#i have another idea where this is a full-fledged plot that goes differently

[lirarey]

I really feel sorry for Flash Sentry and his crush on Twilight.

Yes, I understand that "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" wasn't really about love. But when I first watched "Equestria Girls" in 2014, I was really excited about the love story. Besides the fact that every high school movie has to have the main character fall in love with the cool guy, I found another brilliant reason. Twilight learned friendship from Princess Celestia over the course of three seasons. Isn't it funny that it's in another world she first feels sympathy? Flash doesn't have the most well-written character, that's true, but without him the plot wouldn't happen. He supported Twilight during the "Cafeteria Song", vindicated her innocence in the mayhem of the hall, and joined her "unusual" dance. Of course, the writers could have made Flash's interest in Twilight one-sided. But she gets embarrassed whenever she runs into him, and is definitely happy to dance together at the end of the first film.

In the second film, Flash asks about Twilight, and later she asks about him. I like to think that, besides being in another world, she's pleased that there's a person here who's interested in her in a way that's not just a princess-pony. But the first personal meeting turns out to be more painful than expected. We already know how the Dazzlings affect people, but Flash's harsh words throw us off track. Twilight's pain, already struggling to write the song, is felt more than ever. Of course, we missed the opportunity for a full-fledged battle between Twilight and Flash's groups. I don't think it would have been easy for her. And their hug at the end of the second film was very cute. I saw an interesting idea about Flash never fully saying goodbye to Twilight. Moreover, all this time we had Sunset's book, with the help of which the girls send messages to Equestria... Imagine an AU where Flash accidentally saw Sunset writing to Twilight and... uh... borrowed the book.

I love human!Twilight, but not that she became a replacement for pony!Twilight. Why not, on the contrary, create an interaction between two Twilights? But seriously, I had another idea for an alternate universe. It features Twilight returning to the human world after the end of the third film but before the start of season six. Why? For some reason Sunset doesn't respond to messages for a long time. Twilight returns with Starlight (some kind of friendship lesson in a parallel world?). They fly out of the portal straight onto human!Twilight and Flash, who are talking about something. Starlight is surprised to see another Twilight. Pony!Twilight explains that this is [Starlight] her student, and they came here because they were worried about the lack of news. Flash asks how they could know about this, and Twilight stutters in confusion. Human!Twilight explains that Sunset has a magic book that allows her to contact another world. Flash becomes sad, but hides it and says that many students are currently busy preparing for the joint ball between Canterlot High and Crystal Prep. Starlight smiles, realizing how different life is in parallel worlds, and invites Twilight to stay and help them. Twilight hesitates, but notices Flash's gaze and agrees. What follows, naturally, will be joint work and clarification of relations. Flash will be visibly upset at not knowing about the book and will bitterly say that she probably has too many responsibilities. Twilight will argue that it's her duty to spread friendship wherever she goes. Flash hesitates to continue this topic and asks why the magic from her world manifests itself so differently here. I didn't think about what would happen next, but I think Twilight will offer Flash to see Equestria with his own eyes. And of course there will be dancing at the ball, because I love dancing in different fandoms.

[al-the-remix]

Ghost!Tommy AU Brainstorming:

Okay I still have a fic to finish, but I've been toying with this idea for afterwards: set during season 6 where Buck returns from his coma dream with the ability to see ghosts. Once back at the 118 he starts seeing mild signs of ghosts everywhere: orbs and partial apparitions, more like echos of memories trapped at the sites of tragedies that full fledged spirits. The one exception is obviously Tommy who appears more realized to him than all the others. Tommy, who's been trapped in the firehouse for 7 (??? what is the timeline) years. 

I need to go rewatch season 6 to figure out some plot and character beats, but I like the idea that as Buck is struggling to come to terms with everything from the coma dream, and all the baggage that comes along with dying and coming back to life, he has this person to talk to that's–at least on the death side of things–been there before. I still want him to meet Natalia, and have a connection with her and they begin to date or are friends who are just hooking up casually (and have a lot more to talk about, lol). But at the same time Buck struggles with being drawn to Tommy like a magnet, this person who isn't even alive. 

I haven't quite settled on what Tommy's backstory is going to be beyond Chim not being able to save him in time during the gas explosion in season 2. But some of the things Buck fears the most are dying and people moving on without him and not remembering him. So when he starts seeing Tommy and realizes that he was part of the 118 and died and…no one ever talks about him? There could be so much potential connection there. (Obviously there's a deeper reason why Hen and Chim don't bring Tommy up, chiefly shame and guilt, but Buck doesn't know that quite yet.)

I don't know if I'd keep the sperm donor plot line. I'm not a hater, but I feel like recovering from dying, a death doula girlfriend, and a ghost boyfriend, is a lot for one guy to deal with all at once. Instead I think I'd like to bring Albert back into the fold in one way or another. I really enjoyed his friendship with Buck and was sad when he pretty much disappeared from the show. I just see this as a fic where the Buckley-Hans really lean on each other. 

I'd like to keep the tone of the fic not too heavy, and retain a good amount of humor even while Buck is thinking he's going a little insane seeing dead people and having a torrid, seemingly doomed, love affair with one of those dead people. 

One of the things I appreciate so much about the show is its ability to balance humor and angst, as well as developing this campy atmosphere where it's totally not out of the realm of possibility to have ghosts, and cursed bracelets, and magic fire truck that can drive you all over Los Angeles in midday traffic without the building burning down before you get there…

I'd prefer a happy ending, but I'll write a heartbreaking one if I think it fits. The difficulty with ghost aus, if you're going to have the love interest come back to life it's got to feel earned, and fit within the rules of the universe you've set up, and that's not always an easy thing to accomplish. 

I think if I wanted to bring Tommy back to life it could go two differently ways: either I could veer into full crack–which I'm not opposed to doing–but is really going to need the right set up (unless we're all cool with Buck and his hot zombie bf 🥰 )

But the more likely option is some time loop shenanigans as a fix-it. Buck is able to solve whatever preternatural puzzle I set up for him with his big brain and endless imagination, fixing whatever bad timeline they're in and making it so Tommy never actually dies. They say their goodbyes and Tommy ““goes back””--whatever that means with context–and Buck's all alone again. The firehouse feels so empty now without Tommy around. And the more days that pass by the more Buck worries that his big plan didn't actually work at all (maybe in here either everyone at the firehouse does actually forget Tommy ever existed for a little while because of yet to be established hand-wavey reasons or Buck's too afraid to ask about him/look Tommy up incase it didn't work and he really did lose him forever–preparing for that reality and living it are two totally different ball games–)

Until one day they have to call in air support at an emergency and suddenly Chim yells “Hey, there's Tommy!” and when Buck whips around sure enough there he is. And Buck's all like “can you introduce me to your friend? 👀” to Chim and Tommy's all like “have we met before? I feel like I know you from somewhere 🤔”. Tommy doesn't remember Buck (right away?) but here's this man who is SO CUTE and hot and smart and funny, and weirdly, like, super into him? And he pulls Chim aside like “why haven't you introduced me to this man before? Have you been holding out on me? What about my romcom happy ending?” And Chim is like “I didn't even know that he was into men!!” Meanwhile, Buck’s just hovering in the background full heart-eyes mode waiting to woo the fuck out of his man (the best he can without sticking his foot in his mouth)...

They exchange numbers and agree to meet for a drink after their respective shifts end and at the bar Tommy asks how Buck knows what beer he prefers, and Buck's all cocky like “I guess I have good taste in more than just my men 😏” and Tommy is caught, hook line and sinker. 

After that it's happily ever after for them, and Natalia is one of Buck's "groomsmen" at the wedding (they're all bffs now.) The end. 😌

[foodfightnovelization]

Chapter 10: Analysis and Discussion

Chapter 10 opens with night falling again in Marketropolis, and the new Brand X products that arrived during the day transforming into full-fledged buildings, replacing the homes of the Ikes wiped out a few chapters ago. They're colorless, bland and sterile- basically, it's the supermarket equivalent of the neighborhood getting gentrified. Dex knows something is deeply wrong and gears up, taking to the streets to find his friend- this is more or less how the scene goes in the movie.

Meanwhile, Hairy Hold is holding a USDA meeting inside the deli case. In the movie it happens inside a fairly generic building with little indication of it being a deli, but let's not split hairs here. Lady X and a bunch of new Brand X Ikes walk into the meeting, and claim to have discovered a plot against cleaning product Ikes. There's an additional line of dialogue here where she says sugar vs. salt is "just the tip of the iceberg lettuce", and General X says "Security around here is down the drain" whereas in the movie he says "down the Draino" but otherwise the scenes are identical.

Despite his claims of innocence, Kung Tofu is blamed for plotting against the cleaning Ikes, and Brand X slowly starts taking over. There are a few additional lines of dialogue here, with Lady X suggesting they institute a curfew under the guise of making everyone feel safe, and when Maximilius suggests bringing back Dex she points out they can't rely on a dog who never even found his own girlfriend. These are fairly minor additions, but I do like that the curfew is Brand X's idea- in the movie it comes out of nowhere, but here we can see they're suggesting it to "help" the other Ikes while actually using it to subjugate them.

Maximilius defends Dex in another line of dialogue unique to the novelization, and Lady X counteres by insisting she won't quit like he did. Polar stresses how dangerous it is, but Lady X just responds with "Don't cry for me, Polar Penguin". In the movie Charlie Tuna gets this line, so I'm guessing he was just replaced with Polar here as to avoid naming a copyrighted brand. (As mentioned in an earlier post, the author also wrote Disney's Wreck-It Ralph novelization which uses a similar method of writing around copyrighted characters.)

Lady X insists she'll take care of Dex, and a sinister smile is exchanged between her Brand X cronies as this chapter draws to a close. This was a fairly short one, but there were some interesting differences between the novelization and the movie, and things are starting to heat up in Marketropolis. Stay tuned for Chapter 11!

[itsclydebitches]

Another thing about how rwby views trauma survivors reacting to their abuse or unfortunate background is that it frames the solution to healing is by serving in armed forces. Weiss and Blake joined Beacon to escape their abuser. Ren and Nora joined Beacon after the loss of their families. Winter joined the military to escape Jacques and I'm assuming will become the new Atlas general after Ironwood's death. The Huntsmen Academies are all framed as these safe havens (literally with Mistral) for anyone who can carry a weapon, meanwhile anyone who can't or doesn't want to join, or joins a group outside of the institution is depicted as bad.

To say that this is all muddied would be a huge understatement because even if we put aside the complicated message of, "Overcome your abuse by learning to punch back," at this point the combined huntsmen-military is no longer presented as a means of escape. Rather, between the rewriting of Winter's history – she has apparently been manipulated by Ironwood this whole time rather than choosing the military as a means of escaping her abuser – as well as the military aligned huntsmen – FNKI aren't heroes like RWBYJNOR anymore, willingly protecting their home, they're children who have been forced into this conflict – there's now this major divide between fighters-on-their-own and fighters-as-part-of-the-institution. We could even read this as extending to the huntsmen academies themselves, given that one has fallen, one was destroyed, and the other lost its figurehead. They used to be presented as havens for struggling individuals... now, not so much. The plot's message is not that heroes win by banding together through established structures that were designed to help those coming from bad circumstances (note how aware Ozpin is of these backstories: Qrow's bandit tribe, Blake's White Fang history, looking into Ruby's defense of the store, etc.), but rather you win by rag-tag individuals making decisions based on friendship.

Yet simultaneously, that divide is by no means neat and tidy (since plenty of stories have that latter message). As we've discussed elsewhere, RWBYJNOR is ingrained in these structures despite the story rejecting them. They got their initial training at Beacon (how many fans have argued that they learned enough there? That they're basically full-fledged huntsmen already? So, that school was pretty important, yeah?). They worked with Ironwood for months. They're using the prestige of their licenses to get people to listen to them. They're hijacking military equipment to give the world orders to prepare for an attack. Ruby became a general in all but title in that moment, in the same way that Weiss became the Remnant equivalent of a cop when she tried to arrest her father. Volumes 6-8 suddenly wanted to send an anti-military message without considering the context of their story (what does a military mean in a world where unambiguously evil monsters attack, as opposed to a world where these "monsters" are minorities?) and they failed to separate the heroes from the structures they so passionately reject. You cannot have the group stand in opposition to Ironwood and everything he represents while also encouraging the audience to oohh and ahhh at Jaune whipping out his huntsmen license to lead a group of civilians to safety. The supposed cruelty of the former and supposed heroism of the latter are meant to exist simultaneously, despite the contradiction. We went from the message that huntsmen academies, including Atlas', are a haven from abuse, poverty, etc. but now, suddenly, certain types of escapes are no longer morally sound. So just ignore how many of the heroes took the "wrong" path.

And then on top of all of that we have Rhodes. RWBY is pushing the individualism message hard nowadays – that a group of friends is better than a general and his soldiers just ignore that Ruby is their leader and they all follow her orders – yet it's Rhodes' individuality that is criticized in Cinder's flashback. He, as a single person, tries to take on the complex situation of helping an abused child and he failed. The fandom's reaction to his efforts is pretty telling because most kept falling back on structural solutions: "Why didn't he just call CPS? Why didn't he get her admitted early like Ruby? Why didn't he approach some superior to fix all this?" Most fans seemed to grudgingly acknowledge that kidnapping Cinder and raising this traumatized kid on the road while hunting grimm was... not the best idea, so they turned to the very things they've rejected in Ruby's part of the story: laws that people have to follow, schools with an hierarchy that can serve as support, someone above you whose orders you follow and whose seniority can help you in a tough situation. In Cinder's flashback people wanted Remnant to have structural solutions because, clearly, leaving one flawed man to fix this situation on his own didn't turn out so well. They (and the writers) just don't want Ruby to have to obey those same structures because Ruby is the title hero they've grown to love over eight years. We feel like we know Ruby and we assume that if Ruby is in charge she'd totally make the best decision. But Rhodes? He's a stranger, someone we see for less than ten minutes, so his flaws are far easier to home in on. Few are willing to acknowledge that Ruby is Rhodes on a much larger scale, trying things because she wants to help, but ultimately doing far more harm because she's incredibly inexperienced and is just running on her own, individual ideas, not any of the structures in place that are meant to deal with such crises. Rhodes' "Idk what else to do, so I guess I'll teach a tortured kid how to defend herself and hope for the best" is Ruby's "Idk what else to do, so I guess I'll drop Atlas on Mantle, leave with the Relics, move everyone to Vacuo, and hope for the best." The primary difference is that while Rhodes is punished through his death and the narrative makes it clear that this was the wrong choice (Cinder murders everyone and becomes a villain), whereas Ruby's screwups are continually framed as heroic. And that's because the show can't make up its mind about this structural vs. individual approach. Do huntsmen need to be held responsible for their actions, or do they need complete freedom to do the right thing with the belief that anything that goes wrong was completely out of their hands (Yangs' take)? Well, that depends entirely on which huntsmen we're talking about. RWBY's idea that some people are intrinsically good and others intrinsically bad means that the writing – and the fandom – can demand rogue huntsmen be held accountable while simultaneously cheering the group running away from arrest; curse Clover for following orders while simultaneously gushing over how loyal the group is to Ruby; condemn lies that Ozpin gives while simultaneously justifying the ones Ruby gives, etc. RWBY has no clear message, just the insistence that whatever our heroes does is good. The path they've taken, learning to fight to escape horrific situation is a good thing. The path Rhodes laid out, teaching Cinder to fight to escape a horrific situation, is a bad thing. It comes down to the characters, not the situation.

Finally, yeah, there's a complete lack of acknowledgment that either option – structural or individual – alienates those who don't know how to fight. This is seen most clearly in Whitley who asks why he'd want to be a huntsmen when he can afford an army, yet when armies are painted as unquestionably bad, the story won't admit that this leaves Whitley stranded. He had no way to escape his abuse like Winter and Weiss did. He had no way to defend himself when Weiss shoved a weapon in his face. The story never had to grapple with where it's left characters who can't fight and who shouldn't make the evil choice of relying on soldiers because Whitley unexpectedly got on Weiss' good side and gained her protection. It doesn't matter anymore because Whitley is a Good Guy now who the group will take care of. But if he'd continued to disagree? Gone to his room instead of calling Klein? If, in the future, he does something that annoys his sisters and they decide to ignore him like they did before? Well, Whitley is screwed. In a world besieged by grimm – with attacks growing with each volume – he wanted to rely on an army to help solve these problems. But then that was said to be wrong, the general died, and the army, far as we can tell, was left behind to die as well. So what's left? Rely on the huntsmen. Just hope that there are enough (there aren't), that you get a good one (not a Lionheart, or a Raven, or a Cardin, or a Dudley, or...), and that the good ones care enough to bother protecting you. Even if the story hadn't gone out of its way to show how terribly flawed individual huntsmen are – from Lionheart's devastating betrayal to Qrow teaming up with Tyrian – from a practical perspective it's just not enough. Volume 8 showed without a doubt that in a war like this, one built on a witch's ability to summon endless grimm, an army is necessary. Salem would have been into Atlas in a second without those soldiers holding her forces back. Yang, Jaune, and Ren wouldn't have gotten to the whale without that army. Yet the story never acknowledges this, instead pretending like the few individuals we see – the limited numbers the characters keep admitting are horrendously limited – could have somehow saved the day without that assistance. Everything we're seeing nowadays – which characters can use these institutions to escape abuse, which can lie to help the war, which should rely on structures as opposed to their own ideas and physical power – is a mess of inconsistent, often contradictory messages.

