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evermarch · 3 months ago

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Rando question because of your old name. What were your thoughts on bloodlines? I've never been able to get tea on it from another person because, sadly, not many people know it exists in my orbit.

omg. god knows how many years i had a vampire academy url and i got like no va asks. this is my time. this is my moment. i'm so sorry in advance that this is going to be more than you bargained for.

okay so. i enjoyed bloodlines a lot. i know many people in the fandom love bloodlines even more than va. that tends to be because of sydrian. for me personally, while bloodlines is a great read that explores some fascinating concepts and relationship dynamics, it doesn't hit for me quite as well as va does for a number of reasons.

first, the development of The Lore is excellent. in particular, i love seeing the effects of everything that changed in va play out in the background. from the moroi combat movement and the bloodborne strigoi resistance from restoration to the to the political fallout of lissa's ascension to the throne, everything that happened becomes so much more substantial and impactful. it feels like meeting the alchemists and the dhampir community in blood promise—the vampire world expanded from rose's little circle in the US to the international community in a way that made her struggle with her responsibility as a guardian feel much more real.

as an extension of the worldbuilding, i love how flawlessly sydney's internal struggle with breaking out of her conditioning to accept magic and growing to care for the moroi intertwines with the development of the universe. the witches are an excellent addition, because they bridge the gap of a potentially insurmountable power imbalance (due to compulsion, as we see with the whole dabbling thing) between moroi and humans (read: sydrian). sydney is empowered to overcome the fear component of her alchemist upbringing, which opens the door for her to have healthy relationships with moroi and dhampirs. that's especially in contrast (and comparison to) trey and the warriors of light. we also get to see the power and depth of the alchemist organization, especially within the family unit, which emphasizes just how brave sydney (and marcus) have to be to fight against it.

however, the overarching plot (particularly toward the final few books), sort of falls flat. ruby circle is definitely rushed and under-edited, and doesn't feel like a natural continuation of the series up to that point. alicia is a boring villain with no real build-up or depth. she is not remotely compelling, which is saying something in a series where every character, good and bad, faces a universal struggle against an enemy race with no redeemable or non-evil characteristics. like, the anonymous person calling the tattoo parlor was right. there. use it to set up something better! and sydrian going from barely together to married to becoming parents without any substantial intra-relationship struggle as a result of those changes over the course of like...three months (much of which sydney was in captivity) is...a choice.

on that note, the character development is a bit of a mixed bag for me. from jill and neil to ms. terwilliger and even abe, almost everyone grows in such fascinating and often unexpected ways. yet, sydney herself blows them all out of the water. the way she goes through the essential unlearning phase of "i know logically i'm wrong, but it still feels like i'm right" is a masterclass in deprogramming. how she learns to let go without dumbing herself down or losing touch with the things she values and cherishes about herself? life-changing for me, personally. also. let it be known that if jackie and malachi have no supporters, i am dead.

but i do feel let down by many of the characters in this department. namely, zoe. believe me, i was not expecting her to turn into a vampire supporting anti-alchemist hippie like her sister. her primary flaws are explained extremely well, and for those i don't fault her. but i cannot name a single time she is not, at the very LEAST, unpleasant. it makes sense why sydney loves her. it is consistent with who sydney is (see: keith's eyeball) that she is so fiercely protective over zoe. but zoe doesn't really have any good moments with sydney which might explain why sydney actually LIKES spending time with her. it's especially jarring in comparison to sydney's general disdain (which i read as jealousy and resentment) for carly, who she classifies as "useless." carly's one scene is more compelling than a whole book (and then some) of zoe.

much more importantly, though, adrian to me is a bit of a letdown. first, i do want to say that i like sydrian, and in particular sydrian through fiery heart and in the epilogue. i liked adrian's character in va and was excited to see him grow. but...he never really seems to do so. undoubtedly, rose was nothing close to perfect in how she handled the adrian situation, especially with everything in last sacrifice. but to paint rose as this evil seductress who he graciously forgives while never ONCE acknowledging the ways he treated her is astonishing. the fact that he doesn't reflect on it even when what he does to nina mirrors what rose did to him? and to never once acknowledge the way he's used his privilege as a royal to perpetuated harms against "lesser" races (which INCLUDES the way he otherized rose as a dhampir and put her life and career at risk by using her as a pawn against his parents), even when sydney discovers his past with dabbling?

yes, adrian develops tremendously with regards to his family, his mental illness, and his addiction. but we never really see him value his recovery and health as something important not just to sydney, but to himself. despite having the knowledge and the means to seek treatment, he spends half of silver shadows spiraling down a path of self-destruction while sydney is trapped. and, there's good reason for that—he has to go off the meds to try and reach her with spirit. but he acts as if he's the only one who cares about sydney (or him, for that matter) and goes at it alone. he doesn't think to call sonya to ask her to help him get off the meds responsibly? or, knowing what he knows about avery lazar, consider what the consequences will be for jill? and on top of all that, not even bother to defend his relationship with sydney to his mother?

healing is not a straight line, but adrian's actions in silver shadows just erase all the progress he made before that and then some. which would be fine, and also interesting, if only he'd made improvements to himself after that. but the most i can say about adrian by the end of ruby circle is that he knows HOW he needs to change and is extremely willing to do so. which is great! but we never actually get to see it happen. and if you're going to have dual narration and promote adrian from the love interest to a main protagonist, we've got to see him grow. that said, the glimpse we get of him in the epilogue demonstrates to me that he DOES go through that development, and it makes me much more optimistic for his and sydney's futures. i just really wish we'd gotten to see it happen.

#i am so sorry #i will never shut up about va and bloodlines #god i love them all so much #i feel a reread coming on after finals #ask #ask answered #thanks for the ask!#williamkitt #va #vampire academy #bloodlines #va bloodlines #adrian ivashkov #sydney sage #sydrian

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sacred-coffin · 8 months ago

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Rubbing my grubby little hands together. It's time to bipolar Terzo.

And, one thing for the record, I'm bipolar! So I know what I'm talking about and I'm projecting a little and that's valid

I tried to rewrite my bullet points from my google doc to sound... nicer and more professional, but it didn't feel right. So y'all are getting the raw unfiltered version from when I infodumped about this in a discord chat, hope you like it :)

ONE . He has big overarching aspirations, but also mad depressive episodes. These get in the way of him completing his goals and also make things fuzzy along the way.

He's got this big city, big social change, all of these huge goals and life paths he wants to follow. And there are times where he's really set and driven on working on it! Especially when people are egging him on, like when he was a cardinal. I imagine he had a lot of sustained manic or hypomanic episodes while he was a cardinal.

Being very dead set on a goal, possibly losing sleep over it, putting all of your time and effort on it...Also however you want to interpret the cream pies comment (sexual or food) it both lines up with something a manic person would do. SO.

I think once he's in the ministry again / papa his depressive episodes started getting harder & his manic episodes more. Erratic.

He had less people pushing & supporting him towards his goals / what he was really passionate about, so he was just . Really bitter and pulled away from people. You see a lot more of his irritable and generally temperamental side come out during this time bc like. When he has manic episodes he has so much energy to use up but nowhere for it to go! Sometimes being really angry with something can trigger a manic episode, and I think he might be prone to doing things really excessive/extreme all of a sudden to spite people. If that makes sense. Like the decision to ditch the papa robes, things like that.

Also iirc, when he was a cardinal he was really over indulgent. That is very common for manic episodes; it's very common to develop substance abuse issues as well. I think he could be a borderline alcoholic, but he's pretty good at hiding it. Definitely better at hiding it than when he was younger, but the habit is worse when he's older

I kinda wanna talk about Terzo possibly being like, a pretty angry person. And this is definitely projection LMAO. He very much presents himself as a guy who probably doesn't have angry outbursts and such, but I think that. Well. If he's bipolar that is NOT true ok. When I thought about this the first time I was like "would he punch walls? No. His mom raised him better than that. But God does he want to break stuff"

I feel like part of his reclusiveness is to keep up this image he has to everyone-- you can't judge him or form an opinion of him in his off time if you don't see it. So you don't see him getting drunk, you don't see him being depressed, you don't see him getting mad, but god it is happening all the time

I just feel like, like, you could argue he has this sudden shift in personality at a certain point. Or maybe at multiple points. In regards to how he felt about his goals at least. Esp bc I resonate so hard with the thought that he didn't want to be the machine-man (from Metropolis, 1927), but he had to, and I feel like being bipolar explains that so so well. Facing adversity he'd get so pissed about it, but he would only let that stop him for a little bit. But he'd also wouldn't be able to make the kind of progress he did before (like drawing up blueprints or plans) because he doesn't have that same well of outside energy & support to tap into

God also. He is so delusional. He is so so so delusional.

I think being Papa ruined his mind .

No offense but like. His goals are impossible. He's chasing them so hard anyways. He's insane. Like. Like.

I don't know I can only compare this in my mind rn to my mom looking at me when I was like, 5 years old or something and telling me she was going to become an archeologist and move to Egypt. Like she was so so sure of herself that it was going to happen. Obviously it fuckin didn't,

Also also. I feel like he's not diagnosed bc I feel like it's more likely to be missed in men. Also I want to give him migraines even though it's less common in men but slightly more common with people who are bipolar and also bc it is GENUINE projection but I think the idea of Omega walking in and seeing Terzo hidden in a bundle of blankets with all the lights off like "is this a depression cocoon or a migraine cocoon" and Terzo just kinda shifts the blanket around and you see him wearing this funny as fuck eye mask. And Omega is like "migraine cocoon, got it" and just fucking leaves

Did he shave his head once and regret it? Yes. Did he get addicted to cocaine? Probably. Did he spend all of his money on model city pieces? At least twice.

I think in the end it's entirely possible he bought into everyone's ideas that maybe he is the one who should be worshiped

I feel like a lot of manic episodes & things can be so warped by the people you surround yourself with and like. Idk. Being the face of a devil worshiping cult can give a normal guy a God complex.

But a guy who's already prone to delusion and God complex??? Oh honey he's FUCKED.

#the band ghost #ghost bc #papa emeritus iii #terzo #coffin canons #serious verse #supernatural verse

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lightandfellowship · 11 months ago

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KHDR Re:Write - Giving Hermod A More Prominent Character Arc

Urd's rewrite can be found here.

The tl;dr:

Hermod’s initial motivation: To uphold the "greater order" and follow the rules no matter what.

Hermod’s struggle: He doesn’t always agree with the rules, and following them often results in both him and his friends getting harmed. His commitment to following the rules even at the cost of himself partially stems from him feeling like he has no control over his life, and he copes by assuming that (most) authority figures are trustworthy, competent, and have his best interests in mind.

Hermod’s conclusion: He needs to be willing to break the rules and think for himself in order to do what’s right and protect his friends.

Below the read more is a rough outline of how I would implement this character arc into the story. Be forewarned that it's a fairly long and text-heavy post.

