#i just think she's the most interesting character in the whole series shadows and all

[spookberry]

Shadow High series 3 my new beloved

I didnt even like most of em until i saw them in person, but the knowledge that they'll probably never be in the show has my brain in a "well its free realestate" kinda mood

Random list of information cuz ive been plotting out friend dynamics and background lore

-i like to pretend Rainbow High/Shadow High are actually Rainbow University/Shadow University cuz im in art college Right Now and i think it makes more sense with the whole dorm room situation. And also major makes more sense than focus IMO

-I changed Pinkie's major from film to just undeclared. I think she eventually does land on Film. She just has a lot of interests! Her dream has always been to one day direct films, and I think she comes to love them even more while developing ideas her with the group as she winds up in a Director/Producer position for most of them. BUT also every time she takes a class in a different program she cant help but fall in love with that way of making art too. So she has a hard time picking for a while and changed her major a couple times before landing on Film.

-Pinkie and Berrie bond a lot over a shared interest in vocal synths (tho Berrie knows more about them than her).

-The two made Pinkie's vtuber model together!

-the fandom wiki says PJ is from germany?? Idk how canon that is tbh but ive decided to embrace it i guess

-Rooney's canon name is Scarlet Rose, but i thought it was kinda lame especially when Rosie Redwood is also in this line sooo I renamed her! Stuck to the color name puns tho. Mar Rooney. Maroon. Haha

-Speaking on her though i love that shes from texas and likes writing scifi mystery type stuff and that being said i just Know deep in my bones that she was a Voltron Legendary Defender fan and Keith was/is 100% her favorite. She has a continued fondness for mothman specifically cuz of this.

-PJ and Rooney actually talk about fandom and shows/movies ALL the time. They dont have a ton of overlapping interests, but where they do? The two literally never shut up.

-Rosie is such a random character, like outside of her design she feels very poorly considered. So I scrapped the cosmetology thing and made her an illustrator instead! I think it works better with her love of making art in nature. I can see her being really into illustrated guide books. I think shes a bit snooty when it comes to art too. It takes being friends with other artists to become more open minded.

-I like the idea that Rosie is mainly friends with Rooney and Berrie ontop of that. The three of them often tag team storylines and how theyd interpret them into different mediums. Rosie will draw up a bunch of concept stuff while Rooney writes up a pitch bible and Berrie will start making shit move and throwing in her own ideas on camera angles and character designs.

-as an animation major Berrie was required to take a sound design class early on, which is where she met Oliver! Hes very laid back, and likes to go with the flow, but functions a little like the "mom" of the group. Often reminding the girls to take breaks, drink water, stop looking at their screens lest they get eye strain etc. He's multi-talented tbh but Music is his one true passion and he likes how the girls are always giving him collaboration opportunities.

-Oliver and Rosie like to talk sports a lot, both having played a bunch when they were younger and throughout high school.

-Lavender Lynn is Oliver's number one "person who needs constant reminders to settle down" she is in a constant buzz of trying to get the best shots and is utterly obsessed with the process of artistic documentation. Everything must be documented.

-the whole school loves her for this actually, she has a whole side gig where other students hire her to help photograph their projects. She saves everything she earns from this for her future dream plans to visit paris. She has it set really, many of the artists who she helps photograph now will remain steadfast clients of hers forever onward.

-PJ and Lynn actually took a print media class together at one point. Which didnt at the time spark an everlasting friendship. But it did give PJ an easier in to ask for Lynn's help documenting a project the group was working on. One of Lynn's first times photographing them work happened to fall on a day where Rosie had planned to trick everyone into going on a nature walk sans devices... Lynn wound up really appreciating this outing and decided to continue hanging around the group even after that project had ended.

[imanes]

doing a lil august reading wrap up because apparently i read 13 (!!) books. in chronological order (bolded are those i recommend):

city of stairs by robert jackson bennett: quite the interesting read. i think the character work in this one is a standout, as well as the world building. the good thing is i have no idea where this trilogy is going so it's exciting. the audiobook for the second book arrives in 2 weeks on my shelves on libby so I'll be reading the sequel soon

braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer: this one took me a whole entire year to read and finish lol. no comment. or maybe one comment: i think i'd have found this book a lot more eye opening if i had read it three years ago so right book wrong time i guess? i do recommend it i just think it didn't impact me as much as i thought it would

the blighted worlds by megan e. o'keefe: this one hit me like a truck!! i was so obsessed. it's a sci-fi space opera with an element of horror and an interesting romance sub-plot. basically everything i love lmao. i really do recommend this book it might actually be my fave of the month

sanctuary by ilona andrews: i have to stay up to date on all things kate daniels-related to this spin off was high on my tbr. it was a lot of fun but it petered out toward the end

where the dark stands still by a.b. poranek: a bit of a let down not gonna lie. the gist of my opinion is that it felt underdeveloped and in turn i felt under-interested in whatever was going on

shadows of self by brandon sanderson: once again i am begging the protagonists of this series to stop being aggravating

the fractured dark by megan e. o'keefe: continuing my obsession with the devoured worlds trilogy... unfortunately i have to wait on my libby hold to get the audiobook of the next one (i read with my eyeballs and listen at the same time to help with concentration)

the right to sex - feminism in the 21st century by amia srinivasan: i read this book because i know of two people who broke up with their significant other (one of them resulting in a divorce) after reading this book so i had to know what srinivasan had cooked in there and yeah she did cook.

the way of kings by brandon sanderson: just part of my re-read in preparation of the release of wind and truth in December. this month we tackle (again) words of radiance teehee

just for the summer by abby jimenez: womp womp womp. idk what it is with romance authors these days they're in a competition with themselves to portray the healthiest love stories but this one teetered on the wrong side of boring one too many times and the volume to therapy-speech in this one was staggering.

the ex vows by joyce jessica: twas a cute poolside read, it's nothing revolutionary but it was pleasant enough and it didn't make me roll my eyes like just for the summer jdkjgsk at least the love interest had a personality and a life... i mean it's fiction so it's not a life but it appeared as if he contained multitudes or something

funny story by emily henry: I'll go ahead and say it nobody writes a contemporary romance quite like miss henry because she's got the secret recipe for the right balance between heartfelt feelings and amusing situations + her dialogues feel a lot more natural than most (though if i had to nitpick she always has this side character who's a fountain of wisdom and gives you life-changing monologues but i guess such people exist out there)

the thief by megan whalen turner: the megans are really out in full force because this is another book written by a megan that i loved so much. yes half of this book is a fairly episodic journey across made-up countries, yes i ate it up, yes the second half is worth the wait (if you were out of patience, which i wasn't, bc i was having fun) and yes the plot twists are chef's kiss. "gen's ambitions are his own" is the perfect summary. everand has all the audiobooks so you know what I'm gonna do... that's right... listen and read at the same time

as an aside the tandem reads i do with both books and audiobooks happen only when i like the narrators. if i find a narrator i like i stick to them like glue because they're few and far between as far as my picky ass is concerned. i never do romance audiobooks they're the worst...

[torpedopickle]

I finally watched Transformers Earthspark Season 2 today. I have a lot of thoughts and I wrote some paragraphs for every episode. As you can see I wrote a LOT, enjoy my way too long cartoon analysis:

Episode 1: the cracks are showing but it hasn't crumbled yet

The animation feels less alive than in season 1 even if strong storyboarding still carries some scenes, as I know several of the season 1 storyboarders did work on this episode. It has a couple good sequences, a couple incredibly stilted ones. The overreliance on slowmo feels weird, and the animation struggles to properly convey things, like how we're supposed to take Hashtag's injury very seriously, but it just looked like she got bumped lightly.

the Decepticons are butchered and watered down into "evil because they're Decepticons". Chaos Terrans is an interesting concept and the way they're executing Aftermath would provide a foundation for exploring topics such as delinquent youth, but knowing how the series will go on to treat them in later episodes, I'm not hopeful.

the Maltos feel like they're sleepwalking. They have a lot of screentime but for some reason they don't feel present at all, it's like I'm watching their shadows move around on screen without the things that made them feel alive shining through.

If I didn't know beforehand what this season would eventually stagnate into, I could see myself being fooled into thinking the gripes I have with this episode are just growing pains, however i'm not so hopeful.

Episode 2: Improved in some ways but not in others. The episode premise is decent, and the narrower focus compared to episode 1 does help make the focus characters feel a bit more like themselves again. Unfortunately i just don't think the premise was utilized well at all. Introducing quintessons to the conflict is kind of a big development, but it doesn't flesh them out well IMO. They treat them like wild animals with no characterization for a majority of it, and then hint at some deeper conflicts at the very 3nd before promptly disposingof them. So ultimately it feels unsatisfying (although we do get some expositon in episode 9, but it doesn't add up to much).

And once again i must comment on the character acting on the humans especially being severely lacking.

