#but we do need to understand what specifically the narrative thinks he's doing wrong

[agenericplaceholdername]

This is actually really interesting to consider -- I'm not sure if you meant this as a prompt for discussion or not, but I suppose based on the length of this response I had some thoughts to say. I'm not sure I believe all the arguments made here, but just an alternate perspective.

To be fair to Lloyd, despite the years since S5, only in S7 does he actually try to be a master (which he succeeds at by the end of the season) and at no point does he take on students (until DR).

As for learning Spinjitzu, the Ninja learn Spinjitzu in the pilots by doing the training course a couple of times and suddenly "the key is ready to be found" when they fight the skeletons. Lloyd learns Spinjitzu after 0 training (he complains to Kai, "When will I learn Spinjitzu?" in the same episode* that he does Spinjitzu for the first time, with zero Spinjitzu training in between** -- must be a Green Ninja thing). Nya learns Spinjitzu off screen - and it's unclear how long this took (although she had been training on the same course as the Pilots Ninja and had been able to do Spinjitzu when possessed by the Overlord). We know it took weeks for Wu to teach Aspheera Spinjitzu.

Much like Sora, Lloyd and Nya also take a whole season to reach their true potentials through Wu's training. Meanwhile, the other four unlock the true potentials only after Wu leaves them. And despite Wu's demands to train, it's only the competition to become the Green Ninja and the later threat of the Serpentine that forces Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane back into shape to begin with. Meanwhile, Lloyd learns from his mistake of directly copying Wu in "Crossroads Carnival" (S1, E3) and lightens up, causing Sora to be slightly more open to training in the first place.

I'm not entirely sure what's up with Arin's Spinjitzu, given that after learning it from Ras's teachings, there are red shatterspin-esque particles in it. We also never see Frak do Spinjitzu, so it seems like what prevented Arin from doing Spinjitzu was not an inability to do the technique (if it was, then Frak would know the technique as well) but some sort of mental block which Arin conquered or suppressed by accepting Ras's teachings of "taking from life what you need" and "forcing the world to work the way you want it to."

Lloyd's students also do learn quite a bit from him, with the Ras fight in "The Battle of the Second Monastery" (the S1P1 finale) designed to show how far they've come by beating the adversary who took them out easily in the season premiere. Season 2 walks back on this with Arin upset about how little he's progressed. That being said, while Lloyd doesn't teach him Spinjitzu, Arin still has learned from Lloyd. Ras tells him he hasn't gotten any better from their first fight, but he's lying. When Ras first fights Arin, he stops Arin's kick with one hand and throws him to the ground, ending the fight in under five seconds. When Ras fights Arin in "The Forest of Spirits" (S2, E9), he still beats Arin with ease, but Arin is far more resilient and Ras uses his hammer against an unarmed opponent. Lloyd also helps motivate Sora in the Tournament of Sources and (sorta) provides her with the wisdom that helps her win the whole thing.

Kai might be a better teacher - I'm not sure. He doesn't teach Lloyd Spinjitzu (he learns that on his own) and I don't know how much credit he gets for training Lloyd generally (since the rest of the Ninja were involved with that). I don't think he trains anyone after that (minus him telling young Wu to be confident in S9) up until S15, where he's teaching a class of children to "obliterate your enemy before they see you coming" (excessive force)***. He dislikes this so much that when Cole and Zane show up, he leaves with them despite having a kindergarten class later that day. I hope their parents got their money back. He then trains Wyldfyre (on Lloyd's advice) and does successfully teach her self-control. However, much like Lloyd with Arin and Sora, he doesn't teach her Spinjitzu.

Incidentally, both Kai and Lloyd are able to train villages to defend themselves (Kai and Lloyd in S11, Lloyd -- with Arin -- in DRS1).

The show has been building to a contrast between Lloyd and Ras's teaching styles since S2P1, with some focus in S2P2 (thanks to Frak), but now that Arin is with Ras, I'd hope that the writers are planning to address what specifically Lloyd did wrong and how he can learn from it. Right now it seems like Lloyd is a bad master for unspecified reasons -- did he not push his students hard enough? Did he put too much pressure on Arin to be "the greatest of all the Ninja"?**** Was he too overprotective (see him going with Arin and Sora to Imperium vs Wu who intentionally sent the Ninja on missions alone)? Was he not receptive enough to their concerns (like Arin wanting to find his parents)? Is he unwilling to be critical when needed (unlike Egalt)? All of these are potential options but the narrative doesn't pick one, so I get the frustration.

FWIW, my view on it is that Lloyd's biggest asset (and what caused him to lose Arin) is that he views the Ninja (including his students) as his family. He is protective of his family, he inspires them but also puts them on a pedestal, he avoids being critical, etc. This is what ensures Sora feels accepted and ultimately willing to tell her parents that she "has a new family now ... that loves me for who I truly am," unlocking her true potential. Meanwhile, Arin saw the Ninja as a symbol, a symbol of hope -- if they could come back, so could his parents. As he spends more time with them, his greatest fear isn't just that he'll disappoint his parents when he finds them, but that he'll view the Ninja as his family instead of them (S2, E3). Arin leaves for a bunch of reasons, only some of them related to Lloyd, but fundamentally, he becomes fixated on his "real" family, while Lloyd and the rest of them are an imperfect substitute. Ras would never pretend to be family to Arin; their relationship is purely transactional. The story isn't about Lloyd's way of demonstrating how to punch vs Ras's, it's about the difference between them as people -- caring vs efficiency, patience vs force, etc. I hope (assume?) that S3 develops this.

In addition, the closest we get in S2 as to the difference in philosophy between Lloyd and Ras is that Ras thinks people (ie Lloyd) are too busy passively waiting for the world to harmonize. I doubt Lloyd is supposed to learn that Ras is right about this - but a synthesis of those teachings -- one must accept the motion of the universe with a more proactive approach (helping shape the flow of that motion) -- might be the move.

----------------------------------

*Pirates vs Ninja (S2, E2)

**the closest thing we see is him randomly unlocking super strength while training with Jay

***Farewell the Sea (S15, E1)

****(DRS2, E6)

Maybe Lloyd just shouldn't be a master.

He's clearly not very good at it. He's been trying it since season 5, and his first real students both take FOREVER to make any progress. Sora takes a whole season to unlock her powers, but apparently isn't taught spinjitzu in any of that time- the literal first thing we see taught to any of our characters in the original show. Arin somehow makes backwards progress with Lloyd, and then after doing like three poses with his friend seems to get it instantly.

Like... seems like he's just not very good at teaching. Maybe he should hand the position over to Kai, he's got a natural knack for it, a lot more experience, and a much higher success rate as far as I'm concerned. Master Kai for the win.

[tritoch]

I wish people were willing to have a slightly broader or more expansive understanding of FFXIV's women because I think there's so much there in terms of easily-unearthed subtext that no one really thinks about! And I don't mean this in a "people need to re-evaluate their response to the women of Stormblood" way (though I do think that's largely true), I mean I think fandom's understanding even of the women it mostly likes is pretty weak. And you can say that's because the women are underwritten, and I won't argue that they couldn't use more attention from the writing, but that doesn't prevent you from analyzing them the way you can any character in fiction.

Like everyone's always like, oh, Y'shtola and Krile are like your snarky wine aunts, haha. But...Sharlayan is a pretty ossified and patriarchal society from what we see of it in Endwalker and places like the AST quests. Can we open ourselves to the possibility that it means something that almost every young Sharlayan woman we meet, almost all young women in academia, tends to be a little sharp and quick on the retort? The arch and snarky ways in which those two carry themselves reflect in some sense the facts that Krile is almost literally a nepo baby woman in STEM who is barely older than her students, while Y'shtola learned her behaviors from her much older female mentor, a woman who hated Sharlayan academic culture so much she literally abandoned it to go live in a cave.

Or like, Alisaie! Fan jokes and meta frequently buy into her tendency to characterize the dynamic between her and Alphinaud as a jock/nerd, street savvy extrovert vs book smart introvert thing. Except, tragically, Alphinaud's highest stat is 100% Charisma and he absolutely pulled in his student days. All his greatest achievements are diplomatic, and he very easily develops strong friendships with people in every culture you learn about. Alisaie is the determined, sensitive genius who revolutionizes Eorzea by proving the tempered can be healed. She's just permanently carrying a chip on her shoulder that while she and her brother are remembered as the youngest students in Studium history, actually he got in six months before her, a fact pretty much no one else ever brings up once. She's constantly fuming over the fact that he was marginally better than her in certain specific ways in high school, and looking to differentiate them in ways that actually fail to credit her own obvious strengths and accomplishments. I think that's so fun! It's so juicy, and it's equally good for comedy or serious character studies.

