#if you can call superpowers/magic/whatever realistic

[so--many-fandoms]

Enhanced Senses - Taste

There’s a real thing called being a supertaster, which is when a person has more taste buds then normal, resulting in being more sensitive to tastes in general (and especially bitter tastes apparently, which does fit with my experience).

Now, there are a lot of characters out there who are described as having enhanced senses, and while most writing/discussion/etc focuses on the effects on their sense of small, hearing, and/or sight, most of these characters are also at some point said to have enhanced taste (and even if it’s not explicitly stated, the strong link between smell and taste means that an enhancement on either sense likely strengthens the other as well). While these characters’ sense of taste is almost definitely much stronger in comparison to the baseline than a supertaster’s, they’d have more taste experiences in common with the characters than most people, and the characters would probably experience the same things but to a more exaggerated degree. As a supertaster myself (though I don’t like the term because it makes it sound like a super power and honestly it’s useless except for making me a really picky eater), there are some things I see often in fics of these characters that really bug me as incorrect. Here’s a list of some common things to consider (based off my own experiences, though feel free to add on your own thoughts) if you’re writing a character with stronger-than-the-average-human smell/taste:

Chocolate: this is a big one. Chocolate is really bitter, guys. “Oh, you mean dark chocolate?” No. All chocolate, though dark chocolate is worse than most. Every single type of chocolate I’ve tried, which is more or less all of them, has been far more bitter than anything else, except for white chocolate which is barely even chocolate at all and is too cloyingly sweet to eat more than a few small bites at a time. Your character will not enjoy anything chocolate or chocolate-flavored, and even if they somehow do, they won’t think it tastes warm and sweet or whatever most people think it tastes like.

Coffee: how the fuck anyone can stand to drink it long enough to ‘acquire the taste’ or whatever, I will never understand. It’s a terrible blend of pure bitterness and what I imagine dark dirt tastes like. Even the scent is miserable. No amount of milk, sugar, or other flavoring can hide the bitter. If I need caffeine, a very strong black tea is generally the best option, although if it oversteeps it can also get very bitter very quickly.

Smoke & burning: smoke is not a good flavor in food when you can taste it as strongly as I can. Barbecue is gross, flame grilled burgers are okay once I drown them in condiments and cheese so the meat is less edible, and wood oven pizzas are fairly intolerable. Similarly, anything “charred” or blackened just tastes burnt, and I’m generally a lot more sensitive to over cooking than most people. Underdone is far preferable to overdone. Anything cooked past “medium” is inedible and “medium-rare” is typically preferable.

Complexity: as a general rule, complex dishes with a lot of flavors and components are going to be overwhelming. One of the reasons kids menus have simpler/plainer options is because the older you get, the more your taste buds die (you know how old people like really spicy food sometimes?); feeding your enhanced-senses character is kind of like feeding a kid, in this way.

Flavors are clingy: food absorbs the flavors touching it. If you give me chocolate covered strawberries, it doesn’t matter if we wipe off all the chocolate and the strawberry looks good as new; I’ll still be able to taste the chocolate on it. Also, as I said before, scent and flavor are pretty tied up in eachother, so if food was stored/prepared in a room with anything particularly pungent (food or otherwise), the character can almost definitely taste those things in their food.

This definitely isn’t a complete list, but I don’t want to make this post any longer until I figure out how to make reading cuts. Also I might be wrong about some things because I’m really not an expert and this is mostly based on my own experiences, but I hope this can be a little helpful to someone.

[maxwell-grant]

Do you like the shadow's supernatural powers from the radio show and like when they are used in adaptations or would you prefer that they are not used?

Yes, and Yes.

I do feel like I should stress, whenever discussing The Shadow's increasing superhero bent and how they've affected his stories for the past 80 or so years, that The Shadow having the ability to "cloud men's minds" was based on a precedent Gibson had already established of The Shadow having a penchant for hypnotic tricks and blending in the darkness and move stealthily, essentially just condensing a bunch of separate, already-bordering-on-supernatural skillsets of his, into something feasible for short-form radio.

Just as they needed to trim and condense the supporting cast into a single character (Margo), it was a necessary development and Gibson's repeteadly stressed over the years that, whatever else he thought about the radio show, that they made the right call with this in particular, and he did carry this over to the comics and even a couple of the pulps themselves (we're obviously not bound by whatever it is that Gibson thought of or wanted for the character, but I do feel like it's worth prefacing this post by stating upfront that the character's own creator, who went through great lengths to uphold believability for the stories, was fine with The Shadow having at least one superpower. The Shadow was never that realistic to begin with)

In the stories, I had The Shadow frequently filter from sight, or blend with darkness and everything of that sort. I put quite a lot of hypnotic stuff in too because he'd been in Tibet, and hypnotism and magical illusions were my specialties. But I didn't overplay them. Well, they liked the idea of The Shadow begin invisible.

As a matter of fact, that very first script that Bierstadt did we were having a problem - The Shadow was to talk to a man in the death row at Sing Sing. We decided we would have the guards hypnotized and he moved in a dim light, and the man heard a voice talking. Bierstadt did a very good job of delineating that.

Well, these people just decided to take the short way, which was very good radio, to simply say that he clouded people's minds. They'd say, "Shadow, where are you?" "I'm here but you can't see me."

Well, that was wonderful because the people listening over the radio couldn't see him either. And don't forget we had a juvenile audience. It was very good formula. So really the radio was very similar to the stories where I had him use real hypnotism on people, except that mine was modified, whereas they made it a standardized thing - Gibson's panel w/Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko, at the 1975 Comic Art Convention

For the radio show, The Shadow being able to turn invisible by hypnotizing others to not see him was not only an excellent work-around for his pulp skillset, but frankly a brilliant way to bridge the gap for a audio medium where we don't get afforded lengthy moody descriptions of him slithering cooly through the darkness. It's made believable not because we're given in-story reasoning as to how The Shadow can do this, but because we can't see him either, and when he's taunting a hapless or frustrated criminal who wants to see him but can't, we're immediately thrust into the viewpoint of said criminal by default.

Which is the big reason the show succeeds (not always, but usually enough to matter) in pulling off one of the great tricks of his pulp craft, the same trick Sherlock Holmes used: We never get to see The Shadow's point of view, and we never get to see what the inside of his head looks like: it can only be expressed to us via the narrator inferring and interpreting to us, and through what he says to others. There should always be some level of distance between The Shadow and "us", and that's why both Margo as well as criminals panicking, because they are just as unable to see him as we are, work to bridge that gap.

When Gibson introduced the radio invisibility into the pulps, he introduced heavy caveats to it such as him requiring to stay completely immobile for it to work and it being not as practical as him just going around with his costume (that was effectively written as if it were urban camouflage), not so much with the comics where he was writing more juvenile stories that played more with fantasy and supervillains, but the point here is that the invisibility works in the radio show for several reasons. :

It was necessary to begin with: By the demands of radio, if he’s going to need to shed so much of his pulp skillset and resources, this work-around is what allowed the radio Lamont Cranston to still be The Shadow, still do Shadow things and have Shadow stories, even when on a budget and severe time constraints. The invisibility was necessary

It was not just a shortcut for something that he could achieve without superpowers. It was a shortcut, yes, but again, a necessary one, and because The Shadow’s entire character shifted to accomodate for the show, the stories in turn were structured around the invisibility. 

It didn’t come without it’s drawbacks or stakes. The Shadow was, if anything, greatly weakened by his return into radio, as his multiple skillsets and resources were traded for a single superpower, that would overwhelm most criminals right until it couldn’t and another solution would be found. He went from a resourceful chessmaster to an invisible detective with further exploitable weaknesses.

It worked WITH the medium to sell The Shadow as a convincing character: Despite the greatly reduced mystique, listeners bought The Shadow as a powerful master of his surroundings due to the combination of his invisibility + commanding voice, and this made him the perfect hero for radio: One that cannot be seen, only heard. 

The last one I think is the most important, because that’s one thing about The Shadow I have to stress, as I have before: He doesn’t need to be realistic. He needs to be convincing. He needs to be convincing as the master of the medium he’s in. 

Readers accepted anything the pulp Shadow did, because the prose, Gibson’s magic expertise, the characterization and so forth could walk us through, with nothing necessary outside of words, all the steps that The Shadow had to take in order to achieve his superhuman efforts, including the steps where he faltered and slipped and showed us that he was very much a man, just clever and powerful and resourceful enough to pass off as a convincing force of nature. The radio show got it’s readers to accept the invisible avenger because the format made it so we had to take all the characters at their word for what was happening, and we were just as helpless to see him as everyone else was, so even the basic explanation for how he was able to become invisible was enough.

Outside of those mediums, where The Shadow needs to be seen more so than read about or heard, it’s a different story, and that’s how we get the tiresome onslaught of Jedi battles with Shiwan Khan as the character has to play catch-up with how pop culture superheroes are expected to be like.

I’ve done a lot of asking around Shadow fan circles on the subject of whether The Shadow should or shouldn’t exhibit powers at all, and by and large the consensus between most fans seems to be that he shouldn’t have them or, at least, in a much more diminished fashion. And out of all the arguments I’ve combed through on the matter I’m gonna list the ones I do agree with or find the most convincing:

It imbalances the power equation necessary for these stories to function too much if he is supernaturally powered, and his criminal opponents are not, which runs the risk of the stories having no stakes because we know The Shadow can bully around all enemies with superpowers, or you have to keep introducing too many mystically-empowered supervillains to match The Shadow, both of which have run their course to exhaustion in comics.

Him having superpowers or using superpowers make almost EVERYTHING he does significantly less impressive by default. He’s no longer an all-knowing psychological mastermind, he’s a telepath. He doesn’t need to go through the effort of getting to know people, allies and enemies alike, with his impressive interpersonal intelligence and reading skills and agent network, if he’s a psychic who gets everything he needs to know with just a thought. His foresight and moral judgement in case-by-case handling of criminals and those who truly are beyond redemption are no longer that impactful, if he’s got precognitive abilities that let him cheat and know exactly who is it okay to kill. He has no need for sleight-of-hand and in-depth espionage skills comprising an entire backstory, if he can mind magic his way through everything after taking a trip to Tibet. 

Aren't additional superpowers kind of overkill? He's already one man with a massive network of agents and allies from all walks of life, with access to millionaire resources to fund them and his crimefighting efforts. He's got gadgets and technology ahead of his time, multiple vehicles on ground and air and sea, multiple lairs (secret and public) full of further resources. He's extensively trained on dozens of disciplines and skillsets, he's a top-notch magician, escape artist, martial artist, linguist, marksman, detective, lock-picker/safe-cracker, pilot, animal trainer, beaver communicator, athlete, chemist, businessman and etc, and his skills with ventriloquism, mesmerism, mastery of disguise, espionage, tracking and trailing, hypnosis, and even contortion / manipulation of his face/body, as well as his knowledge and interpersonal intelligence for dealing with allies and psychological manipulation of enemies, already teeter constantly between borderline-superpower and actual-superpower. He looks way worse off having all of this at his disposal, and not being able to handle criminals (or worse threats) without mind-magic. I swear I’m actually leaving stuff out of this, wait till I finally get that The Shadow Respect Thread put together to see the sheer level of bullshit this guy can do.

He shouldn’t be given superpowers out the wazoo just because Batman cornered the market on non-superpowered crimefighting, The Shadow isn’t interchangeable with Batman to the extent that he needs superpowers to not overlap. 

But, I’m not against The Shadow having superpowers or getting new interesting superpowers if that’s something creators feel like doing. The problem here isn’t The Shadow having superpowers: it’s those superpowers coming into play at the expense of all the other things he can and already should be doing, and at the expense of his own characterization as a clever, strategic, cunning crimefighter who’s got so many odd skills (most of which limited and grounded to an extent that makes it they can’t be narrative shortcuts, or render his entire supporting cast worthless) that he might as well be superhuman, even when he is clearly not, when he gets tired, debilitated, beaten, stuck in problems he has to get out of by sheer luck or by the agents. 

I feel like that’s the other final bit I’d have to say on it: If he is to have superpowers, they should be slotted into his existing skillset instead of superceding, and made to work just as they would any of his other weird skills. The gold standard for this in my view is Matt Wagner’s Shadow, who combines the pulp skillset as the first and foremost along with the radio hypnosis and some other weird abilities that don’t supercede the first two. The Shadow’s powers should have limits, even when they don’t have explanations. 

As weird as he is, he is still a human. He is a man of cunning BEFORE he’s a man of action, that’s what the other heroes are usually doing, that’s what his villains don’t count on. He needs to be someone who thinks, and thinks always, and thinks his way out of a problem before he brings out the guns and theatrics and, yes, even the magic. He needs to be someone who can be taken out by a lucky thug, safety hazards or just plain bad luck. 

Victory doesn’t mean anything to someone who can’t lose and has nothing to lose. 

[showrunnerihardlyknowher]

You know how we have pet costumes? Give Jacob one, make him a cute space cowboy😈😈😈

WE'RE BACK BABY

Please enjoy this little ficlet (that was actually my 3rd attempt to write a fluffy ficlet for this universe because all the other ones kept becoming future chapters lmao)

--

“This is humiliating. I look like sheriff Woody or something.”

“Aw, I was thinking more like John Wayne Gacy, you know?”

“The...the clown serial killer…?”

Angie pursed her lips. “Wait, who was the cowboy guy in all the old movies? Like, before Clint Eastwood and whatever.”

“That’s John Wayne. Not John Wayne Gacy,” Jacob tugged at the sleeves of his costume and readjusted his cowhide vest. “And I don’t feel anywhere near as cool as him right now.”

She rolled her eyes and crinkled her nose. “That’s because you’re not cool. You’re a grown man playing dress up with a kindergartener.”

“So are you.”

Angie straightened her Native American headpiece and threw one of her braided pigtails behind her. “Yeah, but I know it’s stupid, so therefore I’m doing it ironically which makes me cool.”

Jacob sighed heavily but didn’t argue further, instead tugging his cowboy hat down further to shield his face that burned with embarrassment. Being forced into having playdates with his captor’s coworker was nothing new. He had spent plenty of time being Mibao’s sole playmate aboard the ship, doing the best he could to keep the six year girl entertained and not too psychologically damaged. Being the youngest in a sibling group of only boys, he was a bit rusty when it came to knowing anything about kids. Thankfully, Mibao was more than happy to take him by the hand and show up all the “fun” things she used to either do back home or what she would now do with her “kitty”.

Today’s game of choice was dress up. Every day felt like dress up when it came to the girl’s ever expanding wardrobe; she was always dressed in an obnoxiously puffy and sparkling princess dress fashioned with ribbons and bows galore and always with a matching crown. Fine, no big deal, he could slap a tiara on his head and call it a day, he’d worn worse at the few fraternity parties he attended during college. Nope, not good enough. Mibao had a very specific game she wanted to play which involved him wearing a cowboy costume of all things. A very realistic and detailed cowboy costume, assless chaps and spurs and all. Again, he could...handle it for the most part. The only thing that really bothered him about it was all the coos and giggles he received from both his and Mibao’s captors when he finally came out in his new outfit.

And he knew for a fact they took many, many pictures of him.

It didn’t end there, Mibao still had more requests. Angie needed to join in as well and she was required to be an “indian princess” to partake. Naturally, she was more than happy to agree if it meant getting a break from the absolute nightmare of a captor she had been saddled with. So, now Jacob had to deal with the fact that she would have to watch him play pretend in this ridiculous getup. He could never catch a break with her, it seemed, she always had to catch him when he was in the middle of doing something cringe worthy. She didn’t even look half as uncomfortable as him and she was literally wearing half as much clothing.

Or maybe that was exactly why she was so comfortable as she sauntered up to him, making a finger pistol to tip his hat away from his face. “Cheer up, partner,” she teased. “I think it makes you look cute.”

“I think it makes me look like Owen Wilson from the museum movie,” Jacob replied, hoping the shadow of the brim hid his reddening cheeks.

“Oh my God, you are a tiny little twink cowboy, huh?”

“I’d rather be the gladiator guy.”

“You wish you could pull off being the gladiator guy.”

A rebuttal was on the tip of his tongue when Mibao made her appearance from behind the monitor where she had been changing. This time instead of her usual princess attire, she was dressed...pretty much the same, only this time she had a tiny pair or iridescent fairy wings attached to the back. What a fairy had to do with cowboys and indians, he hadn’t the faintest idea. She stopped when she saw the two of them and stuck out her tongue in childish disgust.

“Eww, stop kissing!” She scolded. “You can kiss the princess later, Jake, it’s time to play!”

Jacob had never been more grateful in his life that the creatures idly watching them couldn’t understand English because he just might have died if they heard. He could feel the heat radiating from his nape to his cheeks, putting his hands up in defense like it could keep Angie away from him.

“Wh-no! We weren’t, we weren’t kissing, Reagan, w-we-!”

Angie only cackled, her amusement stemming more from Jacob’s panicked response than the actual accusation of giving him a kiss. “Yeah, cowboy, you can kiss me later.” She winked and nudged him with her elbow as she walked past to where Mibao was waiting.

He groaned, tugging the hat down as far as it would go even if that meant obscuring his vision somewhat. That was totally fine, he didn’t want to look at anyone right now and he did not want to be perceived either. The child was leading them back over to her designated play area scattered with art supplies and stuffed toys for where they’ll play their game of make believe. Angie was already sitting on her knees by the time he shuffled over and beckoned him with a sly smile to come take a seat on the ground next to her. Jacob obliged, but refused to give her the satisfaction of seeing his beet red face.

