#it does not matter what the plot is

[ambiguously-gendered-freak]

Do I start watching a show just bc Katie McGrath is in it again

[crossdressingdeath]

You know what? I think a lot of DAV's biggest plot weaknesses ultimately come back to DAI, because a lot of them can be summarized as "Why didn't they get into [thing that DAI set up]" and... the answer is that Bioware was never going to be able to meaningfully engage with those things, and they should've known that when they wrote them into DAI. The Divine, Kieran's existence, Urthemiel's soul, the Well of Sorrows, all that stuff DAI set up that people are mad DAV didn't focus on? All of those should have led to pretty big alterations in the worldstate, and the worldstate has to remain roughly the same for everyone. We were never going to get the massive impact those choices should've had, for the same reason the Warden's boon at the end of DAO was quietly forgotten about as soon as Dragon Age became a series instead of a standalone game: the writing just can't support choices that would create such massive divergences. Like... take Urthemiel. Whether or not Mythal got Urthemiel's soul (and by extension whether or not Solas potentially had the chance to take it) should have been a huge deal! It should've led to two pretty different paths! Except... it can't. Because Bioware can only write one story for each game they make, which means the critical path can't really change beyond flavour text and occasionally which character gets a cameo slot; Mythal didn't get Urthemiel's soul in every worldstate, so Urthemiel's soul can never be relevant to the main plot. And the thing is, they would've known that going in! DAI was the third game, they must have known that worldstate variation could never be more than flavour text and cameos! Hell, you can see Bioware scrambling to make all the Divine options more or less the same in terms of impact on Thedosian society in DAI, which was definitely done to make writing sequels feasible. So why did they write Mythal getting Urthemiel's soul into DAI? And it's the same for all those other big, story-changing choices. People have differing opinions on the merits of including variable flavour text just to say it's there but that's not what this is about; in terms of the actual plot the variables cannot be relevant (unless it's something like the Warden ally choice where every option is ultimately the same in terms of plot impact, and even that one's pushing it; it never is explained how Hawke ended up friendly with Loghain). I think when talking about choices from DAI that DAV didn't engage with it's important to take a second to ask yourself if Bioware could have written a version of events that worked equally well with every possible outcome of that choice and could be tweaked to engage with every variation without having any major impact on the main plot. If the answer is no I think it's better described as a DAI problem than a DAV problem, because it's not actually DAV's fault that DAI wrote checks it couldn't cash.

[kirianthedivorce]

I don’t think this is going to end with Gemma being completely alive and back to normal and everything’s happy but like, I am a little baffled by people’s insistence that mark trying to get her back is unhealthy

Like. If you think your wife dies but then it turns out she appears to be alive and being held hostage in a basement somewhere, presumably stolen just before death by the deeply unethical medical company who has contacts and influence in just about every organisation in your area (including the hospital and the morgue), and you happen to have access to some parts of said basement then doing what you can to get her out of there isn’t an unhealthy refusal to move on. That’s like. A relatively normal response to an insane situation.

Like is the healthy option to just leave your seemingly alive and well wife in the basement of the evil medical company to be experimented on? Mark doesn’t even know she can’t remember anything (and to be honest, neither do we. We’ve only seen her innie. We have no idea what her ‘outie’ is like. I doubt it’s normal regular Gemma, but we don’t know). The experimental brain surgery is unideal but the desire to rescue her is like. The only normal response to that information

[critter-wizard]

ep 43 had me tearing up in a fucking shopping centre ‼️‼️

b+w alt version that I truly couldn't decide if I liked it more . Also I included a lot of thoughts in the tags but they're somewhat incoherent<3

[whoreiorcats]

im not here to like invalidate how other poc/asians specifically feel about gemma/ms casey and her storyline thus far but like, idk i really dont have notes. i love her. i find her to be one of the most relatable characters in fiction to me. there are a lot of arguments that she falls into certain stereotypes/tropes but the way i see it is that real life pushes asian women/fems into these boxes. like i am a (w)asian nonbinary lesbian, i've been loud and annoying and opinionated my whole life, and then i hit a place a few years ago where i found myself shrinking, trying to be quiet and small in order to get by. like, i felt like i was turning into someone else. kinda like.... ms casey/gemma. anyway the miscarriage stuff, idk i definitely get how that could bother people but it is also just in line with the themes of the show. i don't relate to wanting to have a child or miscarriages specifically, but i've wanted something terribly, worked really hard for it, and had it taken from me in a painful way and had that need to restore it used against me. is this way too much? idk. i just love gemma/casey/all of her innies so much and it hurts to see her reduced by certain readings, but i also want to respect people who don't feel comfortable with her portrayal. but. i love her forever until i die.

[phoenixcatch7]

In love with the idea of captain marvel being Billy's imaginary friend. Like, it'd be so easy. Early depictions had them as almost fully separate people sometimes, like one soul with two minds, rather than just two filters like we mostly see now.

But imagine a Billy down on his luck, hurt and hiding from police and criminals alike, daydreaming the hours away as children do, taking inspiration from all the superheroes rising to fame, making little stories to play out his dreams of saving the world with a generic action doll he found while dumpster diving once. Most of the paint's rubbed off.