Venat is a genuinely benevolent hero who has no compunction sacrificing lives for the greater good. Minfilia is kind and compassionate and clearly on some level actually buys into the narrative of her own unique moral authority. Ysayle is a revolutionary firebrand with almost no concern for the common man, whose death reflects her Javert-like inability to reconcile her own romantic belief in justice with the tragic ways her blinkered worldview (born largely of trauma) let her be easily co-opted by a violent system. But even people who like these characters rarely move past surface-level reads (people who think Venat is just an all-loving mommy figure make me want to fucking die). The fandom is allergic to drawing connections the game doesn't draw, and fails to recognize that FFXIV is a game where characters voice understandings of themselves and others that are wrong about as often as they're right.

You can already see the ways that women like Wuk Lamat and Cahciua and Sphene are getting flattened or losing their shading in fan reception and it's boring. Like I'm not even saying this because you should take female characters more seriously or something (though you should), I'm literally just bored to tears sometimes and if you guys turn Wuk Lamat into another Hot Dumb Jock Lady, I will combust.

[johannesviii]

Nearly every time I've rewatched Infinity Train Book 3 since I first saw it in February, I saw more parallels and narrative echos, and infodumping my friends about them isn't enough anymore

I figured I should do a post about this one because I don't think I've seen a post about that specific thing yet, and I love this show's writing, and. idk. I just need to praise it I guess

So, the most obvious part first:

Grace became everything she hated about her parents

When Grace mentions her mother in the Debutante Ball Car, it's made pretty clear she's trying to distance herself from her mother as much as possible, and at this point, we realise retrospectively that Grace's room in the Mall Car in episode one was full of sports clothes - it seems she tries to avoid things reminding her of her life before the train. And of her mother. And yet-

She tries to control everyone and everything around her, and makes people do what she doesn't want to do

And she decides what's cool and what isn't

She makes people kneel in her presence, like her mother towers over her in her mind's eye

Obviously she constantly lies to get what she wants, and her dad does that in her tape

When her younger self looks up, she looks right through adult Grace, and it's actually her parents she's looking at! Her younger self is metaphorically seeing her parents where her adult self is standing!! I still can't get over this shot

Also I feel the need to mention her mother has the same voice actor as her in her tape and even if it might be to cut corners in the budget, that feels significant (and to be fair, sometimes you can cut corners while making meaningful choices at the same time)

Now you might think I'd have nothing to say about Simon on that matter, since we don't see any flashback of his life before the Train, and we know next to nothing about his parents. But I think it's very telling that the only actual backstory we get for him is his backstory with The Cat.

Because-

Simon became everything he hated about The Cat

Ok I never see anyone mentioning this, but hear me out

First, we have no idea if Simon knew The Cat was routinely invading people's privacy through their memory tapes, but he sure has no issue doing the exact same thing

But that doesn't stop there. He also collects things obsessively

And makes kids collect things for him as well, by the way

He thinks he's above others, but he immediately switches to victim mode when it comes back to bite him

HE. ABANDONS. A CHILD. WHO WAS UNDER HIS CARE!!

And. Uh. They both dig their heels instead of trying to change, too

Don't get me wrong, on some level I would have liked to know what Simon's parents were like too. I would have liked that a lot. But there's a good chance it wouldn't change anything, because everything we need to know about his background to understand why he's Like That™ is already in the show

But yeah, Grace and Simon both pretend they found freedom on the Train, and both distance themselves from parental figures who are at the source of their trauma, claiming they're different and better than them - and yet they are both subconsciously repeating patterns that caused at least part of their problems and/or trauma in the first place

And since they decided that making numbers go up was good, as long as they stick to that idea, they are bound to never escape from that self-perpetuating loop of harm and trauma

And I love it

And I hate it

[ephemeralinstance]

Solas has always been right before

I know we all joke about how Solas' plans always go wrong. But while the details of practical implementation do not seem to be his strong point, it's notable that up until the present day Solas' moral compass has always been rock solid.

He was right that the spirits taking lyrium would have negative consequences. He was right that using the dagger against the Titans was an awful thing to do and would lead to further negative consequences. He was right that the Evanuris were tyrants and he was right to rebel against them. He was right to tell Mythal she shouldn't go back to the Evanuris. And from what we saw of Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain, it seems pretty clear that he was right to make the Veil, since otherwise they really would have destroyed the world (the practical implementation of this plan was not the best, of course, but the judgement that the Evanuris needed to be stopped by any means necessary seems right).

This is important context, because people often suggest that Solas is excessively prideful for deciding to take down the Veil without listening to anyone else's views on the matter. While there's certainly some pride involved, it's very relevant that Solas has spent his whole life in situations where he was the lone voice speaking in favor of what is right. He's learned to trust his own moral compass because in the instances when he let himself be swayed, terrible things happened. From that point of view, it's not so unreasonable that he doesn't change his mind about the Veil just because most others disagree.

Moreover, in this particular case, there's a specific reason why the judgement of others on this matter would be compromised: the Chantry has been propagating prejudice and lies about spirits for hundreds of years, and everyone in modern Thedas, even those who are not Andrastians, is to some degree influenced by that. By contrast, Solas was once a spirit and remains close to many spirits. To me it seems completely reasonable that he's unwilling to accept as valid the opinion of someone who does not see spirits as people or is afraid of them (such as Varric!). I also would not accept as valid the opinion of someone who denied the personhood of some group like this.

This context also sheds light on Solas' decision to act alone. Agreed, in light of his track record he should have anticipated that if he tried to take down the Veil all alone it would go badly. But also, he had very limited options. Given the extreme prejudice toward spirits throughout Thedas, he is justifiably pessimistic about the chances of anyone understanding his reasoning and wanting to help. We know some elves were working for him, but they most likely didn't know the full details of what he was planning to do, and I imagine he eventually started to feel guilty about manipulating them like that. And looking at his friends in the Inquisition, probably the only person who might have listened to him about this is maybe the Inquisitor in some world states. It therefore seems a little unfair when the narrative criticizes him for acting alone - realistically, what else was he supposed to do?

Indeed, in light of all this it is surely natural to wonder if maybe he is right again. He clearly has good moral judgement, after all, and he has far more information about the Veil and the Fade than any of the people opposing him. It's true that there are some strong emotions involved which might compromise his rationality; but on the other hand nearly everyone else in Thedas also has their judgement compromised, by irrational prejudices against spirits and mages, so it's not obvious that Solas is automatically in the wrong just because he's motivated in part by regret and grief.

Of course, the details of the implementation need more work! But implementation aside, on just the principle of the thing, the choice to show him consistently being right in the past means there's every reason to think Solas could very well be right about the morally correct course of action with regard to the Veil. And Rook&co could be just another entry on the long list of people who did the wrong thing and caused harm because they didn't listen to him.

[arceus-insanity]

Something I never particularly liked about Endeavor's atonement, is that he never gave or gave up anything he actually wanted.

Like Endeavor was always willing to risk his life and limb as a hero, so any life-threatening risks or bodily harm he receives is just part of the job he was always willing to do from the beginning.

Him building a house for his remaining family members, only he won't be there?

Endeavor never cared whether he lived with his family or not, all that mattered to him was creating the strongest hero in Shoto.

So he never showed any want to be with his family until Shoto was already on his way to being a great hero.

It was barely an afterthought to him that was never followed through on.

The ending only makes all this worse, because it looks like he replaced each member of his family that he lost with heroes, the people he really wanted to be around...

Fuyumi = Burnin, onima = Natsuo, Hawks = Touya

Shoto on the path to heroic success.

And Rei there too, I guess for some reason???

Just wheeling him around...

Do you feel similarly or different about all this?

DING DING DING We have a winner!

Endeavor never has to sacrifice anything, he never chooses his family over his precious number one spot. He only even remembered they existed after he got his Precious.

And something I noticed is he is full of shit, and believes his own shit.

Like he thinks that 'oh I'll make a house for all my family members to live in' (Which we never see happen, so once again empty bullshit as always). But he never asks them what they want, it is incredibly bold to assume they would all want to live together, or even be able to with their careers, and if the kids want to start their own families. We also know Shoto likes traditional Japanese flooring, but what about the rest of them, and does Endeavor even know that?

One thing I've never seen anyone call out is his manipulative gaslighting speech to Natsuo after being rescued from Ending. He says that he didn't save Natsuo because he didn't want to make like Natsuo feel like he has to forgive him, only to without hesitation force him into a hug. So fucking much for respecting Natsuo's autonomy.

And this ain't the first time this lazy coward has froze when his kids are in immediate danger, we see him standing safely outside the flames with his fire resistance while Touya who's weak to fire burned on the peak. With Endeavor of course claiming 'he did everything he could'.

