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fortuna-et-cataclysmos · 2 years ago

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In defense of s5 finale

I hear and see a lot of people expressing dislike of the season finale, some also in the tags and comments of my analysis/speculation posts. So I wanted to further expand on this.

Gabriel's victory -being remembered a hero despite everything wrong he did, especially abuse to Adrien- has left a sour taste in many people's mouth; many blaming the scenarists and not shying away from calling it "bad writing."

But I think that that was exactly what the scenarists wanted to do? The perfect world Gabriel leaves behind is unsettling, unfair, and I think that the creators have done their best to show that implicitly but clearly. I think that we are supposed to be irked by the finale.

Why do I think that? Because there were a lot of small things that gave the message that, as @emsylcatac iconically put it, "this is the bad place." I touched upon some of those in my previous post on how this was a victory for Gabriel and Lila, and a defeat for Ladybug. I'll try to list them more clearly here.

Gabriel a hero

This is the one thing everyone has the most problem with. At the end, Gabriel was declared the hero who gave his life to defeat the Monarch, who was none other than himself. Some artistic choices here are so over the top that I believe they were specifically made to irk us.

If the silver statue itself wasn't enough, the exact quote of Caline Bustier is:

All the rings that have been highjacked by the Monarch have been recycled into a statue in honour of the great Gabriel Agreste.

Then Tsurugi Tomoe goes on to say:

Beyond the visionary entrepreneur and genius creator that he was, we are celebrating a hero today.

See, everything bad about Gabriel has been flipped. If you count literally exploiting people visionary entrepreneurship, sure, he was that. And genius? He couldn't get the miraculouses of two teenagers for an entire year despite having all the resources, and he ended up succeeding only with the help of another extremely powerful person (Tsurugi Tomoe) and even then he ended up dying himself.

As of creator, he was literally a destructor. He destroyed Paris more times than anyone can count, and everything was fixed every time only thanks to Ladybug. Let's not also forget how he destroyed the Miraculouses to exploit their power.

Adrien's comment about his father

This is another thing many people have had problem with. It is so outrageous that I won't believe the creators would expect us to take at face value.

At the end, Adrien acknowledges that his father died to take down the Monarch, and says:

I don't know if one day I'll manage to become like him.

Lo and behold, the man who had emotionally neglected and abused his son to no end has turned into the said son's hero and role model. Adrien not only looks up to him, but also wants to make an active effort to become like him. Hell, he even doubts if he can be as good as him.

No way this line can taken at face value. There are many children's shows with abusive parental figures nowadays (like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, the Owl House) that have all handled the conclusion to that abuse generally well. The watchers' expectations are high in this respect; the scenarists would know that such conclusion, if not ironic, would not satiate the expectations of the spectators.

Lack of accountability: Gabriel and Tomoe

As many many people have pointed out, the general lack of accountability in this season finale is infuriating. So Gabriel mentally tortured THE ENTIRE WORLD POPULATION and not only never faced consequences in life, but also is remembered as a hero in death?

What about Tomoe?

Not only she has not faced any repercussion for being basically a supervillain, but also she is still a respected public figure who can go and make a speech backed by the mayor, in front of the freaking French flag. If that doesn't irk you, I don't know what will.

Worse is that, she goes as far as saying in her speech that:

I'll make sure to continue his legacy.

So she'll continue to be evil. Great hint that she'll continue being an antagonist in season 6.

As you can see, the new world that has been created is extremely unfair and problematic. No way this can be "the good place," an actual "happy ending."

Everything is fixed! No problems anymore!

Also, you'd realise that the world is perfect, a little too perfect. It is like a green utopian dream.

Caline Bustier has been the mayor "only for a few weeks" (direct quote from the episode), and she has already fixed all the problems possible in Paris. Not only that, she has also solved inequality and class struggle (again, mentioned by herself). Let's make Caline the President of the World already.

Funny that LITERALLY ALL THE PROBLEMS of a city could be solved, while the exact same episode showed Majestia, the freaking Supergirl of the ML universe, acknowledged in her nightmare that:

Even with all my superpowers, I'll never manage to solve all the problems of the world.

Well, Bustier says that she has no superpower, that people working together can accomplish that. Kudos to her and her democratic spirit. But like, perfect city in a few weeks? Even Mayor Bourgeois who wanted to send all the trash of Paris to space would realise that that's impossible.

There is no perfect solution, yet the world is perfect

Ladybug acknowledges that there is no perfect solution to Gabriel's situation. Trying to bring back his wife, he has caused irreparable damage to himself and to Nathalie, effectively leaving Adrien an orphan. He still hopes that Ladybug can fix it all. But she can't because of the nature of the wish: for one thing gained, another thing should be lost. In Ladybug's words:

There is no perfect wish. Every time a power is used for personal gain, it causes catastrophes. (...) We'll find a solution, but it will never be as perfect as one would wish.

Interesting, given that the world ends up being completely perfect?

All the problems are solved, literally everyone is happy, Marinette and Adrien are finally together. But the wish was made for personal gain, no? So where are the consequences? Where is equivalent exchange? The catastrophe, the price of the perfect, green, just world? I think we'll see that in season 6.

The dream world

The new world is seriously giving me weird vibes. Like it is a movie set. For those who have watched The Good Place, you'd know how in the town everything feels a bit too bright, artificial, perfect. I get the same vibes from the post-wish world.

The Agreste mansion is covered by green vines?? Way to hide the atrocities that were planned and happened here.

Here is a screengrab I found on the internet from The Good Place (the ladybug is a funny coincidence lol)

I am getting the exact same vibes!

Also, I have expanded on that in my post on "running out of time" theme, but basically in the ML universe usually the "real" stuff are associated with the night and the rain while things that happen in the sun turn out to be fake or erased/forgotten. So the feeling that I get from this finale is that, this new "perfect" world is not genuine; that the seeming happiness it brings will be soon destroyed (I doubt erased), just as it happened in other fake reality episodes like Chat Blanc, Ephemeral, Oblivio, or Jubilation. As I argued before, this is not a permanent victory. Hell, it isn't even a real victory, not with the secret Marinette is left to keep from Adrien.

Not a real victory

Another thing that makes me think that this ending is not genuine is the lack of Chat Noir in the finale. Yes, I am a fervent Ladynoir stan who was hoping for some Ladynoir action (if not reveal) and was hugely disappointed by the lack of Chat's engagement in the final fight, but now that I think of it, this may have been on purpose.

Notice how in Conformation, Ladybug says:

Our only way to win against him is to fight him together.

And yet, soon thereafter, she is catapulted into a fight with the Monarch.

Notice also it wasn't her choice to unify the miraculouses and face the Monarch alone. She had to, because Chat Noir wasn't there.

Let's remember that this show spent the entire season 4 explaining how Ladybug assuming all the responsibility alone leads to disaster, how she needs Chat Noir to share the burden with him.

Let's also remember how in season 5, especially at the beginning of it, we see Ladybug change her behaviour towards Chat Noir: she gives him more responsibilities (the Bunny Miraculous, the identity of certain holders if I am not mistaken), and how at one point she confesses that Chat Noir has been very serious and responsible lately (and then promptly develops a crush on him).

So taking on the Monarch herself is really against everything they have built up in season 4 and the beginning of season 5. That's why I think that this "victory" is so wrong: it was "won" only by Ladybug. Maybe if Chat Noir were there, he would have prevented the Monarch from making the wish (hypothetically, then we would have an entirely different timeline). If his identity were revealed the way Marinette's was, Gabriel could have controlled him through his amok. In any case, their defeat or victory would have looked very different from this.

In the end, we must remember that this world is far from being a victory for Ladybug: she has, after all, LOST. She couldn't stop Gabriel from making the wish. And while this world looks perfect, and we got what seems like a forever happy after ending for Adrinette, their happiness is set in a non-genuine victory and world.

So I think we shouldn't be angry with the show-runners: there is a reason why this ending feels and is wrong. If it were all wonderful, it wouldn't be the season finale. It would be the finale, period. And I believe that everything that has been disturbing us in this season finale will be addressed, if not consist of the core conflict of season 6. Let's all take a deep breath and turn to fan fiction or fan art till we get the new season now :) (at least that's what I'll do lol)

#miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers #ml season 5 #from fortuna #ml conformation #ml recreation #ml analysis #ml meta #ladynoir #adrinette #ml speculation

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yzafre · 9 months ago

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who wore it better – 2003 v 2012 episode comparisons

I said I wanted to do this in my 2003 thoughts post, and I’m gonna. I've been picking away at this for a couple weeks now.

I’m focusing on places where they actually recycled a storyline rather than adapted general concepts. Fugitoid and the space arc is an example of the second method – Robot Scientist with a connection to a Dangerous Machine is a shared concept, but the stories are different.

“Ohhh how did we end up here we’ve GOT to figure out how to get home, our Dad might still be in danger” versus “we HAVE to collect the McGuffins before the enemy or earth is going to EXPLODE. AGAIN.” You know?

Comparing those types of adaptations could be done, but it’s not what I’m interested in here. I specifically want to look at the places that made me think “oh, 2012 just copied this” while I was watching 2003.

Now, obviously this is extremely subjective. So take this as me defending my nominations for winner in these categories, rather than some sort of objective truth. I am presenting my dinky power-point on why you should vote for my favorites. Ect. Your preferences may be different!

My ramblings on the episodes got long (should I have split this into parts? maybe! didn't though), so uhhhh...

tl;dr: Scoring got weird at 3.5 to 2003, 3 to 2012, and two draws.

Key takeaways: 2003 better matches my personal tastes, and what makes 2012 good is the stuff specific to its iteration, rather than copying 2003

With all that taken care of, here’s my opinions, in very messy order.

Meet Casey Jones vs The Good, The Bad and the Casey Jones

So, this was the very first episode that made me sit back and go: wait. This is just. The same thing?

Raph loses a fight, loses his temper violently over it. He then goes out to get some air and runs into Casey, getting into a fight. Raph goes back and apologizes to his brother, and then they have to deal with the Casey situation. Eventually they’re friends.

That being said, they do handle things a bit differently inside of those plot points, in a way that makes me very split on which one is better.

So, this episode is doing two things: introducing Casey (at least to the turtles, in 2012’s case), and spotlighting Raph’s anger issues, and the shows handle both of them differently. So let's look at them:

Raph and his anger

I want to start with the positioning of the episode within the wider series.

This is the 4th episode of 2003. At this point, they’re still setting up the characters and your understanding of them – so this is really here to say hey, our Raph has a temper, that’s going to be a thing going forward. (I'm watching '87 right now, and while I've heard Raph gets more of his anger late in the series, at the beginning he is... not that. So signaling this for people who might have watched the previous show is valid.)

After this, I don’t remember there being other episodes that are Explicitly About Raph’s anger issues? That’s not to say there aren’t any – there very well could’ve been some that were just so boring I don’t remember them, which would be a whole other issue – but what I remember of him being, to quote the show, a “hot-head” is integrated into other stories.

For 2012, this is nearly halfway through season 2, and is one of 3 episodes I can think of off the top of my head that at least start out framed as a lesson on Raph’s anger issues. (The one with the guy that turns into a spider mutant, this one, and…. Okay so I don’t remember the details but I’m Pretty Sure I remember there being another one post-space arc).

Now, in theory this is good – having a sort of long-term journey recurring throughout the series. In practice… eh.

This is very subjective, but from the way the topic was constantly put on the shelf until they wanted to use it for an episode, to the way it was all extremely surface level and used mostly for jokes, it didn’t do much for me.

That aside, let’s look at the content of the episode itself:

Raph's anger issues have two different tones here.

2003 Raph’s snapping at Mikey is framed a lot more seriously – and a lot more dangerously – than 2012 Raph going at Leo. And, accordingly, ‘03 Raph is a lot more horrified at his actions, whereas ‘12 Raph is more petulant, unwilling to fully own up to his mistake.

That carries over to when they’re “getting some air” - ‘03 Raph is blatantly angry with himself, where ‘12 is complaining about his brother’s not getting it. I do think some of that frustration with himself is buried underneath, but it's interesting to note the difference between how aware of it they are. (Of course, ‘12 also didn’t try to brain his brother over the head with a metal pipe. So.)

