#casting writing storyline none of it makes sense

[themidnightcircusshow]

Julius Caesar is being out Julius Caesared by every other Roman on screen and I don't understand why

[moghedien]

so I do wonder about season 3 supposedly being book 4 pretty much entirely because we haven't really gotten book 3 yet. so i'm like thinking about what really happens in book 3, right. the main plot lines are:

Rand running away and being largely absent from the book all together

Moiraine, Perrin, and the homies chasing down Rand across the continent

the Wondergirls being recruited by Siuan to hunt the Black Ajah and being sent to chase them to Tear

Mat delivering a letter and then going rescue the wondergirls when he finds out about Rahvin targeting them

And like this all converges on them in Tear when Rand takes Callandor and the Stone of Tear falls

and Imma be honest. None of this is extremely vital to the point where it can't be dealt with more quickly or elsewhere.

The most important plot point being the Callandor thing, which probably needs to happen. And while I've seen people suggest that Callandor might be in Falme for some reason, it feels wrong if Rand al'Thor doesn't get to take the Sword that isn't a Sword from the Stone that isn't a Stone

So let's assume that it is going to happen in the show. Does it need to happen next season?

Because the only real reason why it should happen before book 4's storyline is because of the Aiel. The Aiel need to find Rand so that he can go into the Waste and all that. So Aviendha, Bain, and Chiad are in Falme. We might be able to write a way around the Aiel needing to take the Stone of Tear right now if we just have Aiel bring Rand around like "look we think this is the guy." I mean, some of the Aiel still doubted Rand after book 3, so its not like it would create conflict that wasn't there already and it might make some of the conflict make more sense.

But what about Callandor? Well, Rand does shit all with Callandor for several books, so why does he need to take it now? And given that the main point of taking Tear other than Callandor was to defeat Be'lal, who definitely isn't surviving the Forsaken purge, there's no immediate reason to take the sword, and specifically not taking it might give some people reason to doubt he's the dragon longer.

And then, speaking of Be'lal and Rahvin, we obviously don't know for sure, but most of us are working under the assumption that their roles are going to be given to Sammael. Sammael is already dealt with later in the series as it is, so why not make the time in which we deal with Sammael the time when Rand takes Callandor? The Stone of Tear falling later might solve some of the later series's lack of important feeling climaxes anyway.

I feel like it just might make sense to rearrange the plot on this but I know that people won't like me even suggesting that's what might be happening lmao

anyway, at the very least we know we're getting some plot points from book 3 because we're gonna get Faile and some other characters then that didn't show until book 3 (they have already been cast and everything so its not like they're maybe gonna be cut), so ya know. its not gonna be a straight up adaptation of TSR no matter what even Rafe says because there's gonna be at least those book 3 plot points

[jackoshadows]

I have always felt that Benioff and Weiss replacing Jeyne Poole with Sansa on the show was when the writing for the Northern plot became extremely moronic and everything that happens there in seasons 6-8  totally careened the show off the tracks. And reading some of GRRM’s more recent interviews only confirms this for me.

This is D&D on why they made the change:

And it’s because of Turner’s strength, Benioff continued, that it made sense to give Sansa a dramatic storyline this season and to use Ramsay’s engagement for that very purpose. In fact, the showrunners first thought about putting Sansa and Ramsay together back when they were writing season 2. “We really wanted Sansa to play a major part this season,” Benioff said. “If we were going to stay absolutely faithful to the book, it was going to be very hard to do that. There was a subplot we loved from the books, but it used a character that’s not in the show.”

It’s very clear now that GRRM thinks the lack of fake Arya is the biggest change that took the show in a very different direction compared to the books. It’s interesting that when he refers to the butterfly effect slowly ballooning into a huge dragon effect he is referring to the lack of fake Arya in the north. Clearly this is important for GRRM because he has been talking about this from 2011 (to D&D) to as recently as 2022.

At a convention in 2013 GRRM said this: 

In a convention panel this year, George said on the record that he had no idea what they were doing with Sansa or where they’re taking her storyline, which now makes sense perhaps. He was not pleased when he was talking about it, so who knows what’s going to happen with her! Knowing GRRM, that could mean they’re going off the canon reservation, and/or that they’re going to be making a lot of shit up

This was GRRM commenting in 2015 about the Sansa in Winterfell plot:

Let me reiterate what I have said before. How many children did Scarlett O'Hara have?  Three, in the novel.  One, in the movie.  None, in real life: she was a fictional character, she never existed. The show is the show, the books are the books; two different tellings of the same story.  

There have been differences between the novels and the television show since the first episode of season one.  And for just as long, I have been talking about the butterfly effect.  Small changes lead to larger changes lead to huge changes.  HBO is more than forty hours into the impossible and demanding task of adapting my lengthy (extremely) and complex (exceedingly) novels, with their layers of plots and subplots, their twists and contradictions and unreliable narrators, viewpoint shifts and ambiguities, and a cast of characters in the hundreds. 

And yes, more and more, they differ.  Two roads diverging in the dark of the woods, I suppose... but all of us are still intending that at the end we will arrive at the same place. In the meantime, we hope that the readers and viewers both enjoy the journey.  Or journeys, as the case may be. Sometimes butterflies grow into dragons.

This is GRRM in August 2022, before the premiere of HOTD (When he started getting more critical of D&D’s adaptation) when asked about whether HOTD was canon or not

It opens a very large area for discussion. And I’ve been asked about this by various other interviewers in various forms and interviews past. And I often respond with the question for the questioner how many children did Scarlett O’Hara have?

They (D&D) started making changes even as early as season one . And I remember I had discussions with them back in season one. When I was more involved in the process, when we’d discuss things and the fact that they removed Jeyne Poole was a very early thing.

They actually said, oh no, Jeyne Poole is in it. You see the girl that’s sitting next to Sansa in the one scene in the feast at Winterfell. Yes, that’s Jeyne Poole, but you never hear a name and she’s not in it, but I did tell them. ‘Yes, but there’s the butterfly effect’, as I called it, deriving from the famous Ray Bradbury story, A Sound of Thunder, crush a butterfly the Jurassic and suddenly you changed all of human history from that point forward.

Unintentionally. A little change in a long narrative can have big changes further on. And now, Gone with the Wind didn’t have to worry about that, cause those two children that they removed never had any impact on the story. And Margaret Mitchell didn’t go on to write 6 more novels in which the children grew up and became the leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Whatever the hell, you know, she might have done with those two boys.

And I think they were both boys, and Rhett’s daughter was a girl. So she didn’t have to deal with the butterfly effect there. You know, when we remove Jeyne Poole from season one, then you don’t have Jeyne Poole to be the fake Arya, as happens in the book. So what do you do then? The butterfly effect has done that.

There is then a discussion in there about how The Expanse was a far better adaptation (I agree!) because the book writers were actually in the writer’s room and involved in the process of combining characters and plots.  And then GRRM says this:

They (Expanse writers Ty and Daniel) would be in the writer’s room and the showrunner, who was not them, initially, would say, we’re gonna remove this person. And you know, Ty or Daniel would say, we could do that. But then when you get to season four, there’s gonna be a problem because you took that other thing.

The butterfly effect can have that, but getting back to the whole issue of canon, the butterfly effect affects the canon. But there’s also sometimes deliberate changes in a show where the showrunners or the writers or the studio, the network, or wherever it comes from, goes in a different direction. So what we’re doing at this point in the history of A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, Westeros, whatever you wanna call it.