[overdrivels]

TWtaH Notes

I’m finally free. It took three years and nearly 150k words, but I’m finally done. I can’t believe it. 

It started off as a simple idea and a simple premise: a chef!reader who, while knife sharpening, catches Hanzo’s attention. It then evolved into a full-fledged fic with a plot and plot twists. Originally, it was supposed to be around 10 chapters long, but then it grew out of control over the years as I tried to figure out how to end what I started. 

In addition to being a redemption fic, this was also an information dump fic. Since this is the very first slowburn I have ever finished and I have the feeling I won’t have much opportunity to do the same ever again--I don’t think any other fandom would give me the ability to showcase all these tidbits like Overwatch does--I literally threw as much knowledge as I could reasonably incorporate as possible.

About plot changes:

Most of the original plot points survived the writing process, some minor ones didn’t for plot related reasons, so this surprisingly went better than I thought it would. 

There was supposed to be another scene where Chef faced off against Reaper in chapter 20 or so, but upon reassessing Reaper’s character, I decided he wouldn’t do that, especially not against civilians or put himself in harm’s way just to say something to Chef. He wouldn’t even say anything to his family in the comics, what makes anyone think he’d do anything to someone he had even less of a personal relationship with?

There were supposed to be more scenes about Chef’s fencing, but I couldn’t fit it in and it ended up being a one-trick pony plot device. It wasn’t supposed to be that way, but that’s how it turned out. There was supposed to be a scene where Chef fights back against Talon during their infiltration of the Watchpoint.

There were points where Hanzo himself talked his way out of situations and forced me to change the plot. In the kitchen when he first meets Chef face-to-face, he wasn’t supposed to get the chef to forgive him which is the biggest plot deviation I’ve had and it forced me to reconsider large sections of the story. Honestly, I think it’s for the better though because I was really at a loss as to how to progress the original plot under those conditions.

I also wanted to emphasize that when Chef left, there was increased tension between the members. There was little commonality joining them all together except for the fact they all needed to eat. In order for some parties to work, you have to have your support characters, and in that case, it’d be Chef. But I seem to have bumbled through that bit and made it less impactful so if I ever got a chance to rewrite this, I’d probably stress this bit more.

Symmetra was supposed to have a much bigger role in this, somehow she fell to the wayside with that one plot change in the kitchen I mentioned before. On the flipside, Ana and McCree got a way bigger role than expected. 

One of the biggest plot changes was Hanzo hating peppers. Originally he was supposed to hate onions but I thought there was way too much onion in Japanese cuisine to omit them, so I thought of something that would seem more ‘childish’.

To be fair, I also don’t really like peppers all that much either. But I sure as hell love onions.

The proposal with the miso soup at the end, the plot twist where the chefs are the real treasure, and some other minor details have been there since the beginning of the idea’s conception. Things like Reaper trading Overwatch’s life for the tamale, the name of the restaurant, and Hanzo’s fight with Genji only came after the fic was being written. 

Real life:

Covid really took its toll on me since a lot of this fic revolved around food, tasting it, experiencing it, making it, etc. I lost a good portion of my taste and smell, and it’s not back 100% even months later, so a lot of what I begin to describe after a certain point is just based on memory. If a pre-pandemic world, I would have been running around the city, sampling foods and writing down my impressions, but with things as they were, it didn’t pan out that way.

I tried to stuff as many of my favorite foods (and not so favorite foods) here as much as possible. There were a lot of foods I omitted because there’s only so much I could fit in here. A companion compilation fic of the Overwatch characters eating their favorite foods or just eating food in general made by Chef sounds really appealing right now.

May, June, and July made me really want to expand the story and include things in the fic that would turn it ‘problematic’ or at least morally ambiguous. If I did that, this fic would never be finished. 

Characterization and development:

Junkrat and Roadhog are much more docile in this story than I would have headcanoned them simply because food security is life-changing. I really liked the idea of Roadhog using his farming skills and being less homicidal with the right environment. They both know food is sacred. 

Argus 20 is in reference to Argus Panoptes, the all-seeing many eyed giant from greek mythology. The 20 comes from “hindsight is 20-20” (but now 2020 has a very different connotation and I’m thinking it’s pretty fitting). The reason for this is because she oversaw a lot of what was happening especially in the front of house. It’s not mentioned in the story, but she oversaw things like purchasing the restaurant, setting up the dummy accounts, organizing and obfuscating the donations, etc.

In case there was any confusion, ‘Tanuja Deshmukh Singh’ is Asim’s deadname. When he left Overwatch and became Asim Singh, his family disowned him. He was then free to live as himself, but he never discarded his last name because he still wanted to be connected to his family in some vague way no matter how much they disliked or denied his existence.

Head Chef Richard has been in jail. His backstory is basically after firing his staff to protect them from the fall out, he basically told the press he fired them for insubordination and took the fall for the kitchens and got quietly arrested. He was sent to the same prison that Chef would end up at. He’s not a very honest man, I don’t think, but he’s a character who was molded by the story and its needs rather than being a pre-established OC. 

I kind of wanted to write the fic in a way where Argus and Asim weren’t bad guys but people who were forced to make difficult decisions because of the position they were put in by Chef and by Talon. Cause, you know, sometimes you do things to hurt people without realizing it.

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to push another ship in the background. If you see hints of different pairings here and there, you may be seeing it right because I kept flip-flopping between chapters as to whether I wanted to or not, and if I decided I did, I kept changing the pairings.

Hanzo. Where do I even start with this guy? I had a really tough time trying to stick to one interpretation of his character. I kept reading other fics and going, “Yeah. Yeah! I want that!” But then it just became a huge mish-mash of characterizations until I wasn’t sure who he was anymore. But I clung onto the thought of “he’s the first son of an Asian household dealing with his spoiled brother” to help get me through it. It reminds me of that tweet that goes, “You think you can hurt me? I’m the eldest daughter in an asian family.” It was so relatable. Channeling eldest sibling in asian family vibes. 

Chef. It was so hard. It was so damn hard writing a faceless character for so many words. I can usually do it in a one-shot because I can get away with not mentioning stuff, but in a slowburn?? It’s so difficult. Multiple times I had to stop myself or revise things because there were characters talking about Chef and I didn’t want to make the dialogue unnatural by saying ‘chef’ ‘chef’ over and over again. There were other moments like Soldier carrying Chef out of the Cellar and I was like: “What if the reader is taller than Soldier?!” It was a struggle. The other struggle was characterization. There were so many in-story stressful moments that I wanted Chef to start crying at but the timing of it was so frequent that I had to nix most of them or risk making Chef unrelatable. 

lol i’ve made several pseudo-cameos in the story because I’m shameless. 

Miscellaneous:

Man, my style changed so many times throughout the story. At some point I ended up writing outlines made solely of dialogue and wrote the story around it. It was oddly distressing when I realized my words wouldn’t come out like they used to.  

This fic has seen me through a ridiculous amount of crap. I kind of wished I kept a journal or something because these past three years have been nuts. 

After this, I’ll probably retire from writing Overwatch and then go into my usual writing hibernation that spans about 4 years before I reemerge with an unquenchable thirst for something stupid. 

In my nearly 20 years of writing fanfic, this is the first slowburn I’ve ever completed. To be fair, the last time I even tried was like...over 10 years ago when mediaminer was still a thing and didn’t ban CYOAs.

This was also the longest single fic I’ve ever written. I have wirtten 200k in a year before but never for any single thing.

God, this was hard. I partially did it to prove that you don’t need to use placeholders like ‘Y/N’ and stuff like that and it was possible to write a slowburn with gender neutral stuff, but I had to cheat a bit. But it’s done. 

I’ve worked in the restaurant business for a few years but not as a chef. It wasn’t even high-end either. I wanted to talk about the work conditions because it’s pretty tough in the kitchens and the amount of drugs and vices people turn to and the conditions in which people come to work is nuts. 

I wanted to cover a lot of controversial topics to see if I could but it just didn’t fit in the story. I wanted to tap into things like social justice, racism, prejudices, political landscapes, and so on. Even within Overwatch, I’d imagine there’s a lot of tensions stemming from just basic ideologies. I wanted to see if I could write about both (or more) sides of challenging arguments and still remove the author’s opinions from the story, but I’d imagine that’ll bring its own complications. Last thing I wanted was to start a fight in the comments or something.

I almost made the crew travel to Asia with implications of a changed geo-political sphere from today. Like...the status of Taiwan would’ve been interesting to touch upon, but I didn’t feel like I had the knowledge to expand on it enough.

Almost every waking of my life, I have thought or worked on this fic. During meetings, during conferences, during client calls, while I’m on public transportation, in different countries. I don’t know what to do with myself now.

Anyway, if you have any questions or anything or just want to shout at me, inbox is open.. For now I’m just going to lament over the fact that Genshin Impact gives me motion sickness and I can’t play despite working so hard to roll Mona.

[potatoesandsunshine]

Campaign 2 Wrap Up: Anna Potatoesandsunshine Edition

Seemed like it would be fun to go through all the fan content I made for this campaign and try to find at least one thing I like about each thing! Kind of like looking back through a photo album. Under the cut because as it turns out, I wrote kind of a lot! (As in, 21 fics and 3 playlists kind of a lot!)

the sea, once it casts its spell (fjord speculation, what’s up with all this ocean stuff?? the fic)

The first thing I wrote for c2, wayyy in the beginning of things. We had no idea about Uk’otoa or Avantika or anyone at this point, it was pure ocean vibes for my favorite warlock. I really like how hard I leaned in on the “the ocean follows Fjord to land” idea.

so many things will fill my life (but only one will do) (post-campaign cali/jester fluff, written the night of the cali episode and so sweet it could rot your teeth)

This one is just good. I just did good with this one. I’m one of those people who hates their own work the night of posting and then when looking back at it goes, “Wow, this is great.” My favorite thing is the little gifts sent along with the letters! Cali was so fun and cute :)

when the dust does roam (Beau study up to Episode 42, 2k words of Beau poking at the idea of grief)

Best thing I did in this fic was have Caleb-through-Frumpkin bugging Beau about getting some sleep. They really... they’re siblings, your honor. 

“  “Fuck off, I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” Beau picks the bird up and sets him in the hood of her own cloak, out of reach of any weasels or startled monks in the morning. It’d suck to have to tell Caleb that his Frumpkin got eaten by Sprinkle.” C’mon guys, let’s do the sibling dance.

keep your swords out by your sides (the idea for this was, What If Fjord Has Nightmares From Uk’otoa Every Night and just doesn’t remember them)

Assigning everybody a word Uk’otoa had said for each nightmare in this was a challenge; I went into it knowing I wanted Caleb for Learn and Caduceus for Consume and had to guess the rest - for an angry eye snake Uk’otoa didn’t give us a ton of quotes. 

“ He reaches over and runs a hand along the wall of the ship. From his touch, mushrooms begin sprouting.” Caduceus starting to decompose the Mistake in the middle of cooking was maybe the best moment in this story for me. Like, yeah. Yeah. Ok you funky little grave cleric.

strange but not a stranger (Caleb & Jester, in the immediate aftermath of Caleb’s charm in Episode 55)

the first of my “the Mighty Nein won’t have these conversations with each other in canon so they have to be had in fic” ideas that turned into a full-fledged story. I still had not discovered the em dash at this point, so the formatting of this makes me cringe a little bit, but this fic was really about The Emotions Of Being Out Of Control which turned out to be a very big Thing for the Mighty Nein.

now this story was when swords were humble (fake academia mixed with a Yasha study)

Honestly I’m still obsessed with the AU I made here where Yasha was just awakening every sword she used without knowing it?? Why did I use that here only?? That might come back. But the best part about this fic is the citations; me at my most in-joke and ridiculous.

through the teeth of this tempest (Written in the immediate aftermath of Episode 69, Yasha internally trying to break Obann’s control over the course of a month.)

The most “I wrote this to cope with canon” fic out of all of them. I was crying writing this, I was so upset that Yasha was gone ugh just remembering it. Still waiting for past me to discover the em dash, I genuinely don’t know why I didn’t know how to do it and I’ve thought about going back and editing all of these but I’m just Not Gonna Do All That. Anyway, I really like how Yasha catches lightning with her sword in this. We all really manifested that happening.

nothing more than what the losers settle for (Time travel, a series of oneshots where each member of the m9 sans Caduceus went back to a different point in the timeline and murdered Trent Ikithon)

This was my longest fic for c2, so I’m mostly just glad it got finished. This happened somewhere around the time Matt released that set of notes that mentioned Trent in more detail and I hated him so much I just had to write him dying six times. That speaks for itself.

Revolutionary!Fjord was also a good turn. He could pull it off, I think.

we’re gonna show ‘em a thing, or two, or three (Jester growing up fluff!)

I really like how I did Jester & Artagan in this, even though he barely appears. Someone better at songwriting than me please write the Dragon Song. Em dash makes an appearance here but the formatting is still wrong. I Am Once Again Asking For Proper Use Of The Em Dash.

the best things (happen while you’re dancing) (Mid-Episode 97 Divergence, Jester taking the reins at the party + hints of jester/beau/yasha bc i still love my girls so much)

Jester’s a little out of character in this, but not wildly so, and it was for the purposes of a Trapped By Societal Convention plot that I wanted her to mastermind so I think it was fine in the end. I’m still fascinated by the way she unbalanced Ludinus Da’leth in basically every interaction they had, and while their scene feels pretty cliche in this... the cliches are there for a reason. They’re so fun to write.

Em dash my beloved, there you are.

plus thirty-one varieties of sacramental wine (The Galavant crossover that truly nobody asked for, Beau + the monks)

Yeah, this one’s just fun. Not much more to say about it. Critical Role and Galavant are both fantasy, but they’re honestly pretty different in tone, and it was fun to write Beau dropped into a comedy musical.

oh we were sea-bound and aimless at best (Purely angst, a What If The Fjord & Orly Resurrections Didn’t Work fic)

Made myself care about Marius with this one, y’all. What more can I say? Beau having to go from first mate to captain was just... deliciously painful, because she would.

lost my shape trying to act casual (Beau & Yasha during travelercon, another mid-episode fic, this time of 104)

Yasha comforting Beau, who feels guilty for not feeling guilty... That Mighty Nein wasn’t lying, Mind Control and Autonomy can be themes. Another in the  “the Mighty Nein won’t have these conversations with each other in canon so they have to be had in fic” tank. They really just... didn’t open up to each other for a long time, which made sense, but I wanted them to.

so long as you don’t mind a little dying (Beau & Caduceus, sometime in the peace talks arc)

Keeping with the Mighty Nein Please Talk To Each Other theme, I feel like I did a pretty good job with the late-night conversation energy of this fic. This was at a time when I was looking at Caduceus, can opener in hand, ready to make this firbolg open up about his feelings. Beau in this is prickly and confrontational but only in service of her friend’s well-being.

amber light, bending (Eiselcross speculation, Widofjord and all the messiness therein)

THE widofjord fic of my two widofjord fics. The blueprint. The better one. Finally I got the dynamic figured out. I maintain that the tower is an absolute expression of Caleb’s love for his friends. The way that neither of them have the braincell in this fic... yeah this one is just good.

and a blade between them (Widofjord happening... sometime.)