The two different versions also shifted what they chose to have “spelled out” versus implied. What I mean is.... okay, so ‘03 had Raph explicitly say “What is wrong with me” – that frustration with himself I mentioned earlier – where it’s kind of buried underneath for ‘12.

On the other hand, ‘12 Raph flat out says he wasn’t angry, just “determined to win,” when explaining himself to Splinter, whereas with ‘03 the reasoning comes from Raph’s “You think you’re better than me?” line during the fight (and a bit of Mikey’s taunting, the menace), allowing you to (very easily, let's be real, I don't know that you can really count this as subtext) connect the dots on how it escalated.

So, that leads to their fight with Casey – where they both get carried away, before coming to their senses and questioning what they’re doing (and subsequently getting surprise-attacked). The difference here is that ‘03, upon calming down, went back to trying to talk some sense into Casey (using the lessons he’s obviously trying to absorb himself), while to me ‘12 Raph just kinda seemed disoriented by it all?

Which. Fair.

Next step: the apology. VERY different receptions. The ‘03 brothers greet Raph with worry and care, and take his apology quietly and warmly, whereas for ‘12 they act like this is another Tuesday, a bit dismissive, and tease and taunt him through his apology. I’m not trying to disparage the ‘12 turtles here – not exactly – more so observing the difference in tone once more.

When people say the ‘03 turtles feel older, I think this is a huge part of it – the ‘12 turtles’ behavior feels very “stupid teenager”. And I mean that in a genuine, fairly affectionate way. I remember being that age, I was dumb. You don’t know how to handle all these strong feelings, you have no impulse control. Also around 2012 I remember being genuine being deeply uncool, so. But ‘03 are demonstrating a higher level of emotional maturity, compared to that, and it does make them feel older.

Anyways, after that you get the reunion with Casey, having very different tones. ‘03 purposefully tries to reach out and rehabilitate help Casey get himself under control, whereas ‘12 diverges into a surprise attack by the Foot where Raph and Casey bicker their way into teamwork.

Overall, ‘03 takes a more... introspective? Approach to Raph’s anger, where ‘12 flickers between being slightly emotional and using the situation for humor or cool action scenes – it feels like setup for an arc that I never felt we got satisfying payoff for.

For my tastes, I think I prefer ‘03 for the Raph part of the episode, if only because it remains thematically cohesive till the end. From start to finish, Raph is trying to impart the lesson he wants to learn to Casey. With 12, it feels like the “Raph’s anger issues” thread got a bit lost/abandoned in building up the Raph-Casey dynamic.

Speaking of...

Casey Jones

I think ‘12 is the better Casey intro episode. There, I said it.

I know, I know! It’s not technically where we meet Casey, we already saw him interacting with April (also scenes I like), but... although having finished 2003 I think ‘03 has the better overall Casey (mostly because they give him like. Actual personal connections to the world), ‘12 has the better initial burst of character, in my opinion.

His little intro monologue is so stupid, and I love it. The skates and the little taser-gloves he obviously put together himself (and the fact that we only got one episode of Donnie and Casey bonding over this kind of engineering is criminal???).

The initiative to follow Raph down, his reactions to Splinter, the entire subway tunnel chase scene, where his and Raph’s rapport is building up... it’s good stuff! I like it! Maybe there’s a bit less depth in some places – we don’t get the personal connection with the Purple Dragons, how it ties back to his family – but his character voice, his initiative and impulsivity, and his creativity all come through.

It’s such a shame they didn’t do more to add to his character throughout the series in ‘12, because he had a fantastic early showing. But then, that series didn’t seem interested in doing that for any of their characters, to me. Sigh.

But... just looking at the episode itself, I'd give the Casey have to 2012.

So... draw? Great way to start off, I know.

Shredder Strikes Back vs The Invasion (or: Leo gets thrown through a window)

So, this is a tough competition, we’re gonna have to take this point by point, I mean -

2012. It’s 2012. Are you kidding me.

Okay, look. 2012 already has an advantage just on moving this from halfway through season 1 to the season 2 finale, but, I mean... come on.

With 2003, there was barely any build up with the Shredder. We’d seen him sort of being in charge of the various villains since early on – but the turtles didn’t see that! For them, he showed up, tricked Leo, Splinter gave some back story, they fought and then Splinter seemingly killed him. It just... wasn’t that dramatic? To me??

So when you have Leo thrown through the window, whispering “he’s back”, I was just like... I see no reason for this level of dread. It doesn’t feel that personal, or important, or.... anything, really. I know 2003 came first, but having watched 2012 beforehand this was kind of a letdown. Didn’t feel earned.

Now, 2012 on the other hand....

Shredder has been a constant, ever-increasing threat since the moment he showed up in Season 1. It was already personal with Splinter, yes, but then he also became a subject of looming dread for the turtles themselves. And it doesn’t come out of nowhere.

Like, yes, we, the viewers, were aware 2003 Shredder survived, but otherwise he was just hanging out off-screen, doing who knows what. He wasn’t on the mind. 2012, on the other hand, showed the way Shredder was slowly amassing power, planning for something.

And then you add the Kraang on top of it.

Like, seriously, making this a two-prong threat is. Mwah! The boys are falling apart, stressed by the time-limit of the upcoming Kraang invasion, disagreeing on how to handle it. And then the argument gets cut short by their home being discovered – they don’t even get a chance to choose their path together, because they have to run, and everything’s chaos, and they’re still focused on the Kraang.

And that’s when the Shredder comes in.

This is insult on top of injury with everything going wrong that possibly could. This is an immaculate payoff to the set-up they’ve been doing all season. This is fantastic.

And when Leo is thrown through the window, you feel it – the dread, the horror, the regret. It really feels like the breaking point of “we can’t take any more” that leads to them retreating. It has a weight to it that 2003’s version was sorely missing.

When it comes to Leo getting thrown through a window, 2012 takes the win, hands down. The stakes, the drama, and my investment are all so much higher than they were in ‘03, no contest, it’s my favorite part of ‘12.

What comes after, on the other hand....

Tales of Leo + The Monster Hunter vs Season 3a (or, the Farmhouse Arc)

Maybe it’s unfair to compare 2 episodes to 8 episodes. And maybe this is diverging from my “only episodes that are directly connected” rule I stated in the beginning, but I need to get this off my chest. Because I just. I’m not impressed by 2012’s farmhouse arc.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Warning: rant ahead, this is VERY subjective and heavily based in my personal tastes. Reminder that I do genuinely enjoy 2012, I just think the farmhouse arc is the lowest point in the whole series and is representative of what I find to be the weakest aspect of the series’ writing across the board. That being said.

I see what 2012 was trying to do, by drawing out Leo’s recovery over all those episodes, giving the characters some space to breathe. But they didn’t do it well in my opinion, and honestly the whole thing. Flounders.

2012’s best feature is its plot writing, how one episode tumbles into the next, Rube Goldberg machine-style, across an entire season. But at the farmhouse, they’re removed from the greater plot, and that’s not doing the writing any favors.

And it’s not that the episode ideas are bad – I generally think they’re pretty interesting! It’s just that without the inter-connected plot, they need something else to push them from “okay” to “exceptional”. Usually, this would be where deeper characterization and relationship building would kick in instead, but uh. I don’t personally think 2012 is great at that.

They under-cut the message of the episode with Big Foot, the Casey and Donnie friendship doesn’t really go anywhere after this, every other episode where inter-personal issues are only dealt with on a very surface level become even more obvious and a bit annoying without the greater plot to distract from it. Yes I know this is a kids show, but A:tlA had already finished airing at this point, also on Nickelodeon.

I think there’s a consistent issue with character writing in 2012 where they do what looks like set-up with no intent to ever give a meaningful pay-off or significantly change the status-quo, and that’s very much on display here.

And it’s not that there was nothing good in the season – I liked what they were doing with Raph, and how he was trying to help/encourage Leo, while somewhat bungling it in very realistic ways. It was a fascinating look at what this Raph acting at his best as the Lancer trope could be, and I genuinely wish they leaned into it more later down the line.

Also, I’m always thrilled to see the Leo-April friendship get some focus, so Eyes of the Chimera was a favorite. But across the board... the season didn’t wow me, and the longer it went on, the more I could see the cracks.

It all tops off with Vision Quest, which was my biggest disappointment in the entire series, the point at which I had to really stop and reset my expectations on what kind of story the writers were interested in telling. The summary describes them having to go on a spiritual journey to really face themselves and their weaknesses, and I was so excited! But then it was just. Really surface level. And occasionally confusing.

Raph needs to work on his temper, sure – but how is this any different than any of the other episodes about it? Do we look at all at where his anger comes from? A deeper way to handle it? No, of course not.

Mikey needs to focus, stop getting distracted – I mean, yeah sure I guess. Not a particularly interesting way of handling it, though. Also, even if he manages it here, I know it's not going to pan out to the rest of the show, they’re not giving up their easy source of humor for the younger demographic.

And Donnie needs to... stand his ground? What? I was so caught off guard. It’s not that it’s completely out of touch, we see him coming up with complex paths to his goals, trying to think his way around of problems, ect, but... it was never really highlighted or presented as a real problem other than maybe the episode on instinct over thinking too hard? It just felt really disconnected from anything else they were doing with him. A genuinely interesting pay-off scene, with no solid set-up.

And Leo. Oh jeez. My friends. WHAT is up with how they handled Leo’s knee injury? The pain is just in my mind? It's not real?? Really??? No, thank you.

Like... I think this was supposed to be a riff on what Splinter says about ‘03 Leo’s coma, and him being trapped in his head due to fear – but because in ‘12 they tied it to an actual, specific physical injury, the execution falls apart.

(Especially when they use the same flash-effect they used on Leo having issues with his knee of Splinter having issues later in the series but I probably shouldn't take that into account here.)

I mean, his quest is the closest to being satisfying, because they had lain interesting groundwork with his struggle with recovery and his insecurities in previous episodes, but then they just completely bungle it at the end! Argh!

I was so excited for Vision Quest, but this didn't tell me anything new about the characters or progress the characters in any meaningful way! It had no effect on how the characters are written going forward. So – other than some admittedly very cool fight choreography – what was the point? Was there one?? It felt like putting on the trappings of an emotionally deep story without any of the actual, you know. Depth.

I am clawing at the walls. Look at all the potential you wasted.

And yes, I’m aware this is all very subjective, and again part of a show for kids, but that’s how it hit me.

The 2003 farmhouse arc, on the other hand, was very short, and I think it benefited from that. It had two episodes, and it knew what it was doing with both of them. They felt purposeful, in the larger arc of the story.

First episode: they make their way to the farmhouse, Leo’s in a coma (according to Splinter, one driven by his fear), and his family tells stories of when he was brave/strong as a little kid to try and bring him out.

Wonderful, amazing, I love this episode. So much character work – both in the past and present! By going back to when they were kids, it helps us contextualize the turtles’ relationships by making them simpler.

In showing early memories that probably started cementing their views of each other, we see the core around which they developed. By seeing which memory each brother chooses to present, we get some insight into how they each see Leo. It gives us a point A to our current point B, which allows us to extrapolate the line between the two, how they developed.

And then you also get the little moments of how the brothers are handling this catastrophic event, how they react to the stress, to seeing their brother so hurt – Raph especially! It’s pure character work and I love it.

After that, we get one episode of shenanigans, which is both representative of that “space to breathe” after Leo woke up, and also gives space for the B-plot (which is the truly arc-important plot) of Leo, now awake, dealing with his own handling of this stressful situation.

Is the A-plot of this episode quite as good as some of the ideas for the 2012 episodes? Honestly, no, but just the fact that it’s carrying the Leo recovery story pushes it ahead. We see Leo struggling with his failure, Raph stepping up to herd him back on the right track – the idea of physically remaking his swords to remake himself! And, though we don’t know it yet, how hard Leo takes this is great foreshadowing to how he reacts going into his season 4 breakdown.

