the lesser decisions that mattered most - keeping Wrex alive, preserving the cure data in Mordin's loyalty mission, not cheating on my ME1 love interest, resolving Legion's and Tali's hostility, and reuniting Thane with his son were all very effecting choices on my story since they all add up into a pool of possible outcomes rather than dichotomous decisions (it makes sense Kaidan might trust me a little less in an armed standoff if I cheated on him I guess lol). And I appreciate that even the minimal choices were at least represented as war assets.

Gameplay. ME3 had the best gameplay of all games by far. I think it's telling when I could spend over 3 hours in the combat center just trying out different modes. Unlike in ME2, I didn't feel as restricted in playstyle with the introduction of a bonus power and a healthier shield. My favorite bonus power was Aria T'Lok's Flare, a large biotic blast critical in any fight with bunched-up enemies. I'm glad I got that one early on because it helped me survive so much of the game.

It looks good. Not that I hated the graphics in the last two games, but this one had some nice cinematic angles, richer colors, and grander set designs that made it more immersive for me to get into.

Pace and Scope. ME3 really pulled off the feeling of scale in a galaxy-wide conflict. It didn't hold back with its bang of an opening as we survive the reapers attacking Earth within the first 10 minutes, then slowly we see these behemoth machines devastate every other alien homeworld and invade more of the map in each story arc until it culminates in a grand final stand. I was worried the game would, in a sense, "nerf" the reapers since it took so much to take down just one reaper in ME1 and a single half-built reaper in ME2, but although we kill many more reapers in ME3, each one is an earned spectacle that requires either a lot of combined firepower or a giant thresher maw to do the job. Side note, I do like the irony of my sole survivor Shepard getting saved by the thing that killed her whole squad in the past.

Romance and Friendships. Listen, I don't think I've praised a Bioware game on its romance since Dragon Age Origins (Alistair my beloved) and while this game is still a little sparse in the romance department, the DLCs more than make up for it with a lot of great content for the love interests. I enjoyed the flirty, lively banter and the cute domestic scene in the Citadel DLC (Kaidan my beloved), and how worried he was about Shepard's safety in the Leviathan DLC. But even outside those addons, I liked the quiet moment shared before the final Cerberus mission, and while I typically cringe at Bioware sex scenes, I found this one to be, uh... tolerable. The romance in ME3 felt like an oasis after the lonely desert I suffered through in the last game lol. As for friendships, I loved the little platonic dates you get to go on with your squadmates both in the base game and the Citadel DLC. I never felt closer to these characters than I have here.

Cons

Contrived Means. Although I enjoyed the satisfying ends to many subplots and character arcs, I didn't enjoy the somewhat forced means it took to get there. I can forgive the last-minute sabotage that doomed Mordin to die since ultimately the end it led to was most fitting for Mordin's story. However, I took issue with a lot of the geth/quarian buildup, mostly involving Legion and the reaper codes. To be honest, I LIKED the geth being a completely alien hivemind and existing as a neutral anomaly that takes effort to understand and accept in ME2. The focus of becoming an individual (the original question the geth asked was actually "do these units have a soul", not "does this unit have a soul" as ME3 claims) undermined what I thought was compelling about Legion and the geth in the first place. Also, Legion's sacrifice felt unnecessary, especially when the reason for the reaper code upload not working was flimsy. And don't even get me started on the Citadel...

The Citadel. Holy shit, what happened there? I'm not talking about the Citadel as a location - I liked exploring the Citadel more in this game than any of the other games - I mean the Citadel as a plot device. For one, I was very surprised to learn the Citadel was the Catalyst when it was already an important plot device in ME1, where it was revealed to be a secret reaper mass relay. Now it's the key to a giant super weapon against the reapers whose original designers are never specified? Okay? But my biggest issue was that it was inexplicably "moved" by the reapers in the last mission despite millions of people living on it, then we can use it to blow up the reapers, destroying the Citadel and I assume most people still on there, so we're basically condemning millions of people to die and never get to see the impact of that decision. Granted, this is not much different than the weird 300K Batarian mass murder Shepard commits in ME2, but the difference is that these people are people we knew and spent a good amount of time helping and building relationships with throughout the game. What happened to Captain Bailey? What happened to Kolyat? The game never bothers to address that.

