#doppelganger arc finale

[authenticyuri]

The latest Dungeon Meshi chapter is incredibly good for many reasons but one of them is getting to see Chilchuck's arc and him growing as a character, especially when it comes to his opinion on Laios as a leader and as a friend. I am so interested in breaking down their relationship development (this also doubles as chilaios propaganda btw lmao)

This got extremely long so I'll leave it under the cut <3

At the very start of the manga, and throughout most of the middle, Chilchuck clearly brushes Laios interests and personality off as being weird, just like pretty much every other character, but underneath that is a frustration that comes from him thinking that Laios could stand to be a way better leader than he is. Chilchuck is arguably way more qualified to be a leader in their group, but taking a leadership position is obviously not something he could easily do because of how prejudiced against his race is. In a world where most races see yours as disposable, it must be incredibly frustrating to be hired in a group with a leader who lacks social skills, is very forgetful, and seems to only care about monsters, when you both know you could do a way better job.

Chilchuck has more experience when it comes down to that type of thing, given he organized a union for other halflings, and though he takes out his anger at Laios's naivety when it comes to that area, it's clear he does it out of care and just because he wants to see Laios improve. In dungeon groups, he's always been a follower, he's perfectly comfortable just being there to do his job, and do it well, then leave. He isn't itching for the opportunity to take over Laios's role, but he does want to have the type of leader he can easily rely on.

But because of Laios's inexperience and also brash decision-making, Chil feels responsible for holding him back and being the glue to keep the team together, even though he may not admit it, (something we can clearly see when he chooses to sacrifice himself instead in the dragon fight despite the fact he often tells others he won't be useful in combat, as well as when he chooses to step in for Laios's place when talking with the Canaries).

This is something even Laios has taken notice of, given that he wants Chilchuck to be the one to bring him back to his senses with a lecture right before his confrontation with the winged lion. Out of all the others, he depends on Chilchuck on being able to bring him back with his words.

But anyways, Chilchuck's character arc comes from accepting Laios as a leader and growing fond of his unusual methods of leading rather than frustrated. In the shapeshifter chapter, when it came down to Laios having to differentiate Chil from his doppelganger, you can very much tell he is terrified of having to depend on Laios's judgement. I think it is also made worse by the fact that the shapeshifter is acting exactly like the worst preconceived notions about halflings other races have, and at this point the only thing present in his mind is the possibility that Laios will let him die and be replaced by a stereotype of all things.

And even after Laios explains how he was successfully able to tell his team apart, (which was because of how they interacted with monsters and the dungeon), the others are impressed, but Chilchuck isn't content with just that and hoped that Laios would have known because he finally got to know the others on a deep level that Leaders are just inherently capable of.

But of course, Laios isn't capable of something like that. He isn't a mind reader and he obviously can't distinguish other people's real thoughts or emotions, even if they are fairly obvious. Laios pulled a feat in a way that was accessible and made sense to him, and Chilchuck wasn't swayed because of how atypical it was of leaders to act. (Yes I also read this is a neurodivergent in a neurotypical world conflict).

This hesitance to fully trust in his abilities is also why he advised Laios not to accept becoming a king initially when Yaado asked Laios to. But after Laios defeats Thistle, by using his knowledge on dragons, similarly to how he defeated the shape-shifters, Chilchuck finally starts viewing Laios's unusual problem-solving in a positive light. It's when he first realizes that Laios's obsession with monsters isn't the thing that's holding him back, but a useful asset. His interest and knowledge is what saved them and got them all as far as they have. It makes sense for his development to go from believing Laios could never possibly be a king, to outright encouraging the idea. In his eyes, Laios has already been capable of doing the impossible, and thinks that he should stop underestimating what he's been able to do.

A final point is that Chilchuck has always been able to read Laios like a book, and is aware of what's on his mind a lot of the time, but this used to only cause exasperation and contributed to seeing Laios in a negative light most of the time. However, in the last chapter, he is pretty much the only person who is able to tell that something about Laios seems off. He actually pays attention to Laios as a person and shows concern for his well being. Because he cares about him. Like he's obviously cared about him for a while now but I think this is the first time he's genuinely shown this much concern for any of his friend's mental state. I wanna cry

Anyways conclusion being Chilchuck has not only finally accepted Laios as a leader, but as an incredibly capable individual who he genuinely respects. That’s it thanks for coming to my Ted Talk

[canonicallyobserving911]

Hello @krisbrenet and thank you for the ask.

I'm not sure why but I couldn't respond to the actual ask, so I took a screenshot of it.

I agree with you, T*mmy is UNPLEASANT and IMO, he's an asshat. He's a racist and a bigot and I don't like him at all. Therefore, I wish his role would have remained as originally intended so he would have been gone after 7x6 but for whatever reason, TM turned him into another one of Buck’s lackluster love interests and Buck's still on the hamster wheel repeating the same relationship mistakes. At this point, it all seems like more delay tactics to keep veiwers watching but I'm tired of the "will they, won't they" with Buck and Eddie. It's been 6 years and I'm not a fan of pining. No shade to those who are but it shouldn't take another 1, 2 or 3 years to get them to the point where they're ready to be in a relationship. It's a TV show not real life and I want to see them growing and moving forward instead of their same old wash, rinse and repeat actions.

I stopped watching live after 7x4 but I did watch the finale when it aired and I live blogged but I wish I hadn't since it was a HUGE WASTE OF MY TIME. I fast-forward through the scenes with T*mmy and Buck, Eddie and Marisol and those with Eddie and that doppelganger Kim because I refuse to sit through them during live viewings because those scenes were ridiculous.

I'm still pissed at the way they handled Eddie’s and Eddie’s and Chris' storylines about Shannon and I wish TM would let her R.I.P. and stop rehashing those season 2 arcs. Eddie should have dealt with his grief in season 6 since they didn't give him anything else to do. Also, it was evident they edited more scenes of them out since the scene of them talking in Chris' room wasn't included.

Then bringing the Diaz parents back so they can just take him to El Paso was asinine and it's like the writer's have no idea of the things that happened in the past. Eddie DIDN'T WANT CHRIS STAYING WITH THEM and he said it in 4x14 during the will reveal but apparently TM or someone wants the audience to forget that fact since it hasn't been discussed in three years 🙄. When did Eddie identify Helena's part of the problem? Oh, that's right he didn't and just like all the other unseen parent redemptions, she magically got one like the Buckleys, Sang Han and Shannon did with that inconsistent retconned f~ckery.

Season 7 was a cluster f~ck and it ended on the same notes as season 6 did, underwhelming, exhausting and frustrating.

I still haven't decided if I'll watch season 8 and if I do, I'll treat it like I did season 5... I'll watch it whenever I get ready after the episodes air that way I can fast-forward through the stuff I don't want to see.

Thanks again for the ask and have a great day.

[aashi-heartfilia]

BnHA 392: Ochako gets stabbed. No she's not dying.

Yeah so what if she got stabbed? With stabby pants Toga around this was bound to happen.

Doesn't mean that she is gonna die!

And even if it looks serious, I don't think it will have a serious consequence or anything. She might as well get a cool scar like All Might at most.

And I don't even wanna talk about that grab scene on the next page. I think it's a mistake that will be corrected during the volume publish, remember how inking on Ochako and Toga wasn't on point either in the last chapter.