Okay so this is not as good as amber light and I will never be able to look at it and like it as much, but it was still fun to write. Anyway, the intimacy of shaving someone else. That is good. The tag “if they didn’t want me to think about the blood pact they shouldn’t have made the blood pact” is the most useful takeaway from this fic and is the driving force behind the Fjord/Jester/Caleb fic I’m working on now, so it wasn’t a waste of time or anything.

feel the ground beneath my feet turn into the sky (Post-Campaign Astrid-retires-to-Nicodranas, Astrid/Jester)

This is another one where I’m like “Yeah, this is just good.” Packed full of Wizard Fashion, Artagan making an appearance to rope Astrid into having a happier future, and the power of Going To The Seaside. Good for you, fic-Astrid.

spend your days biting your own neck (Role-reversal where Beau is the one mind-controlled this time and Yasha is the one chasing after her, set very early in the Tomb Takers arc)

So much of this fic is about not saying things aloud - Beau’s POV spends a good chunk on body language and Yasha writes multiple letters on paper and in her own head - but devotion bleeding through anyway because there’s nowhere else for it to go. The two of them go tumbling over a cliff together at the end but Yasha has wings, ugh. Yeah this was a good one.

and blow the dry leaves from the tree (Somewhere before the beauyasha date but otherwise timeline-nonspecific Nicodranas, Yasha & Yeza become friends)

Yasha & Yeza making pancakes together when neither of them know how to do so... is good. This fic is very much about grief sneaking in, but it’s even more about finding someone to share the moment with you. I think these two have more in common than we think.

oh, lend a mending hand (Caleb & Caduceus during Beau’s tombstone meditation in Episode 130)

I wrote this entire fic as an excuse for Caleb and Caduceus to hug and it does what it says on the tin. Got em.

it’s about the passing of measures (Beauyasha at the end of Episode 134, Aeor speculation)

This fic got extremely sidetracked because I rediscovered the marble machine during it and I do not apologize for that. I still really like the idea that Aeor as a whole, not just the Cognouza, is somewhat-alive. Too much magic and too much death for it to be anything else, in my mind. And I’m a sap for hurt/comfort.

the blumentrio playlist nobody asked for

If I think too much about how deep in each other these three people are I will cry. Made myself a soundtrack for those tears. 

the caleb playlist nobody asked for

what if this angsty wizard had a playlist of songs that mostly just... make me want to dance? that question was answered here.

the caduceus playlist nobody asked for

songs about home, leaving home, dying, changing, becoming someone new, coming home and finding it’s changed... this to me is caduceus.

yeah... this campaign has been fun!! I probably won’t stop making things about it; I still write about Vox Machina, for crying out loud, but... it feels good to lay it all out like this. It’s been a long few years, and it’s wild to be seeing the end of it now.

[nichester]

Review: Extracurricular

Media Type: Korean Drama

Genre: Teen drama/Crime/Noir

Summary:  Ji Soo, a diligent but poor high school student is saving for college and paying rent by moonlighting as a pimp.  His precarious balance of school and work begins to fall apart when another student, Gyu-ri, discovers the truth about his job and wants in.  Things spiral quickly out of their control.

Why you might care:  If you enjoy watching teenagers do crime and get realistically in over their heads; if you are interested in dark shows with Really Good performances (in particular from the leads, who have enough chemistry for us to buy their toxic but unbreakable bond) or if you are interested in any of the themes of crime and class struggle.

Why you might not care:  Give this one a pass if you don't like your shows dark and/or are looking for a happy ending. Importantly, pay attention to potential triggers in this show! (Suicidal ideation, self harm, violence against women, sexual assault, hallucinations, and torture all occur, although not always explicitly, on this show.  Feel free to message me if you need more detailed warnings!)

Trope Bingo! Partners in crime/Bonnie and Clyde; enemies to sorta? lovers, literally I have no idea how to categorize their relationship

If you liked _______, try ______!

Can't say I've watched much in this vein! I've heard that School 2013 or Sky Castle are both excellent dramas about struggling high schoolers, but which have less grim endings.  The Get Down is a great netflix show also about marginalized teenagers struggling to pursue their dreams despite the crime and violence they're surrounded by.

~Spoilers (not anything detailed but just to be safe) and overall thoughts under the cut~

Plot:  I'll be honest, I'm not a big plot girl. Unless there's something stand-out about a story's plot, I tend to consider it more as a vehicle for character development than anything else. In this show's case, I was on the edge of my seat in horror for most episodes. The plot unfolds in a seemingly inevitable negative spiral that takes all of our characters down and leaves them far worse off than when they started. This show did rely a lot on coincidence, both positive and negative. Usually I would consider this a flaw, but I think it worked well here as a way to portray a random, unfeeling world around the characters and to emphasize the precarious nature of their situation.

Central character(s):  I was really attached to both of the leads. They had the convincing contradictions and vulnerabilities of deeply troubled teenagers, and their different traumas and personalities played off of each other well. For all of Ji Soo's smarts and skill, he has a startling naivete and a tendency to panic when things don't go according to plan. Gyu-ri is equally smart, but loud and manipulative in contrast to Ji Soo's awkwardness and isolation. Gyu-ri pushes Ji Soo to try to expand his business to make up for his unexpected losses (decisions that drive the plot), but this goes against his every cautious instinct.  Ji Soo tends to focus on maintaining what little he has, while Gyu-ri fully embraces the philosophy "the best defense is a good offense." Indeed, Gyu-ri is reckless to the point of suicidal, but the later episodes reveal a protective instinct that seems to be as unexpected to her as it is to the audience, an instinct which continually drives her to throw herself into harms way in defense of Ji Soo.  The strongest development that both characters had was in their relationship with each other, which led them to be both braver and more open than they had ever been in their lives. But their involvement with each other and their reluctance to cut ties is part of how they got to where the show leaves them--cornered and bloody.

Romance:  Technically this show has no romance, but I think it's fair to say that the leads develop an obsessive, Bonnie and Clyde-style relationship that is partially romantic in nature. Ji Soo has a distant crush on Gyu-ri at the beginning of the show, which she exploits. Honestly, some of the funniest moments in the show come from the contradiction between Ji Soo's side-hustle as a pimp and his complete and total inability to speak normally in Gyu-ri's presence. His disillusionment with her is genuinely painful, but necessary for their relationship to become one of equals. Their grudging partnership is abrasive, but their bond feels very convincing. No matter how much they resent each other, they're more strongly drawn to each other. (Watching Ji Soo pack up her discarded chip bags to bring with him on the run is just….. Its so….. Kids make me cry ok!)  It's clear for both of these lonely and deeply messed up kids that simply having a partner--someone who they can reveal their ugly sides to and depend on--is an intoxicating feeling. By the end of the show, they'd kill for each other and probably die for each other. The show smartly doesn't ever "consummate" the romance--they don't really have enough downtime when they're not actively fighting to make it convincing, and despite everything they've done both characters are still very young.  If there is a second season, this is a ship that is likely to sail (but possibly crash and burn).

Side Characters/Side plots:  In a show like this one, which depicts a marginalized and frequently abused group of women, the presence of sympathetic characters who are also members of that group is crucial, or the drama would feel exploitative. This show's most prominent side plot depicts an underage sex worker, her post-traumatic stress response to a violent client, her struggle over whether or not to speak to the police, and her desire to find genuine human connection, whether it is with her shitty boyfriend or with her pimp. (Their odd father/daughter relationship was one of the most moving parts of the show!) While I thought the writing was sympathetic to Minhee's situation, she is frequently used as a reminder of the human consequences of the other character's actions. This is both good and bad--it's important to remind the characters and the viewer of how damaging their behavior is, but it also risks treating her as a more of a tool for the lead's development than a thoroughly explored character. Up until the last episode I think the writers gave her a distinct enough arc to avoid this pitfall, but depending on her ultimate fate (in a theoretical season 2) I could change my mind.

Tone:  The tone is dark, tense, and constantly on the verge of slipping into chaos. Hallucinatory sequences play out as Ji Soo and Gyu-ri imagine themselves killing people, destroying things, or being buried alive. These sequences emphasize the character's instability, while also establishing the camera as an unreliable narrator of events in a way that pays off in the ambiguous final moments. The fantastic acting is buoyed by the directing to depict the precarious state of the leads' minds as their situation spirals further out of their control. Ji Soo's scenes feel claustrophobic and paralyzing--when he ventures out of his apartment to talk to Gyu-ri or to go to the café you get the blinking, shuffling sense of something emerging from a cave. Gyu-ri, on the other hand, is a loose cannon, and her scenes have a jittery, dangerous edge to them. As a whole, the show is excruciatingly tense and frustratingly unresolved.

Theme:  This show is a full-fledged tragedy. It is a brilliant example of a negative change arc, with all of the characters taking more and more drastic actions while still managing to retain our loyalty. I think the writer's are clear that although none of these kids have made good choices, the real tragedy lies in how they have been abandoned, used, or neglected by the adults in their lives. The few adults who show any care for them are either relatively powerless themselves (like Mr. Lee and their teacher) or too late to avert disaster (like the prosecutor). Extracurricular is a grim look at how we fail vulnerable children to the point that even a boring, average life seems like an impossible dream.

[butterflydm]

The Untamed Rewatch (ep 10)

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There's a lot of plot movement in this episode! Plus not one, not two, but THREE of WWX's antagonist parallels feature in it, in addition to the partnership parallel of SongXiao. Very exciting for me. ❤️

Xue Yang is revealed on a roof. There are… there are a lot of important roof moments in CQL. I also just straight-up love the composition of this shot, it has a lot of depth. There's Xue Yang on the roof, the hanging bodies in bright red under him, then Lan Zhan and Wei Ying in the foreground.

So… Xue Yang is a terrible person but a really great character. Here, though… ah. The man in black waits on a roof, standing elevated over the bodies of his victims and ready to challenge the people who are here to call him to task for his crimes, then a hero dressed all in white flies in to challenge him. From the point of view of the cultivation world, that's the story that started to (was supposed to) happen during the fight in eps 31-32.

Xue Yang and Wei Wuxian are only superficially alike. Their hearts are very different. But that's one of the themes that I enjoy — how differently things look when you only see them from the outside. Visually and on the surface, WWX & LWJ match up to either Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen or Song Zichen and Xiao Xingchen. But once you scratch the surface, it becomes more clear that WWX's heart is nothing like Xue Yang's.

I love that WWX wants to stand back and observe before acting, here. Contrary to what might be assumed about his impulsive nature, he's very perceptive and strategic, and it's enjoyable to watch that here. He acts to level the playing field, then stays out of the fight to assess the fighters and when he does act, it's very calculated. This is one of the things that makes him a good teacher way later on, I think.

I also like that we see Xue Yang appreciates WWX's skills and more whimsical approach to things. So, one of the things that separates WWX from Xue Yang is that WWX has a sense of perspective and proportion (...actually, now that I think about it, this is also one of the things that separates WWX from MY/JGY, though in a different way). Like, one of the reasons XY is fun to watch is that he's generally always having a good time even in situations when it's extremely inappropriate. Whereas that may be what LWJ thought about WWX when he first met him, but he realized there are things (moral and ethical things) that WWX is quite serious about and doesn't joke over.

I also love the mutual admiration society that goes on after Xue Yang is captured, and Xiao Xingchen says nice things about our kiddos and then Lan Wangji turns it around and says nice things about him back. It's polite but it's also very sweet.

Xue Yang laughing over the hypocrisy of the honored cultivators — another WWX/Yiling Patriarch parallel moment there.

We also get another early moment of Lan Zhan currently refusing to do a thing that he will do with all his heart in the future, which is hold Suibian for WWX.

And then we get more detective work from WWX & LWJ — searching Xue Yang, realizing that the evidence no longer points to Xue Yang still having the Yin Metal, WWX working through his thoughts about it out loud. I really do love the partnership vibe.

I also have feelings about Jiang Cheng on one side of WWX, LWJ on the other side. They're in pale blue outer robes of slightly different shades, but the color underneath is very different and matches their clan. The color choices for the clothes on this show feel very deliberate, so while I might read the wrong things into it, I don't think I'm wrong for reading into it at all.

Xue Yang and WWX's outfits are so similar. Really, the main differences are WWX having red accents and Xue Yang having gold ones. But the main colors and silhouettes just… yes. The conversation here, about personal vs the wider picture, is a reoccuring theme as well. Because those things are hard to separate — the personal grudges affect the world as a whole when people with power are the ones with the grudges (again, a theme that will come up with JGY). Xue Yang doesn't have political power, but he has a skill and knowledge set that are useful to people in power, so he has more freedom to do terrible things and get away with it than something without those skills and knowledge would.

Meng Yao and Nie Huaisang are here! 

I do love this for Nie Huaisang's characterization — he was hesitant to come when it was just him and just a few young cultivators his own age, but once he has some serious backup, he immediately came to help. He does want to be helpful but he knows his own strengths.

We get the second mention here of Nie Mingjue being known for being forthright and honest with his judgements (Lan Xichen had mentioned it previously). It's something he's widely known for, it seems.

...I hadn't remembered that Wei Wuxian had said his bit about himself and Lan Zhan working together out of like-mindedness in front of Nie Huaisang and Meng Yao. I remembered Jiang Cheng, of course, but I hadn't remembered the other plot-important people who heard that said. The show really does set up this specific dynamic where the people who are involved in the main plot are all very aware that there's a special bond between WWX and LWJ. And Jiang Cheng's reaction is also in front of Meng Yao — I'm sure that he remembered this moment in the future, when he was poking at Jiang Cheng's ego-related issues about WWX. Because just like he did in front of Nie Huaisang in the earlier episode, here WWX separates himself out with Lan Wangji specifically, excluding everyone else from their partnership.

I love this lovely moment of validation that WWX gets from XXC, where XXC says that Baoshan would be happy to know him if she had the chance to meet him. And, again, I love that the person connected to WWX is the LWJ parallel. This is one of the moments when CQL just feels like a show that… even though many sad or terrible things happen in the story… the show wants to give these characters moments of kindness and absolution. It just feels very… affectionate. The show feels like it was made with real, genuine love and sympathy for the characters. That's one of the things that I like best about it, honestly. It feels tender, even in the hard parts. It wants to be kind.

Nie Huaisang really does admire regal gentleman. He was all admiring over LWJ, and now he's the same over XXC and Song Zichen. And I also absolutely love how much this meeting affects both WWX and LWJ. WWX is the talker, so he gets the lines about how he wants to have that kind of life, but we can tell LWJ is just as deeply affected by how he watches them leave. And I assume the show already knew it couldn't actually show WWX and LWJ as full-on cultivation partners in the end, so they used this as a way of showing us that this is the path (being partners together) that they're both starting to desire, and they trust us to do the math at the end of episode 50.

Meng Yao is the one who passes along the information about the Wen Clan demanding every great clan to send at least one 'direct disciple' (important? full-fledged? family? I'm not certain of what it means exactly, though Nie Huaisang says he's the only one for the Nie clan, so family seems likely) for training. I love how WWX immediately takes this opportunity to say nice things about the Lans. He whined when he was there, but now that he's not in Gusu anymore, he's already nostalgic over it. Oh, honey. 

So, Meng Yao must already be formulating his plan to… hmm, go undercover? Play both sides? He's always looking for opportunities to advance himself. I feel like we can safely assume that. He's already been rejected by his father and is probably trying to think of ways to prove himself in order to get the public recognition that he wants. Those are the assumptions I'm currently making.

WWX is so thrilled to addressed directly by NMJ, wow! Look at that smile. Then NMJ says nice things about him and Jiang Cheng, and WWX is just over the moon. Cute, cute, cute! Meanwhile, NMJ addresses LWJ just as 'Wangji' like LXC does, so they know each other a lot better. Yeah, unless I get contradictory info, I am on the 'NMJ went to the Cloud Recesses and he and LXC became good friends and this is part of why LXC thought to suggest a similar idea to his brother' train of thought.

Then we have the sentencing of Xue Yang. It's interesting that we see both WWX and Meng Yao react similarly to Nie Mingjue wanting to immediately kill Xue Yang, though I'm not sure if Meng Yao would have spoken up if WWX hadn't — he might not consider his position secure enough to do that. Once WWX makes the initial argument, Meng Yao backs him up, but, yeah. I'm not sure if he would have made the initial argument himself.

Ah, it makes me quite sad, honestly, to see Nie Huaisang, Wie Wuxian, and Jiang Cheng being so admiring of Meng Yao's arguments. Because Meng Yao really did screw himself over. He was talented and smart and capable of winning admiration from others, but he was so focused on what he didn't have that he couldn't see what he'd already achieved. He threw away a good position with a good family in hopes of winning recognition from someone who didn't even deserve an ounce of admiration.

