#it's the purists and the people who are so literal about it or are always looking for a loophole and a way to outsmart people

[clarabow-mp3]

tolkien fans are truly either the best or the worst people ever like they're either dorks who love his characters and stories and took the messages to heart or actual supervillains.

[roach-kinnie]

canon barricade boys as they’re introduced

honestly reading this part of the brick is basically reading a list of headcannons off tumblr but i digress

Enjolras

…a charming young man who was capable of being a terror.

- essentially both a nerd and a jock

- very very pretty

- cares about justice, not women

- his speech can be harsh and intense

Combeferre

He was learned and a purist, precise, eclectic, hard-thinking, and at the same time imaginative ‘to the point of fantasy’, his friends said.

- very close with Enjolras, and really balances his out

- believes that education is really important in society

- gentle, and while he could fight would rather not

Jehan

Jean Prouvaire was a lover; he cherished a pot of flowers, played the flute, wrote verses, loved the people…

- learned Italian, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew to be able to read poetry

- likes to walk through meadows of wild flowers

- he likes to contemplate social issues and the immensity of the heavens

- kind in a way that kindness is like greatness

- an only child

- awkward and shy and fearless

Feuilly

There is no more powerful eloquence than that of indignation based on true conviction, and his was the power that he possessed.

- makes fans

- an orphan - he likes to say that his country took the place of his mother

- he taught himself how to read and write

- affectionate and warm hearted

- is really passionate about issues beyond France (greece, poland, hungary, etc)

Courfeyrac

He possessed that youthful ardour that may be termed the infernal beauty of the spirit.

- ditched the de part of de Courfeyrac because it was too bougie and he wanted to be like lafayette

- he’s essentially the heart of the revolution

- he’s “decent” (victor hugo did him dirty here)

Bahorel

He was a born agitator: that is to say, he enjoyed nothing more than a quarel except a rebellion, and nothing more than a rebellion except a revolution.

- wears crimson waistcoats

- connected the ABC to other groups

- his motto is “no lawyers”, he would literally button up his coat every time he walked by the law school to avoid ‘contamination’

- he has no regular habits but likes to stroll through paris and go to different cafes

Bossuet

Bossuet was a cheerful but unlucky young man, notable for the fact that he succeeded in nothing. On the other hand, he laughed at everything.

- so very bald

- he’s poor, as in basically always broke but still finds a way to squander money when he can

- merry and cheerful and good humoured

- studying law

- couch surfs, but mostly lives with Joly

- bald

Joly

For the rest, he was the gayest of them all.

- med student

- disabled and uses a cane

- jolly and eccentric

Grantaire

Grantaire was a young man who made a point of believing in nothing.

- goes by R because of grand R (aka capital R because he’s such a nerd)

- knows where all the best alcohol is

- so fucking ugly

- a boxer, gymnast and dancer

- completely and utterly in love with Enjolras

[darklinaforever]

I'm on the black team, yesterday I read a discussion in which a person from the green team explained that she understands what George wanted to convey, they just don't agree with him. What do you think about it? After all, in fact, the author's opinion is really only his opinion, readers do not always have to agree with him if, for example, they have other views on life or moral values.

So... There is a difference between a simple opinion and what is directly written on paper. The Greens are simply canonically a group of misogynistic, law-breaking usurpers, fighting for patriarchal, blood purist traditions, with some members being rapists like Aegon II and Aemond. It's not just an idea that the author wanted to convey. It's just canon. And if some people understand that perfectly and still don't agree with the author... well I want to tell you wtf? What is their problem? They literally understand these things, that it's canon, that it's written in the text, but refuse to accept it? Well, as I said before, surely they simply refuse to accept loving bad people and try to give themselves better moral reasons to love them? It's very common. Because you can like the Greens as a villain. But understanding that they are evil and refusing to accept the canon even if it is perfectly coherent, it's very strange... Apart from demonstrating the fact that many do not accept loving non-virtuous characters who seek any excuse to allow yourself to love them, I don't see what else it could be. Because you can understand what the Greens are and love their role in the story. But understanding what Greens are and refusing it? Well that's just weird... Unless they think they can write a better fanfiction than HOTD in terms of whitewashing the Greens, I don't know. And like I said before, by seeing the Greens in a different way than in canon, they screw up the entire core story moral about Rhaenyra being usurped because of misogyny. And that... well it's disgusting. And I bet most of them spit on Rhaenyra...

[not-poignant]

Out of curiosity, when did the, 'fanfic doesn't need to adhere to canon, everything is valid and good, don't give concrit unless specifically asked for' attitude become the norm? Genuine question.

I was active in fandom back in the LJ days, when sporkings and comms viciously mocking Mary Sues were the norm, but then I sort fell out of fandom spaces for the past (checks notes) fifteen years holy shit. The current attitude seems diametrically opposed to what I remember fandom being like (kinda shitty, it was 'cool' to be an asshole back then), and I'm just curious as to when and how the shift happened. I mean, I assume it was a gradual thing, but is there anything in particular that stick out to you?

(Also, because tone doesn't convey very well through ask, and I don't want to leave you with a poor impression-- this is by no means a defence of the 2000s attitudes, nor an aspersion on the current ones. I'm genuinely only curious about the evolution from one to the other; I hope that comes across.)

Hi anon!

TL;DR because my response got LONG -> Anon this existed before Livejournal as an attitude, in fact modern fandom was literally born out of being not canon compliant (*waves aggressively to Spirk shippers*) and this existed on Livejorunal too and there have always been big pockets of fandom that really frowned on sporking even there, like that was not cool when I was on LJ, unless you were a certain age, or in certain spaces in fandom.

But also AO3 was its kind of final death knell re: making it cool to bully 13-16 yo writers (who were largely the victims of sporking) and killing dreams, which was born out of meta happening on LJ and in other places about like... not trying to make people miserable for writing a free fic out of the love in their heart that someone else didn't like or think was good enough.

Anyway, the longer version of this under the read more!

(For everyone else, welcome to some of the uglier aspects of 00s fandom!)

So there was actually criticism around all the stuff you mention 15-20 years ago as well. I was also on Livejournal during that time and there was a pretty big proportion of people in certain fandoms who recognised even then that like... setting up communities to mock say, Mary Sue writers, was actually a pretty weirdly cruel thing to do to people who were providing free labour and the literal only 'payment' they could get in a kind of energy exchange was people just not being complete dickheads to them.

So things were already changing, especially in many LJ communities and awards communities. There were a lot of big debates over whether concrit should be asked for, and a growing movement of authors who said they welcomed constructive criticism for example, instead of assuming it should automatically apply. There was also a lot of meta around the function of fanfiction and whether it should even be 'good' by published standards if the author was just doing it for themselves, and for fun (esp if they were just going to get punished for it by folks who were elitist, judgemental, grammar purists etc.)

Things really changed around the time of AO3 (2009-2010 - literally around 14~ years ago, you may have just missed the big change anon!), Strikethrough and the Dreamwidth exodus. There was a massive swing away from leaving concrit unless the author specifically asked for it, and fandom became a lot more generally able to recognise that a lot of labour goes into fanart and fanfiction and that paying with public criticism is shitty actually. Also people were just more able to recognise that like most fanfiction writers aren't trying to become professional writers and many don't want to be.

(I would actually say things changed around the time of fanfiction.net too - rude comments there were definitely noticed and could create some pretty forward 'hey why are you doing this on something you literally don't have to read' responses from fellow readers - idk what fic sites you were on. The small indie fic sites where you could often only comment via email for example, definitely drew a lot more critical attention than sites that tended to have public comments).

The 'fanfic doesn't need to adhere to canon' literally exists since the very first Spirk slash fic in modern fanfiction in the last few decades. Literally, as soon as you write Kirk/Spock, you're not adhering to canon. Our fanfiction 'ancestors' literally paved the way for a legacy which is about not adhering to canon in order to see the world/s and thing/s you want to see, be entertained by, by turned on by, or enjoy, from the very beginning. You may not have been in slash circles anon, but the foundation of queer same sex fanfic is in many ways the foundation of fandom. But yeah, this is literally where fanfiction started! As soon as you're shipping characters that aren't canon for fun (or for whatever reason), you're making it pretty clear that you want stories different to canon, and you have to change things to often keep those characters in-character.

So yeah! That's been there for decades. Idk what circles you were in on that front! While it was fairly common for a while to criticise characters for being OOC (Out of Character), imho, a lot of folks started to recognise that they literally weren't paying for what they were criticising, and they could just walk away and potentially not like...blast the fanfic. Some folks started to recognise more that people were writing with ESL, or were teenagers (some 40 yos in fandom realised they were mocking literal 15 year olds in their proto-podcasts and websites and realised actually that's just...mean? Really mean? Not the way to nurture new generations of fanfiction writers. Definitely in no way encouraging), or were writing for themselves, or writing for like one other person, or writing for fun, or writing for free, or writing for personal reasons etc.

'Don't Like Don't Read' wasn't just about political stuff, it was also about just walking away if you feel the urge to slam a fanfic in the comments.

I've been in fandom for around 2.5 decades anon, and there were so many spaces that were not actually as shitty or mean-spirited as the ones you were in? Or ones that at least had a lot of different thoughts etc. Like, sporking (mocking/bullying badfics and sometimes the folks who wrote them) was disapproved of by a lot of people in fandom even while sporking was at the height of its popularity (the Fanlore page goes into more detail about this). It might have just been the fandoms you were in, or the people you were hanging out with (and that might have been dependent on your age or just if you were around people who wanted to be 'cool' back then - in the same way that being an 'anti' is cool among certain crowds today. It's possible to spend years in certain crowds and never get an image of broader fandom for example - we can all end up in spaces like that! I know I have.)

When I started writing fanfiction (which no one will EVER find lmao), generally giving positive comments was normal. Constructive criticism was actually pretty rare and there were already fanfiction aggregate sites that generally disapproved of it in their Rules of Conduct. People were encouraging and polite. And this was around 20 years ago on Livejournal and private indie fanfiction websites.

I would actually say there was never exactly an evolution from 'one to the other' because like thousands of people in fandom already believed this and argued in defense of supporting fanfiction and transformative works via accepting that people are labouring for free and that not everyone wants to become a 'better writer' etc. - the meta was there on Livejournal in the 00s. There were communities where sporking was seen as hip/fun, and communities where it was literally banned or at the very least, super frowned upon.

