#it's the magical thinking the human need for narrative etc but

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

In what ways would you change Yuu (or would you get rid of them entirely)? The writing feels inconsistent on their place/importance. If they were just a conduit for the player to watch the events unfold that's one thing but in another story they are an active player.

I'd personally play into the beastamer aspect more. They are supposedly the reason why Ace, Deuce, and Grim were able to work together thus I'd want them to have more agency in making plans, giving orders, etc. Rook calls them Trickster but in what way (lol). The vagueness of being a self insert pains me. I'd also want to give them some magically infused weapon (or has a magestone embedded) just so they aren't fodder or sideline material.

Mmm… As much as I dislike the blank slate self-insertiness of Yuu (I’d prefer to read about an actually realized character), I wouldn’t want to get rid of them altogether. I think they’re important for the role they serve in the narrative even if in execution is inconsistent and not done well.

The problem with “changing” Yuu is that there has to be a certain level of ambiguity due to the design of the game. You cannot give them too much personality or you risk alienating the audience that likes to project or self-insert. There’s also a limit to how much uniqueness a mobile game can lend its players characters; the format isn’t exactly known for having super in-depth player arcs, it’s known for their colorful casts of rollable characters. The devs have to toe that line carefully, not to mention juggle Yuu’s participation with letting the other characters shine. It is for this reason that I won’t be doing a total overhaul of Yuu or just deciding “give them a personality!” as what I’d change about them. Rather, I’ll be proposing alterations while thinking like a dev (ie preserving the current story and as much of the self-insertiness as I can while also trying to give Yuu more to do/say).

Now Yuu, being the outsider to this world, is perfectly poised to have others dump exposition on them. This serves the dual purpose of being able to diegetically explain things to the player. (We wouldn’t get this advantage if the player character was changed to be like… a Twisted Wonderland resident; you could explain some magic things to a layman, but a resident wouldn’t need more common knowledge like country names exposited to them. Were this the case, we’d need an additional excuse for Crowley to take in a native.) It’s also convenient to have them be the “eyes” for the player to experience the world through, since Yuu is able to conveniently be present for most major main story events. It essentially makes them a human-shaped video camera.

I’ve often heard people suggest that if we need a POV character, why not go with Grim since he basically serves the same purpose now anyway. My answer to that is: Grim is also an arrogant asshole who picks fights, just the same as any other NRC student. If Grim were the player character, he wouldn’t be contributing much or helping to guide the other students learn to get along. We need Yuu here to be that driving force for change because Grim simply isn’t capable of it when he’s instigating himself half of the time.

A smaller thing about Yuu that I love is the idea of them being the school photographer! (This is something that is shown in the second anniversary animated video too!) It gives us context for the cards we roll and it implies that Yuu is the one documenting these precious memories. I want Yuu to stay if only for this reason.

Personally, I wouldn’t make Yuu a combatant. This is antithetical to their role and I feel would instead work against them (or at least create a scenario where Yuu has to have some level of battle prowess; this impedes on the self-insert nature of them). Sticking a magic item in their hand makes little difference since they most likely wouldn’t know how to handle it in the moment. (Nor would a magicless human even be able to use some of them; for example, a magestone is completely useless to them.) A magicless human with no combat experience is just another liability to account for, not to mention it actively puts them in harm’s way. It might be cool in theory, but I think in practice it goes against the very concept of Yuu. They’re meant to be here to show that there is “another way” to the NRC students—that violence doesn’t solve all your problems, proof that you don’t need to be a powerful being to “change” others or the world around them. They’re supposed to be underestimated and not seen as much of a “real” fighter, and they’re supposed to prove those notions wrong by demonstrating their worth via other avenues. In this “the weak obey the strong” school, Yuu has to be the one to show them that strength comes in forms that are NOT magic power or battle prowess.

I feel that Yuu works best on the sidelines as a supporter and strategist. Strategy is, after all, half of the battle, and it’s a part that people tend to overlook in favor of the flashier fighters. But strategy is crucial and it can turn the tide against a formidable foe (as we see in the prologue)!! I think this is something the NRC students need to be made more aware of too, so Yuu should stay as the strategist; they just have to be given more opportunities to show off those skills!

With all of that being said, here is what I would change about Yuu:

Drop the beast tamer thing. It gets mentioned prominently like once in the prologue and then never becomes truly relevant. Maybe it’ll become important when it comes to taking down OB Grim, but that will be SO late in the main story that the payoff doesn’t seem worth it. There are no examples of Yuu’s beast taming skills ever being used in the main story, so the whole “oh you have the makings of a beast tamer” thing is so useless. If you really want to keep it, then let Yuu’s innate talent/skills for beast taming help them out at least once per main story book. This means I’d want to see instances of Yuu getting other creatures (ie not just Grim) to help them out.

Allow Yuu the agency to act on their own when it comes to finding a way back to their own world. Going home is so often relegated to a single line or a few sentences and then not addressed again until next book. Have Yuu take initiative instead of waiting around for updates from Crowley. They should go out and ask questions, investigate on their own, etc. Maybe have them get involved in each book’s conflict because they happen to get mixed up in it while conducting research instead of being TOLD to go and fix a problem. Book 6 marks the only real time I can think of Yuu making a drastic decision against Crowley’s advice. It puts them at great risk, and that’s something they’re willing to take for the sake of saving their friends. We need more moments like this throughout the rest of the story. However, Yuu won’t be allowed to do whatever they want unrestricted because 1) it falls out of the scope of a mobile game title and 2) we want to largely retain the capacity to self-insert. So when I say give Yuu more agency to act, I mean it ONLY in the sense of being more proactive in their efforts to get home.

Add a short comment or two from other characters depending on which dialogue options are picked for Yuu. It would be too ambitious to incorporate a full-on branching storyline or strong “choose your own adventure” elements, but at least have the other characters consistently comment on whatever brief dialogue option Yuu has rather than ignoring them 90% of the time. This wouldn’t alter the story in any way but it sure would be nice to have a little more flavor text and more of Yuu actually being acknowledged as present.

Yuu should fully commit to being a planner and strategist. We get to see this aspect of Yuu like once or twice in the prologue (when they tell Grim where to spit fire at the ghosts/planning how to beat the Phantom in the mines) and then are left to extrapolate this to the rest of the game. Maybe you can argue they figured out Azul’s scheme in book 3 too, but this isn’t good enough. If you’re going to set up the idea, then have consistent segments in each book that reinforces that idea. Have Yuu brainstorm ways to jailbreak in book 4, have Yuu be perceptive enough to notice that Malleus isn’t feeling great in book 7 (only for Malleus to brush them off/insist he has a solution), etc.

Have a short story segment that explains how or why Yuu earns their nickname “Trickster” from Rook. We got this with Floyd, so the other known nicknamer should reveal this, especially since the name “Trickster” implies intelligence and cunning. Yuu should have an opportunity to demonstrate this (in book 5 maybe?), which earns them Rook’s respect and the new title. This should also be informed by other parts where Yuu shows how smart they can be.

More time bonding with Grim. I say Grim specifically because I commonly see him as a hated character in part because of how he “steals lines/time” away from Yuu. (Adeuce and Malleus are fine as they are because the former already stick up for/help Yuu out and the latter is meant to stay mysterious until late in the main story.) This means that if you don’t already like Grim, the whole “Yuu chases them to Styx HQ to save Grim” plot point in book 6 rings hollow. To truly build a bond with Grim, please give us moments prior to book 6 that show how much they care for one another and are linked to each other as partners. Times when Grim causes inconveniences for Yuu don’t count. Give me instances of them cuddling at night or talking to each other about their hopes and dreams or whatever. This would establish the value that Grim sees in Yuu, as well as the value that Yuu sees in Grim. It makes it more believable that Grim would cry when he’s alone or realizes he hurt his partner, and that Yuu would defy the headmaster’s advice and put themselves at risk to save Grim.

Better incorporate the ghost camera and its usage in the main story. The ghost camera provides an in-universe explanation for gaming meta (ie the card illustrations); in the main story, it’s hardly ever mentioned save for its introduction in the prologue and when Yuu takes a picture of Mickey with it. What should happen instead is Yuu will take a picture of the characters involved in that chapter. This way, it’s a physical reminder of the time everyone spent together and the bonds they’ve developed. It further strengthens the idea of the students learning to get along and Yuu being there to facilitate that while also keeping the ghost camera relevant.

More time where Yuu actually bonds with/“changes” the other characters. One huge gripe I have with the main story is that we’re TOLD that Yuu’s presence changes and improves the boys for the better, that they teach them how to get along. Very little of the actual main story supports this (outside of the prologue). At best, Yuu has a very short chat with some of the OB boys at the end of their respective book. Yuu should have a little more time in this regard. I don’t know, maybe Idia is still struggling to socialize when he comes over to play video games at Ramshackle so Yuu has to gently encourage him to give it a try or says something to help include him in the conversation. Little things like that! Keep the strong interactions the other characters have in changing the OB boys (like Trey being the one to rush to Riddle’s side, the twins teasing Azul, etc.), but have Yuu help facilitate them opening up emotionally and being vulnerable with one another.

This last point is debatable (I keep changing my mind about it), but possibly make a point of showing how Yuu is adjusting to this new world. This honestly might mess with the self-insert aspect (which is why I debated to leave this out), but I also feel like it might be interesting to reinforce Yuu’s desire to go home h demonstrating homesickness or issues with settling into Twisted Wonderland.