We also find out he harrassed Fuyumi into giving him Shoto's, his fucking masterpiece, number. Which he uses to text Shoto, in the middle of not just his workday, but fucking class hours! So much is wrong with this, this doesn't make him look good or show any atonement or redemption. What it does is make me think a lot less of both this excuse of a human being and his daughter (The start of her enabler arc). He's doubling down on past behaviour, quite stupidly I might add. And why the fuck did he need to get it from Fuyumi? Presumably, he's the one paying for the phone, he should just have the number from that!

Once again this man openly admits he only offered the work-study to Deku and Bakugou to manipulate Shoto. And constantly favors him when it comes to teaching. Understanding Deku's word vomit isn't difficult, even with him stupidly over-explaining it

What we don't see (or hear of) is him doing anything for or with Fuyumi, the only kid that wants anything to do with him (despite her character profile saying she resents him)

He is constantly given credit for shit he actively isn't doing!

But he and the narrative constantly throw him a pity party the second consequences are even hinted at. Not to mention he is also constantly rewarded for his (non-existent) efforts, Shoto chooses to work with him, Rei forgives him, Hawks, Burnin, Best Jeanist, etc are around to lick his boots clean and make sure he doesn't have to face any of those hinted at consequences. Boo fucking Hoo, the League (and specifically Dabi in this) deserved to win, and by the end, I was convinced that they would have been better for society

[cherrytea556]

Lore Rekindled; The Lore Olympus that should have been

To be honest, I checked out the rekindled version before the original one and now having reading the original as well, it's extremely odd. Y'know goodbye volcanic high where the original was a mess but a group of 4chaners made a parody game which turned out to be of better quality than the original? This is like that but replace 4chan with tumblr users, mainly @genericpuff whose series is pinned in their tumblr blog where you can check all of the episodes, especially updated ones. In this post, I will be praising this series of how it fixes the problems of the original

The Pacing

One thing I notice about lore olympus and lore rekindled is the pacing. Not just the flow of the story but where it chooses to focus on. Now in lore olympus, the pacing is kinda a mess and its mainly to do with what it focuses on. An example is the magazine plotpoint; in the original, its basically kinda there in between doses to focus on other stuff like persephone and hades together, persephone's sa (i'll get to that later), eros story, zeus and hera etc...The flow generally isnt that bad per say (except for persephone's sa cuz that was way too quick) but for a story meant to be a romance between hades and persephone, you'd think it idk, it would focus on persephone and hades specifically, not eros which is another example of; its flashbacks. Eros specifically has such a dragged out flashback in episode 12 which we didnt need or at least with that much exposition when it should've naturally expand in the story and that's what rekindled does. The magazine plotline has turned into the first conflict of persephone and hades as we see how it affects their lives and relationships. This works for its pacing better because it doesn't give you too much stuff to jumble with, making the narrative more concise and easier to understand where the story is going. And with the flashbacks, rekindled cuts out the fat in the flashbacks from the original to a perfect balance where it gives exposition of the characters while also leaving mystery for the audience to be intrigued, my favourite one would have to be this (though it more of a nightmare than a flashback specifically speaking);

It's of persephone in a greenhouse her mother placed her in with this red eye thing following her from outside the greenhouse. I have no idea of this lurker if its her metaphorical rage or a danger in her life but either way, i am intrigued by its presentation.

The Characters

When reading lore rekindled and lore olympus, the characters are definetly an odd experience. For lore olympus, the characters arent exactly uh....great per say. I think the main reason for this is how their ultilised, with characters like eros, hera, hectate etc being there to mostly be a matchmaker for hades and persephone even if it was initially seen as wrong like with hera and hectate, be antagonistic as a way to have conflict between hades and persephone like minthe, demeter and recently leuce even if ones had reasons too like minthe with hades emotionally cheating on her and demeter because lets be honest, she had a point. Then there's hades and persephone, whoo boy where to start with them.

Hades starts off as a creep eyeing at persephone during a party, specifically at her body and still lusts persephone even being aware that shes 19 and he's 2000 years old. Also is a shitty boss, father AND contributes to slavery with it while being adressed in some way, doesnt change him which isnt good for a character that's meant to be the main protagonists love interest.

Persephone though, I can get the self insert vibes. From favouritism towards the story, being who most of the men in the story are attracted too, portrayed as a 'cinnamon roll' (they actually said that early on in the story, im not kidding) who cant do no wrong. She acts like a teenager rather than a young adult which makes the scenes where shes sexualised just more uncomfortable (and they already unnecessarily were) along with adding that uncomfortability to the romance

But with rekindled, they expanded on the characters much more than they originally were. Persephone for instance has turned from a 'sexy baby' legal teenager to an actual young relatable adult with agency and allows her to screw up (e.g, getting drunk on her own rather than eros drunking her). Her adult attitude makes the romance between her and hades not only more palpable, but also strays away from the infantilisation/uncomfortable sexualisation of her character which is nice to see. Hades also is written well in the series from how it acknowledges his faults while still making him likable. And thats the same for every character really, their personalities are much more fleshed out and nuanced which makes their characters feel real to life, gaining effectiveness for more emotional scenes with them. An interesting thing too is that they even expanded the magazine guy's character from making fake news for profit into feeling guilt over what they done, standing up for persephone which is a pretty nice change.

No Sa Plotline

Not like you cant have sa in your story ever but if you never planned it from the beginning and only did when people tell you that the scene you drew from your comic was sa then....maybe just not do it. Lore olympus does exactly that where while an attempt was made, it goes on to retcon it into making apollo (the guy who sa'd persephone) into a lesser evil like that would made a difference instead of just cutting it out from the very beginning. Lore rekindled thankfully just made apollo into his pilot version, a shitty bf but more likeable and expanded upon (which should have been his portrayal from day 1). His shittiness doesnt come up in the story, more like self absorbness/egotisticalness although with its recent chapter of the magazine guy offering persephone lunch, it might reveal some cracks or at least further down the story it will be revealed to us which futhers how effective rekindled character writing is in how its expansion of characters would give us the feels. That or portray him as not a good match for persephone, either way much better than the original.

Artstyle

Lore olympus has a pretty good artstyle (at least in s1/the early episodes, s3 is just kinda goofy) but lore rekindled has got a good artstyle which is on top, more consistent too. Here's some examples;

Comedy

It's objectively funnier than lore olympus, no question asked

All in all, if you want to read lore olympus, i recommend you to read the lore rekindled one instead as it's better in every way. Give it a read.

[corviiids]

ooh idk if you've talked about this one before, but what about goro akechi for the kira game?

HI RAPS

verdict: im prepared for this to be controversial, but consider this: ive never been wrong in my whole life. i think goro akechi could beat kira, but i don't know if he'd be happy with the outcome.

could goro akechi identify light yagami

im answering this one first because i want to make a point about this. listen. i feel like due to akechi's whole Plot where he Fakes Solving Cases For Clout, people forget that he actually is a really smart person and a good detective. like, he's not the super prodigy genius he pretends to be, but he's not a fake detective. he faked solving those shutdown cases for extremely specific reasons:

he was the fucking perpetrator so it served him to take control of the public understanding of the investigation into them and control the narrative; and

those cases were particularly high profile and would have been impossible to solve by anyone else, so 'solving' them would catapult him into notoriety faster than anything else - it was a clout speedrun, which is what he and shido needed.

but there are numerous other cases and puzzles in various bits of p5 media that he solves without faking them, plus we see plenty of occasions where he demonstrates his high intellect. the casino is a great example because i feel like the game takes that palace as an opportunity and relishes in letting you know what akechi can really do. the anime and the mementos mission manga both have subplots where akechi solves / helps to solve legitimate mysteries. and of course the famed unused mementos request in p5r which i think about all the time. it's kind of a shame that akechi's fake cases end up overshadowing all his real ones when he's a legitimately competent detective, even if he's not the impossible prodigy he projects as and even if he's nowhere near the level L is.

of course there's also the obvious one! while we are all aware that the phantom thieves are the least subtle people on the planet, and all ren's confidants eventually work it out just because he's so deeply unsubtle about it, it is still the case akechi identified them as persons of interest very early on, before pretty much anyone else (partly by intellect, partly by his metaverse advantage, i'll get to that). that's relevant because i think the phantom thieves are reasonably analogous to kira in the sense that they're utilising supernatural methods to target individuals which are untraceable via ordinary means.

now i dont think akechi could identify kira nearly as quickly or cleanly as L could, but i do think that if you placed him in charge of the investigation with all the investigative resources of the prosecutor's office / police department, he would be able to identify light as at least a person of interest in a reasonable amount of time, for two main reasons

light is more sneaky than the phantom thieves, but also makes the same kinds of identifiable mistakes that the PT do (eg targeting people in a set area, operating in such a way that it's possible to identify him as a student, being easily provoked, etc); and

unlike L, akechi has supernatural powers.

which brings me to:

could goro akechi intuit the mechanics of the death note

no, i don't think so, not on his own. but he wouldn't need to, because he has access to the metaverse.

we're back at the universe question. i think to fairly answer 'could they beat kira' questions we have to give our detective character all the advantages they have access to in their home universe, which means that akechi not only has his intellect but also has the metaverse, his persona, and his experience traversing the collective unconscious. (by the way, here's my post about what if light yagami had a palace.)

which means that once goro akechi has identified light as a person of interest, not even needing to ID him as a particular suspect, he can check whether the metanav gives him a hit. then he could infiltrate light's palace / find him in mementos (let's be real it's gonna be a palace) and find out the rest of what he needs to know from there. the metaverse isn't only useful for changing hearts and causing shutdowns. shadows are very forthcoming about their evil plans. all akechi would need to do is find light's shadow, and he'd find out everything he needs to know about the death note and kira's new world.