Yeah. We have two canons. We have the show canon, the Game of Thrones canon. And we have the Song of Ice and Fire canon. And in the book canon, obviously, still writing The Winds of Winter, I’m sure you all know that, and then there’s another book beyond that. And as I write them, and I’ve said this in a previous blog post, I always knew that things were gonna be different, but as I’m writing, as the stories are coming alive, and the characters are coming alive, taking me further and further away from the show.

So there’s gonna be some very considerable differences, and the book canon is gonna be quite different from the show canon as we get deeper into it.

So this is GRRM very clearly spelling it out that replacing Jeyne Poole or fake Arya with Sansa on the show has split wide open the book and the show canon with there being a GOT canon i.e what happened on the show and a book canon i.e the events with fake Arya in the North.

GRRM even mentions how the Jon Snow sequel is tricky because the show’s canon is now different to the books.

Their version of Euron Greyjoy is day and night from my version of Euron Greyjoy and similar changes. There are two different canons. Now, because most of these shows that we’re developing, almost all of them are prequels. I think it’s a single canon. Because all of these prequels can lead up to Game of Thrones at the beginning. The one that’s a little trickier is the Jon Snow show, cause that’s the only sequel. That being said, it’s a little tricky. It keeps me busy and I don’t know what’s gonna come, but we do have, as I say, a number of different shows in development, every one has a different showrunner.

This is why it simply makes no sense when people combine the show and the books when talking about these characters. When certain book plots and show plots are selectively chosen and combined to argue about this or that character’s endings. The one has nothing to do with the other.

As the author himself has made obviously clear, when D&D replaced Jeyne Poole with Sansa, the show split from book canon and became it’s own thing. Everything from that point forwards on the show is Game of Thrones and not A Song of Ice and Fire. To know what happens to book Arya, Jon, Dany, Sansa etc we need GRRM to finish the books with his characters and the story he is telling.

[v-e-l-v-e-t-g-o-l-d-m-i-n-e]

You know, the thing that pisses me off the most about the Enterprise finale is not Trip's terrible death, or that the crew doesn't even have a proper POV during their finale episode. Sure, these things makes me very angry, but the one thing that makes me see red, you know what it is?

It's the presumption that if the franchise were to be given a goodbye to a not known lenght of time, the ones who had to send it off had to be the TNG crew and none of the other series deserved this honor, as if the other ones - even the Enterprise crew, the one show doing the goodbye - were not worth it.

I'm having a similar feeling watching the third season of Star Trek: Picard, considering they wrote off the entire cast of the series, with the exception of Raffi and Seven. It does feel like once again the TNG crew is kicking out the cast of the original show to insert themselves in there at the end.

But it's not the same because it's a Picard series and Picard was the main TNG character!

Yes, I see this point, somewhat agree with it but. It's not the same. Because this is Picard twenty years after his captain years, and it's about who he is now. We saw him make new friends, a new family in the two previous seasons, and this is now all cast out, as if it was all worthless.

And you see, I'm not actually against the inclusion of the TNG crew in Picard's last season. I think it makes sense to include them; they are Picard's family, after all, and Nemesis left several loose ends. What I'm against is the exclusion of the original cast, when they should have been kept IN ADDITION to the TNG crew being brought back.

But it's too many characters to write about!

Deep Space Nine had NINE main characters (Sisko, Dax, Kira, Bashir, Odo, O'Brien, Quark, Jake, Worf), three main antagonists (Dukat, Winn, Female Founder) and a TON of supporting cast (Garak, Damar, Leeta, Rom, Nog, Morn, Keiko, Kasidy, Ziyal, Martok, Weyoun, Vic Fontaine...) and they managed to juggle it all just fine. More than fine.

But they have to work with much less episodes!

I see this point. It's true; only ten episodes it's not a lot of time when there used to be 26 episodes per season, but you know what? It's still a body of work with almost ten hours of duration. This is just a little less than the hours of the LOTR trilogy, and see the size of the universe and the storylines you're capable of creating with roughly the same timeframe.

If they focused on what matters and if they were to write it well, it is more than possible to juggle many characters and do a good work while you are at it.

Elnor should have been in this season; he could be a foil to Jack, since he sees Picard as a father figure. So should have been Soji, especially now that Data is back; I think he deserves to know he has a daughter. They never should have gotten ridden of Rios. Borg Queen Agnes is very plot relevant, but she's nowhere to be seen.

I'm glad that Raffi has been in this season and its a joy to see her with Worf, but it leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth that her romance with Seven seems dead to me. Trek has a terrible record with queer characters, and Seven and Raffi are the first lesbian couple in the whole franchise (and the only main ones apart of Jennifer and Mariner in Lower Decks), and even if they had highs and lows, at least season two bothered to give them time together and interactions. They barely were in the same room together during this season.

The constantly barbs to the early seasons like the way Troi and Riker talked about their home life, the way they ignore Borg Queen Agnes whole existence... this season seems do disdainful of its predecessors, and even if they were full of flaws, this seems so unfair to me. Especially when this season have such a a weak plot being held together only by the talent and the charisma of the TNG crew, it's really not a good look. The story is weak, it's repetitive, it doesn't make sense when you think about it for too long.

And you know what it's sad? Man, I LOVE the TNG crew. In fact I love TNG; apart from Deep Space Nine, it's my favorite Star Trek series. I prefer it even over TOS. It makes me sad to see them being brought together again so messily, and in detriment of everything the Star Trek: Picard series had previously established, especially when you can see the ways it could have been good.

[invested-in-your-future]

Is the pacing of RWBY storylines bad overall?

Six Years ago I wrote this little piece about the problems with narrative structure in RWBY Volume 4

Ironically, I think most of that still applies not just V4 but V5 V6 V7, and, really, every single volume since V4.

The show wastes time on unnecessary elements and then rushes or offscreens crucial elements of narrative and plot an audience would WANT to see.

The narrative of MilesWBY has exactly two modes - NOTHING is happening or EVERYTHING is happening.

Well, using "OR" here might be incorrect because...

Sometimes both of those writing modes are happening at once and while EVERYTHING is happening offscreen, NOTHING is happening.

The show essentially has, unintentionally, perfected saying a lot while saying NOTHING.

I think ANN review/retrospective of RWBY overall hits the point on the head well:

"This, in essence, is the biggest paradox of RWBY's writing. It tries so hard to cram in as much plot as it possibly can, but ends up saying far less than it did when a tidal wave of creative ideas was the main focus. Characters that could have had interesting and engaging storylines are either truncated to the point of not making any sense or are relegated to plot manipulators with one-dimensional characterization who get a single moment of interest directly before they become irrelevant for the rest of the story. It speaks to a lack of inventiveness in these new plotlines being written, creating the image that they care more about hitting the most salient story points and then moving on to the next batch of plot rather than finding intriguing and creative ways to flesh out the characters and aesthetic that drive said plot forward."

The only part I'd disagree with is V4 being different - I think V4 is exactly the same way its just that Miles and Co genuinely had no idea what to TRY to say or what the plot will be.