But I do… understand why he felt like it wasn't enough? Because even though he had won admiration from strong cultivators, many people still looked down on him for being a "prostitute's son" and he didn't have enough power to make that stop (as we see in the next scene). And I do think that's… I mean, that's what it was about for him (I mean, that and his incredible ability to hold onto a grudge no matter what. that's also a factor). Just trying to get enough power and enough reputation to make the whispers stop. And there's never enough power for that. No matter how much power he amassed, it would never be enough. Becoming the actual leader of the entire cultivation world still didn't give him the power to make people not judge him for his parentage, and he wasn't, for whatever reason, capable of being like LWJ or WWX and saying 'screw reputation, I want to do what's right'. And so he trapped himself into a doomed cycle that elevated him up higher and higher but then inevitably led to his own destruction. A tragedy, yes, but one built by his own hands.

Still, you know, I watch that scene with Meng Yao and the guard captain and I'm like. okay, yeah. I get why he killed the guy and tried to frame him for Xue Yang's escape. It was awful and he shouldn't have, but I understand the motivations. Just having to be polite and give out a customer-service smile, over and over, to people who are disrespecting you (and your mom)… it's exhausting and soul-killing.

Hmm, when WWX first crosses over to stand next to LWJ, the timing felt a little random, but then I realized it's connected to the whole thing he's been stressing since the Yin Metal trip started.

He sees himself and LWJ as the partners on this, and everyone else is a little bit on the outside.

I like Nie Mingjue's facial hair — it does a good job, I think, of displacing him forward in time compared to the rest of the cast, and making them all seem like agemates compared to the slightly older NMJ. I like his whole character design, tbh.

Oh my god! WWX suggests here turning a piece of Yin Metal into a weapon. Which is. Exactly what he does later on. He literally suggests right here the thing that he does later on that wins the war. Huh.

Another important rooftop scene — WWX goes to sleep on the roof over LWJ's quarters, instead of sleeping in an actual bed. These ridiculous boys with their ridiculous crushes, I swear. And LWJ is already falling hopelessly in love with him. My heart overflows. They are so incredibly, ridiculously romantic and I will never recover emotionally.

I like the confrontation between Wen Chao and Nie Mingjue. There's a lot of tension in the scene. In terms of the antagonist characters, Wen Chao isn't my favorite but he is very sharply defined and I feel like I get a good sense of who he is as a person. And we get the introduction of Wen Zhuliu here, as someone who can go toe-to-toe with this Sect Leader that our protagonist characters are all impressed by and respectful towards. So that setup works for me really well. And it's very telling of Wen Chao again as someone who talks big but likes to send in other people to fight his battles for him.

Most of the Wen sect wear black and red in equal amounts, while Wen Zhuliu is mostly black with just a hint of red accents… like WWX does in this episode. I've talked about this character comparison briefly, I think, and it'll come back later but — Wen Zhuliu plays the second fiddle to the direct son of the sect leader, despite being clearly far more powerful a cultivator, but he believes he owes a debt to the family for taking him in so he suppresses his own potential ambition or choices for the sake of the sect. Now, this is not what WWX does, but it's the situation that WWX is in, or very similar. But WWX chooses to act against the interests or orders of his sect when it conflicts with his ethics.

And I note —  in this time of crisis, WWX instinctively gives Jiang Cheng an order and it's followed. And WWX is his head discipline, it makes sense! But that's also a habit that can be hard to transition out of once Jiang Cheng becomes Sect Leader in the future. Like, even if everything with the Wens hadn't shaken out this way, they still might have come into conflict due to WWX being a natural leader.

The mess of Meng Yao getting caught killing the guards and trying to lie his way out of it, then throwing himself in front of Wen Zhuliu's sword, then WWX challenging Wen Chao and everyone hearing that his brother, Wen Xu, is off to destroy the Cloud Recesses… it is a lot, though the pacing of the scene works for me. It's just that a lot of things are piling over and over on the characters (oh, and we get Meng Yao noticing and being concerned about Lan Xichen after he hears about Gusu).

Hmm, so the final scene with Meng Yao and Nie Mingjue. It does… ah, echo for me with how Meng Yao ultimately dies, with regards to how he acts with Lan Xichen in their final scene. Here, he tells Nie Mingjue that meeting him means he has no regrets. At the end, he will tell Lan Xichen that LXC being willing to die for him is 'enough'. In both cases, there's a sense of… Meng Yao knows there's a good chance he might actually die here, so I feel like he's doing his best make to try to make it so that at least this person will carry him with them the rest of their life, that he will impact them by his death. Which ties into his deep, deep desire to matter. Nie Mingjue dismisses it as — the viki translation says 'this little vanity' — but. I mean, it's easy for a sect leader to dismiss someone else's desire to be seen as important? Nie Mingjue has never been unimportant a day in his life. This doesn't excuse Meng Yao's actions, of course, but, I do think dismissing something that is clearly the cornerstone of someone's life doesn't lead to understanding. And Nie Mingjue does want to understand why, but I think his and Meng Yao's lives are just so different that the gap was just too wide to bridge with the tools that he had at his disposal.

I do think that both Nie Mingjue and Meng Yao are clearly emotionally marked by this confrontation/breakdown of their previous relationship. I didn't know either of the characters very well in my first viewing, so I'm just… I'm a lot more emotional about this scene now than I was the first time.

Next time: Lotus Pier! Excited to be seeing it again for the first time in the rewatch. And all the painful/fascinating family dynamics.

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[androgynoussublimeangel]

All I've been able to think about lately is Junkrat having no sense of self worth. Being so young when the downfall of the outback began I can imagine he was abandoned or separated from his parents so early on it doesnt make much a difference. He only remembers being alone and we know when he meets roadhog he's already missing limbs and disliked by the remaining junkers in Oz so it's not hard to imagine Junkrat hasn't been treated kindly. He doesn't know how to be loved or what it's like to be treated with unconditional kindness. He's never been taught he's worthy of love thus he simply accepts that maybe he isn't worthy of love at all.

While he and Roadhog eventually become partners then eventually romantic partners too Mako never realizes that Jamie has never once thought Mako would actually settle for him. (I'm my mind Mako had a wife, possibly a child, before the crisis who unfortunately died)

It isn't until they join Overwatch, if you can call choosing between prison and a technically illegal ragtag team of vigilantes a choice. That Mako is coming to retrieve Jamie from one if his 'playdates' with Hana and Lucio that he hears them talking and stops just in the doorway to listen.

Hana and Lucio are jokingly talking about relationships in Overwatch and obviously trying to tease Jamie ask when he and Mako will get married. In which Jamie responds,

"Oh he ain't ever gonna marry me," Junkrat doesnt even bother looking up from the junk he's tinkering with "I'm just uh, wha'da call it, placeholder er something."

Hana and Lucio share an alarmed looked, slightly disturbed by Jamie's nonchalance and seeming carefree tone.

"Jamie!" Hana chastises, "dont say that, where would you even get an idea like that!?" Junkrat shrugs still unbothered and not looking up or noticing his friends worry.

"Well it's not hard to guess, he had a wife. Before everything went to shit I mean, ya know before Oz became a flaming shithole!" Jamie giggles madly, waving his screwdriver wildly. "He has a picture of 'em that he always carries. Thought he could hide it from ol' Junkrat but I can be sneaky too!" He says the final statement rather proudly.

"Easy to figure I can't be as good of a fuck, especially considering I dont got the right parts and all." Junkrat continues still oblivious to his friends mounting discomfort. "Not as soft as a shiela, less squishy and too boney like that angel lady is always griping at me about!"

"Angela is just worried about your health Jamie, I know you're doing a lot better now but you could still use some more body fat." Lucio soothes despite the ache that's been slowly creeping into his heart.

"Yeah, yeah what'ver ya say froggy but I mean considering how much I'm paying him to protect me I wasn't surprised when he wanted a start bumping uglies." Junkrat pauses now in his tinkering. Resting his chin in his palm appearing almost thoughtful. "After all wasn't like he could go chase tail and watch my back at the same time so guess it was more convenient to keep me on my back!"

Junkrat cackles. Hana and Lucio wince at his crassness.

"But not like I was gonna say no to a fine bloke like 'im! I mean have you seen 'im. Hooley dooley." The blonde Junker sighs dreamily. "'Sides once he gets tired a me and finds something better I'll still have plenty of memories." Junkrat flashes another too wide smile pressing the tip of the screwdriver to his temple. "Enough that even all my screws loose I wont be able to forget!"

He happily goes back to his little project humming without a tune. Hanna and Lucio seem at a loss looking at each other with equal amounts of sadness and worry.

Mako stands in the shadows of the doorway. A cold knot that had been forming as he'd listened sitting heavy in his stomach. An ache in his heart he'd thought he'd never feel again and a determined line setting his mouth.

He was going to teach Jamie what it meant to be loved and he was going to teach that mangy twink just how much he deserved to love himself.

Hope you enjoyed my 3 am angst/whump/fluff??? Plot bunny session. Will I someday write a full fledged roadrat fic?? The world may never know

[ruhrohcantthinkofagoodusername]

My thoughts (not that anybody cares) about SCOOB!

When I first heard they were making a new theatrical Scooby-Doo film, I was over-joyed and enthusiastic, especially at the prospect of it being Scooby’s first animated theatrical film. Very slight dismay came over me as I heard the title was Scoob, which is kind of stupid to me, and the fact it was CG which I felt both excited and bummed out about in all honesty.

Every year, Pixar, Dreamworks, and a slew of other studies fill our theaters with 3D animated films, some good, some bad, but all CGI, with the very few exceptions of adaptations of popular animated shows, (MLP, SpongeBob (I wrote this bit in before the trailer debuted), and TTG). While risking the prospect of sounding like an anger-filled, nostalgia-blinded boy, I do miss the traditionally animated films. We do have television and most of Japanese produced animation, which consistently animates traditionally, and that’s great that it is exposed to people every day and keeps it from being a forgotten art, but an American television budget only goes so far. Animation cycles repeat, inconsistencies are abrupt and apparent, there are huge disadvantages to having a television or a direct-to-video budget, and to me, a show that is the pinnacle of animation errors, (@scoobydoomistakes) getting a full-fledged chance to show its progress and its (insert better word than clout) would be such a great success story to me. However, Scooby-Doo never having CGI adventures outside of videogames, lego movies, and the one-off commercials allowed me to suspend my anger towards the animation industry’s seemingly permeant gravitational pull towards computer-generated products and be excited to see how the characters looked.

Seeing the characters and their movements, I feel delighted about how cute and fluid they look, I feel the art is going to be very visually pleasing, the child designs being a huge highlight. In the tradition of humanity, I tend to accentuate the negative.

For much of Scooby-Doo, there has been a two-by-two factors of the human’s and their designs. Boy/Girl and serious/goofy looking. If you doubt this take a look at the Mook animated films and see how Shaggy and Velma look nearly the same just glossier versions, while Fred and Daphne look like anime-refugees. I am not a huge fan of this type of divide, but I like it much better than having Shaggy as an odd-man out which the upcoming movie does. I also feel that Velma’s design is much too cute, her hair is too bright, and her racial status thus far is too ambiguous. I also don’t have any problem with Fred’s design, which I know almost everybody hates but I think it’s fine.

The next piece of information I heard was the idea of this being the beginning a Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe, which is, not going to happen I bet. I love Hanna-Barbera and I would love to see it re-enter the American consciousness, but this trend has only worked for Marvel and the phrase is just cringe inducing in all honesty. I am perfectly fine with just a plain, huge crossover, but the term is a little saddening and reminds too much of my ideas on how to fix the DC universe (a WHOLE another thing their). Also Hanna-Barbera filled with such complicated properties, such diversity from talking animals to teen detectives to little village people to time-displaced fifties-styled families, yet for every show you have at least four clones of it, that a universe is just a little hard to market and think of.

I am alright with a big huge crossover, but it is fairly odd with what they have chosen to use with Hanna-Barbera’s other huge property seemingly ignored (The Flintstones) along with most of their action shows like Space Ghost and Johnny Quest, not to mention the funny animal erasure that built Hanna-Barbera. Also with Hanna-Barbera being synonymous with television animation, not to mention their previous flaws with theatrical releases, I would like to build their roots of a universe in a television set.

The next information I heard of was the cast and this at first was fine with me. I know this isn’t a permeant fix, the regular cast is still going to be in shows and DTV movies. I do largely hate the idea of using celebrity actors as voice actors in general it’s an annoying marketing gimmick and it’s obnoxious when you have a perfectly fine cast which put it much more in the negative category for me, but I could accept the change as I do want people to see the movie and this isn’t the first time abrupt cast changes in Scooby-Doo have happened. I also feel there is a big difference between Scooby-Doo getting a new cast for a theatrical release and another property like Teen Titans Go! which got to keep their cast. It is not like there is a long lasting series or animation style that would make a theatrical film have a strong basis; Scooby-Doo is constantly changing which makes it much more flexible in terms of casting.

Then Matthew Lillard tweeted his anger and not even being told about the change, which made a lot of people angry, including me. I did not feel that sympathetic to him in all honesty, if only because of a teensy-little incident he got into where a fan at a meetup asked him to perform Shaggy’s voice; he refused and proceeded to call them childish on twitter and the fact he has stated shame on doing the movies at times. I still feel angered at the animation industry as a whole for prioritizing celebrities. Grey Griffin, a forefront voice of millions of children, one of the most diverse voices ever, has only been in eight theatrical films, while Scarlett Johansson has voice-acted in five theatrical films. I hate this and wish, people would wise up and not feel excitement about seeing hearing a celebrity since there are very few that are actually that good at voice acting in general.

The plot form what I gathered from the trailer, which in all honesty wasn’t a lot, it seems to be fine, the only problem I have is with Shaggy’s separation from Fred, Daphne, and Velma in terms of plot wise. It’s very much used to make Scooby and Shaggy have a divide between them and the rest of the gang, but I just don’t like it. I understand most children will like it that way, and the movie’s main focus will be a boy and his dog relationship, but in all honesty I would prefer Shaggy to have deeper relationships with the human member of the gang.

That’s about all I have, and I realize a lot of this seems negative and rambling, but I just like to focus on it, it’s my bad that I do this, but it’s in my blood. I don’t have much else to say, largely since we’ve just gotten a teaser trailer, but I’m sure I’ll like it just fine despite it all.

[homebrewcatalog]

Being a dungeon master can be intimidating, especially if you’ve never done it before.  However, it can also be an incredibly rewarding experience that boosts self confidence.  Running a session (let alone a campaign) is a lot different than being a player, but there are only a few things you need to know in order to be labeled a great DM.

Plot Line

Develop a main goal

Have purpose

Come prepared... but not too prepared

MAIN GOAL - When it comes to developing a plot line for an entire campaign, I see two ways of doing it: having a complicated main plot where 90% of the time is dedicated to solving/working through the main plot, or, having a simple main plot with lots of room for sub-plots. I’ve seen the first done really well, but I am personally a fan of the latter.  It leaves so much more room for player character development as they navigate through the NPCs and the diverse set of problems thrown at them. On the contrary, I find that running complex campaigns without subplots is more focused than the other type.  

An example of a complicated campaign plot would be a political scheme plotted between all of Faerun to rise Tiamat from her slumber.  The party knows this, and they travel around the land in search of answers.  They have the same goal in every town they visit, and everything they do is centered around stopping (or aiding) the rise the primordial goddess.  

An example of a general plot with many subplots would be that the party has to light the hearths of a multitude of villages to prevent a celestial attack.  They have time before this attack happens, and they run into other villages that need their help along the way.  Maybe a woman’s daughter was taken? Or there is a cursed well that spits out an undead creature every once in a while that needs to be taken care of?

There is a difference between the two styles, and deciding what kind you want to run before you go into running your session is crucial.  If you change midway, things can get confusing, or feel rushed.  

This page is for novel writers, but it is extremely useful for developing a plot and taking your PCs into consideration when planning.

This video is centered around RPGs and goes through plotting step by step.

HAVE PURPOSE - Know how you want your campaign to go before you sit down in the DM’s chair.  Understand your main goal, and where you want your players to be at the end of the campaign.  Do you want them fighting an all powerful fiend? Maybe competing to be the rulers of an all new nation? Are they going to try and save the world? Once you have that, you can build the stepping stone to get them there: sessions.  

Each session should bring them closer to the end goal. So, have a plan for each session. Make each session have a purpose, and make sure it relates somehow to the end goal.  Do they need to be here to meet an NPC who will give them information? Is there a magical item that will help them on their journey? Is there an enemy or an ally to be made?

COME PREPARED - Walk in knowing the environment you will present like the back of your hand. Know (or have notes) on everything your players could potentially have access to in the area you drop them in. 