To summarize, the changes I’d make largely involve making TWST commit to briefly mentioned details (that they largely don’t follow through on) and making Yuu actually do a little more to warrant crediting them with resolving issues + fostering friendships. A lot of the problems that exist now are due to promising a lot but then poorly executing on what was promised.

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

What do you think are the chances that the Others won't be portrayed as these pure evil monsters that need to be stopped but instead will have a sympathetic side.

I understand fandom wanting the Others to be more “humanely" complex, I really do. But I personally don’t think it’s narratively necessary or even interesting to do so. There's absolutely no emotional weight to making the Others "sympathetic" or more human. At least, there's no new themes to be surveyed when exploring this new narrative beat. Do the Others have a history of being systematically oppressed by humans? Not that we know of. Is there a massive power imbalance that heavily favors the humans over them? Not really. If anything, the Others will make easy work of humanity and its our heroes who will have to give everything and more to defeat them. Dany's dragons are certainly not big enough, Jon is struggling to get everyone on the same page, and Bran is a traumatized 9 year old boy with little control over his magic. Humanity's survival stocks are at an all time low at the moment....

Plus, GRRM has already explored these questions in Jon Snow's arc through the wildlings. We also have resolution there. Jon is making a new peace with them. Not only is he bringing them south of the Wall but he is also allowing them to take up posts in the NW (a group they historically warred against). He's allowing them to join Stannis' united realm and become one people with the rest of Westeros. We have a profoundly human conflict where GRRM explores themes of greed and prejudice (e.g., Bowen Marsh and some other members of the NW) measured against deep love and an honor-driven need to save all and any people (i.e., Jon - spoiler: it leads to his death). We have systemic resolution on the horizon plus there's inklings of a promise that the wildlings will be part of the dream of spring through the Gift. Spring, where new life flourishes and grows. If you want a humanized take on the conflict in the North, look no further than Jon Snow's chapters. And I think that's by design - Jon is, after all, the central protagonist in this space.

You wouldn't be able to successfully explore these themes with the Others because it's just too late in the story. GRRM has spent more time avoiding the Others than he has setting them up as characters in this story. I often see the theory that a new pact will need to be forged and the funny thing is that people think Jon will be the one to do it. Nevermind that he already forged a new pact with the wildlings and they start to think of him as their king......It would be quite unsatisfying to repeat this with the Others. We don't know them like we know the wildlings. We don't have a reason to care for their survival, for their children, their villages, or culture. And when it comes to pacts, I assume people are looking to the children of the forest as the blueprint. But the children are established as helpful if not sympathetic figures from the beginning. Bran's later chapters gives life to them and their dying magic. We have reason to care for their survival (the tragedy being that there's so few of them left now) because GRRM sends out one of our two central northern protagonists to them. The children are to Bran what the wildlings are to Jon. So it's a bit useless to use the same formula with the Others since the foundation isn't even there to begin with.

I can't speak for you personally but I think part of why some people want the Others to be sympathetic is because they don't want the typical fantasy battles. They want drama and suspense. Nevermind that I don't think this conflict ends with big battles, but we can have that through our very human protagonists. I assume GRRM is going to explore themes of self-sacrifice, greed, law and lawlessness, etc. on what our human heroes and antagonists do as the conflict unfolds. The Others imo are a vehicle to GRRM exploring what he has admitted to be the all encompassing theme in these books: the human heart in conflict with itself.

I also think it's important to consider that the Others are driven by magical elements that cannot be reasoned with. Do they bring the cold, or does the cold bring them? Either way, I like to think of them as a natural disaster in the same way that we experience tornadoes or tsunamis in the real world. Do you want to reason with a tornado? No. You don't look for morality in them. Instead, when they do happen, you ask yourself: how did the government react? how did systemic racism/classism etc relate to the casualties and response times? how did policy change and who did it? how did communities come together, if at all? We look to the human condition, and that is what GRRM aims to do. These questions are what will be the meat of the conflict against the Others. Not stock fantasy battles but actual human interaction as everything unfolds.

So to your question, I think it's very unlikely that the Others are portrayed as a sympathetic party especially with humanity as the bad guy. Because at the end of the day, the lesson there is just "humans bad". But given ACOK-AFFC with the plights faced by the smallfolk, ASOS and ADWD with Dany's campaign in Essos, and Jon's entire arc starting from ACOK to ADWD, there's nothing new there to discuss. We already know people do bad shit and that brings terrible consequences, so what else is new? Tell me something I don't know.

[rfswitchart]

The Physiology of Grimwalkers

So @angelcloves somewhat inspired this (though, I've wanted to say this for a while...) A lot of people in the fandom seem to think that, when a Grimwalker is made, the parts he is made with are part of him in a literal sense. You know, 'he's made of palistrom wood,' or 'he has a galderstone heart,' etc.

Now, that's a cute theory and all, but I don't believe that's true. But, in order for me to talk about that, we need to talk about a particular type of magic that most of you might not be aware of or understand. However, it is relevant because it's clear that this school of magic is heavily involved with Grimwalkers, and that is...

NECROMANCY!!!!

Necromancy is the practice of magic to communicate with and summon the dead. In the case of Hunter and the Golden Guards, this is a ritual spell involving many parts of (presumably dead) creatures to make a copy of a singular person. How this would usually work for spells like this would be that the parts themselves transmutate (the magic of changing one thing into another. Think of Full Metal Alchemist or Caleb Widogast from Critical Role. The parts themselves are not Hunter's body parts, they morph and twist into flesh and blood organs. He doesn't have a Galderstone in his chest, he has a heart, those are witch/human lungs, not stonesleeper's. His HAIR (not skin or flesh) was palistrom wood morphed into his hair and fingernails, and so on. In fact, that's how those parts probably form under gestation while the Grimwalker is in the ground. Now, I am not saying this to detract from your headcanons. If you want to make Hunter have a Galderstone heart because you're writing a 100+ chapter fanfic and are making it narratively interesting, by all means. I, however, will stick with this as, to me, it makes more sense as someone who studies these things... Wait, no, I mean... I'm not using an ancient spellbook to raise the dead from several nearby graveyards. I've never even heard of necromancy before... *nervous laugh*

[mdhwrites]

Have you seen the leaked TOH pilot and pitch bible yet? IMO it’s crazy how most of it is better than the final product.

I have! And... I don't know if I entirely agree with that.

What I found most fascinating about it is that a lot of the contradictions and issues of scope with TOH that doomed it are still in the pitch bible itself. Just some quick examples of what I'm talking about: When talking about themes, they talk about Fantasy versus Reality but it's as shallow as it is in the show. After all, one of the episode concepts pitched within it features a plot that has Luz literally going "This is just like in my fanfiction!" and being better able to handle it because of that.

It builds up the emperor of the land and Belos (known as Oberon) when talking about them but NONE of the plotlines include Oberon in the episode pitches or even mention the coven system for that matter. They are still barely a thing to the show with the only episode concept about that part of the show being the one about William.

An utter lack of real stakes like how King has to face the deep crises of a decision of either being a lackey to the people he used to run with while also losing any chance to ever reclaim his lost power... Or he can save Eda and Luz and lose the chance to work with these people again. That's not really a compelling decision, is it?

The pitch also claims that the show will mostly be about Luz and Eda's relationship and how Luz's determination will push Eda to be a better person... And most of the episodes pitched are still not actually about the two spending time together. Just Eda making Luz upset so she goes off to do her own thing, just like the same problem as in the actual series.

You actually have MORE characters in this version which sucks harder for trying to narrow things down, especially since more of them are disconnected from each other than before. At least Boscha, unlike Pascha, has a connection to literally anyone in the main cast.

You also have stupidity with your magic still. "Look! I need to work hard to make small objects float!" And apparently that's enough to make all of Hexside lose their fucking minds. WHY!? In 90% of settings, that is as basic as the light spell Luz learns. It's why it's one of the first spells Harry learns.

Oh and let's not forget "Almost all known portals to the human realm have been severed" but apparently Amity has access to one of those known portals freely enough to attend two schools. It's a small thing but it would cause problems in theory.

BUT.

I will give credit to this: Luz is MUCH more compelling in this version. I think if there is something that is just unequivocally true, it's that. She is way less inoffensively nerdy, instead her interests being more upfront and troublesome, helping explain why that would be why she is rejected and not because, you know, she puts people in danger. Also her rise to power is just better.

Arguably, Luz in canon is a chosen one essentially from episode FOUR onwards. Now, this is up for debate but being given a power almost out of nowhere, with no training, that no one else has, is usually a sign of a chosen in a narrative. Episode 4 is when she gets the light glyph. She doesn't work for it, it's not a big character growth moment, etc. like that. She mostly just oops into it. Making it that Luz ACTUALLY has to work for her magic and the show actually has to explore how the magic works, making it so she has something to learn is just strictly better, especially for the concept of her learning to be a witch. Eda would actually be able to teach her something instead of shrugging and going "Welp, good luck!"

I will say that the bible does also lean more into an adventurous aspect though. This version of episodes would easily be more fantastical and include more magic in them which would help the Isles not feel so much like our realm. I will say the fact that there's also active anti-human prejudice also would be good because then Luz being human would, you know... Matter. Not that the Isles is really given a personality even here besides the oppression they're theoretically under. It's still a very generic fantasy setting.

A lot of the rest though? It's really not that unique or different from the show itself. Lilith is almost exactly the same, Tibbles is just Gus but a demon, there are slightly more restrictions on things like being human or magic but, you know, the show didn't care about its one law, why would it care about three? Even Amity, who does look better on here, is only because it's on paper. This is literally just Amity's pitch in S1 after all. All the reasons people loved Amity are here.

