#on a somewhat related tangent | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

captain-astors · 6 months ago

Text

Finished up my attempt at Deuce within @where-does-the-heart-lie's fighting game AU! Feeling a little iffy about it but I might've just been staring at this for too damn long. Anyways thoughts, symbolism explanation, and sketches I made in the attempt bellow the cut.

Okay! So in general I worked with a rule of 2's when it came to Deuce's hearts with the exception of his camera, but that's supposed to pair with the pen with the little heart cap, I just didn't remember to keep that in my final drawings somewhere. Trying to strike a balance between "Just a guy" and "fun stylized outfit" was hard and I don't think I quite got it, but it was enjoyable nonetheless!

Heart glasses- Representative of how he loves observing the world and aspires to adventure through it. The cracked lens represents how the damage he's received from people he loved has caused him to look at others cynically at times. Meanwhile the unshattered lens sort of represents his tendency to look at those who earn his love with extreme levels of internal praise, half of Ace's first novel is just him waxing poetic about how lovely Ace is and I think that's hilarious.

Hearts on the gloves- He shows his love for the world and for people through the writing he does with his hands! But they're somewhat damaged because they've been utilized for the medicinal legacy that was forced upon him.

Heart on the camera/pen- A specific love for journalism and writing and telling a story, credits to Whery for the first one.

Spade on the shirt- Not technically a heart but it's a little play on how he keeps the Spades close to his heart/tends to be kind of pokey if you try to get close.

Spade/heart on the back of the shirt- Symbolic of the whole life-devoting love within him, so it's large, but it's kept guarded and tethered by the camera strap and can only be seen beneath a layer and if he trusts you enough to turn his back. It's mostly upside-down to look more like a heart if I'm honest, but that as well as that it's on his back and so guarded is all representative of how the family that he presumably once loved shamed and pressured him, making a sort of "weight on his back". It's spade shaped because that's who his devotion and love belongs to, but also when counted with the other one, Deuce!

One of my scrapped ideas was having the coat be a doctor's coat with the only hearts on it being scorched edges because something something fire set him free but he still uses his medicinal abilities to benefit people in his new life, but I couldn't get it to look right so I went with the summery looking thing he's wearing now. It's fine but it kind of lacks a personality, I think that's the main thing I'd try to revise if I redid this but I've already overthought it to hell so. Another day.

Ace in Dr. Robotnik's outfit from the sonic movie is there for facial reference and emotional support I guess, I made that a while ago.

And in one last vaguely related tangent, yours truly has a very distinctly heart-shaped birthmark on my foot. It symbolizes that I'm tired. (Jokes aside I think it's cool, afab actually stood for Assigned Fighting game character At Birth)

#masked deuce #one piece #one piece fanart #my art

831 notes · View notes

anghraine · 1 year ago

Text

It's 11 PM, but one of my favorite little Darcy/Elizabeth moments happens while she still hates him and thinks he's a depraved monster, and I find it really entertaining.

It's during the Kent section, when Darcy calls at the parsonage and finds Elizabeth alone. During a longer, awkward conversation in which they both deeply misunderstand each other, they have this tiny interchange:

[Darcy:] “This seems a very comfortable house. Lady Catherine, I believe, did a great deal to it when Mr Collins first came to Hunsford.” “I believe she did—and I am sure she could not have bestowed her kindness on a more grateful object.” “Mr Collins appears very fortunate in his choice of a wife.” “Yes, indeed; his friends may well rejoice in his having met with one of the very few sensible women who would have accepted him, or have made him happy if they had. My friend has an excellent understanding—though I am not certain that I consider her marrying Mr Collins as the wisest thing she ever did."

So: they are in Mr Collins's house. Darcy tries to re-start the conversation with a polite nothing about the house. Elizabeth agrees about Lady Catherine's micro-managing, but can't resist the chance to make a sly jab at Mr Collins (who is not present) to Darcy (a genuine villain, as far as she believes).

Darcy's reply looks a bit like an attempt to redirect the conversation into safer waters (they can agree that Charlotte is cool!). But although his remark is only somewhat related to what Elizabeth said, I think it's a natural follow-up in his mind because he is also insulting Mr Collins, if more subtly.

He could have praised Mr Collins's judgment in choosing Charlotte or just said something nice about Charlotte; he doesn't. Instead, he suggests that Mr Collins's choice of Charlotte was a matter of good fortune—or chance, as Charlotte herself would say!—on Collins's part. Darcy and Elizabeth both know Collins is a fool and that his choice of a woman like Charlotte says nothing about his judgment, only about his good fortune. (Elizabeth has even better reason than Darcy to know how much Collins ending up with Charlotte was lucky for him, but Darcy can see it anyway.)

Darcy's phrasing gives him some plausible deniability, but I think he's generally quite careful with his wording and the implicit insult to Mr Collins is not accidental.

