#plus the story of the sequel seems so dependent on the story of the first movie like is there going to be anything original?

[carcarrot]

old man yells at cloud about constant sequels

[ihatehugo]

hey!!! if you enjoy varian and the seven kingdoms please stop scrolling for just a moment!!!!

so i know there are multiple fanfiction creators who have written their own versions of vat7k and i love and have read each and every one of them

i decided i wanted to join in on the fun and so i’ve been working on my own version of vat7k for over a year now

i’ve split it into three books plus a prequel and a sequel. each book (minus the prequel & sequal) have 22 chapters each. the prequel & sequel will have around 1-10 chapters (it depends on how long the written portion is)

i wanted to make my series have a similar vibe to an actual tv show so the chapters will be posted as if they are episodes. for example, one chapter will be lore based and another will be similar to a filler episode.

sadly, i’m still working on it and it probably won’t be done anytime soon but i do have a decent portion of it created. i have an idea for what to put into each chapter and am working on the details of each chapter. i’ve also written a few snippets here and there and here’s one from the prequel, After Ever After:

Varian’s pacing. He knows he’s pacing but by the Sun, he’s angry. For years, he’s wanted to know more about his mother. For years, he’s begged to hear stories about her. For years, he’s lived off of the small scraps that his father gave to him, only to learn that he has been keeping a key component about his mother from him.

His mother’s journal sits before him on Xavier’s table, a deep forest green with a symbol engraved upon it. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say it's mocking him. Just when he made peace with the fact that nothing will ever change in Corona, this journal pops into existence as a big “fuck you!” to Varian’s mental wellbeing.

Xavier has been watching him patiently, having already picked his way through the journal. Varian stubbornly refuses to be the one to speak first but Xavier is just staring at him, his eyes following the path Varian is making into his floor.

Varian doesn’t speak for several more seconds before he demands: “So? What does it mean? What are the Seven Trials and why was my mom so obsessed with it?”

“Ah, yes, the Seven Trials,” Xavier enunciates. He rubs his chin as a faraway look passes over his face. “It is an old tale but one worth revisiting.”

“Oh, would you quit it?” Varian snaps. He stops pacing and stands across from Xavier, arms crossed and his foot tapping the ground repeatedly. “I really don’t want a long winded explanation right now.”

Xavier chuckles. “Very well. I will keep my story short. The Seven Trials were a test made long ago by Demanitus himself.”

Varian’s foot falls with a final thump. “Demanitus? My mom followed his studies too?”

“It would seem so.” Xavier gently picks up the journal and flicks through the pages. He stops about midway through the book and turns it for Varian to see. “And it also seems like she got very close to her goal.”

The entry on the page is annoyingly vague. The main phrases he gets from it are words he’s already read when he skimmed through it earlier. “The Eternal Library” particularly stands out to him. He could have sworn he heard it somewhere before.

When he rereads the paragraph, though, he puts together pieces that he had taken for granted before. Most of it doesn’t make any sense because she’s using key words only she obviously knows but Varian gets the gist of it. She completed all of the trials and found the location of the Eternal Library.

that’s all i have for that right now

if you have any questions, feel free to ask

and if you have suggestions, i’d be happy to hear them! i can’t promise any of them will make the cut but if they do, i’ll make sure to credit whoever’s idea it originally was

thank you for reading! if any of you are interested i might be able to post more snippets of it

[pikapeppa]

Hello again! I've got a question for you and I don't think this one will require a full tutorial like the last writing question I asked you 🤣 I know you often juggle multiple fanfics. I'm curious about how you juggle them! Do you focus on one chapter for one fic at a time, do you hop back and forth between fics whenever inspirations strikes, do you alternate or otherwise have any kind of structure you impose on yourself with multiple longfics in progress? I'm currently juggling two longfics, a sequel to my first longfic (Thanks again for all your tutorials that helped me complete that one!!!) plus some pwp oneshots along with the series, and an AU featuring the same pairing.

I'm writing my sequel and the oneshots in past tense and the AU present tense (Don't ask me why I did that to myself 🤣) so when I try to hop back and forth I often get my tenses mixed up. So I've been only focusing on one at a time and alternating them. But I feel like my updates are sparse because of it! I might be updating every 2 weeks, but that means each fic is only getting an update once a month.

I realize I don't owe anyone updates more frequent than I can manage, but I'm all about working smart, not hard. I'd love to hear what works for you in juggling multiple fics!

As always, you're a hero, an inspiration, etc, etc. Thanks for putting your incredible writing into the world and for sharing your methods with the rest of us to make writing seem less overwhelming!!!

Hahahaha so you’re asking this excellent question at a strange time in my writing life where I’m starting to get a little burnt out by my current fic series, and I’m considering whether I need to shift my own writing practices/habits… so this might end up being a longer and more rambly/less helpful answer than you were hoping for. 🤣 And I’ll put it beneath a cut to save everyone’s dashes!

When I’m juggling more than one fic, which is most of the time, my decisions for which one(s) get prioritized basically comes down to this: I work on whichever fic(s) has me the most jazzed at any given time. If I’m equally fired up about more than one fic, I’ll focus on both of them pretty equally, and if there are any additional fics, they’ll get attention when the mood strikes. Sometimes, like when I was juggling Lovers In A Dangerous Time and Where The Winds Of Fortune Take Me, this ended up meaning that each fic got a chapter (or more) every week, because I was equally excited about both fics. But when I was writing for Horizon Forbidden West last year, the fic that got attention fluctuated more depending on where my libido mood lay: I started with my favourite boy Drakka, then got sucked into fleshing out my Kotallo fic while the Drakka fic took second-fiddle for a bit, so I was only adding to it whenever the mood struck. When my Kotallo fic was done, I hyperfocused on the Drakka fic again until I got the idea for my post-Burning Shores Kotallo/Aloy AU, and then for a solid 4-6 weeks, that fic was the only thing I was writing while my beloved Drakka patiently awaited my attention again. 🤣 So there’s no single formula I stick to when it comes to juggling fics; what it really comes down to is that I’ll focus on whichever fic(s) I’m the most jazzed and excited to write. 

Now here’s the thing. At first blush, this might sound obvious; of course I’m working on the fic(s) that I’m the most fired up and excited about. That’s what we fic writers do, right? We’re doing this for the love of the story, in our own time, for free, and we don’t owe anyone anything, so of course we write whatever we personally are most excited about, right?

Not always. For me personally, I’ve gotten into a habit over the years of holding myself to personal deadlines. If I don’t publish at least one chapter of something every week, I feel like a failure or a slacker, or like I'm disappointing my readers. And if I’m working on more than one fic equally, like I’m doing right now with Astarion and Halsin, I feel like a failure if I haven’t put out a chapter for both fics each week. 

This is not a good habit. It’s not a nice way to think about my own writing, and it’s not nice to myself to hold myself to this kind of standard. The reason I mention this is that you mentioned concerns that your updates are getting sparse because of the alternating, so I can see that you’re starting to get into the holding-yourself-to-deadlines habit — and I can speak now from experience that this is a mindset that you don’t want to get entrenched in, if you can avoid it, because it’s starting to make me feel bad about myself as a writer for literally no good reason. 

I get the idea of wanting to work smarter, not harder. But when it comes to fic writing, I worry that the smarter-not-harder attitude is a symptom of hustle culture, of trying to get more done in less time -- and I can’t lie, that worries me a little, because fic writing is a labour of love in the truest sense of the word. It is work, hard work sometimes, and it takes time and passion, and I worry that aiming to hit update deadlines will take away from the reasons that you started doing this in the first place. I genuinely think that the best and healthiest way to think about this is that you — and I! — should focus on the story/stories that you are the most excited about. If you’re loving all three of your fics equally, then alternate between them! Don’t beat yourself up for mixing the tenses (it happens, it’s a whole ass mood 🤣) or for the updates being sparse! Just work on what sparks joy, and enjoy the creative journey! Importantly, importantly, you do not owe updates to anyone, including to yourself, so the joy of the writing really should be the focus. 

I hope this doesn’t come off as being too preachy; if it is, just chalk it up to me telling these things to myself as much as I am to you. 🥰🙏 

I honestly have no idea if this is helpful, but maybe it’ll be a little insightful? And if anything, maybe you can be encouraged by the fact that your heroes are flawed and fallible too! Or maybe it’ll be a disappointing ‘don’t meet your heroes’ thing hahahaha. But I hope not. 🤣💀

— all the love and support from your friendly neighbourhood Pika! xoxo

[gideonthefirst]

3, 17, and i'll re-ask 16 to get whatever other one you meant!

3. What were your top five books of the year?

WAHOO! I like this one it's made me realize that I actually loved way more books this year than I was giving credit to. Let's say:

5. We Have Always Live in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Loved loved loved this one it's turned me into a big #ShirleyHead and also (along with Hill House) is responsible for some other takes I've had about books this year which I'll expound on later.

4. Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes on a Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib. Nobody's doing it like him. Only music writer I've ever read who is actually capable of communicating the music itself just over text, loves the things he writes about so strongly that it makes you as the reader love them too, beautiful beautiful collection and piece of work. A Little Devil in America would be on here too but I'm limiting myself to one book per author to resolve both this and the Nabokov problem.

3. When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb. First book I finished in 2023 and one of my all-time favorites :] It's so smart and so lovingly written and so complex and doing such fun things with religion and history and gender and also it's a fun and excellently-paced read. Recommend without qualification

2. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Well. It's Lolita innit

1. Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash. Would I argue that Stephen Florida is "better" than Lolita? Who knows. Depends on the day. But I did love it more than any other book I've read in recent memory. The most directly invested I've been in a story in a long time, spent huge stretches of it being so stressed out about multiple things at once that I had to pause every five pages to catch my breath. Stunning depiction of a deeply unlikable character who you still want to win an unwinnable situation. Hostile to any attempt of a reader to figure out what it "means" or is "saying". Fantastic commitment to character voice. Perfect ending that had me totally motionless and speechless for maybe ten minutes. Have never in my life been more disappointed to find out that an author hasn’t written anything else. Man. Nobody is doing it like that.