There were meta fandom communities where sporking was the subject of discussion and you know eventually in a lot of those meta communities, that's where a lot of folks decided actually that calling out the fanfiction of 16 yos as 'cringe' or 'badly done' maybe said more about us as human beings and what we wanted fandom to be, than it did about the actual fanfic itself. By the time AO3 came around, people built it with this in mind.

To this day on AO3 it's mostly considered appropriate to say you want concrit in your author's notes, and to otherwise assume as a reader it's never welcome if it's unsolicited. That started during the LJ era. And it was talked about at great length. There's obviously going to be people who disagree! But for the most part I'm a big believer in compassion and 'not everyone is here for the same reason' and 'they literally gave this to us for free and it's meant to be fun' (like yourself! What we do/think/argue 10 years ago on LJ is sometimes different to what we do 10 years later lol, I used to be against trigger warnings pre-AO3! Times change a lot :D )

So yeah, this was definitely something that was around before you and I came to fandom, and it was something that continued to grow as an attitude during, until finally it kind of won out on AO3. But yeah fandom as we know it was born in people literally not being canon compliant to make some gay dreams come true (Spirk shippers bless them all), at a time when there was no representation.

Even in the earliest days of fandom where comments could only happen via email, one of the earliest phrases authors used were things like 'flames will be used to roast marshmallows.' For those reading who don't know, flames are hate comments, critical 'this fic is bad because' comments etc. Except you emailed them directly to the author, because there was no place for comments on a fic.

And this started because authors in part got death threats for writing gay stuff.

So you know, from the very beginning, authors in fanfic have by and large had a very low tolerance for criticism / hate over something they're doing for free and making no profit out of, when they're changing/altering the canon as they please to create representation (or hotness lmao), that is literally a labour of love in a world of very little representation. From there, things have just grown. The whole 'flames will not be tolerated' existed even before Livejournal did.

Honestly there are still people who love sporking and you could probably find groups and Discords dedicated to that even now (actually you literally can, there's a Dreamwidth group for it), it's kind of wild but it started to get cool again. Just like 90s clothing :D (Which is also wild because I can just take that crap out of my closet and wear it again).

But yeah it also sounds like you may have been in some pretty crappy pockets of fandom! When I was on LJ in the 00s I avoided those places and still got to experience fandom across multiple fandoms (mostly NCIS, Captive Prince, HP, Profiler, The X-Files and some others) and communities.

I was super active in some fandom communities and saw a lot of meta happening, and my view during the early and late 00s was that sporking was largely pretty frowned upon after a very brief (like 3-6 month) era where it was cool for only some folks, and then everyone (including some - but not all - of those folks) was like 'heyyyyyyy hang on a minute.' It was something that the bullies did, and enjoyed, and otherwise folks kind of stayed away from it, especially once they learned people were becoming too scared to write fics, which is the inevitable outcome of mocking/bullying folks and fics that have been made purely out of love for something.

Like, publicly making a spectacle out of what a 13 yo (they were often teens - and it's kind of sad how many 40 yo women were doing the sporking :/ ) wrote out of love, just for fun/clout was not considered cool by everyone even back then, because like, a lot of us saw that as killing new generations of fandom (some folks who sporked considered it a win if a fic or account got deleted, this is not based behaviour), not actually creating good writing, internalised misogyny (Mary Sue hatred and self insert hatred), etc. It's hard to explain because I do really think we were in different corners of fandom at the time, but I don't know anyone personally from my time on Livejournal who actually liked sporking as an idea or enjoyed it or enjoyed listening to it or reading articles mocking fic.

I knew about it from very lively 'is this okay' 'actually no it's not even if it's just for fun this is trying to hurt people and saying 'it's just the fic' is not going to be the bandaid a teenager needs to understand why older folks (generally) in fandom are mocking them for being new at a skill' discussions on LJ in meta fandom communities. So this is how much I could be in fandom and not be a part of it and also have like a wildly different experience to your LJ experience!

I think if I'd been a teenager during that era it would have seemed a lot more appealing (in the same way that many teens are antis now before they grow out of it), and fuck it if I was a more bitter person who was just around people who liked to make fun of what other people created, perhaps I would have enjoyed it too, I can see a lot of reasons why a person would fall into that in LJ -> but I was an adult on LJ trying not to be mean to people or what they were creating, so yeah I was maybe just in very different spaces! (Don't get me wrong, I have my giant fucking character flaws, but I was very scared of people hating me so like I didn't want to do things that would make that happen, lol, and also I was scared to put up fic myself during the era of active sporking. I know for myself that sporkers didn't just scare away writers of 'badfic' - they...intimidated a LOT of people).

Before AO3 I was on FF.net, posting fics on LJ, posting on Schnoogle, gossamer, and a couple of other archives. So I don't think my experience was that 'narrow,' I just think I wasn't around like... anime at that time or other places where it might have been happening. I also avoided like...Draco/Malfoy where CC drama was happening and I know sporking was popular in that specific arena / pairing for a while as well (er, as well as anything to do with Mary Sues).

So yeah! That's about where that is. Generally gatekeeping fandom is just seen as not a great thing to do to people, and that creates other kind of beliefs that are generally upheld as being more inviting/nurturing. After all, if someone truly wants to get better at writing, they can ask, or do courses, but as we all know, everyone has to write some bad stuff to get good at it, but not everyone wants to be good. Folks are in fandom for different reasons. I'm rambling now so I'm going to finish my lunch! :D

[padfootastic]

Some people are not ready to admit that we actually are introduced to a character who offers a gray perspective on the people involved in this war (as opposed to strict black-and-white) and that’s Sirius (and yes, this is spitefully motivated by the fics where Harry is a Slytherin, meets other gray characters, and Sirius is shown as an immature idiot). Has everyone somehow forgotten the scene in GOF when Sirius is telling people that he’s not sure if Snape was a Death Eater even though Snape hung out with people Sirius for sure knew were Death Eaters, and then says that he can’t be sure if BCJ was actually guilty or if he just had the bad luck of being near the Lestranges at the worst possible time?? Sirius outright admits that he wasn’t the only one who didn’t receive a trial, he knows it’s entirely possible that other “convicted” Death Eaters were innocent just like him. Sirius is the main person we see actually acknowledging that the villains are people too, the world’s not black-and-white, good-vs-evil. Say what you want about Sirius, but at least dislike him for what he actually did (and I will never shut up about “Sirius hated Slytherins,” show me where we see him insulting either Slytherin House or using that House as an insult, and him hating blood-purists who happened to be Slytherins doesn’t count, that’s just hating bigots. Maybe I forgot a scene [and no, the train scene doesn’t count because it’s James insulting Slytherin, Sirius doesn’t], but somehow I doubt that)

i was literally just asking ab this in the server today bc i saw that opinion floating around hey again and like—how?? where??

it’s weird that j&s become a single entity in exactly the worst possible way in a lot of marauder interpretations bc people see james being black & white and hexing people & fucking with snape and immediately paste the same traits onto sirius, even when we have the literal opposite evidence. why do we think sirius hated slytherins???? have i just completely forgotten that bit from canon?

ok also omg stop. you just brought back SO MANY years old flashbacks of me devouring slyth harry fics and almost every single one of them, without fail, had harry interacting w these worldly, complicated, morally grey characters vs being ashamed of his embarrassing one dimensional prejudiced godfather :/// ‘sirius will u stop calling my friends slimy snakes!!!!’ just. yeah. loved those fics. always had to click out of those bits lol

[rassicas]

(I don’t feel like rewriting it cause it mostly gets across what I’m trying to say but the first paragraph is just a rant stemming from liking splatfest law as an idea, preferring a more malleable understanding of cannon, and how even good non contradictory things the NOA translators do are often discredited for not being simply 100% accurate [cause it’s often more interesting when it’s not imo] so sorry in advance)

I get being the jp translation lore purist and translator is like your entire brand but I feel like some of the “misconceptions” are just popular headcannons or not bothering to check the NOA translation against the JP one for every line. (Revising this it’s literally only splatfest law this gripe applies to I was just feeling ranty) I get really hammering on the “no there aren’t any more mammals” one because that is an important contradiction but when they don’t directly contradict (like splatfest law [again this entire paragraph is just the product of me thinking splatfest law is a fun idea and specifically disliking it being framed as a “misconception”]) it feels kinda weird to treat taking the translation you have at face value as a “misconception.” (Specifically when it doesn’t contradict established cannon or alter characterization in a major way [this has actually just become a mini rant about how treating any information exclusive to translations as non cannon on the simple basis that the JP translation is the only true cannon is something that I personally am conflicted on {wow the mentally ill genderfuck homestuck prefers a mailable and more flexible idea of what is “cannon” who would have known}]) <=(writing these parentheses sets made be realize I’m kinda just spinning a word salad over one specific gripe)

I also cannot view the Frye thread yet so perhaps there’s more of a thesis to it than Frye not being confirmed to be a vampire squid like them being some other species of squid but it seems like a stretch to include that as a “misconception.” Is your underlying argument is that no cephalings inherent traits from specific aquatic ancestors? Is this just to say the art books and interviews have nothing that directly confirm it? (All of that to say what was the reasoning for including it on the misconceptions list?)

Looking back at the list now those two specific ones are the only ones I’d like to know the reasoning for including (this was not well thought through before I started typing it) all of the other ones I definitely get including and have solid sources to back them up and are good to put out there as definitely not backed up by cannon. The list is over all very swaggy and a great resource I’d just like to hear expanded thoughts and reasoning behind these two being it.

