#each other still just working through things which makes it a massive conflict of interest

[poebrey]

not going to lie as soon as Michael started talking about a first officer my mind jumped to Owosekun and Rhys and when Saru said Booker would make a good XO I was offended on their behalf because the man’s not even technically in starfleet

[fiercynn]

too wise to woo peaceably (bad buddy + much ado about nothing)

i was talking recently with @ranchthoughts about our feelings about bad buddy and theatre, and i was reminded of how the wonderful @ryfkah once wrote on dreamwidth about the parallels between patpran and beatrice & benedick from much ado about nothing! much ado is absolutely my favorite shakespeare play, so ryfkah’s comparisons have lived in my head rent-free since they made their post a year and a half ago:

I actually want to switch gears from Romeo & Juliet and talk a little instead about Beatrice and Benedick. Pat & Pran do not have the exact energy but are definitely B&B-adjacent -- first of all, in that all the habitual patterns of their interactions are set firmly to Bickering and Bravado, but second and more important in that the bickering and bravado already have a huge weight of feeling and history behind them at the time that we enter the narrative. This is the thing, I think, that a lot of other variants on this style of snappy, outwardly antagonistic God I Hate That Person [I Do Not Hate That Person] miss: what makes Beatrice & Benedick work is that we have enough glimpses of context from the dialogue to know that they know each other extremely well, they've cared about each other in the past, and no matter how much they argue they do in fact still care about each other enormously in the present. Likewise, the thing that makes Bad Buddy really fun, for me, is that the events of the show absolutely do not depict not the first time that Pat and Pran have gone from rivalry through cahootship to the realization that they are not only required by circumstance to be obsessed with each other but actually genuinely like each other as people -- this has all happened before, and ended badly. The show begins right after the only period of their life that they've spent not defining themselves against each other, so when they meet once again in a position of nonsense forced rivalship the tension between them has a really different weight to it: Pat is like 'hey, we missed our shot last time but we can do a speedrun! we have a chance to do this again! :D' while Pran, significantly more self-aware about the fact that what they achieved on the last go-round was not just Unfortunately Thwarted Friendship but Powerful Homoerotic Tension with a side of Miserable Romantic Pining, is like 'god I cannot believe that we are here again, constructing intricate rituals AGAIN.' [x]

which gave me a lot of thoughts as well! putting below the cut since it gets a little long.

building off ryfkah's post: one of the things people either seem to love or hate about much ado is its massive tonal shift in the middle. the play starts off with pure shenanigans – battle-of-the-wits banter, using a masquerade ball to pretend to be other people, “let’s try and match-make our friends who hate each other by having them ‘overhear’ conversations about how the other is in love with them!” – classic comedy stuff. and then you get to claudio and hero’s wedding and everything goes to shit.

the interesting thing is that the impact of the shenanigans isn’t negated by the dramatic shift – beatrice and benedick are still, technically, “tricked” into confessing to each other, because each of them goes into their confession thinking the other is already pining away for them. but their confessions happen in a scene where the stakes have been raised already: beatrice is furious about at the defamation of her cousin by claudio and hero’s subsequent heartbreak. beatrice and benedick’s banter falls away, not only into expressing their love, but with beatrice’s conviction, stated plainly, that benedick should kill his best friend. and benedick, though conflicted, agrees to challenge claudio unless he recants the insult he’s done to hero, because beatrice has asked it of him. when performed well, it’s an incredibly raw and impactful scene, and one that always sticks with me. and there's a sense that the trickery by their friends operates mostly as a cover for them to say out loud what they've already been feeling – both the good and bad parts of that, the love and the pain, the confessions and the demands. people who were truly tricked into loving each other by shenanigans wouldn't be this honest with each other at this point, and wouldn't go this far.

i'm not going to claim that there are super direct plot parallels between bad buddy and much ado, and obviously the stakes and level of gravity are very different, but i do get some similar feelings watching both? especially when rewatching the beginning and remembering how silly it is, which i think is absolutely intentional just as it is in much ado. because then, when bad buddy allows pat and pran to reveal their deep connection by letting the banter fall away – when things get serious enough between them that they’re taken out of their “nonsense forced rivalship”, as ryfkah says – it hits even harder.

i'm thinking of pat saying, “i don’t like it. i hate to see you play [the song] with someone else,” on the rooftop, and the way that pran’s been playing their usual game in that conversation thus far, using sarcasm and indifference as his defense, until pat’s honesty makes his expression shift into pain, before he responds in kind with, “pat, you’ve got to stop doing to me.” (@ranchthoughts and @dudeyuri talk beautifully and in-depth about those two lines here.) and again, in episode 6, on the first night of the architecture volunteer trip: pat’s been playing all day, trying to goad pran into talking to him, but when it’s just the two of them on the beach in the dark, pat says, “we’re talking now?”, the hurt clear in his voice, and pran’s face changes again, because he gets out serious pat is now.

and then, of course, we get back to shenanigans soon enough, because those intricate rituals that they build together are important to them: that’s how they talk to each other, and how they have fun together, and the fun is just as crucial to their relationship as the heartfelt moments when they can be there for each other. the second half of bad buddy is so enjoyable to watch because we get to see how their dynamic doesn’t change after they get together, which is a confirmation that they always had a deep and meaningful relationship, even when it was mostly expressed through banter: they just get to say more of it out loud now, when they need to. extremely beatrice and benedick-coded tbh.

[roundboard]

Brutal Orchestra Art Hitlist

Just a list talking about each of the characters that I’ll have to go through drawing in Brutal Orchestra. Will detail plans and thoughts on ones I haven’t done, and reflect on the ones I have :)

Nowak/Bosch

I’m coming for you (two)...

Boyle

Done! Clean and simple inclusion of lore elements with a more interesting pose than I normally go for, really happy with how this one came out!

Hans

Done and dusted, I really did try to see if I could include SOME element of her items and such, but no luck... it cluttered the drawing far too much and there were too many conflicting themes. I tried my best to just elevate a lot of the simpler elements of Hans, and used one of her main abilities as a base for the concept.

Also included the fact her arms look kind of like spindly nerves as that’s how they seemed to be imagined by a lot of the community in canon! I think I made her look really nice and I’m still happy with it.

Burnout

Finished :) Probably my rawest piece yet, mega happy with how visceral I depicted him, as he deserves to be!!

Fennec

Fairly happy with how he turned out! I was trying to vary my angles since I have a habit of drawing characters facing right so I wanted to make sure to introduce some variety to the portraits. Plus, it’ll look even nicer by the end when they’re all lined up next to each other. 

He definitely seems a lot more jungle-y than he would let on but... A lot of his abilities seemed that way so I couldn’t help it. Not like it’s a bad thing, green + blue is a pretty good colour combo

Anton

I was definitely happy with him for a first attempt at this project, especially with how I shaded the mask, but I’m almost definitely going to go back to redo him. In hindsight there isn’t enough Anton swagger going on (minus the finger guns) and I think some element of his rude/skittish/gamble-orientated nature has to be shown off somehow.

Splig

Possibly my strongest work concept wise so far, or it’s tied with Kleiver. I’m really proud of myself for composing it in a way that shows off the Tao symbol they have in one of their attacks, and also demonstrate their syringe attack. It all looks pretty fluid as well. 

Only nitpick I’d have with this one is that it’s much more rough and simple(?) compared to my other works. Though, to be fair, this piece was the shortest to draw out of everything so far (about 2 hours or so)

Pearl

donezo... massive maw angle was definitely a good idea

Thype

My second drawing. Still really happy with the more oil paint-like thing going on for him, but similar to Anton, I feel like I could've shown off more from their lore/attacks. 

I’m less likely to try and to a complete redo like I am for Anton on this one, but I may make some adjustments? We can call it a remaster. Remaster sounds good and professional (which I am)

Griffin

I think I stuffed in as much lore as I could in the drawing (minus the fire, but I feel it would’ve oversaturated it.) My progress on lighting and shadows seems to be improving a good amount!! Excited to translate this skill into future drawings

Arnold

went with a more abstract and rough approach to convey arnold having a bit of a breakdown.. I think it worked really well and definitely a style I’d like to experiment with more in the future

Dmitri

Finally done... mega happy with the fire effects and I’m glad I could up the quality of the background more than just a standard black one or textured one! 

Mung

Mung

LongLiver

Finally managed to unlock him, and despite my initial worry that I wouldn’t be able to do something that creative, I managed it! I’m starting to get more comfortable with simple concepts done with more artistic flair if I can’t figure out a way to include their lore or attacks too much within the drawing itself. I also think this drawing shows off a bit more of my Disco Elysium style roots :) very proud of it!

Clive

Resident badass completed!! There was a point where he looked super bland and his head look way too long (like an egg) so thank god for the glow that was added later on... and the shortening of the skull

Kleiver

Even with the limited colour palette, I’m super super super happy with this one. This piece could’ve been kind of boring with just Kleiver shushing but my inspiration basically screamed out of nowhere that I could have bloodied music trails emanating from the stain on his hammer... Head. It doesn’t really show off his attacks but it shows off his brutality and lore enough that I’m absolutely satisfied with how he turned out. I nailed that hand pretty well too.

Cranes

Incredibly with the more simple and clean approach I took!! my first time trying out rain and such so I was really satisfied with how it turned out

Agon

My spookiest work yet, probably... I still really like this one :) depicted his yelling the best way I knew how! Super abstract but fits him well

Rags

Really really happy with her, I think the shading and colours came out excellent. Managed to fit some good stuff about her concept and item wise as well :) I think my only gripe might be that it’s a little less coherent than it could’ve been, with some of the parts of the drawing being quite dark.

However, I’m still really happy with it!!

SmokeStacks

Did this because some guy on reddit asked for it really nicely, even though SmokeStacks wasn’t even on my radar at the time... But they seemed to like it! I did too. I was initially trying to position SmokeStacks like every other portrait up close, but I realized I really wanted to show off the smoke more than the stacks part so I went ham on making the smoke look spooky and ominous.

He’s meant to be sitting on a pile of trash which is kinda hard to tell but I’m pretty happy with this one too.

Leviat

I like how dynamic and “pop-y” I made this one :) experimented with a style I didn’t do too often and was worried about how I’d handle the mass of flesh/teeth and masks thing but it turned out really nice

Bimini

Put as much for the character as I could into it! I think probably the most “packed” in terms of references so far... I do wish I could’ve done something a bit more with the background though

Gospel

so spacey... so gospel... it’s perfect

Mordrake

Mega happy with this one concept and execution wise :) holds a special place in my heart!

[gamerdog1]

Saga of Tanya the Evil Season 1 Review

Sometimes it concerns me just a bit how much of the anime I like are all about the military. I mean, sure, it’s all fictional, but at the same time, I’m sure that there are other themes or motifs that would reflect much better of my viewing habits or personal beliefs. Still, there’s something that continues to draw me towards militaristic anime series. Whether it’s the idea of a never-ending battle against the forces of evil, seeing a character rise up the ranks of command as they grow as a person, or slick uniforms, I find myself watching anime that have some sort of military structure as their dominant governing body. (Fullmetal Alchemist, Attack on Titan, and Seraph of the End are just a few, to give an idea.) Yet, within each lies a unique perspective, a new take on the idea of the military and what it’s function is in society at large. Some explore the concept of war as an inevitable, righteous purpose, while others explore the ways in which dependency on conflict can lead to the destruction of a nation. However, few bother to ask the question: what kind of sick, twisted person would ever want to fight? Well, after twelve episodes, The Saga of Tanya the Evil offers a simple answer to this question, giving the story of a character who is sure to stay in my mind for years to come. 

This anime follows Tanya Degurechaff, a ten year old girl who enlists in her country's military in order to secure herself a comfortable future once the war is over. Previously a middle-aged salaryman in modern-day Japan, Tanya is given a second chance at life after a disgruntled coworker pushes her into an oncoming train. Tanya, however, despises her divine savior, and sets out to achieve her goals in her new life without the help of a god, or ‘Being X’ as she calls them. Tanya sets out to rise through the ranks, doing whatever she needs in order to gain acclaim and safety in higher military positions, even if it means crushing others along the way.

Tanya, for all intents and purposes, is no good person. For crying out loud, the series title calls her evil! Yet, through every struggle, I still found myself rooting for her, no matter how many horrible things she did. In fact, I found it difficult at times to try to dislike her! Tanya is the perfect example of a character so evil that she is lovable, in the same vein as classic Disney villains such as Ursula or Scar. There’s something about her, this attitude that she has, that makes her so endearing. She can be polite and respectful, and then fly off the rails not a minute later, all without losing her signature sense of superiority. The contrast between the appearance she puts up to her superiors and how she really feels makes for an interesting character, one that allows us to see her both as vicious and sophisticated. 