With Hori's declining health, I think it's a very likely case.

Anyways, we'll have to wait now for two weeks to see if our babygirl is all right or not.

Contrary to popular belief, I think she's fine. Great infact, because now she'll fight more seriously.

Remember how in her battle vs Bakugo during SF, when even her friends underestimated her and thought she needed help?

But she proved to everyone that she's more than capable of handling herself when the time calls for it?

And this is a battle she cannot afford to lose, we have lives on the line. Not just her fellow heroes but Toga herself is also in danger and Uravity is a hero who wants to see everyone smile.

I think this is bound to come sooner or later. Like what kind of hero Uravity will be?

Like Ingenium is a hero who guides lost children to their home, Uravity will find a way to save Toga and the entire battlefield that is dealing with Sad Man's Death Parade.

Now, it's more important than ever because we've seen that Pixie Bob is down for the count. She was the main person containing the clones but now that she is down and Toga has created multiple doppelgangers of our beloved heroes, everyone is at a risk of getting stabbed.

Since the last two chapters were about Toga, I think the next chapter will be about Ochako.

Personally I would love an Ochako Uraraka: Origins chapter and then a Rising Chapter following it!

This will be one of the biggest moments of the series where a character gets an Origin and a rising chapter simultaneously.

A chapter that shows us Ochako's life before she joined UA.

Just like Toga, we only had a glimpse of Ochako's past. Bonus material suggests that she used to sleep to save money and bear the heat in summers because her parents could not afford an AC. But that's not all.

Horikoshi has been hinting at this dynamic for a long time. So I feel like there has been something about Ochako that has been hidden from us, as readers.

It was always hidden in plain sight, just like how those postcards were a foreshadowing for Ochako getting stabbed in the stomach.

The author said that there is a scene between TOGACHAKO that he is itching to draw.

Personally I don't know what scene it is. It could be Toga stabbing Ochako in the recent chapter, or it could be something entirely different. We won't know for sure until this arc concludes.

As for this arc, I think this fated battle will last for at least 3-4 more chapters.

Everything is in complete chaos and it will take time to wrap this up. Even if a miracle were to happen, I don't see a direct solution to TOGA's Sad Man Parade unlike Dabi where Shouto just reaching on time was everything.

Not only Ochako will need to convince Toga to stop her Parade but also deal with the existing ones that are running rampant around the battlefield.

Also, can I just say how much I loved Ochako just casually flying over the entire parade?

Also her jet boosters are finally coming in handy!

Also I just loved how much control she has over gravity now. She literally pulled both Toga and Tsu out like it was nothing! Plus the Twice clones surrounding her!!

Toga using the blood from the battlefield totally caught me off-guard. She really is playing 5D chess now.

Guess, it goes to show you how smart she actually was up until now.

Ochako and Toga are two faces of a coin. Of course, they're both smart.

Plus I think Toga is still not using her full power, as the Curious vestige suggested. She's still hiding her true self.

And maybe that's the answer to everything. Ochako will try to appeal to whatever goodness is left of her.

Ochako knows that Quirks are nature and just like Toga, she's been hiding her true feelings all along. And I think the feeling that she's been hiding is envy.

She was jealous of how 'normal' everyone else is and how they get to express their love and she doesn't. It is not a form that society will accept.

But in the world of MHA, how do you even decide what is normal and what isn't?

Her parents literally denied her humanity.

I also loved what Tsuyu said here about Heroes following the rules. If killing was the only way, Ochako and the heroes were more than capable of doing that.

But it's not about killing or arresting her anymore but rather about confronting a little girl who has been rejected her entire life, even by her own parents.

It's about a young girl with a big dream who wants to see everyone smile and yes that includes Toga too.

It was never a story about killing people because violence leads to even more violence, it's about understanding and sympathy, care and compassion and this is how true heroes are born.

Cheers! Sunshine!

~Thanks for reading

[unhonest-iago]

Where Am I? Who Am I?

AO3 link - this was written for the hermitcraft guess the author 2024 event. do go check out the other authors as found in the AO3 collection.

Etho awoke a random summer's day to unfamiliar surroundings. It wasn't his usual base build. Instead, he found himself in a green bedspread with an accompanying nightstand stacked high with romance books. All the titles in Japanese. Startled, he decided to search around. See if he could find any more information as to where he had suddenly been transported to. Not knowing how he'd fallen asleep, was the moon still growing?

'Yikes,' Etho realized exactly where he was after recognizing the figure in the bathroom window. One less pixelated than it should be. His jacket no longer baring the Canadian flag emblem on the sleeve. Nor did his headband. A headband that was more of an eye patch if he was honest. Instead, it was a symbol that looked to be an abstract bird. A beak with a swirl branching off of it. Etho tried to recall everything he knew about the Naruto series. What arc even is this? Unfortunately he’d have to interact with the other characters to figure out.

Etho wasn’t the only one. Kakashi awoke to a pixelated wooden house. Did his vision get this bad overnight? Looking down, he was relieved to see his uniform still intact. But like Etho, he noted the difference in emblems. Lucky for him, Etho wasn’t involved in any big plans. Their personalities similar in that they were both aloof individuals. If only he had his books, Kakashi wistfully thought to himself.

The Hermits, one by one would eventually have the epiphany that something was off with their friend. ‘I asked him if he could fix the meal bone farm…it’s almost as if he short circuited,’ Iskall remarked to Grian. Telling him more about how “Etho” fell off their base, completely forgetting about the waterfall elevator. Going berserk with the belief that he only had one life.

'Have you noticed anything weird about Kakashi-Sensei?' Sakura reluctantly asked Naruto. 'Besides him not reading those boring novels? Not really.' Sakura on the other hand had noticed the change in “Kakashi's” demeanor. The man was more jovial, more talkative. Sakura decided that if a doppelganger had replaced their sensei, the best course of action would be to ask something that only their sensei would. But what? Oh, those pesky books. Kakashi would definitely know the plot lines backwards and forwards. Especially as it'd been one of his notable traits since they had first met. But Sakura didn't know anything about them. All the more reason to ask.

'Hey Sensei? What happened in the last volume of Make Out Tactics?' Naruto sputtered out in shock, 'but you weren't interested when I offered to explain last week! Ow! What was that for?' Sakura kicked his shin, trying to get him to shut up. Etho had zero clue. All he knew was that they were some erotica series and that he should act bashful. 'Uh, well, I don't think that's something I should be telling you, at your age,' Etho hoped his acting was up to par. Rather, it cemented what Sakura thought. If it had been their sensei, he wouldn't be able to form a coherent answer at all.

It's when the moon glows larger in the pixelated sky for the final time that the two are returned back to their respective places. Sakura is stuck as the only one aware. Later being gas lit by both Naruto and Kakashi who is actually Kakashi again. Simply told it was a figment of overactive chakras. Kakashi wants to leave it in the past and never mentions the horrors he had witnessed. Fighting against multiple creatures—mobs as the celestial body rose higher on the horizon. Iskall on the other hand confronts Etho which results in him divulging everything from the moment he woke up to the moment he returned. Glad to be back in his mountainous base.

