#i'm very curious to know just what they mean when they keep bringing up s2 like this

[hawkinslibrary]

[markantonys]

I'm thinking about Rand's ending in the books and I hate both the bodyswap and that he abandons everyone but at the same time I get that his sacrifice has to mean something so the world forgets him/lets him fade into myth. And him actually dying would undermine the entire point of his arc. So I'm curious how you think the show might tackle this? I'm sure there's a few options

i hate it too! but yeah, rand needs to be forgotten by the world at large and needs to get a new face so he won't be recognized, or else he will never know peace. so the way i would do it is have him fade into myth among the general public, but still remain part of his loved ones' lives and they all just keep secret the fact that this guy is rand al'thor. his whole arc is about learning to stop self-isolating and to instead let himself lean on his loved ones for support, so i felt that him ending the series by fucking off into the mist all alone was totally contrary to that and did not make emotional sense as the endpoint of the journey we'd been on with him for 14 books. i can certainly understand if he needs to take a lil sabbatical and have some time to himself in the immediate aftermath, but that should not have been the very final concluding note of his whole arc! for my own sanity i have to imagine he just took a 2-week vacation and then went to caemlyn to be with his family (and told tam, nynaeve, and perrin that he's still alive, and rescued mat from the seanchan and incorporated him into the polycule, and bargained with the creator to bring egwene and gawyn back to life........okay i'm getting sidetracked)

as for what the show might do, i'll brace myself for them to adhere to the book version, but from what we've seen in the first 2 seasons, i think that ending would make even less sense for show!rand than it does for book!rand. in 1x08, we see that his greatest dream is to live a quiet, peaceful life with his family, and now we're going on a journey of watching him be forced to give up that dream for the rest of the series. what better way to end the show than by having rand finally get to live out that dream now that his duty to the world is done? the tears i would weep if the final scene of the show was similar to his 1x08 domestic AU, but real this time! plus, the s1 ending & s2 already did the whole thing of rand fucking off into the mist all alone, making his loved ones think he's dead, and trying to start over in a new town with a new life - AND HE LEARNS THAT THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE because he can't help but get attached to new people wherever he goes AND because he can't keep himself from remaining attached to the people from his old life and wanting to help them when he learns they're in trouble. and it also showed how his loved ones suffer because of him making them think he's dead and took a pretty hard stance in saying "no, no one is better off if rand fakes his death, not rand and not his loved ones." so i especially think rand's book epilogue scene would ring hollow in the show since s2 has specifically proven that that scenario doesn't work.

some people will harp on about happy endings being uNrEaLIsTIc, but i Do Not Give A Shit!!!! and so far the show has also shown that it's not interested in grimdark for grimdark's sake and that, like the books, it doesn't shy away from showing trauma and tragedy and yet still chooses hope & togetherness over cynicism & isolation at the end of the day, and so i think it feels very plausible for the show to give rand a bit more hopeful of an ending. (i guess the books TRIED to give him a hopeful ending what with him thinking happily about how he can travel around by himself and not be recognized, but it just felt false to me that that's the sort of thing that would make rand happy - in large part because show!rand was the first version i ever met, and i subconsciously carried his homebody caregiver stay-at-home dad-ness with me into the books even though he wasn't REALLY like that in the books in the way he is in the show. so that feels like further evidence that book!epilogue wouldn't work for show!rand.)

now as for the bodyswap, that's so tricky to imagine what the show might do. on the one hand, rand cannot fade into anonymity and be allowed to rest and set down his duties if he keeps his same body and will still be recognized wherever he goes. on the other hand, imagining rand's final moments in the whole show being portrayed by some random new actor instead of josha is so freaking sad! sad for us and sad for josha! it's fine in a book where we're in rand's head and can feel that he's still him even though he tells us he looks different, but in a visual medium, spending up to 8 seasons with josha as rand only to have his final moments be portrayed by a completely different person..........the emotions just wouldn't hit the same, it wouldn't feel like a proper sendoff for rand. granted, if moridin's actor had been in the show for several seasons already (and whether they would cast a new actor as moridin or bring fares fares back and just have the character still be called ishamael is another question i can't predict) then we'd be attached to him too by the finale, so maaaaaybe it could still feel emotional, but never as emotional as if it were josha doing that scene.

