#did I reveal this extremely important plot point in a meme?

[thr-333]

My sincerest apologies for this vent, but I just have to say it for the One and a Half Futures Au.

I can’t stop thinking about what the guys would feel if they lost the war for a second time and Leon dies in the process - likely saving everyone else at the cost of his own life- with the survivors of the resistance ending up in a post-movie timeline.

They find out that Leo’s original plan to save Raph and stop the Krang has worked, and that all these years and sacrifices during the course of the second resistance were all for naught.

They had the solution right in front of them, and they threw it to the ashes. They could have spared everyone so much suffering if only they listened to Leon instead of siding with the future one. They could have saved Raph, Leon, got their old lives back and Casey would have lived free from war… But nope! They took Future Leo’s side and let Leon take the pain all these years for nothing.

Half-Future timeline Donnie is extra protective of current timeline’s Leo. He knows he’s not his original twin, and that these new Leo and Raph are not replacements for the brothers they’ve lost, but he feels so guilty for taking Future Leo’s side over his own twin and unwittingly enabling the abuse that followed that Donnie goes feral if Future Leo dares to be within a 10 feet radius distance from current Leo. Donnie hisses. He growls and bares his teeth. He makes it clear that Future Leo is NOT to come close or interact with new Leo in any way, and no amount of validation is going to keep Donnie quiet this time. Future Leo already screwed up one version of Leo. Like hell will Donnie let it happen again!

And thing is… Future Leo IS genuinely remorseful for everything. To think he could have solved everything he strived for if only he let Leon do his thing. Man, the guilt for screwing up not just one time line, but TWO?!

And he really wants to make amends. He knows it won’t fix anything, he has no right to, and it will never undo the damage he’s caused, but he does want to apologise, especially to Leo, even if he’s not the same turtle. He genuinely wants to help Leo be a good leader in the right way, but Donnie makes it clear that if F!Leo dares to come anywhere near current Leo, he’ll bite his head off.

The present family has no idea how to navigate this whole situation - provided they don’t know all the details of what transpired in the other timeline - and now current Leo is stuck in the weirdest custody battle ever.

There. I’m done. I apologise again for the venting. Bye!🏃💨

You know what? Screw it, I was probably never going to finish the comic up to this point anyway.

Good news! You're right! Better news, Leon survives!

They end up going back to the past(to an alternate timeline I suppose) after Leo manages to save everyone from the Kraang attack. There's no Kraang, no war, just the crushing realization of one man's decisions.

How you describe Donnie is exactly how Leon would be with his younger self. Old man Leo is not allowed anywhere near the kid.

And yes he does feel guilty. He was able to overcome his guilt in the second timeline by pushing it all onto Leon. Now he goes back in time and discovers not only would Leon have saved the world, but that Leo was the one that actively stopped him.

He needs to apologize, he knows he does. But he doesn't think he deserves to. Ultimately isn't it better to let Leon focus all his anger onto him so Leon can live his life free of guilt?(It's not, but when this man reaches rock bottom he grabs a shovel and keeps on digging)

No one in the family knows how to deal with this. They have future versions of themselves running around(There would be four versions of Casey jr alone!). With three Leos. The future family knew Leon's relationship with Leo wasn't great but they're starting to suspect there's more to it with how hostile he is about letting Leo anywhere near his young counterpart.

[thepapergirlandthespiegelman]

Might stop reading Worm.

Content warning: bugs/insects/arachnids and related horror, body horror mention, miscellaneous violence mention, sexual violence/assault mention

My thoughts on the first ten arcs of Worm. (contains spoilers)

So, I finally got around to reading Worm. It was kinda big when I was in high school, and I still know some people who are/were into it, so I thought it was time that I gave it a serious shot. I did actually try to read it in high school once, but I couldn’t get into it and stopped reading after the first chapter. I tried to be a little more persistent this time to give it a fair evaluation.

When I started reading Worm this time around, I kind of just breezed past the warning at the beginning (“This story isn’t intended for young or sensitive readers. Readers who are on the lookout for trigger warnings are advised to give Worm a pass.”) I don’t consider myself someone who really gets triggered by media. I think it’s important to talk about stuff, including fucked-up stuff. It’s uncomfortable, but that discomfort is part of the point. I think it probably should bother you to read about terrible things, even fictional ones, given that those fictional atrocities almost always have real-world counterparts.

I think I vastly underestimated the amount of fucked-up-ness that is in Worm. When I read that warning, I thought, “Okay, this story’s probably dealing with some dark themes, and there might be some particular scenes that are really disturbing.” After reading the first ten arcs, though, I feel it’s more accurate to say that fucked-up-ness is Worm. It is the core of the story, and there is really very little else.

So it’s not that any particular thing that happened in the story triggered an immediate, strong, psychologically-damaging reaction in me, but as I continued reading, I began to notice that not only was I not enjoying myself, I was actually finding it subtly unpleasant. When I read about something bad happening, I get hit with a small dose of negative emotion. As it turns out, that adds up over time, especially when there aren’t any positive scenes to balance out the negative stuff. Without me even noticing for a long time, Worm was making me unhappy.

Here’s what I did like about Worm:

Impressive world-building - Wildbow is exceptional at inventing different locations, groups, and individual actors and thus creating a detailed ecosystem of capes and civilians.

Lots of characters, lots of superpowers - Directly related to the previous point, Worm contains a lot of characters...arguably too many characters. I generally prefer stories that focus on a smaller number of characters in order to give each character more room for development, but I appreciate Wildbow’s talent for coming up with vivid, if simplistic, characterizations. There are also some really interesting superpowers and interesting takes on common powers.

Inventive use of Taylor’s superpower - Taylor is always coming up with new uses for her power: having black widow spiders spin silk for her suit, using her bugs are a sixth sense to keep track of her enemies and environment, using venomous bugs to take hostages, covering her body in bugs as a disguise, coating her bugs’ stingers in capsaicin for extra punch, using human-shaped swarms to fake out her enemies...The list goes on and on, and I really appreciate how Wildbow took this oft-overlooked superpower to the next level.

Danny Hebert - The only character in the story who I can say I genuinely like. Danny Hebert is a union organizer whose pet project is getting the ferry up and running again so that there can be more interaction between the poorer and wealthier parts of Brockton Bay. I also loved the scene where he supports Taylor in the “mediation” with her bullies and their parents at school. Even if he was impotent, unable to protect her, I could tell he was on her side. His one screw-up is when he locks Taylor in the living room and tries to force her to talk to him, but it definitely makes sense with his character (a little bit of a pushover) and the story (Taylor was shutting him out and seemed to be putting herself in danger) that he would end up letting Taylor’s grandma convince him to take a forceful approach. Don’t get me wrong, locking up your kid is a horrible thing to do (I should know, my parents did it to me, and it fucked me up), but I still ended up feeling bad for him when Taylor just up and disappeared. She didn’t even call her dad to let him know that she was still alive after Leviathan! I mean, on the one hand, I do actually appreciate that she started making an effort to protect her father from the dangers of her cape life, something that I was kind of appalled to see that she never even considered before. But damn, did I feel bad for Danny.

Here’s what I didn’t like:

Way too much fucked-up shit happening - Name an atrocity, Worm’s probably got it. The plot is mostly just terrible thing after terrible thing and reveals of how terrible all of the characters are, with many terrible things that aren’t directly treated in the plot peppered in along the way.

Lots of capes, no heroes - This is one of those themes that sounds deep on paper but is really just cynical and fatalistic. Even if all the capes are corrupted by power (or by the toxic power dynamics between capes), what about civilians? Where’s the thoughtful therapist or the brave fire-fighter? Danny Hebert is one notable exception to the “Everyone is terrible” rule, but we don’t see all that much of him. Other than him, the only person I can think of who could possibly fit this “civilian hero” role is Aisha’s social worker, who I don’t think even has a name.

All superpowers are evil - This is arguably just a rephrasing of the previous point, but I think it’s important to mention. Worm contains so many superpowers, but it seems like they’re all being put to evil purposes. Panacea, the superheroine with healing powers (really just dominion over health and illness of the human body in general), makes some really despicable threats (e.g. giving someone cancer with a touch, or giving someone a disorder that will only manifest at an unknown time in the future, leaving them to anguish over their fate). Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing inherently wrong with writing a character using this type of power for evil ends. There’s a lot of interesting stuff to explore there, and I actually love that Panacea is a character that acknowledges the burden of having a healing power, feeling unable to take any time for yourself while simultaneously growing to resent those you feel obligated to help. My issue is not with Panacea but with the fact that literally every superpower in the story is painted in a negative light. It just feels absurd to suggest that, for example, someone like Gallant couldn’t use his power (carefully and thoughtfully and with consent) to heal people with emotional trauma. Superpowers in Worm are only for violence and conflict and crime, and I just don’t understand that. Again, the rogues form a token exception, but we rarely actually see them, and one of the first rogues we meet, Canary, is immediately subject to harsh and unjust punishment and never heard from again.

A misguided focus on only certain types of crime/violence - Worm deals with gang violence, robberies, and general chaos-inducing terrorism. It focuses on crimes perpetuated by working-class individuals and small to medium size illicit groups. There’s some commentary on state-sanctioned violence in terms of the corruption of the Protectorate and Dragon’s worries of having to obey a despot should one take over the government, but it’s not exactly framed in a way that highlights the struggles of the average person; the focus is almost entirely on capes. Worm doesn’t discuss things like wage theft, illegal rent hikes, or, dare I say it, the inherent violence of capitalism, which, while less flashy, are important problems with far-reaching consequences. It’s weird, and honestly kind of unrealistic, that there’s not a single anarcho-communist cape. Whether you agree with that kind of politics or not, it’s still a glaring omission if the setting of the story is trying to emulate real life. Again, Danny Hebert’s role as a union organizer and interest in restoring the ferry and reintegrating the city pay token attention to some of these ideas, but the vast majority of the story is unconcerned with addressing the source of, or solutions to, poverty and crime in Brockton Bay and the wider world of Worm.

So those are my thoughts. There’s a part of me that still thinks, “But so many people like this so much! Maybe it’ll get better!” I have a really strong drive to understand why others like the things that they do, to be able to share in their appreciation. But from what I’ve seen in a couple memes I happened upon, things are getting worse, not better for the world of Worm. And even if things start to resolve at some point, I’m not sure it would be great for my mental health to continue reading up to that point.

The breaking point for me, if you’re curious, was when a main character was just casually revealed to be a serial rapist. That wasn’t even the point of the chapter, it was just kind of thrown out there as an extremely-not-fun fact. So I was still reeling from that reveal while also experiencing all of the atrocities said character was committing in the moment, and after that was when I realized, “Hey, maybe this is not the kind of content I should be reading.” It even took reading a few more chapters into Arc 11 for it to really sink in, but I had this weird revelation of like, I get to choose which fictional worlds I spend my time in, and the world of Worm isn’t one I relish.

If you do enjoy Worm, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on what makes it appealing to you.

[dont-play-with-me-choices]

So I Played The Royal Finale Chapter 3...

What the fuck. What the fuck was that. What WAS that?!?

Well, let's start with the elephant in the room.

So, light-hearted first things first: the reveal of Liam's sister might accidentally be the funniest thing I've ever seen in this app. Why did they show us her face first like we were gonna know who the fuck she is. I was sitting there confused as shit like I might've forgotten someone. Idk why but that got me adjcb;kjda

But real talk, this was a extremely disappointing development, and I'd be lying if I said it was gonna negatively color my opinion for the foreseeable chapters. I was actually really excited to find out who was under the mask. An interesting new character is exactly was this seventh installment of a series needs to push to the finish line...

Keyword? Interesting, pixelberry!!! We've done the evil family member development 3 times at least. The most recent one was the whole plot of the last fucking book. Come ON now. And Liam's family... we've pushed and pulled every fucking Rys family member we could already. But ugh, whatever, bitching won't change that, here we are with... Lena.

I'm really hating how flippant the MC was this chapter, as well. For the first two chapters it felt like it was understood that we (the player AND the main cast) have been through too much bullshit to even pretend to have faith in any Via Imperii nonsense. But suddenly we get Liam's surprise sister in a murderous mercenary army, and MC tries the "let's be besties" route??? Are you kidding me??? We're teasing her???? I want answers! Where were the options to treat her like an enemy!

And speaking of enemies turned besties....

WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE DOING TO OLIVIA

Why, why, oh fucking why are we forced to box her out like this. This is almost insultingly stupid. How is this supposed to protect her? And from what! The Via Imperii already know who she is! I wanted to scream when I saw this, and if this comes back around to where we suspect Olivia for anything, only for it to be her working on the sidelines (bc we BOXED HER OUT) I'm gonna scream for real. I swear on a giant hat. My playchoices peeps on the east coast will hear it.

I do not like this Lena development. The fact that the former queen died with child was powerful. It made Liam's pain in the previous storylines a little more heartbreaking. So that's been royally fucked up, and for what? What good does it do that we've got yet another friend in the group grappling with "difficult family emotions" AGAIN? Fuck, everyone's getting a little bit of that in the finale! Hana and her mom (actually... did we just forget about that? Hana romancers, lemme know if there was any more talk for you guys, cuz I got bupkus), Drake and Bastien got beef, this now with Liam, Maxwell... well, he already got his, actually. But you get the point.

I do not see this becoming an interesting story anytime soon. I might be a bit bitter, but we've been playing the "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" game for fucking EVER. From what we've got so far, PB has set up a finale of cheap "gotcha" plot twists, "surprise" betrayals to spice things up but will only upend previous story lines, and dumbed down MC worse than ever before to make it all fit together.

Onwards to chapter 4, I suppose.

Bonus thoughts and memes:

I'm a Maxwell romancer, and I planned on restarting the series once TRF ended to romance Liam properly. And right now I find it hilarious that because of this mess, I am doomed to deal with "evil super surprise family member" no matter where I go. Hello Liam. Welcome to the club!

My "Straight Danger" senses are tingling between Drake and Lena. I can't help it. It's probably nothing! But PB loves enemies to lovers as much as they suck at writing them, and bringing in a badass female Liam "parallel" when people have been pointing out how close and important the guys are to each other since this story fucking started, in order to say that's just as good??? Look me in the eyes and say that's not a textbook PB move.

THAT BEING SAID. If they pull a fucking hail mary in the final book and finally let me hook up Drake, who's literally chomping at the bit to protect Liam this chapter, and our resident King Oblivious...

I am weak and spineless. I will forgive all sins. This will be the best book on the planet. yes i know they wont do that let me DREAM lol

I didn't realize that I had this screenshot from chapter 2 when Lena first shows up. The pic file is titled "umm.jpg" on my computer, which I think is pretty funny.

Goes to show how shocked I was to see such a striking get-up in the royal finale. Her faceless, nameless grunt dialogue kinda gave me endless summer vibes w/ Lundgren's men. Guess I was dealing with some high hopes....

Those old family traditions were to attempt a coup, and continued by honor, pride, and self-improvement! Put some respect on my besties name, Linda!