[sageandred]

Ranking LS Disasters *by personal preference

(only doing the major ones that were big and/or filled an entire episode // I didn't include the GraceJudd car accident, because I wanted to do natural disasters, but I did include 4x09 because it takes the whole episode of Marjan trying to get to safety // maybe i'll do a gigantic post of every single event later down the line)

1) Ice Storm (3x01)-The fact that this was a 4 part event (A pregnant Grace stuck in the storm, Carlos waiting for TK to wake up from a coma, Paul..it was all very good)

2) Marjan runs for her life (4x09)-such a good solo episode (mainly focussing on 1 character the entire episode can usually be a miss, but Lone Star does good in all of their character-focussed ones)

3) Dust Storm (2x14)-speaking of solo character-focussed episodes...Mateo getting his time to shine(!), but also this was a well-constructed episode and every found family based show needs an episode where the characters are split up due to unforseen circumstances out of their control, like being reassigned to different work locations. (#3 and #4 were switched originally, but I just found this episode a little more entertaining all the way through)

4) Wildfire (2x03)-They took on a big task with such a packed episode, with this being the crossover event, and with [character] death being just 1 episode before it. I like the stakes and the team moments coming together, with their own and the LA force. (we also get the mention of Mateo's LA doppelganger cousin)

5) Volcanic Eruption (2x02)-for the shock factor (+ all of the graphic gore from the opening to the episode highlight), and we get great solo character moments + support for each other at the end

6) Arsonist Fire (2x12)-We get that great tarlos plot. It feels wrong to put this above #7, because the fire's such a small part/factor to the episode, but points since there were some episode shocks and the entire arc wasn't completely predictable the way that I thought at first]

7) Tornado (1x04)-There's a sense of togetherness and feeling like a family; the disasters got better with this being so early in the show. loses points for the car between the buildings, but the story of the man with his two kids was heartbreaking, even being as stupid as he was.

8) Solar Storm (1x10)-a pretty solid plot; as an episode it fell flat in some places.. but that radiation case from space on the phonecall with Grace 😭 (this episode and the plot was flawed, but this idea was promising and I was interested to keep going into season 2, so that's why it's higher than a couple)

9) Building Explosion (3x18)-(this previous episode end leading into the big finale is purely ranked on preference) not their best disaster, and not their worst...This moment was eventful and provided some good moments for Judd/Grace and even Wyatt due to Judd being trapped in danger. This might be higher if the Judd main plot wasn't so short, although a good fake-out with a new conflict of another one of their own going down, but that Owen hallucination arc was a miss for me. The explosion itself (at the start of 4x18/end of 4x17, especially) was epic, though!

10) Plane Engine (3x08)-I really liked the response to the emergency on the plane, the father-son stuff, and the help on Tommy via phone. Episode was great; the disaster itself falls last on my ranking. It was interesting, just not that intense; this being lowest on the list is solely because there are more mishaps that ended up being more intense. Though, it was a good emotional moment. (led to the great emotional tarlos reunion, too). The parallel of the flashback to present day that led to TK confessing to Owen was beautiful!

[tyrantisterror]

No Small Feat Artwork Pt. 4 - The Haunted Widower Arc

By request, I'm gonna show off some of the artwork for No Small Feat, a Midgaheim story my friends and I told through the TTRPG system Fabula Ultima. I drew a lot of characters and monsters for it, and my friends - in particular, @dragonzzilla, @scatha5, and @dinosaurana - helped line and color them so we'd have cute little sprites to use on our online battlemaps, which really helped sell the whole "we're playing an oldschool turn based RPG" vibe that Fabula Ultima's system is going for.

In this part we'll be looking at the NPCs introduced in the second arc of the campaign, The Haunted Widower!

One thing I learned in the first arc was that I needed a stock of generic NPCs to fill out certain maps, which I promptly drew and tasked my friends with making color variations of them, as you do. I've got a good bundle now to use in future Midgaheim campaigns using this system!

But enough about the bit players. The most important NPC introduced in this arc was Baron Kaboldt von Hubert, a minor nobleman with a lot of love to give and one teeny tiny problem: all his wives keep dying! He assumed this was due to some curse, though when pressed by the heroes he couldn't recall a single event that could have caused said curse - no broken statures or snubbed mysterious beggar women or anything. Quite a mystery, and one our players had a personal investment in for a couple reasons:

Rumor had it that Kaboldt might be in possession of one of the crown jewels, as he'd always buy the biggest gemstone he could find for the wedding rings he got for his many dead wives, and buried said rings with them.

You know how Bright Eyes was running from an arranged marriage? Yeah, it was to this guy.

You know how Leonie was looking to marry rich? Yeah, she chose this guy, and when our heroes arrived into the town of Peralt, they realized that the girl who had treated them to a feast in session 1 was now engaged to a man whose previous wives all died.

Kaboldt was designed to be very gothic and tragic, but also more than bit ridiculous - melodramatic even by the standards of fairy tales. I established this early on by having our heroes see one of the statues he'd commissioned of himself which, in the tradition of real world aristocrats, slightly exaggerated his heroic qualities.

Somehow this wasn't a turnoff for Leonie, though maybe she was just excited to get an equally "flattering" portrait upon becoming the nobleman's wife.

(my players found this portrait two arcs later as a fun brick joke)

Of course, the "curse" turned out to be more complicated than expected. Our heroes stayed the night at Leonie's request, and found out the mansion was haunted by both a poltergeist:

...and the specter of Kaboldt's first wife:

Who, of course, kidnapped Leonie and took her to the von Hubert family crypt, where all the other wives were interred, and which were now positively crawling with undead monsters.

There was a team battle against a Banshee and a Dullahan that my players... artfully avoided (they got to cameo at the end of the arc so it's fine), ambushes by zombies revenants and skeletons, and the shade of Baron von Hubert's father who had some important exposition to relay about his family, and specifically the existence of a bastard son in the family who wasn't fully human...

Our heroes found Leonie pretty early on in the crypt, and kept her with them while they looked for the remains of the first wife to figure out the source of the mansion's curse. When the finally reached the first wife's coffin, however...

They found the real Leonie.

See, Kaboldt von Hubert was actually a Doppelganger, born from the union of a human and a demon possessing the still-living body of another human. Doppelgangers feed on life energy by causing emotional distress in their victims, with their primary trick being using shapeshifting to gaslight their prey into despair. The Leonie the gang found first was actually Kaboldt in disguise.

Our heroes chased Kaboldt back to his manor, where they allowed Leonie to run off to safety while they fought the doppelganger as he exposed his true form (as much as a doppelganger has one form, at any rate). Leonie didn't sit the whole battle out, though - as Kaboldt begged the heroes to spare him when they had him dead to rights, she popped out and stoved his head in with one of his family's warhammers.

Upon raiding the mansion, the heroes found the body of the first wife in Kaboldt's mansion, and clutched in her hand was the ring with the crown jewel. Unfortunately, that's all they found - Kaboldt, it turned out, has fully expended his fortune, and a traumatized Leonie became enraged at realizing she'd gone through all this for nothing, and decided to make her fortune the way her new friends were doing it: by going on an adventure of her own.

Bright Eyes, meanwhile, was never more certain she'd made the right call to run away from home.

This was the first arc with a secret bonus boss, which our heroes didn't end up fighting but did convince to help them deal with some zombies. The Grave Dragon wasn't a bad guy, after all, he just wanted to eat some corpses.

