#definitely not the writers/assistants of writers themselves

[crimsonblackrose]

Wait...wait what? I thought my blog was just getting a fluke in a spike of activity. I thought the activity was like people finding their way through the middle of nowhere because of my posts and being like hey thanks. Not...not big name author’s assistant asking me if I interview authors on my podcast that I stopped doing like two summers ago.

Cue panic. 

[cy-cyborg]

Writing disability: The Super-Crip Trope, and how to avoid falling into it's harmful elements

The "Magical disabled person" or as it's often called in disability circles, the "Super-Crip" is the name of a trope in which a disabled character has some kind of magic or special abilities, which is used to mitigate or erase the impact of their disability. While not a mandatory part of the trope, many super-crip characters are also stronger than their peers, specifically because of their disability's impact on their powers. So why is this trope so unpopular among many disabled people? There's a few reasons. The main one is because more often than not, Super-crips who are written by non-disabled people are often treated as an easy way out of actually having to deal with a character's disability, and a shortcut out of having to do the research into how a disabled character would deal with certain situations. When these writers encounter something they think their disabled character can't do, instead of actually talking to people with the same disability as their character and doing research, they just write that its not a problem because "magic powers go!"

In some cases, but not all, their powers all but erase their disability completely, at least from the perspective of it's relevance to the story. While, to my knowledge, this was never in the comics or movies, A good example of this is a "fan-theory" I've seen among non-disabled X-men fans who claim professor X could use his telepathy to walk, functionally bypassing his spinal injury (Or his leg injury, if we're going off some of the comics' timelines). This would functionally erase his disability, making it an example of both the super-crip trope and the miracle-cure trope.

ID: An image of Professor X from X-men, a white bald man wearing a suit, sitting in a silver wheelchair, and another unknown man in a suit standing beside him, framed by a circular doorway, both their faces are partially obscured by shadow. /end ID]

Another reason this trope is disliked is because writer's often have good intentions when using this trope, but they actually end up undermining the points they were trying to make. Often, super-crips are portrayed as badasses in an attempt to show that "you can still be a hero/useful to the plot and be disabled", but the way they portray it usually implies that disabled people, as they exist in real life, aren't useful unless they have something that compensates for their disability or have impossible powers.

So should super-crips be avoided entirely? Some folks in the community think so, but personally, I don't agree. Despite all of what I've said so far, I think there are ways to write characters who technically fit the definition of a super-crip, without it being harmful. There's an argument to be made that "super-crip" specifically refers to harmful version of the trope, so not everyone will consider characters who aren't part of it, but I do, and I think it's important to discuss both the harm this trope can bring, and how this trope can be used in non-harmful ways. Humans (and creatures with human-level intelligence) are adaptable creatures, and in a world where magic exists and especially in worlds where its common, disabled people will find ways to use it to help themselves. but help is the key word there. So let's talk about some ways you can write super-crips, without it crossing the line into becoming harmful. The following are some things for you to consider about your character's disability, how their magic/powers interacts with it, how they interact with the world (and vice versa) and more:

Are your character's powers an aid or a cure?

The first, and one of the most important things to consider, is if your character's powers function like an aid or piece of assistive tech, or a cure? If you boil it down, is the magic helping them or "fixing" them? This can be a cure in the literal sense, as in giving an amputee the ability to shape-shift to get their limb back, or a functional cure, meaning the power essentially by-passes the disability, like the above mentioned professor-X fan-theory. It's not literally curing him, but it might as well be. In a world where this magic or super-powers exist, it's perfectly natural that a character might use the magic to lessen the impact of their disability, but it shouldn't erase it entirely. Give the magic a trade off, make it imperfect. You character can cummon a magic prosthetic, but there's a time limit on how long it lasts for, or their magic needs to recharge it. A wheelchair using mage might be able to engrave magic runes on their chair that allow them to pass over rough terrain, but only to a certain extent. It might allow them to go up-stairs, but it can only be used so many times per day (and make sure you show the times where they need to get up the stairs, but have run out of uses!) Things like that.

Is the power directly tied to their disability?

Is the power you're giving the character directly tied to their disability? There's 2 ways you could read this, and both should be considered. 1. The power is something you, as the author, gave to them specifically because it would help mitigate their disability (e.g. giving a character without arms telepathy so they can still pick things up/hold things because you couldn't figure out how they would be a badass swordsman without it) or 2. Does this character, in universe, have their power specifically because of their disability? e.g. Did our arm amputee develop telepathy through sheer-force of will because they really wanted to be a swordsman, and their determination manifested as telepathy/A god gave them the powers because they felt bad for them/a wizard taught them how to do it because they were inspired by the person's perseverance? If the answer to the first one was yes, perhaps reconsider and do more research. If the answer to the second one is yes, proceed with a lot of caution. Generally, if the powers originate from someone feeling sorry for your character, being inspired by them or anything to do with their determination and perseverance, I'd recommend changing that. However, if the powers came from your character having to adapt something to to their disability, that is really a case-by-case basis thing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. your success with it will depend on the character, the setting and the specifics of how.

Is this power common, or is this character the only person in the cast/only person we see with this ability?

Is the power you're giving your disabled character rare, or even unique? It's fine to give your disabled characters powers that are common within the world, but if they're one of the only people who has that ability (or similar abilities), ESPECIALLY if it directly helps mitigate their disability, you might want to reconsider that choice. In a world where everyone can fly, it would be weird if your wheelchair user couldn't without an explanation. But if no one else in the story can fly except your wheelchair user, it starts looking more like you just gave them that power so you don't have to think about accessibility in your world. If you really must give your disabled character the rare/unique power, consider making another character with a similar disability but no/more common powers so you aren't just avoiding the issue, or making the power not related to/impact their disability directly (e.g. giving your leg amputee super-hearing.)

Does this power solve a wider access issue in your world, or does it just make it easier for your character alone?

As a general rule of thumb, if you are writing a story where you don't want accessibility issues to be a thing (e.g. a story set in a utopia), focus on fixing the environment, not the characters. Instead of giving your wheelchair user the ability to fly upstairs, give the buildings ramps and lifts. That way, its a solution for everyone with that disability, no matter their access to things like magic or technology. When talking about super-crips, this is especially important, doubly so if your character's power is rare! I made a (mostly joking) post ages ago about an idea for an earth-bender character in the Avatar universe, who gets fed up with republic city being inaccessible and starts earth-bending all the stairs into ramps. This solves the accessibility issue for them, but also makes their environment more accessible for others without bending to get around. Of course, not every disabled character will want to help/care to help others, but often when non-disabled people write disabled characters with powers, they kind of forget that their character won't be the only disabled person in this world. It often feels like they honestly think fixing things for their character means there's no problem anymore, and that's not the case.

Avoid, "I may have [insert disability here] but I can still do stuff because of my power!"

By this, I mean give your character other ways to address issues relating to their disability than just their powers. One funny example I remember reading in a writing group I was a part of was this author who was bragging about how their paralysed character could still drive a car because they had electrokinisis (the ability to telepathically control electronics). Aside from the fact that wouldn't work on all cars - including the one their character drove, since not all cars have electronic components controlling their acceleration and brakes, the way they described it was extremely complex, and overall not worth the effort when the real-life solution, hand controls, was much, much easier and the setting allowed for easy access to that kind of tech. When I pointed this out to them, they said they had no idea hand controls were a thing, and they had no idea that real disabled people could drive. They thankfully changed it, but there's 2 things to take from this: 1, double check that disabled people can do the things you assume they can't, your magic solution might very well not be needed, and 2. variety is important regardless. No one device, or in this case, magic power, should act as a one-size-fits-all solution. IRL disabled people have lots of tools to help us, I have 2 sets of prosthetics for different tasks, a wheelchair, a grabby claw (for reaching things on high shelves when using my short legs and wheelchair) and hand controls in my car (or at least I used to but we won't get into that lol). My prosthetics won't "fix" all my problems, I need other tools too. keep this in mind when it comes to magic too - it shouldn't be the only thing at your character's disposal.

There's nothing to compensate for.

Remember, don't treat your character's disability as something they need to make up for (especially if they "make up for it" using their powers). Your disabled character is allowed to make mistakes, they're allowed to have flaws both related and unrelated to their disability, they're allowed to not be good at some things, and they don't always have to be the best at whatever their roll in the plot is. In most stories, they should be on par with the other characters, or at least in the same ball-park, but as I mentioned before, a lot of stories don't let disabled characters fail. In order to justify them even being present, they are often made out to be the undeniable best, almost to mary-sue levels of perfection and super-crips especially fall into this issue a lot. They can be good at things, but balance it out, like with any other character.

You don't have to use all of these points, but they are still worth at least considering. For example, Toph fails all of these points except the first three. Despite that, she's still one of my favorite disabled characters in media, even if she's not perfect, and I'm not alone in thinking that. I've seen lots of other disabled people say the same about her. Which of these points you should use will depend on your story, character, setting and tone. As I've mentioned a few times now, the key is striking a balance. At the end of the day though, these are only general pieces of advice and a lot more factors go into making a character like this work. only disabled people will be able to tell you if you've pulled it off, and that's where beta-readers and disabled sensitivity readers come in!

Also, remember, these kinds of tropes don't just apply to the more common/well-known disabilities like amputations and wheelchair users, that's just what I have experience with! Be sure to research any disabilities your character has to ensure you are not falling into these tropes.

[3hks]

3hks' Guide to Plot (2024)

Alright guys... Here's a big one! These are MY personal thoughts on how to create and write plot. As time continues, I'm positive that some of these things will change, which is why I included "(2024)" in the title! Let's start with some of the basics and definitions, shall we? Hint: you probably want to see the last tip!

~PLOT STRUCTURE~

For 99.9% of novels, they follow a similar--if not the same plot structure--so let's take a look at them chronologically!

>>> Exposition: The beginning of the story, the starting characters, settings, relationships, and ideas are established. This is meant to give the reader a basic sense of the story.

>>> Inciting Incident (initial conflict): This is what sparks the conflict. The characters themselves may not realize it, but this event ultimately changes the whole course of the plot! (This may not always be before the rising action.)

>>> Rising Action: The GOOD stuff starts here! More introductions, more development, more action! Tension builds as the story continues.

>>> Climax: The climax is NOT equivalent to the conflict. The climax is the most exciting or tensest part of the story. The protagonist often is forced into making a difficult decision, whether it be self-inflicted or by another character's hand.

>>> Falling Action: The climax has ended, and things are coming to an end! The falling action is always shorter than the rising action, because there isn't much to introduce, and the characters are simply rolling through the consequences (good or bad) of their previous actions.

>>> Resolution: This is the end of the story. Many people will tell you to tie all the knots together during this part, but it's ultimately up to you! However, there should be some sort of ending to provide closure, at the very least. The conflict should also be resolved (hence the name).

Let's look at the diagram itself! (I'm using Freytag's pyramid because it's well-known. Thank you Writer's Hive for the image!)

~CONFLICT~

Alright, let's talk about the types of conflict real quick!

Character v.s Character: This is your typical conflict, where there are two opposing characters struggling against each other.

Character v.s Self: This is a less common conflict that takes place within the character's mind. (Examples: Self-doubt, decision making, moral dilemma, etc.)

Character v.s Society: This is a conflict between a character (or even a small group of characters) struggling against a larger, typically oppressive society as a whole.

Character v.s. Nature: Just like in the name, this is a character against a force of nature: a tornado, storm, flood, etc.

Character v.s Supernatural: Simply put, this is just a character struggling against a supernatural force.

While knowing and being able to identify the different conflicts doesn't necessarily help you write, it's important to understand what your character is battling against in order to build the conflict.

~BUILDING THE ARCS~

If you watch a lot of shows or movies, you're probably familiar with the term "arc," which is just another way to say plot or subplot, depending on your story.

When writing plot, you want to have a MAIN or LEADING ARC. This is your character's goal that's usually established at the exposition. However, there is usually more to add so your storyline isn't too one-dimensional. These are more arcs or subplots that simply branch out. In a way, it's meant to slow the plot down and add more content while still advancing the story.

So yeah, subplots are able to assist in slowing down the story but they need to help advance the main arc.

This can be done by simply connecting the two--making sure that both of them are at least relevant to one another.

Here's an example! Let's look at HunterxHunter (Yoshihiro Togashi)

The main character, Gon, has a goal to locate his father. This is what HunterxHunter is mainly about. The leading arc, main plot, etc.

It's incredibly simple and straightforward, but it's not that easy.

Along the way, you see different problems arise, creating more subtle and smaller arcs. For instance, there's the Yorknew arc, the Greed Island arc, and the Chimera Ant arc.

The focus of those arcs aren't necessarily for Gon to find his dad. As a matter of fact, his objective is kind of an afterthought in the presence of these subplots. Still, they are connected to Gon's objective and push the story!

See how modest the main plot is? It does not have to be the world's most complex storyline.

Your protagonist's goal is the leading arc, and things just get in the way of it.

Keep this in mind and it may actually help you design your plot events!

~KEY POINTS~

Character introductions: By the end of the rising action, you want most of your characters to have been introduced. This may vary for some certain scenarios, but logically, most characters are going to be involved in the climax, so they must be introduced beforehand.

Environment: Your character will typically start out with a set view of their society, world, and people. Through your developing plot, there should be some changes in their view. What they believe is true could prove to be false.

Triumphs and losses: Sometimes, your character needs to win, and sometimes, they need to lose. This adds a sense of naturalness (not everyone gets what they want) and aids your character development. There are times when a loss is actually the foundation of the exposition! (Wink-wink, nudge-nudge)

~WHERE TO PLACE "THAT SCENE"~

Here's a pretty big one! As writers, we often have just "that scene" pictured out in our minds--it's absolute perfection and a REAL piece of art.

