#is gonna bother me in a bunch of ways (not just personality-wise but plot-wise as well)

[designernishiki]

no but you're onto something with y6 being damage control i swear. they let him be too vulnerable in y5 and said uhoh the dude bro audience isn't gonna like this! put him in some ""manly"" situations stat!

its the price they made us pay to see Kiryu attain hot grandpa status and I seethe over it.

you are So right and it’s aggravating because y5 kiryu felt so… emotionally honest in comparison to a lot of other games? and easy to connect to because of it? he wasn’t sugarcoated or performative and it just felt like the raw core of who he is for the most part. ghhhgshh so much about the plot and energy of y6 is so… unnecessary and disappointing considering the note y5 left off on, it makes it feel like alot of the emotion in y5 was sorta for nothing (not just on kiryu’s part, but majima/saejima’s shit didn’t get much of a follow up, shinada just disappeared, etc). it just makes alot that built up to this point feel hollow and like as if the bonds that existed weren’t even there and I don’t like that at all hdhhcjdhf

but yeah all that aside, I think y5 is the most convincingly gay kiryu’s been in any game, I mean, to the point of it being legitimately alluded to by other characters who assume he’s gay based on his secretive lifestyle and lack of interest in women and so on. and I don’t doubt that it got noticed by the general public to some degree, especially when you can compare his behavior to other playable characters in the same game– and god forbid their angsty rugged manly protagonist be Actually Not Straight. so kiryu’s long-since-established personality got butchered here and there more and more just to try and make the audience believe he’s actually been some sort of charismatic ladies man all along, which is jarringly antithetical to the kiryu we’ve seen in previous game(s) and to their own narrative that he’s only ever loved one (1) woman (all this goes for kiwami 2 as well, which is even worse in some ways, which is unsurprising considering it came right after y6).

all in all it makes me uneasy about the upcoming games and not optimistic that he’ll be presented as the character i grew to love in most of y0-y5. but i guess there’s some comfort in knowing that there isn’t one interpretation of him that’s indisputable fact, considering he’s been written and developed by way more than just one person with one view of him over the years– and that most of the really out of character dialogue and stuff is in unessential skippable parts of the game(s) like the cabaret club and standalone substories.

[mariproducer]

Miraculous Ladybug really has a major problem of giving the illusion that things are progressing. Like they'll do things to make it seem like the show status quo is changing only for in the long run, not a lot of things change.

The heroes get power ups? Barely uses them.

A bunch of Miraculous Heroes are choosen? The show doesn't even bother exploring these new heroes having to struggle balancing a double life like Adrien and Marinette nor do we see them form bonds with their kwamis (seriously, having the heroes be temporary is frankly dumb since you think you would want as many heroes as possible given how many Akuma attacks there are).

Alya learns that Marinette is Ladybug? it changes thing slightly but not enough to have a lasting impact (and makes moments such as Alya falling for Lila lies at the end of season 4 even more fustrating).

Adrien learns that Nino, his best friend is Carapace? Nothing is done with that.

And that's not even getting started on the snail pace progression of the love square.

Very long ask so I'll be hiding my reply under the cut so this isn't too much to scroll by

Yeah, most development in mlb is either walked back on, forgotten, or purposefully ignored. And it's not like this is some sort of intentional in-universe reason to show character regression. It's moreso the show trying to force specific narratives, even if it doesn't line up with where the characters should be, knowledge and development-wise.

For example, an episode like Animaestro, with its plot of Marinette teaming up with Chloe to sabotage Kagami, shouldn't have occurred after an episode like Frozer, where Marinette decides to put aside her feelings to help Adrien on his date with Kagami. Or another example where specific characters are left out of plotlines because the knowledge they hold could break their desired narrative into pieces (absence of Alya and Su-han in Kuro Neko, absence of Viperion in Strike Back).

Miraculous Ladybug is... well pardon the pun... miraculously amazing at acting like things are changing, that there's drama, that there's stakes. But you look at the show in its entirety and all its really been doing is going around the same circle. The LS still can't move past shallow affection, no progress has been made towards finding the villain (despite the fact that they HAVE information that could easily lead them to the villains identity) and he's only become more powerful, any other character that isn't the main duo or HM eventually find themselves getting screwed over writing-wise for the Love Square. (Though the main duo and HM are screwed over in that department too, it's just more painful with the rest of the cast)

If the cast of this show was ALLOWED to change and grow, to not be puppeteered into specific instances that don't line up what we previously have seen of them, then yes I'd believe there is development in this show. But there's none; you're right in calling it an illusion, because any possible development, even the SMIDGES of it, are eventually erased, as though it was imaginary to begin with. And somehow people eat that up, probably because this show just gives you nothing that you'll take the scraps. That's just sad 😮‍💨

As an aside: I always HATED the temporary hero rule. For me, it was one of the greatest upholders of this status quo yo bs mlb is stuck in. Because, since they're not permanent, they can only exist for a fleeting moment, and then continue on not affecting the plot. I get it I get that this show is gonna be Ladybug and Chat Noir, but maybe don't introduce the idea of other heroes if you wanna be oh so focused on your main two heroes. Then again, I personally wish there was a third permanent hero (the Alya stuff in s4 was poorly executed it could've been neater in an earlier season, not after s3 where she devolved to only shill for the LS) because it would've been a neat way to shake up the status quo in the long run and not be walked back on.

[bucky-at-bedtime]

Stucky Fic Recs

So basically I went through all of my ao3 bookmarks and collated a list of some of my favourites (I couldn't fit all of them on this list, so if anyone shows interest there might be a part two).

Please read tags and descriptions of the works before reading, some of them are pretty dark or extremely horny so just make sure you check that the fic is for you!!

Please please please send me your favourite fics in return! I am always happy to hear fic recs, headcanons and any other ideas/comments you all have!

Without any further ado, here are a few of my favourite Stucky fics:

‘Not Easily Conquered’ series by dropdeaddream, WhatAreFear

Rating: M, Words: 117,692

https://archiveofourown.org/series/115516

“I told you, you heard me: I told you never to follow me into Hell. Now I’m not vain enough to think that’s why you’re out here now — if there’s any person in what’s left of this God forsaken planet who’s part of a bigger picture, it’d be you. But I’ll keep saying it until it sticks. You got nothing to prove. I’m not worth much, I damn well know that, but I’ll ask you anyway: Stay for me. If you leave me alone in this world I’ll turn into something terrible. I’ll turn into the nasty creature that’s growing inside me. This war, it’ll swallow me whole”

[To me, this fic is like the classic Stucky 101 fanfic – if you're a Stucky fan and you haven't read this, I highly recommend it. The authors explore the Steve/Bucky relationship in such an interesting, tragic, emotive way and I cry every time I read it. I couldn't praise this work enough.]

‘Ain’t No Grave’ series by spitandvinegar

Rating: M-E, Words: 131,789

https://archiveofourown.org/series/426577

"Yeah, he never calls me by my name," Steve says. "It's always champ, ace, hotshot, that kinda thing."

"Man, that is flirting," Sam says. "That nicknames thing, he is flirting with you. He's just working his way up to calling you baby or something."

Steve goes redder than a damn coke can. Sam pumps his fist. "Yes, I am so right, I am wise as hell. He did, didn't he?"

"He called me sweetheart," Steve says grimly, "because he's a drug addict with brain damage."

"Or because he looooooves you," Sam says. Captain America throws a cookie at his head. Sam eats it, because he deserves a treat for being so damn wise.”

[I'm currently re-reading this fic and absolutely loving it. The way spitandvinegar writes Bucky's road towards recovery and Steve's entire characterisation – it's all just so good. It's another one that covers some pretty dark themes, so make sure you're checkin those tags!]

'Einherjar' by thecommodore_squid

Rating: M, Words: 71297

https://archiveofourown.org/works/7157024/chapters/16249814

But Steve was fine.

Sure, he hadn’t seen Bucky in months, and sometimes he was at the punching bag so long that his skin started to peel off to expose the bones of his fingers, and sometimes he couldn’t find the energy to drag himself out of bed, and sometimes he went weeks without sleeping, and sometimes he thought about throwing himself head-first off the nearest tall structure, but he was fine.

He was absolutely, perfectly, one-hundred percent, fucking fine.

AKA In which Steve learns how to deal with his shit, and Bucky learns how to stop leaving.

[basically the definition of a recovery fic, I absolutely adore it. This is tragic and amazing and makes me cry and smile. It’s got a bunch of fantastic cameos and It really just ticks so many of my boxes.]

‘Like real People do’ by 2bestfriends

Rating: E, Words: 67,775

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19887376/chapters/47103217

“"Ask me what?" demands Bucky. "I didn't hear a question."

Steve licks his lips. "Will you stay with me? Will you come back home, Buck?"

"Home," repeats Bucky in a small voice, and then he's crying for real.”

[Basically soft lumberjack!steve and lonely twink!bucky being horny and in love. This is a comfort fic for that’s really just about my favourite boys falling in love.]

‘This City Bleeds it’s Aching Heart’ by anonymous

Rating: E, Words: 34,537

https://archiveofourown.org/works/835829/chapters/1591736

“The one where Steve and Bucky pose as a happily married couple while on a mission for SHIELD, to catch an international arms dealer hiding in a suburban neighbourhood.”

[The plot in this one is just a good time and i think it’s just a really fun take on the fake relationship trope. Also some really great characterisation.]

‘Home is Wherever I’m With You’ by cydonic

Rating: E, Words: 88,570

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18868081/chapters/44783077

“Bucky kisses Steve and Emma goodbye before they leave for school, which is why – partway down the road – Amelia turns to him and asks, “why are you and Daddy kissing?”

Which is definitely a conversation Bucky’s been expecting since Steve just did it, but it still takes him by surprise. Again, he thinks he should wait for Steve, but Amelia’s not the sort of kid to let anything rest. Plus, Bucky’s taking her to school where she will undoubtedly share the story with anyone who’ll listen.

He also stops to think that Steve’s asked him to stay, which means Bucky must be trusted with their happiness and well-being, at least in some small capacity.

Bucky clears his throat and searches for some explanation that will help Amelia make sense of this sudden turn of events. “Because we love each other,” is all he comes up with.”

[Bear with me, this is a House Flipper!Bucky Au. And dad!Steve. I just love a found family trope I’m not gonna lie to you. Another comfort fic that warms my lil heart.]

‘Lucky Seven’ by BetteNoire (WeAreWolves)

Rating: E, Words: 94,364

https://archiveofourown.org/works/7033105/chapters/16002481

“Back from where--?” James says, the sentence ending in a distinctly undignified squawk as Steve sweeps him up in his arms, bridal-style, and starts carrying him upstairs.

James tenses momentarily then relaxes into Steve's arms and throws back his head and starts laughing. The laughter peals out of him, his body shaking, his amusement occasionally broken by little gasps of pain.

“What's so funny?” Steve frowns.

“You are,” James says, still giggling. “You're ridiculous, Steve Rogers.”

“Behave. Or I will drop you,” Steve growls.

[The shrunkyclunks modern AU of my dreams featuring Mechanic!Bucky and cap!Steve and some really beautiful writing.]

'Dishonor On Your Cow' by mandarou

Rating: E, Words: 111695

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10659162/chapters/23589582

“Sergeant Barnes?”

“Oh, hell no, don’t call him that, man,” Sam warned.

“Captain Fuck Off!” Barnes shouted over him. “Fight me!”

Steve didn’t know whether to laugh or just slink away. He managed to combine the two by pacing two steps and snorting instead. Like a bull.

“I’m gonna need you to calm your ass, Barnes,” Sam said as he went limp again, obstructing Barnes’s struggling under him. “This is so undignified. That is Captain goddamn America.”

“Captain goddamn America!” Barnes repeated, louder. And angrier.

Steve cleared his throat again. “I’ve been looking for you,” he told Barnes.

“I hope you brought lube this time!” Barnes shouted.

[I’m not gonna lie it took me a minute to get into this one but by the end I was crying with them, laughing with them, and just really in my feels. Some very insane things happen so here’s a few of my favourite tags: ‘Seargent Barnes is done with your Shit Steve’, ‘blatant disrespect of a man’s motorcycle’, ‘Steve you ding dong’ and ‘PR nightmares in the form of Supersoldiers’.]

Propietary Information by Notlucy

Rating: E, Words: 85141

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11964402/chapters/27054777

“Okay, so Bucky Barnes has a crush on Steve Rogers. The guy's gorgeous, talented and, oh yeah, the Chief Design Officer of the biggest tech company in the world. In other words: he's so far out of Bucky's league that he might as well be in a different stratosphere.”

[We were never gonna get through this list without a Sugar Daddy!AU (I have a weakness). This one is… saucy and sexy and sweet and uh pretty kinky so read the tags and all. I’ve read it a few times, and I love the way the author has written Steve in this one, he just makes my heart go '!!!']

‘Roots Have Grown’ by AustinB

Rating: M, Words: 17280

https://archiveofourown.org/works/6912451/chapters/15767941

“Bucky is a mildly agoraphobic veteran with funds to spare, who becomes enamored with the cute blonde guy in his building.

So when Steve mentions needing a roommate to cut down on rent costs, Bucky decides it would be a good idea to volunteer.”

[Another weakness of mine is Roommate AUs, and this one is phenomenal. I tend to go for post serum!Steve stories more often, but this is a pre-serum Steve that I just adore.]

‘The Cold Never Bothered me Anyway’ by icoulddothisallday

Rating: E, Words:75562

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11728869/chapters/26425530

“Bucky Barnes has spent his whole life in a state of mild hypothermia. Steve Rogers has spent the last 70 years in the ice. The two things aren’t related until, suddenly, they are. Shrunkyclunks soulmate AU (AKA the awkward bb au).”

[I think this is the only soulmate AU in my bookmarks? I would totally be down to read more though! This one is really fun and really enjoy Bucky’s characterisation here!]

'War, Children' by Nonymos

Rating: E, Words: 106615

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5373050/chapters/12409394

“After Bucky was released from the hospital, it only took him a couple of weeks to give up on himself. Difficult to believe in any kind of future when the simple act of staying alive was almost too big an effort.

Out the frosted window, across the street, there was a tiny homeless guy burrowing under an awning.”

[An interesting exploration of Bucky’s PTSD with a trans!Steve which was a cool take on his character too!]

'The Company You Keep' by orbingarrow

Rating: G, Words: 51191

https://archiveofourown.org/works/3468605/chapters/7613072

“Hurt, hungry, and on the run, the Winter Soldier doesn’t have a lot of safe options to go to for help. Figuring that any friend of Captain Steve Rogers is unlikely to be HYDRA, Bucky takes a chance and reaches out to the first Avenger he can find.

It works out better than anyone could have expected. Eventually.”

[hurt/comfort, recovering Bucky, protective Steve, found family and domestic avengers, need I say more? I absolutely loved this one]

[cryptvokeeper]

mind your damn business this overly long media dissection is for my own records

I was hanging out with a Friend the other day and somehow got roped into explaining dream smp to them a little and why I personally stopped watching (As a side note he said my favorite thing ever which is in regards to wilbur “you could’ve been hamlet and instead you‘re bobs burgers“) and i feel like i didn’t do a very good job so it’s just been lingering in my brain trying to make a better explanation.

and I think some of it hit me just now seeing that post about how tragic characters work because their tragedies could be avoided if they were any other character, but because they are themselves you know they wouldn’t make any other choice. Tragic characters are static. they very rarely learn lessons or grow and change over the course of the story because if they did, the tragedy could’ve been avoided. often if a character does learn some sort of lesson or come to any realization it isn’t until the end, when it’s too late To change their fates.

and i Feel like whenever I try put my frustrations with the shift back to less optimistic storytelling into words it comes off as whiny, Yknow? Like wah I wanted a happy ending and that’s dumb because the storys a tragedy. But I think what that post helped me to verbalize is that it wasn’t so much the tone of the story going back to tragic that bothered Me but what going back to tragedy meant the story lost Character-wise.

like, I’ve talked before, about how Wilbur’s Pogtopia arc can be mapped onto a classic Shakespearean tragedy, and how a large part of that is that his character doesn’t change that much, except for the worse, which can be seen as just his circumstances highlighting his already-extant characteristics. I think there’s a fair argument to be made that characters in and around Pogtopia arc were static.

And then the subsequent exile arc subverted that by actually like having lots of characters grow and change And learn from things that happen. Not everyone does, but enough to allow them to avoid a tragic end. And from there for a solid couple weeks to months you didn’t have tragedies. Maybe you had stories with unhappy endings, but characters weren’t static, they were still learning lessons and growing, even if not always in positive directions. Stuff like the disc finale to the hotel to snowchester and nukes to Sam nook to warden Sam doing questionable things to enderwalk to eggpire stuff to niki and jacks revenge plot to niki joining the syndicate to jacks detective agency (which I MISS)

and then at some point they just…stopped? like they decided to go back to a tragic structure. It’s like someone called a pause and went “ok wherever your characters are at right this second, that’s where they’re gonna stay for the foreseeable future!” and just like, went back to tragedy. Not just story with an unhappy ending but tragedy. That’s how we got excessive Tommy misery that was just kinda uncomfy to sit through at some point, that’s how we got warden Sam being a stubborn piece of shit who does a bunch of bullshit, that’s how we got puffy driving me up the wall with the preachiness without actually listening to others, thats how we got the eggpire festival thing feeling contrived and stilted, that’s how we got las nevadas Quackity gaslight gatekeep girlbossing but not really feeling interesting. I also feel like it resulted in a lot of those interesting possible character directions getting dropped or abandoned because continuing them would either require or cause the character to grow and develop a certain way that would deviate too far from where they already were. And idk whether that was the pacing being a mess that left everyone hanging around until the next big story beat or if they were just throwing shit at the wall to see what stuck or whether they just thought this was genuinely a good delibrate choice but it drove me fuckin crazy. like there’s nothing more frustrating to me than a story establishing a precedent by doing something subversive and and then walking it back. That really sucks.

and this Isn’t the sole issue I had with the series and I’ll probably continue to find ways to verbalize them as dsmp continues to circle the drain in my head, but I came to this realization and wanted to get it down somewhere so here we are.

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

READER REWRITE ANNOUNCEMENT: TUA ☂️ - TALLY CLOSED

I'm starting another love interest Tally, this one for the Umbrella Academy. Unlike the It tally, I don't really have any solid ideas for the characters but I DO have a pretty fucking big one for the reader. So, please let me know out of these character you would like to see as your love interest [BESIDES BEN, DONT WORRY THAT'S COMING]. If you have a preference and would like to vote, drop by my inbox [anonymously or otherwise, i don't mind either!], DM me, or comment here BUT remember, I can't respond to comments but I will see them, thanks and ily guys!

The Umbrella Academy x Reader [slight au] LI options:

Luther: ngl, I'm not crazy about him. I doubt he's gonna win cause I know he ain't usually a fan fav. Personally, I didn't really see a problem with him [until episode 8&9] in season one, I mean beside that whole weird allison subplot. Like the moon stuff, I didn't really notice it until people pointed it out then he got REALLY annoying the whole season. Season 2 luther I liked. Either way, I could easily mellow out his character if yall REALLY want him (lol kinda hope you don't 🤭)

Diego: my sweetie sweet sweetheart. I love this adorable mommas boy, he just wants love and affection and to be accepted and with what I have planned for the reader's plot [which is a definite thing] these two could honestly work SO well together, and be the affection starved babies together and shower each other with love 💘 [EDIT: HE WON! Ideas and plots are being further developed as of the 10th of September 2020]

Allison: I'm not gonna lie, yall I'm torn. Allison Hargreeves owns ALL my fucking uwus, she stole my fucking heart and I have a crush ngl. BUT I also LOVE her and Ray and the work they do and I sob so hard in season 2 for her and Ray and everyone and UGH I could NEVER TAKE THAT ARC AWAY FROM HER. I have an idea for reader and allison season 2 wise, her and ray would still be together lets just say

Klaus: [I know he dates guys, and I would be able to fit in Dave but I'm pretty sure he's pan either way!] Honestly, I'm a little scared about this one. I haven't wrote a BUNCH of scenes with klaus yet, but the few I have i have not been super proud of. I don't think I write his character very well, and Idk if thats just me or because its new but I'm scared to jump into a whole series with him, especially as a LI but ill do it for you babies if that's what you really want. Can't promise it will be good, but I'm trying lol

Five: honestly I'm scared about this one too. With the Ben fic, I haven't quite gotten to him yet so I don't know how i wrote him yet but I have some hope. Also, the age thing low key bothers me but he is a fan favorite and he does have some of the most screen time which would be convenient, his plot mixed with the readers plot would be VERY interesting indeed, and he does make me laugh so ehh its really up to you guys. Again, not sure how I feel??

Ben? Im already working on a ben fic as some of you might know, but then I was in the shower and my brain was like "heheh he heh, I know you haven't even published the first chapter of your ben fic and have 3 unfinished series, and 2 independent WIP but here's a REALLY cool idea for yet ANOTHER umbrella academy rewrite. Also no you can't have any writing inspiration for any of them" again, I suppose he's doable and already this would be considered an au so it wouldn't be much of a leap to A] ressurect ben, but that worries me cause the end of season 2 and I'd have to rely on hope I could catch whatever s3 threw or B] work in a way reader could see Ben which would be kinda hard but not impossible given my plot [edit: probably won't do him honestly. Not for this one. I want to try different characters for this one. Again, unless you REALLY want him, but again, I'm already making one with him so nows your chance to vote to see someone else]

Vanya: gorgeous baby angel, would be VERY interesting as a love interest and quite convient too. Plus she's adorable. Out of all of them, I have the most ideas for her

And finally...