Red's his favourite colour, his comfiest jumper is a bright ruby even after all the grime and washes. Gold, too, it's shiny and warmer than silver! A hero cape is a must, big and eye catching! And he can fly, of course, like superman, and in his daydreams, when he's sore and frustrated after a long day's grind, his superhero is smart enough and knows all the right words to get the bullies to stop without resorting to fighting.

His superhero fantasy is one he spends a lot of time on, the first one he goes for when struggling to sleep at night, and he can picture it so clearly. Captain marvel is big and bright and kind, strong enough to lift the boxes for the old lady up the road who's moving all by himself, fast enough to catch Jamie who fell out of the tree on Saturday and broke his leg and couldn't come to class for weeks. He appears at the entrance to alleys when Billy is cornered, he steps up behind to cover for him when he gets caught shoplifting, he sits at the bus stop with him when it's pouring rain and the right bus doesn't seem to be coming.

And then the wizard comes, or rather whisks him away, and like a magician from a fairytale breathes life into his imaginary friend until Billy feels thrice his size and a million times more invincible.

From then on, captain marvel is a real hero, just like Billy is a real boy, and as one they save the whole city, and then the whole world, and get cats down from trees and help Mrs Victoria move the last of her boxes and she gives them a pinch in the cheek and cookies for the road and sometimes it hurts but it's so much better than he imagined.

[utilitycaster]

There's this weird phenomenon where the people who are really, really invested in Campaign 3 being The Best try to argue that it's the most closely bonded party. when in fact the absolute strongest material with Bells Hells thus far is them realizing with a shock that they've spent almost three months alternating between "my way or the highway" and smoothing things over to the point that they almost shatter along with Ashton and realize that they absolutely cannot go on a time-sensitive, mission-critical journey to save the world without stopping to take a team-bonding vacation.

And to be clear, this rips, but it feels as though while Campaign 1 and Campaign 2 fans might disagree on their favorite campaigns, they do like their campaigns for what they actually are and simply have different preferences with regards to what kind of story they like. This particular flavor of Campaign 3 fans, and there's a decent number of them, only care about winning on the most kindergarten-ass "all you need is love 🥺" axis (also, shades of the bean-counting/points approach to media analysis) but as a result they put forward an idea of the campaign that's simply not the reality and it's like, do you like Campaign 3? Or do you like the fanfiction version of it you wrote in your head based on the first 10 episodes and into which you have slowly dissolved your brain? There's plenty of valid reasons to enjoy or even prefer the campaign, but it's easily the most dysfunctional party and that's fine!

[goemon-fan]

This was easily one of the best Lupin episodes

[imjustavenuxwithaboomerang]

okay i know that "was in possession of stolen goods" doesn't quite roll off the tongue as well as just saying "stealing" or "stole" but i feel like this fandom forgets that ej was not the one who stole nini's phone, gina was

[c2-eh]

strayed red strings on ao3

hanahaki disease series, charles leclerc/carlos sainz jr, 24.7k, completed. posted in 2022, edited in 2024

part 1 - you made flowers grow in my lungs; charles' pov, 12.1k, M

Charles' eyes water from the force of his coughing and gagging. He tried to supress it, but to no avail. His throat was hurting so, so much. If Charles were to explain the pain, he’d say it felt as if somone put embers in it. Hot, scratching and burning his throat. His hands were clutching the sink of his bathroom, while he tried to breathe through his nose. This was getting harder each day and he hasn’t even reached the last stage. Or: Charles has Hanahaki disease and tries to deal with it without telling Carlos.

part 2 - a bouquet of unsaid i love yous; post hanahaki, carlos' pov, 12.6k, E

Carlos loved flowers, always found them beautiful when he was younger. He was the kind of guy to buy flowers for his mom, sisters or his significant other just to see a smile blossom on their faces the same way those flowers did. It probably came from the times when he was a little kid – growing up, he usually saw his father giving flowers to his mom, whether it was on some special occasion, or it was just ordinary day and he wanted to show his love to her. However, Carlos hates flowers now.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

the never stop blowing up vhs is where cute twinks go to get harmed

[francisforever2014]

fucking mr matthews character development and walter plot instead of literally anything else . allowing men to be on this show was a mistake

[thegreatyin]

Would they moonmilk someone tho

weirdly enough, yes... and no. like. simultaneously. it very heavily depends on what context gets them involved with moon milk in the first place

[mla0]

Something about Shaun and Patrick that gets to me is that like, Shaun could learn a lot from an older sibling who is very unapologetically themselves and doesn't particularly care what the rest of the world thinks about it. She is someone who always needs a logical explanation, who doesn't step over any lines and is extremely complacent and conformist out of fear and being raised by shitty people (which probably only got worse after Michael was institutionalized, that pressure to not just be unlike him but also better in order to be even merely tolerated in her own home, etc.). Like you do not understand the depths at which I care so incredibly much about Shaun and Patrick's dynamic and what it could've been

[lord-squiggletits]

"Rodimus is a better Prime because it didn't hurt for him to bond with the Matrix while for Optimus it did" headcanon/theory my beloathed.