Conceptually it is fine but I am surprised about how not only this got picked up but also how it was greenlit so heavily as to get a pilot animatic, with voice acting, based on these concepts. There's just some very clear cleaning up that needs to be done, basic questions on its own setting and own logic that isn't even playing into the comedy/fantasy angles that could let you let it pass. It's not all of them or even the majority but a skeptical prereader could even raise these basic sorts of inconsistencies like the ones I brought up above. After all, this is half a season's worth of episodes pitched and a fifth of them are still going to Amity and more of them have Luz directly interacting with King than they do Eda.

There's a final thing I have to bring up due to it being why I think the show changed so drastically from this pitch bible to its final form: This is way more complicated. TOH already has extremely decompressed storytelling and too many elements working in tandem. Meanwhile, every character is MORE complicated in this one and less connected to each other, necessitating that each, except maybe Eda, will take more time to get through their stuff. The writing team either had to sharpen how much they could do in an episode or simplify and congregate elements. We see this a LOOOOT in S2A, especially Escaping Expulsion, where it seems the writers went "Even with three whole seasons planned, we don't have enough time to do everything we want to, the way we like to, so we need to start cutting and simplifying even more than before."

One example of this that's really easy: In the pitch bible, Willow is a random witch who lives near Eda. Well that means she'll likely either take time out of a couple episodes as she's introduced or take up an entire episode just for herself. Tibbles is also just on their own, like in the show. Introducing both of these characters is not really an option. However, put them both into Hexside and suddenly you can introduce three characters at the same time organically, like we saw with I Was a Teenage Abomination.

Luz just being gifted magic is another element to this. Her having to actually experiment for every spell and having to have a real system to her spells limits what she can do but also means spending a LOT more time on her magic. You can't just have a flower open up and give her the glyph of the day as easily, nor have her be able to throw her spells around as she wants. Making it so she just needs reams of paper and/or a marker makes it a lot easier and simpler to have her start casting magic.

This version of TOH would have SHATTERED under its own scope while the current version mostly bends and cracks from it. However, if people do use this to go "FUCK DISNEY EVEN HARDER!" I won't be surprised. Grand scope ALWAYS looks better on paper than it does in action. It sounds epic and multi-faceted and complex. The problem is that it still has to fit its format and it is MUCH harder to execute on than a more simple concept.

There's a reason the only perfect project is the one you never do because you can promise the world without ever having to deliver. So, while it's nice to see an earlier version, I am by no means going to say this would have been a better version of TOH.

======+++++======

Sorry for anyone hoping for a link to the pitch bible btw. I just don't have one as I got given it as a document.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[jesncin]

please do tell about why woman of tomorrow sucks i love reading your takes they’re always so well written

Sure! And thank you for throwing me this bone because WOOF

(btw it's totally fine for people to like Woman of Tomorrow, and I can even see why! This is just my experience with it that I wish was talked about more)

Quick context: Woman of Tomorrow is about a space farmgirl named Ruthye who seeks revenge on Krem, a guy who killed her dad. Supergirl guides her on this journey so they can learn lessons about grief and revenge.

The biggest flaw of the comic is the narrative prose. Ruthye's dialogue is a rambly, over-indulgent, stylized mix of an attempt at medieval Shakespearian speak, but then in the last few issues the writer remembers she's a farmgirl so he decides she should suddenly say "ain't" more often and speak in double negatives to sound a bit more Southern. I can enjoy wordy comics! But Ruthye's dialogue and narration is blatantly excessive purple prose. So many scenes would hit harder with a less-is-more approach while still being stylized and characteristic. Sometimes the narrations pairs nicely with the art to create layered irony, but most of the time it feels like it's disregarding the comics medium altogether.

The other thing about Ruthye's narration is that it holds the story back. I get that the narration is Ruthye writing from the future, but the way it's done gives us a very passive relationship with the events of the story. We don't get to be with the characters in the action heavy moments because we're reading caption boxes of Future Ruthye rambling about poetry recounting The Battle of Capes. I'm not experiencing grief or dread with the characters, I'm being told about it. All of Ruthye's narrative rants boil down to "Supergirl is really badass, sad and kind. I promise this is deep." and "here's how my farm girl experience is relevant to this". Ruthye also speaks in glowing admiration, idealization and worship of Supergirl; it makes it really hard to get to know Kara in a humanizing way. I'm sure the purple prose hits differently for others, but I personally think the story would have more room to breathe without it.

You know how people like saying "Superman is boring because everything is too easy for him, he's too powerful" yeah that's Woman of Tomorrow. The conflict Kara faces are not challenges to her character, they're inconveniences. The resolutions to each story don't feel clever or earned. Kara just knows where to find the murdered purple aliens, Kara just happens to have a silver age-reference magical horse that can outrun the suffering-ball Krem throws at her, Kara just toughs out 10 hours in the green sun. Why be a smart storyteller when you can just give your heroine the upper hand every single time? There could've been a great bonding moment where Ruthye uses her famer-smarts to build shade for Kara, she could've crafted a salve to protect Kara's skin. But I guess having her guard Kara from dinosaurs is ok. Kara helps of course, even though she's dying because she's so cool, badass, sad, kind, etc.

Kara's internal conflict is that she was hoping that taking Ruthye on this journey would teach the farmgirl a lesson about revenge, but has Kara herself learned to move on? She's still thinking about Krypton after all. The problem with how this is presented is that it's not a flaw that we get to see evolve with the story. We see Kara act mopey, get an origin story flashback and then Kara tells us this- in hopes it'll recontextualize everything you've read before. By the time we make it to the end, the characters act like they've learned so much and I'm just standing here wishing I got to see all this growth they're talking about.

At the heart of it, I feel like Woman of Tomorrow represents the side of Super-fandom that wants to see the Kryptonians deified by the narrative. They hate seeing Kara do silly girly rom-com teenager things, she needs to be SERIOUS and EDGY and SAD and ALONE but like a god would be and not how a young woman would be that way. How else will boys take her seriously? Don't forget to remind the reader that she's STRONGER than her boy scout wholesome cousin! There's potential in a short revenge story about young girls finding hope in seeing a role-model woman survive loss, but not like this.

"You don't think I could've solved all those problems? C'mon I'm Supergirl." I sure love seeing female characters be badass girl-god legends who don't get to be humanized by being unflatteringly flawed people. Anyway the better Supergirl grief+revenge story is "Supergirl: Being Super". I don't think it's perfect because it misses the crucial difference between Kal and Kara among other things- but as a story about a teenage heroine learning how grief shapes her and those around her, it's way better.

Woman of Tomorrow's art is stellar though lmao would get a copy just as an artbook to reference.

[dykeulous]

Your blog is a breath of fresh air. I don’t agree with you on some things (you’ve said in the past that you think intersex people can be sorted into women/men categories but I feel like that homogenizes and overlooks intersex specific experiences that you, someone I assume is perisex, cannot speak on) but it’s great to see a radfem not hostile towards trans people. I’m trans and have always lurked on radfem blogs because I care about misogyny but too often I’d run into a slew of horribly mean spirited, cruel posts about trans people and just feel so disappointed.

Something I’ve been stewing about lately is how the agency and complexity of the internal lives of females have been historically overlooked/repressed across cultures if that makes any sense? Like, many (not all, but many) culturally recognized groups of homosexual/gnc people have been male dominated and modern western dialogues around trans people centre around trans women. Tras position trans women as being more oppressed than trans men since trans women are disparaged more in the media, but I think this is just another example of how females are ignored and are not given the agency to be seen as trans/etc?? When males fall out of line, they are recognized as aberrations and seen as a threat. When females fall out of line, they are stupid women who need to be beaten into submission and ignored.

Does this make any sense? Is this something?

hello! first of all, thank you for sending me this lovely ask :). i 💗 interacting with all kinds of feminists, and i love having meaningful discussion with people who see my blog. my blog’s purpose is mainly to help people see that radical feminism isn’t this Big Scary Ideology™, and that it’s actually beneficiary for all of humanity ultimately.

1. i would like to disclose our disagreement around intersex people (i’m not trying to change yours/and or anyone’s mind!); everyone has a biological sex. everyone is either female or male, and i feel that claiming intersex people are this magical third thing does more harm to intersex people than it does good (yes, i am perisex, and i’m not trying to reduce intersex people to this or that, they all have their own unique experiences; however i’ve seen a lot of intersex people speak up about how it’s harmful to spread the narrative that they don’t have a concrete sex). as for whether they can be categorized as woman or man– the categories of woman and man are distinct gender classes ascribed to one’s sex. as gender abolition is my special interest, i spend a lot of time discussing at length on this blog about how our society would be rehabilitated & redeemed if we left these harmful, limiting, reductive & totalitarian categories behind– completely. however, as we are still very far away from abolishing gender, it’s natural that we will be inflicted & effected by it (which is why i don’t bash those who have social dysphoria– i myself also have it along with sex dysphoria, but unlike my sex dysphoria which is innate, my social dysphoria was a byproduct of misogyny– or in other words, it was a reaction to the patriarchy in a way), and intersex people most of the times are still, unfortunately, able to be sorted into one of the two harmful & classist categories.

to deny that they are is to claim that intersex people can escape socialization. this is simply untrue. intersex women cannot escape a misogynistic childhood, and intersex women & intersex men alike cannot escape gender being vigorously pushed on them; and on top of it, they face their own & unique struggles that perisex people do not. women with swyer syndrome cannot opt out of oppression just because they were born with a y chromosome. many intersex women have spoken at lengths about how rigidly they experience misogyny in their everyday lives. that doesn’t end just because they aren’t perisex. and, in some extremely rare cases– these gender class distinctions don’t even match biosex. an intersex person (as far as i know, please correct me if i’m wrong!!) can have a condition that causes them to be assigned male, however due to their appearance & literally everything else, they still get treated like a girl/woman and thus still experience female socialization & misogyny– sorting them into the “woman” gender class. if we deny the fact that intersex people can & are sorted into their gender class accordingly, we are risking situations like the recent one with imane khelif occuring. we do not want that to be a reoccurring theme. intersex women are women. intersex men are men.