(follow-up question for fun: if akechi didn't have the metaverse, would he be able to intuit the mechanics of the death note? i think that akechi would ultimately get to the same point as L, namely, that kira needs a name and a face, but the specifics of 'magic murder notebook' would escape him. so no.)

could goro akechi survive

i think this would really depend on the context in which this investigation is taking place, but broadly i think it's likely? not certain, but it's likely. it depends on how reactive light is and depends on how well akechi reads the kira situation early on.

akechi is pretty shrewd, with the exception of major blindspots where someone he has a grudge against is concerned (hence why he's vulnerable to shido and to ren's plots). but i think kira is dangerous enough that akechi would be on pretty high alert from the start. in canon he's cunning enough to make false statements to the media to trick the thieves into thinking he's at least partially on their side / not an unambiguous enemy (that's the same strategy used in romance ha ha ha) so i think once akechi identified a person of interest he wouldn't be stupid enough to publicise that he's closing in on them and would probably start leaking false theories to make light think he's completely off the trail - after all, unlike L, akechi's name and face are completely public, so it would be way too risky to make light feel cornered. it would be smartest to play up the shallow celebrity angle to make think light he's just a dumbass idiot talking a big game.

i think akechi would bank on kira's MO of only killing criminals. after all, light didn't try to kill L until L deliberately goaded him into it - it's unlikely that akechi would have a reason to think that light would try to kill him just for investigating. up until that point kira has been masquerading as an icon of justice, so it would (and canonically did) take a lot to make kira veer from that ideology into killing investigators just because they threatened him. however, it's not impossible given nobody really knows anything about kira at that stage, so while akechi might make it public information that he's investigating kira, he wouldn't let on that he thought light was a threat.

then he could either:

initiate a surprise raid on light to get the death note based on information gained from light's shadow - risky because if it goes wrong light will kill him, but this will net him the most glory

(pre-phantom thieves) kill light - stops the murders but means akechi doesn't get clout for solving the kira murders single-handedly, not preferable

(post-phantom thieves) change light's heart - akechi also doesn't get credit and would be reluctant besides

so it depends how we're defining success i guess. could akechi beat light by killing light? likely yes, by simply causing a shutdown before putting light on notice that akechi was on his trail at all. could akechi beat light by apprehending light? maybe, it depends, it's risky. could akechi beat light by changing his heart? only if the thieves are involved.

so i guess the answer is yes i think akechi has the capacity to beat kira but probably not in a way that akechi himself is satisfied with and it wouldn't be a sure thing. it could go either way.

[lucasposting]

Unpacking Season 3

Sorry for the clickbait title but this just has to be said. Yolo Rainbow Trinity was not good. It wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t good either, it lacked a lot of heart. You’re going to see me typing that out a lot because it’s true.

So let’s start off with the season premiere.

Love Heart <3 Fun Times at the Festy Gong -- Fest Wooooo

Already it starts with sort of a continuation of season two. “aren’t people at festivals cool? I don’t feel cool.””you’ll be fine. Maybe if it was old basic Sarah you wouldn’t fit in, but knew Sarah would be all right” obviously from the dialogue it’s directly referencing the growth that Sarah had in season two. And we have to remember how Rachel was in the second season so this is also Rachel growth as well. Also they nearly kiss in while they hold hands. A lot of things are being set up here like a lot. Maybe I’m looking too deep into things but comparing this episode with episode one of season 2, it’s clear that they are building up a bigger narrative. This episode though… not really. Don’t get be wrong I liked this episode but it felt kind of aimless? If that makes sense. The only thing they really implied (because it’s literally never brought back again!) is when Lucas sees that figure with a cape and his fedora. I mean when it premiered I was excited and when I saw Lucas being normal my heart literally stopped. But rewatching it now it feels like they didn’t know what to do after the season 2 ended. What was the biggest disappointment was the fact that Lucas turned from normal back into a creep on a dime. Really? Did you guys hate continuity so much that the thing you literally built up last season gets thrown away just like that, for a joke. And mind you Lucas barely appears after this we really only get episode 2 and 4.

Speaking of episode 2

Winery Crawl Slip and Slide Ride

Okay already we have, what a like to call, adding in a random character trait. This episode starts off with Sarah not knowing how to retell events (the only highlight in this episode is this quote from Rachel “babe, I love you but you really need to be more specific when you tell stories”) ndjdj This episode is so all over the place and not in a calculated way. So they go to this winery festival with Sarah’s parents and go to a club on her dad’s back. Okay if they were just going to be in a club environment why bother establishing the parents, why even bother having them in a wine festival. It really feels like Sarah and Rachel’s are side characters in their own show. Don’t even get be started on the C plot with Lucas. He doesn’t even interact with Sarah, the whole reason why he’s there. His plot also doesn’t even have enough time to really entertain because the episode is too busy. The only thing connecting these three plots together is literally the announcer but remove him and these three plot points could’ve easily been separated episodes or better yet removed entirely. Like I love Lucas but did we really need him in this? It’s like they wanted to make the bee episode without understanding why that worked. Just an overall mess of an episode with only two Sarah Rachel moments (the second one is when Sarah says “do you think that guy is cute?” “No” we love a lesbian icon)

hiiiii, watchu doinnn :) nm u?

(Tumblr deleted the review for this episode and the next so I’m just gonna be brief) peleeken episode YIPPIE! This episode was okay. I laughed a lot at this episode it was so funny watching the small Peleeken murder these normal guys. Rachel was a little out of character because I know she would’ve kicked as in that fight but instead they literally just make her hide behind a bush and kiss sapphire peleeken. This one was by far the funniest out of all of them but character wise it’s alright.

All Night Gaming 2

I’m going to be honest I feel like this should’ve been a season two episode and not a season three episode mainly due to Lucas‘s characterization as well as Sarah‘s Epiphany towards the end. Also due to the fact that there’s no underlying narrative in this season. If this episode aired after high school reunion, then it would’ve been so perfect since it aligns with the underlying narrative of that season. Season three does not help this episode. It’s just sort of there. It’s kind of an outlier. I really like the whole nostalgia aspect, Sarah looking back and letting nostalgia cloud her memory. I myself have felt this way and related a lot to Sarah. We don’t get much of Lucas character development but again part of me is starting to speculate this might have been a season 2 episode reworked for season 3.

Someone Come Bring Me Food

I like this episode as well although I think it should’ve been maybe episode two of season three it has a lot going for it and the sense that it gives us a glimpse of Sarah‘s past friendships and how she was always used to people stepping on her and taking advantage of her passiveness. We also get some new characters! I’ve seen this episode is for Rachel shines the most. She immediately comes to Sarah’s defense, and it’s just very protective of her. THIS is the Rachel that grew from the events of season 2. I’ve said it before in my other post where I was watching the episode for the first time, but the subtle character growth is just amazing. Michael has an knact for that. I love the influencer and the nightcore girl. The rap scene was funny as hell I love Rachel rapping. We get a scene towards the end where Rachel hugs Sarah and she’s looking at Rachel with such loving eyes. (Right but they’re not end game)



Our Lovely Jubbly, Wovley, Bubbly, Zubbly

Very mediocre this has no direction at all. Like the message of corporations draining creativity to fuel themselves was a neat commentary but besides that it feels very empty. I’m glad that we know Rachel can draw but the story just felt very generic to me. The goddess being real was funny and I liked her design but this feels like the girls are being dragged into this they didn’t get into this mess like the other seasons or even the first episode of this season. The progression just wasn’t natural. It’s really just there.

The Wollongong Santa Pub Crawl!!