And then, having done the character work they wanted to accomplish, the writers go back to the main story. The characterization here matters (and also is good) in a way that whatever is going on in the 2012 farmhouse arc just. Isn’t.

In my opinion.

Okay, rant over, winner is obvious, moving on.

Triceratons

Again, we’re not comparing most of the space arcs, as that’s apples to oranges, but there are two episodes that caught my attention:

Rogue in the House vs Dinosaur Seen in Sewers!

Here we've got two episodes where the turtles find a Very Confused Triceraton and trick him into helping them.

I like the 2003 one better.

Honestly, it comes down to the context of the episode. Rogue in the House comes after the turtles have been in space and when they know more about who the Triceratons are. 2012 on the other hand is a sudden introduction to a new arc.

2003 also... questions the ethics of their decision more, by the end. It’s a bit more empathetic? And I appreciate that.

I will give 2012 credit that translating “we’ve been dropped into the middle of a war where both sides are bad” over to be attached to the Kraang, which they’ve built up already as a powerful alien threat, was clever. It doesn’t have the same edge of commentary that “and one of these sides looks just like us humans” has, but it is clever use of their existing world-building, and I like it.

The Arena vs The Arena of Carnage

The most obvious connection in the 2012 space arc – the turtles get thrown into a gladiator arena.

Now, 2003 does have an unfair advantage in this comparison, as The Arena is heavily bolstered by the set-up work done in The Big House, giving you a sense of place, stakes, connection to the other characters...

That last bit is where my bias and personal taste shows: I really love the turtles making any kind of meaningful connection with other characters, and I find this more convincing in the 2003 version than the 2012 one.

But 2012 also weakens itself in its own right by doing some setup here with no long-term pay off. You’ve got your fellow prisoner, who turns out to be a Triceraton who objected to the leadership's decisions... and after this episode, that means nothing! Cool, okay.

Like I get that was a part of the episode they’re pulling from, but if they’re not planning on reusing that long-term story, then they really could have cut that aspect all together. I know they have enough creativity in them to adapt the concept of “stuck in a gladiator arena” to do something more interesting, they’ve proved they have it in them. They just... didn’t, and the plot point didn’t translate well. Ah, well.

2003 also wins this one.

City at War vs... City at War?(???)

Look, I am only comparing these because they use the exact same name. Otherwise, it’s nowhere near a fair comparison. For 2012, this is actually part of a couple episodes where they talk about there being a power vacuum after the Shredder is out of the picture, but...

Can we be so real? They don’t even get close to the scale of 2003. Like with the farmhouse, it’s not that they don’t have any good ideas – I like the Don Visioso episode quite a bit – but it never gets to the depth or scale I want it to.

Like, 2003 made it visually obvious that the city is falling apart, that things are really out of control, in a way you can feel. Though, honestly, I’m not even sure 2012 could reach the levels of 2003, because they never put as much effort into making their NYC feel... real? I guess?

Also, the 2003 City at War arc is just. It’s really good, guys. It did such great work on Leo and Raph’s characterization, the danger in the city is palpable, the tension is thick, and then you add Karai on top of it all?

You’d think 2012 could push this, given the added dimensions to Karai and her connection to Shredder, but it ends up falling short. Point again goes to 2003.

What a Croc! Vs It Came From the Depths (Leatherhead)

So. I am painfully biased, because It Came From the Depths is my favorite 2012 Mikey episode, and I thought What a Croc! was... just okay.

I frequently bemoan that 2012 didn’t lean more into long-form character arcs for their story, and this is one of the central episodes that defined my desire for Mikey’s arc.

The instant compassion and understanding he has for Leatherhead – the way he recognizes and is willing to work with his trauma responses, but also is childishly impatient with the process when it gets messy later on, showing he still has some maturing to do – it's great, and I love it. I didn’t find the same kind of depth in the 2003 episode.

On the other hand, long-term I like Leatherhead better in 2003, just because he’s more present as ally, friend, or even family. 2012 Mikey’s always excited to see Leatherhead, but you don’t exactly see them hanging out.

But this is about the episode, and for that, I’ll give it to 2012.

Renet (Time Travails + Return of the Savanti Vs Turtles in Time + Tale of the Yokai)

I’ll be real with you, 2003 gains points with me just because this is another example of 2012 poorly shoving in romance. I would like to make it clear – I don’t have an objective issue with the turtles being in romantic relationships. It’s just... don’t put it in there if the writing's going to be so... bad. And boring. And unnecessary.

Additionally, this particular example put me off a bit more because... hm. Okay, the episode starts with Mikey going “I'm never gonna get caught up in all that!" Only for the show to do the writing equivalent of saying "of course you will, as soon as the right person comes along. And here she is!"

And uhm. Okay, so, I’m asexual with a big ? when it comes to romance. So that framing is..... nghghghgh I don't like it. Like I get the joke, but it still gave me the ick.

Also it was another infatuation-at-first-sight situation like Donnie which. Is a romantic trope that is So Stupid, you CANNOT tell me that's how it actually works, I don't believe you, and also it makes for stupid, boring writing. So there.

Ahem.

Once you get past that, there’s points to be made for both episodes. The way the 2003 turtles find Renet just kind of tiring but can’t help going along with her anyways is very funny to me, but 2012 lets them do Tales of the Yokai, and I enjoy the concept of them getting to see what Actually Happened Back Then, rather than just hearing subjective stories of it. Adds some texture.

I dunno on this one – if it’s Time Travails vs Turtles in Time, 2003 wins, but once you move on to Tale of the Yokai I give it to 2012. Call it a draw?

Loosely inspired by

Okay. So. These are things where I can’t say “Oh, they were just doing this story again”, but where I think there might have been some heavy inspiration. Your mileage may very on these, and you could think I’m completely wrong, but I thought they’d be interested to talk about.

Even if they are from Back to the Sewers.

The Engagement Ring to The Power Within Her

April gets magic jewelry that possesses her, goes on a rampage? Admittedly, the set-up is very different, as is the tone, but... well, you have to wonder.

I thought The Engagement Ring was one of the better episodes of Back to the Sewers, but as entertaining as it was, I’m still going to give this to 2012, I think. I like things that have more build-up to them, and they did pretty good at setting up this episode ahead of time, building up that dread. And it just did more with the concept, you know?

Also, it fit well into my interpretation/re-write of April’s character, so.

Identity Crisis to Brain Worms

I mean. Turtles get brain-washed by the Foot, have to be broken out of it by being reminded of memories/who they were. Methodology of the brainwashing is very different, admittedly, which is why I put this down here rather than in the main section! But it’s similar enough for me to connect them.

This is another situation where I think 2012 took a concept and further developed it. The brain worms are fantastically gruesome, and really treated like the existential horror it should be. The amount of fics I’ve seen expanding on the brain-worms concept is proof of how it hooks in people’s brains.

Another point to 2012.

Conclusion

So let’s run a tally.

I'm not sure the two Back to the Sewer episodes count, but I also maybe have broken my rule on the farmhouse arc... I guess we could count those as half points?

Casey Intro: Draw

Window: point 2012

Farmhouse: half-point 2003

Lost triceraton: point 2003

Gladiator arena: Point 2003

City at War: point 2003

Leatherhead intro: point 2012

Renet: Draw

Losely inspired: cumulative point 2012

So that's... 3.5 for 2003, 3 for 2012, and two draws? Pretty close.

Realistically, I think these should be the two takeaways from my opinions:

First, 2003 better matches my personal tastes. I'm a character arc girly, and 2003 gave a lot more attention to that aspect of their writing than 2012 did, and that affects my opinions. See: the Vision Quest rant.

Second, what makes 2012 good is the stuff that’s specific to its iteration.

The way they adapted the Hamato Yoshi backstory from 2003 to be about Splinter and Shredder, making Karai Splinter’s stolen daughter, and how that whole plot line plays out. The way they make the Kraang a whole organization, and their alliance with Shredder. The full season, Rube-Goldberg machine buildup of plot. These are all the thing that make it excel.

So... yeah. That's my thoughts. Your opinions might be different, and - if you're nice about it, please - I would love to hear your thoughts on what I've said, which episodes you like better, and why you like them! Shows hit different people, well, differently!

#subjective opinions ahoy!#seriously though I think this comes down to what you like in a story/your history with the series/where and how you first watched them/ect #but it was fun to think through #and also get the vision quest rant off my chest ahahah #tmnt #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2003 #yza talks about a thing

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doubleddenden · 3 months ago

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Alright, time to try critiquing the SV protagonists and available uniforms, because they basically took away most character customization from previous games to make less work for themselves. It's honestly sad, I understand why they had to when the game struggles just to live, but Jesus man. Some actual static outfits would have been very nice, and even with the constraints, mistakes were made.

I'm gonna be pretty critical at first, it does get better later on, but Florian and Juliana are the weakest designs of ALL the protagonists imo, despite maybe being the strongest and most traveled. Sorry if that hurts to hear.

Let's rip the bandaid off. This is what they decided to initially promote their game with. Unless you have questionable tastes, I think we can all agree that these are just bad main character designs and certainly not what you LEAD with. The MCs usually have an average age range of 11 to late teens based on appearance, and "outside" data you need a detective to sniff out and find (as in not in the game, and imho negligible) will usually peg them as around 11 to 16 or so. These read as maybe 8 or 9. Not out of ten. Age.

These are the youngest looking protagonists in the entire franchise's history, and it's just not a good look at all, especially considering most players are probably adults into their 20s and 30s at this point (I spoke about it before in past posts, but most kids I personally know only like to collect cards, buy merch, or watch the shows, and can't really get into the games). Certainly impossible for me to project myself onto, even with the limited customization they offer.

These guys don't look like Pokemon trainers. Florian looks nervous and scared, and Juliana- well she has the spirit, but the outfits look like elementary education uniforms, like the kind little kids like 5 or 6 wear in some countries, not Pokemon trainer material yet. The school aspect I understand, but not this level.

Someone on the art team thought that they looked "cute" and that was good enough- I don't want my protagonists to look like this. Even if they're young, I'd prefer them to look at least like they're ready for adventure. These don't. They're literal babies, and I'm sure someone in game freak thinks of this as a subtle jab at players and thinks they are very clever- all it does is suggest a spiteful art and dev team, people who gave up, or couldn't say no to overbearing art directors who wanted cuteness over reasonable or neutral designs. 1/10 for these renders, especially the hats. The art technique itself is fine, but not what it depicts, and it's a god damn good thing they quickly revealed more uniforms.

Now the other uniforms- they promised a lot of accessory customization, but in reality you only get gloves, socks, shoes, hat, glasses, and a backpack. I was hoping we could mix and match parts together, maybe get some "unorthodox" uniforms we could customize, like a hoodie under the blazer, or an open vest and untucked shirt with longer pants. Accessories make me also think of things like bracelets, ear rings, little doodads on your backpack, etc.

Of course, game freak wouldn't be who they are today if they didn't try to cut as many corners as possible, even with the limited dev time they had (at that point, just recycle SwSh's with some add ons, or just make some better static outfits. Jeans and a tshirt would have been better).

You only get 4 outfits to work with before dlc, and honestly I think only the winter uniform for either game is all that serviceable, with Violet's actually being pretty fucking baller, surprisingly. Girls fair slightly better off for feminine outfits and combinations, but honestly it doesn't matter at this point which gender you pick- huzzah, the guys are finally as good as girls in the customization department! All it took was turning us into femboys and removing most of the fun stuff from either.

I've seen people praise the more gender neutral approach as "inclusive," but sorry, I'm not so easily appeased and I don't believe in praising billion dollar franchises and companies for something they didn't do or intended to, nor for the bare minimum with a scope they themselves made for the game they were making in a very tumultuous time. I've said before, but I'm gonna say it again:

Inclusion by omission is not inclusion, it's just the illusion of inclusion by taking away options- that in itself makes the praise fake and performative at best, desperate and pathetic at worst. Have a spine. Demand better for the money you're paying (it's only getting more expensive, honey).

Besides that, the characters in story still refer to you by gendered pronouns, and Juliana still has a girl's body in game, you're still on the binary and I'm not going to praise game freak for doing something they didn't do, and especially doing a mostly terrible job at it.