Robbie and Mo having helmets for like half their screentime definitely feels like a cut corner not to animate their faces

Episode 3 review: some well animated sequences this time around, i'd seen the storyboards for them on twitter and they're really well done, but then there's some others that really werent as decent, so big ups and down in animation quality. Most of the episode did feel like a slight return to formula for Earthspark tho, with how it felt like it was actually making a point about something for once, which so far has been rare in season 2, although the conclusion wasn't the most satisfying with the whole "you can't have everything" message but then hashtag kinda gets most of what she wanted anyway.

Episode 4 is like.... baffling.

Like the fact that they swapped to a wholly different and much cheaper animation studio was so far just somewhat shining through, but now it's impossible to unsee. The animation here feels BEYOND stilted, in every way. Like not even the 2D FX animation looked convincing this time. That clip of Robbie dropping a cake is the weirdest animated thing i've ever seen. It's like it gets sucked out of his hands by a magnet.

The Faire Maestro is a type of character I feel like would have been handled really well in Transformers Animated but was just kinda nothing here, super ugly design too and very odd voice direction. Lots of just bizarre and mindboggling things in this episode, like them seeing faire maestro having an emberstone shard, and then deciding to steal it right in front of his face for absolutely no reason even though they think he's a normal guy and not a villain. And tiny inconsistencies like Mo knowing his name even though he never said it. Bizarre episode all around, Weird Al cameo is cute but then he's gone.

Episode 5 review: Finally Jawbreaker gets to be in it. Except now he feels like a baby. Just a big stomping juvenile baby.

And speaking of big stomping babies, Aftermath is one too. He feels like he's supposed to be a representation of troubled/delinquent youth who don't get along with their peers and who don't have positive role models or a support network, but he really comes off as being just... chaotic, no real sense of interiority to him other than "I'm mean and I enjoy being mean and I can't help it". He's entertaining on a surface level vibes basis, but it doesn't feel like any attempts are being made at making a point. He's barely been in the show so pretty much anything that could make his character interesting is completely missing. Like there's no development of how the decepticons are raising him other than the basic assumption of "bad role models", and the decepticons barely get to be characters this season either. Aftermath feels like an Afterthought, as Chaos Terrans have basically been less than a footnote, and the series has attempted to do no form of storytelling with them beyond surface level observations that honestly feel insulting to the other characters like how the decepticons are just evil now, and the autobots/terrans have lost all nuanced expressions of empathy and solidarity in favor of just "they're generally friendly"

oh and also the evil mushrooms are boring.

Episode 6 review: Man this episode just *feels* wrong, like viscerally.

The show's handling of the chaos terrans just keeps getting worse. There's absolutely NOTHING about spitfire that compels any form of empathy. Like there's not even a mote of her being a troubled and misguided youth, she's just straight up ontologically cruel, like nothing about the conflict in this episode regards a failure to understand, communicate, or empathise with each other, it's just a straight up rejection of those things on both sides. For this chaos terran delinquent analogy thing to work you NEED there to be a sense of humanity or waywardness to them. You NEED to be able to conceive of them as being capable of more than just anger. This just feels meanspirited, especially the way the Maltos have no desire for Spitfire to be better. They just wholeheartedly accept that she's ontologically evil, and honestly, the way she's presented in this episode you'd think they were right, but they're not SUPPOSED to be right.

It sucks too cuz chaos terrans are a great idea

season 1's terrans were all representations of good natured minority kids, particularly third culture kids, who despite their best intentions and kindness end up having to fight for acceptance.

The chaos terrans are a natural progression of that, with depicting kids who end up on the fringe of society because they're inherently different from others and have a harder time being understood, and who don't have a support network to set them straight.

So it starts out in a place where they'd easily be able to build on it, but it's squandered imo. And for several reasons:

1. the Decepticons are 1 dimensional bad guys this season so they fail to capitalize on any potential storytelling they could have done with how their generational resentment might be passed down to the younger generation. They also fail to build any sort of relationship between the Chaos Terrans and the decepticons, so any obligation to stay or debt of gratitude that they might feel is just not there. You get no sense of why they'd want to be decepticons other than wanting to be enabled and encouraged for cruel behavior. They could have given breakdown an actual father son dynamic with aftermath but instead undercut it and play it for laughs.

2. Because the malto's solidarity have been completely watered down into just being "good guys", and never really get to articulate any sort of deeper point in their attempt to appeal to the chaos terrans, so you don't get a sense of how they might help them if they were allowed.

and 3. because the chaos terrans themselves don't really feel like they have much of an inner struggle, interiority, or conflict, it doesn't really feel like there's much of a foothold for

Anyone to latch onto to get through to them. Which makes them feel unredeemable.

so to reiterate and summarize these 3 points; 1. there's no sense of how the chaos terrans are being given negative reinforcement, 2. there's no sense of how the Maltos might help undo this, and 3. there's no sense of how the chaos terrans might want to be helped or not helped.

I understand that like part of the point is that they don't understand the chaos terrans, which supposedly makes them feel more alienated and further pushed towards anger, but there's no nuance or attempt at solidarity to the way these misunderstandings occur. Like there's no hint of Twitch and the Maltos trying their best to reach out to spitfire in meaningful ways. There's no sense of there being some fundamental difference in perspective or circumstance that make them able to understand eachother's point of view, it's just straight up "i tried to be nice but you were mean so now i won't be nice anymore" and it never goes beyond that. It's insulting how easily the Maltos give up on them.

Episode 7: serving as a direct followup to the last, it continues a lot of the same flaws. It squanders any chance of giving Spitfire some depth, like they could have spun her obsessive competitiveness into a deep-seated need for approval or validation or something, but no, she's as one dimensional as her behavior would suggest. Her behavior just becomes more and more destructive to a cartoonish degree where it no longer becomes possible to feel empathy for her.

the whole freaky friday misunderstanding thing too also feels super forced, which isn't helped by the animation failing to convey a lot of ideas.

Comparing this season to season 1 so far, man it just really sucks at juggling the characters. We've had practically 0 focus or development for any of the autobots and decepticons, and the maltos for that matter, despite their overwhelming screentime.

This is likely a casting budget thing. Which is why bumblebee has been demoted from main cast member to a guy who maybe says 2 lines every 3 episodes.

The quality of season 1's writing would go up and down quite drastically between episodes, but so far season 2 has consistently been on par with some of season 1's worse entries. It's juvenile and it has next to nothing to say about anything. Barely even any basic surface level messages, just mostly meaningless antics with next to no focus on exploring characters.

Episode 8 review: it's fine. No notes. It's a competent comedy episode. Fun premise with the whole "thing getting continuously stolen by different people" trope. Basing an episode around optimus's trailer is funny. Animation isn't stellar. Overall it's just an ok episode. I have nothing to say about it other than it's well executed even if it's not very ambitious.

Episode 9/10: okay! End of the season. The finale's mixed for me. In a different universe, this would have been an OK finale for the most part, but the fact that the season has tarnished every single character and plotline from season 1 and made no successful attempt at building anything new of value makes it lack any impact it could have had.

Interesting angle to flip the quintesson creator race narrative that transformers fans are used to. Although they too were an afterthought for this season. Aftermath and Spitfire getting killed really was the rotten cherry on top of their miserable cake. First they're treated like dirt by the story and handled as poorly as they could possibly be, squandering the excellent potential they had, but then they just kill them. Just so starscream's heelturn is even more evil. It honestly feels sad to me that they even bothered to acknowledge the fact that starscream was redeemble in season 1. Just makes it feel even more annoying that they conciously gave up trying to make him nuanced. Some of the animation was good. The shots of terratronus rising were very well composited and communicated the scale extremely well. As for the actual climax, it felt pretty lacking.

Overall a dissapointing season. A shadow of what earthspark was. Most of the characters are completely sidelined (likely for lack of a casting budget), and the few who aren't don't get a single story that feels reminiscent of that immensely strong sense of confident identity that season 1 had.

Hasbro cannot help themselves can they

[itseyaaaa]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

tbh it was hard to choose just 10 but i managed to do it so here u are!!

1) ADAM PARRISH from the raven cycle. He is the most relatable character I ever read so he deserves first place. Loved him since the beginning and keep on doing it. I usually never relate to characters but then he came in my life and i found myself staring at the pages while reading his thoughts bc that was how I felt too and it was kinda shocking.

2) JEAN MOREAU from All For The Game series. Since he was just a background character in the first 3 books I didn't mind him much, but then I read the extra content and his story broke me so much and I couldn't stop thinking about him, then the 4th book about him came out and I'm even more in love with him even tho he keeps make me cry. His story keeps tormenting me hoping he will get the happy ending he deserves.

3)HUA CHENG from Tian Guan Ci Fu. The greenest man in the world!!! Waited 800 years for the love of his life and he even died for him. He is just so perfect that I couldn't help but love him.