I'm so fucking sorry I can't stop coming up with ideas, I wish I wish I WISH I could just make a story and stick to it but, I've just never been like that I'm sorry.

💕💕💕 - Yurtle

[discordisagoodnoodle]

If you could rewrite ONE episode of MLP, which one would you choose and how would you change it?

Ohh my god ONLY one? But there’s so many I want to scrap completely! Or change lots of little things that bother me to soothe my soul. Fair warning...this is gonna be long. Like, extremely fucking long. I got insanely into this.

BUT, for the sake of the ask, I suppose I’ll go with the fairly obvious answer and choose What About Discord. There’s...a lot of ways I could change this episode and it would all be miles better than whatever that was.

If I were to change this episode within, say, the confines of the plot summary, I would probably do something like:

-actually show Discord and the Mane Five bonding! I would do this because, one, that’s just what Discord’s arc should have done as a natural fucking progression of his growth, and two, not getting the jokes was like, insanely boring and I hated it. 

I get that they did it so we could feel the alienation Twilight felt, but this is a kids show meant to...you know, ENTERTAIN. It’s not entertaining AT ALL to be put in the same position as Twilight in this episode. Also, why would you make Discord’s jokes not funny to the viewer? Discord, a character who’s supposed to be very funny and entertaining to watch, was purposefully made to NOT be funny to the viewer (and Twilight) and like...it’s so bad! So I’m scrapping THAT completely.

-Not suddenly have this weird fucking “””reveal””” where surprise! Discord was in the wrong the whole time! I am of the opinion that Twilight should have been called the fuck out for zeroing in on Discord when she was jealous when EVERYBODY left her out, and for accusing HIM of something outright evil like mind control, and then literally pressuring her friends to drink some weird ass potion because she legitimately believes the ONLY way ANYBODY besides Fluttershy could EVER like Discord is if he literally mind controls them??? That’s so shitty! Even IF Discord purposefully left her out (which I don’t think he actually did, but that episode was written vaguely enough as to where some people do) I...kind of feel like Twilight one upped Discord on the shitty actions here? Like, Twilight chose to do the booksortcation. Twilight was very adamant that she wanted to do the booksortcation rather than anything else. In fact...there’s a very good chance that even if everybody DID ask her, she would have just said no anyways. She was literally that excited about her booksortcation.

SO, I would scrap that whole end scene, keep the little speech Twilight made with how she was jealous, BUT I would add an apology to Discord for accusing him of something far worse than he actually did. ALSO I’m not having Discord do this on purpose. Like, I already don’t think he did but like, I’m gonna make it more explicit so nobody ends up with the interpretation that he did, because my god, that would be the worst possible backslide in characterization if it is.

I might also have Discord apologize too, actually. Instead of that “taste of his own medicine” scene which just kind of felt...vindictive, and nonsensical considering the inside joke they had, and considering Discord didn’t even...do it on purpose he literally just thought it was funny and rubbed it in a little...and the mane five also kind of did that unintentionally so like??? Why is HE getting targeted. I would just have them like, at most, glare mildly and nudge him a bit so he’s like “WELL, I’m also sorry I teased you so extensively. I suppose rubbing the salt in the emotional wounds afflicted by your jealousy wasn’t very...nice.”  I feel it’s important to have a Discord episode where even if he’s maybe a little bit in the wrong, somebody else is MORE in the wrong because he’s already had so many episodes before where HE was the one completely in the wrong. It balances things out a bit, and it’s genuinely a more emotionally fulfilling thing to do for his character arc than just have him be a perpetual fuck up. 

ANOTHER IDEA I have in mind is that I would have Twilight’s jealousy stem more from the fact that they’re having fun with Discord, specifically. And then I would have her blow the fuck up at Discord because she like, still doesn’t trust him, and the emotional distress she’s feeling to an ever increased extent thought the episode from being left out, and from Discord teasing her a bit makes her just. flip her shit and go on a whole rant about how she doesn’t understand how the other ponies can actually trust Discord and laugh with him after all he’s done to them. And then I think I would have say, Fluttershy defend Discord by saying how he’s actually changed, and he really is sorry for what he did before, and how Twilight can still be upset at him but her actions are going overboard. Then I would probably..? have Twilight storm off, and Discord poof in and then they have like...An Emotional Chat and like, actually reconcile and become like legit friends this time.

I’d want to do something like this because even after the Tirek thing, Twilight is shown to have this like, grudge against Discord and it’s simply NEVER addressed which...is bad. It’s just plain bad writing, and it just kind of makes this like, missing chunk in Discord’s arc where we’re supposed to see him and Twilight (and the rest of the mane six) actually like, get past this and genuinely learn to appreciate each other. This episode could have been the perfect episode to address it but they just made it like...a generalized jealousy which kind of sucks.

I think something else I would do is probably...not have everybody EXCEPT Twilight suddenly be all goody goody with Discord out of nowhere. I would probably have like...Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and maybe Applejack (?) be friendly and joke around with him, but like...I don’t think it makes sense that suddenly everybody was all goody goody with Discord out of nowhere. Especially not like Rainbow Dash???? That was really weird...

Having say, Rainbow Dash also be apprehensive of Discord still could also have like, a reaction foil to Twilight I guess it would be? Because Rainbow isn’t like...fond of Discord, but she’s like “Well I don’t really get why they’d WANT to hang out with him after...all THAT, but it’s whatever I guess.” (I feel like she’d be more chill about it and just be like, personal choice yo) and it would be a good contrast for how Twilight is handling her feelings in comparison while still having somebody who agrees with her (Dipscorb Bad) and gives her a feeling of justification for having this gut reaction to Discord and others hanging out at the same time.

....On another note, I would scrap the whole inside joke thing completely. Again, that was just a stupid decision entertainment wise, but also narratively, it would work more if we saw what happened during the booksortcation, and, instead of them just saying a bunch of inside jokes with Twilight around now, I would have them like...just still be hanging out within sight of Twilight. And they can still make inside jokes with each other, but it feels more natural because it’s actually part of a larger conversation they’re already having instead of being like...a conversation that is ONLY inside jokes, and the inside jokes aren’t the FOCUS. (like...it was so unnatural in the episode, and the mane five just came off as huge assholes for making a conversation be solely inside jokes and then just going “well...u werent there lol”)

I...believe that’s all my ideas for a What About Discord rewrite? I certainly can’t think of anything else and this is already like, an insanely long post so I might just end it here.

[lgcyunhyeong]

hey there!! this is my first time in lgc and i’m super excited to be here! i’ve been eyeing this place for a while and i’m glad i finally mustered up the nerve to join. this is cho yunhyeong, 21, works part time at his local gs25. he’s been a trainee for little over a year and is hoping to eventually debut in a band! he plays the bass and sings a little bit, and he also wants to get into songwriting and composition eventually. he’s generally kind of a weird kid--super spacey, often distracted, your local space nerd--but he’s a good egg in spite of that. compared to some of the other trainees, he’s pretty aimless and chill, but he does genuinely love music and performing, so...!

you can find some more info about him on his about and background pages but they’re kind of messy so i’ll drop some quick facts about yunhyeong under the cut, along with some connection/plot ideas to hopefully kickstart things! if you’d like to plot, please hit like on this post and i’ll hop into your ims! i also have a discord if you prefer to plot there - just ask me for my username ♡

quick facts:

born and brought up in seoul - very local, most comfortable in his neighbourhood, the most exciting vacation he ever took was to busan (and it was #lit). his parents own the best hot pot restaurant in seoul, and yeah he’s biased but that doesn’t mean it’s not true! 

has an older brother currently in law school and their relationship is best described as ‘i tolerate you’. they’re complete opposites - his brother is super driven and loud and outgoing while yunhyeong is not so they’ve never really clicked beyond the fact that they are siblings and therefore are obligated to love each other

was the quiet kid growing up, had a very chill and subdued personality. didn’t really speak unless spoken too, didn’t play much with others. most of the time he kept to himself and focused on his hyperfixations - first, it was dinosaurs, and then space! and he’s been stuck with space ever since

his mom put him in music lessons when he was younger in hopes that a relatable hobby might help him make friends?? also that it’d work as a conversation starter but it didn’t because yunhyeong remained as weird and solitary as ever! he did fall in love with music as a result though

in high school he decided to branch out and make friends by starting a band - new age sexy aliens or NASA for short. his recruitment process was like: whoever shows up to join is part of the band! it worked out for the best since he and the band members got really close

they started off playing covers but then branched out into their own original music (yunhyeong helped write some of their lyrics). most of their songs used heavy space imagery and they were really pretty but also low key about aliens

yunhyeong loves aliens

nasa had a pretty dedicated fanbase both online and in their school! did well, were thriving, living their best lives and playing hella gigs, and then their lead singer got scouted by an entertainment company. it was the beginning of the end for them; the rest of the members went their own ways as well and the band officially disbanded in 2018 rip

yunhyeong started to busk on/off since he wasn’t attending university and didn’t really know what the heck else he wanted to do with his life outside of the band, and that’s where he got scouted by legacy! joined the company because like... well... why would he not...

wants to debut in a band if he can... and focus on songwriting and music composition as a secondary career path. he isn’t like... super motivated though? has always had issues with setting goals and being ambitious... he’s more like, eh, i’m just gonna go where life takes me! 

personality wise, he’s still a pretty quiet kid unless you get him talking about one of his interests, in which case he will never shut up EVER. he gets distracted easily and will sometimes zone out when you’re talking to him but has a good memory of like, the most random shit you wouldn’t expect him to recall

easygoing as hell, rarely gets riled up over anything. on the flip side, he doesn’t really come across as sincere (even though he almost always is!) in his emotions because people are like... hm... just feels fake. tries to stay as positive as he can and doesn’t dwell on stuff that might upset him. sometimes people think he’s shallow! but he has #deepthoughts. he just doesn’t share them

unmotivated when it comes to most things! has no goals, no ambition, doesn’t care much for academia or being forced to like, conform to things. his mom calls him a free spirit but she’s probably just making excuses for him. it’s more like he’s stuck in some sort of limbo?? scared of growing up but scared of being left behind. it’s complicated

he’s really a sweet guy though. a little odd - he’s not the best at showing affection and sometimes he can be really... strange? offbeat? you never know what the fuck is going on in his head. but he’s a Human Being Just Like You (sadly) and simply trying his best to live every day

connection/plot ideas:

he didn’t really have many friends growing up, but still - childhood friends! maybe you were the exception. maybe you didn’t mind that he was awkward and quiet and a little weird! maybe you tripped and fell on the playground and he gave you a star-patterned purple band aid and you decided you would die for him. who knows! 

friends in general who understand him and look @ him with fond exasperation... must be able to tolerate his antics. liking aliens is a bonus. jk, but he’s a sweet guy who loves his friends! please be kind to him

fans of his former band, nasa (or antis?). he was the bassist and a sub vocal and didn’t stand out too much compared to some of the other guys, but he always did the intros and he’ll happily talk about nasa all day! discuss the symbolism of their songs with him

exes? i genuinely cannot think of a single reason why anyone would want to date him but i feel like he’s had at least (1) relationship before... maybe you took a chance and after you started dating you were like, god, i’m running away

crushes, whether one-sided on his part or your part or reciprocated but you don’t know it yet?? he’s holding out for his alien bae but maybe you don’t know that and just think he’s like, this quiet mysterious pretty boy. maybe he thinks you’re cool for a human! 

fellow trainees who can play instruments... yunhyeong needs someone to #jam with because playing the bass alone is kind of lonely (and since he’d like to eventually get on the band track, making some connections would be cool) 

fellow trainees in general, especially ones in his training group!! he’s not as hungry for debut or as ambitious as some which means he’s a) non-threatening and b) chill to hang with. you could be into that or it could absolutely infuriate you since he doesn’t seem to be taking things seriously! maybe you think he doesn’t deserve to be here

met online on an alien enthusiast forum and you talk almost every single day about various theories and moves and all that kind of stuff but you’ve never met irl! and yunhyeong really wants to meet you in person! 

idk bully him 

you’re buying a bunch of weird shit from the convenience store where yunhyeong works at like 2 am and he has so many questions and won’t let you pay and leave until you answer them

alternatively, you find him sleeping on the job and you want to wake him up but the moment you touch his arm, he makes this high pitched screeching noise and you fall over and take an entire shelf of candy down with you

you invite yunhyeong out for drinks but he took one sip of soju and he’s a mess... you didn’t sign up to take care of a giant drunken baby but guess what! you will be! if he tries to kiss you, dodge him

you always bum free meals from yunhyeong’s parents’ restaurant because his parents think you’re his best friend. tbh you actually don’t really like him but he doesn’t realize it so he never bothers correcting his parents either!

you didn’t realize yunhyeong was allergic to cats and dogs and you brought your cat/dog near him and oh my god he is having the UGLIEST allergic reaction

yunhyeong can’t swim. you push him into a pool as a joke. chaos ensues

you play various video games together and yunhyeong is really good but he’s more interested in stardew valley than in league of legends and you keep pestering him to play with you dammit i need you on my team

you slipped a love letter under his door for one of his roommates but yunhyeong thought it was for him and now he keeps (kindly) rejecting you whenever you see him and you don’t even know how to react

Oh No We Are Trapped In This Room And The Power Went Out And I Am Scared Of The Dark Please Hold My Hand For Science

yunhyeong loves smoothies and one day you catch him trying to blend a slice of pepperoni pizza into a smoothie because he is, and i quote, “tired of chewing”

IDK ALL THESE IDEAS ARE BAD BUT PLEASE PLOT WITH ME ANYWAY

[trulycertain]

Unpopular opinion: god, Batman v Superman had some really good ideas that it chucked down the U-bend, and there are parts of it I really enjoyed. I don’t regret seeing it (and yes, I watched the Extended Cut. All three hours). I was just discussing this with @masutrout​, and here’s a slightly abridged version of my thoughts.

Look, I know no-one sets out to make a bad film, and with so many moving parts, a film getting released at all is a miracle. I know it’s not down to one person and (I’m quite glad) it’s not up to me, because I have no idea how to make films. But if I had, say, a magic lamp and a wish for an ideal BvS and DCEU in general... Here’s what I liked; here’s what I’d magically tweak in a parallel universe; here’s a rant. A 2.2k rant. An Extended Cut rant.

I know it's all desaturated and so on, but I genuinely really love Snyder's style. Dude can set up a shot, and he knows how to use chiaroscuro. In theory, I totally get why they'd look at him and go, "his shit is like comics brought to life, pick him." I wish he'd just... allow a bit more colour into it and let people colour grade properly, because the Metropolis/Gotham Clark/Bruce contrast could've been played up beautifully with visual language and colour too. I mean, I know he can do overwrought iconography and imagery, look at how they went to the trouble of CGI'ing Clark's cape in every scene because it was such a banner, and the pop of red. 

I'll admit, I wasn't always all-in on Affleck's performance, though it was one of his best in his back catalogue (I am one of the few people I know who has zero problems with him as an actor and tends to find it more the material, but I grew up on Kevin Smith films and his shtick works for me, even if he has a manner. I'm not too discerning). But. A Bruce who's tired and broken-down and greying and has lost even more, and still in the aftermath of that, tries to find hope and "I can't let this happen to anyone else" again, in the wake of one more death? God yes give it to me. A Bruce who's taller than Clark and just plain tall in general, because maybe Kryptonian ideals are different and because it'd give Bruce one more thing to desperately play down? God yes. Just... in general, middle-aged Bruce but without a lot of the Batfam stuff (which I like, I have a love for several of the Bats, but my favourite stories are always solo) with a regimen of painkillers and who's turned Wayne from an "I'll just jump into the water feature" jackass to a schmoozer and flirt and maybe a drunk. Take out the branding. I wanted Bruce as a broken idealist, not a fascist. It's actually way more fascistic than the original Dark Knight Returns, even. But goodness, the whole idea of an established, tired Batman is good. There’s a reason the comics and animations keep coming back to it.

"Superman was just a story. Superman was just the dream of some farmer from Kansas." I forget the exact phrasing, but everything about that idea, and this idea that Superman is as much an ideal for Clark to live up to as everyone else, and he’s daunted by it? Yeah. There’s something in there.

I loved everything about Jeremy Irons' Alfred. Seriously, everything. Tech guru, little less RP, little rougher around the edges, clearly has some scars of his own. Absolutely biting, even more than most incarnations, and gets all the best lines. Yes, keep that, it'll do.

I liked the voice changer... halfway. To me it makes way more sense than putting on a voice, which is a bit daft and way more variable. I just wouldn't have gone that heavy on the processing, so that Bruce sounded less like a hacker from 1999. I also thought it was a good way of representing how Bruce desperately tries to emotionally distance himself when he’s the Bat, and how his anger has made him colder.

Batman as just a rumour or an urban legend is great, and a wonderful contrast to Superman, who’s this bright, transparent... common god. Bruce never did it for credit, he did it to get it done. It’s stretching the bounds of credulity, sure, but in this strange, semi-operatic storytelling with heavy myth feel, it makes a bunch of sense thematically.

Bruce meeting Martha Kent, and their first meeting being him saving her life. Even this broken-down Batman who thinks he’s a mess. Actually, just more Martha in the DCEU in general.  I mean, I get why they didn't lean into it so much because they maybe wanted Bruce and Clark to feel more like equal peers, rather than Bruce being too dadly, but... god, again, more Martha. In JL, in something, if nothing else. Martha who's lost a son (Jason); Martha who later has a son in another city trying to do good and is worried as hell about them (Dick's canonically in Bludhaven PD at this point); Martha who is one of about five people in the world who knows who Batman is and hasn't spilt that information; Martha who saw Bruce at the cemetery and might have some really interesting things to say to him, angry or forgiving; Martha who is one of the few people who's seen the good in the Bat (when Bruce himself couldn't)... Man, I was so, so glad that fic leaned into that. I would read a regular comic book of just Martha and Bruce Being Reluctant Friends and Worrying A Little About Their Kids, But Maybe In An Enemies-To-Friends Way Because Holy Shit You Had A Fucking Spear What the Fuck.

No, really, wait, I’m going to go on about Martha again.  The scenes in BvS where she was basically saying, "God, don't kill yourself for them, come home, if they're gonna hate you they don't deserve you..." On the one hand she could've been a contrasting voice to Jon, but this way also makes sense. "I know you want to help but please don't kill yourself..." It was always both parents in the comics who affected him equally, even if the Donner films had his father's death, iirc. It was Martha who pushed to keep him, Jon who taught him not to break people and show off, Martha who taught him how to cook and be gentle with things and in Superman: Birthright, which MoS is heavily, badly based upon (I love that miniseries, time to read it again) she researches alien sightings in the hope he won't be alone. I get why they went for a more "grounded" Kryptonian uniform thing, but Martha made his costume, in the original canon. In all canons, she was a huge help in creating the "Clark Kent" persona (yeah, sure, maybe a woman would have something to say about making yourself quiet and shrinking in a room and having to look helpful and nonthreatening all the time, but Snyder and Goyer were never gonna be the kind of people to explore that and even Waid, whom I love, barely touches on it). Every other film or comic book is crap, dead, or crap and dead dads. Clark's relationship with his mother and father is hugely important.

Getting to see Bruce doing the society beat, and just a little more philanthropy would've been great. You don't have time to build that character? Sure, OK. Take out the Flash dream sequence and the sleeping-with-random-women, maybe don't have a totally unnecessary but kinda hilarious shower scene, and replace it with some identity weirdness where Bruce and Clark are stuck interacting as civilians a little more. Or something about what the hell happened with Jason and the manor, though I don't mind most of it being unexplained. There, still building character, still serving a purpose, you can fit a brief scene into your three hour movie. Civil War had a ton of "Steve Rogers and Tony Stark brood or sit in rooms talking to each other."

If they were going to throw away all the secret-identity potential, they could at least have done it interestingly. That scene at the gala made it clear how hard they both had to act, and Jesus, the idea of Clark eventually, finally finding someone else who has to lie and cut off what they can do, who has to bumble almost the way he does... That could've been interesting and also maybe worried the shit out of him. Or made him want to talk to this crazy billionaire who goes round combat-booting people in the face and try and get what his deal was, which could've led to more interesting misunderstandings. 

And then there's Diana, who's not a bumbler but a "nothing to see here, rich eccentric" type too (no wonder she and Bruce had weird insane chemistry in that "sizing each other up/I know exactly what you are" way), and why the hell does Clark basically never see her? I actually don't mind the whole "she's only here for her photo and never meant to get involved, so she's only needing to chase Bruce," that makes sense, but after Doomsday?! In Justice League?! She understands what it is for the world to be frightened of you, resistant to you, the urge to go and hide where it's safe with your family, the loneliness. I mean, just imagine MoS!Clark meeting her and the goddamn relief of it. And the way it could've played off the whole Jonathan Kent is a creepy "kill em all" weirdo now thing, if they insisted on keeping it.