The reason for the "splatfest law" inclusion is how often i'd see it brought up among fans, taken seriously, and incorporated into genuine theories about the future of splatoon's plot (i saw this in theories about splatoon 3's plot, and now i see it with side order).

if it's just a localization funny moment then the odds of it potentially having bearing on the plot/worldbuilding of a game made by japanese developers is next to zero. for people like me who put highest importance on the JP side and want to seriously speculate on and understand splatoon's canon, people want to know what is and isn't just a product of localization! funny thing, i was also a hardcore homestuck fan but i am Like this (obsessive over the established Lore) and have always been. i think its my brand of autism LOL Different pieces of media are going to have different standards to how they treat their canon. individuals will have their own standards to how much they want to adhere to that canon and how they define it. splatoon is looser in some places but parts of it less so once it becomes plot relevant. "splatfest law" is objectively funny and if you believe it based on how you perceive what is splatoon's canon i cannot and will not stop you. i personally choose to believe its not actually part of their legal system and something people will say in-universe as a joke. as for the frye thread you should read it before jumping to conclusions about what point i was making with it. I'll go and post it after this. What happened was that right after frye was revealed in the nintendo direct, someone made a thread speculating that frye was a vampire squid, with points of evidence being that she has fangs (all inklings have fangs and weve seen different shapes of them) and long ears (we've seen normal inklings with different shapes of ears), and then the rest of the "evidence" being based on stuff that was intended to be based on her connection to eels or indian culture. this thread blew up and soon after people were stating, with certainty, that frye was 100% intended to be a vampire squid. it is one thing to headcanon something, but its another thing to tout it as fact, which is what was happening.

[prophecyqueen]

Not only are they denying Alicent and Helaena a chance to be sympathized with on human level, by not showing them giving birth to their respective four and three children, while making a show out of Rhaenyra’s pain with Alicent immediately asking for the newborn, what Disney movie is this (they also literally had Alicent say “Aegon came quickly”… it really feels like they’re just brushing it off), but also we didn’t get their weddings. We don’t even know what Helaena thinks about anything that’s not a cryptic prophecy, let alone marriage to Aegon. We didn’t get their coronations. Well, Aegon’s was ruined as well. This show is so incredibly biased, despite both sides being Targaryen.

i don't even feel like i should add anything just because you conveyed their bias and hypocrisy and dehumanization of alicent and helaena so well.

i am so sad about helaena... and this particularly annoys me because they made her a dreamer, but she's not just a dreamer, she's always recoiling from her mother's touch to the point where people think helaena hates her. and i mean, the way they made it look, even if there was no bad faith behind that statement, it does look like she particularly rejects her mother while being okay with touching criston, aemond, being touched by talya, jace, etc. like i know there's different circumstances to all of these touches, but it feels ridiculous to not give alicent ONE heartwarming scene with her daughter. yes, she hugs helaena when the aegon scene happens, but people don't interpret that the way they interpret helaena recoiling from her and take it as further proof that helaena hates her because alicent is at fault for her life.

and i get it, alicent married her to aegon so there can be some resentment there, but they also made sure not to show us any scene where alicent decides to marry them and how she got there. because it's mostly the targaryens who wed brothers and sisters and cousins to keep bloodlines pure because they are blood purists which is why alicent says "queer customs" about the possibility of rhaenyra being with her uncle. it's a bit much, the uncle x niece thing, but alicent is already aware of the marriages the targaryens have because her own husband was married to his cousin before.

so yeah... about helaena... i hate that they reduced her to just saying prophecies + portrayed her relationship with alicent as being distant and tense and stuff. rhaenyra can have a good relationship with all of her children, but alicent only has aemond. in a way it make sense because these two women don't have the same circumstances when it comes to family, pregnancies, experience, etc. but still...

and yeah, that was very "evil step mom" of them, to make her ask for the newborn as soon as it was born. that was a lot

and to cut helaena's own coronation... i would have loved that. and their dragons could have been there too.

also yeah... the weddings. and they even had alicent dressed for her wedding but cut it off. honestly, i think we nailed it, i think the right word is dehumanizing the women on one side to sell the image of the victim, mother, warrior, queen on the other side.

rhaenyra loses one son and can bring the wrath of god on the greens (helaena), but helaena as a mother just sinks into deep depression and later jumps from a window into some spikes.

she is not allowed to have her own rage and her own wrath because women like helaena and alicent are not built like rhaenyra, which is the only way a woman should be built to be sympathized with.

it also comes down to the writer of the book which clearly wrote the story for mainly daemon and then rhaenyra. he does everything he can to destroy the green children and leave daemon's alive.

[thankskenpenders]

So I'd recently said that the only thing I was particularly worried about with Sonic Superstars was the music, mainly because the words "Jun Senoue" and "classic sound" make me immediately think of Sonic 4 - which the extended gameplay footage was using recycled music from as a placeholder. Even with Tee Lopes confirmed as a contributor (but not the lead composer), I was concerned about what the bulk of the music would sound like.

Well, fast forward a couple weeks and my fears have been abated!

First up was the trailer at the Nintendo Direct, which features some new Tee Lopes music (as confirmed by him on Twitter) that sounds phenomenal. I keep going back to this just to listen to the music:

Later, the extended overview video made for Sonic Central features this track and more, which continue to sound like they were written by Tee Lopes. The poppy early '90s style is very similar to the Sonic Mania sound (as well as other work by Tee, like the incredible TMNT Shredder's Revenge OST), and it's exactly what I'd want. If this isn't all by Tee Lopes, then Senoue is trying really damn hard to mimic his sound. These just sound like melodies and arrangements that Tee would go for, not ones that Senoue would write. Even underneath the wonky instrumentation of Sonic 4, Senoue had a distinct sound. You could tell it was the same guy who wrote the Sonic Adventure OST.

Curious, I decided to dig deeper, and found a video interview I'd missed from IGN. On the subject of the music, Iizuka (as translated by Sega of America's Austin Keys) said:

"The Classic Sonic music has always had this real fun pop vibe to it, and we wanted to stay true to the roots with the Classic series and go and create some great new music for Sonic Superstars. So what we did is actually, we're working with Jun Senoue, who was the music director on Sonic 3 and he's also worked on Sonic Mania. But we're using Jun, and he's partnering with other people who also worked on Sonic Mania music, and creating this new kind of sound and this new music that's going to be a perfect fit for a Classic Sonic game. Lots of fun, lots of pop."

I am perhaps a little peeved that they go all in on Senoue here and don't actually name Tee Lopes, almost implying that Senoue was the main composer on Mania (he was only credited as an audio engineer). On the flip side, it's a little funny to name drop Senoue and not acknowledge, you know... Crush 40? Sonic Adventure? But I get that they're trying to win over the Classic purists and not make people think Superstars will be full of butt rock lmao

Anyway yeah, it sounds like Senoue and Tee Lopes are collaborating pretty closely on this to create music that fits the Classic vibe without literally going for fake FM synth. It's possible a little of that is still in there, but every single track they've presented so far matches the style of Mania, not Sonic 4. That's the sound they want us to associate with the game.

I couldn't be more excited for this soundtrack now.

[pteropodidaes]

it's been a while since i interacted with the marauders fandom, (like a month or two) but one recurring theme that i saw was the drastic recon of a lot of the slytherins in that era.

i remember when your main cast in your average marauders fic was mostly gryffindors, and then a lot of the antagonists were slytherins. barty and evan were almost always villains (bullies, toxic exes, etc) and regulus was an angst device for sirius. nowadays, the main cast is split into two main friend groups, gryffindors and slytherins. most gryffindors have a slytherin they're paired with (lily and dorcas [which btw i remember when dorcas was a gryffindor], james and regulus, etc etc). the slytherins all have family issues where their parents are blood purists and they don't agree with them and it's a whole thing blah blah blah

i like that there is more diversity in where the characters come from, but there is so much nuance that is stripped of these characters to make them all get along. regulus is the number one victim of this.

i've noticed there is a desire to make the characters people like morally good. they preach about grey characters, but when it comes down to it there is always a justification for the "bad" things they do. sometimes people do bad things because they believe bad things. regulus is a bad guy. he is a death eater, he gets the dark mark and everything. a lot of people write that regulus secretly agreed with sirius the whole time, but it makes it so much more interesting if sirius and regulus's morals actually clash instead of regulus just agreeing with his parents. i personally love when sirius and regulus are close in their childhood and then it changes as they both mature and find themselves.

i think if we look at the characters realistically, regulus barty and evan would never truly get along with people like james and sirius. they're both righteous people (ESPECIALLY james) who would not tolerate blood purism. and that's interesting to explore and to write! sirius watching his brother become a complete stranger who resents him because their morals conflict is so interesting!! you don't have to take away murky morals from a character so they can make out with your fav... which leads me to my next thing.

the jegulus boom. i remember when jegulus was a crack ship and now i think it's literally up there in popularity with wolfstar. i used to ship it as a joke, and in the beginning it was cute but honestly i don't see this ever being an actually healthy relationship. again, james has very strong morals and he would not tolerate regulus being a death eater. he would also ALWAYS choose sirius and he wouldn't stay in a relationship with someone who would cause sirius so much pain. there are a select few circumstances where i see them in a select few dynamics??? but i just don't see it happening.

it's sad because i feel like lily has been tossed aside for fandom's new bl ship. like i love wlw ships with all my heart but sometimes it seems like they come out of people wanting to do something with the canon female love interest. jily is such a beautiful and adorable ship, and the chemistry is honestly so much better than jegulus if i'm being honest. lily is also such an interesting character and you can still get your enemies to lovers fix out of jily. you don't need to compromise the morals of both james and regulus for your yaoi.

it always struck me as weird that these canon death eaters are suddenly heroes now, as in they never believed this shit at all and they're actually victims of their families and society and stuff. don't get me wrong, they definitely are, but it would be better if it wasn't just "i always thought this is wrong and i'm the rebel in my family!" people in these systems actually do get brainwashed and manipulated, and they do believe these things wholeheartedly.

i understand the whole thing with marauders is that there is no canon and you can do whatever you want, but sometimes the characters are just so flat. regulus is interesting to me because he was a bad person but he ultimately chose to sacrifice himself for something good. there's also the issue with changing the characters to the point where they're completely unrecognizable from canon. jkr is a shit writer, but that doesn't change the fact that james has been repeatedly described in canon as a righteous man with incredibly strong beliefs. he may have been a little shit, but never to the point where he would date a death eater. he literally pantsed one upside down and washed their mouth out with soap.

i'm also not saying the old fics were better. there used to be a LOTTT of inconsistency with the characterization of a lot of side characters like dorcas and mary and marlene. i love that the new fandom has given these characters a chance to shine. (well, the male ones at least...) i'm also also not saying that the slytherins should be just bad guys again. i feel like we've flopped from making them total assholes to angels that rebel a little bit.

i could honestly talk about the issues within the marauders fandom for literal hours, but the slytherins are something that has bothered me for a while now. don't be scared to make your skrunklies evil, they don't even have to be evil the whole time you can give them a killer redemption arc 👍

[rhine-gold-archive]

Dude I LOVED your sub diluc analysis and 110% agree. If you're taking suggestions for more sub characters analysis how about our favorite malewife Thoma

Sub! Thoma x Dom! Gn Reader

Warnings: nsfw, minors please get out, edging, praise kink, service play, slight degradation, chastity cage, overstim, vibrator, oral (reader receiving), ruined orgasms. Fluff. Yes, I said fluff, and I mean it.