4) MONKEY D. LUFFY from One Piece. Only God knows how much I would give to have Luffy knocking on my door and ask me to join his crew. The happiness he brings, the serenity I would have if I had him in my life. The way he is a savior without even trying like pls come and save me too from this meaningless life and let's go have adventures in weird islands!!!

5) STILES STILINSKI from TeenWolf. He is my supreme teencrush. Never had a crush like this for an actor/tv character. He's literally the type of guy I would marry without second thoughts.

6)XERXE BREAK from Pandora Hearts. It's my favourite manga ever and his character was so interesting to read about, his powers, his story, the way he was connected with Abyss, his being mysterious and weird sometime, his intelligence, everything about him got my attention since the beginning. And personally his legal Chain had one of the best design and powers in the whole manga.

7) FA MULAN from Mulan . She was my childhood crush and I know the Disney movie by memory. I admired her so much and I wanted to be her since I was a child and my admiration still exist even now. she was an icon and a legend!!

8)SHERLOCK HOLMES from Moriarty the Patriot. Always liked sherlock as character but this version is the ultimate perfection. The animation design is stunning and the character too. I have a thing for intelligent men and he is the first one on the list.

9) MAKI ZENIN from Jujutsu Kaisen. Big ass crush for her since the beginning but then I read the Zenin Clan Arc and I was on my knees for her. A female character that it's not fanservice or a pretty face or two big boobs

10) SUNG JINWOO from Solo Leveling. It's my favourite manhwa and he is amazing. I actually have a bigger crush for Igris but it's one of his shadows but whatever. His story and growth is very interesting and I enjoyed reading it a lot.

[onlycosmere]

Marasi and the Ghostbloods

Comatose: In Lost Metal, you had Marasi ultimately reject Kelsier’s offer of joining the Ghostbloods, and I think that's a decision we've seen some division on with the fans. So I'm curious, what’s your analysis and thoughts on that? Because it was an interesting and fun character choice.

Brandon Sanderson: Yeah, I'm not surprised there's some division of fans; there was division among the beta readers on this. And there is even—like, I, as I was writing the book, left myself the option to have her join if I wanted her to. I didn't lock myself in in that part of the outline.

My instinct was this isn't a good place for her. And so why…? And then when I got to the end am like, no, this isn't a good place for her. So, you know, Marasi’s journey through the books has been, "how do I change the world?", "how much am I interested in changing the world?", and "how much do I change the world?". Kind of in conversation with the dreams that she had as a younger person and the reality that she's now living?

And one of the things I wanted to deal with in this book was this idea that she is kind of worried that she's just— she's becoming a cop, with all that that entails, right? That there's a culture to that and whatnot. And should she be doing more? And all of that. And so that did lead a lot toward the whole Ghostbloods thing, right? And I expected a lot of people to be like, "Oh, yeah, well, here's the easy answer."

The problem is Kelsier is just such a terrible match to Marasi, right? Like personality-wise, you know, Kelsier is about the shadows. He honestly believes that if all the information were known that it would be worse for the world. He can share it in a small group. And he's got this sort of "I need to take care of people and I need to do it my way" sort of philosophy, which is really antithetical to somebody like Marasi, who, you know, her whole thing is "we need to be better as a society, not as individuals, and we need to be—". And so I at the end decided this is just a really bad place for her, right?

But she needed a place. Actually, the first draft of the book, I didn't have her make the decision to go into politics. She had rejected politics in the first book, right? She’s like, "I'm not going that way, that’s not that's not for me." And I went double back on that. I'm like, no, this is probably the right route for her, which is nice because like, it it kind of snapped together for me at that point when I did the revision to be like, no, she does need something. If she's going to turn down Kelsier, she needs something.

You know, you will have some fun in Era 3. Era 3, I don't know…? I warned you I might spoil unwritten books… Have I said this? I might have said this—you guys will know—Era 3’s working title for the series is Ghostbloods, right? And so like you know Mistborn: Ghostbloods is what Era 3 is going to be called, most likely. So if you were sad, well, just remember if Marasi joined the Ghostbloods we're still skipping decades. You would not have been able to see her as a member of the Ghostbloods. But that's what the name of the next series is going to be.

[that-ari-blogger]

The Episode That Needs No Introduction

This is a post about Promise. And I could end this introduction here and you would know what I'm talking about. Because Promise is the episode that made She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Before this episode, this is a war story, with an abusive parent figure and a femme fatale that the hero will have to overcome and befriend respectively.

Even two episodes prior, in the darkest episode up to that point, this was still a war story. The stakes were barely personal.

Promise is when that changes, and this series becomes psychological. Or rather, reveals just how psychological it has been the entire time.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Promise is one of the most well written episodes of television out there, to the point where several top ten lists for She Ra actively exclude it because it is too obvious of a choice. TheGamer.Com calls it "a masterstroke of emotional storytelling". Meanwhile, Five By Five Takes' video, She Ra's Internal Trilogy is a powerful analysis of Promise in the context of the whole series and is genuinely what inspired me to create this blog in the first place. Promise is good cinema.

I'm going to start with that opening sequence, because it summarises all three characters and their arcs masterfully. Light Hope responds to She-Ra but ignores Adora. Catra is desperate for Adora, but despises She-Ra. So, our protagonist is pulled in both directions, by others and by herself. You get all this from the emotionless dialogue from Light Hope, despite it not stating it directly, and from Catra's expressions.

I am aware that this robot specifically isn't technically Light Hope, but Light Hope is the entire system, so I consider this robot a part of that.

Even here, there is a dichotomy between the characters. Catra and Light Hope are opposites, where one says only kind things, but her actions betray a more Machiavellian nature, the other's words are hurtful, but despite herself, she cannot help but show a kindness. Exhibit A: The last time these two saw each other, Catra was giving Adora back the sword.

There is also the emotionless vs ball of anger in a vaguely humanoid shape parallel, but that is mainly superficial.

This training scene is cool because it gives us yet another look behind the curtain at Catra's psyche. Take a look at these two lines, back to back.

"Way to gang up on me!"

"No, I'm fine. You're just lucky I let you win."

Catra puts up a brave face to impress people and to cover up for herself. But look who she is saying that to. Catra wants desperately to show off to Adora. She has no interest in showing strength to Shadow Weaver at this point, her defiance isn't fueled by that.

The one person at this point in the story that Catra has been shown trying to impress is Adora. It gets mentioned that she does things to gain Hordack's favour, but we never actually see that, and her words are far from trustworthy.

It is also notable that the first thing Catra tries to do is scream for Adora when she's met with the spider. It's instinctual, and there's something to that.

Because... is it instinctual? I've talked about Catra's character design in the past, focusing on the symmetry, but I took care to not mention her stand out quality. Catra's animalistic physical appearance is a metaphor for one of her strongest themes, instinct vs choice.

It is possible to make a case on almost every single one of Catra's actions for either instinct or choice. Is she instinctively caring for Adora, but choosing not to? Or is she desperately trying to be kind, and instinctively rejecting that? I am partial to the second idea, but it could quite reasonably be either. The story doesn't at any point make the answer clear, which is a strength of the writing.

An instinct is a behaviour that you do not think about, not necessarily one you are born with. For example, flinching when something flies by your face is an instinctive behaviour, but so is lashing out when feeling threatened. Some compulsions and addictions function like this. And I think that Shadow Weaver's manipulation has caused Catra to develop these behaviours. Catra has been raised to instinctively push away affection, or to stay silent when feeling love of her own.

Shadow Weaver physically abuses a child in this scene. That is objectively what this is. The fact that this is magical is the only thing that let the writers get this through censorship. But I want to be clear here, this is not simply punishing misbehaviour, this is not tough love, this is not building strength. Shadow Weaver physically abuses a child in this scene.

And this is favouritism as well, Shadow Weaver could have cast her spell and frozen both Adora and Catra or reprimanded them both. But she chose to torture Catra exclusively.

However, favouritism and privilege are two different things. In this case, they are unrelated. Again, there are so many ways Shadow Weaver could have done this. She could have let Adora go, but she kept her, and made her watch.

"Adora, you must do a better job of keeping her under control. Do not let this happen again."

This is a statement. It says: "this is what affection gets you, pain".

Shadow Weaver is at her lowest in this scene. She isn't introduced as a terrifying threat like in episode one. This Shadow Weaver is frail and unmasked. She is breathing heavily, and exhausted. This is who Shadow Weaver is, truly.

Michaelangelo is attributed the following quote:

"All I did was chip away at everything that didn't look like David."

In truth, Michaelangelo probably never said this, and Quote Investigator references the line's evolution in this source, up to its current form, first published in 1974 in the Boston American Herald. In any case, you can apply this to characters in fiction. If you take away everything that isn't that character, what do you get. What is the element that stops this character from feeling out of character.

Redemption arcs often struggle with this, as the single essential element is usually their motivations, and in a shallow villain, switching sides can make them feel out of character. Spoilers for Avatar: The Last Airbender (Skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid those), but one big reason for why Zuko's redemption arc works so well is that his villainy isn't his essential element, that's his drive for honour.