Similarly, please god please show Clark being a journalist more. Perry chewing him out more. A mild hint of office politics. That's the perfect place to leaven a rough film with a dose of humour. People wouldn't have been so bothered by "Is she with you?", which is actually not that terrible a line next to some Marvel "zingers", except for it being so tonally inconsistent. A gentle thread, a few moments of it. Maybe have Clark save someone and have to scrabble to keep his identity a secret, like in MoS - maybe a minute, you could go for some physical humour or a mild sight gag. Obviously, this'd be pre-bombing the courthouse. Relatedly... 

Take out Nairomi and the branding. They serve very little purpose, story-wise, basically never come back into the plot, and only serve to make Clark and Bruce look like dicks unnecessarily when if you want to inject flaws, you have a ton of opportunities to do it with how they deal with people and their loved ones, how they deal with perps, and their brooding moments. 

Seriously, Bruce kicking the shit out of people and investigating shipments from the Black Zero and World Engine crashes would be enough to worry and piss off Clark, as would the whole "I am the night"/lack of transparency shtick. I mean, for a start, John Byrne retconned their first meeting that way in the 80s and that issue is actually great (Clark is trying to arrest Bruce when they meet, because he's young and idealistic and maybe a little up himself and he's been Supes for about five and a half minutes). Look: Clark is being revered and hates it. He blames himself for Black Zero, at least a little. He has excellent reason to be desperately projecting brightly-coloured not-a-threat and also hate that someone else is terrorising a city and violence is being revered, especially when Metropolis and Gotham are still so raw. I mean... Snyder and Goyer did the fucking stupid offensive 9/11 comparisons. Look at how that affected people and still does to this day; emotions run bloody high, and the entire point of Clark is that he's still human and terrified and guilty. And with Wallace O’Keefe and all the threatening notes... look, there's already a good plot in there! 

Meanwhile, Luthor clearly knows Bruce has been sniffing around the K shipments and could've just tipped off Clark about that as well, saying, "He clearly is gonna use it for his own power, and with how sinister and opaque and violent he's already been, he's gonna hurt people." Having his heritage used against people is one of Clark's worst nightmares, it was implied pretty clearly in MoS, and you'd still have the righteous anger. No branding needed. Kryptonian artefacts and the entire masked violent vigilantism are already enough "this is someone who thinks he's above people and can decide their lives" to piss Clark off. He could even investigate that as himself rather than Supes. You need it to be an unanon tip-off and Keefe wouldn't have access to that information? Sure, OK, just filter it through Mercy Graves and make her a "worried confidential source." I mean, she's in the movie and completely wasted. Why not actually, you know, do something with her? Clark wants to believe the best in people, and he might dislike Luthor personally, but he doesn't know Luthor's out to get him yet - or wouldn't, if the writing was better. Again, Birthright, the text Goyer repeatedly ripped from, did this brilliantly. The brand... it's overkill. Grimdark overkill.

I actually... look, I had a really fun, if baffled, time with this movie, but goodness I’d like to see what it could’ve been. And now all the film sites are waving goodbye to Batfleck again while running DC retrospectives due to Birds of Prey, and Cavill’s blue tights are in doubt, it seemed like as good a time as any.

[sojourne]

Triple Threat

Pairing: Michael Langdon x Duncan Shepherd x Jim Mason x Reader

Plot: As happy as you were that your mother finally found herself a man, you were less than enthusiastic about your three new step-brothers, Michael, Duncan and Jim. They were loud, obnoxious, and unfortunately for you, extremely attractive.

It gets even worse when Summer break starts, and you four end up home alone for an entire week while your mom and their dad go on vacation. What are you four gonna do to pass the time?

The answer is apparently have a giant orgy.

Warnings: Alternate Universe (College), Alternate Universe (Step-Siblings), Step-Sibling Incest, Foursome, Voyeurism, Masturbation, Vibrators, Anal Sex, Vaginal Sex, Oral Sex, Triple Penetration, Degradation, Dirty Talk, 

Notes: Hey, so for personal reasons I've decided to go completely fucking feral and write a bunch of nasty shit. Also I've never written for Jim before and I refuse to watch TToPV because I'm a big baby so if he's OOC, oops I guess lmao

Tag List: @divinelangdon @Kaigitana @avesatanormalpeoplescareme @icylangdon @lvngdvns @wroteclassicaly @langdonsinferno @bbyduncan 

Ever since your parents had gotten divorced, you had hoped that your mom would find someone new, someone to love her and cherish her the way she deserved, and to be a father figure to you in a way your real dad never was.

But when the time did come where your mom found someone, you suddenly found yourself quickly changing your mind about the situation. Your mother had found someone that was kind, loving and doted on both of you, giving you anything you had ever wanted, and it was almost perfect.

Almost perfect, besides the fact that you now had not one, not two, but three step brothers. At first you were excited, being an only child your entire life you thought it would be nice to finally have someone to be there to hang out with, to joke around and spend time with.

And then you actually met them. They were loud, brash, obnoxious and rude. Well, except for the youngest, Jim, but even though he was nicer than his older brothers, he was still a troublemaker and would never hesitate to throw a pillow at you from across the room or put a piece of ice down the back of your shirt when your parents weren’t looking.

Another problem was that you had lived relatively close to the college you were attending, and had decided to stay at home instead of living in dorms or getting an apartment. It was a perfect arrangement, until of course your step-brothers moved in. You were fairly well-off money wise, so everyone got their own room, but you still hated having to live under the same roof as them.

Especially considering they were all, much to your chagrin, extremely attractive. You couldn’t help but stare at them whenever one came out of the bathroom, soaking wet after a shower with nothing but a thin towel hanging low on their hips. Your bedroom was right across from the bathroom, so you had to see them like that a lot more than you wanted to.

Yet another issue was that your bedroom was smack-dab in between the two oldest brothers, Michael and Duncan’s rooms. Your house was nice, but the walls were still thin, and you could hear literally every sound coming from their room. You could hear them blasting their music loudly at all hours of the day (and night), you could hear them laughing obnoxiously at each other, you could hear them fighting with each other, and worst of all, you could hear them getting off.

At first, it had disgusted you, knowing that they were touching themselves literally right next door to you, but after a while you had gotten used to it and, as much as you hated it, started to like hearing them. You knew that realistically, it wasn’t exactly wrong, considering you weren’t related to them by blood and hadn’t even grown up with them, but you were still terrified by the thought of someone, especially them, finding out.

You had eventually gotten used to most of the boys’ antics, but as soon as Summer break started, and all four of you were home at the same time, it had gotten a infinitely worse. It was the very first day of Summer break and as soon as you came downstairs, shit was already hitting the fan.

Your parents were nowhere to be seen, Michael and Duncan were fighting, and Jim was trying to eat his cereal in peace, looking like he wanted to go back to bed already.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jim yelled after a strawberry flew across the kitchen table, landing in his bowl of cereal.

“Sorry man, I was aiming for Michael’s big ugly head,” Duncan explained, Michael had scoffed loudly and, by the look of pain on Duncan’s face, kicked Duncan under the table. You rolled your eyes, shuffling into the kitchen and opening the cupboards, looking for something to eat.

“Oh, the princess has finally awakened from her slumber,” Michael said dramatically, smirking when you turned and glared at him over your shoulder.

“It’s Summer break, shouldn’t you morons be off having fun somewhere? Bothering someone else that’s not me?” You asked, not even turning around to look at them as you continued digging through the cupboards.

“Nah, this is way more fun,” Duncan said, tossing a strawberry at the back of your head. You sighed loudly as the fruit fell to the floor, rolling under the counter. You bent down to pick it up, knowing that if you didn’t no one else would and it would just rot.

You yelped in shock when you suddenly felt a light swat on your ass, immediately standing up and whirling around, face burning and eyes wide. Duncan was staring at you with an obnoxious grin on his face, and you immediately knew it was him.

“Duncan, what the fuck?” You hissed, the brunette chuckling before turning back to his breakfast.

“Sorry, couldn’t help myself,” he mumbled, a smug look of satisfaction on his face.

“You’re disgusting, we’re supposed to be siblings, so fucking act like it,” you muttered at him, still glaring at him.

“Oh, are we? That doesn’t seem to stop you from staring at us when we come out of the bathroom after a shower,” Michael said smoothly, eyeing you. Jim merely sat there, watching you three fight.

You felt your cheeks heat up even more, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.

“Yeah, well at least I don’t spend all night jacking off and moaning. You and Michael know I can fucking hear you, right?” You yelled at Duncan, the man in question biting his lower lip an attempt to stop laughing.

“Yeah? Did you never get the memo that jacking off is a good stress reliever? You should try it some time, maybe after cumming a few times you’ll relax and stop being such a stuck up bitch,” Duncan said smugly before turning away.

You groaned loudly in annoyance, choosing to ignore him as you finally found some cereal, pouring yourself a bowl before sitting down at the table next to Jim, wanting to be as far away from Michael and Duncan as possible.

Apparently they weren’t done bothering you yet, though, as Duncan looked up from his food, smirking at you.

“When was the last time you came, anyways? You’re so pissed off lately, I think it might help,” Duncan said, Michael chuckling as he saw your pissed off and flustered expression.

“Th-that’s none of your buisiness!” You hissed, narrowing your eyes at the two men sitting across from you. Michael gave you a sympathetic look, and at first you thought he was going to say something kind, but those thoughts were quickly dashed as soon as he opened his mouth.

“Dear, do you even know how?” he said, Duncan slapping his hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter. Meanwhile Jim just sighed softly, rubbing his temples, very clearly agitated with you and his brothers’ bickering.

“Of course I fucking know how, jackass,” you said, taking a bite of cereal and glaring at him.

“It’s okay if you don’t, there’s no need to be embarrassed,” Michael said, giving you a sarcastic smile.

“Why are we even talking about this? Why does it matter?” you ask, Duncan and Michael shrugging.

“How else are we supposed to entertain ourselves while mom and dad are on vacation?” Duncan asked, causing you to pause.

You stared at the two men in front of you, blinking in confusion.

“What do you mean vacation?” you asked nervously, eyes darting between the two.

“Yeah, they were gonna tell you but you didn’t get up early enough before they left for their flight, they’re gonna be gone for like a week,” Jim said through a mouthful of cereal, shrugging.

“Why am I just now hearing about this?” You ask in agitation, looking between the three men.

“Cause you slept in late, dummy,” Jim said, yelping when you kicked him under the table.

“Fuck, I’m done with this, I’m going back up to my room,” you huffed, abruptly standing and retreating from the kitchen, trying to ignore their laughter. You immediately went back up to your room, slamming your door and flopping down onto your bed.

You couldn’t believe that your mom never even mentioned that she was going somewhere, leaving you alone, at home, with those three idiots. You groaned, rolling over and burying your head into the pillow, wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep.

At this point you weren’t even upset with them, you were more upset with yourself for letting them get to you like that. You could barely even comprehend that you were just talking about masturbation with your trio of hot step-brothers, your face heating up as you remembered their words, the way Michael and Duncan stared at you as they asked you when you had last cum.

You huffed, rolling over again to stare up at the ceiling. You hated how much you were affected by their words, how flustered you got, how wet it made you to hear them degrading you like that. One of your hands absentmindedly slid down over your chest before moving down to your stomach, brushing over the hem of your pants.

You looked around the room, biting your lower lip. You figured that they would either be downstairs all day or maybe even leave to go hang out with friends, so you felt relatively sure that they would leave you alone for the rest of the day, or at least until dinner time.

You sighed, having made up your mind. You rolled over, yanking open the bottom drawer of your nightstand and pulling out your vibrator, taking one last look at your closed bedroom door before you reached down to tug off your shorts and underwear, exposing your lower half completely.

You flicked the device on, comforted by the soft hum it made as you trailed it down, gently swiping the tip across your entrance. You sighed, resting your head back on the pillow and reaching up with your other hand to tug your shirt and bra up, before cupping one of your breasts in your hand, tweaking the nipple while you drug the vibrator against your entrance, teasing yourself.

You moaned softly when you finally brought the toy up to press against your clit, hips bucking as a wave of pleasure washed over you. You continued pinching and twisting your nipples with one hand while the other rolled the vibrator over your clit, occasionally moving it down to tease your entrance.

You tried to think of someone else, someone from college, a hot celebrity, anyone to get your mind off of your step-brothers but every time you tried your thoughts immediately came back to them, imagining them pushing you down onto the bed, their cocks rutting into you and the dirty things they would say to degrade you.

“Please, Michael, Duncan, Jim, please,” you panted breathlessly, now fully immersed in your fantasy as you bucked your hips upwards, seeking more pleasure as you reached down with your free hand to press your fingers against your entrance, gasping as you finally realized how wet you were.

You whimpered as you quickly shoved two fingers inside, curling them up to try and hit that spot that made your body tremble. You spread your legs further, grinding your soaked cunt against your hand, wanting to feel your fingers as deep inside as possible.

Just as you were about to cum, you heard a soft chuckle coming from your doorway, immediately snapping you out of your fantasies as you stopped, looking up to see Duncan, Michael and Jim standing in your doorway, staring at you.

“Well look at that, she really does know how to get off,” Duncan murmured, and you immediately squeaked, turning your vibrator off and pulling your blankets up over your body, panting as you stared at the three men who were staring at you hungrily.

“Wh-what the fuck are you doing in my room?” You asked, trying to ignore the way all three of them were looking at you.

“Well, Jimmy here came up to go to the bathroom when he heard some interesting noises coming from your room,” Duncan explained, taking a few steps towards your bed.

“Said noises included you moaning like a bitch in heat and saying our names,” Michael said, moving towards the bed along with Jim, all three of them now standing in front of you, staring at you with smug looks on their faces.

“It’s-it’s not what it looks like, I was just…” you mumbled, looking away out of embarrassment, not wanting them to see how turned on you were.

“You were just what? Moaning your step-brothers names while you pressed that little toy up against your pussy? Even after scolding us earlier, telling us that we’re your siblings, so we should act like it?” Duncan asked, crawling onto your bed slowly.

You whimpered softly, pressing yourself down into the mattress as he leaned over you, staring down at you.

“Cause Y/N, good little sisters don’t touch themselves while thinking about getting dicked down by their brothers,” Duncan whispered, his face now inches away from yours.

Your eyes fluttered shut and you let out a shaky breath, turning away from him and trying to ignore the way your body was reacting to his filthy words.

“If you don’t want us here just tell us and we’ll leave and never bother you again. But I don’t think that’s what you want, is it Y/N?” Michael chimed in, smirking down at you. You looked between Michael, Duncan and Jim before swallowing the lump in your throat, licking your lips.

“I don’t… I don’t want you to leave,” you said softly, barely loud enough for them to hear. As soon as he heard you they were all on you like wild animals, Duncan yanking the blankets down and grabbing your legs, keeping them spread open while Michael and Jim crawled onto the bed, grabbing at your tits.

You moaned in surprise as you felt Duncan run his hand against your cunt, pressing two fingers inside of you and curling them towards him, hitting the spot you were struggling to reach earlier. You fell back against the bed, gasping and whimpering as he started a harsh rhythm, finger-fucking you roughly as Jim leaned down to take one of your nipples into his mouth, nipping it gently with his teeth.

“Are you gonna be a good girl for us, Y/N? Let us fuck you nice and hard?” Duncan growled down at you, smiling in satisfaction when you quickly nodded your head, still grinding your hips up against his hand.

“I wonder if you could take all of us at once, hm?” Michael purred, his hand still massaging your breast and tweaking your nipple. You groaned, biting your lower lip as Jim continued suckling your other nipple, occasionally biting at it gently.

“I can- fuck- I can try,” you mewled, Michael smiling down at you before sliding off the bed, making you whimper at the loss of his hand on your chest.

“In that case, I’ll be right back,” he said, quickly exiting the room and disappearing down the hallway. You moaned loudly as Duncan’s thumb suddenly pressed against your clit, the brunette sliding a third finger inside of you at the same time Jim leaned up, pressing a sloppy kiss to your neck.

Michael soon came back, holding a bottle of lube in his hand. He crawled back onto your bed, helping you tug off your shirt and bra before moving to sit behind you.

“Get on your hands and knees for me, baby,” Michael said, chuckling at the way you whimpered when Duncan pulled his fingers out of your cunt. You quickly moved into position, biting your lower lip and glancing at him over your shoulder.

Michael flipped the cap open, squirting a decent amount of lube onto his hand and rubbing his fingers together before moving them to your ass, pressing against your tight hole. You jumped slightly at the cold and foreign feeling, shuddering as one of his fingers pressed inside.

Duncan moved out of the way so that Jim could take his place in front of you, leaning down and pressing his lips against yours to distract you. You moaned into his mouth as Michael pushed his finger past the tight ring of muscle, making you let out a high pitched moan into Jim’s mouth.

“That’s a girl, just relax for me, let your big brother take care of you,” Michael purred, beginning to thrust and twist his finger around inside of you. You moaned, a shiver running through your body at the fact that he called himself your brother. You knew they weren’t actually your brothers and weren’t related to you, but knowing how taboo this was caused your cunt to clench, wanting something inside of it.

You groaned as he slowly pushed in a second finger, Jim swallowing your moans and whimpers as he pressed his tongue into your mouth, Duncan reaching over to tweak and pinch one of your nipples. Michael scissored and spread his fingers inside of you, chuckling when you pressed your ass back against him.

“Eager little slut, are we?” Duncan purred, giving a particularly hard pinch to your nipple that made you squeak. Michael eventually inserted a third finger, trying to be as gentle as possible as he worked your ass open. You whined, feeling a strange full sensation as his fingers reached deep inside of you, making your body shake.

Michael thrust his fingers in and out of you a few more times before applying more lube, working it inside of you before finally pulling his fingers out, causing you to whimper at the loss. Your stomach clenched anxiously as you heard Michael begin undoing his belt buckle, sliding it off before kicking his pants and boxers off, tossing them to the floor.

“C’mon, sit back on my lap,” Michael said, gripping your hips and pulling you back towards him. You broke away from your kiss with Jim, panting as Michael lifted you up effortlessly, holding you above his length. You whimpered, looking down at his cock with wide eyes.

“A-are you gonna fit?” You whined, Michael chuckling in response.

“You’re a good little whore, I’m sure you can make it work,” Duncan groaned, palming himself through his pants. You whined as you felt the head of Michael’s cock pressing against your hole, before slowly pressing inside.

You shifted around uncomfortably as he slowly entered you, whispering encouragement’s into your ear as he slid you down onto his cock. You whimpered at the foreign sensation inside of you, your muscles clenching and unclenching as you tried to get used to it.

“Atta girl, take his cock,” Jim muttered, licking his lips and staring at you in awe. Michael groaned as he finally bottomed out inside of you, panting against your neck.

“How’s she feel, Michael? Tight?” Duncan asked, starting to unbuckle his pants.

“Like a fucking vice,” Michael growled against your neck, grinding his hips against you and making you moan. As Duncan worked on getting undressed Michael slowly pulled out, before lowering you back down onto his cock. You whined, leaning back against him and nuzzling into his neck, Michael chuckling.

“Clingy little thing, aren’t you?” Michael mumbled, continuing to pump his hips against your ass in a slow rhythm, letting you get used to the feel of his cock sliding in and out of you. You gasped when you suddenly felt Duncan’s hand on your legs, spreading them as he moved himself into position, his heavy cock pressing against your cunt.

“You gonna be a good little slut and take both of us inside? Let us fuck you open?” Duncan asked, staring down at you. You nodded, spreading your legs as far as possible as Michael pulled most of the way out.

You groaned when Duncan pressed the head of his cock against your entrance, slowly pushing it inside. You whined loudly at the added pressure, your eyes fluttering closed as Duncan slowly slid into you, making you feel fuller than you’ve ever been.

You moaned loudly when Duncan suddenly pushed forward, sliding his entire cock into you in one thrust. You panted, whimpering and grabbing the bedsheets, overwhelmed with the pleasure of having both of them inside of you at once, filling you completely.

“Fucking shit, you’re so tight,” Duncan growled, his hips twitching up against yours. They started a slow rhythm, Michael mostly staying still as Duncan began pumping his hips against you, pulling out halfway before slamming back inside.

“What do you think your mom would say to this, hmm Y/N? Knowing that her little girl was letting her step-brothers split her ass and her cunt open on their cocks?” Michael growled, gripping your hips tightly as he moved you up and down his cock, Duncan still buried deep inside of you.

“She- she would probably say the same thing as you dad, if he found out his sons were balls deep in their step-sister,” you taunted back, Michael and Duncan growling in response.

“Jimmy, why don’t you come over here and shut our sisters filthy mouth up with your cock, yeah?” Duncan asked, not even sparing Jim a glance, too caught up in the feeling of your wet cunt squeezing around him.

Jim quickly pulled down his pants and boxers, kicking them off before moving towards you, kneeling down on next to you and gripping your hair, turning your head to face him. You whimpered as he pressed the head of his cock against your lips, the tip already leaking precum.

“Open,” Jim groaned, gripping your hair in one hand and his cock with the other. You opened your mouth, staring up at him and groaning at the dark look in his eyes.