Oh boy.. what the hell did they do to Peleeken. I mean I guess it’s a joke that he’s on an open relationship with his wife and that he’s super nonchalant. I understand that it really wasn’t meant to be taken seriously but little things like this completely destroys the world and characters your building. Even if it’s a comedy I feel as if your characters have to stay consistent. If you wanted to do a club plot with Peleeken you could’ve kept him and his wife the same and build up to him becoming a nonchalant cool guy with an open marriage. That would’ve been funny because we actually get to see him change even if he regrets it later. Also the Lucas plot this is literally the last time they use him and it goes nowhere absolutely nowhere. He shrinks Sarah and then just tries to escape Sarah’s dad. That’s it that’s the entire B plot. Again what was the point? Seriously what was the point of shrinking Sarah? So Rachel can have that moment of prioritizing her (girl)friends feelings over hers? That’s amazing growth but why was it executed so poorly. I swear I feel like the show is pulling a Rick and Morty, trying to distance itself from “serialized storytelling” and just “focus on jokes” when that’s not how you initially wrote the previous season. It really comes off as big middle finger to the people who actually cared about your characters.

The Cozy Backyard Afternoon Musical

How is this even considered a finale? No seriously if you’ve watched this finale you’d understand how utterly pointless the whole thing was. Comparing this to the previous seasons finales it’s like night and day. The last two season finales did a phenomenal job at tying the themes together seamlessly. They were even paced better, but this? This was literally just a normal episode and just tacked on a season finale sticker on it. Nothing and I mean nothing was talked about or brought up outside of their debut episode. Not an acknowledgement of Rachel’s growth/ feelings for her best friend, no mention of Lucas’s vision, no mention of his evil fedora either. Everything that was set up in the first episode of season 3 and the entirety of seasons 1-2 were never mentioned. I don’t want to believe Michael would do this since he literally has canon lesbian characters in his other show but what can this be other than queer baiting? I know it’s a harsh accusation but how can you make a series where one girl canonically is in love with the other and keep building up their growth and showing us how they need each other only to then never mention it again. Even if Sarah and Rachel were not endgame even if it was just unrequited love one of them, preferably Rachel, should’ve at least confessed her feelings for her. That she sees her more than a best friend. Michele even made a picture of them kissing but no i guess it was just about really close friends right? Be so fr.

Not to mention the whole episode literally was just random for the sake of random again Rachel and Sarah are just being dragged along. Like I feel like shit would just happen and they would just so happen to be there and as you know this whole season they’ve felt like that. The characterization of these two has been off since episode 2.

They did Lucas so dirty as well like when he shrunk Sarah a pit formed in my stomach because let’s be real we know why he wanted to shrink her. And the whole time I was like Lucas wouldn’t do that? Again HE LITERALLY GREW OUT OF THIS IN SEASON 2! He realized how crazy he sounded obsessing over this one woman and made a change for the better and yet we literally got one episode where he was normal and then “oh sorry never mind he’s actually a creep again” they could’ve at least waited an episode or two?? Please!!

Final thoughts

Obviously if you liked this season I don’t blame you again this season has its moments and I personally like some episodes as well but objectively there has been a drop in quality writing wise. I feel very disappointed and duped. All this hype and love only for it to be cast aside.

Thank you for reading this far if you have, I’m going to watch wacky lesbian hour.

[barufisher]

i finished the game last night, here are my unpolished thoughts about the final act and what i liked & didn't like. this is very long and probably incoherent lol

what i liked:

the whole final battle was awesome, i loved the combat, and i really enjoyed the huge cutscenes of everyone fighting together. i had been really disappointed earlier about the lack of a battle scene at weisshaupt a la ostagar in origins, and this definitely made up for it

i liked the suicide mission and actually getting to assign people their roles in the battle

i LOVED Solas's betrayal, that whole section in the fade prison with the statues was one of the strongest scenes in the game, i think the entire relationship between Rook and Solas is really well developed. as the player, we know Solas is manipulating them, but i think they did a good job making it so it's still believable for Rook to fall for his tricks, especially with the Blood of Arlathan quest before this. (also it's very obvious Solas is Weekes' favorite, wish they would have just stuck to him and not all that other dogshit...lol)

i liked the idea of Varric's role here, but not the execution. i'll come back to this lmao

the giant dread wolf and archdemon fight was cool as fuck. no notes. that's just classic rule of cool, baby

also i had Davrin in my party while fighting alongside Solas and i really enjoyed his banter with him and how hard he laid into Solas's ass. it was very satisfying. yippee go Davrin!

okay. now. what i didn't like (sorry not going to bother with bullet points, it's going to be longer down here lol):

while i liked the suicide mission structure, i hated how the game all but told you who to assign where. there were no stakes at all, there was no way to get it wrong unless you did so intentionally.

this also brings me to. The Choice. between Davrin and Harding. i understand the need for a "fallen hero" here, it ties into the entire theme of regret with Solas as we see in the fade prison, it was necessary for Rook to be the person "at fault" (aka directly make the choice that ends with someone getting killed) but this choice was dogshit. it also was really fucking stupid to see Harding climb up and stand atop a giant stone pillar, and then NOT use her stone magic!!! i don't hate the idea of someone dying here, but this was just a series of failed choices over and over again. we should not have pitted returning fan fave Harding against the single Black companion (who comes in late and barely even gets his own story outside of his damn pet)-- it should have been Harding (narratively satisfying, she's been here since the beginning and dies for the fight) or Lucanis (he is literally the guy taking the shot), we also shouldn't have tied all the dwarf lore revelations to a character that can just fucking die at the end, and we shouldn't have had her stand on a giant stone pillar when she has STONE MAGIC!! i knew this choice was coming but her death still caught me off guard cus i was fully expecting her to collapse that stone pillar on her, not use her stupid puny bow 😭

i think this choice is also weakened by the fact that it's THEE only choice. it's obviously an echo of the earlier Treviso and Minrathous choice, which also didn't really seem to affect much outside of potentially losing the corresponding factions (and i think Lucanis's romance gets locked out?) i saved Treviso, so i got the Treviso questline later, and i assume that you get a Minrathous specific questline with the Shadow Dragons if you save the other instead (haven't seen myself tho so i'm not sure, just guessing). but it's very easy to recover the Shadow Dragon's reputation, and the final battle takes place in Minrathous no matter what. the only way for companions to die or the battle to fail is to just straight up ignore quests. you can't lose a faction's support at all unless you intentionally try to do so. i don't even think you can lose companions at all unless you intentionally ignore their quests and place them in the wrong spot. though the game still holds your hand through the battle and basically Tells You who to put where so they survive.

and to be fair. this is true for the suicide mission in mass effect 2, but the thing is, there is so much more dialogue and variations with how you can play your character and interact with the companions and the world than there is in veilguard, it makes it feel like you do have more control over your character and the narrative, even if it's just the illusion of choice.

and then with Solas, it doesn't matter, he always ends up trapped/linked to the Fade, it just changes how he feels. (they also do this with the First Warden. i was excited for a potential variation between punching/not punching, but all it changes is his attitude when you find him later in Davrin's quest) okay.... well. is he going to return again after that post credit scene? and are they really going to write 3 (or 4, with lavellan i guess) different branching personality variations?

i think the powers that be just wanted to get rid of him in a way that would still leave the dragon age setting ultimately unaltered and open for more games in the future. especially given the secret post credits scene. which i also have an issue with. we're going to go from "it was all the Evanuris fault" to Actually, it was this secret third thing and everything we did was for nothing! AGAIN! if they want to make more dragon age games, they can just... start a new story. do they know that. (the fact they're implying Loghain was influenced by some outside force to do what he did at ostagar actually has me livid lol. leave origins alone!!!!)

anyways. now the fade prison. i have two issues, my main one being Varric. i actually started to suspect early on something was up with him, because he just sits in that damn infirmary the entire game, no interactions, barely any dialogue. i think Varric was horribly underutilized in this game, and it results in all of the emotional beats around him falling flat for me. of course, it's emotional for ME, the player, because Varric is a fan fave returning character and one of my own personal favorites. as far as i've seen in game, though... Rook has no relationship with him at all. i think this game would have been vastly improved with short playable origins that showed the two meeting and developing a relationship, and also he really really needed to have more scenes and dialogue in general. he's barely in the second half of the game, literally just sitting all by himself in that damn room, and even when he is in the cutscenes he has one single line that everyone obviously just ignores. it sucked. very disappointing finale for a really beloved character... it could have been so good if it was good....

because i DO love the idea of Solas using him to manipulate Rook (and i really like Varric and Solas's relationship & the way they contrast against each other), and also the idea of how being tricked in that way would actually affect Rook-- what's real, what's not, can they even trust what they're seeing at all anymore? especially when Solas "glitches" between Varric and Lucanis (idk if it's always him or your LI? would be cool if it's your LI, that's what i assumed) after slaying Ghilan'nain-- this could have tied in with the final romance scene. but of course the game doesn't get into any of that at all.