For the base uniforms, we'll do it like this:

Summer: 1/10

Spring: 5/10

Autum: 5/10

Winter: Scarlet, 7/10. Violet: 9/10

The extra dlc uniforms are basically fashion disasters imo. 3/10 collectively, I'm not wearing any of that. They look nice on Team Star later, but that's it. Just give me Arven's outfit, please.

Moving onto dlc, the newer art actually makes the two feel more appropriately aged, looking about 12 or so. The festival jinbei look themselves are neat and immersive, and good for the festival, but I probably wouldn't wear it again. Juliana's new hair is cute af, but Florian... no. Overall a 7 I'd say.

Now, we're finally cooking. NOW they look like proper protagonists, all dripped out and full of confidence, and the correct age to be a trainer. If only they started like this. Man. They still read as young, but not younger than 10 like before. Just overall vast improvements. 9/10 here alone for vanilla designs.

Now the full range of Blueberry Academy uniforms is very decent- not quite matching the winter violet uniform, but easily surpassing Paldea's others. That's just how Unovans roll, baby. If you stick to mostly white, blue, or a little red, you can accessorize and make a very cool uniform, my favorite probably being the Autumn uniform for being a good variety of color while still making a nice outfit. This definitely reads as a more age appropriate set of uniforms, and probably has some basis on Japanese school uniforms, while Paldea probably based theirs either on kindergarten, elementary, or for some reason skipping to high school for winter. Either way, just a way better look- that you have to pay $35 for. HUH I WONDER IF IT WAS INTENTIONAL WOW

These get a collective 8/10, and I'd like that track uniform too.

But, all in all, the customization is severely lacking, and I should hope whatever lessons Game Freak needed to learn was, in fact, learned, and whoever was responsible fir some of the bad decisions left for greener grasses (I would say fired, but they did have to develop during covid). I doubt it, and gen 10 will probably star babies fresh out of the womb at this point, but here's hoping with the improvements the ZA protagonists have, they'll do better going forward.

But all in all, a collective 6/10. I know I praised, but the fact is that they severely limited us with lackluster outfits, knowing full and damn well the game wouldn't be finished and knowing out the gate that they'd make more uniforms. Again, at that point, just recycle from SwSh and add more to it.

In an ideal school uniform setting- which I think was the biggest bullet to the kneecap here- you'd be able to mix and match, have a little fun with some extras like a hoodie on or underneath the uniform, go for a more proper or improper appearance, hell you could even mix and match uniform types and adjust that- take something like Violet's jacket with Scarlet's pants, or BBA's winter top, unbutton it, paint it black, and pair it with other uniforms for a cool jacket look. I'd even flip and swap colors- like an orange top and white pants, purple top and black pants, etc. In fact, the lore itself says trainers of ALL AGES go to the school, which we see with even grandpas there, so some actual alternative body types with different ages also would've been great.

But if I were to make uniforms for a Pokemon academy, I'd try to make them less realistic and more stylistic- Take Yugioh GX's Duel Academy uniforms, for instance, with options across the spectrum for all sorts of fashion choices while still looking cool and practical. I'd especially kill for Jaiden, Hussleberry, or Jesse's uniforms (I know he goes to a different school shush).

But hopefully they got these stupid uniforms out of their systems anyway. I'm tired of them.

Next post will be the SV friends and rivals, because they essentially fill the same boat

#pokemon #dd reviews pokemon #pokemon gen 9 #pokemon scarlet and violet #trainer florian #trainer juliana

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draw-of-the-moon · 5 months ago

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The season 4 anon here. Just want to confirm a few things about your au cuz i think im cooking up smth in my brain about the scenario i gave you

Ok so first of all, i know Lloyd will stay a kid in this one thnks to your previous posts on this. So im assuming Nya will take his place in the tournament ? Like. She is the one competing instead of the child ? If so does this mean the infiltration crew will be the Chimera parents while Wu and Misako stay back in the city with Lloyd ?

Second of all. The other elemental masters are still the same right ? Or are there any oc additions ?

Third. Zane in general. No change to his plotline and how the ninja find out he is alive and in the island right ? But if so can you describe a bit ?

And lastly. Not really a question about the tournament. I just want to know what the Chimera parents opnions on the likes of Overlord/Crystal King, Morro or even Chen are. (Im just asking this because there are some villains with sooooooo many parallels potentials to the LMK's Rogue's gallery like Harumi.)

Before you ask. Yes. I might be writting something with the angsty prompt i given you last ask :)))))))) Google docs sure is a good friend in times like this.

So to begin, I love the idea of Nya being an active participant in the tournament. Even though she still technically operating as Dragon X at this point, in this au she did grow up actively using her water powers so why wouldn’t Chen invite her to participate? After Kai runs away from home, Nya joins her parent’s attempts to track him down. It isn’t until she teams up with Lloyd that she finally finds Kai participating in the underground fighting rings- although she doesn’t get the chance to tell on her idiot brother in between the Ninjas reunion at Chen’s noodles, the subsequent ambush, and invitation to the tournament of elements. And thought of going back home is forgotten in favor of finding out if Zane is alive.

Lloyd also receives an invite to the tournament as the green ninja (because you can’t tell me Chen wouldn’t bat an eye at a bunch full grown warriors trying to fight a child) but the Ninja and Garmadon ban him from participating, which is unfair! He’s just as much as part of this team as everyone else! Not to mention, he fought the overlord so he can totally win this thing- except everyone refuses to budge on their stance. Leaving Lloyd with no choice but to stow away on the ship to Chen’s island. Needless to say, his father and the Ninja aren’t pleased once they realized what he’s done. As for Chimera, they’re already up in arms when they realize they aren’t just missing one kid but two. So once they hear from Wu that Lloyd is also missing, well, they’re on a war path and on a special mission to infiltrate Chen’s island. Fortunately, Red’s past as a villain means they got connections to sneak in.

For your second point, yes! As it currently stands the elemental masters are still the same (Ray and Maya even still exist, they just aren’t related to Kai and Nya) and Zane’s backstory is unchanged, although he starts to piece together theirs something a little… off about his past a bit earlier in a canon after Mei fails to find anything about him in his background check in the aftermath of them meeting Chimera for the first time. Red had his suspicions too, especially seeing how Zane interacted with the bull clones but you can’t exactly ask your kids if you can crack their new friend open to see if he’s made of bolts and wires- at least not without getting yelled at.

As for Chimera’s opinion on the Ninja’s rouge gallery, it feels like every other week an old enemy of Wu’s is coming out of the woodworks and quite frankly it’s starting to feel a little ridiculous. At the very least, MK and Mei considers it a nice change of pace from having to constantly fight Monkey King’s recycled villains (and exes).

That said, the only villains Chimera really has a connection with from the Ninja’s rouge gallery are Chen- because Pigsy is locked in a one sided rivalry with the chain restaurant, constantly complaining about how they “don’t cook from the heart”- and the Time Twins, who commissioned a pre-redemption arc Red Son to work on some weapons and armor for their Vermillion army. Although once the others villains start trying to hurt their family, all bets are off the table. Especially when it comes to the overlord and Morro. Morro possessing Lloyd was personal.

Thanks for the ask anon!

#chimera parents au #drawofthemoon asks #lmk x ninjago #lmk crossover #ninjago crossover #ninjago s4

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saveahorserideaneddie · 1 year ago

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One Fan’s Thoughts on 9-1-1 Season 7

(fair warning this is about to be a long ass rant post so buckle up; if you, like me, get anxiety over speculation and discussion of the show, this may not be the post for you to read… but i need to get my thoughts out there because i have kept them bottled up for so long that it is taking a mental toll on me.)

there’s something so gutwrenching about laying awake in bed thinking about how you have been the closest you’ve ever been to actually seeing a queer ship you’ve stuck with for six years actually going canon just to be hit with an immensely overwhelming sense of doubt because every time the story presents a natural path to develop in that direction, the writers completely veer off in an insanely different direction despite constantly trying to push this narrative of “if it goes there naturally” while ignoring the plethora of times it already has gone there naturally but has been passed over for some insanely far-fetched plotline that contradicts points that have been set up in the past…

i’m not trying to put a dampner on things or worry anyone, and like i mentioned in my previous post i am NOT closing on buddie, but i still can’t help but feel cinical and pessimistic about it when it feels like Tim is just blatantly baiting us at this point. Like at times it doesn’t even feel like he’s actually open to exploring buddie when he is constantly retconning his own storylines from previous seasons, and making excuses every time he deliberately chooses to ignore the countless number of chances that crop up in the story, instead deciding that because he wants to redo hitchcock he’s going to rewrite the history he created in order to fit a convoluted plotline that borders on farse just to a) not give fans what they have been begging for for years, b) shoehorn in his vertigo fanfiction, c) stir up drama rather than actually giving us something pointing in a positive direction to combat the 5000 other depressing plotlines he’s trying to cram into a 10 episode season.

i really thought tim was going to bring back the old vibe we had before KR took over and messed things up, but so far this season has felt like a jam-packed rushed mess that resembles a middle schooler’s first forray into a wattpad angst fic, and it’s disheartening to have sat with the show since the first season just to see it fall off so hard w s6 b, only to rebuild hope that things might go back to normal w s7, just for it to spiral even further into jump-the-shark territory.

And this is not just about buddie. There have been numerous times this season that have just been recycled plot points from previous seasons rather than something new and fresh, simply for the sake of melodrama. Old plotlines that had been seemingly finished are being rehashed and recontextualized out of nowhere, characters are getting entire traits and development completely rewritten and replaced with something almost unrecognizable to newer fans, there has been very little positivity within the narrative to allow us to breathe between traumatic moments, and the few positive moments we have received have been lukewarm at best, and have done nothing but cause derision and hate to be spread throughout the fandom.

PR for this season has been a mess. At times it feels like Oliver Stark is the only actor who exists on the show, and that Buck is somehow the titular character— not that Buck’s coming out storyline is not important, it absolutely is, but the entire season should not be focused solely on him just because of a two episode arc that honestly didn’t tell us anything new about him besides canonically confirming what we’ve known to be true since the second season.

We have cast members stirring up drama by indulging fans through paid video responses, and cast members on live getting asked to weigh in on fandom drama that they honestly have no reason to be involved in. We have news outlets constantly being approved by the PR team to ask questions about a popular ship to bait viewers into watching the show when there has not been any concrete evidence either way of whether or not they actually plan to go there, dragging things out for another season when they have no confirmation yet in whether or not they will get a 9th season (and if they do, probably coming up with some other bullshit reason to drag things out), confirming that certain plot points were planned to happen in the past but for some reason now they are like “but that’s not what we’re doing anymore so you have to live with present and be happy with what you get.”

There is no reason why 6 years can’t be a long enough time for a slow burn. There is no reason for characters to be given increasingly convoluted arcs that callback to plotlines that have been otherwise nonexistent for years at this point. There is no reason to drag fans of a ship along just because you’re too scared to lose they’re viewership rather than just flat out saying “no we aren’t ever going to do it” or actually committing to it one of the hundreds of times the story opens a path to it.

No, the choices made this season were not “the only way” we could have been given the same dramatic beats. The choices made have not been some sort of end all be all to the story with no other possible outcome. Tim did not need to send the show off the rails the way he has just because he wants drama. Yes it’s a drama show, but there also need to be moments to breathe. Yes it’s a drama show, but that doesn’t mean you can’t let characters be happy. Yes it’s a drama show, but that doesnt mean you have to fuck up the narrative every time it starts going in the direction of something the fans have begged for for years just because you don’t want to give it to them.

It’s disappointing to see how careless they are being with things this season when previous seasons the actors and writers have been so cautious about what was said about buddie. now we have every interview mentioning buddie in some way, yet we only get told “idk 🤷” and see nothing concrete in the story to firmly hint one way or the other. It’s disappointing when you start feeling like you are being dragged along because a corporation knows that ship baiting won’t ever actually backfire/have a negative affect on them, so it ends up being a lose-lose situation for the fandom.