Four notes before we begin (feel free to skip):

Rather than this being a full-fledged rewrite where I get to go ham and do whatever I want, instead my goal is to try and demonstrate how the game in its PRE-EXISTING state could have given Hermod a more clear and satisfying character arc via fairly minor changes to the dialog, characters, and story. I want to see if this could have been possible without having to expend too much extra time and resources, since it seems like a lack of time/resources/budget is why his story got cut in the first place. So I won’t be doing anything drastic like creating entirely new episodes or anything like that. Same worlds. Same number of episodes. Same sequence of events. Same overarching plot.

Ideally, I would have liked to convey certain details about these characters and their story via secret reports/diary entries. Specifically, the sorts of details that would slow the pace down or feel a little too direct/clunky if addressed within the story itself. However, because of the self-imposed restriction I talked about in point 1 (i.e. no drastic alterations to the game or additions that would require extensive effort to implement), I won't be utilizing such a format, and so I will sometimes have the characters speak a bit more openly/directly about their feelings/thoughts than I otherwise would've liked.

Because I have a lot to say, I won't be providing summaries of the episodes I'm discussing as I explain my story changes. A fairly solid recollection of the game's events is...perhaps not required, but certainly helpful for understanding what I'm talking about and how I arrived at my choices.

I don't claim to know better than the writers or even be an experienced writer myself, this is just how I personally would approach giving Hermod a more prominent character arc, because I think we can all at least agree that Hermod didn't get enough focus in this game. If Hermod's story hadn't been cut (presumably), I have no doubt that Tomoco Kanemaki would have come up with something better than what I'm proposing here.

But anyway, without further ado:

Hermod's Motivation and Personality

"Simple as that."

During the flashback where the underclassmen are asked why they want to become Keyblade Masters, Hermod is initially flustered at the question, as if he either didn't have a good answer prepared or was reluctant to say what it was. He averts his gaze and noncommittally agrees with everyone else’s reasons, avoiding the question somewhat, but then he clarifies that he’s doing it so that he can “uphold the greater order." This phrasing is a little vague, but I assume he basically just means that he wants to uphold the law of Scala, Keyblade wielders, and Light.

Based on his behavior and dialog here, it almost seems like Hermod became a Keyblade wielder for much the same reason as Eraqus: it was just expected of him. It was what he was told to do, and he always does as he’s told. But he nonetheless is content with the path chosen for him because he knows that it’s the best way to uphold order and protect his loved ones. As his official bio states, “he plays the role of big brother as he looks out for and takes care of everyone.”

Honestly, I think even in the base game Hermod’s “arc” is fairly obvious: he goes from strictly following the rules to being willing to break them for his friends. However, the problem is that the game doesn’t really focus on Hermod enough to make this arc feel sufficiently developed and explored. As in, the end of his arc just kinda happens abruptly with very little build up. So, in my rewrite, I’m going to have Hermod more frequently demonstrate his commitment to upholding order, and have him do it in a way that impacts the events of the story more, while also having the narrative address the consequences of that mindset more directly.

Also, as an aside, Hermod's official bio makes special mention of his anger, but I don’t think the game showcases that aspect of his character enough? So I'll try to incorporate his anger into the story just a tiny bit more. To be clear, I don't really want his anger to be framed as, like, this major character flaw of his (for the purposes of this rewrite, his major character flaw is going to be his aforementioned strict rule-following), I just want it to crop up more often in the story to add more Flavor to his character. It seems like the original intent was for Hermod to be the fire to Urd's ice, but the game doesn't really convey that all too well, if you ask me.

Before we move on, I want to quickly summarize some canon aspects of Hermod's character that are going to be important to this arc, things that are consistently established about him throughout the game, to the point where it would be silly of me to list every single example of these character traits as I walk you through my rewrite (I will be mentioning some of them in more detail later, though).

He's a model student. Hermod tends to be the one who takes charge in class; he's the one who approaches Odin with the underclassmen's issues, speaks on behalf of the underclassmen, and volunteers for tasks. He also tends to prioritize Odin's wishes and judgment.

There's some implied friction between him and Eraqus that eases up as time goes on. He tends to give Eraqus annoyed and disapproving looks whenever Eraqus talks back to Odin or says something ignorant. That being said, he also seems fond of Eraqus, smiling and laughing at jokes about his antics.

With that, let's get into the rewrite.

Episodes 1-2: Establishing Hermod's Character, and "The Problem"

To start off with, I want to point out a small detail at the very beginning of the game that leads me to believe that Hermod isn’t actually satisfied with being such a well-behaved rule-follower.

When the underclassmen talk about the potential existence of newborn worlds that don’t have rules or laws set in place yet, Hermod, after some quiet contemplation, remarks with “Then the rules can be changed...” (this is even the quote chosen for Hermod’s official bio, no less!) The fact that this thought crossed Hermod’s mind at all, and the fact that the narrative chose him specifically to be the one to deliver this line, makes me think that he has some unspoken desire to see the rules be changed despite his best efforts to be a model student. This is great, because it provides a decent foundation for his character arc and hidden depths.

TANGENT: I want to highlight a moment in Episode 1 that will be relevant to this rewrite later. Namely, Hermod getting annoyed at Eraqus talking back to Odin. (As I said before, there are several other moments throughout the game where Hermod looks at Eraqus with an annoyed/disapproving look, but I'm only going to mention this one.)

Anyway, on to the actual changes. First off, much like the Urd rewrite, I’m removing the mechanic from Episodes 1-3 that lets you choose your third party member for the cutscenes. Why? It just doesn't make for good writing in this particular case; the dialog has to be at least semi-generic across all the characters in order to make swapping them out easier, and that's simply not conducive to giving the characters unique character traits and individual focus.

Episode 1 is mostly uneventful and focuses more on Urd in my rewrite for her, so let's move on to Episode 2.

Urd is your party member for this episode (for reasons I explained in Urd’s rewrite), and Hermod, Vor, and Bragi are the three party members that get put on trial. And rather than all three of them yielding to the Card Soldiers because they unanimously agreed to not mess with the world order, instead it was HERMOD’S idea specifically. Bragi suggested that they fight back, and since Vor’s bio mentions that she “shies away from battle”, she suggested that they try to run away and evade capture. Hermod points out, however, that the best way to avoid disturbing the order would be to follow the laws of this world and not cause trouble.

Vor and Bragi are hesitant but ultimately decide to trust Hermod’s judgment on the matter, as they tend to rely on him as a big brother figure anyway. This serves to highlight how Hermod will follow the rules and obey authority even when he doesn’t necessarily agree with what’s happening to him or is put in serious danger because of it. Now, none of this happens on-screen of course, because we also didn't see what happened in the base game either, but we'll find out about it after the trial.

Speaking of the trial. When Xehanort, Eraqus, and Urd find the other underclassmen at the court on trial, it is Hermod who is leading the defense. In the base game, either Bragi or Hermod will lead the defense depending on who you picked as your third party member, but since I want the trial plotline to focus more on Hermod, in this rewrite it is only ever Hermod who stands in front and speaks to the Queen of Hearts. (A quick note, if you compare the two different versions of this scene, the one where Hermod leads and the one where Bragi does, Hermod comes across as a bit more apologetic, whereas Bragi puts his foot down more about what he's willing to take responsibility for. Hermod: "Okay, I apologize for trespassing." vs Bragi: "Wait, I'll own up to tresspassing, but that's it.")

Anyway, back to Hermod and the rewrite. At first, he's a bit of a bootlicker, being very polite and trying his best to placate the Queen while also calmly defending himself and his friends. After a while of trying and failing to reason with the Queen however, Hermod loses his patience and explodes at her. He pretty much immediately regrets it and tries to backpedal in a panic, stammering the entire time, but it's too late—that was the last straw for the Queen. Just like in the base game, Xehanort, Eraqus, and Urd recognize the danger and intervene to try and talk the Queen down from executing their friends. The cutscenes then proceed just like they do in the base game, with the Queen demonstrating that her rule is based on her subjects living in fear of her.

After the trial, the discussion the underclassmen have about the darkness in people's hearts being more dangerous than the Heartless still happens, but either before or after it there is a separate (but still interconnected) discussion where Hermod apologies to the others and takes responsibility for his idea to surrender themselves to the Card Soldiers, explaining his reasoning for why he did that. Namely, that as Keyblade wielders, it was their duty to not disrupt the order in any way, and their hands were tied.

Xehanort and the party exchange Knowing glances to indicate that this isn’t uncommon behavior for Hermod (and also that they’re not exactly pleased about how quickly and easily he relented to the Card Soldiers, not putting up much of an argument or fight) but they silently agree to not confront Hermod about it since he had no way of knowing what a farce the trial was going to be. Perhaps letting themselves get captured would have been the correct decision if Wonderland’s court system was actually fair. Instead they assure him that they understand why he thought that not fighting back or running away was the best decision in the moment, but nonetheless he needs to be more careful in the future. Hermod agrees and is genuinely apologetic for putting his friends in danger, but there’s still a hint of irritation in his expression. He still thinks that adamantly refusing to disrupt the order was the inarguably right decision to make; after all, it’s what they were specifically instructed to do by Master Odin. And if there's one thing that Hermod refuses to do, it's break the rules.

Episode 3: Minor Details of Note

Episode 3 isn't a Hermod focused episode in my rewrite, but there are two details from this episode that I find worth mentioning.

Detail 1: Unique dialog from Hermod that won't exist in my rewrite (because I have Vor slotted for Episode 3) but I think says a lot about Hermod: "But the Tweedles didn't seem to be cowering under [The Queen's] rule. They looked happy enough to me." Does Hermod perhaps consider himself "happy enough" with his life, and thus makes no attempts to change or improve his circumstances?

Detail 2: When Eraqus starts getting angry and upset at Xehanort because Xehanort said that the upperclassmen might have been felled by darkness (presumably, a painful reminder of the fate that befell Eraqus' grandfather), Hermod looks sympathetic, puts his hand on Eraqus' shoulder, and tries to calm Eraqus down. Though Hermod is sometimes at odds with Eraqus, he seems to know about what happened to Eraqus' grandfather, and tries to be understanding about it. At the end of the day, they are good friends even if they don't agree on everything.

Episode 5: Further Emphasizing Hermod's Personality and His Dilemma

Canonically, Episode 3 (if you choose Vor to be your party member like the game prompts you to) and Episode 4 are more Vor focused, and in my rewrites Episode 5 is Urd focused, but we can squeeze a couple of minor Hermod moments in Episode 5 to keep things balanced.

Specifically through Cogsworth and the Beast, as people of authority in the castle that Hermod can show respect to.

With Cogsworth, I just imagine Hermod being very polite with him and being more than willing to help him get the rose back, giving him respect as the head of the household.