and now issue 2. how the fuck did Solas do that LOL. how did he switch places, how did he get out, how did it take Rook in his place when it was designed for elven gods? where are the other elven gods (did i just miss this explanation? did the other two just kill them in there)? 🤷 when did this place suddenly turn into a prison of regrets? was that Solas's presence influencing it, or did he do that intentionally for Rook? dont know! who cares. moving on...

i romanced Lucanis, and i was really disappointed with his romance. the final scene was sweet, but.... i think particularly with Lucanis you can tell so much of his story and arc ended up on the cutting room floor, it feels disjointed and as if we're missing pieces, and you can feel it in his romance, too. i also really didnt understand the "keep flirting (not a lock in) or end it now" choices that didnt feel like they did anything at all. why was i given like 3 different times to break up with him when we weren't even dating yet lmao. the romance was a bummer, of course i love the setting and the story but i go into these games expecting strong romance along with it and i was really banking on that being the highlight in this mess of a game but. alas

this also segues me back into the whole "trapped in the Fade prison" section. why was there no reunion with both your LI and everyone else? apparently Rook was in there for WEEKS!!! they hardly communicate this and Rook just reappears and jumps straight back into leading the team, no tears or questions asked about how they found them, how they got out, what everyone was thinking while they were gone... we also get a deus ex machina knife, how convenient that they did all that while i was gone and no explanation is given as to how it could possibly fool Solas, just trust us bro! 💆 i feel like trying to craft our own copy of the knife should have been something actively happening in the background throughout the entire game, and it gets finished while Rook is in the Fade. but this truly came out of nowhere lol

again i think it's obvious things were cut and rewritten and maybe this was the result of a frantic scramble to come up with something that would work, and i'll be generous and blame it on that, i guess...

when we finally get to the final confrontation with Solas, i was very excited, because again i feel like Rook and Solas's relationship is the best in the game, Solas's writing is consistent and strong, i knew this scene had to be good.... and i guess it was? but it felt so unsatisfying. i chose to fight him (my Rook would do anything to get him to shut up) and i was hoping for. an actual fight. you can do it with Mythal earlier in the game, and we already saw his giant wolf form, i was so excited. and then. no<3

okay! sure. we beat him with the power of friendship (not surprised and not even making fun of it here, it makes sense narratively, i knew some version of this was coming after the whole comparing Rook versus Solas bit in the Fade) but come onnnnn i wanted to fight the giant wolf.... sigh. i did check out the other endings as well, and it's clear the redemption ending is the "true" ending and also the best written one imo.

overall. this was a bad dragon age game. i had a lot of fun playing it though, so it's not a bad game game. the gameplay loop never got boring, i never got tired exploring or doubling back, i loved the maps, i loved the combat, and i did love the companions. but the writing is atrocious and racist. this is a horrible dragon age game. i don't know where i fall on recommending this. again, i've had a lot of fun playing and dissecting it, but i dont know that i could recommend this to dragon age fans. this would have been way more successful as a completely different fantasy game. the changes to the lore, disregarding the majority of the games that came before it, the horrible depictions of returning characters (the inquisitor and isabela were the worst offenders for me) the setting and characters feeling watered down and incomplete, the complete lack of the classic "grey morality" shtick (even if it's not always been implemented well)... idk man. bummer! it's obvious there was a cohesive vision at one point, i do think this game is a casualty of the current state of the gaming industry (i was honestly surprised it was functional on launch. not shade at bioware just in general that is rare to see now) we know EA thrashed bioware throughout development, and bioware made a lot of really bad choices, too (the racism is absolutely their doing, they made that choice back in inquisition). but we can see, particularly in the artbook, that there were good ideas & an intention to actually tie everything together and give this story the finale it deserved... but it all got lost along the way in a very ugly, chaotic development. and the game really suffers for it.

[explodingchantry]

I was getting really into expedition 33, only to find the character I adore and that tore my heart to pieces is the subject of hot debate and discourse, with people absolutely despising him as if he's a war criminal, and the majority of the reasons why being that he lies. And I find that fascinating. He lies not just to other characters but to you, the player -- and this elicits such intense vitriol in the playerbase, veritable rancor that leads to some of the most bad faith takes and interpreterions...

... So of course, it makes me think of Anders. Everything reminds me of her etc etc -- but really, though. I've spoken to a lot of people over the years, looked into a lot of the discourse both from back then and current -- and the one recurring sentiment I've seen is that even people who otherwise sympathise with Anders are furious about the Lie. You know, him telling you he needs that stuff to separate him and Justice, rather than to explode the chantry.

And I mean, that's fair, right. It's a pretty monumental lie. A lot of players, if they knew what they were truly getting that stuff for, would've refused to help him. This leads players to feel manipulated, used -- and to be fair to them, it is manipulation. Anders feeds you false information for the purpose of making you help him. It is fair to be shocked and angry in the moment, upon realising what happened.

But what I find fascinating above all is that most of these people will then not take a moment to think about WHY exactly Anders lied, why he felt he had to lie. How, to him, this was too important to risk you saying no. How, even if you're max friendship, even if you're lovers, he can't take the risk of you saying no. But of course, there's the other angle to it -- the one that makes me truly unable to hold his lie against him, the one that breaks my heart above all: that he couldn't chance implicating you. Because, see: if he lies to you, if he gets this material from you via a trick, then you cannot be held responsible for his actions. He is protecting you. He is saving you. But few people are able to see that past their anger at being lied to in the first place.

I've met people who dislike, sometimes downright hate, Anders for The Lie and The Lie alone. They don't bring up his double standard with blood magic, or the shitty way with which he treats Merrill. The only thing they care about is The Lie.

Players really, REALLY hate being lied to. If it was instead Anders lying to, idk, Varric, whilst we know the truth -- a bunch of people would still be pissed, but nowhere near as much as this. It's specifically because he lied to Hawke, to the player, that people are furious about. And it does make sense: as the player, you are expected to be the driving force behind the narrative and have the choice in what you do, and even when you DONT have choice, you still feel largely in control as you at least are in possession of all the tools at your disposal to understand what it is your character is doing and why. To lie to the player is to take this sense of control and agency away, and that really rubs players the wrong way.

(there's also, obviously, the framing part of it all. But I've made plenty of posts about it. This is specifically about the lying aspect making people super pissed.)

I think understanding that -- the way lying to the player affects them -- can give game writers some very fun tools to mess with players I wanna see more often tbh LOL. But when it comes to Anders it is another tragedy, because his lie was born of good intentions. Of a wish to shoulder alone the weight of his act, whilst at the same time ensuring he could carry it out and save the people he saved.

[saltyowlets]

Companion!Cullen Precursor: Romance

I know I haven't touched Companion!Cullen for a long bit, mostly cause I've been thinking about my own Cullavellan and tackling his redemption in their story but I do want to comeback to it, especially now.

So heres a small tidbit of what I eventually want to tackle: Companion!Cullen romance.

I know it's a small point of contention, whether Cullen should have had a romance or not, with all there considering his lyrium addiction and his PTSD. I am on the side that a romance is possible, but to have a satisfying and redemptive end for Cullen, it would require some leg work for that romance that we just aren't provided in game.

So, in order to mitigate this, I propose that in Companion!Cullen's romance is similar to a secret romance that is only accessible by very specific and pro mage means.

For starters, I do not think him being a romance while still being pro Circle or pro Templar is healthy, if anything, it may even be a detriment to his growth. Cullen is a man who needs to be challenged to fully change. I'm not saying that he couldn't change to be better on his own. He definitely has the ability to. However, we are looking for full redemptive Cullen in the DAI narrative. How does this work with Companion!Cullen specifically?

Approval system. Or rather, something similar to the rivalry system.

I think in order to access Cullen's redemption and subsequent romance, you have to challenge him, gain disapproval. There would be prompts that involve choosing pro mage choices, conversation prompts with Cullen that challenge and maybe accuse him of the things that happened in Kirkwall. This becomes the precursor to Cullen's deprogramming. If you keep gaining approval and do not challenge him, this only just leads to Cullen on the path of feeling justified by his pro Circle sentiments. He will still sympathize with the mages/apostates and will lament and regret how he acted but he will still remain adamant that the Templars are necessary or, at the very least, a justification.

Continuous disapproval will lead to specific scenes, depending on choices, that allow you to get Cullen to open up and discuss what happened in Kinhold and Kirkwall. There may some flirt lines but nothing that would seem like you forgive him but reach an understanding. Eventually, you gain approval with Cullen from these scenes as it becomes reflective that 1. He is changing, 2. He appreciates that you are challenging and not just excusing his actions because that is who Cullen is. He is a man who knew he did wrong and does not want to be easily forgiven.

Anyways, this is what I have so far but I'll eventually write more. Feel free to let me know what you think!