There were many moments of Tanya’s brilliance and wit that had me chuckling to myself as I watched this series. In one episode, Tanya leads her squadron of magic-powered flying soldiers into enemy territory, where they find enemy artillery factories. She relishes in the idea of dealing a massive blow to her enemies, but knows that she cannot without issuing an evacuation warning to the civilians who are working there. So, she gets on the international frequency, and issues the warning in a high-pitched kiddie voice, technically fulfilling the legal guidelines of an attack on civilian areas. The factory workers, blissfully unaware, laugh at the announcement, before Tanya and her crew blow it all sky-high with glee. In any other show, this scene would be horrific, but here, I found myself cheering Tanya on, amazed by her cleverness and penchant for blowing things up. Even when she commits war crimes, she does it with such cunning and glee that I can’t help but smile with her. 

It’s also, at least to me, quite refreshing to see a woman in the lead of a series like this. In most anime, as in real life, men dominate the military. With some exceptions, military anime usually leave the women at home to take care of children and stare out the window wistfully, wondering when their husbands will return from the war. Despite it’s resemblance to our world, though, Tanya’s country has no issues with women enlisting, letting girls and boys fight together for their glory of ‘The Fatherland’. Maybe that’s why they keep winning battles...

Seeing a female lead in a series like this is quite empowering. Most war media, especially from Western studios, is male-dominated, and often feels like it has to justify women being soldiers in it’s fictional stories. Japan, it seems, has completely skipped past the cries of historical inaccuracy, and given us what we want. Kudos to them on that, because the female characters in this series are the ones that I found myself rooting for the most. Tanya and her companion Viktoriya have a dynamic quite like an evil genius and henchman, bringing them close while still keeping a dividing line between them through status. Watching them grow over the course of the series, I felt myself caring about them above all other characters, wanting to see them make it out of each conflict safely. 

However, one of the most fascinating parts of this series was Tanya’s relationship with ‘Being X’. Tanya’s staunch atheism in the face of a literal god who holds her life in their hands is ironic, almost comical at times. She is given a second chance at life, yet refuses to believe. Then, in order to unlock her true power and help her comrades win each conflict, she must pray to that god, forcing her to submit before the power she reviles in order to progress towards her goal. Even when coming face to face with this deity, she refuses to back down, cussing it out and vowing that she doesn’t need it to get where she wants to go. Tanya’s stubbornness, combined with the threat of a true deity, creates a conflict that goes beyond the physical world that Tanya can control. No matter what she does, her life is in Being X’s hands, so all she can do is rage and bide her time. This, I believe, is a ticking time bomb that will hopefully be discussed further in the next season, and allow us to see more of Tanya confronting things that she cannot manipulate or shoot her way out of. 

However, my thoughts on this series, like all series I have seen, are not without some criticisms. For one, this series falls into a trap that many militaristic series inevitably fall for. That being an over focus on boardroom chatter and old men discussing things. Not to sound like a hyper-active pre-teen who skips past all talking scenes here, but I found myself struggling to keep up with the many war strategy discussion scenes. I understand that they have significance in the story and the development of the world, but I think that the information could’ve been gotten across in an easier way. Or, perhaps, a lesser focus on those scenes, as while they explain the strategies that the army is planning, they don’t always connect with what Tanya and her squadron are doing. I found the boardroom of old military men to be quite boring, and hope that in future seasons, we get less of them, or perhaps a change in the way their scenes are shot. 

Overall, though, I quite enjoyed this series. Sure, its quite more direct with it’s messaging and imagery than others I’ve seen, but for someone with a viewing history like me, its quite the refreshing viewing experience. I enjoyed getting to see a fictional war be portrayed as a confusing, seemingly never-ending bloodbath, rather than a righteous battle of good versus evil. It made it seem more realistic that way. I also really enjoyed the main character, and would recommend this series to anyone who loves arrogant, show-stealing villains. Tanya Degurechaff  is, to put it bluntly, a little bitch, but we love her for it. Every cunning trick, every backstab, every acrobatic battle just made me like her more. In the end, this is Tanya’s world, and we’re all just living in it. 

[eclipse-song]

Can you explain 1. Whats going on w/ the band Loona 2. Wh-what is a Loonaverse?

Yes I can! I've been an orbit since pre-debut so I will absolutely explain.

For those who don't know Loona I'll just copy and paste this part from wikipedia: "Loona is a South Korean girl group formed by Blockberry Creative. The group was introduced to the public through a pre-debut project that began in October 2016, where each of the 12 members was revealed in a periodic fashion by releasing a promotional single over the following 18 months."

They also caught a lot of international reknown from the "stan loona" memes online and the "loonaverse" lore. Each member of loona debuted as a solo artist and then a sub-unit before the full group actually debuted to showcase their individual talent. In every teaser and music video there are symbols used to represent the members in an ongoing storyline known as the "loonaverse". Every MV and teaser created for Loona is part of a massive multiverse storyline that they play a character in. It would be a great source of interest for people to keep up with things as sometimes they'd even do things such as releasing teasers and hints to their next come back through lining things up with certain dates and moon phases.

as for the current situation... (this is long so putting it under a read more. apologies if I got numbers/dates wrong it's been a long day)

-To be clear there have been issues with Blockberry Creative for years. Loona is their only group and at first many of their mistakes would be hand waved as them being a small company with little staff or the old creative director being a shit head. However it's become clear over the past few years that BBC horribly mismanaged the group and mistreated the people who work for them.

-Earlier this year news broke that certain staff under Blockberry were not being paid. Choreographers and makeup artists and others were refusing to work until they received compensation as some said they had never been paid. Blockberry had encountered financial issues in previous years after a lawsuit that left them pretty much bankrupt. It's believed these issues were connected.

-Though Loona is well known online they are surprisingly still fairly unrecognized in Korea. Their international sales far outweigh their domestic support. This has started to shift to my knowledge however. Two members in particular (Heejin and Chuu) started getting more work outside of their music in doing ads and modeling and singing OSTs.

-Chuu became the face of Loona domestically as she exploded in popularity after a few successful appearances on tv. She has an amazing singing voice and is well regarded as an incredibly kind and positive person to work with. Her reputation is basically "She's just as nice and cute as she seems in real life"

-Earlier this year rumours came out that Chuu had filed a lawsuit against Blockberry. Through her rising fame the company used her to make money and overworked her taking pretty much every single job offer that came their way without a thought to her health. It also started coming out that Chuu had never been paid for a single day's work since debut.

-Other members also over the past few months began to say they too had never been paid since debut. This isn't uncommon for some kpop idols who find themselves through terrible contracts put "in debt" to companies but the amount of money Loona has made and the many years they've worked made this seem fairly unusual.

-Other news about Chuu started coming out as it seemed that after partially winning her lawsuit she was cut off from access to the company amenities. She was seen having to take taxis and have her parents drive her to group schedules. She would allegedly also be doing her own hair and makeup at times.

-Loona in the summer did their first world tour which Chuu was excluded from for no specific reason. Blockberry only stated she had "conflicting schedules". During this tour the girls worked unreasonable schedules and began to collapse on stage and get sick. One member, Choerry, went on hiatus for her health after and hasn't been seen since.

-After this world tour Loona also went on to release a new Japanese song. Chuu was also notably absent from this mini-album.

-The past few months Chuu has dropped somewhat concerning hints at ongoing issues. (TW in this point for mentioned eating disorders) On a recent broadcast she was part of she discussed how she was so stressed she experienced disordered eating and health problems as a result. She paid for her own live birthday event that for every other member the company set up. When asked about her missing presence from the group she said at one point that she would simply do whatever it took to protect everyone.

-On November 25th, Blockberry Creative dropped a sudden notice announcing that Chuu had been expelled from Loona for "abuse of power" and "verbal abuse" towards a member of staff. When a member of a kpop group is expelled usually the agency tries to do so quietly and respectfully without wanting to damage the reputation of their artist. This was not was BBC did.

-Hyunjin, another member of the group, posted angrily online that she was deeply hurt and upset and furious with the decision. She asked that everyone support Chuu alluding to the fact BBC's claims may have no real backing.

-Suddenly along with this notice, what seems like every person in the industry and outside of it who had worked with Chuu began to share stories online openly about how they believe the allegation to be made up by the company to punish her for the lawsuit. It was also noticed in almost all of these stories that she was in fact someone who stood UP for staff in most cases, never speaking down to them. Even reporters chimed in saying how many of them don't believe the story. BBC was being painted as the bad guy in most news reports.

-Last night BBC issued a follow-up statement explaining that they will not provide evidence to their allegations and that the only way any evidence will be provided is if both Chuu and the victim agree mutually to share it (this being difficult as most of the general public in Korea keeping up with this story doesn't seem to believe there is any actual victim). They also said they confirmed this with Chuu.

-Today Chuu posted finally to her instagram account that she was NEVER informed of any of this and promised that she has never done anything of the like. It was also mentioned by another news outlet that she is going to be pursuing legal action against Blockberry.

-It has also come to light this morning in the news it seems that other members of Loona have filed to suspend their contracts with Blockberry. The only 2 remaining members are expected to also leave but one is Hyunjin who currently is on contract for a tv schedule during the world cup and likely can't leave before that's over, and Vivi who is the only member not from Korea and has her visa tied to her contract.

TLDR; blockberry is a shit company and Loona has been under them for many years and got tired of being treated like garbage. So in an unprecedented move within the kpop/music industry in general, all members are opting to leave because a single member was kicked out by what seems to be unfair means.

[kyeterna]

Search Party of Four

"Ioanna Myrou was last seen in the evening of October 5th, as she left the event venue to look for her friend according to eye-witnesses. No signs of her whereabouts have been found so far"

The news were clear, and the police narrative alligned as well, even if they were reluctant to pursue the case further. But the girls something was very wrong about the case.

Ioanna Myrou was last seen in the evening of October 5th, covered in wounds that still bled, presumably running from something, in the back of a storage room near the event venue. Dimitra is sure she saw her. She was certain that even if for a moment she saw her best friend look at her terrified. But before she could confirm it she was dragged away by her new found friends who were running away from angry security guards. "But we were just having fun"

With the police's reluctance to find their friend, Dimitra, Lucy, Rosa and Kassandra, as the last witnesses of the disappearence, are forced to investigate the truth of what happened on that fateful evening of October 5th. Little did they know they would be stumbling upon a conspiracy much bigger than what they could imagine.

================================================

Search Party of Four is one of my original works, taking place in a small coastal city in Greece, in an urban fantasy setting. How exactly? Well you'd have to find out along with our protagonists. The story should be a short one taking place within a month chronologically in universe. A mystery with slice of life elements as we get to learn things about each girl's life and interpersonal conflicts.

Kassandra Petropoulou

The heir in line of the Petropoulos group, a conglomerate that owns multiple businesses throughout the country. She grew up pretty sheltered mostly by the employees at the family's estate. Despite her seemingly closed off attitude she has the undeniable charisma to draw people in. However with their interest appearing mostly superficial she has grown distrustful.

Lucy (Lukia) Glarou

Born and raised in the US, her family had to move to her father's family home back in Greece after one disaster after the other forced them to go bankrupt with no place to stay. Now she has to adjust in a completely different (and quite closed off) environment. Thanks to her very optimistic outlook, pushing her down is gonna be hard.

Roza (Rosalia) Lykidi

"Dreaming is for those who can afford to do it" and according to Roza she does't have the means to do it. Leading a life of marginalisation, it's been filled with constant hardship. But even if she seems actively hostile towards most people, she is incredibly loyal, a ride-or-die person with tons of compassion for others. As adult-like as she wants to appear she is still a kid hurt by a cruel world around them.

Dimitra Lyritsa

The most extraordinary thing about Dimitra is how ordinary she is. A walking second place medal. Her entire life she's been living in the massive shadow of her extraordinary family and the expectations placed upon her. But living in said shadow grants her an invisibility she finds quite comforting sometimes. And so she's learnt to move within that shadow. Because if you try to do better, failure means ridicule. Or worse.

Ioanna Myrou

A social butterfly, beloved by both classmates and teachers alike, peers an adults. A personality oozing with charisma it feels like she can make friends with just about anyone. Which then brought the surprising reaction to her disappearance: everyone seemed sad but not too distraught about it. The only ones who really tried to do anything about it were her parents and her friend Dimitra.