16. What was the most overhyped book of this year?

Sob really funny of Sarah to get Annihilation and you to get The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. This wasn’t my first answer because it certainly is less broadly overhyped than Annihilation but I haven’t heard a single other person have negative feelings about it and I’m baffled by this. It fell into such a constant and repetitive trap of overexplaining things to me, both exposition and description of things that were supposed to be scary, and it drove me nuts. It being the year of Ms. Shirley Jackson certainly did not help, since she really has the perfect balance of how much to describe something to keep it scary, which isn’t super fair to Mr. Jones but it’s true regardless. Plus I thought how it treated women was really strange (derogatory), which I would have cared about much less in a better book but in this one really stuck out and weakened it further. And overall I just did not at all really understand what it was trying to do, which could be on me but I’m certainly too annoying to admit it, the pacing did not work for me at All and it just. Ugh. Didn’t like it!!

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

I was kind of shocked by how much I liked Where Are Your Boys Tonight? but I have already talked about that one. So let’s go with The Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb. It wasn’t like life changing or anything but it was a much more fun read than I was expecting since last attempt I made I bounced off the narration style immediately. But despite its many many concessions to the great weaknesses of epic fantasy I still intend to read the sequel and I especially love how Hobb engages with, uh, pain and sickness and disability and how she refuses to let them fade away and seems to really understand the extent to which pain and extended sickness alter people. I’m so so so excited to get to the torture because of this

[nogooddeetz]

i’ve been in a starkid mood so: here’s my personal ranking of the team starkid shows so far before i see nerdy prudes must die, because… why not? (my criteria depends on things like writing just as much as it depends on arbitrary things like what random character/song i imprinted on as a teen.)

anyway here is the list:

1. a very potter musical (it just can’t get better than this - even in today’s climate as they truly made a crackhead out of every one of joanne’s characters and plots and since she had nothing to do with the actual production so… fuck her)

2. the guy who didn’t like musicals (this one is, in my opinion, maybe the strongest show writing-wise they’ve done so far)

3. starship (this one was my absolute favorite when i was a teenager and it still has a special place in my heart - i love a good sci-fi trope plus taz as a character and a couple of the songs just hit so right for me)

4. the trail to oregon (i’m not even sure why but this one just works so well for me; 6 cast members, minimal set, nuclear family at the center of it and it’s just… so fucking funny)

5. a very potter sequel (nothing can quite reach the level of hilarity of the first avpm but this one is not all that far off)

6. firebringer (this has, in my opinion, some of the funniest writing; every one liner seems to hit right and that deserves props from me - plus several of the songs are good even out of context)

7. a very potter senior year (out of the trilogy it’s the most lackluster, which makes sense given the changes in things like cast and venue, but it still has that avpm energy that’s just delightful)

8. black friday (this one again definitely shows how far they’ve come with story-writing, but i just wasn’t as invested in the characters or taken by the songs in this one, with the very important exception of the song black friday! that one i think is one of the best songs they’ve ever written)

9. twisted (i enjoy this one as a whole, as a huge fan of wicked it speaks to me and is funny, i just once again wasn’t as invested in the characters or taken by the songs so it tends to fade into the background compared to some of the other shows on the list; i do want to say dylan saunders performs the shit out of ja’far though)

10. holy musical b@man! (this one is just generally hilarious; the whole vibe of the show is just ridiculous and it’s a fun, light watch with a few banger songs, though i didn’t get that much out of most of the characters - i did almost put it at #9 because of the songs and joe walker’s batman though)

11. me and my dick (i’ve only seen this one once and as it was the one to follow avpm, i think i was just kind of bored in comparison - there were definitely funny moments, but i can’t remember a single song if i’m honest)

12 ani: a parody (again, i’ve only seen this one once and i honestly don’t remember much, but the fact that i haven’t felt the need to rewatch it tells me enough - i think i was a little bored throughout watching it the first time)

(really the only ones i don’t rewatch consistently are the last two, so i like all the other 10 shows a lot and numbers 8-10 could really easily be shuffled around between their spots on the list)

what do you guys think? do you agree (are also correct)? did i piss you off severely? let’s discuss!

[rielzero]

Marvel's Midnight Suns Deserved Better

I finally finished my second playthrough of this game, with all the dlc. On stream, and after a disaster dumpster fire of the game and stream obs lagging as hell, I just want to jot down all my thoughts.

Marvel's midnight suns is a perfect example of the modern gaming scene and why it's failing so many gamers.

The core concept of this game, the story, voice acting and gameplay are great and fun- but it has so many fucking problems.

From being visually buggy as hell- to optimization issues in the final fight- characters having soulless faces and textures going missing at random.. To the DLC and the price tag.

If you buy legendary edition, for 99,- (season pass, plus all the extra cosmetics) I'd say its not worth it.

The dlc add 4 characters, one of which has a bugged steam trophy- It adds extra story missions (which are fun, but they don't add much more than there was) and some more cosmetics for those characters.

Out of every dlc character, Storm felt the least developed. Storm has a similar problem to Steve in this game- in which their personalities are not really shining, and reduced to a singular character trait they have. The voice acting not being the problem- but the writing. While I can remember Venom's story, Deadpool's banter, and Morbius' emo shit making me laugh and tear up like hell- Storm really deserved better. All I can recall is saving the morlocks and doing one final mission were she happened to also be.

Steve is ''Mr leadership man''- Storm is ''hold your emotions in'' Lady.

Villains and dialogue- all the little things in the cinematics. It was great. You really care for Wanda- You worry about Hunter and their horrible family dynamics. You're concerned for Tony and the avengers when the Hulk gets caught- You mourn with the midnight suns when Wanda screams ''You will never hurt me again''

Corny superhero banter (which i love, but sometimes repetitive mid-battle lines get old.), cute evil devil doggo. Very sexy mephisto. Magik is frigging awesome. Blade x Captain marvel- Epic frigging final moves- and cool fighting animations. This game has so much going for it.

Sometimes dialogue will not match the subtitles, I assumed at first this is because you have a female / male voice actor depending on the bodytype you pick- so the dialogue must be different yes? But no- even all the other heroes have mis-matching subtitles to different dialogue lines. It's minor things usually- Like a word or sentence being said very differently than how its written.

But its essentially a cashgrab with texture bugs, deadpan doll expressions- visual glitches (enemies not disappearing after they're slain sometimes), copypasta idle animations and bodytypes- the further you go in the game, the more there seem to be of these little things. First they're funny- then it gets a little too distracting.

This game had all the building blocks of a great game, but it comes with the typical dlc problem too- and just doesn't deliver. It feels very empty promises eventually. It drops a nice typical after credits cutscene that teases Dr Doom and a potential sequel. And I wonder if there's even going to be one at all. Or an expansion instead.

I love each and every character brought into this game. (except for Steve and Storm, they just weren't done much justice.) This game made me like Captain marvel while otherwise I dislike how she is portrayed personality wise in other media.

The final mission should've felt like the most epic conclusion- and by how laggy and sparkly it is it feels like it just explodes in your face with what its been build up towards. A child and mother reunite- but they meet an open end. All after defeating the longest- laggiest- spammiest battle.

It's quirky, it's silly. It's got all the feelings. It has cool things in it and yet it feels very cheap. It should've been cheaper. But its still treated as a finished product. It did not feel finished. Even if I loved and enjoyed this game to the end.

My stream recording literally contains frozen visuals while the audio is in tact. I can't even. Sure my pc isn't the best but this is beyond absurd.

Voice acting 9/10 Majority of characters are great- everyone has a fitting voice. Some lines could've been better. Characters will banter and sometimes have unique dialogue for certain team combinations but not much.

Writing 7/10 A bit corny and predictable at times, but enjoyable nonetheless. Flawed stories tend to be easier to absorb and follow- Superhero stories follow such recipe. Wish they added pronouns- To save on voice line costs they made hunter standardly nonbinary regardless of bodytype- so Hunter only has ''they/them'' pronouns. Isn't referred to as son/daughter, only child and gender neutral terms. This is completely fine, but I personally like to be able to customize my character more. This game offers no romance- but hints that Wanda may have a crush on the player character. You can't tell her you're not interested but you can joke that you're a couple with one dialogue option.. (I tend to make my PCs gay because I am a gay dude myself.) The lore they used for this game was really intriguing. Chthon and Atum have some more appearances in the comics from what I can remember, so learning about The Blood and the Old gods mythology in particular in the game's universe did make me really like the backstory they gave the PC. Caretaker x Agatha lesbian witch moms. The hunter has three mothers canonically if you don't think too hard- but both Caretaker and Lilith are horrible people lol. Wanda is definitely the best character in this game, if not for the rest of the midnight suns- (Nico, Robbie, Blade and Magik are AWESOME) The avengers are here too, but they don't outshine the rest. Oh- and spider-man gets kind of adopted into both groups.

Gameplay Loop 6/10 Combat! It's fun and challenging sometimes but gets eventually and quickly repetitive. At some point you'll get more and more copypasta enemies with just different textures slapped on and similar animations. The DLC enemies are not worth it and don't offer much more. The dracula boss fights were the most interesting and felt a little rewarding once dealt with. Exploring the abbey with stale walking / running animation does not feel smooth. Crafting potions or items doesn't feel like it adds much sometimes. I've not used items often in my gameplay. The chests make me wonder if at some point they wanted to put more micro transactions in this game.

Pricetag 2/10 Honestly- Get it on sale. Big sale. Legendary edition is not worth it. DLC does not add much to the core gameplay unless you really want those character interactions and dialogue. The side missions are fine story wise, but they aren't attached to the main campaign. Deadpool and Eddie have the most additional dialogue during abbey time and other interactions- Morbius has unique dialogue during a very few main story quests- and Storm just has the least. They slipped in the morbin' time meme.. I just.. PFFF its time to morb everyone- 20 bucks worth at least. If not less.

TLDR Game funny, characters great, fun but very repetitive, very buggy, not worth 99 euros- 20 maybe, stop making dlc with texture swap enemies please. I love deadpool. Great design but very unpolished in places.