so i'm stuck here because story-wise it makes more sense for rand to get a new face, but TV-wise it's not sensible to have one of the main characters played by a different actor in their final scene(s). the potential solution to this would be, no bodyswap but have rand disguise his face with an illusion when in public so that he doesn't get recognized as the dragon reborn and get hassled.

so, okay, here's what i would do: rand wakes up in the healing tent still in his original body, but then he disguises himself and leaves the tent. he passes by his own funeral going on and slips away into the night, after exchanging a meaningful look with his partners who can sense that this stranger is him thanks to the bonds. then, cut to a proper epilogue scene of josha-as-rand undisguised in the privacy of his own home, watching his kids play with his partners by his side (and maybe all his friends and tam too if they REALLY feel like spoiling me haha) just like he told us in 1x01 he always dreamed of :')

[shuttershocky]

I know he's a long way away but do you have any thoughts on Executor the Ex Foedere? I really love Executor so I'm curious to hear your thoughts (if you have any).

I'm going to be honest: I did not think very highly of Execu2r when he first came out.

It wasn't because he was bad. My issue with him was that the existing Reapers La Pluma and Highmore were already excellent at doing a Reaper's job: sweeping up waves of trash while self-sustaining with their heal. This was made easy by Highmore and La Pluma having the same S1, a double hit auto activation skill with only 2 SP cost. You could put them down and ignore them as they swept up crowds, while their S1s made sure they could keep their health up.

FedEx on the other hand, put the double strike as a chance-based part of his talent while his skills focused on dealing damage. They're still attack-recovery like La Pluma and Highmore's S1s, but with much higher skill costs (8/12/24). While they do good AOE damage and let EX Fedora push further beyond the other two Reapers (you might have seen his solo clear on Patriot's stage, though it involved getting lucky with talent RNG), the combined opportunity cost of being a 6 star (and thus much more expensive to raise) while attempting to directly compete with other Guards with AOE like Blaze and Gavial while being unable to be healed and needing to attack to charge his skills left me wondering why I should bother.

"if I need a Reaper, i have Reapers raised. If I need to push for higher damage, I'll just bring a Centurion I can heal, it's quite rare that a Reaper uses the entire range of their wide swing anyway' is what I thought at the time.

However, his new module is uh. it's pretty wild.

+60 ATK and +7 ASPD is very nice, but I want you to look at the scaling of his module. Level 2 grants 150 DEF ignore on the second hit while boosting its base chance to proc by +10%, then level 3 doubles the DEF ignore to 300 while increasing the base chance by another 5%. This means that Federico.EXE can hit 100% double swing rate by spending 13 ammo instead of 16, which is a massive boost to his S2 (12 ammo but refund 1 bullet every time you dodge) and his S3 (start with 16 ammo). With the 300 DEF ignore from his 2nd swing, this is a big increase to his overall power and thus his competitiveness.

If you want to use Executor The Former Friendere, I would still recommend to use SP supports in the form of Stainless or Ch'en to make his skills more reliable, but he's definitely able to sweep stages with ease now. I'm waiting for someone to do showcases with his modded S2 and S3 specifically, S3 hitting 100% chance to double shot BEFORE he runs out of ammo is going to be so rad.

[mrs-evadne-cake]

Hey!! I love your fic. I was just wondering - and yes, i know it's unrealistic - if in an ideal, paradise world Stranger Things decided to go the stoncy route, how would you want them do do it? If you were in the writers' room how would you develop it in a convincing way that fits with the rest of the show? (I'm genuinely curious since you wrote them so well in IASL)

First, thank you so much! 

I mean, first and foremost I always want it to be a little bit of a mess since we’re dealing with a time and place where the word "polyamory" was not in circulation and there was no real poly community or overall awareness of polyamory as a way to be. They might be aware of free love in the ‘60s and the concept of swingers but mostly as far as they’re concerned they’re out here in ‘86 Indiana inventing the concept of a triad and it’s hard enough learning normal relationship skills as a teenager without adding unlearning socialized ideas about exclusivity and jealousy on top of that.