[mylordshesacactus]

Suncrest Campaign Wrap-Up: The Duality Of Session Titles

Our player-notes document is a communal Google Doc, where everyone (including the beleaguered DM) can hop back to check details from earlier sessions--highly recommend this system, honestly. And, for ease of reference, every week after the session wraps up I go in and give the session a title, so that we can use the gdocs Table of Contents feature to easily jump between entries.

In general, I try to make these at least somewhat informative--I try to match the tone of the title to the overall tone of the session, and reference something that'll make it clear in six months what the hell I'm talking about.

So, in honor of the party reaching the campaign endgame: A final write-up of all our session titles over the course of the campaign.

A Long Time Ago In A Campaign Setting Far, Far Away (Level-1 Adventures & The Doppelganger Arc):

1: You Meet In A Tavern Fire 2: Patience Is A Virtue (in which the party got what was meant to be mid-campaign reveal information in session 2 due to excellent restraint and investigation, and also met long-term NPC Virtue Chirelli) 3: Secrets Of Shroudpost 4: Nightfall 5: Jumping At Shadows 6: Teamwork Makes The Dream Work

Both Parts Of The Name (Abandoned Temple Quest Arc)

7: Stories & Stoves (the party meets Arlette, who runs a magic-and-general-store called Staves & Stoves, and is given a quest) 8: Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Realistic Consequences 9: D&D A-Bridged 10: This Temple Is Weird (the party fights a water weird) 11: Big Fucking Dragon 12: Max and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Campaign, or: The Gang Gets Obscenely Rich

Night Hag Arc

13: Once More Into The Breach 14: #WWFD? (What Would Farrah Do--her player was absent that week) 15: The Power Of Friendship And These Tits I Found 16: GAH, Or: Wake Up There's Hags 17: Now With 33% Less Hag! 18: Hag-gling Over Loot 19: Good Thing We Didn't Leave Those NPC Guards Unsupervised

Werewolf Arc

20: Trouble In Thistledale 21: Family & Forestry 22: First Blood 23: There Wolves 24: Protectors 25: Assassin's Creed This Shit 26: The Silverlight Hounds 27: Overwhelming Force 28: New Moon 29: Firelight Festival

Election Fraud Arc

30: Political Theater 31: Landlords & Other Bloodthirsty Monstrosities 32: Hashtag Escapism 33: Of Mortgages & Murder 34: A Dish-tressing Discovery (a friendly NPC was almost murdered via sleep deprivation using a cursed goblet) 35: Jackoff And The Giant Beanstalk 36: The Key To Success

Requiem Arc

37: Directionality 38: Brought To You By The Letter 'N' 39: Long Rest 40: Please Do Not Bother The Violet Guard 41: Crimes 42: MASQUERAAAAAAAAADE 43: Everything Goes Completely Tits-Up 44: Breadcrumbs 45: A Suspiciously Well-Maintained Passageway 46: Foul Water 47: Several Discussions Of Traps 48: In Memoriam (the TREATY puzzle; the party learns everything about the day the world ended 50 years ago) 49: This Is Fine 50: Sax And Violince 51: You Have [36] New Messages

The Siege of Suncrest

52: Storm of Vengeance 53: Andromeda Gets Drugs From The Cops 54: Mindboggling (the party fights boggles) 55: The Siege Of Suncrest 56: What, Like It's Hard? (the party defeats what was meant to be a session-long boss fight in two rounds) 57: Breach 58: Your Stunned Silence Is Very Reassuring (death of a beloved NPC; the party was so stressed that nobody took a single note in the doc) 59: Tallyho 60: Release The Hounds

Faewild Arc

61: Crossover 62: The Tortoise And The Almost Perfect Aesop Reference (the party rides a dragon turtle and meets rabbitfolk) 63: Warren Of The Shining Wires 64: The Next Step 65: Perfect Time To Get Stoned (party fights a gorgon) 66: The Feathered Serpent 67: Plan C: Jo [the DM] Kills Us In Real Life 68: Frostfire 69: Wolves of Winter 70: Do It For The Vine

Endgame

71: [Preposition] The Hedge (the party begins infiltrating the Palace of Summer, which sits at the center of a giant hedge maze) 72: The Dread Gazebo 73: A Wolf A Goose A Cabbage And The Concept Of Summer Walk Into A Bar 74: Domination 75: In Which Nobody Touches Anything (the wizard, after spending the entire session of sneaking through several different trophy rooms frantically trying to keep the party from touching anything, pockets a legendary item off a display case without telling anyone) 76: The Hand Of Fate 77: Hold Fast 78: The Fall Of Summer 79: The Distant Light

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

boom-squirrel replied:

Okay, I'm curious... if Teadpoled-Isobel-strikes-back™, who's the one in Last Light sustaining the shield??? oO Doppelganger?!

Hahah, well, that's obviously one of the moments when modded playthroughs like this one take a bunch of suspension of disbelief.

I call this one "The Duality of Isobel".

My justification and vague storyline idea for this HM run was that an abducted tadpoled Isobel from around the end of Act 2 ends up back on the nautiloid, via a timely divine intervention or some such brand of shenanigans (Selûne? maybe? or something altogether more sinister?). And now she is on a big mission to fix everything.

But honestly, if you could find an excuse for Jaheira and the Last Light bunch surviving without Isobel there to establish the haven so Act 2 can still work vaguely similarly, I think Isobel would be a really, really awesome origin with interesting ties into the narrative. Kicking off with her resurrection, running away from Ketheric, and ending up abducted and tadpoled on the nautiloid with the others instead of at the inn. Maybe some amnesia thrown in there to keep some of the mystique of Ketheric's storyline for the player and pacing out the reveals (a la Durge).

This is also a killer idea for some AU fanfic, I will note.

Also part of my romance pick considerations, beyond, you know, just me wanting to play out one I haven't done yet (hence no Shadowheart, I'm aware she is the obvious choice here). NPC Isobel and Aylin will of course get their beautifully touching reunion and live as happily ever after as I can manage, Honour Mode permitting (knock on wood, so far it has been), but my PC Isobel will ultimately want and need to basically leave Faerûn. So I felt it would be fitting to have her go off dragon riding with Lae'zel and have various astral (mis)adventures. Visit the actual Tears of Selûne and all, it's super Meaningful. And having Lae'zel going from constantly ragging on Isobel for being weak and soft-hearted - with me pointedly picking every single Aggressively Compassionate Selûnite Cleric dialogue option in her presence, while also showing flashes of that Isobel-brand Steel that is very much there - to finally becoming open to the very idea of tenderness and being protected is a very nice arc, I think.

I have committed severe overthinking of everything mentioned above. Now, for the Aylin playthrough I have no explanation whatsoever beyond the lethal combination of "I felt like it" with "big lady pretty" and a truly unconquerable addiction to playing paladins.

[susartwork]

New "Murphy's Law" arc started!

Murphy's law = anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

More story under the cut. CW: blood and body horror (?)

-Today my classic self called me, the one everyone calls "Wiz". He wanted to meet me in private.

-He said that... after all I'm better than him.

-I did many mistakes in my life. When my timeline was still affected by resets, before... Flowey started using them to torture me, I spent those time loops doing "social experiments".

-I called them that, but it was just me doing somethin' stupid to see the reaction of passersby. I was very bored.

-But no, my other self went more far. Now he started real experiments on other monsters, and not always safe ones. This is not part of his job, no, he's having FUN doing THIS!