Same goes for the Beast (in fact, in the base game it is Hermod who speaks/approaches the Beast first, not Urd like you'd expect), but when the Beast tries to viciously attack Hermod despite the underclassmen being very polite and reasonable with him, afterwards Hermod makes a comment about how surprised he is that someone in such a respectable position as lord of the castle would act like that and yet still garner such love and loyalty from his servants. Genuine loyalty, not the fake, fear-based loyalty that the Queen of Hearts commanded back in Episode 2.

"There's still much we don't know about this world and its residents. Perhaps we're missing something important. Or perhaps this world is like Wonderland; it's just the order of things." says Xehanort. "Maybe he's not so bad once you get to know him?" offers Urd.

And like, that's the thing, right. The Beast definitely needs to learn how to treat his servants better, but he lashes out because he's hurting, not out of genuine disdain for them like the Queen of Hearts, and deep down he really does care about his family at the castle even if he doesn't always show it. If Hermod can somehow recognize that that is what's going on, if he can recognize what exactly makes the Queen of Hearts and the Beast different despite their similar temperaments, then he can also realize that "Hey, people who genuinely care about you and your wellbeing probably deserve your loyalty more, and those who don't, don't." (Not that the Beast is a terribly great example of this given his nonetheless inexcusable behavior, but you get the idea.)

I can imagine Hermod starting to realize what conditions are required to birth true loyalty in people's hearts after they return the rose to the Beast, and the party finally sees him in a more calm, grateful state. This could be a discussion that Xehanort, Hermod, and Urd have as they leave the castle, capping off their adventure there.

BUT regardless of whether or not Hermod ends up seeing the hidden humanity of the Beast, once again Hermod is being presented with a wrathful, flawed authority figure wielding power against their subjects in unfair ways, and not yet recognizing how his alarmed and frustrated emotional responses to these scenarios could be applied to his own life and circumstances.

(And, honestly, maybe seeing such extreme examples of anger being wielded carelessly and spitefully against people who don't deserve it would make Hermod re-examine his own anger issues too and learn how to wield/direct his anger more responsibly? I know I said I didn't want his anger to be the focus of this rewrite (especially since anger isn't inherently bad) but the connection that can be drawn here is still a little too juicy to pass up, don't you think. Also, in addition to the Queen of Hearts and the Beast being examples of extreme anger wielded carelessly, there's also Hades to consider, who is known for his own unique brand of fiery, explosive anger as well. Keep him in mind for later.)

Episode 6: Confrontation and Introspection

The next set of major events relevant to Hermod’s development occur in Episode 6. In fact, Episode 6 is like, THE Hermod episode.

Episode 6 starts off with Jafar trying to trick Xehanort, Urd, and Hermod into going to the Cave of Wonders and fetching the lamp for him, lying about how the lamp is crucial to saving the kingdom. In the base game, Hermod is the first one in the group to show sympathy for Jafar and start falling for Jafar’s ruse, to the point that Urd worriedly grabs his hand to stop him when he starts to approach Jafar after overhearing Jafar's "woes".

In this rewrite, I’m taking inspiration from that little interaction and having Hermod be way more trusting of Jafar than Xehanort and Urd are, implicitly respecting Jafar’s authority as the royal vizier. So rather than Xehanort being the one who agrees to help Jafar (because he has suspicions about the lamp and wants access to the Cave of Wonders) with Hermod acting surprised/displeased at Xehanort’s willingness, instead it's Hermod who enthusiastically agrees to help, with Xehanort and Urd acting a little surprised and displeased but nonetheless going along with it (due to the aforementioned "the lamp might be important to our mission actually.")

There's also a moment during this scene where Xehanort and Urd start poking holes in Jafar's sob story and Hermod seems surprised/displeased that they're so rudely questioning Jafar like that, and obviously I'm keeping that in since it exemplifies Hermod's hesitation to question authority.

Afterwards, as the party makes their way down into the Cave of Wonders, Xehanort voices his doubts about Jafar’s intentions. In my rewrite, rather than Hermod instantly trusting Xehanort’s judgment of Jafar’s character, instead I want Hermod to argue with Xehanort about it. Hermod doesn't understand why Xehanort is accusing Jafar of nefarious intentions without any evidence to back it up, especially since Jafar seemed so...NORMAL and COMPASSIONATE compared to the other authority figures they've encountered so far. He's just trying to save his city, is that really so bad? says Hermod.

Xehanort, realizing that "I can feel his greed/darkness tho" doesn't really qualify as hard evidence, but ALSO being kinda fed up with Hermod's inflexibility and compliance up until this point, calls him out on not thinking for himself and just blindly following authority even when they're so CLEARLY suspect. Must I remind you about what happened with the Queen of Hearts, Hermod?

Hermod, shocked and offended at being criticized like that, and also getting defensive at having his Major Character Flaw thrown into his face, scoffs but doesn’t argue the point further. However, he’s still very visibly angry, and short with Xehanort whenever they do happen to exchange words. "Whatever. Let's go find this lamp already and get back to our mission." Or something like that.

It’s only when the party runs into Bragi and Eraqus who reveal that Jafar tasked them with the exact same dangerous mission too without ever mentioning them to Xehanort and company that Hermod is finally convinced that Xehanort had been right all along. Jafar was treating them like disposable pawns and knowingly sending them into a death trap.

He also realizes that he was naive to trust Jafar so easily just because he was a charismatic authority figure. Before, Hermod was presented with the unfortunate reality of some authority figures just being plain cruel and incompetent and careless, but here he learns that they can also be deceitfully charismatic on top of that, and that it's not always going to be obvious when you're being taken advantage of.

He apologizes to Xehanort for (yet again) dragging his friends into danger due to his own personal hang-ups and choosing to trust Jafar, a stranger, over Xehanort, his close friend. Feeling the need to explain himself, he confesses that lately, he has felt like he has had no control over his life (perhaps with the implication that his family is really strict and expect way too much from him?), and the only way he knew how to cope with that was to assume that the authority figures controlling every aspect of his life were trustworthy, knew what they were doing, and had his best interests in mind. If he believed that with all his heart, then he could accept his lack of freedom to make his own choices, and be content with it. Xehanort, realizing that he was overly harsh on Hermod earlier, apologies as well.

TANGENT: Once again, I wish to highlight a moment from the base game that will be relevant later. Namely, Hermod and Eraqus starting to act more and more like each other.

Moving on: In addition to Vidar trying to recruit Eraqus in the lamp room, I want Vidar to try to recruit Hermod as well, because there's an awfully convenient similarity between the two of them that's relevant here. In that very scene, Vidar talks about how he and his friends heeding what they were taught (i.e. “don’t mess with the order no matter what”) is what resulted in four of them dying in the first place. Vidar had to learn the hard way what happens when you blindly follow the rules without considering your own opinions on what the right thing to do is. This lesson is absolutely what Hermod needs to learn, too. Perhaps Vidar’s entreaty isn’t enough to convince Hermod to join him, but in conjunction with the Wonderland fiasco and Jafar’s deceit from earlier, it’s certainly enough to make Hermod start re-evaluating himself.

Specifically, I can imagine this theoretical Vidar and Hermod interaction slotting somewhere after Hermod's canon line "...upsetting each world's order is the worst thing you could do." (Is it? Perhaps Hermod will change his mind about this very soon...) Maybe it goes something like this (my added dialog in italics):

"I don't have a clue about true darkness and how much of a threat it is, but upsetting each world's order is the worst thing you could do." says Hermod, angrily. "'Don't upset the order,' huh? That's what we were taught, too." [Upperclassmen classroom flashback, followed by Vidar explaining that the other upperclassmen are dead, just like in the base game.] "And what about you, Hermod?" "Huh?" Hermod's anger gives way to confusion. "How has 'upholding the order' treated you and your friends so far? In Wonderland, and here in Agrabah?" (<-knowledge he got from spying on them.) "..." "If there's one thing I've learned from all of this, it's that you can't let darkness have its way. Not ever. Otherwise, it'll take away everything you care about the moment you give it the chance. If you wish to protect your friends...then you must fight it. So why not join me, and fight it?"

Hermod, much like Eraqus, refuses Vidar's offer, being worried about what might happen to the worlds if Vidar continues to steal the items of world order. But now he has something to mull over.

Episode 7: Realization and Resolve

Episode 7 is where Hermod's arc concludes (naturally, since he dies here.)

A couple of canon moments from this episode I want to highlight before we get to my changes, since I think they're important to Hermod's arc:

In the scene where Odin and the underclassmen discuss Vidar's plans to purge true darkness, Odin says to Hermod and the underclassmen "However, it has not yet been determined that what we face now is true darkness. And if it is indeed so, will you risk the lives of countless others to save your friends?" A question that we will actually get an answer to quite soon.

After Odin relieves the underclassmen from their duty, Hermod despairs over this fact and acts like there's nothing they can do about it since Odin's word is absolute. We see his anger and frustration spill out due to his conflicting feelings on the matter. He seems to be at a crossroads, unsure of what the best thing to do is. You get the impression that he is on the cusp of doing something uncharacteristic of him.

Anyway, Episode 7 remains mostly the same up until the Hades boss fight that occurs due to Hades claiming to have imprisoned Bragi or Baldr. Hermod, after much internal conflict, finally decides to break the rules and agrees to fight the literal GOD of the Underworld (you could not have asked for a more fitting ending to Hermod's arc than that) in order to save his friends, wielding his anger compassionately and strategically to protect what's most important to him. This acts as a bookend to the Wonderland episode; there, Hermod’s refusal to fight an authority figure nearly got him and his friends executed, but here he’s finally realized that he needs to follow his heart and do what he thinks is right, even if that means disregarding his orders or disobeying those in power. He nearly got his friends killed last time; he won’t let that happen again.

However, instead of Hermod showing up after the Hades boss fight, I want him to show up before it and actually be involved in the battle. And since Eraqus and Hermod are usually at odds with each other due to Eraqus’s flippant and disrespectful attitude towards authority, I think it would be very emblematic of Hermod’s change of heart for him to protect Eraqus in the battle. (Remember those canon Eraqus and Hermod moments I highlighted? This is where they finally pay off. This moment of Hermod putting himself in danger to save Eraqus works without me having to add any extra details to lead up to it. Nice.) So at one point Hades gets very close to offing Eraqus. but Hermod jumps in front of him just in time to fend Hades off, getting seriously injured in the process.

So later in the dark corridor when Hermod starts passing out way before Urd does, it’s specifically because of the extra wounds he sustained in the fight, adding another layer of tragedy to his death. He stood up for his friends and what he believed was right, discarding his strict adherence to the rules and disrupting the order in the process, but the ironic cost of that choice was that he was too hurt/exhausted to properly protect Urd and himself from Baldr. He did his best, and realized his error in time, but unfortunately that just wasn’t enough. This game is a tragedy where nothing goes right despite how hard the characters try to change for the better, after all.

And that's my pitch. As before, if you have any ideas, feedback, or criticisms, feel free to add on. Thanks for reading to the end.