If you want my crazy thought? I think Lena's role should've been Liam's brother (Leo? Lysanderoth? I didn't even romance him in RoE 16 thousand years ago, so I don't even remember) Leo could've been tricked into joining the Via Imperii as a young impulsive prince. They don't fuck with him, but he got older and realized that he's given an in to Cordonia that could doom them all. That's why he fucks around in the Mediterranean by RoE- he's staying away for his family's safety. It's barely even be a retcon, since all he actually says in RoE is that he hated the pressure! Maybe that pressure was the royal murder cult! We could've had some spice here! But... we've got Lena. So let's see where this goes.

(final note: I think this is how i'll be formatting all my chapter notes for all future releases, so eventually I'll pin a master post to this blog as a directory. When I write up my thoughts about the first two chapters of this, I'll update this post with a link!)

[randomnameless]

I don't know if this has been asked before, but I was wondering what your thoughts on Rhea are.

Oh, I don't think someone asked it, but I remember a character meme.

Rhea's in the Julia tier : you're expecting things and the game doesn't give you any.

you asked for thoughts so this is long and rather unorganised even if i tried a bit and i feel like i repeated myself a lot so meh

If Edel and Rhea have one thing in common, it's being shafted by the need to make Billy the most special being every with the monstrous "I was lonely before you player-chan uwu".

Seteth'n'Flayn ? In the same trashcan Hubert went in.

Catherine, Shamir, the randoms living in the monastery? Dgaf but still she's willing to die for them so does she really gaf or not? Rhea's willing to give her blood and crest stone shards (to this day I still don't understand what those are) to trusted randoms who would become cardinals? "uwu player-chan". I know I've written a bit about it with the seirelm anon, but with the Canon-ish info? Post Zanado Rhea told a random dude she could turn in a dragon, gave her blood to the same dude and remained in his empire/fighting by his side for at least 30 years. Still “lonely without U Billy <3″

I've written this in the meme entry, but Rhea has her own net of relationships. They're not as important as Dimitri and his childhood friends, but erasing them for the sake of "player-chan" feels wrong.

Role and goals

Rhea's in an interesting place, being a former "legendary hero" like Athos, Sephiran etc.

Still her fight isn't over, she only defeated Nemesis and couldn't end the mastermind behind (a bit like Seliph if you only kill Arvis or Roy when you forget to pick up every legendary weapon). Also, if Seiros killed Nemesis, she hasn't won. In the current Fodlan, she still has to pretend to be a human, the Nabateans as a culture/population are dead. They're still 5 (ish? I think the apostles are lizards), she's still afraid humans will dice them if they learn the truth. Has she won? Idk. Could she win and make a Fodlan were lizards and humans could live together? I don't think so.

Her role as the Archbishop? Well, the game really liked Rhea as a red herring during white clouds and the way FE16 is built, around the monastery, reinforces it. Rhea's the head of the monastery, so she's the head of your world. Everything wrong with the world is automatically linked to Rhea.

So, when Marianne complains about people wanting to kill/ostracise her because of her crest, thinking it's a curse, we of course wonder "why Rhea can't tell to the randoms that no Marianne shouldn't be killed/shunned because of her crest?". Completely forgetting that, hey, Marianne's from the Alliance and heiress of Edmund, so if some people should intervene, it should be her dad "why the fuck are you trying to kill my daughter" or the Alliance council "Duke Riegan, could you please make a public statement about my daughter and how she isn't some sort of demonic beast so stop throwing rocks at her?".

Same thing with the Empire, why should you blame the church and the crests instead of the people doing shit? Hanneman's brother in law? Like is marriage so absolute that a husband can force multiple pregnancies on his wife to the point of literally killing her? The von Essar aren't as important as the Bergliez, but Hanneman's sister dying like that should have rang some bells? Hanneman's dad didn't care? No one wanted to appeal to the Emperor or something? If Jane the random or Karen the peasant died this way, it’d be usual class nonsense. But a noble woman??

Rhea should have done more to prevent crest abuse. She wrote tenets in her Bible and apparently doesn't discriminate in her monastery. But in the other countries? Idk. Her tenets are interpreted like your shopping list by Gloucester Sr "and add a part where interacting with foreigners goes against Seiros's teachings what yes I know better than those dunces from the eastern/central church".

It's not because Riegan Sr and Ionius aren't doing shit that she should do nothing too, but ultimately it falls on the usual landmine about Rhea's influence and power over Fodlan and if we consider Fodlan isn't just the Monastery we see but a continent made up of 4 autonomous states...

The so-called status quo isn't upheld by the church alone (if it is upheld in the first place!), but also by the empire and the Alliance... Lambert was toasted before making any changes, the Alliance is that weird thing where money is anything and crests/old nobility doesn't matter anymore, and the Empire is... Well. The Empire.

Regarding this, I find it really strange that Rhea went to Goneril and rescued one of their slaves, with how much she cares about protecting her monastery and not antagonising anyone, picking Cyril up, risking the ire of house Goneril, feels really risky from her perspective.

Imo WC doesn't sell me the "church rules over the continent" take.

Ultimately it doesn't matter because Rhea thinks she should have done more, and abused her position as the archbishop to rez her mom - I understand the "abused her position" as regretting her various omissions, like helping more people around etc etc.

I also feel like Rhea’s got a big survivor complex, and tries to fulfill impossible tasks. "leading/guiding the world?" she won't take an active role in it, but still resents the state of current Fodlan and wishes Sothis could restore some order (crest abuse? Or relics popping up right and left meaning more sibs dying). She wants to :

1/ guide the world and make it a better place (why complaining about the wayward Fodlan otherwise?)

2/ protect randoms who live under her protection

3/ make sure no one learns the truth about her appearance and relics at the same time.

I don't think it's possible given her current role and especially not possible on her own.

About 3/, call back to FE9 or not, but Rhea's paranoia is... Actually, not proven to be exaggerated in the game.

Ranulf was lynched in Crimea when he was discovered to be a laguz? In a certain route, Rhea's called a cruel beast due to her appearance, accused of not having "human" feelings and is depicted as a creature masquerading as a human. Hate and attack the woman all you want for things she did or might have done, but getting rid of her because she's not human? Rhea's right about not revealing her true nature, because, relics notwithstanding, humans will try to kill her for being a nabatean. Relic wise, in the DLC, we learn Aubin was recently turned in a relic, so that's even more reason to hide.

On 1/, wanting to promote peace in the land? National bias at play with rewriting history “to promote peace” issue. Rhea also built the officer's academy (if nobles from different states can live and study together surely they won't try to kill each other when they return home because they might have become friends?) and with help from the everyone in Fodlan (even the empire iirc?) built the locket to fend off Almyrian invasions. Not saying this is the best way to protect your borders but at least she tried to help instead of staying holed in her monastery.

Imo if Rhea didn't care about Fodlan, she'd have followed her bros and fortified herself in her monastery without accepting random humans to live with her, wouldn't have written a book about how everyone had to get along "unless it goes against the goddess" and wouldn't basically run what seems to be the biggest orphanage/place for the needy/and whatever is the abyss in the continent.

Not saying she doesn't have a priority, but Rhea tries to care, on her scale, about Fodlan's randoms.

About said randoms (and 2/)...

Well there's this bout with Lonato's rebellion and another herring where Rhea's all "I will destroy anyone who takes arms against the church and its believers" and it's extreme, I can’t deny. But if Lonato took arms and mounted a militia to attack Ositia's castle and its randoms? Hector'd have Armads'd Lonato without a second thought. Elincia had qualms about taking her weapons against her own countrymen who were used by Ludveck, but in the end, she took up her weapons to defend her castle, even if it meant she had to kill militiamen. Rhea's line seemed random and cold in the context, but it's the same general idea, attack her people and she will kill you. Still, if you don't take weapons against her, she won't react violently. Duke Gerth is apparently dick waving with Aubin's relic, but Shamir wasn't sent to recover the thing or to get rid of Gerth.

Ultimately Rhea blows her cover and abandons her dream to reunite with her mother to protect the monastery and its inhabitants in 3 routes (arguably in CF too). Someone once made a post about the differences between Seiros's and Edel's crowns and the symbolism of wings - the IO's wings are meant to protect. The IO is the guardian/protector. Rhea tanks missiles and buys time for the students to escape at the cost of her life.

Relationships

Rhea and Sothis? someone made a post summarizing my thoughts about their relationship, or lack of, and if we can argue Sothis was shafted by the devs like Rhea and Edel, ultimately the only important person to Sothis is Billy.

Billy doesn't warp Sothis's preexisting net of relationships, Sothis doesn't have relationships with anyone save for Billy. Rhea wants to meet her mom more than anything else (save for protecting randoms) but Sothis will never address that plot point. She only does in SS and off screen, and it ends up with Rhea wondering if she should live... so take it as you want, but to me it mustn't have been the "hug and pat on the head" kind of reunion.

Ultimately we see Rhea is able to let go of her dream (rez mom) in several routes, she understands and acknowledges Sothis will never return and Billy has her powers now, so either she dies more or less at peace knowing she can trust Billy with Fodlan's future, or she can return to Zanado and live peacefully with Catherine.

Which leads me to the Billy relationship,

As much as I hate player pandering, it makes some sense that Rhea would support Billy and not, let's say, Caspar. I still hate it though because Billy exclusive support means we were robbed of Rhea's other supports with, idk, her fam, Cyril, Catherine, Shamir, Alois, Hanneman, Manu etc etc.

In the beginning of WC, Rhea's pretty sure Billy's Sothis but without memories. Then in the non-cf chapter 12, she tells Billy they know what they are and thus must guide Fodlan, also telling Seteth Billy's a vector for sothis's powers, but not Sothis herself. In SS's finale she calls them "mother" but in her S-support finally acknowledges Billy's their own thing.

In CF Rhea's vicious in her trash talk but immediately jumps to the conclusion that Billy cannot be or hear Sothis, because, to her, logically, Sothis wouldn't side with Edel and her Agarthian allies (stealing the crest stones, Flayn, etc etc). Billy is something that stole Sothis's crest stone and sword and wants to finish what Nemesis started. I don't think CF Rhea snaps because Billy isn't Sothis, CF Rhea snaps because, again, someone is using her mother to kill her.

Rhea's also supposed to have been fond of Citrus to the point of talking to her remains (something she does with her mom) which could explain her sympathy for Billy regardless of the Sothis project.

Jeralt's a different issue, apparently they worked together for more than 100 years but Rhea never told him the truth about her nature, only about how he was saved. Still, Jeralt betrays when his baby is "weird" and unlike regular human babies so... Would he have ran away if he learnt what rhea was? Dumped Citrus if he knew she was an artificial being? Idk.

Catherine Shamir cyril and pals (Alois)? We don't know bcs the game dgaf about anyone not named Billy. As I said above, It’d have been nice to get more interactions with randoms she is working with, or at least showed some care, but nope. “Player-chan uwu” strikes again.

Seteth'n'Flayn? Rhea's close to them, she gets out of her room to look for Flayn and Cyril and Catherine note how she seems close to Seteth (who's totally her bro), but again, the game hates us. FFS don't think she has a line with Flayn!

Secrets and explosions

Tied to 3/ and 1/ from earlier, Rhea keeps a lot of secrets which could justify her lack of relationships/supports with the others... but this argument falls flat, because she’s not the only one with a secret and if Flayn doesn’t seem to care that much about hers, Seteth does and is still able to support students and staff members. Which leads to tragedies.

The Christophe incident is not well documented, and while we learn Rhea was the target of Christophe’s attempt because Western peeps told him so, it is not very well explained why she didn’t execute him on those grounds instead of falsifying charges about involvement with the Regicide. We are told it was to stabilise the Kingdom, but I still don’t know how the Kingdom would have suffered backlash if Rhea told the truth (maybe it would have led to open conflict between the western church and the central church in the kingdom, when the kingdom needed stability at that point? idk).

Still, Lonato wants revenge for Christophe, not because he was executed on false charges, but because he died ; imo, if Lonato learnt the truth, he’d still be out for Catherine and Rhea’s head.

Aelfie’s gambit is more of a direct result of Rhea’s secrecy, because she had “no words” for him about why Citrus was still in pristine condition, he gave up and tried to rez her. Would it had been different if she told him what Citrus was (and by extent, what she was)? Idk. Maybe, maybe not.

Still, Rhea doesn’t keep secrets from everyone every time - she once trusted Willy and told him about her alternate form and it exploded 1k years later, when Willy’s descendants are out for her head because she’s a creature masquerading as a human (I know mole people also played a part, but I guess it sticked more with Edel and the gang who already knew Rhea was a dragon ; trying to convince a random that “hey, this woman is a dragon !” would be more difficult). CF-wise again, Rhea trusts Billy with the SoC and, again, it explodes. In CF Rhea feels betrayed, she trusted some people and now the very same people (or their descendant in Edel’s case) are trying to kill her.

So it’s not a case of someone never trusting anyone, it’s someone trusting some people and regretting it afterwards (in both routes + CF at least, even if I firmly believe the “evil lizards ruling over the world” spiel doesn’t come from Willy, but from later emperors influenced by mole people).

There can also be a point made for Aelfie, who might have been able to merge with Citrus to create an umbral beast because he had Rhea’s blood and a crest stone shard - Citrus being a fake Nabatean and Aelfie having a crest stone + blood might have produced CS’s final boss? Rhea trusted Aelfie with a crest stone shard and her blood, and he became an umbral beast.

Interestingly, Rhea is hell bent on keeping her secrets regarding her identity, in SS Seteth has to beg her to reveal everything to Billy when Billy is the most important person in the world “uwu” or at least, the only person Rhea supposedly opened to. Even the “uwu” factor isn’t enough, on its own, to make her reveal the truth about her identity.

She gives Claude half-truths, and has to be on death’s door to tell him everything - still occulting Seteth’n’Flayn, to the point where Claude later wonders if there are other children of the goddess around.

Vengeful Rhea?

Rhea isn't a stale piece of bread like Julia. She says mean words to Nemesis but also brutally kills him. Rhea cannot forgive the Elites. I know it's very different, but Julia "dad is the kindest man I ever knew" making a 180° “i must atone for what dad did eff him” will always make me throw up - she doesn’t have to be vengeful or try to stab Seliph with a butter knife, but no acknowledgement of “dad’s the bestest” after his death, or even, of his death is meh.

To Rhea, Nemesis and the Elites are a trigger point, and everything related to Zanado. CF!Billy using her mom’s powers is like Nemesis, CF!Billy + Edel pillaging what remains of her siblings in Nemesis’n’Dudes. Flamey doing his shit with Flayn also parallels that. There’s the usual “vengeance sucks” speech to be given, but also the Tellius verse where Laguz aren’t depicted in a bad light when they want to destroy Izuka or when Tibarn learns Lekain was responsible for Serenes’s massacre.

Still, unlike Tibarn’n’pals, Rhea, unlike Macuil, doesn't seem to hold a grudge against descendants of the Elites. Maybe she had faith in them when she told them not to abuse the power of their crests, but then their descendants forgot or didn’t care and we’re in the so-called crest system.