[hxperion]

//thinking about how Jack always has a negative effect on people that gets close to him in any capacity. At first would be his daughter who before the death of her mother seemed to have a good family bond with him, before he got overly protective, and started using her as a catalyst to charge the vault key and manipulate the vault hunters, which lead to her helping the vault hunters and got killed in the process. thinking about having financial control and life control over Timothy as Timothy was a person in debt with student loans, being his first doppelganger, and putting timothy into life dangerous situations either to prevent assassination attempts, or doing vault hunter missions for him. Not to mention the cut dialogue from the pre-sequel literally brands Timothy's face to match his vault hunter symbol. (Plus the 'and jill' skin you get at one point with the same scar as jack). But their whole subtle dynamic can be a whole meta post on its own. Thinking about in the tales from the borderlands, Hugo literally thought he meant something to Jack because Jack used him as a literal punching bag and often bullied him and singled him out . Plus his whole manipulation of Rhys and how Rhys story is literally him learning that Jack is truly a shitty person and that you shouldn't idolize your heroes nor should you be like them The only two characters that were close with Jack at one point and didn't physically or really emotionally get hurt by him was Moxxi, being able to see the man he really is even before he became that man fully, and Nisha who was equally as fucked up as him, if not more morally better in terms at least in borderlands two, treated those who are under her slightly better. but yet still had the same sadistic energy as him.(Albeit she was killed for being Jack's girlfriend as a way to piss him off, but their whole dynamic can be its own long meta post to) So overall, those who are interacting with Jack and got a close bond with him, either romantic, familiar, hateful, etc. will always be hurt in the end by him either physically, or mentally, his a character that always leaves a lasting impression on most characters especially those who are not strong-willed enough to call him out on his toxic bullshit, and stand their ground with him, but even then it depends because he is the type that will kill on a drop of a hat.

[sorio99]

How will Tears of the Kingdom deal with Breath of the Wild’s completion?

So, Tears of the Kingdom is coming in less than half a year, and I’ve gotta say, one thing that’s really been bugging me is, this is the first Zelda sequel to actually be a fully direct sequel.

Sure, we’ve had games like Link’s Awakening, Majora’s Mask, and Phantom Hourglass, which all definitely have returning Links, but those games take place in completely different locations, even completely different worlds. LA takes place on a separate island, MM in another world, PH in a completely different part of the ocean, plus all three might be dreams. TotK, meanwhile, seems to take place in the exact same Hyrule as BotW, within, like, a few years at most.

Plus, Breath of the Wild is a very different game, in terms of completion, to just about every other Zelda game. Sure, you can miss some side quests in Wind Waker and still beat the game, but unless you’re exploiting just about every possible glitch, you still have to beat all the dungeons, you still have to awaken certain sages, and you have to get certain items and equipment. BotW, meanwhile, you can beat with just four runes, a paraglider, and any spare sticks on the Great Plateau, while only talking to one (1) old ghost.

So, something I’ve been thinking about a lot is, how is Tears of the Kingdom going to deal with the various states Link could beat Breath of the Wild in? The ways Hyrule could be left after Ganon is defeated? The Schrödinger’s Champions that may still be hanging around?

Welp, I’m gonna theorize about it, and you can’t stop me.

Also, if I'm right about any of this, I'm going to be so smug.

Part 1: Link's Abilities, or Goodbye Collectibles!

I've seen one discussion about this online, where people were questioning if the game would carry over save-data from BotW, and if players would be able to keep everything they got in that game. I think what everyone realized quickly is "If they do that, the entire game is screwed."

Obviously, I don't think we're going to be able to use every ability and item we collected in BotW from the start of Tears of the Kingdom. If we could, the game's difficulty curve would look less like a curve and more like a flatline. If I had to guess, the game will probably hit the reset button during the intro, sending us back to square one. It might be nice if we get a playable sequence with an upgraded Link beforehand, kind like Metroid Prime, but I'm not exactly gonna dock a point if we don't.

As for later in the game, I imagine we'd be able to get our health and stamina back similarly to BotW, though probably not in exactly the same way? Like, I very much doubt we'll go through the exact same 120 Shrines, if we even have Shrines at all.

We'll probably also have similar if not the same equipment from the last game, in terms of weapons and armor sets. Probably some new ones, of course, and we may have some removals (I doubt we'll have the Salvager Armor, sorry Xenoblade fans), but by and large, I imagine we aren't going to be losing the Hylian outfit.

I think the only upgrade I can imagine carrying over from the start might be the Korok Seeds and Inventory Expansion? Like, I imagine we'll have MORE Korok Seeds, or some similar collectible, but I think it would make sense if we start out with our Inventory expanded at least somewhat, either through reading save-data, or just as a general upgrade to be built off of.

Part 2: The World, or Is The World Saved?

Okay, so, as mentioned, unlike just about every other Zelda game, you can beat Breath of the Wild without doing pretty much ANYTHING to make the world better except killing Calamity Ganon (and depending on TotK's story, even that might not have taken). So, how exactly would the game cope with these options?

I think it's unlikely that the actual state of Hyrule would change drastically, even if Save Data is carried over. I doubt we'll find Zora's Domain flooded, even if we never actually calmed Vah Ruta. We MAY see some alternate dialogue from NPC's if they carry over, depending on how we acted in BotW, but even that might not happen.

It's worth mentioning, considering the game originally began life as BotW DLC, that it's technically possible that TotK will include literally ALL of BotW's content in it, so it's possible that, if they carry over save-data, they'll just selectively include or close off certain parts of the game depending on what's already been done. However, I hope everyone would agree that might be the single dumbest way to make a sequel.

I'm guessing the way they'd solve the problem is through the presumed time-skip between games; namely, I'd guess that in-between BotW's ending and TotK's opening, Link and Zelda have been going around Hyrule doing stuff and fixing things, which in a less than 100% game of the former, would include completing any major story beats that were previously undone.

Probably the simplest and cheapest way to do this would just to have a little moment at the beginning that is like "Link and Zelda have spent X years traveling Hyrule, helping improve the Kingdom", which both serves as a wink and nudge to minimalist players, and continues on nicely from BotW's true ending. Obviously, there are more elaborate ways of doing it, though, and I could think of at least one that I'd really like to see.

Part 3: Wild Speculation, or Zelda's Diary 2 The Squeakel

Okay, hear me out: we know Zelda likes keeping journals. What if the game carries over save data from BotW, and depending on what Link did in that game, Zelda's diary changes?

It probably* wouldn't be that difficult. Just have a couple different versions of most entries, and based on the event flags triggered in the previous game, have the diary use the entry that fits. For example, if Link hasn't even started the memory side quest, have it mention that he doesn't seem to recognize her at all. If he's completed the memory side quest and seen every single memory of her, have it say that he fully remembers her.

*Disclaimer, I am not a programmer of any kind.

I don't think every single side-quest, or even most of them, need to have a role (I somehow doubt Link showing a random girl at a random stable the Master Sword is gonna play much of a role in the story, and most of the Kakariko side-quests are less important than the "Stolen Heirloom" shrine-quest), but it would be nice to see some of the more major quests from the game have some acknowledgement from its sequel.

For example:

If Link never went to the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab:

"We made it to the Ancient Tech lab today. I was surprised to see Robbie was still around, and he seemed just as shocked to see us. He almost didn't believe it was us. He actually asked Link to take off his shirt, so he could check if Link had the scars he remembered. I'd almost forgotten how...eccentric Robbie was."

If Link reached the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab but never completed "Robbie's Research":

"We made it to the Ancient Tech lab today. I was surprised to see Robbie was still around, though he seemed less than thrilled to see us. He started yelling at Link, saying Link had never actually gotten the blue flame up to his furnace. I don't think Link shrugging in response helped calm him down. I'd almost forgotten how...eccentric Robbie was."

If Link completed "Robbie's Research":

"We made it to the Ancient Tech lab today. I was surprised to see Robbie was still around, but he seemed almost as surprise to see me. He started showing me some of the lab's newer features, introduced me to his wife, Jerrin...and showed me a robot he made that he named after Cheria. I'd almost forgotten how...eccentric Robbie was."

You know, something like that!

[ebitchwriting]

Resident Evil: Apocalypse Movie Review

So, finally kicking procrastination in the balls and actually continuing the movie reviews on a movie series that genuinely was very formative in my youth but now find it more disappointing than anything. Mostly because of how in every single sequel to the W.S. Anderson Resident Evil series seems to depend on retcons in one way or another, varying wildly in quality between each movie. Apocalypse, the second movie in the six, I'm very torn from because there was not only a major retcon in terms of the timeline of the viral outbreak in Raccoon City, butchering of original game characters, but also really interesting concepts that COULD have been amazing but... just falls flat.

Firstly, the retcon. At the end of the first film, Alice is slowly walking down the desolate streets, the city devoid of life, and heavily implied that the viral outbreak had already taken place and killed nearly everyone. Alone she stands, with nothing but a thin hospital gown and a shotgun with no extra shells to spare. This ending was a great setup, suspenseful, filled with tension, anticipation, and dread. Especially with Matt being placed in the Nemesis program, we could have had a wonderful story fusion of Resident Evil 2 and 3 with Alice eventually finding her way to the Police Department, not only for more ammo but hopes of finding survivors. Perhaps she finds one, an idealistic rookie cop who just started his job and now has been surviving on his own for a week, trying to reach someone, anyone for help through a radio. Perhaps she runs into a young girl, scared, alone, and helpless, and now Alice has to protect her from the zombies and infected animals, and the Lickers. You could have Nemesis constantly chasing her, trying to eliminate her, with perhaps a few moments where he struggles and forces himself to run away, leaving a wounded Alice alone. These were all things I hoped to see, and instead, it's reconned in favor of Alice awakening in the climax of the outbreak rather than the aftermath, yet all the tension of it being the climax is nonexistent. No value is truly given to any of the people who lost their lives. It might be just because as a kid I've always preferred the zombie films where it takes place in the aftermath rather than the climax, but the retcon of the timeline and its narrative and character handling was a major flop.