Elizabeth, I think, takes this exactly as intended. She's not at all confused about where this tangent came from or offended by it or anything. She readily seizes on the new line of conversation as encouragement to keep insulting Mr Collins and his appeal to women with functioning brainpower.

Elizabeth is pretty scrupulously polite in general, so I kind of love that she just starts venting about her absolute contempt for Mr Collins and the Collins/Charlotte marriage to Darcy in the middle of a tense and weird conversation in Mr Collins's house. And I love that Darcy, who is otherwise more or less dog-paddling his way through this conversation, is like "yeah, your friend seems really cool, that dumbass is lucky he accidentally chose someone with a brain."

Elizabeth: "Right? And, let me add-"

(Is it a bit of an asshole move on both their parts in the context of that scene? Yeah, I think a little. I also love it! Please trash-talk obnoxious hosts in their own parlours for the rest of your lives.)

#anghraine babbles #deep blogging #i'm feeling a bit 'don't explain the joke' about ... well. explaining the joke. but it's still funny to me!#darcy and elizabeth are genuinely good people but sometimes they can't help statler and waldorfing it up #austen blogging #pride and prejudice #jane austen #elizabeth bennet #fitzwilliam darcy #otp of otps #sidenote: i don't think darcy and charlotte really interact 'onstage'#but i find it interesting that charlotte (who does not like men) sticks up for him multiple times #and is the one to deduce months before the pemberley scenes that darcy is generally different than she's known him #meanwhile darcy is oblivious to charlotte trying to further his romance with elizabeth but is like ... good vibes tbh #charlotte lucas

850 notes · View notes

eyeodyssey · 3 months ago

Text

A photo spread of backstage stills from the original 1984 premiere of the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s Mercuro as it was printed in the rare subculture magazine ZOAR. Out of all the materials I’d come across in my TGG research, ZOAR is easily the closest publication I found to a fanzine, with the contents being rendered in classic xerox print. The magazine was released around the same time as Mercuro’s original run and features an interview with Ameya and Maruo, one of the few occasions the two crossed paths in text form despite their collaborative history. In the interview, Maruo does much of the talking while Ameya interjects with short comments, such as Ameya’s interest in science fiction around childlike characters when Maruo mentions his intentions to incorporate science fiction in his manga work. Maruo’s work would indeed see a distinct stylistic shift by 1985 with stories like Fake Electric Ant and Electric Ant (the latter of which was included in both Paranoia Star and the 1985 magazine Suehiro Maruo: Only You, which features a similar science fiction slant with its concluding section being a digest version of the script to the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s Galatia Teito Monogatari). It's to note that during this time, despite being a sort of former protégé of Juro Kara who was just gaining independence with the founding of the TGG, in publications Ameya seemed to more or less be an addition to Maruo's already established underground stardom. Mercuro is only given a passing mention at the start of the interview as an off branch Maruo was taking on. Between this and the heated defense Ameya would write for Maruo's work in the short essay "Maruo's Caligraphy Pen", Ameya was essentially depicted as a lackey of Maruo's until the Tokyo Grand Guignol gained its own distinction sometime after Galatia. In relation to the Tokyo Grand Guignol as well, they briefly discuss how the casting of the plays reflects the aesthetics of Maruo’s manga before Maruo goes into a tangent about his open regret in choosing to act, citing both the TGG and his prior collaborative work with the Golden Theater. It’s a sentiment he seems to still hold to this day, expressing a clear embarrassment with his connection to the Golden Theater. He openly dismisses his own acting as being unintentionally comedic, describing himself as being “caged off” from the rest of the cast. The interview concludes on the group discussing Maruo’s preference for soda water over alcohol before Maruo implies that he refuses to allow himself a means of relief from his stress or negative emotions for the sake of his art. The interviewer asks him something to the effect of “are you self-deprecating?” before they conclude somewhat abruptly. In a later 1985 interview in a joint publication of Peyotl Workshop’s Silver Star Club and Yaso, Maruo would elaborate further on his views of Ameya and the Tokyo Grand Guignol. In relation to Mercuro specifically, Maruo gave his shared sentiments with another actor from the troupe in how they both felt Ameya and Kikyo Tagane clashed in ideologies. While some audience members considered this clashing to be one of the integral traits of the troupe, Maruo saw it as a detriment. He liked Ameya’s rough sensibilities, praising the use of mercurochrome in the story and playback of Public Image LTD’s music in the opening. In regards to the script by Tagane however, he would refer to the subplot around Mikami’s search for his sister as being "worn out" in how it represented a sentimentalism that he disliked, wishing that the story focused more on the teacher’s mission to roboticize his students with mercurochrome. Ameya’s past affiliation with Juro Kara would go on to be discussed as well, Maruo praising Ameya again for his independence from Kara. He'd differentiate the two by stating how Kara would use the word “赤チン” (Akachin) to describe mercurochrome while Ameya instead uses “マーキュロ” (Mercuro).