In SS, Seteth asks the BE students if they want to return home to the Empire and how he won’t hold it against them. Seteth’s being Rhea’s right hand bro in this situation, I doubt he’d have proposed this solution without her approval.

She is vengeful and ready to pursue for more 90 years someone to kill them, but she won’t target that someone’s descendants or potential allies. I’ve read some takes about the Western Church being razed to the ground after Catherine’s paralogue, but iirc, Rhea’s only going to execute the Bishop there ; they appoint a new bishop in hopes to ease the relationships between the central and western church. There’d be no point to appoint someone to rule over a body that doesn’t exist...

Grey waves

Wave 1 : Another parallel with Edel is the will to sink in troubled waters to reach their goals.

However, Rhea stays on the surface.

Aelfie thinks Seiros failed to rez Sothis with the chalice because she didn't take more blood from the apostles. Blood rituals are creepy and gave an umbral beast. Seiros didn't pursue and sought another mean to rez Sothis without killing her bros. Rhea makes homunculi to host Sothis's soul? It fails but the homunculi isn't destroyed asap to make another one, hell, Rhea cares about them (which is all kinds of fucked up on its own).

AM wise, iirc, Seteth and Catherine say Rhea'd never forgive them if they run to save her instead of saving randoms first.

Still, making homunculus to create a vessel for her mom - making artificial lives - is problematic, she’s ashamed of it “i did questionable things” and Seteth berates her on her “questionable” experiments.

CF!Rhea eats babies during the final map. She burns the city to make her last stronghold and refuses to run away. CF!Rhea, at the end of this route, completely abandoned goal 1 2 and 3. She wants to survive, yes, but to recover Sothis, no matter how. She still seems to care about humanity, but takes everything too literally and is persuaded humanity and humans are after her to hurt her and her mother (i’m pretty sure uncle Arry was waiting with his Agarthan tech suitcase for Edel to deal with the beast in the background). Contrary to CF’s chapter 12, Endgame!Rhea doesn’t have lines when Catherine and Cyril fall. She’s still siding with humans, but she’s in this for herself now.

Of course, CF!Rhea is special, because CF!Rhea lives again through her trauma, CF!Rhea lost her home, her bro and niece a few chapters ago, she lost her human allies, apparently some peons from her church are deserting and Uncle is waiting with his portable electric saw to turn her in a shiny sword, because she trusted a corpse with Sothis’s heart and spine and trusted a human 1000 years ago with her secret. And now said corpse follows someone who rings at her door with an army, wishes to obliterate her unless she surrenders (?) and works with Uncle and his dubstep pals.

In the other routes, Billy doesn’t want to killer her with her mother’s spine and tries to defend her home, Seteth’n’Flayn aren’t forced into exile or dead and depending on the route she gets to see Uncle and his dubstep friends being buried under rubble.

Troubled waters to reach her goals also include slowing Fodlan’s technological advancements (but was it really slowing down Fodlan’s R&D’s department or cliking “no” when Mole People offer a free (for now) new technology that makes you advance from bronze age to the industrial era in one go?)

Wave 2 : Rhea’s anchored in the past, she wants to return to happier days with her mom and her family, but also wants to help randoms in Fodlan

She doesn’t seem to mind the present where humans do whatever they want, and yet will protect her people and tries (or tried since it’s history) to keep Fodlan safe.

I think the game wanted to tell us Rhea’s stuck in the past, but she also manages to form bonds (albeit fickle) in the present with Catherine, Shamir and, arguably, Cyril. Seteth’n’Flayn accept the past and try to move forward, Rhea cannot and yet is making baby steps forward, or at least to live in the present. “uwu factor” is supposed to mean Rhea’s stuck in the past and can only see Billy for what they are once she accepts to live in the present, but Rhea’s already fond of Catherine, calls Aelfie her child, was fond of Citrus and Jeralt, makes time for Cyril, etc etc. It’s not as clear cut as drinking tea with them but it’s still something that quashes the “lonely B4 U player-chan uwu”.

Rhea thinks her biggest grey wave is how she didn’t do enough for Fodlan and feels inadequate to walk in Sothis’s shoes as the guardian/protector of Fodlan - she could have done more, but she’s busy juggling with three goals, rez mom, protect fodlan, protect the fam.

I think one of her main issue (but the game was also made this way so) is to try to reach those goals alone, save for the “rez mom” goal, everyone in Fodlan, especially the heads of the three states should be concerned with keeping peace in the continent!

Lambert was BBQ’s, Riegan’s busy shitting on Gloucester and Ionius is... well, Ionius. Add to that Mole People starting up shit all around the continent and you have the recipe for a disaster. I’m not saying Lambert and Ionius should have participated to the “protect her family” goal, but at least not trying to eradicate them to turn them in relics would have been nice, sadly Ionius’s bro in law was an Agarthan.

Even if she is nearly immortal compared to a human, Rhea can’t do everything on her own. That’s why I ultimately think a SS ending is doomed to fail, Billy will try to be Rhea 2.0. and in 1000 years it will fall apart again.

AM ending? Billy will become like Rhea was post War of Heroes, but when Dimitri’s descendants start to do shit, his Kingdom disappears and humans start to return to their usual shitty selves, what will Billy do?

VW ending is kind of the same, Claude wants to open the borders and make everyone able to live regardless of their differences, but what if 940 years later an Almyrian president decides to build a wall between Fodlan and Almyra and make Fodlaneses pay for it? What is immortal Billy, who knew Claude and his ideals, going to do?

Wave 3 (lol i nearly forgot but remembered when i was rambling in the tags) : Rhea and technology !

The DLC book and Word of God said she slowed advance of technology in Fodlan to protect peace etc etc. But there’s a book where a cardinal said “eff to autopsies else people won’t rely on us with faith magic” which is... kind of weird. There’s a reason why Rhea might have approved that ban (Why does Freikugel look like a hip bone?) but it still deprived Fodlan’s randoms from the scientifical advance of autopsies... and made people reliant on faith magic.

Actually, the book goes

“Though it is widely believed that this is medically relevant, such actions upon a corpse are considered desecration of the dead. Since white magic can be used to a similar end, autopsies were deemed taboo. A notable cardinal asserted that if medical science were to excel over faith-based white magic, it would destabilize the foundation of the church “

I already pointed out the WTF between faith and white magic (Seteth doesn’t believe his mom is real so he has no faith boon) but interesting to note “desecrating the dead” is still something of an argument nowadays, not regarding autopsies but other practices like anatomical theaters etc etc. Maybe White Magic isn’t intrusive and yields the same results? idk.

Interesting to note, it’s a cardinal who edicted/justified that ban (Rhea as the head of the Church would have given her approval oc). As pointed out with the Freikugel example, Rhea’d have a personal interest in preventing humans to know more about anatomy (goal 3/). Would people stop looking to the church to be healed if “medical science” progresses too much? Maybe. From what we see in the curren Fodlan, it doesn’t.

Also, French version translated the “foundation of the church” as “stability” of the church - would the church become unstable or challenged if people could heal without using white magic? Again, we ultimately know that it doesn’t, magical science and medical science coexist, Manuela gives a short summary of the two - they have different effects.

As for things Rhea herself banned : Telescopes, Oil exploitation and Printed Press.

Telescopes were banned because Rhea thought it would increase violence during wartimes and would make it too easy to snipe from afar (TFW mages with bolting can do the same without telescopes, but they’re limited by their range and if they have a gloucester’s crest by Rhea’s sister’s femur’s range or whatever is Thyrsus). We know the mole people use (and most likely used before during the Sothis war) this technology. The “lessening the mystery of the goddess” thing is noted by Edel herself who wonders if the Goddess could really have come from space since it’s super far away. Edel doesn’t know the Goddess is an alien dragon-thing though.

Oil exploitation : “Misuse could result in accidental death” tfw random Faerghus countryman thought it was water and died :’(

Used tactically by those lacking magical abilities - like gambits? Was Rhea thinking that a random human cannot set fire to an entire city (lol) on his own with his limited spell pool/uses, but if he uses oil then he would only be limited by the quatity of oil? So it’d be easier to cause mass fires? Or whatever Robin did in FE13 with the ships and the Valmese army? Also, if Rhea thought oil could replace humans with magic, does it mean humans with magic were supposed to do everything oil can do? Like making a lamp or they still used something else as fuel? “Competition for it could cause strife” Rhea acknowledged that if humans discovered this ressource they’d deem it as essential and try to get their hands on it, even if they had to wage war?

Metal molding Printing Machine : “after careful consideration” Rhea banned it because it’d be useless for illiterate randoms - well yes, but why should this be an argument? You don’t ban something because it’s useless, look, no one banned airpods - risk of mass circulation of false information or rumors : rhea wanted to prevent redshit from existing This is a way to control information, but funnily enough in the game, we see the results or someone deliberately using manifestos spreading misinformation - risk of “increasing disparity between church branches” (fr version has “rivalry” instead of disparity) what does it mean? The central church would have more means to print books than the eastern church so the eastern church would be jealous? Or the Western Church could mass print its doctrine and have more zealots than the central or the easter church?

Ultimately, all those bans were lifted with time, Manuela performs Jeralt’s autopsy, Edel’s imperial science division managed to guess the distance between the Blue sea star and Fodlan, Oil is apparently used in several gambits, Edel’s able to send manifestos around the continent and Seteth can write children books and sell them without difficulties. Hilda can also lose books which would be a big no-no even if you are a noble if books weren’t, kind of, mass printed.

So why those bans? To protect Fodlan and the fam, but since they were lifted with time, I don’t think Rhea abandonned her goals, most likely, she thought humans were making small steps to discover those technologies, slowly learning about them so they won’t have them when they’re not “ready enough” to use them.

The “ready enough” thing sounds paternalistic or what can be expected from a more technologically advanced alien, but technically Rhea’s part alien and she lived through (or not?) an episode where humans received technology and did shit with it (mole people) so maybe she won’t hand them the car with the keys this time, and instead let them figure out how to build the car.

Still, this is HC because, as usual, the game doesn’t let us talk or question Rhea about those things, so we can only infer, read between the lines or between pixels.

****

TBH, I didn’t care a lot about her when I played, but when she had to eat babies in CF I grew more interested. Other bloggers already pointed it out, but Rhea’s a Tiki, but also a “traditional FE lord” in the sense she avenged her mom who was killed by the king of another kingdom, lived in exile and raised an army to fight against the King.

Still, Rhea didn’t end up as the leader of the world, or as the first Empress of United Fodlan, or something like that. She let Willy do his thing. Why? How? Why didn’t she became an integral part of the Empire, if she had been politically important, or a kind of seer/oracle, it would have been difficult for the Empire to go against her!

But nope, Rhea figged away in her mountains to rez her mom, sprout some “doctrine” (she could have done the same as an Emperor/Seer/Oracle) and watched over randoms who made up her “church”. She sometimes tries to intervene in Fodlan’s best interests, but it failed. Because Rhea doesn’t want to rule. She feels like she has to be a guide, but when humans don’t follow her? Well, what can she do? FE16 doesn’t show us Rhea sending her knights against the Empire when the Empire kicked out her Church and basically said “fig” to her face. FE16 doesn’t show us Rhea being angry and punching Gloucester in the face because he doesn’t show “real piety” and sprouts doctrine out of his rear.

Still, when she has to take a more hands-on approach and cannot be a distant figure/guide, she complains about maintaining a certain image as the Archbishop and how she cannot socialise with students or even walk around without Seteth randoms guarding her. She feels her mother would do a better job and tries to act as a proxy. Imo, Rhea’s bound by duty to her mom, to her sibs dead and living, and to Fodlan. She doesn’t reject her role, she accepts it, she doesn’t like it yes, but if going Gandalf in non-CF chapter 12 shows, she will fulfill it.

What’s most saddening though, is how her duty is a self-imposed one. Rez her mom? She personally took the challenge, because she misses Sothis the most and feels ashamed of this feeling to the point of not telling Seteth about it (interesting enough, Indech seems to be aware Billy’s Sothis incarnation and didn’t jump to the “Billy must be one of Nemesis’s kids with the crest of flames” conclusion, as if he knew Sothis could “incarnate” one day, but was he thinking Sothis would incarnate on her own or Rhea would trigger it? Flayn also suspects a thing about Billy being related to them because of Rhea). Rhea personally thinks she has to lead/guide Fodlan and make it a better place, ignoring the heads of the 3 states who should also be concerned with this goal. Rhea will create a false history to protect her living siblings when Macuil and Indech won’t give a fuck and live in their bestial forms somewhere, and when Seteth hides, but made it clear his only wish is to protect Flayn and the apostles, if they were really lizards, disappeared in random villages.

FE16 isn’t interested by Rhea’s story though.

That’s why I’m desperately waiting for a War of Heroes DLC or prequel of BSFE or whatever because I don’t really care about Fodlan in 1180 and who can have a perfect tea time with Billy or not.

I’d like to know why Birdie and Indech figged away, why Rhea thought letting Willy control the entire continent when he knows she’s a dragon was a good idea, why the Apostles didn’t take part in the Nemesis fight, why Fodlan’s humans decided to side with Willy in his brand new Empire instead of staying with King Nemesis, did Sothis have a previous faithful and what happened when she disappeared, were the Nabateans tyrannical rulers over humans which made some with Nemesis’n’pals, what were they supposed to do when they left Zanado, etc, etc.

So just like Julia and the baijilions AU ideas I came up with, Rhea’s a fuel for AUs because her base game dgaf about her.

[spartanlocke]

Idk why tumblr made me unfollow you again. But ANYWAYS, can you explain the battle of Azeroth? I’m looking at the wiki but I’m confused. I’ve never played WOW but I’m curious (and afraid) of why Battle of Azeroth is another example of this Blue Skin Fetish Man at play.

(Tbh I should probably delete that comment cause I realized that unless you’ve followed WoW’s story for years, you won’t know how badly BFA contradicts everything to the point of receiving the title of “bad fanfiction.”)

This is the shortest way I could explain BFA and it’s still very long, because if I went into detail explaining every single flaw I could beat haruspis’ record for word counts. So, this is less of an explanation and more of a list of aspects that gave it the Blue Skin Fetish Man’s Fanfiction title. Here we go:

Battle for Azeroth revived the faction war - a decades long feud between the Horde and Alliance - despite it contradicting and invalidating previous expansions. Blizzard spent years writing the faction war arc for it to conclude in Legion with the Horde and Alliance finally putting aside history and uniting. Not just “Oh we have to work together it’s convenient.” but actually uniting. Aside from two faction leaders who hate the shit out of each other (Genn and Sylvanas), there was no conflict between the Horde and Alliance. There was barely any “faction” content at all. The war had pretty much ended, and it was clear from previous expansions it had been leading up to this.