Kai Leng. Now, I don't expect every character to be wonderfully fleshed out. I accepted Kai Leng was just a plot device to stand in the way of Shepard and her goals, but his presence still left a bad taste in my mouth. He's never mentioned in any of the previous games, then he's introduced here as having a badass reputation despite his best move being a shield. He is so painfully one-dimensional compared to literally any other character that killing him didn't even feel good. I think it would have been cool if Kai Leng was someone else, maybe a character scorned by Shepard in the past who wanted revenge. Or, he could have been another character revived by Cerberus and abandoned in favor of Shepard, which was hinted at in his video logs but wasn't completely followed through on. I guess maybe I just wanted it to be Evil Clone Shepard from the Citadel DLC because even she was more compelling. What a waste of Troy Baker.

Let Me Speak. It's complicated because I do think ME3 has some of the strongest dialogue in the series (I didn't have the same jarring Talk No Jutsu problem as I did in ME1 because even when you're talking down a literal war, the dialogue feels earned and natural). However, the cutscenes went on noticeably longer without any input from the player character. It was frustrating since I felt like sometimes Shepard was railroaded into saying or doing something I wouldn't have chosen to do otherwise, but so is the burden of being a finale, I suppose.

Femshep Romance. Listen. I like Kaidan's romance. I like Garrus' romance. I like Liara's romance. If you chose to romance any of them in your playthrough like I did, that's great! You get a good romance. But if you're playing femshep and don't choose those 3 options... you don't. Thane dies early-ish in ME3 (which, I mean, I guess that could be good if you like inevitable tragedy) and Jacob cheats on you (which is terrible and I have NEVER seen in a video game romance before). And if you want to romance a girl? You get Liara or some minor side character, and that's it. You don't get Tali, Ashley, Jack, Miranda, or any of the several other female options that male Shepard has access to. Even in ME3, a male Shepard can romance Kaidan if they want a male companion to romance. Ashley doesn't get the same bi treatment. It's kinda sad just how limited femshep's options are for romance compared to their male counterpart.

The Synthesis Ending. Yes, I chose the Destroy Ending for rather complicated reasons that I will get into, but after watching the outcome of the other endings, I have a bone to pick with Synthesis. I discuss my opinion on the endings in a later section if you want to skip to that.

The DLC

Omega. It was fun. Not much more I can really say. I liked Nyreen as a character (and it was nice to finally meet a female turian) but I also felt her sacrifice was rather hollow. Aria grew on me and I was able to get her to spare Oleg at the end, but really, the shining star of this DLC was earning her Flare ability.

Leviathan. It's a double-edged sword because while I liked the expansion of reaper lore (and the extra dialogue with the LI and EDI) I also think that overexplaining the reaper backstory ruined a bit of their mystique. It also had strange implications for the ending, as the reaper AI explains its purpose in a more convoluted and obfuscated way than the Leviathan does, so it adds to the frustration of the limited ending dialogue choices given to call the reaper AI out on its vague statements.

Citadel. This is possibly the best DLC of any game I have ever played, I'm serious. With the exception of maybe Trespasser from Dragon Age Inquisition, never have I thought a DLC was so perfect for the story it was accompanying. Granted, I think the idea of taking forced shore leave is a little laughable when the fate of the galaxy is at stake, but I digress, the DLC was near perfect otherwise. It had fun in-jokes, meaningful time to spend with squadmates past and present, great scenes with the love interest, and, yes, I did spend 3 hours in the combat simulator just to get the rare One and Only achievement. And that pistol? It was the only thing keeping me from dying to brutes and banshees during the last Earth mission. I am not exaggerating when I say most of my enjoyment of this game actually comes from this DLC, and I consider its bittersweet ending to be the real ending for Mass Effect.