Like this perfectly describes the issue with MilesWBY writing overall. I think the key moment is when RWBY staff said after V4 that they offscreened Yang's journey with the arm because "it would be boring". That epitomises the crucial misunderstanding the showrunners have with the story. The story is not interested in those characters or their emotions or their development or reactions to the world around them. The story is not interested in making a point or making characters OR the world change or develop. The points of interest within the narrative are reversed from how you'd write the narrative. Focus is given to the parts you'd generally don't really focus on and the crucial character interactions, development, self-reflection, growth AND conflict are offscreen.

As it stands, that makes MilesWBY into a show which hasn't really said ANYTHING of note since the Fall of Beacon happened. The cast jumped through multiple continents and Kingdoms and yet none of the crucial characterization plotlines or thematic elements had ANY development.

The fact that Ever After trainwreck haphazardly attempts to use character flaws from volume one and two to do SOMETHING with characters speaks MILES (ha) about how much the writing staff doesn't care about having actual proper character progression. As well as how much thy are willing to completely ignore Volume 3.

You could literally cut out everything between V3 and any "Newest Volume" and just have characters randomly be dropped into it through magic and nothing would change. Even the "dead" characters don't mean anything - after all there's zero difference in MilesWBY on whether a character has genuinely died or if they merely were forgotten offscreen.

This might sound kind of mean but MilesWBY volumes are an equivalent of AI generated text paragraphs.

[fatratbabyy]

hi! i really love your designs, the colours are always really well done anf the characters are full of life.. and i love how your rewrites give the characters complexity and make them really interesting to me, much more so than canon(though i am a fan of some ideas introduced there, they don’t quite turn out in ways that make sense to me)! i’ve been wondering a few things about helluva troupe for a while however and hopefully the answers aren’t spoilers, lol.. in HT, what is Fizz’s involvement with the ‘troupe’ and what is stolas’s involvement too.? i wish you much luck on your work as it is lovely to see! (also apologies for my silly username)

Thank You!

Thank you so much that means a lot!! waaAahee! It makes me happy to see people interested 🥺👉👈

With Fizz it's,,, a bit Fuzzy, because hilariously he's the whole reason I made this AU among other things But I ended up makinh him a sorta side character antag again because while originally he was going to be part of the main crew from the start of HT's storyline, as I went along in trying to write I saw some cool hcs about his star clown days and so I thought to use the more canonized view- mostly in that he's a star clown during the events of HT instead of dropping the show life to join Blitz in I.M.P. That previous version is why you see him in the I.M.P references- and hinty hoo that ol version isnt completely null and voice to the current HT

ANYWAY so yeah- While Fizz isn't as much a main character as he was he still has a great deal of importance to the story and themes I want to express in HT. When it comes to him and the Troupe itself, I could best describe him as one of the biggest foils or parallels to the main cast. Just,, he's this golden image that represents their every want fulfilled. For Blitz especially given their thick history heehooo. (That's not to say this 'golden image' is entirely as it seems btw...)

Now it sounds much like canon I know but I like to think I'm taking a different direction with it- It's not really just the "haha you suck with relationships, fuck, shit, pénis im doing better look at my good relationship" nonsense cuz for 1. Fizzarozzie does nOT exist anymore- its Mamzie now 😊 (Mammon + Ozzie) and 2. The themes with Fizz and really most of HT has less to do with the melodramatic romance "will they wont they" of Stolitz (which isnt really a thing either) and more the struggle impoverished and oppressed peoples experience with success, failure, identity, community, family, status, history, trauma, etccc. Specifically, because I am an indigenous person from Canada, a lot of the themes are drawn from my own experiences, knowledge and history as an indigenous person. Though with execution, creative liberties were taken to make the fact they're in Hell clear btww-

That very likely did nOT answer jour question but i amn,,,stoopi 😭😭😭 simpler answer i suppose maybe by chance would be Fizz is an eventual antagonist to I.M.P. Specifics and how it happens and wheNNN?? Im still not sure yet if im honest- been really busy the last year or so and so Ive hadnt had any time or energy to work as much on writing all the things! ;u; thats probs disappointing to hear cuz plaNNing and all is important if you're gonna post story stuff at all,,, but !! I do hope to work more on the story this year so i can wrap up all these floating ideas into a Concrete line of stuff cuz truly all im missing is the middle pieces. Maybe an HT comic will be real this/or next year! 👀🏃

ANYHOOT ONTO STOLAS! i rambled a bit too much about Fizz cuz im still figuring him out- Stolas might be a bit shorter cuz his role is sweet and simplisticerr.

So, Stolas is an antagonist. He and Blitz still have an exchange sort of deal, but the deal is Blitz gets to keep the grimoire for I.M.P if he handles Stolas' "errands" and gives it back on the full moon with ofc none of the uh,,hawny stuff, obv. Blitz kinda keeps this deal under wraps from the rest of I.M.P because for him, it hurts his pride to admit he's in need of some big guy's help. And Stolas is somewhat aware of this. And so, Stolas is this looming, cruel threat that Blitz carries the burden of cuz he's stubborn as fuck whilst the rest of I.M.P remain ignorant.

Some bonus notes that dont really have to do with Stolas involvement with imp but jus how stuff ive changed with his canon influence the story diff than canon; so, Stella isnt a thing anymore. In general the Goetia work much differently- majority of the Goetia being the children of Ozzie instead of Paimon (who is Stolas' sibling now btw too) and the Goetia being thousands of years old instead of fucking 30- Also! While Via is existant she is but a baby instead of a moody teen,, ties heavily with Stolas' motives and how he operates as a character, royal, and Goetian and felt it would work better with how HT Stolas is as a character than it would otherwise.

Also no worries about the username! I dont like canon stolas much either lol,,;

I apologize if this didnt answer much 😭 feel free to let me know if you wanna hear about somn else gwahgh 🏃

[mournersandfunerals]

the only reason everyone is obsessed with shadow & bone is because of the crows' cast. none of the storyline makes sense, none them are according to the amazing plot leigh bardugo created on paper. but we're still screeching over the show only because the cast is perfect. amita suman as inej? not a single person can complain. freddy as kaz? they're intangible. kit as jesper? chef's kiss. danielle as nina? serves. wolfe as sweet, sweet wylan? can you imagine otherwise? callahan as matthias? truly a fjerdan. and there's the shadow and bone cast, which served too much too. alina, kirigan, zoya, the universal boyfriend nikolai- and everyone was perfect. i keep thirsting after everyone, squealing all throughout the show but then i sleep at night and realize how much of it ruined the effects of the book, how much of it doesn't even make sense. and i wanna throw a huge tantrum over it but then again. the cast. absolute perfection. all forgiven.

i don't think i can ever read the books again without imagining these characters. huge rant. sorry, bear with me, losing my mind over this show.

YES.

I love this cast SO much. They've done such a remarkable job with all the shit that was thrown at them this season. Most of the time I had no idea what was going on but what I DID know was that it was acted beautifully.

And I really respect how much thought they put into their characters, and how much they love the source material. I've never seen a cast understand something so deeply, and even if the script didn't necessarily give them a chance to show the depth of their characters, they tried their hardest to find a way to incorporate as much as they could from the personalities and backstories within the performances. And they have so much love for the fan base too and it makes it really really special.

The writing is awful but the cast is the heart and soul of the show

[jakexneytiri]

hey, yeah i meant the ship!! sorry it was confusing!!

also do you write for the avatar cast?