Thank you for going through this post with me, I hope you stay around to see more of them and eventually their actual story (It should be about 30 chapters long? It's a short one, but still needs a lot of careful planning as all mystery stories go). Everything related to the story will be tagged as "search party of four" and "SPof4"

[monbon-sidedish]

Danero and their family baggage

I’m trying to plan out a fic where Dante and Nero get around to talking about some personal stuff and on that note, the way each of them would feel about their families would be interesting to look at. 

And here’s the main conflict. Dante has biological family he knew and loved and lost so early in life and never got to knew them. Now he has Vergil again, but undoubtedly, it’s not that seamless for the twins to cohabitate, especially at this age where Dante has lived through so much and Vergil has spent nearly his entire life in survival mode. Nero is a little different in the sense that he's also lost his adoptive parents early on, but he got to grow up with Credo and Kyrie. And through his own losses, I think he'd be able to lend Dante a lot of sympathy.

On one hand, everyone knows Dante and Vergil are sort of obsessed with each other. But see, they’ve spent more years of their lives apart than being together. Which surely is a massive deal once all the fighting is done and the dust has settled. Just in this sense of ‘who are we, as people, really’. Vergil is a little simpler to get, just because he’s very straighforward and one-track-minded. He’d probably end up feeling a little lost, but he hasn’t spent the past 20 years of his life grieving a family member whom he’d thought he killed. By virtue of being in a sort of ‘crumbling existence coma’ or whatever, Vergil never has to stew in the consequences of his actions. 

But Dante does. Dante has spent his entire youth torn up about losing Eva and Vergil, has spent his early adolescense finding and fighting with Vergil on and off, going their own way in a rather unpleasant way, he loses him, has another ten years of grieving thinking Vergil is dead, only to find him and realize he’s basically become a zombie, has to kill him, again, then has to live with that feeling for another decade or more.

After all of this, they’re reunited and presumably will just live together under the same roof (i mean, i ship DV too so, you know, more than just living together too lol). But with all said and done, do they even know each other as people. Funnily enough, Vergil hasn’t changed that much between 3 and 5 (because he was in a coma or something I persume), but Dante has gone through so much living, there has to be a massive difference between the Dante Vergil has known and sees in his head, and the one sitting next to him on the couch. They’re not total strangers, of course, they have their rapport and chemistry. But while at first it might feel to them as if nothing’s changed in 30 years and they can act as if they were still 8-9 just yesterday, the reality would hit them fast. 

Nero's deal, meanwhile, is that his family was chipped away from him a little at a time. He has memories of his adoptive parents that definitely result in that same grief and regret Dante has about not being able to save them. He got to live with Credo a lot longer, and in a way they were closer than the twins ever were, which in turn makes their falling out all the worse.

So with that in mind, I want Dante in this scenario to be confused about Vergil in his life, because it's almost like he doesn't know him at all, and Vergil knows him even less. Still, whule he has no idea how to approach the situation, he dreads to think of being separated again. And an ugly part of him probably thinks it was easier when he believed Vergil to be dead because it was final, easy to process by himself, and didn't involve working through two people's poor communication skills. It’s a great way for Dante to harbour even more guilt, which is always very fun.

Quite frankly, Nero handling this sort of thing well is a bit of a stretch because he’s also a massive disaster. He mostly sees Dante as someone who should have it more together than him. And, in a way, this sort of confession from Dante could just piss him off. But I want to imagine this moment as an olive branch between them, Nero realizing him and Dante have a lot in common emotionally, way beyond just being physically related. I don’t think Nero would be able to give good advice on grief and loss, but he’d end up feeling for Dante, if anything. 

I think both of them being able to say they’re having a hard time with personal loss, so maybe, possibly, it might be good for them in they relied on each other more than Dante avoiding Nero and only ever sending him a neon sign in the mail one time (totally not personally salty about that). 

I just love the idea of them figuring out they have common ground, looking beyond their pride, and finding a little comfort together.

[vsa-pieldepapel]

i agree with your general assessment of susie & noelle's respective issues but i don't agree with your assertion that these are "red flags" or signs of a potentially "toxic" relationship. i think you're looking at it through the wrong lens.

it seems pretty clear to me that the whole point of susie's character is that she lashes out with cruelty and pushes others away because she's been made to believe she's unworthy of love or respect, and although she's learning to let herself be open to friendship she will likely still have instances where she hurts those she cares about through acts of fear or defensiveness. this may be a source of conflict but that's not the same as being toxic.

meanwhile noelle, who has a strong fixation on fear and danger – and was originally drawn to susie because of this – is in the process of learning to decide the right course of action for herself. while she may have felt too helpless and confused to do anything about susie's previous treatment of kris, and wanted to put herself in harm's way with susie (but seemingly never actually acted on this, due to aforementioned sense of helplessness/lack of autonomy), she's gradually working on feeling more capable and confident. i think part of her process will be developing the ability to meet susie where she's at, as an equal, as opposed to seeing susie (as she sees most things) as a source of fear or an external, uncontrollable force acting upon her, if that makes sense.

i get the sense that their growing friendship will revolve around susie helping noelle accept that it's okay to be something other than a doormat, while noelle helps susie accept vulnerability and gentleness; in a way, both helping each other develop their sense of self-worth. again, i'm sure there will be conflict as they each have their own issues to work out and those will likely butt up against each other, but i still don't see that as the same as being "toxic," and i don't think that's the intended interpretation of their characters or relationship.

I have talked about this before and im a little tired (cause I just made dinner) so sorry if this comes across as clumsy or I dont make a coherent point, but the toxic relationship is in a less malicious sense and more in a “teenagers have a hard time navigating first love on top of the baggage” sense. Obviously the reading is that theyre meant to compliment each other and I have to be real a part of why I feel it flops is because Ralsei does it so much better in less time even just platonically, because Noelle idolises her and I honest don’t think she’s gonna stop idolising her soon. It also strikes me as a massive bad implication that Noelle is aware that what she’s doing is bad enough she wants to tell authority figures like toriel about it and Susie’s remark makes her feel sick…. And then she just doesn’t. Maybe we will see her progress on this in later chapters if I’m honest I think im gonna have a hard time changing my view on her simply because of the time gap there was in which I cemented my view. And thats okay honestly I want to think the detraction it will do to the rest of the game won’t be too big

In the end we can just agree to disagree ya know. I dont wanna be persuaded into liking dragon deer (I think my mind is set if im real, sorry. I know it’s gonna be canon and I’m not a fan) and I wont talk you into goatdragon either, this is just my blog so I rant unfiltered here lol. Thank you for sharing your perspective tho it’s interesting to read and respond to!

[hermette-historian]

It's important to look deeply at the near-death experiences that the series has had in order to understand how it has grown, why it has changed the way that it did, and the reasoning behind some of the decisions that the members continue to make to this day. In looking at history we also find the answers to some of the greatest mysteries of the series, as well as some of the most frequently asked and vaguely answered questions. With that in mind:

What Really Killed Hermitcraft Season 1?

Episode 1: Death of a Bachelor

If you ask Xisuma why the first season ended, he will say in no uncertain terms that it was the loss of their founder and leader GenerikB. And he's right.

GB's final episode of Hermitcraft aired on April 20, 2013; the same date as Jessassin's, though that seems to have been pure coincidence. In it he states that he is leaving because while he is still in love with the game, the vanilla version just..wasn't doing it for him anymore. He was done with that world, ready for something fresh and exciting to be added, and to him that meant mods. To this day, he still plays modded Minecraft over on Twitch! But after he left Hermitcraft, he never really went back to vanilla. More importantly, he also implies that while the server may go on in his absence, he finds it unlikely to continue long term-true to his prediction, the series floundered without direction for another month before Xisuma uploaded his final video on June 2 of that year. Hermitcraft officially died with the disappearance of its namesake.

Here's where we look deeper, because while GB's departure may have been the straw that broke the camel's back it was by no means the only reason the season ended. Just digging deeper into each of his reasons for leaving, we can see the storm brewing as far back as November of the previous year.

Episode 2: The Call of Cthulhu

What happened in November, you ask? Modded Minecraft happened. More specifically, the extremely popular modpack Feed the Beast was released beta at that time, and the Hermits at large wasted zero time in getting in on the action. There was within a month a dedicated "Hermitcraft Feed the Beast" server, from which a few hermits were added to the vanilla counterpart retroactively: Juicetra and Skyzm among them. Other members included Hypno, Topmass, DMAC, and of course GB...FTB quickly consumed the working lives of the Hermits; it was the first experience many of them had with a real modpack, and it introduced mechanics they could only dream about having in the survival game (like flying, for instance). Content on the vanilla server began to slow down. It didn't help that none of the hermits were full time creators in 2013-their time was limited, and when they were able to spend it doing the things they wanted to do that ended up being FTB. Some members such as DMAC promised more vanilla content once the craze was over, but the "craze" never stopped and he ended up going full months without putting out vanilla episodes. The FTB server had its own issues and ended up dying of technical problems and rollbacks later down the line, but it alone played a massive part first in boosting Hermitcraft Vanilla, then slowly choking it to death.

But there is one more unsung murderer when it comes to the grave demise of Hermitcraft Season 1: the game itself.

Episode 3: If I Die Young

When Dinnerbone joined Hermitcraft in summer 2012, he requested that they begin to update through snapshots instead of waiting for full releases-presumably so that he could use them as a test server. The decision to honor his suggestion, however, was a divisive one. Some members jumped on the opportunity! GB and Red3yz in particular were beyond excited to test everything from new terrain generation to redstone mechanics. Others like Xisuma and Biffa were more cautious, preferring to wait until the game was ready to play in a way that would be fulfilling to them. Still others-Joe Hills among them-were excited at first...then fell quickly into the opposite camp when half of their house spontaneously went missing and occasionally they couldn't craft anything with the wooden planks. The snapshots proved to be glitchy as all hell and an administrative nightmare, creating little but endless stress for GB on admin duty and Hypno in the world edit repair department. But they stuck with it! Hermitcraft continued to update through every single snapshot from 1.3 until 1.5, each new week bringing a new set of uncertainties and challenges to overcome. For a group of creators that were already fatigued with vanilla and focused on something more interesting, it's easy to see how this kind of thing would force a divide between them and the server...nobody wants to create content on a game that's unnecessarily difficult on a good day.

Of course, there were other little things that drove the Hermits away from its original phase. A big one for GB that goes unmentioned was definitely the state of his base: the original that he spent nearly a year building was burnt to the ground during the conflict with TEA and redone in creative mode by Topmass and the Pimp my Minecraft team. Not only did this cause controversy among the fans like you wouldn't believe, it left little for him to do in the world where his own creations were largely gone altogether. Other Hermits like Jess ran out of inspiration or burned out in a more typical fashion.

Thus in June of 2013, just over a year after its original inception, Hermitcraft died.

On the third day it rose again, dragged by the ears near single-handedly out of the grave by the person with the most determination to see it succeed. A new era began of rebuilding on a solid foundation, with dignity intact and lessons learned, a stronger brand, a clear distinction, and no snapshots. Eventually, they would have a new leader. But these things will all take time.

Hermitcraft beta was doomed by being built on sand instead of rock. It was strangled by the game itself, a victim of circumstance and false promises and opportunity. It died and came back stronger. And once every year or two, it feels the need to do so again.

Here's to Season 8, and many more to come.