[confetti-smoker]

I ACCIDENTLY DELETED THE ASK but I screenshotted it we ball

Sorry Tumblr sucks with images? It wouldn’t let me format this? And I pressed the wrong delete oops, I shall @ the magical wizard instead @t3ch-wizard

Hello! Thank you so so much :D

Your right! She doesn’t have her throne stolen and rules SugarRush (like she would have if King Candy never showed up, because he doesn’t show up. lol)

BUT she has his role beyond ‘ruler of SugarRush’ stuff, this includes the whole ‘game jumping and dooming 2 games’ thing…

I know this fandom generally dislikes RBTI and for a good reason, I 100% agree, but the one thing it confirmed for me is that if Turbo wasn’t an obstacle Vanellope WOULD game-jump. If he never was a problem she would have gotten bored, and being a kid she wouldn’t really think about the consequences of game-jumping.

In this AU, TurboTime was unplugged the same time as RoadBlasters was plugged in, meaning Turbo never got a chance to get all jealous and commit his warcrimes,

So when SugarRush comes along, after a few years of ruling, Vanellope gets bored and decides to give her RoadBlaster’s neighbours a visit for a few days which ENDS BADLY FOR EVERYONE!

(It’s pretty similar to the whole ‘wow this slaughter race place is so cool…’ thing from RBTI, but within the arcade and doomed by the narrative. Disney princess I want song but you know what’s coming won’t be good.)

The same thing that happened with TurboTime/Roadblasters happens instead with SugarRush/Roadblasters, Vanellope barely makes it out and ends up with a glitch, no home, and most of the people in her life are gone. Yikes

Here’s a timeline I sketched up to help understand this lol

Turbo does come back :), as his game wasn’t broken just put in the back of the arcade, but he’s been gone for 25 years so he’s missed ALOT.

And like Turbo/King Candy, Vanellope decides to sneak into a new game and ‘take it over’, which just so happens to be Heros Duty. Scary bug game that will keep her entertained and also no one is going to want to visit because of how dangerous it is! It’s perfect for her!

Unlike King Candy, when Vanellope takes over Heros Duty it’s less of an explicitly evil takeover and more of a ‘I can handle this and do it right this time’ kind of thing, + some other stuff with Calhoun but this post is getting too long

(Oh also your right she totally did some hacking stuff, unlike Turbo she’s much more careful and considerate, weaving herself into the Hero’s Duty universe rather than ripping and tearing through everything like he did) (she still locked away memories though, specifically backstory stuff. Smiles at you :])

(Also she probably gives herself a new name in Hero’s Duty (like Turbo did with King Candy) the current ones I have written down are “Sargent Schweetz” or “Sargent Sprinkles”, sprinkles seems too silly and Schweetz would probably give her away, so I need a name for her if people have suggestions please tell me :D)

[maxdibert]

I’m not a fan of the marauders or Snape. I prefer hjp generation compared to them. Reason for that is everyone’s obsessed with swm, and is over thinking it. I need more context than one scene to form an opinion on a person and since we didn’t get that I’m not into the marauders era. I don’t think the marauders were good people nor do I think Snape was. They were all grey characters. I grew up with 4 brothers and mainly male cousins, who are a lot older than me. I remember them getting detention for pulling other’s pants down in the hallways and doing other stupid shit you couldn’t get away with today. I never understood it then and don’t understand it today, but back then it wasn’t considered that big of a deal. I personally don’t think Snape ever viewed that as sa, it was his wm because he was embarrassed and called Lily a racial slur that basically ended their friendship. What we say or do today will be labelled as something else by the next couple of generations. It’s like watching the show Friends, a lot of things they say will make our generations jaws drop, but millennials and gen x find it hilarious and nothing wrong with it. As readers and from Harry’s pov James was a hero everyone loved, after swm Harry was disturbed saw his father as more of a grey character, and had more empathy for Snape. In the end hjp made mistakes, but he was a better person than Snape and the marauders could ever be.

But the thing is, you're saying we don’t have more information when we actually do. It’s canon that James and Sirius hexed people in the hallways just because they felt like it. It’s canon that they used forbidden spells on random people. It’s canon that James lies to Lily, telling her he’s stopped bullying people, but keeps going after Snape behind her back. So it’s not just one scene, there’s more information. And besides, you don’t need to be shown a character’s everyday life to know what they were like. When a character is recurring or a side character, the author gives you specific information to paint a picture. It’s not necessary, narratively, to dig deep into their psychology: you get a few brushstrokes because that’s all you need, and that’s what the author wants you to know about them. And Rowling makes it very clear in that scene what James was like. It’s a way for Harry to deconstruct the myth of his father and realize that, no matter how loved he was by others or the fact that he’s his dad, he could still be a piece of shit.

Then there’s the whole “it was a different time” argument, which honestly doesn’t work for me. I criticize Rowling for having a pretty racist and stereotypical view of certain characters, just like I criticize her view of women. I don’t care if “in her time blah blah blah,” because the reality is that regardless of what was normalized thirty, forty, or fifty years ago, if something is wrong, it’s wrong. Women weren’t allowed to vote for a long time, was that okay because it was “of its time”? Gay people were subjected to electroshock therapy until fairly recently, was that fine because it fit the context? Is slavery justifiable because of the time period? The Inquisition? Apartheid? The lack of labor rights? If we accept that kind of simplistic and deterministic thinking that leaves no room for self-criticism, then basically any atrocity can be justified depending on the era and context. And no, you can explain something by its historical context, but that doesn’t mean it stops being what it is. Do you know how many women have been systematically raped because, for a long time, people didn’t even acknowledge that sexual abuse could exist within marriage? So should we just let that go because it was “of the time”? And the worst part is, in many countries, there’s still no legislation around sexual abuse in relationships, this is something current.

There are also so many abuse victims who don’t even realize they’re being abused — regardless of the type — and does that make it any less abuse, or mean it doesn’t exist? It doesn’t work that way. There are people who’ll tell you they have a “good” job and that everything’s fine, and they’re clearly under abusive labor conditions without realizing it.

I think there’s a real problem in this fandom, which is basically a huge lack of humanistic education. I don’t know if it’s because there are so many different cultural contexts, and of course, each one comes with its own assumptions and frameworks for evaluating certain situations. But I’m honestly realizing more and more that people justify things that, for someone like me — who’s been involved in political and legal work for years — are honestly shocking to see excused. Like, they’ll villainize actions that are pretty minimal compared to others that actually reflect real-world systemic issues. But anyway, that’s just me rambling. What I really want to say is that context and circumstances matter a lot. I don’t know what your siblings or cousins are like, but it’s not the same if you’re messing around with a friend and pull down their pants after they slap you on the head — like, you’re just being dumb and your dynamic includes that kind of rough teasing — compared to choking someone you consistently bully, stripping them in front of a crowd against their will just to humiliate them, and then not letting them go, like, keeping them there for who knows how long. It’s not the same. When we evaluate crimes, it’s not just about the act itself — it’s about the entire context: Was there a pattern of aggression and abuse? What was the relationship with the perpetrator? Had something similar happened before? Was the relationship good or bad? Could the victim defend themselves? Were they in a position to fight back? Was it balanced or was there a power imbalance? There are a lot of elements that make up a case of abuse, and I feel like in this fandom people either don’t understand that, or aren’t educated enough to understand it, or have certain cultural frameworks that prevent them from seeing it, I’m not really sure. But I’m honestly just tired of having to explain all of this in what feels like aramaic to get the point across.

[lumilasi]

Hi, PenWoman from AO3.

I have a few questions where did you get these amazing ideas for your Zaundads stories? What is your inspiration? If you could change one thing in the Arcane series, what would it be? And do you accept story ideas from other people?

Hi there! Sorry for the late response, when I saw this it was past midnight where I live so I figured I wait till morning before responding as it'd be easier from laptop!

Since you had a few questions I suppose I'll go down the list in order! (also I realized this is gonna be kinda long wall of text, so I'll break it up with some of the art I've done with each fic):

Ideas/inspiration?

A lot of places pretty much, just like with any and all fandom/non fandom art and writing I do. If you want to know more specifically though, I can somewhat point to a few sources for each fic:

Wraiths of Zaun is basically me pondering a "What if" scenario, where they got a warning beforehand about how things were going to go wrong, and how they'd deal with that (+ wanting to connect it into bit of a multiverse thing, this'll make sense MUCH later in the fic lol)

(Now, I do feel like in hindsight I probably should've done Connol & Feli's deaths more akin to canon, as RN we haven't had a moment where Vander can consciously choose to do better. ATM he hasn't really needed to make that choice. (the incident with Pow-Pow and Vi doesn't count, as neither died) I DO have a way to still have this kind of narrative point, but that'd then happen much closer to the end of the fic.)