Have NPCs ready to go with their stats in case they need to fight, have the map of the location so vividly in your mind that you could draw it half asleep. Place the NPCs in their proper locations.  Many people think when they’re just starting off that they need to have a plan for anything their players will throw at them. I thought that too. But turns out, that’s not true.  You just need a plan for every place your players could possibly go.  Understanding this is a lot less stressful and will take a lot less time.  You probably didn’t have a plan for your friend’s dwarf running headfirst into the chimney.  But you know the location, the building, and the attitude of the NPC. That is efficient enough to figure out on the spot what happens to the PC.  Was the building of sound structure? Maybe in your mind it wasn’t, so the whole thing comes crumbling down and everyone needs to make a dex save. Maybe it was of sound structure in your mind, and the PC bursts right through. But you’d decided that these woods are infested with elementals. So, time for the party to roll initiative.

Come prepared when it comes to the location and setting, but don’t try and prepare for what your PCs are going to do once they’re in it.  Players do weird things sometimes, and sometimes subliminal messages aren’t received.  So there was a murder in town and you mentioned a sketchy looking character with blood on his clothes walking around the tavern??? Well, your players want to investigate the victim’s husband instead because you described his mustache for a suspicious amount of time. I cannot stress this enough, this happens all the time. It can be frustrating, but you just have to follow them through what they want to do and adjust what you imagined to fit their decisions. If you have your NPCs and locations fleshed out, then that won’t be hard at all.  

People think the DM is the one who controls the game, but not really.  And in my opinion that’s the way it should be.

Quick and easy NPC stat maker.

Encounters

Balance

Making enemies

Distributing XP

BALANCE - Encounters need to be balanced. You don’t want them too easy, but at the same time you don’t want to have a TPK. I personally use the CR system. In general, the way to use the CR system is that you take the average level of players in the party should equal the CR of the creature/added total of the creatures.  So, if you have level three creatures, it’s okay to have them fight a boss CR 3 insect. It would also be fine if they fought two CR 1 quadrones and two CR 1/2 Ambush Drakes. Fighting one CR 1 quadrone would be far too easy, but fighting a CR 5 Hulking Crab would wipe them out.

This system is built for 4-5 players, so aim a little less if you have 2-3 players, or a little more if you have 6+.

D&D Beyond has a great selection of official monsters as well as other people’s homebrew monsters.

MAKING ENEMIES - Whatever idea you have for a creature, especially if it is something out of other folklore, has probably been made into a 5e creature by someone somewhere. A lot of the time though, it isn’t balanced for your party level. So, you have to adjust it.

When it comes to adjusting official or other homebrew enemies, I always recommend looking at other creatures of the proper CR and adjusting the values. Maybe make that 4d8 damage just 1d8 damage? Or take away the fact that this creature can make 3 attacks.  It’s all what you make it.

If you decide to create something entirely from scratch, draw inspiration from other creatures of the same CR needed for you party.  Make sure you take into account the party composition to see what the party can handle.

Matt Mercer explains this really well in this short video.

DISTRIBUTING XP - This point is a bit controversial, but it can be used for the sake of realism (even if it is a fantasy game). Experience is relative, and shouldn’t be limited to fight scenes.  Think about how experience goes in real life? What makes people grow? For most people, the answer isn’t anything physical.  Give experience points for trying to learn a new trade or making a connection with another character.

Take their backstory into account too. Maybe there is a PC who has never killed before. The first time they kill someone would be a big deal and a major life event for them, as opposed to someone who is an assassin who has been killing since they were a teenager. And maybe that assassin has never had a true friend, so forming a bond with someone would be major character development.

This also accounts for enemies. The ranger who specializes in killing the undead should earn less XP than the monk who is encountering them for the first time. It is an eye opening and probably terrifying experience for the monk, but for the ranger it’s just another day at the office forest.

Attitude

Be confident

Listen to your players

BE CONFIDENT - Being a DM is a performance. You are playing different characters and creating a story for the rest of your group to enjoy.  Not to put anyone under pressure, but if you’re going to be the DM, you’re going to be the star of the show.  People’s entertainment depends on you.

Now, with that being said, there are an infinite amount of ways to DM. You can speak mainly in descriptions and simply summarize the main point of what the NPSc are trying to say as an indirect type of DMing. Or, you can take on the voice of the NPC and have full fledged conversations with the PCs, a more direct approach. One is not better than the other; it’s all a matter of personal preference. Me? I like the indirect way since I suck at doing voices, and two people in my group like playing that way while the other two prefer the more direct approach.  It’s a toss up really. You just have to decide what you want to do and own it. Whether you decide on the direct or indirect way, the choice isn’t going to make a huge difference on how much fun the party has.  The deal breaker is how well you sell it.

Have a strong voice. Be confident in what you’re doing. If you seem confused or nervous, your players are going to sense that and absorb it.  So, just fake it til’ you make it.  You may have no idea what is going on or why, but neither do they. If you throw a dragon at them just to keep them busy so you can plot something really fast, they’ll have no idea as long as you make it seem like it was intentional. Remember, they don’t know what is supposed to come next. They don’t know what’s inside that boarded up cottage, so how can they tell you that that they find wasn’t supposed to be there?

Here is an excellent link that describes the different types of playing and DMing.

LISTEN - This is the most important part of being a DM in my opinion. The whole reason you’re able to put on this story is because of the people playing with you. They are who you do it for, so make them matter. 

Incorporate the PCs’ backstories into the sub-plots or the main campaign.  Maybe something in their background is the reason why only they can defeat the Big Bad™? Or, what I find to be more thoughtful, take obscure details about each character and make them a central part of a session without the player even knowing it.

In my campaign I took the party deep within the woods, where they stayed in a small, flourishing village. The village was a sanctuary in the middle of a dry and dying forest. Turns out, the main villains had captured a celestial and was draining it’s power in order to feed the land. The three villains (A wizard, a sorcerer, and a warlock) bound the celestial and locked it underground in a cell that could only be opened by dropping three objects that contained the blood of the binders in the ditch above the cell. The celestial was able to send mind controlling insects into the town so they could possess civilians and have them look for the three objects that could set the celestial free. 

The party knew what was going on with the possession, and they noticed since the beginning that the possessed people were drawn to one PC in particular. In the end, the necklace that specified PC had (and had since childhood) was the object that contained the binding sorcerer’s blood, and that was the final piece to release the trapped celestial.

That whole session was centered around one PC without them even knowing it until they end.  They played a huge part in a session because I used a minor detail in their character backstory to my advantage. The whole party loved it and talked about it for weeks.  People create characters and write backstories because they care about them, and the best thing you can do as a DM is to acknowledge and respect that character and your player’s work as much as they do.

You’re creating a world for your PCs to react to; you’re not writing a novel. Make their choices mean something. Even if you want them to go right, let them go left. Don’t let them go left and give them the same scenario they would have had if they’d gone right. Players can see when you’re railroading them into doing what you want them to do, and it is disheartening and discouraging. Why would they care what their character did if it didn’t matter anyway? Why should they think about the outcomes, or try and figure out the riddle?  From what I’ve observed, this is the biggest in-game issue that tends to make groups dissolve.

That was a really long post, and I thank you for reading it until the end. I hope everyone took something away from this guide and that those just starting to DM or who are thinking about it feel more comfortable going into it.  

[nadziejastar]

Why All 7 Guardians of Light Were Meant to Use the Power of Waking

Joshua: “In their world, something happened that brought their existence to an end. To keep them from fading altogether, I gathered up the very last remnants of their dreams and looked for a place to give them refuge. Here, I thought they might have a chance–that the pieces of their dreams could make them whole again. Maybe I could give them another chance.”

So, I feel like neither the Realm of Sleep nor the power of waking got properly utilized in the story. I don’t know exactly why, but there definitely were a ton of deviations from the story’s original vision. Maybe it had to do with making the game more accessible to new players. Or perhaps the higher-ups thought constant heart-diving would divert from the action too much, and casual fans wouldn’t appreciate that. Or maybe it was due to the cancellation of BBSV2. Whatever the case, the power of waking got erased from the story almost entirely by Kingdom Hearts 3. It was never even properly explained how the Realm of Sleep differs from the Realm of Darkness.

The whole concept of the Sleeping Worlds is based on ancient shamanism. A shaman is kind of like a death “midwife” or “ambassador”. Your soul is your connection to the divine. It is your source of guidance–and when you lose it, you're really in trouble. You’re stuck in the limbo of the astral realms. A shaman is an explorer within these realities for the purpose of bringing back information and for the purpose of healing. They find lost souls on the other side and attempt to help those souls cross over. When Riku became a Dream Eater for Sora, he basically became a full-fledged shaman. 

Joshua was serving the exact same role for Neku and the others. When a person enters the Realm of Sleep, it is after the fragmentation of their soul. It’s a defense mechanism against unbearable trauma. That’s why the characters from The World Ends With You were so important to include in KH3D’s story. They all died in the real world and the Sleeping Traverse Town was a safe haven in another dimension, where they exist in a dream. The Realm of Sleep is a place of total darkness and safety. There’s no conscious awareness whatsoever, in order to shield the ego from pain. 

One of the major ceremonies a shaman performs is called a “shamanic journey”. A shaman goes into an altered state of consciousness and travels outside of the space-time continuum into the hidden realms that many term “non-ordinary”. Non-ordinary reality is a parallel universe to ours. Some call it the “Dreamtime”. There is no time in non-ordinary reality. Linear time only exists in the 3rd dimension of physical reality. According to shamanism, there are four “Worlds":  

Upper World – The non-ordinary reality of the super-conscious. This is where the Spirit or Higher Self resides. It would be Heaven, essentially.

Middle World – The ordinary reality of the conscious. This is the world we currently exist in. The Realm of Light, basically.

Lower World – The non-ordinary reality of the sub-conscious. This would be the Realm of Darkness, where the individual sub-conscious and the collective sub-conscious merge. Shamans mainly work here.

Under World – There also exists an Under World. This is a state of unconscious that is NOT typically traveled to on shamanic journeys.

So what happens to people who wind up in the unconscious? Well, in the hidden realities there are compassionate spirits who offer their guidance and also their healing help on behalf of all life on earth. These would be the Dream Eaters in KH lore. And that’s basically their job. To escort souls to other, higher realms when they are finally ready. It’s actually not the job of humans to venture to such realms. What the the 7 Guardians of Light are attempting to do by reviving sleeping people is actually a pretty extraordinary endeavor for humans from the Middle World.

Yen Sid: “If we are ever to strike down Xehanort, we need the individuals King Mickey spoke of in his letter. We must lead them out of sorrow and slumber, and back to our world. To do so, seven Sleeping Keyholes must be found and unlocked, and a great power retrieved.”

Acquiring shamanic power involves a “death initiation” ritual. The experience is supposed to bring them in touch with their own death and rebirth, ushering in a new stage of life. During an initiatory experience, a shaman often takes a person to the brink of madness, insanity, and deviance. The purpose of totally losing it is just that: to lose the ego’s hold over us. To loosen our consciousness---that limited, boxed-in perception of what life is all about and which imprisons us within it. It’s these moments of ego death that provide an experience of reality that is larger, deeper, and infinitely more exquisite and beautiful. 

This initiation is typically not blissful, fun, nor healing. The shamanic experience is usually filled with terrifying and nightmarish visions or visits from spirits. If a person is called to take on the responsibility of a shaman they usually fall very ill or even to the brink of death. It is considered to be an initiation by the spirits. The experienced shaman keeps the shaman-in-training on the correct path during this process, although the person may believe they have totally lost it. That’s what Yen Sid was attempting to do for Sora and Riku. Yen Sid is using the ancient ways, since he’s a traditionalist. This is how Riku acquires the power of waking. He becomes a true Master.

Speaking of the KH BbS secret cutscene, Ansem the Wise says that he hid his research results in Sora. This complies with what happens in KH Re:coded when Namine says DiZ (Ansem the Wise) has hid something inside Sora. Is that mystery remaining unsolved?

Nomura: Yes. Namine added data to the Jiminy Journal in order to convey that the “pain” of those connected to Sora must be healed, but at the point in time Ansem hid the research results inside Sora, he didn’t know that. Accordingly, Ansem’s research results will become the key to healing the “pain” in the future of the story.

But Sora doesn’t become a true Master. So there had to be a way for a non-Master to use this power. Ansem’s research was said to be the “key” to healing the future pain of the story. Nomura mentioned this many times, so it was clearly supposed to be very important. He said it was supposed to explain the way to bring back lost hearts. Yet that isn’t what it was revealed to be in KH3. At all.

"Believing light and darkness must remain in balance, Master Xehanort seeks to spark war against the ‘tyranny of light’ to restore equilibrium.

In an effort to undermine Xehanort’s plot, Sora, Donald and Goofy search for seven guardians of light and the “Key to Return Hearts,” while King Mickey and Riku search for previous Keyblade wielders.”

—Kingdom Hearts III press release (2013)

An initial press release even mentions something called the “Key to Return Hearts”. Where did that idea go? My conclusion is that Ansem’s research data got badly retconned and the importance of the power of waking was drastically minimized from what it was originally intended to be. Yen Sid implied that Terra, Aqua, and Ven were all in the Realm of Sleep. This power would be necessary to arouse them from their slumber. But the power of waking really wasn’t even used on most of them in KH3, leading to a very confusing story for many people, myself included. 

The importance of the power of waking even influenced the Disney world choices. Hercules rescued Meg from the Underworld due to his love for her. Rapunzel brings back Eugene with her light. Elsa’s love for Anna saves her from being frozen solid. Baymax is restored due to his bond with Hiro, etc. These characters are all using the power of waking. These Disney worlds were supposed to have an enormous relevance to the main story. It’s honestly mind-boggling that they still wound up feeling like filler, despite how thematically tied they are to the main plot.

I think the decision to minimize and alter the usage of the power of waking is the very reason everyone seemed to get “jobbed” in KH3. This was a major complaint I’ve seen everywhere. Everyone is constantly getting their ass kicked. My theory: There are countless scenes of characters getting knocked unconscious because that was when they were originally supposed to be using the power of waking. These “dive-into-the-heart” scenes would have been used for character development, and strengthening the relationships between the characters. 

At the end of 0.2 Aqua descended into an all-black realm. I think originally, that was the moment she went to the Realm of Sleep. That’s what the totally black background seems to represent in general. Unconsciousness. She can’t take the trauma of almost being saved, then watching that chance slip out of her grasp. 

When Sora finally arrives to save her, the scenes are almost identical. Sora would then have to use the power of waking on her. Since Ven’s heart is inside of him, he would be able to do this, not realizing exactly how he did it, though.

I even think King Mickey was going to use the power of waking on Riku at some point in the story. The blackness looks identical to the Realm of Sleep. Perhaps Riku’s trauma is due to the darkness inside of him being part-Terra all along. This realization would make Riku feel pretty terrible and guilty for rejecting it.

Then I think Riku would have to use it on Mickey, after he is defeated by Aqua. Mickey’s trauma would be the tremendous guilt he has over feeling like he abandoned his friends in the darkness for so long. Then Riku would be the one to be his light, just as Mickey was for him in Castle Oblivion. This would have allowed for much deeper development to their relationship, which has been a major focus since CoM.

We already know that Ven has been in the Realm of Sleep since the end of BBS. And again, the all-black background is there. Somebody would need to dive into his inner self and finally awaken him.

That’s exactly what I think Aqua was going to attempt. Sora still doesn’t know how this power works, so he can’t just give Ven back his sleeping heart. Aqua has a close heart connection with Ven, so she tries to awaken him. Then Vanitas arrives. There’s a force-field around Ven’s chamber, so it would take a while to break through. Aqua’s unconscious and helpless, since she’s in the astral realms. Ven’s heart awakens just in time to save her. The scene is similar to the one in BBS, when Ven is frozen solid and Aqua is about to be killed.

Terra would have headed straight to the Realm of Sleep if Aqua didn’t save him the first time. I’m sure that by KH3, he was back there again---especially after becoming one of the 13 Seekers of Darkness. That’s just too traumatic.

When I first saw the scene where Sora freed Terra’s heart, it immediately aroused my suspicions. It was way too quick and easy. I think Ven was originally going to be the one to use the power of waking on Terra. I don’t think anyone else was going to be unconscious during that scene. I think many scenes were rearranged in the final version of the story.