As soon as they were settled, Mibao immediately launched into the exposition of the scene they would be putting on, including their roles and superpowers (that only she had because she was a magical fairy queen). Jacob was only half listening; the kid usually forgot half of her own rules in the middle of playing anyways because she wanted to change the story and it wasn’t that hard to follow her game of make believe. Instead, he kept side-eying Angie, who was side-eying him back, and every time they made eye contact she would smile and bump his shoulder with hers.

This was going to be a long playdate.

--

The lab door slid open as Talan walked in, peeling off his bloodied gloves to dispose of them in Ylva’s waste bin. “I need my human back.”

“Aw, why? They’re all having a ball together!” Ylva frowned, gesturing to the miniature trio on her desk. Well, the smallest one and Talan’s pet seemed like they were having a good time, namely at the expense of the other human in a hat. They all seemed to stop at the interruption, his human fixing him with a sneer that he was tempted to match.

“What the fuck is it wearing?” He asked, ignoring all the little protests he got when he grabbed it and plucked the stupid looking feather thing of its head. “I thought you said it’s not nice to torment the humans.”

Edix scoffed at him, though his annoyance was more from Talan being in his general vicinity than anything. “It’s not torment. They were having fun.”

Talan did not look convinced in the slightest, his eyes sweeping over the pup who was pouting at him for taking away its playmate and the other who froze any time he breathed in its direction. Like owner, like pet, he assumed as it seemed to unconsciously inch closer to where Edix’s hand was resting for a better sense of security. Pathetic. At least his pet had a bit more self respect and wasn’t afraid to try and stab him in the hand with his own tools. Of course, it got a sharp flick to the stomach to knock it off, but he could appreciate the gumption.

Talan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, looks like a real party. So sad to have missed it.”

“Like you’ve ever been to a party to know what it looks like.”

“Says the one that only hangs out with plants.”

“Okay,” Ylva interjected, rising from her chair and scooping up her adorable little human. “You’re right, we should probably wrap this up, Mibao’s going to need a nap soon and she likes to fight her naps when she’s excited.”

That was all the excuse Talan needed to dip out without a formal goodbye, though it didn’t escape the corner of his eye how Edix’s human took a half step forward when he left, almost like it wanted to say something. Even if it did, he wouldn’t have cared. As quickly as he had intruded, Talan disappeared back down the main hall of the fauna department to return to his lab.

Edix stood up as well and tucked the data pad he had been keeping busy with under his arm to keep his hands free. He couldn’t help but smile at seeing how much closer his little pet was standing to him, even if it wasn’t by much, even though it was caused by Talan of all bastards. A win was a win in his book. The hand the human had been partly hiding behind curled easily around it to lift it up, immediately cradling it to his chest as usual. It squirmed for a moment but settled quick enough, a clear sign it was also ready to go back to the lab it was accustomed to. For a social species, the little one always seemed so drained after any playdate Ylva arranged for their pets. Fine by him, it usually meant his human was much more quiet and well behaved once it was back in the solitude of Edix’s company, making for an easier work day.

He used his finger to tilt back the wide brimmed hat it had been using to hide its sweet little face a majority of the playdate, earning him a surprised squeak. With the way its baby cheeks were turning an adorable shade of pink, Edix had a fairly good guess as to why it was trying to avoid everyone’s line of sight. Damn, he should have had Ylva take more pictures, this was way too cute for him. It reached up to quickly pull its shield back down and Edix let it with a laugh, cooing as he tugged at its little vest instead which only made it wriggle in distress. Overdramatic little thing.

“Can I keep this costume?” He asked as he followed behind Ylva who was preparing to put her own pup down for a nap. In reality, it meant she was going to have to play with it for at least another half an hour because, much like him, she was a sucker when it came to her human wanting to play. The difference being that Mibao wanted to do anything from coloring to singing to continuing its game of make believe while Edix’s pet always wanted to play chase.

Ylva smiled and shrugged. “Sure, I mean, it’s not like it’s going to fit the baby. It was printed for its measurements specifically, anyways.” Mibao was proving to be difficult in its refusal to relinquish the shiny wings Ylva had designed at its request, something that Ylva quickly made a game out of by setting her pup on the desk and letting it squeal and run while her hands chased after it. That would tire the kid out in no time. She looked back at his human and giggled. “I don’t think it likes it very much, though.”

Oh yeah, that was obvious from the get go, but it didn’t change the fact that it was way too precious for its own good in this type of outfit. Edix actually quite liked the contrast of the dark brown against its pale skin, even more given the fact that it matched the color of its doe eyes perfectly. It was much more appealing than that splotchy green jacket it was inexplicably attached to. He had a feeling it was going to try and strip out of this outfit as soon as it was back in Edix’s lab, provided he gave it its normal suit and jacket to change into. But...maybe he didn’t have to offer it its spare set of clothes right away. Maybe it would just have to hang around in its little boots and hat for a couple hours longer while he finished up his latest report that was just so important to get done. And maybe he would get constantly distracted by how cute it looked while it was definitely pouting at him for not taking off its costume that it took a little longer than usual to finish his work, which meant it spent even longer pouting under its hat.

Decisions, decisions.

Edix waved his hand dismissively. “It’ll learn to love it.”

“Oh, Eddie, don’t be mean to it,” Ylva laughed, not that seemed bothered by the idea of his pet keeping the outfit on for an extended period of time beyond the playdate. “But send pictures if you do.”

[violet-t-9]

Check in on my (not very realistic) wish list for episode 140

1. Nobody in the party perma-dies in the potential battle against Lucien/the Somnovem (temporary unconsciousness is to be expected).

Jester did not perma-die! Nooo Caleb no don’t die please wow this is one of my nightmares- ok Lucien died nvm Caleb you are fine WHEW. No perma-deaths. NOT EVEN MOLLY

2. The group discovers/uses more new eye functions that we have not seen before during the combat (unlikely, but still may be brought up).

Nope, but telepathy did get used for communication a lot, so that was fun.

3. They successfully defeat Lucien, stop/destroy the city and prevent the end of the world by the end of the episode.

Well, Lucien is stopped before the break at least!

4. A glimpse of Molly is shown before Lucien is defeated (e.g. he starts to remember them, etc) due to their effort to try to reach him/trigger his memories.

They got him to lose so many legendary reactions! Lucien also clawed his own face and torn himself apart in the end, so I’m going to count this as Molly, fighting back to protect his friends.

5. Beau and Yasha battle couple moments and possibly a passionate kiss after.

They didn’t get many power couple moments in this fight. However, Beau and Yasha’s consistent damage output brought them so much closer to success! ALSO YES A POST-BATTLE KISS I KNEW IT I CALLED IT the healing hands hug too nice.

6. More mind control attempts occur in combat (emphasis on the “attempt”).

Well yes, against Essek again (thankfully failed) and Yasha with the nightmare cage. Caleb mind blank was so clutch, at least SOMEBODY cannot be mind-controlled here. No Veth got charmed oh no.

7.  Fjord and Jester healing/saving each other and some sweet moments after.

Jester healed Fjord among the mass cure wounds as well! Also the fire resistance ring still played a role! Aww the hug in the marine layer fog was so cute! Also ayy they recovered the Cloven Crystal hahaha. Nice moment!

8. Artagan/sprinkle is mentioned/makes an appearance.

The divine intervention attempt by Jester almost succeeded Nooo. Thanks for showing up at Caleb’s revival at least.

9. Obligatory wish for Essek’s fancy dunamancy or magical items (can we please stay away from Lucien for like one round and let him use dark star).

TETHER ESSENCE YAY!! Loved the description. No dark star sad (Matt WAS saving for it), but 8th level gravity fissure is still cool though! It was unfortunate because Essek had such a high initiative as well, but all is well.

10. Obligatory wish for the polymorph spell.

Look this is just a permanent feature ono this list.

11. Obligatory wish for Essek’s room in the tower.

Look this is just a permanent feature on this list.

12. Obligatory wish for Cad being a MVP in and out of combat.

Cad’s revivify on Jester THANK YOU CAD (also thanks Caleb for getting her to him so he can bring her back quickly). JESTER HDYWTDT YES thanks to path of the grave from Cad. I knew it, Cad is always a MVP. 13. Veth being attracted to Lucien’s Astral Washboard (still reeling from the “you are not my type... but maybe you are?”)

“Kind of like a minotaur” LMAO Veth I knew it. Even in the final boss battle... That aside, Veth is such a MVP in terms of damage. Rogues, man! She did so much on Lucien and had evasion which was clutch.

14. creepy but awesome lair actions from Cognouza the flesh horror city under Lucien’s control + other new moves from Lucien’s secondary form.

Summon Cataclysm?? Will Aether?? Oh no Caduceus :( Nightmare Cage?? Yasha :( LAIR ACTION WITH PATTERNS oh NO- whew everyone rolled high thank you Jester for the Heroes’ Feast. The EYES get to go?? FOLD SPACE?? The 6 bladed attacks on Veth OH NO. NO Caleb got thrown with a tower at Essek wow those legendary actions sure are pretty strong.

15. They get to the end of the combat without anyone reaching 9 eyes.

YES! This happened! I’m so glad that the timer, whatever it was, did not activate in the Lucien fight.

16. Their eyes vanish after they defeat Lucien/destroy the city.

YES! YES! I knew it! Ayyyyyyy 

17. Caleb uses more fire/customized/dunamantic spells creatively or with nice flair (what’s sexier than wizards NOTHING).

He WILLED a glaive to hit Lucien I love you sexy wizard I literally love your imagination and creativity Widogast this is why you are my favourite. CALEB WITH YOUR MIRROR IMAGE YOU ABSOLUTE TANK I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.

18. Fjord uses his vestige in battle (come on that’s a star razor you’ve got there).

I... Marine layer also works, sure. Also you know what, Eldritch blast rules anyways. Fjord has always been a perfect warlock (and paladin probably).

19. Veth successfully using the Aeorian security cannon’s feature to hit again OR Veth using a fluffernutter.

Wow did not expect ASC to succeed in the first round, but it did! I’m so proud of you ASC.

20. The city’s inhabitants get freed from their fates of perpetual screaming.

“You hear whispers in your mind” YES! They are grateful and they are freed!

21. The party’s reaction when any member goes down (give me the angst).

No Veth is down... OOF. Nooo Jester NOO! Cad was almost down (death ward clutch). I regret wanting angst I’m sorry! I mean I knew it was going to happen. No Caleb is down Nooo I regret everything why did I want angst?! CALEB NO I didn’t want angst I didn’t-

22. Yasha uses her undead barbarian superpowers to fight on 0 hitpoints forever because she is awesome.

You know what, I’m glad she never got to 0 HP. So many party members went down already. 

23. Obligatory wish for everyone to remain relatively happy and alive by the end of the episode except Lucien, and the episode hopefully does NOT end on a terrifying cliffhanger because they win.

WOW, I was right. We got it, guys. We really got it, a happy ending.

Bonus moments:

Jester’s banishment on Vigilan was nice and quite crucial. Jester and Caduceus remind us every day why having two clerics is necessary for M9. Jester willed the bag of holding back to them lol.

Fjord THANK YOU for the Fastidan kill, that eye was such a menance. 

The wizards helping each other in battle were such nice moments.

Molly fighting back and helping them until the end :( WAIT is Caleb going to raise dead with his transmuter stone YES THE RITUAL I’m about to cry from Yasha, Jester and Beau... No NATURAL 1... WAIT DIVINE INTERVENTION?? 2% WHAT THAT WAS A WHIPLASH. EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO CRY. DUDE THE IRONY OF CAD BRINGING MOLLY BACK THOUGH.

Score: 17/23 

Wow what an emotional rollercoaster oh man oh man

What a story

I love them so much

See you next Thursday!

[riannazabalaa]

A Floor for Comfort

Restrooms are a place for maintaining one’s personal hygiene, not for crying out my little weary and tired heart. “Rianna Mariel Zabala, Rank 1” was something I always wished to hear, not to actually earn the title but to feel as if my name actually meant something rather than just ‘another honor student’. And when another revelation day came and the same name kept popping up for first place, the last cubicle of the girls’ restroom became my place of comfort where I would dramatically slide down the dirty floor and bawl my eyes out while hoping no one could hear me. There would always be a little voice at the back of my head, sounding like she’s trying to fight back tears, that would always wonder when her time would come; I still do wonder everyday. But waiting is a gift, a superpower many have given up on, and it’s something I hope you wouldn’t let go either.

3rd grade was magical. Playing the lead role in “Connie, the Bossy Fairy”, discovering that you could actually sing well without falling flat, and garnering praise while juggling everything behind the scenes were definitely the highlights of that year. It gave me a sense of what I actually wanted to do in life: work in the entertainment industry. It was sad to bring that dream up to anyone I loved years later because it was continuously shot down as the stupidest idea one could ever have, it was even sadder to realize that no one had my back. I had tried manipulating myself into saying that I had potential to be a doctor, an engineer, or anything worth someone’s time. Nearly a decade in being an honor student proved that I did have the grades and the potential for those careers, but the thing I significantly lacked most was the passion to pursue any of them. So as I continued trying to find a possible job option, I still held on to my actual dreams.

I tried. I tried so much that I would discreetly cry in the cubicles around three times a week. I tried pushing myself to enter things I knew I could do to go for what I really wanted in life. But alas, I was rejected more than I could ever remember. The reasons were always the same. It was always because I lacked potential. And that little voice at the back of my head would always murmur, “They don’t even know you! How on earth would they know that?” Because of that, the journey to make myself known would always be cut short by another person getting that opportunity because they simply wanted it. I wanted these chances so much more than anyone could ever want something, the feeling was that strong. I pushed the best of my abilities to achieve them but to no avail, I was another sore loser. I could remember my broken sobs when I wasn’t selected for the national academic competition or an in-school singing contest. Those are just two out of the hundred, thousand, maybe million rejections I have faced. But as others would’ve given up at this point, I still chose to hold on to the unknown path of my dreams even if there isn’t any road. I was still endlessly carving that path for myself.

Restrooms then became bathrooms and college was slyly eyeing me in the corner. My whole 12th grade was just a complete mess of my near adulting phase. There were college applications lying everywhere, especially on the bathroom floor. They were soggy, not because of the faucet water, but because of my endless tears. Many would wonder why I would even cry when there’s so much I could do with what I have but I cried because I felt that there was absolutely nothing for me to do. This was probably the most painful moment I ever had on my grandmother’s bathroom floor where I realized that I had no dream, a practical one that is. I had the strongest envy for aspiring lawyers, doctors, and many of various professions that were considered enough to be called realistic. I was extremely jealous of children whose parents had the financial ability to send them to study abroad, a dream of mine. I was sad because I felt that I’ve burned myself out excessively to only find out that I had been working towards an empty void of nothingness. But the deepest, most secretive parts of me knew that my hurt was never for zero reward. I still held on because I knew that there was something in front of me lurking that I had to keep my grip on to finally see because it’s the bravest thing I could ever do for myself. 

When you’re reading this letter, I hope you’re in the last cubicle of the girls’ restroom where the cleaning supplies lie, sobbing for the very first time in that same spot. I hope that after this you’ll pick yourself up and cover your eyes when you go out. I hope you cancel your plans for the day because you need to take care of yourself and eat a bowl of whatever you have at home that day. I hope that you finally get some sleep, because feeling sad and frustrated is okay. Not being hard on yourself for not getting that opportunity is even better. These are things beyond your control and it takes strength to accept them. All you need to be doing is to keep trying, no one will blame you for doing so.

Right now, I’m still lost but in reality, who isn’t? Don’t worry about your college applications because I already sorted those out and though I’m not a fortune teller, I can assure you that you will be just fine, everything will be alright, and your time will definitely come. When you feel exhausted from being repeatedly in pain, I’ll tell you that to be great is to go through so much more hurt than most people out there; then slowly by slowly, the restroom floor won’t be your comfort anymore. Life is hard but I’ll be the first one to ever say to you that you are here and your dreams will forever be valid; you are valid.

[svankmajerbaby]

i was tagged by @punkenglishnerd - thank you very much, and i’m sorry for being so late!!!

🎃 Pumpkin: Favourite season? spring, because it’s my birthday... and usually the first days of spring are rainy, but then it’s sunny and not very hot yet, so i can dress in layers but i can still bask in the sunshine. i really like autumn too, because while at first it’s too hot to do anything, when it starts to cool down it’s a delight

👻 Ghost: Do you get scared easily? it really depends... for some reason gore doesn’t faze me much, and i’ve become kind of desensitized to a lot of typical horror stuff. but i’m terrified of r*pe scenes, they leave me very nervous and in general a lot of realistic horror, like abuse, torture and the like, gets me very anxious and stressed... i don’t know if i’d call that fear exactly, but if it does, then yeah, i’m a scaredy cat :^/

🎃 Candy Corn: What’s your favourite kind of candy? dark chocolate!! i love really bitter chocolate, or chocolate covered peanuts -that’s what i used to ask for when i went out with my family to the cinema

👻 Vampire: What is your favourite supernatural creature? any sort of manmade creature!!! i really like automata, frankenstein monsters, golems, creepy dolls... but i also love the concept and the symbolism of ghosts and haunted houses......