#tokyo grand guignol #norimizu ameya #suehiro maruo #angura #lychee light club #litchi hikari club #japanese theatre #angura theater

55 notes · View notes

animazi · 26 days ago

Text

vade mecum iii

dhuoda’s handbook tr. c. neel // the phantom menace // attack of the clones // revenge of the sith // return of the jedi

vade mecum, latin: ‘go with me’, a handbook. vader, latin: 'to go'.

be brave, and don't look back.

prev/next

I am talking here! Because as ever I spent way too long choosing specific screenshots to use for this - and for this one specifically, while the theme of this series overall is to do with Shmi, and using the ideas of Dhuoda's text as a mother writing to her absent son to discuss some of the general Anakin Tragedy. For some context Dhuoda was a Frankish noblewoman writing between 841-3. Her handbook is the sole (surviving) Carolingian text written by a woman iirc, and it's a teaching manual for her son, William, who was a hostage in the court of Charles the Bald. She hadn't seen him since he was 14, and he would later be executed by Charles after trying to avenge his father (who Charles executed). When I was reading it, I was getting sort of three layers of psychic damage; one from the text itself, one from the part of my brain relating it to Star Wars, and the third from the fact that any part of me instinctively jumped to SW in a somewhat tasteless manner. sigh.

ANYWAY! so this is a more ironic (and meta) take on the quote than how I'm presenting the others in this series - "From the first line of this little book, know that all of this is written for your salvation." The meta aspect is obvious - combined the PT and OT are the story of Anakin, it very literally is a story of his salvation. He is saved by Luke. Salvation History is seen as linear, but I think there's some inherent subversion of that when looking at the (Anakin) story of SW, because forward momentum is kinda denied; the decision to have Force Ghost Anakin be his ROTS-era form essentially passes judgement on Vader as a separate form; this is not so much a straightforwards story of falling and being saved, but rather is one where the falling itself is an error, and through salvation is 'erased'. Is this a perfect analysis? No, and I'm not going to claim it to be, but I do think that sort of loop that is brought in is interesting, especially when extending the layer of meta analysis out further to the fact that even as Anakin's salvation is done by Luke, the PT retroactively saves him once again by depicting his fall. You know the joke - give a villain a sympathetic backstory, and then you've already done the legwork of redeeming them for the audience. So, the 'little book' then is not only Shmi's message to Anakin, but it is also the whole story of Star Wars. Because of this, there is an element of irony there, in Anakin's fall at all - events that Shmi never knew, of course. When she says goodbye to him, both times, he does not need salvation. He has not fallen. So then, there is a rather bittersweet touch that she knew perhaps the 'purest' version of him. I don't particularly like that word, but it's being used. Shmi's actions, her decision to let go of him is grounded in multiple desires - Destiny and the reality of Life on Tatooine perhaps chief among them. Dhuoda's handbook was deeply concerned with the spiritual education of her son, the handbook is a work towards his salvation in part because it is so focused on stressing Christian principles and practise. For Shmi, in the context of this series, the handbook is the world and also herself and her actions. I will talk more about this later, please put in pin in that. All that is written is what she has done, and it is the Force, in universe Which brings me onto my interesting tangent*, and one that will certainly get me pilloried by certain aspects of SW tumblr: the Force IMO is (often) far less Buddhist than it is Christian. This is undoubtedly influenced by the PT being my area of expertise (and IRL being very interested in Medieval Catholicism), but, regardless, as any familiar with my web weaves probably can tell, the element of determinism brought in with full force by the PT is something I severely fuck with. So, the the story is also the salvation of Anakin, the restoration of him to who he once was, and this is an in-universe salvation - and I use salvation in its full religious sense there. Getting back more in-universe then, my decision to open with that interaction between Anakin and Palpatine was also very deliberate in this, due to his construction of (depending on your personal interpretation of canon etc etc) some level of Anakin's fall, hence why he is positioned with the narrative.

There is also similar a decision I made with 'know that all this is written for your' images. For Shmi's grave, and Padme's funeral I chose motivation over depiction of atrocity, again because I am in making this (ideally) in communication with the narrative function of the PT: why did Anakin become Vader? Well, because of Glucas' love for refrigeration. The 'your' image is a little different from that - I chose it both as a representation of that sort of final positive relational bridge being burnt, so to speak, and for the fact that it, as an image, represents that he has strayed so far from the path of good. He's been excommunicated from the Jedi Order, if you will.