Secondly, the introduction and subsequent butchering of many video game characters into the films. The only one I actually liked the handling of was Carlos, as they not only captured how much of a fun-loving, flirtatious, genuine guy he is but also how seriously he takes his mission and truly believes he's there to help people, not clean up after Umbrella's mess. Jill, the Ashfords, and Nicholai were all massive failures of their characters. Jill in the games was not just a badass with great intuition and perseverance, but a strong sense of compassion and comradery, and so willing to help everyone she was able to. Meanwhile, the movie version just feels like a cheap distilled version that purely focused on her badassery, making her feel like a 2-dimensional character rather than a 3-dimensional character. Plus, where's the rest of S.T.A.R.S.? Where's Chris? Barry? You can't just cherry-pick one and ignore the existence of everyone else on the team. Then, Nicholai, the bastard that constantly antagonizes Jill and only sees value in data, money, and what serves him and him alone. The world collapsing? A life-saving vaccine that the world will inevitably need when containment breaks out? Who cares, it doesn't give him a big enough paycheck in the end. Yet in the film, he's so two-dimensional and forgettable that it isn't even worth getting into what little he does before he's killed by an infected dog. This seems so pointless since it seems they shifted his role in the game off to Major Cain. At that point, why bring Nicholai in the first place? For shits and giggles? Pointless added death to the survivors to show how bad the outbreak is? Regardless, it's just a disappointment.

The Ashfords, both the Doctor and Angie, are interesting yet disappointing. It's something that completely differs from what takes place in the games, by a fucking mile, yet the concept of a father inventing a virus to help his daughter live a life without struggle which inevitably the virus gets stolen and abused by a cold, heartless corporation IS something I think could have worked and almost did work, yet still falls flat in the overall poor writing and handling of the film in general. And honestly, I also wouldn't be so ticked had they not slapped the Ashord name on there for sake of having an easter egg from the game, and instead just made this concept and these characters truly their own, like with Alice, Rain, and Matt.

Another concept that I was truly, truly, looking forward to the most was Matt, aka Nemesis, and how they would handle it in the movie. In the game, Nemesis really had no backstory, just a B.O.W. that was programmed with killing all S.T.A.R.S. members and anyone that could potentially ruin Umbrella's reputation. By creating Matt, the movies gave this memorable monster a wonderful and depressing backstory of having everyone he loves destroyed by Umbrella, then experimented on and enslaved by them. Forced to kill innocents just trying to escape, and the one person he has the closest ties to now, Alice. This could have been wonderful, filled with angst and grief, but unfortunately, the piss poor writing of the film just makes all of this feel so flat and wasted. We get a little hint of what could be when Nemesis remembers he's Matt, his experiences in the Hive, his sister, and Alice, and chooses to ensure she and the rest of the survivors escape Raccoon City. He sacrifices his life because he knows despite he's still breathing, his life ended in the Hive. He's suffering and wants it to end, and there is no chance he would be able to have a life outside of Umbrella, and would rather take his final breath knowing Alice and the others got out safe, and that Cain is dead.

The ending with Alice as we know it being dead, and now following her clone, as well as her being a good bond for the T-Virus WAS a very interesting concept at the time of it's release(though little did I know it was foreshadowing for a major downfall of this movie series). However, Jill, Carlos, and Angie magically showing up to save Alice without a fuss from Umbrella, completely unexplained not only here but in the future sequals really tick me off. But that little rant will have to be saved for the review for Extinction as this is already long enough.

In conclusion, had W.S. Anderson decided to a) keep the movie universe and game universe completely separated and kept only original characters, or limited himself to just one or two game characters; b) not retconned the timeline established in the first film; and c) not focused to much on action and focused more on suspense and horror like in the first film, this truly could have been a slam dunk. 3/10 STAAARS purely for the few concepts that were intriguing and carried the film.

[agenericplaceholdername]

The Five (Potential) Endings of Ninjago

"Endings will always come. All we can do is fight to make them good ones," -- Master Wu, March of the Oni trailer.

Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu (or should I just say “Ninjago,” or perhaps, “Ninjago: Dragons Rising”) has, in its different iterations, run for over thirteen years now, something truly unimaginable when its pilot episodes came out in 2011, and still more is planned in 2025 and beyond. The series was never intended to last this long, and has “ended” at four distinct points, with a special fifth “ending” that feels climactic enough to the point that no one would have questioned the show’s end. So, let’s examine each of these endings, the seasons where the show could have ended but didn’t feel like climatic endings, and the seasons with clearly more content on the way.

Ninjago’s first two 22 minute episodes (or four 11 minute episodes) were not intended to be just the first – they were also intended to be the last. And to be fair, there was a clear, standalone story in the pilots for Kai’s character. At the end of the pilots, Lord Garmadon escapes to somewhere unknown (despite Sensei Wu’s protestation that “Father would not want you to do this, brother!”) While this clearly opened the door to future stories, the idea that a sequel was necessary is absurd – did the “beautiful friendship” alluded to at the end of Casablanca require a sequel where Captain Renault and Rick would truly become friends? And there are plenty of TV pilots that simply were never picked up for full shows. Now, to be fair, I will later point to seasons with unresolved plotlines to claim that they could not be true endings, but given that the pilots were, in the Hageman Brothers’ own words, intended to be self-contained, the end of "King of Shadows" (or "King of Shadows"/"Weapons of Destiny", depending on where you live) ended Ninjago – its first end.

Up until Season 1, Episode 1, Rise of the Snakes, that is. This episode introduced the prophecy of the Green Ninja, a prophecy that would not be fulfilled until 25 episodes later with Season 2, Episode 13: Rise of the Spinjitzu Master (Rise of the Snakes? Rise of the Spinjitzu Master? [George Lucas – “It’s like poetry, it rhymes”]). While Season 1 did not complete this storyline, Season 2 did, with the so-called “final battle between good and evil.” It alluded to the possibility of the Overlord’s return (something that Crystallized would explain 10 years later could occur due to “petty thefts, vandalism” – so much for the ultimate evil). However, this was very clearly the end of Ninjago, with Legends of Chima poised to serve as the new toy line plus tv show combination that had worked so successfully. Thus, the end of Season 2 was Ninjago’s second end.

And then Ninjago was rebooted. Not in the traditional sense, but Season 3: Rebooted recontextualized the “final battle” into the “ultimate battle” and had the Ninja face off against the Overlord… again. Let’s hope this doesn’t become a pattern. While Zane’s sacrifice would destroy the so-called “Golden Master,” it would become clear by the end of “The Titanium Ninja” that Zane was, in some way, still alive. While this could have served as an ending, the continued existence of the show directly following up with Zane’s ambiguous state here and the final scene of the season featuring just one of the five ninja and one side character (no offense, Pixal!) means that to me, Rebooted’s ending is not a Ninjago ending. 

Neither is the ending of Tournament of Elements – despite the fact that it had a massive potential to be one. As “The Corridor of Elders” ends, the five Ninja, Sensei Wu, Nya, and Misako all reflect on the loss of Sensei Garmadon and what he meant to them. The music grows and it totally seems like with the loss of the man who served as an antagonist in the pilots, first two seasons and as a key character in Rebooted and especially in Tournament of Elements, the series could end. The characters talk about tomorrow (“Because of him, we will live to see tomorrow” - Zane, “And for every tomorrow, we’ll live to honor him” - Kai). This is similar to the dialogue said as the show was ending in Season 2 (“Because of you, Ninjago is saved. Because of you, there will be a tomorrow” - Sensei Wu. “We may have got the balance right today, but there’s always tomorrow” - Kai). This heartfelt conclusion could have ended the series – if not for the sudden presence of a ghostly figure creepily saying his own name.

As the sun rises on a new day at the end of “Curse World: Part 2,” we reach what I call Ninjago’s third ending – while not an official ending in the same way the other four endings are, it is similar to Tournament of Elements. The six ninja, Sensei Wu, and Misako are all together reflecting on their past adventures and the legacy Sensei Garmadon has left Lloyd. While there are arguably two storylines not wrapped up in Possession, those being the future reflections and Cole’s ghost form, I don’t think it’s necessary to follow up on them. After all, the reflections are not particularly important – while Jay does end up with Nya, the fact that Cole can disappear as a ghost does not answer why he had no reflection, since the Ninja were not wearing those new outfits at the time. In fact, since the Ninjago Movie altered the Ninja’s designs, they’ll never look like their reflections. And honestly, Cole could have remained a ghost – as Nya says, “And if they do,” referring to Cole’s comment on things not changing, “that’s okay. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.” By wrapping up the stories in Rebooted and Tournament, with Lloyd having grown from the loss of Garmadon, Zane now comfortable in his new body, and no villain or future plotline foreshadowed (even implicitly), the camera pans off as the season ends, and the series could have ended.

Skybound resolves one aspect that Possession didn’t, with Nya and Jay ending up together at the end of the season. That being said, while technically not introducing any new strands that need to be wrapped up, the end just doesn’t feel like the end of a TV show about a team of six ninja and their mentor. Due to Jay’s last wish, practically none of the season happened, and it ends with a shot of the boat with Nadakhan’s lamp sailing away as Jay and Nya kiss. This might serve as the end of a TV show where at least one of them was the main character, even if that character was part of a team – see Avatar: The Last Airbender’s ending – but quite frankly, they aren’t. This runs into the same problem as Rebooted, since ending a show on a conclusion that doesn’t address all the main cast just doesn’t feel conclusive.

Day of the Departed resolves Possession’s final hanging thread with Cole being returned to a human. It is also very clearly an ending specifically to "Day of the Departed" alone, with Sensei Yang wishing the audience a “Happy Day of the Departed.”

Hands of Time is interesting, because it actually could have been a series finale, according to Ninjago co-creator Tommy Andreasen, and also utilized the Possession reflections for the Ninja’s future outfits. If this had occurred, I would not have considered Possession’s ending a potential Ninjago ending – but this was not to be. Instead, while Hands of Time does serve as the final season where the Ninja’s pre-movie designs are used, and as a clean break with the “Oni Trilogy”, since HoT builds off previously established developments (Lloyd wanting to be a master, the Ninja’s HQ being the Temple of Airjitzu, Cole’s new form) that are dropped later in SoG, it doesn’t quite feel like a conclusion to Ninjago. Most importantly, Lloyd ends the season with a question: “Where. Is. Wu?” and since this question does get a followup in the Oni Trilogy, Hands of Time is not an ending.