2. i cannot explain the amount of happiness i feel whenever a trans person starts getting interested in radfeminism. i’m happy you can explore radfem blogs with a critical eye, and i know we have a really bad side to radblr– not only are there radfems who genuinely promote true neurosexism & hate dysphoric people, a lot of radfems on here are very racist & pro-capitalist; all of which completely strays from radfem theory & praxis. i hope you stay & i hope you keep viewing my posts :)!! as a trans person myself, i feel very welcome with my own circle of radfem friends & mutuals, and i hope you will feel the same way if you ever choose to personally align yourself with our movement. wishing you a warm welcome nevertheless!!!

3. radfems generally point this issue out. this modern “queer” community is really androcentric. tras believe that trans women are oppressed more than trans men, push the narrative that trans men have the power to oppress trans women & generally ignore & excuse all the abuse & degradation trans men have endured at the hands of trans women. tras have a heavy issue with realizing material reality, they think the world is based around a metaphysical belief system; in short, they are very idealist. they think trans women are oppressed more than trans men because they identify as women + they’re trans so they have to be more oppressed. they fail to recognize the male privilege trans women wield & they fear to point it out even when they do recognize it. they keep on telling trans men we need to make sure the women in our lives are comfortable, that we need to cater to the women around us, and they have this very unrealistic idea of us having male privilege & making women feel unsafe. the male privilege (and only a small portion of trans men even has this!!!) some of us have is very, very conditional. they never tell trans women they still have to make sure the women in their lives are comfortable around them, because being dysphoric doesn’t cancel out their male privilege.

trans women, if transitioned + on hormones (and especially so if they have lived as women for years, some trans women even lived as women longer than they haven’t) experience transmisogyny & their own unique form of regular misogyny (not all radfems are going to agree with this & i don’t think it would be fair to label them all as inherently transphobic for disagreeing, btw!!!), which is also conditional, as conditional as trans men’s male privilege is. i will never stress enough about how important it is to think critically & not write off all trans women as inherently this, and all trans men as inherently that. both radfems & tras have a large problem regarding this. some genuinely hateful radfems will even go out of their way to spew racist rhetoric because of their hatred for dysphoric people, and on the other end of the coin– tras will go out of their way to spew racist rhetoric to defend trans women, and, in this process, tear down black women’s agency.

a trans man might, through transition & living as a man for 10+ years, gain various forms of male privilege. he might gain access to a lot of things he didn’t have prior to transition. similarly, a trans woman, through transition & living as a woman, might lose various aspects of male privilege. however, the difference here is that while the trans woman in question will probably gain a special space in feminist circles, the trans man doesn’t suddenly lose his. he will forever be welcome by feminists. because female people share their own unique axis of oppression, and even though he does live as a man now & has male privilege to a degree, he still knows how debilitating misogyny is– and he, at some point, experienced it. the trans woman did not, but now she does, and they both can be included in feminist activism. the trans woman will still never have to experience some of the painful things only female people do, and she never experienced female socialization in the first place– so it is completely reasonable that she cannot be included in *every* aspect of feminism. we all have unique experiences & they are all equally valuable.

4. i also can see the conservative transphobes going “trans women are a threat!” & “trans men are just confused little girls”, but i don’t think genuine radfems do this. those who do are usually just using the term to dunk on trans people. either way, yes– female agency is very often stripped off, and female people are ignored wherever we go. female trans people especially so. this is why i hope transmascs & female dysphoric people in general realize that radfeminism holds their special interests at heart, and even though there are hateful people, our movement isn’t based on them. it’s based on female class solidarity. we have to love female people more than we hate male people.

[rikan-oo]

So I was thinking about creating a loose list of recs for ORV fans or, in other words, "If you liked ORV, you also may like this." I decided to add things less obvious because I think people already read works like Trash of Count's Family, etc.

Princess Tutu

“The beginning of a story is a sudden event; the start, a happy accident, the end, the fate for which it's meant. A story that never ends is a sad fate.”

Let's start with Princess Tutu (PT), anime, not manga because they're different. I watched it about a week before ORV and after finishing both, I can't help but notice their similarities. However, meanwhile, ORV is about the relationship between the reader, the author, and the protagonist, and PT is more about the relationship between the author and their creation: the story and its characters. Don't let the name fool you, don't be like me. It's much darker than I expected from this style and genre. Be ready for angst.

Plot: Ahiru is a small duck in a pond. One day she notices a dancing boy with a very sad gaze. Boy every day goes to dance near the pond and the little duck is completely mesmerized by him. She can't help but notice sadness and loneliness in his dance. She wants to make this boy smile and at that moment a writer Droselmeir appears. He tells her that she could do this by collecting shards of his broken heart but under some conditions. He gives her a magic pendant that can transform her, first into an ordinary human girl, then into the graceful ballerina Princess Tutu, a fictional character from the tale that was doomed for tragedy in the original story.

Later we find out that this city is kinda enchanted by Droselmeir's tale (reverse isekai before it became mainstream) and some characters broke out of the tale like the boy by the lake - Mytho or Raven - the villain of this tale. Tale elements blend interestingly in the city and its residents.

Also, I have no idea wtf is happening with the main characters' dynamic in this complicated rectangle, but there is no straight explanation for this.

I can't help but see some parallels between Mytho - KDJ, Fakir - both YJH & HSY, Ru - HSY, and Droselmeir - Dokkaebi. I love how the story describes characters doomed by narrative and the struggles of being a writer. Also, all of these subtle references to fairytales at the beginning of the episode? Love it. I bet there are more references for the ballet part, but I probably didn't get it. I gently encourage you to check it out. (Definitely not gently, I'm as desperate as Kim Dokja trying to advertise TWSA to other people)

“May those who accept their fate be granted Happiness, may those who defy their fate be granted Glory.”

Miss not Sidekick

It's a much simpler read, just to chill and have fun while laughing at Mc shenanigans. Plot: Typical isekai story, where Mc is a fan of the internet novel of the reverse harem genre. When isekaied decided to invent popcorn and enjoy full time 4d immersion in the story.

There are not so many similarities in themes like with Princess Tutu, but more the role of MC – Latte as reader. I liked how she continued to behave like a spectator of a story inside Isekai world, treating it like she's inside a special 4D theater, not existing in this world as a part of it, until she couldn't.

Until her 4th wall is shattered (*badabums* it's a bad pun, she doesn't have it like kdj) and she realizes she could actually die, (quite shocking I know). Also, MC invents BL for this world and converts other people into it. Overall, the art style is different from other isekai romfant and it's something you need time to get used to, but after a while, you understand it suits perfectly for the narrative and silly tone of the comic.

Inso's Law or My Life as an Internet Novel

I feel like it's more reverse isekai similar to orv, where the story becomes part of your life. But if in KDJ's case, this transition is obvious and life-crashing, then in MC's situation is really creepy. It blends seamlessly into her regular life making her feel insane because everything remains the same except having a whole new friend who behaves like your bestie and a different school, where everything starts to feel like a romantic novel full of clichés. MC like KDJ is also unreliable in her perception of others here and thinks her knowledge of clichés like a reader-outsider makes her more omnipotent than she really is. Too bad they used 3 person POV, so it's really obvious, but funny nevertheless. (One of the cases where she thinks one of her classmates is a girl pretending to be a boy cause of some kind of cliché family drama, when in fact it's just a boy and I find it funny how this classmate looks like Jang Hayoung twin and have similar fate, poor souls) guess she also has similarities in her character to pre-scenario or regular life KDJ. They both seem to have this introverted avoidance type of personality. I'm curious about supernatural events happening in manhwa and I hope we'll get some explanation for it.

Pandora Hearts

Nice little thing with funny and cute tea parties that everyone would enjoy. 😍

SHHH, nothing about the plot. Let it be a small surprise for you.

It's all vibes and similar tropes now, folks.

Like dynamic between the main trio: Gilbert - Oz - Alice YJH - KDJ - HSY. Also this time loop thing? Daddy issues? Self-sacrifice as a form of love? Ugh. (Also, I need this scene with Oz and Brake "Where in the world are you?" But with KDJ. Maybe I even draw it).

It's all for now, maybe I'll write more. Please share the recs if you have them!

[klonnieshippersclub]

Bonnie, The Bennett’s, Black Witches and The Magical Negro Trope & Mammy Trope - TVD META

Bonnie and the Bennett’s have very rich lore. It’s not glorified by the fandom unless it’s by Bonnie fans themselves. That’s the way it’s always been, no one paying any mind or deeper thought to Bonnie/and the Bennett’s outside of her fans. This isn't a new thing but I want to highlight this once again because I don’t think fans understand there is more than one negative trope rooted in Bonnie, the Bennett’s and black witches only.