Wordcount: 4k

A\N: as always, filth is under the cut, don’t worry. If you’re a worldbuilding purist and vibrator bothers you, pretend it’s from Fountaine. If they already have cameras, they can manage vibrators.

Thoma is just great. He would almost be too sweet if he didn’t have another side as a problem-solving fixer or didn’t have a spine.

And he does have a spine, unarguably, he threw a spear at the face of his country’s god during her one-hit kill boob-nuke move. So when he submits to you, you know he’s doing it by choice and not because he’s a pushover, which makes it even better.

Like Diluc, he's a dedicated pyro workaholic who will not take care of his own needs or pleasure unless he’s literally forced to, but unlike Mond’s Batman, Thoma is not on 27 layers of dissociation and is actually aware of what he wants.

It’s not that he couldn’t be smth more ambitious than a housekeeper, it’s that the combination of mild OCD and people-pleasing motivation make both housekeeping and being a fixer a very rewarding occupations for him, and why be ashamed of something that makes you happy.

Thoma’s natural impulse when he sees something wrong or out of order is to fix it, and the scale doesn’t really matter - from spilled coffee, to trade deal disputes, to tyrannical government decree. And because of his indifference to the scale, he doesn’t turn this world-bettering into a grand mission or an isolating burden of responsibility, unlike SOME people, and therefore manages to have one of the healthiest mentalities out of all genshin workaholics. 

His biggest turn-on is bringing pleasure to the partner and he will always put others' satisfaction above his own, which is why he can top if that’s the best way to please his lover, but his ideal role is a service sub.

with proper encouragement, he’ll be very open and needy, but also bashful enough to be fun to tease when you want to. Literally best of both worlds.

You might not appreciate Thoma or not find him interesting compared to other, loudly flashy characters, everyone has a right to have no taste.

He might be ready for almost anything to please you after you’ve already made him yours, but he has his quiet dignity. He will not be advertising if you don’t notice first. 

He’s a bite of a fresh green apple, warm from being left in the summer sun, a tangible pleasure to sink your teeth in, with just enough tanginess to offset the sweetness. A breathy laugh, ruffled sunset-gold hair, agile body, always in motion, green-grass bright eyes, a late spring on the cusp of turning to summer, warm and sunny, but not yet stifling hot. Golden time, all yours to claim, but very easy to miss if inattentive.

Has a praise kink, obviously, but whatever he does for you, he will never ask for the compliments himself. He can be easily persuaded to beg, but not for praise - he needs to be complimented not because he asked you to, but because he’s earned it.

Also likes degradation at the same time. In the hangout event he was like “Nooo, traveler, don’t stop these authorative men from openly disparaging me, I don’t mind. Despite the fact that I have more than enough influence as both Ritou fixer and closest confidant of the Kamisato clan siblings to put an end to it myself. It just doesn’t bother me haha.”

Yeah okay, sure, whatever you say, babe.

Has a highkey oral fixation. Not only the balls-eating idle animation. But also completely unprompted, out of nowhere basically railroaded his friends into doing a weird “game” where you have to guess the unknown weird foods just by taste and texture. Brought the weirdest foods and tasted them the most for no reason until he’s literally got sick. Like, you didn’t have to go this hard, king, your friends were just sitting there confused anyway, it wasn’t even a competition.

Later brings up said event as a fun time that he’d like to repeat

Yeah okay, SURE, whatever you say, babe.

Someone please fuck this man on the mouth with a variety of differently shaped and textured dildoes to satisfy his need for interesting mouthfeels and save him from another indigestion.

Thoma’s biggest insecurity is belonging. Caught between two heritages, disconnected from Mondstadt, but always seen as an outsider in Inazuma. He found his place in the Yashiro commission, and he threw himself fully into his work for this sense of belonging, but secretly and, as he thinks, selfishly, Thoma yearns for someone to want him just for himself, not for his skills. And not just to want him, to claim him, own him fully, without stipulations, to reward or punish him as you see fit, but to know that he’s completely, undoubtedly, unquestionably yours. 

His enjoyment of chastity cage stems from both of his main preferences, first, it’s a constant, tangible proof of belonging to you, more permanent than any mark on the skin could be. Second, it appeals to his cheeky part that enjoys the thrill of having a hidden side, like  “oh, you think that i’m just a humble housekeeper, but I’m actually a resourceful influential fixer, but you’ll never know that :3”

He’s not clingy, but he blooms when given attention, like a sunflower quietly turning to the sun. He cherishes anything - from the smile and quick peck on the cheek, to slap on the ass or you dragging him into a broom closet and fucking him against the wall while he bites his handguard to stifle moans. The anticipation that you might ask for anything from him at any moment sparks deep in his belly like a small flickering candleflame.

Like any pyro, he loves a challenge, but because Thoma is like the farthest you can get from a brat, he doesn’t like challenging you, but enjoys endurance or patience tests, and the more he has to work for it, the sweeter the reward will feel.

If he’s only left one room to clean, you can order him to do it with a remotely controlled bullet vibrator in his ass and enjoy the show of him struggling to keep his composure and finish the job.

At first he tries really hard to pretend it’s not affecting him at all and go on as usual, but you notice his hitched, and then quickened breath, tensed body, his movements are stifled in comparison to his usual easy fluidity, he’s stealing quick glances at you from the half lowered eyelashes.

As it gets worse, you can see him breathing through the mouth, swallowing harshly, his hips twitching, so you ramp up the vibrator’s setting and he almost doubles over the table he was wiping, gasping from surprise. For some time, he struggles to get a hold of himself, his thighs shaking, fists clenching on the table’s surface, but then manages to get back to cleaning, his hands a little trembling, but still careful and melticiuos and you turn the intensity down. You don’t want this game to end too quickly.

Of course, you can cheat and tease him directly, starting from fleeting caresses, to stealing kisses and getting in his way and groping. He’s left with his clothing ruffled, shirt riding up from when you slid your hands under it, pants half-undone by you and hanging on hipbones. He blushes, but doesn’t fix his clothes, because you made a point of leaving them like that, and the way you watch him with obvious desire riles him up just as much as the bullet pulsing inside of him. It takes all of his willpower to not go to you, collapse at your feet and beg to touch him, fuck him, let him finish.

Finally, there’s only one bookshelf left to dust, and at this point Thoma is no longer even trying to keep up the pretenses, he’s squirming, letting out shaky gasps, lightheaded from mix of desire and ache in his aroused cock, cage feeling more and more painfully tight. He’s steeling himself, taking deep breaths, because by the archons, he’s not going to let some dusty wood planks get the best of him.  

He’s so focused on his goal that he doesn’t notice how you approach him, until you hug him from behind, so he shudders, letting out a surprised gasp, and you chuckle.

“So, how is it going, baby?” you ask with an innocent tone, but your mouth is pressed to his ear, and you feel him shiver from your warm breath.

“Great,” he manages to start out with an upbeat tone and a smile, but then you start kissing his neck and sliding your hands under his shirt, and his voice gets wobbly. “I’m… ah, I’m… so close…” you find his nipples and they harden immediately under your touch, forcing a shaky, needy moan out of him before he can continue, “Almost done… just…mmmhm… just a bookshelf…” you twist his nipples and buck your hips against his ass, and he arches in your arms, “Oh, fuck, please!”

He’s too fucking delicious, so you turn him over and press him against the wall, claiming his mouth. He’s such a good kisser, even half out of breath and out of mind like this.

“No, I can’t let you fuck the bookshelf, babe,” you tease, smiling. “That would just be a mess.”

He starts rolling his eyes at your joke, but ends up with his throat arched, your lips trailing kisses under his jaw.

“Wait, I didn’t finish…”

You smirk and pull his pants down to the thighs in one abrupt motion. “Oh, you’re definitely going to finish.”

He blushes, but meets your eyes anxiously. “You mean, like that?..”

“Yeah, with your pretty cock still caged, darling.”

He blushes even more brightly and swallows hard, but doesn’t argue, doesn’t complain, doesn’t ask you to take it off, despite how uncomfortably tight it feels, despite knowing that coming like that won’t bring him pleasure or even relief, just frustration. It’s been a few days, and he wants to finally be allowed a real orgasm so badly, but he follows your order like a good, obedient boy that he is. 

He lets the last dregs of his control go, because that’s how you want to see him, submits to your caresses, and the world drowns in a delirious, needy haze of desire. He hears his own filthy, shuddering moans without realizing it’s him making them, basks in how you rake your eyes over him in hunger, exposed, writhing against the wall under you, blushing cheeks and parted lips, shirt pulled up to the collarbones and pants pulled down to the thighs.

It’s worth the sweet, maddening torture of his aching dick and overstimmed, abused prostate for how you claim him, your hands and lips all over his body, your tongue sliding inside his mouth, it’s overwhelmingly too much and desperately not enough. He isn’t sure how much time has passed, every moment feels like stretched out, agonizing eternity, until he can’t take it anymore.

He comes with a half-choked moan, his legs going weak, and slides down against the wall, panting. You kneel down next to him, kiss his face and whisper praises as he’s trying to catch his breath, and reach between his legs to take the bullet out. 

But instead of switching it off, you press it against his cock, sending a violent jolt through his entire body.  He gasps, his bright green eyes going wide in disbelief.

“Shhh, baby, I just need you to cum one more time for me,” you tell him, kissing his cheekbones tenderly. His cage has an opening that leaves part of the cockhead exposed, it’s swollen, red and throbbing against the bullet.  