But where are we going to insert it?

If it's not too important, there are three places I suggest! 1. The exposition, 2. the rising action, 3. the falling action.

If your moment is able to introduce a relationship, character, or setting, the exposition is the way to go. If it can build on the three things I listed AND may have a part in the conflict and/or climax, then rising action it is! If it's somewhere in between and somewhere else, then try falling action!

And it can even be the inciting incident if begins the conflict!

Resolution is also a possibility, but because it's near the end, your scene may have less impact than you want. However, if you're still into that idea, then I suggest placing it at the very end! (You'll just need a lot of patience to get through your whole story just for that part, though lol.)

The most important part is to understand what the moment can contribute to the plot, because then you'll have a much better idea of whether you should place it closer to the climax or further away!

Did this help? Let me know!

Happy writing~

3hks <3

[peoplesgraves]

I really liked your Yandere thoughts about being a Model surrounded by Obsession. If it is not too much to ask, could you do one about being an Actor that is surrounded by obsession?

Some more yandere thots for y’all. This time you’re an actor who can’t escape obsession.<3

Other actors all want to do romantic scenes with you. If they ever had to do a sex scene with you they’d be so smug. Already thinking of ways to tease it in interviews and thinking of how many people will be shipping you together after it comes out. Do they watch edits and read fanfic of the two of you? It more likely then you’d think. Everyone wants to be your date on the red carpet or to be in a pr relationship that hopefully into more.

A personal assistant who has so much control over you. Who remembers every little detail, every meeting and every extra actor who looks at you just a little too long. They know exactly how you take your coffee and every single password you’ve ever had. Your beloved assistant will login to your phone and block anyone they don’t like and they’ll cancel shoot days if they think you need a break. Your assistant knows everything about you and they’ll use every little secret against you if they have too. They just want to take care of you. To make sure you know that there’s no way you’d survive without them.

Writers who write shows and movies specifically with you in mind. If you mention in a interview that you’d really like to do a horror movie next then within a few months you’ll be fielding more offers for horror movies then you could ever act in. The bench mark for a successful writer is no longer actually getting a show or movie made, it’s you agreeing to be in it.

Talk show hosts who make sure that every show has at least one segment about you. Maybe just a little update pulled from your social media or them gushing about how cute you looked doing press for your newest venture. They’d bump the creator of the world themselves if you requested to be on their show. They’d probably get so star struck though that you’d end up doing most of the hosting while they just give love sick stares your way.

Fans who sign onto any project as an extra or a grunt no matter how crappy the pay or conditions, Just for a chance to meet you. While extras are pretty harmless and will mostly just flock to you at any time they can and maybe break into your trailer to get a souvenir, it’s the grunts you really need to worry about. If they hear someone else on set talking badly about you then they’re not afraid to drop a light on their head.

A more seasoned actor who takes you under their wing. Steers you away from directors they know will take advantage of you or away from projects that will hurt your career. They’re just so helpful and protective that you can’t help but trust them. All they ask in return is for your time. When they hug you just a little too long you think it’s just because they care but honestly they have paparazzi hiding in the bushes. They’ve already been practicing what they’ll say when the pictures come out. That they were just trying to help your career by being seen with them, they didn’t realize you’d be upset. Of course you’ll forgive them because they’re just looking out for you right?

Award shows that always make sure you never leave empty handed. Who give you a special gift bag that makes all the other ones look like they came from the dollar store. You also never leave without an award. If you were to not make any new content for a year you can bet you’d still be invited to all the big shows and would win the ‘fan voted’ best actor/actress award, an award that definitely wasn’t created just for you.

You have a lot of influence when it comes to trends. If people notice you wearing a brand a lot then it’ll become super popular or if you endorse a product everyone will buy it. Companies and brands are always trying to get you to appear in their products or do ads for them because of how influential you are.

[foolsocracy]

Now having watched Frankenstein (1931) I find this really interesting. I didn't really expect the writers themselves to have watched the film; I assumed they saw it was a horror film released in Pete's time and included it with the bonus that the audience would know the story because its Frankenstein. It really aligns with the themes of spider noir though, so I'm second guessing myself.

I read Frankenstein a while back so I'm not as familiar with it as I once was, but I'd say its generous to say the movie is based off of the original novel. It hits some of the points but it really is different. I mean, in the film its Henry Frankenstein, not even Victor.

In the film, the monster is played almost-infantile. He reaches out towards light as if he could grab it. He plays with a little girl by a lake, throwing in flowers to watch them float like boats. When he kills her, it's an accident. How could he have known that she wouldn't float along with the flowers? Its Frankenstein and his assistant who are portrayed as monstrous. They lock him in the dark for three days. The intimidate him with fire and whips and fists.

Despite this, its Frankenstein who gets the 'good end,' while the monster is left to burn alive, pinned inside a wooden mill set alight by the townspeople.

Pete could have gotten nightmares from a number of scenes. Although I wouldn't personally say this is a scary film, there are definitely unnerving parts. There was also a different standard in 1931 for what was scary in film, plus Pete was already living a hard life at such a young age when he saw it.

Based on the panels themselves it is clear that Pete was scared of the monster itself (which is fair, the make up and costuming wanted him to be frightening). "I expected him to tell me there's no such thing as monsters," because no one in real life is a resurrected, looming... once-man-now-creature. (Just you wait, Peter). It's a more juvenile read of the film but Pete is a kid. Ben though, is a veteran, a socialist, has been around the block. He has the sense to analyze the film and interpret it differently. It is the men who find themselves with a capacity for senseless cruelty that are the monsters. That is exactly what the noir comics are about.

I really like that it's clear that Uncle Ben knows what Peter is about to learn. It also shows how much Pete has changed, just within the 1-2 years since he'd seen Frankenstein.

[hillbillyoracle]

How to Have Better Conversations

I’m writing this at the request of my partner. She shared she’s really been struggling with making conversation more than usual lately. I shared some thoughts on how I navigate conversations she found useful and asked if I’d be willing to make a resource or write more about it. This is not meant to be a definitive expert guide, it’s built from my observations and experiences as someone who is autistic and has to navigate a lot of social situations completely manually. This is how I break down the individual components of conversation.

When I spelled this all out, one of her takeaways was that conversations actually involve a lot of microdecisions and that’s why they can be so tiring. And I think that’s totally correct. But I think it’s also why some people can thrive with them because it’s actually a lot of difficult decisions that are tricky to pull off well so when you can and do, there’s a real sense of accomplishment that can make talking more appealing.

I have a feeling this post will be overcomplicated and convoluted to a lot of folks but maybe there’s a handful of folks for whom it is helpful. Take what works, leave the rest. Summary at the end.

Types of Conversation

Topics of conversation are decently important in my experience. They ultimately let you know where the conversation will go - whether it’s likely to end in a dead end, what sorts of things it will allow you to learn about the person you’re discussing with. In my experience, just about all conversation topics fall into one of four camps.

While I talk about Best Use and Don’t Use here - most conversation in the following topics will fall somewhere in-between. They’re just sign posts, not rules.

Me

The focus is on you. Me topics are ultimately about telling a story about yourself with some amount of conscious intent.

Best Use

The best use of this is setting expectations and conveying preferences. This allows your talking about yourself to serve a purpose that ultimately assists the other person in knowing how to understand and interact with you best without necessarily demanding certain treatment front. They might change or not change how they interact with you and this can show how responsive you might expect them to be.

Examples:

“I’m a writer so I don’t work 9-5. If I reply at odd times, that’s probably what’s going on.”

“One of my favorite ways to get to know someone is to grab a hot drink and go for a walk with them.”

Don’t Use

The worst use of this is look a certain way - knowledgeable, impressive, interesting. Basically any use rooted in getting another person to like you. Genuine connection doesn’t start from a place of elevating one person over another. Plus honestly 90% of people just do not care about why you think you’re interesting, important, etc and hate feeling pressured to validate you.

Examples:

“My boss was even stumped by the issue but I figured it out on my own.”

“All my friends say I’m the best at baking.”

“I keep a bunch of tools in my car, I’m ready to fix anything anywhere.”

You

The focus is on the other person. You topics are ultimately about letting the other person share the story of themselves.

Best Use

The best use of You topics is to better understand how a person understands themselves. Open ended questions that invite them to show their thinking as well and shows you how they reason. The common acronym FORD (family, occupation/occupy time, recreation, dreams) is a decent

Example:

“So how did you find yourself in this city? What was that journey like?”

“Why did you take up [your hobby]? What drew you to it?”

Don’t Use

Don’t use you topics to actively try to find fault with someone else. It’s great to have standards and hard no’s for your friendships and relationships. But poking around for them upfront can alienate people who you’d otherwise like - suspicion is not a desirable quality in a friend or potential partner. Ultimately you have to let a person show you who they are and make a personal call. There’s no short cut.

Example:

“So why did you and your ex break up?”

“So you get angry easily then?”

Both

The focus is on a shared expertise/language, not on the story of either of you.

Best Use

The best use of both topics is to notice things about them they wouldn’t think to explicitly share necessarily and to connect in a way that only people with your shared interest or expertise allows.

Example:

My partner and I both have a background in academic medical research. However when we talk about it, it becomes apparent that my focus is on the practical and researcher side and hers is on the data and compliance side. It’s interesting to note where our similar interests compliment and diverge.

Don’t Use

Don’t use both topics to try one up or show you know more than the other person. The minute you do that the shared aspect - and therefore connection - is gone.

Example:

I once went on a date with a man who spent a half hour explaining how GIS systems work in a very “look at me” way after I mentioned I had used them when I was studying forestry in college. It was boring as hell.

Neither

The focus is on a topic without a shared expertise/language, not on the story of either of you.

Best Use

The best use of neither topics is a shared exploration/experience. One person will usually know a little more about a topic than the other person. The person who knows less benefits by learning about a topic they’re curious about. Their questions and observations invite the other to think about this topic in a new light so the experience winds up being somewhat shared.

Examples:

A woman in line at Lowes let me know I could overwinter mums in this area. I proceeded to ask her about how she’d taken such good care of hers and whether the effortwas worth it. She thoughtfully answered my questions and I learned a lot.

I mentioned to my partner a personal project I’m considering undertaking. She asks about my motivations for it and in doing so I have to further clarify them. She learned a little about what my project was about and I learned what I was really after, seeing it fresh.

Don’t Use

Don’t use neither topics to soapbox about things that are of solely personal interest. If someone makes it clear they’re not interested pivot to something more interesting. Even neither topics require at least a little bit of common ground.

Examples:

I regularly talk about group hypocrisies I’m trying to make sense of before realizing that people outside of that group don’t really care.

Ideal Ratio

In general, in reflecting on my own conversations, I think a ratio where more than half the conversation is on either both or neither topics are the most rewarding. It’s where neither party walks away feeling like they talked too much about themselves and when meaningful and interesting topics still have been discussed.

I think it’s a common mistake to try to get the conversation to be 50% you, 50% me. That’s where conversations feel like a job interview and get exhausting real quick. They also have an appearance of depth as people disclose more to keep the conversation going but with out a feeling of connection after because little time is spent on exploration and shared experience.

How to Respond

So knowing what topic you’re currently or want to talk about is one part of this, but the other is choosing a response. I generally let the other person’s response dictate some measure of my response.

Pivot

If someone seems negatively engaged - leaning back, looking around a lot, arms crossed, giving short answers - I pivot to a neutral topic. I find neutral topics work best because the focus is not on either of you - they don’t feel like they’re under pressure to disclose or act interested in you. Neutral topics also allow them to lead the pace - asking questions and making observations at the level they feel comfortable. If they continually seem negatively engaged, it’s usually best to bail from the conversation, especially if asking questions about the dynamic itself seems like it might not be welcome.

Matching

If someone seems neutrally engaged - mostly looking in your direction, not leaning toward or away, giving input on what you’re saying - I match and continue with the topic.

FOOL

Being a little like the Fool in the Major Arcana is actually a great way to be a good conversationalist - genuine, curious, brave, and receptive. Bellow are some concrete ways how.

Follow up questions - Good follow up questions come from a genuine place of curiousity. They also tend to either fill in gaps in your own understanding or encourage the speaker expand the discussion into a new but related area.

Observation - Observations on the topic itself are great but not your only option. You can oberve how a person seemed to feel when talking about the topic. You can observe that they’d touched on a related topic before. Comparison is a fruitful ground for observations as well - “That’s similar to…” and ”That’s very different than….”

Opinion - Offering an opinion or requesting their opinion is a good way to keep a conversation going. In general, it’s best to avoid generalizations, soften them a little to start with, and make sure there is some measure of compassion in the opinion you’re sharing. Rigidity leaves little room for discussion and exploration.

Levity - Where appropriate, make a joke, share a meme, craft a pun, tease them a little. Laughter is a shared experience that connects us.

Building

If someone seems positively engaged - leaning forward, making eye contact, coming closer to you for neurotypical people and actively engaging with the content of what you’re saying regardless of stims or eye contact for neurodivergent folks - I build on what we’re talking about. I self disclose my feelings and personal connections to the topic one step further than what the person I’m talking with has.

It’s important not to disclose a lot more than the person you’re talking with has. It leads to a vulnerability hangover for you and can be quite awkward and uncomfortable for them. If you disclose just a little more than the person you’re chatting with, then it’s much more easy to recover and match their level if they seem uncomfortable with what you shared.

Decision Tree

“What topic are we talking about currently?”

Me - Set expectations, share preferences; you focused

You - Understand you as you understand yourself; other person focused

Both - Connect over a shared language; idea focused

Neither - Connect over a shared exploration; idea focused

“What cues am I getting from the other person?”