Sons of Garmadon is the first Ninjago season where the villains “win” and sets up a lot for Hunted to follow up on, which it does, but still leaves the Oni as an unresolved threat. This threat is defeated in March of the Oni, with “Endings” aptly serving as Ninjago’s fourth end, and as the end to Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. “Endings” concludes the 24-episode “Oni Trilogy” with Harumi’s story concluded, Lord Garmadon headed down the path of good, and the “demon that predate Ninjago” first mentioned in “The Mask of Deception” now defeated.

Ninjago can’t be gone for long, however, now having dropped the “Masters of Spinjitzu” subtitle, switched animation studios, and moved to an 11 minute runtime. While Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu and Prime Empire both end without any loose ends, that is also the case for Skybound and Day of the Departed, both of which aren’t endings of Ninjago. Importantly, the eleven minute era was building toward an actual conclusion in the form of Crystalized, while SotFS ends with a monologue from a side character in the Never-Realm, not Ninjago, and Prime Empire ends with Jay talking about the reformed villain Unagami and how he’s doing. Neither of these endings seem like ideal places to end a TV show about six ninja.

Master of the Mountain is the first Ninjago season to mention the mysterious vengestone buyer, and it’s for this reason alone that I wouldn’t call this an end to Ninjago since that buyer is central to the actual conclusion to the 11 minute era. Otherwise, the music and panning shot away from the six ninja (and Master Wu) do have all the markings of a series finale in the same way as Possession. Part of the reason Possession gets marked as a finale is because the 2014 - 2017 seasons never got a true, formal ending in the same way that seasons 1 - 2, 8 - 10, or 11 - 15 did, so I was more lenient there.

The Island is just a special, like Day of the Departed, and serves to set up Seabound by introducing Wojira. Seabound, much like Rebooted, ends with the sacrifice of one Ninja, in this case Nya, who merged with the ocean. The final shot of the season does emphasize that Seabound was about her, meaning it does not serve as an ending to the series, especially given that the vengestone smuggling occurring in the first episode is about to be explained in Crystallized.

At last, we come to Ninjago’s fifth, and most recent ending. Crystalized marks the return of the Overlord, and I’ll note that the final villains of each of Ninjago season (excluding the pilots) that “ends” the show – the Overlord, the Preeminent, the Oni/Omega, and the Overlord (again) – are all one note embodiments of evil and destruction. In fact, Crystalized kinda character assassinates one of Ninjago’s best and most complicated villains – Harumi – but whatever. Crystalized is very intentionally a finale to the 11 minute era of Ninjago, with marketing parallels to Avengers: Endgame, the return of various allies and villains from the most recent seasons, but also some older characters too, like Pythor and the Serpentine. With Dragons Rising functioning as a separate series, with a large time gap, an overhaul to the world, and new protagonists, Crystalized is, quality aside, perhaps the single most definitive ending to Ninjago.

[denimbex1986]

It’s the Summer of Barbenheimer and we’re all just living in the shadow of its hot pink mushroom cloud. The double whammy of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer offered audiences one of the most exciting cinema double bills since long before the pandemic, and they came out in droves for both. Now, Barbie is the second highest-grossing movie of 2023 so far, and Oppenheimer, a three-hour biographical drama about the Manhattan Project, has grossed more money than The Little Mermaid and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

The frenzy this double bill inspired, from themed parties and cocktails to the best memes of the season, drove home the genuine desire that film lovers had for something they could truly sink their teeth into. Sure, one is based on a toy and the other is a pretty traditional biopic, but both films represented a kind of change that we needed in the pop culture landscape. One such yearning: more stand-alone movies!

...we’ve come to expect a tease for a cinematic universe that may or may not come to fruition. Remember the Dark Universe? Or the six-film King Arthur universe Guy Ritchie was supposed to make? Or the Robin Hood series with Taron Egerton that ended after the first installment? There’s a reason people were wondering if films like Oppenheimer would have a post-credits sequence: because we’re so painfully used to having every movie end with a tacked-on promise for more, whether or not it makes sense or there’s any true hunger for it (and the possibility of an Oppenheimer post-credits scene is faintly terrifying: Which creation of a devastating weapon does it hint at next?).

Why is it now so rare to get a stand-alone film with a beginning, middle, end, and a guarantee of a complete narrative? Yes, us grumpy critics have been complaining about sequel overload for decades now, but things definitely feel different now. You can watch Die Hard and be perfectly satisfied because it existed as its own thing long before the idea of a sequel entered the filmmakers’ brains. It doesn’t spend half its running time setting up hints for future stories and a bunch of story threads that are never paid off. There’s also a distinct lack of adult-focused mid-budget films in the current theatrical market. While neither Barbie nor Oppenheimer technically qualify for this since both films cost over $100 million, they do fit into that increasingly rare niche by merit of their focus on telling a singular story that isn’t dependent on the viewer having to do a ton of homework before tuning in.

...when I see articles offering ideas for Barbie sequels, I can’t help but feel disappointed. Part of what made Gerwig’s film so special was its densely layered, funny, heart-aching, and complete story. You leave the theater feeling so satisfied because you got what you were promised (and so much more). Oppenheimer is complex, with a vast ensemble and most of its lengthy running time dedicated to conversations about physics and ethics that Nolan refuses to dumb down. Why would you ever walk out of that film wondering about plans for an expanded universe? You just know some studio head floated the idea at some point.

It seems like so little to ask for, yet it feels inevitable that Hollywood will learn all the wrong lessons from the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer. Expect more sequels about toys and fewer emotionally driven tales that give viewers exactly what they want. But our hunger for stand-alone stories remains strong. We don’t have the time nor inclination to watch every film we see evolve into a decade-plus commitment that has a strong chance of being abandoned long before it reaches that much-hyped climax. Let Barbenheimer lead the way and remind Hollywood that it’s okay for things to end.'

[nancy-plays-dutp]

My Pitch for Saga of Viera Part Two

Can you believe we're getting a Saga of Viera part two? It's been so long I've honestly been thinking that these unfinished books were going to stay that way forever, but if I could pick one to have a sequel it would be this one. It's been quite a while since I read the first part, but I remember really loving the protagonist and the story, and finding the ending rather upsetting as it's such a big status quo upheaval and it really felt like the story was building up to a resolution that we didn't get to see. UNTIL NOW!

I've been thinking about a theoretical part two for a while, and the best part about these unfinished books with sequels is that you can fix whatever you didn't like in the first part in the bit thats coming next. If you don't like a character, or think a plot point was weak or confusing, it will all be explained or improved in the sequel. Which conveniently only exists in your mind, so whatever you think is best is as canon as anything else. So before I have my hopes dashed by whatever actual sequel we get, I figured I might share my thoughts here!

Spoilers for Saga of Viera part one below the cut. Kind of, because it's been so long and I'm certain I've forgotten some details, but I'm going off my recollection of the events and characters and the way I thought the plot was going. I don't want to reread this book because its a waste of stamina. While it's free to replay stages when you've passed the dress up portion, it's not free to make different choices, even if you've gotten 100% on the entire book, which I wish they'd change. But on the plus side this means that most people probably do not remember the specifics of Saga of Viera either, so maybe that will work out for the best.

So let's start off with our recap, and my biggest point of speculation! You notice how in the above loading screen for Saga of Viera there is a dragon? Unless I am going crazy, there is no dragon yet in this story, so clearly they should introduce the dragon in part two.

The story thus far has followed Zoya, a con artist seeking a magical cure for a family curse that will kill her once she reaches a certain age. I do not remember what that age was, but I seem to recall its in her 20s and she's only got like a year or two left. To find a cure she ends up getting the Holy Maiden to agree to swap places with her, so a disguised Zoya is now part of the human embassy going to visit the elves!

While there we pick up on some tensions between the light and dark elves. As in, the dark elves appear to be fighting a guerilla tactic style campaign against the light elves and have been banned from living in the elf cities, and have their own secret underground society. You can choose to befriend the dark elf Salvia, or you can side with the light elf Reuel and seek to stop the dark elves from their nefarious plot, whatever it may be.

At the end of the story the elves have a wonderful tree ceremony that goes horribly wrong, and depending on your choices this is more or less your fault. Essentially the magic tree that appears to form the centre of the elf's religion and power is blown up by the dark elves, and the story ends with you in the middle of that chaos. The endings part two will start from are the endings where you swear to find the dark elves and avenge the tree, or where you've teamed up with Salvia and presumably are now running and hiding from light elf society. You are no closer to figuring out your curse, but you do have a whole international incident now! So let's discuss how this could continue.

A key part of book two is going to be the motivations and plans of the dark elves being revealed. Currently we know very little about them, so I'd expect either story path to give us more backstory. I'll start off with my theoretical continuation of Salvia's route, because I'll be able to explain it from that perspective.

Remember that dragon? My theory is that dragons are what caused the split between dark and light elves. Dragons were this huge powerful magical creature, and light elves sought to destroy or harness that power while dark elves wanted to cooperate with the dragons and live in harmony. But then the light elves found a way to siphon the power from a dragon egg, and ended up trapping it and making themselves powerful enough to defeat and banish the dark elves. The dark elves have been covertly trying to find this stolen egg and rescue it, and also have their own cache of dragon eggs kept hidden from the light elves, but they can't hatch them. I'm thinking some magical crystal or water or something is the hatching ingredient only the light elves have, and they've been controlling it, so the dark elves have all these eggs and nothing to do with them.

The way this leads into the main plot is the tree that you just exploded at the end of the last book. The tree has actually grown around that stolen dragon egg, and that's how its the source of power for the light elves. By blowing it up I want the dragon egg to hatch so we can get a dragon, or at the very least the dark elves have swooped in and stolen the egg. This means its now top priority for the light elves to find the dark elves and steal their egg cache so they can power themselves up again.

If you choose Salvia's path, then you get to learn all this information. I think Zoya should be a little upset that the plan has been kept from her for so long, especially since exploding the tree was pretty destructive and shocking. Zoya complains that the elves haven't trusted her, and Salvia can defend herself by saying that if Zoya knew they were hatching a dragon surely she'd have backed out, because that's really scary and she a human cannot possibly understand the risks they've had to take. I'm fairly certain Zoya's been living with her Holy Maiden disguise up til this point, so I would like Zoya to reveal her identity and con artist past to Salvia, which shocks and surprises her. Then we can have Salvia grow as she admits she should have trusted Zoya more, and been more willing to divulge the plan, and apologize for treating Zoya like a tool rather than a friend.