[likealittleheartbeat]

I deeply appreciate how ATLA depicts all the main characters responses to trauma. Aang’s, for me, however, stands out for its rareness in media. And we are not hammered over the head with the idea that Aang (or any other characters) repeatedly act certain ways because of a single traumatic event. Sure, there are key moments in our lives when a certain event comes to the forefront, but no one experiences the world as constant flashbacks. Rather, we see only in retrospect the way our sarcastic sense of humor or our heightened friendliness were protective responses to a deep emotional injury. Being able to understand Aang’s approach to loss is essential for the show. The structure of the series is founded on his arc (despite an incredible foil provided by Zuko). Our little air nomad initially confronts the loss of his people with a full-on meltdown in the episode “The Southern Air Temple,” where Katara’s offering of familial belonging soothes him. But this kind of outburst is not Aang’s primary response (and actually the literally out-of-character apocalyptic tantrums align with Aang’s overall process of grieving). Instead of constantly brooding (hey Zuko!), Aang leans heavily toward the monk’s pacifist teachings and toward his assumed destiny “to save the world.” He becomes overtly accommodating and joyful, constantly trying to see “the good” in everything with a perfectionist’s zeal. This is not to ascribe his bubbliness only to his trauma. Rather, he comes to emphasize this part of his personality for reasons related to the negative emotions he struggles to face.  Book 1: Water

In the first season, Aang is simply rediscovering his place in the world. “Water is the element of change. The people of the water tribe are capable of adapting to many things. They have a sense of community and love that holds them together.” This is vital to Aang as he initially faces his experience. He won’t get through this if he is not prepared for his life to change. Even if he hadn’t been frozen for 100 years, his world would never be the same. This fact involves eventually finding new people that he feels safe with. After such a massive loss, he’s learning who to trust, and also often making mistakes; not only does he find Sokka and Katara (and I’d argue he’s actually slow to truly open up to them), this is the season where he helps save a fire nation citizen who betrays him to soldiers, befriends the rebel extremist Jet, and attempts to befriend an actively belligerent Zuko (his moral complexity had only JUST! been revealed to the kid!). He’s constantly offering trust to others and seeking their approval in opposition to the deep well of shame and guilt he carries as a survivor of violence. This is also the season where Aang swears off firebending after burning Katara in an overeager attempt to master the element (one will note how fire throughout the series is aligned with, above all else, assertiveness and yang). Aang is so eager to be seen as morally good to others that he refuses to risk any possible harm to them.  And asserting himself carries a danger, in one sense, that he might make a mistake and lose someone’s positive regard, and, in another sense, that he is replicating the anger and violence he’s witnessed. He has no relationship to his anger at this stage of his grief, so it comes out uncontrollably, both in firebending and the Avatar State. It’s through the patience of his new family that he can begin to feel unashamed about his past and about the ways his shame is finding (sometimes violent) expression in the present. Book 2: Earth In the second season he begins to trust himself and stand his ground. Earth, after all, is the element of substance, persistence, and endurance. The “Bitter Work” episode encapsulates how Aang must come to a more sturdy sense of his values. First, there is the transition of pedagogical style. While Katara emphasized support and kindness, Toph insists on blunt and threatening instruction, not for a lack of care towards Aang. Instead, it’s so Aang learns how to stop placing the desires of others above his own--to stop accommodating everyone else above his own needs. Toph taunts Aang by stealing one of the few keepsakes from the monastery that he holds onto. This attachment to the lost airbending culture is echoed in the larger arc with Appa. And, by the end of this episode, it is Aang’s attachment to Sokka that allows him to stand firm. This foreshadows the capital T Tragic downfall in the “Crossroads of Destiny.” Aang gives up his attachment to the other member of his new found family, Katara, despite his moral qualms. Although he has access to all the power of the Avatar state, his sacrifice is not rewarded. Season 2 illustrates Aang coming to terms with his values. He is learning about what he stands for, what holds meaning to him. Understanding himself also includes integrating his grief, and there’s a lonely and dangerous aspect to that exploration. We see Aang’s anger and hopelessness over longer stretches rather than outbursts in this season. It’s hard to watch and hard to root for him. That depressive state leads to actions that counter his previous sense of morality, as he decisively kills an animal, treats his friends unkindly, and blames others for his loss. Letting these harsher feelings emerge is an experiment, and most people discover their boundaries by crossing them. Finding ways to hold compassion for himself, even the harm he causes others, is the other side of this process. Our past and our challenging emotions are a part of us, but they are only a part. Since Aang now has a strong sense of community and is learning to be himself rather than simply seeking validation, we also see him having more healthy boundaries with new people. He’s no longer befriending villains in the second season! He’s respectful and trusting enough, but he’s not putting himself in vulnerable situations nor blindly trusting everyone. Instead, he’s more likely to listen to his friends’ opinions or think about how the monks might’ve been critical towards something (they’re complaints about Ba Sing Se, for example). By knowing what he cares for, he can know himself, the powerful, loving, grief-struck monk. And he can trust that, though he might not be everyone’s favorite person, he does not need to feel ashamed or guilty for who he is or what he’s been through. Book 3: Fire However, despite a sense of self and a sense of belonging, Aang and the group still find themselves constantly asking for permission throughout their time in Ba Sing Se. It’s in the third season, Fire, that initiative and assertiveness become the focus. And who better to provide guidance in this than the official prince of “you never think these things through,” Zuko. It’s no longer a time for avoidance or sturdy defensiveness. It is the season of action. Fire is the element of power, desire, and will, all of which require us to impact others.  We see the motif of initiative throughout the season: the rebels attempt to storm the Firelord on the Day of the Black Sun; Aang attempts to share his feelings and kiss Katara; Katara bends Hama and a couple of fire nation soldiers to her will. In each of these examples, the initiators face disgrace. Positive intent does not bring forth success, by any means, only more consequences to be dealt with. This is perhaps Aang’s biggest challenge. He is afraid that his actions will fail, or worse, they will succeed but he will be wrong in what he has chosen. The sequencing in the series, here, is important. We have already seen how Aang has worked to care for (and appreciate) the well-being of others and how he has learned to care for his own needs. With this in mind, he should be able to trust that his actions will derive from these wells of compassion. But easier said than done. Compassion can also trap him into indecision, hearkening back to his avoidant mistake in the storm, in which the whole mess began. Aang’s internal conflict, here, becomes more pronounced as the finale draws nearer. I think it’s especially significant that we witness Aang disagreeing with his mentors and friends. He must act in a way that will contradict and even threaten his sources of support if he is to trust his own desires. Even the fandom disagrees about the choice Aang makes, which further highlights the fact that making a decisive choice is contentious. There is no point in believing it will grant you love or admiration or success. For someone who began (and spent much of) the series regularly sacrificing himself just to bring others peace, Aang’s decision to prioritize his own interests despite the very explicit possibility of failure is the ultimate growth his character can have and the ultimate representation of him processing his trauma. (This arc was echoed and made even more explicit in many ways with Adora in the She-ra finale.) The last significant time Aang followed his desire, in his mind, was when he escaped the Air Temple in the storm. To want something, to trust his desire and act on it, is an act of incredible courage for him, and whether it succeeded or failed, whether anyone agrees or disagrees with it, it offered Aang a sense of peace and resolution. Now I appreciate and love Zuko’s iconic redemption arc, but Aang’s subtler arc, which subverts the “chosen one” narrative and broke ground to represent a prevalent emotional experience, stands out to me as the foundation for the show I love so much.

[neptune-midheaven]

ASTRO NOTES 🪐 🧿✨🌌

*THERE !!!!!! IS !!!!!! NO !!!!!! BAD !!!!!!!PLACEMENT !!!!!!! IN !!!!!!! ASTROLOGY !!!!!!!PLEASE STOP FEAR-MONGERING THESE POOR NEWCOMERS PLEASEEE !!!!!!!! CHALLENGING never equals BAD !!!!!! If you’re a true student of astrology this would be a well know FACT to you.

*Saturn and Capricorn placements are the areas you will slowlyyy become wise in, having developed compete mastery over that area with TIME.

*You usually get compared with other people who share your rising sign.

*Most scorpios/scorpio risings have dark complexions, they even could have almost a permanent shadow cast over their faces, they may struggle to find perfect lighting.

*Virgo in 6th house are hypochondriacs and are paranoid/worry a lot about their health. They’re very nit-picky about their “symptoms”, they’re the types of people to know what they’re coming down with when they’re already at a doctor appt., they may as well even EDUCATE THE DAMN DOCTOR LIKE GO AHEAD MRS PHDD.

*Chiron conjunct midheaven is the ultimate healer placement, other chiron placements, chiron in first/aspecting the ascendant, following behind, these people are true healers whether they realize it or not, they’re born to assist and heal the general public. The midheaven, the highest point of the sky representing our reputation and career, what we’re known for. These people generate a reputation for their “healing abilities”, they’re quite literally known as the wounded healer (depending on if Chiron is positively aspected in the chart, this will affect the flavor of their reputation), they will experience pain related to work or matters related to the reputation, their status and authority could be wounded, they can later use their pain to help and heal others. Challenges will be met at work if Chiron is afflicted. This placement also means one will have their pain and wounds projected to the public, the whole world knows your pain.

*Mars in twelfth need to express their energy, their anger and will through the activities of whatever sign mars is located in the chart i.e. mars in aries in the twelfth need to express suppressed anger/anger through physical activity, sports, working out, sex, pisces mars by unleashing their massive creativity, compassion, dreams (this sign, and house combo especially, has many dreams, it’s a sleepy placement for the ideal fiery and straightforward mars to be located in). Mars in twelfth is generally a good placement that could manifest in someone being a dancer or athlete, mainly finding escape through any type of physical activity for fire signs, work for earth, socializing for air and creativity for water. This placement has very gentle, enchanting watery movements if they get into any sports or physical activity.

*Mars in eleventh can be aggressive toward their friends esp if mars is in a fire sign it becomes no joke. Don’t get me wrong, they’re the best humanitarians and what not but they have a reputation of being the “angry” or “aggressive” friend out of most of their friend groups, they’re very competitive and energetic people. However the way they stick up causes, they way they are always seen supporting any humanitarian cause with their whole hearts is AMAZINGG. They’re the types of activists to stay late to a protest, they’re the types to seemingly never leave what they’re standing up for, what they’re supporting because they are SOOO AMBITIOUS AND YEAHH !!

*This isn’t talked about a lot but uranus in eleventh have to be the most comforting and “welcoming” presence out of every eleventh house placement in astrology, with uranus in its home, the house of aquarius, it erases any filter put on what friend is attracted by their social presence as EVERYONE is attracted to them, from any possible and imaginable background or culture and homeland, anyone can trust and confide in their wide openness as their care and concern for society is completely genuine. They are truly the biggest and truest humanitarians, the universal humanitarian that will lead us to the monumental revolution of history and bring humanity to a collective whole.

*Pisces moon, people lovee you. People want to come up and talk with you just because of how interesting and intriguing you are. You OOZE this aura of compelling mystery similarly to scorpio moon. Your innocent playfulness is undeniably charming and you are definitely the life of the party, people want to pay attention to you!!

*Saturn in 11th, you are not an outcast, you are not too strange. You’re fine for just who you are, your individuality is a struggle for you, saturn is restricting you from liberating yourself and merging with society, you can selective or strict with friendships. You teach others to have boundaries and to never trust others too easily, you select social causes with caution. There is never anything wrong with this !! You choose what you support for YOU and NO ONE ELSE. You choose who you wanna become friends with it’s because they have passed the true rigorous test of friendship. When you become friends with someone, you already know you can trust them deeply, your caution is quite admirable !!

*Mercury in 12th is an extremely beautiful placement. The native grows shy of their flawless minds, little do they know they are connecting with the watery depths of the astral and psychic realms of the twelfth, the vagueness of their cloudy thoughts winds them up in wispy sheets of intellectual confusion. Your mind is communicating the brilliant and unbelievable parts of what seems like a dream. You are not too confusing or vague for others to understand your ideas, people await what emerges from this shiny and imaginable abyss of a sleepy mind.

*Mercury in 8th have an intellectual superiority complex of sorts, they analyze a piece of information or thing by tearing through the surface until they find the deepest depths of the truth, they believe this will never compare to other placements as they have dug far deeper into something. Be careful to not assume that someone doesn’t know something you don’t, while it still can’t be true. You always want to know someone, don’t be too controlling about it because you could cause conflicts which you didn’t mean to in the first place. If you know your boundaries and limits and of others’, then you should be fine. This placement is brilliant for investigators, someone who could examine, analyze and evaluate to find the answer others can’t see. They harbor a psychic mind, a plutonic one who knows the weight words can have on people. Fantastically persuasive speakers !!

*Gemini in 3rd, gem mercury have unstable minds, they’re very much prone to babbling, but can easily start up a conversation because they never run out things to say so they’re pretty social and friendly.

*Capricorn moon is an amazing moon sign placement, here the moon is in detriment as the saturn ruled cappy doesn’t get along with the soft, nurturing moon, it’s always gotta work work work, limit, restrict !! There’s never anything wrong with the moon here, just because the moon and saturn can’t get along, just because they contradict each other’s completely different functions never means it’s a terrible moon sign. It just manifests in a completely unique way outside of the traditional service and role of the moon, similarly to let’s say sag mercury as it’s also in detriment, they both manifest creatively to make something new out of the planet’s sign. Back to cappy moon, this moon has the capacity to work as they find fulfillment in getting things done, serving others, but negatively restriction and criticizing. With saturn ruling capricorn here your emotions and wellbeing become restricted and limited, you have felt as if no one understands you, you believe something is wrong with you. Like no one in the world supports you emotionally. But this is NEVERRR true, people love you for how caring, attentive and even funny you are !! You care soo much about others you forget to care for yourself, SOME of you even begin to think it’s normal to ignore what your own needs, nooo you need to STOP THISSS . You deserve to feel great about what you do, your accomplishments, how you care for others, EVERYTHING, and most importantly believe, trulyy believe that nothing’s ever wrong with you !! You’re unbelievably charismatic and overall just.... WONDERFULLL. Ily guys smm you’re amazingly stronggg souls !!!