So let these idiots fuck it up a bunch, is what I’m saying. Bring on the return of Nancy ‘Say the Meanest Possible Thing to My Boyfriend(s)’ Wheeler.

How would I make it fit the show...man this would be easier if these three had shared a scene together for more than two minutes since S1. This is probably going to get long so more after the cut!

The show loves to trot out ‘shared trauma’ so in this perfect world they actually remember that it applies to Steve, too. So he’s dating around town but it’s not working out with anyone since it gets really, really awkward trying to explain to the girls he sleeps with why he shouts the name of an ice-cream shop during his nightmares without mentioning Russian spies ‘cause yeah, retail is hell but it’s a little excessive.

With Jonathan gone Nancy starts hanging around with Steve more often because she too remembers that he exists and went through all the same shit with them and that he ramming-speeded a Cadillac Eldorado into Billy Hargrove’s face to save her life, and her entire over-14 support system is gone. Steve thinks its a little unfair (and Robin thinks its a lot unfair) but he still cares about her so he goes along with it and Nancy is sort of surprised by how different he is from S1/Early S2 Steve.

Robin is like ‘Oh so you can lie on truth serum ‘cause you’re definitely still in love with her.’ which Steve vehemently denies. He’s just a good friend, buddy, pal. No romantic feelings at all.  

Jonathan is in Arizona or Illinois or friggin’ Derry, Maine knowing Joyce’s luck obviously very much missing Nancy. They talk on the phone and Nancy mentions that she’s been hanging out with Steve- now this could go either way the ‘Jonathan Byers is An Angel’ route where he’s okay with it right off the bat or the ‘Jonathan Byers remembers how he and Nancy got together the first time and tries to be okay with it because he is above petty normal people things like still being jealous of the ex-high school jock but can’t let it go and the two of them get into a fight. (where Nancy probably says the meanest possible thing to her boyfriend’ route. Obviously I choose the second one.

We get a scene of Jonathan getting worked up talking about it to Will who is like :/ bro, you are mentioning Steve A LOT in this conversation, aren’t you pissed at Nancy?  And Jonathan is taken aback because yeah, he is sort of obsessing about Steve.

Nancy also mentions the fight to Steve because Nancy is bad at this whole ‘don’t put your ex in awkward situations regarding your current relationship’ thing. Steve feels bad.

But before it gets resolved plot stuff kicks off and Joyce and Murray are off to ...sigh...fight evil Russians and free Hopper from a Soviet gulag. Jonathan and Will and El end up back in town however they do and we all wonder why they moved in the first place.

Jonathan, Nancy and Steve end up teamed up FINALLY (In this world Robin ends up on Team El, Max, and Kali because fuck everyone who hates her, Kali is here too and Max deserves her best friend, a big sister, and a tiny super-powered vigilante punk-rock aunt after what they did to her last season. They all kick Brenner’s ass like the last scene in Death Proof, the end) And at some point the boys end up separated from Nancy and try to make awkward conversation and Steve tries to assure him that he’s sorry and he would never get between him and Nancy and once he gets started apologizing he just sort of keeps going-  for all of High school, and if he ever ate his bagels in a really weird way, and for the fight and blaming him and Joyce for Will and calling him queer and the two have a real adult conversation where they bury the hatchet and move past high school.

And because I love the fanfic classics, that’s when a monster tries to eat them and Nancy saves them (bonus points if she uses the bat) and afterward they’re just like, ‘Fuck this town, why do we do this EVERY YEAR’  “I MOVED.’but they obviously realize that they make a really good team and actually enjoy each other’s company. The rest of their plot line has them growing increasingly comfortable with each other as they investigate whatever Nancy has dragged them along to investigate. Jonathan says he was wrong to be jealous and Nancy says of course he was because she’s always right because this is still Nancy motherfucking Wheeler and she will never not be that bitch. 