That’s why when Terra wakes up, he immediately rushes straight to Ven. Not because he doesn’t care about Aqua; because Ven was just inside of his heart with him and now he’s the only one unconscious upon Terra’s revival. And that’s why he is crying when he tells Ven that he found him, just like he promised. He used the power of waking on him and found him in the deepest abyss. Their friendship would come full-circle after Terra told Ven he knew he’d be there when he really needed him. Ven would be the one to save his friend, not Sora.

These scenes of everyone out cold are SO similar to the end of KH3D, where Riku is out cold after he dove inside of Sora’s heart. Everyone is huddled around him, worried. Donald is out cold, too. Maybe he was supposed to use the power of waking on Yen Sid or something? Or maybe he went to the Realm of Sleep, after the trauma of using Zetta Flare.

I have absolutely no doubt that after getting kidnapped, mutilated, tortured, and possessed by Xehanort, Isa would have been in the Realm of Sleep along with Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. He’s been there ever since. So Lea would have to use the power of waking on his waifu Isa. To me, it seemed like Isa was created for that very purpose. To give Lea an extremely personal reason to be a Guardian of Light---to give him someone special to use the power of waking on, in order to make his story more emotionally gratifying. Kairi would try to protect him while he’s out cold, searching for his friend in the astral realms, and this would strengthen their friendship, too. 

If they had stuck with mind control plot, Isa wouldn’t have been a Nobody at the point he’s revived. When he was re-completed, his heart was still captured by Xehanort, so his body was just an empty shell. They didn’t need to make him a Nobody to use him as a vessel. So, instead of disappearing into darkness, he and Lea would probably just share a moment where Isa wakes up in Lea’s arms, somewhat similar to KH3. However, I think we missed out on a pretty great scene of Isa opening his eyes for the first time, showing they are green again. But my point is, all the scenes of everyone unconscious were supposed to be at the very end of the final battle---after Saix and Terranort are defeated, but before the Xehanorts are defeated.

The press release for KINGDOM HEARTS III unveiled by Square Enix discusses the search for the “Key to Return Hearts.” Is there anything you can tell us about that?

Nomura : There are two possible meanings of the “key.” One of which is the “hardware” key, which opens doors - this is what keys are in general (laughs), and the other is the “light” key, that opens something else. In this case, it is currently unknown as to which type of key Sora must find. This is the main storyline of KINGDOM HEARTS III - Sora must go on an adventure to find the “key” without knowing what or where it is. But as you know, we can’t really say anything else on the subject (laughs).

This is the response Nomura gave in 2013, after that initial press release came out. Sometime after this interview, the story was changed quite a bit. There was absolutely no mention of a “Key to Return Hearts” in the final version of the story, and Ansem’s research data had a negligible impact on the story. In the original version of KH3′s plot, Sora clearly didn’t “get” whatever message Ansem’s research was meant to show him. He isn’t sure what kind of ”key” he is supposed to be looking for, and would spend the whole game looking for it. Is it a Keyblade or...something else?

That’s quite different than what actually happens in the final game, where nobody acts like they have the slightest clue what they’re trying to accomplish. Nomura clearly hinted that the key was a “light” key. The light would open the door to “something else” and this would be the key that would show how to restore lost hearts and heal the “pain” of the characters.

It only makes sense that ALL the Guardians of Light would use this power in the story. It’s literally the power of light. That’s their entire purpose as guardians. This is what the Reiki weapons that Saix had were all about. As a Guardian of Light, you can use your OWN inner light, your aura, for healing purposes. To bring back a person from their sleep and to heal their pain. You don’t need to be some kind of official master. It’s not about a title. It’s about your heart’s connection with the person. Anyone can become someone else’s Dream Eater.

Sora uses this power on everyone during the final battle. I think that everyone getting wiped out was always a part of the story. But Sora saves them, proving that you DON’T need to be a true master to use the power of waking. Then Kairi saves Sora. Kairi is NOT a Keyblade Master. I think Kairi was supposed to be the real hero who saves Sora with her pure light after he uses (or abuses) the power of waking on everyone else. While looking to rescue her, she actually rescues him. That would be a total reversal of her position as a damsel in distress. That’s what makes the most sense to me.

A gold aura signifies divine protection and enlightenment. When you radiate this color aura, it means that you have achieved something that not a lot of people can. The color of enlightenment. It says that the person is being guided by their highest good, and they radiate and glow with the gold energy. Those with a gold aura are able to radiate energy to heal others. 

Mr. Nomura, since you are the one that is writing the scenario this time, how is the progress coming along?

Nomura: Since we are arriving near the conclusion of Xehanort in KINGDOM HEARTS III, the outline of the story has been solidified but not necessarily the direction where the KINGDOM HEARTS series is continuing to head. We are still trying to decide where to go from several choices.

Even when this interview was given in 2015, they didn’t know quite where the story was heading in the future. But the basic plot for KH3 was thought of loooooong before 2015. All of the changes to the plot and the butchering of character arcs came later. I’m not convinced that the time travel shenanigans in The Keyblade Graveyard were originally a part of the story. I think that was probably thought up later as a way to introduce us to the concept of time paradoxes and such. 

Then the story could “seamlessly” switch over to the time-travelling Foreteller arc stuff and its original characters. Like our good friend “Subject X”. Lea and Isa’s story was butchered altered to accommodate Skuld existing in the current timeline. She wasn’t always supposed to be there, so she needed to take Isa’s place in the story. I suspect it’s the same with Kairi getting killed and Sora disappearing. It’s all just a way to focus on the Foretellers after the Xehanort arc got butchered. Just a hunch.

[jokocraft]

[long meta] the hidden depths of voltron S1 E6

part 1: lance’s literal awakening and keith’s metaphorical one 

(if you already know where I’m going with this, you might find part 2: an entire subtextual plot in S1 E6? - in this same post - more interesting)

I’ve been rewatching season 1, and I got to episode 5 with the bonding moment and was like yeahh but then I got to the beginning of E6, with everyone waiting for lance to be released from the healing pod, and I was like wait. I never really thought twice about the scene before, but this time around I was like...hold the phone. 

what is keith’s reasoning for being impatient in this scene, anyway? like, if everyone else can wait a few ticks for lance to wake up, why can’t you? 

is this just your Personality, to be an impatient nuisance sometimes, haha queue comedic intro? well, while keith is often impatient, it’s usually during situations involving life or death decisions. and since lance isn’t about to die, and the timing of his release from the pod doesn’t put anyone else’s life at risk...

since i trust the vld writers enough at this point (at least with keith, i guess...?) to not make characters do shit for no good reason, i don’t think keith was being impatient for the hell of it, especially to do with someone he’s made a point of *Shrug* Not Really caring about -- that is, until shit went down in E5 and keith dropped that pretense like it was hot and didn’t hesitate to initiate the famed bonding moment.

my point here about this scene in E6, is that it’s directly linked to E5′s bonding moment, like 100%. maybe you’re like DUH OBVIOUSLY - and you’d be right, cause it’s obvious to me now and I was probably just being really slow on the uptake - but nevertheless, i don’t think we should hang up the the phone there...

i think that - well, with the “cradled you in my arms” line, we all kind of know - that keith took that bonding seriously to some extent. but to what extent? just seriously enough to be annoyed with lance’s response? personally, I think keith took it seriously enough that he truly believed a major shift had occurred between them - a shift, if my thoughts here are on the right track, he’d probably been hoping for (perhaps only subconsciously) since this scene: 

it’s from the tail end of S1E2, after they successfully form voltron for the first time. i referred to this frame as “first time keith realizes that lance is actually kind of cool”. the way I interpreted this was that now, keith can no longer see lance as >insert stereotypes here< and predictable, but rather as someone interesting and possibly full of surprises and definitely worth paying attention to after all. but in this episode, keith’s still too closed off emotionally to acknowledge at maybe his new perspective of lance is making him wish things between them were different - not so they could be BFFs like lance and hunk are, but something else....something he can’t yet put into words (space ranger partners). 

god they r all 3 uber-dorks okay

anyway

back to E6, I’m now imagining that keith has spent the last 24 hours secretly relishing the idea that he’s finally (for the first time in his life??) got himself a friend that is both a peer and someone that he feels instinctually closer to compared to other peers. (shiro is of course someone he feels instinctually closer to, but he is not quite a peer in age or maturity. the stuff can you do with a mentor/idol is definitely not the same stuff you can do with another shitting teenager like yourself).

buuuut we all know keith’s about to be disappointed when reality rears its ugly head and lance says some bullshit to allura again. “classic”. and so, from keith’s perspective, the reality is this: despite any shift between them that lance definitely felt (he saw it with his own eyes dammit), lance must have nevertheless interpreted it in a way did not put them the same page. fukin sux

poor keith. don’t we all hate when we hype something up in our minds and it turns out we were totally off the fucking mark all along? I imagine right now that he’s busy mentally burying his disappointment six feet deep. (note to remember for later: you can also see in the image above that shiro has the highest tolerance for lance’s shit.)

((((((( also eye-narrow worthy, but....perhaps...meaningless........hm: 

when coran presents the ticker when the topic of ticks vs seconds comes up, hunk and pidge come over to look instantly. allura is shown walking over to the group moments later at 22:00 into the episode. shiro is shown watching from where he stands a few feet away. and keith is just ... ... ... absent from this exchange for 4 seconds before he’s briefly shown finally walking into the frame at 22:04. for four whole seconds he was just...what? staring, I guess? at lance, waiting, probably feeling determined to Be There when lance woke up. but not so determined that he’d risk someone calling him out for it. (but shiro is likely an exception for him: shiro doesn’t have his back turned, and so keith must trust him not to raise an eyebrow if keith kinda wanted to, you now, Be There.) )))))))

anywaaaaaay

we know that burying disappointment not so simple as pushing it away and never feeling it again. because like keith, when present reality doesn’t match our perceived reality, we’re like, “wtf? where did i go wrong? how did i misinterpret this? was I delusional?” and sometimes we’re like, “no, fuck you reality, I was not delusional, not this time, I was not wrong.” And voila, here you see keith in all that frustration: he’s planted himself as much in lance’s line of sight as he can without just straight up taking the yellow mouse’s seat right in front of the bowl of goo. keith clearly intends to be acknowledged. or at the very least, to glean some clue from lance’s behavior as to why he’s being Capital-I Ignored. 

keith stays quiet during the conversation at the table until lance make a quip about the mice besting them all, and keith makes his salt known:

BITCH WHAT HTE FUCK? DID U NOT SEE HOW VALIANT I WAS PROTECTING YOUR ASS? I WAS THE SHIT! NOW STOP SPOONFEEDING THOSE FUCKING MICE I SWEAR TO

lance goes onto totally dismiss what keith did and this is....honestly not what keith expected

lance isn’t even making a dumb joke, he’s just being an asshole, plain and simple. keith now is like *softly* bitch what the fuck. “We had a bonding moment. I cradled you in my arms!” keith says, trying to look indignant, because alternative emotions are supposed be buried six feet deep.

but it’s no use, he’s stonewalled and subject-changed. and while we the audience know that the overly-defensive tone of lance’s stonewalling practically confirms that he remembers, we can only hope that lance realizes this too and is able to feel a pinch of salty relief. 

it’s my conclusion that the whole point of these beginning scenes is not just to have some character interaction and a bit of thrown-in development, but to provide legit exposition and rising action to the fully-fledged subtextual plot of ep6. Read part 2 below, an elaboration of what I mean by this. 

part 2: an entire subtextual plot in S1 E6? 

(apologies to anyone else may have posted similar conclusions and I just totally missed them)

so here i get into are more circumstantial stuff. maybe my reasoning is clouded by ship-goggles, or maybe it’s the opposite, when armed with the interpretation lens that season 3 is all but dreamworks-signed confirmation that Keith and Lance’s relationship is intended to be something more than BFF friendship, and always has been, and everything about their relationship from S1E1 to S3E7 is very deliberate in order to make their future endgame as believable, nuanced, and in depth as is possible for a younger audience show. 

assuming that this interpretation of S3 is not totally mistaken, then I contend that S1E6, in its entirety, is a far more momentous step in their relationship than all previous S1 episodes combined, including the bonding moment. 

basically, hunk wants to fulfill his promise to save his girlfriend shay, but allura decides a new incoming distress beacon needs to be looked into first. they arrive, and very unlike shay’s introduction (S1E5), characterized by dull colors, distrust, and caution....

E6′s introduction to rolo and nyma is characterized by brightness colors, camaraderie, and repose. some quality irony here. tbh, It’s a fantastic way of fLipPing The ScrIPT if you ask me Hunk.

also I suppose it should be mentioned that shay is meant to be noted for her tattered clothes, androgyny, and lack of traditional beauty (but we aren’t fooled, shay is perfect) while rolo and nyma are clearly typed to be MUTHAFUCKIN SEX BEASTS. nyma is very overtly feminine and rolo is equally masculine.

as expected, lance swoons and does his gig. even says “Name’s Lance” which uh, de ja vu anyone ahem episode uno?  as the episode progresses, it becomes clear that lance is going hella overboard, b/c even shiro (who, remember, has the highest tolerance for lance’s shit) is like for the love of fuck-

that night, there’s a bonfire, and rolo starts getting into his backstory. it’s worth noting that that besides space parents shiro and allura, keith is the only other paladin there listening. anyway rolo mentions sendak, immediately acknowledging him as a major threat. the point of that: considering just earlier in the episode, keith mentioned sendak’s threat to lance and lance promptly didn’t give a shit.....

even from profile view, keith’s expression in this frame ^ is distinctly similar to his expression from before (last frame from part 1), e.g. wide eyes revealing vulnerability, small frown, etc. i would take a gander that this is the moment that keith decides to...let things play out, rather than support hunk’s suspicions. 

(why? maybe because he sees lance being a dipshit and if hunk’s right, and these people are liars and cheats, then lance is going to get what he deserves. but, i admit, such a theory has no basis in canon.) 

meanwhile lance is being a dipshit and lets nyma inside the castle while the others aren’t looking. she plays him like a fiddle to get to the lions specifically, and at this point, the keen viewer is really starting to wonder why he’s being so dumb. 

and this is important: I do not believe the writers were making him dumb because that’s his Personality. Just like keith’s impatience with the healing pod, there’s gotta be a reason behind his behavior beyond “that’s just how he is, that’s just what’s happening right now, don’t look into it too hard”. 

I believe - going off of lance’s highly defensive refusal to acknowledge the bonding moment with keith earlier - he’s in a rather delicate emotional state right now, whether he consciously realizes it or not.

regardless of what keith might believe at this point, I think the reality is that lance sure as hell did remember. and although lance’s interpretation was probably different, it was different in the opposite way keith probably imagined (i.e. an even more dramatic and sentimental interpretation than keith’s). but the real divide between them at the beginning of E6 is their reactions to their own interpretations of the bonding moment: 

keith reaction: omg a real friend?? for me?? maybe jesus does love me

lance reaction: lies jesus lies i have never had a gay thot in my entire life nope

one of the big reasons I’m fairly confident I’m not just making lance’s reaction up totally with ship-goggles is because of this slap-in-the-face parallel: 

of ALL the things that could have been done, nyma is cradling lance in her arms, the very thing lance wants to deny even to himself ever happened with a certain someone else. 

if you’re followin my theory, i think it could go like this: 

because of the bonding moment, keith’s mind promoted his relationship with lance from we’re-both-in-voltron to F IS FOR FRIENDS, but i think from what can be seen of lance’s vastly exaggerated womanizing behaivor all E6, lance’s mind promoted his relationship with keith from grumpy-voltron-frenemy to ... 

...

...

... something he can’t yet bring himself to put into words (space ranger partners, italicized coughcough)

honestly, the frame of lance in nyma’s arms is a little depressing when put in context with the beginning of the episode. what is lance thinking, in this moment? or trying not to think about? is he telling himself on repeat: this is what I want, this is what I wanted, this is how it’s supposed to go, this is who it’s supposed to be -- he’s 100% blushing when she asks him to take her on a ride around moon, holding him like this. 

this post is cancelled if keith’s explicitly mentioned cradling is somehow not intended to be totally parallel to this scene right here with lance blushing. 