“F-fuck, that’s a good girl,” Jim gasped loudly as you took him inside your mouth, your tongue pressing against the underside of his cock as you began bobbing your head, the feeling of Duncan and Michael pounding into you enough to distract you from the need to gag.

You were completely overwhelmed with pleasure, whimpering and whining as the three men used you, fucking into you and spreading you open for them, their cocks pulsing and twitching inside of your tight heat.

“Fuck, she’s gonna cum soon, I can feel her cunt clenching around us,” Michael groaned, his thrusts growing sloppy. Duncan nodded, continuing to pound into you, sending waves of pleasure through your body.

“Is that right, whore? You gonna cum on your big brothers cocks?” Duncan taunted, reaching up to twist and pinch one of your nipples, eliciting even more whimpers from your throat. Jim groaned at the feeling of your whimpers and groans around his cock, your throat fluttering around him as you tried your best to breath through your nose.

You nodded frantically as best you could, bobbing your head against Jim’s cock and grinding your hips down against Michael and Duncan, wanting them to be as deep inside of you as possible.

“Dunc, use that,” you heard Jim groan breathlessly, motioning to something behind you that you couldn’t see. You heard Duncan chuckle, felt him move slightly to grab something before you felt the vibrator you had been using earlier pressing against your clit and switching on.

You immediately cried out, your orgasm hitting you like a wave as you tensed up, shaking as you clenched around them, leaning forward to take as much of Jim’s cock into your mouth as you could.

“Fucking shit!” Jim growled, gripping your hair and fucking his hips against you as he spilled himself down your throat, his hips twitching. Michael and Duncan came soon after, groaning loudly and cursing. Michael bit your neck harshly to muffle his moans, Duncan biting into the other side, panting as his hips snapped against yours, he and Michael’s cocks pulsing and twitching inside of you.

Jim pulled out of your throat, allowing you to finally take in a breath of air. He slumped down onto the bed, panting loudly. You whimpered as Duncan and Michael finally pulled out of you, making you feel strangely empty. Both of them flopped down onto the bed next to you, completely worn out.

You all sat in silence for what felt like hours, before Duncan finally spoke.

“So how long are mom and dad gone? Like a week?” He asked, still trying to catch his breath.

“Yeah,” Jim muttered, glancing over at Duncan.

“Well, that gives us plenty of time to dick down our pretty step-sister,” Michael murmured, running his fingers through your hair. You snuggled closer to him as Duncan slung his arm over your stomach, effectively trapping you between them.

“I guess them going on vacation isn’t such a problem after all,” you mumbled, all three of them chuckling.

This was gonna be a long week.

[trueslove]

✧･ﾟ: * (  park jiwon  ,  cis  female ,  she / her  )  have  you  seen  violet  hwang  around  ?   i  hear  the  twenty-one  year  old  is  working  as  an  art  director  .  did  you  know  they  have  97  love  alarm  points  ?  if  they  ever  want  to  be  truly  loved  someday  they  should  ease  up  on  being  temperamental  &  enigmatic  .  at  least  you  can  say  they’re  disarming  &  convivial,  too.  /  love alarm blocked

                     hello  !  im  xan  and  ur  watching  d*sney  channel ...  just  kidding  we  do  NOT  support  big  corporations  who  just  wanna  take  ur  money  😔  im  22  ,  from  the  est  timezone  (  even  though  my  sleeping  schedule  ...  does  not  reflect  that  sjbdwjkbdjdw  )  &  i  go  by  she  /  her  pronouns  !  im  gonna  be  honest  this  intro  is  gonna  be  completely  winged  so  buckle  up  ....  and  meet  violet  😋 

━  ˙ ˖  ☆     quick stats + aesthetics  !

full name: violet hwang. 

nickname(s): vee, vivi.

zodiac: tba....

sexuality: bisexual.

birthplace: manhattan, new york.

current residence: toronto, canada.

aesthetics: maraschino cherries at the bottom of a glass, driving with the windows down at night, unanswered text messages, black nail polish, the sound of rain hitting the windowpane, kissing and not telling, smiles that don’t quite reach the eyes.

━  ˙ ˖  ☆     backstory ! 

was born and raised in nyc baby ! she’s a true city girl, grew up in lower manhattan ( the financial district if u wanna get specific ) to a family with lots of $$$$ thanks to her father’s position as a ceo of an investment bank located on wall street 

life was pretty smooth until she was 17 and her father got arrested for embezzlement and fraud </3 it was actually a huge scandal for the investment bank he worked for because it was a whole group of higher ups who had been in on these crimes. basically a bunch of already rich men trying to get richer ... disgusting ik /: 

her life changed pretty drastically after that ! the hwang name was all over the news, their family was pretty much disgraced by high society in nyc, not a very fun time for anyone but especially not for violet’s mom 

after her dad got arrested violet was uhh high key furious with him for ruining their lives with his greed and she wanted nothing to do with him, but her mom couldnt let go. she was still defending him, spending the money they had left on lawyers which included the money the family had set aside for violet’s trust fund that she would have had access to once she was 18 </3

 so her plans for college changed pretty drastically JSDBJWBDJW ( goodbye ivy league education ) she actually ended up getting into the university of toronto for visual studies on an academic scholarship 

so she made the big move all on her own....moved into a tiny dorm...and vowed to reinvent herself. she didnt wanna be labeled as the daughter of a white collar criminal anymore so she just made it a point not to talk to much abt her past to anyone 

her struggles as someone who grew up with $$$$ turning into a broke college student made for some embarrassing but funny moments <3 luckily though everyone else had their own struggles so no one found it suspicious JSBDJWBDJ

when love alarm launched three years ago, violet had just started college so it was really the Big thing anyone and everyone was talking about. since she’d never been a fan of other dating apps, she wasn’t gonna download it but her roommate at the time convinced her ! at first it was fun, just something she didnt take too seriously 

fast forward to graduation and she’s snagged a job as an art director for a little local museum, doing freelance art directing on the side to help pay the bills. low and behold one day a photographer hires her to be the art director to a shoot they’re doing for a badge club member who was in a very high profile and public relationship at the time

violet ended up working with that photographer and badge club member a handful of times, enough for her to catch fee-🤢 catch feelin-🤢 i cant even say it .. she’d never rung anyone’s love alarm before, so of course her first time had to be with someone who was already taken </3 safe to say she ... freaked out 

she was embarrassed above all else, but also heartbroken bc in her head like ... why would someone who literally is part of an exclusive club based on ppl ringing their love alarm care that she rung theirs ? she didnt think it’d be a big deal to them the way it was to her ( but also didn’t stick around long enough to find out jsxbsjbdjw ) 

when she was offered the block she didn’t hesitate to use it figuring it’s better if no one knows her romantic feelings ever again like that /: she’d delete the app but a part of her still likes knowing there are ppl out there who DO like her like that so ... Rip truly 

━  ˙ ˖  ☆     personality + tidbits !

she comes across as ... kind of a bitch SDJBJWBJWBDW it’s truly not on purpose she just has a pretty serious resting expression most of the time ( so she looks mad or annoyed even when she isn’t ) and she’s pretty difficult to get to know ? not to mention the fact that no one has ever witnessed her ring someone’s love alarm .. so all that combined just makes it easy to assume she’s some sort of ice queen when that’s far from the truth /: 

violet really isn’t one to open up too deep to people, but that’s got a lot to do with the past she’s kind of running away from ! so if you’re her friend most of the stuff you know about her is probably surface stuff, but when she’s close to someone she can make that fact hard to realize ? she just has a way with making the people in her life feel important so it’s easy not to be focused on how much you know about her 

never bothers to correct the people that misjudge her. if you don’t like her, if you want to make up assumptions and rumors about her, go ahead like violet really won’t stop you which can sometimes make meeting new people difficult </3 if you’ve seen the dating class webdrama chuu was in she’s kinda like oh seyoung’s chara joowon 🤧

if she wants to, though, she’s pretty good at getting people to like her / trust her ! she does this a lot in professional situations, which is why she’s been doing so well as an art director so far despite being so young 

she’s also very loyal to her friends ! if you can’t ask for extra sauces at mcdonald’s....if you can’t make a phone call to your credit card company explaining that a $3,000 charge to starbucks wasn’t you.....she’s your girl <3 since she’s relatively not bothered by the way people see her ( unless it has to do with her past ) she’s usually the one speaking up if someone she cares about can’t 

after the ... incident ... JSDBWJDBWJ she’s really not a fan of the badge club and everything it stands for ): BUT she continues to do art directing work for a lot of the members when they do photoshoots, or instagram campaigns, or if they have a pop up shop, etc. it’s good money and she needs every penny considering she’s living without support from her family 

cannot cook to save her life so she’s always eating out .. this really is why she’s taking those more high profile jobs she can’t budget .. but it’s better, safety wise at least, that she continues wasting her money on takeout aha <3 

pretends she’s not a romantic and is all about the ~casual flings~ but really she’s just afraid of serious feelings and the idea of a serious relationship ... it’s the trauma 😔 constantly jokes shes gonna bring the tinder whore era back JWDBWJBDJW she is sick of this true love nonsense ! ( the irony of this url ahaha... ) 

she’s the most social after a few drinks, since drunk her isn’t burdened by a mind that overthinks literally everything the way she is sober. if you don’t supervise her though she can get pretty carried away and probably get into some kind of trouble so she’s definitely not the person you want to be in charge on a night out !

really wants a dog but doesn’t think she’s cut out to be a pet parent it feels just as scary as the idea of having an actual kid so ... BDWBDJW if you have a pet ? she’s gonna be living vicariously through you <3 

━  ˙ ˖  ☆     wanted connections !

the photographer that hired her / introduced her to the badge club member she ended up having feelings for 

the badge club remember she had / has feelings for because we love suffering 😈

old roommates from college !! maybe even the one that got her to download love alarm in the first place hehehe

also a current roommate / roommates because your girl can’t afford to live on her own <3

someone she’s confided in about her past ( maybe they judged her for it and had a falling out, or maybe they remain confidants ) 

an ex bf or gf she dated while she was in school ! she never rang their love alarm ( even though this was pre block ) so maybe that’s why things ended between them. or maybe they never rang each others and it was just a mutual thing where they both didn’t really have feelings for each other and tried to date anyway and it didn’t work. or perhaps they dated and when violet realized she was starting to have those feelings she dipped before she ever got a chance to ring their love alarm bc she didn’t want to be exposed like that and commitment is scary ): 

spare best friend ? i’d use a knife emoji to show you how serious i am but i dont wanna scare anyone away aha .. i would just love a best friend plot 🥺

current flings / hookups or past flings / hookups ! i imagine most of them to not be serious but it would be kinda cool if there was someone she’s seeing now that she’s got the love alarm block that she’s actually falling for considering she’s never gonna be able to ring their love alarm hehehehe

people she art directs for !! i imagine she’s got a pretty long list of employers ( from badge club members to regular folk  🤧 ) so it would be cool to have people who hire her for stuff, or who collaborate with her for artistic endeavors since i’ve noticed we have a lot of artsy muses <3 

ummm maybe an enemy. but where it’s like .. the hate isn’t even that deep it’s just like oh you dislike me ? well i dislike you FIRST 😠 and they insult each other and try and sabotage each other like five year olds fighting on the playground like it seems super serious to them but to everyone watching it’s like ... can you guys just get over it you dumb babies KSDBSDBWD like they could probably be good friends if they just .. stopped 

and you’ve reached the end of this NOVEL of an intro post JDBJWBDJWBDW im literally so sorry i tried not to ramble but ..... its just who i am </3 please come shoot me a message to plot !!! you can use tumblr ims but im way more available / quicker to respond on discord so if u wanna add me there and plot u can find me at junhee mr. soft hands ʕ´• ᴥ•̥`ʔ#8172  i also did not check this post for typos so if u find one ... mind ur business 😭😭😭 

[redfield5x5]

Hi! Did you like the first episode of COIE? I thought it was solid. The only parts I found annoying were the Lena scenes. I don't watch Supergirl anymore, but I kinda know what's going on and went yikes watching her scenes. People are dying, get over yourself! I really enjoyed the Oliver and Sara scenes, I like that they always remember that this whole thing started with the two of them during the crossovers. (1)

hiii! glad you wrote me :) yes i did! i had so much FUN omg, like i mean tv wise. it was also sad and tragic, but really what a solid hour of tv! i’ve got lots of emotions phew

the lena scenes are the only ones i didn’t like too lol. but it’s a water is wet situation for me at this point. i *am* glad you know what’s going on there for sure tho!

sara and ollie scenes were really a highlight! i love how they keep bringing up the two of them and the gambit, so much yesss. it is true, we really wouldn’t be here if it didn’t happen. or, in the irl case, if the tv show didn’t work out haha. makes me very emo to think about it in any case :’)))

oh and kara and clark scenes were great, omg. LOVE.

though the kryptonians really have a major pod problem. i think those things arriving to their destination is honestly rarer than malfunctions lol

the best thing about legends is that they mix them all up in every possible way and it’s still convincingly awesome. like, ray and sara going alone to play trivia? why not, i could see it, it’s not weird. i love how they write friendships on legends :‘3 ccan’t wait to see more of the book club too.

it was great how they borrowed a page from legends and mixed up this crossover bunch a bit, having sara, brainy and lois go to e-16 together? SO cool. hope we’ll see more of this.

and gods legends travelling to another earth and time travelling there without even knowing back in 2016? i love a bunch of dumbasses :D honestly this plot move wasnn’t even necessary, for me personally, i was happy to go along with it being a future that just didn’t happen and changed. but them bothering to explain things was even better.

it’s so crazy, like, i kept saying they’ll raise the stakes by destroying earth-38 right away, but i did NOT see oliver’s death coming this soon! got me so emo too lol i keep expecting a catch, but maybe there won’t be any? to not devalue his sacrifice? but yeah the whole thing gave me chills.

if that bastard monitor didn’t teleport at least just kara or just barry away, the count of earth-38 survivors would’ve been much bigger. but i get why they did it that way, tv wise, with oliver. and honestly? it worked on me 100%.

i’m glad ollie was able to tell barry and kara he willingly went for them. they really, weirdly, don’t have too many people who would do this for them. it was so… idk tragically beautiful, you know? i love that they did find out how much he cares.

i tweeted the same question about the earth-16 oliver today too! i think it’s totally a possibility and it’s kind of cool? also this whole thing actually destroys my expectations of the crossover being all about oliver and it’s also cool? what a rollercoaster already!

honestly the only thing that really bothers me is that i want to know that cat grant was among those 3 billions who survived, from earth-38. they’ll need to mention it somehow, idk. it’s giving me anxiety. even if i still think they’ll restore earth-38 after defeating the anti-monitor in january. caring about some characters never really goes away for me.

but a solid amazing episode, if they keep it up it’s gonna be one of the best big crossovers, ever.

[nadziejastar]

Can we talk about true names, the recusant's sigil, and how renaming the members of Organization XIII was meant to be part of the destruction and reforging of their identities?

The Recusant’s Sigil and Xemnas’ True Goal: Filling in KH3′s Plot Holes and Proof That Isa Was Subject X

Recusant’s Sigil

Xemnas, leader of Organization XIII, gave new names to all who entered its ranks. Each name was an anagram created from the member’s original name plus the letter X.

This X is known as the Recusant’s Sigil, and has manifested itself in both obvious and insidious ways throughout Sora’s adventures.

It would be my pleasure. This is a subject that I feel incredibly passionate about. It really bothered me how this entire aspect of the story was just…unceremoniously dropped, as if it never existed in the first place. It was incredibly important to the plot. It was being built up for YEARS. The entire story now has this massive gaping hole, which makes it feel totally unfinished. Honestly, it’s really terrible storytelling.

Day 358: Goals

With luck, we can bring Roxas back into our fold, but even if Sora should awaken, as the hero of the Keyblade, he is bound to keep unlocking hearts. If he should come to target us, we need simply subdue him and use his powers ourselves once more. I must become one with Kingdom Hearts. I will become a higher existence. All of my true ambitions begin there.

I mean, all of Xemnas’s secret ambitions revolved around this concept. Without explaining this aspect of the story, none of Xemnas’ actions make any sense. Even while he was telling everyone he just wanted to regain his heart, his actual goal was to complete the artificial Kingdom Hearts for a different purpose.

Xemnas: But understand, one can banish the heart from the body, but the body will try to replace it the first chance it gets, for as many times as it takes. And so I knew, even after we were divided into Heartless and Nobodies, it was just a temporary separation.

He knew all along that Nobodies could regrow hearts. His KH2 goal was just a facade.

— Roxas, the “Sora + Ventus” Nobody, was able to use a Keyblade. In contrast Xemnas, the “Terra + Master Xehanort” Nobody, wasn’t able to use a Keyblade. Why is this?

I’d rather that point remain a mystery. It’s possible that he intentionally wasn’t using one.

Xemnas already had a heart, which is why he had the ability to use a Keyblade. He simply CHOSE not to, for some unspecified reason. This is the reason he needed Roxas and/or Xion around in the first place.

Xemnas: A heart is never lost for good. There may have been variances in our dispositions, but a number of us unquestionably showed signs of a burgeoning replacement. Once born, the heart can also be nurtured.

All the Organization members could regrow hearts. I would say that they ALL had “burgeoning replacements.” That’s why they all had distinct personalities, and why they could all “see” Xion.

Xigbar: Ha ha! Well no, apparently you don’t!

Saïx: Something you find amusing?

Xigbar: If people see with their hearts, Saïx, then you’re even blinder than the rest of us.

The only person hinted to be an exception was Saïx. Xigbar was certain that Isa’s heart was gone.

Sora: Why, then? Why did you lie to them and tell them they had no hearts?

Xigbar: Xemnas and Xehanort formed the Organization for a specific  reason–round up a bunch of empty husks, hook them up to Kingdom Hearts, then fill them all with the exact same heart and mind. Translation–they were gonna turn all the members into Xehanort.

Sora: Make more Xehanorts? You tricked your friends to… But you–aren’t you scared of just turning into someone else?

Xigbar: Me? I’m already half Xehanort.

Sora: That’s nuts…

What Xemnas actually wanted to do, was turn everyone in the original Organization XIII into Xehanort. In other words, overwrite their sense of self with his own.

Xemnas: However–through weakness of body…weakness of will…or weakness of trust–most of the original members we had chosen for the Organization were inadequate. Thus, naturally, they never had a chance to attain their goal. Yet, even this was to be expected.

Turning a unique and sovereign individual into an alter ego of Xehanort is no simple task. If the person is too weak, or they are too defiant of Xehanort’s will, it simply isn’t possible. And there are definitely not many people who would willingly sign up to become another Xehanort.

— What happens to the hearts of those who have had Master Xehanort’s heart planted within them?They’ll gradually be swallowed by it. As for Master Xehanort, he plans to control them completely. The planted parts of the heart are captured rather than disappear.

You’d have to be nuts like Braig to even consider letting your heart get swallowed by Xehanort. 

— Who are the thirteen researchers of darkness?

Thirteen seekers of darkness that share a consciousness and heart with Master Xehanort, serving as raw material for the X-Blade. In this game, they failed in their attempts to make Sora the 13th of their ranks, but who’s to become the 13th in his stead? And who are the six whose identities have not been revealed?

You lose your free will. Xehanort shares a heart and consciousness with you once he swallows your heart. As a Seeker of Darkness, you are simply “raw material”. A body. An object. A vessel. Your true self is annihilated to make room for Xehanort.

— What is the meaning of the ‘x’ in the Organization member’s names? Also, was adding the ‘x’ to their original names difficult?Nomura: It was Xemnas’s decision to add the ‘x’. I think the meaning will become clear in Birth by Sleep. Think of the circumstances of the Organization member’s names with an ‘x’ added. We came up with many name candidates the with ‘x’ added in together with the staff, we rack our brains while we consider them.

Xemnas added the Recusant’s Sigil to everyone’s name for a very specific reason.

Xehanort: “X”… A most ancient letter. Some say “kye,” but the meaning is the same. Death… A letter that spells endings.

It symbolizes the death of their original self, in preparation for them becoming another Xehanort—one of his 12 “selves”.

Day 7: Meaning

A name defines an object. Describes the span of it. Gives it purpose. We embarked upon the Replica Program to ensure our new power stays ours. Now, our shadow puppet, “No. i,” lives. It needs a name. Something to define it. To give the hollow vessel purpose.

—Xemnas

The “X” serves no purpose other than to symbolize Xehanort’s total control and authority over that person in every way. Body, mind, and heart. Quite frankly, it’s really creepy.

Saïx: Lord Xemnas has summoned us.

Xemnas: The time has arrived. Look to the skies! There hangs the heart of all hearts–Kingdom Hearts–shining down on us at last. See the countless hearts that have gathered? Hearts full of rage…hate…sadness…and bliss. There, in the sky, hangs the promise of a new world. My friends! Remember why we have organized–all the things we hope to achieve. The strength of the human heart is vast. Soon, though…we will have gained power over it! Never again will it…have power over us.

Xemnas recognized that the heart was the most powerful of all. Along with telling the Organization members that they would gain their heart back, he also promised them that they’d acquire some sort of mastery over the heart. However this idea is never explored.