“No, please, I can’t,” he gasps for air with an open mouth like he’s drowning, presses his back against the wall in an instinctive urge to get away.

“Of course you can, baby,” you catch his chin, forcing him to look at you. “You are mine, aren't you?”

“Yes,” you can feel his throat moving under your fingers when he swallows.

“And your cock is my favorite pretty plaything. So I need you to come for me again like my good little whore.”

“It hurts,” he moans weakly and shuts his eyes, blushing brilliantly, his gasps turn into quiet whimpers. His body is twitching, nails scraping helplessly on the floor, but he still hasn’t said the safeword, so you keep the bullet pressed to his throbbing cock.

“I know, baby,” you press a gentle kiss to the corner of his parted lips. “But I want to have you whole. I want to take everything you have, sunflower, and I know you can still give me more.”

His arm springs up abruptly and for a second you think he’ll try to push you away, but instead he finds your free hand and intertwines his fingers with yours.  

“Yes,” he whimpers shakily and looks up at you, his eyes bright and glittering green from tears. “Oh, please, please…”

He looks incredible like this, luminous in combination of filthy hunger and naked tenderness, an exposed, helpless mess, writhing on his knees, trying to spread legs that are caught in half-undone pants on his thighs

his cheeks glowing bright red, he’s keening and begging, without even knowing what he begs you for, with wet parted lips, chest raising in heavy feverish breathing, cum from his first orgasm still staining his cage and stomach, the swollen, pulsing tip is leaking under your finger when you thumb his slit with the same hand that holds the bullet against it. 

Сompletely undone, unraveled, tortured and trembling, but nonetheless, he’s clutching at your hand, reaching, leaning into you with desperate need.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, baby,” you squeeze his hand, press yourself against him as he whines, and you can tell he’s close by how the muscles of his abs tighten, his thighs tense. “Show me how good you can be.”

He comes with a choked, broken sound, half-moan, half-sob. You hold him as he’s shaking, pepper his face with kisses, whisper praises as he’s trying to catch his breath. 

“Good boy. You are such a delight to have, my little treasure.” His body is full of raw-nerved, unreleased tension, but your words add a maddeningly sweet undercurrent, shiver that runs down his spine, makes the torturous frustration worth it if you’ve enjoyed him. “You’ve been so good for me, I’ll even let you choose your reward. If you want, I will take off your cage and make you cum until you lose your voice from screaming.”

His breath hitches, eyes light up in hungry anticipation, but you continue.

“Or, I’ll let you serve me. I’ll fuck your pretty mouth.”

“Let me serve you,” he answers without hesitation and you smile, because you always knew what he'd choose.

Few minutes later, he’s kneeling at your feet, already naked except for the handcuffs and the cage, the longer strands of his molten gold hair falling freely over the sculpted shoulders. He’s quiet, but he’s looking up at you in restrained anticipation.

“Are you sure, baby? You can still change your mind.”

“Yeah,” he says without hesitation, nuzzling at your knee. “I’m sure.”

“I might not let you out today at all.”

“I know,” he kisses your knee, rubs his cheek against it pleadingly, looking you in the eye. “Please… Use me.”

You smile, let him start slowly, trail a line of kisses up your thigh until he presses his mouth to your sex. It’s not the first time you use his mouth, so he knows what you like, eager lips and searching tongue. He looks up at you, watching for all signs of pleasure: heavy breath, narrowed eyes, bitten lip. You slide your hand into his hair, stroke it softly and he hums in appreciation. When your hips buck against his face, you can feel his moan reverberating against your flesh. 

Your fingers tighten in his hair, and you forcibly pull him closer, fuck his mouth as he goes slack, his eyelashes flutter, warm and willing for you to take.

You slow down a little bit, just enough to hear him make a tiny choked noise, caught deep in his throat, see him look up at you from under half-lowered lashes with glistening, dizzyingly grateful green eyes. 

When you finish, it’d be enough for him to cum if he wasn’t caged still, so when you let him go, he slumps against your leg, breathing heavily through his bruised mouth, his ragged breaths hot against your skin. 

“Thank you,” he whispers, blush on his cheeks heating up against your knee, just barely loud enough for you to catch it.

You take him to the bed, throw him on his back, and he lies sprawled helplessly in front of you, delirious from the constrained pleasure, watching you with bated breath.

“You’ve been very good, my treasure,” you whisper, looming over him, move the unruly bangs, no longer held by a headband, from his forehead. His hair is too bright and saturated for a blonde, not dark and red enough for ginger, another duality caught in between, gold and tangerines, amber and buttercups, sunflower petals in the light of the late sunset. 

“So even though you refused your reward, I’ll give you a chance to cum. If you can win a little game,” you smile, open his cage and slide it off. It goes slowly, with an effort, too tight around his swollen dick, and he shudders, sighs deeply when he’s finally free.

You press your palm against his cock and kiss the corner of his lips. “I’m afraid you’ll have to work for it, baby.”

He throws a glance at you, blushing, unsure. Is that all you’ll ask from him, to debase himself to show how much he wants it? That seems too easy for how far gone he is in his desires, but he doesn’t question you. He catches your mouth in an eager, sloppy kiss, thrusts his hips up, rubbing his cock against your hand.

You let his dick slide a few times against your palm, drink lovely, sweet moans from his lips, and then move your hand up, out of his reach. You chuckle as you watch him thrust helplessly into the air, groaning in frustration.

You only touch him again after he settles down, let him build up the rhythm, his thrusts turning quick and frantic as he’s getting closer to release. When you smirk and caress his cheekbones, he tenses, your grin is so teasing he expects a catch. 

He waits for you to move your hand away again, but instead you lean down and sweetly tell him: “Slower.”

This catches him off guard, his eyes and mouth going wide in surprise and dismay. He has to brace himself forcefully to obey against his natural instincts. He grips at the bedsheets, but manages to slow himself down to half the speed.

You watch him struggle with a smile, his chest rising in heavy panting, parted lips, fingers clutching at the sheets, involuntary arch building in his spine as he focuses all his willpower on controlling his hips. You kiss a line down the exposed column of his throat, feel him shudder and his cock twitch against your palm, he almost bucks erratically, but catches himself at the last moment.

“Good boy,” you whisper, raking your fingers through his tangled hair. He meets your eyes, pleading, at once desperate and hopeful for release.

Instead, you tell him “Stop moving.”

He lets out a loud groan that breaks into a shaky whimper as he forces himself to pin his hips down to the bed. He throws his head back and arches his back, squeezing his eyes shut, his dick twitching against your palm and his knuckles whiten from how hard he’s clenching his fists. You run your hand up the length of his painfully hard, throbbing cock, provoking a moan, gently thumb at the slit of his swollen, leaking tip. 

“Fuck, please, I’m so close, please…” he gasps for air with an open mouth, writhing under you as you kiss his jaw, slide your other hand over his body in tantalizing caresses, feel his muscles clench under your touch. You’re not so cruel to count this against him, because he does manage to keep himself from thrusting into your teasing hand as you slowly, maddeningly slowly stroke his cock, pearly string of precum dripping on his stomach. 

“Very good, sunflower,” you whisper in his ear, feel his eyelashes flutter as he’s struggling to look at you. He’s so tense he’s shaking, sweat pooling on his temples and a trembling slope of his collarbones. You kiss his parted lips, cover his clenched hand with your own. “You’ve been such a delightful, beautiful plaything today. Come for me, you’ve earned it, baby.”

He comes undone immediately, with a desperate, strangled scream that he’s too unraveled to feel ashamed about. You pump his cock, let him ride out the pleasure he’s been waiting so long for, forcefully held control finally lost completely and his mind going completely blank, watch him thrashing under you until his screams turn to whimpers and he grasps at you and pulls you close.

Later in the shower he has no strength left, so you start cleaning him up yourself, and he tries protesting, but you gently pin him to the wall. 

“Can I take care of my own little treasure, hm?” you ask him teasingly, and he laughs with both embarrassment and gratitude, melts under your touch. 

You feel quite tired yourself, looking forward to finally getting to bed and falling asleep entangled in his warmth. But when you walk into the room, he slips out of your arms and starts tearing off sheets from the bed with amount of energy that he frankly should not be able to produce in this state.

“Babe. What are you doing? Cum didn’t even get on the sheets, it’s fine.”

“I’m not going to sleep on sweat-covered bedsheets,” he throws an affronted look over his shoulder as he’s pulling a new sheet over the frame. “I wasn’t raised in a barn.”

You sigh and watch him silently, until he grabs a pillow.

“Thoma. Thoma, what did the pillows do to you? We haven’t even touched them.”

“It’s going to bother me if the sheets are fresh and pillowcases aren’t. *And* if they don’t match.”

“I’m starting to think I’m taking the handcuffs off you too early,” you say sourly, and he chuckles, blushing faintly.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m almost done. Just a minute.”

He is done pretty quickly, but then you catch him eyeing the heap of bedsheets on the floor.

“Baby, if you try to start laundry right now, I will have to knock you unconscious for your own good.”

“I was just going to put it into a basket…”

“NO.”

He laughs airily, lets you drag him into bed, falling down next to you.

“But you have to admit, sleeping on clean linen is so much better.”

It is pretty great, it’s fresh and cool, and smells faintly of lavender.

“It’s nice,” you concede, pulling him close. 

Thoma gives absolutely the best hugs and cuddles, firm, but not restrictive, like all pyro, he emanates warmth even when he’s not using his vision, but from him, it’s a lenient sunlight, not the aggressive heat of fire. Amber-hued protective bubble where nightmares seem stupid and everything is going to be alright, a feeling normally only achievable by months of therapy, being covered in puppies or copious amounts of drugs. 

“But you are still crazy. I’m going to fuck you over the counter in the morning instead of the bed, so you don’t change the sheets *again.*”

He makes a content little noise, something between a chuckle and a purr.

“And what would you like to have for breakfast? Other than me, of course.”

“I don’t really care. Other than you, of course. Surprise me, sunflower.”

[elvenwhovian]

Thoughts on the criticisms for The Rings of Power

The negativity around ROP has been so disheartening and I need to rant/have my say. Below are the most common criticisms I've seen and my responses to them. 

1. "They butchered/desecrated Tolkien's story! They changed the story too much so I won't watch/ will only hate-watch." 