If positive, build on current topic - be vulnerable

If neutral, match on current topic - be a FOOL*

If negative, pivot to a different topic - preferably neutral or in ratio**

*FOOL

Follow up questions - genuine curiousity - “I wonder…”

Observe - conversation, feelings, topic - “I noticed…”

Opinion - cautious, concise, compassionate - “I’ve often thought…”

Levity - make jokes, share memes - laughter connects

**Ratio

51% Both/Neither

<49% Me/You

[lesbiansandco]

My opinions on The Great Gatsby characters compared to Bill and especially young Ford

Gatsby and Bill are copies of each other, no doubt about it. A lot of people, myself included, have put Ford into the role of Daisy. However, Daisy and Ford are only alike in the sense that they are the object of Gatsby's/Bill's devotion. I think Ford is really a lot more like Nick.

Bill and Gatsby both build magnificent lives for themselves out of dirt and pine after lovers they will never get back (The comparison between Gatsby and Bill deserves its own long post, but this is mainly about Ford). Gatsby pines after Daisy, and Bill pines after Ford, but that's the only thing Daisy and Ford have in common, is their role in the story. And even then, Ford plays parts of Nick's role as well.

Perhaps most obviously, Nick and Ford are both writers. Nick narrates the fateful summer he knew Gatsby, and Ford writes the Journals, narrating his life and experiences in both Gravity Falls and the multiverse.

Nick claims to be one of the few honest person he's ever known, but his writing is littered with bias towards people he admires, namely Gatsby. He admires Gatsby in a way that causes Nick to write long and poetically about him, leaving less room for other characters that are arguably just as important (notably, leaving out many details about his supposed relationship with Jordan). There is also reasonable evidence that Nick's writing about Gatsby has queer undertones.

Who mirrors this? Ford. Pre-betrayal, he writes about Bill much more favorably than his good friend Fiddleford or his brother Stanley. Ford clearly admires Bill, calling him his "Muse," and Ford even takes it a step further from admiration and worships Bill like a god. Fiddleford and Stanley are definitely important characters to the story - Fiddleford leaves his wife and son to help Ford with the portal, and Ford hasn't seen Stanley in years while Stanley wishes to reconnect - yet Ford chooses to focus on Bill's impact in his life in his writing. Very similarly to Nick, there is reasonable evidence of queer undertones in Ford's writing about Bill.

Nick (and the rest of New York) sees Gatsby as a mysterious entity, with a surely fascinating past that has to be guessed at and puzzled together. Ford also sees Bill as a mysterious entity, an anomaly that has come to inspire him in his work. Ford can't help but be curious about his muse and the divine insight Bill gives him.

Nick is drawn in by the mystery that is Gatsby himself, and Gatsby feeds him fantastic lies on their car ride up to New York for lunch with Wolfshiem. Bill lies to Ford about being a "Muse" and makes extravagant claims to earn Ford's trust and build up his ego.

Nick only learned the truth about Gatsby after everything came crashing down the day they all decided to go into the city. Ford only started to learn the truth about Bill when Bill's true plans for the portal were revealed.

I think there's more than sufficient evidence that Ford is the character that represents Nick in every aspect except for his one parallel to Daisy. And there really is only one parallel between them; they both have a crazy, devoted, blinded-by-desire ex-lover who can't seem to let it go. In every other way, they are different.

Daisy is careless and overly emotional; she romanticizes the past and can't help but worry about the future. She only wants what she thinks is the best for those she cares about (one good example being her daughter. She wants her daughter to be foolish and happy in a world where Daisy is a pessimist after everything she's seen and done). Meanwhile, Ford takes time to plan things out and is generally very stoic. He doesn't like to think about the past and would rather manifest a glorious future for himself. And while he cares about who he loves deep down, on the surface he can come across as cold and uncaring - towards his assistant who suffered a lot of trauma during the time it took to build the portal, to his brother who he only reached out to for a favor and not to reconnect after many years - which makes him seem very selfish (which he can be).

Daisy is trapped in a romantic relationship with a her husband, and while she still has some feelings for Gatsby, she doesn't wish to be in a relationship or run away with him. On the other hand, Ford isn't tried down to any romantic relationship, and he doesn't seem to have any feelings for Bill post-betrayal.

That's all. I know this got long, but with all of this comparison, it makes sense to me to view Ford as a very Nick-like character rather than Daisy. And of course, Bill is the magnificent Gatsby.

[twinsarekeepers]

Let me preface this by saying, I’m a pre-med student who works in a psychology lab as a research assistant and has also worked in a doctor’s office with actual patients. A lot of my opinions about this ending are informed by that aspect of myself, but that does not mean I don’t understand the incredible weight and horror of Joel’s decision either. I am also a writer and the narrative of a parent’s love being that destructive is so compelling.

However, it’s not more important to me than making sure people know how egregiously terrible the Fireflies are. Because the logic that something can morally outweigh informed consent is what has led to some truly horrific, catastrophic events in our REAL human history. Henrietta Lacks, the Tuskegee study, and the CIA’s fake vaccination drive in Pakistan come to mind immediately for me. These are all events that I encourage everyone to learn about.

Putting all that aside for now, objectively, Jerry Anderson was stupid and wrong in every way possible. You never ever want to completely destroy the subject you are working on, ESPECIALLY if that is the only one you have. Because wtf are you going to do if your experiment doesn’t work? You killed the one source! Literally anything would’ve been better than KILLING ELLIE?? Killing her should be the very last resort after exhausting every other possible avenue, which they didn’t. (Before someone tells me that I need to suspend my disbelief … no. The whole show is rooted in realism and that this is a possibility SCIENTIFICALLY … so I’m going to think about it with my science brain, I’m sorry!)

Now onto the part that I know y’all are going to get your panties in a twist about, Ellie herself and her capacity to give consent. Which in my opinion, coming from someone whose literal job it is to get informed consent, she did not have.

Bodily autonomy and agency is obviously very important but you would never let your child run into oncoming traffic because “oh, it’s their body and I’d be violating their autonomy and agency if I physically held them back!!” Like no. That’s a child that doesn’t fully grasp what they are doing or what is going on around them so you as the adult must make the decision to not let them harm themselves.

Ellie is a slew of red flags to someone who would be searching for participants for an experiment. For one, Ellie is a child. Getting informed consent from a child is already hard because their brains are not developed enough to fully grasp and understand what they’d be agreeing to. Two, Ellie has gone through immense trauma and is suffering from the worst case of survivor’s guilt to possibly ever exist. She literally feels like the only way to compensate for her loss is to die. She is the definition of passively suicidal. The way I would rule her out of a study so fast and send her links to every helpline I know. And yes, I know that she can never actually get the help she needs. But in my opinion, she is not in any way able to give consent and Jerry and nurses should’ve been very aware of that.

So, the fact that the Fireflies are just medically inept, and on top of that, didn’t care to get consent, and even if they had, it wouldn’t matter because Ellie is not in a position to be making that kind of decision, makes them very, very wrong.

Does that make Joel right? No. Because Joel wasn’t thinking about any of that. He believed that the Fireflies knew what they were doing, that they had a shot at making a cure and he also knew what Ellie would want (again, she’s still not a position to give consent but JOEL DOESN’T KNOW THAT BECAUSE HE’S NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL) and he still chose to save Ellie over … the entire world. And then he lied to her about it.

(And the lie was to protect her emotionally because he knows she takes on so much blame and he doesn’t want to cause even MORE damage and pile on top of that insane survivor’s guilt … but lying to a teenager is never the way to go, they always know).

TLDR: it is very, very complicated!

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About The Second Doctor's Run

Salutations, random people on the internet already scrolling past this! I’m an Ordinary Schmuck! I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

After finally seeing how The Doctor started their journey into becoming the greatest hero to the universe, it’s time to see how that journey continued with The Second Doctor. And while the concept of regeneration is something familiar to fans now, imagine how it must have felt in 1966. This character that you’ve been following for four seasons now just got a new face, with a new personality to match. Depending on how it was done, it is an idea that could make or break the show for some people, and considering that the show is now onto its FIFTEENTH regeneration, I’d say it definitely worked out fine. More than fine, actually. Because the concept of regeneration is a BRILLIANT one when it comes to Doctor Who. It’s simple, yet it’s the very thing that allows the show to go on for decades and inevitably proves that anyone with enough talent can play The Doctor. Most are improvements, some are not, and it all boils down to the actor and how well they handle the role. The question is, did Patrick Troughton do well enough? We shall see together as we go through the adventures of The Second Doctor.

However, before we begin, you remember how I said that episodes and entire serials were lost to time due to the BBC? Well, Number Two here got the worst of it. Out of twenty-one serials (we’re going to be here for a while…), only SEVEN of them are left completed. Two thirds of his run are gone forever, and only a few of them are brought back through animation that’s available on Tubi and other streaming sites. Meaning there’s going to be QUITE a few transcripts for yours truly. I am very much NOT looking forward to this entire review, but I’m going to do it. Oh, boy, I’m going to do it…

(For The Doctor. Just keep telling yourself that, it’s for The Doctor…)

Decades old spoilers below…

THE SERIALS

Like last time, we’re going through each serial in order. We take this journey together, starting with The Second Doctor’s first adventure…

The Power of The Daleks: Starting off strong by facing The Daleks! I respect that. Proves that this new guy has spunk to him. Unfortunate that it’s been deleted, though. But at least we got animation.

And I love that, right away, the writers made it clear that things are going to be different with this new Doctor. While One was more strict and less willing to assist people unless provoked, all while with a hint of giddiness to him, Two is much more goofy and childlike but still serious in a pinch and much more goal driven. He doesn’t waste a second getting to the bottom of things either, for all it took was a man dying right in front of him for Two to realize that something’s fishy is going on and he NEEDS to figure out what. As far as he knows, he and the others aren’t in any official danger and can easily leave if asked to, but The Doctor sticks around to investigate a conspiracy with a colony. Even before The Daleks showed up, The Doctor was dead set on figuring out what was going on, with his worst enemies cementing the idea that something bad is going to happen and it’s up to The Doctor to stop all of it. And BOY did they need him, as these idiot scientists, governors, and rebels would lead to their own unfortunate destruction with The Daleks due to thinking they can be controlled. The crazy thing is that you can believe WHY they would think that due to how unknown The Daleks are at this point of time and how convincingly The Daleks made themselves seem willing to cooperate. This serial manages to show, as the title suggests, the true power of The Daleks. They’re near-unstoppable killing machines, yes, but they’re also highly INTELLIGENT killing machines that know they’re better than these stupid humans and their silly devices. Even when the humans have the temporary upper hand by controlling The Daleks’ powersource, they know to bide their time before finding a permanent solution. You can even tell in their voices how much they disdain the very idea of working for humans, which is funny enough, but it helps prove the willingness of Daleks to overpower their enemies no matter how long it takes. In short, this whole serial makes The Doctor more like the hero I know them as and The Daleks as the great threat that I fear them to be. It’s a lot more of what I’m used to and incredibly enjoyable to watch, ugly and stilted animation aside. So far, I’d say it’s a great start to this Doctor’s run as it’s already making me excited to see more.

The Highlanders: Completely deleted, but not reanimated. Or if it is, it’s not on Tubi. Which is insane considering that this serial introduces Jamie, the Second Doctor’s most famous and prominent companion. Fans can’t really see how he OFFICIALLY got introduced to the series, a fact that’s unfortunate and honestly a little annoy. But there’s not much I can do about it, so–*Sigh*–onto the transcripts…

And this was one I put off doing for a while. I read the opening and thought, “Oh this is going to be another boring historical serial like ‘The Crusade’ again, isn’t it?” Turns out…it’s an ENTERTAINING historical serial. We watch as the characters assist rebellious Highlanders from taking on the British and a sleazy solicitor selling Scottish rebels into slavery. It has some really good stuff like Perkins being the Smee to Grey’s Captain Hook, or Polly screwing with this lieutenant who couldn’t stand being outsmarted by a woman. But the best stuff comes with The Doctor going full Bugs Bunny as he outwits people through conversation, screws with them with slapstick, and dons disguises to get his way. I WISH that I could have seen some of these bits because it is an absolute CRIME that they were lost to time. All-in-all, I definitely liked this one. I definitely prefer the whacky sci-fi nonsense that this show often relies on, but I didn’t mind this serial. At least it has characters being ACTIVE in the story instead of letting historical nonsense happen around them. I’ll take a fun adventure with characters I enjoy over boring political history with characters I couldn’t give two shits about ANY DAY. Don’t you forget it.

The Underwater Menace: Two episodes were saved, but the beginning and ending were left discarded. Here’s hoping the middle wasn’t too bad, hehe…But seriously? The whole thing is decent.

It’s The Doctor and company stopping a madman from destroying the planet, mixed in with a conspiracy amongst a secret society. In other words, it’s your basic Doctor Who adventure, met with The Doctor being a goof, saving his companions from peril, those same companions saving themselves, and wanting to defeat and even SAVE the planet destroying madman. A lot of it is what I recognized as a Doctor Who story, with a lot of great scenes and one-off characters that make it entertaining. The two real gripes I have revolve around Zaroff and Alantis. Zaroff’s motivation…is laughable. I don’t think EVERY villain should have a complex motivation, as a simple one can be carried with an actor’s/character’s energy, but…what scientist wants to blow up the world just to see if he could? What’s the real reward there? As for Atlantis, it feels like it breezes past the details with how the society works. I get that there’s a religion, a science department, slavery, and a monarchy…but how does that all connect together. Any explanation that must have been given never fully registered to me. I AM willing to put the blame on maybe I read things too fast, but it feels a little off with how it seems like you’re supposed to just…accept all these concepts. The plot is strong but the villain and setting, to me, feels like it needed some tidying up.