The Squad (including past Squad members)

Kaidan. Once again, I am listing the squadmates in relative order of how much I liked them, and Kaidan skyrocketed to the top within the last 30% of the game. I mean, I had to like him enough to romance him in ME1, but ME2 made me sour toward him, and even at the beginning of this game I was a little bitter that he was still so prickly about Shepard's forced involvement with Cerberus. However, after the hospital and the initial awkwardness of rekindling a strained relationship, I fell in love with his character all over again. He's not quite as deep as the other characters, true, but his human and down-to-earth presence is SO needed in a cast of complicated and eccentric aliens, and the random things he says are some of the only things I ever laugh at in this game. It almost makes me grateful for the mid-series break, because, for all the frustration, the relationship feels earned by the end. He might not surpass Alistair for top Bioware romance for me, but he comes close. Also, the unconditional reassurance he gives once realizing Shepard had actually been clinically dead and may not have been completely the same when she was rebuilt by Cerberus was so nice to get after the accusatory headache that was the Horizon mission in ME2.

Garrus. Admittedly, I don't think Garrus adds much to the narrative of ME3. Even when helping me cure the turian-ordered genophage he doesn't have much stake in the story, and then he has almost none after the genophage is cured. But that doesn't really matter when his purpose is actually just to be Shepard's rock. He is such a good friend and his presence is so comforting that I wish I could take him on every mission even if he's got nothing relevant to say. His farewell to Shepard at the end was the only other farewell besides Kaidan's that made me tear up. Shepard said it best: there is no Shepard without Vakarian.

Tali. I still love Tali, but she was shafted a bit by the lack of screen time she had in this game. It's a shame that she comes to the crew so late, although I guess it's understandable given that she's an admiral now. Still, I loved seeing her wistfulness as she dreamed of her new home on Rannoch, and her time in the Citadel DLC was very fun.

Mordin. Despite his fourth-place ranking on the list, I think Mordin is THE best-written character in Mass Effect. He has one of if not the best character arcs, and he's so likable that I can't not love Professor War Crimes. His singing as the building was falling down around him... it was so sad but a perfect way for him to go.

EDI. Her earnest and heartfelt quest to understand what it means to be human was endearing to me, and her relationship with Joker was great. I brought her along most times if Garrus or Kaidan didn't make sense to take. I am heartbroken that my chosen ending means her death, but it was a sacrifice I still decided to make, especially after she said she was willing to give her life to save the person she loved.

Liara. While I like Liara, I still feel like there's something missing in her character that I can't quite put my finger on. That said, I like the friendship she has with Shepard. There's an implication to their interactions that suggest she never stopped having romantic feelings for Shepard even after I turned her down in ME1, but I like how she still wants to be a close friend to her rather than be bitter about it.

Thane. I think the story did him justice, giving him a pivotal role to play in the amount of time he had left. The prayer read as he was dying sincerely touched me. He wasn't my favorite in ME2 but ME3 gave him a boost for me.

Legion. Despite some inconsistencies I noticed in his writing, I still like my little robot guy. RIP, buddy, sorry your sacrifice was kind of for nothing.

Grunt. Similar to Thane, ME3 (and especially the Citadel DLC) made me like Grunt more than I did upon his introduction to the series. He wasn't as important, but his enthusiastic welcome and his "last stand" made me feel like a proud mama.

Samara. I liked Samara enough in ME2 to try to flirt with her, so I was excited to see her again in this game, but unfortunately, she didn't have much to do. Then again, she doesn't really need to, given that her arc is to accept being a mother to her remaining child rather than her jailor. I still felt like there was lingering unspoken sexual tension between her and Shepard though...

Wrex. It was good to see Wrex again, and I sincerely love how the game portrays his openness to cooperation as the key to saving his people.

James. I feel like James fulfilled the Krogan Companion role for me in this game, which is: I like him, but not enough to bring him anywhere. His flirting was rather alarming to me at first since I had every intention of reuniting with Kaidan and didn't want to turn James down so early, but when it became clear that he wasn't serious about any of it, I liked playing along, though really femshep doesn't have a choice in the matter.