This path is going to continue with you and Salvia teaming up for the dragons, and Salvia can tell you some nice stories about her past and trusts you more. At one point Salvia will take you to the dragon nursery where they've got all the eggs. Maybe Zoya can figure out the missing ingredient and hatch a bunch of eggs, so now they can show up to the light elves and demand peace while riding an army of dragons. It's mandatory that we have at least one album picture of riding the dragons, and one of you meeting the dragons for the first time a la the How to Train Your Dragon movie, and also an explicitly romantic ending with Zoya and Salvia.

Now onto the other side of the coin! I will have to start off here with a bit of a serious retcon, but it's absolutely necessary. Reuel has been a rather poorly utilized companion, and he's got no good conversations with Zoya. He's always been stiff and formal to her, and even a bit rude at times. There's this power dynamic where Zoya is kind of in awe of the elves, who have been very haughty about it. This all makes it difficult to see Reuel as a viable love interest. To fix this, I propose we do a reveal in my second book, where we use what I call the "Mr Darcy" method.

Akin to Mr Darcy, while we think he's been rude the whole time it turns out he's actually desperately trying to stop falling in love with Zoya. She gave him a book and offered him some food once and he's fallen irrevocably in love, and is absolutely terrible at flirting. I'd like him to break down at some point and confess that he's tried not being in love with her but he just can't do it, she's too kind and her smile makes his heart race and he does not know how to deal with these agonizing feelings so would she please love him back! And Zoya gets to think back over all their previous interactions and see them in a very different light. They're not going to kiss right then, because Zoya is not in love with him yet, but now that his shell is cracked we can have more conversations with him and actually get to know him, and fall in love along the way.

Essentially we're going to get to learn that Reuel is actually just really bad at expressing emotions, and works hard to seem stoic and polite at all times. Maybe part of this can be because he's half human, as shown by his non pointy regular human ears; I'm not certain if this was confirmed in the actual story or just on a social media Q&A, but I do remember hearing this canon at some point and want to do something with it. Maybe he's been teased about being overemotional for so long, and is tired of being called an improper elf so he's learned all the etiquette and is determined to be the Best Elf. He also looks up to elf society and has not really questioned it before, and thus has been kind of naïve about the whole dragon egg thing.

The tree exploding has kind of put a huge damper on Reuel's worldview, and really shaken his beliefs that the light elves are as powerful and good as everybody thinks. Zoya too will be shaken, and also be realizing that maybe they're not the all wise people she thought they were. Together they can do a covert operation to investigate what was up with that dragon egg. The good ending here is you guys getting to defeat the elf queen together. I've attached her picture below to emphasize that I want her design to be exactly the same, because she looks like a disney princess and I think it would be really fun for her to be evil. She can justify the elves' actions by saying dragons are too dangerous and only the light elves can control their power, and it's going to good use this way, and they're the wisest and best and how dare Reuel and Zoya question them. To which Reuel can stand up and defend you and also all humankind, and say the elves have made some serious errors and cannot magic those away, and he's learned a lot from humans and can no longer blindly support the light elves.

You may remember that in this story, the MC Zoya has a curse that is killing her. Fear not: I too have remembered this, and it's going to be tied into this plot. Especially when doing research with Reuel, you can learn about why your family was cursed in the first place. I'm thinking one of Zoya's ancestors was actually hired by the light elves to steal that dragon egg and put it in the tree, and promised great wealth and power if he did so. Unfortunately after he was successful he got cursed, and all of his descendants too, and the light elves kind of just kicked him out because they didn't want to deal with that, and also didn't want any humans running around talking about their hidden dragon egg where they're getting all their power.

This allows Zoya herself to kind of redeem her family's history, by being a thief and trickster who ends up stealing the egg back for the dragons, and righting that wrong her family was complicit in so long ago. She can find a cure that can be brewed with a dragon scale, one that's given to her at the end of the good endings. But we can also throw in some temptation here, and give Zoya an opportunity to steal a dragon scale (either off a live dragon or off the ground) to try and make this cure. It won't work though, because the magic only stays in the dragon scale when the dragon consents to giving it away, and this is because thematically you can't undo theft by stealing more from the wronged party. Only by selflessly returning the dragon egg and reinstating the dragon's freedom is Zoya and the rest of her family healed.

In all these cases I think it's best if the light elf society crumbles, at least a little. The light elves have sequestered themselves from dark elves and also humans in pursuit of power, and have put themselves on a pedestal they must be knocked down from. Maybe now the humans and light elves can live together in peace, and depending on your choices the dragons and dark elves can also be a part of your society, or maybe they get their own country and you've just got delegates but they're not willing to be neighbours yet. And there has to be at least one path where you get to bond with a baby dragon and have it as an animal sidekick, like Corey from The Sacred Beast. Cute dragons are always popular.

Is this actually how SoV part 2 will go? Probably not. It would be a very satisfying story, but quite often DUTP has gone in directions I have not anticipated. Because those directions are bad, not because it's a pleasant surprise. I'm going to be very annoyed if at the very least the dragons don't figure into the plot, and I hope they address the elf superiority complex, but I really have no idea. I haven't even looked at the promotional material for the sequel, and I also have no idea how mechanically this will work. Will we have new lantern characters? How many new outfits will we get? Will they update the previous Saga of Viera book to be longer, or have a new one you need to unlock, and if so how are they going to set stage requirements so you can't play these stories out of order? Will they provide a recap for the first part?

I feel like I always look forward to the new DUTP releases with a mix of curiosity, eagerness, and dread. I really hope this second part is good, at the very least because a bad conclusion will probably ruin the beginning for me. But no matter what I've built my own story, and I can always come back to this if I'm dissatisfied with the actual canon.

Thank you for reading this far, and I hope that this new story fulfills your expectations, whatever they may be!

[jreynoldsward]

Writing Accountability Post #20: Time to Regroup

Post number twenty, and it's pretty darn clear that I need to revise my organizing system. Oh, it worked pretty well for three months, but the last couple of months have been a slog and a battle. Oh, there's logical reasons for it in many ways--a Covid booster here, gut stuff there, a convention here, other things happening there. It all adds up to one thing, however...things aren't getting done as quickly as they have been, and not as much is getting done.

Well, at least I did get the final Federation Cowboy chapter drafted. It still needs reworking before I upload it to Vella, and I have a pretty good idea of what the sequel is going to feature--it came to me in the last five pages, just about literally. But it will be a standalone sequel.

In the end, the romantic elements ended up being lighter than I thought they would be. And I'm not certain but what I may end up tearing the whole thing apart and redoing certain pieces before releasing it. I just don't know yet. It will depend on what betas think. I'm not that confident about this story now. But I'll probably feel better once I do the second round of editing work on it.

Meanwhile, the lack of promotional activity on social media is showing up big time. I haven't done much of anything in April and May, and it shows up on my dashboards (haven't looked at the Ingram one yet, though).

So what needs to happen re-organizationally? I'm not sure yet. I keep thinking back, and it seems like I've been floundering to set up a routine ever since Daylight Saving Time started. I am one of those who absolutely hates DST, even in retirement. Part of the issue is trying to adjust to different routine times for the horse, but also just finding time to do everything that should be getting done. Doing the weekly accountability meeting and the monthly summary worked for about 90 days. Now, that is frequently the way these schemes function in ADHD--the organizational structure works for a while, until it runs up against some roadblocks, at which point it runs off of the rails.

Granted, April and May are transition months. Light and weather change during this time, and it's also my prime allergy season. There are also events happening, and that puts me off my stride. They're also summer season preparation months, just like September/October are preparation months for winter.

What to do, what to do?

Well, I'm thinking. Finishing Federation Cowboy has lifted a load off of my shoulders. It gives me time to think about the next projects--and I have three of them on board that I need to brainstorm. First is Tales of the Raven Alliance, which is a alt-history steampunk Weird West story with dragons. Or perhaps I should call it something else--the Raven Alliance is a secondary factor to the use of dragons (both real and artificial) as part of a combined Civil War/Western Colonization battle. Or something else, just set in the nineteenth century West with dragons. But who's really at war? The dragons or the humans, and who is using whom?

Then there's the final touches on the Martiniere Multiverse. I think The Cost of Power series is going to wrap it up. Two books or three? Not sure yet. Plus there's the third book of the A Different Life series, where things really go dark for Ruby and Gabe. The Cost of Power universe is the one where the final digital clone multiverse battle gets resolved, however.

Finally, there's the Goddess's Vision series.

And...releasing a short story collection, either in June or July.

Okay. Maybe I do have enough to consider and produce this coming month. Maybe things aren't so bad. It's all just a transition season, and I'm ready to make the next move.

[kylekozmikdeluxo]

Particular About Planning

A couple of weeks ago, at Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm revealed three feature films to be in development. Films that seem to be the ones that are to actually go forward and actually be shot and finished and theatrically released. After a few years of Disney+ TV shows and many start-and-stops… How many proposed-but-scrapped STAR WARS movies are we at now? From Josh Trank’s Boba Fett movie to Patty Jenkins’ ROGUE SQUADRON to the movie Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige was supposed to produce, there’s got to be like… What… 10 of them now?

I have little to say about STAR WARS, honestly. I’m more of a casual fan of the series, though there are things I admire about it. As a kid, I never really got into it, and I was the right age to do so when the Prequel Trilogy rolled around in the late 1990s/early 2000s… No, I was a weird kid, a weird preteen. I was into other, and sometimes more obscure pieces of fantasy/space adventure/sci-fi/what-have-you. I was more into SPYRO THE DRAGON, BIONICLE, FUTURAMA, JAK & DAXTER, MORTAL KOMBAT, just a random smorgasbord of stuff that wasn’t STAR WARS… I hadn’t seen a STAR WARS movie all the way through until 2011, when I blind-bought that old Blu-ray box set that contained both trilogies. I caught all three Sequel Trilogy movies in theaters (and worked through all three as well, I’m a movie theater employee!), along with the two spin-off movies, ROGUE ONE and SOLO… I haven’t seen a single Disney+ show, though I do plan to watch both the STAR WARS: VISIONS seasons. Otherwise, I’m kind of off the train. I wasn’t particularly fond of THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, and from the outside, it just looks like a franchise beholden to whiny fans who want everything to stay the same. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe this Dave Filoni/Jon Favreau side of the galaxy is pretty dang good, maybe it’s just “Star Wars, the way you like it.” Three seasons of THE MANDALORIAN, and all this other stuff in the works, plus all the CLONE WARS animated shows… Yeah, that’s commitment I’d have to set aside time for!