#khdr #kingdom hearts dark road #kingdom hearts #kh hermod #rambling about dim path #ch tag: her #khdr spoilers

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tinfoilhatsss · 2 years ago

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Naomi is actually an antagonist

Most people have different theories about Naomi from BSD, so I thought I'd put my opinion in.

First off, Naomi is NOT an author like the rest of the BSD cast. Her namesake comes from Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's novel 'Naomi'. I'm going to be speculating about the connection between the novel and the BSD character, but I actually haven't read the novel myself. I'm taking my information from the summary.

The two members of the Armed Detective Agency without an author's namesake are Naomi and Haruno. (As seen down below)

Both are characters from the novel 'Naomi'. I'm just going to be focusing on Naomi for now, as she plays a bigger role in the novel and in the BSD plot, so I have a better understanding of the character.

Anyways. Naomi and Tanizaki's relationship has never really made sense to me. Asagiri is known for humanising his characters and making sure that all of them have motives, even some antagonists. For example...

Mori, although as asshole of a character, has an overarching need for the greater good. Although he has made some pretty hurtful decisions to get there, it's with a 'good' cause in mind

Fitzgerald wanted the book to revive his daughter to try and piece back together his family by improving his sick wive's mental state

I know this doesn't really apply to Fyodor and Fukuchi, but I have no doubt that by the end of the arc, their actions will have some sort of reasoning to them.

So WHY did he write Naomi and Tanizaki into some sort of seemingly incestuous relationship? Either or both of the scenarios below could explain their actions:

They're faking their romantic intentions

They're fake siblings

It still doesn't answer the question of what their relationship adds to the plot. It could be written with the intention of humour in the end, but Asagiri has stated in an interview that he's a fan of Chekhov’s Gun (the principle that all elements of a story are essential), which means he most likely wrote their relationship with a specific intention.

If Naomi holds a similar characterisation to the novel she is from, then her relationship with Tanizaki might not be as caring as it is made out to be.

In the novel, the character Naomi is actually the antagonist. The protagonist is an older man who becomes obsessed with Naomi and her Westernised personality. (Note: the book is set in post ww2 when America took part in the colonisation of Japan and thus became a large part of the culture there.)

The protagonist, a salaryman named Jōji, plans to gradually groom 15-year-old Naomi when they meet at a cafe. Her true nature is revealed to be incredibly manipulative. She eventually reverses the power imbalance and Jōji ends up completely submitting to her every whim.

This makes me question her role in the plot of BSD. Especially now that we actually haven't seen her in a long time (the entire Decay of Angels arc). Most BSD characters are based on the protagonists of their novels (Oba Yozo and Dazai), if not the author themselves.

Naomi being represented by the Antagonist makes me wonder if she is in fact a threat to Tanizaki. I would say that she is an ability, but Dazai has touched her before, so it's been confirmed she isn't. Could she be made by the book? Is she controlling Tanizaki, a mastermind in disguise? I think there must be more to her character than we see, or else Asagiri wouldn't have written her in.

she looks kind of sinister in the manga yknowww...

#naomi tanizaki #naomi bsd #bsd analysis #bungou stray dogs analysis #bsd theories #bsd #bungou stray dogs #tanizaki naomi #tanizaki junichirou

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thexgrayxlady · 2 months ago

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What I Read in February 2025

Forth Wing by Rebecca Yarros - 3.00/5.00

I didn't hate it? Like, I didn't love it, it isn't really to my taste, but I see why other people like it so much. It is very accessible, pulpy fun. If you're just looking for an easy beach read, it would be a pretty good choice. And if you liked this book, you might want to check out Naomi Novik's Temeraire series.

I do like that Violet knows that she can't win a fair fight, so goes out of her way to be assigned kitchen duty to give her assigned opponents food poisoning. Don't get me wrong, the murder college makes no sense. The rules contradict each other and Violet is constantly pulling loopholes out of thin air. Most of her solutions to problems almost seem clever on the surface, but if you stop to think about it, it makes everyone else look stupid and incompetent because they are so obvious that someone in the hundreds of years of the Murder College should have thought to try it.

I actually like that it takes the time to explain basic fantasy terms rather than taking for granted that its audience has that built-in vocabulary, due to the expanded audiance for this book. There are some series that can get away with anachronisms, this one doesn't quite manage it and it took me right out every time it happened. Also, I don't like that you can pick out the redshirts in Violet's squad based on who doesn't like her.

The thing on the parapet with the boot is very stupid. I wrote half a sticky note of other notes, then came back around to write more about how stupid the boot thing was because I was so fixated on it. Violet and her friend are going to have a much harder time balancing with mismatched shoes. I took a picture of my own equestrian boots, which have a decent amount of grip to them, and checked an older pair that are probably from the 80s, there's still some grip to the soles because you don't want your stirrups sliding around. The boot thing is dumb, I shouldn't think about it so much, but for whatever reason, I fixated on it.

There were a few too many training montages and I think that the book could have shaved about fifty pages to improve the pacing. However, the action scenes are pretty good when they get going. I really liked the big battle scenes at the end. I still think Xaden has a stupid name, and unfortunately for him my standard for misunderstood dragonrider bad boys was set by Murtagh when I was young, but he and Violet have decent chemistry. Every time the griffins were mentioned, I was the Warden pestering Wynne to tell me more about the griffins. The dragons were also great. I loved every moment they were on page.

That being said, every time I was almost into it and just along for a fun ride, it would drop a line straight out of My Immortal and take me right out of it.

Again, I had more fun with it than not. I liked it when it was about dragons, not so much when it was about love triangle drama. I think that if I paid money for it, I'd be disappointed, but as it was, it was pretty fun in a trashy, deviant art sort of way.

Radiant Sin by Katee Robert - 2.25/5.00

It feels very weird to stay that there's too much plot, but there's too much plot. The plot of this individual book, Clue with slightly less sex appeal, could have been fun in a vacuum. However, the author takes too much time setting up more of an overarching plot for the series for this book to work on its own.

If this had just been a sexy murder mystery house party, I would have had a much better time with it. When it started, it was just stupid fun, which at the time I was reading it, was exactly what I wanted. I LOVE a competent, powerful person and their girl Friday. I love that setup so much.

I loved Cassandra. She was great. She was genuinely mean, bitter, and skeptical and I loved that for her. I wish she'd been a little brattier in the sex scenes, but that's just a personal taste thing. Apollo was kind of bland, but likeable. However, all of the things going on with Hermes make him look incompetent and useless as a spymaster, and I just don't really like incompetence in a love interest.

I liked the cameos from Helen, Achilles, and Patroclus. Every moment Hermes and Psyche were on page, it sparked rage. The narrative bends over backwards to show how great Hermes is and they wind up doing all of the interesting things to resolve the plot, which makes the main characters and this book as a whole feel pointless.

Not in Love by Ali Hazlewood - 0.75/5.00

I've previously liked Ali Hazlewood's books in a trashy, brain candy kind of way. I did not care for this book. I did not care for this book at all.

My notes for this one are all over the place and I only finished it out of spite. It put me off of reading for almost a week after I finished it. I barely grabbed a picture for other reviews before sending it back to the used book superstore whence it came.

Rue might be too dumb to live. Eli is an annoying, overbearing simp after knowing her for less than an hour. Being in both of their POVs was torture. They kept having the same circular conversations in which they misinterpret each other for almost four hundred pages. Also, I don't like the switch between first and third person when the author switches viewpoint characters.

The sex scenes are generally the weaker parts of Ali Hazlewood's books, so to choose to structure the book around them was a misstep. They're boring and repetitive. And I am so sick of submissive women. Also, condoms expire and degrade faster in heat so you shouldn't use the ones that have been in a glove box in Texas for a few years.

Rue's workplace gets toxic start up Bingo and she's half the squares. She's a friend of the owner who works on her own projects, doesn't contribute anywhere else, and doesn't communicate with people. Like, I hate doing science communication too, but a poster's title is just that. A title. It should not be a whole damn paragraph.

#gray reads stuff #these are super disorganized lol

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ego-osbourne · 3 days ago

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could you explain the dez illusion to those who are new here? like i love the art but. what is going on 😅

You know it’d be smart of me to actually give a synopsis of my fic huh. Thank you for this question TwT

Ego wakes up in the cart to Helgen, knowing nothing about the world, themself, or their past life. When a dragon attacks Helgen, fires burn their limbs, exposing a golden skeleton … which is obviously peculiar. They hope they’ll start to recover memories the longer they’re conscious, but the memories never come.

They meet Erandur after the wreckage, who saw the smoke from Helgen and came to help. He takes up the task to bring them up to speed about the world around them and attempts to help them recover their memories. During this early journey, Ego learns that they’re “Dragonborn,” and in the midst of a war-torn land with dragons becoming a rising threat, the inhabitants of Skyrim are wondering if Ego will be the one to begin a new age for the Empire, or if they’ll break from the Imperial norm. Torn between expectations and personal desires, Ego seeks to discover more about themself before they make any hasty decisions about leadership. A lure from Solstheim piques their interest: the so-called “First Dragonborn” is beckoning them, and they ignore the warning signs in a desperate attempt to discover anything about what it truly means to be Dragonborn. They’ll be biting off much more than they can chew.

That’s the basic idea^ At risk of giving spoilers, here’s some extra info regarding character relationships and threats to come (would you believe me if I said it was hard to summarize a megafic):

(also, I’ve taken the liberty to change a lot of the given lore to better fit the narrative I want to tell, notably: Alduin is assumed to be dead since his defeat in the Merethic Era; the term “Last” Dragonborn is not common knowledge, and neither is its prophecy, and people instead equate “Dragonborn” to Imperial emperors; I blew up the College of Winterhold questline because I hate it; and more I’m probably forgetting)

Miraak ends up being saved, though has a very different idea of what it means to be Dragonborn than what Ego anticipates, and it creates serious tensions between the two of them.

Ancano becomes a helpful hand during a trip to the College of Winterhold, and relates to Ego by trying to discover a secretive past of his own, discovering he has much more involvement with Daedra than he initially thought.

Erandur is hiding something, and fate comes to find him.

Sanguine is constantly trying to run from his past to make himself seem better than he believes he is, and his attempts to save Ego tend to leave them worse off.

Delphine is disappointed with the hand dealt to her, not wanting to accept Miraak or Ego as new Dragonborn emperors, but obligated to push them closer to that goal. She’ll find herself grasping for more support than she initially thought she would.

Rakell has chickens :] (he’ll get more character-centered fics in the future)

As far as themes go, I’m aiming for a D&D-like story in terms of presentation, with each character getting their own arc and an overarching plot that threads itself through every plot beat.

I’ve tried to put a lot of love into worldbuilding, filling in plot holes both existent in canon and new holes that cropped up with my new additions (for all intents and purposes, this is a fix-it fic).

I’ve tried to wrap up each character arc nicely while knowing full-well that many of their arcs don’t end at TDI.