And with that, I have One More point to make before I shut up. It's about the women, and isn't so much of an actual point as an acknowledgement and brief discussion of the way that the narrative does compress Shmi and Padme down into very secondary characters, revolving around Anakin. Which, yes, this post does implicitly also do. I'd like to bring back Dhuoda here, because I am deliberately trying to draw a parallel between the 'male' focus of SW and, well, history. As I said, Dhuoda's handbook is the only work written by a Carolingian woman that we have. It is so entirely about her son, and by implication her inability to fulfil her maternal role - everything she says in it would assumedly, in a normal situation, be passed on by her through discussion, rather than in an advice book. Women were moved around a lot more than men - the daughter leaves the father to go to the husband. What does this wife then do when her husband leaves her and takes the children - in this case for a 'greater good'? Stay behind, and wait. The roles of women within a patriarchal society are slim; they are in essence the bedrock of family (if you want me to I will elaborate on this) but they are also constantly degraded and seen as inferior. The Carolingians were not feminists, to put it lightly. Women were 'wife' or 'mother' more often than they were people. Julia Smith said on this that 'anonymity obliterates identity', and SW is an unfortunate continuator of this. Padme actively had her role outside 'wife' be cut down. Even the cut germination of the rebellion is still, in essence, a 'motherhood'. She gives birth to hope and then dies. Shmi never has the 'wife' element which does expose a little more of who Padme is to the world, she is mother to a degree that the Carolingians would probably approve of. When I was first coming up with the concept for this series, it was that giving up of her son that first sparked parallels. That Shmi is absent in image from this set is not a coincidence; the world is ordered around her removals from the world, not her presence in it.

*Yes, this is a deliberate reference to the Anakin's Thesis series on YT by Seals Are Good. I find it funny ok!!!

#click on the read more for a 1.2k essay!#star wars #original ani thought #anakin skywalker #webweave #web weaving #sw prequels #last two will be a little later in coming probably. I've just had Nightmares getting this one to work so it's going up now lol

35 notes · View notes

literary-illuminati · 2 months ago

Text

2025 Book Review #19 – Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante

This was recommended to me when I was looking for more contemporary litfic ages ago, but which I’m (as usual) only finally getting around to now. It is not quite the most intensely ‘contemporary litfic’ I have ever read, but it – a postmodern mediation on queer grief and book-length character study, structured around the framing device of a fan encyclopedia of a tv show that does not exist – is very high on the list. The encyclopedia conceit failed to ever really cohere and ended up being less than the sum of it’s parts, but I found the book a deceptively deep and interesting read – well, either that or I’m reading far too much into it, but the author is dead and all that.

The book is written as a memorial and eulogy to Vivian, the narrator’s best friend, inspiration in living as a trans woman and (it rapidly becomes clear) desperately unrequited love, after she dies from some unspecified cause. Overcome with grief and desperate for any way to properly honour and remember her, the narrator sets upon the extremely strange cult tv show Vivian loved dearly and that the two of them spent so many hours and days watching and bonding over – and decides to create an encyclopedia of every character in it. The book itself is divided from A-Z, with each section including entries on characters from the (nonexistent) tv show Little Blue, trivia about the show as a whole, and related (if at times tenuously) context and anecdotes about Vivian, the narrator, and their history and friendship (as well as how the narrator’s life is going as she writes and grieves).

The book has an incredibly voice running through it. The narrator – she does have a name, but insomuch as anything in this counts as spoiler, it probably does? - is just an achingly specific person, just about the only kind of person who would actually create something like this for public consumption, and it comes through with every word choice. The style and prose itself isn’t really much to write home about, but it’s not really trying to be – it’s trying to read like a somewhat uncomfortably vulnerable and emotionally open personal essay (or one of the better edited class of long, confessional tumblr posts) published in the later 2010s. This it achieves perfectly – the narrator is a Canadian trans woman in either Toronto or Vancouver with a lot of nerdy and artistic interests, vaguely attached to the activist scene and pursuing a degree in journalism, and yeah basically every word choice and reference used fits her absolutely perfectly. The book does an excellent job communicating both what she’s trying to and the emotions and awkward baggage that piling up in the corner of her eye, too.

The book is, almost as much as grief or trans-ness, about art and your relationship to it – and the difference between that relationship and it’s meaning to you, and the thing as it actually exists. Little Blue – the show – is described at length and it sounds like, well, mostly like an overstuffed mess; like Twin Peaks but with most of the themes and narrative tension replaced by an endless series of tangents (even by comparison). From an interview with a minor actor included in the book, production seems to have been a mess full of divas, and the show was unceremoniously cancelled after one season, living on only through the efforts of a small but dedicated fan community enchanted by how densely it packs easter eggs and bits of trivia into every frame. But none of that really matters to our narrator – she loves the show, because watching it with Vivian and bonding with her over it was an (maybe the most) important part of how she bounded with her; the secondhand love and the way that re-watching and thinking about Little Blue lets her feel connected with Vivian brightens the experience of watching the show that it’s actual quality is almost besides the point.