But instead of respecting this, Blizzard went “Actually let’s bring the war back” and had the Horde attack the Alliance unprovoked. How did they make this work? They threw out everyone’s personalities. Out of all the Horde leaders, the only ones who’d actually want a war are Sylvanas (who proposed it) and maybe Gallywix, if he thought he could make a profit. Saurfang, Lor’themar, Baine and Ji Firepaw are all either pacifists, aren’t in a position to deal with a war, or straight-up hate war. So Blizzard just tossed their personalities and made them blindly agree. Aside from Saurfang, none of them even have opinions on the war, they’re just doing what their Warchief Sylvanas tells them to.

The Alliance, meanwhile...only four leaders are even present in the story, and they’re completely incompetent. Mind you, the Alliance is vastly more powerful than the Horde. Some of their leaders are the most powerful magic-users alive, and they straight-up have a space-ship that can shoot lasers. If WoW were written realistically at all, the Alliance would’ve maimed the Horde years ago. So instead Blizzard made half of them absent from BFA, and the ones who are present are dumb as shit and forget they’re demi-god tier magic-users.

...Or they don’t forget, and are nonetheless beaten by Danuser’s self-insert, Man With Bow, who has plot armor thicker than a bowl of oatmeal. (Seriously, this dude went up against a powered-up Tyrande and her demi-god husband and got out without a scratch. It was so bad it became a bitter meme.) 

Which brings the next big problem: plot armor. Like I said, this is a fanfiction, so alongside everyone acting out-of-character for it to work, we also need plot-armor, AKA the script. This is where Blue Skin Fetish Man comes at play. This whole expansion happens because Sylvanas wants power, and she’s an extremely cunning tactician....or so we’re repeatedly told. Instead of making her actually do anything clever, the plot simply works in her favor. Every. Single. Time. 

The Alliance attack her city in retaliation? She blows it up. Was this an intentional trap to kill important Alliance leaders, or just “If I can’t have the city no one can”? No one knows! Horde is trying to get a powerful empire of trolls to join them, but the trolls don’t want to? Alliance attack trolls for no reason, kill their king, and his daughter join the Horde for revenge. Horde loses their ship fleet? Alliances loses theirs, too. Horde suddenly decides This War Is Bad, Actually and team up with the Alliance to take down Sylvanas? She was gonna ditch them anyway because the faction war was never part of her masterplan. Also she made a deal with a death god to get power in exchange for everyone killed in the war, so she’s basically a god now. And no this wasn’t explained in-game. She’s too busy being a Flawless Tactician for us plebs to possibly understand her motives (which Blizzard never even gave us hints to.)

Naturally, the fanbase didn’t like this. Even if you didn’t follow the story like I did (I’m like, one of the 2% of people who know Blizz was writing the faction war arc to eventually end.), there was just SO little reason for the Horde to agree to reviving the war that pissed off just about everyone. Everyone is also pissed that every time Blizz wants to cause faction conflict, they make the Horde start it.

But that won’t stop them from demonizing the Alliance for retaliating against the Horde! A big example was having this character who didn’t care about the faction war, saying he joined it because Jaina “went too far” when she was literally just protecting her people from a Horde assault.

...Wow, that still ended up being pretty long, but I needed to explain how Battle for Azeroth not only contradicts lore, but so shamelessly contradicts logic that it can only be described as “Steve Danusar’s fanfiction.” It threw anyway everyone’s personalities, ignored everything written in previous expansions, then made every plot-point happen because the script said so instead of giving logical reasons. And they didn’t even bother to look at fan theories and go “Uh yeah, yeah that’s totally what we planned.” They just...didn’t care! They didn’t bother to make sense in the slightest!!!

All this, because Steve Danusar wanted Sylvanas to become the story’s antagonist - instead of N’zoth or Azshara, who’d been built up as the antagonists for OVER FIFTEEN YEARS. And mind you, in Blizzard, the antagonists are THE main characters of the story. They’re the poster boy, plot-roller, and favorite of the writers. Everything is about them - even the merch. Sylvanas fans will tell you Blizz did this because they hate Sylvanas, but I assure you it’s quite the opposite. Blizzard absolutely loves their antagonists. (Also, you know, Danuser is the HEAD WRITER AND HER #1 FANBOY.) 

...The only difference here is that Blizzard has the tendency to give out-of-jail-free redemption “arcs” to characters they like, even when they were merrily committing genocide five minutes ago. They’ve done this every expansion since WoD; Grommash, Illidan, and Saurfang. And next will probably be Sylvanas, in some poorly-foreshadowed “plot-twist” that reveals she was just “helping us” all along. All the characters will go “Holy shit you were helping us.”, forget she has a higher body-count than Garrosh, and proceed to praise her as a savior while all her victims are either forgotten or told to hush.

...Or she’ll maybe just die in the first raid to make room for The Jailer guy, but Steve Danuser has shown to be so shamelessly horny for her I doubt he’ll let her die.

(Oh, also the whole “N’zoth and Azshara” thing? Turned out just to be a side-plot to give Sylvanas more power, since she’s partially responsible for N’zoth’s death, she gets tribute...uh, sorry, “power” from it. These two had been hyped up for nearly two decades. Turned into plot-tools. For Sylvanas. Who is once again the center-of-attention for the oncoming expansion, SylvanasShadowlands. Which isn’t even out and is already written terribly.) 

[mobius-prime]

186. Sonic the Hedgehog #118

Oh boy, we've got a big one on our hands, guys! First of all, it's worth noting that for the next seven issues the comic kind of had this "magazine cover" gimmick going on, where every story was described on the cover in a humorous, pseudo-tabloid manner. And second, every story in this issue is highly significant, two of which have a huge impact on future storylines, and one of which resolves a problem I've been salty about for a while. So without further ado, let's jump right in!

Robotnik's Return

Writer: Benny Lee Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

“Benny”, I've noticed, as a writer has an unfortunate tendency to solve any conflicts in the plot extremely suddenly, often in a very deus-ex-machina manner that contrasts with the "long game" approach that Penders usually takes toward his stories. For those who don’t know - I was unaware as well at first - “Benny Lee” is a pseudonym that Karl Bollers took on for some of his stories after receiving criticism for his writing. (However, I’m listing him as a separate writer just for the sake of consistency, as clearly he didn’t want certain stories associated with his real name.) For whatever reason, his stories as “Benny” seem to be choppy and full of fix-it gimmicks that, instead of gently guiding the story along a natural path, blindfold it and shove it violently into the next plot point without mercy. This story is no different. Eggman and Snively have managed to finally restore themselves to new mechanical bodies without any pesky Mobian interference, and what's worse, these bodies are free of the virus that caused Eggman's data on the location of Knothole to be corrupted. He's delighted at the opportunity to find its location at last and launch an attack, but, you guessed it, right at that moment the Freedom Fighters burst in, having tracked their location.

Suddenly, the forms of Eggman, Snively, Sonic, and Tails all begin to dissolve, with Nicole confirming to a shocked Sally that they've been unexpectedly teleported somewhere else. But where might that be?

Yes, that's right, they've been randomly abducted by aliens! Now, I have to point something out about this page. You can see that at first, the aliens are speaking in some kind of alien language before they presumably switch on a translator or something. Except, that's not actually just "some alien language"! Look closely at it. Notice anything unusual? Anyone who's ever been to Disneyland in California should recognize exactly what they're looking at - the symbols used in the aliens' speech are in fact the same symbols used in the carvings on the walls of the Disneyland Indiana Jones attraction! I recognized it immediately - I grew up going to Disneyland my entire life, and it's still my favorite theme park in the world. So, I took the liberty of translating exactly what these aliens were saying using one of the old decoder cards that they used to hand out in line! For anyone hoping for some intelligible speech, you're going to be disappointed - it looks like they might have just keysmashed on a keyboard and then "translated" the results. The first dialogue bubble says, approximately, "Denite idlothxo vhry muph i," and the second one "Viuyhkvqj efsqr." I say "approximately" because the letterer appears to have taken a few liberties with the symbols, which don’t all exactly match the ones on the decoder card. It's honestly a very strange but funny homage to the ride - clearly, whoever was responsible for the symbols being included is a fan of Disneyland, and as a fellow fan, it gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside to see these symbols in the place I would have least expected them.

Anyway, the aliens explain that they've beamed the four of them up here for a little experiment. They use their technology to transform Sonic and Tails into mecha bodies, while transforming Eggman and Snively back into their flesh and blood forms, and inform the four that they will be made to battle each other, and the winners will be reverted to their original forms while the losers will be made to keep their new forms permanently. This seems like a rather pointless experiment, if you ask me - I mean, what is even being gained from this apart from some perverse entertainment? - but the four test subjects are beamed into a holographic recreation of Robotropolis and begin to battle it out. Eggman and Snively immediately plop themselves into a robotic mech, but Mecha Sonic and Mecha Tails easily blow it apart. Eggman runs for his life and Mecha Sonic gives chase, while Mecha Tails guards the terrified Snively to ensure he doesn't run for it. Mecha Sonic easily spots his quarry with infrared vision and shoots a net to capture him, winning the "game."

The aliens keep their word and return everyone to the planet, with Sonic and Tails back in their normal bodies, and Eggman and Snively now reverted back to an organic form. Sonic and Tails return to Knothole where they explain everything that happened to the others, and while they're a little skeptical they ultimately accept the story, though they're nervous that since Eggman is now flesh and blood once more, it will be harder to track him. You see what I mean about this being a deus-ex-machina resolution to the Robo-Robotnik problem? It's good for the story to have him be an organic being once more, so that he has to work harder to protect himself from harm instead of weathering explosions and the destruction of his various bodies like they're mere inconveniences, but just… random aliens being the cause? I dunno, man. It is quite interesting, however, to see Eggman's reaction to being transformed back into an organic being, as certainly while in his own zone he existed for the first forty-odd years of his life as an ordinary Overlander, he's remained a robotic being for decades by now. That will be hard for him to adjust…

Heart to Heart

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Jason Jensen

Ever since Eggman's capture of the Secret Service and their subsequent infection with his nanites, the remaining members have been in treatment, with Dr. Quack unable to find a proper cure. However, with Rotor's help, a fix involving aggressive nanomachines sent in to attack the nanites has been developed, and everyone is finally cured. Sally welcomes Geoffrey's return to active duty as the leader of the Secret Service, but he seems dejected and uninterested as she walks away. Hershey asks him what's wrong, and he explains his actions up till now - that as a boy, he always greatly admired his father's sense of duty and sought to emulate it, which evolved into his no-nonsense, humorless personality of today. However, he was always jealous of Sonic and wanted to prove that he was better than him, which was why he convinced Elias to accept his "help" in ruling the kingdom in the king's stead.

Now this is the Geoffrey I like. Up till now, he's been alternately somewhat charming and likeable, and a complete jerkwad. This is the turning point where he goes from a self-centered jackass, to a genuinely focused individual who actually respects those around him, including his rivals. It seems that some time in isolated treatment has given him lots of time to reflect on himself, and in the end Hershey brings out the best in him. With his resolve renewed, he approaches the king and asks for permission to take some leave from his position and go in search of the missing Elias, which the king approves, so together he and Hershey leave to find him. This is honestly the best ending to Geoffrey's asshattery that we could get, because not only does it make him a much more likeable character, but it actually pairs him up with someone who is, well, his age, instead of him creepily pursuing a fifteen-year-old as his beau instead. Hooray for character development!

Ultimate Power (Part Four)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Dawn Best Colors: Jason Jensen

We've reached the ultimate confrontation - the culmination of everything the Green Knuckles Saga has been building up to this entire time. Knuckles faces off against Mammoth Mogul, his finger on the button ready to disconnect Dimitri from life support. Mogul reveals that he was able to obtain his own version of the Chaos Syphon due to having actually met Dimitri once before, when he was still an ordinary scientist developing the device. Despite the danger, Knuckles refuses to listen to Mogul, determined to save Dimitri while preventing Mogul from taking his powers, and begins to pulse with light which reflects across the whole city, drawing Remington, Julie-Su and the Chaotix, and Lien-Da to his location like a beacon. Mogul, furious that Knuckles is refusing to submit, hits the button to disconnect Dimitri's life support, and Knuckles immediately leaps into action to prevent him from dying.

…okay, Penders, a word of advice, writer to writer. If you ever make your character say "Not if I go into overload mode," you have just ensured that no one will take him seriously and will immediately begin to meme the hell out of it. Also, when the hell did Mogul find the time and energy to build an entire Chaos Syphon room in the middle of Echidnaopolis? Knuckles, in his efforts to save Dimitri's life while resisting the Chaos Syphon, begins to expend energy at a rate he's never reached before, bathing the entire city in his green light. This rapid release of energy causes Mogul's facility to explode violently, leaving a crater in the city where the building once stood. Everyone rushes to the site of the blast, worried about what they might find.

Oh, did you think this very important main character was going to survive this altercation? Well think again, 'cause Knuckles is deader than dead! While all of this is going on, a rededication ceremony is happening across the city, to honor the return of the island's inhabitants to their homes after the firing of the Quantum Beam. The speaker is confused about Knuckles' absence for such an important gathering, but Lara-Le nervously tries to insist that he probably has a good reason. I'm sure she didn't expect the reason to be that he's really, super duper dead!

Yeah, I wasn't joking, guys. For those of you who hadn't read the comic up till now and were unaware, yes, Knuckles has actually died in this issue. There's no mistake, no trickery. He's gone. And that's the note that this issue decides to end on! I guess we have to say goodbye to Knuckles as one of the comic's main characters, because there's no way a comic book would ever temporarily kill someone off only to bring them back a few issues later…

[tiffgeorgina]

alright trailer thoughts

watch it here slutties: https://twitter.com/SHOBlackMonday/status/1216778009044291585

1) HOLY FUCKING SHIT IT’S HERE THIS FEELS SURREAL

2) HOLYYY SHITTTT

3) but actually let’s get it. this song bangs showtime stays on their excellent editing.

4) trying to analyze showtime’s trailers is like trying to grab smoke so this is going to be extremely barebones for a while. 

5) somebody drives off with the busted up limbo, but we can’t tell who it is yet bc their face never comes into view. they’re wearing a gray suit tho, so it may become more obvious who it is once the episode itself is out.

6) mo is being dramatic asf which as of 1x10 is perfectly in character lmfao

7) bro what the FUCK did you do to your hair i gotta ask fuck the 80s. also there’s this character on IMDb tagged “Vanessa (hair like mo)” so that makes more sense now maybe?

8) establishing shots that almost make me think mo is hiding out in california. since we know his orphanage story is bullshit, maybe he’s visiting family? maybe this is where that marcus wainright iii character comes in? since i dont think he’s in the trailer?

9) keith is living. almost has out-of-the-closet energy. i bet that scene of him roller skating is either after a) he comes out to his wife and divorces her or b) he gets a call from mo and flies straight out to cali to meet up with him.

10) the editing is so good you guys holy shit they jsut never quit over there do they?

11) a shot of mo in some suburb. could be a family member or a friend’s house? which again leads me to think he’s in california.