Day 119: Hearts and Emotion

Watching that foolish beast flail about only deepens my disdain for humans and their incessant need to be pinned down by feelings. We became Nobodies precisely to avoid the shackles of emotion. It was only later that we realized the scale of that loss: that some things simply cannot be done without a heart. Nonetheless, I see nary a pleasant thing about it.

—Xaldin

Which members knew about the Organization’s true goal, besides Xigbar? While I doubt he actually knew the truth of Xemnas’ goal, given his rank as No. III, Xaldin is more likely than most. He willingly gave up his heart, while others clearly had it taken against their will. What exactly were members like Xaldin after? This is never explained. 

In KH3, Dilan acts all nice and happy to see Ansem the Wise. Yet he seemed very twisted and sinister, even before he became a Nobody. And KH3 backtracks on the idea that any of the apprentices had their hearts stolen. Ienzo is quick to assure the audience that they all gave up their hearts willingly, despite him being a small child at the time. How could he have made a meaningful choice regarding that matter?

— Were the members of Organisation XIII that grew hearts unsuitable as vessels for Xehanort?

That’s not necessarily the case, however the details are a secret.

Most of the Organization members were unworthy to be vessels in their natural state. That’s why Xemnas needed to complete Kingdom Hearts to achieve his aims. It’s the only way he could gain enough power to override someone’s free will and make them a vessel. Were Nobodies unusable because, despite losing their hearts, their minds are STILL too strong for Xehanort to take control of them? The exact process is never explained.

Xehanort: Your body submits, your heart succumbs–so why does your mind resist?

But since Terra’s mind put up such a fight, it’s not that hard to believe that a Nobody’s mind poses just as much of an obstacle as their heart.

Xemnas: We have learned of the heart’s folly, and we have achieved our other goals. This last excursion has proven to be a worthy closing assignment for the Organization.

Of course, the original Organization XIII was just one possible avenue that Xehanort was using. He had other plans, just in case that one fell through. This is why Xehanort was so confident while he bragged to Terra that he had “many roads open”.

Xemnas: Our experiments creating Heartless were attempts to control the mind, and convince it to renounce its sense of self.

And what did these experiments entail?

It is my duty to expose what this darkness really is. I shall conduct the following experiments:

Extract the darkness from a person’s heart.

Cultivate darkness in a pure heart.

Both suppress and amplify the darkness within.

The experiments caused the test subject’s heart to collapse, including those of the most stalwart. How fragile our hearts are! My treatment produced no signs of recovery. I confined those who had completely lost their hearts beneath the castle.

Some time later, I went below and was greeted by the strangest sight. Creatures that seemed born of darkness…What are they? Are they truly sentient beings? Could they be the shadows of those who lost their hearts in my experiments?

Manipulating the darkness in people’s hearts. This caused most of the subjects’ hearts to collapse. But why use darkness to control someone’s mind and get them to renounce their sense of self? Because if you can subject someone to trauma that is beyond their ability to cope, they will mentally dissociate in order to escape the pain. This leaves their body wide open for possession.

Riku: “Vessel”?

Xehanort: Yes. We originally had our sights set on you. But, you developed a certain…resistance to darkness. So we did what the Keyblade did, and moved down the list. Roxas… Now, there was a worthy candidate. But, unfortunately, he became too aware of himself, and returned to Sora. Organization XIII’s true goal is to divide Xehanort’s heart among thirteen vessels. Thanks to you and Sora, we learned not all our candidates were fit for the task. But, we managed to make up the difference. And now, Sora, the thirteenth vessel, is within our grasp.

Why was Roxas such a worthy candidate? Because he was a total zombie at first. He had no sense of self. Why did Sora need an “X” on his clothing during KH3D? Yes, it allowed him to be tracked, but it was also an important symbol. Terra, Aqua, and Ven all had the “X” on their clothing design. Riku happened to also have an “X” design on his KH1 outfit as well. As the new intended vessel, Sora needed it too.

Marluxia: You ignorant fool. If Naminé uses her powers to erase your memory, you’ll be nothing but an empty shell. Your heart will no longer be able to feel or to care. Just like—Vexen’s pathetic imitation of your Riku.

There’s another benefit to traumatizing a subject. If they survive the process, they will lose their memories. Memory is the main source of the ego, the “self”. Given severe enough trauma, the mind will create amnesiac barriers as a defense mechanism. This is so the person will not have to relive the memory of the trauma over and over again. 

This is why people who have been in serious car accidents usually do not remember the moment of impact, for example. To use a darker example, it’s also one of the reasons why the CIA developed Project MKUltra—a trauma-based mind control program, back in the 1950′s. In the KH universe, if person is totally devoid of memories, they are rendered an empty shell.

Marluxia: You’ve no chance of winning. Naminé… Erase Sora’s memory.

Naminé: But if I do that…

Marluxia: That’s right. Sora’s heart will be destroyed.

Going about it the wrong way risks their heart being destroyed, though. So even directly manipulating a person’s memories does not guarantee that they will become a successful vessel.

— There are still many mysteries surrounding Castle Oblivion. Was the castle itself constructed by the Organization and was Naminé originally a subject of the experiments going on there? Please tell us about the details of the Organization’s experiments. Also, was the pod Sora entered somehow related to the experiments done by the Organization? Was the pod in Twilight Town the same sort of thing?

In the end, the Organization’s goal is to obtain the Kingdom Heart’s of people’s hearts and to fully exist. These Nobodies are called “the Non-Existent Ones”. In order to assume a new existence, information about their own personal circumstances must first be gathered. A Nobody’s main characteristic is that without a heart they use memories to form the parts of a personality and emotions. For them, memories have become an essential element. The birth of Castle Oblivion itself is still a mystery but before the Organization was born into this world it was there. The Organization discovered this castle. You should be able to make some guesses from the additional scenes this time, and fairly quickly be able to think of the next stage.

At the same time Roxas awoke in Twilight Town, Naminé awoke in Castle Oblivion. Afterwards, the Organization discovered Naminé. The organization thought of Naminé’s gift to manipulate memories as a way to resolve the actual circumstances surrounding each of their abilities and attributes. The memories of those who enter were used in the experiments on memories going on there. Above all else, the Organization’s leader Xemnas was investigating the importance of memories. During these experiments, in order for these memories to be broken and then regenerated, those pods were made by the Organization. The pod Sora awoke from in Twilight Town and the pod Diz moved from Castle Oblivion to keep away from the Organization’s pursuit are the same thing. Also, there is an additional scene where Xigbar talks about the “true goal of Castle Oblivion” and when this particular scene appears, I think all mystery surrounding Castle Oblivion should become clear.

It seems like the Organization was tasked with studying memories for the same reason they were tasked with completing Kingdom Hearts. Even if they didn’t know that’s what they were doing at the time, they were furthering Xehanort’s aim to create vessels.  

I have made a grave mistake. My study of the “darkness of the heart” began with a simple psychological test and quickly snowballed. Spurred on by my youngest apprentice, Ienzo, I constructed a massive laboratory in the basement of my castle. Unbeknownst to me, my six apprentices then began collecting a large number of subjects on which to perform dangerous experiments into the “darkness of the heart.”

In fact, the darkness experiments originated as simple memory experiments. Ansem even uses quotation marks when he refers to the experiments on darkness of the heart. While he WAS interested in studying the darkness of the heart, he didn’t appear to view his experiments on Terranort that way. He was merely interested in helping him regain his lost past. It seems like Terranort’s experiments on darkness were entirely separate from Ansem’s research.

— The “Replica Plan” that was the key to this game, was it begun with Roxas’ entry into the Organization?

No, earlier than that. Originally Vexen was working privately to advance the research on Replicas, but for the Organization’s goal of completing “Kingdom Hearts of people’s hearts” they needed to use the Keyblade to recover hearts, so they switched to this plan of copying the Keyblade hero. As for who was or wasn’t told about the “Replica Plan”, that depended only on their different missions.

One other method to create vessels was to use replicas. Nomura said that they “switched” the focus of the Replica Program to copying the Keyblade wielder’s abilities. That’s not why the program was originally created. But at some point Xemnas decided to use replicas for something other than their intended function. 

Day 23: Research Entry 326

The Program is largely on target. No. i, my finest Replica, has proven an even greater success than anticipated. I intend to take the other vessel—judged unfit for number status–to Castle Oblivion, where I will subject it to further testing. One thing is clear: could these Replicas not be classified as a special sort of Nobody?

The Riku replica was the first one to be deemed a failure and unfit for number status, by Vexen himself. Why was he unsuitable as a member?

Day 194: The Replica

I thought I’d never see the word “Replica” again. Any rational man would realize the Riku Replica was not likely unique, but I’m the only one in the Organization who knew of his exceptional copying functionality, and that he ultimately formed a sense of self.

—Axel

Probably because he formed a sense of self.

Xemnas: Vexen oversaw the project at Castle Oblivion. However, our efforts were severely derailed by his unexpected demise. And this particular Replica–the one we called Xion–came to form an identity of her own.

When they are implanted with memories, even replicas will develop a sense of self. The heart and memory are inextricably linked, after all. All of this suggests that replicas were not really suitable as vessels, at least at the time of Vexen’s demise. They were more useful to Xemnas for their copying ability, and Xemnas prioritized that.

Xemnas: We wanted the Key. Xion’s exposure to Roxas effected a transfer of its power, just as we had hoped. Had things stopped there, Xion would have been an unequivocal success. But then, through Roxas, Sora himself began to shape “it” into “her,” giving Xion a sense of identity. I was ready to scrap the whole project… Then, it occurred to me: Xion is keeping Sora’s memories trapped by claiming them as her own. Keeping her close to Roxas will prevent Sora from ever waking.

After all, despite her success at copying Roxas’ powers, Xemnas admitted that he was ready to scrap the whole Replica project when Xion, like Riku, developed a sense of self. Without memories, replicas are just lifeless dolls, like the people whose hearts collapsed during the experiments, and Ventus at the beginning of BBS. They are useless as vessels. But even with memories, they are like any other person with a heart. This makes replicas no more suitable than humans as vessels. This is why it made NO sense for Xion to be the 13th vessel.

Xigbar: Sora is having a powerful effect on her.

Xemnas: Yes, it was not supposed to gain a mind of its own–nor become the person we see. But in the end, it only proves the puppet is the more worthy vessel. At last, the time has come. Saïx, are the devices ready?

Xaldin: Perhaps you’d care to enlighten us about this “pet project.”

Xion would only have been a viable vessel if the artificial Kingdom Hearts had been completed; the same as any of the other members, like Axel or Xaldin.

— Xigbar wasn’t told about it, but he seems to have found out on his own.

Even in Final Mix+, Xigbar was probing Zexion about the “Room of Awakening” - he was investigating various things on his own. He will be talked about again in Birth by Sleep.

Originally, Vexen worked alone on the Replica Program. Nobody else was told about it; not even Xigbar or Xaldin. Xemnas probably wanted to be as secretive as possible about his desire to create vessels. If any of the members found out his true goal—turning all of them into Xehanort—they would no doubt revolt. The question is, how much did Vexen know of Xehanort’s true aims? Is that why Even was so remorseful? Is that why he was kept away while Lea was looking for Isa in KH3D? Were the writers saving the confrontation between Even and Lea for later? I think so.

Goofy: Gawrsh, Lea sure hurried back to Radiant Garden, and now Master Yen Sid’s sending Riku away, too, on some mystery errand. Ya think we’ll ever get to do something important?

At the end of KH3D, Goofy says Lea hurried back to Radiant Garden. After the confrontation with Xehanort, he looked like something was really bothering him. He stood away from all of the others, completely lost in thought. His facial expression was severe. He just returned after saving Sora, who almost became the 13th vessel. He would now know what Xehanort’s current goal is…and what the original goal of Organization XIII was all along.

Every member was to become a vessel, himself included. The entire time that he was in the Organization, he was told he was working to eventually get his heart back. But that was a bald-faced lie. He could have grown a heart back at any time. Axel never trusted Xemnas anyways, and now his fears are confirmed. He just realized that he wasted the last 10 years of his life, furthering Xemnas’ plan to turn him into a human puppet. And yet, in KH3 he has nothing to say about this horrible truth.

— Comparing the Organisation members when they were human to when they were in the Organisation, apart from Xehanort, only Isa and Braig have differently-shaped ears and differently-coloured eyes - why is this?

It’s a question of whether or not they’re deeply connected to Xehanort. In Braig’s case, comparing the scene where he’s injured in his battle with Terra and flares up at Xehanort, his appearance afterwards changes, which hints that something happened with Xehanort in between.

— By the way, Braig’s dealings with Master Xehanort in Birth by Sleep make sense now, as he was to become a vessel.

There is a certain reason for Braig to proudly exclaim, “I’m already half Xehanort.” Isa (Saïx) is included too. I think you’ll understand the details about their circumstances eventually.

Furthermore, his former best friend is already a human puppet. And not only that, but he’s apparently been one for the entire time he’s been an Organization member. So, Isa either agreed to become a vessel like Braig did…or he was turned into one against his will, like Sora nearly was.

Young Xehanort: We told you. It was not the Sleeping Keyholes that guided you. They are not the reason you are here. You’ve been on a path, one we laid out for you. That sigil on your chest is the proof.

Sora: What?

Young Xehanort: See? That sigil, the X, it tells us where you are at all times. You had wondered aloud before–why we kept showing up where you were. It’s because we need you, Sora. Or, to be more precise, we need what will be left of you–the thirteenth dark vessel.

Unlike Braig, Isa has a Recusant’s Sigil carved on his face. Given this, and the fact that he was being tracked like Sora was, it would appear that he did NOT voluntarily sign up for vessel duty, like Braig did. And why would he? He was just an innocent frisbee-playing teenage boy. What did he possibly have to gain by signing over his heart and consciousness to a madman like Xehanort?

Xemnas: As your flesh bears the sigil, so your name shall be known of that as a recusant.

It’s never explained what this quote of Xemnas means, why he said it during that boss battle, or who it was referring to. Perhaps Xemnas was remembering what he did to Isa while he imagined doing the same to Sora soon. Was this quote supposed to tie into BBSV2?

I suspect that it was, but I have no way of knowing for sure. However, I do know that the only character we ever see with a Recusant’s Sigil on their flesh…is Saïx. This quote indicates that Xemnas marks a person’s flesh before he gives them a new name as a Nobody. Which is totally consistent with the idea that Isa became a vessel through the experiments. There is SO much evidence that Isa was Subject X, that it’s not even funny.

Experiments of the Heart – Notes on Subject X, Excerpt 2

Subject’s memories have not returned, and our conversations remain less than lucid. What fragments can be gleaned evoke a bygone world, like one out of fairy tales. As improbable as it seems, the question may not be where she has come from, but when. If she truly has crossed through time, the prospect of probing her heart is all the more compelling. My pilot studies used a handful of subjects, but none possessed the fortitude to endure them. Ultimately, all suffered mental collapse.

This reference to Subject X is worded almost exactly like the darkness experiments, which collapsed every subject’s heart.

As soon as I found out, I called my apprentices together and ordered them not only to cease their studies, but to destroy the results of their research thus far.

What on earth was happening within the hearts of my six beloved apprentices? While pursuing the mystery of the darkness of the heart, could they themselves have strayed into its depths? Yet I remain the most foolish of all, for having begun these experiments. We are not meant to interfere in the depths of another’s heart, no matter what our reasons for doing so…

When Ansem the Wise found out that his apprentices were experimenting on innocent people without his knowledge, he ordered them to stop and destroy the results of their research.

And my error plunged me into despair. A visitor from another world soothed my dejected soul. A tiny king named Mickey came wielding a legendary key — the infamous “Keyblade,” said to bring both chaos and prosperity to the world.

But he wasn’t banished to the Dark Realm right away. He was still able to meet Mickey and lament over his situation.

I knew it would be a heavy blow to lose a subject as unique as she. Upon discovering the tests I’ve been conducting, my master demanded that I cease my work immediately and destroy what research I have compiled. Worse still, he ordered the release of my remaining subjects. She is gone. Where is Subject X now? Has “wise” Master Ansem hidden her away? Whatever the case, I will not be deterred.

And Xehanort still had time to complain about Subject X being taken away by Ansem, who also ordered the release of all test subjects.

Recollections

Am I alive? I awoke in a cell, alone until the researchers came with their tests and their prodding to uncover my identity. I had no answer to offer them. Four friends, and a key…that is the sum total of my memory. I could not even recall my name. I was simply called “X” there. My only solace was the time I spent talking with the two boys who would visit from time to time. One day, a man came to take me from the prison. I could not see him for the darkness, save that he wore an eyepatch. Even now, years on, I feel no closer to understanding who or what I am. May my heart be my guiding key.

—Unknown

If Isa was involved in mind control experiments to get him to renounce his sense of self, then he’d be an amnesiac afterwards, just like Subject X was. The experiments on the darkness of the heart, seemed to be heavily inspired by the CIA’s infamous MKUltra program. Project MKULtra was a trauma-based mind control program, developed from research gained by former Nazi scientists. 

It used numerous methods to manipulate people’s (even children’s) mental states and alter their brain functions. These included the secret administration of drugs and other chemicals, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, and other forms of torture. And in KH3, we learn that Subject X was indeed subjected to verbal abuse (being called “X” is dehumanizing), isolation, and sensory deprivation (being imprisoned in total darkness).

After his initial experiments on me, Ansem the Wise ceased his research into the heart, his hand stayed by some fear I cannot fathom. Yet this new subject is like me: devoid of memories. She is the perfect sample upon which to continue my master’s work. She, too, could benefit from it; by traversing the heart, we have a direct path into memory. I myself have begun to reclaim my lost past thanks to these very experiments.

Who is she? Whence has she come? These are questions no scientist could ignore. And the words she muttered, “May your heart be your guiding key”…

—Xehanort  

This type of torture would make sense if the goal was getting the subject to mentally dissociate. But according to Xehanort, he wanted to help her regain her memories. If she was such a valuable subject to him, and his goal was simply to learn the secrets of her past, why would he subject her to such horrible abuse? What purpose does that serve? Or are they just going to pin everything on Braig (or Luxu…) now, and wipe Xehanort’s hands of everything? 

It seems like they just directly plagiarized Isa’s Subject X backstory and did almost nothing to make it actually fit the new plot line with Skuld. They couldn’t even be bothered to change the “X” in Subject X, which has such a strong association with the Recusant’s Sigil.

If Ansem the Wise had found Isa after discovering the human experiments, he would want to help him, the same way he wanted to help Terranort. He would probably use the same experiments on him as he did on Terranort, as a way to atone for his apprentices’ actions. This would explain why Ansem Seeker of Darkness, Xemnas, and Saïx all have orange eyes.

He was very knowledgeable on many topics, and we deepened our friendship as we conversed companionably. Upon his advice, I decided to review the data obtained at my basement lab. That is when I discovered the “Ansem’s Reports.” Though they bore my name, the only one I had written was number 0. Apparently he had gone on to pen numbers 1 through 8 himself. Yes — the first subject in my foolish experiments.

The apprentices didn’t decide to banish Ansem until he found “Ansem’s Reports” after he met King Mickey.

Xigbar: How long ago was it… When a bunch of warriors wielding key-shaped swords appeared and unleashed a spectacular battle. And when it was all over, all that was left was a man lying unconscious without his memories. Xemnas–Uh, I mean Xehanort, was found by Ansem right around then, wasn’t he?

Zexion: Your point?

Xigbar: The “Chamber of Repose”. If you recall, that’s where we spent our time researching the darkness that resides within people’s hearts. It’s a graveyard that was sealed by order of Ansem the Wise. The first thing Xemnas did once he got rid of him was to undo the seal and build a room in the back.

After Ansem is banished to the Realm of Darkness, Xemnas unseals the “graveyard”, and creates the Chamber of Repose.

— KH’s Ansem (Xehanort) seems to have thoroughly gotten rid of his own heart, but Xemnas (Xehanort) commanding Organization XIII is seeking a fresh heart. If I understand that in becoming a heartless and a nobody, they became 2 different people, would their minds then as well become separate? Also, the original Xehanort should have some memory loss but in the additional scenes this time there seem to be some questionable parts. Have his memories returned, or perhaps the memory loss itself was a lie?

In essence, the two are the same. However, they function under separate minds.

Despite being the Nobody of both Terra and Xehanort, Xemnas is another self of Xehanort. He is simply acting under a different mind from “Ansem”. Thanks to Ansem the Wise’s experiments on the heart and memory, he fully recovers from his amnesia and remembers Master Xehanort’s goal to create the X-Blade and 13 vessels. He ALSO has full access to all of Terra’s memories now, despite Terra’s heart being captured.

Xigbar: Ever since then, he holes himself up in that room when he can, and he talks to someone.

Because of this, Xemnas knows exactly what Terra would think, how he would act, and what he would say in any given situation. He is able to impersonate Terra perfectly. It works. He talks to Aqua, and she almost tells him where Ventus is hidden.

— So then, why is Xemnas of Organization XIII searching for Ven?Well, there’s still some time between the ending of ‘Birth by Sleep’ and ‘KHI’, so…

Somehow, Xemnas became aware of Ven’s situation. Aqua has hidden him away. His heart is not broken. He still has the potential to be used as a vessel. In fact, he’s a perfect candidate. He’s asleep, therefore he has no sense of self, and his heart is still intact. Xemnas becomes obsessed with finding him.