-This disgusting creature is becoming just like him.

-I couldn't stand the stupid smirk of my doppelganger. I- I c-couldn't stand the idea of me and him being the same person. ... I probably got carried away... even though I told Sci I would never try to hurt my other self Wiz again.

-Yet he kept smiling. I can't stand him, I can't stand him, I CAN'T stand him.

-I needed someone to talk to, but I couldn't let my friends see me! I was too disgusted by him, by... myself to let them see me. And they couldn't know that I beaten him after what happened with Hacker!Error 505...

-Basic found Alex's body a few weeks ago in the Waterfall dump of an AU. When I found out I decided to heal her and hide her from Sci's jealousy. I love him, but I can't let him see her. I just want them both to be ok...

-I took Alex to my house to talk to her privately, but... my brother saw me, and he was holding his corpse.

-I used a special material to keep the corpse from rotting and hid it in my pillowcase until now. When I killed him it wasn't enough for me, I NEEDED to see his corpse, KNOW that he's DEAD and that he won't come back ever again!

-I started to panic, too many things were happening all at once. 1) What my disgusting doppelganger did, and that I beaten him. 2) Papyrus saw Alex in my arms, what if he were to tell Sci she's alive? 3) And now everyone would find out that I killed Flowey. This is a problem, because everyone tried to convince me that "I'd be as bad as Flowey if I had to get my revenge". ...This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

-But my friends would abandon me if they knew all this! This thought was drilling into my skull.

-Papyrus did his best to calm me down, but I couldn't stop crying, I couldn't ignore that sense of guilt and fear inside of me. I failed everyone...

-I thought I was hopeless once more. AND I WASN'T WRONG.

-When I realized Frisk hadn't been home in hours, I asked Papyrus where they were, and he said: "Sans... Frisk left this morning to go at the castle... You know they were preparing to sacrifice themselves for us. They couldn't wait anymore..."

-I rushed to the castle. But Frisk... was... dead... sitting on the throne.

-Despite everything their pale, bleeding corpse was still smiling...

-I brought the body to Asgore's house, there HAD to be something I could do to save them!!

-But... there wasn't...

-Asgore found me in his kitchen, I was completely out of me. I was so angry at him.

-Yet he spoke to me with a kind smile... He told me the barrier is now broken. He freed the human souls, but one wanted to stay.

-Sadly Frisk's body is too damaged to keep the soul, but I'll find a way to give them a body back, and I'll also find a way to tell everyone my secrets.

-I'm sorry, old lady. I wasn't able keep your promise... At least we can finally see the sun.

Sci's reactions to the truth ->

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

Author note: I wanted to specify that the new design is due to how much Hopeless doesn't want to look like Wiz anymore. And yes, Wiz is canonically an anti-hero in Underwizard.

Speaking of the other characters' clothing, they have only changed their clothes due to the passage of time. Papy modified Frisk's hoodie after it got damaged in a RP ♡

Thanks for reading this far, and sorry for any misspellings :'3

[eddiegettingshot]

this season was truly a study into how to have a show that only has amazing things going on and horrible things going on with nothing in between. like bathena romance, maddie hen + henren madney bestieism, buddie closer than ever, henren finally got their daughter + denny got a sister, bi buck, the coming out scenes, bobby backstory, chim/the lees, harry back, madney wedding, exploring shannon idealization. catholic guilt eddie (in general, not the way it was explored this season). on the other hand. cartel plot. henren dealing with adoption related trauma again for literally no reason than to create drama (its not going to push their characters anywhere. unless they focus on a hen re-evaluating her role as a hero/captain like 7x09 suggested and then 7x10 never followed up on. also literally where was henren fighting for mara this episode lol there was just a couple scenes about them missing her??). bi buck but hes dating a guy who had a completely off screen redemption arc and who's only current purpose is to be gay and continuously remind viewers how awful the old 118 captain was while inserting him into an oppression narrative against an asian immigrant and black lesbian despite the fact he was on the side of the oppressor that whole time. also gerrard plot in general. eddie/marisol being pointless. more complicated bobby lore that will hopefully be explored but really who knows. harry back for literally no reason other than to do copaganda. doppelganger. making eddie a cheater for no reason. writing chris out for literally no reason other than to frame eddie as failing at the one thing he never wanted to fail at. jealous buck plot with buck physically hurting eddie with only a heavily implied apology. whatever was going on with athena in 7x10 I am begging her to quit being a cop and be a private investigator instead or something. its like all the pieces were there for tim to explore what he wanted to and have the season be really good and it just... wasn't. anyways all these cliffhanger plots better be wrapped up in whatever the big disaster opens season 8. and also gerrard should die in that disaster full stop

🫠🫠🫠🫠

[themattress]

Favorite Evil Doppelganger Villains

Negaduck - Of the "Evil Twin" variety, we have Negaduck from Darkwing Duck. Something of a parody of Reverse Flash, Negaduck cuts straight to the point of his trope by being pure, cartoonishly, over-the-top evil in a way that is both hilarious and genuinely menacing. This is mostly due to Jim Cummings' voicework, as the cold, snarling, raspy voice he gives the character can easily flip from lovably gleeful in his evil-doing to murderously serious on a dime. And I'm not kidding about the murder part: guns, chainsaws, flamethrowers, bombs, you name it...there's no weapon Negaduck won't brandish with lethal intent. Whether it be in Darkwing Duck, DuckTales (2017), or his new comic series, Negaduck is always a blast.

Yami Bakura - Of the "Superpowered Evil Side" variety, we have the Spirit of the Millennium Ring, aka Yami Bakura, from Yu-Gi-Oh!. Possessing the gentle, kind and soft-spoken Ryou Bakura is the exact opposite: the 3,000 year-old spirit of a brazen and psychotic but cunning tomb robber that has been assimilated into the soul of a demonic god. What makes Yami Bakura such a great villain isn't just how evil he is or how smart he is or the lengths he's willing to sink to in pursuit of his goals...it's just how long he is willing to play the game. It takes 230 chapters (manga) and 188 episodes (anime) between his introduction and the final story arc for Yami Bakura to have everything he needs to set his master plan in motion, but he is patient enough to wait that long, and the pay-off is more than worth it. Add to that stellar voice-acting from both Rica Matsumoto and Ted Lewis, and you have a villain to remember.

[canonicallyobserving911]

Hopefully, TM will take the "L" (Loss) with the "Vertigo" storyline and WON'T try to resurrect it in season 8.

IMO, two more episodes of that f~ckery and foolishness wouldn't have made it better, especially not for Eddie. Tim knew he only had 10 episodes to start with for season 7 and it wasn't like ABC reduced the amount after the fact, so where did he think the extra screentime was going to come from?

We didn't even get the Karaoke scene because of his "supposed" time constraints. (Yes, I'm still pissed about it!)

Maybe if he didn't have Chimney walking around for 35 minutes in 7x6 hallucinating about Doug and Bobby walking around the desert while dragging Amir for 20 minutes in 7x8, there would have been time.

Or better yet, he should have scrapped the idea and GIVEN EDDIE DIAZ A BETTER STORYLINE.