-🐋payakan defender anon

you’re fine!! sorry i’m a grandma and need everything explained to me 😭🤓

the ship is fine! it makes sense, they’re the only ones that survived the ship massacre ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ also i feel like lyle is quaritch’s closest right hand man. like none of the other recoms are on his level if that makes sense

but, i also do really enjoy the lyle x miski ship (miski is @thevanityofthefox ’s OC) dirok really took a creative approach to her storyline and i love it!! ((i highly recommend you check it out))

and by avatar cast you mean like sam, zoe, slang, sigourney..? i don’t think i’ve written one for any of them but i’m not opposed! :)

[waheelawhisperer]

What's on your event wishlist for Arknights? Which character story arc are you itching for? I'm so sorry if this has already been asked and/or you've addressed this somewhere else

I WANT MORE NEARL MORE NEARL MORE NEARL MORE NEARL MORE NEARL NEARL NEARL NEARL NEARL NEARL NEARL NEARL I AM ROLLING AROUND AND BEATING MY FISTS ON THE FLOOR LIKE A CHILD WHOSE PARENTS WOULDN'T BUY HIM A TOY -

Good question, thanks for asking! There are a lot of things I want to see more of, given the way the world of Terra is so rich and vibrant. The list below is in rough order and not by any means exhaustive.

I want to learn more about Columbia.

I want whatever the next step in Nearl's storyline is so badly because I would bet money that it's not over, but also every Nearl event has left a bad taste in my mouth because whoever's writing them has made a career out of fumbling the bag at the end of the event. I predict the next Nearl event casts Whislash as the protagonist solely because she's the only horsegirl remaining in the family who hasn't gotten dicked over by a crappy ending yet.

I am dying to see more of the Abyssal Hunters and learn what the hell is going on with Aegir. Give us more of the Inquisition and their sick Bloodborne drip too, and what the actual fuck is the Last Knight's deal?

I really want to learn something, anything, about Sami and Higashi. Please give us an event set in those areas. Please.

I require additional Siege. It took her literal years to become relevant to the narrative despite being a launch unit. Thankfully, the current main story arc is focusing on her. I would also like more of the Glasgow Gang along with her.

I really wanted to learn about Siracusa very very badly because it's packed full of wolfgirls apparently and I really love wolfgirls, but we got a Texas event in CN very recently so that will probably hold me over for a little while.

Swimsuit Horn. This is not a story arc, but I need it anyway because I want to see her BOOTY.

Playable Degenbrecher and Viviana Droste. I would take out a loan from the Mafia to pot 6 them. I also really want to know more about both of them.

Holy fuck please make Surtr a character that exists outside tier lists and one vignette.

Blaze. I want to see more of the Elite Operator who got to bond with the Doctor in Chapter 6.

More Elite Operators in general, I am very tired of Arknights releasing characters that don't feel particularly connected to the story while actual units we canonically have access to in-universe aren't available in the game. Give me Logos and Misery or I'll piss in your Cheerios Lowlight. Let us learn more about Rhodes Island and its history in general while we're at it.

Bolivar

Rhine Labs

Penguin Logistics

Give me more handsome men to roll for. Give me hunks. With muscles and beards.

Allow me to install a mute button on Kal'tsit and Catapult.

Things I do not care about or want more of at this point:

Lungmen, holy shit no more storylines set in Lungmen, please, I'm so tired of Wei and his stupid dickass city, just let me kidnap Swire and Hoshiguma and their gay rat lover and reunite them with Ch'en, they deserve so much better

Literally anything to do with Reunion, Kashchey, or Talulah.

I have no interest in the Sui storyline at this point, other than the Sui siblings none of the characters rise above mid-tier to me and the writing is so smugly self-congratulatory, the writers are so proud of making the story as obscure as possible and are too busy whacking off to their own intelligence to write a story that actually makes fucking sense.

Nervous Impairment and anything that incorporates dodge, I hate both mechanics and they actively make the game worse

Despite how genuinely funny Laterano is as a setting, Guiding Ahead was such ass that I genuinely don't want to revisit it, the only reason it even felt connected to the rest of the story was because Mostima was in it. This event had so many aspects that should've made me like it but the execution sucked so hard I just want nothing to do with the storyline it's setting up anymore.

Anything related to how awful Ursus is, I get it already.

There's a lot more but I want to go to bed. This should cover the most important stuff.

[fizzingwizard]

I've been wanting to react to the new!Nightcrawler!origins! buuut instead I fell asleep every night. anyway I haven't gotten to read it so I'm going by summaries.

Overall impression: Way too convoluted. Even though Mystique/Irene parentage was what I wanted as well, they lit had to tie canon into pretzels to get there. But what does X-men canon even mean anymore? Well, that's the other half of my impression: Why even bother, since someone can sweep in ten or twenty years from now and undo all of this the same way they just undid The Draco? lol

Not that I'm not dancing on the moon because The Draco is gone. That is vindictive dancing though. I don't like that one of Kurt's few biggish storylines is kaput now... except also kinda not??? like i said convoluted. And that has a ripple effect on nearly every other storyline he's had since The Draco too, because so many of them have been linked to Azazel/the afterlife. You can worm about to keep the parts of them you like, sure, if things are already this messy then why not let them be even messier!

But what motivation is there for a reader of X-books to care. X-books are so short-sighted these days that nothing means anything anymore. Things I wanted to see happen so, so badly when I was in high school could happen now and would have like a tenth of the impact, because everything is just forgotten/erased when the writing staff changes and the new staff isn't interested what the previous guys did.

Back to the origins themselves. There should be some appreciation for the inclusion of so much pro-gender fluidity. On the other hand, it's Mystique, lol. I'm not sure how to feel. Mystique has been many things over the years, and since much of it has been a messed up psychopathic sex idol, it's been nice to see them giving her a lot more nuance a la Claremont. OTOH, this is all just because of Jennifer Lawrence isn't -__-; That Mystique is the most boring incarnation of her ever. I really don't want to see Mystique that way in the comics. She needs to tread the line that never comes too close to angels. But that does make it tough for her to represent a marginalized community... since she's also a serial killer, I mean.

Irene's part is fine. I don't really have complaints except it's again just so involved.

The Azazel bit is incomprehensible. Whut.

And last, this is very much just my personal feelings... but I just don't think Nightcrawler should be this Shining Light Hero. He's always been my favorite X-man, and yes, I always wanted better storylines for him. But IMO it is always stupid to parade before a character with drums and trumpets, shouting "He's the good one! It was prophesied!" I was already side-eyeing the Hope Sword REALLY HARD and now you tell me Irene manipulated things so Kurt would be raised by Margali instead of Mystique? AND this was SO important that they even got Xavier to wipe their minds AND HIS OWN so none of them would remember what Nightcrawler really is? Whyyyy???

I know every time they change something people complain so. What can you do. To me Nightcrawler will always be the best supporting character with main character energy. ALL the X-men are both supporting cast and main cast at the same time. There should never be one front and center X-man who hogs all the limelight *cough* and is Teh Special One *cough cough* because it's X-MEN not "Wolverine and the X-men" *WHEEZING COUGHING UP A HAIRBALL*

The summaries seem to suggest - though I'm not completely sure - that Irene... wanted Nightcrawler to suffer? So he'd learn compassion, I guess??? As if being a blue, demonic-looking monster from birth didn't already guarantee that... I'm hoping either I or the summary I read misunderstood that bit bc it really makes no sense to me. But her leaving him with Margali to protect him from suffering doesn't make sense either, all things considered... I can only assume Irene was thinking about Kurt Darkholme, who was raised by Mystique, or maybe that one What-If where Mystique kept him upstairs and wouldn't let him interact with the outside world at all, and he ends up fusing with Rogue...