*Moon in 12th house is an EXTREMELY sensitive placement, these people are little babies on the inside (ilyy guyss you all have my heartt <33). They often felt neglected, not nurtured as a kid which creates their extreme sensitivity to their current surroundings and environment. Their shy moon is always hiding behind the mystical and otherworldly curtains of the 12th because of their sensitive upbringing or personality, it’s takes some time for the little guy to come out. The moon here needs SPACCEEEE. A person who’s a walking sponge with fragile emotions, they’re our emotional and energetic vacuum cleaners of the world, they are helping the world without ever realizing it !!

*Pisces risings are known for being hard to characterize for their ability to naturally adapt to their environment. You can tell if someone has this if they absorb their environment like a sponge, then, react to this energy, you can easily see this energy morphing. It becomes noticeable if there’s a lot going on. Another clue is having trouble defining them based on their first impression, like they could be anything you project onto them, very mysterious and dreamy individuals when you meet them.

*Your midheaven/10th house is what you look up to be or what traits you wish to embody, ex: aries MC, confidence, passion, courageousness, being a leader, etc. Moon in 10th, being a therapist, helping the less fortunate, medical professions.

*Libra risings usually have amazing skin, just like virgo risings, to contrast, I’ve seen most of them marked with freckles. They have very symmetrical features, perfectly balanced just like a scale. But it appears as if they’re “superficial” once their faces begin to wear into your mind.

[getoutofmyjaneway]

Beta Cannon: the Pre Voyager Era of Kathryn Janeway | Mosaic v The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway

This weekend, I got a copy of the Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway from a local book store. For how frequently we speak about Mosaic in the community (despite having some flaws) I was shocked that I had not heard a lot about this book and assumed it was a bad thing. And yeah in some regards it was (see @mia-cooper’s post on the subject). I have a lot of feelings (I’ll post a proper review at a later point) but one thing that did stick out to me is the divergence from what we have considered Beta Canon, aka, the extended universe of Star Treks told through novels, short stories, video games, etc. After completing the novel, I jumped right into my old standby copy of Mosaic, which has dictated a lot of Janeway’s back story since 96. Both of these novels cover the beginnings of Janeway’s life and how she was shaped into the woman we know. 

TLDR The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway changes a lot of things for no reason. Some of these are for the good. Some for the bad. And some, for like no good reason at all, like it was fine as it was, and was accepted cannon for like 25 years, but sure fine whatever.

I will mention that, as Mosaic has been a book in my library and I have read it too many times, so of course, I do have a bias toward it. Additionally, I feel like it is fair to mention here that authors of Fanfiction have leaned on this as their bibles since 1996 as Mosaic is written by Jeri Taylor, one of the show-runners for Voyager. Because of its connection with a showrunner, Mosaic is also integrated into the canon of the show. It seems that most points that are taken from Mosaic in the Autobiography are only included because of their existence in cannon material.

Anyway, this review is going to focus on the characters that shape Kathryn and I will end with my final thoughts. This is long so to respect your dash, you are going to have to click keep reading. You’re welcome.

Obligatory Spoiler Warning for ALL of Mosaic, chapter 13 of Pathways, and chapters 1-7 of The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway

Edward Janeway

In all media, I feel like we can safely say that Kathryn Janeway is in fact a daddy’s girl. Her relationship with her father is very important to her, so it is interesting to see how it is portrayed very differently in both novels. In Mosaic, a lot of the highlights of Janeway’s earlier years revolve around time spent with him. From giving her special attention after ‘Your Sister’ was born, to consoling her after her losing tennis match and subsequent walk home in the rain, and trips to Mars, Kathryn mentions great fondness of quality time spent. In the Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway he is more described as an absent father, one that she always wanted to see and please. When he was home, she wanted all of his attention and to impress him greatly. She wished to follow in his footsteps after gaining a love of flight and the stars with a plane ride and a telescope he gave her. He tried to prepare her by detaining the events of the current conflict with Cardassia and inviting Starfleet brass over for dinner. Overall, in her early childhood, it makes more sense for Edward to not be around often. There is not a lot of conflict between the sources, other than the details of the aforementioned tennis match and different childhood nicknames.  

Edward is in a crash aboard an experimental ship on Tau Ceti Prime which leads to his death. This is where the big differences begin. In Mosaic, Kathryn and her fiancé are also on board. In  Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway, Kathryn is still on the Al-Batani. The fall out of this event has a great effect on Kathryn of course in both novels. As this is a missive shaping event of Kathryn’s life, I felt it very jarring to be changed. This moment shaped Janeway and gives us good context for why she handles situations the way she does. I see this trauma and I understand her character better, for dealing with the loss of two of the most important people in her life all at once.

Gretchen Janeway

The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway was good to Gretchen Janeway as her character is basically a blank slate. We know little about her from Mosaic as it mostly focuses on Kathryn’s relationship with her father (and other male influences in her life). It is nice to learn more things about Grechen as with Edward’s job, it is likely that Kathryn was mainly raised by her. Other than being an artist, she also wrote some of the Flotter holos and wrote a number of children’s stories about the people of Bajor during the occupation. She does a lot of humanitarian work with the refugees from Bajor during the occupation. She loves to garden and get her daughters involved. She has a close bond with Phoebe due to their overlapping interests, but you can tell that she strives to support her in what she does. Overall, I like getting know Gretchen to be someone of than Kathryn’s mother.

Phoebe Janeway

 I was shocked when researching Memory Alpha for this review, Phoebe is never named in any Cannon media up to this point (Star Trek Prodigy could very well change this). We know Janeway has a sister and she is an artist, but that is it. Both novels keep her very similar personality-wise. In both stories, Kathryn is not looking forward to being a big sister. They also both mourn the loss of their father together. In Mosaic, she is not mentioned much. Kathryn tells her she is not old enough on an off planet trip and Phoebe plays pranks on her. The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway goes much more into depth. They don’t get along when they are younger. They fight a lot. I feel this is a very realistic portrayal of real siblings, vying for attention and approval, snapping when they don’t get their way.  They both excel at what they do, Kathryn in her studies and Phoebe through her art. They seem to need to one-up each other at every turn.  As they grow up, they grow closer together, as many siblings do. Points added for giving Phoebe a wife, something which has been included in a lot of fanfiction. Overall, there are no big conflicting points.

Mark Johnson

Kathryn’s fiance at the time of the Voyager’s disappearance, Mark is a very different part of Kathryn’s life in both novels. In Mosaic, he is a childhood friend and went by his middle name Hobbs. Seemingly always two steps behind Kathryn, he did a lot of the same activities that she did, tennis and swimming in the underground cave systems. He did these poorly, and this makes Kathryn always look down upon him. They reconnected after her father’s death and she fell head-over-heels for him. Personally, I always felt this was a little uncharacteristic of Kathryn, to run away from her responsibilities to be with a man. It just seems very out of character and has always bothered me. The  Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway takes a completely different approach. She meets Mark as a friend of Pheobe and her wife as a widower. They hit it off and they fall hard. You can see the conflict in Kathryn as she debates how to move forward with a relationship as they have different outlooks on life. She has a drive to explore but does not want to be an absent parent. She debates quitting, which I don’t think is something Janeway would have ever done. Overall she decides to accept Mark’s proposal just before taking command of Voyager. This makes the Dear John situation a lot more believable as it makes sense that he would want to move on with his life much quicker. Overall, I have to just ask, why? I know Mark doesn’t have a lot of character, but why change basically their whole relationship dynamic? 

Justin Tighe

Justin is a character I actually like for selfish reasons. This explains why I was very miffed that he was nowhere to be seen in the Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway. Justin is Kathryn’s first love, they were coworkers, engaged and in love, and dies in the same accident that takes her father. As a person who always wanted Chakotay and Janeway to get together, this incident perfectly gives the reason. She is afraid to get romantically involved with a crew member because of the nature of the job. This dynamic is seen between Picard and Nella Daren in TNG very well. Kathryn has learned the hard way that she can lose a person under her command and how it feels when you are in love with that person. In early Voyager, you can see she isolates herself from the crew and it takes time for her to get comfortable. And during Night she relapses to her old ways. This is the way I have always justified Janeway’s reluctance to have a romantic relationship during their time in the Delta Quadrant. By understanding her background, I have a lot of respect for that choice. Her relationship with Justin really shaped how she handles relationships and without the impact he had on her life, it actually makes her character weaker.

Owen Paris

Owen is Kathryn’s mentor. In Mosaic, they meet as he is reviewing her junior honors thesis advisor on massive compact halo objects. From here they gained a relationship built on respect and learning. It makes sense that, as he was her personal mentor, that she would be close with his family, and why she would seek out Tom as a person to bring with her to the Badlands mission. In the Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway, she does not meet him until she is on the Al-Batani. This doesn’t only weaken her relationship with Admiral Paris, but moreover weakens her relationship with Tom. If he was her superior officer, why would she develop such a ‘big sister’ mentality to Tom if she didn’t have as many opportunities to meet him?

Tuvok

Mosaic does not go too much in depth with Tuvok and Janeway’s relationship, but its sister novel Pathways does. In Pathways, Tuvok meets Janeway when he is an ensign under her command of the USS Bonestell. The Bonestell and the Billings, two ships that Janeway served on, tend to get confused a lot. Most sources have Janeway’s first command as the Voyager, Including Voyager itself -  “It doesn't seem like my first command is shaping up the way I expected,” Janeway Shattered. The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway has her and Tuvok meet on the Al-Batani. I actually really like the dynamic between them, as they grow to respect each other over a much longer period of time. I also like that, though Janeway climbs through the ranks, it does not change their relationship dynamic as she still relies on him and asks him advice as if they were equals. I think giving them a longer time to build their relationship. Also would like to note that Janeway and Tuvok also had a friendship with the original CMO of Voyager, Dr. Fitzgerald. I always wanted to know more about the Pre-Caretaker crew and I would have loved to see this dynamic and how the grief of losing a close personal friend in the Caretaker incident would impact them both.

Also I feel obligated to shout out the Janeway and Tuvok story in Star Trek Waypoint One-Shot. I need to get around to doing a series retrospective, but this short story I have not seen anyone talk about and I love it so much. Please read Waypoint. Okay next.

Other characters

Cheb - Janeway’s boyfriend in Mosaic. He was kind of an asshole and got her into trouble. He is not in the Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway and I see no problem with this.

Boothby - “[he is the] head groundskeeper at Starfleet Academy. When I was a cadet, he used to give me fresh roses for my quarters,” Janeway Revulsion. Boothby is not in Mosaic. In the Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway, it is explained that her mother loved to garden and this was something that Boothby did as a gradian figure to make her feel at home and destress. Makes sense.

Aisha - A childhood friend of Katheryn’s. Only in the Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway. Mosaic has this weird thing about highlighting the relationships with only the men in her life, so it is nice to see her have some other female friends.

Nexa - Katheryn’s roommate at the Academy.  Only in the Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway. Nexa helps broaden Kathryn’s horizons by helping to learn about Exoliguisticts, first contact, and the Betazoid culture. Again nice to see her have other female friends.

Riker - Yes they go on a date in Mosaic. He is not mentioned in the  Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway. I know he is a gag character but I still liked it.

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

Final Thoughts

A lot of characters were changed between these two novels. There is a lot to like and a lot to hate. I really like what the Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway did with characters like Tuvok and Gretchen Janeway. Other characters were not so lucky (Justin, sweetie I’m so sorry that they would erase you like that, oh my god). It’s a mixed bag, but one thing I need say is... why?

We have had a good thing going here with the established canon as is. Mosaic (and Pathways) is the foundation of which the last 25 years of fanworks and the relaunch novels are based on. Why change history when it is already written?

Always, would love to hear your thoughts and thank you for reading my novel of a post. I will see you in the full review.

[aerial-jace]

This started as me trying to think of something to write for a KestrelJay fic, but thanks to @mallowstep enabling me it became a full-on Po3 + OotS AU. I present to you: Po3 + OotS but the powers don’t come with a prophecy attached AU. Alternatively: Po3 + OotS but Jayfeather willingly became a medicine cat out of delusions of grandeur.