So, what is Shadow Weaver's core attribute? When you take away her schemes and her power and her mask? Who is she? The answer to that is simple: Shadow Weaver is cruel.

Rise Of The Guardians presents the idea of a person's centre, and it fits this concept really well. Cinema therapy has a video dissecting the subject, and it comes down to this: Your centre is the thing that makes you who you are. In the Ship of Theseus question, your centre is the one plank of wood that makes it the same ship. You can change some important things about yourself, but if you keep this, you fundamentally remain yourself.

With that said, what is Catra's centre? This isn't a rhetorical question, I'm genuinely not sure. I think it's her empathy, for good or evil. But again, I'm not sure. Let me know.

There is actually a chance to find this centre in Promise. And it's here:

"Catra, wait. I'm sorry for leaving... You could come with me! You could join the rebellion! I know you're not a bad person, Catra. You don't belong with the Horde."

This is everything Catra wants, it's an apology. It's an affirmation of friendship and love. And you see her genuinely consider the chance. But unfortunately, Light Hope steps in to tear them apart.

Because Light Hope is also manipulative. She wants everything Shadow Weaver wants, specifically control. She tries to mould She-Ra into her weapon just like Shadow Weaver, and she tries to tear her away from Catra in the same way. That's why she chooses this specific memory, because she knows it will hurt the most. Because she knows it will tear them apart.

Both Shadow Weaver and Light Hope know that an isolated Adora is an easy She-Ra to manipulate. Because the one thing neither of them can possibly account for in their plans is love.

Light Hope is named to reassure, to give Adora some sense of trust there, and it works. Because She-Ra is a story about hope, and about finding it in others.

But here is an important distinction. Others don't give you hope, you do that to yourself. Others can inspire you, or connect with you, or kindle that flame. But at the end of the day, hope is something you give yourself. Someone claiming to be your only hope can just as easily be seeking to control you. A lighthouse might lead you to a shore, but a fake flame over dangerous waters could sink your ship.

Those final two conversations are infamous amongst the fandom, and for good reason. This is the worst parts of both characters being brought out. Adora and her hero complex, and Catra with her emotion. Both good features in certain circumstances, but in the wrong place, they can create a wedge. Light Hope has precision engineered the exact circumstances needed for that wedge to crack their relationship so she can take advantage of the wreckage.

Final Thoughts

This was a difficult post for me to write for two reasons.

First, what can you say about Promise that hasn't been said before a hundred times? This the quintessential episode of She Ra and almost everyone in the fandom has weighed in on the subject. So, finding something original to add was an interesting experience.

But second, this episode has a reputation for a reason. I've said before that the greatest strength of this series is its humanity, and that is made even more obvious by Promise. There are real people who have had conversations like the one in the corridor. There are real people who have experienced what Shadow Weaver's behaviours are an allegory for. If you stripped away the magic from these scenes, they would play out almost exactly the same.

The reason the series overall is so powerful, is that it tells you that things will be bad, behaviours have consequences, trauma hurts you and people around you. But it also tells you that there is always hope. There will always be someone willing to offer you a hand of genuine kindness, and over time, that can change you. She-Ra gives people hope.

I'm away next Friday. But I'll be back in the new year with some analysis of Light Hope

Previous - Next

[radashes]

Book recommendations with 'Powerful Male Lead X sweet soft Female lead' dynamic

You know how some readers are into those Cold ML X Soft FML dark romance stories? Well, count me in! I have some recommendations for you. Please let me know if you have any recommendations as well.

Let's get into characters.

Male lead: I'm all about those tales where the guy's got this intense, possessive streak, loaded with cash and power. He's got this whole vibe, this aura that screams power. Everyone's shaking in their boots around him. But here's the twist: he's icy to everyone except for this one girl.

Female lead: She's the complete opposite—soft, sweet, not into playing the tough card. And you know what? I'm not into it when she tries those cringey, embarrassing stunts to outsmart him. No thanks. I'm more into the submissive kink, where she's polite but definitely not stupid. Smart, knows when to use her brain.

It's like this delicate balance between power and innocence, dominance and submission. Alright, for all my fellow readers of the "Cold Powerful Male Lead X Sweet Female Lead" trope:

When She Unravels by Gabrielle Sands (My favourite female lead. Mafia romances can feel repetitive/overdone. This felt fresh and different to me. The plot was interesting and I enjoyed Vale. She’s exactly how I like my fmc in a Mafia romance. Sure, she was a caged princess but she had a backbone and stood up for herself.)

The Mafia And His Angel series by Lylah James (Mafia X Runway fml ends up working as maiden in his house)

Hooked by Emily McIntire (Club owner X Enemy's daughter. Female lead was surely sweet)

Stolen Heir by Sophie Lark

Stolen Beauty by T.O. Smith

Broken Whispers (Perfectly Imperfect, #2) by Neva Altaj (This Russian mob is addicting and devilishly good. Age gap. Single Dad. “Touch her and I’ll kill you.” Damaged, unloveable hero and a mute heroine.)

Hidden Truths (Perfectly Imperfect #3) by Neva Altaj

Stolen Touches (Perfectly Imperfect, #5) by Neva Altaj

Burned Dreams (Perfectly Imperfect, #7) by Neva Altaj

Silent Lies (Perfectly Imperfect, #8) by Neva Altaj

Darkest Sins (Perfectly Imperfect, #9) by Neva Altaj (Female lead is the most understanding character. She stumbles upon a stranger with a gunshot wound and saves his life, thinking she'll never see him again. He stalks her for months, then cuts his forearm open just so he can have a reason to go talk to her again.)

Tempted by the Devil (Kings of Mafia #1) by Michelle Heard

Craving Danger (Kings Of Mafia #2) by Michelle Heard

Hunted by a Shadow (Kings of Mafia #3) by Michelle Heard

Beauty and the Assassin by Nadia Lee

An Improper Deal (Elliot and Annabelle #1) by Nadia Lee

The Darkest Temptation (Made, #3) by Danielle Lori

The Maddest Obsession (Made, #2) by Danielle Lori

Twist Me: The Complete Trilogy by Anna Zaires

Once You're Mine duet by Morgan Bridges

The Sordid Duet (Sordid, #1-2) by Nikki Sloane

The Annihilator (Dark Verse, #5) by RuNyx (It's somehow little bit like Hunting Adeline. I'll admit this was different, but the similarities.. Shadow man, Roses, Stalking, Human trafficking, Heterochromia. It just feels TOO similar.. Granted, this was way lessss dark compared to Hunting Adeline.)

The Finisher (Dark Verse, #4) by RuNyx

The Predator (Dark Verse, #1) by RuNyx

Beautifully Cruel #1 by JT Geissinger

Lorenzo by Sadie Kincaid

His Pretty Little Burden by Nicci Harris

Deadly Vows by Haley Stuart

Captured by a Sinner (Sinners, #5) by Michelle Heard

Stolen by a Sinner (Sinners, #3) by Michelle Heard

That's all that's on my mind right now. I'll add more later if anything else pops up. And, if you've got any recommendations for books with that "Cold Powerful Male Lead X Sweet Female Lead" vibe, hit me up!

[dreamchasernina]

do you lile the comics or do you think the characters or are they OOC

Aang in the promise reminded me of zuko in season 1.

Hotheaded, even kinda nationalistic with no social awareness. How comes he completely forgets katara

Oooh I love that question.

First of all, starting with the Promise. Yeah, they are mostly out of character in that comic. Aang agreeing to kill Zuko after we spent the whole finale establishing he refuses to kill? Like, that’s baffling. Plus, Zuko acting like a child, going to his father for advice and marching his army to Yu Dao, instead of sitting down with Aang and talking it out? We spent 3 seasons watching Zuko grow into a mature young man and he just goes back to his old ways in the first comic? That wasn’t great. Although I did like the overall conflict of the series, the characters were not done right.

But, I wouldn’t call Aang a nationalist. You have to remember, Aang lost his entire culture and he’s the only one who’s left to preserve it and to pass it on. Seeing people blatantly disrespecting his culture and using it as a costume made him see things differently. He was just afraid that his way of life would be lost if he let the nations clash. Yes, his way of thinking was wrong but it was also justified in the context of the comic. Of course he came to a realization that he cannot gatekeep his culture and people from different nations should be able to live together. I think it was a good character growth for him. Which is a lot more than I can say for Zuko, at least.

Now, I’m not sure I understand what you mean by saying he forgot Katara? Are you referring to the first comic? Cause they were together the whole time and I feel like her opinion and counsel were what mattered the most to him. In terms of Kataang, I think they were written really well in the comics. They have cute little romantic moments and also moments where they realize they’re pretty much the ones responsible for the fate of the world and really sit down and think things through and reach a decision together. I love that.

I could say Aang kinda forgot about Katara in the Rift for a while there, but it’s kinda minor. Other than that, in every other comic, they’re always together and written well so I like Kataang in the comics a lot.