Javik. Don't get me wrong, Javik is incredibly interesting and I think he's a critical companion to take on a lot of missions because the Prothean perspective is so unique and necessary in some instances (seriously, how did Liara not realize her goddess looked suspiciously similar to Javik). As a person, though, my Paragon Shepard didn't really gel with him. Also, my Shepard is rather sentimental and values memories, so I may have accidentally doomed Javik to a tragic post-game death with that memory shard. Oops.

Kasumi. Speaking of dooming people with memories! I told Kasumi to keep her lover's memories last game, which felt meaningful to my Shepard at the time since it happened before Horizon and I was still playing a lovesick Shepard who missed Kaidan and could empathize with her situation. That was, uh, maybe not the right call to make, and I'm a little sad that I basically condemned Kasumi to waste away her life reliving the past.

Miranda. I don't really have a lot to say about Miranda. She lived in my game, and I thought it was a good end for her character to finally fight back against her father. But she is rather bland to me, and I almost wish they kept her the cold-hearted bitch she was introduced as, just more sympathetic. You know, kinda like...

Jack. I like Jack A LOT more in this game than in ME2. I think putting her in a teacher role was a perfect decision that displays her impressive growth as a person and her ability to overcome her traumatic past to give future generations of biotics a better life. However, she is still Jack, and her inherent abrasiveness meant I always felt like I was walking on eggshells picking dialogue options with her.

Jacob. Unlike almost everyone else on this list, I downgraded Jacob. I didn't mind him so much when I was playing, really - I liked that he was having a baby and that meant he would get the chance to be a better father than his own was, and I liked the little get-together I had with him in the Citadel DLC. I thought he was still a little boring but nothing offended me. After learning he can cheat on femshep though? Yikes, dude.

Zaeed. I wouldn't say I hated him as I did in ME2. He was just... there.

Miscellaneous. I liked Samantha Traynor MUCH more than I liked Kelly Chambers, so I was glad to see her fill the role. She was resourceful and a bit awkward but not annoyingly so. Let's just say, if I was actually in the ME universe, I'd probably be Traynor. Steve Cortez was also a great addition. I grew to care about him a lot, and I'm glad Bioware gave us a face for the person driving our shuttle around lol. Diane Allures is, uh... there. Dr. Chakwas and Joker are great as always. That goes without saying.

THE ENDINGS

I want to preface this by saying I thought the ending before the ending, aka the Illusive Man standoff, was well done. I was a renegade every time I talked to him, meaning for my last action I was able to shoot him point blank and he was able to give an ending speech about how he wished Shepard saw the Earth as he did. I thought this was an interesting angle for my Shepard to take since she was so Paragon in ME1 that she was able to talk Saren down. Having the ability to do the same with the Illusive Man and not taking it gave me the chance to show some growth in my Shepard, finally willing to put her foot down and abandon the moral high ground when dealing with the person who both resurrected and ruined her life.

Now to the final endings. I will not be discussing the Control ending, as I immediately dismissed it as a possibility. It was what the Illusive Man wanted, and if my Shepard was anything, she was staunchly contrarian to Illusive Man's ideology. That's to say nothing of what I think of it, which is - eh. I think it's a good ending for a renegade Shepard, and possibly a paragon Shepard that wasn't as anti-Illusive Man as mine was. Still, the other two endings are what I want to talk about.

I will also not be calling the reaper AI the Star Child because I think it's misleading. To me, the child-like appearance seemed like a ploy to appeal to Shepard, and I didn't want to forget that this is essentially the same AI that appeared on the Arrival DLC asteroid I hurtled into a mass relay just to tell me he was going to destroy me. With that in mind, when he gave me my options and explained what synthesis would mean, I took a long, long time deliberating on what to do. The game presents this option as the unquestioningly best one to take. After all, it's the hardest ending to obtain, it's the option the reaper AI clearly favors, and it's the default platform you're standing on when it comes time to choose.