🎃 Witch: If you could have any superpower, what would it be? i really don’t know... there’s so much i’d like to do... i’d love to be able to speak any language, but i think it’s not really a superpower? since this is halloween themed, i’d have to say telekinesis (matilda was one of my favorite childhood books) and being able to shrink. i’d love to be small as a mouse and wander around the house

👻 Trick or treat: What was your favourite Halloween costume? i dressed as a witch several times!! we don’t celebrate halloween here in argentina, but still there were some birthdays or club parties which were kind of a replacement halloween celebration?? once i went as candy-skull-frida kahlo, and i still think that was my most complex costume... but i really loved dressing up as a witch when i was little, with my green and black striped socks and my witch hat and my long sleeved black top >:^)

🎃 Black cat: Are you superstitious? nah

👻 Ouija Board: If you could change your name, what would you change it to? i used to hate my name casandra, because everyone was called camila or martina or daniela or more “normal” names, and i thought mine was weird... but i still wanted to stand out, so i pretended my second name was miranda, for some reason?? and for some time i was convinced i should change my name to miranda. but after a few years ive grown to like my name, even if i think it does sound kinda pretentious (my parents gave it to me, so its not my fault!!). i’ve also grown to like the other name they would have given me, bruna, which at first i hated but now i kinda love?? maybe i’d change it to that. but i like my name, currently

🎃 Graveyard: Do you know any good scary stories? hmmm the only one that’s like, a scary story, is one i was obsessed with, that was in a book at my school library -i think it’s pretty well known -about the girl with the green ribbon tied around her neck, who has a boyfriend that asks her why she wears it, and she doesn’t say, until she’s in her deathbed and she tells him he can take her ribbon off and he does and the girl’s head falls off. that story lived in my head 24/7, along with actual short stories like the black cat, the telltale heart, the oval portrait, the masque of the red death... i considered metamorphosis by franz kafka a horror story, too, so i guess i’ll add it here. oh, i know!!!!!! one that i think a lot of people don’t know about. the feather pillow, by horacio quiroga. a young couple move to the countryside, and while the husband is away at work, the woman stay at home all the time. the woman falls ill, and the doctor tells her to stay in bed and rest. she gets worse and worse, and withers away. her husband worries but doesn’t know what is going on. the woman finally dies, and when the maid is about to clean the sheets, she notices that the pillow is extremely heavy. and then -she and the husband and the doctor realize -there was a tick, a blood-sucking bug inside the pillow, a typical goose tick that, when given time, can drain a whole person of all their blood it’s better the way the author wrote it, i think i’m selling it short

👻 Skeleton: Have you ever broken a bone? no, i never did anything that could lead to that {:^) when i was younger i climbed trees and played in parks and stuff, but i never played any sports that could make me break a bone... i did break my knee or something?? i can’t remember, but my knee was sort of displaced during a school camping trip in which i got out of the shower and slipped badly

🎃 Werewolf: What is your favourite urban legend? oooooo there’s a bunch from the local high-class cemetery, the Recoleta Cemetery (though i can’t remember any of them very well), where there’s a lot of great urban legends, most of them from the nineteenth or early twentieth century, like one of two star crossed lovers -a young woman who fell for a french soldier visiting argentina -and when he died in the battlefield, she died as well and haunts her grave ever since... or, well, the famous ones like whatever happened to evita’s corpse, which is kind of squicky but still sort of morbidly fascinating??

👻 Horror flick: Do you like scary movies? Boy Do I. i love frankenstein (1931), crimson peak (2015), corpse bride (2005), blood tea and red string (2006), cat people (1942), abominable dr phibes (1970), gaslight (1944), institute benjamenta (1995), little otik (2000), little shop of horrors (1986), picnic at hanging rock (1975), carrie (2013), a girl walks home alone at night (2014), the magic toyshop (1987), faust (1926), mildred pierce (1945), the devil’s backbone (2001), sleepy hollow (1999), the raven (1963), the fly (1958), cronos (1993), the man who laughs (1928), the babadook (2014), whatever happened to baby jane (1962), the cabinet of dr caligari (1920), aaaaand.... the night of the hunter (1955)

🎃 Haunted house: Would you prefer to live in the city or the country? city all the way. i need cinemas, and libraries, and theaters!!!!

👻 Zombie: Do you think that you could survive a zombie apocalypse? oh, no... i’d probably try to kill myself so i can keep myself from being bitten and hurting other people

🎃 Cauldron: What kind of potion would you make if you had the opportunity? some sort of health potion? i wish people didn’t die of perfectly preventable or curable diseases...

👻 Full moon: Do you prefer nighttime or daytime? daytime, particularly the afternoon

🎃 Corn maze:  What is your favourite autumn activity? eating, basically; last autumn i spent it baking, i think. i can’t remember, by this point... we don’t have any particular “autumn traditions”, i think...

👻 Broomstick: What exciting places have you travelled to? i really enjoyed istanbul, with all the cats and the beautiful architecture, i’d like to go back ;_; but i also loved prague a lot, we went in winter and it was all snowy and lit at night and it was such a beautiful place... portugal was a surprise, i liked it a lot more than i expected!!! i miss edinburgh a lot, too, even if it’s a bit too stuffy for me, i still liked it.... and berlin, i think i was in berlin for too short a time. i loved the cinema museum so much, and everyone was so nice, and the city has so much fascinating history... and i also miss athens -again, i was surprised, and i spent very little time there, but everything, the ruins, the modern city, the people, everything was gorgeous and wonderful... and dublin!!!!! dublin was amazing!! i’ve travelled a lot. i want to keep travelling. this year my family and i were supposed to go to russia, and i’m still kinda eager to go.

thank you so much for tagging me!!!!!! and sorry again for taking so long... i’m tagging (only if you want to do it!) @saumenschliesel, @flowerb-0y, @jacobaco, @majorabbey, @thatqueerweirdo, @sbongebob, @buffoello, and whoever else would like to do it!! i really enjoyed answering these asks :^)

[crusherthedoctor]

The Lutrudis Hadeer Design Concept Masterpost

Every now and then, I get the occasional question about my very own Lutrudis, which I'm always gladly willing to answer. Yet for all the times I've answered such questions, it seems some folks are still a bit left in the dark as to how Trudy came to be. So I figured I could make one big post all about the creation process. Maybe not every single detail per say, but at least everything that I think is worth mentioning in a post of this sort.

I'm aware that fellow pal @benignmilitancy​ covered this subject herself recently, but I might as well do my part to back up what she said.

1. When did Lutrudis become an idea?

The basic idea for Lutrudis - and indeed, the setting of Viridonia and Beyond the Stars itself as a story - was thought up as early as 2014. When I say basic idea however, I really do mean it, as aside from the general concept of her being the latest Friend of the Week helping Sonic and Co fight evil on her home island, very little else about Trudy was set up, including her name and species. While some aspects of her personality were already set in stone by that point, I focused on the design first when I decided to go ahead and make her and Beyond the Stars a real thing. The idea being to use what personality traits I had in mind to create a mental image, then use that mental image to help figure out the rest of her traits, as a design can often help out with working out a personality.

So basically, I scratched my back, so that I could scratch it again. Made sense to me.

2. Why a horse? Is it because friendship is magic?

Maybe...

Actually, I wanted a species that hadn't been used before, at least in the games, its continuity being the one Beyond the Stars takes place in. But at the same time, I also wanted to go with a fairly mundane species rather than anything rare, extinct, or extravagant, as I felt that the latter would undermine the story arc that I had in mind for this particular character. Compared to the likes of Sonic, Shadow, or Blaze, Lutrudis is more akin to Amy in the sense that she's ordinary by comparison, despite her living conditions and the magical brand of ammo she eventually decides to use. To have the arc of a “normal” lady becoming a hero in her own right be represented by a T-rex or a dragon wouldn't really land the same impact in the context of this universe.

Already, I was quickly warming up to making her a horse because of this. But then I realised that many of Trudy's personality traits - her loyalty, her passion, her elegance - were ALSO commonly attributed to horses in real life. And if you're not aware, I'm a big fan of letting Sonic and Co have character tics representative of their species, and a horse in particular had plenty of potential to have some funny and cute moments by letting their horsiness show itself. This additional thought helped make my decision on the matter final.

...Well, that and I wanted Trudy to have longer hair than the average Sonic female due to how, IMO, short hair wouldn't work as well for her. Obviously horses have manes, so that made it easier to get away with than it would have if she were a hedgehog, though it also helps that Trudy's hair is never any more detailed than the rest of her, meaning her hair actually looks like her own rather than her wearing an overly detailed wig to appease a certain disgraced comic writer, one of whom I will probably have the entirety of Beyond the Stars uploaded by the time he actually does something with his echidna libido-fueled comic at this rate... Looking forward to it in 2030.

As for what kind of horse she is, I decided to go with an English Thoroughbred, if only to further justify Trudy's English accent, which is nonetheless fairly mild compared to everyone else in Viridonia, who sound as though they jumped out of a 90's Rareware title.

3. “THIS IS WHO I AM... But who am I?”

Believe it or not, but even by 2016, I still hadn't decided on what to call my little pony. I had already figured that whatever I was going to call her, it would abide by the same naming convention as Amy Rose, Miles Prower, and Ivo Robotnik, to help further add to the aforementioned notion that she's an ordinary lady who wasn't born with any superpowers. That, and because “___ the Horse” doesn't have the same ring to it as “___ the Hedgehog” or “___ the Echidna”.

So what did I do?

I looked up a list of female names for baby girls. Duh.

Well, it worked out, because I stumbled across “Lutrudis”, which was German for “strength of the village”. The more I repeated it in my head, the more it appealed to me. Sometimes, you can have various names that mean the same thing, yet one in particular will just have that perfect sound to it. That was me with this name. This horse being named Lutrudis felt right to me, even if I perfectly understood that it was perhaps a bit more exotic than your usual Sonic anthro name.

Not that it mattered too much, since I was quick to think of “Trudy” as a nickname for her, since in addition to being less of a mouthful, that name - also German in origin - had a similar meaning, “universal strength”. Fit her character and arc just as well.

So that was the first name sorted, but what about the surname? Well, when looking at a selection of appropriate words, I stumbled on “Hadeer”, and while the Arabic meaning of the name is slightly unclear - some sources say “adventurous”, others say “sound of the water falls” - I felt that the meanings associated with it were all equally appropriate regardless. Then I combined it with the first name, said the full name over and over again in my head, and thought “Yeah... this sounds correct.”

I realise the irony of a part-German, part-Arabic name being associated with an English character, but considering this is the same universe where a man who is presumably not Polish is given a Polish term for a name (Robotnik), I think we can let it slide.

4. “You guys know what EDS is, right?”

It's no secret that another friend of mine, @greenyvertekins​, has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which has a lot of unfortunate complications to it, but in laymen's terms basically means your body is more fragile than that of the average person's. This condition is rather rare, so much so that a majority of people have never heard of it. Sure enough, I was one of those people, until I became friends with Verte.

After hearing Verte talk about her EDS and what she's had to go through, along with doing my own research on the condition, not only was I considerably more informed on it, but I also felt very sympathetic to not only my friend, but everyone else who has had to experience it, particularly with how ignorant other people continue to react to it due to lack of public awareness. It made me want to do something in dedication, and in the process, a certain pony eventually crossed my mind.

This wasn't done for the sake of appeasing blue checkmarks on Twitter. I genuinely wanted to help raise awareness of EDS however I could, and I considered that perhaps its inclusion in my story would help do that, so long as it didn't sacrifice everything else about the story or forget that it was still a Sonic the Hedgehog story. Yes, it's a fanfic, and thus not as well known as a Hollywood blockbuster or a bestselling novel, but if even a few people were to end up learning about EDS through Lutrudis, I would be happy.

However, I was well aware that the idea of a Sonic character having EDS might be seen as a bit jarring, and if done badly, could potentially be accidentally insulting. So I made sure to consult Verte about it, saying that I would only go through with it if she was comfortable with me doing so, and made it very clear that I would try to make its representation as tasteful and as faithful as I can, despite the inherent nature of the Sonic universe that Trudy is part of.

By the way, horses in real life can fall victim to very similar disorders, so that was yet another reason why I went with that choice.

5. “Hey Benign, I'm shite at art, please help.”

I can't remember the exact conversation that led to it, but after I talked to @benignmilitancy​ about Lutrudis, she offered to bring the character's design to life through her mad art skillz. Initially I was hesitant to take up the offer, since I felt guilty about having to rely on someone else to show people what my own character looks like, but I was giddily honored by the offer and decided to agree as long as she was willing. Luckily for her, she wasn't working with a blank canvas so to speak, as I had a relatively complete image in my mind regarding what Trudy would look like, having already reasoned to myself why this or that would apply.

When putting my vision into words to Benign, I mentioned that...

- Since Trudy is the same age as Rouge, logically that should mean she's given a similar mature build as the latter, as opposed to the pipe limbs you see with the other female characters. Since Trudy spends a lot of time with Amy and Cream and has a lot of motherly interactions with the latter in particular, it helps signify that she's older than them.

- Being a horse, she would have two slits for nostrils rather than the usual dot nose that most characters have. Similarly, though you don't see them most of the time anyway, her feet are grey hooves, but they abide by the usual Sonic-style feet rather than being more realistic ala Clove's hooves, if only because the latter didn't look right for this character IMO.

- To add to her gentle warmth, her eyes would be a honey shade of brown. Just like how Cream has brown eyes. Again, it's like poetry, they sort of, they rhyme. Every stanza kinda rhymes with the last one. *shrug* Hopefully it'll work.

- Since EDS tends to apply several subtle physical traits to those who have it, at least some of them should logically apply to Trudy as well. Those with EDS often have a bluish-grey tint to their sclera, and they also tend to have paler skin than most, so Trudy would have those qualities too.

- To emphasize her love for Mother Nature and all its amazing sights, and also to contrast with Amy and Cream's colour schemes, Trudy herself would be green, albeit a more gentler green rather than the brighter tones of Vector and Jet, while her clothes would be blue, with slightly different shades depending on the clothing to prevent her from looking like a drab curtain. After a few initial sketches, Benign eventually suggested that some of her clothing could be changed to brown to balance out her overall colour scheme, as well as to further add to the subtle nature motif by having brown (trees) go along with blue (water) and green (grass). Needless to say, I wholeheartedly approved of this idea, and decided that the best placement for the brown sections would be for her leggings and glove cuffs.

- Speaking of, as a nod to her equine status, she would wear leggings that could pass off as Equestrian jodhpurs. (Not that she has an aversion to wearing skirts or dresses, since she's girly and tomboyish in pretty much equal measures, compared to how Sonic females usually lean towards one or the other.)

- People with EDS are unable to wear heels since they can hurt their feet, so heels were out of the equation for this little horsie. But I also figured that regular shoes or sandals wouldn't mesh well with the rest of Trudy's clothing, so I went with boots that were flat at the heels. They can allude to her adventurous streak AND allude to how there's a lady willing to kick ass behind that quiet, mellow, introverted demeanour. Plus, much like how being stomped by a real horse's hoof would be very painful to put it mildly, so too would being stomped by this horse's boot.

- Seeing how Trudy's arms have permanent scars on them - permanent scars being another common effect of EDS - she would wear elbow-length gloves over them, since she wouldn't be comfortable with showing them publicly. Note however that she would still wear long gloves even if she didn't have those scars, since they genuinely happen to appeal to her fashion tastes as well. Covering the scars up is just a bonus. And since long gloves are often associated with royalty and high class, they're also suiting for a lady who lives in a fancy castle (despite not being royalty).

- Her hair is kept in a big bouncy ponytail, not unlike Coco Bandicoot or Shantae, since it's both cute and tomboyish... that and because the visual pun of a horse with a ponytail was too good to resist, let alone it humorously mirroring the general shape of her actual tail.

- To contrast with Sonic's spiky quills, a lot of Trudy's design is emphasized to have a round quality, such as her tail, her ponytail, and her sloped ears. To add to this design philosophy, she would wear a headscarf similar to Wave's. Me and Benign contemplated on whether Trudy's muzzle should be more blocky like that of a real horse, before we agreed that the softer muzzle fit both the round aesthetic and her general character better.

- Trudy has trouble breathing in colder temperatures, and she also has a sensitive nose that reacts strongly to heavy scents. As such, she would have a bandanna that she could cover over her mouth and nose to help out with either of those things whenever the situation called for it, or any other scenario where she deems it appropriate. It helps that a bandanna suits a horse anthro anyway.

Truth be told, I was worried that I was coming off as too demanding. But Benign assured me that giving all these details helped rather than hindered. In any case, I was more than pleased with the final result, as it was precisely spot on to what I had in my head, although even her initial sketches during the work in progress were great stuff.

6. If Amy uses a hammer, then Lutrudis uses...

Trudy has surprising arm and leg strength despite her appearance, which is mainly due to her horsie genes. But since she's still got EDS, it's still wise for her to equip herself with a weapon or two to even the odds. I contemplated a few ideas in this case, including a quarterstaff, but ultimately I decided that the following would be a little more interesting, while still remaining appropriate for the character in question.

I thought to myself “What's stopping her from having two weapons, one for short-range, the other for long-range?” I decided on the long-range weapon first: bow and arrows, the latter of which would eventually include the Ethereal Zone-powered crystals inside the cavern below her castle. Goes without saying that a bow suits her elegance and how it can be used from a stealthy distance, and the use of the crystals and their different abilities also helps to keep the reader guessing on what exactly is the nature of the elusive Ethereal Zone itself. I also reasoned that Trudy using a bow was a nice contrast to Amy's hammer, although I'm aware that Amy herself used a bow in the Fleetway comics. But no one uses a bow in the games (yet), so it's fine, right?

As for her short-range weapon, I thought it'd be funny if she had a whip that resembled a riding crop. Not only would it be used to give Eggman's robots the Simon Belmont treatment, it could also extend up to a certain distance to help grapple onto things and allow her to overcome areas that would otherwise cause complications for her body. Is it a bit ludicrous? Maybe, but so is a blue hedgehog fighting a Roosevelt lookalike. You just kind of have to live with it.