The only reason I’m deleting the dark forest part of the conflict is so I can use the powers but still have this AU be about an entirely new interpersonal conflict that doesn’t cross over with that whole thing

Jaykit figures out very early on about his dream powers, using it to hop across the dreams of his littermates and others in the nursery. Growing up he hears lots of stories about dreams and prophecies and medicine cats and the rest, so naturally he gets really excited about this special power and gets it into his head that he’s destined to be the next medicine cat.

(He can’t see in dreams on this one. He knows he’s actually dream hopping and not just dreaming of the others in the nursery because he’s very insistent about asking others what they dreamed about. The other kits are impressed but no adult gives him the time of day with it.)

Hollykit, ambitious little furball that she is, also gets it into her head that she’s going to be the next medicine cat. When playing in the nursery, the arguments about it are endless.

Lionkit’s concerned because if both his siblings become medicine cat apprentices, does that mean he’s gonna have to put up with that meanie Berrypaw all on his own? 3:

As they approach apprenticing age, Leafpool notices the two siblings are very much serious about wanting to be her apprentice. It’s at this time that Jaykit starts to brag about his dream hopping ability as if that’s going to guarantee him the position. Hollykit, meanwhile, is trying to help however she can.

Leafpool very much thinks Hollykit would make a better apprentice, she sounds much more helpful to have around and she thinks someone should really check Jaykit’s growing ego.

The day of their apprentice ceremony comes and Jaypaw is fucking pissed, like in canon Lionpaw goes to Ashfur, Hollypaw to Leafpool, and him to Brightheart.

Brightheart and Longtail are really trying to be helpful and encouraging here. Longtail even sort of came out of retirement just so he could assist them outside camp. But Jaypaw’s just being a brat and it makes all three miserable. He won’t listen to instructions, he rushes everything just so he can go pester Leafpool, when out on patrol he will try to sneak away, he is very rude to them, etc.

Lionpaw tries to be a supportive brother, trying to give Jaypaw encouragement and tips, reassuring him that he can grow up to be a great warrior, convincing Ashfur to let them train together, and so much more but he’s just met with the same scorn and aggression that Jaypaw has for Brightheart and Longtail. Doesn’t help matters that Lionpaw is just good at this, reinforcing Jaypaw’s belief that this is not his special destiny.

Hollypaw is trying her best, but like in canon she just struggles a lot with memorizing and identifying herbs and of course being grossed out by actually treating injuries. She also tries to extend an olive branch to Jaypaw, only to be met with scorn and particularly harsh insults. He also tries to butt in whenever he has the chance. Leafpool’s getting really fed up with all this.

This whole thing lasts for like a moon to a moon and a half and the whole of ThunderClan camp just doesn’t have the energy to deal with Jaypaw anymore. The general stress and just in general being so worn out give Jaypaw the perfect in to enter Leafpool’s usually more tightly guarded mind. She originally thinks the little brat has just been so annoying she ended up dreaming of him but when he turns up the next day and recites her whole dream to her, she sighs in defeat.

She’s perfectly aware that she shouldn’t reward him for wearing her down, but this has gone on long enough. She’s seen Hollypaw and she knows it would be better for her to swap mentors now. And if StarClan has given Jaypaw this power, she’s not about to go trying to prevent his destiny. She knows better than to piss them off.

Jaypaw is an immature, smug little shit about this whole thing, and Leafpool knows she has her work cut out for her in regards to nipping that in the bud. At the very least he’s obedient now and very eager to make up for lost time.

Their first night on the apprentice’s den, Hollypaw and Lionpaw begin to bond over complaining about their dickhead brother. It’s extremely cathartic and even though they’re keeping everyone else up they don’t mind either. They needed that release as well.

Hollypaw quickly learns that Lionpaw is very good at this warrior thing, way better than she’d expect with how behind she is. They figure out Lionpaw’s got a power as well, and while Hollypaw’s initially concerned he will turn out a dickhead as well, the experience of Jaypaw keeps Lionpaw humble. At least when not around Berrypaw.

It’s Jaypaw’s first half moon gathering and he can’t help but bounce with excitement. He’s excited to meet everyone and share tongues with StarClan and to be announced officially as Leafpool’s apprentice and all the rest. As they meet the others he finds that the other two apprentices are not being as friendly as he’d expected. Willowpaw is downright angry at him for costing her a friend, while Kestrelpaw is polite but distant. They’ve both been warned of him and seeing them both act so coldly really hurts Jaypaw.

(While all of this is happening, LionBerry is going through a rivals to lovers arc in the background. And of course we all know Hollypaw is massively gay for Willowpaw.)

Jaypaw is really lost on what to do. He wants to make friends with the other medicine cat apprentices, but he’s just not got the social skills for this. He thinks invading their privacy in dreams is a good idea, kind of forgetting everyone and their mother know of his power and that most people find that creepy.

It takes a while, but seeing his desperation to make friends, Kestrelpaw starts to open up and Jaypaw is massively emotional about it. They bond as friends and over time they get Willowpaw to also open up. The three become really close friends and they encourage Jaypaw to fix his relationship with his siblings.

When Hollyleaf and Lionblaze get their full names, Jaypaw starts to reach out to them. They’ve seen Jaypaw becoming more humble and minding his own business over time, so they’re willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But it still takes time for their relationship to be repaired.

Willowshine and Kestrelflight earn their full names and Jaypaw couldn’t be more proud of his friends. Him and Kestrelflight begin to date (using those handy-dandy dream powers they don’t even have to meet physically!) and he starts to relay messages between Willowshine and Hollyleaf.

It’s around this time that Flamepaw, the token straight of the medicine cat gang, shows up. He’s basically the reverse of that whole “Everyone has a gay cousin and if you don’t it’s you” thing, which becomes really apparent with how his gay cousins dominate the conversation at all the half moon gatherings.

(For the sake of the joke, his siblings are bi. He only learns this after telling them about how gay the half moon meetings are.)

When Jaypaw earns his full name, Leafpool names him Jaystorm because of how much of a handful he was as an apprentice and as a reminder to not fall back on those old behavior patterns.

Jaystorm announcing his full name to his siblings and showing healthy pride in his accomplishment is basically the end of his arc regarding repairing his relationships. They’re now all equals in the eyes of the clan and they get along pretty well. They’re his preferred escorts whenever he has to go out of camp and they’re glad to spend more time with him.

Fast forward to the time of OotS, Jaystorm notices fairly early on the signs that Dovekit also seems to have special powers and begins making plans to ensure she and Ivykit aren’t driven apart by ego and jealousy like he and his littermates were

Dovekit, thankfully, starts showing interest in becoming a medicine cat while Ivykit doesn’t. Come their apprentice ceremony, Jaystorm maneuvers to have himself be named the official mentor of Dovepaw and Hollyleaf the mentor of Ivypaw.

(Leafpool’s still around or something. I deliberately also omitted the fire scene and the parentage reveal drama. But she’s just not a character I’m interested in and sidelining her is for the good of the story.)

Having someone with partial medicine cat training mentoring Ivypaw means Jaystorm can very easily make an excuse to have her as part of his escort when herb gathering. Ivypaw, of course, complains endlessly about it, but she finds it nice to have time to spend with Dovepaw.

Under the guidance of the three, Dovewing and Ivypool grow up to be well adjusted adults who deal with the whole powers thing very maturely. All five of them are very close to each other, to the point the three almost consider those two as honorary little sisters.

(It’s fine, Cinderheart ends up having Fernsong with a completely unrelated tom. Lionblaze is too focused on his husband Berrynose to have eyes for anyone else. It fixes the incest, even.)

[ben-101-rewrite]

Redesign Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slqioKz3fpw

“For as long as they could remember, the Revonnahganders have always been into the culture of farming, and excel in it. Ranging from the rarest of fruits and vegetables, to raising many unusual farm animals, they experimented with anything they could get their hands on. Their prized creation is the Amber Ogia, the perfect fruit they spent years breeding and developing. It could be used in foods, mediations, clothing and even fuel, it was designed to do so many things, though it could only be harvested once a year, and they had to be smart about their supply of it. However, the rumours of this fruit, along with the amount of food and supplies Revonnah could produce, ended up attracting unwanted attention. For many years it became common for thieves, rouges, fleets and even passing conquers to stop by and help themselves to anything they wanted, with the people of Revonnah often struggling to fight back. While they had evolved many fighting styles throughout their history, they couldn’t keep up with the level of tech outside in the galaxy, which frustrated many elders who spent many years just to perfect these techniques, only for some evil aliens with blasters only to take them out in seconds.   Due to this poor relationship towards the outside world, Revonnah and it’s people didn’t appreciate outsiders, and were known to be cold even to those who were friendly. They just couldn’t trust anyone, as they always felt like they only ever wanted what their people harvested and made. Eventually the Plumbers arrived, stepped in, and began protecting them from outsiders who stole from them, and while Revonnah agreed to be under alliance and protection by them, they still weren’t fond of the Plumbers due to years of mistreatment. Nowadays, you’ll find that it’s the older members who turn away outsiders, while thankfully the newer generation has been taking the right steps into joining the outside world, despite the arguments it might cause between the old and the young of Revonnah. Part of this new generation is Rook Blonko, the eldest child of his family. From a young age, Rook and his father have had conflicting views about the outside world, and while the two love and respect each other, it’s a topic they could never agree on. Nonetheless, Rook didn’t disobey his father, and often looked up to him, seeing him as a hard working leading man, since beyond the elders on the highest hill, Rook Da often commanded the village they lived in. Sometime after Rook’s tail fell off, his father started sending him to learn under the elder, mostly by his old mentor, Kundo (Kooun-doe). Kundo was very much someone who voiced his distaste for other aliens, and the tech used across the galaxy, stuck in the old ways of life due to what his people used to go through. Rook was part of a group of students being trained under him, and despite what you might think, Rook was actually one of the worst students. He would stumble more often, struggle to handle Kundo’s rough words, and could never seem to master the tougher skills. It didn’t help that Rook could fight in his own way, and wanted to create his own techniques, but Kundo always dismissed the idea. Though, despite not liking these classes, something good did come from it for Rook, in a way. Everyday he would walk up to and from school, and on his way home once he encountered a young girl his age, who was struggling to round up a loose farm animal. After helping her out, she introduced herself as Rayona. They didn’t live near each other, and Rayona came from a much poorer family, not helping with the fact she would end up having 8 younger siblings that her parents couldn’t look after alone. But even with those hardships, Rayona was one of the kindest and understanding people Rook has ever met, and she was always willing to give people a chance and liked lending a helping hand. She was calm and wise for her age, and it didn’t take long for the two to form a friendship. Everyday after training from then on, Rook would always stop by and hang out with Rayona, and because of their friendship the two families would start talking and getting together too. Of course, no one was surprised when young Rook gained a massive crush on Rayona, and he eventually asked her out, which she said yes too, and they have been dating ever since, with both families approving. Rayona was always by Rook’s side to support him over the struggles of learning under Kundo, while he was there to support her when she had to take care of her siblings for her parents. The two provided each other a safe zone from all the stresses in their life. Then, one day after a long meeting with the Plumbers, parts of Revonnah agreed to let there be a few members in certain villages to keep an eye on things, Rook’s village being one of them. A man named Wat-Senn became their sheriff, and while the much older folk didn’t approve of him, like Kundo, he eventually charmed his way in and proved himself to most of the locals. Rook himself took a keen interest in him, because for years now Rook had been fascinated by the Plumbers and what they did, and was always interested in the idea of protecting people and seeing the galaxy, despite what his family might say. So Rook, on his spare down, would sneak off to go hang around the sheriff, who found Rook to be a nice young man, with a good dream to him. In secret, Wat-Senn would share stories about the Plumbers with Rook, even showing him a few things he learnt at the Plumber academy, a fighting style that Rook found worked better for him than most of what Kundo taught him. The only people aware of these visits were Rook’s siblings, and Rayona. Then came the day of the Highbreed invasion. Revonnah hadn’t been hit immediately, but they were near other planets that did, and knew it was only a matter of time until they were struck. They were in complete panic, even when people like Kundo claimed they could fight back. The entire planet waited for chaos...but it never came. Sheriff Wat-Senn received word that Ben Tennyson had stopped the invasion and saved the universe, with the Highbreeds changing their ways with their new leader, Reiny. Despite Revonnah’s lack of interest of the outside world, even this caught their attention, and many people saw leaked videos of the fight on earth, and eventually watched other videos of Ben Tennyson and his crew, Rook being one of these people. He was fascinated by the omnitrix, and Ben as a person, seeing him being a heroic hero in the face of danger. Regardless of it all, Ben stepped forward and saved the entire universe, with the power of many alien races, showing the importance and power they can bring together...and it was something Rook wanted to be a part of. After all that happened, Rook finally had the courage to speak to his father, wanting to now go to the Plumber academy. This did spark a discussion and argument, but Rook for once didn’t back down from his father, which his dad did notice. The fact that Rook was willing to stand up to his father like this, not back down, with such courage, did make Rook Da think about it...and while he didn’t like the idea of it, he gave Rook the approval to go, but told him that it will take him a long while to ever be ok with it entirely. Rook promised his father he would gain his approval one day, and after talking with his family, girlfriend and the sheriff, Rook eventually found his way to the Plumber academy, awaiting for the adventure in his future, and to be a hero just like Ben Tennyson.”