But here's the problem: if I were Shepard, even a paragon Shepard, even a Shepard who loves EDI and respects the geth, as mine did, I would not choose Synthesis. Because I can't trust that what he says would happen. I asked him why it would work this time around when all their other attempts at synthesis were horrific failures, and all he said was "they were not ready. You are ready." Even for a seemingly all-knowing AI, that's not enough to convince me to fling my body into a particle beam and potentially give up on this one and only chance to stop the reapers for good. Of course, as a player, I can use context clues to know that it WOULD happen. I'm playing a video game after all, and this choice is presented honestly to the player. But I decided to think as Shepard at that moment, not as myself.

He's also... wrong. He says conflict with synthetic life is inevitable, but it isn't. My Shepard knows this. She obtained peace between the quarians and the geth, and she's watched as EDI grew into her own kind and compassionate human consciousness. So while it sucks that they will have to die in the destroy ending, I ultimately chose it because 1) my Shepard can actually see it happen and know that she sacrificed her life for something real, not just a promise of what could happen, 2) destroying the reapers was what the whole galaxy unified to do and they didn't agree to anything else, and 3) destroying the reapers gives organic life a second chance to live and learn from their mistakes and to do better by synthetic life in the future. Maybe, in the wake of Shepard's sacrifice, the galaxy would see that they can work together, and ensure any future synthetic life will never be abused as the geth were.

But there was another reason I didn't choose Synthesis: it didn't make sense. I'm not talking about its practical application, although the space magic it takes to imbue technology into the DNA of every living organism in the galaxy is a little hard to stomach even by Mass Effect standards. I'm talking about its thematic purpose. Throughout all of Mass Effect, the main message has been that working together and sympathizing with people fundamentally different from you is critical to making positive change in the universe, DESPITE the differences. Synthesis, as a solution, is suggesting that conflict is inevitable until you ERASE the differences. This isn't letting people take the time and effort necessary to truly learn about and understand others, this is a no-effort solution that negates that very core theme. It's like saying there would be no conflict in the world if everyone on Earth were of the same race and nationality, because, one, that isn't true, and two, that solution erases so many beautifully diverse cultures that would have existed otherwise. To me, the Destroy ending allows the galaxy to rebuild what was lost while preserving most of the diversity that is so important to keep, especially since the diversity that was lost, namely the geth, theoretically CAN be rebuilt.

There's also another thematic problem: the conflict between synthetics and organics was not the main conflict in Mass Effect. Sure, it took up a lot of screen time in ME1, but it always felt secondary to the conflict between all other organics. There were tensions between the alien council species and the humans, there was tension between the krogan and the turians and salarians, there was tension between humans and humans, there was tension everywhere you looked. Your role was to be a mediator, a shepherd. You guided the people toward a better understanding of themselves and others, and by doing that, you were able to achieve impossible things together. Synthetic life was only a piece of that puzzle. But by making the conflict ONLY about synthetics and organics, it undermines the things we learned about other organics. If this solution was only meant for the quarians and humans, maybe it would make sense - these species have already achieved AIs that they could come into conflict with. But WHY should I make this decision for the krogan, an alien species not even close to developing AI advanced enough to go to war with? Why is it fair to them that I'm rewriting their DNA to ensure they never see a war that they might have never seen anyway? Haven't they already seen enough outside meddling in their bodily autonomy?

So I chose Destroy. And since I had enough war assets, I was able to avoid mass devastation, and somehow Kaidan seems to think Shepard is still alive. Oh, look, I guess she is. Not sure how that's possible, but I'll take slim hope. Overall, I was satisfied with my ending, although I was sad that I had to deny life to the synthetics that wanted it.