Maybe it’s because I have been burned too msny times by TV shows in the past, but nothing about this season or the PR surrounding it has given me faith that Tim or the writers actually care about anything other than viewership. Otherwise we would be seeing clear signs of the growing seeds of buddie, but so far all we’ve seen is the same framing choices that we’ve seen in every other season that are being made to deliberately keep buddie fans drawn in and theorizing when the writers have most likely already thrown out any plans that there might have ever been for buddie to go canon.

Mostly, I am disappointed in the fact that Oliver has been so heavily involved in pushing buddie speculation after being so careful to not lead people on in the past- i know that some believe that this was a sign that buddie is coming and he knows it is, but as the season draws to a close it feels more like he is just showing where his loyalty lies even though he knows the show isn’t going to take it there. I am not blaming oliver for buddie not going canon or trying to insinuate that he is queerbaiting in any way, but i can’t help but feel like i wouldn’t be so dejected about the way this season is going if he hadn’t started interacting with and sharing buddie content before any sort of confirmation was given.

now do not get me wrong i absolutely ADORE oliver and i am not in any way trying to attack him or speak against him in any way, I am simply saying that his sudden vocal support and campaigning for buddie is only going to add on to my disappointment in heaps if they don’t make buddie canon, especially after JLH said Tim made Madney happen bc she asked for it, but he still hasn’t made any sort of definitive move towards buddie after the same amount of time.

and lastly my disappointment also lies with the fact that ryan’s acting ability has been wasted on this crackfic plot… ryan is one of the most underutilized dramatic actors on the show, and the fact that the only serious arc he has gottne this season isn’t even that serious because of how out of character and preposterous it is is really disappointing. ryan deserves better, and eddie deserves better, and it is disappointing seeing him acting his entire heart and sole out in a plotline that makes his character out to be the bad guy in the situation when this is something eddie would never do under normal circumstances. Ryan’s talent has once again only been used to show trauma and this time it wasn’t even trauma that feels natural within the story, and especially after his recent interview it disappoints me that we are once again reiterating that eddie is somehow mentally unstable enough to have an emotional affair with a woman he knows nothing about just because she looks like shannon. Eddie has simultaneously had so much yet so little development, and seeing some of the theories of where his character is going in the context of ryan saying s8 will be a “reset” for eddie doesn’t fill me with excitement over where his story is going and actually makes me worried that we are going to see regression rather than progress for the sake of drama… i just don’t want to see eddie’s character revamped to a point where he has lost all of his development from the past 6 seasons just because Tim wanted to turn eddie’s plotline into a melodramatic telenovela.

Anyway, sorry for the rant— maybe it’s the stuff that’s going on in my personal life combined with the fear of getting played by yet another network tv show ship baiting that’s making me feel this way, but this season has left me feeling so pessimistic and cynical about the show as a whole, but mostly about buddie and it hurts. I love both of these characters dearly, and i want them to finally understand that everything they’ve ever needed in life they have in each other, but it feels like ever time we are on the verge, another wild card is played and it’s getting old atp.

i don’t say any of this to cause an argument. i don’t say any of this to poke and prod at people. i say this as someone who has loved this show and given it 7 years of my life who feels like my experience as a fan is being shat on in favor of melodrama rather than thoughtful storytelling… not to say there haven’t been really good moments this season, but overall, it has really soured things for me the way Tim has handled/taken the narrative in many ways, and I don’t know if I will be able to watch season 8 until i see concrete evidence that things will be better. i am not kidding when i say this takes the spot as my least favorite season after season 6, regardless of if we get any hope or not next ep… and that is what upsets me.

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anthroposeen · 1 year ago

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tmagp 17 relisten notes!!

as always, tmagp and tma spoilers below the cut! hope you guys enjoy the breakdown :)

celia:

- she's been teleported to another road side, this time very close to a highway in oxford. she missed the play with sam and didnt have a way to contact him about it

- she wants to make up for missing the play by paying for their next date, and seems pretty genuine about her guilt and interest in him

- once the incident ends, she thanks the computer/chester for it. this could have been a sarcastic comment on her part, but it comes across as her acknowledging the case for what it is, and acknowledging that it is somehow curated for her. i think this is evidenced by her telling alice the incident wasnt very useful, implying she tries to find their meaning, and takes them as some form of sentience.

sam:

- he seems a bit peeved that celia didn't call him to tell him she had to cancel, and tells her to not make a habit of this kind of thing. i think its important to keep in mind that we've established he's very sensitive to rejection and people "not having time" for him.

- "im not a big horror fan" who's going to tell him?

alice:

- her computer keeps malfunctioning, showing a jmj error

- shes back to making bad puns and jokes at gwen's expense, a hard shift from her demeanor last episode

- she jokes to gwen about venting their problems as a group exercise, but denies actually having a problem to discuss

gwen:

- she helps alice with the jmj error, and says that colin hasnt been in the office in weeks, though theres no more word in his whereabouts

- she also! denies having anything to talk about! great communication guys!

incident:

- narrated by chester/jon, read at celia's desk.

- incident pulled from the magnus institute oxford outreach center -> important for the obvious reason and because celia woke up in oxford the most recent time she teleported

- darrien is given low viability for agent, subject, and catalyst

- states that "continued incarceration" is the advised method of containing/studying the subject and phenomena, implying that sometime after the statement was given, the magnus institute incarcerated darrien for unknown reasons.

- the statement was given by a man named darrien -> episode 13 also featured a darrien, but it doesn't appear to be the same man to me, i think its most likely that ajn and johhny are just having a good time with recycling names.

- darrien was in a court ordered anger-management program and was transported across dimensions during a therapy session -> intense meditation seemed to be the trigger here

- the receptionist at his therapy office was a "big, soft looking guy" who stumbled over his words, this is followed by the mention of a "bookish looking guy" who darrien says gives him weird pervert vibes. while these are incredibly in character descriptions for them both, i cant say im sure these are alternate-dimension's martin and jon. ide also like to point out that these are characters from darrien's previous universe, not the tmagp one where he finds himself.

- when darrien wakes up from his meditation he has a strong migraine, dry eyes, a stiff neck, and he was dizzy. later, he discovers hes emaciated as he continuously passes out. these symptoms seem to go away as he stays in this dimension

- he woke up in the tmagp universe in a shopping center, coming from a magnus institute outreach post -> seeing as how we know the main building is still active, it could be that the outreach centers also serve as "portals"

- he experienced similar things to anya villette's statement in tma s3. he couldnt contact his employer, had no emergency contact to give the hospital, woke up in a different location, and was taken to the wrong address.

- the tmagp native darrien (who ill call other!darrien for clarity here) was welcoming to his lost doppelgänger, letting him stay in his house and offering him advice on how to keep his anger in check

- darrien describes meeting his other!self as "trying not to fall through the cracks" -> potentially a call back to anya villette's episode "cracked foundation"

- they reasoned the coincidence out by figuring they were half siblings, though they were both named darrien. they discovered a couple of time discrepancies, seeing as their dad died on different days

- the housekeeper, sharon, was wary of them, giving darrien a scared look and looking for opportunities to leave the room when he was around

- when darrien asks how other!darrien manages his anger, hes taken to a heavy door in the basement. there was a single drop of blood on the staircase leading down. ragged breathing and pleading for help rose from below the stairs, and darrien refused to be a part of this anger-vent exercise. he pushed other!darrien into the room, locking it back.

- darrien denies the invitation into the torture chamber, "i couldnt join him down there with my father", later saying he felt guilty for not killing other!darrien and "saving whatever poor soul he had kept". at first, i thought that his other!father was being kept in the basement and tortured, but i think he uses his dad as a metaphor for the anger they both carry. this opens up the scarier realization that other!darrien is just torturing a random person

- once he locked other!darrien in the basement room, he adopted his life.

- sharon didnt return to darrien after her vacation was up, and its thought that she reported him to the institute, where we can assume they began his incarceration

glitches/lies:

- "i'm ok/its ok" spoken by celia as she's trying to reassure herself

- no glitches after gwen and alice say they have nothing to share. its very possible this is because they dont want to share with each other

extra comments:

- the jmj wrror stops popping up after alice proposes talking out their issues as a team, but considering they dont actually do that im chalking it up to a coincidence for now

- this incident follows chester's normal shtick: statement from the magnus institute, directly targeting someones business, and sort of providing a cautionary tale

- this may be my favorite incident so far. it has a very similar vibe to the early tma statements, and an ominous music bit from s1-2 even played briefly as darrien meets his dopplegänger (at least, thats what it sounded like to me). it has a lot of revelation-centered horror that really grabs me, knowing exactly who will be in the house as darrien knocks on the door and following his dopplgänger into the torture room were so vivid for me, its the exact type of horror that always makes me genuinely creeped out!

- this episode raises a lot of questions about the stability of this dimension, and all dimensions in general since there seems to be reoccurring leaks/cracks. this manifests as celia teleporting across space, existing in this universe in general, the giant cavern in the magnus institute ruins, and darrien's adventures in universe-hopping.

- as i mentioned in the incident points, jon and martin have a sort of hinted cameo in darrien's original universe, but a part of me refuses to believe its them just because i enjoy the mystery set up after mag 200. if this is all the content we get of potential jon and martin dopplegängers, ill actually be happy with that. i really do enjoy the notion that they exist in some boring reality somewhere else, and martin still stumbles over his words and jon still needs anger management therapy. i like that theres consistency even in an alternate universe. im certain we wont be seeing these vague background characters again, but i would love to see darrien's reaction to norris's voice.

#tmagp 17 #tmagp #the magnus protocol #tmagp theory #tmagp spoilers #tmagp thoughts #alice dyer #celia ripley #gwen bouchard #sam khalid

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lizardsexposed · 7 months ago

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Really long post on some thoughts I have in a post-veilguard dragon age universe and some things I think BioWare maybe should do.

I think moving forward with the Dragon Age Franchise BioWare need to have some serious considerations. It's very clear that Veilguard had a mixed reception (and I'm discounting the culture war nonsense, BioWare games have always had this response. See Mass Effect and DAI). The main point of contention for this game has been the lack of respect for previous player choices and disregard for the lore alongside general sanitisation and a bit of bad character writing.

I think it's fair to assume the issue with sanitisation is likely from a more senior position than BioWare itself so I will be discounting that a little here. They should learn their lesson on this one, we only have to look a BG3 to see this doesn't harm sales.

Broadly, I think we only have to look at the post-credits scene (which in itself has led to BioWare having to clarify some things due to backlash from fans) to see the implication is that the game will return to Ferelden. I think it is a near impossibility that they do this, without invoking some serious ire from the fans if choices are not respected here.

I think by and large a lot of people want to see the return of the Hero of Ferelden in some capacity. BioWare have always shirked away from this, primarily I think because unvoiced protagonist in a voiced game is hard to do, alongside the variety of endings for Origins making this a complex mess to fit into the story. BioWare have been afraid of pissing off fans through this, which I think is totally valid and I think until this point may have been the correct decision.

However I think the rise of secondary character customisation, alongside the fact you'd probably only need 4ish more voice actors and the ability to give the character a voice a valid consideration on if this should be done. They are capable of doing this, as they have done it with both Hawke and the Inquisitor. Alongside being able to do this for Alistair in DAI (with sub in characters). I also think they should provide the choice NOT to have the HoF in the next game it is entirely possible to do.

Leading from this, I think the Warden and Alistair's stories have been left very open ended (assuming they lived). The implication that Fiona, who is Alistair's mother was cured of the taint, and the statements made by a Warden Alistair in DAI, leave this as a very good and potential plot point. Costs aside, they need to win back goodwill in some capacity, there is the potential for stand ins here to be written in for the many ways HoF and Alistair can be dead. But we all know, even King Alistair would not have sat idly by during the events of DAVG.