Before we get into anything heavy let’s have some key-terms here: Let’s define a magical negro trope: where a black character appears in a plot solely to help a white character and then vanishes. Now what a mammy is: a black woman engaged to take care of white children or as a servant to a white family.

Everything in the series can be tied back to a Bennett witch. Let’s list a few things the immortality spell, immortals, the other side, the cure, supernatural hunters, creating rings to preserve life, the Gilbert device but only a Bennett witch can enchant it, prison worlds, the traveler's curse, vampires, hybrids etc…You name it without the Bennett’s creation there would be nothing. You would think because of this the Bennett’s would be respected in the narrative and by fans. Wrong. Some of these women aren’t even given actual names. Everyone can have a Bennett witch at their disposal but they won’t be respected either. Bennett blood is essential to certain spells. A loophole.

Let’s talk about Ayana. The Mikaelson’s were only able to become vampires because Esther stole Ayana’s spell. It is forgotten that Esther/Mikael begged Ayana to perform the spell first. The Mikaelson’s as humans trusted Ayana. Rebekah was in shock that a necklace from Ayana burned her. While Ayana remained unnamed this time while the story was told. Rebekah was talking about Ayana. Ayana was known as a healer and given Esther’s praises they were close. The series doesn’t show us why Ayana should value the Mikaelson’s but we do understand why Esther, her husband and children valued her. That infamous necklace that Rebekah loved belonged to Ayana. We don’t know about Ayana’s life outside of being a healer. We don’t know her marital status, how many children she could’ve possibly had and anything tied to her after the plot has used her up. One would think with how close Ayana was to the Mikaelson’s, they’d have some respect or acknowledge Bonnie but that never happens.

We see this in how Emily was enslaved to Katherine. Julie may have labeled Emily a handmaiden but we knew what that meant. Emily only had one request from Damon that he watch and protect the Bennett line which he never did. The black witches never ask much of anyone in the plot or ever given the chance too. Yet when a request is made no one ever meets said request for them. This form of slavery repeats again through Lucy. She claimed Katherine saved her life therefore she is indebted to her for however long she needs. Sheila has her hand in aiding the Gemini Coven, Beatrice helped with the Sirens.

There are other witches that are black who serve a purpose to aid in many and leave such as: Gloria, The Martin’s, Bree, Aja and her coven just to name a few. Friends of the main characters or enemies but quickly there and dropped. Originally due to all witches appearing Black fans believed they were all Bennett’s. Julie has no answer for why all witches that is until they weren’t. Remember witches were servants of nature. The Mikaelson’s popularity, Gemini Coven and other witches. Fills the space that Black witches were once in. Notice a pattern here?

Qetsiyah’s plot line should’ve centered on how she created immortality, the cure, and the other side. But Qetsiyah’s existence revolves around demanding and enforcing continuous revenge on Silas and Amara. Tying her into another repeated love triangle in the franchise. May I add that she and Bonnie are the only women to have been betrayed by a partner and criticized for their reactions. There’s nothing wrong when a man wants and craves power but Qetsiyah is considered the worst of them all. Here’s an amazing video that details Qetsiyah’s writing too. Please review.

Lastly, The Bonnie of it all:

Bonnie’s a loyal, powerful and brave woman. She doesn’t let anything happen to her friends if she can stop it. She cares for them. That kind of loyalty can be beautiful but equally harmful when Bonnie has no regard to her own feelings. She continues to give for everyone and her friends rarely return the favor. Bonnie’s never thanked or rewarded for being there. The friendships stop being equal very early. Her traumas aren’t valuable in the plot. We don’t know what Bonnie’s home looked like. If Bonnie does grieve it isn’t shown on screen. Her family life is limited, while Liz and Alaric aren’t main characters. They have their own plotlines. It is revealed that Abby’s reasonings for abandoning her is for Elena’s benefit. Abby is killed in a coin toss and transitioned. Caroline gets to have a good friend moment while Bonnie isn’t have any feelings towards her mother for abandoning her after. Rudy isn’t seen in the plot longterm and when he appears in season 5 he’s killed in front of Bonnie. She grieves this in silence while grieving her own death that she didn’t make aware to her friends to avoid inconveniencing them. The plot makes it clear if the white counterparts aren’t happy then Bonnie will never either. Elena, Caroline got happier endings while Bonnie’s job was completed. Bonnie never once got to call out how her friends can disregard her, she feeds into them and they grow while sucking the life out of her. In the end, Bonnie went back to Africa. Never any reference to her life from there.

Another thing Bonnie isn’t shown to be feminine. Her best friends go on dates, go to dances, dress up and receive compliments. Caroline or Elena has ever given Bonnie a compliment that aided in her beauty. We don’t know Bonnie’s ambitions or fears. But you are aware when Bonnie wants to save her best friend. Thoughts on Bonnie’s relationships and ships is for the next meta though.

White witches did follow the servitude of others. They were still given the privilege of agency that black witches were never going to have. Witches like Dahlia existed, and although she had one goal she had more personality than others.

When you have people like the TVD writers that continue to push harmful stereotypes there’s always going to fans who listen and continue to perpetuate those stereotypes. The writers had no value for Black women nor do the fans. They don’t care about how black women or people of color are treated in fiction or the media simply because their favorites get to reap all the benefits. That tweet is just one tip of the iceberg, there’s plenty more from Bonnie’s relationships, and storylines.

[bambamramfan]

Scott Alexander just de-paywalled this piece, and I agreed enough with its perspectives and understanding of fantasy narratives that I wanted to make sure other people saw it.

But I disagreed enough that I wanted to spend a lot of time describing what it misses.

First off, he says "Each part of the fantasy universe has a load-bearing psychological function." Psychological, as a word, goes too far and is misleading here. Scott is entirely correct to look at these elements in functional terms: what do elves, and magic swords, and ancient civilizations DO to the narrative? And we find more enjoyable and memetic stories benefit from these functions, so we end up seeing them over and over again. But it's not a psychological need. It's not about the inner-workings of our mind, it's about the structure of stories that lets them flow well. It would be like saying that the fact that airlines list too-low ticket prices and recover it with hidden fees has a psychological basis, when it's more proximately caused by a broken market system.

For instance, one common fantasy trope Scott didn't mention, but is completely obvious, is the "disposable, unredeemable race or nation." Many fantasy stories have a large army that is either evil-in-essence, or immediately threatening, such that we have no moral qualm about seeing the heroes kill as many of them as possible. Why? Because it makes it a fun "tactical" game of how many soldiers can the "good guys" kill. That's a fun story! It's not because psychologically we want to dehumanize our enemies. It's because Gimli and Legolas's race for who can kill more orcs is a simple and narratively entertaining device.

Scott talked about Unsong in relation to this essay, and I really wonder if his reaction to that was "why Unsong doesn't do these things" or "Unsong leaned into these." Because well, Unsong has many of these tropes. The laptop with a talmudic AI on it is a macguffin. The angels are an ancient civilization. Etc.

Scott undersells just how rich the function of the ancient civilization is. He's correct that the ancients are a way to imbue the magic sword/whatever with non-reproducible power, but it's deeper than that. Many stories and ideologies are "prelapsarian" which means they describe an Edenic time "before the Fall" where everything was right and harmonious. Somehow they got corrupted and we now live in a fallen world where evil runs free. Our heroes, at least in part, want to return to that purity (even if in some aspects it is impossible.) That's what the ancient civilization is really: Eden.

I am stymied by the race question: why do fantasy stories keep going back to elves and dwarves, and sometimes halflings or goblins or dragons, but with extremely little diversity in the type of being we could share a world with. What necessary function do these specific races serve? There are several HALF descriptions that explain a little of this, but don't go the full way: 1. The most thoughtful fantasy authors see these humanoid races as standins for groups in human society, and think you should just write human-only fantasy to wrestle with those questions properly. 2. The people who are most interested in writing genuinely alien intelligences, just write science fiction. 3. Elves and Dwarves DO serve specific functions. Even though every different story has a twist on their elves and dwarves, they do all share some sort of class-identity. In short, Elves are french aristocrats, and Dwarves are semetic scottish. Elves are the groups higher on the class ladder, who are more beautiful, longer-lived, quieter, taller, and more tranquil and quieter (also more tragic.) Dwarves are the groups lower on the class ladder, who are rougher and more practical, more scientific or at least technologically-focused, and whose lives are more easily spent by the narrative. Most fantasy societies are gonna have a "higher class" and a "lower class" standin, and they might as well be Elves and Dwarves anyway. 4. Tolkien did not invent Elves, or Dwarves, or Halflings, or Dragons. But all of these are very old in mythology, and fantasy is much more interested in telling twists on 1000-year old stories, than it is about adding wholly new elements (if only because of what sells.)

[maxwell-grant]

If you were making up a gang of super-villains from classic Horror Movie characters (Count Dracula is an obvious 'In' being pretty much a super villain even in his original novel!), may I please ask which characters you would include and what role they would play in the gang?

First thing to establish is that Dracula is not leading the team. And obviously Dracula’s not gonna be a team player in a supporting role, so what we’re gonna do is this: Dracula is the threat that the team was assembled to fight.

Pretty much anytime you see the classic monsters gathered in any fashion, Dracula’s always the leader, and if we wanted to do that, we already have Monster Mash and Castlevania and so forth. I think assembling a Legion of Doom out of the Classic Monsters makes you particularly subject to law of diminishing returns that affect both supervillains and monsters, in that having a bunch of characters who demand to operate solo in narrative wind up greatly diminished when they're all doing the same thing together. So instead of Legion of Doom, I'm making these something more low-key like Secret Six, Thunderbolts and Suicide Squad and etc.