Overall, the comics are not for everyone but I do enjoy them, I think they’re cute additions for the universe if you don’t think too hard about them. They’re pretty entertaining, for the most part.

My favorite one is definitely Imbalance, it just balances the characters perfectly, everyone gets a moment to shine and the main conflict is actually really ineteresting and sets up the main conflict in Korra really well.

My ranking of the comics if you’re interested

1. Imbalance - like I said the main conflict is awesome and the characters feel like themselves, Toph is a freaking badass in this one.

2. The Rift - I love Toph in this, she really gets to shine and again, Aang’s inner conflict is what makes this comic for me. The way he wants to preserve his people’s memory and culture in middle of all the inevitable progress.

3. The Search - it’s cute. Just the Gaang on an adventure, that’s always fun.

4. The Promise - it has its problems but I like the conflict after the war, I think it’s very nuanced and interesting.

5. Smoke and Shadow - Kinda boring

6. North and south - it was a bit repetitive and the main conflict seemed a little bit silly in my opinion. Katara is also a little out of character.

[magpiemagica]

-Guide to Rainbow High G1.5-

Differences Between G1 and G1.5 dolls:

- There seems to be less of a focus on designer fashion. In leaks, multiple accessories are recolored and reused from other dolls. Not unheard of for fashion dolls but something Rainbow High is not known for doing.

- As far as we know (right now December 2023), Poppy Rowan seems to be cut from the main lineup. This kinda stung. I’m not a big Rainbow High fan (more of a ironic enjoyer) but Poppy was my favorite while watching the webseries. She was the only neurodivergent character (synesthesia) and was overall very cute 🦋💔

- All the main dolls being released in this new gen have forehead glitter. I think it is supposed to make them look more cohesive next to their new pets. I can see this giving ooak customizers some trouble. Along with the forehead glitter, the dolls also have tinsel in their hair (another inconvenience for many collectors and ooaks)

- The elephant in the room, the unicorn/hybrid pets. Based off of the latest webisode and YouTube shorts, these little shits (/j) seem to be a big part of the new series and are going to bring some fantasy elements to the brand (portals, magic eggs, etc.) Whether you find these creatures cute or not is really up to your personal taste and patience lol.

- The slime. The first line of new toys really focuses on slime play and creation. As someone who worked with kids a lot at the peak of the slime trend, I could easily see this going south for sales. Slime is messy, gets in the doll’s hair, is hard to clean up, and very frustrating for parents to deal with. Also collectors of what I’ve seen have little to no interest in the slime too. It could be a hit but I see it affecting the brand more negatively than positively.

- Change of setting. As of the day of posting this, Rainbow high has posted an YouTube short of Sunny jumping through a rainbow portal. Sounds like we might be leaving Rainbow High as a setting. I honestly have no clue where the new series will take place; I’m not too familiar with the “Poopsie Surprise universe”.

- Main character design changes. Amaya (based off of the leaks) has changed the most in fashion and appearance. She now has reverted back to her white and rainbow hair (emphasis on the rainbow). Her clothing is also much more in your face with the rainbow theming. If you are a fan of Amaya in Moschino, don’t worry, she still has a brand inspired bag.

- New webseries. On leaked dolls, there is a sticker “as seen on Rainbow World”. I guess Rainbow World is the name of the new series that will be dropped. It is unsure whether Netflix will pick it up this series like they did with Rainbow High. The webisodes will most likely be posted on the YouTube channel.

- No wrist articulation. Is exactly what it sounds like. The new dolls will not have wrist articulation like the Rainbow Junior High.

——————-——————-——————-——————-

Personal Questions and Concerns For the Series:

- What happens to Shadow High? Will any of characters we know come through the portal with the Rainbow High students? Or will they just disappear from the series as a whole?

- Will members of the main cast missing from the leaked line up be included in this new series like Poppy or Bella?

- How much will the doll prices differ?

- What new characters will be introduced in this portal world?

- What will the plot be and how will the show runners keep the world engaging?

- I am concerned about the characterization of the main cast. Rainbow High was relatively grounded before and now with all of these magic elements getting introduced, I’m worried some of the characters might all blend together in order to focus on the pets. Also just general character butchering.

——————-——————-——————-——————-

Overall, I just wanted to make this post as a general summary of what is going on with Rainbow High right now as a doll brand. There is a lot of different information and I wanted to throw it all in one place for people who aren’t super up to date on this kinda stuff. This is a kind of doll rebranding you don’t really see everyday and I want to document it.

Posted December 12, 2023

[fortemelody]

Sometimes I wanna send asks but I don't actually know what to ask but.. what's your most interesting and/or controversial Sonic the Hedgehog take? Could be about a specific game or series or about Sonic in general.

LMAO you’re all good, i prob wouldn’t know what to ask myself either

wellll hmmm let’s see, i actually gotta think about this one a bit

i did already go on a whole rant in a different post about how much i hate dulcy the dragon, but i wouldn’t say that’s much of a controversial opinion considering most people don’t know who she is 😭

i don’t have many tbh but i’ll share the few i do have

first off i don’t like sonic x that much and it’s definitely a lot of people’s favorite sonic show. i think there’s a generational difference, seeing as though my fav sonic show is sonic boom 💀 i’ve only seen the first season so like my opinion could very well change if or when i finish it, especially cus i’ve seen clips of later stuff such as shadow and the chaotix being introduced and that seemed cool and a lot more interesting to me compared to the formulaic things i’ve seen so far. i think the argument that sonic is barely in his own show is a decent one too, bro literally never wants to do anything but nap and avoid chris (which i can’t blame him for that part). i personally also just haven’t gotten back into anime in general for several years becus i’m tired of the whole “you gotta wait for it to get better” type thing and i would rather just watch mindless stuff but everyone has their cup of tea and i don’t think it’s an inherently bad show at all either. it can never be as bad as the knuckles show…*shivers*. and ofc animation wise it’s fantastic and super nostalgic.

next hot take is about the song “almost dead” from shadow the hedgehog. it’s one of the most hated songs in the fandom however i LOVE it. i will blast that shit in my headphones thanks to the kind soul who uploaded it to spotify podcasts. the criticism that it doesn’t really match shadows character is valid, and it especially makes sense becus it was also in a horror movie. but as just a song in general my brain goes “ooo funny noises” and doesn’t really think about that part. i’d say the other infamously hated sonic song is sweet dreams from sonic 06 (and while i haven’t listened to it in awhile so i can’t be certain) i remember that song being pretty bad imo so i agree with that part at least

lastly i’m just gonna say that i’m not a fan of the ships sonjet, sonilver, and blazamy. this is not me hating on them at all!! and i have seen super cute fanart of them as well. the only ones i straight up despise are the ones that are illegal (looking at the weird ass sontails shippers on this app…). i just don’t particularly like them becus of either personal headcannons and/or just a gut feeling. with sonic and silver i feel like they have kinda like a sibling or cousin dynamic. for sonjet and blazamy i feel like they haven’t had enough interactions to really warrant a relationship, and i think they would be better off as playful besties. also i just realized that all three of these are gay ships and i really really hope people don’t think i’m homophobic for this especially also becus i spam sonamy on my page GUYSSSS IM A MULTISHIPPER I LOVE SONADOW TOO AND IM FRUITY MYSELF DONT KILL MEEEE 😞😞😞

anywaysss i think that’s all i got! sorry it took me awhile i got busy and forgot to respond but i always enjoy rambling about sonic so tysm mootie 😋😋

[blaiddllodi]

TOA Anniversary Munday

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

(Previous answers here on Raven's blog. Thanks for putting this together Neffi!)

Name: tches!

Pronouns: she/they

Birthday (no year): 22 Dec

Where are you from? What is your time zone? From Germany, but I live in Colorado

How long is your roleplay experience? A few years in 2005, and now my tenure here

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? Uhhhhh probably Yahoo chatrooms if I'm honest, but I spent most of my time in Livejournal communities

How were you introduced to TOA? I found it scrolling the Raven tag and I saw mirae's drop. Didn't join at this time. Then Elf advertised in a mutual server and I was like Hm. Maybe I will.

Do you have any pets? The server knows my beloved Coriander my baby my light my heart. I also live with two GSDs, Ursa and Solo.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) I love you winter, I love you snow, I love you December, I love you.

What is your IRL occupation? Handwaves IT. I'm helpdesk at my current place, but I've begun learning network infrastructure stuff recently.