So there you have it! Everything you need to know about how Lutrudis Hadeer's name, species, design, and EDS came to be finalised. Now when you turn her into a monkey without my knowledge or permission for the sake of dunking on her because you don't approve of me making fun of Kingdom Hearts rejects, at least you'll have a better idea on what you're actually talking about. :^)

[writtenbyhappynerds]

Fanfiction 102- Writing Superpowers

          Another week, another lecture. Like supervillains, writing superpowers came up during Fanfiction 101. We see a lot of characters with superpowers, and we have written many many characters with superpowers. Superpowers or gifts or quirks, whatever you call them, can be poorly executed much like characterization; they become vague, mary sue-esque, and they don’t let me as the reader know what’s going on with said character. Defining superpowers is a lot like defining the Rules of the Universe (as discussed in Unit 1 of Fanfiction 101) where defining and setting parameters for superpowers will protect the canon of your characters as well as their validity.

          The most important thing you need to do when writing superpowers is to figure out what those superpowers are and what they can and can’t do. I’m very over vague Elsa ice powers that started with being able to freeze things and ended with visions of the past. Magic is the most difficult superpower to write because it is the most freeform, but you have to define limitations, costs and put a cap on those capabilities that don’t involve the OC collapsing from overuse because that’s such a cliche. A great example is The Fairly Odd Parents. Cosmo and Wanda can’t make money, can’t make true love, and can’t kill or bring someone back from the dead. Their time and agency to cast magic on behalf of someone are limited, and they can’t cast whatever magic they want; it has to be limited to what the child they serve wants. Writing setbacks to magic is a lot like writing character flaws. You need to take the time to give limitations. By giving magic limitations you have an easier time creating plot and adversaries for your characters because it’ll be easier to create a character that would really challenge your OC.

          A common exception to writing flaws in superpowers is DC or Marvel Comics. I have seen many many times the scene where, “an OC’s file gets passed around and we the audience get to read a laundry list of superpowers including but not limited to fire, ice, air, metal, lightning, etc.” I understand that superheroes in DC Comics have an abundance of superpowers. Look at Wonder Woman or Superman. Do not fall down that rabbit hole. You will struggle to write conflict for your character if you give them that many abilities. Hell, Superman’s own writers struggle to write conflict for him. It’s why he’s the most iconic but ultimately most boring character. On top of that, the “passing around a file” scene is another very overused cliche. I understand that it’s an easy way for the audience to see what the OC can do, but I think we as writers can challenge ourselves to be better than that. In addition, don’t take away the choice to share from the OC. If we’ve learned anything from X-Men, it’s that superpowers aren’t always taken well and some would rather die than be seen as a mutant or a freak. We know that these unnatural abilities are strange and confusing and that the people who have them need time to grow. They don’t need their supervisors outing them to God and everyone. Let your characters share their powers on their own terms. Let them have a special moment with the cast where they get to feel wonderful and special and magical. You’ll reveal more about the OC’s personality and develop a deeper relationship with the cast. Here’s an example.

          Let’s say we’re writing Avengers fanfic. Let’s say we give our OC control over light. Here are two scenes that are revealing the same information to Captain America. One is done on the terms of the OC, who we’ll call Astrid, the other is done by Nick Fury.

*****

          Astrid led him back to her room. It was like his own, the same size, and the same basic tidings- bed, dresser, desk, chair. While his had been dark gray, as had the rest of the team’s, Astrid’s was bright white. Steve noticed heavy black curtains tucked back from her window. The black stood out against the white of the rest of her room. She had a smile on her face. Her eyes were alight with excitement, and she pointed up at the ceiling.

          Covering the ceiling of Astrid’s bedroom were over a hundred hanging crystals. They had different shapes, sizes, and lengths and all swung from the ceiling on thin clear strings. Astrid turned off the lights. She pulled the black curtains out and covered her window which plunged them both into darkness.

          “I had to beg Nick for these. I told him it would be good practice.”

          “Practice for what?” A light turned on. It took Steve a moment to realize the light was coming from Astrid’s own hand.

          “No one’s really told you what I can do yet. I wanted to show you myself.” Carefully, she pulled one of the crystals down and let it rest in the palm of her hand.

          Rainbows bounced off the walls. Tiny refractory lights bounced around the room, off each crystal that was a brilliant gem in the darkness. Off the metal of Steve’s shield. Off the brass buckles of Astrid’s shoes. She grinned merrily, a beautiful cascade coming around the both of them.

          “It takes me forever to fall asleep. I never want to stop looking at them.” Steve smiled, studying the way the light danced on her walls.

          “Yeah.” He breathed. “I get it.”

*****

And the other, done by Nick Fury.

*****

          Steve sat at a roundtable with the rest of the team. At least, he thought he did. Looking around, he could see one person missing from the group.

          “Where’s Astrid?” Fury and Coulson exchanged a look. Coulson handed over a file and strode out of the room.

          “Agent Dawes is currently occupied. We thought it best to tell you without her.” Fury slid the file across the table. “Along with being an Agent of SHIELD, Agent Dawes joined up because of her… condition.”

          Steve opened the file. He could see a picture of a much younger Astrid looking back at him. Her date of birth, her parents, everything was laid out before him. When he flipped the page he found page after page of notes.

          “She can do what?”

          “We don’t have a real name for it yet. Just light manipulation.” Steve kept reading. The reports dated back years prior, with medic referral forms, personal statements, and even more photographs of Astrid.

          “Is Astrid a potential threat too, Director?”

          “We all are. Agent Dawes recognized her own risk ahead of time.” Fury took the file back. “She’s been training for years. She has it under control. Stark and Banner already know about her-”

          “I’m the last to know?” Steve said angrily. He looked at Tony and Bruce.

          “Hey, not my fault you got here late.” Tony turned back to his phone.

*****

          Do you see the difference? See how much more personal the first one is? Not only do we get to see Astrid actually use her powers, but we get a moment of bonding and trust between her and Steve, whereas in the second one her personal information is being divulged on her behalf. Not by her. It’s beneficial to make these superpowers personal, in the sense that the OC should be able to tell people on their own. Let them establish that trust with their team, and don’t shove it off to Nick Fury or Coulson or even Batman. It’s their gift, they need to share it on their terms.

          Superpowers and The Rules of the Universe go hand in hand in many ways. What I mean is the Rules of the Universe apply to superpowers as much as they do to timelines and cast desires and canon. When you write superpowers, they have to make sense with the world they live in, and not every OC needs superpowers. If you look at Twilight, you’d most likely have an OC with more subtle, less combat-oriented abilities (see Edward’s mind-reading or Alice’s seer talents). If you give an OC something heavy combat-oriented in this universe it feels a little clunky, and a little more like the Avengers but vampires instead of vampires with talents. On top of that, not every vampire needs to have a talent. It’s totally okay to have a vampire who can’t do anything special. I’m more compelled to read stories with those characters because they seem more realistic. It’s okay to have a character less important to the Volturi than Edward or Alice, or less gifted than Jasper. You can explore their individuality without tying them or limiting what makes them special to “they are a vampire and they have a gift.” Another example is Harry Potter. In that universe, the only extraordinary gifts we know of are Olcummency and Parseltongue. One is something you’re born with, the other takes patience and practice. It would be unrealistic to give a Harry Potter OC additional gifts. It would be rare to give them either of the aforementioned gifts because if something is described as rare in the canon, it shouldn’t include your OC. Your OC is not an exception to something’s scarcity.

          Let’s talk about powers themselves. I have several gripes with superpowers, and we are going to discuss all of them. First and foremost, something that kind of shows your own ass as a writer is using the -kinesis phrase of a superpower beyond the common ones people know (telekinesis, psychokinetic, etc.). It looks like you just googled, ‘list of superpowers’, and found atmokinesis and put it in because you liked the description. Who talks like that? No one knows what those -kinesis phrases actually mean we just use them because we think they sound cool. Don’t tell me that the character has atmokinesis, just tell me they can control the weather. You don’t need to use big words to make your gift sound impressive. It’s what they do with the gift that makes it impressive. Going off of this, not every superpower needs to be combat-oriented. You don’t need to give people super-strength, invulnerability, or fire powers for them to matter or be useful. It’s actually more creative and more unique if you take a superpower that isn’t combat-oriented and find a way to make it mean something. The best example is the Tumblr post that will be linked below, where the OC’s main ability was helping. It was helping out wherever they could and trying to make a difference and making the lives of their friends, who had some of the “strongest” superpowers in the universe, better. It is beautifully written, an incredible short story, and shows the value of being there for others versus trying to save the day. If you are writing a character with superpowers, I would absolutely recommend reading it.

          Finally, make it make sense. With superpowers, it’s kind of like the old saying, “if you describe a hammer hanging on the wall you better use the hammer before the end of the story.” Don’t describe something that you won’t use. So things like controlling taste, smell, temperature, those are things we never see used in the narrative, so there’s no need for the character to have control over them. If you’re struggling to come up with superpowers, the Editor and I have a few methods we’ve developed over the years to get off of and stay off of the superpower list websites:

I like to have my superpowers mirror the character’s backstory. I have a character who was kicked out of their home at 16 and therefore became a “hearth” where they could bind one location to appear at many, and with the turn of a knob bring the group from New York to Seattle to London. I did this to represent the character making their own home once they were exiled. Another example is a character who was almost killed in a tsunami. They can breathe underwater, and swim impossibly fast. You can give characters with a passion for drawing the ability to bring inanimate objects to life, characters who went to Antarctica as a researcher who came back with ice powers, characters who lost their twin that can multiply themselves, or characters who suffered amnesia that can now modify the memories of others. It’s fun to tie the gift to the story, and to me personally, it feels more cohesive when I do that. However, this isn’t for everyone. When you do this, the character’s superpowers shouldn’t become their whole personality. That should never happen in the first place, but especially here.

Another method we’ve used and we like is contrasting superpowers. If your character is blind, give them telekinesis (Scott 2015). If your character is afraid of heights, give them the ability to fly. If they’re afraid of dogs, make them talk to animals. Learning to get over their fears and weaknesses in the grand journey of mastering one’s powers shows growth, and shows character development, and we should never shy away from an opportunity for character development.

A final method that we’ve recently adopted is genetics. Something you see in Avengers fanfics is that the OC was inexplicably kidnapped and experimented on by HYDRA despite them having no shortage of volunteers as we see in Avengers: Age of Ultron, therefore, the existence of these OCs who are usually kidnapped doesn’t make sense. That is only mildly my business. What is my business is these test subjects having powers that don’t really make sense or that we don’t understand how they got them. It would make sense realistically, that a character who HYDRA experimented on would have powers that affect their vulnerability and less “shoots fire out of their hands.” This is because we can only assume that if they’re not using an Infinity Stone, they’re splicing and combining genes from animals to make a perfect soldier. If that’s your cup of tea, using a genetic connection to explain someone’s powers, go for it. The Editor and I have been using recently is the idea of gifts passing through generations. Let’s return to our new hero Astrid. Instead of being experimented on by HYDRA, having a backstory where she was maybe mugged or is afraid of the dark, or a backstory where she loves creepy-crawly dark spaces, we can say the following:

**

          “Wait… How many people can do what you can?” Tony looked up from his phone to Astrid, who had become engrossed in her newest prism. “Hey! Glow-stick!”

          “Mmm?” Tony tossed her his phone. “Oh… you don’t have to friend him.”

          “Why isn’t he here?” Astrid stood up and walked back to Tony, handing him his phone.

          “Why isn’t who here?” asked Steve.

          “My brother Jeremy. He’s like me.” She shrugged her shoulders. “He didn’t want to go. I texted him when Director Fury reached out, and he didn’t want to give up on his Northern Lights project. My cousins said no too.”

          “What do you mean, your cousins?”

          “Didn’t you know? I thought you knew everything Stark. My gift’s genetic. It’s been in my family for generations. I have my brother, and like, 3 other cousins who can do what I can. I’m the only one who responded to Director Fury’s text.” Astrid sighed. “If my cousin Dixie were here, she’d tell me that means I’m the idiot of the group. C’est la vie.”

****

          You can totally make superpowers genetic. It’s something that isn’t done often and is very fun because you can get into subtle mutations or variations of the same power. With Astrid, since we know she controls light, maybe the gene mutates with one of her cousins who can bend light in a way that they appear invisible. Maybe one of Astrid’s children can make the light into solid objects. Try making your superpowers a recessive gene. It could be a fun way to showcase the OC’s support network and give an explanation for their gifts that’s uncommon.

Our final note is that if you are writing a character with superpowers, we want to see the character learn to use those powers. It is so boring to have a character come out of the gate with gifts that they’ve mastered perfectly, OR, have a character initially struggle, but learn and master their gifts in 1 training session. That’s so boring to the reader, because there’s no development, and there’s no struggle. If a character earns their powers and is experiencing the new and wonderful, we want to see that struggle. That way at the end of the story when they have near-perfect control the ending is so much more satisfying because we know what went into that. Look at Avatar: The Last Airbender. The final fight with Ozai and Zuko’s final fight with Azula is the ultimate show of growth and mastery. You clearly see that neither of these boys are the same kids from the beginning of the series. The same is true for Percy Jackson, where all the Olympians have moments where they have powers, but don’t know or can’t use them. Let us see the struggle. It makes the journey more worthwhile. And, speaking of Avatar, no more “can control the four elements.” We’ve all seen the show. We all know the source material. It’s not original and your OC is not the Avatar.

          Next week is a big one! We’re talking about diversity. Not only diversity in race but diversity in LGBT, in experience, and how to capture and make your stories diverse, and where it makes sense to have a story that’s diverse.

Xoxo, Gossip Girl

References:

The Ables. https://www.goodreads.com/work/best_book/41929531-the-ables. Accessed 26 July 2020.

https://idontknowartdump.tumblr.com/post/169046958039/inkskinned-writing-prompt-s-at-18-everyone

[ghostmartyr]

How do you think the story Will end? I read comments from Reddit and other sources that some fans want Eren to succeed to destroy the rest of the world ( if that's his actual goal), but I wonder. Would that contradict the themes of the story and send a very bad message considering the WW2 parallels.

It is quite the conundrum.

I don’t think you can unring this bell.

The manga has made it very apparent that genocide is bad.

The manga has made it very apparent that genocide is not a deterrent to more genocide.

Paradis being the last island standing, bringing the story back to these humans being the only ones left alive, carries no promise of a better world. All it means is that this is the group that had the biggest stick last.

The story can go for that, if that’s what it wants, but calling that a downer is being soft. It would be retaining the status quo in a series where the protagonists are consistently the ones who disrupt the status quo and its complacency. It continues the cycle of human beings growing accustomed to their evils until enough people are upset enough that they try to fight those evils –

Only in a world that has already made it clear that those people lose. Its thesis would become, yes, there are always people who will rise up and fight oppression. They’re just as powerless against it as the people who got used to it.

You can technically do that, but spending over a decade explaining that inaction and action are both pointless against the written-in-stone fate of humanity being awful is, uh. Dumb? Of course they couldn’t win, the author said they couldn’t? That’s not a story, that’s someone beating up their OCs for giggles and entrenched emo feelings.

Which. Valid, if you want to do that. I guess. But tricking me into being in the room for it seems rude.

More importantly, that’s just not what the story has ever been about. It has always been about the opposite of what all that just described. And how to change the world, you need to actually change things, and not just commit genocide until an outcome you find livable crops up.

So with the starting point of genocide being bad, the manga very loudly shouting how genocide is bad and will continue even after Eren, the protagonist, commits a genocide, where are we?

Stopping Eren.

Okay, cool.

Ignoring how for right now, what then?

The rest of the world just forgets how this power exists, and before Eren started using it they all voted the island off the island? After a hundred years of hating Paradis for no reason, they change their views now that they’ve been presented with an active reason? After a hundred years of persecuting Eldians in the name of a dead empire, they start being nicer to them after an Eldian tries his damnedest to create a new one?

Because what, nice Eldians exist? It was all the fault of the big bad Eren that gigantic man-eating monsters tried to destroy the world? This will have no influence over our racial prejudices whatsoever because we all know that Eren was just being a dick?

Probably not.

What else we got?

Well, we have Eren.

Who is either having the world’s most dramatic meltdown, or has a plan.

Considering he’s the one with the turn on the reality-bending superpowers right now, let’s say he has a plan, and we’re not going to reduce the plot magic to end all plot magic to a bunch of giants stomping things. Plus a decent radio.

So we have our protagonist with plot magic.

Which someone certainly needs in order to make any of this work out, because in other news, our protagonist has fucked everything up so badly that no one else can fix it at this point.

Isayama has taken too realistic a view of how people are capable of being complete bastards for this to end with Eren’s villainy uniting the world. It’s not united. It’s more angry and afraid than ever, save for the old island people Eren hated shrugging and going about their new daily life.

Again we find ourselves turning to magic for a solution.

We just honestly don’t have anything else.

So, since Code Geass is too blindingly, appallingly whatever the hell it is to be the option anymore, we turn to Eren going full Madoka.

Note how the Zero Requiem option at least had the decency of sort of explaining what the hell Eren thinks he’s doing. The Madoka option sort of shrugs aimlessly at the camera and tells you to be happy it’s better now.

Then we get into wild theorizing, and as for me, I think that Eren is going to use Paths in some way to contact the original Thing that OG Ymir met, and then force the ability to turn into a titan on every single human being on the planet.

Cue magic radio powers and Eren telling them that they’re all cursed now, and isn’t this fun.

Then he just keeps everyone on the planet a titan for a few dozen years until he’s decided that they’ll all just be grateful to be sentient when he turns them back, and that should put an end to Paradis being in so much danger.

What I’m getting at is that I have no fucking clue what’s going to happen.