Then I watched the Synthesis ending and saw that it was basically perfect. Besides Shepard dying, everything is just better. Everyone understands each other now, there's no more disease, no more death, EDI is alive, and apparently, everyone is just cool with their new DNA. It was a utopia. And I thought that kinda went against everything I saw in Mass Effect. Sure, there are good choices, and some are definitely better than others, but rarely should there be perfect or easy choices. I'm not saying Synthesis should be a bad ending, by all means, make it a good one. Make it the best one, even. But it shouldn't be perfect. Maybe some people are upset that they were genetically altered against their will (hell, my Shepard had an existential crisis about this after learning how she was resurrected by Cerberus, and it's not a fate she would have imposed on anyone anyway). Maybe the husks and other synthetics that were once organics live a hellish existence in between existences and can never reconcile with their living loved ones. I dunno, something. Like I said before: thematically, it doesn't follow what was learned in the narrative, and therefore should not be the perfect solution to problems that the solution had nothing to do with.

I want to stress that I'm not judging anyone who chose the Synthesis ending. I deliberated it a long time for a reason: it is a promising conclusion if you want to avoid Control and you want to save EDI and the geth. I totally understand that. I just think the way that choice is presented and executed by Bioware is clunky and counterproductive to the narrative. I've also seen people dismiss the Destroy ending as genocide, and I won't argue that. It IS genocide, if you consider synthetics a valid form of life in this game, as I did. But I chose it anyway because doing so would stop the reapers who were the Ultimate Genocide Machines, and if there was any situation where genocide could be justified to stop genocide, uh, I guess that would be it. Sure, Synthesis would finally give organics a chance to understand and cooperate with the reapers, but that is only on the basis that everyone fundamentally change themselves at the request of the reapers under threat of mutual annihilation. The reapers had made no effort to truly understand and sympathize with organics outside of their one-sided conversations with Shepard until this point, so I didn't really feel bad I was killing them all, to be honest with you.

Okay, so, those were my thoughts on Mass Effect. This took a whole day to write. As frustrated as some parts of the game made me, I loved the rest, and I'm very glad I played it. Giving it a score like the other parts feels wrong, since I know now it's all part of a whole, but if I had to give it one, I'd say 8.5/10. I'll be missing my crew for some time, I think. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read my thoughts on this franchise!

Now onto Andromeda...

#anna plays mass effect #whoo #longest thing i've ever written on this site I think #shiv shepard

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justasmolliv · 5 months

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L3: Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim

An ambitious visual novel which takes advantage of the medium, but cannot escape equivalent exchange.

I always appreciate a visual novel which understands that you'll play it multiple times, and makes your choices have a lasting impact across its narrative. While usually this manifests as a number of different endings which have to be navigated to reach a "true" final ending, Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim takes this a step further with its Fractal Madness mechanic to a mostly brilliant effect.

In Black Heaven you play as Uzo, a former scholar at Itzon Academy, a magic school dedicated to research on attaining immortality. Unfortunately, Uzo and his mentor Ru accidentally created a plague which caused uncontrollable growth and eventually destroyed most of the world. After the outbreak, Uzo fled underground and attempted to continue to find a cure, and it's here where the game begins.

As Uzo continues his own research, he is approached by a masked man who calls himself No-Eyes. No-Eyes offers Uzo a deal - if Uzo brings him the ghosts of Ru and his classmates Izagi and Lyse, he'll create a time loop for Uzo to relive his happiest memories of Itzon forever. No-Eyes will use the three ghosts to pursue his goal of chronomancy, a taboo area of necromancy research within the academia circle, and promises Uzo the luxury of forgetting about the death he helped to cause.

As Uzo travels back overground and towards Itzon, you play through his memories of his time there. You go to class, try to socialise with the other students, and attempt to woo Ru, Isagi, and Lyse. Despite my choices heavily leaning towards Izagi, I ended up romancing Ru. This was confusing to me, and I was disappointed by the lack of impact my choices seemed to have within this first third or so.

I'm putting the fewest number of spoilers I can get away with in this review as Black Heaven is certainly a visual novel I think should be experienced. As Uzo explored the ruins of Itzon, it became clear why my choices couldn't have much impact. The true deplorability of his past actions is revealed as Uzo revisits the memories of his friends. This plot twist was one I hadn't seen coming, and it had me genuinely shaking my head at how cleverly I'd been duped as Uzo sat in front of a panel and was confronted by what he'd done.