Here, it's all a bunch of classic monsters, but they all have a grudge with him, because everyone’s got beef with Dracula, and Dracula wants them destroyed so he may rule monsters and humans alike unopposed. Dracula is The Flash, and they are the Rogues. They bond together because it's the only way to win. Dracula is several orders of magnitude more evil than them, has countless weird magical abilities to counteract them, and he’s skilled enough in manipulation that he could conceivably trick them into doing his bidding, but he’s got no need for them past whatever unique abilities they have for momentary use, when he’s already got so much else at his disposal, including the ability to call in the universal ending to most monster stories: Call in the cops to shoot them dead.

In itself, this already gives the team a motivation to stay together regardless of what else is in the setting to give them trouble: They need to survive and beat Dracula, and they can’t call on anyone else for help. In fact, if the urge to have Dracula lead the Monster Squad again gets too strong, we could even establish that Dracula is able to create his own monsters, imperfect copies of their archetypes to serve as his enforcers, and thus, our group could have to fight off Frankensteins and mummies and werewolves and clones of themselves on their way to take him down.

Formation for this hypothetical group goes as follows:

The Leader - The Bride of Frankenstein:

Couple of reasons for why she’s leader besides favoritism being, she’s a Frankenstein and thus has to play a major role, but she doesn’t need to be a shambling brute, and if we’re gonna do a ragtag group of people fighting Count Dracula, in any form, it would be quite wrong to not have them led by a headstrong, brilliant woman. Also Elsa Lanchester plays Mary Shelley in the same movie, and Mary Shelley rules so she's qualified to rule this team-up by default.

We could establish her as having had significantly more time to mature and develop into something resembling the book Creature’s intelligence and sense of self, having picked up alchemical expertise from Pretorius’ notes to combine with her survival skills, and as a Frankenstein she could have the kind of superhuman strength and endurance that follows, allowing her to be sort of a jack-of-trades suitable for the leader position.  Imposing, stoic, capable, and being a Frankenstein, crushingly lonely in more ways than one and in dire need of guidance.

The Mentor & Magician - Imhotep (The Mummy):

Because there’s no way we can pass on having Boris Karloff on this team. If The Bride is the Mina of our anti-Dracula crew, then Imhotep is our Van Helsing. Functionally similar to Dracula in many ways, but playing on a different side (definitely not on humanity’s side though). He's a prideful, manipulative grumpus from a bygone era with his glory days long behind him, with access to a wide array of magical powers, but not quite as rotten or powerful as his ancient enemy Dracula.

Imhotep has lived a long, long, long life and an exceedingly longer afterlife, constantly raised from death to be bothered by mortals again and again, which has granted him a considerable know-how of navigating strange worlds of magic and terror and history, but remaining out of touch with modern times. The team's magic user, with his main weakness being that he’s fragile and old and rotting and dying. Imhotep’s not quite able to transverse the mortal realm as easily as his rival, and he’s held back by the countless forms of decay that have set within him, which is part of why he’s agreeable enough to work with The Bride and for the two to put this team together.

The Resources & Social Interface - Janet Smith Jekyll (Daughter of Dr Jekyll):

We can't have a classic Universal Gathering without at minimum a Talbot werewolf in the mix and Jekyll & Hyde is as Classic as classic monsters get, so we're going here with Gloria Talbott's character in Daughter of Dr Jekyll, a mysterious orphan who inherits a huge mansion and fortune that used to belong to the infamous Dr Jekyll, and who discovers that she may indeed share his two-faced affliction and proclivity for going out at night on uncontrollable murderous rampages (and yes I am very much ignoring the movie's climax to make this character, shut up)

The movie sort of treats Mr Hyde as a werewolf transformation with quite a lot of vampire in the mix, which suits our purposes just fine because now we get to have a vampire on top of a werewolf in the team. She's got a cool homebase for our team to operate from in Dr Jekyll's mansion, she's super rich which never hurts to have in a team setting, she's the only one that can fully pass for human and also the one who accumulates the biggest body count the longer she stays active, so there's always some tension with her.

She is the monster most suited for operating within modern society, high and low class alike, which makes her an invaluable operative in the battle against Dracula and his game of predatory psychological class warfare, and the one most suited for keeping the team out of trouble. However, it's up to question how much can the team trust her. Even she doesn't quite know how much she can trust herself. Her teammates may not have blood, but a girl's gotta eat and all.

The Reality-Warping Assassin - Cesare:

Cesare is, strange. He’s a sweet young man, but around him hangs the faint echo of dead, ancient eons. He’s unmatched at subterfuge, able to slip through the shadows not just unseen, but unheard in a way that shouldn’t be possible, as he makes absolutely no sound whatsoever, not even when he does things that should make noise, like trip or cry or stab people. On the rare occasions he vocalizes, it's like the words emerge in your head fully formed. Everything he interacts with turns colorless and frayed the way he is.

He’s able to tell the fortunes of most he meets, but only for their deaths, and if he's bothered by his own prophecy of Dracula ending the worlds of monster and man alike, he doesn't show it. The world around him seems to occasionally warp into strange angles and crooked architecture and thick, tangible shadows, and it’s difficult to tell if any of it is even his doing in the first place. He also has an unusually intense grudge of clowns and hamburguers

He seems to sleep most of the time off-duty, and he’s docile as a lamb even while commanded to kill, though he may resist more immoral commands. Though his eyes hang open, he only wakes up very rarely, and when he does, the monsters see the world around him blink out of existence to be replaced with a greyed out mental hospital, where they all look like doctors or regular people in straightjackets, and it only lasts for a few brief, maddening seconds before he falls asleep again.

This can be an advantage to the team as a potential safeguard from threats and space to regroup, provided they don’t lose their selves and can get Cesare to stop playing with the flowers and go back to sleep, and you can imagine it only gets harder every time, convincing him to abandon a peaceful existence to once again be a murderous slave for eternity, and maybe convincing themselves to not join him there.

Better he’s on our side than Dracula’s, The Bride and Imhotep figure. 

The Warrior-Healer & Aquatic Specialist: The Gill Man

I already said much of my piece on The Gill Man in terms of their role and personality here and obviously, they gotta be in the team. In terms of their powers & skillset, Gill Man is actually much better suited for this kind of stuff than most of the other Universal monsters. They are strong enough to move boats on their own, stealthy enough to consistently evade his human pursuers (and human civilization for countless years) and tough enough to survive and come back for two sequels. 

Another idea to me comes from using The Shape of Water and it’s take on Gill Man, who was believed to be an Amazonian river god, and throughout the movie displays magical healing powers and traits that call into question just what it is exactly. Dracula would certainly find no use for The Gill Man as anything other than muscle for his army of the undead, but for a team that does have at least a handful of living members and may even depend on human assistance, a medic is a invaluable thing to have, as is someone still living and in touch with nature.

The Scientist & Swarm Controller: Doctor Delambre (The Fly)

Picked here to represent the original version of The Fly but can also adapt traits from Seth Brundle and other takes on this idea. We need a resident mad scientist (who's really not a mad scientist, but when you look the part, y'know), a sci-fi guy to represent that other vein of classic horror, somebody who can contrast the resident magicians and alchemists, and also no self-respecting team is complete without a bug guy, so here we have Dr Delambre, who joins the team as an assistant to The Bride and has found a way to hold off the mental decay process and made substantial progress on his matter-transporter devices as well as find ways to live with his newfound biological quirks. He's even found a way to utilize insects with humanoid limbs and intelligence in daily chores and missions, although he resents the idea that he's "controlling" them, mind you.

But with his wife under trial for his botched suicide ruled a murder, and his inability to show up in society and testify in her favor, and all of his former military contacts having cut off all ties with him, he's desperately trying to find a way to reverse the process of his transformation for good to save her and is willing to do whatever it takes. Doctor Delambre even winds up being sort of the team's wild card, because his technology is very potent and just as capable of breaking reality under the wrong hands as Cesare's weirdness, but he is not a "monster" by birth or choice and is merely a guy in a rush to try and revert his condition, and if Dracula comes along with a better promise to save his wife and life, perhaps...

And last but certainly not least,

The Transportation & Muscle - The Rhedosaurus (The Beast from 20.000 Fathoms)

We might have to shrink them down a bit but we absolutely can’t NOT have a giant monster dinosaur on the team, but neither Godzilla nor Kong would have much business palling around with these monsters. The Rhedosaurus, on the other hand, is a perfect fit, seeing as he’s Godzilla’s inspiration and the movie he’s in is credited as being the revival of the giant monster genre as well as the first to introduce the atomic bomb to the mix. The Rhedosaurus here would be sort of composited from the movie version as well as the original story by Ray Bradbury and obviously composited from Godzilla variants and the Toho kaijus who owe their existence to it, a vicious and violent creature defending itself and one that's deeply lonely and desperate and strangely noble as the last of it’s kind, one that has nothing else to help protect it but these strange not-humans it’s formed an unlikely bond with. It has a particularly strong bond with The Gill Man, the only one who’s able to communicate with and steer it properly.

The Rhedosaurus is a global danger on a bigger and more direct scale than the other monsters, not just as a giant powerful dinosaur, but also a creature whose death could unleash a plague powerful enough to wipe out mankind, something the characters wouldn’t discover until late into the story (something Dracula, and maybe even Imhotep, would certainly want to exploit for personal gain). Maybe this radiation seeps over and forces the team to move their location around to stay undetected, maybe it's instrumental to powering whatever plans Dr Delambre and The Bride are cooking up in their lab, maybe it's affecting the environment or reality itself in strange unforeseen ways the way certain Godzilla works like KOTM and Singular Point have done.