Nomura: It is a fact that Saïx and Axel probably wanted to take over the Organization, however they didn’t understand what they were going to do or how to do it. As for Xemnas, he knew about this betrayal, but never brought it up. Generally, one’s conduct was for the sake of their purpose.

Likewise, since Ansem the Wise also performed the memory experiments on Isa, his Nobody, Saïx–still another Xehanort—now has access to all of Isa’s memories as a human. And since Xehanort shares a heart and consciousness with Saïx, Xemnas has access to them, as well. He knows ALL about their plans to overthrow him. But he does nothing about it. Even though Axel went against direct orders and assassinated Vexen, who was spearheading the Replica Program.

Xemnas knows how loyal Axel is to Saïx. If Axel believes Saïx is his old friend, he will tell him confidential information that he wouldn’t tell anyone else. Xemnas has access to Saïx’s mind, so he’d be privy to everything Axel tells him. So Xemnas simply allows Saïx to think he’s Isa, and he allows Axel to believe the same. It’s perfect, really. Axel was a double agent, but he’s being played even harder by Xemnas. He’s NO threat to Xehanort. Just a useful tool.

Vexen: The dark power given to Riku facilitated his escape from its realm.

Zexion: What I want to know is why he appeared here in Castle Oblivion.

Vexen: That’s really quite simple. His existence resonates with that of another hero.

Since Axel was getting closer and closer to Roxas, he kept getting sent back to Castle Oblivion to search for the Chamber of Waking. Xemnas hopes that Axel will resonate with Ventus, leading him to the chamber.

— Is it possible that Roxas has a heart?It is thought that it could be Ventus’ heart. In KHII FM there were clues to him having a heart, and in Days we saw Roxas crying proof that he could have a heart. As was said in Question 1, he has taken a lot of himself from Ventus. But perhaps when Sora and Roxas were separated, Ventus’ heart stayed in Roxas.

However, since Ven’s heart was actually inside of Roxas, Axel never finds the chamber. This is why Roxas and Ventus having separate hearts makes NO sense whatsoever. Roxas simply being an alternate persona of Ventus was fundamentally tied into the main plot and the Chamber of Waking.

Xigbar: “You’re not supposed to be here!”

Lea: “Promises to keep. I’ll always be there to get my friends back. What, bad timing? You had your perfect little script, but you kinda forgot to write the sequel. Now, let’s find out what happens!”

Xigbar: “What now, you old coot? Our time is up!”

Lea: “Isa!”

In addition to their plans to overthrow him, Xehanort knows exactly how close Lea and Isa were as humans. His smirk showed that he knew exactly how to throw Lea off-guard in KH3D. He’d transfer his consciousness into just the right vessel, and use Isa to attack him.

Xemnas: The poor fool. How long will he keep chasing the illusion of friendship, when he himself lacks emotion? Trying so hard to retrieve what he has lost, when it may never have existed in the first place. He deserves nothing more than our pity.

When Axel finally turns on the Organization in pursuit of Roxas, Xemnas apparently finds it amusing. He’s STILL chasing the “illusion” of friendship. He speaks as if Axel has been chasing an illusion for years and years, long before Roxas ever joined up. Xemnas finds Axel utterly and thoroughly pitiful.

Xemnas: “Ah, ever the rogue pawn. Knocked from the board early in the game. Utterly useless and forgotten.

I have no doubt that Xemnas was referring to Axel’s relationship with Saïx here as well. Saïx may have refused to attack Lea, which no doubt angered Xemnas. After all, he hates that the heart is so powerful, even he can’t fully control it. Nonetheless, as far as Xemans is concerned, the real Isa is still dead. Lea is utterly useless and he’s been forgotten about. At least he gets to rub that in the dirty traitor’s face. The entire time Xemnas is fighting Lea, Saïx doesn’t move.

He just stares as the camera focuses on his face. Xemnas then destroys Lea’s Keyblade, leaving him totally helpless. As Xemnas approaches Lea to finish him off, the camera positions Saïx to be between them. Xemnas also turns his back to Saïx, both literally and figuratively. This positioning sends a subtle, yet powerful message. Xemnas believes he is fully in control of the situation. He is not the slightest bit worried about the person standing behind him.

Xemnas: Our plans have been dashed by you…far more times than I care to count.…Now it ends. I will purge that light in you…with darkness!”

When Xemnas is about to finish Lea off, Saïx should finally have taken action and been the one to defend him from Xemnas’ attack. NOT XION!!!! I just cannot emphasize this enough. This was the moment of truth for Saïx. The story spent years building up to it. This moment would have proven that the real Isa was still there, and that his heart never forgot his best friend Lea…

Isa: “Well, you may be a really small part of my memories, but at least you’ll never disappear.”

…Exactly like he promised him all those years ago. This single moment encapsulates the fundamental idea behind Isa’s entire character arc. Saïx has the Recusant’s Sigil carved directly on his face. The X-shaped scar is a symbol of his total submission to Xehanort’s will and authority.

But a “recusant” is defined as a person who refuses to submit to authority or comply with a regulation. This was Isa’s CROWNING MOMENT. The very moment that he would earn his place eating ice cream and playing on the beach with everyone in the epilogue.

I’m sorry, but Xion had ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS stealing that moment from Isa. It made SO little sense for her to be there, anyways. And now we’re being asked to dish out even more money through DLC…to learn why she arrives just in time to ruin Isa’s entire character arc? Um…thanks, but no thanks. I’m not paying a dime for that. The creator of Xion is also the writer of the KH novels. And I would bet that even she is appalled at what became of the story. Based on the novels, I could tell she respected Lea’s relationship with Isa just as much as she respected his relationship with Xion.

[pigletsbigmovie]

endgame spoilers i watched it a couple weeks ago here are my complaints lol

nebula and gamora...... were done so dirty lmao....... i am not surprised, i knew this was gonna happen but still.

i mean i really liked nebula in endgame! i love seeing how far she’s come since gotg! she played a larger role in this film than i was expecting and that was nice!

i just disliked the fact that she ends up killing her past self?? it’s such an example of the problem with these big ensemble films... other characters’ arcs take precedence over other characters and so like while killing her past self makes sense for the overall narrative... it doesnt make sense for nebula’s character arc....

or like how since this the last film in which we’ll be seeing all original avengers together, of course it’s them that are prioritized over other characters which means Of Course it’s tony that ultimately defeats thanos even tho really it makes more sense for thanos to be defeated by nebula and gamora and that would’ve been a rly big development in their arcs but guess not! i guess! no can do!

they tried to make the tony vs thanos conflict this Big Dramatic Thing but in reality it is sooooo impersonal....... which makes the conflict and the resolution of that conflict just not very interesting to me...

like imagine if the gotg films were it’s own franchise. no other marvel movies exist, it’s not connected to anything else, it is it’s own thing. then that would mean the gotg franchise has thanos for itself and those films would be leading up to the defeat of thanos which can be fulfilled by nebula and gamora because theyre protagonists of these films. imagine how satisfying that wouldve been!! like gotg has always focused on themes of family! that franchise ending with nebula and gamora defeating their abusive adoptive father with the help of their new found family wouldve been so emotionally impactful and satisfying!

but nnnoooo instead we get tony vs thanos. they don’t even know each other. they’re just that one guy that got in the way of their desires. just an obstacle. that connection is not deep enough to be interesting

ok i went off on a tangent there but back to nebula killing her past self.... Why. we know that given time, the nebula that we see can change for the better! we know bc we see that nebula right there! our nebula! but nooope instead of getting a powerful scene about nebula literally staring her trauma right in the face and how she feels about that now that she’s grown so much...... she just kills her? i mean she tries to appeal to her? but this past nebula isnt given the time she needs to grow! she’s just killed off with 0 compassion......... and it’s such... a sad and unsatisfying development... like there’s a difference between “letting the past die” and killing your past traumatized self.... like if her past self deserves to die and isnt worthy of compassion then that just goes against our nebula’s entire existence? she is the person she is in the present bc she was shown compassion and was allowed to grow! why is this nebula not deserving of that? it’s literally just bc it’s inconvenient to everyone else... thats awful.

then there’s gamora...... like she finds out about this future in which thanos succeeds in his plan and........... she fucking WAITS???? SHE WAITS TO STOP HIM??? IM SORRY BUT WHHHAAAAT THE FUCK??????

like!!! this is literally around the time in our timeline when gamora enacts her plan to ditch thanos and steal the power stone for herself as soon as she finds out that he’s found it’s location in order to stop it from getting into his hands. you’re telling me that gamora waits A LONG SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF TIME after thanos gets all the information he needs to get not just the power stone but ALL THE OTHER INFINITY STONES before attempting to stop him?? YOURE ASKING ME TO BELIEVE THAT?? THAT SHE WOULDNT IMMEDIATELY OR AT LEAST AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TRY TO STOP HIM?

like if i remember correctly, by the time she teams up with future nebula to try to stop thanos, he’s already made significant progress in formulating/enacting his plan to get all the infinity stones..... like she doesnt try to sabotage/steal the information re:time travel in order to keep thanos away from the stones??? it doesnt make sense. it does not make sense that she would wait i cant get over it what the fuck alsooo...... while im glad that gamora isn’t just Dead now and that there’s an alive gamora out and about.... it Upsets me deeply that this isnt our gamora lmao. and this isnt just me being unnecessarily sentimental. it just sucks storytelling wise. gamora underwent so much development from the 1st gotg up to infinity war...... and now all of that is all Gone bc new gamora didn’t experience ANY of that! like saying her development was retconned maybe isn’t exactly true bc all of that development still happened and is Canon but... it’s basically all irrelevant now bc! again! this gamora didnt go through any of it! when peter and gamora reunite in infinity war and peter is emotional and gamora is like What the Fuck? like ha ha yeah funny but...... peter and gamora are very important to each other. theyve been through a lot together. whether or not you like their romance is whatever but them telling each other “i love you” in infinity war was such a HUGH DEAL considering everything they went through as individuals..... and now that development is Gone. and it sucks.

rly i felt all the female characters in endgame got the short end of the stick in this movie :/ like sure theres that One Group Shot... and sure it made whiny men cry so that’s great... it’s cool but like it felt so shallow to me! the bare minimum! very few of the women in that scene actually significantly contributed to the plot of endgame.... like it’s So Easy to put all these women in one shot but it’s a whole other thing entirely to give those women actual Roles in the plot. they even fridged another women in the Literal Exact Same Way they did in infinity war! the exact same way! like the 1st time they did it was unnecessary and unjustifiable to me and then they really went and did it again exactly the same! ALRIGHT! COOL I GUESS!

also captain marvel was so hyped up as being the Key to defeating thanos but the film comes out and i dont think she’s even in it for like 5 minutes total screentime. i mean i wont lie. seeing her fight thanos no problem was really really cool and i loved it but then it lasted what? 10 seconds? 

idk it’s just. rly rly easy to give superficial nods to the strength of these women and while, yes, it bothers whiny man babies and isnt harmful... it’s still superficial <:/ like these are just tiny itty bitty baby steps. it’s 2019 please allow female characters to play larger more significant roles in stories..... alluding to their strength is not the same thing as that. hire female writers.

overall i didnt have a Bad Time watching this movie? i actually laughed plenty. all the scenes with scott are wonderful. but overall the movie was just... fine... and left me feeling empty and indifferent like a lot of other mcu films leave me feeling <:) despite it’s faults i enjoyed iw a lot better and so endgame felt anticlimactic to me which is yknow. bad. considering it’s supposed to be a big finale.

sorry to be a big ol No Fun Allowed boy but i mean. the thing that i find so attractive about these films is Character! like ive only rly enjoyed a handful of mcu films but the reason i keep coming to watch the new ones is bc the idea of these characters is so attractive to me! this expansive superhero universe gives a big opportunity to explore a whole bunch of different characters and a whole bunch of different character dynamics. and while for the most part the mcu is good at producing distinct, conceptually interesting characters.... theyre generally not very good at utilizing them and building them up... which is why they leave me feeling empty

[legaciesmade]

maxence danet-fauvel. he/him. cismale. ╱ i thought i saw mathieu beaumont getting questioned by the police. the twenty-three year old is in their fourth year at west bridge studying business. they were at manon’s party because he’s her older brother and it was at their house. do you think they had something to do with her death? + a beguiling smile, a collection of luxury watches, the sound of running shoes on the track field.

hey you demon fucks .. i’m bailey !! i’m twenty-two, i go by she/her pronouns and i live in the b(est) timezone ;) if you wanna know more ab me, i’m a video game heaux and a pisces sun/aquarius moon/cancer rising ( for any fellow astro-hoes. ) also i’m not gonna lie, you’ll find me more readily on d.scord compared to t.mblr ims bcos... it’s easier, so hmu for tht if interested. anyw, mat is....certainly a new muse to me so i’m kinda just going with the flow. but what i do know is he’s fuckin trash. go figure.

his pinterest

the eldest child of the beaumont family; mathieu was basically groomed to one day take over the family business. it didn’t matter if he didn’t want it, he was the eldest and that was that.

so here he is, majoring in business ( with a bunch of math/finance courses on the side ) like a Good Son

literally he’s been taking classes to prepare him for college ever since the start of high school, maybe even earlier than that. because it’s a Very Serious Responsibility

to say he was envious that manon got to choose her own major/path in life is an understatement, but he’s learned well to hide his anger behind a smile,,,, thts so sad alexa play despacito

i’m leaving a lot of family stuff sorta open-ended bc i don’t want to assume too much ab manon aside from what we know thus far sjdhsjdh BUT JUST KNOW THAT, YEAH, MAT LOVES HIS FAMILY BUT....sometimes love isn’t enough. especially when you have like, basically NO say in a lot of aspects of your life...

his sport is literally the only thing that’s 100% his. his father would’ve probably preferred him to go out for football but... nah fam, boy wanted to do track and he’s crazy good. been doing it since middle school and each time he’s made captain position. dad still isn’t that impressed though.

that all being said. he’s also in student council; he enjoys it enough, but this was definitely more of a “you have to join it” scenario lol oops

his birthday is january 18th ( it must’ve been suuuuuuch a fun birthday this year, huh ;))))) i’m not sorry )

sun - capricorn ( restrictions, order, and control. you exercise these characteristics firstly on your own self. you like to control your reality by setting daily patterns to follow, and will frequently choose to wake up earlier than needed. you usually are stubborn and determined, and will frequently enter power games. however, you can be very patient. when this is combined with your determination and self-discipline, you can each any goal you set your mind to. )

moon - capricorn ( you show a lot of initiative. you are in it to win it. in fact, you might have a hard time kicking back and taking it easy. you do not want to feed into another’s beliefs about victimhood. you might experience issues of emotional detachment from other individuals, but this can prove very helpful; you can excel in things that require cold blood and seriousness. )

ascendant - aries ( you are athletic and active, highly energetic and capable of physical work. you are always ready to take initiative. self-reliance is learnt early in childhood. though you often have difficulties with your parents, especially the parent of the same sex. )

basically... his double capricorn aka his sense of maturity and seriousness, point to a very dutiful and hardworking nature... but, it also means that he had a lot of circumstances that forced him to grow up FAST. which, um, he did,,, in a sense. *points to his parents/his dad* we can blame them/him. HOWEVER, his aries rising/ascendant makes all that seriousness/logic tense af bc aries is like action/action/action... automatic response without thinking it through. so. that’s fun!!

alright so. the party and the pact. hm. mat’s in a very sticky situation with this whole thing and he still isn’t exactly sure how he feels ab it....but what’s done is done and there’s no going back now. of course he’s grieving in his own way, manon was still his little sister, but whew! seeing her like that really made him think of all the times they clashed/fought? like... yeah siblings fight okay but their different personalities/the clear difference in how their parents treated them, there was always a boiling point. no matter how quiet his negative emotions were, they were still there. sweet, naive manon... probably had no idea mathieu felt like this, because he just never fuckin talked ab it. and honestly, why would he?

in terms of what’s happening plot wise with the texts, etc, mat isn’t... okay he’s BOTHERED by them, but is he gonna let it show.... no. the fuck kinda question is tht...... he has enough to worry ab as is, keeping up with his courses and track and student council, not to mention his family and being the grieving brother,,, now someone’s sayin they KNOW what he helped do???? bye it’s not funny and he’s already exhausted. he’s v skeptical ab a lot of ppl in this so-called pact....but he knows most of them wouldn’t be out here tattling surely, when it’ll impact them just as much. *thinking emoji*

alright so idk what else to write atm like this is....Bad but. i tried okskjsk bye

[pellicano-sanguino]

I was recently made aware of the fact that there's a freaking Dragonlance musical (yes, made all the way back in 2014, I'm late on the news). It's uploaded to Youtube in full (according to them, it's uploaded with the permission of the creators) and with subtitles (it's a Russian production).

I went in expecting it to be just as badly made and cringeworthy as the animated movie, and I was motivated to watch it purely by nostalgic feelings about the books (they were the first fantasy books I read) and general interest in musical theater. But turns out I...   actually liked it??? Not in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way, I genuinely found it enjoyable. What an unexpected turn of events.

Heh. Quality subtitles.

Disclaimer: It's been ages since read the books, so if I remember something wrong, feel free to correct me.

Now, this is not the next Phantom or Elisabeth or anything like that. This seems to be a rather small production. The props and effect are minimalistic and cheap, looking more like a bunch of larpers than actors (not saying larpers can't have great props, I used to larp myself when I was younger). The singing carries the story, there is very little spoken dialogue and the actors don't dance. We do get a bunch of background dancers, who at first seem really out of place crawling on the floor while the main actors just stand there and sing.

I'm also going to point out that the Dragonlance books are not the easiest or most obvious choice for a story to be adapted into a musical. These books have long, complicated plots that often arch over several books and have a whole bunch of characters. Also, being able to open the vast world and history of Krynn to an audience who may not have read a single book is challenging. Not gonna lie, I am unsure how much someone without any prior knowledge of the series will get out of this show. They do plot explaining surprisingly well but there are plenty of times where you're going to be a bit confused if you don't know the backstory.

The musical's name is The Last Trial, and it's (somewhat loosely) based on the Legends-series, describing the rise and fall of the dark wizard Raistlin Majere, who is probably the most popular Dragonlance character ever. Well, it's a wise choice, since you can tell this story with a slightly smaller cast and don't have to prop dragons. However, I question one thing. You're really going to make a musical about Raistlin? One of his trademark characteristics is his failing health, his violent, chronic cough, resulting in a creepy, raspy voice. And this is the guy you're gonna make sing.

More quality subtitles.

Oh yeah, and another thing I'm going to have to question. Are we really making this a love story? I mean, yeah, I get that all that happens between Raistlin and Crysania does also happen in the books, but I never saw any kind of romance between them. All I saw was a heartless bastard manipulating the feelings of a sensitive and naive woman. The impression I got of Raistlin from the books was a person who's asexual, aromantic and hates everyone (and who's not handsome by any standards, but rather creepy looking, especially his eyes). Not a romantic hero at all. But hey, I can kinda understand the appeal (after all, I do like such musicals as Phantom and Elisabeth, so I can totally see why a cruel and cold character gets all the fangirls; everybody likes bad boys).

The musical opens with a short introduction of this story's Greek Choir-character, Astinus. Astinus is tasked with recording the history of Krynn so he makes a good plot exposition role. I recall there being some hints that he might not be fully mortal. After the intro, stage lights reveal a violin player, who begins to play the musical's theme. The violin player stands out a little, since she's wearing modern clothes despite the story being set in a medieval-ish world. But I got to admit, the music is very, very nice, with a rather calm melody that fits the setting of a magical world of fantasy very well. This could easily be soundtrack for a fantasy movie. The beautiful music is what made me like this show.

Speaking of music, it's time for the main character to deliver the show's first song. Despite rolling my eyes at the thought of Raistlin singing with his ruined voice earlier, I have to admit, they chose the actor really well. There are at least two castings (maybe even more) of this show, and the one I saw, had Evgeny Ergorov playing Raistlin. His voice is very pleasant to listen and it carries hints of ambition, arrogance and of a powerful will that is calm and calculating but under its seeming calmness also very dangerous. I am surprised how quickly I accepted the fact that Raistlin can sing and that instead of having a voice that mirrors his suffering he has a voice that mirrors his might. The lyrics being in Russian helps, being sung in a language I don't speak a word of makes everything sound more magical and poetic. There is certain lyrical beauty to Russian and it fits the songs perfectly (obviously, since the songs were written to be sang in this language).

If we handwave the fact that Evgeny is way too pretty to be playing Raistlin (I'm presuming he's not that bad looking by het standards here, as a lesbian I'm not really the person to be judging male beauty), he looks the part and gets nicely into character. He has Raistlin's prematurely grayed hair, black robes and the staff with a glowing gem held by dragon claws. The musical goes out of its way to disrobe him, though, probably as a fanservice thing (robes really don't let you see his body well...). In the books I don't recall him ever wearing anything else, the mages in Dragonlance wore their robes everywhere like uniforms. Oh well, if wizards can prance around in muggle clothes in the Harry Potter movies, we can do the same here.