The Moonbase: Two episodes are deleted, and neither of them are reanimated on Tubi. Thanks, BBC.

Especially since this is another good one. It’s a classic adventure where The Doctor and company protect a space base full of people from an evil threat. And the threat this time is Cybermen, who make a far quicker return than I could have ever predicted. It’s actually really cool to see The Doctor face them again, so soon after his last regeneration. It makes The Second Doctor just as capable as the first to face off and outsmart the same dangerous foe as before. Yet the Cybermen prove to be more resilient this time, sneakily infiltrating their way into the station and taking control of both it and the humans inside. It’s completely nonsensical that they managed to bust a hole inside a space station without the whole thing collapsing due to the pressure loss, but it’s cool nonetheless to see the Cybermen again, with every single character joining in to stop them. And while the final solution felt a little fast, it doesn’t stop the whole story being so fun and engaging. I usually dread reading these episodes, but the second the Cybermen showed up and started taking over, I didn’t want to stop. I was excited to see what would happen next, and I wouldn’t say “The Moonbase” disappoints. It’s yet another serial with an adventure that I’ve come to expect with Doctor Who, and I’m all for it…But, seriously, can we go back to WATCHING these adventures?

The Macra Terror: Deleted, BUT reanimated to further sell the horror B-movie vibe that the serial is going for. Thank you, Tubi! I love you!

Though, I’m starting to pick up a pattern with this Second Doctor’s adventures. This is now the fourth serial where The Doctor discovers a conspiracy within a society and must stop this great evil. It happens every once in a while in Doctor Who, but to do it this frequently could make it feel a little boring without enough variety. As for this serial, its flavor of the day appears to be giant crabs and hypnotism. How did these giant monstrosities manage to control this society in the shadows and hypnotize them to do their bidding? I have no idea and neither does The Doctor. When asked what they are, even he explicitly admits to having no clue. We’re just supposed to accept that giant crabs took over and enjoy the ride. A messy concept for sure, but one that leads The Doctor taking an active role (Still loves that this guy does that) and some enjoyment of Ben betraying the group due to the Macra’s mind control. It IS weird that Ben’s the only one to be conditioned to follow the crabs’ orders, but it leads to some decent conflict of him fighting it to be himself again. So the serial’s still fun, I just wish we could get more variety of stories outside of sci-fi conspiracies in a society. Please?

The Faceless Ones: Only two episodes were saved, yet, weirdly enough, the whole SERIAL is reanimated. Which I honestly prefer. The inconsistency of switching from an animated episode to a live action one would have broken my mind a bit.

And…it’s another conspiracy. This time in an airport instead of a society or a colony. Though, in fairness, this one at least feels a little different as it’s treated more as a mystery to solve rather than JUST making it The Doctor trying to outwit some powerful force. He still does the ladder, but trying to figure the who, what, where, and WHY with these Chameleons adds a sense of intrigue to this serial, with every answer bringing ten more questions and leaving me engaged enough to see what comes of it. I especially love how the Chameleons have a decent motivation for why they’re kidnapping people, being simple enough to grasp and understand. It’s done really well, having some enjoyable elements that makes it stand taller than previous conspiracy serials. Especially with how The Doctor hyper-focuses on the problem when it’s his companions who are in danger of these new threats. Always love how The Doctor will go on the warpath to those who mess with his friends.

Speaking of those companions, this is the send off of Ben and Polly. And it…has a similar problem to Dodo’s send off. They’re there for a chunk of the story, disappear for most of it, and head off once the problem is solved. It’s done slightly better here because we at least get to see them say goodbye, and it is performed nicely. You get the sense that these two don’t really want to say goodbye and break The Doctor’s heart, but he doesn’t want to keep them from their lives either. He’s more than willing to let them go, even if it’s hard for HIM to say goodbye too. I love all of it, but with how Ben and Polly are absent for most of the serial it kind of takes the punch out of this being their big farewell. They don’t do much aside from getting kidnapped, which feels cheap considering all they’ve been through with The Doctor. Still, it doesn't take me out of the serial too much as there’s still a lot more to enjoy in seeing The Doctor stop the misguided plans of a lost alien race. I just wish that his companions had more of a chance to help if this was their final adventure.

Also–And this has nothing to do with the serial itself, but the fact that it miraculously happens around the same time of “The War Machines” kind of adds to what I love most about The Doctor. Due to their regenerations and capability of being ANYWHERE at ANYTIME, it means that The Doctor is able to be at every corner of the universe that needs their assistance. No matter the year nor the galaxy, The Doctor will always be there. And that’s incredible to me.

Alright, back to the serials.

The Evil of The Daleks: Same deletion deal as the last one, but only one episode remained. Again, I’m fine with it.

What I’m not fine with is this being probably the weakest adventure of The Daleks. At least, of the ones I’ve covered so far. Because what makes this one the weakest is the fact that it is so all over the place. It starts off interesting enough, with an evil force trapping The Doctor through a mystery that his intelligent mind can’t help but solve. It uses The Doctor’s inquisitive nature against him, and I love it when the franchise finds interesting ways to make that his weakness. But then the serial soon becomes The Doctor forcing Jamie through a series of life-threatening tests to train The Daleks into understanding the human factor. I’m not a fan of The Doctor putting a companion in peril, even if they’re forced to do it. I’m all for the bond between Doctor and companion getting tested, as it can prove that while any version of The Doctor is nothing without their close friends and allies, even The Doctor sometimes lacks the human factor that they always admire. The problem is that The Doctor would sooner eat their fist before INTENTIONALLY putting a companion in peril unless backed into a corner with no other choice. That’s kind of the case here, but I feel like there are ways that The Doctor could have better prepared Jamie for the oncoming danger. And the serial somehow gets messier from there as it all comes to an end with The Doctor and company coming to Skaro to destroy The Daleks “once and for all.” It’s kind of cool to see this Emperor Dalek, but the techno babble and conveniences of how The Doctor was able to give more Daleks the human factor left me a little confused on how it was all done. And I’m left more confused as to why making The Daleks more human leaves them inclined to listen to The Doctor giving orders but not other Daleks.

I don’t know. I just feel like “The Evil  of The Daleks” combines three potentially good storylines into one whole arc, making the whole thing worse the more it goes on. There’s cool and fun moments, but all in a messy and convoluted serial that’s not as epic of a “final showdown” with The Daleks as it could have been. And yes, I do think this was meant to be a final showdown with how grand the destruction is and how relieved The Doctor sounds when saying “It’s over.” To be fair, every confrontation with The Daleks is treated as the final one, but if this WAS the last, it would have been a disappointing one.

The Tomb of The Cybermen: OH, MY GOSH, A FULLY SAVED SERIAL IN LIVE ACTION! Make a wish, this is RARE!

And I really am grateful for it. I am most definitely an enjoyer of animation and will forever argue about how it’s an underappreciated medium for storytelling, but there’s still something admirable about seeing a Doctor Who adventure in live action. It allows you to see the limitations that directors, costume designers, and even the actors have to work around with bringing a story to life, with special effects being far more clever than just inserting CGI like modern Doctor Who episodes. There’s a charm to live action that makes it just as valid of a medium as animation, it just gets annoying when it tries to adapt something MEANT to be animated or uses too much CGI to the point where it might as well have been animated from the start. So I’m glad to see this serial as it was intended, cheesy effects and all, as the characters go on an archeological adventure with cosmic consequences. There’s some familiar Doctor Who elements like two greedy idiots thinking they can control The Cybermen for ultimate power who inevitably meet karmic justice in the end. And yes, they very much are idiots, but they serve their purpose as functional antagonists for The Doctor and his companions to go up against. Their devious actions and consequences lead to The Doctor out-thinking his foes to save as many as he can, Jamie proving his loyalty to The Doctor in always having his back, and newcomer Victoria…not really doing much, but I’m hopeful that she has room to grow (Spoiler, she never really does). To be fair, she lost her father yesterday, and I’m okay that most of the serial has The Doctor and Jamie trying to comfort and reassure her as best as they can. My favorite scene in the entire serial is the talk between The Doctor and Victoria about remembering those we love and how the memories will always stick with us. I love it so much as it showcases the compassion that The Doctor has in wanting to EMOTIONALLY heal someone and show a hint of his own heartache of leaving behind his family, all perfectly captured by the subtleties of Patrick Troughton’s performance (Something that even animation can’t properly convey as well as live action). It adds a great bit of heart between the moments of thrill as these characters face Cybermen. If there’s anything to really complain about, it’d be the fact that there’s this Black “servant” who isn’t all that intelligent and is brutishly strong. I don’t know, I feel like all of that is a bit too…tight around the collar, as it seems like an INTENSELY outdated idea for a character of his color. It just doesn’t sit right with me. Aside from that questionable decision, I’d definitely say that “The Tomb of The Cybermen” is another entertaining serial for this Doctor’s run. Might even be one of my favorites so far.

The Abominable Snowmen: Not completely deleted, but still animated. The live action was nice while it lasted…

And lo and behold, it’s another conspiracy within a society, this time featuring the DOOFIEST clumps of fur I’ve ever seen acting as the antagonists. By the way, that wasn’t a misspell. Doofy is the best way to describe these stupid things. Even when looking up images that survived the deletion, there is NO WAY that someone from the mid-to-late sixties were actually intimidated by these creatures, and the reanimation doesn’t really do them any favors either. It’s actually kind of funny how non-threatening these are, and it really takes me out of the serial. Same goes for these Munks, who range from emotionless and irrational, aside from the one guy who was kind and friendly. They’re pretty boring side-characters, and I couldn’t even feel bothered to remember their names or even status. I couldn’t even tell you what the friendly guy did for the Monastery. Honestly, the only time things got interesting was during the last two parts where The Doctor confronts this highly intelligent alien using an old friend of his as a meat puppet. It does well to showcase The Doctor’s distaste towards beings who abuse intelligent life, and while the animation doesn’t do the Abominable Snowmen any favors, it did wonders in making The Great Intelligence look like a menacing threat with an epic final battle. I wish I could have seen what it USED to look like, but it’s some good fun…in the last third of a six part serial. Yeah, while the ending was nice, everything else was just too dull or too…DOOFY to get into. I guess the ending makes it worth it, but I’m not willing to revisit this one.

The Ice Warriors: Only two episodes were deleted, but I guess that’s enough for people to decide the serial is left incomplete. It’s reanimated, but not onto Tubi and I don’t feel comfortable using “special means” yet. Onto the transcripts, then…

Honestly, at this point, I’m feeling a little bored with READING about these adventures again. Especially the ones where The Doctor helps a scientific community from this alien threat. The transcripts I have don’t really offer that much description, and I often imagine the same kind of locations with the same type of generic sci-fi clothing. And judging from the set pictures I looked up, I doubt that my imagination wasn’t too far off. Plus, it’s with “The Ice Warriors” that I really took notice of the formula that comes when The Doctor visits a place like this. There’s always a chain of command where some disposable meatbags get treated as canon fodder as they face off evil monsters that either love killing and/or eating humans, ending on a theme about how humanity led to this outcome or whatever. It’s something you see a lot, but don’t entirely get tired of. It just depends on how fun the characters are, the fear you feel with the monsters, and how strong the theme is. As for how it works in “The Ice Warriors,” for the most part, I’d say it’s…fine? I don’t hate the motley crew that The Doctor has to save and the Ice Warriors aren’t bad threats, but they’re not really…gripping me. This is the first time in a while where I feel like the serial didn’t NEED to be this long because not much held my attention long enough and I just wanted it to be over already. That is, except for ONE aspect involving the computer and the reliance others have with it. It’s the part of this serial that I feel like still applies to this day. We all have this overreliance with technology and our computers, to the point where some of us can’t state a certain claim without doing a quick Google search to prove that we’re right first (myself included). What’s even more interesting is that I feel as though you can also paint how the computer is represented as a symbolism for religion. Tons of people always refer to their books, tomes, and what-have-you before making a decision themselves or thinking of some alternative solution. Either way you look at it still works perfectly, and what I love most about it is that it doesn’t treat the computer or even technology as the problem. It certainly doesn’t HELP, but The Doctor admits that it’s fine to use it when necessary but NOT for every little thing. Again, that is a perfect lesson that still feels applicable to this day and age, with every generation feeling as though it needs to hear it. The main theme of the serial makes it worth the watch (or READ in my case…), but not enough to make it really that big of a highlight. I don’t need six episodes to tell me that overreliance on technology is bad when I get that in far better (and SHORTER) episodes in other franchises. The rest of it’s fine, but not enough to make it stand taller in comparison to other Doctor Who stories that use a similar formula.