Here’s what I have as the relevant canon facts to Eren’s Super Secret Plan:

He’s doing everything he can to piss everyone off, including people like Zeke, who nearly ended up getting what he wanted because Eren is so fucking bad at this.

He left Floch in charge.

To review, “everything” includes Floch, and “everyone” includes the entire world.

Literally no one is happy with him except the people voted most likely to commit the next genocide, and the one true thing Eren has said recently is that he’s putting an end to that fuckery.

He’s doing a very bad job.

-hands him his gold star-

Who knows what he’s doing but he’s inarguably trying very hard to do whatever it is.

With occasional crying over it.

Someone in his memories has contact with the little refugee boy.

Someone in his memories remembers a scene with Historia that we have not seen.

To summarize a little better, Eren is doing everything he can to infuriate everyone, and he has two unexplained memory shards in the unbiased narrative portrayal of his mental interior.

I would argue that the moment with the little kid is unexplained because it’s a central moment, and the only time we see Eren specifically around the kid, it’s at the party.

Patch together whatever you can from that information.

He has the power of a god, and so far he’s using it to having a bunch of toys stomp the ground loudly and threateningly while he makes everyone who ever cared for him furious and hurt and throws everyone who hadn’t heard of him before Paths Radio into some form of extremism.

Even if you argue there’s a logic to it, his grand plan results in him getting his head shot off.

This train is not guided by logic, it’s guided by desperation, and that’s even less helpful as far as a reliable predictor of behavior.

...Getting back to the actual ask, I think the story will end brightly. Maybe the characters we love won’t be around to see it, but I honestly believe that we’re getting a thematically happy ending.

And I only inject “thematically” in there because I suspect people find my ceaseless optimism annoying when it’s left untempered.

This story is not as dark as its reputation and horrific moments would have you believe. It’s about tiny, weak humans trying to be better.

Eren might end this world, but if he does, I don’t see it happening without a renewal. An actual renewal, not just Floch giggling atop a castle because he’s king of the mountain.

Because this manga has one very plain take on genocide:

No.

The story can’t have a bleak ending without demolishing its themes.

I have no idea how it gets to any other kind of ending, but I’m betting on it.

Thanks for the ask.

[joyofcrime-elinorhigh]

The Legend of Frosty the Snowman REVIEW:

Hello there everybody. My name is JoyofCrimeArt and welcome to the third review in my month long "Deviant-cember." special event. If you where here last time you would of seen my review of the 1992 holiday specials "Frosty Returns." But as I said at the end of that review, we're not done with Frosty the Snowman just yet. Because there's not just one, but two Frosty the Snowman sequels that came out after the fact that weren't created by Rankin-Bass. One was "Frosty Returns" and the other was 2005's "The Legend of Frosty the Snowman." which we are going to talk about today! 

 "The Legend of Frosty the Snowman," as previously stated, was a 2005 special direct to DVD special created by Classic Media and Studio B productions, and was designed to be a "broad strokes reboot." of Frosty the Snowman. Other then that, there's not much history behind this special other then the fact that they use to show this all the time on Cartoon Network when I was younger. How does this special hold up to the other entries in the Frosty mythos? Well, let's dive in and find out.  The special opens up in the dark and creepy attic of an old man...  ...Not the best place to start.  All jokes aside, this is where we meet our celebrity narrator, this time played by Burt Reynolds. He introduces us to the story, just like all of the past narrators have done in these specials, and he has an advantage over Johnathan Winters because he is not a scary gremlin man. So points to this special right off the back.  The special starts with a series of chained up crates being magically opened, with Frosty the Snowman's hat locked inside. The hat, free from it's shackles, flies out the window. The narrator tells us that Frosty the Snowman always goes where he is needed. We then get to see our main character of the special, Tommy Tinkerton, (played by Kaith Soucie.) Tommy, and his brother Charlie, are woken up by there father Mr. Tinkerton, and told to get ready for school.  Now might be a good time to talk about these three characters. Tommy, our main character, is rather bland. Now granted the main kid characters in all of the Frosty special where bland, with Holly from "Frosty Returns." being the closest to not bland, but still not quite making it. So Tommy being the boring "generic kid" character isn't really that much of a surprise. Tommy's brother, Charlie, on the other hand I actually kinda like. He's the stereotypical "big brother bully" character but with the added twist of, rather than being a delinquent he's actually a of a stickler for the rules, which is an interesting combination of traits that you don't see that much of in characters. It gives him a bit of depth, or at least by Frosty the Snowman standards, which is not much.  And then we have Tommy's dad, Mr. Tinkerton. He is the mayor of the town (called Evergreen) and also one of the whitest humans to ever white. This is appropriate because he is voiced by Tom Kenny, who is also one of the whitest people to ever white. This guy is a control freak, to a cartoonish extent. Granted, that's obviously the point of the character, and it's used for comedy, but still. It's a bit insane. He goes outside to inspect the city, I guess, and he goes to make sure that the sun rises at exactly six am. (Which by the way is frickin' earily for the sun to rise in winter.) He licks a sidewalk (to test how clean it is.) And then he "convinces." a flower to be in bloom despite it being winter. This Mayor is frickin' nutty to say the least.  He then goes back inside his house to "inspect." his family before the kids go off to school. Now I know this is all suppose to be played for laughs, and Tom Kenny's voice does make it much harder to find this scene terrifying, but all I'm saying was that if you put these scenes and played them off a little different it would come off as a LOT more cultish. It kinda comes off like that one dystopian future run by Ned Flanders in the fifth Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode.

(Look at those eyes. Those are eyes of true fear.)    Mr. Tinkerton inspects his kids and they they go off in there single file line off to school. The narrator tells us that the kids in this town never stepped out of line, unless it was on accident. Then as there walking they all slip on some ice, causing a massive chain reaction causeing Tommy to knock over a mailbox, which makes a car swerve into a fire hydrant. The fire hydrant burst releasing a massive flood of water that instantly freezes, causing the kids to slip more until they crash into city hall. And do you want to know what the messed up thing is? The special heavily implies that it was FROSTY who did this. Because right as Tommy is getting up after crashing into the wall of city hall, he see's the hat fly by and land on the school statue. And this special establishes that in this incarnation Frosty can use magic without being built, because the hat itself is sapient and magical in it's own right. And Frosty's consensus is held there.  What the heck Frosty, what did you do all of that for? To show them about non conformity by forcing them out of there line? I mean yeah, you did that, but you also nearly killed these kids! And what about that guy driving the car? He easily could of died, and now he has to ride the bus everyday to work! Frosty is just a being of pure Chaos!

FRICKIN' REK'D SON! (Part Deuce!)   Tommy goes and talks to his nerdy black best friend, Walter. (Cause you have to have a nerdy black best friend. "Danny Phantom" taught me so.) And talks about how he's going to ask out his crush, Sara, out. Walter teases Tommy, saying that he says that everyday by Tommy tells him that "There's something different about today."  Tommy makes it to school where he sees the flying hat again, and tries to tell the school principal, Principal Pankley, about it. Unfortunately for Tommy the head fly's off before the principal can see it, and he yells at Tommy telling him to get to class.  In the classroom we see that things are just as strict and cultish as they are outside. It seems that Principal Pankley is just as strict and uptight as Tommy's dad is, only he's a lot meaner about it. He also seems to stalk the classrooms watching the students just to make sure that the students are acting in line. Shouldn't he have like, paperwork to do, or something? Tommy once again see's the Frosty hat, this time outside the school window. But since hes in class there isn't much he can do about it.  The school day ends Tommy tries to talk to his crush, Sara, but he strikes out. We then cut to Tommy's house at dinner time where Tommy and his brother compete in an...table etiquette themed game show? WTF! (Which, by the way, stands for "What the Frosty." in this context.")

So yeah, just in case we haven't drove home the point that Mr. Tinkerton is a frickin' maniac, this scene is here to reiterate that this guy likes rules. Tommy's brother Charlie dominates the game and Mr. Tinkerton ends up giving him a number one pin for winning. While this scene is...dumb, it does sort of serve a point. Shocking, I know, but hear me out. This scene shows, in a kinda subtle way, that Mr. Tinkerton as a lot more in common with Charles than he does with Tommy, showing a bit of a parental favoritism. I wish the special dove more into this, but sadly it does not.  After dinner, Tommy is seen looking out the window and the hat appears to him one more time. This time Frosty shows off one of his many new superpowers. This version of Frosty can create an astral projection of himself, cause why the heck not, am I right? I mean if Elsa can use her ice powers to somehow make herself a dress in "Frozen" then I don't see why Frosty can't use his ice powers to make an astral projection of himself.  Tommy see's the astral snowman beckoning to him, but Tommy tells Frosty that he can't go outside because he's scared of getting in trouble and disappointing his father. This is very different from the most realistic response of "OH MY GOD! THAT FLYING HAT CREATED AN ASTRAL IMAGE OF A SNOWMAN OUTSIDE MY WINDOW! WHAT THE ACTUAL F#&K!" But I guess somethings never change with these specials. (I swear I think the traffic cop is the only one who ANY of the Frosty specials to actually react to Frosty!)

 So the hats like "Ugh, whatever, screw this kid." and flies off to find a kid who's more willing to be a main character! So Frosty's hat flies over to Tommy's best friend Walter's house instead. We see a bit into Walter's home life. We see that Walter is a very nervous child with a very loud and demanding mother, who Walter is kind of afraid of. Walter see's Frosty's hat tap on his window and...wait, what the heck is wrong with that map behind Walter?

(So is that weird land mass in the lower right hand corner suppose to be Australia? Or is this confirming that this special actual exist after some kind of nuclear Armageddon ravages the land and ends up reshaping the continents #CARTOONCONSPIRACY)  Anyway Walter opens the window and grabs on the hat, only for the hat to fly off with Walter holding on to the hat. Taking Walter flying over the city. Tommy see's this and opens the window asking where Walter is going. Walter response that he doesn't know. Tommy then proceeds to do nothing to help his friend and is nowhere to be seen for the rest of the scene. Man between Tommy and Holly I think there might just be a tradition of the main character of Frosty specials to be massive jerks to there friends.  So after Frosty kidnaps this child he then proceeds to bring him to the middle of the forest. #happyholidays. Walter admits that the flight across the city was fun a proceeds to put the hat on a snowman, thus reviving Frosty the Snowman, this time played by Bill Fagerbakke. In case you don't know Bill Fagerbakke is the voice actor of Patrick Star in "Spongebob Squarepants" and his voice really works for Frosty in this special (Though it can get a bit grating when he yells, though luckily that's not that big of a problem here because Frosty actually whispers a lot of his lines in this special.) As typical at this point Walter only seems slightly surprised to see a talking snowman. Though to be fair he did just fly across the city riding a hat, so by comparison I guess this isn't really that out of the ordinary.    So Frosty shows Walter about all the fun one can have in the snow when there not to concerned about rules and safety and the like. They have a snowball fight, the race down a hill, Frosty makes it snow (Showing off more of his reality warping Godlike powers.) And then Frosty walks Walter home. Walter talks about how he's scared to go inside, because he's scared of how his mother is going to react. Frosty ask why Walter would be scared of his own Mom, and asks if Walter's mom is some kind of hairy monster or something. Walter tells Frosty that his mom is just a normal lady and Frosty wonders why Walter would be scared of a normal lady. This gives Walter the bravery to go inside his house.  This is what I really like about this iteration of Frosty. He manages to combine both the dim witted nature of the original Rankin-Bass Frosty with the wisdom and insight of the "Frosty Returns" version of Frosty. He comes off as an idiot, but he actual ends up having some sage advice for the kids, weather on accident or on purpose. In fact, do you want to know what this version of Frosty the Snowman reminds me of? A better version of "Uncle Grandpa." Think about it for a second. He's a magical entity who shows up out of nowhere who only interacts with kids, and takes them on adventures where they learn about themselves while also acting kind of like an idiot. It's a pretty apt comparison! I remember at one point the creator of Uncle Grandpa said this during an interview with the website Cartoon Brew about the character of Uncle Grandpa.

He talks about how at the end of the day you don't know if Uncle Grandpa is an idiot or if it's all really planned. The thing is though, is that when you watch "Uncle Grandpa" it's made pretty frickin' clear that he's an idiot. We see him when he's not with kids and he acts like an idiot there to. However, I feel like this version of Frosty fits this description better. It is kept vague. There is a bit of mystery around Frosty, and how much he knows. You really don't know if his advice comes from genuine wisdom, or ignorance or both, and that's what I really like about this version of him.  So Walter walks inside and when his mother asks him where he was, he just says that he was "out having fun." and walks off. This disobedience causes his mother to faint. The next day Walter goes to school and, because he stayed out after curfew, is considered "the bad boy." of the school and everybody takes noticed. Including Principal Pankley and Tommy's dad. And because Walter stayed up past curfew, Principal Pankley decides to give him detention, which is...way beyond his jurisdiction. A principal can't punish a student for something they did after school. Also why is Tommy's dad here? He's the mayor! While he may have some kind of ability to punish Walter for breaking curfew he has no power to punish him in the school. Evergreen seems to be pretty much a dictatorship where the mayor and the principal have the power to do whatever the heck they want.  During lunch Charlie ends up threatening Walter, warning him that if he keeps up this delinquency he'll be sorry. Unfortunately Charlie pounds the table, knocking Walter's food off it, and the food lands all over the principal and Charlie ends up getting detention too. Mr. Tinkerton ends up removing Charlies number one pin. Mr. Tinkerton and Principal Pankley ask Walter where he was the following night and Walter tells them that he was hanging out with a talking snowman. Mr. Tinkerton has a weird reaction to this, but Principal Pankley just says that that's nonsense.  While all of this is going on, Tommy tries to stalk er, I mean "follow" Sara into the forest so he can tell her how he feels about her. But unfortunately for Tommy, he chickens out yet again. We see that Sara is building a model city out of snow in the forest because she dreams of being an urban planner. But her mom does not want her to become an urban planner, because even urban development is to much fun for the people of this town. But then, for like the ten billionth time in this special so far, Tommy see's Frosty's hat. Only this time he actually decides to chase the hat down. The hat ends up flying into the local library. Tommy runs around trying to find the hat only to trip on a secret lose panel in the library, leading to some kind of secret passage way.  Okay, now here is when things get a bit confusing. Even though we just saw the hat fly into the library we immediately see a fully formed Frosty outside the school window. (Which by the way how is he fully formed. Who built him the body this time? Did the hat just fly all the way back to where he left his body before showing up?) Charlie and Walter see him and leave detention through BECAUSE THERE'S NO TEACHER WATCHING THEM! (like I know they locked the door, but they where still able to leave the room through some off screen other door I guess!) and they go outside to go see Frosty. They goof around and Charlie begins to warm up to Frosty.  Then we cut right back to Tommy, meaning either this special is telling events out of order or that the scene with Walter and Charlie took place in exactly zero seconds. He's still at the top of the stairs that he started descending in the last scene! He goes down the stares through the secret tunnel in the library where we see Frosty's hat again! This leaves only three options, either  A.) The scene with Walter and Charlie takes place after this scene, and the specials telling these events out of order. (Which the special gives no other hints of.)  B.) Frosty entered the library (in hat form.) Then left the library and met up with Charles and Walter (in snowman form) and then came back to the library (in hat form again.) all in the span of time it would take Tommy to walk down the steps. Which would be like a couple minutes at MOST!  Or C.) THERE ARE TWO FROSTY'S #CARTOONCONSPIRACYAGAIN!  Anyway Tommy ends up finding a comic book in this library. This comic book happens to be a comic book ABOUT Frosty the Snowman, telling of his origins! (D-Don't ask why. Just roll with it.) We learn of the story of a small little boy who is the son of a magician (a magician who you may recognize if you've seen the original Frosty the Snowman, though they change his name.) This kid grew up never believing in magic since, being the son of a magician, knew how all the tricks where done. This was until he ended up putting his father's hat onto a snowman, and the snowman came to life. But after his first meeting with the snowman was unable to find Frosty ever again, and assumed he made it up.  It's a cute re-imaging of the origin story all things considered. Though in some ways it does seems like a bit of a self insert fanfiction, replacing Karen with this new kid. But whatever, it's neat.  But then Mr. Tinkerton enters the library and the librarian informs him that his son is here. Tommy quickly runs out of the secret basement and meeting up with his father. Mr. Tinkerton tells Tommy that he needs to rely on Tommy to help him keep order, and tell him if any more mischief comes up. He also tells Tommy that all of his rules are there to make sure that people don't have any unrealistic expectations when it comes to things like magic. Mr. Tinkerton gives Tommy the number one pin and gives him a hug. It's a nice scene that puts Tommy in the situation where he has to pick between his father's acceptance and what is actually the right thing to do. (Also I think the voice acting really sells it. This special might not be that "good" but it does have some great voice talent.)  That following night we see Sara, working on her piano scales, which she does not seem to find much enjoyment in. She tells her mother this, but she does not seem to care. That, or course, is when Frosty shows up. Sara mentions that nobody seems to listen to her and Frosty says it might be because she's talking to loudly. Because to paraphrase Frosty "The quieter you talk, the more attention you have to pay just to hear what your saying." See, this is what I like about this version of Frosty. He has this air of wisdom to him. It's a good lesson, as the loudest people aren't necessarily the ones who you should be listening to.  Sara says she wants to learn how to ice skate and Frosty obliges. He demonstrates more of his Godlike powers my making THE FRICKIN' MOON SHINE ON THEM, MAKING IT THERE OWN PERSONAL SPOTLIGHT! (Why can Frosty control the moon? This goes way beyond the power of ice and snow. Also Frosty vs Elsa "Death Battle" please.)