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? I like languages and history, esp Meiji Japan and Mughal India. I used to be a lot more active, and I still generally enjoy yoga and rock climbing, but I've accrued some injuries which prevent me from doing this as much as I'd like. Sadge.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Ace Attorney, Assassin's Creed, Dragon Age, Bloodborne, Witcher, Kingdom Hearts.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Ice or Dragon I think; and Gyarados my beloved my friend my partner (although Delibird is a very close second I love that little dude)

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! (Optional bonus challenge: if you filled this out last year, try not to repeat what you said back then!) One time a drunk driver scraped my ex-husband's car pulling out of the bar and while he was so flabbergasted that it had happened, me and a friend who had just gotten out of the Navy broke into a sprint to chase the girl down for three blocks before she left the neighborhood.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? My father and I were in the PX and I grabbed Blazing because it had just come to the States and it looked interesting.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? All but Archanea and Tellius. I started Path of Radiance, and put it down at chapter 15 when I got busy. I'll pick it back up again I promise :sob:

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: First is Blazing and favorite is...probably Blazing still. Elibe is just home to me. I really really like Three Houses and Shadows of Valentia though.

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Oh gosh. Raven number one forever, and Dima and Berkut are up there. I'll list five who aren't my roster, in no particular order: Hubert, Hector, Lyon, Priscilla, Lachesis.

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! Wil. Wil was my first favorite, followed by Matthew. I genuinely loved them so so much my first playthrough I gave them everything.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 Jeralt can still get it.

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays?- Awakening: Another accidental Chrom victim - probably Lonk or Freddie Fates: I genuinely don't remember if it was Kaze or Jakob - Probably still Kaze Three Houses: Claude - Hubert is my favorite S support he's really good Engage: I literally hard swerved from Diamant the moment Pandreo came on screen I don't think anyone's taking his crown.

Favorite Fire Emblem class? I just really like the Merc-Hero line 🙈But I also love wyverns

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? Infantry sword. I hate to say I'd be a Navarre archetype but I honestly probably would be. Middling strength and con but workable with attention, decent speed, absolutely ridiculous crit stat. Surprisingly high resistance. I'd be a good candidate for Dancer or Mortal Savant.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Unaffiliated civilian, but can be swayed to join a cause after some effort. I tend to keep myself a bit at arms length, and it can be difficult sometimes to get my genuine loyalty.

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Sword, Bow Bane: Flying Budding Talent: Heavy Armor

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? No lie, probably Brodia. My family is full of soldiers on all sides

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?) Depends on the flow of the sentence. Sometimes toe-ah, sometimes T-O-A

Current TOA muses: Raven, Dimitri, Berkut

Past TOA muses? Sigurd, Igrene, Saber, Petra, Beowolf, Lyn

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Raven my heart my forever. If he hasn't been pried from my grasp for the last twenty years, I can't imagine what might.

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? I like it when grief and love carve someone into a weapon. I love rage and deep, boundless sorrow. And I occasionally like when they get a little slutty, I'm not a monster.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? 🤔Hard to say. I like to think my range is pretty good. I've been writing for long enough that I don't really wish - I just do it. I think anyone could write anyone if they genuinely put their heart into it.

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? I like when the narrator is a little unreliable. I like when there's so much emotion that everything becomes just a little bit fuzzy an indistinct, like they're suddenly underwater and haven't realized they're drowning. I like when the narrative is circular and I can call back five posts, or when I can bookend things - dramatic irony my beloved. I love miscommunication, especially when one person takes something and runs with it (RIP Sigurd you were the king of this and your never-shuts-up).

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? I've been in an AU mood lately. I want more AUs - coffeeshop AU, horror movie tropes AU, cross-fiction AU. There was an idea that I had that I'd like to build up a bit more that I may drop a call for 🙊

Favorite TOA-related memories? All of Raven's threads with elysia's Priscilla and kanoesa's Lucius 🤲I hold them like this. And unrelated to my muses I to this day can't get over And Now All Of TOA Knows You Tried To Kill Ryoma.

Present or past tense? Past. I use present tense pretty sparingly, and almost exclusively for one-off asks. Feels weird though.

Normal size text, small text, no preference? No preference. I use normal size out of laziness. The most formatting you'll get from me is italics for emphasis or for thought patterns.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 One day I will app Sommie and everyone will have a heart attack. You think I'm joking? You think this is a game?

[lia-land]

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

3.5/5

Spoilers for the first book in the Folk of the Air trilogy.

The Cruel Prince cares about the destination and not at all about the journey. It’s hard to rate it overall because some parts were 2 stars and others were nearly 5. Let’s settle on 3.5.

I feel like I'm not allowed to dislike this book. |'ve briefly touched upon how I didn't love it on Reddit and there are definitely lots of loyal fans who will die on the hill that this is the best book to ever exist. As with all of my reviews, my opinions are exactly that. Mine. I really did want to love this and I'm very happy i read it once in my life, but it fell short.

I had heard such great things about this book, but I just found it too childish. It was too ‘girl falls for her high school bully.’ I was expecting more after hearing about this series for years. I did keep reading, though, because I met Holly Black at a signing with Cassandra Clare a few years ago and she was very nice.

It got better around 200 pages in. Since it's only 370 pages, it shouldn’t take like 60% of the book for things to pick up, in my opinion. The only character I found interesting was Madoc for most of the book. It’s not that he’s necessarily interesting, just the best of the worst. I really didn’t like the whole Shadow squad or whatever they were called. Every time they’d interact with anyone or each other was just written awkwardly.

Many plot points were incredibly underdeveloped. Why did the Prince randomly appoint her as a spy and send her on a mission without any training? This was so casually skipped over. He fully just sent her into Balekin’s house and she casually walked in and out. And how does Jude get away with it for so long without being caught? This wasn’t a case of something ‘bad’ being normalised in Faerie and is casually written because it's normal in that universe; this was the crown prince appointing a human with no experience to be his spy. This book as a whole seemed rushed. Lots of significant things happen and big decisions are made, and then skipped over as if they were descriptions of the weather. This was especially apparent during and after the coronation. It was like the writing was trying to catch up with the plot. It read like those old Wattpad fics where the mom would sell the main character to One Direction, and then the way it was written was as if it was a very common occurrence to sell your child to a boy band. It’s apparently quite normal for your adoptive father to stage a coup. And for your twin sister to knowingly let you date her fiancé. And for the crown prince to come and ask you to be a spy as a teen with no training. ‘I guess I live with One Direction now. Anyway, what should I wear for my first dinner with them?’ Like… go back and expand on what just happened. Develop the plot. Develop the feelings about the situation.

The random piece of paper with Jude's name on it was weird and didn't really get acknowledged as much as it should have (in the rest of the series, too). Like why was Cardan just writing her name over and over? Ick.

I couldn’t decide if Jude was really stupid or really smart. She’s been through a lot and can clearly stand up for herself, and she’s not a generally dumb character, but then she spent five minutes alone with Carden in Dain’s office and suddenly we get this line: “Maybe I wasn’t fighting Carden at all. Maybe I’ve been fighting my own shadow.” Girl, please get a grip. This guy bullies her and then gaslights her, and then they start making out!!! Carden literally cannot lie and said that he is disgusted with himself for thinking of her, and her response is to kiss him.

The worst thing about all of this for me is how Carden doesn’t even make a good attempt at justifying his previous actions. He’s all like ‘I hate you because I can’t stop thinking about you and it’s disgusting’ and she’s like ‘okay, no worries, I’ll make that make sense.’ Then while he’s touching her up, she knows that he’s going slow because “he doesn’t want to want this” but everything we’ve been told about her character so far is that she’s not the type of character to put up with this. It didn’t make sense to me. Her attraction to him isn’t really explained. The story doesn’t flow and it reads like an early draft or a very late one where she had to meet a low word count but didn’t end to cut any plot. The only reason I can think of to justify this sudden nonsensical thing between Carden and Jude is that perhaps they are mated and we’ll find this out in later books, if such a bond even exists in this universe. I have low hopes for this, though, and I think it’s just a result of bad plot development. I get that she was also trying to punish him for wanting her, but it wasn't written well.

Jude is the most inconsistently written character that I have ever read about. Jude falling for Locke was so sudden and incredibly underdeveloped. How was she entrusted to be a spy when she couldn’t even see Locke’s red flags? He literally spelled it out for her multiple times. I got the ick when he said he wanted to “compose an ode” for her. It was also very random when Jude challenged Taryn to a duel. I understand the reason for it, but that seemed out of character for her until that point. There’s a difference between an unpredictable character and an inconsistent one. She doesn’t feel like her own character to me, rather, a plot device to make sure the story plays out the way the author wants it to and I think that’s lazy. Having a fast paced plot is not always a good thing. I would have rather read a developed story of this same length that ended at the coronation and then picked up in a second book.

I'm disappointed that nothing more was done with the tournament. A few books from around the same time that this was published have done this thing where they introduced some sort of contest and then they don't actually do anything with it. I assume it will come up in the later books, otherwise, it was not entirely necessary.

Something that was made obvious is that Holly Black does not like writing travel scenes. I have a very unclear idea of how far places are from each other because Jude would just say she was going somewhere and then she'd just be there. This doesn't affect the story, but it does impact the world building.