So, one common criticism I have seen of the Sequel Trilogy is that Lucasfilm and all the people involved didn’t have a plan… It seems like they do have a plan for this set of movies going forward, as Lucasfilm has now spent time thinking of options and what to do going forward while maintaining the Mando side of things. It always seemed weird to me that when Disney rolled out the big STAR WARS slate many years back, that the Sequel Trilogy entries were only two years apart as opposed to the traditional three years, and that there’d be a spin-off in-between… And plenty more in development. Plus, THE FORCE AWAKENS opening literally three years after Disney purchased Lucasfilm… It feels like it was a big case of everyone jumping in head-first and a lot of shit happening along the way.

THE RISE OF SKYWALKER came out in December 2019, and it’s unknown when the next STAR WARS feature film will come out. Disney does have Christmas 2025 and 2027 carved out for future STAR WARS features, but it remains to be seen if one of the planned movies - be it Dave Filoni’s MANDALORIAN finale, the Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Rey movie, or James Mangold’s ancient times picture - actually makes it to that date. If one somehow does… That means a six year gap between two STAR WARS movies… The last gap was a whopping ten years between REVENGE OF THE SITH and THE FORCE AWAKENS, not counting the CLONE WARS prequel feature film that went to theaters in 2008. Even if we factor in that movie, that’s a 7-year gap! So, maybe they spent all this time formulating a “plan” going forward for new STAR WARS stories? After all, a new timeline was shown during the expo, so it seems like there’s a plan now?

Then again, depending on who you ask, the Original Trilogy didn’t have much of a plan, either, despite whole blueprints and mapped-out storylines from George Lucas. But this is all another story for another day… This franchise, to me, is just one big mess and you take what you like from it, I suppose!

So, why am I talking about STAR WARS anyways? Well, sometimes, I think of what’s going on with me when it comes to the stuff that I do…

Planning…

Sometimes I worry too much about planning, because I start to feel… If everything is all planned out, then I’m just filling in the holes, checking the boxes… And along the way, I lose the spontaneity in what it is I do: Writing stories, making comics, making art, etc.

At the end of December 2021, I launched a webcomic… It was me jumping right into doing something, head-first, without having much of a plan. Part of me also wanted to end such a terrible year with something good, so there was rushing on my part as well… I’m also 30 now, and when I was launching this comic, I had recently turned 29… I had spent a lot of my life writing stories that were meant to be bigger things in the future, so I hid a lot of what I actually do for such a long time, with very little else by way of art/comics/writings being out there online.

I was also art-shy for so many years… A whole era of younger folk posting their art, so spontaneously, on places such as DeviantArt? It all passed me by. 15-year-old me in 2007/08 was too afraid to do that, didn’t have the means to, either. I spent much of my young adult years blogging about animation and what was going on in the industry, barely ever posting art despite making (or trying to make) it… I hadn’t come up with a smaller, more sacrificial story or set of characters meant for this kind of thing… That I could share online, and possibly fail with. I wasn’t going to do that with one of my more personal and ambitious works… Now at the ripe age of 30, I am doing that. Or trying to. (Or wait, on the subject of STAR WARS. “Do or do not, there is no try”?)

I wanted to be spontaneous, I wanted to challenge myself, I wanted to finally get something loose and fun out there after years of not doing so…

The result? From December 2021 to September 2022, I had only produced 29 pages of vaguely-connected vignettes that were rather poorly-drawn (like I was learning stuff while making the panels for it), and there was next to no rhythm to any of it. The two leads just weren’t all that well-defined or really jumped off the images. I kept changing art styles, I went from wanting it to be a comic strip-sort of thing to a chapter made up of individual pages. I’ve always loved drawing comics, I’ve drawn pretty much my whole life, but this was disastrous… And it hit me once I got the high-20s… I felt like I was “doing it” to “do it”, rather than for the passion. Instead of going at all the crazy ideas I had, I dreaded putting in the work, as I had felt rushed and had to churn out something good-looking while meeting an imposed deadline. The idea in my head and the scenes I pictured so easily did not, at all, match up with the results. There was some lore and backstory cooked up before a single page was published, but again, didn’t seem to register… This kind of “do it, do it, do it” model clearly did not work, and my best ideas didn’t even come out of it…

So, I took it back… The comic is still up on its site, but it’s now known as the “beta version”. I am slowly undertaking a complete overhaul of this first chapter of the comic. It has been retitled, and a few small pages called “Quickies” have been released along with some various concept art and pieces… Back to square one, it seems… And part of me is like… I still want to make stuff for this comic if the actual chapter takes the rest of the year to make. I have other life obstacles in my way right now, such as my recent move into my apartment, bills, work, finding a new job, other endeavors, etc….

It’s good to have a plan…

But not TOO MUCH of a plan…

Not to the point where every single thing is mapped out, and you’re just checking boxes when you actually get to creating the thing. But a looser plan that allows for the spontaneity and improvisation and great last-minute ideas to flow? I think that’s good for me, given the way I work.

The three “Quickies” that I did from this past September to January were fun ways for me to get the characters back out there, and give a better idea of what the comic is going to be like, and what kind of world these characters inhabit. And who the main character is, first and foremost! I’ll likely revise those segments once more and work them into the main chapter, as a lot is going to be changed in the coming months. The “beta version” is really just all part of that development process at this point, I guess like accidentally releasing scrapped designs and a poorly-made version long before the thing is supposed to be fine-tuned and released.

To reiterate, with planning, I simply have to find the right balance and get stuff out there without forcing it.

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

Yandere Neighbor Wars: Gingerbread Houses

Kiribaku 🥊💥Vs Tododeku 🔥❄🥦

A/n so first of all at one point in the story there is a decision that can be made

I'm gonna make this poll a separate post that you guys can vote on depending on the amount of votes will determine if this gets a sequel. Do it if you want Don't Idc I do

Anyway enjoy!! Love ya babes🖤🖤

⚠[Warning: Yanderes and their behavior/mindset, violence, mentions and attempts of murder, slight sexual mention, polyamory (duh)]⚠

🥊💥🔥❄🥦You were known as the young and infamous host in your town

🥊💥🔥❄🥦The Karens, Soccermoms, helicopter parents alike worshipped you at the top of their food chain

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Slick and sauve you were the mean girl of wonderful events and the community (queen/king) of charity

🥊💥🔥❄🥦When Karens stepped out of line you whipped them back in place with your passive but very aggressive speech

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Your youth, your finesse is envied by all the elders and they flock around for your approval like starving ducks for bread

🥊💥🔥❄🥦All this attention can be so tiring and it's hard to hang out with the ripe apples when the rotten cling so harshly

🥊💥🔥❄🥦So that's why you came up with your own little club

🥊💥🔥❄🥦In your party specific club you called Young-People-Wine and Dines (YPWD for short) you’d run ideas for parties/events by them

🥊💥🔥❄🥦This weekly even you’d host where you got together with other mid-20s wine-lovers

🥊💥🔥❄🥦you guys would gossip, drink, plan scheme connect

🥊💥🔥❄🥦This group consisted of both men and woman the latter being the majority

🥊💥🔥❄🥦One of the guys that had just recently been invited in your little posse was Todoroki Shoto

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Newly moved in with his husband: a cute little green haired guy

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Shoto immediately captivated the group with his higher status interests and refined taste plus he was hot

🥊💥🔥❄🥦The ladies in your group quite like that

🥊💥🔥❄🥦but he had to go through you before he got the final -go-ahead

🥊💥🔥❄🥦You started hanging out with him and his husband a bit more often

🥊💥🔥❄🥦You found that he was honestly really socially awkward but he was still open to making friends

🥊💥🔥❄🥦you like that

🥊💥🔥❄🥦You were thinking about having his husband join but Shoto attested to how much of a light-weight he was

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Bakugo and Kirishima on the otherhand were seasoned members of the YPWD

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Both having been almost equal to you in your hosting game

🥊💥🔥❄🥦The ‘War of Hosts’ where the neighborhood was stretched between you two in your rivalry

🥊💥🔥❄🥦At a standstill, you guys were forced to level with each other

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Specifically with Bakugo who had been the face of your competition majority of the time

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Being just as competitive if not more than him you both really took petty to another level

🥊💥🔥❄🥦‘Hey I just decided I’m gonna have a bazaar on Friday!’

🥊💥🔥❄🥦‘Oh that's nice I won’t be able to attend because I’m hosting the neighborhood kids art show.’

🥊💥🔥❄🥦‘Oh really? Well guess who’s also hosting the annual bake-off next week?’

🥊💥🔥❄🥦The only voice of reason, Kirishima, was either completely ignored or convinced to back up his husband

🥊💥🔥❄🥦But now that you were on better terms this couple had become part your cult club of clique-y hosts and nosy neighbors

🥊💥🔥❄🥦It wasn’t all that bad

🥊💥🔥❄🥦After the main group had dispersed Bakugo would stay behind and help you clean

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Conveniently his husband always seemed to be awake and ready to come over and give you a massage while you all laid out your schedules for the week

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Though this seemed to change with Shoto here

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Now he and his husband would host the meetings, lay out schedules, and sometimes even let you pass out on their bed

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Kirishima and Bakugo weren’t pleased their spots as your best husbands friends had been taken but they wouldn’t go down that easy

🥊💥🔥❄🥦So between hosting different events they would aim to kill each other and gain your praise

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Yes kill

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Now usually trying to kill your neighbor is taboo because

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Rule No.1–You live too close by; when the fuzz comes questioning you will be some of the first to be suspected

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Rule No.2-Rarely can you poison somebody at a community event; unless you’re trying to commit genocide

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Rule No.3-Its hard to commit a crime where your victim can escape and with one scream ruin your reputation completely

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Hence the couples’ multiple plans to off one another with ‘accidents’

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Like at Izuku and Shoto’s 'book club adventure' Eijiro was nearly crushed by a bookcase

🥊💥🔥❄🥦“Oh no! Are you alright Kirishima-kun?”