Which works as far as it goes, but does leave the amount of wordcount spent on the actual ‘encyclopedia’ portions of the book and the anecdotes about the show feel a bit like empty calories. I kept waiting for all the trivia about the show to tie together into something coherent, or rhyme in some deep and profound way with the narrator or Vivian’s life story. Instead it was kind of just one damn thing after another. It honestly took me some time into the book to even realize it was supposed to be a live action drama – everything described seemed far more natural as a Steven Universe or Gravity Falls style wacky children’s cartoon (right down to the bits of trivia and hints of characterization hidden in seemingly every frame for obsessive fans), not an attempt at early 2000s prestige drama. Which, again, does all fit perfectly with the book’s themes – but it also makes spending so much of the book’s actual wordcount describing the show in such loving detail an...interesting choice.

Outside of the narrator and Vivian, the book’s characters are broad and thinly sketched out – but that’s quite alright, because Vivian is one of the most vividly and believably drawn characters I can recall ever reading. By the end of the book, she genuinely felt like a real living human I could have known, richly detailed and filled with the sort of vital, self-contradicting energy so few works of fiction really manage. (She also sounds like she would have been absolutely exhausting to be around for any length of time or keep up a friendship with, but in very similar ways to several real people I’ve known, so). The entire book really is a love letter to her, an admission love the narrator was never quite self-aware enough to realize she had while Vivian was still alive.

Which lends the book a bit of a tragic undertone, no matter how soft and affirming everything the narrator consciously writes is. She couldn’t realize she was desperately in love with Vivian, but over the course of the book it becomes pretty clear that she was literally the only one. Even beyond basic incompatibility (the narrator spends no small amount of time pondering how inexplicably and tragically straight Vivian was, and has one complaint or another I think every man she ever expressed any attraction to), over the course of the book it becomes increasingly obvious that Vivian was a far larger and more vital part of her life than she was of hers. It’s only after Vivian dies that she really comes to learn about whole swathes of her life – and even then, she nearly explicitly chooses to learn the details of and memorialize a somewhat airbrushed version of her.

All of which is intimately related to the fact that, despite pretty profound differences (in style, personality, sexuality), the narrator has very clearly put Vivian up on something of a pedestal as her inspiration and model for how joyful and fearless a life a trans woman can live – someone she desperately looks up to, even as she ruefully talks about not being nearly brave enough to live such a vulnerable life. Which is the same reason she provides no detail at all about how Vivian actually died except for specifying that it wasn’t suicide. (The whole book (not the book-as-fictional-object, the work of art by Plante) is deeply interested and invested in how trans women live and love and the multipage aside about suicide and why you shouldn’t do it was, if heavy-handed, also quite affecting).

Does the pitch of ‘a postmodern mediation on queer grief and book-length character study, structured around the framing device of a fan encyclopedia of a tv show that does not exist’ instantly make your eyes glaze over? Then don’t read this. But if it sounds intriguing, than on the whole I did find this really quite charming.

#book review #Little Blue Encyclopedia #Hazel Jane Plante #literature #queer lit #adult contemporary #21st century #2025

41 notes · View notes

buckley-diaztruther · 3 months ago

Text

ive found the more that i read fics and the more I think about it, i really prefer the version of events where eddie doesn't have his own hoe phase before getting with buck. there's a couple reasons to this, one being that I hc eddie as being demisexual. but also because (and somewhat related to this), I don't think Eddie would. Not because it's bad or wrong or that he'd feel ashamed, but because I believe once Eddie is aware of his feelings, he's not going to want anyone but Buck.

there's no need or drive to "experiment" or "practice" because he can do all of that with buck or he can do it by himself. but his heart is gonna be set on buck and if he can't have him then I can easily see Eddie just deciding on playing it solo for the rest of his life.

another aspect which is somvery entirely my own feeling and not one I think is a hard rule, but i get frustrated sometimes with the way media (especially fanfics) take a person coming out as like. a switch flipping from celibate to promiscuity. and while that is such a real and valid experience for so many people, it borders on feeding into the stereotype that queer people (especially gay men) are all whores (i use this word affectionately). like every gay man just has to go out and slut it up every weekend at the club because that's what they all do.

and sometimes i just want to see the equally real and important experience of people who come out and then just. keep living life like normal, but happier because they're living their truth. whether that's bc theyre also ace-spec or just. don't prefer casual sex. and maybe that's me projecting as an ace-spec individual, but also. who doesn't want to see themselves represented on screen?

to me it'd be nice to see and it also, imo, fits eddies character better with what we know of him. sex has always been an obligation or an avoidance tactic for most of his life and that doesn't mean that he is ace-spec but I think it gives a believable reason for why Eddie wouldn't want to just. throw himself out there and see what sticks. and while these opposite can also be true, that his coming out means he can actually enjoy sex for what it is rather than an obligation, Eddie has just never struck me as someone who does casual (he's a nester) and when he tries it does not go well.