12) there’s this TV show called “America’s Most Unsolved Crimes” that mo shows up on bc he’s being solely blamed for the crash. how dawn and blair managed to avoid any blame whatsoever is beyond me, but mo is an excellent scapegoat since he confessed on record. no idea who the guy sitting on the desk talking about him is tho, since he wasn’t announced as one of the new guest stars. probably just a one off. maybe this is where “reenactment dawn” comes in from the IMDb page?

13) mo is bringing back the 70s and i do not like it. when i said the 80s were cool bc nobody knew how to dress themselves This Is Not What I Meant.

14) he wouldn’t just casually play basketball with some random kids, these are probably either his cousins or his nephews or the kids of a friend. again leads me to believe he’s in california, possibly visiting marcus? it would make sense. either that or we finally get some real concrete background on mo that isn’t total bullshit.

15) keith is in contact with mo. it’s hard to tell if keith went to cali to see mo or if mo came to NY seeing as both are extremely suspicious. assuming mo is in cali that is. keith is definitely going to get mo back in the game. speaking of mo, this entire first 30 seconds is Mo-centric, so i bet mo’s arc is going to be plottier than blair or dawn’s in 1“A” (showtime doesn’t really have A and B arcs for this show bc there’s no midseason hiatus i just like the terminology)

16) throwback thursday lmfao

17) no idea who this guy shooting/probably fake shooting is?? like no idea. could be nothing of importance and just a transition filler/tone setting moment.

18) the heat is on motherfucker! let’s get this cat and mouse shit im ready for it!

19) here we go here’s dawn. back at the jammer group. back at DAWN AS THE PRESIDENT HIRING A BUNCH OF WOMEN???????? BIIIIIITTTTCCCCHHHH I LOVE TO SEE IT. INCLUDING DEANNA CHENG (she’s friends with casey which means she’s friends with half the cast we should’ve known she wasn’t going anywhere) AKA THE SALES CLERK WHO HARASSED DAWN IN 1X02????? YES BITHC

20) then wayne and yassir fucking it up (nice facial hair wayne it’s hideous kjsfkjdhg) and the women throwing paper at him??? LKJRHGKLJSERH????

21) blair and tiff dressed up??? guys. they’re going to some rich people gala thing. this is what i was talkinf about. im almost certain this is how blair and harris meet. their wives are gonna see each other after not having spoken in years bc of whatever but they used to be friends so they go to talk and the husbands and dragged along and *closet case to closet case communication sounds*

22) ok now BLAIR’S on the exercise craze? i thought that was just gonna be dawn like in s1 also how long is this exercise montage in the show bc there are some things a god fearing lesbian shouldn’t have to see. this weird mirror talking shit feels like voyeurism from this perspective i feel like i shouldn’t be seeing this.

23) she’s still topping him??? after all that??? aight yk it’s part of the dynamic

24) tiff is wearing the same dress in “you do, hunk” as she is in the bit where they get out of the limo and deal with the paparazzi so i presume that workout scene is immediately before that gala thing im establishing a #timeline

25) the skants reveal??? we call that PLOT DEVELOPMENT i love a good callback to the first season

26) the shocked gasp i can’t tell if it’s good or bad. also does this mean tiff’s starting her own company? since georgina is liquid?

27) larry telling dawn that mo’s on his way back for revenge? spliced with mo staring at the wall like he so frequently does while smoking? mayhaps this editing went off also i never thought i’d say this but the brotherfucker has a point mo is gonna pop off when he sees yall again

28) FBI wyd........ that’s a lot

29) that falling out last season bit: blair’s definitely talking about tiff’s parents, and im almost certain andrew flubbed right there and improvised over it by saying “autumn.” well im appreciative of that bc a) it’s funny and b) it indicates when this is going on a bit. it’s not like we’re two years in the future or anything. this is probably gonna start a couple of months after the crash and that’s it.

30) no idea who blair is talking to tho since i can’t see the woman’s face. could be one of tiff’s friends? idk. also nice hair tiff

31) that ball spinning around like a gumball in a machine? weird transition but aight. also immediately after, dawn is in the lehman office, again no idea why. probably the same scene as larry telling her that mo is plotting his revenge but idk why she’s there.

32) that shot of a plane coming into JFK? now im near certain that mo is in cali it would make so much sense please showtime just MAKE SENSE. 

33) confetti and mo’s entrance? you know what it’s what i should’ve expected tbh it’s all so delightfully in character EDIT: THE CONFETTI IS NOT BEFORE MO’S ENTRANCE. YOU CAN SEE DAWN’S CLOTHES CHANGE COLOR, IT WAS JUST AN EDITING TRICK.

34) mo’s just gonna pull up, zero fucks, in the middle of the day. much different than how i thought this scene would go, with a lot of betrayal and drama involved instead of this bitch just pulling up. now idek if dawn and mo are in contact before this, when before i was almost certain they would be.

35) what blair says here is definitely not the first thing he says when mo walks in, i can tell from the editing. also im near certain that blair doesn’t say “bro.” it sounds edited in/done in post (his voice pitches up a lot there when that’s usually a beat when your voice would fall), so i wouldn’t be surprised if blair curses a lot there and they just had to edit it to stay in the green band. 

36) ol polluted waterfall lookin ass jshgkjfdhg mo quit lying that hairstyle is not popular fuck off

37) im loving this tagging order tbh. paul scheer getting tagged in the trailer is just. what he deserves. do we consider keith a protagonist now? he’s in all the promo material by name and face now.

38) regina and andrew look so good god yes also the editing is so GOOD fuck

39) keith (hand holding emoji) blair

        getting hit by random vehicles

40) NO THE LIMBO FUCK SHIT THESE CARS WERE NOT MEANT TO LAST almost looks deliberate :eyes emoji:

41) what’s keith doing with this barbershop quartet wtf

42) almost certain that’s tiff singing? based on 1x09 this oughta be good lmao

43) THE HEEL CLICKING IS TAKING ME OUT HGKJDHFGKJFD. could this be mo and marcus? who knows?

44) look at all the cash wtf what’s all that cash for? ah shit here we go again

45) tiff entering another dimension followed by dawn doing what is certainly a mountain of coke? kind of poetic cinema ok

46) ok dawn’s wearing that green suit again from my icon so??? what does it mean what does it all mean

47) who is mo squaring up with tf? is this marcus? i can’t tell in this lighting maybe it’s fake shooting guy idk also where the fuck are they? some party? but not a rich ppl thing just a thing? idk

48) guys. we have it. the fucking airdate. i have been stanning since the first fucking episode almost a year ago today and finally we have an airdate. respect to the new stans but yall dont know what seven and a half months of network radio silence in regards to your current obsession feels like. @hatimbinaba msged me and said we had a date and the shot of adrenaline i felt was like nothing else. serotonin is currently stored in the black monday and now the serotonin is stored in the ME. Sunday, March 15, 2020, 10 pm motherfuckers. put that shit on the calendar. also looks like we have a slightly earlier timeslot which is nice.

49) and to top (ahah) it all off we have blair just straight up gay panicking at the end. that’s definitely tuc and june and if yall have been following yall would know that tuc is playing blair’s love interest and june is playing tuc’s wife so this is all very jghsrkjghs im rly excited for this scene. no way of knowing if this is before or after blair and harris get together but it’s still kshgkdjhgdkj. rich people golfing? more like rich people existing lmao. also where’s that onion video i need to find the onion video fuck this is just like the onion said would happen. i will post it and make memes later. 

50) then blair just gets hit??? by the golfcart?? and there’s this scream that is definitely not the scream of andrew, tuc or june so??? whose scream was that??? did they add that shit in post??? tf???? also tuc and june barely flinching is really decapitating me kjshkrjdg

51) there’s no way of knowing if tiff is also at the golf course, but if she isn’t? then it’s just blair and his canon love interest and canon love interest’s wife???? which is so funny “hey come play golf with me” “oh is anyone else coming?” “ya my wife” “you’re so stupid i have to question how you’re even still alive”

52) WHEEWWWW AND THAT’S IT YALL!!! BUT A COUPLE MORE THINGS. some distinct absences: no known shot of marcus (which is wack yall would think they would want to plug the hell out of dulé hill) and very few shots of harris and corky. why. promote your newcomers some more tf.

anyways that’s all on this long ass post. @ mutuals expect more freakouts xx love yall this is unedited just raw emotion

[holdharmonysacred]

All right, now that I’ve finished my two-day binge read of The Case Study of Vanitas and given myself time to think things over, here’s my Dank Thoughts on this series, which I’ll be putting in the tags For Once unlike the first time. Hope all of y’all in the Vanitas fandom are ready for Long Posts From A Newbie, because boy have I got one for you guys:

Noé is still an adorable dumbass and extremely good boy and I love him. I am getting a bit of a case of “Anime Ages Are Fake” from him because he looks 25 but is actually 19, what the hell. I do think he’s going to wind up having some skeletons in the closet that he has no idea even exist or are there, either because of his Teacher or because he’s the last known Archiviste, but overall he’s a very very good boy whom I love.

Also Noé reads as being really fucking gay for Vanitas but is oblivious about it. He feels like a gay ace or something who does not know what he’s feeling for Vanitas is Gayness so he just assumes it must be a really petty loathing for him. Very much an “I love you but I hate you but I love you” kind of thing.

Vanitas is still a Rat Bastard who feels super slimey and scummy, but like, I can see where a lot of his Rat-ness comes from, even if it makes me have a serious love/hate relationship with him. He reads like a super complicated protag overall, definitely a big enough asshole that it is hilarious and wonderful to see it backfire on him or watch him get dunked on, but still sympathetic. I wish he would please stop being a misogynistic creep though, it just makes me go “Hrrrrghghhhghhhhhh” at all his scenes with Jeanne, and if this has to be the direction the series goes in I hope Noé and Jeanne are able to give him the ol’ Vincent-and-Ada treatment and make him Stop Being An Ass.

Watching Vanitas get dunked on by the story is absolutely hilarious though, I’m glad the story is absolutely willing to punish and clown on him for his dickery. The hostage scene in the catacombs arc was fantastic.

Also I do not think Vanitas will actually die at the end, as much as the series wants to insist he will. Something smells fishy to me on this, there’s probably going to be some kind of twist involved wherein it is revealed that either Vanitas didn’t actually die, or he did die But Can Get Better. It just feels super suspicious that the series would tell us right off the bat in chapter 1 that Noé will kill Vanitas, it feels like a misdirection of some kind to me. I do think Noé really does think he killed Vanitas, but it feels like there’s gonna be more to this story than what Noé’s immense guilt is telling us.

What’s up with Vanitas’s gloves? Why do they take his nails into account. His nails don’t even look that sharp when his gloves are off. Does he...... Does he have fake nails on his gloves?!?!?!?!

also. his lab experiment number really had to be 69 didn’t it. it really had to be that number huh.

Jeanne is still an extremely good girl and I love her and want to hug her. She’s an absolute sweetheart and a doofus and I desperately hope she’s able to get a happy or at least bittersweet ending.

Like I said earlier, I’m still super super “hhhhhrhrgrhghjghgh” at her current relationship with Vanitas, mainly because Vanitas is such a goddamn rat and creep and i do not trust him to be in a romantic relationship with her, but as of the current arc it seems like their relationship could potentially evolve into something..... better? Vanitas seems to at least actually care for her now in an I-am-not-nice!-meme kind of way VS his behavior at the start. I’m on the fence on this one.

Also we all agree that there’s almost definitely something more to Jeanne’s parents turning traitor in the backstory right? Right. For sure. Something smells here too, I feel like the series is gearing up for a plot twist in this area at some point too.

Luca is Babie and I wish he’d get to do more in the story. For someone who’s probably supposed to be the fifth main character he sure is getting Sharon’ed a bit. His brother is almost definitely going to end up being important in a later arc though, there’s no getting around that.

I’m still very very gay for Dominique, Mochijun is targeting me and me specifically with her. She’s just peak Aesthetic no matter what outfit she’s wearing and I love her. Mochijun please let her back into the narrative when the next arc hits.

Dominique and Noé read like more like WLW and MLM solidarity than they do a pairing honestly. I want the two to eventually sit down and have tea with each other and have Dominique talk about her crush on Jeanne I desperately want her to have while Noé complains about his own crush on Vanitas. 

For the sake of people on mobile who would potentially get slam dunked by read mores on there I’m splitting this into multiple posts, part 2 with More Thoughts is coming Soon.

[aedyre]

Ohhh, I was about to go to bed when I saw @ariela-of-aedyr‘s ask meme :D decided to do it now and not wait for asks since well... bed, and technically it’s Thursday here already :’) also i just wanna babble about my baby

1. What did your Watcher make of the Deadfire Archipelago? Was it their first time there, or had they been there previously? 

First time! Alfaris had never actually left the Aedyr Empire before the start of POE1 and hasn’t even seen all of the Empire at that. His first impression was pretty much “ugh so much ocean and see travel I don’t like boats-- OH GREAT I’M ALREADY STRANDED. awesome.” He... still isn’t that keen on it by the end, though he gets used to it. He also doesn’t like how the archipelago is run very much and could do without everyone and their mother vying for power against each other instead of addressing the very obvious problems being had. He did like the weather though! At least better than the Dyrwood’s.

2. Did they have a favourite location?

Not... really. Neketaka probably comes closest by virtue of being the biggest city around, but it also has both the Gullet (which pisses him off because the Roparu have such shitty living conditions) and the Kahanga palace (which pisses him off because he does not get along with the Kahanga royals :’D). Other than that he liked visiting small, unimportant villages that just peacefully existed. And the Engwithan ruin the Wahaki live in, because of the Thaos mural.

3. How about a favourite companion? Or a favourite NPC? 

Of the new Deadfire crew, definitely Tekehu 😛 He’d endeared himself to Alfaris by the time they entered the Gullet together and Tekehu expressed his shock and dismay about how the people there are treated, and after that they got to comforting handholding really fast which was some wonderful gay shit. (...Also I just like it as a romance trope. Loved it with Aloth in the first game, loved it here, it’s good.)

As far as NPCs go... he rather likes Director Castol and Flaune Elette because he likes their idealism and vision. It’s why he very firmly sided with Castol during the company meeting, which should have been clear to the governor from the beginning -- “Ah yes, this extremely idealistic person who wishes to help people and has no interest nor need in making money (because he comes from money and is essentially never without it) will surely side with my profit oriented leadership over another idealist visionary!” ...Yeahhhhhh, no.

4. Was there a companion or an NPC that they just couldn’t stand? What was it about them that irritated your Watcher? 

None tbh. Alfaris is relatively easy to get along with and to go into the “I can’t stand you” category you need to be a huge dick. (And if your name is Thaos, even that isn’t enough :P) He’d butt heads with Vatnir and Ydwin over ideology, philosophy and theology --though in Vatnir’s case he’d mostly want to help get Vatnir away from Ryrmrgand and more comfortable -- with Ydwin he’s lowkey “well you’re wrong about the wheel but I guess you’re entitled to your wrong opinion :/”, but he doesn‘t dislike either of them. He also wishes Serafen would “talk normally” and Maia ends up leaving because he sides with the Vailians, but they get on well until then.