Tim please learn how to take an "L" and move on. Also, don't bring DK back to 9-1-1 and try to resurrect Kim the doppelganger. Eddie should finally be allowed to move on from that train wreck relationship/marriage he had with Shannon and at this point, that storyline has become monotonous, tired, boring and redundant. It's been 6 years and it's time to draft some better plots, arcs and storylines for all the main characters.

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi: Whole Series Overview

I started this series in January. It took me just under nine months to finish and in that time, I've become the most relevant Higurashi blog according to the Tumblr algorithm. I'm genuinely upset that it's over.

All the way back in my first post for Abducted by Demons chapter 1, I said "This is a story about repentance, forgiveness, and second chances." When I said it then, I didn't intend to repeat it as many times as I did during the second half. But it just so happens to fully encapsulate what I think this story is about.

The first half of this series is about everyone screwing up and causing horrible tragedies either directly or indirectly. The second half is instead about them overcoming those faults and working toward a better future.

Now you might think "All their actions get undone and they don't remember anything. None of the bad stuff they do actually happens so there's no point to all this forgiveness stuff since there's nothing to forgive." But that's not really true. The stuff they do each arc gets undone, but everything they've done coming into each arc and the effects those actions have on them are still there.

Even if Keiichi doesn't murder his classmates in a paranoid fit, he still assaulted a bunch of children with a toy gun and accidentally shot a girl's eye out. Even if Shion doesn't kill all the village leaders out of a misguided desire for revenge, she still resents her sister for the mixup when they were little and the village for how it treated Satoshi. Even if Rena doesn't kill people who are trying to extort her father and hold her class hostage due to suffering paranoid delusions, she still blames herself for her parents' divorce and is always afraid she'll lose everything she loves if she isn't diligent.

Each of these bad timelines are what could happen because everyone doesn't confront the worst aspects about themselves and truly strive to become better people. The question arcs are all scenarios where those negative aspects of the characters are allowed to fester and act completely unimpeded. The answer arcs meanwhile begin to address them and bring everyone together. Most importantly, the answer arcs continuously assert that what you've done in the past doesn't matter as long as you are actively trying to be a better person now.

The turning point in the entire series is in Atonement chapter 11. We've had some allusions to Keiichi's past but this chapter airs out all his dirty laundry. And we the readers might think "Oh Keiichi is not a good person after all for hiding this from us" but when he confesses to his friends, they all agree that he didn't need to tell them this because he's actively trying to be a better person because of what he's done.

Shortly after, Keiichi is flooded with the memories of what he did in Abducted by Demons. For normal people who don't truly have the power to traverse worlds, this might feel more like a premonition of what could have happened if he didn't address his personal issues or kept himself distant from his friends because of them. And this drives him to reach out to Rena and show her similarly that she has people she can go to even with what her past is.

In the final chapter of the entire series, Dice Killing chapter 6, everyone comments on the idea of a world where none of their crimes and sins happened, and they all agree that they're better off in this world because it allowed them to become better people. They still regret what they've done, and it will affect them all their lives, but it's ultimately best that they learned from them.

This series has a lot of fun with throwing supernatural and occult aspects at the reader. We start the story with a premise that there's some secret death cult running the village. Then as we keep going, we get things like the dead coming back to life, doppelgangers, death curses, and the mortal incarnation of a god.

All these different elements become a tangled mess that the reader is left to try figuring out how they come together. And in the answer arcs, we get to find what is true and what is false. And it turns out most of these supernatural elements are actually mundane coincidences or misunderstandings. In fact, Atonement seems intent on proving there isn't anything supernatural going on by introducing a new element, mind controlling alien parasites, and showing how we could mistakenly think that's a thing.

But as the story shows how some supernatural elements aren't real, it doubles down on others. As we learn that aliens, doppelgangers, and zombies are not part of this story, we're also shown that Oyashiro is real, Rika is Oyashiro's reincarnation, and they both have something to do with everything going on.

And all these strange elements were ultimately a distraction. The main point to it all is there is a conspiracy to destroy the village and Rika's death is a core aspect to it. Once all the occult mysteries are solved, we get to focus on the main plot.

Digging into a bit of what I can surmise about Ryukishi07 based on his work here, he definitely believes strongly that a person's mental wellbeing needs to factor heavily into the actual culpability of their crimes. Nomura and Okonogi are the only ones in the story who are painted as truly evil. They did everything they did with full soundness of mind. Most everything else is done by people who are repeatedly shown that they would never do what they did if they were in their right state of mind.

Massacre chapter 1 refers to a heavy-handed example of Keiichi. We're introduced to him by watching him go mad and kill his friends. But subsequent arcs show us that that behavior is very much the exception. Ultimately, every person is a very bad situation away from doing something they would never do normally.

One of the notes in the epilogue to Festival Accompanying is Irie would release a thesis on how changes to the brain affect personality and it will make people reconsider whether people should always be blamed for their actions. So part of the good ending of the story is that mental illness and wellbeing are factored into how to approach the guilt or innocence of a crime.

The ultimate shift from researching Hinamizawa Syndrome as a weapon to researching treatment and prevention is also part of that good ending.

I've gotten this far and I feel like I haven't really talked much about actual media itself. So this is a manga adaptation of a Visual Novel. The arcs were all written and released concurrently over what I'd say are three primary waves. The first wave saw Abducted by Demons, Cotton Drifting, and Curse Killing release at the same times followed by Time Killing releasing after. The second wave was Beyond Midnight, Eye Opening, and Atonement. Finally, Massacre and Festival Accompanying released together with Dice Killing releasing after.

This would really explain why manga sites at the time hosted each arc as it's own separate series since they were treated as their own separate series. When it was given an English release, the volumes were released one at a time as part of the Higurashi series rather than as their own individual series.

If she were allowed to, I bet Karin Suzuragi would have done the art for every arc. Looking at the series by release order, she was involved in the manga adaptation from start to end.

Each question-answer arc pair having its own artist really added to the sense that each arc is a different story and these are different worlds. I don't know if there were any real-world reasons for why it happened, but Hinase Momoyama adapting Massacre rather than Jiro Suzuragi reprising her artist role for it ended up being one of the best examples of how different artists made each world feel inherently different. Massacre is a world unlike every other world and it ends up looking like none of the other worlds.

And I've pointed out multiple instances of it throughout the series, but the team involved in the adaptation knew how to use the manga medium to its maximum. From page layout, to visuals, to shading; the team knew how to give the make everything have the most impact on the reader. The team LOVES the Higurashi VNs and they wanted their favorite moments to leave the same impression in manga format that they felt when reading it as a VN.

Sadly, not everything could be adapted into the manga. There are details about the world that are told to the reader of the VNs that just cannot be carried over into the manga in an effective way. If you wanted to experience both, you're better off reading the VN first and then the manga. It would have the same impact as reading your favorite book and then watching a (good) movie adaptation. Your imagination fills in the visuals as you read what happens, then you get to enjoy those vivid ideas being blown up into a beautiful visual medium.

I think that's everything I have to say about this series as a whole so I'm just going to end with a few notes I either forgot to mention or changed over time.

First, I mentioned Shion wasn't a main character in Eye Opening chapter 4. I bring it up several more times as a light joke throughout the series, and I want to mention that I originally intended to be far more aggressive about that than I ultimately was. I planned to put several instances of "(and Shion)" into every mention of the group whenever Shion was with them.