The gods hate them <3

Hopefully that gives enough goodies to be interesting <:]

#the dez illusion #textpost #long post #tes #tesblr #tesv #ask box #anon asks

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daisukoth · 9 days ago

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Hello, i just want to say thank you for the immaculate deltarune posting. i was just recently introduced to your dadster theory and i just want to say that it is very intriguing and original idea that I very much enjoy. I have always thought that Susie's little quirks and character traits, as well as the way they connect with the overarching plot of the game, have been greatly overlooked by the fandom in comparison to the other delta warriors. She has just as many potential connections to gaster that arent as noticeable to that of other members of the cast and I love how this theory is able to bring them together. Its late and im rambling, i apologize, so ill get to the point. The only part of this theory that I am unable to set straight about gaster being susies father is that it would leave gaster being for lack of a better phrase; just a guy who lives in home town. Between his fourth wall breaks, being shattered across time and space, and his allergy to being shown on screen. I had always considered him as more of a force that acted on the world of deltarune instead of an individual living in the same place as susie's room is located. I think the idea of gaster running his experiment(s) in or in close proximity to susie "official" place of residence a little odd for whatever reason. That is to say, I very much enjoy the idea of susie's origin being connected to gaster in some way. I only struggle to see him as a character with a concrete known existence among hometown's population. I was interested on your thoughts on this. and again sorry about this being long

The only part of this theory that I am unable to set straight about gaster being susies father is that it would leave gaster being for lack of a better phrase; just a guy who lives in home town.

yeah, this is one part of my theory about Dadster that I've changed my mind about. There is some supernatural shit going on with Gaster. Even if he's Susie's dad, he's no normal man anymore.

Oh but I should clarify something: I dont think Gaster really lives with Susie any longer. Susie is most likely an orphan, or at least she believes she is. If we assume that the parent Susie had was Gaster; then the picture I get is that Gaster went away when Susie was very young. And then Susie had other issues to deal with.

Why do I think Gaster vanished? well, it seems like whoever was helping Spamton just, vanished. And if that person was Gaster, that would explain things...

But still, even if it wasn't, I still think whatever happened to Gaster had something to do with Dark Worlds.

So let me try to explain what I think happened, with the info we have now:

We now have a confirmation that there is a case of a person possibly going missing into the Dark World; Dess. And the game gives various hints that we need to find her

So what if Gaster was the same case? What if Gaster vanished into the Dark World, and this is how he ended up becoming as he is? We only know Gaster from him contacting us, the SOUL. And If the voice that Spamton relays to us is really Dess, that means the people inside the Dark World have a way of contact. Thru the code.

As for his supernatural nature... Well, we have the Roaring Knight now. And the Knight has the same thing with the hand holes going on as "Gaster", or, Mystery Man. Maybe whatever happened to Dess, happened to Gaster.

Two missing people, two people trying to contact us...

and maybe, two missing relatives who left a hole in the lives of the people left behind?

I think the idea of gaster running his experiment(s) in or in close proximity to susie "official" place of residence a little odd for whatever reason.

hmmm. Look at it this way: Susie is the only character in the game who is determined to break the prophecy, and she seems to be succeeding so far. Susie is a being of chaos; a variable with unpredictable behavior. Just like us, the SOUL. Gaster showed some interest in the prophecy at the end of chapter 4. "My Deltarune".

So maybe his interest is actually to see the result of those variables.

... And it might not even have been expected for Susie to show up in Hometown, or for her to end up part of the prophecy in the first place. maybe it was a stroke of... not luck, but chaos.

Like Noelle talked about in the /egg/ post, discarded cats may end up causing other problems later.

Now, why do I think Gaster is even a real person inside of this universe in the first place? well.... Because as much fantastical shit happens in Deltarune, there's still the Light World side to everything. Jevil is some being of chaos that then turns into a weird card in the Light World. The Roaring Knight is apparently a Lightner, too.

So, can someone as omnipotent as Gaster really exist? When the game points at every turn that not everything is at it seems? Can Gaster not have been part of the Light World, the world of realism, at one point?

So the quesiton is: how do you intepret someone like Gaster in a realistic setting? well, he was a man who vanished without a trace.

And so, what was his life like thus far? Before he became the Mystery Man, who was shattered across time?

Because he must have had a normal life in the universe of Undertale as well, shouldn't he?

Now, what would Gaster being Susie's dad even change? Well, aside from narratively, it being interesting. As far as we know, Susie would be the only person left with any personal connections to Gaster. Alphys, Sans and Papyrus have said nothing about him.

Maybe Susie is the only one who could bring Gaster out of his shell of being a myterious disembodied voice.

I hope I made any sense, its midnight now.... I might need to remake the Dadster theory post again, because there is a LOT of speculation that I need to add now that I've thought a bit more about this theory.

#deltarune #deltarune spoilers #wd gaster #susie deltarune #dadster theory

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extracube · 3 months ago

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Just finished AHS: Coven

Ok, so for context, I'm one of those freaks who watches kill counts of movies and shows he's never seen before, so in terms of death I was very well-spoiled before watching this season (and pretty much every other season of AHS (don't judge me)).

Despite that, I really really like this franchise. I've watched Murder House, Cult, Roanoke, 1984, Death Valley (the second part of Double Feature), and now Coven all the way through. I've seen most of Hotel and NYC, but just kinda stopped and never finished them as my ADHD brain often does.

But hey, now I can watch Apocalypse and actually understand what's going on! Yay!

Right, so, Coven. Pretty good! It wasn't my absolute favorite but I definitely get why it is for other people. My personal favorite season is 1984, and I think a major difference between that and Coven is the structure of the story. 1984 (and most of the later AHS seasons) have much more linear and clear storylines than the earlier ones. Murder House and Coven do a lot of worldbuilding and really take the time to establish the rules of this show's magic and supernatural forces. So instead of a clear and singular plot with some side stories that add to the whole thing, we get more of a salad bowl where every individual plotline feels relevant but also somewhat separate from the others.

I guess I'm going into spoiler territory now so spoiler alert (oh shit I can bold things? Awesome)

I think I liked most of the various plotlines in this season. And just to be clear, I don't dislike this form of storytelling. Stranger Things has a VERY similar narrative style where different groups of characters are involved in a different part of the story, but by the end, their stories end up merging into one.

Granted, Coven doesn't really have the bit about the stories merging at the end. The LaLaurie, Luke, and Axeman side-stories were all interesting, but they exist very independently, and the events of one do not always affect the others. I'd say the closest this season has to an overarching plot is the "Who is the next Supreme?" question, but even that only really picks up in the last few episodes.

Again though, I don't think this is bad. I think the premise of "Witches exist, here are some of the problems they face" really allows the world to feel fleshed out, instead of explaining things quickly and poorly for the sake of telling a single story. We start off thinking Zoe will be our main protagonist but that's only true for the first episode or two as Fiona and the Voodoo Queen start their own stories early on. And each story is different so we get to learn a lot about the witches' history, abilities, ethics, rules, values, and everything else.

Who was my favorite character? Madison, because Emma Roberts is hot because she's such a fascinating and rich character. Like, seriously, a famous actress who's caught up in this world of witchy nonsense? That is SUCH a great concept!

My least favorite character was probably the Axeman. He felt REALLY out of place for a season about witches and, in my opinion, it didn't make sense for him to have that much screen time and plot relevance. I'm honestly not even sure what his story is, like how and why was he watching over Fiona since her childhood? I know it's explained but if I'm honest I didn't really care about him. I think he would've been better as a one-off antagonist.

I realize that me complaining about a seemingly disconnected character right after praising this show's disconnected storytelling is a bit counteractive, but I feel like Fiona's story arc would have been exactly the same without the guy.

Anyway, those are my general thoughts on the season! Overall I really liked it!

Thanks for reading all the way through my first real Tumblr post, you rock ❤️

#american horror story #ahs coven #ahs #tv shows #horror

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tartarusknight · 2 years ago

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What you need to know :)

Hello darling readers <3 I'm TartarusKnight or Knight of Tartarus! (they switch depending on availably honestly)

I'm here to chat, read, and write. That being said~~~~ come and message me anytime <3 questions, requests, and kind words make my day

This is an overview of my work just in case anyone is bored and wants something to read <3 (My Stranger Things work, honestly. I've also got some Marvel, Criminal Minds, and Teen Wolf but ST is my hyper fixation now soooo)

We're Not Perfect

This is a 4 part series in which Steve and Eddie knew each other before Steve ever got with Nancy Wheeler and before he learned about the Upside Down. It's heavily inspired by music <3 (Total Words 300,395) With Playlists because I can't stop <3 This story is my baby

Part 1 - It's the Start of Our Journey?

Pre-season 1 Steve Harrington and Eddie Munson are paired together in class and they learn they work well together. (Words 22,869)

Part 2 - I just want to go home

Set during Seasons 1-3, changing canon but the overarching story doesn't change too much. (Words 85,678)

Part 3 - say you'll live for me

Set in season 4, diverting from canon almost completely but with all the same characters. (Words 63,885)

Part 4 - I'll follow the beat of your heart

And the end. The final battle with Vecna and the epilogue aka season 5 <3 (Words 127,963)

Fool

Based on the song Fool by Djo.

Steve and Nancy get annoyed at Robin and Eddie for ignoring them when they're with their band. They decide to prove that they know music better than either Eddie or Robin thought. (Words 1,488)

I know you've been hurtin'

Based on the song Better Days by Dermot Kennedy and fanart by @babysitterpng

Steve has a plan. It involves a skirt, confidence, Nancy Wheeler's ability to do make-up, the party's anxiety, his parents, and Jason Carver's temper.

And well, Steve's pretty sure he has it in the bag. He might not be smart but he knows people and there's no way he's read any of them wrong. But maybe he'll learn more about himself as the plan unfolds (Words 7,205)

This dream isn't feeling sweet, we're reeling through the midnight streets

7 things that changed about Steve and Robin after Starcourt and 1 time they explained why. (Words 11,837)

I'm just gonna swim until you love me

Five times Steve had to prove he was worth love and One time someone just loved him without needing him to. (Words 8,612)

But when I touch her I feel like I'm cheating on you

Eddie is getting overwhelmed by the party just barging into his life without any warning after Spring Break. So, he makes a plan with an old friend of his. It works... in a way. (Words 1,932)

you're losing your memory now

Robin Buckley wasn't prepared for Steve to crash, but he had been pushing his limits for too long. He had a plan, but he never thought to tell her. He didn't want to worry her. Too bad she'll always worry about him... Especially when he collapses at work. (Words 17,784)

But Now We're Stressed Out

Eddie Munson knew he wasn't the smartest person. He never planned on college but he never planned for the Party either.

Title based on Twenty One Pilots - Stressed Out (Words 2,021)

I don't know what you're hunting. It's not me, it's something else

Steve looks over her face, “I'm not having any of you at my place. Did you see the map, no way?” He states and it's one part of his reasoning but not the main reason. “Then come stay with one of us,” Robin says and it feels more like a plead than anything.