The Enemy of the World: Le gasp! Another intact one! What a sight it is to behold–Ooh, that’s Patrick Troughtan playing a Spanish man…And…Okay, it’s hard to tell through the black and white, but is that blackface? Er, or brownface? I don’t know. And it’s probably NOT either of those things…At least, I HOPE it’s not either of those things, but it almost looks like it is, which is unfortunate…

As for the serial itself, it’s…less than stellar. The Doctor realizes that he shares the face of a dictator in the far distant future of 2018 (I always love it when time travel stories become outdated), and has to bring him to justice. He’s reluctant, however, because The Doctor does NOT know all the details. What makes this man so evil? Why must they take his life? What evidence is there to support that Salamander–THEY NAMED THE SPANISH DICTATOR “SALAMANDER?!” GAH! This one hurts…Anyways, The Doctor isn’t sure what makes this dictator evil and why he shouldn’t be trusted. It’s a part of a theme that still applies to today’s political environment, where we must look at all the angels for a government figure before deciding what to do to them. Whether it’s a person we follow or disagree with, a lot of the time we need all the information of what they do and what they’re capable of before making any permanent solutions. It might seem black and white sometimes, but try explaining that to people who know next to nothing about politics. And given the big twist in this serial that the man you thought you could trust is just as corrupt as the labeled dictator, I’d say the story definitely has something to say about the messiness of politics. Though, even then, it’s not really THAT political, as it’s another conspiracy, with The Doctor and his companions trying to stop it. Except that they don’t really do much as the whole thing crumbles by Salamander’s carelessness and Astrid coming across the secret society he kept hidden. All The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria did was try to make the truth come out in some capacity, but it seems like it was inevitable anyway. And it should be fun watching The Doctor pretend to be a dictator, but the…outdated acting tactics and very racist name make it questionable. And I don’t just mean the probable brownface when talking about the performance (Still not sure if that’s what they did). I mean him playing a Spanish man, fake accent and all, and it…doesn’t feel right. I don’t even want to commend Patrick Troughton’s job at playing two different people, because that performance feels tainted by what he does to do it. Even looking past that performance, the character (Why the fuck did they choose that name?) doesn’t really do much for me. Why is he going through this much trouble to keep a group of people hidden? What’s the point other than “More power?” It just doesn’t grab me and I’m left scratching my head over the question of WHY he would do all this. All in all, despite a decent attempt at a message, and a great message at that, this is another messy serial that felt like a drag to go through.

The Web of Fear: …One. In a six part long serial, only ONE episode is missing. ONE…You know what? Screw this. I’m not reading six parts just because someone thought it was a good idea to get rid of ONE sixth of a serial. We’re using special means for this one! I’ll just read about the missing episode…

And this one…was slow. I’m going to be honest, a lot of these serials for Series 5 feel like they could have been trimmed down. This one in particular is all about setting up the main threat. Or, rather, reintegrating the main threat, bringing back The High Intelligence and his doofy abominable snowmen who are…significantly less doofy this time around. I’m still not threatened by them, but their new look is definitely an improvement that makes it easier to see how SOMEONE could find them a threat. But six MORE episodes about The Doctor and co. fending off these doofy contraptions? With them having…web powers for some reason? Seriously, why give web guns to abominable snowmen when spiders are RIGHT THERE and are ten times more terrifying than these doofy things ever could ever be?

Yeah, the large part of this serial wasn’t doing much for me…That is until the last two parts when the High Intelligence SORT OF introduces itself and that it wants The Doctor’s intellect. It soon becomes a race for The Doctor to save his mind, new friends, and companions, all while stopping the High Intelligence once and for all. And what I love most is that while the High Intelligence is defeated, it’s not in the way that The Doctor intended. In trying for a permanent solution, Jamie ruins it because his loyalty to The Doctor and NOT wanting to see him hurt caused the whole plan to crumble, with The Doctor being furious and disappointed that it caused the death of a good man that the Intelligence took control of. It’s another great aspect of The Doctor, where their need to save the universe and the innocents in it can sometimes fail because their companions unintentionally foil any plan due to wanting to protect THE DOCTOR too. It’s similar to the idea that “The Daleks Master Plan” presented where The Doctor does sometimes lacks the human element in NOT seeing all the variables and is sometimes driven more by intellect instead of emotion. Except that this time The Doctor’s more at risk instead of Jamie, which I very much appreciate. It gives a fantastic end to a slow build of a serial that, again, did not need to be this long. Hopefully the next time we meet the High Intelligence, it’ll be for a shorter story. And with more threatening looking minions. I don’t care how good the endings are, six parts with doofy costumes is NOT doing it for me.

Fury From the Deep: Deleted, but thankfully they remembered that animation is your friend.

And right away, this one has a similar problem as the last serial, where there’s so much time dedicated to building up this big finale that you end up losing attention DURING the build-up. I mean, it’s the characters fighting off foam and seaweed. Foam and seaweed that’s meant to be so terrifying that it makes Victoria scream so loud they run away. I’m sorry, but I just don’t find foam and seaweed all that scary, nor do I find it entertaining as everyone screams like maniacs over frickin’ FOAM! And SEAWEED! Yeah, I might be freaked out if I saw a bit of seaweed move in real life, but it’s still frickin’ SEAWEED. You gotta dress it up a little better if you want me to believe that characters can scream their heads off over it. Victoria has seen Cybermen, abominable snowmen, Ice Warriors, and The Doctor in possible brownface. She’s faced scarier things, yet it’s the SEAWEED that really broke her? And that screaming, by the way, gets really old really quick. It’s not just Victoria’s cries that grate the ears, but how much everyone is just YELLING at each other, more so than usual. It’s hard to care about anybody and their problems when all I want from them is to just SHUT THE HELL UP!

Ugh, sorry. It’s just that this episode definitely gave me some sensory overload. In fairness, it does get good near the end there. Halfway through, it actually makes the seaweed more of a threat by showing how it infected the humans. By seeing what the seaweed’s capable of, it makes us worried for the characters and hopeful that they don’t meet the same fate. And in the final part, when we see how far the infection goes, it leads to some scary imagery seeing these once human beings become humanoid seaweed. It doesn’t sound frightening, but the animation and some set pictures show just how creepy the concept COULD have been, and I’d say it’s effective ENOUGH. It didn’t give me the chills like other Doctor Who villains, but it worked ENOUGH where I can say it was almost worth going through all the screaming to get to.

Another excellent aspect of the serial is how this is meant to be the departure of Victoria. Not only does she get to stay and help The Doctor and Jamie through most of the serial, but the majority of her time does make it clear that this is her last adventure. She voices how she’s at her wits end with all these adventures and constantly going to some place with danger instead of somewhere…relaxing. To go on vacation instead of having to save the world from a threat that The Doctor has to defeat. You’re quick to understand her plight, and I love that it’s clear she doesn’t want to leave Jamie or The Doctor. She loves them both, just as much as they love her. The problem just lies with the fact that Victoria can’t handle the insanity any longer, with the toxic seaweed being her limit…Still a weird limit to cross, but I digress. The serial handles Victoria’s departure very well, with The Doctor being understanding, albeit still sad, and Jamie feeling heartbroken to say goodbye to someone he cared deeply for. It marks another fantastic ending to a slow building serial.

The Wheel in Space: Half of it’s missing, so all of it’s going to be read. I take back what I said earlier. I’d absolutely take a serial going back and forth between animation and live action to avoid this…

And it’s the Cybermen. Again. For the fourth time since being introduced through the First Doctor. Not gonna lie, it’s starting to feel a LITTLE stale. They’re still valid threats that prove they’re nothing to be messed with as they flawlessly execute a plan to hijack a space station for its powerful weapon systems to invade Earth. It makes them fun, but for the fourth time with no real variation it also makes for something that’s not that much engaging. “Tomb of the Cybermen” at least changed things up by making it an archeological adventure, where this feels more like “The Moonbase” but with a new cast of characters. Though, I will admit, the cast this time is a lot more entertaining and stops “The Wheel in Space” from being TOTALLY dull. There’s some fun personalities on display, making me care about this crew of canon fodder, effectively making me feel all the right things when one of them dies. It was actually upsetting seeing characters like Bill and Gemma getting killed for different tragic reasons, Bill being a victim and Gemma being an unlucky hero. I even felt bad for the brash and paranoid Jarvis Bennet, who died with heartbreak and wanted to go down swinging after the Cybermen killed Gemma. It’s decent stuff, with Zoe being the obvious stand out. On paper, she seems fun as this logic-focussed woman of intelligence who prefers facts over human emotion. I was intrigued by the possibility of how well she’ll work with The Doctor and Jamie in the future just through this serial alone, and I hoped she’d be better in action than in paper. And you’ll see soon enough how well I thought she did. For now, I’ll say that Zoe and the rest of her crew did good enough in making me care a lot more for this standard Cybermen adventure. It goes to show that no matter how typical a story can be, it can always be carried far enough by great characters.

The Dominators: Fully intact like it t’was intended! Thank goodness! I can appreciate the subtleties of an actor's performance and the classic special effects. Speaking of the latter, there are some pretty decent special effects in this, with the way the Quarks move, how buildings fall apart or blow up, or seeing all these mini-explosions being surprisingly close to the actors as they run away. Lot of great stuff to make this serial set the stage for how dangerous the stakes are in this serial…Even if the story never really sucked me in.

Visually, “The Dominators” are pulling out all the stops. Narratively…I don’t know. I like the idea of The Doctor and his companions helping a pacifist society against trigger happy invaders. It SOUNDS interesting, and in some aspects it is. Whenever The Doctor and Co. have to convince the society to fight back and plan an attack against the titular Dominators, it feels intriguing and makes you think the serial is going to be about something like how pacifism is noble but there are times when you NEED to fight…But then it all goes NOWHERE. The constant debates and arguments with the council? Nowhere. The Director ridiculing his son? Basically nowhere. The Dominators making themselves known to the council and accepting their surrender? Very much nowhere. If this was just The Doctor and his companions helping a small group of pacifists, the serial would go up a considerable grade. But with all these scenes of political nonsense at the capital, it makes the serial drag a bit and tunes me out far longer than it should. As for the Dominators, they’re not great either as these two frowning dickheads yelling at each other while using their tinkertoy robots to kill people. If it was JUST the robots to worry about, again, I’d like the serial a lot more. In fact, I WANT to like this serial. Again, visually, it’s a treat to watch. And I love how The Doctor outsmarts these stupid, frowning babies by playing dumb and making them think that The Doctor is too stupid to use for their evil plans. It’s a clever tactic, even if it’s clear that luck and the Dominator’s stupidity is what really made it work. Unfortunately, despite everyone TRYING to make the story great, it’s still a little flawed to keep me interested.

The Mind Robber: Two intact ones in a row?! Oh, well, that’s just special.

The same goes for the serial, because this is an all-timer. The Doctor and his companions are trapped inside a dimension of nothing but fiction, words, storybook characters, and mythological beasts. It’s enough to drive anyone mad, with even The Doctor going crazy as he faces off against that world’s master and all his puzzles, riddles, and trials in the effort to treat The Doctor as a work of fiction himself. This leads to The Doctor to use his own wits and rewrite the story so amie, Zoe, and him don’t become trapped in a world of insanity and used as playthings by an insane mind obsessed with fiction. And it’s all in five parts of decent special effects, impressive sets, and cute costumes as we see The Doctor face each riddle and monster for the sake of saving himself and the others. All while giving some good wacky stuff like Jamie losing his face for an episode or The Doctor and Zoe getting help from a superhero. It’s pretty fun to watch, having my favorite aspect of The Doctor on display as he uses his mind to outthink his enemies instead of overpowering them, while mixed with some fun, sci-fi nonsense that only this franchise can pull off. It leads to a great adventure, leaving me with something new that I haven’t seen from this version of The Doctor yet. There’s really not much I can say about it other than it’s some good, goofy fun met well with some great presentation. Is there anything else you could want from a cheesy, classic Doctor Who adventure?

The Invasion: Darn it, we were doing so well–THIS ONE ONLY HAS TWO EPISODES MISSING IN AN EIGHT PARTER?! Screw it, we’re using special means again. If only a fourth of this is missing, then it was hopefully a boring fourth. And truth be told…it probably was?

Yeah, remember how I said in “The Wheel of Space” that seeing the Cybermen was starting to get a little dull? Well, “The Invasion” proves that it really is true. There’s some intrigue with the mystery behind Vaughn and who he’s helping, it’s cool to see the introduction of UNIT, and there IS some intrigue to be had with Vaughn trying to control the Cybermen. Other than that, though…there’s only so many times I can say, “Oh, it’s so cool to see humanity band together to fight the Cybermen!” At least with the Daleks you have some serials trying to mix things up with them chasing The Doctor and company through space and time or destroying the Dalek empire or having them trick humans into thinking Daleks can be controlled. Here, it’s the FIFTH TIME I’ve seen/read about Cybermen trying to invade Earth and/or destroy humanity with The Doctor and a small group of cannon fodder trying to stop them. At first, it WAS cool to see how the Cybermen started and how The Doctor struggled against them, but after five times with the same kind of adventure it finally got dull. CYBERMEN are now dull. I’m sure they’ll show up again in the future, but after this serial, I was left hoping it wouldn’t be anytime soon.

The Krotons: SAVED from the BBC gods!

And it’s…another case where The Doctor and others discover a conspiracy within a society and must try to stop it so that the same society shall flourish. It’s a story structure that the writers thankfully eased up on for a bit, making it a lot less dull than seeing the Cybermen for the tenth time (I was genuinely worried it would be the Cybermen again when someone mentioned silver men). Plus, to be fair with this one, they mix things up a bit where people catch onto the conspiracy sooner, with The Doctor actively trying to STOP them from revolting due to not knowing enough about the threat yet. There’s even something interesting with how The Doctor and Zoe are prime targets by the Krotons due to their intelligence, but sees Jamie as a waste of space because of his…primitive mindset. It almost has something to say about how a brilliant mind is important but one should also rely on instinct to survive. While it ALMOST gets there…it doesn’t really go all the way, sticking to a theme that one should think for themselves in searching for knowledge rather than letting a higher form of intelligence give them easier answers. Mind you, that’s still a good lesson, as well as a unique one, but unfortunately leaves Jamie on the sidelines with the admittedly boring Gongs who don’t really capture my attention throughout the adventure. I’m more invested with the struggles of The Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie that this tiny rebellion just never captured any investment from me. Given how it’s essential to care about the Gongs so you can hope for The Doctor to save them, I’d say “The Krotons” didn’t do its job too well. There are some good bits that made it worth a watch, but not enough to make me value the whole adventure.

The Seeds of Death: ALSO saved from the BBC gods!