Notes:

Rayona studying medical practices

Rayona having an odd sense of humor (like ED from Mass Effect)

Cute cat traits (Sleeping in the sun, cuddling, staring at nothing.)

Sandra and Carl often inviting Rook over for dinner

Rayona and Rook being that lovey dovey couple

Both great with kids, given they are both the oldest siblings of their families

Both aren’t the jealous type

Rayona is the most equal and civil towards Ben, others either have conflict with him, or view him as a celebrity.

Rayona ended up actually being the best person for Ben to talk to about his failing relationships

Both already behave like parents

Rook struggling on what to do now that he’s a Plumber

Rook is secretly an extreme daredevil underneath

Rayona is great at singing, Rook is not (Sounds like a yowling cat)

While both have a protective side, Rayona is much more scary when she gets protective

Both overwork themselves

Rook cooks better than Rayona

Both have complicated relationships towards their parents, both for different reasons

[orionshounds]

I’ve been knee deep in dsmp lore streams and I just want to ramble about it

Dream smp lore is so good, it’s so good!!! Not only is the story itself just fascinating, but how it’s presented so uniquely through the medium of minecraft of all things is just so cool. One of my favorite parts of the lore is seeing how everyone on the smp has their own “style” they present it in, and watching them find the way they find the most enjoyment in is so cool. Literally no two streamer’s lore stream quite like each others and it’s just incredible! It just speaks to the flexibility of roleplay as an artistic medium and really shows everyone’s individual personalities. 

Wilbur was dramatic as hell and wrote eloquent speeches. He started a drug operation under the guise as a country, and it lead to a revolution in which he was able to explore the spiral of a man who loses control of everything he had built. And after his arc and he wanted a break from the server? He created ghostbur, an amnesic comic relief with just enough touch of tragedy that he is still able to make heartbreaking monologues when he wants to.

Tommy is able to run around with his friends and cause as much chaos to his heart’s extent, but there is so much more than meets the eye. He is incredibly social and isn’t afraid to start conflict with a lot of people, bringing them into the roleplay. He doesn’t back down from storytelling either. His character goes through terrible situations and he fully explores the trauma that comes from those experiences. His character goes against the “stereotypical” trauma I see alot in media; instead of being shy or scared he’s reactionary, he’s angry, he’s violent, he’s depressed. I’m actually really impressed with the heavy subject matter this 17 year old teen has managed to portray (I’ve connected with it quite personally at certain points), while still being able to keep the light hearted fun that’s so intrinsic to his personality. 

Tubbo isn’t really interested in serious lore as much. Even in dire moments he tells jokes and just has fun. So, in his recent lore, he just streams as normal while putting mysterious writing on screen that he doesn’t acknowledge or have to explain, which I think is just a genius work around for him to participate in lore. He still has his dedicated lore streams sometimes, and when he is in the acting zone he has some of the most powerful moments out of everyone on the server.

Ranboo, while having stake in the greater smp lore, is much more character focused. He presents his lore through long monologues and fucking heart-wrenching voice acting. He loves working in themes of horror and causing a specific feeling in the viewer. So he chooses specific music as a themes for events/characters and creates visual queues in his overlays to draw out that desired reaction. He also values improve a LOT, if something unexpected comes up he just runs with it and he has made huge changes to his lore as early as 30 min before a stream.

Technoblade, while arguably one of the most powerful people on the server, prefers a more light-hearted yet dramatic approach to lore. When Dream was at his house looking for Tommy, Techno had no problem joking around and making fun of him for being homeless. He tore down an entire nation on the server and had so much fun doing it! He’s more of an antagonist than a true villain in my opinion. And lets not forget how dedicated he is to the game, he’s cracked at the craft. He spends hours grinding and creating farms on the smp, for amazing pay offs (his several vault reveals, the withers, etc), most of which weren’t even on stream!

Karl Jacobs is extremely social, so he created Tales from the smp as a way to involve TONS of people in lore while exploring the past and future of the server (it was also a way for viewers who weren’t that well versed in dsmp lore to join and not have to worry about it!). And through this premise, he took the opportunity to develop his own character on the smp; making an incredibly tragic story of a time traveler trying to save his home while slowly loosing his memories. Not to mention the beautifully shot cutscenes of the Inbetween and the Other Side. He includes so many people behind the scenes as well, collabing with other members on lore, hiring building teams and people to make intros and credit scenes, and promoting fanart and fansongs from the community!

Quackity explores his lore through heavily scripted events and amazingly shot cut scenes. While the way he expresses his lore comes at the cost of improv, the payoff of the visuals and story is well worth it! The shots he makes of the smp is downright gorgeous, no to mention he’s the first person to include irl footage in his lore (not counting facecams)! He’s not afraid of thoroughly examining his own character, being one of the only people I can think of that shows us “past events” leading up to something that has already happened.

Badboyhalo, Antfrost, Ponk, Skeppy, Captain Puffy, Punz, Awesamdude, Hannahxxrose all work together on shared lore and the payoff is amazing! By introducing the Egg, a constant antagonistic force that constantly pulls on character’s relationships with each other, everyone is able to stream together to battle for or against the egg! There’s also plenty of room for people to do individual lore that's more intimate to their respective character. They spend hours changing vines, putting up posters, slowly shaping the smp in a way that makes it exciting to watch streams to see just what has changed everyday. Because there’s so many people necessary to tell the egg’s story, it does comes at the cost of time (the egg has been around FOREVER). However, they all work together super hard and I just admire their commitment to the story they’re trying to tell!

And Sam! He has several different “Modes” his character is in (and an entirely separate character, Sam Nook) that he gets to explore lore with. He’s a terrifying warden, he’s a money motivated businessman, he’s a conflicted lover, he’s a traumatized victim of the egg, and just so much more. Through having so many different “roles” in the rp he gets to explore relationships and plotlines with a whole array of people. Not to mention he’s absolutely cracked at redstone and has some of the most impressive builds on the server.

And Puffy! So much of her lore is calling into question the morality of the server and really makes you step back and think critically about the characters. Her character also has, in my opinion, one of the most interesting relationships with Dream, the main antagonist of the entire server, which is just fascinating to watch unfold. Not to mention she’s one of the first people to start exploring the backstory of her character!

George doesn’t exactly do lore. In fact he’s slept through so much of it it’s become a meme. And you know what? That mad man took that and ran with it. He explains his absence in the story by having his character literally being asleep through it, creating mystery where there used to just be an absence. He’s able to goof off with his friends and have borderline nonsensical streams, then at the end sucker punch the audience emotionally by “waking up” and have the viewers question just what was real and what wasn’t?

The smp has the freedom for people who want more independent lore to be able to explore their character’s that way as well!

Hbomb, Connereatspants, and Purpled don’t have a lot of lore on the smp, generally only coming on to have fun with everyone, but when they do have their moments it unfolds in very interesting ways!

Sapnap, Eret, and Schlatt maybe aren’t as active as some other people, but when they are on they actively participate in lore and have lasting impacts on the story (Ex: Eret’s betrayal, Sapnap’s visit to dream in the prison, Schlatt becoming president).

Philza mostly does his own thing, improving the server or making some bomb ass builds. He has incredibly devastating roles in lore (killing wilbur, blowing up L’manberg for the final time, starting the syndicate with Techno), but he also has quieter moments that speak to the depth his character has, such as fishing with fundy or reminiscing about his dead son and how it went so wrong. Like Techno, he doesn’t like to take lore completely seriously, often laughing no matter what’s happening or teasing chat after something big goes down, but his character is solid with a lot of potential for future lore.

Foolish has only started on his character and its already super interesting. The hints at his dark past as a “god of death” and his current conflict with the egg are intriguing as fuck. Not to mention the MASSIVE builds he does for everyone, helping to progress their lore as well.

Fundy has a lot of freedom with his character to participate however much he wants in lore. While generally he’s a trickster who loves to prank people he has enough tragedy build into his backstory he’s able to break the viewer’s heart with a flip of a switch. Not to mention his recent, almost surreal, stream that explored his character’s disturbing dreams that may or may not predict the future.

Niki is very character driven, exploring her character's grief of losing her best friend and her anger of being ignored in the very country she helped create. She has incredibly emotional moments, and even though she’s on her own building an underground city she still participates in other lore via teaming with jack manifold or the syndicate.

Jack Manifold’s lore is VERY character focused, and while he’s described his story as a “B plot that occasionally intersects with the main plot”, the story he tells is still fascinating. Being pushed aside not taken seriously his whole life, his character develops into a fun cartoony-esque villain who begs to be taken seriously, that has the depth of a truly conflicted person who is torn between wanting revenge on everyone who’s done him wrong and just wanting a friend.

Last but not least, the man himself, Dream. The most fascinating thing about his lore is that absolutely none of it is from his pov. All we know about his character is only from what we see from everyone else’s povs, and in his case it leads to a very intimidating villain! Not to mention, mans owns the damn server and yet has made himself the main antagonist! He is the only character I consider a “true villain” on the smp. His voice acting and writing is downright sinister. I could write a fucking essay on how his character’s obsession with power has led him to the point he thinks himself an unstoppable god

Everyone on this server is stunning and I love all of them!!!!!

[silenceinternalmonologue]

A Review of Loki (2021)

[The following is an exact transcription of Twitter user @/diolesbian ‘s thread linked here . They gave me permission to cross-post their thread on my Tumblr. Keep in mind that this review is fairly long and quite critical of the series. I agree with this review wholeheartedly, and would be welcome to discuss it with anyone else.] 

Loki is a character who has died many times, but his own series may be his most brutal character assassination yet.

1.  Loki’s role in the series. Instead of tackling Loki's most villainous state of mind in Avengers 1, the series literally speedran through his development in the subsequent films, after which they almost entirely halted his character progression.

Because this series was set right after Avengers 1 it had the responsibility of developing Loki further in place of The Dark World and Ragnarok. In Episode 1, this development was kicked off by having Loki watch a reel of some of his defining moments in the MCU, allowing him to see his future all the way up to his death in Infinity War. Sadly, this scene ended up being the most development he received in the entire series. And arguably, this isn’t even true development but more like a speedrun of his character up until that point, serving as a simple tactic to explain why he wouldn’t be acting all dictatorial and murderous during his own series. As soon as he had been made “good” (read: docile) enough to follow along with the plot, his agency was completely thrown out. From that point on, the series wasn’t about Loki making things happen but about things happening to Loki.

Loki was supposed to be the main character, but he wasn't the protagonist in this story. In fact, he was more of a side character than we’ve ever seen him be in the MCU before, perhaps excepting IW and Endgame.

A protagonist is by definition someone whose important decisions affect the plot, whose development is followed most closely by the audience, and who is opposed by an antagonist. Loki exhibited none of these traits in this series. Especially the latter half of the story, he was reduced to simply reacting to the revelations around him, such as the reveal that the TVA members were all variants and that Kang was the true mastermind behind everything. He never truly involved himself or acted based on any of these plot points, and hardly played a key role in what was supposed to be his own story. Even in the films, where Loki is a side character, he makes choices which impact the plot to a larger extent. He almost seems more like a background character in the role of protagonist than in the parts he plays in the films.

2. The antagonist. The TVA could have worked as the perfect setting for Loki to have a new arc. It’s a thematic antithesis to who we know Loki to be. But when this Loki turns out to not be who the audience thought he was the TVA’s thematic significance falls apart as well.