5. Was your Watcher glad to have Eder, Aloth and Pallegina back again (if indeed they did)? Was there any other companion that they would have liked to have back in their party? 

Yes!! I mean, Aloth is one of his bfs and Edér and Pallegina are his bffs. He wouldn’t mind any of the others except Durance back, though he especially misses Sagani and Kana.

6. What was your Watcher’s ship(’s) name(s)? Did they enjoy being Captain of a boat? Would they rather have been back at Caed Nua?

.....I can’t fucking settle on a name tbh. Last playthrough it was The Prince, named by his mum the Mecwyn when she heard that he would like a nice big ship with maybe a lot of cannons because there are pirates everywhere here, mother, can you believe it? But that wasn’t all that creative and is subject to change if I think of something I really like after all :D

He... didn’t exactly enjoy being a Captain, because traveling by ship is not his preferred method, but he also wouldn’t have preferred being at Caed Nua -- he was getting close to done with what he could do there to help and would have installed a steward before long anyway, and the Deadfire is where he was needed now.

7. Did they have a favourite quest or side quest? How about a least favourite? 

I’d say no real favorite -- there were moments he enjoyed, like being able to help Biha, or get medicine for the sick Roparu, but nothing where I would say “Yes this entire quest is something he loved”. Similarly there were a lot he really did not like, but it’s hard to point to a specific one -- shoutout goes to Nemnok’s though because he got really damn pissed about the whole “oh let’s sacrifice our children to our new god” thing. a) No!!! Just no!!!!, b) dammit Thaos, once again proof your entire plan didn’t work because people are *still* doing this shit. The sacrifices ended up being all right after all, but the spirit of it still made him mad :P

8. Did your Watcher find romance, or close companionship, in the Deadfire? If so, who did they get close to, and how did that relationship develop? 

HOO BOY does Alfie ever have companionship :D I don’t often care much for polyshipping, but he’s a big exception to that. Admittedly, hc wise he was already in a relationship with Aloth, because screw this dancing around your feelings for 5 years stuff in their case (and honestly, no way Alfaris wouldn’t have made sure to keep in contact with Aloth, while Aloth was off hunting down the Leaden Key!). He’s already close to his past incarnation too, though Caolan’s part of their soul ends up being kidnapped by Eothas and thus not around for a big part of the game.

And then there’s Tekehu, who, along with Aloth, is basically tailor made for Alfaris :P Sweetheart who wants to help people? Sad woobie who needs emotional support? A big sub? Yes. Good. Perfect. Alfie was making hearteyes at him by the time they left Neketaka together after dealing with the mess in the Gullet. Tekehu was similarly drawn to the Watcher rather quickly (he’s so easy to raise affection with...) and they talked a lot about the Deadfire and about the Huana and whatever was going on in their quest(s) at the time. Then his last fears that maybe Alfaris wouldn’t want to or couldn’t give him what Tekehu wanted were laid to rest when Alfaris revealed that yeah, actually, he is a dom and he likes taking care of people and giving them what he needs and literally everything Tekehu just described as seeking in a romantic and sexual partner is something he’s happy to give.

9. Which faction did your Watcher side with in the end, if any? Was there a particular reasoning behind their decision? 

The Vailians! The pirates were never in the running despite Furante’s attempts, Alfaris was already annoyed with Onekaza and her brother over the Gullet and Onekaza’s behaviour (please stop trying to do ~banter telepathically kthxbye), then she sent him on a menial errand to get Mairu (”I’m a visiting foreign Prince but ok, maybe this is some cultural difference I don’t get”) which resulted in him freeing the dragon and then him and Onekaza slinging insults at one another. “It’s a poor ruler who doesn’t recognize what is under her feet” gave me life and him too for getting it off his chest :’)

And when it came down to Rauatai vs the Republics, he decided that animancy was more useful to deal with the crisis at hand. Which admittedly was also helped by Pallegina being his bff and very much influencing his opinion of the Republics towards being more positive.

10. Where do you imagine your Watcher’s life takes them after the events of Deadfire? 

He would absolutely keep an eye on what’s going on on Ukaizo, considering how important rebuilding the Wheel is (especially since he’s such a big fan of reincarnation too!), but since he can’t exactly help the animancers fix it faster... I think he’d visit home, try to spread the truth about the gods more (which is helped, I imagine, by Eothas’s actions), help Aloth with the Leaden Key, and just generally keep an eye out for the next crisis to lend his hand, since his overarching goal is to make the world a better place and prove to Thaos that kith doesn’t need the gods for that and isn’t as bad as Thaos has come to believe.

(Though my money for a potential sequel plot would be something involving Yezuha considering the storms are now gone.)

[rorykillmore]

now that i’ve recovered from some of the shock let me try to summarize some of the finer points of opera (1987)

it’s about a girl who sings in, you guessed it, an opera. and a killer who haunts the opera house and who is obsessed with her. josh and i were like “so this is basically just phantom of the opera?” which gets funnier when you realize that dario argento would later go on to make a movie that was actually called “the phantom of the opera” in 1998

the killer is like, extremely obvious from his very first scene, but it’s fine

early in the movie, he kills the protagonist’s boyfriend and forces her to watch. her reaction to this can best be described as “mildly inconvenienced”. she starts complaining about her boyfriend’s behavior in literally the next scene

he also kills some ravens. because the opera’s production of macbeth uses live ravens for some reason. this is important because the resident Raven Whisperer is like “ravens are vindictive birds. and they NEVER forget faces.” so you immediately know the ravens are gonna have it out for the killer, which i remembered right on cue was another thing clock tower stole from dario argento

the killer continues to stage murders that he forces the protagonist to watch. one of these is the murder of a woman who has a hilarious death scene because all she cares about is stealing the killer’s gold bracelet, to the point where she like, beats the SHIT out of him for it, and it’s only by making a careless mistake that she actually gets killed

at one point there was a wacky mix-up involving a detective named daniele soave, who instantly elevated himself to meme status in our eyes simply by existing

also throughout the whole movie, SOMEONE is stalking the protagonist through the vents of her apartment building. we just assumed it was the killer the entire time because. why wouldn’t we. but it turned out it was this random little girl who saved the protagonist by pulling her into the vents at the last minute

the killer eventually gets revealed (by the ravens) and like. goes off on the protagonist, explaining his UNNECESSARILY elaborate backstory involving the protagonist’s mother and how she was inexplicably evil and trained the killer to kill. he’s been obsessed with her (and her daughter) ever since. i guess. virtually none of this was set up beforehand

the protagonist eventually shoots him, and the room (which he’d doused in gasoline previously) goes up in flames. she barely manages to escape and retires to like, the swiss countryside with this other side character

it’s revealed at literally the last minute that, somehow, the killer SURVIVED, because he switched himself out with..... A STUNT DUMMY????

so anyway he shows up again, kills off most of the surviving characters, until the protagonist is like “you were right about me! i AM just like my mother! let’s run away and be murderers together!”

josh and i were just like...............ok. like it made no sense and  had no build up but neither did like, any other plot point in this movie

but it turns out the protagonist was fucking with him, and tries to kill him the minute his back is turned. at which point like literally 20 police officers swarm the area to arrest the killer because they were  just. on standby, i guess. idk why they didn’t do anything SOONER

the movie ends with a vague implication that the protagonist does enjoy killing after all, because apparently they’re gonna go back and forth on this like 6 or 7 times. either that or i just didn’t understand t he ending, which is very possible

[getwebbed]

FFH THOUGHTS. spoilers below!!!

okay, so for general thoughts, i really loved the movie. i know there are some people saying they thought it was a mess or whatever, but i really enjoyed it. especially the second half. things really ramped the fuck up.

okAY THAT FUCKING MEME OF AN INTRO UNIRONICALLY MADE ME EMOTIONAL I DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT

i’m not entirely aware of the comics, but i already did know mysterio was a liar, since he’s all about illusions and shit, so i knew that he was a villain from the start so the plot wasn’t much of a twist but hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh anyway

the idea that tony “always second guessed” everything but didn’t second guess peter was a nice sentiment

fury / talos / quentin telling peter like, “maybe tony wouldn’t have died if you were better” or whatever it was??? that entire convo stung. he was barely keeping in tears :((((

the fact that they used tony as a reason for mysterio and the rest of his team’s drive was sorta bullshit; it’s like they’re trying to make tony the problem??? lol that sucked

anyway

peter and mj? fuck it was actually super cute and i loved what they did to mj

aunt may’s support of peter? fuck YEAH i loved that shit. god. happy and may? awkward but funny????

there’s like one mention of pepper but no morgan or anything which made me sad

peter having like thousand-yard stares a few times? super significant. i’m glad they didn’t brush aside his trauma

HAPPY AND PETER !!!!!  HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!! that entire plane scene and just before the plane scene where they’re in the field of petunias or whatever!!! god that hurt

honestly that entire mindfuckery that peter went through with mysterio? holy fuck. i’m just thinking about peter’s extreme sensory overload. that shit was traumatizing itself.

when fury told peter maybe he wasn’t fit to be the next “iron man” …. ouch. i felt that.

peter trusting mysterio was uh. really spot on for my interpretation. i made a HC post a while ago about how easily peter trusts people bc he’s so goodhearted in nature that it makes him gullible as a target. oh peter.

EDITH. oh EDITH. even dead i’m the hero. tony u fucker. that was a good laugh.

anyway, tony really trusted peter with That much power. he’s a kid. i’m sure he’s probably gonna be so much more wary of using EDITH anytime soon.

also uhhhhhh the note said “to the next tony stark” not “to the next iron man” and that’s a hc coming at some point soon

ok i just really need threads of peter dealing with his ptsd, thank u. it’s so important to me!!!! like despite his peter tingle, i’m pretty sure he’ll still have times where he’s wondering if what’s around him is real

iron man crawling outta the grave; that shit hurted 

i’m mildly upset that the POC (brad) in the love triangle of peter / mj was made to seem like a bit of a dick in the end. felt lowkey racist but maybe that’s just me as an asian being picky lmAO.

there’s absolutely no mention of like. steve. i did, however, like the homage to cap when peter used a sign and that repulsor sonic blast thing like it was the shield and mjolnir or something. that was really fucking badass.

PETER’S MIND THO HE’S SO FUCKING SMART. i mean, yeah, he’s a kid and he makes his mistakes and he’s no where near perfect, but he dead-on managed to create his own suit on a plane on his own while figuring out how he’d be able to fuck up all of mysterio’s illusions!!!! I LOVE HIM!!!! HE’S SO SMART

peter relying on his peter tingle which is literally just like. his own intuition. he figured it out himself, even though he had to confirm with EDITH, but like  ...  that’s so important. that’s character growth. that’s peter realizing some of his own self-worth, despite all the trickery and trauma

hated the end of mid credit scene with his identity being revealed, though. loved that they brought back JJJ. peter’s identity being a secret is so vital to his character like … ok, mcu, guess you rly are anti-secret identity. in any case, i’m gonna ignore that bit for my own portrayal. his identity is still a secret. peter’s still like a fucking minor. fuck you mysterio sefshkjfsek

the skrulls …. i can’t believe it ….. nick fury’s mind …….

ok i’ll add more onto this list when i remember more things but this is generally the gist of most of my thoughts!

[darkzorua100]

When it comes to the majority of the anime I watch, I don’t believe in the concept of death. Unless I see a body, I don’t believe a character has actually died. When it comes to anime like Yu-Gi-Oh, even if we see them die on screen, unless it is some kind of Bruno case (which is extremely rare), they always find a way to revive the dead characters in the end. It is why I don’t believe Windy’s kid and Earth are dead dead. I’ve been so conditioned to believe that the character is still alive or will be bought back in some BS way because it always happens. The Boy Who Cried Wolf scenario.

That’s the best way I can describe the end of the Ghost Girl vs Blood Shepherd duel. 

Now the duel itself was amazing. We got to see both sides Synchro Summon and the plays that Ghost Girl made were just awesome and to me felt like something you would actually see in the real life card game from a Altergeist player. Sadly though, BS still ended up pulling out the win and at this point, after what just happened, I can’t take him serious anymore when it comes to Emma. What happens is what we basically are never going to see after the BS vs Soulburner duel which is that Blood Shepherd doesn’t shoot Ghost Girl. He lets her keep her account, making the whole duel completely pointless since he doesn’t even get Aqua afterwards for winning. Are you kidding me right now? This is actually stupid. Playmaker vs Bohman round 3 and Soulburner vs BS results left a bad taste in my mouth since they both felt like cop-outs (so Playmaker and Soulburner wouldn’t actually lose) but this is actually a cop-out. People have pointed out that Emma would have been just fine if she lost her account. She could have took the Kusanagi route for Aoi. That would have been perfectly fine! No instead the writers chickened out at the last second and boom, Ghost Girl is still alive out of basically pity from her older brother all because she had to get the final words in of “oh just to let you know, our dad died. Hope that doesn’t change your thoughts about deleting my account!”. I hate the Aoi/Miyu/Aqua story because it feels so cheated in but this...this is just the writers not holding up their end of the bargain and now I can’t trust them to not do this again when it comes to Emma and Kengo. I just hate when people set a set of rules for their universe in fiction and just don’t follow through with them. Why should we be worried about these characters then if nothing bad is actually going to happen to them? Playmaker and Soulburner never losing because they have a Ignis. Blue Maiden is probably never going to lose now because she has a Ignis. I don’t see what I should care or worry about them and that makes me so mad but mostly sad. 

So we get somewhat of a backstory for Emma and Kengo. They are actually half-siblings with them sharing a father who left Kengo’s mother for reasons and years later met Emma’s mother and they got busy, resulting in Emma’s birth. Seems to me that Kengo has always had a bit of a resentful side to him because of this and his car accident simply brought him to his breaking point or simply just gave him an excuse to unleash all of his anger out onto the world. Now I’m honestly not trying to find reasons to hate on the show as of late, since that seems to be a common factor now, but I don’t like how Emma found this out. Her doing some digging into Blood Shepherd’s past I can see, since this is Emma, but I don’t understand why they didn’t show us the ending to their confrontation in 63, 14 episodes ago all the way back in the beginning of August mind you, if they weren’t going to go back to that scene as the reveal. If they just showed us the end to that confrontation for the beginning of the episode as the recap and added onto it, with Blood Shepherd letting it slip that they were siblings and Ghost Girl being shocked about it, it could have lead Emma into doing all that digging to find out that hey, they actually are siblings. If we are to believe that she knew about this since the beginning of season 2, since the flashback showed her in her old Ghost Girl avatar, that just doesn’t make sense since Emma was clearly still wondering what the actual hell was going on, retconing the whole thing. 