I realized early on that the degree I was going to use that joke would stop getting funny and start getting mean really quickly. I stand by my statements that she's ultimately part of the secondary cast and she's not anywhere near as close to any of the main cast as they are to each other, but they still consider her a friend and she's always welcome to join club activities any time.

I also wanted to tie Beyond Midnight to a few instances of talks about the future but kind of forgot about it when those moments happened. In particular, that arc can never happen in Festival Accompanying since it hinges on Hinamizawa being a ghost town in 2004. So I'd like to know what happens to Otobe and Towada in a world where their story can never happen.

I wanted to make one or two references to Eriko (The girl who was fed to chickens in Festival Accompanying) near the end of the series but it didn't work out. When I read Festival Accompanying chapter 4, I wanted to mention her during the very last chapter of the arc by saying something like "Everyone lived happily ever after, except Eriko and all the other children from the orphanage. They died horribly." And then when Hanyu tells Rika how everyone is living their best lives in Dice Killing, I was going to mention that maybe Eriko also got to live a happy life as well.

I'm pretty sure that once or twice, I mentioned Resident Evil when talking about Tokyo's plans to use Hinamizawa Syndrome for military use. If I didn't, then I intended to and forgot. I was going to add RE1's original release as one of the things Rika can look forward to in the future and was going to joke that it was secretly inspired by Tokyo's plans to use Hinamizawa syndrome in biological warfare, but I couldn't figure out how to fit it in.

I'm working on one last thing for this series before I begin my next one. I'm putting together a post where I try to show what events happened concurrently across arcs. I'll hopefully have it done within a week.

I hope you've enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed writing it.

back

[tvdufemslash]

Its time to celebrate the many wonderful sapphic ships in the tvd universe!

From April 24th - April 30th we invite you to create anything and everything involving any femslash pairing across all three shows. You can create gifsets, graphics, edits, fics, art, moodboards, even just share your headcanons! Each day will have a prompt for inspiration. Use the tag #tvdufemslashweek so we can find your stuff! You can create as much or as little as you wish, pick one pairing for the week or do many. As long as it's f/f, we want it!

The Prompts: Day One (April 24): Canon Rewrite - Wish it was Rebekah that Hayley fell for instead of Elijah? Didn't like the way Nora and Mary-Louise's story ended? Here's your chance to fix it! Smash canon to pieces and make your own! Day Two (April 25): Body Swap/Role Reversal - What if Hope and Josie got Freaky Friday-ed? What if Elena was the witch and Bonnie was the doppelganger? Time to switch things around! Take a walk in the other person's shoes for a while. Day Three (April 26): Slice of Life - The tvdu is a hectic place, time to slow it down! What does your pairing get up to in their down time? What fluff were we robbed of? Give us Bonnie and Caroline practicing for Miss Mystic! Lizzie and Jen's monster truck date! A peek into the lives of our girls when they're not fighting monsters. Day Four (April 27): Dark Side - What if Caroline gave into her dark side and ran away with Katherine? What if Lizzie shut off her humanity with Hope? From Expression magic to the humanity switch to just plain old corruption arcs, there's many ways for our good girls to go bad! Day Five (April 28): Box of AUs - Noir, Western, Horror, Medical. . . the "Therapy Box" gave us some great AUs, but not all of our girls got to participate! Wanna see Rebekah and Elena in a noir drama? Finch and Josie meeting in the Wild West? Now's the time to give your ship the AU they deserve! Day Six (April 29): 10 Years Later - Who doesn't love a good time jump? Ten years after your ships ending, where are they? Have Josie and Penelope finally reunited? Have you resurrected your ship to have a happy ending? The future holds endless possibilities! Day Seven (April 30): Free Choice - Anything you wanna make for your ship! Did you get inspired but it didn't fit the prompt? You've been dying to make that one thing but never got around to it? Nows the time!

Get creative, have fun, and remember to reblog and comment to spread the love!! We're excited to see what you make!

[nerves-nebula]

!!!!!!! IVE FINDALLY FOUND A FELLOW MANDELA CATALOG DISLIKER

I've been into the ARG/Unfiction genre since like. 2015. And literally I've understood the hype around almost every unfiction project to some degree, EXCEPT for Mandela catalogue. Like. I've never understood the hype. Maybe it's just because I found it to feel very formulaic but like. Some of the faces used for this that are meant to be slightly unsettling are just,, not perfectly proportional and are badly lit?? Like literally that's it. Like there are real people who look like that. Fix the lighting and it's just gonna look like your neighbor of something. It's not very scary

But also like, for real? On your points abt how the series itself gives off A Lot if proto-fascistic messaging,

when I first watched it I was like "oh! That's the point! This is abt how fascist governments use media like TV to influence and misinform the public in service to facism and paranoia. Like these doppelgangers aren't actually real! They're just made up boogiemen to incentivize the public to turn on their neighbors/to attack people who are disfigured or disabled" and I thought that I finally was maybe getting why people found it interesting and that I had judged it too harshly

And then it wasn't that and instead was like "yeah no. There IS a secret boogeyman group who aren't (side eye to that) who are gonna steal your children via television (even Bigger side eye), and nearly off of them are just like, slightly photoshopped pictures of Real People but now they're just disfigured/disabled/literally just slightly non proportional features

This series could be very cool, but its just a thematic mess and is (intentionally or not) communicating a lot of facistic/eugenic sentiments

Idk if this anon is well phrased but like. You're so right it's unreal

-Gonzo

HAHAHHHHH YESSSS. YESSSSS. ITS SUCH A MESSSS.

LIKE. what is the POINT. half the "scary" ppl look like someone I'd see on the bus. the intruder looks like the homeless guy who asked me for bus fair a while back.

CRUCIALLY I don't think any of the bigotry was intentional, however it's SO thoroughly interwoven into Alex's worldview and the world he's created that it's like. at the fucking center of everything. it's insane to me how full grown adults analyze it on youtube and somehow manage to do that without comparing and compiling all the tropes it uses to make its point (whatever it's point even IS)

whenever me & my friend talk about it we somehow manage to keep tripping into different kinds of bigotry!! we'll be talking about ableism and how Adam's arc is very similar to many changeling tropes, which were (and to some extent still are, see: Star Children/Indigo Children) often used to abuse neurodivergent or mentally ill/disabled children. and we'll realize that Adam arc ALSO mirrors the Tragic Mulatto storyline too and it's like wow!! Two in one! you've done it so bad!!

a lot of the issues with it are small little things that could be excused as a coincidence- EXCEPT THERE'S SO MANY LITTLE THINGS THAT IT BECOMES IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE.

it's like- ok imagine this: you're having an interaction with someone and they do a microaggression at you, right? not outwardly bigoted, just kind of ignorant. and you're like, ok. fine. nobody is perfect, they probably didn't mean any harm. it's not worth kicking up a fuss about.

but if it keeps happening EVERY SINGLE TIME you talk to this person, it starts to build inside you and it's like. it's hard to even say why you hate them because you'd need to drag out every shitty tiny thing they've said and at that point you feel like maybe you're just being petty- BUT IT'S NOT PETTY IF IT HAPPENS EVERY SINGLE TIME AAA

ok sorry i started writing an essay again. i think my bud's gonna like this tho he's gonna be so happy other people did actually notice

[lavapasta-vids]

My Ben 10 redesigns, concept storyboards, and reboot ideas masterpost 

as seen in https://youtu.be/19MpY8dVvwk

1. Ben Tennyson shouldn’t just grow over the course of each episode, he should grow over the course of the entire series. Here’s a chart of loose ideas I made to organize them & keep them from contradicting each other. If Avatar: The Last Airbender can do character arcs over the course of multiple seasons, then we can, too. 