it circles back to the "im your first, not your last" concept and the amazing fics that have come from it with buck spiraling about being Eddie's "first". those fics are always great but in the ones where eddie does start sleeping around and dating at bucks insistence, it just felt so wrong to me. because it's turning dating and sex into an obligation for eddie again, something he's only doing because buck told him to. and sure maybe he enjoys it but I think it'd be a similar feeling to how buck used sex as his only option for getting affection or connection with other people to the point that it kinda felt like self harm. and forcing yourself to "get out there and experiment" when you aren't already enthusiastic about it is gonna end up similar, except it's hurting eddie, buck, and potentially whoever eddie is temporarily with because they'll inevitably get their heart broken the way 🤢tommy🤢 said he knew he would.

this has turned into such a huge tangent with tons of projection and im so sorry but also please tell me I'm not alone in this is literally feel ill thinking about it sometimes bc of how hard I relate to eddies journey

#911 abc #buddie #eddie diaz #evan buckley #911 #911 fox #buddie fic

41 notes · View notes

miraculouslbcnreactions · 3 months ago

Note

Hi, I've been watching s4 (unfortunately) and one thing I've realised is that part of it's weird "secrets" plotline is how... chopped up it is? I'm so sorry, but I might rant a little.

Ep 1-4 (including mr pidgeon 72 since it directly leads off from gang of secrets) are mostly connected regarding the issue of the superhero secrets messing with the Main Characters civillain lives. Ep 3 resolves this somewhat. This then leads to Alya Knowing, but while it's used a few times, its generally a background thing that's not used in the plot itself save a few episodes.

And then the next time the issue of the superhero-related- secrets comes back is... Optigami, ep 13. There's about 9 episodes of not really caring about the secrets plotline in favor of Zoe and the Felix thing. (I'm not including Guiltrip or anything in the secrets theme since they feel more standalone)

Optigami is the next time the whole "secrets" plot is brought up, finally addressing miracle queen and also not fixing the hole they pointed out. It also leads to Alya going full time and directly into Sentibubbler, possibly the First Time we see CN noticeably upset about being left out of the loop. Possibly also the first time in s4 we see that there IS a possible issue between the heroes.

And then it's picked back up for "Hack San" with the Scarabella thing and "Rocketear" with Nino, even if it's a bit strange in tone as to what exactly is the wrong action in these situations...and of course dropped again for another 4 episodes before "Ephemeral" (which only counts more than Wishmaker since it's CN seems slightly upset at the end about LB keeping secrets, I don't think he's ever told what she was going to talk about, why viperion was there, or why she had a timer on?)

(Slight tangent but it seems that this convo, basically having CN ok with having the team cover for him,

Ladybug: The countdown has begun. It's 1 am, and we've got just five minutes before you transform back. So we've got to be done by 1:05. You'll rewind on my signal.

Cat Noir: (upon landing on top of the Eiffel Tower) I'm sorry, but I really couldn't make it earlier.

Ladybug: (waves) Hey, no big deal! That's the good thing about a team. It's not the two of us anymore!

Cat Noir: Oh, yeah! So then, why did you need me exactly?

Technically no longer exists in main canon. In the current timeline the convo is cut off:

Ladybug: The countdown has begun. It's 1 am, and we've got just five minutes before you transform back. So we've got to be done by 1:05. You'll rewind on my signal.

Cat Noir: (upon landing on top of the Eiffel Tower) I'm sorry, but I really couldn't make it—

(The lights are flashing alternately, while the malfunctioning cars are making a lot of noise)

So we Could assume that CN, instead of being reassured that things were fine and being chill with it, is instead more upset due to there being a Mysterious Meeting that's left unexplained. Thats probrably the best way to explain his perceived heel turn over the team in Kuro Neko.

But also the sheer existence of that exchange means that you'd mostly remember that, AND him being upset at the end, it's really confusing and the audience is forced to fill in too many gaps. But I digress)

Kuro Neko is basically the climax of this issue that was spread out from episodes 14, 16-17, and 22. It ends with this issue seemingly resolved at the end. Since the inbewteen episodes have Ladynoir acting completely normal, CN seems to ping-pong between whether or not he's upset woth Ladybug about secrets.

(Also, on the topic of Kuro Neko, it's the only episode before the finale I can clearly note CN offering help and LB rejecting it, this help being helping her retrieve the other Miraculous from the temps faster. A reasonable offer that she unfortunately doesn't take, but it's like once only. He offers again in Risk, and honestly I think the only reason they put these moments in is so the audience has at least once instance of her refusing help when LB later mentions it in her breakdown. They only bothered putting it into later episodes so its fresh in our memories and nothing else, so its not built up well.)

To put it simply, while s4 appears to have a theme of "secrets" being... bad? Good? I'm not sure, The only real times it's brought up even briefly are spread out horribly: Eps 1-4, then nothing till 13-14, 16-17, 22-23, and then the finale 25&26.

Even when the episodes are close together theres at least one episode in between messing with the flow. In short, would the conflict have been done better if they had stuck those later episodes together, or would it at least have helped fans perspectives on it? Again, sorry for the long rant ask.