Monster stuff. The teams all come together. Hopper is back and the evil Russians defeated, yay. Robin is glad Steve is not dead and vice versa and Steve is like where did you pick up the hot punk-rock chick and did you get her number? And Robin is like long story and yes, why is Jonathan Byers looking at you with heart eyes? Which is information that overloads Steve’s brain and he’s almost glad when the series climax where they all fight a giant monster or a hole in the universe happens right then. 

No one dies, or fake dies, or maybe dies or maybe ends up in a Soviet gulag again.

Post- Climax wrap up where we actually see what everyone is doing that night directly after saving the world instead of flashing forward to months later and missing loads and loads of important character moments. After we’ go through everyone else Your Love By The Outfield starts playing because it’s 1986 now and I can FINALLY use it since it was released in ‘85. Steve goes home to (everyone say it with me) an empty house and he seems to debate with himself a little before calling Robin with a question. Nancy and Jonathan are together wherever the Byers’ and Hop are staying when the doorbell rings and it’s Steve who obviously immediately regrets this decision the minute they answer but they bring him inside and the music becomes diegetic as Jonathan puts on the record and closes the bedroom door behind them.

So apparently even in my perfect world where I’m in charge it sort of ends up mostly ramping up to stoncy than pure stoncy over one season. I’m pretty firmly of the opinion that the three of them just messing around in increasingly inclusive ways comes way before any actual poly negotiation or reflection or discussion on their respective sexuality and you can’t show that on PG-13 Netflix so we’re just crashing to black and credits.

 Thanks for the ask anon- sorry to make you wait, I knew this was going to be a monster of a post. And the fact that I just spent like, a hour and a half writing this has made me realize I might be in the mood to *actually* write again, so thanks! 

[pi-creates]

what are all of your canon choices for each s4 episode? like did you kill the walker couple? did you bury ms. martin? did you shoot lilly? did you trust aj? i'm very curious!

Here is where I expose that I was in the minority for a lot of the major choices in TFS...

Episode 1:

I didn’t kill the walker couple. I would have due to remembering that moment in S2 where Clem got attacked going through the security window - but then AJ opened his mouth and I was like “oh no, little buddy...”. People come first, and with no evidence that going through the window would be negative, it seemed like an important empathy teaching moment for AJ. (And if there was a walker in that room I would be screaming how? since the building was locked, the room was locked, and those windows were boarded too well for something to get in)

And I put a stopper on the AJ swears. I know it doesn’t really matter, but having heard toddlers with absolutely filthy language IRL... yeah, I don’t like it. Be a kid for a bit longer, AJ.

Learn to share. AJ hasn’t had to do that before so I get why he has problems with it, but I encouraged him to return everything.

I went hunting with the boys. And then went rabbit shooting with Aasim. Because if you read my last response about shipping... yeah, I wanted to romance the archer boy. To be fair, I just generally agree more with Aasim’s long-term survival plan.

I let Abel take the food. And as foolish as some people might think it is, since he kept emphasising he just wanted dinner I was fine with him taking a portion. We were still getting more food than we had before. Plus yeah, I value life more than the prospect of one more theoretical dinner when we had other sources to use.

And at the end of the episode I appealed to Louis - because yeah, I spent more time with him than Violet. It made more sense with my previous choices.

Episode 2:

Bad, AJ. No assassination headshots under this roof. That is a very quick way to lose friends.

I told AJ to give Louis his gun. I wasn’t under the impression that Louis was going to keep it - though with how long it took for him to give it back I did start doubting myself.

Be nice to James... why wouldn’t you at that point? Though I am still suspicious of where he got that apple...

Buried Ms Martin. This was more about Ruby, and she clearly needed the closure. I don’t think it really is necessary to bury walkers, but people’s feelings on the issue take precedence over my own opinions.

DISCO BROCCOLI SHIRT. AJ’s face was so happy, I had to.

Brick trap... definitely not because it was Aasim’s idea. (actually not sarcasm, it is more practical)

Marry Aasim (duh at this point), Flip Ruby, Kill James... one of those things did end up happening, so foreshadowing I guess.