Some of you are too young to remember, but I was there 3000 20 years ago when PJ's films came out. He changed A LOT. And I was surrounded by homeschooler book purists who had a lot to say, both good and bad. Here's my thing ... if you don't like ROP because they changed things, fine. You do you.  But don't tell me that PJ's films are perfection if you say you can't handle major changes to Tolkien’s works. 

Arwen didn't rescue Frodo. The elves never came to Helms Deep. Faramir didn't take Frodo and Sam captive. And Frodo never sent Sam away before Cirith Ungol, just to name a few. These were SIGNIFICANT changes that PJ made. But they didn't ruin the story ... dare I say, they made things more interesting. 

2. "The story moves too slowly." 

Bro ... have you read LOTR? Its a slow burn at the start. And then half of TTT is just Frodo and Sam simply walking into Mordor. Just like Tolkien, I feel like the show runners are laying a foundation and then in season 2 things will pick up. Also they have 5 seasons planned. Also its television. Its meant to be in installments to keep you coming back. Honestly, compared to some modern TV, it is refreshing to have a show that is taking its time and not beating you over the head with info dumping and action set pieces every single week. We are back in Middle-earth. Enjoy the ride, my dudes. 

3. "The Harfoots are annoying/cheesy/unnecessary." 

I'll admit that I was leery about them including proto-hobbits in the show, but I think they are delightful. They have their flaws, but Hobbits always have. They are quirky; the refreshing contrast to the darkness of war just beyond their borders. Yeah, Nori royally screws up A LOT. Reminds me of another hobbit who Gandalf used to berate for his stupidity. 

I also saw one comment complaining about "Wandering Day" and that the montage/song was too much like a Disney movie. First of all, how dare you? Do you even Tolkien, good sir? His books were full of songs. The hobbits had walking songs in the book. Tolkien loved songs and poetry. It is very VERY in character for Hobbits to have a song with their storyline. And honestly, that song is perfection. I've been singing it as a lullaby to my 6 month old son and he loves it. 

4. "Galadriel is too manly/angry/vengeful ... Also the men are weak." 

Perfect people are not interesting. Flaws make characters realistic, engaging, and worth watching. Galadriel is a flawed character in ROP and I LOVE IT. She is prideful, ambitious, and strong-willed ... all stuff Tolkien wrote about her. She is also very athletic/physically skilled. Tolkien also wrote this ... I have references. And yeah ... if you believed the evil who killed your brother was out there and no one believed you, you would be miffed too. 

And as I predicted, she is undergoing character development that is helping to temper her vengeance. She literally gives up her sword. 

The symbolism is spot on. 

Also, those saying she is too manly... bro, what the heck? Her costumes and armor are so beautiful and well done! My two favorite looks are the dress she wears in Numenor and her armor design.

I think they did a fantastic job making her a strong yet flawed female character. 

And the men are weak? Elrond and Durin have a rock breaking contest. Arondir fights for his girl ... doesn't get more manly than that. Also, Elendil is just fantastically done and oozes that stable yet compassionate masculine energy Tolkien's male characters are known for. 

5."I don’t like that they cast people of color." 

Don't be racist. Its 2022.

6. "The elves aren't done right/have short hair/ aren't like PJ's elves." 

Ok first of all, while many of the elves in the legendarium are described with long hair, its never defined as a standard for elvish culture. Second, if you are going to expect any and all Tolkien adaptations to conform to PJ's films, then I guess we can toss out all the cartoons that are beloved by so many people. Also, I don't see anyone beating up the legendary painter and Tolkien illustrator Ted Nasmith for his depictions of elves with shorter hair. 

Also, let's be real ... Elrond was described as "kind as summer" in The Hobbit. I love Hugo Weaving's portrayal, but he's never seemed particularly warm or kind to me. I adore Elrond's portrayal in ROP! I even like his floppy hair. He's a young whipper-snapper of an elf and he seems like the kind of person who would create a place like Rivendell. I mean ... look at this precious cinnamon roll:

Also Celebrimbor has that wise old British dude energy that reminds me of Bilbo or even the professor himself. Tolkien's elves were complex people with varying personalities and passions. They weren't the stoic, almost vulcan-ish, people PJ made them out to be. I love the PJ films, but if we are going to make them the standard, then I guess the room for creativity is gone(?) 

7. "The writing sucks/ is fan fiction." 

I'll admit, the writing is rough in a few places. Galadriel jumping ship was kinda dumb. But its not Rise of Skywalker level dumb. And I'll fully admit that this is fan fiction. All television writing based on an IP is fan fiction. Its fiction written by fans/writers based on already established characters/worlds. 

And frankly, the term "its fan fiction" is not an insult to me, because I've read some darn good fan fiction.  Next argument please. 

8. "Its a cash grab from Amazon so we should hate it." 

It’s not. Read the article by The Hollywood Reporter. Also, let's remember that lots of passionate people worked on this series and it shows. Punishing them because Amazon's name is on it is unfair. I know, I know ... Amazon is not squeaky clean. But if we boycotted every company who had stains on their record, we would be living in cabins in the woods eating squirrels. 

7. “Galadriel couldn’t have survived the volcano/ she does dumb over the top stuff ... this show is not realistic.”

You guys do realize this is a fantasy series, right? Also the way she stood their was so bad@$$. 

And yeah, she did this:

You do know that horse acrobatics is a real thing right? 

Also, need I remind you this over the top elf:

He did dumber stuff and we loved it. It was cool. If we are going to take the time to pick apart the “unrealistic” story full of wizards, elves, and magic, then we are gonna be here awhile.

In conclusion, there is only one episode left and I can’t wait! Even if the finale is “just ok”, it’s been a blast to be back in Middle-earth and that means a lot to me. If you are not a fan of ROP, that’s fine. You don’t have to watch it. But some of us are really enjoying it and I can’t wait for the next 4 seasons. Be nice.

Rant over :P Thank you for listening.

[midnightstargazer]

Not to defend the overall narrative surrounding house-elves, but probably the #1 reason I'm so sympathetic to Regulus is that he didn't make Kreacher drink the potion.

House-elves are the lowest of the low in Wizarding society, and virtually nobody questions or objects to the way that they're treated. The narrative wants us to believe the Blacks were kind to Kreacher, but what we're actually shown says otherwise: his living conditions leave a lot to be desired, he harms himself as punishment for disobedience or failure, and then of course there's the whole beheading thing. I don't blame Regulus for any of this, because he was a child and would've had no say in it. But I think it's important to understand, where house-elves are concerned, his family wasn't that different from the Malfoys.

And yet, while I know some people do interpret his actions in a very uncharitable way (he was just upset that his property was damaged, etc.), I think there are signs that there was more to it than that. Kreacher himself states that "Master Regulus always liked Kreacher" (DH ch. 10), which implies that from an early age he showed him kindness and affection. Regulus described Kreacher's task for Voldemort as an honor for both of them; how many wizards would even consider whether or not something was an honor for their house-elf? And, while it's suggested he loaned Kreacher to Voldemort willingly, I don't think it's a coincidence that he ordered him to come home afterwards. He might not have suspected the task would be a death trap, but he knew it would likely be illegal and possibly dangerous. I interpret the order as an intentional precaution.

The exact reasons why Regulus turned against Voldemort are very open to interpretation. It could be he believed that making a Horcrux was going too far. It could be, as Sirius suggested, that he got squeamish about the reality of what being a Death Eater involved. But I do think protectiveness towards Kreacher must have been at least part of his motivation.

Why? Because he drank the potion himself.

This isn't an accident, either. It's emphasized by the narrative: Harry initially assumes Regulus ordered Kreacher to drink it, only to be corrected. It's portrayed as a shocking twist, and for good reason.

For most wizards, especially ones with Regulus's background, making the elf drink the potion would be the obvious solution. Hermione is right when she says what Voldemort did isn't that far outside the norm. Slughorn, who is generally one of the more positively portrayed Slytherins, used a house-elf to test wine for poison. The Blacks' family tradition is, specifically, "beheading house-elves when they got too old to carry tea trays" (OotP ch. 4) - so, they don't just preserve them that way after their death, they kill them as soon as they are no longer useful. Brutal physical punishments seem to be common, and their enslavement is accepted as normal and right by literally every character except Hermione. Wizarding society as a whole does not value the lives or welfare of house-elves.

But in the cave, Regulus prioritizes Kreacher's safety above his own. He drinks the potion himself rather than ordering Kreacher to do it, and once they've got the locket, he tells Kreacher to leave him behind. Regulus could very likely have made it out of the cave alive if he had been willing to sacrifice Kreacher, but instead, he ensured that Kreacher would be the one to survive.

Despite everything he had ever been taught about house-elves and their place in society, despite openly holding blood purist beliefs, despite it meaning the all-important family name would die out, he put Kreacher first. He kept Kreacher safe at the cost of his own life.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Doctor Who, but Chronologically 31

Fun fact! The timelines have intersected, almost - if we were watching this show in the normal order, this episode is actually only one out from where we would be. It's 1930! And we all know what that means - it's time for some terrible stereotypical New York accents as we watch Daleks in Manhattan.

Martha's back! Very exciting, Martha put herself into God Tier in the companion rankings with her last episode, and frankly she is very solid in this one as well. She and Tennant arrive in New York, discover it's 1930, and immediately launch themselves into the mystery of working class people going missing during the Great Depression as they live in a Central Park slum in sight of the Empire State Building being built, a tale that is so richly anti-capitalist the only thing they don't do is turn to the camera to break the fourth wall and say "The real monster here, children, is capitalism."

(Also, side note, if you watch in this order, you do feel the devastation of the First World War).

Plot-wise, this is a two-parter! Our second one that is actually intentional. In fact, the plot is fairly basic and simple, meaning the emotional stories and anti-capitalist morals can take centre stage, which is nice - homeless people are vanishing from the slum. They are being turned into pig slaves, by which I mean, humans in fetching brown boiler suits with pig heads who squeal a lot. This is being done by a sort of wannabe mobster who wears stylish spats in the Empire State Building, who insists his workers risk their lives to attach Dalek bumps to the top - because, as the title made clear and the episode wisely chose not to hide from us, the real bosses behind it all are Jeff Bezos inhuman monstrous perversions with no morals or emotions other than hate or racial purity aka Daleks.