The duel was awesome. It was just the beginning and the end parts to it that were just done so badly -_- 

Now onto the thing the everyone is going crazy about: Blue Maiden. Again, I’m not trying to hate, if you love the new design that’s great! More power to you for getting a design that screams character growth. I just...don’t. And I honestly don’t know why. The outfit is fine, I think it is just the hair that makes me dislike it so much. I was honestly expecting to to be long, since her Blue Angel form had her hair in ponytails and Blue Girl was short (which btw I’m going to miss that hairstyle since it was amazing) but the color pallet just looks wrong. It is a different shade of blue from what Aoi’s other forms had, actually the color pallets were flipped, so maybe that’s what bugs me. Also, the fact that she does look so grown up just looks...wrong? Is that the word to use? She is supposed to be sixteen and looks like she should be Emma’s age or something. It just doesn’t feel right. I know I’m going to get used to after a while but for now...I just don’t know. 

So we get a little bit more about Miyu, who actually did change her hairstyle during the Hanoi Project to reflect Aoi, and yeah Aoi is her Ryoken. Simple as that. Still don’t like this development but I’m starting to sound like a broken record as this point so moving on. Aqua and Blue Maiden team up, as to be expected, and them and the boys fly off into the sunset (well not really but you get the idea) as the new trio (because Go decided that frame was more important) which honestly doesn’t feel earned (since the boys still hasn’t told Aoi their identities yet or just the fact that they are going along with the fact that Aoi has an Ignis after the fact that she tried to steal theirs for SOL) but I’m just complaining at this point for no god damn reason.

So yeah, if it wasn’t obvious, besides the duel, I really didn’t like this episode. Honestly I do like how they are trying to get the girls involved in the story, which is saying something since in the previous series they would have been written out completely at this point, let alone have such a big role in the story that Aoi has now, but I just don’t like how it was structured to get us to this point. Aoi/Miyu/Aqua came out of nowhere and the Emma/Kengo storyline, while it had so much build up to it, just didn’t have the payoff that it deserved but that might just be me. I never expect any of my opinions to be popular and I’m fine with that. Once again, if you love everything that has been happening so far for the females, that’s amazing! I’m glad for you! Truly I am! I just wished I could say the same. 

The preview though. Wow Blood Shepherd is getting screen time in the form of duels. We knew about Ghost Girl and Lightning but not Revolver. Omg yes! We are actually getting the Wild West shoot out! They are actually going to duel in a wasteland! I wasn’t expecting this. I just thought 78 was going to be a plot episode. I’m not complaining this time but you all know I’m a Ryoken/Revolver fangirl so there might be some biased there. I have no shame to admit that. So who do I think is winning this? Pfff not even a question, Revolver is so going to kick his ass. He���s going to Mirror Force him just like he did to his younger sister and when he does I’m going to laugh so hard at the irony. Oh it truly is a wonderful thing to have our meme lord back.

[twitchesandstitches]

Crossthicc - Mega Man Overview

Mega Man and its associated characters are a major part of any Smash Bros content I wanna do, so they have some great significance here.

Among other things, the positronic brain Dr Light invented and Wily messed around with form the core of the processors engineered by the Fleet, and has been integrated with other designs rediscovered from ancient times (such as Omnic-style brains), reverse engineered from machine life aliens (Transformers and, from a certain point of view, Gem mineral cores) and genuine AI brains to produce a variety of different hardware for intelligent minds to use. These AI brains are much more efficient than organic minds, with potential for superintelligence, and many organics choose to have their brains partially or totally converted into robotic ones for the brain boost, at least within the Fleet.

These AI brains are fully sapient, and they are confirmed to be living beings with souls. They can ask if they have souls, so they do.

As for the individual characters, an important note. I’m not distinguishing between the different Mega Man series here. They are all canon here, simultaneously, tweaked to make some sense! For the most part, different interpretations of the same character is just that particular robot uploaded into a different platform body for different tasks. No time travel or anything; For instance, Dr Cain is not a successor to Light from the future, but a student who helped refine the positronic processor by using ideas inspired from organic brains in what he calls the ‘reploid structure’.

Note that I am HEAVILY influenced by the Mega Man song group, The Megas, for inspiration, and i tend to follow their interpretation of things! I’m also mainly focusing on the series I am at least somewhat familiar with: Classic series, Mega Man X, and to a smaller degree Legends and EXE. Other series, I don’t know them at all, so if you can suggest ideas for them that would fit the AU, I’m good for that.

General plot stuff: Pretty much according to canon, but tweaked for the setting. Light and Wily initially ran a corporation together, competing with some branches of Miscella, and both had the intention of creating new life with their robot children. Wily felt that Light refused to take things far enough and warped the minds of the robot masters, reprogramming them and enslaving them to his own goals of robot prosperity, going to extremes and forgetting about his own principles. This occured AFTER he became obsessed with a strange stone sphere that caused all robots that came near it to go berserk… in a very similar way to what happened to him, later on. After Light’s first-created son, Blues/Protoman, went missing, Light was forced to employ his younger children, Rock and Roll, giving them combat gear to power them up into Mega Man and Mega Woman. Protoman reappeared at some point during this (Analogous to the classic series) revealing that he had run away after fearing he would be taken apart to retrieve the irreplaceable technologies discovered from ancient times that had been used to create him, the first of Light and Wily’s robots. He was repaired by Wily but felt what he was doing was wrong, but still harbored a grudge against Light due to severe miscommunication.

Wily descended deeper into mania and delusions of godhood… apparently sickened by something. After securing the artifact that he had obsessed over, and as Wily joined several other mad scientist type villains in a big think tank (including the likes of Robotnik, Liv Octavius, the Big Mt scientists of Old World Blues from Fallout New Vegas, and Tarantulas), a robot scientist named Sigma was assigned to study the artifact safely.

That… did not pan out.

The artifact destroyed his mind, as it has everyone else who touched it. He termed it the Maverick Sphere, and the few records he has given of it makes it sound as though it spread a virus, a disease, wherever it went. He speculates, prior to his reports growing increasingly more deranged and incomprehensible before they end entirely, that it shifted to infect anyone it could. To robots, a computer virus. To humans, a thought virus, a toxic meme. To more spiritual beings, or beings of pure magic, it might take on more esoteric forms, but ultimately the disease it spread infected the soul, corrupting the victim from the inside out. Sigma has since hit a personal singularity, evolving into a purely infomorph form.

Protoman, Mega Man, Roll, and the other Robot Masters (who have been restored to their true selves) have vowed to stop Sigma, and their greatest worry is what created the Maverick Sphere, for it is very, VERY old, predating any known galactic civilization. Transformer allies have noted that it bears a similarity to something called the ‘Hate Plague’, but far more insidious. Wily remains a persistent foe, teaming up with whatever organization is willing to take him on or providing them weapons, working with the Cartels or Miscella as a high-ranking military specialist. He tends to pop up everywhere.

[alittleyellowdinosaur]

The Dragon Prince Season 2 Review

*SEASON ONE SPOILERS IN THHIS SECTION* i love this show and, unless another Voltron situation happens, that’s not going to change. But I find myself... disappointed with this season. Mainly bc it felt like a season of filler episodes. Yes we had some developments, largely with Caleb’s magic and his relationship w Claudia, as well as Claudia and Sorens relationship and Virens Evil Plan™️. But 3 of the 9 episodes were on just Caleb and Claudia in one place, with the same issue that could have been resolved in one episode leaving room for more, and 2 of the remaining 6 episodes were mostly backstory on Caleb and Ezran’s mother. And while yes, I was very excited to learn about her it was just... lackluster, as it was told as a story by Viren and not a more meaningful way, such as Caleb’s memories, or in a letter from his mother, for example. The remaining episodes were mostly focused on Caleb’s magic. It just felt like filler as these things could have been dealt with in more exciting ways. I hate to bring up Voltron, but in the episode where Shiro connects to the black lion, that was still engaging and didn’t feel like filler bc there were exciting things happening during this, and their was a deadline. In this season, very little action happens, and most of it is in backstory, and the things that (in this case of the one episode of voltron) took one episode, took a whole season, even though about the same progression took place. It’s just boring, and made the season feel like filler.

Especially because the whole time there is never any real danger or time pressure. Rayla begins the season saying “danger is coming” but Claudia and Soren show up later that episode I think and don’t wind up being that dangerous. The rest of the season there is no real time constraint except us being told, not shown, that they need to get Zym to Xadia soon. Although you might say Viren causing trouble is the danger, it’s not really present in the narrative as he isn’t sending people out to get the trio and the trio has no idea what he is doing.

Now for some LARGE SPOILERY points I’d like to make about the season (I apologize if formatting gets weird here, I’m writing this one my phone and it, well, is tumblr. Also I can’t find the mobile version of the read more button.)

In this season there is a lot of development of Caleb’s romantic relationships, specifically with Claudia, and briefly at the end with Rayla. Although I admit I have not looked up their exact ages, appearance wise, to me, Caleb looks 15 or so, and the girls look late teens early twenties. This, to put it simply, makes me very uncomfortable. In Season one, I was perfectly fine with Caleb’s puppy dog, schoolboy crush on Claudia. It was realistic to how a young teen might feel towards an older friend as he is first hitting puberty, and I found it cute. But now Claudia is reciprocating, and not just in a motherly, older sister way. She’s doing her hair up, she’s goin on a date with him, and they nearly kissed. I find this unacceptable as the age differences between them are too large, and regardless if the young one is a boy, that’s still very much not ok. Maybe technically she’s only a few years older than him, but as it isn’t stated and appearance wise she is much older seeming (since you can’t expect viewers to look up the wiki, this is what I have to go on), I strongly disagree with this, and the same concerning Rayla. He is, from my interpretation, 15. That’s not ok and I’m extremely mad about this. I hope it gets resolved in a way that is appropriate but I worry it won’t, and I worry more about the message that sends to young boys that they should let older girls hit on them when that’s no more ok than an older man hitting on a younger girl.

My second big complaint is how lgbt rep is handled in this season. Bc yes, we got some!!! And they died two episodes later!!! Not even, if you do some critical thinking as to why their daughter is ruling as a child queen with no parents. But yes, they kill the two lesbians who show up, although they are very much canon, kissing and a kid and all. They kill them, and although it is necessary for the narrative and not just thrown in there to get rid of them, it still sucks bc it’s still the trope that hurts so many of us. Now do I think this is the only lgbt rep we will get in this show? Absolutely not, I firmly believe we have yet to see the true lgbt characters revealed (still hoping for Amaya...) and I don’t believe this was all we will get, however those episodes haven’t been released yet and as of our knowledge this is all we have, and it’s a kill your gays trope. I just can’t agree with this, even though again, it was necessary to the narrative and wasn’t just a dismissive death and move on.

Oh and one last quick thing disliked. In this season, Soren briefly becomes a quadrepeligic. It’s handled rather well, in my opinion, with Soren trying to find the good in it and crack a joke as is his way, and Claudia nearly having a mental breakdown bc she doesn’t have a spell to help. But then she pulls one out of her ass and heals him. And although I am not disabled nor do I have any disabled friends, I find this a bit rude to the community (please do tell me if I am wrong about this however and you believe the disabled community is fine with this as I am not certain). The community doesnt have a magic solution to solve their disabilities. That’s not an option. And in my, admittedly unknowleable opinion, I think they should have let Soren remain disabled and truly showed how that affects the life of someone who previously relied on fighting. I think it would have added a whole other layer to the show of both diversity and intrigue. Do I think this was a slight at the disabled community? No I don’t, simply concerning how we know they don’t have a problem putting characters into the show with disabilities, and doing it well too (Aka Amaya making tasteful jokes about being deaf and using actual ESL, and Vallads, a pirate character from this season who DOES use magic assistive technology to deal with his blindness and it works amazing). But I do feel this was a wasted opportunity for character growth for Soren by helping him realize fighting skills aren’t all that make him who he is, and also an interesting way to creatively work in magical assistive technology (a la the flying wheelchair from A:TLA)

Lastly I’d like to talk about some good things about this season bc I’ve bashed it enough for one day don’t you think? Viren’s whole thing with the mirror was boring as hell yes, and only contributed to the filler season feeling, however it was intriguing and I’m curious to learn more about the man in the mirror, so I appreciate that mystery. I liked the development of Claudia and Soren and how it showed what might be the start of Claudia’s descent into Dark Magic. I enjoyed the whole part where Callum was sick and struggling with using dark magic, and how it was taken as a bit of a joke on the deep important hallucinations, while still being a deep important hallucination. Also the inclusion of memes (“one does not simply walk into Xadia”) and the pirate Vallads. I just find this shows ability to make light of itself to be really enjoyable and part of why I love it so much. Ezran is as always an absolute bean and he grows so much in this season. Caleb acknowledging why Rayla struggled to tell him about his father and not letting it drive a wedge between them like it would in so many shows (and would be frustrating like it always is) was so mature and I loved it. Claudia’s development about her mother, Queen Sarai’s whole section, and Harrows letter were all amazing bits of development, especially in the case of Claudia, about how hard it is on kids when parents divorce, while also acknowledging why there was a divorce and that it wasn’t bad that the mom did it. Also the explainations Of magic and the Sunfire (I think that’s what they are called) elves were awesome (who else is now shipping Amaya and that one leader elf??) I think a lot of the development was super amazing and I loved it all, and by no means do I think this season will be a blight on the show as a whole, I just think it very much had some faults and I look forward to seeing some more plot focused episodes!!

[thedrakkenclaw]

It was a Sunday morning, apparently, since the students were taking the day off. It’s odd that they only take off Sunday, thought Izuku, of all the days in a week. Sunday sounds like the kind of day that you’d get up and shout to the sky, ‘I’m ready!’ like Spongebob or something. He snickered a little at that; Spongebob Squarepants was largely a relic of a cartoon that hardly anyone in this day and age had actually watched outside of it being an endless source of memes ever since its conception.

Uraraka broke through the door in a hurry to run up to the cage and wave to Izuku with a smile, and Izuku panicked and tried to shove his shirt back on because this was indecent on his part.

“Hey, Deku!” She stopped herself before she could continue, “Oh, wait, Deku was what Bakugou was calling you to be mean… what’s your actual name?”

“No no no, you can call me Deku,” Izuku stammered, a bit flustered by her sudden entrance and embrace. “Like ‘dekiru,’ remember?”

“Oh, okay! Deku. You’re cute, Deku.” She pulled a chair over and sat facing him. “Your horns are like little bunny ears!”

“Bunny ears?” He raised a hand up above his forehead, where the verdant-green horns poked out from his mop of hair. “I kinda thought they look like All Might’s hairstyle,” he mumbles, belatedly remembering that his shirt is mic’d.

“You really are a fanboy,” she said. “...Listen, that’s not why I’m here, though. I… I wanted to apologize for what happened yesterday. I lied to you about making you feel safe, because you weren’t safe. They shot you and you didn’t even know what was going on until you were hit.”

“Uraraka.” Her face shot up at hearing her name, “You weren’t there, were you? You walked out, before it happened.”

“So what? I pulled you out in the first place.”

“Work with me here,” Izuku muttered, then spoke up. “I trust you more than anyone else right now. I just… I just want to know what happened while I was out - like, what they did with me - and what to expect coming up. That’s it. Could you share that information with me?”

“O-oh, sure, that’s nothing,” Uraraka squeaked, then bounced from her seat out of the room.