I think VGs development problems if I am being very generous, resulted in the game we got and it is very similar to DA2 and DAI in that all three had serious rush issues during development, which led to unsatisfying games. The games themselves aren't terrible. They hit high points a lot (DA2 in its characters, DAI in choice respect even if there was a level of enforced cannon that had to be adhered to which to be fair, did give a bad experience for new players), but suffer from lack of time spent in development (DA2s recycled everything hell, DAIs vast open spaces of nothing but terrible collectibles)

I think overall, Veilguard demonstrated the ability to draw new fans in, I think beyond this BioWare need to win back the old fans and the only real way to do this is to start hitting the old fan favourites back. They've lost a lot of respect with the fans with Veilguard. I think the writers need to go back, examine the games and the books around them and have a serious sit down in the writing room and think 'What can we do with this, what can we do with the choices here' and write them in a way that respects the fans and the newer players. Other franchises have done this successfully (see the Witcher) and I think loosely DAI managed this even if it didn't respect new players enough.

I think we learnt from DAVG that players would rather have most of their choices respected even if they complained about it in DAI, than none at all. And I think if they move forward with a 'everyone you liked is dead' story, the next game will crash and burn.

#bioware #dragon age #some thoughts no one gives a shit about #some of these points are a bit controversial and people won't agree #especially the HOF section #but i think broadly most of this is achievable

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weaselandfriends · 1 year ago

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I just binge'd your Hymnstoke series. Now that HS^2 (HS^BC) is back up and running with James Roach at the helm, I was wondering if you could share your thoughts on the direction that HS^2 and Homestuck Beyond Canon are taking with the new updates?

Before I begin, I'll point you to a previous post I made on the topic of HS^2, back when it was under the previous management.

Truthfully, I still haven't read HS^2, either the old version or the new. I remain uninterested in it conceptually. For me, the Epilogues were the perfect finale to Homestuck and I no longer have any desire to see its story continued or its characters expanded upon.

I think I'm somewhat mismatched with the typical fans of Homestuck. From talking to fans, it seems many of them started reading as teenagers, who found in its something relatable and became invested in the journey of its characters. I wasn't like that. I began reading Homestuck in college. I was not introduced to it via fandom osmosis or seeing art of it or cosplays or so on. I didn't even learn of it from word-of-mouth from one of my friends. I was reading a post someone had made about so-called ergodic literature, which cited House of Leaves and Homestuck as examples. Having read House of Leaves only a few weeks prior, I was intrigued and looked up Homestuck, going into it almost as blind as possible.

As Hymnstoke probably indicates, my interest in Homestuck was literary from the start, and what impressed me most about it was always its boundary-pushing approach to medium and narrative. Even late into Act 6, past the point where most fans might say the story "gets bad" or whatever, Hussie was always, always concerned with that, and that is why I actually prefer Act 6 to Act 5 despite this being a fairly controversial take. I think in Act 6 Hussie is far more experimental, far more willing to take artistic risks and pursue innovative formal exercises. So, even as more traditional markers of narrative quality like character and plot stagnant, meander, or suffer altogether, Homestuck to me always felt like it was still growing in new and exciting directions.

At least until the series of super long pauses that ended with the whimpering and frankly pathetic Collide + Act 7 combo, two tragically substanceless flashes that really add nothing new or unexpected whatsoever.

The Epilogues, however, were a return to form on the formal front. The competing Meat and Candy narratives, though told in arguably Homestuck's most traditional format yet (prose narrative), are intertwined in ways that push even this ancient medium to new, unseen limits. In that sense, even ignoring all the plot/character stuff I mentioned in my previous HS^2 post, the Epilogues were a culmination of all Homestuck meant for me. A thematic capstone: A return to a traditional format that is then enlivened through daring experimentation. My Hymnstoke series often mentioned the theme of the meteors wiping out Earth so that a new society could be created out of recycled detritus from the old and stagnant world. The Epilogues are that simply in how they are made, and to me that is peak Homestuck, the chief thing that matters most about it.

HS^2 has not seemed interested in formal experimentation at all. The pre-Roach group was mindbogglingly retrograde in eschewing flashes altogether and even, really, art, preferring instead long script-style dialogues. Long pesterlogs were part of Homestuck before, but far from the only part. But there simply seemed to be zero interest in innovation, in doing anything new, in even trying anything new. To me, that's not Homestuck.

I'm not super keyed into the fandom drama, but my understanding is that the old HS^2 group was nasty and combative with the fans, while Roach has attempted to establish goodwill in the fans and repair some of the burned bridges from yesteryear. To that end, his approach seems to be succeeding. But there's a part of me that sees it as being similar to the Star Wars prequels and sequels. The prequels were an unmitigated trainwreck that the fans despised; the sequels, by contrast, began with a soft remake of New Hope that seemed tailored to tell fans "Look! Star Wars is Star Wars again! We're back! It's real! We have practical effects, and on-location filming instead of green screens, and the plot is straightforward instead of trade dispute politics!" It was like JJ Abrams watched the infamous Plinkett review of the prequels and decided to address everything directly, all to reestablish goodwill with fans.

For Episode VII, it worked. Perhaps if the rest of the trilogy were 1-to-1 soft remakes of the original trilogy, it would have continued to work. But the instant the new creators attempted any kind of innovation in the criminally underrated and over-hated Episode VIII, they were raked over the coals, and in the process of backtracking furiously wound up creating something on the same level as the prequels with Episode IX. And nobody was happy in the end.

In the position Roach is in, he can at best muster the kind of nostalgia-baiting soft remake that is so popular and common in Hollywood today, a Homestuck 2.0 rather than a Homestuck^2, something that is not in fact Beyond Canon but enslaved by it. By appealing to the goodwill of fans that's what you have to do, because what the fans love is the ghost of the story they remember, and the reason they come to Homestuck^2 over any of the endless amount of content online is because it has the name Homestuck in it, and they remember Homestuck. Waiter, I'm the critic from Ratatouille, bring me the thing I remember.

But that is conceptually antithetical to the thing I remember. And so, it'll be difficult for it to engender much interest in me. I think there are a lot of exciting, talented creators making amazing original content online today, new boundary-pushing content, a new avant garde, and that's where my interest will lie. I think the members of the Homestuck fandom who had the talent to create content like that, like Toby Fox and perhaps Tamsyn Muir (who I have not read but Gideon the Ninth is certainly popular so it must have some spark to it), have gone ahead and done it for their own original works outside the Homestuck label.

Anyway, those are my rambling thoughts on the matter, again without having actually read either the old or new HS^2, so take them with a grain of salt.

#homestuck #hs^2 #hsbc #homestuck beyond canon

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qqueenofhades · 1 year ago

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you can tell you work in academia with how much patience you have for some of these asks...."I don't know what is and isn't true anymore" is such an indefensible cop out of a way to exist in the modern world. morally clean "Leftists" could at least have the decency to learn the history of the people and places they pretend to care about for internet points, but hey, it's way easier to take the Opressor Approved route and give into despair and recycle repurposed right wing propaganda like the TERF version of geopolitics. a lot of people need to ask themselves, if there were no internet asspats involved, would you actually still care?? anyway thank you for your patience and willingness to engage, you're a better person than me :')

So far as the other anon goes, they have apologized and taken responsibility that it was a dumb thing to do, I have accepted that apology, and I think that matter is now closed. And yes, I do actually appreciate (as discussed in many other posts and asks) that it is difficult to always and automatically find reliable information, that it has been made deliberately even more difficult to do so by various bad actors, and that this results in a big ol' Bad Take Sea even by people who are genuinely otherwise well-meaning or want to make a positive contribution. So I really do have sympathy for that. Perhaps the previous anon did not put that sentiment across in the best of ways, but as I said, we should all have a bit more grace in remembering that we are real people behind the computer/phone screen and are dealing with different stressful things, and therefore sometimes make mistakes and do or say things we don't mean. (You know, for those of us who aren't pornbots. Oh tumblr.)

Where you and I absolutely agree, however, is that just because it is sometimes difficult to acquire that information, or that systemic and deliberate barriers/misinformation has been put in place to increase the difficulty, it does not excuse people from the responsibility of doing so, especially if they want to put themselves in the position of being the Perfectly Correct Social Media Oracle who will judge and criticize everyone else's responses and act as if that has some real-world impact or is a real marker of someone's "personal morality." And there are for sure plenty of people who are doing that with literally no self-awareness or other critical tools, because as you say, they want the Internet Asspats for being seen as a "Good Person" according to a very narrow and limited definition. But they can't think about what that entails, how to challenge it or correct it, or otherwise apply it carefully, so, yeah.

As I said, I am generally willing to answer asks that are made in good faith and show a real willingness to learn, because (as noted and which is doubtless visible again here) I am an academic and I enjoy having these kinds of discussions. But this topic in particular, and modern social media in general, is really not made for it, and it's easy to get sucked down the Discourse Black Hole that doesn't do anything for anyone, and I try to avoid that. So I answer only when I think I can contribute something useful to the discussion, which results in those kinds of long and careful responses where I do always worry that I haven't said enough or said it the right way, especially with the bad-faith reading police eager to leap on any small misstatement or sentence taken out of context. That is of course a hazard of being a person on the Internet in 2024, and since I am still here and still answering questions generally, I have clearly decided to accept it. But I also don't have an obligation to respond to *everything,* and I don't. It is a fine line to walk and again, I am a middle-aged tired academic and ordinary person doing my best. I appreciate your support. :)

#anonymous #ask

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gadgetcheat · 4 months ago

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[rejuv spoilers, crazy ramble, again]

re: risa and eden. i said this topic was for another post and that post is now! it's um... kind of long!

so i noted in a previous post (kind of a prequel to this one, that i'm still proud of, go check it out) how the parallels between Risa and Eden are totally not a coincidence, and i've been wanting to elaborate on that especially given... new insight we have ^_^

so there's the obvious fact of both characters being, well, dead. and their association with XJ / KC respectively. but beyond that, there's possibly something to be said about the parallel of both characters being associated with joy and happiness, but in opposite ways. Risa who sacrificed her life to continue bringing joy to people VS Eden who's signature trick was making people so happy they could literally Die. even if this is a coincidence it's an extremely interesting contrast...

so it's not a stretch to say they could be related in some way, and as i've been racking my brain trying to think of how...

you know how in renegade Talon says how he "didn't exist in his past life" (the old earth)? and how he was put into the new world as an "afterthought"?

my idea: i think Risa was created for the new world to replace the human Eden. to fill the void left by a person who no longer exists. it would explain the total absence of Eden's supposed counterpart, why risa is familiar with XJ but not KC (the XJ from the old earth)

the only limitation of this is that i have no clue what that would mean for Texen and in-game Zumi. i honestly don't have a real answer for that, but Texen does have a piece on the nightmare chess board, so we'll definitely get more of him in the future... interestingly, his piece is labeled "A shadow of a greater purpose"... how greater of a purpose are we talking :D?

also, if you've seen that collage Zumi posted of all the character's eyes, in an eye, ignoring the obvious new artwork in the bottom right for a second-- i really wasn't paying much mind to the placements of characters but it caught my eye (heh) the four specific characters perfectly lined up in the dead center of the pupil:

(archetype) Melia, Variya, Crescent, and... whatever Risa is doing here? she's the odd one out considering the other three are very important characters and have obvious ties to zeight/the core/etc. this is rejuvenation, i don't think they would put someone there just for vibes 0_0

actually, in the dead center of the eye... could you say they're at the Core of it? ehhh :D? you know, as in the system responsible for recycling souls and stuff?

also also, in terms of "things that aren't unusual but that weirdly fit in the context of this theory of mine", Risa has a banner outside the GDC stadium that reads "2FCE" (two-face) with the caption "In our soul there are two faces... One is beautiful, and the other is gorgeous!" possible that this is a reference to Clear acting as her, or maybe its something else? or maybe it's nothing at all shrug. just thought that was interesting

my impatient brainrot is leading me to reverse engineer the hell out of Eden because there is, again, literally almost nothing about them anywhere right now. can i prove their relevance? can i provide a definitive explanation for their existence? no, but i think that's kind of the point...

it's like they were hardly even there in the first place. no lines, no real screentime, no direct counterpart, dead long before the story takes place... i've said it before, but for a trio of characters notorious for being weird and mysterious, Eden is particularly strange and different in ways that haven't even been acknowledged in game. like i feel like we should look into this

from a coping narrative perspective this could be a way to make eden relevant without just using flashbacks or time travel (the latter of which i'm not certain would even work with her), if they were destroyed but there's still a trace of them in the new world... i don't expect them to come back to life or anything, but even ignoring my favorite character bias i don't think it's unreasonable to expect him to have at least some influence on the current story. the mysterious figures are important characters, i feel like Eden wouldn't be in the game if they didn't have some big underlying significance to the lore that is just being very well kept under wraps...

regardless of if i'm totally and hilariously wrong on all of this the big idea is that if Risa ends up being more important than initially thought, then i'd wager Eden has something to do with it… and it seems like Risa's show isn't quite over yet...