He shakes his head and she looks angry now. “Stop whatever the fuck this is! We care about you! Let us in! We're safer in groups.” The words don't hurt as much as he thinks they should. “Not that much safer.” He spits back out and she blinks. “Max is as good as dead. Eddie is dead. And guess what! We were in groups!” The shouting makes his throat burn but he can't calm down.

A Halloween Special!!! Happy Horror season <3 (Words 22,620)

WIP - The Fallen King and the King of the Freak

Steve has to deal with the fallout of Season 2.

New nightmares, losing Nancy, kids who he's willing to die for, and Billy's new hatred towards him. He went from the top to the bottom in the school and he doesn't know how bad it is until Eddie Munson is the one that steps in to help him. And maybe he wants the help and maybe even some friends. (Words 150k and climbing <3)

#masterlist #all my shit is in one place #steddie #my loves #i adore them #steddie fic #no sad endings here #so far....#knightly talks

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theknittingshadow · 2 years ago

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A Shadow’s Scattered Thoughts on “Journey to the West”

Alright, people. Blame @semisolidmind for getting me into Lego Monkie Kid. Finally decided to check out the original “Journey to the West. Strap yourselves in because there will be NO organization or cohesion to this whatsoever!

I’m at Chapter 20 right now and so far…

-Wukong’s a little pretentious and entitled but, considering none of the monkeys of Huaguoshan questioned the existence of a fully-furnished palace in Water Curtain Cave, I’m not surprised.

-Shifu Subhodi definitely WAS harsh striking Wukong on the head, as I had heard about before. However, IT WAS ALL A SECRET CODE FOR SECRET IMMORTALITY LESSONS! Hallelujah, he’s not as big a jerk as I feared. Still, there are better ways to get your point across, sir.

-At first, it seemed like the book went on long tangents of unrelated stories. I began to think this was less a book with one overarching storyline and more a collection of stories. Then, I finally got to when Tang is chosen to go on the journey. I realized it was all BACKSTORY.

-The Celestial Realm is simultaneously more and less merciful than I thought. On one hand, they kept giving Wukong chance after chance when he’d get upset and beat someone up or something. On the other hand, they beat and banished Wujing over BREAKING A CUP.

-I was super confused on Lego Monkie Kid’s characterization of Ao Lie when the book first implied he set his father’s palace on fire on purpose. Continuing, it seems more like he lit the place on ACCIDENT. WHICH MAKES HIS WHOLE “AVOIDING CARELESS ACTIONS” and “MY POWES HAVE ONLY EVER GOTTEN ME IN TROUBLE” SPIEL MAKE TOTAL SENSE!!!!!!

-There is so much poetry in here, guys. So So So Much.

-Speaking of poetry, it reminded me of both the Odyssey and several Shakespeare plays where they pause to sing a song or something.

-Why does the author keep making the characters reiterate what just happened? They Do The Thing. Then they gotta explain to someone else The Thing. There’s rarely an instance of “and they recounted the events just described” and leave it at that.

-Why does the Jade Emperor need to take a carriage to go literally anywhere? Even just to the other side of the courtyard? Is it a really big yard?

-Tripitaka DID seem like an overreacting crybaby but then I thought “this is PTSD at work” and IT ALL MAKES SENSE. He gets kidnapped by ogres who kill and eat his personally chosen companions (who came from his monastery and whom he most likely grew up with as friends) before his very eyes. Of course he’s going to freeze up and/or freak out every time a monster appears and Wukong needs to leave his side for whatever reason.

-Related, crying now that you have to walk to the West seems ridiculous until you think it might be more crying about how he was nearly eaten by the dragon that ate his horse!

-Seriously, I could go on about Tang’s unusually frequent crying and how it relates to potential PTSD and delayed reaction to said trauma.

-People keep calling the disciples ugly right to their faces and I Do Not Appreciate It. On another note, Wukong is surprisingly chill about this.

-Bodhisattva Guanyin used a fillet on a bear yaogaui in one chapter. I was not expecting that. Maybe ancient ideas of mercy are different compared to today?

-I’ve read and seen SO many stories of how Zhu Bajie kidnapped the human woman he married but that’s…not what happened. Sort of. They married with both her and her family’s consent. It was only after his true appearance, huge appetite, and poor manners were revealed that her family tries to get rid of him. He keeps his wife away from them as a result. Normally, I’d say good for him for trying to cut off toxic people but his wife was described as pale and unkept when Tang and Wukong arrive. So…she’s not doing good and should really be returned to her family.

-Wukong laughs at people and calls himself “Old Monkey” a lot.

More scattered thoughts to come!

#Journey to the West #jttw #sun wukong #wukong #tang #tripitaka #zhu bajie #sha wujing #lmk #lego monkie kid #ao lie #guanyin #scattered thoughts #Tw murder #tw death #tw kidnapping #Tw ptsd

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fraeuleintaka · 11 months ago

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Investigations 2 Cover Art

This is the 35th post in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Countdown: 46 days left until release!

Today's topic: the Cover Art of Investigations 2!

After Investigations 1, it's time for Investigations 2 starting, again, with the Cover Art.

This composition is very different from the one for the first game, we start very close to the screen and build into the background with the various characters. Miles is in the very foreground, looking serious and concentrated, with his hand open and stretched towards the screen looking like he intends to move a piece on a chessboard. Given how important the whole chess theme is for Investigations 2 this not only fits Miles himself really well but also this game in particular so it's a very good image choice. I also love that his cravat, due to its fluttering, is still visible over the title. You just can't cover such an important aspect of Miles' character 😉

Slightly behind him and to the right is Investigations 2's main rival: Justine Courtney (Verity Gavèlle). She occupies most of the right side and looking up at her like this with her looking down towards the screen she looks intimidating and clearly superior. Her expression also conveys a lot of confidence and I especially love how impressively the long handle of her extended gavel looks in this perspective. They really made the most out of showing it off and she doesn't even need to raise the actual gavel part to make it look epic! She's doesn't need to be openly aggressive, she's above that.

Behind Justine we have Kay faving towards the left and rubbing her nose in a cheeky way like she just thought of a great plan (probably to steal something). You can't really see much of her pose otherwise. Her hair indicates movement to the left and her Yatagarasu scarf is very prominent. Considering what happens to Kay in one particular case it definitely makes sense to put it so prominently, the Yatagarasu plot of Investigations 1 may be over but it's still a very integral part of Kay's character and her personality. In a way it also signifies her connection to her father which fits to the overarching parent-child theme Investigations 2 has.

Next to, or slightly behind, Kay we can see Gumshoe being similarly stressed like he was in the Investigations 1 Cover Art. He's sweating, moving hastily and apparently shouting or at least very animatedly talking to someone on the phone. Apart from adding more tension to the composition and implying high stakes for the story this could be a hint towards a certain plot point in the final case which definitely was one of the most tense ones in the entire game. This is even better in connection with Gumshoe specifically because one of the peak highlight scenes of Miles' and Gumshoe's relationship happens around that plot point. Not necessarily intentional but I certainly appreciate it anyway.

Directly behind Gumshoe is Sebastian Debeste (Eustace Winner), our 2nd rival of Investigations 2. He's in his pointing pose with his baton outstretched and his other hand gesturing dramatically. His mouth is wide open, similar to Gumshoe, which gives his depiction even more urgency. He looks like he's fiercely arguing with someone, maybe explaining one of his "deductions" or trying to counter criticism. He doesn't appear nearly as confident as Justine, fittingly, and also not as arrogant as he sometimes (mostly initially) comes across. I like that he isn't portrayed as goofy but as serious instead and while not exactly panicked, definitely affected by whatever is going on. It fits well to his state over the entire course of the story since Sebastian is a pretty emotional character and a lot happens that affects him specifically. I also just really love this pose of him, his pointing is so unique!

The last character in this key art, in the background behind Sebastian and Kay, is Raymond Shields (Eddie Fender). He mostly faces away from the screen only turning a little to look back over his shoulder with a cheeky grin. It gives the impression of him not being entirely there or focused on the here and now which is great to imply the connection to Miles' past that he represents and how he serves as a periodic reminder of what could've been (or could be). Gregory isn't depicted in this art but I think that's fine to not draw the direction too much into the past. The crux of Investigations 2 is Miles' present actions after all.

The last thing I want to mention is that I love the background in this artwork! The large windows and high ceiling give the impression of a grandiose hall of great importance with the colour patterns on the windows indicating this to be the P.I.C. Meeting Room, one of the most impactful locations of Investigations 2 and a very good choice of image to signify its role in the narrative. I especially love the silhouette of Iustitia, the Goddess of Law and Justice, that can be seen everywhere behind the characters, holding her sword and her scales. So relevant to the theme and such impressive imagery!

#ace attorney #ace attorney investigations #ace attorney investigations collection #aai collection #ace attorney investigations collection countdown #46 days left

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3rdblah · 1 year ago

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Game Show Pitch

Grab a random person to be your contestant. Experience or education in art creation/history/interpretation does not need to be taken into account.

Bring however many artists you want. Have them bring one or two (or three) of their pieces, medium doesn’t matter. The only limitations of content are staying within the show’s rating, and matching the theme if it’s a themed episode. Note that the artworks should not be ones that contestant(s) have seen before.

Ahead of time the artist should provide the producers with any meaning behind the piece or symbolisms. This is only if there are intended meanings/symbols.

Show the contestant(s) each artwork, one at a time. First they will decide if they think there is any meaning/symbolism in the piece. If they want, they can stop that round, learn if they were right, collect x amount of money if they were and nothing if they weren’t, and go the next round. (Please note that the contestant(s) should be informed that the ratio of meaning:no meaning is not set, it could be 50/50, all of one, all of the other, mostly one, etc)

If the contestant(s) are confident in their answer, they can go on. Optional for them to see the artist at this point, the whole time, or not at all. If they believe there is no symbolism/meaning, they then guess why the artist made that piece (it reminded them of their dog, they like flowers, they just wanted to, etc)

This is where it gets interesting. If the contestant(s) believe that there is a symbol/meaning to the artwork they are allowed to go on about the perceived meaning to their hearts content (still give them a time limit obv, but make it, like, half an hour) They are allowed to explain what parts of the work they think symbolize something, what that symbol is, how it all ties together etc etc etc. Just let them go buck wild. Put them on teams so they bounce ideas off each other. The more obscure the better tbh.

After a) or b), the artist (or host who was told by the artist) then declares how right/wrong the contestant(s) are. If they were right in the first part of the round, they get x amount of money (a bit bigger than the x amount if they quit after the first half). They hear what the artist submitted as the meaning/symbolism/reasoning (or just hear from the artist themself idk) and get however much more money within a certain range depending on how accurate their interpretation of the artwork is. I personally would have the artist decide how much they get, but whatever floats your boat.