If you love Ruby so much, go to talk to her, guy. Seriously, I would wingman/wingwoman the hell out of this situation if you want it, Aasim. But you have to take the first step if you want to walk that road.

Piano date. Though I didn’t carve the heart initially... a bit too cheesy for my taste. Though there was smooches, so maybe I’m not immune to cheese.

No, AJ. You don’t get to call dibs on killing people. And no swears. Accidental swears are fine - I’m not going to punish it, but I would rather he not put them into his general language.

Save Louis... and I felt like an absolute dick. Like... this decision was awful to make. Violet came to the rescue when Lilly had the gun on Clem, and it sucks that you can’t return the favour. But like... why did you do this to me, game?

Episode 3:

No Abel torture, not with AJ there. And even if he wasn’t, I don’t think I’d go that far. Maybe I would refuse water and stub out the cigarette - but I wouldn’t hurt him. And yeah, Mercy kill. He wanted that.

James asks me not to kill the walkers, so I don’t kill the walkers. He wants me to listen to his opinions on walkers, so I listen. He wants reassurance that his opinions have a semblance of logic to them?.... uhh, this one is more washy. I say there could be something more to walkers because there very well could be. You can’t say there isn’t, so there also isn’t any reason to shoot him down since it’s all speculative anyway.

Told AJ to leave/run if Clem got bit. I might be the weird one here, but I really couldn’t care less if I was dead or a walker - I don’t think it matters from the bitten person’s perspective. It matters from the safe person’s perspective, and if AJ doesn’t want to be responsible for pulling the trigger, then I don’t want him to feel compelled to. That’s his decision, not mine - but I’d rather him lean more to the changeable option than the unchangeable one.

Party mix - purple lights, classical music, and ‘See you on the other side’. Named that bomb after Willy - felt a little odd to name it after Mitch when it’s Willy’s effort. He did it for Mitch though, so I understand both those decisions.

Let AJ get the jump on Dorian. I did think they were threatening to take off Louis’ full hand though, which would be the equivalent of a death sentence. Glad it wasn’t that serious, but oof. 

...I did what James wanted. Sorry, James. I do stand by this decision anyway... If Clem had the gun, then I’m not sure what I would have picked.But with AJ behind the trigger - no, he isn’t shooting that gun. He’s like 5, he can’t understand the nuance between that situation and the one with Marlon. It just can’t be instilled into his young brain that the ultimate solution to a problem is to kill someone, especially since in both cases the people are (supposedly) unarmed and begging to be let go.

Episode 4:

Trusted AJ. Every decision I had made in regards to AJ was consistent, and so if he was legitimately listening and going to take the advice I had given him, then I shouldn’t be concerned. Also, retroactively seeing how the scene is different if James is alive - I do think my version of that scene is primed to encourage me to trust AJ. The James scene in the cave feels like you’re being encouraged to distrust AJ’s decision making.

We are building a one story house, it’s painted purple and has a mahogany piano where AJ and Clem take lessons from Louis. God, I loved this dialogue moment. It feels like real conversations you have with people playing the “What if-” game.

Sorry about my previous choices, Tenn... I wasn’t happy about that.

Told AJ to leave me there. I stand even further in that corner now that there’s an axe involved. I’ll admit to crying a little bit here... I can’t help it. If a child starts crying (and I mean emotional crying - not a temper tantrum type of cry) then my empathy kicks into overdrive and I cry with them.

(Though I will point out a plot issue here - AJ has never seem amputation work in my game as a means to stop a person dying from a bite. The only way he could come up with that idea is if Clem told him about Reggie in S2... something that happened 5-6 years previous to that point. I don’t think Clem would actually bring that up since there are more occasions in her past where it hasn’t worked, so I have no idea where AJ got the amputation idea from as a potential solution.)

As for the AJ moment with walker Tenn, I distracted Tenn... no point in wasting a bullet, and I still don’t think it’s necessary to kill ‘known’ walkers as if it somehow frees them.

And of course AJ burps at the table, tells Clem she’s the best, and is determined to get her a new foot. Because no matter what, he’s still a 5 year old.