(sorry little baby cuban, but it is not mindless bromance that is in your future.)

immediately after this, lance seems to check back into reality, and shows some resistance to nyma’s request. but then: 

TRIGGERED

chances are, nyma made an educated guess that lance - like any hopeless romantic douche (psa i still love lance with my whole soul) - would react stupidly and competitively when threatened to be bested by another suitor. but there is a smidgen of possibility that she’s smart as FUCK (which there’s plenty of evidence of) and she knew that there could be only ONE1 reason lance could be overcompensating so obsessively. and out of other TeenPaladins, keith’s the hottest. i wouldn’t put it past this chick to put 2 and 2 and 5 together to get 69 and be correct. 

bonus: she mentions how the minerals of the kinetic spring “reflect off the water, making a rainbow”. Also, I’m almost certain someone has pointed this out before, but I guess I’ll do it again - the bisexual flag colors are pink, lavender, and blue, and this background..!.............but that’s just whiteboard conspiracy silliness, surely.    surely. 

necessary? i think not

((((((( also on a related note, i’ve watched this clip below like eight times because I have a feeling that this sequence is some kind of subtle parallel or reference to something as well. on the surface, lance appears to be surprised and blush when nyma rests her head against his armpit side and starts laughing.

it just caught me off guard like, why would this bit be included? we already know that lance is infatuated with her, so what’s the point? why waste time and frames to keep making the same point? ... oR is there some other point that’s trying to be made and I am blind to see it? right now I can’t come up with anything, but if you have any ideas, definitely let me know. )))))))

meanwhile...

keith stap.

and so lance’s massive fuck up comes to a peak, and he’s so desperate for this thing with nyma to work (so desperate to prove to himself that nothing’s changed, he’s still the same, a beautiful girl is still what he wants, what he needs) that for one sad moment he’s actually willing to believe nyma’s a dominatrix before he’s willing to believe that she’d been playing him all along...

(how can I be mad at this boy?) 

the others start the pursuit to save lance, and i think that it’s clever how keith was given the spotlight in the blue lion’s recovery via navigating the asteroid belt. that pursuit scene was very flexible in its requirements for how it needed to go, technically keith’s role doing that was interchangeable, and so the whole sequence could have been designed in a way to cater to another lion’s strengths. but. 

“This kid can flat-out fly,” says rolo. the title of this episode is “Taking Flight”. why would the title of this episode, in which, tbh, keith hardly does anything for a majority of it, be dedicated to this relatively predictable space car chase?

A: because it enables keith to say that he got is lion back. I saved your ass AGAIN and this time you can’t deny it! 

and because of this experience, lance now has come to understand (to at least some extent) that there’s no point in wishing that he’d had his Magical Moment of Connection™ with some cool and pretty girl like he’d always imagined.

maybe, very very deep down, he’s begun to realize that the moment was only magical in the first place because it was with keith. 

keith, who keeps coming through for him when it matters most. 

the episode comes full circle, and - going along with my theory so far - the real conflict has been resolved. One might argue all that this “subtext” was just a subplot to the main plot of learning their lesson with the bounty hunters and always listening to hunk because he’s right and shay is 1000% more pure than rolo and nyma combined, tattered clothes be damned. 

Or like me, one could argue that all that non-subtextual stuff (not counting the interspersed, juxtaposed scenes of Overarching Plot, Starring Your Hosts Haggar and Zarkon) was just an external plot chalk full of thematic parallels tailor-made to accommodate the true purpose of the episode: for lance and keith to come to terms with each other in the aftermath of the subtle but major shift that’s occurred between them. 

lance took a big step in this one episode by going from total denial to verbal acceptance (for everyone to hear) of a bonding moment, in fact, existing.

and keith did good by accepting lance as he is and choosing not to continue resenting him for how he first reacted. its safe to say that keith progressed in character even more than lance, which I think is why he wins the focus of the episode title, because what he learned was that if he wants a deeper friendship with lance, fate’s not going to hand it to him in a healing pod. he has to do his part developing it. he has to work for it. 

knowing keith, that’s a pretty tall order. but at least this time, keith got to Be There for lance after all.

Here is a follow up post: link 

[mimikoflamemaker]

Hey, do you have any head canons about Lithien that readers might not know? Ones that aren't spoilers of course.;-)

What is this? A random question  about my fic?! Thank you so much!! That would be a first and i am honestly beyond excited to get it ;)

Now, whenever I think about some facts pertaining to Lithien I always try to think how they would incorporate into the great river that her story is, but let’s face it - I would need a lifetime and then some to write it all down ^^’ JoO is the last slice of it so to speak and we are starting the 6th year of working on it with book I not even done yet (but soon)… I think I can as well share some.

About my LotR AU in general: if only to show you what kind of nerd I really am - I planned (or at least thought about) not only Lithien’s story since she was born, but also about the stories of her family, which, except for Galaren, involves her other older brother Authion, and her parents Daugion and Belluthiel. And somehow I ended up with a plot dating back to the Years of Trees and filled with plenty of your favorites…

Lithien’s name. I think this is one of my favourites - so, I was 11 (or 12) when Lithien first came to be and her name first was simply because I took Luthien and swapped a letter. Luthien was cool. I wanted my character to be cool too. Fast forward to me being around 20 and stumbling a bit deeper into sindarin. Lo, and behold ‘lith’ now means dirt/ashes. Lithien is not a cool name anymore, but it is also an integral part of my girl (I don’t change characters name once give, because to me it’s like creating a completely new person) and I can’t just rip it off. So I now have ‘Child of the Ashes’ glaring at me in mild offence - her back story helped me. I just included a bit where Daugion named her while still filled with grief after the death of ger wife, which he subconsciously blamed his newborn daughter for. Grieving people sometimes don’t think clearly. And I gifted her with a nice, fitting eppese later on.

Lithien’s occupation. Never once in any of his text Tolkien mentions that elven women were forbidden to take up arms. They just rarely did it. And when they did they could be just as badass as men. So I built on that and hile I think that female soldiers/wardens were not your everyday occurrence, they were not as much of a rarity as one would think (for one, one of Lithien’s fellow wardens Belfaer is also a woman). Lithien went into that with her eye wide open, knowing full well what that choice would entail. And she never regretted it. Later when she was out of commission due to injury and went to live in Rivendell, she picked up some knowledge about healing, but she was never a full-fledged healer. What I find the most interesting about it is that, personality wise, Lithien was the closest thing to what her father would deem to be a perfect heir - Resilient, courageous and living by the sword so to speak. Unfortunately, she was a girl. So the title fell on Galaren, who does his job well and is a formidable warrior, but he would be much more content with his life if he could have chosen a different path for it - whether it would be a healer or a hunter.

A few little facts from Lithien’s childhood: Galaren was the one who tried to be both a brother and a father where their could not be. He still wonder’s if Lithien would have come out to be a bit more lady-like if she had only spent more time in the company of women instead of his friends. Lithien on the other hand wouldn’t change a thing. Speaking of friends - Maethion, Galaren’s best friends (his brother from another mother really :) ) was the one to steal Lithien’s first kiss. and she was barely considered an adult then. It almost came to knives then. Also, stay tuned for more Maethion in JoO - his role expanded for beyond what I initially had planned for him. When Lithien was still a wee tiny self and feeling lonely because Galaren wasn’t home much, he gifted her with a dog - a great black hound that she could ride like a pony if she wished. Lithien was a dog person ever since.

Early on (for an elf) in her career as a warden, Lithien took part in a skirmish with orcs. When she jumped in to protect her fallen comrade she herself was wounded - the blade caught her in the side, tearing the skin and muscle from her hip almost to her spine on the other side. She barely survived that. Galaren, absolutely devastated forced her to swear off being a warden. Lithien relented and took up the position at the Royal Palace. There she met Celebrian, who took pity upon the girl and whisked her away to Rivendell as her personal maid.

Lithien never felt like a maid, more like another child. She got on well with all three of their children and found herself with the growing admiration for Elrond. He made a lot of strong friendships there and met a men she fell in love with. It was a great time. The best time. She would have probably remained there if it wasn’t for what happened to Celebrian and Calanon. But she never forgot to come back for a visit, which sometimes taken years (what is a couple of years to an elf?)

Glorfindel was the one who encouraged her to pick up the sword again, clearly seeing that needle will never become her weapon of choice. Galaren is still jealous that she got to train with him though he will never admit it out loud.

During one of her visits to Rivendell, Lithien met Gilaren, Aragorn’s mother. Her life was never the same since that point onward. I still plan on writing a story based on this premise, but let’s just say that I shifted years a wee bit and Gilraen came to Rivendell pregnant and not with 3yo Aragorn. The two bonded over time, despite Lithien being terrified at first and hovering over Gilraen at every step. She was also one of the first people to hold tiny Aragorn. It was a love at first sight.

Lithien did travel a fair bit over the years. Mostly to Rivendell true, but she was also in Isengards twice, saw a bit of Rohan, and trudged Northern lands with Dunedain for about 15 years. She also briefly visited Mirkwood, had a chance to meet the people of Beor, saw the Lonely Mountain, the Lake Town and the Ruins of Dale. She was in Moria twice, but that’s not worth mentioning.

Dunedain are Lithien’s favourite and best known group of people.  Not only because they are Aragorn’s people, but also because she got to travel and live with them for about 15 years after the events of the Hobbit (just enough time to allow one’s hair to grow back) It was a harsh lesson sometimes, but Lithien wouldn’t change it for anything else.

Lithien’s favorite ‘lady-like’ activity is dancing. Probably because it involves a lot of movement. She is no stranger to needle work or playing harp or singing, but dancing plays well with her dislike of sitting idly, doing nothing.

Despite the initial panic Lithien turned out to be rather great with kids of all races. This might have something to do with wanting to prove that she can do better than what she knows, but she will never admit it. Besides she does really like children.

I still have a burning desire to write a fill up story in this AU with includes the scenario in which Maglor did not die/drown. What I’ve written so far includes a hunt, a great deal of distrust, wounds and blows to the back of the head… But since I never know where to stop once I’ll start a writing project…

And finally, because I’m going to run out of post space - Lithien name’s all of her horses Pilin (arrow). Yes, I shamelessly stole the idea from Geralt, but really - Lithien is an elf. She goes through A LOT of horses, even if they don’t expire before their time. And keeping your loyal companion nameless is not exactly her style. 

[morshtalon]

My Top 5 Video Game Intros

Since I haven't posted in a while and since I don't have any ideas for full-fledged reviews, let's do something different today and talk about my 5 favorite intros to video games I enjoyed in the past. Please note that this is a very personal, opinionated list; I have somewhat deliberately avoided really obvious picks (consider Metal Gear Solid 3's and Final Fantasy VI's openings, among others, to be hovering around in spirit somewhere around here). Furthermore, I'm not limiting myself exclusively to that very first, usually pre-rendered opening scene of a game (like, the attract mode before you even press start), because most of the time those are kind of devoid of any meaning and without context, I'd just be judging them by coolness or whatever, which isn't very interesting or inducive to commentary. Anyway, without further ado, here are my top 5 video game intros:

#5: Wild Arms 3's evolving opening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvoueEiVyWE

At first, Wild Arms 3's opening is just a standard anime thing. It's fairly animated and stuff, and that's fine as far as that goes, but there are two things I find quite special with this opening; one that was always there from the start and one that was a product of the localization. First off, there are actually four versions of the opening. You see, the game is separated into 4 chapters, each with a different main villain which is somewhat related to the last, with varying levels of directness. In that way, as has been said before, it feels like seasons of an anime, and I think the game struck a good balance of making itself both a cohesive experience and a sort of episodic narrative simultaneously. To reflect that, the opening "evolves" as you progress through the game, changing key scenes to reflect the current "season" villain. I find that to be pretty awesome and an idea I haven't really seen repeated anymore; I believe mostly due to the fact that WA3 has this sort of unique story direction that lent itself to the evolving intro. Still, more games should adopt this style. They might have, I dunno, this is the coolest example out of the games I've played anyway. The second thing that impresses me is how well the localization performer fared singing the english version of the opening theme, Advanced Wind. I think it's actually better than the original. There's a certain sweetness and determination in her voice that is so fitting with the game's main character, I could almost trick myself into thinking it was actually Virginia hollering those lyrics. Pretty good opening, not higher on the list because it -is- just a pre-title opening I guess, but still. Also, Wild Arms 3 itself is alright, check it out if you're a fan of this kind of stuff.

#4: Cave Story's first taste of gameplay

What makes Cave Story's introduction interesting is that it... sort of doesn't exist. You're just dropped straight into the action with no real clue what's going on besides a brief interaction between two characters that makes completely no sense at that point. Every plot detail is up to you to find out in an immersive manner that doesn't barrage the player with endless backstories and setups and information you don't really need. Even Dark Souls, one of my favorite games and the one I perceive to be closest to the ideal of gameplay and story integration, feels the need to weigh down your mind with stuff before you start. Don't get me wrong, I understand why Dark Souls and many other games need it, but the fact that Cave Story -doesn't- is rather admirable, in my opinion. I love games where you start out without knowing what's going on, solving challenges just based on the fact you're playing a game and need to go forward, to only then start piecing together the great scheme of things from in-game data collection. What's even better about Cave Story is that there's no limitation at the start: you're dropped into full gameplay conditions, without bumbling around a peaceful area while the backstory is exposed to you by an NPC or anything "cinematic" like that. You're just left to figure everything out on your own. Pretty cool.

#3: Dragon Warrior II's extended prologue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OlHofpQ7LA

Dragon Quest 2's original Famicom version started out pretty shitty. It was basically only a slight alteration to the previous installment's intro: you're in a throne room (this time you're actually the prince, sitting on the queen's throne for some reason), some guard from the faraway kingdom of Moonbrooke comes along and warns the king of impending doom before collapsing from his wounds, the king gives you some brief words of encouragement and sets you off on an adventure with minimal financial backup and a crap sword (admittedly, a better deal than in DQ1). For the international version, by some divine intervention causing a brief miracle shining in the face of Nintendo's then-oppressive censorship, an extensive prologue scene was added depicting the events that befell Moonbrooke prior to that guard setting off on his journey. What makes this scene special, however, is how brilliantly it expands on the tropes established by the localization of the previous title. Dragon Warrior 1 had this faux-Elizabethan translation for some reason, which was pretty charming but otherwise just a strange quirk they added for the overseas release. The extended prologue added here actually runs with that theme and frames the story as some kind of fairy tale; a narrator intercepts the dialog message boxes to preface each character's next line, there is some opening text that feels as if some elderly gent from Shakespeare times was weaving a tale in front of his audience's eyes, and it even goes somewhat into detail pretty much leaving no room for the player to doubt that the people of Moonbrooke flat out died. Also, the guard that makes the voyage to your kingdom is given a tiny little bit of characterization, just enough to wrap up the scene pretty much as best as they could have. Overall, this makes Dragon Warrior II have the most engaging start of the original trilogy; it was something they didn't have to do at all, but they did it and actually made the game better for it. At least until you get to Rhone and it starts its genocide of the player's happiness, soul, and reasons to live.

#2: Suikoden II - Reminiscence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WLyjRex0ac

Suikoden II's emotional storyline and comparatively grounded narrative offer a nice contrast to the PSX's library of jRPGs concerned with elevating their epicness to ridiculous degrees. The game really cements this approach on the introductory flashback scene that functions as the opening credits. To me, the reminiscence scene is pivotal, serving a variety of functions that cause ripple effects lasting even beyond one's playthrough of the game. The setup is simple: The main character and his best friend run afoul of a ploy to abruptly terminate a cease-fire between two nations; they are pursued by some knights and cornered at a cliff above a river. You and your friend, then, etch a marking on a spot in the cliff wall and jump into the river below, planning to return to the etched spot should he and you get separated. While you are being carried by the currents, the scene itself begins. It's simply a flashback montage showcasing glimpses of the life you and your friend led leading up to your enrollments in the army and departure for the sabotaged expedition, accompanied by a relatively simple piano piece. However, it's a scene that is central to the themes of the entire game. It provides, first and foremost, a contrast between a perceived bright future with an everlasting bond of friendship and the tragedies that will soon occur in these characters' lives. It's a window into the will and emotions of the main character himself in his comfort zone; the life that he will so clamor to return to as the game progresses and things get increasingly more unwieldy for everyone. It sets up everything you need to know about the relationship between you, your best friend, and your sister on a 2-minute scene with no dialog; conveying all it needs only on its fantastic sprite work and score. It lets you know that this is, first and foremost, a game about feelings and about interpersonal relationships, using the war that you expect to happen from having played Suikoden 1 more as a backdrop to explore introspective consequences and how it affects people's visions. Most importantly, however, is that it serves as a reminder of what it was like for you, the player, when you come back from having completed the game. I literally cannot watch this scene anymore without shedding a tear or two. It happens every time. I actually prefer the normal version with the sepia filter, but I couldn't find it on its own like that, so here's the full-color version of it that you get from doing some ludicrous stunt before you jump into the river or whatever. Either one's fine, really. By the way, get the bad ending. The good one completely ruins the message and weight of the entire story, almost making the game meaningless.