In Episode 1, the TVA’s Agent Mobius enlists the help of Loki the Variant to pin down a greater foe who we are told is another, more malicious version of Loki. Order and chaos meeting in the middle, teaming up to take down an enemy, who even happens to be the protagonists’ literal evil self: that works, it sounds promising. But this dynamic is soon undermined when Loki leaves with Sylvie. Still, the benefit of the doubt is easy to grant here: a story about tricksters is bound to contain twists. But by Episode 3 the series is halfway done and the TVA has been appointed as the main antagonist again: we’ve now established villains three different times. And then the Cloud Monster At The End Of Time is introduced, and finally Kang. In other words, the Loki series has no consistent antagonist, no one to pit its main character against. And this is where we once again miss out on an enormous aspect of Loki’s potential characterization.

Protagonists are always defined by an antagonist, whether a purple Titan, a flat tire, or themself. Loki is not given anything to define his morals, motivations, or development in opposition to and this is a huge oversight. Especially given the fact that Loki has taken on the villain’s role in the past: how is the audience supposed to know that the “bad guy” is now a “good guy” if there’s no “even worse guy” to stand up against?

3. The plot. A plot should show off its MC’s strengths and match their personality. The Loki plot hardly relied on his presence at all, he didn't play a key role. The story had so little to do with Loki that it seemed as though he has barely any impact on “his” narrative.

One of the most central conflicts in the Loki series doesn’t involve him at all: it’s between Sylvie and the TVA. This plotline was a good concept overall, but its main problem is that it’s practically the only conflict in the series. Loki himself, as mentioned before, isn’t set in opposition to anything or anyone. And thanks to his relationships with Sylvie and Mobius being weakened by conflicting storytelling devices, he appears to be in a bubble by himself away from the rest of the cast for much of the story. First he follows Mobius around, then Sylvie, then he wanders aimlessly in the void before following Sylvie once again and learning that Kang is a Really Bad Guy who he should be opposed to even though by this point he has interacted so little with the story unfolding around him that the audience doesn’t even understand why he should be choosing to play the hero.

The plot and the characters both suffer by being so incredibly unrelated to each other. A series, especially an MCU one, should tell an overarching narrative through the perspective of its main character.

In the beginning of the series, when Loki was still getting his bearings in the TVA, this lack of decision-making was more understandable, especially since some of his skills were still being shown-- he discovered Sylvie was hiding in nexus events, and he made the choice to leave Mobius and follow her. But by the latter half of the series he still hasn’t had much impact on the story or taken any actions of his own, and simply allows plot points to happen to him. Just because the Loki series had to introduce the TVA and Kang didn’t mean it had to forgo telling a story about its protagonist. If Loki’s story had been intrinsically tied to the overarching plot points, if his choices had been some of the primary factors determining how events ended up taking place, the series would have succeeded in every aspect. But instead Loki is pushed aside by the plot of his own series, a plot which subsequently ends up coming across as largely hollow and pointless due to its lack of character drive.

4. Loki’s arc. One of the main reasons MCU Loki is loved is for his excellent character development across his films. TVA Loki was extremely lacking in that aspect and chances to take his character in interesting new self-aware directions were thrown away without much thought.

Throughout the MCU, Loki is on a journey with many highs and lows. He goes from a bitter and disheartened prince standing in the shadow of his brother, to a self-loathing Jotun bent on destroying his own people in a desperate attempt to win his father’s love, to a half-mad partially mind-controlled dictator with delusions of grandeur fueled by his own insecurity, to a prisoner wondering what there is left for him to lose, to a savior of Asgard’s people finally coming to accept his place in what is left of his family, to a tragic sacrificial victim who knew he had to die so the true hero might live on. That’s a hell of a journey, incidentally shown in less than TWO HOURS of screen time, and the prospect of TVA Loki embarking on an equally stimulating one, this time told over the course of over four hours and shown from his own perspective the entire way through, was exciting. But as it turned out, this relatively simple expectation went completely unmet.

For a story trying to say so much about individuality and self-acceptance, the Loki series seemed to pass by every obvious opportunity to tackle those questions.

Sylvie’s introduction seemed like a good idea at first: Loki would be able to literally bond with himself and learn to accept who he is that way, and forays could be made to explore what Loki’s personality could have been like if he grew up under different circumstances! But aside from a scene or two in Episode 3, this was not how things ended up going. Loki didn’t come to any grand or important conclusions about his identity, he didn’t choose to act differently, all that happened was a vaguely-worded confession of pseudo-romantic feelings which was cut off in the middle, made no sense, and weakened the narrative in a whole host of other ways explained elsewhere. Loki’s encounter with other versions of themself in the Void was similarly meaningless: Loki didn’t end up expressing or demonstrating a single thing he learned from meeting all of those alternate selves, despite the fact that there was potential for massive self-discovery there.

Less than 2 hours of MCU screen time portrayed Loki more coherently than this entire series. Loki is loved because of how much he changes, and it felt like he didn’t in this series. He started off lost and stayed that way throughout the entire plot.

By the end of the series, it was impossible to identify who Loki had become. He said he didn’t want a throne, but it was not obvious why not. He looked sad to be betrayed by Sylvie, but never expressed what that meant to him. He seemed afraid once Kang was unleashed, but why? Why did he care about the Sacred Timeline? What were his motivations? Throughout the series the answers to these questions became less and less obvious, culminating in the final episode which ended without a single moment of reflection or explanation as to who Loki had become. He wasn’t a villain, but only because he wasn’t murdering people. He was in some capacity a hero, for… being against Kang, probably, but once again with no explanation as to why Loki had decided to feel that way. He never seemed self-assured in his heroism, as if he hadn’t chosen the role for himself. Again, making one’s own choices that shape the narrative are what differentiates a protagonist from a side character, but Loki did not do that in this series.

5. Loki and Sylvie’s relationship. Loki and Sylvie had the potential to be a powerful duo representing the process of self-acceptance but instead they were reduced to a strange pseudo-romance.

Despite Loki’s many developments in the films, he never truly liked himself. He has been known to act extremely confident and self-righteous at times, but this is merely the opposite side of the coin containing his self-loathing and insecurity. Having him literally meet and subsequently befriend himself in Episode 3 was a move towards developing this aspect of him and potentially teaching him to finally accept himself as he truly is, but this buildup was all shattered in Episode 4 when the relationship is portrayed to have romantic undertones. Instead of a powerful struggle to accept oneself, the relationship between Loki and Sylvie becomes a twisted thing which is memeable at best (selfcest LOL amirite?) and outright damaging to both characters and the very concept of loving oneself at worst.

Ultimately, Loki and Sylvie's relationship didn’t add anything to either character’s development and actively detracted from what could have been a touching story.

Romantic love is extremely different from self love; romantic love has connotations including dating conventions and sexuality which are impossible to ignore and in this case serve as a distraction. And on top of ruining a potentially powerful storyline, this strange relationship makes both Loki and Sylvie seem out of character. Loki is once again one thousand years old and he has never even had a true friend, so why would he possibly fall for someone after knowing them for only two days? Meanwhile in Sylvie’s case, Loki’s “feelings” for her cause the audience to pay more attention to her romantic life and gestures rather than her actual character and motivations.

6. Loki’s Sexuality and Gender Fluidity. Loki’s sexuality and gender has been shown in several comic runs, and the series was advertised as featuring this representation as well. But due to several fundamental errors and problematic storytelling this also fell flat.

Sylvie’s introduction filled many fans with hope regarding the portrayal of Loki’s identity. In the MCU neither of their LGBT identities had ever been touched upon, while the series introduced a female variant of Loki and explicitly stated their sexuality. But this portrayal soon unraveled, most notably in Episode 5, in which many other Loki variants were shown but not a single one besides Sylvie was non-male. On top of that, when TVA Loki mentioned Sylvie and referred to her as “a woman Variant of us”, the other Lokis agreed that that sounded “terrifying”. Why should a genderfluid being be afraid of a version of themselves presenting as a different gender? It read as both fluidphobic not to mention strangely sexist.

The pseudo-romance between Loki and Sylvie only aggravated the situation. Not only did the nature of the “relationship” seem to follow heteronormative storytelling tropes (falling in love after a couple days of knowing each other, one party being reduced to a love interest, valuing romantic love above any other type, etc) but it also seemed distressing and offensive to many genderfluid people. A romance between a male and a female Loki, one of which doesn’t even call herself by that name, seems to be implying that an individual becomes someone else when merely presenting as a different gender, which of course isn’t at all the case. The writing wasn’t necessarily malicious here, but it was certainly ignorant and potentially even harmful. The opportunity was there to translate Loki’s powerful comic representation into the framework of the MCU, but this attempt did not succeed.

7. Loki’s characterization. Loki is a chameleon, but there are certain traits fundamental to his character. These traits were either ignored or actively mocked in the series. The audience already knew “what makes a Loki a Loki", but the series threw that knowledge away.

Episode 1’s premise of stripping Loki of everything he is used to was an intriguing setup to ensure the discovery of the core of who Loki truly is. The only problem was that this truth didn’t end up being found at all. Mobius made fun of Loki’s most defining traits, such as his habits of lying to manipulate people and acting out of a place of insecurity, which seemed to be a signal for the narrative to forbid Loki from exhibiting any of those traits from that point on in any way. This reduction in Loki’s character was reflected in everything, from his lack of humor (in the films he’s even funny while he’s taking over the world!), the underpowered way in which he fought against Sylvie (he’ll use magic to dry his clothes, but fight with a damn vacuum cleaner?) to the way that he wore the same boring outfit in every single episode-- it may sound shallow, but clothes are important when presenting a character. Every one of Loki’s looks in the films said something about him and his state of mind, and sadly that bland TVA outfit seemed to convey that Loki really was nothing more than a subservient pawn in what was supposed to be his own story. Ironically, the writing stripped Loki of everything that made him Loki, and left us with nothing but a Jotun-shaped void to be swayed by the whims and wills of the characters and plot devices surrounding him.

8. Loki’s past and abilities. This series could have elaborated on aspects of his character which had been teased at in the films and theorized about by fans, but ended up being a disappointment in this aspect as well.

Aside from Loki’s characterization and development, something else the series ignores is much of his canon story in the films. Since Thor 1, a truth that always overshadowed Loki was his Jotun heritage. He struggled with it up until the time of his death, clearly visible in his relationship with his foster family. It’s understandable that Loki was supposed to be independent from Thor in his series, but that’s no excuse for completely ignoring this central part of who Loki is. It doesn’t matter how much he goes through or how much his circumstances change, this feeling of unbelonging sits deep in Loki’s core and should have been both explored and explicitly discussed in the series. A series all about Loki was the perfect opportunity for him to finally confront and explain his relationship with his heritage, and potentially come to terms with it as well. And this isn’t even to say how cool some more insight on Loki’s Jotun inheritance could have been-- hypotheticals aren’t the point of this review, but it would have been fascinating to see Loki reacting adversely to heat like he has been hinted to in the past or even using his ice powers like he did in Thor 1.

Loki's magic was tragically underused. It felt like he was stripped of all of his magical powers even after his TVA chains had been removed, and this was never explained.

A second huge oversight is his magic. His powers are all over the place in this series. They were always a bit vague in the films, but this series was the opportunity to set that right and explain exactly what Loki was capable of as a sorcerer, especially now that the MCU has embraced magic more than it had ten years ago. But instead, Loki showcased an inexplicable lack of magic use-- again, the vacuum cleaner fight can be presented as evidence. There is a single scene in which Loki says that he learned his magic from Frigga, but no information is given as to how much he learned or why he doesn’t always favor spells. His power levels are incredibly inconsistent (he forgoes using magic when first confronted by the TVA, but is later shown using telekinesis to save himself from being literally crushed to death). And, strangest of all, there is a scene in which he tells Sylvie that he “can’t” enchant living beings. Loki, the millennium year old Trickster sorcerer god, who can hold an Infinity Stone with his bare hands, reanimate Surtur in the Eternal Flame, and trick the average person using illusions with ease, can’t cast a little enchantment? And if so, why not? The series offered precious few explanations concerning Loki’s magical abilities and instead only raised more questions. And in this way, Loki is once again relegated into the background and left with not a single shred of any new characterization or development. 

Loki contains multitudes, but the series reduced him to two dimensions.

This isn’t to mention every other facet of Loki’s story that could have potentially been explored to great success in this series-- his torture and subsequent partial mental influence at the hands of Thanos just before the events of Avengers 1 is one obvious example, as is his youth on Asgard, as are his suicidal tendencies (people don’t tend to survive falling off the Bifrost, and he knew that when he threw himself off of it), plus infinite other facets of him. Of course, it was both necessary and more interesting for this series to be its own story rather than one which lingered on past films-- but that’s not to say that none of these plot points should have come back, at least subtly, to play a role in this story. Plot points exist to be brought back later, not completely ignored. Otherwise a story may as well be written about a completely original character.