Which is exciting! Because you see, while we have SEEN Daleks before, next to the big cube in the second episode, and we got that brief cameo from Rusty... this is actually the first time we get to meet them properly! First Dalek episode, to show us why they're scary!

Except it turns out there are only four of them and they're a cult.

Also the Doctor is proper freaked out by them. We get SO MANY PLOT THREADS HERE

"How are they still alive?" he asks the showgirl who has followed him into a sewer (she is played by Her From Spooks). "How do they always live, while I lose everything?"

Later, Martha, having been kidnapped for experimentation by Daleks and literally shaking with fear, steps up to the Daleks and stares them down.

"I demand to know what's going on," she proclaims (god she's so fucking cool.) "Report."

"Our planet and species were lost in a war," a Dalek says (HOW MANY FUCKING WARS -) "We're the Cult of Skaro. Dalek Sec is hybridising with a human so we can evolve to live outside the shell."

(The other Daleks do not approve. Racial purists. I foresee a mutiny.)

And the merge is complete! The final cliffhanger is that the wannabe mobster now has a single eye and a beard made of penises.

Far be it from me to agree with Daleks, but I also think that's a bad design, actually.

Anyway, other little stories in this episode include Rick Griffin from Holby City playing a man called Solomon, the sort of leader of the slum, who in his first scene resolves a conflict by splitting a loaf of bread in half I-see-what-they-did-there; Her From Spooks playing a showgirl whose boyfriend gets turned into an incomplete pig slave, so he just has the snout and that's it (on being reunited she is very good about it, good for her); and ACTUAL LITERAL SPIDER-MAN IS HERE. That is. Andrew Garfield. Like, THE Andrew Garfield. His name is Frank and he's from Tennessee and he is also about to be experimented on with Martha. And he's played by Andrew Garfield.

The Doctor jokes at one point that he'll let Frank kiss him if he wants, and all I can think about is Andrew "I want to play bisexual Peter Parker" Garfield's eyes lighting up at the line.

But, a nice moment for us watching: the showgirl bonds with Martha (of course) and offers to let her watch the show from the wings.

"Have you ever been on stage?" she asks

"Oh, yeah, a bit," Martha says. "Shakespeare."

WE UNDERSTAND THAT REFERENCE!!!!!

Anyway! New plot threads again!

“She” (an unknown person) is returning (perhaps River returned as Missy. Maybe Me? Maybe Clara???!)

There is something on Donna’s back

An entire planet, Pyrovilia, just… disappeared, somehow. (Maybe because the TARDIS is exploding??? Saturnine was also lost, and that WAS because of the TARDIS exploding. The lion man’s planet was also lost but he was a bit of a knob about it if I’m honest.)

Amy is maybe dead (she’s not)

The Doctor has been cubed (he’s out, but how?)

River is possibly blown up  (unless she’s Missy)

The TARDIS has blown up  (It’s fine now. Except it’s sort of melting now because it’s corrupted, but it’s fine again)

The universe appears to have ended  (the universe is back again)

The Doctor has employed(?) Nardole

(And Nardole was “reassembled???” Nardole had glass nipples and invisible hair?? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE)

There’s a vault in the TARDIS and it contains Missy but we don’t know why (sometimes she knocks for the bants)

What has happened to all these companions and where are the new ones coming from?

There’s an immortal Viking girl now. Her name is Me and she’s now looking after the people the Doctor abandons

What’s With The Silence?

Why was Rory entirely unconcerned by the entire world suddenly going silent when that is Not Normal and should have been, at the very least, extremely disconcerting?

What did the Doctor do to Queen Lizzie One?

Who is Captain Jack Harkness? (Is he the one who gave the companions a warning about the lone cyberman?)

Why is Amy seeing a one-eyed woman in a vanishing window?

What’s with the Doctor’s future involving getting shot by an astronaut?

Is Amy pregnant and why is it inconclusive?

Who is Sarah-Jane Smith?

How is the Doctor Bill’s teacher and why/where does he have an office?

What is going on with the Cyber War and the Cyberium???

Who did the Doctor lose to Cyber Conversion?

What happened with the Other Cyber War?

What happened with the Third War that deleted the void?

Why does Rose seem particularly important?

What’s with the Weeping Angel statues, and why can’t you blink at them?

What order do these Doctors go in? (Eccleston, Tennant, uncertain, Smith, Capaldi, Whittaker)

Which companion just… forgot the Doctor, and how?

Yaz and Vinder are about to die as Mori/Mwri/Muuri

There is a Lupari shield around Earth.

What’s a Time War?

What’s the Rift?

What’s Bad Wolf?

What happened with Amy’s pregnancy?

In which war did the Doctor become a war criminal, and how?

Who is the Master?

Why has Amy forgotten Rory?

Is Rory plastic or not?

Why is the Doctor sulking on a cloud?

How exactly does the Doctor have a cloud?

What exactly happened with Strax to, uh, tame him?

Which friend killed Strax?

Which friend brought Strax back?

Where did this lesbian lizard and human couple come from?

What happened with Clara as Souffle Girl and the Daleks?

How does Clara actually join?

Why so many Claras?

Why is Missy apparently in robo-heaven?

Why is probably!Missy pushing Clara and the Doctor together?

What is Trensilor and what happened there?

Who is Handles?

The Doctor is about to be dissolved by a beautiful geode man

The universe is being crushed by the Flux

Will the Doctor open the fobwatch?

Sontarans are invading Earth again

Who is Kate?

Who is Osgood? Another name of Clara’s again?

The fuck is the deal with the Grand Serpent

Does Martha get to go to an ice cream planet with 12-fingered massage aliens?

How did the Doctor forget Clara?

Who is Bill’s puddle girlfriend Heather?

How did Nardole die?

When does Bill get Cyberman-ed and die?

When does the Doctor shrink and enter a Dalek called Rusty?

Whittaker is falling to her death rn

Was that ring relevant?

Does anyone know the Doctor’s name?

When did Yaz talk to Dan about fancying the Doctor?

When did Dan talk to the Doctor about fancying Yaz?

Who was the Doctor’s wife?

What's happening with the bees?

What happened with Donna's ex and a giant spider?

What war wiped out the Daleks, and is it one of the ones already mentioned?

What did the Doctor mean when he said "The (Daleks) always live, while I lose everything?"

[lemonhemlock]

A true unpopular opinion, but some Green fans need to acknowledge that House Hightower has always been unabashedly pro Targaryen in canon. They married three times into the Targs (Maegor with Ceryse, Alicent with Viserys 1, and Garmund with Rhaena). They sided with them against the Faith Militant, took the side of one branch of Targs in the Dance, and sided with Aerys II in Robert's Rebellion (Daenerys literally describes them as loyal to her family in the books).

I get that it's funny to poke fun at cringe Targ stans for hating the Hightowers *blood purity and bullshit 🙄* but it becomes much less of a dunk because House Hightower has always been canonically loyal to the Targaryens. Feel free to disagree with me, but that's just my opinion.

Oh, absolutely, this automatic rendering of the Hightowers as secret Targaryen-haters is faintly ridiculous. It was fine as a joke, but some people take it so seriously, when not even the Targaryens are completely demonised by the narrative. The text reads to me like they're supposed to be considered a mixed bag, with good and bad, culminating, of course, with the unspeakable cruelty of Aerys II and the justification for Robert's Rebellion. But, by some fans' reactions, you'd think GRRM intended every Targaryen ever created to be considered the devil incarnate - I really don't think that's the case.

IMO it's not that the Hightowers hate the Targaryens, it's just that they want to access some of their political power or even ingratiate themselves into the innermost circles. At the same they just generally seem to want to not die and live out their comfortable lives in their beautiful city, so sometimes you'll encounter some pretty ruthless pragmatism in their history in order to preserve that. I've written meta in the past on how I see their role in the narrative - it's clear that they will at least have some pretty important part to play in the upcoming battle for Oldtown.

Similarly, their association with the Faith of the Seven is very practical in nature - making friends within religious high circles is very often going to benefit you in some way, be it politically or even financially. I'm sure they're not faking their beliefs, but it's one thing to have normal religious beliefs for the era and instrumentalize them politically and it's one thing altogether to be a religious nutcase. Some Hightowers are said to have historically studied magic and necromancy, too, so they're periodically not bothered about being religious purists. In the books, Viserys was the one who decided to marry Aegon and Helaena, but the Hightowers were obviously not too bothered about the targcest, because they didn't put up a fight or express their reservations. Alicent herself was the one who proposed her own son be married to his half-sister. In the show, they made her wear this huge seven-pointed-star to telegraph more religious compliance than I think arose originally from the text.

I do have to add an explicatory note, though: the Hightowers didn't exactly side with Maegor during the Faith Militant's Rebellion. Their interest in this matter would have been for Ceryse to be considered his sole wife, which is why Ceryse's father, Manfred, protested to King Aenys about this issue. During this uprising, at some point Maegor, Visenya and their army (with their dragons) approached Oldtown. Initially, Martyn, Ceryse's brother, called his banners but it's likely that the might of the Targaryen host convinced him that the path of least resistance was to simply acquiesce, instead of getting burnt alive by Vhagar and Balerion. So it would be more a case of being strongarmed into supporting Maegor in this situation.

The period of Aerys II's reign in Hightower history has the potential to be very interesting, since, yes, they sided with Aerys, but the question is how much that decision was influenced by the fact that Gerold Hightower was the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. How much sway did Ser Gerold hold over his nephew Lord Leyton? Did he essentially consider his uncle to be a hostage or just aligned himself out of solidarity with his political decisions? Did what happened during Robert's Rebellion have any bearing on his decision to later become a hermit? Personally, I would like to find out more about Ser Gerold's headspace and decision-making process during this time, because it could be an insightful exploration into the honour vs duty question, if GRRM is ever so inclined to give us more details - this goes for pretty much all members of Aerys II's Kingsguard, especially Arthur Dayne and Lewyn Martell.

[not-poignant]

Sending some questions rom the fic meme, 20, 21 and/or 25 about Palmarosa? Ty

20. What is something you wish more people noticed about this fic?

The tag that says: this is NOT canon compliant. The author's note that says this is isn't canon compliant and adds: "D&D purists enter at your peril." It's always always that I wish the purists would notice that the story is not and is not pretending to be canon compliant.