Evgeny has a rather strong stage presence. His eyes, while not as creepy as in the books, cast a very cold and powerful gaze, judging everything with distaste and cynicism but never underestimating anything in his arrogance. This Raistlin is full of pride but not blinded or hindered by it. The only trademark part of his character that I consider to be missing is his failing physical health, that creates an opposite to his powerful mind and allows him to manipulate people by using the compassion they feel when seeing a sick, suffering man. Many more prideful men would be insulted when offered help and proclaim that they can take care of themself, but Raistlin never does this; he relies on the help of others whenever it's convenient and never considers such a thing to be below the world's greatest wizard.

Astinus appears again and explains the next song number to the audience. In the war preceding the events in this show, Raistlin fought with a bunch of other heroes to defeat a dark dragon goddess called Takhisis, the primordial source of evil in the Dragonlance pantheon of gods. According to the musical, Raistlin's role was to work as a double agent – he swore an oath to Takhisis and became her servant only to stab her in the back so she could be sealed away in Abyss.  It's been ages since I read the books, so I can't tell if this is how it really went. My faint memories claim it wasn't quite like that, but this is what the musical tells us so let's just go with it. Takhisis, the highest ranking of all the evil gods, is trapped in Abyss, but she still plots her escape and bears grudge to Raistlin. She can't enter the world of mortals in the waking world, but she can appear in their dreams.

Like evil, Takhisis takes many faces aside from her iconic multiheaded dragon queen form. She invades Raistlin's dreams in the form of the Dark Lady and torments him with nightmares and ominous predictions that he'll one day be her servant again and open the gate of her prison. In this version, Takhisis is played by Vera Zoodena. And wow. Just...  wow.

Her Dark Majesty can easily be interpreted as a kinda succubus-like, sexy and seductive femme fatale (because god forbid we have evil female characters who aren't overly sexualized...). This kind of role is very easy to overdo and instead of intimidating and charismatic turn out to be just... cheesy and slutty. But Vera Zoodena knows that a revealing outfit and sexy posing isn't all you need for a powerful female villain. Yes, she is very much directed as seductive, but instead of making me feel like someone made her wear that costume and ordered her to pose like that, I feel that she is in complete control of everything. Vera's stage presence is amazing. Femme fatales rarely have any effect on me (well, they are usually geared towards a male audience anyway) but this Takhisis makes chills run down my spine when she sings. Her voice is so haunting and sexy, I can feel her fingers tipped with deadly claws menacingly caress my skin by just listening to it. (I'm sorry. I promise to keep the TMI to a minimum. But I'm totally hot and bothered for Takhisis.).

Raistlin's nightmares are interrupted by his twinbrother Caramon, who intuitively knows his brother is suffering and rushes to wake him up. Raistlin thanks Caramon for driving away the unwanted dreams, but remains distant. Caramon then begins to sing, advising Raistlin to give up his ambitious plan, which he now reveals to the audience; Raistlin intends to descend into Abyss and challenge Takhisis, ascending to godhood himself if he manages to defeat the goddess. We have fought our wars, says Caramon, the Dark Lady is safely locked away in Abyss and the world needs heroes no more. Well, that's easy for you to say, you're not the one getting your dreams invaded.

Let's talk about Caramon a little. He is supposed to be the opposite of his twin; physically strong but mentally not the brightest, a handsome fellow with a big heart that overflows with kindness towards his friends and family. No ambition, no selfish arrogance guiding his actions, all he longs for is a simple, comfortable life and he cares deeply about the wellbeing of his loved ones. Compare that to Raistlin, who cares not about the feelings of others, uses people as stepping stones to reach his own selfish goals and in his pride desires always more power; when he has become the most powerful wizard in the mortal world even that is not enough, he needs to challenge the gods.

While I do think the actors in this musical do a pretty decent job mostly, I have to say I'm a little disappointed in Andrei Loboshov playing Caramon. His acting is a bit wooden occasionally and he comes off as comically dumb sometimes (I mean yeah, Caramon wasn't the sharpest sword in the weapon rack but still). Also his voice is kinda mediocre compared to others. This is Caramon, he is supposed to be charming and lovable. And handsome. Again, I know I'm not the right person to judge male beauty, but compare this guy to the one playing Raistlin (who is supposed to be the ugly twin). Like, come on.

Raistlin refuses Caramon's offer of simple living. He points out that as a creepy weirdo he will never belong anywhere and will never be as accepted by others like someone normal like Caramon is. He is determined to seek godhood, and abandons his brother's company while making plans how to reach his ambitious goal. He receives a letter that informs him that a priestess of Paladine (the highest ranking of the good gods, adversary of Takhisis) called Crysania seeks to meet him. Fate seems to smile upon the dark wizard, for a priestess of Paladine is exactly what he needs for his plan...

So. Crysania. I have...  mixed feelings about this character. On one hand, I admire the sincerety of her character, her genuine kindness (she is the priestess of the greatest of the good gods after all) and her determination to attempt to do the right thing. And yet she is doomed to betray her god out of her love for a heartless man. Stories about a pure maiden who falls in love with a cursed prince are numerous and the appeal of such stories is clear. However, Beauty and the Beast this is not. My main problem with Crysania is this: I fucking feel bad for what happens to her! She is dumb and naive and thoroughly amai and a very good example of what happens when a woman tries to ”cure” or ”save” a cruel man. It's not even her own fault because Raistlin manipulates the fuck out of her (and even if it were purely because of her own stupidity, victim blaming is bullshit so there!). I just want to rush in there and swoop her in my arms and give Raistlin the middlefinger like NO, you do not deserve the love of this woman, you do not get to use her for your ridiculous ego-inflating power fantasy plans, farewell and up yours!

When I read the books, I imagined Crysania looking unearthily beautiful, like a Greek statue come to life, and having an aura of holiness and piety in her voice. Here she is played by Elena Minina and damn, she is amazing. I don't know how they managed to find someone who so much resembles the official artwork of the character. I find her beauty stunning (just my opinion, there are probably a ton of people who consider her mediocre) and her voice is incredible. It's so clear, like the singing of birds and the sounds of running water on a stream, like silver bells tied to a dancer's ankle. I don't know how to describe it. I know nothing of opera or other top quality singing but I could easily imagine Elena being a truly professional singer. And this is really what made me fall in love with this show; the songs and the amazing singers delivering them.

Raistlin and Crysania meet in the city of Palanthas and have a little talk. Crysania reveals to the black mage that her god Paladine is aware of his plans and does not approve. She attempts to convince him to abandon his plan, not just for the good of mankind and the cosmic balance (the proper balance of good and evil is very important in Dragonlance pantheon) but for his own sake. Repent before it's too late and save yourself! Knowing that this is a chess piece he very much needs, Raistlin immediately goes into manipulation mode and starts to suggest things to Crysania. Oh, you came to me just as a messenger of your god? What if I told you he sent you to me for different reasons – to help me. He proceeds to flatter Crysania, praising her faith and purity (maybe to suggest that someone like her couldn't commit anything unholy, and thus can help him without fear of angering her god) and plants the idea to her head that light and dark mages aren't so black and white, and that sometimes dark magic is necessary to reach a noble cause.

Crysania listens and admits that Raistlin makes many good points but still she advises him to give up his plan. At this moment Raistlin has a coughing fit (the only time we see the fragility of his body in the musical) and Crysania's heart is immediately melted by compassion and she offers her help (as a priestess of Paladine she has healing powers). Raistlin accepts her healing magic but refuses her plea to bring him to the temple to be treated properly there, since even Paladine's clerics can't cure the curse that ruined his body. But appealing to her compassion works for his advantage, as did letting her get close and touch him (it's like he knows she's going to fall in love with him and attempts to bond with her to make it happen.). He insists on leaving but invites Crysania to meet him at the Tower of High Sorcery if she wants to speak with him more. Once she's alone, Crysania sings about how she understands that her fate is tied to this mysterious man who she used to think of as an enemy but is fast growing more fond and respecting of. She feels sorry for him and wants to save him so badly. Let the fire burn my hands, I will endure it or die trying. Meanwhile, I'm here whispering ”don't do it” under my breath. This is a very pretty song.

Astinus steps once more on stage. Crysania asks him how does Raistlin think he can break open the gate of Abyss. Astinus reveals that the gates of Abyss were locked so that they could only be opened by a black mage and a light priest working together (which the gods thought would be unthinkable, apparently, since that would be bringing together two sworn enemies). Crysania understands now what Raistlin had in mind for her. So, he thinks I'm going to be his key. Despite knowing this, she still wants to see him to learn more and asks how to find her way to the Tower of High Sorcery. Astinus tells her that the road there goes through the Grove of the Dead, making it a very perilous journey. Crysania considers this a test of courage set upon her by Raistlin and declares that she will go there.

Next we visit a charming little place called the Inn of the Last Home. The inn is run by Tika, Caramon's wife and she merrily spends time with the customers who sing and dance the night away. Tika is played by Irina Kruglova and it's a shame she has such a small role, since she has a lovely voice.

Back during the war Tika was one of the heroes and fought just as well as everyone else, but now has settled down since just like Caramon she longed for a peaceful, adventure-free life.

When I saw this character, I got worried. It looks like it might be a kender. Good grief, the goddamn kender are the worst thing Dragonlance universe came up with. * shudders* Back in my larp days there was a universally known unwritten rule among gamemasters: no more than one kender per ten other characters. Everyone obeyed this rule and good for them. I never got to play one, but a friend of mine did. She crawled under the tables and stole everyone's shoelaces.  

The joyful tune is disturbed when Crysania comes in and asks if anyone can show her to the Grove of the Dead. Tika tries to convince her not to seek the Grove, explaining that wizards enchanted the forest so that non-magic users couldn't find a way to their tower.

The guests agree with Tika, no one knows what the Grove hides, for the Grove never returns its dead. Crysania is still determined, if no one comes to be her guide, she goes alone. The guests and Tika then come up with an idea to have Caramon go along to keep her safe. No one else dares to go there, but Caramon is a true war hero.

Unfortunately this is the exact moment Caramon enters the inn, drunk as a lord and holding a letter he wrote to Raistlin. Look, Raistlin sent my letter back unopened, and even wrote on top of it ”I have no brother.” The separation of the twins was hard for Caramon and he started to drink his depression away, becoming less like a hero and more like pathetic drunk every day. He sings a sad, drunken, wailing song about how this letter hurt him so deeply.

They are stealing his axe - they are kender! Out! Throw them out!

Crysania rolls eyes at such a guardian, baffled that the intelligent and well mannered Raistlin could have such a disgraceful twin and she goes forth on her own. Tika then shames Caramon for being such a wreck and giving everything up so easily like the opposite of Rick Astley and sends him after the priestess. Your brother messed with her head, now it's your job to get her back safely! Reluctantly Caramon goes, not thrilled to be back on the adventuring business.

The background dancers felt out of place earlier, but in the Grove of the Dead they fit in perfectly, creating an ominous atmosphere. These living shadows creep up to Crysania, who faces them without fear and sends them back with the power of faith. She's prevented from proceeding any further when she comes face to face with an undead warrior named Lord Soth.

In the books, the death knight was sent to assassinate Crysania by Raistlin's sister Kitiara, to prevent the opening of the gates of Abyss. Lord Soth failed in his attempt, Crysania didn't die but she was wounded. Kitiara doesn't appear in this musical, and we don't actually see Lord Soth wounding Crysania. Instead he just poses dramatically and seems to scare Crysania and Caramon from approaching the Tower. He and the rest of the shadows are sent away by Raistlin, who appears to sing a new song.

The song is all about how names have power. It's a very fitting song for a mage, but kinda out of place. I guess it implies that by the power of knowing the name and origin of the creatures of the Grove he can send them away and allow the travellers to reach the Tower. But it looks like he's singing it to Crysania, which makes no sense. Also, what is he doing there? He should be far gone by now, time travelling to the past (yes, this story involves time travelling, a kind of magic that I've always thought way too powerful to exist, since if you have the power to go back in time, wouldn't you be able to keep trying a thing over and over again until you reach a timeline where you're successful? Way too convenient for my taste in magic.).

In the Tower of High Sorcery the Conclave of Mages is holding a meeting re: what to do with Raistlin. There are the white robed light mages and the black robed dark mages, but where are the neutral red ones? Balance of power is important in Dragonlance lore, and besides the forces of good and evil there existed the middle path that was kinda allowed to do whatever they wanted because they held loyalty to neither side. They could have easily put some red mages in the background here, so I wonder why they didn't (local prop department only had white and black robes?).

The conclave calls forth Dalamar, an elf who was spying Raistlin for the Conclave while being his apprentice in dark sorcery. Dalamar reveals all that he knows of Raistlin's plans; that his teacher has time travelled to the city of Istar to look for the gate to Abyss and to learn from another dark wizard who lived there at the time. By doing so Raistlin has apparently broken some union laws the Conclave held and they are disgusted with this (I told you time travelling should be banned!). But then they decide to send Crysania back in time to Istar too, for whatever reason. In the book it was because she was injured and needed a level of healing only the clerics of Paladine back in Istar's days of greatness could offer. But here it's a bit unclear, since we don't see Crysania get wounded and the Conclave never mentions any reasons behind their decision to send her time travelling. Maybe they were just as naive as her and thought she could stop him. Crysania tells them she intends to prevent Raistlin from opening the gates of Abyss and they just...   seem to go with it.

Dalamar and Par-Salian (leader of the Conclave) high five at their decision. Classy wizards are these.

One nice detail they kept are Dalamar's scars. You can see them on his chest. Raistlin wasn't born yesterday, he knew damn well that Dalamar was spying him and to show him that he knows, he burned the elf's chest with his fingertips like branding a calf. Just so you know, I'm on to your scheme and could dispose of you any time I want, I just don't think of you as a threat and don't care if the Conclave finds out because they won't be able to stop me. In the books Dalamar had a bizarre habit of flashing his scars to people. Look at what he did to me! No, stop, put your robes back on, nobody wants to see that, you kinky biscuit!

While the background people are working on propping Istar (mainly just covering everything in white), Dalamar sings a short song that reveals that he actually sends Crysania back in time because he is loyal to his teacher. Whatever you say, Dalamar. Whatever. Anyway, we have travelled back in time to Istar now. Everything and everyone is white and shiny and full of faith. Crysania is awestuck at the beauty of the city and the grandness of faith. Istar is a theocratic city state, and we also meet the guy who runs the city, known as the Kingpriest.

Good god, Alexi Tolstorkorov who plays the Kingpriest has the perfect voice for the role. It's a powerful, booming and majestic voice, making him sound like a charismatic cult leader when he preaches his truth. His voice demands respect and acknowledgment of his authority. Alexi is also rather tall, which makes him look properly intimidating. And considering they probably didn't have much of a budget, they propped him rather decently. Very good Kingpriest, 10/10.

Kingpriest. Dude. You’re saying that to a blind person!

Crysania finds Raistlin among the crowd (disguised as a cleric, because he's smart enough not to prance around in his black robes here) and informs him that Caramon got sent back with her as well but they got separated in the crowd. Raistlin didn't expect his brother to join Crysania in her attempt to stop him, but accepts this new turn of events and is already figuring out how to use it to his advantage. Raistlin tells her that he has already located the gates of Abyss here and soon they will open them together. I was expecting Crysania to tell him she has no such intentions, but here she just seems to...  be too distracted by Wow such great city! Very pure! Much faith! Which is...  awkward. Because this is fucking Istar, in the past. Crysania should know what happens to this city. Like, did they not teach history in whatever school priests of Paladine go to? Apparently they did not and it is up to Raistlin to open Crysania's eyes and reveal the ugly truth to the audience.

Raistlin sings a song about the corruption of Istar, how the priests are drunk with power and use it in manners that should be blasphemous to do in the name of good gods. Not only is magic and the worship of evil and neutral gods forbidden, some of the good gods are banned too and there's racism (I wholeheartedly cheer at the guards jailing kender, though.) and all other disgusting misuses of religion as justification for evil. The city if full of narcisstic men who put their own words in the mouth of god and present it as truth. It's interesting that Weis and Hickman came up with Istar, since Hickman is a devout mormon, so you'd think he's not the kind of person to present a theocracy as a corrupt cult. Anyway, Raistlin uses this moment to again cultivate in Crysania the belief that light and dark are not the same as good and evil. If priests of Paladine can be capable of such wickedness, then logic follows that a black mage can seek a noble cause. Maybe I'm not your enemy, aren't the ones who betrayed your god while claiming to serve him much more deserving to be your enemies? I only seek to rid the world of the source of all evil, while they seek to tear the whole world apart in their crusade against even the smallest shadow.

And then Crysania goes and confronts her fellow priests and the Kingpriest himself like the dumb shit she is, accusing them of their false faith and questioning their authority. Like good grief Crys, how fucking amai can you be?! Did you really think that one woman marching in front of a cultist leader and his brainwashed minions could make them see the light and better their ways by just shaming them? Like oh no, she is giving us the shounen anime protagonist Convincing Shouting treatment and telling us to give up our corrupt religion that benefits us greatly, whatever shall we do? Tell her she's right and that we are ashamed of ourselves for not noticing earlier? Or how about...  we just burn her at the stake for heresy?

Seriously Crysania, did you stop for two seconds to consider what could go wrong with your master plan? Anyway, it's a very nice song between Crysania and the Kingpriest. It also shows Crysania's budding doubts about her faith. She is disgusted that she had to have this revealed to her by an enemy, that her brothers and sisters who she is supposed to trust were holding an ugly secret from her.

So, Crysania is held captive at the temple for heresy. Raistlin doesn't seem particularly concerned with this. Having Crysania doubt her faith works for his plan. Caramon gets imprisoned too, after asking people if they've seen his brother, who's a mage. Use of magic being forbidden, even family members of mages get thrown in jail. There Caramon sings a song how he trusts that his brother will soon come save him. It's sad to see Caramon projecting his own family loyalty to his brother who has never helped anyone if it wasn't relevant to his interests. You poor man, still blind to the truth that your brother can't be redeemed.

In the book Caramon was made to fight in a gladiator arena with other prisoners. This musical also makes him fight, but frames it differently. Here the Kingpriest arranges the fights to find the best warrior to be the Chosen One to deliver world of evil or something along those lines. Disguised as a cleric Raistlin declares Caramon as a volunteer to fight. He is brought to the arena but refuses to pick up his sword, because it's one thing to fight in a war and for self defence but this is just slaughter for the amusement of others and he wants nothing to do with it.

I like how when Caramon refuses to fight, his opponent strikes this seductive pose. Fight me, my love, you know you want to...

The Kingpriest is not pleased for Caramon's refusal. Raistlin explains to him that the man is an honorable knight (yeah sure) who cares not for his own life but will defend the life of another. He suggests that they bring Crysania to the arena. The Kingpriest agrees to this, and Caramon immediately picks up his sword to protect the lady. The fight is fierce and has surprisingly many real swordplay techniques used (I usually expect very little realism from stage swordfights). Yes there's still lots of unreasonable things like turning your back to your enemy and coming way too close during the close combat (you come to a distance I can punch you, you will get pommel to the face) but this is still one of the best stage swordfights I've seen. It's also unusually fast, more often stage fencing uses slower, wider strikes to make it easier to follow the fight. Here, I noticed many of the techniques used only when I was taking screenshots, they happen so fast.

I didn’t even notice this block by grabbing blade at first viewing.

Oh, this looks like a throw! Are they really going to do a throw?

Apparently yes.

I have to tip my hat to the guy who plays Purple Fake Dreads here. He is agile!

He is fierce!

He is bouncy!

Fly away, Purple Fake Dreads!

I especially like the move where he places his foot on Caramon's leg and steps up on it to kick him in the groin.

Go, go, Purple Fake Dreads!

Caramon, who fought more carefully and defensively than his aggressive and impatient opponent, wins the fight, and the Kingpriest grants him and Crysania their freedom as a reward. The citizens of Istar then begin a mass with the Kingpriest, and the chanting gets more and more ominous until everything goes red. The event known as Cataclysm happens.

Angered by the corruption and arrogance of the Kingpriest, the gods threw a fiery mountain down on Istar, sinking the city to the bottom of the sea, changing the landscape and geography of Krynn permanently. Raistlin, Caramon and Crysania escape the divine wrath by time travelling again, to a timeline little after the Cataclysm. This they do offscreen.

Having witnessed the destruction of Istar, Crysania grieves for the innocent lives struck down for the crimes of a few. Her faith weakens once more. Her god doesn't answer to her call, so Raistlin asks her to follow him, which she does. After all, he is the one who showed her the truth and hasn't lied to her, and for that she respects him. She still believes that her fate is tied to the dark wizard, but she is beginning to doubt if her role ever was to help him see the light and not the other way around.

Istar being at the bottom of the sea now, Raistlin can no longer use the gates in there, much to his annoyance. However, there is a second Gate hidden in Zhaman fortress, in a well guarded dwarf kingdom. The black mage needs to find a way to get inside, and simple knowledge of history tells him how to do it.