It's hard because I WANT to like this retcon, but I'm so damn wary of what they're going to do with it! It's just as scary that they might actually go through with whatever they're planning for Crawler as it is that they might NOT, since they almost never make good on anything they promise... Like what the fuck is up with his missing soul is that whole storyline still a thing or not!?!?

But I'll end on a positive note: At least he's not lusting after Stacy X, encouraging mutant strippers to morph into female friends, or any of the other lad fuckery Austen tortured us with. Also bye bye Draco, yay.

[vergess]

(reposted because??? tumblr ate or deleted the first post???)

So. Lots of pain meds at the moment, so this is a little bit nonsensical, but, I have been playing the newly released video game I was a teenage exocolonist (available on steam, not linked because tag visibility) while I am laid up in bed.

Lots of opinions, basically all positive. There’s a specific thing I want to talk about in more detail, but this post got too long so I will just link a future post on the gender politics of nature, nurture, and future as presented by the twins Dys and Tang.

So instead here’s my Most Recommendable Qualities (mostly free of spoilers):

Native linux compatibility:

you know how I am about that. I cannot believe I’ve become the very linux guy I so hated when I was working retail…

Upsettingly beautiful art

2D gaming is my first love but man the medium has come a long way since needing a flashlight to play pokemon. Sometimes I forget how far, and then games like this pop up with the gorgeous art and expressive characters, and I inevitably find myself wondering why the “”“"mainstream”“”“ video game market (in as much as such exists these days) focused so obsessively on photo realistic 3D when inevitably a well directed art style is what matters most.

The backgrounds and environments in the game are all extremely lush, with a gorgeous, colorful style that if I had become an art critic instead of a writing critic I would probably have better terminology to describe. Like, uh. Water colors or some shit. Stained glass. It’s all very luminous fuck dude I don’t know, the closest I’m going to get here is to write a poem and I’m not going to write a poem where the fuckign developers might see it. I need to be sober for that.

Characters:

I’m a character driven asshole, we all know this. It’s why I read so much fanfiction and play so much melodramatic fantasy and spend several hours of my life openly sobbing about a single fucking issue of Sandman. So, you’ll understand when I say, "people keep recommending me dating sims and I keep bouncing off of them because the characters never Do A Thing,” what my major criticism of a lot of Large Cast Of Dateable Character games is.

None of those issues arise here. I’ve played a few runs now, making a conscious decision on each to focus on a specific character. One. SIngular. Except, the thing is, you can’t do that. Not in the sense that the game won’t “let” you. You could certainly just dump all of your time into skills and one character. And the timeline of the game would change to reflect your isolationism.

Characters you don’t interact with during runs have their own “autonomous” storylines written, and each divergence your player character makes has its impacts meticulous tracked to create different character experiences every time, even as each character holds very tight to a narrow set of repeating traits. This only further emphasizes the fundamental strangeness of the player character, as the only one capable of being fundamentally different across timelines.

Also all the dateables are just, oh god, SO cute. And, by the time they are capable of fucking, very fuckable. Extremely attractive designs. Honestly everyone is super cute. The whole cast is magnificently designed. And that includes…

Monsters & World Building:

First of all, let’s get the important personal opinions out of the way. I think I would fuck the antagonist….uh….commander, whatever his title is. He looks like a fucked up centaur and I’m into that. There are also Adequate Amounts Of Tentacles. If you’ve known me long, you know that is a high bar, but the game clears it admirably and with diversity!

The alien fauna are all very FUCKING COOL. There’s a bit of throwaway dialogue from An Adult (your dad?) that talks about expecting the planet’s ecosystem to be ‘more alien’ than it is, and I respect the space program’s attempt a tpreparedness but for me, the whole uhhhhhh. Situation. With regards to the alien animals is PLENTY alien, and SO satisfying.

If you’ve ever been like, “god, I wish someone who wasn’t orson scott card would do all the cool shit they did in fucking speaker for the dead” then by GOD is this the game for you.

Accessibility:

The content warnings are extremely detailed. I reviewed them all, and having seen several of the ones I was most worried about, I feel they accurately described the situations without spoiling them. I did end up upsetting myself rather badly with one thing which happened, but it is hardly the developer’s fault that I misunderstood the context in which the “teenage pregnancy” CW would apply. I personally want to specify that (IN THE ROUTES I HAVE SO FAR PLAYED) the pregnancy is a very wanted, safe, and cherished.

The game players very well on controller, which is a must for me. There are a handful of UI elements that I have not yet been able to access by controller, but I think this is more a factor of my being bad at remembering buttons than the game’s design. If you have a mouse, that will solve the issue entirely. My GF speaks highly of the keyboard and mouse gameplay.

Turning off screen distortions and weather effects generally made the game very visually understandable for me, with large, clear iconography. If you have significant visual impairments, I don’t know if this is a good game to play. Picking up items on the ground can be tricky in some cases and there’s nothing for eg a high contrast or greyscale mode if you need that kind of thing.

Stability.

It’s easy to forget that near-launch properties are supposed to be complete games that function well. This game is very complete (VERY, INTRICATELY, COMPLETE) and very stable. With as complicated as the sets of cause-effect-timelines are, I expected it to be much easier to create minor paradoxes in dialogue.

So far, the only time events have seemed to happen slightly out of sequence due to relationship progression or what ever else, was when I made a conscious effort to be as obnoxious as possible at one point just to see if I could make it misbehave.

I haven’t been able to make it crash from within the game so far. I’m hardly a Q.A. tester anymore, but I do tend to be pretty aggressive to my games, so I feel confident in saying it’ll run steady for you if you get it.

Politics etc:

The queerness is all very excellent, super queer in very believable ways, especially given the cultural aspects of the worldbuilding. Characters behave queerly outside of just all being bi-for-the-player. The trans characters were all extremely appealing to me with strong characterization that included but did not obsess over their genders. There are at least 2 trans teens in the player character’s peer group and 2 trans adults of very different ages and character types, and there’s even a cute little intergenerational trans solidarity bit you can get sometimes. In addition, of course, to the ridiculously complete gender personalization.

You would not believe how many games forget that “bro” and “cowgirl” are gendered terms, but this one remembers.

The racial politics are, from my perspective, adequate to not interfere with my gameplay experience. The human characters do consistently refer to the environment and native animals in very colonialist terms but they’re literally colonizing the planet so…. The point is, there is not a native people being eradicated, though there are… territory wars(? I guess.) with both wild animals and antagonist peoples.

If you’re particularly sensitive to colonial narratives, handle with care, but I felt the writing in the routes I’ve seen so far handled most of the issues well. Plus I mean. THe title. Is “teenage exocolonist” like. I think the whole “colonialism is a major narrative theme” ituation should be made clear by that.

In terms of the human diversity it’s pleasingly broad. There are characters of all ages, builds, complexions, races, personality types. There’s a massive range of disabilities both physical and mental, as well as plenty of fun sci fi accomodations.