Once you learn the truth about what happened, it's up to you how to deal with Ru, Izagi, Lyse and No-Face. Do you hand them over as he asked, or set them free and return empty-handed? There's definitely bad endings, and even worse ones, but there's an obvious good path which the game encourages you towards.

This is where I feel the Fractal Madness mechanic lets Black Heaven down while still enhancing a playthrough. Fractal Madness accrues as you reload the game to revisit choices, something I'd been doing a lot to attempt to get myself onto Izagi's romance route. I'd try out all available options to see what the characters' reactions would be, before reloading once again and choosing the one I liked the most. The more you revisit decisions, the more things become distorted. As Uzo was sneaking around the burnt husks of the lavish buildings I'd once seen, the music started to stutter upon itself. Memories would start to become distorted and gruesome, before Uzo reminded himself those events didn't really happen. I really enjoyed this effect, as I never knew when it could kick in and start to make me question whether what Uzo was really experiencing and remembering was the truth.

But the caveat is that all the reloads and choices happen in a single playthrough. As I explored the knock-on effects of earlier choices, I ended up with a lot of manual saves which I had to remember the order of, whereas other visual novels might handle this with a branching map you can dive back into. Overall, I was quite nice to Ru, Izagi, Lyse and No-Face, and I could explore their endings without really needing to change the choices I had made during the game. Replayability is tied into a single playthrough, where you're encouraged to reload and try different options, rather than a branching narrative which acts like a reiteration of events.

I'd have loved to see Fractal Madness go even more unhinged and bring in more horror and uncertainty, but in general I think Black Heaven is a well-written, engrossing story which uses the medium of visual novels and the habits of its players to great effect. Its own mechanic somewhat becomes its own limit, and one plot twist in particular is quite easy to figure out early in the game, but I have to commend Black Heaven for attempting something new with the meta of visual novels.

As I said before, I think Black Heaven is a visual novel which should be experienced. Its characters are well-written and relatable, the music is haunting, and the way it tries to tell its story is ambitious. If you're also looking for a good old musing on metaphysics and philosophy then Black Heaven is one I'd recommend.

[A copy of the Steam version of Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim was provided by developer and publisher Occult Triangle Lab.]

#visual novel #steam #black heaven #black heaven: a necromantic dating sim #occult triangle lab #indie games #pc #l3

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thatonecontainerwithoutalid · 7 months

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FNAF MOVIE THOUGHTS UNDER THE CUT!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED.

I have never felt so conflicted over a movie in my life.

Okay, to give some perspective, there are two sides of me at play here:

1. Film/show critical

2. FNAF Fan

Disclaimer: when I refer to the books, I am referring to Fazbear Fright's and Tales of the Pizzaplex. When I refer to the trilogy, I mean The Silver Eyes, The Twisted Ones, and The Fourth Closet.

I'll be honest. Looking at it from my own critical standpoint, the FNAF movie was not very good. The story was very convoluted, and yes, I am aware that I'm complaining about the convoluted plot of a movie based on the convoluted plot video game. But the thing is, I am an enjoyed of both the games AND the books. And if there's anything to be said about the books, convoluted is one of the first things that comes to mind, so the issues I have are purely about the movie. My main and overall glaring issue was the reveal of William being Vanessa's dad. There was little to no build up to that, and I felt the more reasonable decision was to make her related to one of the missing kids, and perhaps having her see them being lured away. It would serve as a nice parallel to Mike, and her mindset of "letting it go" could still be present as an opposition to Mike's clinging onto the past.

Besides that, another problem I have is the lack of William Afton.

He's in the movie for maybe like 20 minutes? Possibly less. Which wouldn't be too bad if he left a lasting impact and his scenes were sprinkled throughout the movie, rather than condensed in the beginning and end. Seeing Afton in the first trailer got me so hyped I most literally could not function properly, to the point I was stuttering. But to see him not really be in the movie is such a let down. And the scenes he was in, besides the parts at the end, he was not really threatening, just sort of an awkward guy. And this sucks even more because Matthew Lillard did an utterly incredible job being threatening in those parts, and I would've loved to see that more.