🥊💥🔥❄🥦He was. But no one noticed the annoyance blooming on Izuku’s face as he asked

🥊💥🔥❄🥦And no one would suspect anything when Katsuki and Eijiro’s ‘decorate for a neighbor campaign’ nearly had completely frozen icicles impale Shoto

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Of course thanks to Izuku’s quick thinking his husband would avoid a freak accident

🥊💥🔥❄🥦This would be no different when you finally proposed that just the five of you build gingerbread houses

🥊💥🔥❄🥦You, as the host, will time their gingerbread houses and you the fashionistas in the group chat would judge which is the best -best one wins a favor from you

🥊💥🔥❄🥦AFAVORFROMYOU!!!!!

🥊💥🔥❄🥦It was as though Santa came early and had given the opportunity to set phase 4 into action

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Phase 4 oh yeah…Its the 3rd to final stage in a plan for their relationship with you

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Phase 1: Make sure you get along with the more anti-social one in the couple-check

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Phase 2: Get into the YPWD and become influential among the neighborhood-check

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Phase 3: Get you comfortable with you in a routine-check

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Phase 4: Integrate you into the relationship-still in progress

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Now they both are aware this isn’t conventional but then again being madly in love with you isn’t either

🥊💥🔥❄🥦So finding creative ways to get you used to it was always welcome

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Tododeku decided they had the advantage of the things that interested you most right now:

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Calm environment, people willing to cater to you, and money

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Both their jobs as a special agent for the Japanese military and as an arms dealer provided more than enough money to throw at you and they were always welcoming you to stay a while

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Sometimes a little too much, acting like whiny puppies when you start heading for the door

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Kiribaku have time and familiarity on their side along with money as well

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Unlike Tododeku this couple doesn’t rely on money as heavily

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Kiribaku do more so on their dynamic as a group

🥊💥🔥❄🥦That maybe partly because Shoto just has always had money and doesn’t always know that the things he does is that of a rich person

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Izuku has tried to explain but honestly if Shoto does understand he’s not gonna listen

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Let him spoil his snowflake

🥊💥🔥❄🥦Back to Kiribaku they know you really well and although they may not have the hyper-calculative Deku but Bakugo can do just as fine if not better than that extra.

Seeing as everyone is quite confident about their chances at winning the event might go like this:

“Alright you guys before you start, I have some snacks if you want…” The boys were anxious enough, they definitely didn’t need whatever wonderful snacks you made for them…okay maybe just one. In your townhouse’s living room you had two fold out tables with blankets obscuring what was assumed to be the box and tools for the gingerbread houses.

Bakugo beelined towards you blocking your view from your guests entirely. “Pipsqueak I’ve got a bone to pick with you!” “What why?” He really was just talking nonsense; it was part of the plan after all.

“Look Kirishima, I just want this to be a clean competition, ok?” Izuku was borderline pleading he had been fed up with the amount of times his husband was put in mortal danger and he honestly just wanted to relax for this season.

“Please, it's Christmas.”

Internally Ejiro sighed in relief, “I agree let's just keep this an easy and manly competition.” He was really happy that at least someone in this feud just wanted a break. So quickly did they become intense adversaries since loving you has become involved. I mean they were never very close but the manliness of Izuku on the battlefield and just his typical moral to have such a not really healthy rivalry with his husband was admirable. And he just wanted to enjoy the holidays without the fear of your ex-friends killing you. Maybe this season could bring a more refined sense of friendly competition and maybe open up their homes to-

“But you have to keep your angry pomeranian on a leash.”

“Shoto-” “If he bothers me at all during this I will return the favor, that's all I’m saying.”

Before Eijiro could retort Bakugo was back and you were ready to start. Shoto’s glaring at Bakugo wasn’t missed by you and you figured interrupting them with the timing would fix it,” 10, 9,8-”

“Stupid hair, I’ll do decorating and you do the walls”

“Okay.”

“Try not to use too much frosting.”

“Okay.”

“But don’t use too little.”

“Katsu-”

“Aaaand go!”

The couples were off building their gingerbread houses. Izuku opted to build the house and instructed Shoto to make separate decorations. Similarly Kirishima was focused on the house while Katsuki hovered and corrected him without trying to interfere. While criticizing over his husband's shoulder he matched the glare of Shoto who was stitching a tiny little mistletoe with candy. He returned it in full force and when Shoto got up to retrieve a napkin from the kitchen he happened to quickly kick his shin. Smiling in victory as Icy-hot tumbled down to the floor earning a distant ‘ouch’ from you before reminding the teams of their times.

“Five minutes!”

Without looking to check on his returning husband he asked ‘if he was ok’ only to be responded with silence, which he knew was a nod in affirmation. Switching places now both Shoto and Bakugo were focused on decorating with their counterparts, respectively.

“Hey Bakugo” Shoto uttered with tight lips focused on his gingerbread house and checking to make sure Izuku was too focused on his task.

“What Icy-hot?”

“Your fly is down,”

“What?”

“Your zipper isn’t up”

Bakugo tilted his neck to see that there was nothing wrong with his pants but before he could call the cheater out his face was knocked into the frosting rooftop of his gingerbread house.

“S’cuse me I need another napkin.” The offending elbow of the man had continued to innocently swing in step with its master who sauntered off to get a napkin. You were laughing, holding your stomach as you saw your angriest neighbor practically melt off the frosting covering his face as he turned as red as his husband’s hair. Izuku and Kirishima each had to hold in their own laughs as well.

He was livid but he worked through it because of the time as announced by you nearing ever closer to the end. “O-ne one-”,another stray giggle, “one minute and thirty-two seconds.”

After they were finished you took pictures and uploaded them to the group chat for your judges to decide who did best.

“Alright now that that is over let's binge watch Christmas movies!” The group collectively agreed with you before moving over to your couch. The race was both a slow and speedy one to see where you’ll sit. You pick the homealone series as you move your pillows and decorations on the couch. When you decide to sit down it's between Bakugo and Izuku, both who would glare at one another behind your head when they both try to put their arms around you during the plane scene.

Suddenly you pop up and they are all equal again following you excitedly run and get more snacks. I mean they hate when you go and love to watch you leave. You return with a bowl of Christmas popcorn and a beanbag for yourself. As you settle into your seat you can hear the sighs of distress and the sucking of teeth from a certain blonde.

You giggle throughout the movie ignoring the birds and the tongues you can see each couple sticking out the other. You very much loved your bachelor life but the anarchy of these married folks made Christmas pretty fun.

Maybe another competition is in order.

[revenant-dumpster-fire]

hey there! i absolutely love your content (especially your writing, it’s like one giant, intricate poem. AND THE WORLD BUILDING OMG) and i just had a question for you

i’ve recently rediscovered your fic ‘Just a Volunteer’ (started it a year ago before i lost it 😔) and sadly, i’ve almost reached the end of it. i was just wondering if there were other works you’d recommend similar to it?? (...in other words rev fics. *shakes my fist in the air* you completely outed me as the revenant lover that i am) 

side note: i’m aware of the sequel ‘Lost Files’ and can’t wait to read it next but i just know i’ll plow through it because of just how good your writing is ☹️ take care you stylistic genius, hope you’re doing well!!

Oh, thank you so much! That's so kind of you!

If you haven't seen (and I apologize if you already know this): the good news on my fanfic is that The Lost Files is one (difficult) chapter away from completion, and Book #2 is actually almost halfway done! It's only being held up by that aforementioned difficult chapter. I am doing my best, and I really genuinely appreciate the patience and kindness of everyone sticking around.

Anyways, onto your real question!

As for suggestions, it is so dependent on what you're looking for! I try not to read too much of other people's work just because I don't want to accidentally plagiarize any ideas, but I can point you in a few directions! Also, plenty of stories are incomplete. (All these link to Ao3, which is the premier site for this kind of content. I didn't want to make anyone uncomfy by pointing directly to a Tumblr, so I hope this is okay.)

Non-Terrae Plus Ultra: This fic is one of the longest I've seen, and has a number of Reader x Character interactions. This writer keeps Revenant extremely rough and mean, and it is explicit with no mature version, so read at your own risk! You can easily skip to the interactions you're more interested in, rather than reading the whole thing. The author is very dedicated to writing a lot and often, and I cannot help but be impressed by them for that.

If You Make a Robot Your B****: This is a fic writer here on Tumblr as well, but mind the rules of having your age in your bio before interacting (oops got myself blocked that way—but that's my own fault even though I'm old enough!). Either way, they made a lot and seem to have gathered a large fanbase doing so for good reason. You could easily carouse their backlog for anything you're interested in. Generally, their work is explicit (hence their rules) with no mature version.

I'm Not Supposed to Love You: As you can imagine, this one is also explicit (I really hope you weren't looking for a mature selection... goodness I messed up if so). This person also posted to Tumblr quite a bit, and honestly I just found their work super cool. I got to beta read a few chapters, and help a little wherever possible. I think they've been off the scene for a bit, and I hope the author is doing well and enjoying life, but this one may never be completed. Despite that, it'll always be nostalgic for me just because the author was always kind to me, even in a really dark time in my life.

Red Lines: Explicit. Haha... ah. Anyways! This is also a good writer form the Tumblrsphere as well, and this was—I believe—the first fanfiction I ever read? I think? So in a way, my entire writing career (as short and socially unacceptable as it has been) is owed to this one. Which is crazy to think! But honestly, my own work has a couple very loose references to this one, in part based on this piece teaching me a bit about the canon lore when I was still learning. Solid one.

So, uh, those are all explicit. I am so sorry if you were looking for ones with mature options. I don't think it's too often that a writer will make a mature version of their work, but I am very glad I did for those who were uncomfy with explicit works. I also think my narrative is a bit unique, and I'm not entirely sure who else "writes like me". All these share the same subject of affection, at least! So hopefully they'll suffice!

Thank you so much for your kind words though!! I really appreciate your kindness and encouragement. I've been able to write a lot more lately because of the support. It means a lot to me. I am glad others get so much out of something I put effort into, even if it's a bit disagreeable to more prudish individuals (whom I genuinely don't mean to offend, this is just how I cope!).