(Or maybe Frosty is just trying to activate his Oozaru Form.)    The next day at school it seems that all of Tommy's friends have turned against him because, now that he has Mayor Tinkertons number one pin, they believe him to be the enemy. Tommy mentions that Frosty's powers steam from his hat and walks off, unsure if he should chose his friends or his father to follow (even though his friends are kinda being jerks here, in all honesty.)  That night Tommy walks into his family room to see his mother scrap booking when he see's a photo of the boy from the comic book. It turns out that the boy from the comic book, the one who originally created Frosty was none other than...Tommy's father.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvcoly2i-3M

(Except, y'know, it was pretty dang obvious.)  The next morning Mr. Tinkerton goes outside to do his inspection and nobody is listening to him. The sun refuses to rise at 6 am (rising at 6:01 instead. Which I think is less a sign of disobedience and more just a sign of the season changing.) and nobody is following the rules. Even the adults, for some reason. Even though later we see that the adults are just as upset about the disobedience as Mr. Tinkerton is. 

(Here's something my older brother pointed out. This special is basically "Footloose with Frosty." It's Frostloose!)  Anyway this mild chaos makes Mr. Tinkerton spiral even further into his madness. Principal Pankley goes up to him and tells Mr. Tinkerton that he does not have what it takes to quell this rebellion, and so Principal Pankley decides to take matters into his own hands. Pankley ends up seeing Frosty while he was spying on the kids playing in the woods. (Which sounds a lot more eff'd up now that I right that sentence down.) and decides to take action. You see throughout the special Walter has been getting progressively more and more jealous of the other kids for stealing his time with Frosty, to the point to where he kinda becomes that clingy girlfriend type who always wants you to themselves. Principal Pankley see's this and tell's Walter that if he wants to have some time with Frosty all by himself he should go after dark when there less people around, and Principal Pankley agrees to chaperone the excursion since it's set after curfew. Walter ends up agreeing to the arrangement, even though this entire special has made it really clear that Principal Pankley is even more of a rule freak than Mr. Tinkerton is, and has made it pretty clear that he would never do something this nice to anybody ever.  Then, in case things weren't out there enough Principal Pankley decides to basically just, declare himself mayor of the town, in order to more efficiently take down the menace of Frosty the Snowman. Y'know I don't think a snowman running around is really worthy of bring out this kind of marshal law. And of course everybody in the town just kinda rolls with it, because why wouldn't they.

That night Tommy is reading the comic book, trying to looks for some kind of a solution when suddenly some more pages of the story are magically reveled to him. The books shows that the reason that Frosty never returned to Mr. Tinkerton as a kid was because another, jealous child had found the hat and locked it up. And that kid happened to be Principal Pankley! And the comic also reveled that Walter was at the lake with Principal Pankley right now. Thanks magic comic book for waiting this long give give Tommy the answers he needed. If you just had all your pages from the start maybe we could of avoided this, but no, you had to wait till the very last minute give us all the information we needed, because you wanted to be dramatic! Also how come Frosty waited this long to leave the trunk that Principal Pankley locked him up in? I mean he just kinda broke out of the box at the beginning of the special. It's not like anyone let him out. Why did it take twenty years to escape?  But whatever. We see that Walter is out in the middle of the woods...at night..with Principal Pankely...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgJYTeBynqA

And Walter is skating with Frosty. (Principal Pankley is hiding behind a tree so Frosty doesn't see him.) But while there skating the thin ice breaks and Frosty ends up falling into the water. What would of happened if the ice didn't break? This plan isn't very thought out at all. After Frosty melts Principal Pankley grabs the hat and leaves laughing.  Later all the kids have noticed that Frosty stopped showing up, and everybody assumes that it was Tommy who got rid of him. The think this on the ground that Tommy never spent any time with him, he has Mr. Tinkerton's number one pin, and he would have the knowledge on how to destroy him because he mentioned knowing his origin earlier. Principal Pankley begins to revel in his new found power. But Tommy decides that he has stop being scared and do whats right and save Frosty! He get's Walter to confess to his accidental role in Frosty's destruction and the hatch a plan to bring him back. He shows the comic to all the other kids and gets back to there good graces and then they storm to school to retrieve Frosty's hat. (Which is just in a frickin' glass case in the middle of the school where everyone can see it. Cause that'll stop the hat that broke out of like six chained up trunks.)  Principal Pankley chases the kids back to the frozen pond where they engage in a snow themed chase and snowball fight that is way less epic then the specials says it is. Everyone in town hears the commotion (because the glass case had an alarm.) and goes to the pond as well. The kids rebuild Frosty the F#&k Boi and all the adults see Frosty for themselves, including Mr. Tinkerton. He and Frosty reconnects and Tommy gives the pin back to his father. Frosty ends up hitting Walter's mother and an entire snowball fight with all the kids and adults break out as all the adults learn the error of there ways. As for Principal Pankley...

(Okay that doesn't happen, but let me have my version dang it!)  And the special reveals the shock twist. That Tommy ends up growing up to become...Burt Reynolds! Er, I mean the narrator. The narrator is a grown up Tommy. I like the twist, making the narrator have more of a point then just being some random guest star. Though it is a bit weird that the narrator isn't some kind of horrid uncanny valley version of Bruce Willis. It just feels like it's breaking Frosty tradition. Oh, and we learn that Tommy ended up marring Sara, and I definitely...don't care.  Oh and what happens to Frosty? Um...In don't know. They never really say what happens to him once the winter ends. Also they never really say what happens to Principal Pankley. I guess he's still the principal? And will continue to make life for the student miserable at school? I dunno, who cares? The special is over now.  So that was "The Legend of Frosty the Snowman." is it any good? Well, probably not, but it has some good parts. The voice cast is pretty good, including Burt Reynolds, who has a really good voice that adds a lot of gravitas to the narrator. (Also Bert Reybnolds sings, which is probably something that you won't here in Dukes of Hazard.) The animation is okay, kinda generic looking but they kinda make up for it by having a lot of nice colors, with lots of blues and whites. Also I really like this version of Frosty. I don't know if I like him more or less than the "Frosty Returns" version of him (as Bill Fagerbakke loud and oafish sounding voice he gives Frosty can get a bit grating at times, like I said previously, but It's prety good for like 90-95 percent of the film) I still think the voice is a perfect fit for what there doing with this version of Frosty, there are just a couple of times where it sounds a bit to much like Patrick Star yelling. (By the way, I like how this special has Bill Fagerbakke still being friends with Tom Kenny.) I love the idea of Frosty being this world traveler and I think this special does a good job combing elements from both the original and the "Frosty Returns" incarnation. It's a good reboot even if it's not the best story.  Unfortunately the film has a lot of problems to. Most of the kids are fairly generic. Charlie and Walter are kinda interesting but Sara and Tommy are both rather bland. Tommy has a good conflict in the story, and a good arc, but outside of that he's just a generic kid. And there love story felt very tacked on, like I think they only speak to each other a couple of times in the whole movie and they don't have any chemistry. We don't get a reason on why Tommy likes her other than "cause I'm the main character and she's the token girls so I guess we're suppose to be together! Also the story is pretty dumb and full of plot holes. They go to cartoonish lengths to show how uptight the adults are but it doesn't come off as funny. It's just another 'fight the establishment." story that we've seen many times before. Also Principal Pankley, while having some goofy and amusing moments is nowhere near as fun of a villain as Mr. Hinkle or Mr. Twitchell. Also this special is sixty six minutes long and it can be a bit of a drag by the end. They probably could of cut it down to forty four if they cut out some of the more filler-y scenes.  So do I recommend this special? Well, it depends on who you are. I think you can tell by reading this review if it's something that would be up your alley or not. It's dumb, cheesy and kind of bland but there are some creative elements in it that might warrant you checking it out. It available on Netflix and on DVD if you are interested.  So I hoped you liked my review. It's a bit longer than I was expecting but what are you going to do? Have you seen "The Legend of Frosty the Snowman?" and if you did what do you think of it. Tell me in the comments. I think discussion is a great way to never fall into a echo chamber so I'd love to start a discussion. Where does it rank with the other Frosty special? And what are some of your favorite Christmas specials that not that many people talk about? Do you have any ideas for things for me to review in the future? Leave all of that or any other thoughts in the comments down bellow and feel free to fav and follow if you liked the review. As you can hopefully see I put a lot of thought and time into so I would be very appreciative. I'll be back next Friday for the finale of "Deviant-cember." with the "2016 year in REVIEW!" Hopefully see you guys then and have a great holiday. (I do not own any of the images or videos in this review all credit goes to there original owners.)

https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/The-Legend-of-Frosty-the-Snowman-REVIEW-652910204 DA LINK

[justanotherghostwriter]

I am such a ho for surveys, @crown-of-the-circus-king. Thank you for tagging me.

rules: answer the questions in a new post and tag 10 blogs!

a - age? I am in the realm of the 20s. And I haven’t just gotten there.

b - birthplace? A small ass town just about at the very tip of Africa.

c - current time? 10:28pm.

d - drink you last had? A concoction from my own good intentions that came back to bite me in the ass that consisted of two apples, huge amounts of questionably fresh spinach, celery sticks, cucumber and water to make it all blend.

e - easiest person to talk to? I am very, very blessed with a number of very good friends who I can just totally be myself with. And for those in RL who don’t get my fandom side, there’s all the basically-family I made on here who break my heart with horrendous, angsty fic but whom I love anyway.

f - favorite songs? I have too many for different circumstances/memories/moods. I could literally take up the next week writing about all of them.

g - grossest memory? My cat once brought in a half-dead mole that escaped her clutches. We could never find it, and assumed it had escaped. Nine months later when we were moving out the house they moved my bookcase and there was a mostly decomposed, maggot-infested mole there on the floor. My mom kept telling me the smell in my room was because there was a garden with compost right outside my window.

h - horror, yes or no? Horror, yes. Slashers, no. I need actual plot with my scares, thanks.

i - in love? Not romantically, no.

j - jealous of people? I actively try not to be - shutting down the thoughts when they crop up - but every now and then I’ve not managed to get the feelings gone and then I wallow for a bit, yeah.

k - keyboard smash of choice? Whatever my fingers hit in my excitement at the moment xD

l - love at first sight or should I walk by again? Walk by again and again and again. Especially if the walking by again is walking back after a fight, miscommunication, bad day etc. I honestly don’t believe anybody can have real, true, messy love at very first sight.

m - middle name? Dying Whale Noises. 

n - number of siblings? One. She’s awesome enough for five people, though.

o - one wish? Like, how much magic are we talking, here? Can I go right out the box? Like, can I wish for polyglot superpowers? Can I wish that I can draw? If it has to be ‘more realistic’, then I wish that I get to go back to Japan, one day.

p - person you last called? The Greyhound customer care service =P

q - question you’re always asked? Anything to do with work events or happenings or tasks I always get asked. By everybody.

r - reaction to a compliment? It depends why the compliment was given, who it was given by and what it’s about. But the general-enough answer is say thank you and feel both mortified and super happy at the same time while also explaining that it wasn’t just me, if it wasn’t just me.

s - song you last sang? ‘If I Go, I’m Going’ by Gregory Alan Isakov.

t - time you woke up? 8:30ish.

u - underwear color? Ghosts don’t wear underwear, duh. 

v - vacation destination? Japan. Australia. Scotland. Canada. I want to go places.

w - where you feel safest? In my room/house (it’s a bachelor flat) or in quiet corners where I can feel the back against my wall.

x - x-rays? I’ve had before to see if I needed braces. I think that’s it - I’ve never broken a bone, so I assume that would have been the only thing.

y - your favorite food? Picking a favourite food is like picking a favourite child: I refuse to shun my darlings that way. That being said, anything that is freshly baked is probably very, very, very close to the top of the list.

z - zodiac sign? Leo. I don’t believe in them, but some of the things are accurate.

Tagging: Whomever wants to do the things =D

[isa-ghost]

The Bunker #88720 SepticEgo Lore

A quick reminder of what our AU exactly is:

The “antipocalypse” takes place in an enclosed area. Life outside the war zone continues on as normal, but within, it is a mixture of abandoned cities and various people trying to survive a war that none of them were truly prepared for.

Now let’s get to the good stuff about the egos!

BASICS:

The egos live in a sanctuary specifically for them and them only referred to as “The Safehouse.” They’re kept here in order to avoid being attacked or corrupted by Anti. The Safehouse is heavily magically enchanted by Marvin to protect them and keep Anti out. It’s also specially enlarged to make living comfortable. Even though they live in their own specialized place, they still help the Bosses in the fight! They also frequently interact with Bunker #88720 because the Bunker’s leader Dawn knows the egos very well. We’ll get to just how well she knows them later~

The egos are fragments of Jack's soul, for the most part.

Jack wore a costume, created a persona, and the community believed in that persona so much, that it brought them to life as their own separate person. When Jack recognizes the persona as an official ego, they receive a part of his soul. For right now, the “official” egos are: Jackieboy Man, Marvin the Magnificent, Henrik von Schneeplestein, Chase Brody and Jameson Jackson. (DISCLAIMER: I’m not covering much, if any, of Anti’s lore in this post, he has his own lore post).

The egos can only live if the community believes in them strongly enough. Without their belief, the ego will slowly regress, shut down and eventually go comatose while their soul piece gets ready to return to Jack. Jack can feel their soul pieces returning when they go comatose. You can tell the soul piece is getting ready to leave the ego when their chest glows blue.

As people, the egos are 90% reliant on what the community headcanons them as for their personality. Which isn't always a good thing.

For example, their headcanons for Jackie have given him a compulsive need to ALWAYS be the one saving people, not people saving him. He is also 100% ready to sacrifice himself and die for ANYONE in Jack's community. He is also "too nice" and is literally incapable of hating anyone, he cant even hate Anti. He can be very very angry with them, threaten them, or claim he hates them, but its never true. He just doesn't have the capacity.

Another example is Schneep. They headcanon that he's somewhat of a mad doctor. Because of this, he has lapses in sanity where he becomes very aggressive and more or less full of bloodlust. To keep his insanity under control, he has to operate on something, ANYTHING that's living. Not even his brothers are completely safe while he’s lapsed. Jackie being the selfless hero he is, voluntarily allows Schneep operate on him and examine his insides to see how they’re different since he's a superhero. They consider it a win/win situation; Jackie gets a better understanding of his superpowers, and Schneep gets something to take his madness-driven urges out on. But this is one of few headcanons that the egos have managed to make a counter for.

The egos are somewhat bitter about how the community has fucked them up a bit, and they don't exactly like that their lives are almost completely in the hands of a bunch of kids, but they don't openly express such unless they’re alone together. Of all the egos, Schneep is the most bitter about this all because their accusations that he was working with Anti started making him shut down like they were losing belief in him. It severely weakened his healing powers and THIS is why he failed to save Jack in August and was kidnapped and imprisoned by Anti during Kill Jacksepticeye.

All “canon” ego appearances on the channel were recorded by them (except for Say Goodbye, KJSE, Bro Average, and any of Anti’s other appearances. Those were all recorded by Anti.)

As parts of Jack’s soul, the egos have a certain balance to them. Jackie is Jack's optimism and persistence. He's what fuels Jack's determination to do good things and stay happy. He's sensitive to Chase, cause Chase is kind of the unlucky ego. Chase is Jack's fear of failure and overly self-critical tendencies. Jackie boosts him a lot. They balance each other; Jackie keeps Chase from getting too unstable and Chase keeps Jackie from acting like everything is sunshine and rainbows. They give each other reality checks that not everything is good all the time, but not everything is bad either. Marvin is Jack's creativity. Jackie influences him a ton. Without him, Marvin can’t usually think straight and he gets sorta depressed. And on the other hand, Marvin's ideas stimulate how hyperactive Jackie is. Schneep is Jack's sense of self-care, self-control and maturity. Its why you constantly have to nag him to do basic human things like eat and sleep. Jack does self-care but he's almost always preoccupied. Schneep is the same way, its just because Jack doesn't. As for the self-control thing, Schneep is relatively reserved and doesn't panic a lot, but he has moments where he gets a little crazy. Its just the way Jack is, occasionally he likes to let himself run loose with things, so Schneep gets a little insane. And his maturity is why Jack handles situations like hate comments and whatnot so well. Schneep is smart and calculating, so it makes Jack think about something before he does or says it. He keeps Jackie grounded so his high energy and blind positivity don't get him into trouble. He also gives Chase reassurance on things and reminds him he doesn't have to be scared he isn't good enough. And with Marvin, Schneep regulates his ideas so they remain realistic and feasible, not that he goes overboard and the idea becomes impossible to achieve. The four of them all balance each other out in different ways, and together they make up who Jack is as a person. They weren't created by him or the community with that intention, either. As they were each born, they just sort of took after whatever piece of Jack's soul would fit their character best. They know this much, but now that Jameson was recently acknowledged as an official ego, they aren’t sure how he balances with the others.

INDIVIDUAL EGOS:

JACKIEBOY MAN: Name: Jackie Robert Melvin Jason Todd Williamson (he accepts every middle name the community has given him) Hair: Lime Green Eyes: Has heterochromia; one eye is green and the other is blue Birthdate: July 10th Sexuality: Biromantic Asexual Relationship: None, jokingly “married” to Marvin Known Languages: English, Irish, Sign Language, Morse Code, SOME German

MARVIN THE MAGNIFICENT: Name: Marvin Alexander McLoughlin Hair: Blue-Green Eyes: Blue Birthdate: August 11th Sexuality: Pansexual Relationship: None, jokingly “married” to Jackie Known Languages: English, Irish, Sign Language

HENRIK VON SCHNEEPLESTEIN: Name: Henrik Ludwig von Schneeplestein Hair: Brown Eyes: Blue Birthdate: September 15th Sexuality: Heteromantic Demisexual Relationship: Married Known Languages: English, German, Irish, Sign Language, Morse Code

CHASE BRODY: Name: Chase Michael Brody Hair: Brown Eyes: Blue Birthdate: April 11th Sexuality: Straight Relationship: None Known Languages: English, Irish, Sign Language

JAMESON JACKSON: Name: Jameson Jackson Daniels Hair: Brown Eyes: Blue Birthdate: April 6th Sexuality: Demisexual Relationship: None Known Languages: English, Irish, Sign Language, Morse Code

FUSIONS:

You bet your sweet ass the Bunker was inspired by @turquoisemagpie​ and made SepticEgo fusions a thing.