If they were wrong in the first half they get nothing that round. Nbd if you said there wasn’t more behind the artwork, you learn what the symbolism/meaning is and how it all goes together, you go to the next round, life moves on. Much bigger of a deal if you spent 20 minutes piecing together details into an elaborate overarching social commentary just to hear that the entire reason behind the artwork was “I thought it would look pretty”.

This is where the devastation comes in. The embarrassment. The feeling that your deepness was entirely self deception. You spent so long making something and it turns out it was nothing (please note that nothing is used loosely here, I mean nothing as in nothing beyond the piece’s appearance, artworks made just for the hell of it are just as valid as ones balls to the walls with symbolism) We watch them agonize over all the time they spent getting no prize money when they could have been spending that time being right and winning something.

Bonus points if the rounds aren’t randomized. Extra bonus points if the producers are cruel with how they arrange the rounds. The first two pieces have some serious stuff behind them, the contestants debate over whether the third will also be like that or be for the hell of it. Based on previous rounds the contestant(s) think the next one will have an elaborate meaning, they make one up and it’s all for naught. Vice versa. Total chaos.

Basically I’m a genius and you should definitely give me money for this idea

#game show #definitely a good idea

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disfrutalakia · 2 years ago

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Hi it's evillous AU anon again!! Now i've got time and it's not 11pm so I'm going to try and dump all my thoughts on it in your askbox >:D I started conceptualizing this while the election arc was still ongoing and something i've learned is that it's really difficult to make a complicated au of a story with characters that are constantly developing. several times i've assigned characters to one role only for the literal next day have a new plotline start that makes them fit a different role so much better and then i have to change everything around again. So this is 100% going to be outdated in like a week tops lmao. I've also taken a lot of liberties with things like who reincarnates into who and what order some events happen in, so it doesn't 100% fit the structure of either story. For reference i leaned toward making the relationships line up more with the QSMP storyline rather than evillous canon and its still heavily a WIP so things are going to be changed around a lot probably even while im writing this ask. I put a lot of thought into how the original sin arc would go in this au and there's a lot of details to it so to shorten it just a little bit i'll just explain that the federation serves as an overarching force/government/scientists thing throughout the entire story. they're conducting an experiment on the islanders where they're stuck in a cycle of reincarnation for 1000 years and their lives are going to be extensively documented to see what changes about them and how their society develops. The seven sins are something dropped into the world by the codes in order to mess with said experiment rather than being created by one person's soul like in the original story because tbh i hated that. I put ElQ in the role of Irina and Bad in the role of Elluka. I think they fit really well because I can then interpret The Song I Heard Somewhere as ElQ vowing revenge on Bad for assassinating him (in canon, at least. for AU purposes he kills all the other election candidates and wins) and Bad REALLY fits the role of the morally grey immortal whos creation is marked by a catastrophic event that destroys a whole civilization and they carry the guilt of that for their entire lives. As for the sinners themselves I haven't entirely figured them out yet? but for a couple of them i've got really detailed thoughts. For reference I also made it so each of them can reincarnate as many times as needed even if they've contracted with a sin before because I didn't want to remove characters from the story entirely. so: - Lust: I have no idea who i'm even going to begin to put into this role but the most likely candidate would be Pierre i think because of the whole bed thing? - Gluttony: I had Cellbit as this because of the whole cannibalism history thing he's got but other than that I hadn't really thought about it too much. I am sad to report however that the more BBH talks about eating living beings and inedible things he may fit better. it'd also be funny for the immortal assigned the task of gathering the sins to be the demon of gluttony itself. - Pride: tbh this one is pretty difficult to assign a role to because of how specific the original arc is and how it technically involves two characters. It's not something I could've put many characters in without really mischaracterizing them and I was thinking my best bet was probably Forever but then the happy pills happened and there's no way i could've not made him sloth. So my most recent idea was to change the pride story almost entirely and put Pac in the role? But more in the sense of 'two criminals are always fucking things up for the federation get a bit too cocky and have a warrant out for their arrest, Mike getting Pac to flee and as the feds are able to get at least one of them they're like "eh fuck it watching as your platonic soulmate dies is good enough torment for the other one."' but also idk. (1/2)

Ohhhh anon so sorry I forgot to check my inbox to reply to this BUT NOW I'M HERE AND AGH THIS SOUNDS AWESOME

First of all, I love Bad as Elluka (also i'm listening to survival ma, really sets the vibes I think) and also he is such a perfect choice for the demon of gluttony, like he would die by eating himself like Conchita (also who would be Carlos I wonder? Have no clue but someone gotta sing the best Kaito song ever made, drug of gold I love you so much)

And hum lust is a difficult one to pin down, especially cause like there is not many people I can see going the Duke Venomania route and having a fucking harem? Trying to remember who I saw being attacked by the lust mob more than once in the server and I think it was Bad (he really is Elluka hum, constantly finding sins left and right)

I think that Forever could fit well on pride actually, he is not like Rilliane was of course, but he is prideful in a way. Waiting to be the best president he can and not really accepting that sometimes his ways could be wrong.

#asks

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lightandfellowship · 1 year ago

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KHDR Re:Write - Giving Urd A More Prominent Character Arc

Hermod's rewrite can be found here.

The tl;dr:

Urd’s initial motivation: To explore the outside worlds and learn more about them.

Urd’s struggle: She realizes that when their mission ends, she will go back to her boring, normal life in Scala, once again forbidden to leave. This in conjunction with feelings of loneliness make her consider running away after their mission is complete.

Urd’s conclusion: The freedom to explore the worlds is still a motivating factor, but she realizes that protecting the worlds and sharing her experiences with her friends is her true desire, compelling her to stay in Scala and continue her training. Her loneliness can not be cured so easily, but her friends will help her work through it.

Below the read more is a rough outline of how I would implement this character arc into the story. Be forewarned that it's a fairly long and text-heavy post.

Four notes before we begin:

Rather than this being a full-fledged rewrite where I get to go ham and do whatever I want, instead my goal is to try and demonstrate how the game in its PRE-EXISTING state could have given Urd a more clear and satisfying character arc via fairly minor changes to the dialog, characters, and story. I want to see if this could have been possible without having to expend too much extra time and resources, since it seems like a lack of time/resources/budget is why her story got cut in the first place. So I won’t be doing anything drastic like creating entirely new episodes or anything like that. Same worlds. Same number of episodes. Same sequence of events. Same overarching plot.

I don't claim to know better than the writers or even be an experienced writer myself, this is just how I personally would approach giving Urd a more prominent character arc, because I think we can all at least agree that Urd didn't get enough focus in this game. If Urd's story hadn't been cut (presumably), I have no doubt that Tomoco Kanemaki would have come up with something better than what I'm proposing here.

But anyway, without further ado:

Urd's Motivation and Personality

During the flashback where the underclassmen explain their reasons for wanting to become Keyblade Masters, Urd says that it’s because she wants to explore the outside worlds and learn more about them. However, I feel that KHDR could do a better job of depicting this motivation throughout the game. Were it not for Urd directly stating her motivation in this scene, I don't think you could have ever reasonably guessed that this was her motivation based solely on her dialog and actions throughout the rest of the game.

She says her dream is to see the outside worlds for herself, and yet she rarely ever shows any particular interest in the Disney worlds that she does visit, or at least she’s no more interested than the rest of her friends are, which is to say: barely. It's a common gag/occurence throughout the game that the underclassmen are either disinterested or unsettled by the worlds and their inhabitants, and for whatever reason Urd is included in that. Sure, she’s on an important mission, but where’s the curiosity? Where’s the desire to learn more about the worlds? Shouldn’t that motivation bleed into her actions and dialog even a little bit? Even if she’s trying to reign herself back for the sake of the mission?

I think having Urd be just as indifferent/detached from the worlds as her friends is a misstep, personally. So in this rewrite, I am adjusting her personality a bit, in contrast to Hermod who doesn't really require any personality changes in order to have his arc make sense (to be discussed in his rewrite post). In short: I want her to be more excited and inquisitive in each world. I want her to be enamored by all the strange sights and sounds. I want her to get lost in thought as she analyzes some new find, her friends having to snap her back to reality and remind her of their mission. When the rest of the characters are awkwardly trying to ignore some oddity that's demanding their attention, I want Urd to be one of the few who actually shows genuine interest.

Like I mentioned, I know the characters are on an important mission and aren’t supposed to get sidetracked from their primary goal, but like, Vor and Eraqus were allowed to be curious and easily distracted by stuff, so I don't see why Urd couldn't as well, at least a little bit. I also think this personality change will provide more variety among the underclassmen, specifically in how they interact with the outside worlds.

Anyway, for the sake of not making this post any longer than it needs to be, I’m not going to list every dialog tweak that needs to occur in order to accomodate this personality change, just the most notable ones I can think of.

One last thing: it’s under-explored, but the game seems to suggest that Urd might be lonely. When remarking on how close Eraqus and Xehanort are, she says that she wishes she had a relationship like that herself. The implication seemingly being that she doesn’t feel like she has any best friends to share a special bond with. I think this desire for a friendship like Xehanort and Eraqus' may be further evidenced by the fact that she tends to tease Eraqus the most and is pretty friendly with him in a way that she isn't with the others, which makes me think that she's indeed jealous (in a nice way) of the relationship Xehanort has with Eraqus, and thus attempts to mimic their dynamic with Eraqus.

To me, Urd being lonely is too interesting of an emotional angle not to expand upon, even if the writers didn’t intend for her one-off comment to mean anything deeper. And I think her struggling with feelings of loneliness will synergize well with what I have in mind for her story.

Episodes 1-4: Establishing Urd's Character

The first dialog tweak: when Odin informs the class that they’re being sent on a mission to the outside worlds, in addition to Eraqus and Bragi expressing excitement at the news, I want Urd to be excited, too. She can still have her “Don’t sound so excited about it.” line, but maybe after she says that she makes her :3c face because she can’t hide her true feelings. Eraqus can reply with something like “Speak for yourself, Urd! Getting to see the outside worlds is a dream come true for you!”. Hermod and Eraqus can then have their usual lines of H: “Hey, this is serious! People are missing, you know!” and E: “Right. Sorry.”

As cool as the party member specific dialogs in Episode 3 can be, I’m dropping the mechanic where Episodes 1-3 let you choose your party member for the cutscenes. IMO, it's just bad for the story, because you can never focus on just one particular character and properly illustrate their unique personality; everyone's dialog has to be juuust generic enough to be easily swappable. Instead, in my rewrite, Urd is your assigned party member for Episode 1; perhaps she's even the one who requested to team up with Xehanort and Eraqus.

Not much happens in Episode 1 admittedly (it's mostly an exposition dump and premise setup), but in the very least it needs to establish and emphasize her love for exploration and learning. I think this can be easily achieved with the pre-existing Agrabah scenes. For example: when the party arrives to the outskirts of Agrabah and is attacked by Heartless, have Urd be disappointed that their first trip to the outside world was soured by their presence. When the party enters the abandoned city proper, have Urd express further disappointment that there’s no residents to interact with. Things like that. But obviously still have her be serious about their mission and the missing upperclassmen; she shouldn't seem selfish in her interests.