Also, on the topic of Kuro Neko, it's the only episode before the finale I can clearly note CN offering help and LB rejecting it, this help being helping her retrieve the other Miraculous from the temps faster. A reasonable offer that she unfortunately doesn't take, but it's like once only.

THANK YOU!!! I recently brought up the fact that I couldn't remember Chat Noir offering to help outside of Kuro Neko, but I was worried that I was forgetting something. It's nice to have it confirmed that he really did quit after a single rejection. Writers, wtf are you doing? This is not how you write a good conflict where Chat Noir comes across as deeply wronged!

Anyway, don't apologize for the rant, I enjoyed it! Much like the Kuro Neko thing, it was nice to get confirmation that season four played out the way that I thought it did. While I've reread the scripts for certain episodes while running this blog, I only watched season four once so there was always a chance that I'd forgotten some random nuance. This risk was only enhanced by how badly the writing setup the supposed conflict between Ladybug and Chat Noir. I didn't even realize that the Ladynoir conflict was going to be a thing until we were at least a few episodes in so I always wondered if I missed something subtle in the early episodes. Sounds like I didn't.

Then there was the issue of what the conflict was even about. I thought that the Ladynoir conflict was going to be over Alya learning Ladybug's identity and basically getting promoted to Ladybug's partner. That's a solid conflict in which both sides have valid points of view. Ladybug should get to choose who she trust! However, it's also perfectly valid if Chat Noir is not interested in being partnered with someone who doesn't seem to trust him. We even had a solid set-up for Ladybug's actions costing her everything without Chat Noir holding any blame because Chat Noir was never told about Rena Furtive. That could have lead him to do something dangerous in battle because he mistook her for an enemy, which would have been 100% Ladybug's fault!

None of that ended up mattering, though. Instead of using these lovely setups for complex and nuanced conflict, the Ladynoir conflict ended up coming to a head over...

Plagg: For a while now, you've been neglecting this camembert— I mean Cat Noir, and going on adventures with the all other cheeses! Ladybug: But he should be happy about it, it gives him more time off. Plagg: Cat Noir doesn't wanna have time off, Ladybug! He is in love with you! And your persistent calling on all the other heroes has broken his heart.

Ladybug relying on other heroes in battle.

Why would you pick that as the reason Chat Noir quits??? That is the one issue where Ladybug is objectively completely right! When it comes to battle strategy, feelings legitimately do not matter!!! Ladybug shouldn't prioritize Chat Noir in the middle of a battle! She needs to do whatever is required to save the day even if it means picking a temp hero over Chat Noir. Paris' safety matters more than Chat Noir's need to feel special!

Also, as anon alluded to in the ask, Chat Noir feeling like he isn't special enough isn't the right conflict to focus on. It isn't properly set up! The Ladynoir conflict comes to a head in episode 23 (Kuro Neko). The last episode to address this conflict was episode 17 (Rocketear). The conflict introduced there was this:

Adrien: Huh? You're... Carapace? But... the two of you know?! You know each other's secret identities?! Nino: Of course, Alya and I have never kept anything from each other. Until now, though that Cat Noir's business! Adrien: Wait a sec, I don't understand! I thought that secret identities had to be protected at all costs. If it were true, you'd never just tell me like that. Ladybug would never agree to that! Nino: Are you kidding? Ladybug is the one who gave us both our Miraculous at the same time.

This is yet another decent source of conflict. Ladybug didn't reveal Alya and Nino's identities on a whim, it was an emergency! But Chat Noir doesn't know that and this is right after he learned that someone else knows Ladybug's identity, so it makes sense for him to feel like he's not a true part of them team. In spite of this, identities never come up in Kuro Neko nor is the conflict focused on Chat Noir feeling like he's not part of the team. The Kuro Neko conflict is about Chat Noir wanting to be more than just another part of the team. This is what leads to the argument where he quits:

Clara: (from TV) By the way, where's Cat Noir? You've saved Paris without him quite a few times recently. Are you two at odds with each other? Ladybug: (from TV) Of course not, it's just that... umm, he's a partner like any other! The most important is to pick the best superheroes for each mission, with or without Cat Noir. No matter what, we've got a great team and we'll always be here to save Paris. (Adrien is shocked.) Adrien: (turns off the TV and sighs) "A partner like any other..."

None of that fits the rest of the season! The conflict you set up was him feeling left out, not him feeling like he wasn't special enough!!! If the conflict was supposed to be him wanting a bigger role, then write that! Have him ask for more responsibility outside of this one episode! Have him learn about Rena Furtive and get upset about her having a special role! Let him think that Alya and Nino know each other's identities because of some special role they've been given! Without those moments, this conflict comes out of nowhere. It also makes him look weirdly demanding and self-centered.

I'm starting to rehash my season four rant, so lets cut this off here and give some final thoughts.