The Lightkeeper was a mixture of me seeing a really cool merSilco fanart (that I can't find anymore :C), me loving spooky settings and stories, and having watched Dredge playthrough recently. Also "Vander raised Viktor" concept is always fun.

As for why I chose to have Silco be the younger version, the current dynamic in the fic wouldn't have worked with old Silco as well & when I was debating which way to go, more people suggested young Silco.

(This fic has my favorite setting, given it allows me to do more worldbuilding, whereas the other 2 are canon divergence stories. It currently has the most art for that reason as well, bc Fishco is fun to draw! Though it is only my second favorite out of these fics, as.....)

........This one....THIS one. This one's my baby, my magnum opus, my absolute FAVORITE fic of all time. (slight exaggeration, but I REALLY love it rn lol)

Riftside Angel is largely inspired by my love for horror/thrillers/ mystery, my older original story writing, and one of my favorite horror game villains, that the antagonist of this fic is loosely inspired by. It's also special because usually I don't utilize horror as a theme for fanfics, but this particular idea was too good to pass up on.

(To reiterate as I feel people see "horror" and might assume its a bad ending - understandably mind you - the boys will be fine by the end, traumatized for life ofc, but that's basically just canon isn't it?)

(It was also slightly helped by two other fics on AO3 that I've listed at the beginning of the fic of course, though the inspo from them was for more specific details rather than the overarching story, which is more reworking of an ollld OG tale with setting changed from island to a mine, and with magic rather than sci fi themes.)

2. Arcane changes

I'm not really someone who's going to think of stuff like this unless the canon story REALLY drops the ball somehow. Arcane, while flawed by the end somewhat, did NOT fuck up for me that bad. (Basically I personally find the issues small enough that its on that "nothing's ever gonna be perfect" category)

.......Especially when comparing to the travesty of my previous fandom, where the ending was SO AWFUL it retroactively destroyed the entire story, basically making it feel like as if none of it mattered, might as well just erase the whole story from existence. That's how bad it was. Even if Arcane was worse, I'd still probably give it more grace because HOLY SHIT WAS THAT BADDDDD

3. Story ideas

Typically no majority of the time. I always feel like if I accept ideas from someone else, there's pressure to get them to match what that person might've wanted it to be, even if they give me free reign. At most I tend to just ask for opinions on some small story element choices (like with Silco's age in Lightkeeper) if I'm really stuck with it.

If I ever did accept those, I'd be more likely to do that with Jayvik because I find myself struggling coming up with ideas for that ship. Largely because its so popular and already has so much stories, I feel like I can't come up with something unique and different feeling enough that I'd want to write it.

............Even Then though, given I am averse to a LOT of common fanfic tropes, suggesting me ideas might prove kind of useless; I'd probably end up not accepting many of them due to me not caring for majority of the common tropes people would likely suggest lol

Anyway, glad you have been enjoying my fics, and hope this rambly answer satisfied your curiosity! Just like with my fics always ending up long, I'm bad at giving short answers lmaooo

[having-a-hyperfixate]

Don’t mind me sprinting to try and get this thought in order before the Anime Expo panel. I need it to be out in the wild Just In Case.

So, a few of the Gung Ho Guns have gotten reworked for Stampede, yes? To varying degrees.

Ninelives is apparently not a horrific flesh mech, Dark Souls boss thing, according to the end credits of episode 3.

E.G. the Mine just got a HUGE upgrade and didn’t get owned 3 seconds after he showed up.

Monev was an actual character with a fubar backstory and emotional impact instead of just Some Guy who trained in a basement for years specifically to kill Vash. (and Orange is SO EVIL for this)

Elendira is. *gestures futilely* There is so much going on there but yeah. She’s going to be terrifying once she achieves adult body and loses (drops?) the childish attitude. Also because of the whole Plant hybrid thing her nails truly are literally infinite sooooo.

So I have some thoughts about Hoppered the Gauntlet.

In Trimax, Gauntlet’s narrative weight comes from the fact that he makes Vash remember, which by extension makes US, the reader, understand what July really meant. Before that we had heard mention of it a few times as ‘a city destroyed in a single night’ and talk of there being ‘no survivors’ but we had no actual connection to it, and also no real idea if that was even true. But in Stampede, we saw July happen. We were there. So even if Vash’s memory is still shot afterwards, and he doesn’t remember Lost July, we the audience DO. So having the Dragon’s nest play out exactly the same isn’t going to have the same narrative punch in the gut that it did in Trimax. It can’t.

There’s also the fact that, given how we’ve met most of the major players in the story, or had them mentioned at least (hi Milly), it feels kind of Odd™ that we haven’t seen someone has emotionally impactful as Gauntlet yet.

Unless we have.

We saw with Rollo/Monev that Orange is willing to have the person’s regular name be one thing and then have a second Eye of Michael code name. I suspect that is going to happen with Gauntlet; either because EoM or because he has decided on his own to lie about who he was.

And yes, I do in fact have someone in mind.

I checked myself the translation there is accurate; the only change I would make is calling the gun ‘gaudy’ instead of ‘shiny’ but that’s not a huge deal. Also for the record, the original tweet is from Jan. 11, well before he makes his reappearance for the season finale. So when it talks about a ‘reappearance’, it is talking about seeing him again in July. Original tweet here, tweet containing the translation here.

I think Chuck Lee is going to be our Gauntlet. That he made it just far enough out of the city to survive, but that he was badly maimed in the process, and that his family didn’t make it. He’s the ONLY member of the military police with a unique design. He has an actual name, and the director himself tweeted about his backstory. His gun is so unusual that we would recognize it anywhere. Hell, I referred to him as ‘the gold gun guy from episode one’ when one of my friends didn’t recognize him immediately. His gun is so incredibly recognizable. Almost like we need to be able to recognize him by that alone, when everything else about him has changed.

THIS could be how narrative weight for Gauntlet is established in the Stampede universe when it can’t be done the same way as in Trimax. Taking a character who has, in a way, also been with the audience ALL ALONG, who was there with us for two pivitol moments, the beginning and the awakening, but who comes at it from such a horrifically different angle and bringing him back in such an agonizing way. Because he was very much in the wrong with his stunt at Jeneora Rock, but his rage over the loss of his family in July would be justified, even if we know it wasn’t Vash’s fault.

(Also, the IRONY of him ending up as one of Knives’s lackeys when Knives is the one that caused all of this? Damn.)

Footnote: I have Thoughts on why they can get away with adding Milly to The Squad late. That is a whole other Thought but tldr; (and also I haven’t actually written it out) Milly is the most perceptive of all of them she doesn’t NEED an extended intro to Vash to Know.

[juicebuck]

Where do you stand on the argument people make on how if Buck had an issue with Tommy calling him Evan he would say something. To me I would say look at Eddie wi th Ana calling him Edmundo he never told her he had an issue with it but this was not for the characters but for the audience to see that it’s wrong to call them these names. It’s a way to tell the audience these relationships are not gonna to last. That’s my opinion at least.

WELL. yeah, i definitely do not think it denotes intimacy. like, this idea that has been floating about that it speaks to the "maturity" and "intimacy" of the relationship is insane to me. because a) they barely even know each other, we don't even know the nature of the relationship i.e. whether they've even put a label on it. to say he refers to him as evan as a sign of emotional intimacy implies emotional development and understanding, it's something that would come with time, with trust, and they're definitely NOT THERE. and b) well, the implication that nicknames, or specifically chosen names denote immaturity, and that acceptance of your birth name is maturity is uh, well. extremely fucked up, actually. like, i cannot stress enough how fucked up that is. SO, yeah absolutely cannot buy that diatribe.

like, listen. canonically we have no idea why he calls him evan, what his reasoning is. but generally, it makes very little sense considering literally no one else that tommy interacts with refers to him that way. and it makes even less sense that it's meant to demonstrate any sort of emotional intimacy, because tommy has referred to him that way from the get-go. like, it wasn’t something that gradually, naturally happened as an indication of growing closeness. it was a deliberate choice from the beginning. like, narratively speaking, considering the firmly established context around buck choosing to go by buck, it makes far more sense that it's meant to demonstrate all of the ways tommy does not know him, and isn't really trying to know him.

so as for why buck hasn't corrected him, well. again, narratively that makes sense for his character. buck's issues have been firmly established. he craves acceptance, attention. he's a people-pleaser often to his own detriment. he's afraid of rejection, abandonment. his entire identity hinges on how other people see him. him not correcting tommy is less about acceptance and more about shrinking himself down to fit into the shape of him that tommy sees. he's been doing it for years, in every relationship. except, well. except eddie. because eddie sees the shape of him, sees him exactly as he is. and that's enough, more than enough. he doesn't need or want him to be anything other than buck.