So Episode 1 is just kinda whatever, but It’s in Episode 2 that I definitely want her desire to learn and explore be in full force (she’s your primary party member for this episode as well. Which also synergizes with my Hermod rewrite—stay tuned for that, eventually). Everything in Wonderland is so strange and different and fascinating to her. The other characters find the world confusing and off-putting, but Urd finds it charming and unique. This does admittedly require Episode 2 to have some extra cutscenes/events since in the base game the only thing that really happens in this episode is the trial, and I think it’s still essential for Vor to be the party member in Episode 3 (where most of the Wonderland hijinks happen) since Vor doesn’t get much screentime in the second half of the game.

Two changes I would suggest: rather than the party waiting around indefinitely for the other underclassmen to show up to their meeting spot, and having the Cheshire Cat and Card Soldiers come to them, instead they get worried and decide to leave to go look for their friends, while running into these characters along the way. Then, take the tea party scene from Episode 3 and put it in Episode 2 instead, before the trial happens. You could even use this scene to foreshadow the trial by making it so that the White Rabbit fretting over his broken watch is because he doesn’t know what time it is and he fears that he’s going to be late for the trial. This will require some dialog tweaks in Episode 3 because the characters have an important discussion there that involves the Mad Hatter and March Hare, but it's nothing too hard to work around; maybe they just visit the tea party a second time, maybe they just bring up their interaction with them from Episode 2, or maybe they only talk about the Tweedles instead. There are multiple routes you could take to accomodate this change.

And rather than the Cheshire Cat directly telling the party that their friends are locked up, and the Card Soldiers mentioning the trial, instead I want the whereabouts of the other underclassmen to be more of a mystery that the party has to solve, with Urd being the one picking up on most of the clues just by being her inquisitive and observant self. Eraqus says it himself in some optional dialog that Urd has "always been good at figuring things out".

So ultimately, it’s Urd who realizes that the “trial” mentioned by the White Rabbit (because in this rewrite its the rabbit who mentions it instead of the soldiers), and the other “trespassers” mentioned by the Card Soldiers, are both in reference to their missing friends. (And maybe the Cheshire Cat gives the party a legit riddle too that they solve together, rather than being fairly straightforward in his hint like he is in the base game). Thus Urd paying attention and finding inherent worth in the strange and nonsensical world of Wonderland is what saves the day, her natural curiosity and collected knowledge about the world and its residents coming in clutch. This way, her motivations and personality can also be directly integrated into the plot rather than just being a character side story, and she gets the opportunity to shine, too.

And to tie in to the loneliness angle, I think some of the other underclassmen should be a little confused by Urd’s enthusiasm for the worlds they visit. Not in a mean or insulting or putting her down kind of way (they are friends!), but just a little at a loss for how to react when she expects them to understand her feelings and her point of view. The plot doesn’t need to highlight this too directly, just have Urd’s classmates being confused/unsure of something Urd says or shows them and then have Urd looking a little let down at their lukewarm reactions. Much like the underclassmen unintentionally leaving Vor out of stuff and underestimating her, I want this to be kinda subtle and under-the-radar. This would be mostly meant as set up for her arc later.

All that being said, I imagine Urd's loneliness isn't just because her friends don't always Get Her on a deeper level, it's also because she's not really open about her true feelings a lot of the time. Her official bio states that she's relied upon by the others, so perhaps she's too scared of burdening her friends with her own issues. However, relationships are a two-way street, and she's partially preventing herself from forming that close bond she desires because she isn't really letting herself lean on her friends when she needs them.

Episode 5: The Problem/Conclusion

So, to summarize, Episodes 1-2 need to establish her love for exploration and learning (and also give some brief glimpses at her loneliness) since she’s not present much in Episodes 3-4. Episode 5 is when her side story needs to officially complete. A rather quick arc, admittedly, but I think that’s what would work best in the framework of what the game gives us; the base game seems to suggest that her arc was supposed to end in this episode, anyway.

Events start to unfold when Urd realizes that once their mission is over, things will go back to normal and she will no longer be able to explore the outside worlds until she becomes a Keyblade Master. Something that might not occur for YEARS; heck, something that might not occur AT ALL if she fails her exam or if Scala's rules change. Thus, she starts to question whether she even wants to return home to Scala. What if, after their mission was over, she ran away? What if she got to explore to her heart’s content? She can’t imagine returning to her boring, normal life now that she’s gotten a taste of freedom. And maybe she can discover a way to cure her loneliness by finding fulfillment elsewhere? Perhaps it was Vor leaving in the previous episode that makes Urd realize that leaving is even an option.

Thus, in this rewrite, in Episode 5 when Lumiere offers Urd an invitation to stay in the castle, she actually seriously considers it. Of course Hermod and Xehanort are not happy to hear this, especially after what happened with Vor, and thus try to convince her to reconsider, but Urd is conflicted and doesn’t know what to do. She explains her concerns about being stuck in Scala forever, but is understandably reluctant to talk about how Eraqus and Xehanort’s strong bond has only reminded her of the closeness she desires and yet lacks. She loves her friends, but she doesn’t feel like she has a best friend who understands her on a deeper level, and she’s too scared of potentially hurting her friends’ feelings to admit this, so she keeps it to herself.

Xehanort doesn’t say it out loud, but he understands exactly the feeling of being stuck somewhere against your will and desiring connection and fulfillment in the outside worlds. He tells Urd that she should follow her heart on this. Hermod is taken aback and anguished at the situation, but doesn’t know what he can say to make Urd change her mind. They decide to just shelf the conversation for later so that they can focus on their mission of finding the culprits who stole the rose.

Vala witnesses this argument and decides to use what she's learned about Urd to her advantage (much like how Vidar witnessed Vor's conversation with the Mirror and then used that to his advantage). So when Vala finally approaches Urd, rather than trying to order Urd around (which didn’t make much sense as a tactic to begin with; that approach would have worked far better on Hermod, if you ask me) instead Vala tries to convince Urd that she can have the freedom she wants if she joins Vidar’s crew. She can explore to her heart’s content, with the benefit of having comrades at her side to keep her safe on her journey rather than having to run away and travel alone.

Vala, perhaps through her ambigious "vision" abilities, also correctly guesses about Urd's loneliness and tries to appeal to Urd’s desire to be understood by claiming that she and Urd are very much the same. They are both level-headed, analytical individuals who crave knowledge, and sometimes people are just too blind in their pre-existing beliefs to understand their (Urd + Vala's) "vision" of the world. However, Urd is unsure. She still doesn’t understand what Vidar is trying to accomplish, and as much as she wants to run away and find meaning elsewhere, if securing her freedom means having to harm the worlds alongside the upperclassmen, then she doesn’t want to do it. Plus, the thought of traveling the worlds with the upperclassmen rather than with her friends doesn’t sit right with her, despite everything.

Much like in the base game, Xehanort eavesdrops on this conversation, but this time Hermod has tagged along as well. In the base game, Xehanort alone eavesdropping on Urd and Vala doesn't really lead to much in the story as far as I can tell, because Urd reveals her conversation with Vala in the very next episode. I think this might be a dropped plot thread where Xehanort was supposed to sit on this secret information for a while longer before acting on it somehow, but in any case, it's no longer necessary for my rewrite, thus Hermod is now here as well. Perhaps Hermod initially tries to approach Urd right away, but Xehanort pulls him back and convinces him to stay in the shadows in the hopes that Vala will reveal something important about Vidar's plans.

As they eavesdrop on the conversation, they finally learn of Urd’s secret loneliness, and see that Vala might successfully persuade Urd to leave them just like Vidar did with Vor. Hermod simply can't let this happen, and so against Xehanort's wishes he bursts into the room, interrupting Urd and Vala’s conversation to grab Urd’s hands and tell her how much she means to him and their friends. He doesn’t invalidate her feelings, but apologies for making her feel so lonely. He never meant to make her feel like she was different or weird for her interests; he may not always understand her, but he thinks she’s amazing and brilliant. And he’s willing to help her in any way he can and support her in whatever she decides to do. Perhaps he and Xehanort even bring up how her interest in the worlds was essential to saving their friends in Episode 2, to show her that she's valuable and appreciated.

Hermod's impassioned and sincere speech along with her own misgivings about Vala's offer help Urd realize two important things. One, that she enjoys exploring the worlds so much precisely because she gets to share that experience with her friends; it wouldn’t be the same without them. Yes, maybe there’s still this feeling of loneliness inside of her, and maybe she still wishes that her friends and her were more on the same page about certain things, but sharing a laugh, fighting by their side, and just getting to spend time with them are still precious experiences for her, and not to mention, her loneliness would be so much worse if she didn’t have her friends by her side at all. It’s not perfect, but she still loves them dearly, and she knows they love her back. And who knows, maybe they’ll be able to help her work through her feelings now that the cat's out the bag.

The second thing she realizes, is that exploring and learning about the worlds and its people, though a big part of her motivation, is ultimately secondary to wanting to protect the worlds and its people. Which is what being a Keyblade Master is all about, really; a goal that can only be achieved by staying in Scala and continuing her training. And a goal that would certainly be jeopardized by assisting the upperclassmen.

I imagine Urd directly talking about at least some of her thought process here when she refuses Vala's offer and explains to her why, but the rest should probably just be implied. In any case, these two realizations make her change her mind about running away. As she says to Lumiere later:

Her home is with her friends in Scala, and she has the important responsibility of protecting the worlds she holds so dear.

And when Urd says “[The Beast’s] wish will come true, I know it.” she’s implicitly including herself in this statement. She knows she’ll gain her freedom one day and form the bonds she's looking for, she just has to be patient and believe in herself. Additionally, I want this line to now invite comparisons between the Beast and Urd: the Beast, lonely, trapped inside his castle, wishing for a genuine connection, ignorant of how he is surrounded by servants who love him unconditionally; and Urd, stuck in her little world of Scala, wanting to find fulfillment in the worlds outside, feeling distant from her friends despite them loving her deeply. Oh, and, perhaps Urd telling the servants to help keep the Beast's spirits up could parallel how Urd is now going to allow herself to rely on her friends for emotional support.

Finally, to make her untimely demise a bit more of a gut punch, I think it’d be fitting if Urd got to have some dying words. Maybe something like “But I never...got to...” Got to what? Become a Keyblade Master? See all her friends one last time? Explore all the worlds? Who knows, she doesn’t get to finish. That’s for your imagination to decide.

And yeah, that's my pitch. Thanks for reading this far. If you have any feedback, ideas, or criticisms, feel free to add on.

#khdr #kingdom hearts dark road #kh urd #kingdom hearts #rambling about dim path #ch tag: ur #khdr spoilers

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