Besides that, another character I take issue with is Golden Freddy. We see the five kids in the woods. But Golden Freddy is in this movie for maybe 2-3 minutes, max. Which is annoying, because he was shown far more in the trailers and promotional material. I personally would've like more Golden Freddy, more Willy A, and perhaps to see these two being enemies.

Ending off my negative criticism, the horror. I was not very impressed by the horror of this film. You see, I wasn't one of the people adamantly opposing the film being PG-13, in fact, the people who were so heavily against it annoyed me very much leading up to the film's release. The way I saw it, FNAF was never really a series about the guts and gore. Yes, there were moments that were grotesque, but never in detail (well, besides the descriptions in the books; I'll get to that later.) I expected this film not to scare me, but instead, to disturb me. I cannot count the amount of times the FNAF series has managed to disturb me. Things like the blueprints of Funtime Freddy in FNAF:SL, the ending of Help Wanted where you simulate getting stuffed into a Freddy suit, even down to the jumpscare sounds in the first game, FNAF does an incredible job of disturbing and or otherwise unsettling me, and this isn't even touching upon the anxiety of playing the games, especially FNAF 4, or the absolutely brutal situations in the books. I would honestly argue that the books provide more horror than the movie did. The only times I felt truly disturbed during this movie was when William Afton came in with the Springbonnie suit, and the opening credits with Springbonnie leading the kids away. There were other times that momentarily scared me, yes, but none made me feel a deep rooted discomfort. FNAF can provide a type of horror without guts and gore, but I just feel it didn't transfer well into the movie.

Some things I did enjoy though; the drawings. The whole movie feels center around a theme of drawings, and I may be biased due to being an artist, but I honestly loved it. Drawing being a big part of the story, Abby's character, and the eventual solution felt very smooth.

The practical effects. I have absolutely no complaints. The animatronics looked incredible, and I loved every moment they were on screen.

The integration of the FNAF fandom. This leads me into my FNAF fan section, but before doing that, I would like to acknowledge something.

I came into the movie with high expectations without realizing it. The 9 minute teaser got me way too excited, so being let down in these aspects only hurt more. But the main thing I want to cover is my own bias towards the story of the games.

A few paragraphs ago, I suggested more scenes of William and Golden Freddy/Cassidy being enemies. This is because it's something in the games I adore, and would love to see expanded upon. But looking through my critiques and organizing my thoughts made me realize:

I'm not upset that the movie is convoluted, I'm upset at how it's convoluted.

The books, including the trilogy, are convoluted, yes, but they all have connections to and follow the main story, even just a little bit. The movie has the same premise as the first game with details form the first three, haunted animatronics and springlock suits and what not, but it's an entirely different situation with characters who share little to nothing but names to their in-game characters. This is just one of the theories I've come up with for why I don't like the direction of the movie as much as I could.

Now it's time for the FNAF fan in me to shine.

I'll be honest, I teared up multiple times during this movie simply from nostalgia. After the opening credits, the dream theory book, the MatPat Cameo, the ending credits when it started playing the OG FNAF 1 TLT song - it was all so much and if genuinely touched me. This movie is like the Super Mario Bros. movie in this regard; it's a love letter to the fans. Despite the things I didn't like, I could feel the love for this franchise flowing from the screen. Despite all the things that push me away from this film, I can't help but care for it on a deep level. I feel like crying while typing this. I know the amount of passion and love that went into this and it makes my gripes feel all the more unserious. I'm happy we've just finally gotten this movie, a movie that cares about the fans of this series. This movie doesn't try so hard to be what it isn't, and is just plain, relatively unserious fun rather than a complex masterpiece. I'm feeling tired now and want to finish this up before I sleep.

So, yeah. Those were my thoughts on the movie. Will definitely be watching it again to try and catch more details, and maybe change my opinion on it. For now, that'll be all. Might come back and add more or edit this.

#fnaf movie spoilers #five nights at freddy's movie spoliers #five nights at freddys movie spoilers #fnaf movie

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