It can be the key to saving the world or destroying it in equal measure, and so the fate of the Rhedosaurus is the fate of the future, and it falls up to the team to protect it as much as it will protect them.

So yeah, maybe I took this from a super-villain team and made it something a lot more League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in setup, but this team I imagine is grouped together less by a desire to save the world or serve a higher cause, than a simple matter of survival against a mutual enemy and the world that''s turned against them. They want drastically different things and employ drastically different methods and they each constitute powerful threats, and together, they are as likely to destroy themselves first if not the world with them. But survival is a matter they all have a stake on. Alone, they don’t stand a chance. Together, they may just have a chance and live, if only to finally rest in peace.

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

I have no idea why people think Jon will stop being a POV post-resurrection, or why they think it’s even remotely a good narrative choice. Jon is at the center of the “human heart in conflict with itself” theme that keeps cropping up in these books. A lot of the action in Jon’s story isn’t so much what happens around him but how he internalizes things in his head. He’s always been a very internal character much like Ned and Sansa. So if we lose Jon’s POV, what does it matter that he’s been lied to his whole life and Ned isn’t his real father? What does it matter who his mother was? Who cares about his changing acceptance of magic now that he’ll need to rely on it to survive? Who cares how he views Dany, the only thing to connect him to his father’s family? There’s no point revealing Jon’s parentage or delving into these topics because losing Jon’s POV means losing the thoughts of the ONE person they affect. That is not how you write a narrative guys. And no for the 10000th time, Beric and Cat are NOT good comparisons for Jon. One Beric wasn’t even a POV so I’m not sure why people bring him up in the first place. And two, Catelyn’s arc ended with Robb’s at the Red Wedding. Stoneheart exists but we’re going to see more how her presence affects how other characters move forward: Brienne, Jaime, Arya, etc. Plus Catelyn wasn’t even a central protagonist like Jon is so I don’t understand why she even gets brought up. Beric and LH are there at the baseline to establish that resurrection can be done. Point blank. They’re not a one size fits all such that Jon HAS to be just like them. I’m pretty tired of hammering in this one point over and over again. There’s really no narrative or thematic justification to look at Jon solely through other’s eyes other than “wouldn’t it be cool if?” Istg a lot of people make predictions based on what’s cool (which is debatable) and not what actually makes sense for a character and the themes in their arc. It’s quite frustrating.

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

Armour Astir Advent

https://weregazelle.itch.io/armour-astir A game about mechs fighting eachother! What else to do with a giant robot, I mean You could stand around and yell about ideology for a while, but what is this? Gundam?

Touchstones: Gundam (Turn A especially), Breath of the Wild, Escaflowne, Mazinger, Ghibli movies (add a quarter)

Genre: Mech game, PBTA, High Fantasy

What is this game?: Armour Astir: Advent is a game about mech pilots fighting against an oppressive empire, fighting using not only head to head mech combat, but also stirring dissent, using backhanded diplomacy, and guerilla tactics

How's the gameplay?: AAA has one of the most unique bits of gameplay I've ever seen in a PBTA game, refer to the Apoc World write up for the basics of the game, because there's a lot to unpack here. AAA's got a ton of standout mechanics, Let's start with Gravity Clocks! You got 3 Gravity clocks to use on anyone, and one to use specifically on your rival, Gravity clocks represent the volatile relationship you have with 4 different characters, the clock always has a value, starting at +1, that you can add to any roll related to that character, when you do so, you tick up the clock, when the clock is full, your relationship levels up, you change the nature of your relationship and that +1 becomes a +2 babyy, This encourages players to choose carefully what relationships they want their characters to focus on, and adds a lot to the Drama. AAA also has its really cool mech creation system, it's a bit too complex to get into here, but its less like Lancer's Subway style mech creation, and more like cooking from a recipe, you get to create some of your own abilities, and pick from a few pre-made ones, all mechs also have a type, which works into a weapon triangle type mechanic where certain mechs are better against other mechs. Another thing about AAA is the Faction Turn, the player's rebel group is made up of many smaller factions, each with a different role, while the empire is one group with small divisions, the idea is that while the authority is one imperialist gestalt, the rebels are more of a confederacy of farmers, local mercenaries, villagers, etc, but because of this, a lot of drama and miscommunication can happen, the Faction turn represents this, its intricacies are a bit complex to really get into, but basically during each Conflict turn, players run a scene where they instead of the big damn heroes, play as random soldiers and mooks from the individual factions, and try to fight back against imperial schemes, or try to solve local problems, this is meant to humanize the soldiers in the war, as well as show that the players aren't the last bastion against the Authority. That's about it for the gameplay, I tried to be brief but AAA is just something really really special when it comes to how it plays, there's a ton of other intricacies I couldn't even touch on here Oh right, half the playbooks don't even use mechs, they can fight during mech battles but are significantly worse during them, they're instead intended to help on the intrigue part of the war, commanders, celebrities, diplomats, footsoldiers, people who would be more connected to other parts of the war that aren't just the mech fights, during mech fights they play on the "B-Plot", basically a second narrative layer usually going on around the same time as the mech fights, think of it like a gundam episode where the main newtype child is fighting against a person who could have been a friend in another timeline and at the same time the soldiers inside the main base need to figure out who's been stealing their food supplies What's the setting (If any) like?: AAA is Setting Agnostic... kinda, there's 3 universal constants: - There's an authoritarian group known as the Authority, being fought by a union of scattered factions under one banner known as the cause - Magic exists, is fairly common place but restricted to certain people, and is connected to how mechs work - Some smaller chunks of lore like the existance of Angels, Demons, Eldritch entities, smaller scale vehicles called Ardents, etc, stuff you'd expect to see in any fantasy setting

What's the tone?: AAA is a game with a tone set by players, but the overall tone is not asimilar to that of most post Gundam mech anime, there's an overwhelming sense of war being hell, but there's still hope in fighting an evil fascist empire, also there's always expected to be a little bit of Angst

Session length: This is one of the few games I've written about I've actually sadly never played, but from reading the rules AAA does lend itself to longer, 4 or so hour sessions

Number of Players: 4+ is recommended

Malleability:  AAA is as said above, setting agnostic, if its got mechs you can run it in AAA

Resources: AAA has a fanmade google sheet, a few fan-made expansions, and two official expansions, Encore (more playbooks) and Amor Astir (romance rules, yeah idk either)

AAA is one of those games that is just a mechanical treat, everything works really well and serves a greater tonal purpose, just a really good game

[zenkindoflove]

ACOTAR tag game 💕

Answer the questions below & tag whoever you want, or make it an open tag!!

Thank you @the-darkestminds!!! Your answers were so fun to read!

Who's your favourite ACOTAR character?

Lucien. He's always going to be #1. 🦊

Who's your least favourite character?

Azriel. I fluctuate between I can't be bothered and actively being a hater. Also the fandom's obsession with him has soured me further because I'm contrarian like that. I can't be helped. I got the ick early on and I'm afraid I'm likely not to come back from it.

Say something nice about your least favourite character.

God damn it. Um, he's pretty.

Who's your favourite High Lord? (If you picked one for your fav character, then who's your second fav!)

I love me some Tarquin. I love that he wants to tear down power structures and that he doesn't trust Rhys and Feyre (as he shouldn't).

Favourite MINOR character?

How minor is minor? Does Eris count? He's not minor in my heart. He feels more major than minor. If Eris doesn't count then I would say Jurian. I need more of that chaotic hottie.

Favourite ship? (Crackships included!)

Elucien is my OTP forever. ☀️🌷

Favourite court and why?

I think it's a mix between Day and Autumn since I think about those two the most. Day because there is so much mysterious magic going on there, with their powers, the libraries, and the Pegasuses. And Autumn because they have all the interesting intrigue, story, and the aesthetics and atmosphere is my FAVORITE. Sooooo.... I'm gonna go Autumn.

Make up a brand new court RIGHT NOW, NO PREP JUST VIBES.

Since there are the seasonal courts and the solar courts already, maybe there could be courts that can be different ecosystems (like desert, tundra, rainforest, etc). And I would do the Ocean Court so there can be mermaids, mermen, and mertheys. For no ulterior motives whatsoever.

What relationship would you have wanted to see more of in the books?

I need more with Lucien and Eris like I need air to breathe. Please oh please, SJM, give us that brotherly angst and love.

What's your unpopular opinion?

Let's be real. It's probably many of my opinions on Azriel. But since I already gave him a hard time. I would say probably that I'm firmly in camp Elain's book is next and that I disagree a lot with people who say "we just don't know enough about Elain" or "Elain has no development". I've made several posts about this, so I won't rehash it. But I think Elain is very well developed for her book and we've been through several life changing moments with her already. We might not "know" Elain in that she is more reserved and we haven't had her POV, but we know a lot about Elain, her history, her narrative conflicts, how other characters perceive her, and the direction that her story is generally going to take is pretty easy to visualize. Basically, I care about Elain. I pay attention to her. I see what Sarah has been doing and I'm ready and here for it. We know just as much if not more about her than most of the other side characters in this series.

What's your favourite headcanon/fan canon?

That Eris is GAY (or bisexual).

If you were swept away to Prythian, what's ONE thing you would want to do?