That. I wish more people noticed that about the fic. The folks who go into FR lore and go 'I bet the author's doing this' and it's like 'I've never heard of that.' Or the folks who are like 'Mephistopheles should be red' and it's like well he has a canonical blue counterpart and also I don't care.

And secondly it's like, I feel like folks set themselves up for disappointment if they miss the tags. I've only ever played one campaign of D&D and it didn't touch Avernus. All I know about vampire spawn and devils comes from BG3 and patchily maintained Wikis. And while I have done a lot of research, I think anyone could say pretty clearly that you can spend a lot of time doing research and still not know a very great deal indeed if you've only ever had limited experience in the world and haven't paid for the canonical materials.

Like I cannot tell you how many people go 'I bet you're doing this because of (X lore I've literally never even heard of)' and it's like anon, I don't even know how to read, I don't go here, blease I beg of you, notice the tags/author's notes.

Folks who expect little cool tricks based off hidden lore in Forbidden Realms canon are going to be extremely disappointed if that's something they're invested in. Like, no. This is a character-driven story where I'm making stuff up that suits the story and the characters. Some stuff is taken from lore, some stuff is invented lore, it's 'whatever works.'

21. What is something you didn't expect people to notice or gravitate towards in this fic?

I didn't actually expect so many people to gravitate towards thinking that Raphael is always jealous when he's punishing or hurting Astarion. That was kind of odd to me, because I don't really think that's how his mind works.

Like I do think he's possessive, but that to me is different. And I think he's possessive because he's Lawful Evil and has a contract with Astarion, so anyone who acts as though they have power over Astarion and the contract, is therefore acting as though they have power over Raphael, which makes him furious. And I do sort of see how people turn that into 'oh he's jealous because Astarion is his' but it's like well, no, it's not really about Astarion as a person at all. It's about the principle of the contract and the threat to his seat of power which is - as we've seen - a threat to his life.

Likewise, he doesn't hurt Astarion or whip Astarion because he's jealous or for any kind of 'relationship' reason, but because he's been lacking in souls, he's weaker than he used to be, he's used to feeding a much broader sadistic appetite, and Astarion was weak and Astarion was there and I suspect he knew and found it very appealing that Astarion would feel betrayed after he'd done a good job and he thought that would lead to better sadistic satisfaction than tormenting someone like Fhaeleb (and he'd be right, as I said in my author's notes, Astarion suffers very prettily).

I guess I'm always kind of surprised how many people folks try to (in retrospect very understandably) attribute predictable human motives to Raphael's actions. Some of his actions are predictable, especially in the context of him being a sadist. But what I find the most fun about writing him, is that his motives are different by and large to many of us.

His core focus is always attaining more power and more souls, and also feeding via sadism, and he will do other things! We know he enjoys other things in life that seem a lot more 'human' and have very little to do with directly attaining power or torturing people, but I also think he's living his best life when he's kind of doing all of it at the same time, lmao, like watching a pornographic play while debauching Astarion, who is both into it and not into it, which creates a low-key delicious anguish that I think Raphael is very into, on the way to getting even more things that he wants, lol.

He's not falling in love with Astarion, although I do also - on the flipside - think he's a bit more human than some people think he is (since killed and resurrected - I've said he's lost his pit fiend form which means now he really is 50% human again), but that'll be talked about in the next chapter.

But it is really interesting watching people kind of like... try and find ways that Raphael works that aligns with what they know of people they've met. And while there is logic to his actions, it's not 'I'm attracted to Astarion so I'm jealous of anyone else touching him' logic. Possession can look a lot like jealousy, but to me they're two different things!

(It's very interesting watching folks either ascribe wholly human motives to all his actions or alternatively, wholly evil and manipulative motives to all his actions, in a very black and white kind of way. I think we see enough of him in the canon to realise that it's not that simple, for a start he's definitely got his own internal ethical compass, and he's also a horrendously sadistic torturer - enough that it goes against canon to have him not be worse to Astarion, which is where the fic is actually most not canon complaint tbh, and I killed him and resurrected him into a weaker form to justify that lmao - and he's just... Imho, to me he resists 'he's doing this' quantification in that he's doing about 10 different things, and some of those things contradict each other, because he's going through a rough time right now. So anyone who's like 'he's doing this one thing' is like... I mean maybe, but he's got these 9 other things going on. But sometimes he's also just not doing that thing at all. Like Raphael is not jealous of Temter, but he certainly finds Temter and amusing sore spot to keep pressing on to make Astarion twist on the hook).

25. Is there anything you would change now about this fic? Why or why not?

Oh definitely not. So far it's going how I'm wanting it to go (considering it has no plan!) :D Idk I'm enjoying writing it, and I don't like to go back and change things once I've committed to them, so it's rare that I actually even consider thoughts like that? I'm not that kind of writer where I go back and think like 'oh I should have done this' or 'I should have done that.'

I'm writing a serial, if there's stuff I think I should have done, I can usually find a way to introduce it later

~

From this meme!

[skaruresonic]

Honestly, it feels like a lot of this mandate discourse is just a natural consequence of Sega trying its darn best to organize nearly three decades of confusing, conflicting Sonic media. Like, we know they were comfortable letting Archie kill off Robotnik in the original comic, but still considered Sally popular enough for the franchise to demand her ressurection, even though that was not a character they came up with. It really feels like they had no idea how to control their IP and just went with what stuck to the wall in the 90's and 00's, which culminated with that infamous lawsuit case.

It's good that they now have a specific team that oversees how Sonic the Hedgehog is used and portrayed (which is an industry standard nowadays), but since the fandom is already used to wildly divergent interpretations of the IP, it may take a long while to accept those guidelines (I'm assuming they didn't exist or were not seriously enforced before).

Honestly, it feels like a lot of this mandate discourse is just a natural consequence of Sega trying its darn best to organize nearly three decades of confusing, conflicting Sonic media.

Which is a fool's errand. This is why I'm always stressing the games as the core canon: if you ignore all offshoot media (and I mean all of it) and focus solely on the games, then a lot of confusion automatically clears up. The games are actually fairly solid about explaining themselves and tying up loose ends. It's only when you consider everything canon that things get dicey.

Of course, that's not to say the games handle everything perfectly. I feel Knuckles' character in particular has been rather inconsistent across the years. But even then, it's not like he changes so incredibly drastically that I might as well say he has no character at all. The latter approach, that throwing the baby out with the bathwater, is what we tend to deal with.

When others muck up the canon, it's always SoJ who are to blame. And while I don't agree with Iizuka's current, rather naive approach of unifying everything because I feel like he's trying to ingratiate the series to bad-faith actors, I also can't begrudge him too much. We're marinating in a fan culture desperate to make Sonic anything and everything but itself.

---

It's good that they now have a specific team that oversees how Sonic the Hedgehog is used and portrayed (which is an industry standard nowadays), but since the fandom is already used to wildly divergent interpretations of the IP, it may take a long while to accept those guidelines (I'm assuming they didn't exist or were not seriously enforced before).

Honestly, I feel like a lot of this aversion stems from an allergy to the games on the basis that they're embarrassing. The mainstream has made it painfully uncool to like Sonic games, therefore we have to move as far away from the games' "cringe" as possible. So then you have comic book and film and SatAM fans swearing up and down their offshoot media du jour is so much better and more fleshed-out than the games. Of course they're going to chafe at the notion of making their preferred niche more like something they actually hate. Maybe it's the game purist in me, but I have no idea why anyone would feasibly want to consider everything canon, because the immediate consequence of that is trying to fit square pegs into round holes, which just doesn't sound fun. It sounds like work. In addition, more often than not it's the games universe that gets retooled to fit the offshoot media, not the other way around. The cold hard reality is that the offshoot media would have to change on such a fundamental level to even begin to fit into the games, it might as well be something new entirely. And complete change is a risk many people just aren't willing to take, as Daniel Barnes illustrated with his tweet about Sally.

Not to mention the constant disappointment that would entail: Rally4Sally needs to hang up its hat because it's been three literal decades at this point, not because Sega's dangling her in our faces just out of reach. They already did their job in making Archie revive her. She's had her time in the sun.

My personal attitude towards the matter is that there isn't as much confusion and inconsistency in the games as people say; rather, the problem tends to be a lack of good faith and literacy.

Yes, literacy. There's a lack of critical thought about what happens in Sonic games because many people either paint their own version over it, or else assume nothing of importance happens because Sonic Games Are For Kids(tm).

That may sound harsh, but considering I frequently find myself explaining the most basic plot points screenshot-by-screenshot, I'm inclined to think there's a shortage of understanding somewhere. Most of the games are largely self-contained pieces of work. Some build on previous entries, such as Adventure-Adventure 2 and Battle-Advance 3, but I don't need any given Sonic game to do that in order to enjoy it; I just need it to be a good story on its own merits. The references are just nice cherries on top. It shouldn't be the main dish to the detriment to all other parts of storytelling.

This might also be a side effect of me getting older, but I find I don't really care about the nitty-gritty like I used to. "How come ShTH shows a whole moon in the opening cutscene when it was destroyed in SA2?" Well, aside from later games establishing that Sonic's world has two moons (therefore it's not an inconsistency), it's a detail not worth stressing about when the moon doesn't factor into the game at all. It doesn't play into the game's themes of moral agency. It's not like Shadow goes on a mission to repair the moon or anything.

To be frank, many "inconsistencies" fans point out instead imply a basic failure to understand the fundamentals of storytelling. Gerald's original motives for the Eclipse Cannon are meant to be ambiguous in SA2; we're meant to ponder the question because anxiety about WMD development was rife back in the early aughts. Shadow is not inconsistent, he's always been a little aggressive. Mania's place in the timeline becomes a lot clearer when you recall how, in Generations, Classic Robotnik decided to "dedicate the rest of his life to forgetting" Modern Eggman's failures and therefore rewrote history. Thus Robotnik dug up the Phantom Ruby earlier than he "should" have.

But nowadays, it's like everything that doesn't receive an immediate and concrete answer gets painted as an "inconsistency." CinemaSins style "critique" coupled with anti-games bias makes games discussion a huge headache.