And this one features the return of the Ice Warriors. A tad bit out of the blue, but more welcome than Cybermen for the sixth frickin’ time. As a bonus, I get to actually SEE the Ice Warriors in action this time around instead of just reading about what they do, which steadily improves how I look at these things now as compared to their introduction. It’s weirdly unsettling hearing how they talk as though in constant pain yet still move around with commanding stride. It effectively makes them decent threats, especially with how the guns they use cause this distorted effect that is unlike anything I’ve seen kill a character in Doctor Who before, but works in a way I wouldn’t have been able to expect, at least for something in the late sixties. As for their diabolical plan…it’s covering the world in white foam. I know they said it’s algae or something, but it’s foam. Though, the crazy thing is that I feel the threat because of how well everyone treats it as one. It’s weird, I feel NOTHING towards frickin’ seaweed and white foam, but white foam on its own seems to do SOMETHING for reasons I cannot fully explain. I just look at how it surrounds the Earth, remember how toxic it is for the characters, and actually get worried when I see some of them get covered in it because it’s likely going to do some harm. It’s weird, but it works. The only thing I really CAN complain about is how slow the serial moves. It’s another case where it feels like the serial pads itself out to an unnecessary degree, to the point where the titular seeds of death don’t even come into play until halfway through the serial. At first, I didn’t mind the setup, as I felt showing us that this threat is occurring on this moonbase before The Doctor even shows up is a great way to set the stakes. But given how it took TWO EPISODES just to get up on the damn thing all so we can have this argument about the necessity of rocket travel that went NOWHERE, it makes me wish that The Doctor just happened upon the moonbase or any of the bases with T-Mats just so we can stop wasting time. Because once The Doctor and co. DO end up going against the Ice Warriors, the serial finds its momentum as you watch everyone try desperately to fight these near unstoppable monsters with even The Doctor taking direct action to stop them. It’s just that if this serial was an episode or two shorter, it would have been stronger because of it.

The Space Pirates: AND we were doing so well. DAMN IT! To the transcripts…

At first, I wasn’t really into this. It was all just catching me up to this new time period, spoon feeding me all this lore with these new characters that I could hardly give a single shit about. Meanwhile, The Doctor and his companions, the characters that I enjoy and look forward to seeing in every adventure, were in the middle of an infinitely more engaging narrative of being trapped in a portion of a blown up space probe and trying to get back to the TARDIS as it’s stuck in another part of the probe. I wanted to see how they get out of this mess, yet the story kept cutting back to other characters that The Doctor and his companions haven’t even met yet. It made the serial feel dull and slow, with our main cast feeling like they’re reacting to a plot that happens around them instead of doing something about the titular space pirates. That is, until they meet Milo, because that’s when the story starts picking up. Now with The Doctor and others thrown into the conflict, they’re forced to stop the pirates and save lives so they don’t suffer as well. Even all that time showing us these other characters and their complicated histories was actually beneficial as it all leads to a thrilling conclusion of all these characters separated into different parties and working together for the same goal. I went from not caring about Madeleine or Milo or their whole misconstrued betrayal of one another, but when we get to the big twist of what happened to Madeleine's father (which I will leave spoiler free for this), I felt surprisingly invested and hoped things could work out for those two. It’s amazing how successful a story can turn out if you have faith in the audience feeling invested enough to keep with it and it all pays off in the end. Now, it doesn’t ALWAYS work out, as Doctor Who is sometimes evident of that as well, but this is another case of a serial getting better the more you stick with it. The start was slow and dull but it really is worth it for that quick and tense ending that left me satisfied with its conclusion.

The War Games: Well, at least they remembered to keep The Second Doctor’s last adventure intact. More than I can say about the last one…

This is also his longest adventure too, which is fitting enough. This is the last time we’re going to see this version of The Doctor and the companions he made along the way. So it makes sense to have their last adventure together be their longest one yet, giving fans one last LONG goodbye before seeing them off. And WHAT a final send off, having The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe go through a large plain of existence where soldiers of every major war on Earth (Up to 1969) are all jumbled together for the sick experiment of an unnamed alien race. Sure, the length makes things drag a bit, but the serial keeps you entertained ENOUGH to see what happens next. Like when Jamie gets kidnapped during HIS attempt at a rescue mission or how The Doctor had to betray his companions so he could save them later. There’s so many twists and turns that the serial takes, keeping me guessing in certain areas and engaging enough to enjoy most of it. Even stuff like the leaders of each war coming together to stop this threat has something beautiful to say. The only way to save ourselves isn’t fighting each other, but fighting against an even bigger problem that could result in our extinction. Whether or not that’s what the serial is trying to say is really up in the air, but it’s still a beautiful sentiment that I personally took away from, and hopefully others got that too.

But the final episode is where things get REALLY good as The Doctor stands trial for, well, being The Doctor. This is the serial that revealed he ran away from his home planet, too bored by just observing time and space and wanting to see it, to be a part of the universe’s insane narrative. It shows leagues of layers to The Doctor and why they’re always moving, always traveling to see something new, in the same episode that reveals more Time Lords. The ones we’ve seen before were Susan and The Monk, with both of them being…not that impressive as The Doctor. Here, though? We get to see just how powerful a Time Lord is and exactly why The Doctor knows there’s no escape from their punishments, regardless of your pleas. It makes the rest of the episode a tragic one as everybody is fighting all they can to stop the inevitable, and everybody fails in the process. It hurts the most when The Doctor is forced to say goodbye to both Zoe and Jamie with NONE of them wanting to. I actually felt my heart cracking up a bit when The Doctor said his goodbye Jamie in particular, the two of them going through the most together throughout this run. And to add an extra layer of pain, neither of them remember The Doctor when getting sent back to their respective times. Previous companions got to at least have their memories, so the fact that Zoe and Jamie don’t just…hurts. It hurts me as it hurts The Doctor, the poor guy losing everything because of HIS decision. He contacted the Time Lords to save the many lives that the aliens stole, only to lose everything in the process. From his TARDIS, to his companions, to even his face, this is The Doctor’s greatest failure that came from what’s basically his greatest victory. “The War Games” might feel a little long at times, but that ending makes it one of the best Doctor Who stories in the series. Couldn’t have asked for a better final serial for this Doctor.

But before we talk about the new guy himself, let’s get into the people that tagged along in this journey.

THE COMPANIONS

New regeneration, new companions. Just like last time, we’re going in order of appearance, starting with two in particular carrying over from the last Doctor…

Ben: Ben…feels like a productive Steven. He’s able to save lives and actually assist the others, but he’s just so whiney and dopey a lot of the time. Ian had his moments where he complained or bantered with The Doctor but had this sort of…charm that Ben lacks. You could say that it’s a maturity thing and Ben’s youthful twenties made him act a little immaturely. But even then, while you CAN say that’s an excuse, it doesn’t stop him from being a little annoying. I at least like him more than Steven, but not by much.

Polly: Polly frustrates me in a way because it feels like she’s two different characters sometimes. At her best, she’s a lot like Barbara: Capable of getting herself out of scraps, intelligent enough to follow along with The Doctor better than anyone in the group, and kind in ways where she emphasizes with someone going through something stressful. But at her worst, Barbara’s a lot like Susan: A damsel in distress SCREAMING for someone to help her. It’s like the writers wanted to be progressive in making Polly be a capable companion but didn’t want her to be TOO impressive compared to some of the men. The end result causes her to be a character whose personality isn’t even dependent on the story being told. It’s dependent on what the scene is, holding her character back from being someone amazing when she’s just…a slightly better Susan.

Jamie: I didn’t even need to check in with the fandom to know that Jamie’s a fan-favorite. His middle name might as well be loyalty, because there is no one that stuck closer to The Doctor like he did. Jamie would throw himself into danger without a second thought because The Doctor is in trouble and he would fight heaven and Earth just to save him. And he had the skill to back it up too. Where the boy lacked brains, he more than made up with brawn and battle experience, thinking on his feet while knocking out blokes that threatened his life and The Doctor’s. Though, let it be known that Jamie isn’t BLINDLY loyal. He still questions most of The Doctor’s tactics and will relentlessly be annoyed with his antics and incapability to use the TARDIS. Just because Jamie would die for The Doctor, he’d still knock some sense into the old man for acting like a fool. The result is a fun and admirable character that I was genuinely sad to see go. Maybe because, out of every companion The Second Doctor had, Jamie stuck around the longest. Everyone else left after a season, but not Jamie. He stuck around, knowing that The Doctor will always need a guy like him, with it hurting the most that they had to say goodbye and Jamie lost his memories. The Doctor will never forget him, but Jamie will, making a sad end to what might be one of my favorite Doctor Who companions.

Victoria: I have…mixed feelings towards Victoria. I was not a fan of her constantly being a damsel in distress, hardly contributing as The Doctor and Jaime went off to do the real dangerous stuff. I, for one, still prefer companions that are more active than reactive, thank you. Plus, the screaming wasn’t really pleasant a few times…Yet, at the same time, I’ve come to realize that there’s this…sympathy to be had with Victoria. She lost her father, whose last request was for The Doctor to protect his daughter at all costs. And The Doctor, in typical fashion, figured that protecting meant taking her along for every dangerous adventure he could possibly come across. It makes sense why she was often the damsel who would inevitably leave behind all the wackiness. She wasn’t MADE for adventure and wanted out of it. It makes for an interesting character on paper, even if the execution could be…grating. I like the attempt and I still love how her departure went. I just wasn’t a fan of the overall character.

Zoe: Wasn’t there for too long, but she was a fine enough character. I loved that she was as smart as The Doctor and even smarter at times. She had good rapport with him as the first person to ever match wits with The Doctor on a regular basis…Other than that, she was still just like the other young female companions: A damsel when the story demanded it. Worse yet, it gave her a sort of strained relationship with Jamie, with there ALMOST being something there with Jamie demanding that she’d protect herself and Zoe going, “How very sexist of you.” Only for her to be in immediate danger and screaming for The Doctor and Jamie to come save her. It would have actually been cool if she could save herself or even save Jamie and The Doctor instead of screaming for help as though she were a Susan or a Victoria. But, nope, can’t have a woman be too badass in the late sixties. Here’s hoping the seventies will be better with a new Doctor…

Speaking of Doctors, let’s talk about the new, old man himself…

THE DOCTOR

Right away, I want to make it clear that this is MUCH more of what I’m expecting from The Doctor. Gone is the old cynic and in comes what’s basically a British Bugs Bunny. The Doctor takes control of every situation he’s in through confidence and keeping everyone guessing what he’ll do next with toys, gimmicks, and even disguises to befuddle his enemies. The man was a ton of fun, aided by Patrick Troughton’s charming performance, looking like (and often sounding like) he was having a great time with this character. But it should be known that most of One’s seriousness wasn’t completely lost. Two still kept that in stride, yelling and being furious with others when they didn’t listen to his “good” and “completely reasonable” ideas (the air quotes are intentional). It’s almost as if he was a younger version of The First Doctor, which…might have been the intention? As of this point, the show didn’t explain what regeneration was, only vaguely doing it by the time Number Two’s was up. When The First Doctor regenerated in the TARDIS, with only a few nobs moving on their own while he laid almost dead on the floor, it was as though the writers were trying to visually explain that the TARDIS aged him backwards into Patrick Troughton. Of course, this is only theories and speculation, but something I couldn’t help but pick up as a possibility and I wonder if that could have been the real explanation that the writers wanted to stick with Troughton didn’t want out after three seasons. We know NOW that isn’t the case, but it’s still a fun “what if” that makes this already entertaining version of the character more intriguing.

However, as fun as The Second Doctor is, he’s not without problems. Or PROBLEM as there was only really ONE thing that bothered me with The Second Doctor, and that’s how much of a sniveling coward he could be sometimes. I heard people complain about Fifteen shedding a few tears over a stressful or heartbreaking situation, but it’s nothing compared to how often The Second Doctor would scream, panic, and sound like he was on the verge of bawling like a baby over a stressful situation. It would only get worse with each serial too, with him coming across as more of a coward when he really should have become braver. That’s kind of how character development is SUPPOSED to work. You get BETTER with each adventure, not worse, and it really hurts with how strong this Doctor started off. He came out swinging as a goofy and serious reincarnation, but slowly lost my interest as his run went on. I at least like Two more than One, but I don’t think he’d be able to top some of my favorite modern Doctors. The fact that most of his serials were deleted doesn’t help much either.

Although, I will say, I MUCH prefer this run over the last one. It’s a bit repetitive at times but MUCH more engaging with thrilling sci-fi stories that are much more in-line with what I expect from Doctor Who, aided with a fun-loving Doctor and his most loyal companion…Plus some season long guests. And with his story over, I’m looking forward to what Number Three has to offer. Mainly because I know NOTHING about him, so that’s going to be fun to experience. Until then, I’ll be counting down the next one by the SECONDS.

[celticcrossanon]

Hi Celta, I hope you don't mind me asking, but I'm very interested to hear your thoughts on the book that Omid ( ably assisted by the Harkles, IMO,). I can't believe it was allowed to be published, honestly. Is there more to it than we realise?

Hope you're feeling better x

Hi NZCarol,

I was feeling a lot better and planning to come back and start blogging again this weekend.

Then I got covid (thank you family members) and now I am a miserable mess.

With respect to the book:-

I believe the writing and structure is dreadful, which explains why his first book had a co-writer.

It is very clearly Meghan and Harry speaking through the author, Meghan moreso than Harry imo (although Harry is by no means blameless).

it is also very clearly an outpouring of spite and hatred against the BRF, specifically the King and the Prince and Princess of Wales. The contents are apparently a repeat of all the gossip from social media, so old news and stale news.