#1: Vagrant Story - Climax of the Graylands Incident https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4m42OmAczo

Vagrant Story is an odd game in many aspects. Its gameplay is a crossbreed of roguelikes and rhythm games, it has yet another strange Shakespearean localization, the characters are dressed all weird and BDSM-y and showing a lot of skin... Anyway, one of the game's odd quirks is that it has tons of stuff that you can miss by pressing start at an inopportune moment. One of them is the simply amazing opening; an epic 11-minute in-engine "cutscene" (with occasional gameplay sections that transition very smoothly because it's all done with in-game models and graphics) jampacked with plot detailing the events leading up to the game's start, with even the music trying its best to synchronize itself with the cutscene's many shifts in mood and intensity. You can easily miss all this because it starts with a long wall of text that most players would read faster than the time it takes for it to disappear and press "start" because they think they're done with it and there's nothing left to see. A shame, really, because to me this one part of the game almost manages to outshine the entire rest of it. There's just such a density of things happening here; this urban gray rainy moody setting is more fitting to the localization's flowery prose than the things that happen in Léa Monde, and it's all just done so well with the PSX's limitations. While pretty much every other game ever opts for FMVs or an otherwise pre-rendered solution for its openings and important moments, Vagrant Story does it all with the same exact rules (well... excluding the vapid meaningless pre-opening that happens before the title screen shows up but just forget about that one), and the result is that everything feels like it has much more weight to it. Also, as I said, there is the advantage of transitioning smoothly into gameplay, which the game -does- go on to use a few times later on for short "boss appearing at the boss arena"-type cutscenes, but those all lack the juice and meat of this glorious opening scene. It's just a meticulously created, awesome example of Video Game craftsmanship, outside of just being really awesome to watch as well. I absolutely love it.

Here are some runners-up: Wild Arms 2's Disc 2 cinematic (US version); Fire Emblem: Thracia 776's opening (before title screen); That part in Actraiser when you descend into Fillmore stage 1 and go into the statue and that kickass track starts playing; The brief scroll down on the dark forest scene in Tales of Phantasia (Super Famicom) before the title screen shows up (really fascinated me as a kid); Lufia: The Legend Returns (odd pick but it has a pretty charming intro with some nice artwork for the GBC); Probably many others that I'm forgetting right now.

Anyway, from this list you can sort of tell what games I like to play so I can excuse myself from writing a dreaded positive review of something for a while. Also, I noticed that things that are done with the in-game engine tend to impress me more than things that aren't, even though it's technically actually more work to do an anime FMV thing I guess? Well, whatever, I'm a hypocrite and stupid so make sure to share your own opinions too if you want I guess I dunno.

[lotrewrite]

LOT Season 2 4.17.17 Recap

All right! Here is the recap of ideas from Monday’s chat sessions. It’s still fairly rough, since I’ve mostly devoted my time to incorporating all of the below into what my next post is going to be about, which is the episodes layout for the season. I’ve tried to group them by subject for convenience. 

TL;DR: you should probably go look at the post with the episodes instead, it'll have the ideas that we discussed (below) incorporated into episode

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Oculus Len: Len: well, I was thinking that Oculus!Len would actually appear gradually throughout the season Mick assumes he's a hallucination, and when Len corrects him Mick doesn't believe him? maybe Len doesn't know what he is we have them scattered to the spear pieces so maybe the spear pieces, when activated, "draw in" unusual activity so it's indirectly because of the spear that's how he finds them – therefore he can also find the Legion when they have spear pieces; Like beacons that disrupt the flow of time. they're rocks in the river of time Mick can see him because he was exposed to the Oculus energy in the chair during his time as Kronos sort of a sub-theme I want to work on with Len is that he doesn't always communicate well with people even Mick, he often relies on Mick just getting what he means and that would make it all the more frustrating that Mick goes with Legion!Len even when Oculus!Len tells him not to Episodes where Len appears Episode where this is explained (by magic user?)

Gideon episode More exploration of the ship and Gideon’s limitations now that the Vanishing Point is gone It would also explain why they need to go find "experts" to learn about the spear and other things because they can't just ask Gideon any more Gideon is grieving the AIs in the Vanishing Point and Rip, as well as her isolation/dehumanization by the team, traumatized by Rip hacking her if that’s there Gideon episode: they find a mostly destroyed ship with an AI gone crazy from grief or something and none of them realized that could happen; creepy ghost ship with insane AI Gideon steps in to save the Legends a haunted ship episode would be a great time to introduce Len-the-full-ghost instead of as a hallucination This is the first episode where Oculus!Len interacts with something and is recognized by Gideon, identifying him as a ghost instead of just a hallucination Episode at the midpoint

Kronos’ ship Possibility: solving where Eobard got his own Gideon? From Legion!Rip? from Kronos’ ship? Legion finds Mick’s old ship, gets his AI from there?

Episode 3 - 1942 Episode 3: Sara in 1942: She teamed up with them while waiting to be picked up because otherwise she'd get bored and go back to the League of Assassins and really, twice is enough bet she and rex would have some issues about leadership So the JSA was in Russia/Finland and Sara went: Heeeeeeeyyyyyyy, guys... :D Amaya had seen lightning just before finding Rex's body but didn't actively recall it until seeing Barry run during the crossover. When she mentions it to the others, they realize they're dealing with a speedster

End of Legion Team uses the spear's relative immunity to the time stream to go back in time to interfere with a prior timeline by simply stopping Eobard right after flashpoint, using the spear to rob him of his time travel powers and ditching him right after he killed Barry's mom thereby kickstarting his evolution to become Flash season 1 Wellsobard. Eobard gets exactly what he wants: to be saved from the Black Flash. By stopping Eo at that point, he doesn't ever recruit Damien or Len, so they are back in their timelines WITHOUT a memory wipe and the subtle differences between pre-Legends Eo and post-Legends Eo could also excplain some of the differences in post-Flashpoint Flash universe Possibly emotional farewell between Mick and past!Len before he fades away, then he goes back to Oculus!Len Oculus!Len decides to sacrifice himself again (end of his arc – accepting his choice to be a hero as well as a villain, accepting it’s a part of who he is) and grabs the spear to destroy it, but it actually brings him back because it is immune to time aberrations (ALT: Len regrows body from hand?)

Laurel Sending Laurel to E-2 – they know she’s not Black Siren because of watch detectors one way to give a reason for her to go is because Laurel's death is such an important moment, rescuing her as a speedster abberation - which makes her a target for the Black Flash. Meaning that Eobard saved Laurel not only to get the spear pieces from Sara, but ALSO to give the Black Flash an alternative target Does Laurel like being E-2? It’s better than being dead

Doomworld Doomworld: Wanted!AU – superheroes are miserable regular humans, lots more villains, villainous superheroes and ALL the cameos; actual dystopia going on Lisa is ice skating and queen of a country

Legion composition Some people proposed Queen B, some people proposed Zazzala merger of characters – past!Damien knows a magic user who will be helpful and calls for Queen Bee, who has obtained a mystical artefact (Emerald Eye), which gives her mind-control powers. Damien protects himself and Eobard against it by obtaining amulets against mind control? (Len later demonstrates himself to be capable of picking them off without them noticing, rendering them all vulnerable) Joke about Poison Ivy not returning their calls Queen Bee is an antagonist of Mari-Vixen, both in terms of causing the civil war that caused her to leave her home and stalking her for her token, and this incite Amaya to be curious about her future

Mick moments Finale: Mick and Oculus!Len to team up with Jax and the Legends and fight the Legion Mick moment: at some point he has a moment where he can choose between himself (the chance for the heist or burn of the century) or a teammate and realizes he values the team and wants to stay with them At some point Mick and Ray talk about suicidal ideation they have; Amaya talk to about grief Mick has worsening hallucinations – doesn’t reveal it too soon; concern about mental illness explicitly mentioned; so he's at first an echo, then a whisper, then a glimpse, then a full fledge appearance

Sara arc Sara: saves her sister, then has to step up as leader, then becomes overprotective, confrontation between her and Jax at the end; she goes to talk with Laurel and returns to take up the mantel of captain before going into final fight

Nate Nate’s lucky never-goes-dull pencil is a spear piece He is a grad student and does not question it

Jax/Stein rescue Jax/Stein – medieval constantinople or crusades – people were certain they were right and it goes horribly wrong – stein: so much scientific knowledge being destroyed! jax: also people dying?? Sets up Jax’s arc and helps him realize he knows what the morally right thing is, but he lets himself get overruled

Vikings Jax romance during the Vikings episode Pagan period, everyone addresses their grief, plot happens and at the end they’re at a funeral, a skald singing a tale to trigger the funeral/grieving part of the vikings ep, so there's a big story swap between the legends – make them get up and talk about their dead (Stein is chosen, ends up talking about Ronnie; Mick throws his bottle into the fire, gets up, talks about Len; Ray about Anna) – Sara letting go of rage and grief over Laurel – recognizing she didn’t react well Lisa had been told long before, but she’s still upset; she talks with Mick about his presence with the Legends Jax meets a shieldmaiden who gives him pointers on defending himself without Stein/remind him to be awesome on his own as well – Jax is shocked his flirting actually worked

Episode 6 – cyberpunk heist Could be in the future, cyberpunk, Lisa runs the heist Ray insists on being too clever and going off-script, the suit is damaged, but it’s only destroyed in Invasion; brief mention of Batman Beyond Stein initially protests but gets into it; Ray treats it like a heist movie instead of a real heist, thinks he’s going to save the day despite being told not to use his suit, it all goes badly instead Ray losing his suit not only to excessive heroism but to a there-was-a-better-way-if-you-thought-about-it/possibly unnecessary heroism. Lisa needs to go to back-up plan and succeeds regardless Lisa and Mick get to show off their competence and positive interactions

Invasion rewrite portions of it; everyone will be acting decently to Mick, Felicity and Kara make friends with him; not to mention a better use for time travel than "go back to the 50s to get an alien and do nothing with him"

Magic-user episode Episode 8 – they hunt up a magical expert about the spear, possibly several – So Sara asks Oliver for Constantine's info – each one directing them to another (Constantine to Zatanna to Madame Xanatu and back) Constantine flirts with everyone Zed gets an image of the Legion hunting Rip down by touching the Waverider Rest of the episode: Legends go to try to save him, but fail They return to Constantine, who is apologetic but gives them the compass which he found Rip: Eobard finds him first, initial encounter between them where Rip is happy to meet an old friend from the future (he knew Eo from before Eo became a speedster; asks about if the time sphere worked out for him) and then realizes that Thawne is a villain kidnapping This ties in with Rip’s arc about his “Time Master” knowledge not helping him

American Rev Episode 9 – keep American Rev, keep rat, keep statute; Amaya gets secondary arc: she’s so mission-focused she nearly lets innocent people die, the others stop her and rescue everyone, shows her that being 100% mission above all else is bad

Later magic-user episode Later episode: Constantine sends a message/they call Constantine to ask; telling them that the Spear was last owned by Merlin so they need to go back to Camelot to figure out how it works

Pirates Pirates – maybe not in the Caribbean Ninjas v Pirates argument between Mick and Ray Pirate democracies? Ray and Amaya – Amaya learns pirates are not so bad, law and order isn’t everything, Ray sees that adventuring isn’t all that and requires discipline to be successful

Ray B-plot for one episode to be Ray trying on new identities and they don't work we could also bring Nate back later on for another conversation

Len Len joins Legion willingly He is surprised that Mick is with them and seems okay with them; he objects to plans that involve manipulation of Mick/others based on emotions because it’s “too easy”; He starts questioning, starts hesitating; "if I trust Mick's judgment - which I do sometimes - then what am I missing here?" Sara mentions kiss to Past!Len, who flirts back but doesn’t remember it Line he doesn’t want them to cross – gratuitous torture of someone for pleasure rather than to really get anything out of the person, Len decides to kill the person (mercy kill) and they’re pissed; Len fights the Legion with the help of Oculus!Len (still invisible, but able to interact) Eo thinks it’s easy but Len’s good against speedsters and ices him; Damien pulls out rarely used magic skills and puts him down; they put him in the same chair as torture victim, zoom in on his face, end of episode Next we see of Len, he’s fine - someone jokes "i'm so happy you had a /change/ of mind" - and he says nothing at all. no reaction to the pun, nothing Post-BW manipulates Mick to come with him Oculus!Len is horrified by brainwashing and tries to communicate with Mick, who doesn’t listen He hurts/insults Mick at one point and Jax/Legends realize that’s OOC based on stories of Len Mick in Doomworld realizes he's done something wrong but doesn't know how to fix it and only after he's made the decision to leave Legion!Len does Oculus!Len show up he probably thinks he's hallucinating /again/ but then they're actually able to talk During Doomworld, when Mick realizes Len has been brainwashed, that's the final push that gets him to regather the team The Legion decides to deal with Mick and capture Mick, ordering Legion!Len to torture him Oculus!Len appears and uses that to fight Legion!Len, causing him to BSOD/become confused because the manipulation of Mick (which he was also less willing to do before the brainwashing) is one thing but torturing him is another

Gangs of New York Sadie the Goat Farrel 1869 NY Gangs, headbutts her victims and a cohort shoots them with a sling shot and steals their money, gangs of NY; her nemesis was this other lady who is equally awesome a 6 plus bouncer called Gallus Mag who bit off Sadies ear in a fight and kept it pickled in a jar  - gang war between historical ladies and the Legends jump right in the middle specifically, 1860s Gangs-of-New-York NYC could feature Jonah Hex who haaaaaaaaaaates this place; If we have Hex, maybe include at least a reference to the fact that he was Confederate and uncomfortable with Yankees If we move episode 1 to being London or DC, the later episode with Jonah Hex could involved gangs of New York – he got called to solve a problem

Tudors episode Rip: Time Master’s knowledge is wrong/one-sided and colonialist overtones; could tie in with Amaya’s arc; Episode where Rip (after he comes back) tries to do things based on typical Time Master protocol (team goes one way, he goes another b/c he's sure he's right and he wants to redeem himself) except it's totally wrong, possibly just checking Gideon instead of looking himself, and it goes wrong; he is forced to realize that he’s lost everything: his family, his faith in the TMs, his captaincy, etc. -> Rip also realizes that if his Time Master info is wrong, he might have taken IMPORTANT people from the timeline, thereby robbing them of their potential (possibly they are now creating ‘new’ potential) Possibly to happen in Tudor episode - he thinks the spear has to be THIS THING but it turns out it's another thing during the Tudor episode Mick burns down the building which will then be rebuilt to be the Globe other episode ideas New Zealand episode South America episode – Chile/Argentina – could be Amaya episode for finding out about colonialization possibly an episode where they encounter some Really Bad Thing the Time Masters did (and Rip did, not realizing it was bad) Mystery Machine parked in the background

Maze episode Maze: Legion and Legends both go to future where there is a maze, it’s a TV competition (“Legends of the Hidden Temple”); there are “puzzles” you have to solve but it’s not logic, it’s references, humor, brawn, compassion, puns; O!Len cracks a joke and Mick says it out loud Some overarching minotaur threat Episode where Stein keeps trying to use logic and fails, needs to rely on others, especially Mick Eobard tries to go through walls and pays a penalty for cheating – it’s Jumanji questions is "please name the secret identity of batman" and the answer is "I don't know, nobody knows that!" possibly Lily is in danger? At least, Stein thinks she is; he needs to be scared about the fact that his intelligence isn't going to save her – this can follow up on episode where he doesn’t reveal she’s an aberration thereby getting her angry at him; she refuses to forgive him until she sees him really stressing out about her, he gets advice from emotionally mature person about how to apologize in a way she understands he means it

Filler episode filler episode/Jax's 21st birthday? that particular one doesn't have to be an aberration they go to celebrate Jax's birthday and cause chaos maybe a filler episode that has the legion fighting v the team bonding  shows off the differences between the groups Legion starts sniping about brainwashing to each other

Spear Idea: but the idea is that the spear essentially immunizes the bearer from the effects of time travel this would explain why Nate noticed his thesis going wrong but to expand on the idea a /time traveler/ with the spear would be able to "fix" time aberrations into place, making them more difficult to fix by other time travelers explaining, presumably, why the death of Jesus Christ is another "fixed" moment thus the "change" in reality idea that's why they can 'change' Eobard's reality later on and also why it would bring Oculus!Len back from the dead he's 'fixing' his own aberration Len becomes Schrodinger's cat. He is both alive and dead which only works with something immune to time or the “reality change” can be Rip getting another thing wrong