My best guess is as to why this season's main conflict was such a mess is that this is yet another case where the show's commitment to being an episodic formula show cost us good writing. Chat Noir quitting after finding out about Rena Furtive or the identity reveal is a complex plot that's hard to pull off in 20 minutes, especially when you have to include an akuma fight along the way. It also doesn't really standalone as it would be bringing in plot points from other episodes. Add in the fact that a proper resolution to the conflict would probably take more than a single episode and this just doesn't work in canon. None of that fits an episodic formula show so the show couldn't do any of it.

In spite of this, the writers apparently wanted a Ladynoir conflict, so they did the worst of both worlds and just threw in a bunch of random conflicts throughout the season even though those conflicts could never be properly addressed. They also didn't want to make every episode depressing because this is supposed to be a fun show for kids and so the majority of the season sees Ladynoir being totally fine, completely undermining this supposed conflict. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Ladynoir are simply way too happy in season four for me to buy into this supposed conflict.

I'll end by once again thanking anon for the rant! It was a genuine relief to read near identical thoughts from someone fresh from a rewatch where they watched with the full knowledge of what the conflict was supposed to be.

(Note anon I did get part two of this ask. It's queued for tomorrow.)

#anon ask #ml writing critical #ml writing salt #kuro neko my beloathed #Formula show problems #adrien deserves better #He has so many valid sources of anger in season four and the writers used none of them #season four my beloathed

46 notes · View notes

eternora · 5 months ago

Text

A side tangent about XF

(as I’m manifesting for him to live)

When I first watched Xia Fei’s PV, I thought he was attending an art school or sth, only to find out he’s an engineering student lmao

Bro is just like me, studying diligently on the outside but playing around on the inside

Idk the thought process behind this part but in the movie, before beginning his job as a model, we saw Xia Fei dressing very… modestly (I’m horrible at phrasing things). I feel like this styling makes him look like a more reserved and shy person

Then, in the PV, he’s portrayed as a more confident and playful person. It seems like the model job did affect him in some ways

It’s clear that Xia Fei works as a model to earn money, but I think this scene is somewhat intriguing. The slogan on the poster kinda reminds me of his PV

“Cause I got nothing to lose - All I do is pursue”

He’s making use of everything he has in order to survive and continue living (maybe that’s partially the reason why his PV was named like that?). Because of that, I find him an endearing and relatable character. Even if he turns out to have some kind of grandiose wish or desire, I doubt it’ll change my opinion about him anw

#link click yingdu #link click #xia fei #yeah i’ll see u again but neither in hell nor in heaven pls

41 notes · View notes

crownofefflorescence · 2 months ago

Text

Headaches + Chapter 2!

Hello to anyone who can still see the ghost of this blog! Tumblr support has not gotten back to me yet, so fingers crossed this gets sorted soon. It's lonely in the realm of shadowban... but for now we're in a secret club, which is kind of cozy, right?

I'll probably reblog this when I'm no longer ghosting with Z.

To the update!

I'll keep it real: Effie is in her delulu era and secretly hoping to have Chapter 2 out by the end of May - but things have been insanely busy so I'm also self-aware enough to know that this might not be possible.

Will keep you updated on my progress here instead, probably at least once a week if not more often!

On a somewhat related tangent, Garden of Bones's biggest limitation other than my spit-and-twine "style" of coding has been the fact that I am getting an insane amount of headaches this year... They aren't migraines or anything, but it's very debilitating and makes me want to do nothing but lie down and close my eyes.

Which is not great for productivity.

So everything I've done to get this far in the demo has been accomplished while pushing through a headache about 3-4 days out of every week, and recovering from the headaches (among other things) on the in-between days.

Here's hoping this resolves sooner or later but until then, I'll just keep pushing through when possible and resting when not! I know my limits well at this point.

And with that disclaimer out of the way...

I'M BACK TO WORKING ON THE NEXT UPDATE AND AM VERY EXCITED.

Here is a small but personal choice you can make early on in the chapter:

Most notably, upon your request... ⮞ ...a tiny game that can be played alone--with a tiled board, pebbles, and strange-looking dice. ⮞ [REDACTED] ⮞ [REDACTED] ⮞ [REDACTED] ⮞ [REDACTED] $U procured a small instructional scroll that was illustrated beautifully enough for you to understand it without knowing the language. Playing alone is better than nothing, and strategizing against yourself is at least somewhat entertaining. But it does start to feel... well, rather pointless.

There are so many spoilers I have been wanting to tell you about, but I think it will be vastly more enjoyable for anyone who plays the next chapter to encounter those moments in the game.

That's all for now!

PROGRESS.

~ Effie

#garden of bones if #effie “devlog”#excerpts #if wip #twine if #twine wip #twine game #interactive fiction #interactive game #interactive story #interactive novel #garden of bones

25 notes · View notes