I think the three people involved in writing the book (Harry, Meghan and their mouthpiece) wrote it to vent their spite and hatred, and that it was designed to cause as much trouble for the BRF as possible.

I also think that those three people grossly underestimated the ability of the general public to see through their bullshit and to understand exactly what they are doing.

The only real point of interest that has been picked up by the media is the naming of the so-called royal racists as King Charles and The Princess of Wales, which is a) unbelievable given the named people's past history of behaviour b) clearly an attempt to boost sales and c) not to be believed as that story has changed its details every time it was repeated, right from the start with two version being given in the Oprah interview. With both the author and Meghan being proven liars in court, it is difficult to take anything they say with any degree of veracity.

@emmashouldbewriting has explained that the agents handled the English version rights, but the author themself handled the foreign language rights, which means that the version with the names that was translated was supplied by the author

I think the author saying the names was a mistranslation is a lie. That is not how translation works. I think including the names of the royal racists was deliberate, to boost sales and to cause problems for the BRF. I also think that by blaming the translators the author has done a lot of harm to two innocent people.

I think the book is a targeted and deliberate attack on Charles, William and Catherine, and it is designed to make Charles look like a bad king. I have no idea why someone would write this apart from spite and malice. From the title and the blurbs, the author clearly thought that this book would take down the monarchy and finish it for good, but to do that the book needed several things it is sorely lacking, such as coherence, an organised structure, and truly shocking information about corruption backed up by proof instead of stale gossip that has done the rounds many times before appearing in the book.

I think the book was a definite attempt to undermine and discredit the British Monarchy, I think it has failed, and I think that Harry and Meghan will now scramble to disassociate themselves from the book with more lies, if they have not already done so.

The question now is how will King Charles respond to this collection of obvious hatred. Any reaction will be twisted by the author and Harry and Meghan into more publicity, so there is a case for ignoring it (continuing the grey rocking), but there are also the questions of how far is too far and when do you have to take steps to protect yourself and your family.

By itself, I believe the book is nothing more than an incoherent jumble of opinion mixed with old and tired gossip, seasoned with a liberal does of spite and malice, but it is part of a bigger pattern, one of continual malicious attacks on the BRF by Harry and Meghan. Is it time to shut the couple down for good, and if so, how would you do it so it is both decisive and effective? I think those are the questions facing King Charles and his response with either fix the situation for good or male it much worse.

[daydadahlias]

how do you manage to get your characters to feel so human? i feel like whenever i write, they just feel like characters, if that makes any sense. you’re are so alive and mine are like puppets. how do you do it?

Oh this is a question and a compliment all in one so first, thank you so much that’s really sweet!!

Second, I used to struggle a lot with my characters not sounding realistic because I used to be obsessed with the idea of sound bites or Perfect One-Liners that would make readers go “omg this author is so smart!!” but what I neglected to realize is that people don’t talk like that!! People don’t talk like they’re being written by someone, they just talk like people. To improve your characters, you need to really focus on their dialogue. Be aware of how real people talk in conversation. They stumble over their words, they repeat themselves, they add filler words like “uh” and “well” and “like”! Don’t be afraid to include stuff like that. Something that I personally notice in unrealistic dialogue is usually that writers don’t let their characters use contractions. If you read “you cannot do that” out loud versus “you can’t do that!” One definitely sounds more realistic than the other!!!

In addition, to make my characters feel more realistic, I always try to learn more about them than just what they are on the page! Like, even if I never reference a character’s job in a fic, I still know what it is behind the scenes (take, for instance, physical therapy assistant Ashton in my fic Doggy Style; his job is really never referenced at all in the fic except for the fact that he’s wearing scrubs, but because I know his job, I know so much more about him!!).

It’s always super important to remember—and this is advice I got as an actor, actually, but can relate so well to writing too—that a story is not a character’s life; it’s one segment of their life. They exist before the events of the story, and they will exist after the events of the story!! This is just one small portion of them and you as a writer need to be aware of all versions of them: who they were before, who they are now, and who they will be. This is one of the things that makes my characters feel real too, is referencing thing that happened to them in the past (ie. Calum’s loss of virginity story in MiM) so that reader’s know there was a version of them prior to this story!!

Otherwise, yeah, they’ll just feel like Characters and not people. I hope this helps :)

[fandoms-are-my-friends-1321]

I’m in Love With a Fairytale

I’m so excited to be writing for the Bill and Ted fandom again, and this request helped me out of my writer’s block! As always gif and characters are not mine, and I hope you all enjoy!

Description: Bill and Ted go back in time to find information for a paper on Pompeii, and Ted falls hard for the reader. However, their love takes a disastrous turn

Warnings: angst, technically reader death even though it’s not described, if I miss anything let me know

Bill and Ted were renowned across San Dimas for their presentation featuring historical figures, and while they were both happy to not fail their history class and be kicked out of school, the bar would never be lowered for them again.

“Our paper is due in twenty-four hours, Ted! We can’t mess this up or our reputations will take a most heinous turn,” Bill commented as he paced the floor.

“All we have to do is convince Rufus to lend us the time machine again,” Ted added as he swiveled around in Bill’s desk chair. “We can just grab someone from Pompeii and bring them back here for an interview!”

“That’s a most excellent idea, Ted! Rufus can’t say no to us.” The two ended the conversation with synchronized air guitars before running down the stairs to call Rufus. The time traveler from the future had left his number for Bill and Ted in case they needed assistance, and what better time to call than now.

“For the last time, you two, I can’t allow you to go to Pompeii.” Rufus tried to explain to Bill and Ted. Pompeii was classified as a treacherous time zone, and that meant going there could not only destroy the time machine, but change the course of history forever. “I’m sorry, but it’s protocol.”

Bill groaned as he shook his head, the plastic house phone clutched near his ear. “Please Rufus, you said it yourself that if we fail any of our classes, our band will fall apart. One interview and then we’ll leave.”

Ted stole the phone from Bill. “Yeah! We will be in and out faster than you can say time machine!”

“Fine, but do be careful. I’m sending the time machine to you now.” Rufus sighed as he hung up on his end, leaving Bill and Ted to celebrate their success. The time machine arrived moments after, remnants of sparks gliding along the grassy front lawn of Bill’s home. The two entered the phone booth and dialed the number for Pompeii. A warning screen appeared above the dial for the phone, the warning “DO YOU WISH TO PROCEED TO TREACHEROUS TIME ZONE” spelled out in green virtual font. Ted clicked the accept button, and the time machine glided along the bumpy currents of time.

“Woah,” Bill and Ted uttered in unison as they stepped out of the time machine. Pompeii never seemed to end, and it was definitely bigger than San Dimas. The terracotta colored roofs and dark green trees that were planted near the buildings were different compared to the dry, drab environment that Bill and Ted were used to. The duo decided to head towards the center of town to find the right person to interview for their paper.

The marketplace circulated many townspeople by the second, some of them arguing about prices or stealing straight from the booths. Several people gave Bill and Ted odd looks, but they were used to suspicious glances after their previous adventures through time. “Alright Ted, keep your eyes peeled for anyone interesting. Let’s try…” Bill stopped when he noticed that Ted did not hear a single word he was saying. Ted was staring at someone in the distance, and Bill looked to see what was distracting his best friend so much. A person around their age busied themselves with restocking their booth, an array of pottery detailed with intricate designs lined the table in front of them. Before Bill could say anymore to Ted, he was already halfway to the booth.

“Did you make these?” Ted asked as the person raised their head.

“Yes, I did make all these myself. The ones at the front were finished this morning.” The person smiled as they put down the final vase onto the display. They studied the young man in front of them. “Where are your clothes from?”

“The San Dimas Mall! It is a righteous place, and they have great deals!” Ted realized that this person didn’t even know about San Dimas, and he had to recover quickly before he blew his chance. “My name’s Ted. It’s nice to meet you.” Ted offered them his hand, and after an instant of hesitation, they offered their hand as well.

“Greetings, Ted. My name is Y/N.”

“That is a most bodacious name.”

Bill approached Ted and tried to pull him away from the stall. ‘Come on, Ted! We don’t have time to flirt with babes!” Ted remained where he was as he shook Bill’s hand off his shoulder. Bill had witnessed that look in Ted’s eyes only once before. Back in seventh grade, Ted had the biggest crush on the President of the Debate Team, and he admired them from afar for years. Ted did not fall for people often, but when he did, he fell hard. “Okay, you interview them and learn about what business is like here, and I will find some others to talk to. Meet me back here before sunset.” Bill wandered off and disappeared within the masses, leaving Ted and Y/N alone.

“I need to interview someone for my history paper. Would you care to join me for a walk?” Ted waited in anticipation for Y/N’s answer. Rejection for Ted happened more times than he could count, but he still prayed that this one would work out.

“That would be lovely! Historical papers are an interest of mine.” Y/N moved through the narrow doorway positioned behind the stand, and Ted could hear them talking to someone in the room. Y/N came back outside and called out a final goodbye. “Follow me. There is a quiet garden outside of town where we can talk in peace.”

Ted eagerly followed Y/N, who seemed to pass through the crowds with the grace of a dancer. At one point, Ted almost lost sight of them, but Y/N noticed the loss of his presence immediately and stopped. Y/N grabbed Ted’s hand as they smirked. “Just a little further. I can’t lose you before I have the chance to tell you all that I am able.”

The garden was spacious and yet secluded as Y/N had said, and they let go of Ted’s hand before taking a seat under a pomegranate tree. They patted the grass beside them, and Ted clumsily fell by their side. Y/N giggled at his antics as they leaned back on their arms. “What do you wish to know about Pompeii, Ted?

Ted spent the rest of the afternoon asking Y/N questions about their life, but eventually the questions diverted from historical to personal. There was something about Y/N’s voice that sounded prettier than any love song Ted had ever heard, and he would do anything to hear more of it. Sadly, their time together was cut shorter than he wanted. “Oh no, I must head home or my father will kill me,” Y/N said as they stood up.

“Could we meet here again tomorrow? I have more questions to ask you.” Actually, Ted had plenty of information for the paper, but the question he wanted to ask the most he was too scared to say. By tomorrow he would muster up the courage to ask Y/N if they wanted to come back to San Dimas with him. Until then, Ted knew something that he could do. “Y/N, have you ever played an instrument before?”

“No, but my uncle is skilled at playing the harp. Why do you ask?” Y/N was slightly worried about the agitated words their father would say when they returned home, and yet their curiosity kept their feet anchored in place. Ever since this strange young man named Ted appeared at their stall earlier that day, Y/N felt a pull towards him. Could this be the feeling that they had heard so many tales about?

“Well see, there’s this thing that my friend Bill and I do whenever we are super stoked about something. All you have to do is pretend to play a guitar like this.” Ted demonstrated his air guitar for Y/N, who looked at him with a puzzled but intrigued expression.

“I believe I understand what you mean,” Y/N stepped closer to Ted as they attempted to mimic his actions. It was stiff and uncoordinated, but Ted could tell that Y/N tried their best. “Was that correct?”

“Not exactly, but here let me show you.” Ted closed the rest of the space between him and Y/N and took their arms in his hands. His touch was gentle as he moved Y/N’s arms to show them what a proper air guitar looked like. Despite the educational intent behind Ted’s actions, Y/N felt a warmth creeping into their cheeks, the pinkish color hidden by the darkness that slowly covered the garden. Ted backed away and allowed Y/N to give it another go. This time, they were much more successful.

“That was a most excellent air guitar, Y/N! I could not have done better myself.” Ted grinned from ear to ear, and Y/N smiled just as much. The garden’s only light came from the moon above, and the earlier worries Y/N had returned to them. “Thank you for the lesson, Ted, but I must be going now. Until tomorrow!” Y/N headed for the entrance of the garden, but they quickly turned back and left a quick kiss on Ted’s cheek before finally heading home. Ted left shortly after and arrived at the spot where Bill wanted to meet. The blonde sat on a bench with his arms crossed.

“You’re lucky that you’re my best friend, or I would be most angry with you right now.” Bill grumbled as he tried to keep up his angry expression, but a huge grin replaced his scowl as he sprung up from the stone seat. “So, did you kiss them?!”

“No, but we are meeting at the same place tomorrow!”

“Excellent! I found a spot where we can hide out until tomorrow, and we can plot the perfect game plan for you to ask Y/N out on a proper date.” That night, Ted fell asleep the moment his head hit the straw-stuffed sack that Bill found in the barn they were staying in, and he dreamed of the delightful conversations that he would have with Y/N.

The next day came, and Ted ran out of the barn as soon as the sun reached its peak in the sky. Bill stayed behind to catch up on reading about Pompeii in the school textbook. Not only that, but he also did not want to ruin Ted’s date with Y/N. When Ted entered the garden, he noticed that Y/N arranged a picnic for the two of them under the pomegranate tree. “I brought what I could, and while it is no feast, surely it will do.” Y/N said as Ted assembled his own plate of food.

Once they had finished eating, Ted swallowed his nerves as he tried to ask the big question. “Y/N, how would you-”

“Ted! Ted I’ve gotta tell you something!” Bill stormed into the garden, startling both Ted and Y/N.

“Can’t this wait, Bill? I was just about to ask Y/N something.” Ted felt annoyed, but the fear on Bill’s face meant that something had to be wrong. “Excuse me, Y/N. I’ll be right back.” Ted followed Bill to the edge of the garden where they could talk in private. Y/N remained under the tree, staring up at the leaves happily. “This had better be good Bill, or you owe me one.”

“Do you remember why our teacher wanted us to write about Pompeii,” Bill asked as he flipped to that section of the history textbook.

“No, did it have something to do with the beauty of this city?” Ted answered as he looked over at Y/N.