2. Ben Tennyson’s villains should be darker reflections of Ben’s own flaws and weaknesses. It is by recognizing these similarities that allows Ben to break free of them and become a better person. 

Albedo is a fun example of this because he’s literally Ben’s doppelganger, not unlike Shadow the hedgehog from the Sonic franchise.

regardless of who the episode’s villain is, we can always write parallels between them and Ben. Want to make a Zombozo episode? Make it about Ben making fun of Gwen’s phobias until Zombozo triggers Ben’s phobia of clowns, where Ben learns that scaring people isn't so fun once you know what it’s like to be scared. 

3. The central emotion behind all of Ben’s growth should be empathy. The Omnitrix gives him the power to transform into a completely different alien species and view the universe from its eyes, which should lead to Ben seeing himself more in other people and thus becoming a kinder, more understanding person. He becomes a superhero not by simply having power, but by empathizing with people enough to rescue them. 

Tetrax Shard and Ben teaming up.

Ben comforts Manny/an original tetramand character

It is the Omnitrix that helps Ben develop his empathy, to the point that he sees himself in aliens that he has previously transformed into. It is the Omnitrix that forces Ben to realize that there is more to the universe than just him.

My ideal Ben 10 pilot would involve Ben spending the last day of school being a witness to bullying, but fantasize himself as a superhero instead of meaningfully intervening, needing to be told by Grandpa that superheroes are supposed to be about rescuing people (in the same vein as Kid Cosmic), Ben experiencing the realities of superpowers by almost burning down their campground as Heatblast, and fighting Vilgax’s robots as Feedback, followed by saving people as Feedback once everything finally starts to click for him.

If there is a story arc centered on Azmuth, the creator of the Omnitrix, it should end with Ben realizing that he should return it to its creator, but because Azmuth can see that his intentions for the Omnitrix have been fulfilled via Ben’s developed empathy, he allows Ben to keep it. 

My Ben 10 OC: Cursebreaker, Since Charmcaster is Gwen’s nemesis, Charmcaster could have a little brother who can act as Ben’s magic-based nemesis, who can reflect Ben’s rambunctious id as well as his rivalry with his older sister figure. Ben & Gwen may be cousins, but their similarities to Charmcaster & Cursebreaker can show us that they're more like siblings. 

Ben’s new anti-alien rhetoric deeply disturbs Grandpa.

An early episode of the series could involve Ben watching so many alien invasion movies that he starts to develop prejudices against all aliens whatsoever, but when Ben gets captured by alien ICE while transformed into Fourarms and sent to alien prison, he learns that viewing aliens as evil invaders can be dehumanizing and helps free all the other alien prisoners once Grandpa arrives to rescue him.

If we’re going to bring back the Plumbers, the super-secret police force that Grandpa Max used to be part of, my choice would be to make them corrupt and evil, signified by their re-branding into ‘the Rooters’ and led by a villainous eyepatch-wearing Phil Billings. 

This change in writing would not only prevent the heroes from having a giant safety net to help them with their problems, it would give Grandpa a character arc where he has to confront his own blindness and work to dismantle the system he helped create. 

I would write Kevin Levin to have a character arc where he goes from being a villain to an antihero, complete with his own ‘Zuko Alone’-style episode, to becoming a member of the main protagonists in the final season, because what Kevin really wants isn’t revenge against Ben, it’s to become friends with him again.

Eon, the evil version of Ben Tennyson from an alternate future, should receive his own episode/arc in which a future Gwen time travels to prevent present-day Ben from becoming an evil tyrant who rules the world (in the same vein as Kamen Rider Zi-O or Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time). Either Eon has alternate selves he can summon, or can use the Omnitrix’s “command mode” to allow the Omnitrix aliens to fight on his behalf. Perhaps future Gwen believes that this is the catalyst for Ben’s villainy?

When it seems that all is lost, it is Ben’s adult self Ben 10,000 who appears to save the day, stop Eon, and give our Ben a pep talk to restore his confidence, because the episode/arc was secretly a Ben 10,000 episode all along. Notice that the Omnitrix is on his belt instead of his wrist- maybe Ben actively takes off the Omnitrix to stop Eon’s future from taking hold, and this is what allows Ben 10,000 to exist? In any case, I want it to be a decision that our Ben actively makes that stops Eon, and the appearance of Ben 10.000 is the victory lap.

Alien X, the all-powerful alien form introduced in the sequel series, deserves to play an actual role in the story of Ben’s growth as a character, and the perfect time to introduce him is when Ben is still selfish, bratty 10-year old. Instead of being annoying, ineffective know-it-alls that make teenage Ben seem more righteous, Alien X’s additional personalities Bellicus & Serena should be safeguards put in place to keep Alien X’s powers from being abused, antagonists who aren’t villains but still oppose Ben because they (correctly) don’t want him to use Alien X for nefarious purposes.

Bellicus knows about that time you stole ice cream, Ben.

This would force Ben to prove his righteousness and compassion for others in order to use Alien X, giving him a reason to avoid using the transformation without placing blame on Bellicus & Serena. When a world-ending meteor hurtles towards Earth, Ben tries everything he can to stop it and turns to Alien X as a last resort, tears streaming down his face as he tries to convince Bellicus & Serena to help him save his home as well as everyone living on it. Moved by Ben’s emotional breakdown, they oblige him.

Alien X isn’t just an opportunity for Ben to demonstrate his growth as a character, it’s a opportunity to have multiple characters gain a better understanding of each other, where Ben learns that Bellicus & Serena aren’t some strict old fogeys and where they learn that Ben has the potential to become a noble, kind young man.

General miscellaneous ideas:

Ben babysits the Incursean Princess Attea and gets a taste of his own rambunctious medicine. 

Kevin has to work with a lovable but dim-witted Argit voiced by Matt Jones (Badger from Breaking Bad, Wedge from Final Fantasy VII Remake)

The Vreedle Brothers are less like rednecks and more like cowboy parodies (Rhomboid being an expy of Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop)

Since the original episode that featured Kai Green, Ben’s biggest crush, ended with her being in the wrong and Gwen telling her off, I want to see a plot where Kai and Ben are dating, but she’s only interested in Ben when he turns into an alien, where Ben needs to see that it’s not a healthy relationship and break up with Kai.

Grandma Verdona and the Anodites deserve to be a running plot point, but instead of Gwen turning into a flying purple space alien, let’s have Ben’s DNA unlock an Anodite alien form (voiced by Tara Strong) for him to turn into. Maybe even have an ep where Ben has to spend a day locked inside a feminine body where he learns that girls don’t have as many ‘cooties’ as he thinks.

Where the original series had a Gwen 10 au episode, I propose a Ben 10 x Gwen 10 multiverse crossover. What happens when our Gwen gets captured and Ben has to work with somebody who can use the Omnitrix better than he can?

Grandpa give Ben advice.

Ben stares out at the horizon.

sleeby

Miscellaneous images. 

This is how I would write Ben 10.