#like the worst kind of ex

[darkangel0410]

S*br*s fans: we don't care about Eichel any more, we've moved on

Also S*br*s fans: flood every article about Jack with negative comments

[heybiji]

"Do me a favor and put your arms around me."

[gayofthefae]

I said it a lot more deep and moody here but in short and a much lighter tone:

Will is THAT BITCH. Be like Will. Be the boy who has boys he didn't even date never being able to look at their girlfriends the same way after you because you ruined love for them forever by being the best they'll ever achieve and can never have again or recreate with anyone else. Go off. Be like Will.

[morimementa]

Soap when he realizes that Valeria is El Sin Nombre:

[izzyspussy]

i feel like i remember people posting happy birthday character posts for mickey in june? is that right? well, even if he doesn't have a canon birthday (or if he does and it's. wrong.) he has a summer birthday To Me. and i've never seen a guy who is more obviously a capricorn than ian, so! if mickey's summer birthday is indeed in june specifically (i'm thinking cancer, but it would also be really cool if mickey and mandy are both gemini - twins who aren't twins), then mickey is technically two years older than ian for about half the time.

[vacantgodling]

not to be weird and sappy on main, but frfr i'm so glad i have found a community of people who think my work is good

[panelshowsource]

public service announcement that the latest league is a feast for the jimmy sluts

[theshadowrealmitself]

Sandman: It’s just so hard not getting to see my little girl

Otto, who stole some of Spidey’s DNA to combine with his to make a kid to use against him, lex luthor style, but Spidey just kidnapped the kid immediately when he found out and got Matt to cover him legally: I know exactly how you feel, Spiderman won’t even let me have visitations with my kid :(

Sandman:

Sandman: That is not the same thing, our situations are not comparable at all, it’s important to me that you know that

[purplerakath]

A Synthesis of Adaptations - Lucas Lee & Roxie Richter

So of the seven evil exists (AN: I will cover the twins in a footnote) two of them are pretty vastly different between the book and the movie. This leads to a problem to solve in the anime, but the anime came up with a pretty clever conclusion.

(This cut text isn't for spoilers, it's just- I write essays, that's what I do. I mean there will be spoilers for the Books and The Film, but I'm talking mostly about Ramona's backstory not... the plot of the anime.)

See, Matthew is the closest any of the exes gets to a 1:1 adaptation. Being first his fight is short, the plot elements around it are easy, and the narrative purpose didn't need changing. So there wasn't any massive revision. The book's call:response format of the song number became Matthew and his Hipsters singing, but that's mostly it.

Todd is the same character, but the movie can't really go in depth on Scott and Envy so it didn't need four different fights (five if we count Envy vs. Ramona). His character is the same even if a lot of his purpose is changed. Gideon is a similar shrunk space issue while staying the same character between versions.

The Books

Lucas Lee, in the books, is a decent guy who is kind of a sell out. He's open and honest (where Ramona lied outright) and generally just- not a very interesting character, there isn't anything there. That Lucas Lee wouldn't grab any attention in a fight scene. Roxie is also painted as 'safe' with how Ramona just lets her stay in her house, and generally isn't painted as a serious concern for Ramona. Ramona isn't worried she hurt Roxie, or that Roxie wants to hurt her. The animosity is Roxie is sure Scott is cheating on Ramona. Another nonthreatening Ex (minus her absolute desire to murder Scott. She has at least that over Lucas).

The Film

Lucas Lee is a bombastic skater boi who is equal parts asshole and sincere, he doesn't seem capable of dishonesty but at the same time you kinda think he needs a punch in the face. He's loud and memorable but there still isn't anything there. Roxie is sassy and pissed, just generally mad at everyone but especially Ramona. She lashes out and is angry and there is no way this Roxie could stay at this Ramona's house. Not if Ramona has any self-preservation skills.

The Synthesis

So how do these polar opposite versions work together? Causation. Taking the books characterization, and having Ramona's haphazard romantic style turn them into the film version. Allowing Chris Evans and Mae Whitman to play fully into skater boi douchebag and feral lesbian goblin respectively. Lucas Lee was a sweet kind dopey himbo until Ramona broke his heart, and on that day he decided his best course was to be a star. Be memorable. Be unignorable. And definitely be better than Todd Ingram. So that gravitas voice Evans does is a part of the trauma Ramona inflicted. Roxie was a sweet, caring, 'there for her' friend/roommate/lover. She was the one who cared about Ramona, share things with her. We can believe that flashback Roxie just cared about Ramona's best interests and taught her Subspace things. And then Ramona left, and it broke her, and she hates everything. Everyone. Until Ramona fixes it. Creating a feral Lesbian hobgoblin who never wishes to feel like nothing again.

It's a clever trick, isn't it. Taking two characterizations each bland in their own way, but making them interesting by basically going with 'both are right' as the answer. One of the anime's better tricks.

Footnote: The Twins

Even if the Twins weren't a nightmare to cast if you're trying to keep race, age, being twins, and hair color all in mind... Book 5 isn't about them. Like Gideon they would be a nightmare to do accurately, but unlike Gideon adapting their plot isn't easy. Gideon is a self-aggrandizing control freak, making that 'he put a chip on Ramona' from 'using subspace to sneak into her mind and fuck with it' is a change, but thematically in line. Book 5 is about Scott and Ramona's love life becoming messy as Scott realizes he and Kim aren't nearly as okay as he thinks they are. Generally they just kind of don't fit into any reasonable narrative without investing too much time for at best a minimum payoff? Their best payoff would be a cool robot fight. (Which I am always for, but again, lot's of invested time.)