“Not exactly, Ted. Pompeii was destroyed by a volcanic eruption on August 24th, 79 A.D. That’s today! Rufus warned us that this was a treacherous time zone, and now we know why! We have to leave right now before we turn into literal toast!”

“Just let me say goodbye to Y/N. If I tell them what’s about to happen, they’ll want to come with us.” Ted ran back over to Y/N and pulled them up from their blanket. “Y/N, I know this is sudden, but you have to come back to San Dimas with Bill and I. Something terrible is about to happen, and I can’t leave you behind.”

Y/N’s mouth hung open as they tried to process what was going on. “What do you mean? I can not leave my father alone. We have a business to run, and there is nothing to fear in this city. My place is here in Pompeii, Ted.”

“I love you, Y/N. And if you feel the same, then you have to come with me.” Ted reached for Y/N’s arm, but they jerked their limb back. Y/N’s eyes brimmed with tears as they took another step away.

“And I love you as well, Ted, but leaving now is not possible. I do not know your reason for wanting to leave, but no matter where you are going, it will have to be without me. Nevertheless, take this with you to remember me by.” Y/N removed the necklace they were wearing and placed it in Ted’s hand, closing his fingers and holding his palm closed. “My mother gave this to me, and she told me that when the time was right I would be able to give it to the one I love. Who would be more deserving than the stranger who stole my heart.”

Tears rolled down Y/N’s cheeks, and Ted brushed them away with his free hand. Ted pressed his lips to Y/N’s, a few tears escaping his own eyes as they shared the only passionate exchange they would ever have. The kiss ended, and the two simply gazed at each other for the last time. “I will never forget you, Y/N.”

“And I will never forget you, Ted.”

“Ted, it's time to go!” Bill shouted as Ted reluctantly followed his call. Y/N was sobbing now, but even in sadness their smile never faltered. They showed off their new air guitar skills to Ted, and he sent the best air guitar of his life in return. Ted walked away from the love of his life, and just like Orpheus leaving the underworld, he could not turn around for fear that his Euridice would pull him to his death.

Bill and Ted stepped into the time machine, and Bill dialed the number as the ground beneath them shook from a volcanic rumble. Ted rested his back against the glass wall, his coffee-colored eyes focused solely on the floor. “Ted, are you crying,” Bill questioned as the time machine traveled on and left Pompeii behind.

“Shut up, Bill! I’m not crying.” The glimmering trails of despair told Bill otherwise, and he understood that his friend needed some time to recover. Months passed, and while Bill and Ted aced their paper on Pompeii, an amazing grade wasn’t enough to mend Ted’s heart. Bill found Ted one afternoon hunched over his desk, scribbling rhythms and words onto a scrap piece of paper.

“What’s that for, Ted?”

“It’s a ballad about Y/N. I wish I told them how I felt the first night we met, and maybe they would be with me now.” Ted could feel the prick of tears blurring his vision, so he put more focus onto the song to keep from crying more than he already had the past few months.

“I know that this will be a most righteous song, and Y/N would love it.” Bill was right about the song becoming a hit. In fact, it became the most popular song that Bill and Ted’s band ever created. While Ted could not be with the one he loved, at least he had a melody to remind him of the wonderful stories he heard from Y/N, who to him was the only beautiful person in all of Pompeii.

[chlorine-and-daisies]

for the get-to-know you: 16, 32, 74

16: How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

I'm kinda on a break from writing fic right now, but I do have an unfinished 5+1 that I might come back to eventually: "sleight of hand." Each chapter is named after a magic trick, and in the first five published chapters, Crowley is (loosely) imagining different ways Aziraphale could be coping after returning to Heaven

(hanging straitjacket escape= he gets out as soon as he can. metamorphosis/the assistant's revenge = he burns it all down. etc etc. Some of the titles are more Fleshed Out metaphors than others, others are just vibes.)

The final chapter would of course be the bullet catch- what does the *real* Aziraphale choose to do? I'm trying to figure it out myself, and it's such a meaningful trick that I really do want to get it right. So as of now I still don't know how it ends :)

32: Name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

ffonippop is excellent at writing AUs. i love the details in their worlds and how they modify Aziraphale and Crowley's characterization for each setting but not too much- they still feel like themselves and larger than life but also feel like people in the human world

mayhawk writes such detailed gorgeous fics that get into Aziraphale's head so well and have intriguing historical references and even funny footnotes...they made the vignette style cool way before i was attempting it

and finally i MUST give some credit to drawlight for their "Salinity (And Other Measurements of Brackish Water)." 

a true blend of poetry and fanfiction. neither tidal disruption nor sunday afternoon would have existed if i hadn't read drawlight's work and been inspired to be more experimental with my own writing.

seems like they may be inactive now but if they're seeing this: HI THANK YOU SO MUCH  YOU HELPED ME BE SAPPY AND METAPHOR-FILLED AND WEIRD WITH MY GRAMMAR AND BRAVE

74: You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?

aaa this is such a fun question!!! 

A new piece of music being referenced in every other paragraph is probably the best sign that you may be dealing with me. Each song has an inherent point value and the points can be added up to get the certainty that it's me. The point value of each song ranges on a scale from:

Queen (could be anyone, though Lots of repeated references to different songs of theirs could add up to it being me) < Chappell Roan (a little more likely to be me but nowhere near guaranteed)  <<<< Angelic Angel, Devicute, and other anime music that mentions angels and demons (definitely me)

The combination of sushi and music is particularly powerful. The most Me line I've ever put into a fic is "Omakase, Crowley, I hear you in the talking drums."

[barananduen-blog]

Sights from the drama & filming location, from local tourism office [Source] 🔊Sound on for the drama's cute "walking music"🔊

"BELL RINGING" - REVIEW

This drama performed extremely well, reaching #1 in viewership among currently airing short dramas and remaining in the top 2 spots through its entire run. Due to its good results, it stopped being only a webdrama and was broadcast on Chinese national TV and satellite TV as well! 🎉IMO, these accolades are very well deserved!

Plot Premise: The story takes place in Silver Bell Island, pastoral and peaceful with a hint of magic. Chi Ye, who, near the beginning of the story becomes the island's mayor, harbors a secret that none but his assistant know: he is immortal and has lived for hundreds of years, awaiting the return of his beloved, Shen Qi, for whom he made a sacrifice that not even he fully understands the depths of.

Present-day Shen Qi is a happy and carefree young woman, well loved by the community. She plans events and takes care of everyone, as they took care of her when she first arrived at the island. One day, she meets Chi Ye and falls in love at first sight, but, inexplicably, he always makes himself scarce around her. Thus begins her plan to "chase and capture" the reclusive Chi Ye.

✅Recommend! ✅Beautiful visuals, camerawork, etc. ✅Well-written, good flow and pacing ✅Interesting story ✅Good acting from almost all cast ✅Combination of ancient/modern was fun ✅Good characterization despite short length

❌It would have been nice if the second couple was developed more, but this was probably due to time restraints; it would have required a longer drama.

📺Where to watch: MangoTV website/app or MangoTV's official YouTube channels ("MangoTV Drama" and the language-specific channels)

Review (No Spoilers)

I was very impressed with this drama. It was very well written and the production and direction were excellent. Definitely one of my two favorite shorts/minis.

The writers managed the time restraints really well - I haven't read the novel it's based on, and yet I didn't feel like I missed anything at all for comprehension. I really, really liked how it's written like a long movie instead of a series of short episodes. In this sense, it's like a full-length drama, but shorter. This makes it stand out from among other short dramas: the flow is excellent, the plot and the two main characters have depth to them; so you do not get that feeling of superficiality that you see in most mini dramas.

The visuals also stand out. Despite being a modern drama, it has a magical, fairy-like feeling, with soft colors and lighting, rural and village scenery, lots of flowers (LOTS OF FLOWERS!). The camerawork impressed me, because the panning and zooming made even still scenes (like when the couple is just lying in bed) feel very dynamic, while contributing to mood and ambiance. Lots of people have described the drama's visual ambiance as "refreshing" and "healing," and I feel that's correct. The video above really shows a good sample of the feeling you get while watching the drama.

That said, plotwise, this is a very emotional show, and I think the juxtaposition of the peaceful scenes and the emotional turmoil was performed flawlessly. Life and death and fighting against fate are major themes, and the actors really make you feel for the characters.

The main story is set in the present time, with flashbacks to 500 years ago sprinkled throughout. The switching between the two time periods is done very well, and is neither obtrusive nor confusing. The viewer discovers and peels layers of what happened in tribal times as the characters themselves do. This layering is an integral part of the plot, and was written and executed very well.

Storytelling, camerawork, and post-processing filters come together seamlessly once again to create mood in the scenes leading up toward the end. The ending itself is very well written, too, and manages the viewers' feelings well.

Trivia: I forgot to add that voices are everyone's own and were recorded on-location, while filming the action. Recording studio work was limited to when characters were "thinking" and things like that.

[ailendolin]

Another (CBS) Ghosts thought:

In season one's "The Vault," Elias's watch no longer worked. But in season two's "The Perfect Assistant," Jessica's key fob still set off the car. Oversight, or can we make a fun canon out of it?

I think you can definitely make a fun (head-)canon out of it. Ghost rules don't make sense - that's established BBC Ghosts canon. Both shows are obviously vastly different and have established different rules (which I think is a good thing because everything CBS Ghosts copied didn't really work for me personally whereas the things they did differently did), and the key fob is one of those differences.

However, I can't deny that it does feel a little like an oversight to me. CBS Ghosts is the kind of show where new ideas get introduced all the time. It's so much more fast-paced than BBC Ghosts - and it has to be because there's so many more episodes per season and they need to fill them somehow - but the shorter episode length rarely allows for a deeper discussion of those new ideas. And sometimes, that makes it feel like the writers don't really take the time to stop and ask themselves if that fun little concept they're going to introduce actually makes sense in-universe.

Again, you can get away with a lot when you rely on ghost rules not having to make sense but some things just feel a little lazy and for me, the keys still being able to interact with the car is one of those things. It's a minor detail, though, and I stand by what I said at the beginning: it might be an oversight (or not, who knows?) but you shouldn't let that stop you from enjoying the show and having fun with the concept.

[gregoftom]

Something else I don’t think people consider with regards to anon’s point is what exactly those terms and conditions are.

We already know how prickly Ewan is about well, everything, and that he cuts Greg’s mom off at some point after season three starts I think. But like, is that even the first time? The brothers are much more similar than people want to believe and I think it’s possible Ewan could have cut Marianne off and brought her back in depending on their standing while Greg was growing up and he witnessed that. We just don’t have enough backstory to know because for some reason the writers set up this fascinating character and then did nothing with all that lore.

That’s why I can’t get behind people who think Greg was stupid to give up his inheritance. At least with Logan he was in good standing and guaranteed a job with Tom to look out for him. With his grandpa he’s on horrible footing and with no direction of what he wants from him either? Like if he quit Waystar and got another job somewhere else (which, as we’ve seen despite having the skills to hold his own in the company Greg clearly has difficulty in the workforce and maintaining employment), who’s to say Ewan wouldn’t also take offense to that job’s morals and demand Greg quit again? It’s a slippery slope where Greg would truly be under his grandpa’s thumb until his death and even then who knows what that bitter old crone would pull. And at no point does Ewan offer assistance to help Greg with that transition, like quit Royco and I’ll give you a cushion to help you get back on your feet. Nah. It’s do what I want when I want, without the guidance needed to make such a decision.

Also!!!! Thanks anon for reminding us we as an audience forget Greg literally supports his mom. On the little evidence we see she doesn’t seem to work or have a conventional job either, with always being in bed surrounded by wine and pills. Based on her panic spending in the season three premiere and Greg’s buying that 40k watch out of humiliation it’s clear neither of them have smart spending habits or know how to budget. Ewan likely never taught Marianne, and Marianne definitely never taught Greg and now they struggle to be well adjusted working members of society and he gets pissed at them for floundering. Obviously it’s an individual’s responsibility as an adult to look out for themselves and not blame or rely on other people but the fact that Ewan has endless resources at his disposal to help them not be struggling just to survive and doesn’t is nothing short of cruel.

(also don’t even get me started on the fact that Greenpeace itself is a problematic organization that just proves Ewan either does no research into what he wants to spitefully put Greg’s inheritance towards, or simply does not care and only wants it to look good on paper. Greg was right to want to sue lmao)

oh yeah no exactly that’s what pisses me off about ewan too like this bitch could tell greg to jump a certain height and greg would do it with a backflip and it still wouldn’t be good enough, he’s a find something to be wrong with it. ewan is very much like logan and i’ll never understand mfs who say otherwise.

wrt marianne i agree and do believe she has been cut off before, like, this isn’t the first time, and like you say she hasn’t been taught to budget and spend properly and neither has greg, which fits with ewan’s ideology so it makes sense that they would blow all their money. greg did indeed look after his mama despite the fact she would not give him money at the beginning [perhaps echoing her own upbringing?] and i didn’t think about the fact that maybe she doesn’t work and didn’t previously, on god maybe greg has been looking after her for a lot longer than we think and him supporting her when he starts to get money is just a continuation of that. oh oof.

oh for real ewan is a bastard i hate his ass he is awful, just as awful as logan and lmfao i know right. there’s a lot of issues with green peace but ewan doesn’t give a fuck, i’m pretty sure his view is it doesn’t matter if there are a few problematic aspects bc on the whole it’s a “good” organisation. his views and opinions and correct and justifiable in this matter. i love how ppl get so up in arms when greg says he’ll sue greenpeace like yeah there are better things to pick but it’s not exactly evil of him when for example one of their members lots a bunch of money via gambling and another did many short trips gassing the shit out of the atmosphere and going against their policy, not to mention damage to the nazca lines.