The egos can fuse their soul pieces to become more powerful in any situation that might call for it. BUT, they can only fuse as pairs, as all 5 of them, or one/all with Jack.

FUSION NAMES:

⦁ Heroic Mage (Jackie/Marvin) ⦁ Life Saver (Jackie/Schneep) ⦁ Super Shot (Jackie/Chase) ⦁ Hero Time (Jackie/Jamie) ⦁ Witch Doctor (Schneep/Marvin) ⦁ Magic Bullet (Chase/Marvin) ⦁ Magical Time (Marvin/Jamie) ⦁ Booster Shot (Schneep/Chase) ⦁ Dapper Doctor (Schneep/Jamie) ⦁ Father of Time (Chase/Jamie)

MORE FUSION FACTS:

⦁ Fusions cannot be corrupted by Anti. ⦁ When egos fuse with Jameson, they can hear his voice in their head. They are also very stealthy, fast, and precise. ⦁ When any ego fuses with Jackie, all powers are increased by super strength. ⦁ When any ego fuses with Schneep, they can self-heal and harder to hit (due to reflexes and increased pain tolerance). ⦁ When any ego fuses with Chase, they become bulletproof. ⦁ The fusion of all 5 egos is referred to as Ultimate Septicego. ⦁ If fused together for too long, their body will drain of energy and eventually their soul pieces will be painfully ripped apart, forcing them to defuse. ⦁ If a fusion is under too much strain/stress, they cannot defuse. They have to calm down before being able to, or they will be forced apart.

FUSION POWERS: Heroic Mage The most powerful fusion. Jackie's powers magnify Marvin's magic and vice versa. Both are also doubled in power by Jackie's super strength.

Life Saver The most dangerous fusion. They hit harder and faster. Jackie's abilities are strengthened. Schneep's powers give him the ability to heal himself, as well as make him immune to poison/other toxins.

Super Shot Jackie's strength and powers are weaponized into firearms/condensed into bullets. Bulletproof body which also increases Jackie's strength.

Hero Time Second most powerful fusion. Time manipulation can last longer due to super strength. Can create traps/etc with slime threads and freeze them in time until the right moment to activate them. Gives Jackie the ability to teleport. Septibubbles can also hold time rifts. Reflexes are faster and stronger; powerful speed fighter.

Witch Doctor Healing abilities increased. Spells hit targets more precisely and can be cast faster.

Magic Bullet Long-range spells condensed into bullets. Extremely harmful depending on the spell. Can alternatively be fired at allies with a spell to enhance their abilities.

Magical Time Spells can be cast faster, hit faster and the time it takes for them to take effect can be manipulated. Also has the ability to teleport.

Booster Shot Needle-sharp bullets that instantly knock out targets, can potentially kill targets if hit in the vitals. Schneep's reflexes increase aim accuracy.

Dapper Doctor Schneep's reflexes and Jamie's time manipulation abilities make this a hard fusion to surprise and an even harder fusion to hit.

Father of Time Bullets can be slowed or sped up. Firing rate increased.

THE EGO “TIMELINE”:

Jackie was born first (July 10th, 2016) and you can imagine it was very awkward for Jack to meet... "himself." The two were very very close, Jackie probably misses Jack now more than any other ego. After a while, he got kind of lonely being the only ego. He gets very excited and emotional when he gets a new brother. He even refers to his own existence as "being created" yet he refers to the other ego's creations as "being born."

Marvin is the second oldest (born August 11th, 2016). Jackie was absolutely overwhelmed with emotion when he got a "baby brother." It was just him and Marvin for a while...

Until Schneep was created (September 15th, 2016), he's the third oldest (though its easy to mistake him as the oldest). A little after he was created, Marvin was at some point taken and strung up by Anti. He eventually escaped and returned. He hides his red puppet strings with magic and since his escape, his septiceye has healed and gone away. While he was gone, Jackie and Schneep discovered Schneep's sanity lapses and began their secret operations on Jackie to take care of Schneep's violent urges.

Then Say Goodbye happened. They found Jack dying in his room, and Schneep sprung to action to save him. Anti has been created by the community, Jack makes the mistake of acknowledging him, and the Antipocalypse war begins. Jack is saved by Schneep and put into high security protection. The egos are sent to the Safehouse, a place specifically created to house and protect them from Anti. Marvin has several magical enchantments on it to make it safe, keep Anti out, and make it comfortable to live in.

Chase is created fourth (born April 11th, 2017). He's possessed/heavily manipulated by Anti and does the drive-by shooting, then flees to an office building to kill himself. Jackie received the call about the shooting and sprung into action to intervene and catch the suspect. He tracks Chase down to the office building but finds Chase just after he shoots himself. He realizes Chase is clearly an ego and rushes him to the Safehouse. Schneep saves Chase and he bonds heavily with Jackie while he recovers. Its later discovered the experience caused Chase to develop an attachment to Jackie (side note: an attachment is a side-effect of having a very personal experience with Anti).

Kill Jacksepticeye happens. The community accuses Schneep of working with Anti and starts to lose faith in him. Extremely weakened, he's unable to save Jack. Anti kidnaps them both after possessing Schneep. Jackie is left alone to protect Marvin and Chase. All three are devastated.

Jameson is born (October 31st, 2017). His vocal chords are ripped out and he's then possessed by Anti and used as a disguise during the Silent Film. But the community believed in him so much that it made him into his own person, rather than a disguise that would stop existing after Anti left his body.  Jackie and Marvin found him still in a daze after being possessed and brought him back to the Safehouse. Jack acknowledged Jameson to give him a soul piece to make him an official ego on April 6th, 2018.

Since then, they've all lived together at the Safehouse as brothers. Until they met the Bunker. They now live at the Bunker most of the time. After moving into the bunker, a lot more has happened to them (which would take way too long to sort out on here) but the most important things to have happened are:

Dawn, who was Schneep’s nurse assistant at the hospital he worked at, married Schneep.

Jackie and Marvin pose as “dads” to three of the kids who live in the bunker, Rena, Lucy and Ethan. (@mini-hero-rena and @masohno respectively)

EGO STATUSES:

Jackieboy Man:

Red puppet strings

No septiceye

Not obedient to Anti

Was corrupted at one point, is now detoxed

Has been kidnapped/tortured by Anti before

Has an attachment to a branding Anti put on his wrist “[PROPERTY OF ANTISEPTICEYE]”

Marvin the Magnificent:

Red puppet strings

No septiceye

Not obedient to Anti

Was corrupted at one point, now detoxed

Has been kidnapped/tortured by Anti before

Has an attachment to his cat mask

Henrik von Schneeplestein:

No puppet strings

No septiceye

Not obedient to Anti

Was corrupted at one point, now detoxed 

Has been kidnapped/tortured by Anti before

Has been possessed by Anti before

Has an attachment to the scalpel he used to operate on Jack in August

Chase Brody:

No puppet strings

No septiceye

Not obedient to Anti

Has been corrupted before, now detoxed

Has been possessed by Anti before

Has an attachment to Jackie

Jameson Jackson:

No puppet strings

No septiceye

Not obedient to Anti

Never corrupted

Has been kidnapped/tortured by Anti before

Has been possessed by Anti before

Has an attachment to the notebook he used to communicate with his brothers for the first time being that he’s mute

BUNKER!EGO BLOGS:

The egos have Bunker AU-based blogs, give them a follow!!

@bunker-jackie​ @bunker-schneep​ @bunker-jameson​ @bunker-chase​

[itsclydebitches]

Buffy’s “Empty Places”: Deconstructing Merit, Luck, and Betterment

Anyone who’s spent five minutes with me knows that I love ranty metas, and Buffy’s “Empty Places” is something I’ve wanted to tackle since I finished it. However, rather than try to unravel the entirety of that shit-show conversation I want to focus in on what Anya says near the end.

You really do think you're better than we are. But we don't know. We don't know if you're actually better. I mean, you came into the world with certain advantages, sure. I mean, that's the legacy. But you didn't earn it. You didn't work for it. You've never had anybody come up to you and say you deserve these things more than anyone else. They were just handed to you. So that doesn't make you better than us. It makes you luckier than us.

Here Anya lays out three important questions that I think are crucial to interpreting the Buffyverse.

Did Buffy “earn” her power? 

Is she “luckier” than her friends? 

Is Buffy “better” than her friends? And what exactly does “better” mean in this context?

Honestly, I still stand amazed that Anya can even voice the first two questions among Buffy’s friends and not get immediate, wicked backlash. Admittedly her use of “luckier” could be interpreted to mean “randomly,” but her word choice is still significant. Buffy is by no stretch of the imagination lucky. Does her calling give her purpose? Yes. Does it give her cool superpowers? Absolutely. But none of these benefits are free gifts—they’re balanced, even outweighed, by her responsibilities. This calling means that Buffy has no other options in her life, no career or family as a ‘normal’ person would experience it. Her powers are to keep herself and others safe, not to have fun with. Buffy didn’t win the freaking lottery here, this life was forced on her.

Throughout the entirety of the series we see the others’ (realistic) jealousy of Buffy: Cordelia views her as a threat to her popularity, Willow as the ‘cool’ girl she always wished she could be, Xander resents that Buffy always has the power to help, and Faith has a whole damn plot-line devoted to her jealousy, yet at no point does anyone acknowledge that Buffy is only the “lucky” one when things are going their way. They want to help, but they know she’s the only one who can finish things. Buffy announces that she’s the only one who can finish things… and everyone’s hackles go up. They don’t want her responsibility; they also don’t want to acknowledge that her responsibility makes her different from them. You can’t have it both ways. To say nothing of the fact that the rest of the Scoobies can leave any time they want. They can walk away from this life. Buffy can’t. She’s not the lucky one, she’s the one who’s trapped.

Now, did Buffy earn her power? Oh boy. Again, I don’t know how Anya can even ask that. Did she earn the power prior to receiving it? Perhaps not, but Buffy has absolutely earned her right to it since. She gave up the social life she desperately craved, a college education, she killed her boyfriend for the greater good, was ready to kill another friend (Anya) if the need arose, Buffy died, twice, and stuck around after she was wrenched out of Heaven to keep fighting the good fight. I honestly wanted to ask in that moment: what more do you expect of this girl?

Furthermore, there’s evidence that Buffy did ‘earn’ the Slayer power right from the start. She was chosen. Why? We don’t know exactly, but out of ALL the other Potential girls in the world Buffy was the one the legacy activated and I personally think she was chosen for a reason. It’s also telling that Season 7 throws Buffy into a houseful of other would-be Slayers and essentially let’s us compare them. One girl runs away. Another commits suicide. The others force out their leader and walk into a trap. Did Buffy make a lot of the same mistakes at their age? Yes, but it’s also worth considering that these girls aren’t ready in the same way she was at fifteen, that some might not possess the fortitude to be the Slayer, that seven years ago the magic chose Buffy for a reason. She was the one most suited for the position.

So is she “better” than her friends?

After Anya gave her little speech I had one, significant sentence running through my head:

Buffy is the only one who hasn’t been corrupted.

To lay out just a few examples:

Giles rebelled as a teenager by summoning a horrifying demon that eventually killed his friends. Buffy rebelled as a teenager by demanding that she get to go to the prom or out on dates with Angel.

Willow takes away the consent of her girlfriend, her friends, nearly kills Dawn, and when she suffers the loss of a loved one immediately seeks revenge, going so far as to try and destroy the entire world (something I think the show let’s her get away with far too easily). Buffy loses her mom and though there’s no person to seek revenge on, she also doesn’t release her anger on other innocents.

Years ago Anya happily chose to be a vengeance demon. She spent a thousand years torturing and slaughtering who knows how many. After being left at the alter she immediately turns back to those ways and attempted to seek revenge on Xander (and please picture for a moment how she might be received if that episode hadn’t been played for humor. If the whole ‘you can’t seek your own vengeance’ rule wasn’t in place and Anya had succeeded in killing Xander). She proceeds to murder a group of college boys before turning back to the good side.

Faith’s entire storyline revolves around her going dark. We can come up with endless justifications for her—from a terrible childhood to not fitting in with the Scoobies—but the fact remains that she is a clear foil to Buffy: the ‘bad’ Slayer to Buffy’s ‘good’ one. Ultimately, no one forced her to adopt that role.

Andrew very happily goes along with all the tormenting Buffy/killing women/taking over the world stuff, showing not an ounce of true remorse. Despite all his claims of ‘coming over to the light side,’ the only reason we’re given for him joining the gang was because he killed his only friend, was kidnapped by them, and literally had nowhere else to go. He’s not necessarily a ‘good’ guy now, he’s a lonely guy sticking with the only people capable of protecting him.

Xander and Cordelia are outliers in that neither ever achieves any real, formidable power (at least not on Buffy), but what power they do accumulate they don’t use well. Xander casts love spells, the magic equivalent of roofying a girl, deliberately falls asleep while he has the responsibility of watching Oz, or lies to Buffy to help get Angel killed. Cordelia uses her social power to harm everyone around her, as often as possible. 

What I’m getting at is that most of Buffy’s friends go through the same sequence of events: free will + power = a decision that harms others to an extreme degree. The free choice aspect is important because I think there are only three core group members that don’t fit this pattern: Oz—who resists being a wild werewolf who would kill others if not locked up—Tara—who carefully controls the type and extent of her magic—and Spike—who never does anything of his own free will, if we buy into the Angel/Angelus dichotomy that the show initially set up (and then admittedly muddled with Spike). But if we go by that lore, everything he did post-vampirism was the demon. The women he killed with his soul was the First’s doing.

Notably, none of these people are in the room with Buffy to back her up.

Instead she’s surrounded by others who at one point or another are corrupted by the power they’ve attained. Buffy is living with a group of people who have willfully committed heinous deeds - deeds she’s forgiven them for - while they’re more than happy to toss her out the second she makes a mistake with actual consequences. Importantly though, Buffy never goes down the road they did. To my recollection the closest she gets is with Faith—“We are better than them”—but even then all Buffy does is loot a deserted store, playing at the ‘bad girl’ role without ever actually becoming her. Does she make mistakes over the years? HELL YES, but unlike the others they’re always made with good intentions. Buffy releases Spike because he’s needed and she honestly believes he’s not a threat anymore. She gets some of the Potentials killed because she’s trying to save the world. She pushes everyone away and acts ‘cruel’ because she’s told time and time again that that’s what they need—an unfeeling “general.” At every turn Buffy puts the greater good above her own needs and desires, from the small (dropping out of college) to the unfathomably large (killing Angel, dying twice). Is this ‘realistic’ characterization? Perhaps not, but it’s what makes Buffy the hero of the tale. No matter what she’ll always put others before herself and do whatever is required of her to keep them safe. 

Honestly, her friends can’t claim the same. 

So yeah, in this respect I’d say Buffy is “better.”

(Anyway, this all makes it sound like I hate these characters when in fact I love them all lol. Forgive the new Buffy fan still working through drama 20 years late. @thepinkrvnger​ I’m tagging you again not with the expectation that you’re gonna read any of this shit, but to let you know your previous Buffy response got me laughing. Kudos 👍) 

[knightofbalance-13]

Actually...

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/165589953048/lets-be-real-and-agree-on-something

No we are not agreeing to this.

RVVBY is an amalgam of multiple tropes, cliches, and concepts from other media that did it much better.

As we will soon see: The examples are either way too general, RWBY does too differently for a comparison or RWBY actually does it BETTER.

Faunus as a stand-in for minorities. X-Men did it first, did it better, and has better justification for it. Some mutants are dangerous, and have abilities that could level a building with little effort. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are just a separate branch of mutants that humans use to justify their discrimination, and sentinels are extermination bots. There’s literally “Mutant Camps” In the Days of Future Past movie that are analogous to concentration camps. Whilst being a mutant has since evolved into an analogy for being part of the LGBT+ community, it started as an allegory for racism. And it was much MUCH better at it. Last I checked, Inhumans are now the new racism allegory, and even then, they’re still a better analogy than faunus. The reason why both of these are all more effective is because they don’t replace all racial minorities by being their stand-in. There are African Mutant (Storm), Native American Mutants (Moonstar), and even biracial Mutants (Darwin). So, Mutants are a multi-cultural fictional race that acts as a stand-in for a minority group in the Marvel Universe. See, this is what happens when you have good writers who are open to criticism.

Except the racism is UNDERSTANDABLE in X-Men since mutants ARE more dangerous than humans and some of the (like Rogue) can’t control their powers and thus are a danger no matter how you slice it whereas the Fanaus aren’t any dangerous than humans because they don’t significant enough advantages to overcome the human dominance so it’s just like racism here in our world: Stupid and irrational. So you’re basically saying it’s more rational to hate an innocent group of animal people that people who can control the weather, kill on touch or mindfuck everyone. COngrats, you have shown you have a bias against RWBY so your opinions mean jack shit.