I mean just among the dateables I can remember top of the head, theres:

ambiguously asian twins who really said Autism Has Two Genders,

ambiguously brown fat girl with developmental disability,

ambiguously brown Gym Bro (derogatory) who is, and this is true, literally named 'ambiguously brown

ambiguously white farmboy who has clearly been eating his space wheaties and also helps invent space cannabis with your dad

unambiguously black girl who looks the autism twins dead in the eye and said 'no autism has one gender and is me’

unambiguously white tomboy who goes full samus

A dog (human)

Hatsune Miku (gender neutral)

Venom (twink)

There’s something here for everyone, all of these characters are super fascinating concepts honestly. I know I keep harping on that but it’s true so there.

Scenario writing:

It’s a bit difficult to separate the player character writing from the scenario writing for reasons that rapidly become clear in the game. Both are very good, though, so that’s fine. The writing is just really very good.

The variations on the timeline that you are able to uncover through repeated play are fascinatingly diverse even as certain events remain immutable, and the whole thing really plays with the concept of time travel and the other-self so beautifully. Really one of my very favourite explorations of the topic already, and I’ve only seen… IDK 4 endings along 2 routes? And there’s 29 endings???

It’s very good. The point is that it’s very good you should go play it.

It’s on steam. It’s app 1148760 on steam and it’s very good, it’s definitely worth more than what they’re charging. I mean have you seen what a $60 console game looks like these days, and then this is like. $25 and SO very much.

[b1ackx]

Ok so…. This is my first post and I’m trying to create a concrete story outline for these characters I have and I’ve seen that a lot of y’all are rlly good at angst and well written ideas…. I was kinda hoping someone might help me write out more for these characters backgrounds and storylines….

Ummmm… so so far I have only some for two characters Duco and Nyleen, both are the main characters and imma introduce more characters later on and also post pictures later on (hopefully) to help with the picturing and stuff but uhh.. here’s what I have so far. Oh also btw these are in idea form, not story so pls don’t expect some sort of elaborate story, just ideas to solidify said story.

Duco and Nyleen story

In an everyday regular high school, Duco and Nyleen go to school

Duco is being heavily bullied and no matter how much Nyleen tries to protect him no one else helps and none of the teachers do anything so it’s kinda rlly bad

One day the bullying got rlly bad and in the end as soon as Nyleen got there to help she came in time to have her brother die in her arms

After the “accident” Nyleen has to deal with the fact that the so called popular students killed her brother

She starts to slowly go insane the more time she spent at school knowing the reason she no longer had her little brother was because of those people so she starts to intricately plan their deaths to be the most sadistic, violent, and painful deaths

She plans it for everyone who wronged her brother: their dad, the teachers, the bullies, the police, ppl who did nothing, etc

The only people who will be left alive are those who were actually their friends

Before she could put these plans into effect, she had to pretend to be nice to all of them. She became a “popular” only with the thought of homicide comforting her rage against the people who wronged Duco

After all the planning, Nyleen puts each and every plan to effect and succeeds, creating a huge massacre with only a select few surviving

After all was said and done Nyleen was killed by one of the survivors. She purposely left that one survivor alive knowing they would kill her

She didn’t fight back and just let them take her life

____

After Duco died, he was sent to heaven

As beautiful as heaven was represented on earth it was nothing like the actual thing.

It still had the same principles of how a good person would come to heaven and a bad to hell but it was corrupted and overrun by power hungry people who made it in with the loophole of doing good instead of meaning good

Duco tries to make it a better place, finding other good people and trying to form a strike against the corrupt system only to be cast down to hell and become a “Fallen”

____

After Nyleen had died, she was obviously sent to hell

In hell, as a “newborn” demon she was assumed to be weak and was sent off to an imprisonment camp where all new/weak demons, imps, devils, etc. were sent

Her rage and deeds put her into the demon category which in the hierarchy of hells power was the most powerful but not all demons are powerful and she was assumed to be weak like mentioned earlier

After killing her jailers and escaping the camp, she starts to gains respect and followers (not in the “oh your a good person” way but in the “Daym she killed them all” or “damn she could kill me rlly easily” way)

Sooner or later Nyleen becomes one of the most powerful and respected figures in hell

Years of self defense and fights for survival hardened her into a cold killer with no sense of mercy along with the thoughts of how the world had killed her brother and she no longer could be with him

At least until one day she witnessed a bright light fall from the top of the accursed cavern and land in her territory

Of course she went to check out what it was only to find her dead brother lying on the ground

For the first time since Nyleen had come to hell she cried

____

After falling, Duco landed in a sort of barren waste land

The first thing he saw when he came to was someone in front of him crying

Not knowing who it was he instantly tried to comfort them

That was until he heard that someone utter “Uco” (pronounced “you-co”)

He instantly recognized the name and replied “Nyl”? (Pronounced “Nile”)

He started to cry as well

After a while of them sitting there crying, embracing each other in a desperate hug, they were approached by a group of demons

They proclaimed themselves as the “council” and demanded that Duco would be sent to the camp

Nyleen obviously defended him, threatening them with her power, ready to tear each one limb from limb until they said that if they died or if she didn’t follow, they would call down the angels to finish him (Duco) off

(Angels and demons have no differences in their power levels but Nyleen knew that her power and respect would not last against both the angels and the “Council’s” group)

Nyleen only agreed with the condition that she would go as well

The council instantly agreed with the thought of getting rid of one of the most prominent and powerful figures in hell, giving them more power

Jokes on them, Nyleen got out on her own accord so she’ll do the same, just with her brother this time

__________

Additional details

The names Satan and Angel are titles, not beings or levels of powers

The title is given to the being with the most territory, followers/people, reputation, etc.

Like basically the person with the biggest, strongest mafia

Nyleen being Nyleen gains the attention of Satan who later approaches her, befriends her, and acts as her stand-in father

Meanwhile in heaven, before Duco gets kicked, he manages to gain the attention of Angel who also approaches and befriends him and acts as his stand-in mom

Names will be given later their names are N O T Angel and Satan. Those are just titles

Oh also….mom…. Dad….. hint hint

Oh also btw, both Angel and Satan are men. Not bc of the whole women are weaker sh1t but bc I want s o m e sort of gay in here bc I can（╹◡╹)

Also

The scars on Duco and Nyleen are indications of how they died…. Or at least show the wounds they had as they died

Duco’s scar across his cheek is from being thrown into the ground and heavily scraping his face

He also died from blunt force trauma to the head

Also if we wanna have more angst we can say that the bullies dunno that Duco was dead, so they taunted Nyleen about why he no longer came to school which drove her even closer to insanity

[siramay-the-showgun-dragon]