One day I'm literally gonna snap and make a whole post addressing why what's wrong bc I'm tired of the inaccuracy and tired of ppl not understanding the Point TM of IDW and its version of the Matrix/Primacy and even more tired of people putting down Optimus in favor of Rodimus by essentially arguing that being unworthy means you deserve to be punished/put in pain bc you just weren't good enough to hold the Symbol of Ultimate Authority

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

I've had some ANF thoughts today. Y'all know how much I hate the "love triangle" aspect of the story with Javi, Kate, and David, right? If you can even call it a love triangle; it's more of a "David and Kate never felt like a married couple to begin with and now Javi has the chance to bone his sister-in-law as if that's not a weird thing to do at all👍" thing, so... not great.

I'm also just not fond of Kate as a character in general. She's pretty good in ep1, but after that it's a slippery slope as she's relegated to the injured love interest for Javi. There are interesting aspects to her, like how she's resourceful and on top of things, she keeps track of herds and overall is shown to be incredibly smart. But, she also has moments where she has to let herself be emotional and a little panicked because she knows she needs to get it out of her system in order to focus. She gets frustrated with Gabe and says things she shouldn't, and she just.... I dunno, does dumb shit sometimes? And that would be fine if it made sense... but it doesn't.

I was always more interested in the Garcia brothers aspect of ANF, and felt the story would've been improved if it focused more on Javi and David, their relationship as brothers in the past and how different it is after they've found each other again in the apocalypse. One of the best scenes in the entire game is the rooftop scene where David ask Javi to stand with him.

And so I was thinking about ANF this morning and what could be done to make Kate fit better in the story and like...it hit me: Kate should've been their sister.

No, seriously, hear me out: Kate should've been written to be the middle child of the Garcia siblings instead.

Do you know how much that would fix? Throw that stupid love triangle in the trash. It was never good, it did nothing for Kate's character, and now David and Javi don't have to bicker about who she's married to and who gets to bone her, okay? No bullshit fight at the end!

David was already married once, just let him be divorced or a widower, and a single father. Javi can have a new love interest; hell, give him two if you want, let him be a bi king over Eleanor and Tripp- wait, no that just creates another love triangle, damn it-

Anyway... if Kate was their sister, then her entire character overflows with potential that wasn't there before.

I say make her the middle child who was stuck with two rivaling brothers, one a military man who became a single father and the other a professional baseball player who lost it all in a gambling scandal.

What about Kate? Perhaps she's a single woman who doesn't know what she wants in life. She doesn't want to settle down and have kids like David did, but she also doesn't want to sink so low like Javi did. She wants to travel, but needs money to do that so she does what she can save up, but there's always something that makes her dip into her savings.

Y'know... like her father getting sick and needing to pay for treatments, which Kate is happy to give up those savings so for a chance for him to beat cancer, but there's always that little bit of bitterness lingering inside her that keeps saying, "it's never about what I want, it's always about David or Javi, I'm going no where, I'm no one, even I don't know who I am or what I want, what am I doing? Papa got sick, so Javi ran away again, and so did David when he reenlisted, and who got left behind to take care of everything? Me, it's always me left to take care of Mama and Papa, and the kids, and everything else!"

Maybe she acted as a mediator between the brothers, too. They always relied on her when they were pissed with each other, they vented all their problems to her, and she always tried to get them to connect on something, but never found that right thing.

Hell, this way she could get along with the kids better, too. She's just Aunt Kate. She always volunteered to babysit them for David. She and Gabe still have their tiffs due to clashing attitudes, but there's no "you're not my mother!" vibe.

Suddenly Kate's her own person and not just an object the game throws at you for the brothers to grunt "she's muh wife!" "but I love her, too!" at.

ANF becomes the story of these three siblings who experienced the worst night of their lives together: their father died after a long battle with cancer, their mother is distraught, Javi didn't show up in time, David's drinking on the porch and Kate's trying to look out for everyone. Then the outbreak happens, their father comes back as a walker and bites their mother, David rushes off with her to the hospital while Kate and Javi take the kids...

Years later, Kate and Javi have accepted that they've lost their parents and big brother, and they're doing what they can to keep their niece and nephew alive... until Kate gets shot and they reunite with David, because then everything gets extra complicated with the three siblings trying to repair broken bridges and survive together until they hit a breaking point where Kate gets sick of David's shit. She's done trying to be nice and play mediator, she's ready to do what she thinks is right and an argument breaks out... and Javi's forced to choose between his brother or sister, and the tragedy becomes about being unable to save one of them... not matter what, in the end, Javi will lose a sibling because no matter how hard he tried, they still fell apart.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I just really hate every plot they give Kate, y'all. She was done dirty.

And I loathe love triangles that involve two siblings [usually it's brothers] falling in love with the same person, okay? I don't have the patience for it, I just want all of those love triangles to go far, far away from me forever and never bother me again.

Anyway, do you love this thing I do where I show up after months of inactivity to slap something like this down before scurrying away? Because I'm scurrying now.