To be entirely fair, most of the books I’ve read in the past five months have been between 600-800 pages so maybe I’ve gotten used to stories being a little more dragged out. I don’t think that’s the only reason I felt that this book was rushed, but maybe I’m being more harsh. I think this whole series adds up to about 1000 pages and I’m unintentionally holding previously read longer books as a standard. Either way, this book would have benefitted from at least 70 more pages of smoothing out the development of the plot and characters. It felt clunky, for lack of a better word.

The writing itself is not bad, but it isn’t a style I personally enjoy reading. I had a similar issue with the Raven Boys series and also Neil Gaiman. They are not bad writing styles, but they’re not for me.

The high school bully thing is just a very juvenile trope in my opinion. Obviously this is a YA book, but it deals with mature themes, so the target audience is very specific. When I was at the age when I would enjoy these high school settings, I wouldn’t have completely understood the political themes. This point isn’t a criticism of the book, necessarily, just part of why I personally wasn’t as invested. As for all the political stuff, it was a stronger aspect of the book, but still underdeveloped. There was so much potential for this book to be amazing if it had just been a little less rushed. There was too much happening for a story of this length. The plot of this book alone could have been a duology.

[egg-emperor]

Feels like some want to put emphasis on family in almost every relationship in this series; and quite a bit of others where it's not biggest theme. Occasional maybe, but not the whole aspect. (And for something that is complex as family; biological, found or otherwise, people seem keen on making each one virtually the same in concept.)

Gonna drop a hot take and I fear angering a bunch of people at once, I just hope they hear me out all the way through first lol. But I wanna be honest about how I feel about this

They really do. There's a huge push for every dynamic between the characters to be familial and for all to have family of some kind lately. You have tons of people going "x and x are literally related and found family/adoptive family and everything else is wrong", acting like it's undeniable canon, in places where it's never been explicitly labeled as such, or doesn't exist at all, or is only somewhat resembling of a family dynamic but still up to interpretation, or is a lot more complex than the typical expected nuclear family structure and simplifying it removes what's interesting.

For example, I can see how Charmy is like Vector's son if you consider he's taken him into care and the dynamic they have in games but even then it's not said outright. But then people act like Vector signed adoption papers and with Espio as his other son and Charmy's brother even though he doesn't have anything like that dynamic with him in the games at all, and say it's "literally canon"... Why is Espio forced into that box? People decide on ages alone as if they've ever been a huge important point in the series but they're barely acknowledged

Then there's a push for Team Dark to have Rouge as a mom/sister and Shadow and Omega as kids/brothers when none are implied. Rouge isn't motherly just because she cares for Shadow, she's only 18 (plus in a bio they considered her having a thing for him so) and isn't sisterly either. Shadow treats their team ups and interactions like business with the objective in priority and goes off and does his own thing when it's over, he's not implied to live a domestic family life with them. And Omega is Omega, he doesn't think of himself as family to Rouge nor Shadow just because Robotniks created them, he just wants to destroy Eggman's shit lol

Team Rose is what I think of being one of the more familial types, but again only really from how Big acts like their big brother in the Heroes saying he's gotta get tough for them and looks out for them like that. But even then that's not set in stone as they're barely together as a team and it's all just based on vibes and they only call each other friends. But there's definitely more of a logical case than the other teams, but again I think as only in a much more casual and mild way than what people want. So I just think of them as being good friends with things in common with family dynamics but it not meaning they're literally family.

I even think of Team Sonic as all friends first, despite brotherly esque interactions depending on how you view Sonic and Knuckles interacting maybe, and how Tails was said to be seen "like something of a" little brother to Sonic in a bio and called his bro a couple times in game. But people kinda overemphasize there too as it's much more casual and not in the way they signed adoption papers to play strict family roles. For the most part, it feels like they're friends and parts of their dynamic can resemble the dynamics but it's not a strict family structure and role assignment.

What's funny is Silver and Blaze were stated to have a sibling like dynamic, with Blaze seeing Silver as a brother in a bio and people get mad when it's brought up because they ship them. That's when they stop caring about family type dynamics, if it gets in the way of their ship lol. I have no problem with people who wanna ship them as they're not literally adoptive like I said for the others so do your thing. But people getting mad and rejecting the idea that's official if it gets in the way of their ship, yet claiming other family type bonds are official when they aren't is ironic XD

And now with Eggman just because of Sage, people act like literally every single robot ever of his are all canon sons and daughters and he's the best wholesome dad and nothing more than one and all he does is play with them and have family days out and isn't his own person anymore. Kinda heavily reminiscent of the nuclear family dream propaganda pushed all the time that irks me as a gay guy who had had that forced onto me incessantly... Seeing a comfort character forced into all the things he's helped distract me from by fans when it doesn't exist like that in the games is rough.

Plus it involves ignoring the specific selfish, egotistical, and shallow reasons that Eggman accepted Sage as being as a daughter and why he half-heartedly entertained her desire to see Orbot and Cubot as brothers, which are very different reasons than "he was lonely and had no purpose in life so he wanted to become the nuclear family stereotype of a dad and thanks to Sage he is and he's actually a good likable character for it now!" It pushes the idea that everyone needs a romantic relationship and/or family to be whole and worth something and it's uncomfortable :(

Even more for how shallow, manipulative, and conditional his dynamic with Sage is and how he treats Orbot and Cubot like shit which, if he entertains the dynamic of them being Sage's brothers, it makes him an absive father already and doesn't magically undo that. (Plus in games past Frontiers he continues to be cruel to them.) And he's never seen other creations as kids, closest is calling the E Series brothers but only referred to himself as their creator, not dad. Calling himself Metal's dad is IDW only and doesn't make sense to be canon. But even if it was, the dynamic is a casual silly thing and not a deep meaningful thing there, just like it wasn't with the E Series so it worked.

But people want Eggman and his creations to replicate a nuclear family structure and dynamics one to one, as if his bond with Sage isn't anything but ordinary and he isn't terrible to his creations. He doesn't see all of them as his kids and all of them don't see each other as siblings. It's even more clear in how I see people asking members of Sonic Official like "will Eggman get a girlfriend/wife so Sage can have a mom" and it makes me feel ill. It's clear they don't understand Eggman's dynamic with his creations and why it exists and just want him to replicate the nuclear family dynamic, get a romantic partner, and conform to the life script because they think he's better that way.

And man one of the many reasons Eggman is special and appealing to me is he's a middle aged man that doesn't show an interest in biological family or romantic relationship, instead happily living without that, embracing his commonly considered childish passions and unconventional dreams. You have no idea how happy I was about in character terms of Eggman and Sage's dynamic in the game and how he expressed aversion towards biological natural reproduction. That's special to me. Not to be dramatic but seeing fandom act like he's not good or likable until he perfectly replicates the life script nuclear family structure dream instead is kinda heartbreaking.

-

Like even if you want to look at any of these bonds of a case of found family, why does it all have to be in the structure of nuclear family dynamics and all these specific strict labels and dynamics forced onto them where they don't even exist, or at least are much more casual and still more friendly than familial? Why does it need to have everything about it be exactly the same aside from the biological blood relation? Like you said, there's way more forms and complexity than that. It can be way more interesting and meaningful to show how it can transcend that, how it doesn't have to follow the guidelines of the expected life script and nuclear family structure just with a different coat of paint.

Intentionally or not, it pushes the idea that one has more purpose and worth if they create the nuclear family structure in one way or another, that one is missing something without it, and life has more meaning and is better with it. It gives the vibe of conservatives and those that feel we should all follow the life script and have more purpose and meaning when we create a family- because it's helping make virtually the same concept look appealing and pushing the idea it's always needed. It can still serve as propaganda that can give an impression to the audience they should comply, find it or create it to have more meaning in life, and put pressure on them the same way instead of it being optional, because it's been shown to them exactly the way biological relation ones are.

If it was presented that way in canon, it would be propaganda and that makes it uncomfortable to me being aro and gay. Not saying everyone has to agree and appeal to me, I'm not the main character of the universe lol. But I don't like to see romance or forced family dynamics from nowhere or being made to replicate the nuclear family structure they're expected to end up with. That's just like if they had gotten into romantic relationships, without the relationship but still the results. With the way fandom has been pushing it, it's no different to the concepts displayed in nuclear family propaganda, only biological relation aside. And that doesn't make it any less uncomfortable for how it replicates it otherwise, it's just the nuclear family structure disguised at that point and can have the same effect.

I like how the series has a big focus on friendship instead. Romance is very rare and small in this series focus and there was very little focus on family before Frontiers too. It was always the power of friendship overall. You can be friends without being anything like a family and it's just meaningful, in case everyone is forgetting. What was once the people saying "stop shipping everyone with each other, not everything is romantic" are now like "ALL the characters are all/should be family, everything is familial". And I dunno man, I kinda just like them all being friends like they're literally meant to be for the most part lol

Of course people can do what they want in fanon but the insistence that its all literally canon or the push for it to be played that way in it if they acknowledge it isn't feels bad with all this in mind. But again that's just my opinion and I'm not demanding everyone to cater to me with their fanon creations. I'm not focusing or hating on specific creations, just sharing my thoughts on the general concept and dynamic that I'm free to dislike just like anyone is free to like, and talking about why I wouldn't want fandom's take on all of it to ever become canon to the series. Some that get mad may twist my words either way but just wanna clarify anyway.