Caramon comes to his brother, demanding to know why he betrayed him and made him fight in the arena instead of helping him escape. After listening to this for a while, Raistlin tells him that he's being an idiot; arranging for him to get chosen to fight in the arena was his plan to get him out from jail. You got yourself arrested out of stupidity, getting you to be chosen as the one to fight wasn't easy either, you know. So don't come to me claiming I didn't help you and Crysania to get your freedom so we could all escape together instead of leaving you behind to go down with the rest of Istar!

Okay, I get it, Caramon admits. But I'm still done with all of this and I'm going back home! Oh really, Raistlin comments, what a shame, I could have used your help. It hurts me to see the change in Caramon as soon as Raistlin says that, because the dumb man doesn't understand that he's just being manipulated. Caramon is so desperate for any sign of brotherly love from his twin that as soon as Raistlin hints that he could help him, he's ready to do anything. Of course I will help you in any way I can, my dear brother! You poor man, you poor faithful dog wagging your tail no matter how many times your master mistreats you.

What Raistlin has in mind for Caramon is war. Around this time in history, there was a war waged against the dwarf kingdom. Raistlin intends to make history repeat itself, and he needs Caramon to lead the army. What army, it's just the three of us, asks Caramon. And then Raistlin begins to sing, while the background dancers begin what looks like a yoga session. Raistlin is a good speaker and manipulator, he easily convinces warriors to join their attack to Zhaman fortress. Knowing history helps him, for he knows what kind of people went into this war and what their motivations were.  Little by little they gather quite an army to march into war. Caramon questions if what they are doing is the right thing and that they are lying to people to lure them into an unnecessary war. Raistlin convinces him the war is inevitable, and Caramon, too eager to please his brother, turns a blind eye to the unethicalness of it all.

While Caramon is working his hardest to earn them an entry to the gates, Raistlin focuses on working his mindgames with Crysania. He needs to get her to agree to go along with his plan. So he attempts to use her compassion, and sings to her a sad song about his childhood, colouring everything a little to make himself look more like a sympathetic victim of forces beyond his control. He claims to have began learning magic purely for self defence, being bullied as kid, and then goes on to claim that magic is an addiction that can't be fought once you've tried it. He also very clearly has become aware of Crysania falling in love with him and fans those flames as best he can, being all gentlemanly and nice to her even if he's a jerk when he's with his brother. This is one thing that people don't get about abusive people; they are perfectly capable of playing nice when it's beneficial to them and just because someone is ”such a nice guy” doesn't mean they can't be monsters.

Crysania is smart enough to call bullshit on Raistlin claiming to have always been an enemy to Takhisis, pointing out that he did fight on her side during the past war. But Raistlin pulls the ”It was all according to my plan, so I could betray her”-card out of his sleeve. I'm a traitor to both sides and both good and evil look forward to my funerals. Pity poor me who attempted to do what was right but ended up being unfairly hated by everyone. Well, Crysania buys it all, poor woman. They get closer and closer and looks like they are about to kiss...

But no kissels. Excited Caramon arrives to bring news that Zhaman has been conquered. Crysania leaves the men alone, and Caramon sings a happy song about how much glory he has gained in these battles and thanks Raistlin for making him the leader of the army, giving his life meaning and saving him from being a useless, depressed drunk.

Raistlin is initially annoyed that his alone time with Crysania was interrupted, but knowledge that he now has access to the gates he so desires to open puts him in a good mood and he joins Caramon in the victory celebrations. At some point it even looks like he...  smiles a little...   and not sarcastically. Who is this stranger and what have you done with the real Raistlin?

Now all Raistlin needs is to make sure Crysania will follow him to the gates. At night, when they are alone again he begins to sing a romantic song for her, posing sexily while he gazes at the starry sky, and she joins the song. By now she is completely and utterly in love with him and filled with joy when suggested that the feelings might be mutual.

Raistlin does an excellent job at seducing her considering he has no prior experience in romance whatsoever.  He often takes Crysania's hand while they walk but never makes any more forward moves himself, allowing her to be the one who initiates their first kiss.

Except this time too they are interrupted before the kiss can happen. This time by peeping tom Takhisis making her nightly visit to Raistlin's mind and being all Oh my, things are getting juicy in here, wait until I get my popcorn! Raistlin is startled, looks away and tells Crysania to get out. This is the first time Raistlin's behaved like that in front of her, so she's frightened that by making that first move crossed his line and angered him. She runs away, brokenhearted.

Raistlin is left alone with Takhisis, who in her turn tries to play mindgames. She suggests to Raistlin that maybe he wasn't encouraging Crysania's love just because it was convenient for his plan, maybe he too is falling in love.

Raistlin is horrified of such a thought but compliments her Dark Majesty for pointing out his weakness so he can make sure to overcome it. I made her fall in love with me, using her weakness of compassion and pity against her, surely I am above falling into my own trap! Well, regardless of how her love was born, comments Takhisis, your feelings are genuine – don't you want to keep her? Love is stronger than you are, puny mortal, it would overcome you.

Love brings no happiness, only suffering, sings Raistlin. Look at Crysania, who was so fearless, yet now is afraid, made so weak by her love. I must not return a false love, not fall for a creation of my own making. And so he fights to resists the basic human urge, the need to be loved, considering it a dangerous weakness. Without love I can't be hurt. I won't let my feelings hinder me, my brother is nothing but a sword for me and Crysania is nothing but a key. Love will break and weaken any ruler.

Nothing matters more than love, whispers Takhisis (rather uncharacteristic for the goddess of evil to spout such sappy fortune cookie aforisms). No, power is much more dear to me, answers Raistlin, but he is a complete emotional mess after fighting his feelings and can just tiredly beg for the Dark Lady to leave him alone.

Caramon, while unable to hear Takhisis, heard everything Raistlin said and his heart breaks when he finally learns that his brother doesn't love him. So it was all lies, I meant nothing to you? Or maybe I knew this all along and was lying to myself. When Caramon says he's leaving, Raistlin calls out to him, weak and exhausted after chasing Takhisis out of his mind. And even now, after hearing the truth, Caramon hesitates only a moment before coming to Raistlin's side, making sure he's alright. He even takes off his cape to cover the sleepy wizard warmly.

Kind people are unable to ignore a call for help, even when uttered by someone they know wouldn't return the favor, because for kind people there is no such thing as ”someone who doesn't deserve help.” I still want to kick Raistlin for being such a dick, though. While watching Raistlin sleep, Caramon sings a sad song about how he misses the lost happiness and innocence of their childhood.

The next song is very painful. It's Crysania basically slutshaming herself. Instead of recognizing that her broken heart is the result of Raistlin's mindfuckery, she blames herself. And more alarmingly, she makes a decision to change. By now she is as desperate for Raistlin recognizing her worth as Caramon was for any sign of brotherly love. It hurts me to see her like this, because it reminds me too much of real women who end up trying to change to better please their male lovers. This is what has become of her – the fearless lady who went forth to save a wicked man and prevent him from going through a horrible plan has turned into a blind minion of said man, willing to do whatever he wants. Raistlin has corrupted Crysania, broken her in an incredibly vile way. Instead of leaving the cruel man, she is finally convinced to aid him in opening the gates to Abyss. In her despair to be deemed worthy, Crysania decides to do the one thing Raistlin has always been asking of her, even if that means going against her god's will. At one point in the song it looks like she's talking to Paladine (kinda looking skyward) and saying something along the lines of ”I expect you to condemn what I'm about to do.” And so she betrayed her god and went down to Abyss for the sake of love.

Into the Abyss they go, singing a triumphant song together. They went with music forth to battle, not knowing what horrors lie beyond the gates. Crysania is made fearless by her faith, but not the faith she had for her god but her faith in Raistlin's might, sincerely believing it to be powerful enough to defeat a great goddess. Raistlin is made fearless by his trust in himself.

Not too long after passing the gates, they are welcomed by her Dark Majesty herself. Takhisis is aware of Raistlin's plan to kill her, but she pretends not to know. She congratulates Raistlin for opening the gates for her like a good little minion and offers him a place at the foot of her throne. Either she is being sarcastic, or she is attempting to avoid the fight with intimidation tactics, allowing Raistlin a peaceful way out if he chickens now that he is actually face to face with a powerful goddess.

Look at those four women standing beside her Dark Majesty. I didn't get it at the first viewing, but look at them; different colours, wearing a crown decorated with dragon horns – they are the rest of her five necks! The iconic fiveheaded dragon queen form does appear in the musical, cleverly interpreted!

Intimidation tactic seems to be working, Raistlin looks hesitant for a while, but Crysania turns his head so he can't see the Dark Lady and instead looks her in the eyes and this seems to break the fear instilled in Raistlin after so many nightmares. Time for mindgames and backstabbing is over, Raistlin steps up and voices his intentions loud and clear, challenging the goddess of evil.

This is the first time we see Takhisis express anger, now that all pretense has been thrown to the wind. You can almost see her breathe fire as she gives the INSOLENT MORTAL I WILL BREAK YOU IN HALF!-speech. She then summons her minions to fight for her. Including some weird glowstick-lightsaber wielding guys. They didn't have the budget to prop actual horrors from beyond, so they got creative. I think Takhisis should have summoned a bunch of her evil dragons. No matter how incredibly powerful your wizard is, if a flock of red dragons appears, he is toast. Delicious magical toast.

In the next song Takhisis sings about how great her powers are, with a big emphasis on the fact that she can take countless forms. One great way they show this is the actress playing Crysania also joining the song as clearly a Crysania-shaped incarnation of the Dark Lady. She has been tormenting Raistlin with nightmares and goes to work with his fears and darker memories again. It is fascinating that Crysania seems to be one of the things he fears, but that is probably because of his fear of falling in love and therefore becoming vulnerable.

You know, seeing Takhisis and Crysania together and hearing their beautiful voices simultaneously, makes me want to ship them. I know it's a ridiculous crackpairing, Crysania would deem it blasphemous and Takhisis would be like ”She's not as good as Mina.” But hey, if Crysania is ready to betray her god, why not go all out and fall in love with her god's literal rival? Like how deliciously angsty would that get? I'm sorry, this is stupid. Actually, no, I'm not sorry. Because you know what, I can't go to any show's fandom without seeing a fuckton of male/male ships of characters who hate each other in canon/are sworn enemies, so I should not have to be ashamed for blushing at the thought of femslashing Crys and Taksu. The ship may be full of holes but I will sail it!

More random minions. The background dancers just really, really wanted to show off their cool fedoras and scarves, no matter how unfit they are in a fantasy setting.

The next foe Raistlin faces is a succubus. She unfortunately lacks the charisma of Vera Zoodena and comes off as trying too much. I'm sorry, but whatever she's trying, it just doesn't work. Raistlin seems nervous though, and shouts to her ”Don't touch me!” Oh, the bookworm nerd doesn't like me, eh, says the succubus, I'll just pick his brother then. And she goes to snuggle with Caramon's doppelganger. This is a rather interesting scene, because there's a book that tells about the twins' childhood and apparently there was an incident where a girl initially showed intered towards little Raistlin and got his hopes up and then crushed them by deciding to go for the handsome twin instead. So, yeah, Raistlin has brother issues, and of course Takhisis uses them against him.

Time for more childhood trauma. Takhisis summons the images of the kids who bullied Raistlin when he was little. As someone who still occasionally has nightmares of my own bullies, I have to admit I feel sorry for him here. The cruelty of children can wound a person very deeply. The creatures make Raistlin retreat, tearing open wounds he thought had scarred permanently long ago. Anxious and unable to fight his fears, Raistlin falls on his knees and, much like in his childhood, instinctively cries Caramon for help. But his brother is not here to protect him, to chase away the bullies and watch over his sleep so he can wake him up from nightmares.

Now that Takhisis has Raistlin exhausted and crawling on the ground, she appears to him in the disguise of his mother. She calls for Raistlin, and the wizard reacts to the familiar voice, rushing towards her but stopping midway when he finally gets a grip of reality, that these are all shadows summoned by Takhisis and nothing more. Once Takhisis realizes her game is discovered, she drops the pretense and appears as herself, casting her dark spells on Raistlin, pulling him closer. Eventually all of his strength is consumed and he collapses, fallen victim to the Dark Lady's power.

Crysania to the rescue! Having been separated from Raistlin in the darkness of the Abyss, she finally finds him and immediately puts her healing powers to work. Takhisis tells her she is too late, death has claimed the wizard. I will not give him to you, Crysania exclaims, continuing to revive the man she loves. If needed, she is willing to give her own life in exchange of his. Takhisis speaks to Crysania, telling her that even she feels sorry for her, but a flame always leaves its mark. And then, just as life is returning Raistlin's body, the Dark Lady blinds Crysania's eyes.

And now we get to the most painful scene in the show. Blinded Crysania seeks Raistlin's hand and tells him that they have defeated darkness (What?! How? When? The last I checked, Takhisis seemed to be alive and well. I don't get it.). My eyes can see light no more and I am wounded, but your path to godhood is open now. And then Raistlin answers...  that I don't need you anymore. I...  I...  fuck...  Crysania begs him to stay with her, to hold her hand. She was ready to give her life for you! All she wants is for you to hold her hand! I don't cry often when reading books but I remember sobbing all the way through this horrible ending.

Singing arrogantly, Raistlin leaves Crysania behind, blind and wounded, all alone in the darkness of the Abyss. I did what was necessary to reach my goal. The gates were sealed cleverly but with the help of a fool's love I opened them. I don't need you anymore. The price of love in exchange of becoming a god is not too high.

Takhisis speaks to Crysania again, and it's clear now that when she said earlier that she feels sorry for Crysania, it wasn't because of her grief over Raistlin's death, but because she wasn't aware of being used.

Taksu, please, can you not. (Why is everyone in this musical such a dick to blind people?)

Crysania sings a sad song about the senselessness of cruelty and my heart breaks for her. After devoting her life to a man who abandoned her to die alone in the dark, the inside of her chest is pitch black and a void deeper than Abyss where her heart used to be. A final song of grief echoes among the shadows. The Dark Lady's minions dance with Crysania, surprisingly calmly considering they are creatures of evil. Even Takhisis herself holds her in her arms for a while (please kiss her. I know you're not the goddess of death but please. Just kiss her.). Eventually she collapses at the foot of her Dark Majesty's throne and ends her song. The only thing I can do is close my eyes before this void and wait for someone to push. And that's the image we leave Crysania with. A betrayed, blind woman standing on a cliff's edge, waiting for the moment she has to fall down.

Astinus appears again and tells what happened next. Raistlin went on to challenge all of the gods until he was the only one left. However, he did not possess the gods' ability to create. In his war against the gods he had left the mortal world in ruin, and now as the only god of Krynn, he could not repair it. The mortal world had become as desolate, dark and lifeless as the Abyss.

Now, in the books this is not what happens. It's what could happen, but Raistlin gets shown this grim future and that scares him to finally give up his ambitious plan. However he had already opened the gates and entered Abyss, so he chose to remain there and prevent Takhisis from coming through the gates until they had been properly closed behind him. Some versions of the musical also apparently have this ending. However, I prefer this one, where Raistlin reaches that future and has to for all eternity bear the heavy burden of being the one who brought forward the end of the world, all alone in the darkness, the only remaining witness to the devastating results of his actions. I think an ending where we allow him the chance to correct his errors and sacrifice his life nobly for the sake of preventing Takhisis from entering Krynn, is cheaper and doesn't give proper emphasis on the fact that actions have consequenses and often, even in stories involving time travel, once you've made a mistake, you cannot undo it! I prefer stories with the moral ”Don't do this, once you do it there's no going back” than ”Don't do this but if you do, there's always a second chance if you're ready to make some sacrifices.” I know this is fantasy, but in real life, there often aren't second chances. You can only break a fragile thing once. You can only lose someone's trust once.

We get one final song, Lord of Nothing, and it's a great song number. For whatever reason Takhisis sings it with Raistlin, despite the fact that she should be long since defeated in this timeline. Maybe she will forever live on in Raistlin's mind, a fragment of his imagination formed from the memory of nightmares. I don't know, but I don't even care, Vera Zoodena has such a great voice that she can raise Takhisis from the dead any time she wants.

One reason I love this song is that it's basically the Dark Lady vigorously rubbing salt on Raistlin's wounds. Yeah, you wanted this, you wanted this so bad, well look at your kingdom now, oh great Lord of Nothing! As she sings the background dancers gradually take away all of the props, including Raistlin's staff and his robes and then disappear offstage, leaving him standing there alone on the empty stage. It is very satisfying to hear Raistlin sing in anxious manner, desperately trying to lie to himself that he can still fix this, oh please don't let me be left alone in the void. The last one to leave is Astinus. He gives Raistlin his quill and scroll of history before disappearing.

I liked this show and was amazed how nicely it adapted the original material. It's very different to the kind of musical theater I usually watch (Takarazuka). But even a smaller production, with a very small prop budget and actors who sing well but don't dance at all, can be as entertaining as a big, colourful spectacle.

There's been some translating projects going on. Maybe some day there might be an English version done.

[vercnas-blog]

im late but u know what ? it be like that sometimes sjbdjsdj…im xan ( she / her pronouns ) im 20 in the est timezone and i cant write intro posts but we’re just gonna pretend i can so ! dcdbjbdjjd i almost started this intro with a big HEWWO but i already know the admins want me to perish so i restrained myself /: im a gemini so i dont know how to....shut the heck up prepare for ugly rambling which u can find on my bio & stat things [HERE] but i’ll include some less ugly rambling under the cut bc im sure u guys are tired of reading jxbjbj

TW: ABUSE ( i dont really get into it but just in case <3 )

basically...her parents are UGLY & filthy rich u know the usual around here jdcbdjbgj valentin moon has a billion dollar power company based in korea & violetta moon was the baby of an oil titan & an ex supermodel. they have two kids.....vaughn is the oldest and then there’s verena !!! they all have v names bc like i said her parents are UGLY & hate fun !

so her dad really didnt care about her & just her brother so lucky verena got stuck with her mom.....who literally treated her like a doll & dressed her up for parties & dragged her around important business meetings & basically taught her how to be obedient in some ummm messed up ways folks ! as a kid verena was basically mute bc it was just easier & safer that way for her uhh when i say she hasn’t cried since she was seven i mean it  

so seven ! when she was seven verena came to the realization her parents treated her the way they did bc she wasn’t trying hard enough so she came home with her report card all happy bc she had the highest grades in her class and was literally the highest in her grade & she thought they were finally gonna praise her but uhhh the opposite happened basically they beat it into her that being ambitious is bad and it leads to corruption & verena took it as she’s never going to be good enough so her self worth meter ? a solid ZERO 

moved from seoul to nyc at fifteen and was super happy about it ! her parents hated it because they thought new york was an ugly in sinful city but verena was having a fun time nutting over architecture or whatever JBCJS this is when her brother vaughn went to st. andrews so carry on the moon legacy so verena’s fun was short lived

basically her brother had literally been a carbon copy of his parents but once he joined the society he did a 180 and was just completely wild and getting into a bunch of shit & since both her parents had been in diadem imperium they got double the connections &  heard abt everything he was doing so instead of taking it out on vaughn they took it out on verena

when her brother graduated he came back to nyc and verena was just . so disconnected from everyone in her family at that point & just numb to all the abuse she just wanted out she was relieved to leave to scotland & start up at st andrews 

OK SO PERSONALITY WISE verena literally has zero idea how to deal with her emotions bc as a kid showing emotion = getting “disciplined” so even away from her parents verena just has zero idea how they work or what to do with stuff she feels. SUPER DETACHED ! like....she’s got no idea how to connect to people so she comes across as really cold which sucks to her bc even when she does want to try to make a friend she’s just so shitty at it so she doesn’t bother. 

usually she’s quiet but she’s irritated easily so she tends to snap sometimes & even when she’s in a good mood & joking it’s all sarcasm which again....comes across as mean. she doesnt know how to care enough about people so usually she’s just indifferent to you but there are exceptions ( orion -___- ) so that could be fun

her biggest biggest pet peeve is people who think they’re better than other people & try to assert that power over other ppl ( again . orion -_____- ) bc she was literally never allowed to be ambitious or have a good opnion about herself so it just rubs her the wrong way ! will get into arguments over this . 10/10 stubborn about it .

literally hates the word sorry so much....it triggers her pretty bad bc she used to say it all the time to her parents so if ur having a wholesome convo & she just shuts down its probably bc u said sorry scddsjbj rip 

trying to get better at the friends thing /: she really loves diadem imperium with all her heart & ran for secretary bc it was the first time she let herself be ambitious about something & takes her job seriously even if others don’t. she’s a big nerd about art and sketches but would rather die than let anyone see it bc she’s got...zero confidence in her abilities. she’s a political science & finance double major for her parent’s sake.....doesn’t like to party at all bc she’s got zero experience letting loose....uhhh she’s a bottom ? tops pls interact xxxx im out of things to say JSXBSJBD

THAT’S IT IM DONE ITS ALL UGLY but so am i /: pls plot with me here or on discord ( i prefer discord im way better at answering messages over there jdcbdj ) im the slowest typer ever bc half my keyboard is BROKEN and im too broke/lazy to fix it so if u see me typing for 200 years dont freak out JSBSJDBJ thats it i’ve been nutting for over 24 hours if u think thats sexi like this post (;;;;;; i’ll come hit u up !