[narwhalandchill]

ok not to randomly go off on a somewhat negative ramble But. (general genshin story direction worries basically)

while there are a bunch of stunts i fear the genshin story slash lore could end up pulling that would serve as not only disappointments but to varying degrees also just retroactively ruin a lot of games writing for me. i dont think theres anything that im as genuinely concerned about as the possibility of like. completely losing their narrative marbles to an overdone time travel/temporal manipulation in one way or another like just the thought of that shit haunts me

bc like. while i dont find them particularly compelling as an argument for that to be the case regarding Everything in the narrative in current lore/theory circles (like. makoto n ei teaming up w istaroth once doesnt automatically establish universal time travel). it is unfortunately true that in canon lore there are many of the kind of lore pieces present that you could use to set that kind of reveal and complete restructuring of the story up. istaroth and the sacred sakura and some shady things said by various characters and how you could argue Any time loop or travel adjacent is just hidden by the irminsul 5head (another piece of writing whose potential misuse seriously alarms me, mind you). and so on.

and i am just. Not about any of that shit. like. for me absolutely any plot device or element that has the risk of fundamentally fucking up a storys continuity and coherence sideways to the degree BOTH the

"genshins gonna turn out to be ALL time travel/time loop/simulation to make [sudden endgame twist X heavily at odds with what was established in the central lore prior] appear sensible"

and

"celestia just irminsuls away all evidence for [that twist X again] so achsually it was always genius and compatible with lore"

tier of nightmare scenarios will have. is just. Not fucking worth it. this shit has ruined countless stories with vastly better writing and way more competent authors because its just. not the kind of stuff you can just insert in a massive fucking story willy nilly to explain away the mystery box you didnt bother to set up together so it ultimately comes together in a cohesive way that Doesnt need to be broken on multiple levels to scrape together some conclusion. and its just hhhhhhhhhhhhhh

and like ive never expected some massive masterpiece out of genshin like at best its gonna be one of those stories that once finished gets some really fucking banger fanwork as its community expands upon and explores a solid but flawed canon groundwork. theres fundamental flaws and limitations to its storytelling and format and that cant be helped. so im expecting no miracles on that front.

but the one fucking thing i dont want them to fall for is that misguided at best and outright pretentious and disrespectful at worst allure of. SEE! we outsmarted the audience! the theories! we broke our own story continuity to force a twist because our established worldbuilding technically makes it an option! isnt this smart!

like just please. no. no clue how unpopular this is but im already quite conflicted on the established use of irminsul in sumeru and how it arguably voided a lot of important characterization (nahidas inferiority complex) and narrative potential (scara literally becoming a non factor in the grander story more or less) for good but like. for now. fine. it hasnt become overused yet. i dont think its inherently bad as a factor of worldbuilding. i like how it recontextualizes fact and fiction and the significance of stories that appear mere fables in the world of teyvat. but as it stands the irminsul is still a deus ex machina. and thats a dangerous tool for any writer to have in careless use. and when combined with the sprinkles of lore involving the possibility of time manipulation and such to be further explored. its like powder and keg. two tools that can absolutely gut a story of its narrative cohesion and the weight of its stakes in an instant. its really fucking worrisome.

genshins writing is flawed but the one thing this game has going for it that i REALLY hope the writers will understand to respect is its world. how much the marriage between this massive and beautifully crafted immersive open world and the intricacies of lore and history afforded to all corners of it truly do in tandem to establish the world of genshin as more Real. as weightier. as a place you grow and remain attached to even when the main storys writing stumbles. the world is so important and to let it remain feeling real is just. i hope they understand how fragile of a gem that is.

featuring an artificial world order established by fraudulent divinity and that involving some degree of cosmic fuck-uppery of the natural order and all-encompassing illusion to maintain it is fine. this is a story heavily referencing gnosticism that theme is literally a given. but it needs to be an artificial world order imposed on a real world that remains feeling real the entire time through. and for that to be preserved it needs to remain grounded.

but the problem is that once a story truly commits to the "anything could be altered and fundamentally reversed with the right mcguffin at play with seeming impunity" there is no going back. it becomes very fucking difficult to keep the figurative feet of a narrative even touching the ground for even the most skilled of writers afforded absolute creative freedom to work with (which genshin does not have). and just that much more easier for the stakes to be lost completely. and i dont want to see that scenario become reality

[st5lker]

hmmmm i think i’ll be deleting and remaking soon perhaps.. honestly probably leaving the website entirely at some point but id want somewhere to at least archive my tags from this blog and have somewhere to reach my mutuals if i need in case my discord contacts fall out…

[vile-wizard]

I need to clean my room now. It is dire.

[ickypuppi3]

the idea of billy being named william after neil’s dad makes me so unwell

[kittlyns]

A hard pill for me to swallow lately has been that, despite everything, I'm probably the best version of myself that could've existed. And that's not really a comforting thought.

[supermacaquecool]

Having one of those moments of "free my girl, she did all that, but you're annoying about her" bc of reading twt comments lol