Final Fantasy did the idea of dust better. It was called Materia, and it had a better explanation as to how it’s applied. Much like dust, it’s mined. Unlike dust, it’s explicitly stated to be magical in nature rather than the vague explanation we got for dust. dust is also weird in the sense that it’s kinda elemental. Materia also has a simpler categorization by just giving it five subcategories. Dust has to be classified under fire, ice, gravity, electric, stone, whatever Yang’s standard buckshots are, and so much more. It’s starting to get to the point that I wouldn’t be surprised if they started to be more direct in their rip-off and make Summon Dust. And it’s hard to even argue this because Monty Oum (God Rest His Soul) is a Final Fantasy fanboy (See: Dead Fantasy), so there’s no doubt that there would be some FF references every now and then. But the idea of Dust is too similar to be a coincidence. Even the claim of how similar the show is to Advent Children is rather hard to see any other way. Advent Children had very little plot to it, but had spectacular action scenes - sound familiar?

Yeah, of course it’s a rip off here! ...And in Storm Hawks...and Kingdom Hearts...And Pokémon-

Almost like this is a COMMON TROPE. Can’t really call it a rip off when everyone is doing it. Almost like you don’t know how tropes work.  Also, you don’t mention how Final Fantasy does it better: you just say they do. Probably because FInal Fanatsy=Not RWBy ergo better.

Legend of Korra did the whole “Girl Power” thing better. Considering that they also managed to portray PTSD in a much more realistic way, and didn’t romanticize it like RVVBY did. Korra had hallucinations, was clearly sleep-deprived, and struggled to keep up with even a few non-benders because of the trauma. Sure, LoK had its own issues (Like trying to keep up with its predecessor), but it still managed to hold its own. What does RVVBY do? - only ONE on-screen nightmare, and only ONE on-screen panic attack. The worst part is that we didn’t even NEED it to be on-screen. Just show Yang not wanting to sleep, or her waking up from nightmares. Even offhandedly mentioning that she’s having nightmares would have been better than nothing. But we get that nothing. Because making Yang get back to doing badass fighting moves is more important than giving her a good recovery arc.

OH Ho ho ho ho!

This is a fucking GOLD MINE!

A. RWBY was never touted as a Girl Power show: It just had female protagonists. Men were just as capable as women and it was clear from the first episode so this comparison doesn’t even count.

B. Oh korra. The one with a protagonist who was one trait away from being a full blown Mary Sue who disobeyed orders, stole food, caused property damaged, nearly committed murder, committed police assault and resisting arrest who gets off t6eh hook and is treated as in the right for doing all that. And that’s just the first episode, shall I go on to explain how Korra essentially harassed a guy and acting like an obsessive stalker despite him saying that he has a girlfriend and then kisses him despite this, hurting his innocent brother and gets rewarded for it, or how Korra barely practices Air bending (the ONE element she doesn’t aut know) but can magically airbend without using airbending techniques and having her bending TAKEN AWAY. Or how about Korra flipping outa t Mako, May Lin trying to arrest Tenzien’s wife and wrecking Airbending Island for getting dumped and that one Psycho girlfriend Waterbender is all treated as humerous and okay? Or that Asami was just basically eye candy in the first and second seasons? Or how the one main female villain seen as redeemable is the one who refused orders, forcibly recruited people, took advantage of the spirits, tried to kill her fiancé, sent people who didn’t agree with her to “reprogramming” camps, threatens the lives of her subordinates and tried to kill an entire city. It wasn't Amon who was implied to have severe hatred against benders due to his dad’s abuse. It couldn’t even be the fucking Red Lotus, the most human villians in the Avatar franchise since ZUKO: It was the female earthbender whose actions numerous times mirrored fucking Hitler.

Bottom Line: Even without TRYING to be a Girl Power show, RWBY is a BETTER Girl Power show than Korra.

C. The PTSD arc is the ONE thing Korra has above RWBY and it SHOULD be better because Korra has more time, more experience, more money, more people and in a medium that is more forgiving than RWBY’s. And even then, it’s BARELY better in terms of actual writing because it tries portraying Korra’s PTSD as an outside force, uses her Avatar State self as the representation when it makes no sense, she gets over it by herself despite her lesson being not to lock other people out, it came back with no indication, uses Zaheer out of nowhere and brings up smaller events that never eluded to extend the arc. It could have been fixed so easily by just having an imaginary Zaheer attacking her with kora being hesitant of airbending. I fucking fixed and I’m an inexperienced fanfic writer. All RWBY needs to do to be better is acknowledge it again: Something VERY likely due to RT’s history.

So far: We have one example that is out right wrong, one example that is too broad to do anything and doesn’t show jack shit and one example that is so wrong it helps ME absolutely.

SO what’s next?

And since it probably wouldn’t be me if I didn’t include this, here’s the one that some people are probably waiting for:

So you’re outright acknowledging bias against RWBY and for Storm Hawks because Nostalgia huh? Fine, I’ll cut you down HERE too.

Storm Hawks did the small amount of habitable land that needs to be protected by various teams of heroes first and better. Energy attacks have better justification for their appearance, and the fact that both Crystals and Dust are both gemstones with elemental properties that need to be mined and are integral to powering weapons and vehicles. Both shows have amazing transforming weapons, teams made up of various people with different skills, and incredible action scenes. They even had a spectacular superpower that manifested in one of their main characters after they were put in a tough situation. See my chart below for more detail.

Sky Knights : Huntsmen/Huntresses

Crystals : Dust

Squadrons : Huntsman Teams.

Atmos : Remnant

Talons/Raptors/Murk Raiders/Beasts : Grimm/WF

The Binding : Silver Eyes

... (points to the Final Fantasy point above)

So it’s perfectly okay for Storm Hawks to “rip off” Final Fanatsy but RWBY is bad for doing it?

Because these are all elements from Final Fantasy.

Not to mention since you DON’T explain why Storm Hawks does it better, all I have to do is point to the fact that Storm Hawks is canceled early and RWBY is a worldwide phenomon. Storm Hawks is at 7.2  whereas RWBY is at 8.3 , Storm Hawks had more time, more experience, more money, more people and the backing of Cartoon Network where RWBY doesn’t.

Dudeblade, this is why you go unnoticed by the writers, why all of you in RWDE tag go unnoticed: you do ANYTHING to tear down the show, whether or not it’s true. That and you suck so bad, I can do a better job than you.

Here, let me:

Harry Potter does the “school for special people” better because the school stays in focus for most of the show where we grow more and more attached to the setting and characters there and since the enemy is gradually shown more and more: he gain slightly more and more fear in a very smooth and natural way. And since the books take time with the enemies, we can keep track of the numerous characters easily. All unlike RWBy

Kill La Kill does the Girl Power aspect of the show better as the main cast is female, the show is driven by females and each character has their own unique set of strengths and weakness along with flaws they must overcome and deal with. It also tackles the idea of women being objectified and encourages women to take pride in who and what they are, ignoring how society sees them and think ofr themselves. Again, unlike RWBY would be.

Dragon Ball does the “Writing by the seat of your pants” style better than RWBY because Akira Toriyama was used to writing tis way and thus had more experience and even had a talent for writing this way which also made the series more suspenseful. Once more, unlike the CRWBY.

When I can do your job better and in less time: Might want to rethink what you are doing.

[draconic-flare]

tagged by @toshiirou

Rules:

ALWAYS POST THE RULES ANSWER THE QUESTIONS GIVEN TO YOU WRITE 11 QUESTIONS OF YOUR OWN TAG 11 PEOPLE

1. WHAT WOULD BE ONE LANGUAGE YOU’D LIKE TO MAGICALLY GAIN UNDERSTANDING OF AND WHY?

I would want to completely understand and have the ability to speak Spanish because it’s just really practical for where I live... Yeah

2. WHAT’S ONE PET PEEVE YOU HAVE ABOUT CHARACTERISATIONS YOU SEE IN FIC?

“Strong female characters” that attempt to turn a female character into some poorly developed character that has no actual depth to her. 

3. WHAT’S ONE INTEREST/KINK/SHIP/WHATEVER THAT PEOPLE ARE INTO THAT YOU CAN’T GET BEHIND AT ALL?

5980

4. WHAT’S ONE WORD YOU REALLY DISLIKE AND REFUSE TO USE OR CALL ANYONE EVER?

Honestly, I have a few - the c word, n word, and r word, all because of how they have been used derogatorily against different groups. 

5. DO YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST THAT’S CONSIDERED A LITTLE ‘CRINGEY’ BUT THAT YOU WHOLEHEARTEDLY ENJOY ANYWAY? IF SO, WHAT IS IT?

Roleplaying

6. BARRING CLICHE SUPERPOWERS (FLIGHT, TELEKINESIS, SUPER STRENGTH, INVISIBILITY ETC), WHAT POWER WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE IDEALLY, AND WHAT POWER DO YOU THINK WOULD ACTUALLY SUIT YOUR PERSONALITY?

Ideally, some kind of emotion nullification would be great, that way I could rid people of negative or harmful mindsets on the spot. Realistically? Probability manipulation. 

7. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR ANIMAGUS FORM WOULD BE?

I feel like it would be some kind of bird, like a raven or sparrow. It’s definitely not a snake, I can tell you that much.

8. DO YOU HAVE ANY INTERESTING FACTS OR CRAZY STORIES THAT WOULD SURPRISE THE PEOPLE WHO KNEW YOU?

I don’t consider any facet of my life to be interesting, so no.

9. WHAT’S YOUR GO-TO COMFORT FOOD/ACTIVITY/THING?

Ice cream/sleeping/some kind of Disney movie or music (but...)

10. WHAT’S ONE THING SOMEONE COULD DO THAT WOULD PUT YOU OFF THEIR FRIENDSHIP FOREVER?

Hating a particular group of people of any kind because of a trait they can’t help will do the trick.

11. DO YOU HAVE AN EMBARRASSING SONG YOU KNOW ALL THE LYRICS TO?

My memorization is shit, so no. 

My questions: 

1. What season would you say you are? 

2. If you could live in any fictional universe, what universe would you want to live in and why? 

3. Is there something that you’ve done because you thought it would be fun before doing it, but when you did it, you regretted it? 

4. If you had to give up one of your senses, what would you give up? 

5. Do you have a catchphrase or favorite word??

6. If you had the ability and security to choose any job you wanted, what would that job be?

7. Do you have a comfort item or piece of clothing?

8. What trope/character archetype do you believe defines you most accurately?

9. What show/movie/book/musician/fandom/etc. are you most into right now?

10. What’s one thing you want to do before you die?

11. What inspires you? 

I’m tagging @ladyliquidlettuce @sakhyu @bernzki @quirkygoldfish @emilypinguinozombie @otaku-alert @noodleexplosion @tiredsmolhufflepuff @scentedgiraffe @hikari-tenshi-yuri and @mercurymistxraichuhugs  

I know most of y’all have already been tagged, though, so don’t sweat this. 

[imsfire2]

WIP meme

Do This: List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or as little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on: writing, art, gifsets, whatever.

I was tagged by @thenewleeland - thank you very much!

And, ahem, you asked for it...

(I will add a read-more after a bit, since there is rather a lot of this.  Don’t panic...).

Fan fic – all Rogue One at the present time

In a dark time, the eye begins to see

AU in which Cassian is an artist and Jyn is sent by Saw Gerrera to model for him as a cover to get into the Imperial Archives on Corellia.  Angst, feels, smut, action and drama.  WIP – currently writing chapter 38 in draft, with the published text on AO3 now up to chapter 35.  

Keeping faith

AU in which Cassian and Jyn survived Scarif and are still with the Alliance, but are separated during the battle of Hoth.  Jyn is taken prisoner and then discovers she is pregnant, and angst and many feels ensue. WIP – currently on just over 9,000 words in draft with the published text on AO3 standing at just over 6,000.

Hot and wet

Rebelcaptain one-shot that won’t behave; primarily feels, not as smutty as the title suggests!

In your eyes

Rebelcaptain one-shot, a follow-up to A little more information (which was itself a follow-up to one of the Paths of hurt and darkness stories, On attachment elsewhere).  Cassian is hospitalised following a suicide attempt, post-battle of Endor.  Serious angst and feels.

The Hope of Lyonesse

Only just got started on this, basically it’s still at the planning stage, and it may be a monster as there’s a lot of material to work with.  Rogue One/Arthurian legend/other Celtic legends mash-up AU.  Cassian is Tristan, Jyn is Isolde, Draven is Mark of Cornwall, Chirrut and Baze are the last two acolytes of the Order of Merlin, Bodhi Rook is a character who fuses the roles of Bedwyr and Brangäne.  Mon Mothma is King Arthur, and is a rather more active figure than usual.  The Rebel Alliance is the seven Celtic nations, Albion, Cornwall, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Lyonesse and Galicia; they have a system of loose alliances and treaties cemented by dynastic marriages, and are trying to work together to fight off invasion on two fronts.  The Empire is an unholy alliance between the Saxon invaders coming from the east and the magic-wielding Formorians of Hy-Braseal invading by sea from the west.  Tarkin and Krennic are Saxons, Vader is the Lord of the Isle of the Torrent.  Other SW characters being slotted in gradually. Warning: Do not expect a happy ending.

Captain Andor lives for a day

Only just got started on this, too!  Total contrast to the above.  A Rogue One/Miss Pettigrew AU.  Late 1930’s setting, with jazz music, cocktails and romance for all.  Expect fluff and feels with just an undertone of angst (because some of the protagonists are not stupid and are aware of politics).  

Original fiction

The Bargain of Liberty (working title)

Just got started on this, so don’t look for it anytime soon!  Especially as, being original fic, it won’t be going on AO3.

Historical fantasy set in a sixteenth century AU in which the Spanish did not succeed in conquering the native kingdoms of Central and South America.  Consequently the balance of power across the world is totally different. In London, Dr John Dee has worked a great act of magic, the eponymous Bargain of Liberty, to ensure the freedom of his beloved sovereign, Elizabeth of England, and her people, and to enable her to marry her true love, her cousin Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots.  A work of magic which has had unexpected ramifications.  As our story begins, two British spies, Emilia Tanqueray and Kit Marlowe, and a mestizo Aztec sleeper agent, Javián Cuauhtémoc Sanchez, set out together to thwart the plans of the Inquisition.  The Inquisition’s goals are to overthrow the Emperor Axayacatl the second of Mexico, and to send an Armada to invade the island of Britain…

Also sitting in my Dropbox, Pt 1: Uncompleted original fiction

The taker of daughters

This is a rewrite and expansion of an earlier Hansel and Gretel: Witch-hunters fan-fic.  Significant character changes and hefty filling-in of background.  A steampunk historical fantasy using characters from various ballet versions of folk tales, set in the aftermath of a great war between the High and Low Kingdoms of Faerie and the Middle World of Humankind.  Main character is now Klara Stahlbaum (from The Nutcracker), other characters are her brother, who I’ve named Anton because I don’t like the name Fritz, a Firebird, an OFC who is a human/Firebird mongrel, the Lilac Fairy, and a pregnant giantess.  The main antagonist, the Taker of Daughters, is Kostschei the Terrible.  Currently at just over 77.000 words.  I’m not sure if this is working, though.  I’m having what I can only call tonal problems and struggling to find a balance between the darker and the less-dark elements of the story. So it may end up being abandoned altogether.

The Smiling Assassin

This was a NaNoWriMo project from 2014; a thriller about a retired MI6 agent working for a small London charity, who gets pulled back into his old world when a friend from the past asks him for a favour.  It backfired at around 36,000 words when I realised the plot was not only derivative as all hell but also really sucked!  

Fortitude

A Sci-Fi story about first contact with a telepathic alien species; needs re-writing a lot, but the basic storyline is still good.

A dream of death

My “no-zombies zombie apocalypse” story.  Yeah, that.

Midnight in the Café Tana

An urban fantasy about a local government employee who is a practising witch, and her attempts to help her ex who has fallen victim to a psychic vampire.

Nohomer

A Sci-Fi piece mixing a love story inspired by Pelleas et Melisande with a background of social conflict between rich and poor in a far-off future of Rampant Intergalactic Capitalism.

The war is over

A Sci-Fi story inspired by the core ideas from my very first ever fan-fic, which was a sequel to Return of the Jedi written when I was a teenager. Key plot points are A) the Emperor is dead and the beleaguered Evil Empire is on the verge of losing the galactic civil war, looking for ways to fight back and sabotage their enemies, and B) any Emperor worth his salt is bound to have a son-and-heir tucked away somewhere.

Also sitting in my Dropbox, Pt 2: Completed original fiction

The Healers

A magic realist historical fantasy Western; a faith healer who really can heal rescues a member of the Jesse James gang from certain death and hires him to ride shotgun with her. They travel through 1880’s Missouri having assorted adventures, healing various people and one another and trying not to get killed by various other people who want to bring him to justice, while falling in love.  Features lots of gritty local colour, dirt, violence, whores, blood, sex, angst and feels.  I had a ball writing this and it’s probably my best piece of full-length original fic so far.

The Secret Country

Urban fantasy with people who have real magical powers/superpowers trying desperately not to get found out and caught by a government agency determined to make use of them as weapons.  Flawed as a piece of writing, but quite an exciting read if you can get past a few sticky patches.

The eternal love of Gabriel Yeats

A slightly bonkers magic realist historical fantasy, featuring time travel, reincarnation, doomed romance and a lot of major character death.  Very fond of this one too though it has its issues as a piece of novel writing – it’s much too episodic and has a big structural flaw which I never managed to solve successfully.

Ramundi’s sisters

A historical romance about an artist and his three sisters in early C20th rural Sicily.  Very angsty and feels-y, with thwarted love and lots of unhappiness for everyone.  This was my first full-length novel and although I think I’ve improved a lot since as a writer then I’m still fond of it because I remember the thrill of writing it and having it flow.