But yeah, tldr the way people are really just using the idea of found family and characters having any kind of familial esque dynamic between each other as a way to replicate nuclear family structures exist in them because they think it's "better and more interesting" that way is starting to make me really uncomfortable and dislike it for how it simplifies and waters down the dynamics to force them into that box. I know there are plenty of good ways to present and explore such dynamics without it going that route, it's just that this has become so much more common instead and people get mad if you're discomforted or not a fan for any reasons and it sucks.

[firstkanaphans]

I am most definately over analysing, but the way Salmon makes Sprite wear Zee's necklace to make him "more zee" is very interesting. Sprite has been overshadowed hos whole life by Zee, he was always the second option and kind of like a "left-over", remember when their mom said, "I raised you two the same, how are you two so different"?, yeah she was refering to Sprite, she wanted Sprite to clone Zee. Now that he has totally taken over Zee's life, living under his name, now that he doesn't have his own identity but Zee's, he is exactly like a clone. Even if for us, the audience, he is Sprite, for characters outside the vollyball team he is Sprite, but for First, for the team, he is Zee. So basically he is literally Zee's clone now. Salmon making him wear that necklace is like saying, "yeah if you wear this, you will be the perfect clone" and the fact Sprite wears it without putting up much fight, just like he accepts everything, every bad thing happened/happening to Zee as his fault. "Dad is right, I only cause trouble". Sprite know how much this is wrong, how much of him is being erased everyday, yet he goes ahead imitating, trying to make Zee's life better, he as always puts Zee/other above himself. THIS in contrast to First refusing to wear that damn necklace, a refusal to accept being overshadowed by Zee. First has been treated the exact same way Sprite was, the only difference is, First has "fight or fight" response, he doesn't give in, ge doesn't let himself be blamed for things he is not responsible, he protects and defends himself. AND IK HE WILL DEFEND SPRITE THE SAME WAY, "are you protective of me?"

You know, I'd never really thought about how much Sprite and First have in common because their personalities are just so different, but you're absolutely right. Both of them have spent their entire lives living in Zee's shadow and I can't imagine how cathartic it's going to be once everything is out in the open and they can start a support group together. I'm picturing First yelling at Zee for being an asshole to his brother and it makes me want to cry because Sprite is doing so much for Zee and yet Zee doesn't appreciate it at all.

I'm actually really curious what's going to happen the next time the brothers see each other because—like you said—Sprite has lost pretty much his whole identity to Zee. That's why he hesitated before the kiss in the last episode. He wanted to kiss First as Sprite, not Zee, but he doesn't really feel like he has the luxury of being honest right now. But Zee also feels like he's lost his entire identity to Sprite.

My current crackpot theory is that Zee was the one who took the picture of Sprite and Salmon in that hallway because if it had been anyone else, they would have leaked the information about the twins. I don't think Zee liked the rumors going around that he was interested in First, so he tried to change the narrative only to have it backfire on him.

With only five episodes left, I'm hoping the twin reveal comes soon so that we can really play around in that angst for a while and I also really want to see Sprite and Zee start to heal their relationship before the end of the series because it seems like they used to be close before their parents tore them apart. I want that for them again.

[arceespinkgun]

Oh it's 100% about people not seeing Elita One as a character deserving to be an equal to Optimus. Arcee is pretty much the poster girl of Transformers and while I love that she's both a warrior and maternal figure, she's not a leader and nowhere near Optimus in terms of authority. People objecting to portray Elita One as an equal to Optimus or feature her at all in media feels almost reminiscent of when women were starting to get jobs, there were CERTAIN jobs for women and practically none of them were leadership roles. Transformers can have well written female characters but they won't be well treated by the narrative or creators, Transformers can have more than one female character in a comic/show but they will be pitted against each other (whether or not they're on different factions). Transformers can even have female leaders but they will never be perceived as equal to Optimus. That's pretty much the message that I've been getting from both Hasbro and fans

I totally get what you're saying, and I would've agreed 100% about ten years ago, but I actually think this is a fandom problem and not so much an issue with the shows/comics themselves now!

Cyberverse and Earthspark have the best ratio of genders ever in the franchise so far (Earthspark's seems practically 1:1 for women and men) and have a wide variety in relationships between women, from supportive friends to enemies. In Cyberverse, Windblade and Slipstream began as enemies but then found a lot of common ground, and the majority of Windblade's character development had to do with her grief over Slipstream's death—and Windblade and Chromia were nothing but close the whole time. Obviously in Earthspark, the Maltos are a supportive family, and the main villain of the series was a woman for a long time. While I still feel really bitter about Slipstream's death in Cyberverse, I didn't feel like any other woman was treated poorly by the narrative, and so far I feel like all the women in Earthspark have been treated very well by the narrative and have had a lot of strong development. I also want to note something about genderswaps in these shows—there were many, and I think they were all successful: Clobber is way more three-dimensional than Lugnut, Frenzy was almost never even in anything or given development until Earthspark. Plus, I feel like for me personally, I just respect the characters way more post-genderswap. I always thought Skywarp was totally boring, but her being a woman in Cyberverse, and both a woman and given more depth in Earthspark, made me see her even in other media in a new light. Same with Frenzy—post-Earthspark, I was actually excited to see the character do stuff in my Marvel read-through when I would not have cared at all before.

And sure, there only seems to be one Matrix, but Elita-1 in Earthspark as second-in-command is an authority who seems to be more respected by the Maltos than Optimus is in a lot of ways. Dot also seems to have the most authority within the Malto family, and among the Terrans, Twitch seems to have taken on a leadership role and has been getting a large amount of development. In Cyberverse, Shadow Striker ends up becoming Decepticon leader, and I think she may have been the first female leader of the Decepticons in the whole franchise?

I don't like the IDW comics overall, but in the first IDW series, Windblade becomes leader of all of Cybertron, but it's rarely mentioned. Arcee was basically second-in-command of the Autobots (also, she has a supportive relationship with her love interest who's also a woman!) for most of the later comics in that series, which are the ones most often discussed, but a lot of fans ignore that. Okay, there was a ton of room for improvement, but Elita-1 in the 80s cartoon was successfully portrayed in my opinion as an equivalent authority to Optimus Prime, especially given she must've been holding out for millions of years! Oh, and the Skybound comics have only been going for seven issues so far, but I noticed we already see Elita being an authority and a dynamic staring to form between Carly and Arcee.

I think something I've noticed is that all the problems you mention were absolutely severe in TFA and TFP, and those are often what fans on this site have seen. IDW also seems really popular here, but notice how IDW2 is almost entirely ignored, when that was the series that handled women better... and how in the instances where the first IDW series did make some improvements, people on here ignore the women to focus on dudes? As an IDW Elita-1 fan, I can't help but notice that all the big scary evil violent disabled queer-coded guys have tons of fans on Tumblr, but Elita is usually ignored or derided despite being better developed in the end than most of them. And Earthspark and Cyberverse, the shows I think did things best, often either get totally ignored on here, or criticized way more intensely than other, worse series.

TL;DR Totally agree about the fandom and about a lot of series, but I think newer series have been improving a ton and that it's good to note that improvement! Plus even when earlier series succeeded, people on here ignore the women a lot, unfortunately. I think this is more the perception issue and not so much about portrayal.

[greenleaf777]

I feel so bad for Gwyn and shes not even real LOOOL. I swear its like every female in this series HAS to be paired up with your fav boy or she might as well not be talked about at all. I feel like she has quite an interesting story to come, one that has nothing to do with making azriels shadows tingle or being able to carry his offspring apparently 🤢 . I don’t think i have ever seen anyone but Non-gwyn shippers talk about Gwyn’s potential and her upcoming story. Same thing with Elain, i am pumped to see what happens next for her but certain anti shippers don’t think she has any purpose besides making lucien happy or becoming evil so shes no longer a threat LOL. Yes thats right..the most(only?) benevolent character in the series is secretly evil. 🤷‍♀️ i could read a whole book on just elain gardening and baking and enjoying herself, sounds delightful. But I cannot wait to find out how powerful she is! It will be magnificent 💫

I’m surprised people are trying to push Mor with their fav male yet even tho we know what she prefers…that I’ve seen.

I don’t think I have seen ANYONE talk about Emerie at all

Instead of what Bryce is doing in the night court, i mainly see her shipped with Azriel…wha?

Even Feyre is rarely mentioned unless it’s alongside Rhys.

Maybe I���m in the wrong part of the fandom?

**Any blogs out there that love the female characters beyond their love interests and discuss them cause let me know and i’ll give you a follow.