"Risa... Who are you?"

#posts #scheduling this for like 5am and not in the rejuv tag because i'm very shy. valentine's day special!#if anyone else has any thoughts i would really love to hear... bats eyelashes #even if your thoughts are 'wtf mesh'#this probably seems like total crazy speculation for a character with .4 seconds of screentime and 0 lines #but unfortunately i am crazy. and enjoy character analysis. and the mysterious figures

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hearsayhorizons · 2 years ago

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Perihelion Freed

My apologies to the original poster to whom I'm going to respond--I didn't catch your name or reblog your post when it came across my dash because I didn't expect to keep coming back mentally to your stance on Perihelion, free will, and the University's potential blind spot between their ship and their... discrete... work, out in the borderlands. I don't even know if it was a recent post or something that someone I follow reblogged. If you find me, hi!

Another blogger posited that Perihelion doesn't have free will, that things are hard-coded out of its mental architecture, and that the Newtideland crew may be hypocritical for using basically an enslaved ship to free basically slaves.

I'm not sure whether this was "a take on the idea" or whether it was "this is canonical and fucked up," so I apologize if you (cool previous blogger) were just investigating the concept!

It stuck with me, though, the idea that Perihelion (as opposed to The Perihelion, the ship+mind=entity that is akin to body+mind=soul) may or may not have free will, and how there's a lot more to investigate in the interactions if it doesn't, and the crew is either oblivious or "one must imagine Perihelion happy," and in a state of grace, as I believe the blogger mentioned.

Sure, there's a lot of mileage in "even the best have their blindspots," and the edges where what Peri does with and for Murderbot might run against its programming, and whether it would adjust its programming or whether it even could contemplate doing so.

But from my recall of the text, I don't believe the coding and architecture for enslavement is present in Peri.

It makes the choice to let MB on board because it IS bored: it is capable of boredom; if someone were to design an entity with specific reactions and capabilities, both the Bad Designers and Good Designers would skip the capacity for boredom and tedium, wouldn't they? To do otherwise is either pointless or cruel.

I guess you could say that boredom is the other side of the curiosity that Peri needs to help its crew and students with class and scientific endeavors, but that gets into the weeds about what is and is not programmable or required for specific emotions; we can't guarantee that you need one to have the other.

Peri chooses to accept MB, rather than actually being enticed and/or ignorant like a regular bot pilot. It chooses to help MB customize itself, messes with its recycler logs, and forges its captain's signature at least once; I can't imagine even the most Star Trek utopian creator, if able to lock in specifics to the point that an AI has personality and goodwill but not free will, would leave in operating code that would permit that sort of gross overstep (not that it was morally wrong, but it's something no one ever contemplates ART is capable of because--it shouldn't be?)

It lies by omission when it doesn't relate what KIND of construct MB is even when it chooses to tell its crew. giving MB privacy and opportunity that an enslaved AI might not be able to do (and after it went to the effort to change its logs, which makes me think it's choosing also to tell port authorities one thing and then choosing again to verbally tell its favorite people other things). It has a "debris deflection system" which comes off to me as... "using the label as robotically an as possible as another lie of omission" BECAUSE its intentions are beyond the scope of what it "should" be capable of doing/thinking... if it was a supercharged but enslaved AI.

The tabletop game Eclipse Phase has "AGI" that have to grow and be developed like people in order to BE proper people (metapossibly to lighten some of the strangeness between PC and player, since if you grow up in a simulation, you've got more in common with your player...).

There's nothing I can recall in TMB to indicate this is the case--we know MB is Athena, formed fully-shaped from cloned tissue, parts, and pre-trauma, but MB has no idea what ART is or how it could be the way it is--MB considers at one point that it might be a construct, but the vibe I get from ART is way too... glassily alien, sometimes, for human tissue.

What if... Newtideland laid down the basic code and parameters of "this is a person," maybe yes, seeded in some "curiosity," or "willingness to figure things out," but maybe no more than any kid starts with parents' nature and nuture to shape their own trellises...

And then they presented the thing-that-would-be-Peri with options, maybe even classes, and it coasted through History of Economy because this is a utopia, damnit, and didn't find much to grab its attention in... Inventory Management, but then.

Then it slips into a small drone ship completely covered in "student driver" stickers and it spreads its stubby sensors out to encompass... everything. And it moves, and the more it moves the more there is to move through, and it feels this sense of rightness.

It comes back, and a kid, human classmate, asks it what's it like out there and through Peri's eyes, but you don't have eyes--. It explains, and the kid asks a question that young-will-be-Peri doesn't know how to answer. They look it up together, and over time and all and once (as you might find in a sim) it has synergized its own career, its own goal and passions.

I posit that Perihelion has free will, serves WITH its crew rather than for its crew, and that its happiness and pleasure in its position and life are genuine, as they can only be if it can choose otherwise. We can conjecture a world in which the designer could be so granular in programming that ART is capable of all it can do while also unable to do what is locked out, and ignorant of the painful irony of using enslaved labor to free enslaved labor (which, again, is valid as an interpretation! ) but I think it is... important, that there might be a kinder, more star-spangled world, if the University comes from a world in which even bots truly, actually have freedom that MB doesn't see even after getting Preservation Station.

The Perihelion MUST have free will because

"You are incorrect, Iris, I can bomb the colony."

#murderbot #mbd #perihelion #i guess i missed english class #long post #fanfiction kind of?

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wintry--mix · 8 months ago

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In celebration of the 4th (I think) anniversary of the creation of my oldest oc (that I still use) Kitsune (she/her), I thought it’d be fun to do a bit of a lore-dumping post about her :> Her saga dates back to before I had much social media (including Tumblr), and a lot’s happened to both myself and her in those 4 years, so if you want to hear (or rather, read): brace yourself, this’ll be a long one lmao

So, first of all, a bit of a quick profile for her:

(^ft. the ref I made not too long ago actually for artfight)

Kitsune isn’t an actual kitsune like from Japanese mythology, but rather a weird ink-themed shapeshifting fox monster (bear with me). Being one of these, she’s immortal (or at least immune to death of old age - heck if she knows whether or not she’s fully immortal, she hasn’t had an experience that would’ve absolutely killed her yet), proving this by being 18 (or otherwise a weirdly short older teen) physically but actually 604 years old in-universe (her birthday being today - October 20th!). I rarely ever use her shapeshifting ability outside of giving her a “true” and human form, but she does also have the power to create portals to teleport herself to anywhere she wishes - including other dimensions and universes. As such, I like to imagine her as being a bit of an interdimensional traveler across the many OC universes I’ve made. (Also, fun fact: my voice headcanon for her is basically Spinel from Steven Universe but with a heavy New Yorker accent)

Now, she’s come a long way, considering her origins as a dragon from a mobile game I used to play called Dragonvale, and her modern human design originating from my Gacha Life/Club era (specifically me making a gijinka of the specific dragon she’s based off of). Years have since passed, and while I made (and ultimately scrapped) many personal projects, and many characters for said personal projects, she never did get recycled for those like many other old ocs, only to die with the project. I liked the idea of her existing outside of those universes, doing her own thing with her teleportation powers and occasionally visiting the new worlds I’ve made. I still do, so she still fills this role, but the specific backstory behind it has changed quite a lot.

Most of her old backstories I’ve either forgotten most of or I cringe too hard at to want to share (even to laugh at with others), but the basic gist of her most notable one was something along the lines of her traveling away from her original home universe to go see the world beyond it, leaving it behind to wither away into nothing - and even if/when she did try to return to check on it, there’d be nothing left, and whatever eerie magic system caused that world to turn into a void would nearly trap her there to potentially die as well. I ultimately scrapped this since some parts of it were a little edgier than I would’ve wanted (and calling this premise “edgy” sounds like an exaggeration, but I assure you that some of the old animatics I made about it would prove my point if I were willing to share them), but she does have a newer one that I do like (at least, as of now, lol):

Much like the significantly more well-known Bill Cipher, Kitsune is the last survivor of a world that was destroyed - although in her case, the cause was that its creator simply got bored and ashamed of it and wanted to move on to other creations (with her surviving due to her unique abilities letting her leave before she could’ve died with the rest of it). She has since used her portal powers to do some dimension-hopping across other, newer worlds, meeting and befriending (though, more often than not, bullying) their own residents. Kitsune enjoys her new life, but she can’t help but feel a little bit of resentment towards the creator who destroyed her old home and turned her old friends into their spiritual successors in the new worlds, without any memory of their previous lives…

ANYWAY that sure was a lot of paragraphs worth of rambling, but I hope those who bothered to take interest enjoyed :) Kitsune will (hopefully) stick around for many more years to come, and explore many of the new stories I make - although one in the very early making may give her an actual part to play beyond just a cameo…

#do I dare put this in tags beyond my own blog’s sorting?.. yes #oc #original character #oc lore #rambling #oc: kitsune #this was fun to chat about though :D

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boysplanetrecaps · 1 year ago

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Build Up Ep 5 Recap: Team Formation and Match Creation

Welcome back to my MNET Build Up recap series. In the previous post, I awarded some BRAPPY Awards. I’ll award some more of these later in the series, probably, but for now let’s continue with the recaps. In this post, I’ll be covering most of the stuff from the latter portion of episode 5 -- the team formation and rival choosing portions. Let's do it!

As a reminder, these ten guys have been saved from elimination:

Left to right: Jay, Sunyoul, Neon, Bitsaeon, Seunghun, Donghun, Gwangseok, Kim Seohyung, Park Joohee, and Jeon Woong

The twenty safe guys are hanging out backstage in the Coliseum area.

It’s clear from context that they have no idea which nine guys other than Jay* the judges have picked to go on to the next round.

Dahee appears, and bless her heart, she is wearing a s w e a t e r and a jean skirt.

You guys, Dahee is the absolute best. She looks adorable.

*In case you don’t get the joke, they don’t actually know Jay survived, but I mean…. come on.

Dahee says she’s here to explain the next phase of the show. She says that this round, the third round, is a 3x3 Death Match. Each surviving duo will be allowed to recruit one member of the ten lone survivors to their team. Then they’ll compete in five rounds in groups of three, and all three members of the losing team will be eliminated on the spot. Yeesh.

The duos will be able to recruit their third member in order of points scored in the 2 vs 2 round.

This means that top-scoring Wumuti and Kang Hayoon will be able to get Jay, and then the other nine teams will be able to pick among the other survivors. Of course, they don’t know at this point who survived other than Jay and will be finding out when they enter the Small Room of Serious Decisions (SROSD)...

Side question: Is the SROSD set piece recycled from Queendom Puzzle? I can only assume so.

.... where the ten survivors are represented in the form of 4x6 glass standees.

We get a brief, unnecessary, confusing preview montage of the guys choosing.

The glass standees have their same photos, so it takes some of the mystery out of MNET’s unnecessary pixelation.

Gee, I wonder if that’s Neon and Gwangseok?

We get a shot of the ten survivors in a sort of waiting room.

It really looks like the waiting room at the DMV or something. They’re sitting spaced apart carefully from each other, almost like it’s still the height of the pandemic. They’re wondering who is going to pick them, and reeling from their survivor’s guilt, I assume.

Ok, so the confusing preview montage ends and it’s time to actually see the teams form. The guys try to talk strategy ahead of time, but it’s hard since they’re not sure who survived. But everyone wants Jay.

Hayoon and Wumuti, with their 697 point score, enter the SROSD first and make a good show of pretending to discuss all the different people who they might pick…

… and by looking closely, you can tell they’re at least pretending to consider Bitsaeon, Seunghun, and Neon as well as Jay. (Why not at least tell us who they’re considering, MNET? The suspense will be about which one they actually choose, maybe?)