Junko or Mukuro, whichever you prefer

fine i’ll do both! 1. My first impression of them that is a good question.... I do not think I thought much of them just, oh the villain and the minion ok, though I remember first seeing junko off handedly on a YouTube vid recommend before anything danganronpa I thought she was part of those dark aesthetic Alice in wonderland stuff. 2. When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you've sent me a character I don't like) well when I started to hate junko I totally forgot I just remember being filled with a dark hate, then I remember her going into my dream and telling me to write her backstory witch gave me new found respect for them, so honestly I’m mid on them, as for mukuro also a dream me, her and some other dude where doing an assignment for junko then we slept in my room but I had the bed mukuro complained about having to sleep on the floor and so I turned to one corner of my bed, started to early pat the empty side and said “YOU CAN SLEEP HERE! THERE’S ENOUGH ROOM FOR BOTH OF US!” and when I woke up, I just appreciated her more, I swear those despair sisters must have cast a magic spell on my dreams. 3. A song that reminds me of them so many, so so many what songs to even choose oh for junko David bowies “you will set the world on fire” and mukuro Shakira’s “she wolf.” 4. How many people I ship them with a good amount like one maybe two. 5. My favorite ship of them naejunko, and naekusaba…. They can both have Makoto; Makoto has two hands after all (though I must admit I like naejunko more) so if mukuros hands are empty THEN I SHALL HOLD THEM I SHALL GIVE HER THE LOVE THE UNIVERSE NEVER DID! 6. My least favorite ship of them … I do not think I need to say it but to hint it is the same for both though I also hate junko x Matsuda they are toxic for one another junko deserves better (like a brown hair, green eyed, hoodie wearing, lucky hopeful boy whose name starts with M) 7. A quote of them that you remember “Once you've experienced the despair I've suffered, there's no turning back. Living in shadows of past memories.. That's...too sad, you know” “I don‘t know if…she is attracting despair or despair is attracting her but…she has lived her whole life with despair by her side. She lived while immersed in despair. That‘s why she began looking for despair in others. She learned to enjoy pushing people into despair. But you know, that‘s normal. It‘s the same as someone being cursed by misfortune fall into hatred for those who aren‘t. But what‘s special about her was that she learned to enjoy inflicting despair onto herself. That‘s how the link to despair began. As she chased down despair, she pushed it onto others on the way. Doing so, it caused her to desire falling into despair even more…and because of that chain to despair, the Super High School Level Despair was born” 8. Your favorite outfit of them I guess that outfit mukuro existed in in the beginning of dr3 so adorable as for junko I would much prefer not having to look at her atrocious face or body for as much as humanly possible the less I see her the better so none. 9. Your least favorite outfit of them when mukuro dresses as junko NOOO BABY GIRL DON’T LET JUNKO HUMILIATE YOU LIKE THAT!!! and junko in anything her existence and visage disgust me so seeing her in anything makes me uncomfortable. 10. Describe the character in one sentence “despair.” “she had heart where she should have had brains and so loyal mukuro remains.” 11. What’s the first thing you think about when thinking about the character? mmmmmmmmmmmmmm mukuro also THE CHARACTER MAKES SENSE IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT 12. Sexuality hc! junko is bisexual I do not know for mukuro, but she definitely likes men. 13. Your favorite friendship they have does Makoto count or is that shipy and if it is do ocs count? 14. Best storyline they had I loved dr0 what can I say I am a sucker for a villain story and mukuro call it basic but IF really wraps her characterization in a nice bow. 15. Worst storyline they had hmmmmmm… probably main story drs mukuro is dressed as junko and that’s a disservice to both junko and mukuro as junko don’t become friends with class 78 and they never truly get to like mukuro for who she is (though the drs sub au where junko is herself in game is quite enjoyable if a little sad) and in case any of you ask I am perfectly fine with how they are in dr3 because DR3 MAKES SENSE IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT 16. A childhood head canon Fenrir was basically mukuros found family, they got mean parents so Fenrir was basically the dad, weird uncles and grandpa she never had one soldier even tried to do his research on female puberty to help with her time of the month FOUND FAMILY FENRIR! as for junko I’ll try to skip my sad ones oh I know! She really likes space when she was young, she wanted to be an astronaut Afterall space is the great unknown and junko likes unknown and unpredictable so what can be more unpredictable than space? When young she would sneak out of the house go up the hill look at the stary sky and talk on all she knew 17. What do you think their first word was? do not be basic and assume its despair that’s cliché, though speaking of mukuro probably did have a simple first word, oh I know junkos would be “why” its curious mysterious logical and a little sad if one over thinks the context 18. How do you think they were like as a kid? (Like, were they shy, noisy, wild, etc.) sad. 19. The most random ship you've seen people have with them you see one time a weirdo told me they shipped Leon with junko HAHAHAH he’d die before he could even have his first date I mean I respect the ship its just that person was mean as for mukuro I donno most mukuro ships I see make sense if you think about it…. except one 20. A weird head canon junko likes David bowie music! mukuro has a pet wolf named frank junko gave him to her as a puppy he eats the corpses of her victims and he’s a good wolfy one of the rare nice things junko did for her she wanted to name him Fenrir but that was too on the nose so frank 21. When do you think they were at their happiest? when she died when Makoto smiled at her. 22. When do you think they were at their lowest? junkos constantly at her lowest and any moment she continues to live she will get lower when she died 23. Future head canon assuming they did not die mukuro would have a happy ending free from junkos abuse finally living for herself and junko can have Makoto they can kiss get married and have triplets called hope, Heiko and zetsu-bo. 24. What do you think is a secret they have that they never told anyone? “sometimes I really want to punch junko in the face” “I wish someone would finally stop me so I can finally end my constant cycle of suffering and self-suffering.” 25. When do you think they acted the most ooc hmmmmm nothing for mukuro her character makes sense when you think about it the problem is most people don’t as for junko the final future arc episode in dr3 with chisa … assuming that wasn’t an illusion in chisias head or junko just lying to her chisas goat because like come on junko you’ve seen it for yourself 3 times you should know by now Makoto’s going to come through and everything will have a happy ending if you don’t you’re stupider then I thought 26. When do you think they were being "themselves" the most? junko in dr0 (if you know what I mean) as for mukuro…. Maybe IF since her character arc ends there and she finally tries to be true to herself… kind of 27. If they could meet a character from another show/movie/etc., who would be the most fun for them to meet? I’ve had a junko and William Afton team up au in my back pocket for a long while now I just keep forgetting to make a post on it but I think that be fun kind of like egg man and Wily 28. The most unnecessary thing they ever did? everything junko does is unnecessary mukuro going through with junkos plans on dr0 come on girl I’m not mad but you had an easy out there this was your chance and you blew it I know how bad codependent relationships can be so I’d never be mad at her for it just a tad disappointed both her and her sister could have had a happy ending, but after those events there’s no hope of happiness anymore. 29. How do you think they would be like a parent? (and if they are a parent, how do you think they would be if they weren't?) I feel mukuro would try but I don’t think she’d be the best but she would try and you don’t have to be perfect to be a perfect parent as for junko,… question is she trying? Because she has it in her to be a great mom but if she is letting her despair addiction take hold, I do not want her within five hundred feet of a child. 30. The funniest scene they had? in the dr3 dub after izuru bashed junkos head in and she woke up mukuro said “dang you’re not in a coma” and that’s the most beautiful thing she ever said she should sass her sister more also later in dr3 junko gets hit in the head with a fire extinguisher she needs to suffer more

[joongalez]

Chapter 3 - Storyline 1

[masterlist] 09/11/20xx 9:37pm

Seonghwa holds his flashlight as steady as he can as he trudges through the woods, Jongho doing the same beside him. The air is chilly, even though Seonghwa wears a jacket, and the moon casts eerie shadows over the ground. Seonghwa does not want to be here, but he is. For Jongho.

“Where are we even going?” Seonghwa hisses, his voice cutting through the darkness.

“Toward the river,” Jongho answers. He has his flashlight steadier than Seonghwa’s, shining light between the tall trees.

Seonghwa almost trips over a branch but steadies himself. “I really don’t think we should be out here.”

“It’s for the story.”

“I know, but is it worth it if something bad happens to us out here?”