Fuck Lucien and if he won't have me the next available redheaded Vanserra. Preferably Eris. Oh, I'd also want to eat some food cause wtf does this faerie food taste like that makes human food taste like ass?

If you could have ONE faerie ability seen in the books, which would it be?

Healing I think would be the most useful.

No pressure tagging: @crazy-ache, @olenvasynyt, @ataraxiasflame, @teddyhoneybear, @lucienarcheron, @animezinglife , @starsreminisce

[dailyadventureprompts]

I’m planning to run a shadowfell arc with my long running campaign, and I’m planning to play with the theme of memories, memory loss, items and books absorbing memories and the like. There’s this mansion with an evil shadowy figure collecting/stealing peoples memories etc etc, and I would be super intrigued to see what your take on an adventure/arc like this would be?

Dungeon: In Memoriam

At the end of it all, we are all just stories

On the edge of the tidelands there is a grand and forgotten estate. Not forgotten in that it is abandoned, but forgotten in that a lapse of memory hangs about it like a fog. Even most who live in the nearby village can recall its existence while looking right at it, and only then a few paltry details about how it has affected their lives or the history of their home.

The source of this amnesia is the work of a shadowcaster by the name of ██████ ██████, who has taken the estate as his own while perfecting the art of stealing stories. Like other shadowcasters, ██████ wields the powers of remnant and entropy inherent to the shadowfell and has a particular fascination with how the memory and narrative surrounding a thing can survive independently of that thing's destruction. Originally presenting himself a medium and exorcist, ██████ was hired by the estate's original owners to deal with a lingering ghost problem, only to discover that there was a rift to the shadowfell in a root filled room in a corner of the greathouse's basements.... a room that no one seemed able to remember.

Taking advantage of such close proximity to the upside down, ██████ began experimenting, eventually creating an umbral ink that would steal away facts and moments of time when placed on the page, allowing him to make ghosts of people and places without even needing them to die. For now ██████ is content to tinker, but it's only so long until stumble upon the conspicuous absence he's shrouded his activities under, or the lives he's disrupted in the process.

Hooks:

Within the party's bag of holding or the pack of their most rougish member the heroes discover a bound together stack of pages, which detail their encounter with a man named ██████ while out on the road earlier in the campaign, described as an innocuous scholar with inkstains on his cuffs, always seeming to be writing in his travel journal. He offered insight on their adventures then seemed to disappear. Should the party destroy or damage the pages, they'll suddenly remember this encounter, them managing to steal these pages, and the fact that the man's shadow more often resembled a tree than that of a human

The party visits a seaside village, and while most things seem normal, there's a woman clearly in distress that the locals are keeping well away from. She claims she's lived in the village all her life but most seem to think she's a stranger, those few who do remember her thought she ran away when she was just a lass (about the age that she started working at the manor). Like many of the servants, ██████ worked some magic to keep her on thinking he was the master of the estate, forgotten by her neighbours, but forgot to fully edit her story to prevent her from visiting her parents grave on the anniversary of their deaths some decades past.

██████'s ink comes from a great unnatural tree that grows up through the foundations of the manor from the shadowfell below. Adapted to eat away at the memories of ghosts, the shadowcaster gorges this tree on the stories of the living, creating an ever deepening wellspring of power and a never ending supply of umbral ink. Drunk on power and the possibilities of playing blackout poetry with people's lives, ██████ does not realize that the tree is literally undermining him, threatening to drag the whole estate down into the land of the dead, erasing whole swaths of the countryside as the manor's library is drowned in amnesiac gloom.

Art 1

Art 2

[citrusses]

burn it all down (it doesn't have to be like this) drarry reclist 💣

aka the wizarding world is canonically so fucked up, what if we destroyed every system it upholds? (and then kissed?)

This list was inspired by Lots of Feelings about the midterm elections/government/systems of oppression etc. These five fics explore (in very different ways) how power corrupts, how unchecked stagnancy in social norms enables injustice, and the many forms resistance can take (mind the tags on them, most are quite heavy). I love them all. Related: VOTE IF YOU CAN, WHEN YOU CAN, EVERY YEAR.

By the Grace by @letteredlettered (T, 140k)

Once a war was won, it should stay won. Once one made progress, one should stay ahead. Instead, twenty years later, the losers were all coming back, the losses were being lost again.

A perfect fic about the refusal of systems of power to change, and the courage of individuals to change in spite of them. Both Draco and Harry force themselves to grow radically and painfully in this story. While Draco’s evolution is loud and public, Harry’s is quiet and internal, and the story sets these narratives of their personal journeys against the broader shifts of magical society to posit that if individuals can evolve, maybe the rest of the world can, too.

The Beauty of Thestrals and Other Unseen Things by @writcraft (E, 63k)

Harry stares at Hermione. “You can’t send people to Azkaban for kissing.” “I’m not sending people to Azkaban for kissing,” Hermione replies, tartly. “You are.”

One of my favorite things about fiction, and fanfiction in particular, is that authors can eradicate the prejudices of our world in fantasy. If magic can be real, why shouldn't it eliminate hate?

But fiction can also hold up a mirror to the ugliness that exists in the world in which we live. Hate and homophobia are distressingly present this fic — and because of that, it feels so grounded in the world that was Harry Potter, where any explicit references to queerness happened off page, long after the books were written. This fic is set in a world where queer people are forced to exist on the margins and invisible. But it can be cathartic to take that repressive world and insist within it on the existence and the humanity of those it tries to ignore and erase. The Beauty of Thestrals does that masterfully. I wept reading this, it's painful but it's beautiful. A Young Radical's Guide to Love by @blamebrampton (T, 66k)

“I told you she was guilty,” Weasley said. “Innocent people don’t run.” “Yes they do,” said Potter, before Draco could get his voice to move past his outrage. “They run all the time if they’re frightened, and we are frightening. She’s not a threat, Percy, she’s not even a source of information about actual threats. You know I disagree with this policy and I don’t see the benefit in it.”

Such a well-paced, thrilling and moving story about the performance of justice versus actual justice, and the easy slide into authoritarianism to which democratic institutions (and "the good guys") are susceptible. Plus, I am absolutely WEAK for Harry and Draco (and friends!) against the world. any day now by @oknowkiss (E, 17k)

“Look,” Potter begins, voice low. “I know you think I’m an idiot, but I do notice things actually, and I don’t think this whole–” he flutters his hands in the air, searching for a word, “-- experiment is benefiting anyone. At least not anyone except the Minister. Did you know his approval rating jumped fifteen points after this place opened?” 

It's got Drarry AND a condemnation of the criminal justice system AND a Feelings Puppet, need I say more? Draco has been interred in a "reform" program for Death Eaters, and, like in every panopticon before it, those surveyed are used and abused in service of those in power. Draco is forced to learn, once again, that there are no good choices, only those you can live with. Harry, once again, tries to fix everything himself. It's sexy, it's angsty, and it has the gall to be so fucking funny while it rips your chest open and stomps on your heart.

Modern Love by @tackytigerfic (E, 61k)

“There are over two thousand magical citizens of this country who have pledged to relinquish their magic in protest at the draconian and unjust policies of the magical government. But of course if Harry Potter doesn’t get it—” and here she does a cruelly accurate impression of Harry, which he thinks is a bit unnecessary “—then of course it can’t be worth doing.”

Hey it's pretty messed up that wizards can live for hundreds of years and have seemingly infinite resources but ignore non-magical people and let them, like, die en masse, huh? Draco thinks so! This fic is so soft and lovely, but it also will make you think about the power of protest, self-forgiveness, and sacrifice.

[chaos0pikachu]

I liked your explanation about the opening sequence to The Sign. I will start by saying I have a background in literary analysis, not cinema, which is a whole other ballgame which is why I am writing to you. (Which is also why books and movies are not one to one translations, they can't be). Lately there has been a lot of negativity toward the confusion surrounding Phaya's and Tharn's powers, especially how Phaya and Tharn got to the cave. I was not surprised by the lack of explanation though. If this was a book I would say that the characters themselves are caught in forces they don't understand, grasping for how to fight against a literal God and so confusion in the narrative parallels that confusion in the character POV. We see a little of Docs POV but only in connection with Tharn or Phaya. Thanks for listening to my ramblings. Have a good week!

There's been a weird negativity towards The Sign since like, ep07 when they banged and idk why but I refuse to let it get me down lol The Sign is one of the few BLs that's ambitious and I gotta give it it's gold stars of the week for that alone

For me, I'm willing to see if the powers thing is just the show withholding information or if it's leaving it ambiguous on purpose. Personally I'm not the type of viewer that needs everything laid out for them in logical order. Like, I don't need to know if all the kitchenware in Beast's castle was actually a human, the castle is enchanted ergo all the shit inside is also enchanted. Why are the servants also cursed, cause it's a fairytale and they are? They're an extension of the Beast himself as a character? Sometimes adding explanations or over explaining sucks the magic and fantastical elements from a story.

Like, I'm a One Piece fan so I'm really used to information being withheld for a very long time lmao

That said I also understand the frustration because there does seem to be a set-up happening for the "who" or "why" of the golden light powers. It could be a lot of the things, I like reading the theories. If none of them happened I think I'd be a bit bummed but honestly that just opens up a ton of possibilities in fic.

I continue to be disappointed there's not more fic for The Sign since it's one of the few BL shows that really lends itself so well to a vast amount of possibilities for diverging from canon, or exploring the worldbuilding, or AUs etc etc.

Either way, The Sign is def one of the better BLs I've watched and I'll stand by that lol