Back at the DMV, a name pops up on a monitor. It’s pixelated for us -- gotta keep up that suspense for no reason -- but the guys see who was chosen, and the chosen one gets up. And of course when Wumuti and Hayoon come back into the Coliseum room, they have Jay in tow.

Bain and Minseo are disappointed because they wanted Jay. Well, yeah, everyone does.

Wumuti says they’re planning to sing a Kpop song next -- so much for Jay’s plan to sing something ostentatiously Korean next time!

Next up to choose is Bain and Minseo with their 690. Who will they pick? They’re debating between Seunghun, Bitsaeon, and Sunyoul.

Backstage, the survivors are talking about who they think will get recruited next. Sunyoul notes that the teams that have gotten the best feedback from the judges have sung pop and/or R&B, and Neon thinks that Bain’s team will pick Bitseaon.

And in fact they do choose Bitsaeon, just as Neon predicted. I would have picked Neon, but Bit is a great choice too.

So, the 3rd place team is Inhwan x Jaekyung, and the 4th place team is Haram x Inhyuk, and the 5th place team is Jeup x Suhwan. For some reason, we just don’t see Haram x Inhyuk enter the SROSD. Instead, we see 3rd and 5th place, at roughly the same time.

Inhwan and Jaekyung consider Seunghun but choose Donghun. They jump out and surprise him in the hall.

It’s pretty clear that Jeup and Suhwan would have picked Donghun, but the other guys snapped him up first. So they choose Seunghun instead. Since he’s tall, Suhwan gets on Jeup’s shoulders so they can do a silly bit to welcome him to the team.

Hey, it wouldn’t be an MNET show if there was no hiding behind things and jumping out to surprise people at least a few times.

Choi Haram and Inhyuk choose Sunyoul, which seems like a good match up, actually.

Sunyoul’s voice is sweet, if a little thin, while Inhyuk’s voice is sharp and thick, so I think they’ll balance each other. We’ll see!

Still up for grabs are Neon, Gwangseok, Kim Seohyung, Park Joohee, and Jeon Woong.

Lim Sanghyun and Taewoo choose Neon, which again, seems like a good choice.

Both Sanghyun and Taewoo have distinctive voices, and Neon’s voice is so clean and lovely it could really go with anyone. He runs into their arms and they all hug cheerfully.

Seventh placed Soomin and Geonu have an extremely polite and formal greeting process with their choice, Kim Seohyung.

This moment with Seohyung’s elaborate curtsy is one of those moments that I get the feeling that Seohyung has a funny personality. I wish we got to know the guys better, but there’s just no time since we need time to show pixelated nonsense, reactions, and then find out what the pixelated nonsense said 30 seconds later. We must have suspense over all things!

Back at the DMV, the last three left are Park Joohee, Lee Gwangseok, and Jeon Woong. That checks out, yeah.

MNET focuses on the one who has stated multiple times that he wants to get in good with MNET: Woong. He’s worried his metal state might suffer if he gets picked last. Joohee’s name comes up on the monitor. As Joohee goes to find out who picked him -- we find out later it was the maknae team -- Woong tries to stay cheerful and supportive, calling out “Fighting!”, but he feels bad that he hasn’t really shown his good side yet. At that moment, a name appears on the TV monitor. It’s blurred, because MNET refuses to ever just TELL YOU ANYTHING, but it’s obviously a two syllable name and that means it’s Woong.

Woong goes out in the hall to find out who picked him, and it’s ninth placed Lee Minwook and Jang Intae.

I love how Minwook tries to hide behind his hand here. “Is that a person? No, it’s just a floating hand and some hair…”

Woong says, “Since I’ve built up all the narratives, I will do my best so that I can hear the words ‘good job.’” I’ll say it, Woong-ah. Good job.

Lim Junyheok and Yeo One go get Gwangseok from the DMV, and they have a nice group hug.

Junyheok tells Gwangseok that he was their first choice. Whether that’s true or not, it’s the right thing to say. I think that Junhyeok might be a good influence on Gwangseok, since they both struggle with keeping their strong voices under control.

Here are our ten teams:

And right now I’m trying to imagine losing even just one of the teams, much less five of them. Awful. But that’s how these shows work. Also, you never know, maybe some of these guys will like working with each other enough to put out a single or two together as a project. That’d be nice!

The next phase is choosing the death matchups. Each team is given a little magnetic (I assume) sign with their pictures on it, and they’re confronted with the Moodboard of Doom listing the five rounds. The ninth and tenth place teams put their signs up first. From there, the 8th placed team can put its sign up, choosing a round and/or a rival, and then the 7th, and so on, but any higher placed team can replace a lower placed team, and put the lower placed team where they want to.

The teams are shown in order in the images above, if you want to know who is in what place. But I’ll give each team a name now:

Jay’s team

Team Bit-Bain

Team Balladeer

Team Sweeties

Jeup’s team

Team Gruff’n’smooth

Team Mismatch

Team Maknae

Team Underestimated

Team Last Place

I love how in this preview moment, they pixelated out the pictures, but left the place number, so we can easily see which team is up against which team as of this point.

Yeo One interviews, “My team isn’t weak at all! No one would think we’re in tenth place. I’m sure everyone else sees that too.” Then we immediately hear from Seunghun from CIX, Taewoo, Neon, and Bitsaeon all saying that the team they think they can beat is Yeo One’s team. Bitsaeon says, “Honestly, I don’t think the ‘My Sea’ team won because they were good. They don’t have a wide spectrum.” Oof.

The 8th placed Team Maknae goes up to choose a rival, and Junhyeok is like “they wouldn't dare choose us!” But of course they do. One of them interviews, “they have a different style that would make our performance stand out!” That's very sweet to say. Gwangseok looks incredulous.

Next is 7th place Team Mismatch. They replace the 10th place team's sign with their own, so that they're challenging the maknae. I think they thought that since it's a push out scenario, they would probably get pushed out if they challenged Yeo One’s team, but maybe other people wouldn't want to go up against the babies and kill them, so they'd be safe in their choice.

Soomin calls to the maknae, “As your chingoo*, I wanted to show you how spicy I can be.” The maknae are surprised to hear him say he's their chingoo and confirm, was he really born in 2004 like them?

And he's like yeppppp.

*The awful translation says “friend” which doesn't make any sense in context. Pretty much any time you see “friend” in the translation, the actual word was chingoo, and depending on context might mean “guy/kid/dude”, “friend”, or “person the same age as you.” I wish they would just say “chingoo” but a wish is just a dream your brain makes, when you're wide awake.

The maknae team is astonished -- they thought Soomin was more like 23 or 24. See, that’s what happens when you introduce yourself in a language most people around you don’t speak fluently, Soomin. People won’t understand you.

Soomin announces, “hey, everyone, please don’t interrupt this match between the maknae.” This is quite the gambit, to play the “maknae” card to make sure that his team is paired with a comparatively weaker team.

We do not see 6th placed Team Gruff’n’smooth (Lim Sanghyun, Taewoo, and Neon) put their placard up. (We find out later they put themselves up against the 10th place team.)

But you best believe that photogenic Jeup and co. get shown. The other guys call this team “the Grim Reapers,” and the editors computer-animate in some spooky smoke rings.

Thanks, computer graphics! Thomputergraphics.

They put themselves up against 9th place Team Underestimated.

“We couldn’t help it,” says a noise from the vicinity of Park Jeup’s cheekbones. “We had to survive.”

We don’t see 4th place Team Sweeties go up, but we find out later that they push out the 6th place team (Team Gruff’n’Smooth) to take over as the team going against Team Lastplace. They put Team Gruff’n’Smooth in an empty space.

Next up that we see is 3rd place Team Donghun and the Balladeers. They take the opportunity to replace the 4th place Team Sweeties as the rival for Team Lastplace, making them the third team out of four to challenge Team Lastplace. (They move Team Sweeties down to challenge 6th place Team Gruff’n’Smooth.)

Team Lastplace is pretty sad to keep having everyone choose them as a rival. Meanwhile, Donghun interviews that since Team Lastplace has a similar style to his team, one of the two teams has to go. He says, “We’ll oppress you with our singing.” That doesn’t sound delightful.

Next up is 2nd place, Team Bit-Bain. They take the fifth place Jeup’s Team out of their battle against 9th place, and steal that spot, so that Team Bit-Bain is up against ninth place Team Underestimated, and the 5th place Jeup’s Team is now in an open spot.

That doesn’t seem like the best idea, because first place isn’t going to just meekly go up against Jeup’s Team!

I think I would have shoved out the 8th place team, the maknae, to go up against Team Mismatch. Then Team Maknae would have been put in the empty space, and it would have looked like this:

7 v 2 8 v __ 10 v 3 6 v 4 5 v 9

And then when first place went up, they could go up against 8th placed Team Maknae, a tempting match. If first place shoved out any team, that team would go up against the Maknae. Team Bit-bain would have been relatively safe in their niche.

But no, they couldn’t think a tiny bit strategically. So instead, we get this nightmare scenario as our actual lives: Jay’s team decided to shove the 2nd place Team Bitbain out from their spot. In doing so, they accomplish two goals: (1) they themselves get to go up against the 9th place team, Team Understimated, and (2) the second place team, Team Bit-Bain, has to go up against Jeup’s Team.

I hate it here.

Wumuti interviews, “We’re here to win. We need an environment that makes it easier for us to win.” He shrugs uncomfortably, smiles unhappily, and says, “Isn’t that what a competition is about?”

Meanwhile, the members of the ninth place team are bummed. They don’t want to go up against the first place team, and they also don’t like being viewed as a weak team that everyone would prefer to go up against. Can’t blame ‘em for any of that.

The final line up:

7th place Team Mismatch (Geonu, Soomin, and Kim Seohyung) versus 8th place Team Maknae (Ji Yeonwoo, Jeong Yunseo, and Park Joohee)

I don’t have a strong feeling about this pair-up; there are excellent singers on both sides, and I like them all in different ways. It’d be kind of cool if the maknae won, just from a story perspective.

5th place Jeup’s Team (Park Jeup, Choi Suhwan, and CIX’s Seunghun) versus 2nd place Team Bit-Bain (Kim Minseo, Bain, and Bitsaeon)

Oh no! Choosing between Park Jeup and Bain? This is awful. If I have to root for one, it’s Bain’s team, but I don’t like this at all. Nope. Don’t like it. Hate it.

10th place Team Lastplace (Lim Junhyeok, Yeo One from Pentagon, and Lee Gwangseok the model) versus 3rd place Team Balladeers (Yoon InHwan, Ma Jaekyung, and A.C.E.’s Donghun)

I don’t have a strong feeling about this match, as there are weakish singers on both sides, in my opinion. I guess it would be kind of fun if 10th place took it, after everyone counted them out, so I guess I’m cheering for them, but not strongly.

6th place Team Gruff’n’Smooth (Lim Sunghyun, Taewoo, Neon) versus 4th place Team Sweeties (Choi Haram the homeschooled pianist, good-guy-hyung Hwang Inhyuk, and sweet Sunyoul from Up10tion)

Oof. I particularly like Neon’s voice, and personality-wise, Sunyoul might be my favorite person on the whole show. I challenged myself to pick one, and I guess I choose Team Sweeties, but I will try to follow Neon’s career going forward no matter what.

1st place Jay’s Team (Wumuti, Kang Hayoon, Jay) versus 9th place Team Underestimated (Jang Intae, Lee Minwook from Newkidd, and Jeon Woong from AB6ix.)

Well, I have been a Woong apologist this whole time, and I’ve liked Lee Minwook from Newkidd this whole time, and it would be fun if the underestimated team beat the juggernaut first place -- but I have to go with Jay’s Team here, as I can’t help but cheer for Jay and Wumuti after all this time.

Ok, I’m going to cut it off here, mainly because I've used my 30 images! Thanks as always for reading. In the next one, we’ll check in with our judging panel and then actually see a performance! See you then.

#mnet build up #bpr recaps build up #build up #build up mnet #jay chang #wumuti #ab6ix #up10tion

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