“Nothing will happen to us,” Jongho assures Seonghwa. “Whoever is doing this probably won’t attack us both at the same time. We’re much safer together.”

“This really doesn’t feel safe.”

Jongho switches the subject. “Why did you move to Insuetis anyway? What drove you away from wherever you came from?”

Seonghwa is shocked. “What do you mean? How do you know I was driven away?”

“I didn’t, but I do now.” Jongho shrugs. “People don’t just move to Insuetis. It’s basically unheard of. The only people in Insuetis are the ones who have lived here our whole lives. When an outsider joins us, it’s usually not because they saw Insuetis on the front of a cute little brochure.”

Seonghwa stays silent for a long moment, considering what he should say.

“We’re going to be working together, so we might as well know some things about each other,” Jongho says. “Right?”

Seonghwa takes a breath, stepping over a large, fallen branch. “I just needed to get out and go somewhere new. Somewhere no one would know me, where it would be easy to blend in and just write.”

“Why?” Jongho questions.

“My… my family.” Seonghwa’s voice is quieter now, just above audible. “They… they passed away. I couldn’t handle the pain, so I left.”

Jongho nods. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

It’s quiet for a moment, the only sounds are the leaves rustling in the wind and the two men’s shoes crunching against fallen leaves and sticks littered on the woods floor.

“The river is up there,” Jongho says, cutting through the thick quiet. “Wait, do you see that?”

“Huh?” Seonghwa shines his flashlight in the general direction where Jongho’s is pointing, but he doesn’t see anything. “See what?”

Jongho breaks into a run, heading straight toward the river. Seonghwa hurries to catch up, almost tripping twice, having to regain his balance and force himself to keep moving forward. His heart is beating up into his throat and his body is beginning to shake.

He stops next to Jongho, who is kneeling next to the river, grabbing something off the ground. It’s a small, white piece of paper with a bunch of random symbols on it.

“What the hell is this?” Jongho asks.

Seonghwa stares down at the paper, trying to make sense of the symbols, but none of them look familiar. The note doesn’t make any sense to him. “I don’t know.”

“It’s like some kind of note,” Jongho responds. “Like… a code. Maybe from the serial killer.”

“You think it’s a serial killer?”

Jongho shrugs. “Who else would have a note like this?”

Before Seonghwa can answer, he hears a branch snap in the distance. He immediately turns to Jongho, whose eyes are wide.

“We should go,” Seonghwa says.

Jongho stuffs the note into his pocket. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

[gross-gal]

So, I have to ask your opinion on Sonic X. It's the only Sonic related thing I have the most knowledge of.

So, X is one I have a lot of mixed feelings on. I didn't get a chance to play very many Sonic games as a kid so X was basically the best I had and for what it is, I think it's a pretty good introduction to how these characters are meant to be. They're all pretty accurate for the most part, albeit, kind of stupider.

I binged through this with a friend and rewatched S3 recently and...yeah this show is not very good. I find it boring for the most part and when it's not letting the Sonic cast take focus, it's really annoying. Even when getting to arcs that were "the most exciting," they're also not good. S2 just tells worse versions of the Adventure storylines and S3 only gets engaging towards the end.

Almost none of the original characters for this show are that interesting either. I kinda feel about the same for Cosmo as I do for Chris.

But...at the same time...

When this show has it's moments...they're genuinely really great and you can see a glimpse at what a good Sonic adaptation could be.

A lot of people bash on S1's filler stuff, but I actually found them to be the most entertaining. There's just something comforting about seeing these characters in more simpler action scenarios or just simply seeing them hang out or do little nice things. Everyone thinks about the episode with Sonic helping Helen, and for good reason.

And when they have emotional moments, I always think about Season 2's last episodes. I feel bad that Chris gets as much shit as he does, for good reason because they made him so weirdly dependent on Sonic, but I genuinely love that episode where Sonic takes time alone with him so he's ready when he's gone.

Sonic X has some fantastic emotional beats that are really great from an outsider perspective, but watching the show, they're a lot more heartwretching cause they overall mean nothing.

Genuinely, this show has some of my favorite writing for Sonic's character. And a lot of the problems this show has will make sense if you know that this was written by Sonic 06's writer. But what I like about that and X is how it show's Sonic's heroism and sensitive side. They have his attitude down so well, I think about it a lot.

Season 3's finale with Sonic talking to Dark Oak is engraved in my mind. AGGHHHH I HATE THIS SHOW BUT I ALSO KINDA LOVE IT.

Oh but it does have the worst Amy ever and that pisses me off.

[girlstalkmichael]

Just finished new gossip girl and here's my thoughts:

all the characters were unlikeable to me except max and i thought it was just me but after a deep dive on youtube it turns out almost everyone feels the same way

the characters were bland and boring and i tried so hard to get invested in these characters and their storylines but it was torture

i hated some of max storylines especially the teacher thing and the the relationship with audrey and Aki thing but atleast he feels like a third dimensional character and have some depth to some extent in this show which can't be said about many charactes plus Thomas Doherty's acting is great

julien does not give the it girl vibes and charisma at all and in general it did not make much sense for her to be the it girl in the new York private school rich kids community like i it made sense for someone like blair and serena in the og to be in that position hell even Monet would fit more than her

also obi does not give the vibe that he's the prince of new York like the show likes to say

in general the casting is so off except Thomas

none of the characters have any distinct or unique personalities like the writers just copy pasted all the characters' perosnalities except maybe Max to some extent and in the og that was not the case at all from the first episode their personalities were shown maybe the only one who was a bit bland was nate but even him had redeeming qualities

The teachers being gossip girl make no sense at all either they make them actual villains of the show or make gossip girl a student because trying to make them heros is just so weird and inappropriate since they are litteraly teachers who are bullying their teen students

The writing is just terrible and that reflect on the plots and the characters drastically

the fact that the teachers revived gossip girl just to teach the students a lesson and to make them better people makes no sense since gossip girl never ever made anyone change for the better

the show was trying so hard to be woke and politically correct that they did not allow anyone to be complex characters, villains or anti heros and just wanted the viewer to root for everyone that ever set foot in that show

julien for some reason doesn't know how to control her minions and i thought they were the sort of minions like the ones with blair in the og but they just keep doing things behind her back and julien listens to them so easily like some times it feels like she is their minion in a way if you get me and julien in some point in the show acts like they were her bffs even though they've never showed that they care about her at all and she just needs to ditch them

the show didn't even try to make the viewer understand why all the group would be friends when they barely have anything in common and the group just feels awkward and just don't have any chemistry together

all the ships in the show were meh at best

The fact that there was so many poc being from really really high social class doesn't feel realistic to me and i know it's good to have representation in the media I'm a middle eastern muslim myself and i would be part of the minorities if i was living in the us so i understand the importance of representation

the acting wasn't great either except Thomas really gave it his all and I've seen some of them in other shows and their acting was fine there so it could be a product of bad writing or directing for some of them

and what's sad about this show is there was potential for it to be great

i hope they fire the writers who wrote the atrocity that is s1 since for some reason hbo decided to renew it

I enjoyed milo surprisingly and i know that georgina is going to be in s2 so i will watch s2 just for her and i hope that somehow the show can get better

I talked so much & thanks for anyone who read all that

Anyway i don't what other shows I'm gonna do this with next but i did have fun doing the gossip girl ones