Izuku went slack, and relaxed muscles he wasn’t even aware were tensed. He only pulled his shirt up a little, looking under the buttons to the faded scar Kacchan left as a farewell back then and he traced the jagged edges of it.

What am I to these people? They refer to me like I’m an object. “It” this, “it” that. I don’t even know any drak outside of my dad and I haven’t even seen him in ages. I… don’t know anyone outside my family, period. My mom even does all the shopping; I rarely leave the house unless we’re out hiking or I’m able to pass off my appearance as being a costume or an extreme mutation Quirk. Kacchan was my only exception, and after he did this, Mom told me “no more exceptions.”

Why did I go?

“Got it,” Uraraka cheered as she barged through the door again. “I printed them all out for you, and if you give me a second…” She popped one of the cage’s fasteners open and slid the papers under the lid a few at a time, and sealed it when she was done. The papers scattered on the floor and Izuku would probably have a few papercuts if he weren’t a drak.

“I’ll probably get in trouble if I leave those in there with you,” Uraraka said. “They still think you’re dangerous, and that includes to yourself, with any object you’re given.”

“Not even a pillow, huh?” Izuku muttered as he collected the papers in a more tedious version of 52 Pick-up (the papers stuck to the floor by static and he had to pinch at them from the center to get them to come up).

“Unfortunately.”

After he felt as though he was reading the same thing for the third time, he went back to the ones he’d already read and noticed that they were reports written by the students.

“Is it okay that I’m reading these? It seems invasive,” he asked.

“Oh, no, don’t worry about it. I asked everyone if they’d let me, and only Bakugou objected.”

He scoffed. “I didn’t want to read his anyways.”

Reading through the papers, the fact that the students consistently referred to him as an “it” stood out more than anything else. Aizawa’s words about his official status float in his mind, but it still bothered him nonetheless.

The last paper he reads is the official data sheet pulled together by the school’s staff and their affiliates. It spares no fluff in presenting the information they’d uncovered: his height, weight, sex, documentation of various DNA samples, x-rays, EKGs, CT scans, and all sorts of other information that was completely lost on him.

Suddenly he felt relieved that they only took his pants off. With all the crap they scrounged up in here, they probably would’ve wanted to cut him open and look at his guts.

...He spoke, er, thought too soon, apparently, as he flipped the page. According to the annotations on the document, medical personnel were against operating on a perfectly healthy body, but scientists were lining their pockets to do it and document everything. The project went way far beyond just UA at this point. When isn’t something beyond UA? Grimly, his thoughts added, You know, “Go beyond. Plus Ultra!”

He didn’t dwell too long on the photos there. Even if he did, he was already thoroughly disturbed, and he might as well finish digging the tunnel he’d started, except…

The raw data ended there. The final document was a grading rubric developed by whatever teacher was involved in assigning the students’ project. He couldn’t find a name on it anywhere, though.

“Okay, I’m done,” Izuku announced.

“Alright! Give me a sec…” She unfastened the lock. “Okay, shoot!” It took a few tries to get the papers to go through the small slit, but ultimately it proved effective and she shut the lock again.

Uraraka let him sit a few minutes before breaking the silence. “So… whaddya think?”

He sat quietly until his voice dropped his response:

“Deku.”

“...Deku?” She echoed him. “That’s your nickname, right? You still want me to call y-”

“Am I a deku to all of you? I...humanids have a history of using us,” his voice was a soft, quiet whisper. “I grew up being told that drak hide because when you seek, when you find us, ready or not, we get used, killed, or both. I-I’m not - I’m not dead, a-and Ura-raraka, I believe in you, but when I get back home my mom is gonna kill me, because she always knows what happens to me when I’m out without permission…”

“That’s an odd thing to be worried about,” Uraraka said.

“You don’t know my mom.”

“It sounds more like you’re trying to change the subject, Deku.”

“I’ll do you one better,” Izuku deadpanned. “Why did all of these documents refer to me as an ‘it’ when you had conclusive evidence as to my physiological sex? Including yours.”

“Gender identity is an important part of hero training due to discrimina-”

“Then use ‘they!’” Izuku stopped. “I’m-I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but of all the things that have been bothering me this whole time, the fact that all of you have been referring to me like I’m a cinder block or something is killing me.”

“Uh-understood.” For a moment, there was quiet.

Of course, only then did the door slam open, Bakugou tearing the peace to shreds.

“Deku. Why would you want to read my paper, eh?” No response, just a pained look shared with Uraraka. “Huh? Don’t play games with me, idiot. You told Uraraka to give you our papers, and I was the only one with the forethought to consider, ‘oh, hey, maybe we don’t let the dangerous freak handle all the intel,’ but here we are anyways.”

“Kacchan-”

“Don’t call me that,” vitriol soaked Kacchan’s shouts. “I’m not gonna let you take over my brain either, like round-face over there, so don’t try any bullshit.”

“I can’t control people’s mindspace.”

“Just because it’s been ten years doesn’t mean I can’t remember you creeping on my thoughts. That was the whole reason I started thinking about how weird you really are.” Kacchan turned to the side and jeered, “because of course a goddamn drak would think it could ever best me - and with plant magic, too? You had your head up your ass since day one.”

Uraraka piped up, “Bakugou, stop. Are you just trying to provoke him?”

Bakugou only laughed. “Oh, so it’s a him now. You’re really letting it poison your mind, then, huh? You’re being too pedestrian with it. Those claws could make mincemeat of you if you’re not careful.”

“Shut up,” Izuku heard himself say. His self-control was waning at Kacchan’s antagonizing of the one person he trusts at all and instinctive rage would cut through his façade at any moment if this kept going, and Izuku wasn’t excited to see what kind of damage that would wreak. After all, the last time that’d happened...

“Or what?”

Izuku staggered; he knew he couldn’t come up with a response Kacchan would find satisfactory.

“Listen, round-face, this thing’s been giving you a one-sided story. It showed you what I did to it, but it never showed you what it did to me, now, am I right?” All the venom and rage on his face fell and was replaced by a cold expression that belied no emotions. He pulled up his shirt to reveal four old, light stripes on the skin of his back. “These scars were left by it; it sent me to the hospital with what it did back then. It has the power to kill with just its bare hands, and if you keep interacting with it all buddy-buddy, it’s hardly a matter of ‘if’ so much as ‘when.’”

Izuku was a mess. He’d turned away from Kacchan and Uraraka to hide from them that he was trying not to cry and failing miserably at it.

“See? Now it’s upset ‘cause I exposed its plot to trick you.”

“S-shut up,” Izuku choked out again. His hands were trembling, and he felt anger fear regret betrayal grief-

“You’re an idiot for not listening to me.”

and

he

LOST IT

Turned, crouched, jumped at Kacchan to shut him up, to put a hand around his mouth, glass shards scattered on the floor and blood and tears and snot dripping off his face which was disgusting, but he couldn’t take it anymore; Uraraka was a good person and she didn’t deserve this garbage, and Izuku howled in pain when Kacchan lit a powerful explosion in his face. It stung, but only made him more belligerent, and he tried to restrain his hands but he felt himself go slack as he felt a prick in his neck.

[brigdh]

Reading Definitely Not Wednesday

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. A space opera set in the relatively near future. Humans have colonized Mars and the asteroid belt, and a few scattered populations make due on the moons of planets further out. There is, however, no faster-than-light travel, no contact with any solar system beyond our own, no sentient AIs, and no aliens. A major theme of the book is the culture clash between those who live on Earth or Mars – the superpowers of this future – and those who live in the Belt, where mining is the preeminent economy and life is the hardscrabble sort where even water and oxygen have to be imported, never mind concepts like justice and equality. Different characters move from one place to the other or switch allegiances, but their origins are as baked in as we would regard ethnicity or nationality. As one character puts it, "A childhood spent in gravity shaped the way he saw things forever." Corey (who is actually two separate dudes writing under a penname) does a wonderful job of fleshing out the background worldbuilding. I loved references to fungal-culture whiskey, Bhangra as the default elevator muzak, hand gestures exaggerated to be seen through a spacesuit, and largely unintelligible localized slang (“Bomie vacuate like losing air,” the girl said with a chuckle. “Bang-head hops, kennis tu?” / “Ken,” Miller said. /“Now, all new bladeboys. Overhead. I’m out.”). It feels like a more detailed world than a lot of sci-fi does. Which is good, because the characters are not all that compelling. The two POVs are Jim Holden and Detective Miller. Holden is the second-in-command on an unimportant spaceship that works as a freight hauler, moving ice back and forth between the Belt and Saturn. Things change dramatically when a mysterious someone attacks their ship and kills everyone except for Holden and a few others, and he finds himself centrally involved in the runup to war. He has the most generic action-movie-hero personality I can imagine, with no discernable characteristics except 'idealistic' (and I really only know that because other people keep telling him he is), kinda nervous about being suddenly thrust into command but doing a good job, a womanizer (but see, it's okay because he just keeps genuinely falling in love with so many women!), and earnest. He's fine. He's not even objectionable, just incredibly boring. He comes with a crew of entirely indistinguishable followers that I couldn't keep straight, but that's all right because most of them get killed off so I no longer had to try to remember who was who. He also develops a romance that is 100% unbelievable, but I suppose that's what action-movie-heroes do, so who's even surprised. Miller is a detective on Ceres, the largest city in the Belt, who's been hired by a rich family to track down their anarchist, slumming daughter. Miller is an incredibly cliche noir protagonist - alcoholic, divorced, not as good as he used to be, cynical, a little bit corrupt but underneath it all he still remembers his good intentions – but at least that means he has more of a personality than Jim, even if it's a personality you've seen a thousand times before. On the other hand, Miller becomes obsessed with this dead/missing girl in a way that is painfully stereotypical Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Two things kept this from ruining Leviathan Wakes for me. One, Miller is at least somewhat self-aware about it: This was why he had searched for her. Julie had become the part of him that was capable of human feeling. The symbol of what he could have been if he hadn’t been this. There was no reason to think his imagined Julie had anything in common with the real woman. Meeting her would have been a disappointment for them both. And two, there's a twist near the end that allows Julie to finally have her own voice in the text, and not exist solely as Miller's imagined dependance on her. It takes almost half the book for Miller and Holden to finally cross paths, at which point the missing-girl mystery and the war plot combine and take a twist for a direction I DID NOT SEE COMING. I am ambivalent on whether to spoil this; on the one hand, I read it unprepared and it was incredibly awesome to experience it that way. On the other hand, I suspect this is information that will be a determining factor for many people on whether they want to read it or not. So: halfway through, Leviathan Wakes takes a wild jump and becomes about a zombie outbreak. I would not have previously thought that 'space opera' and 'zombie apocalypse' are two genres that should be combined, but the tension and excitement skyrocket once the book takes this turn, transforming it from average quality to 'I CANNOT STOP READING, MUST FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT'. So, good choice! The sequence with Miller and Holden trapped on a small space station trying to sneak their way past zombie hordes is one of the most thrilling I've read in ages. Leviathan Wakes is the first book in a series (apparently it was originally supposed to be a trilogy, but there's currently eight books out with at least one more planned, along with a batch of short stories) and has also become a show on the Syfy network that I haven't seen. I feel like I've spent a lot of this review complaining, but honestly I mostly enjoyed the book and am planning to read the sequels. The fact that people seem to like the characters from future books more than these ones certainly doesn't hurt! Pig/Pork: Archaeology, Zoology and Edibility by Pia Spry-Marques. A nonfiction book about everything remotely related to the farming and eating of pigs. I expected from the subtitle and the author's personal background that archaeology would be the main focus, but it turns out that's really only the first two chapters, which cover the Paleolithic hunting of wild boar and the original domestication of pigs. The other chapters turn to topics as diverse as experiments on feeding farmed pigs leftovers from restaurants, the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, a special Spanish ham called ibérico de bellota which can only be fed acorns, genetically modifiying pigs so their manure would contain less phosporus, sunburn in pigs, minature pet pigs, organ donation between humans and pigs, the terrifying tapeworms to be acquired from eating raw pork, why pork is a 'white' meat, how to make sausages, theories on why pork is neither halal nor kosher, the use of an enzyme from pig pancreases in wine production, EU food-safety regulations on traditional pork dishes, Cuba's 'Bay of Pigs', the Pig War between the US and Canada in 1859, and Oliver Cromwell's favorite pig breed. Basically if it has the remotest connection to the title, Spry-Marques has included it. She even includes recipes for each chapter, though some of them are clearly more for amusement than actual consumption – I can't imagine anyone having just finished a chapter on how eating raw pork will give you cysts in your brain is eager to try figatellu, a type of uncooked sausage from France. And it would take a braver foodie than me to taste "Asian-inspired pork uterus with green onion and ginger". In fact, as is probably not surprising for any book which touches on factory farming however briefly, you will probably come away not wanting to eat pork at all for a while. Spry-Marques's writing is breezy and conversational, which kept me turning the pages even when the structure was a bit scattered. I wish it were more focused, but it's a great book for anyone who enjoys popular science, history, or food writing. I read this as an ARC via NetGalley. Song of Blood & Stone by L. Penelope. A YA fantasy novel with some unusual elements. Rather than being set in vaguely medieval England or a dystopian sci-fi future, we're in a country where the technology seems to be around 1900: cars and electric lights exist, but they're restricted to rich cities, and someone coming from rural poverty might well have never seen either. Magic exists, but comes from one's heritage; you're either born with it or not. In Elsira, where our story is set, it's rare to the point of nonexistence. Our heroine Jasminda, however, does have magic, due to her father having been a refugee from the neighboring country of Lagrimar, where magic is common. Elsira and Lagrimar have been constantly at war for hundreds of years, but are separated by a magical Barrier which allows no one to pass through, except on rare occasions when a temporary breach happens and violence erupts. Elsirans are light-skinned and Lagrimari are dark-skinned, so Jasminda has dealt with fairly severe racism throughout her life. The story starts when Jasminda runs across Jack, a Elsiran soldier just back from spying in Lagrimar who has super important information that must get back to the capital as soon as possible; unfortunately Jack has just been shot and is closely pursued by a troop of Lagrimari soldiers. Jasminda and Jack team up, fall in love, and try to prevent the coming outbreak of war. The most revealing thing I can say about Song of Blood & Stone is that it's very, very YA. (As you could probably guess, what with its title that fits exactly into the pattern of the 'YA title' meme currently going around tumblr.) Almost everything that happens is easily predictable from the back cover (Jack's long-withheld backstory is clearly supposed to be a shocking twist, but it's obvious from the moment he appears), the prose is mediocre but fine, good and bad guys are clearly signalled, the real world parallels (racism, treatment of refugees, domestic abuse) are good-hearted but extremely Social Justice 101. On the plus side, the beginning was the worst part and it got better and better as it went along; several developments near the very end were so interesting that I'm tempted to read the sequel, despite my initial boredom. Overall it's not a bad book, but I'd only recommend it to people who are extremely affectionate of the most repetitive tropes of the YA genre. I read this as an ARC from a GoodReads giveaway.

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