#she brings so much more focus to the narrative??? without her it would just kind of be?? a split pov mess i feel?

[sadhorsegirl]

@ all the people who dislike how big of a role moiraine played in season 1 of wot on prime.......i feel so disconnected from u i think we might actually be living on different planets lol

expanding and focusing on moiraine's perspective is the best (if not ONLY) way to adapt the early parts of the story in a new medium that doesn't allow for alternating pov the way chapters in a book can. on its face, the initial elevator pitch for wheel of time is a somewhat generic chosen one narrative. as the story progresses it becomes increasingly complex and unique, particularly in how it discusses the nature of prophecy vs interpretation/individual will and rand vs philosophy/religious themes. all of which are ideas that make the series so good in the first place but are also impossible to really capture fully upon initial introduction. this is a series that builds, its rewards are found the longer you stick with it and realize just how much of a falling dominoes situation rj has carefully lined up. and don't forget rand might be The Chosen One™ but you also need to find a way to introduce and set up the rest of the ef5

how do you make that beginning more engaging and give it a better hook? how do you adequately communicate the scale of the threat facing the world and what the dragon reborn even means? how do you make sure everyone in the ef5 is given an adequate amount of screen time? don't focus on the chosen one, focus on THE SEEKER!!!

moiraine can handle world building and exposition a bit better than the rest of the cast, given that she has literally been alive longer and seen more of the world aka can potentially answer audience questions as they come up. she also functions as both insider (aes sedai vs ef5) and outsider (ef5+moiraine vs white tower) as the story progresses, an interesting shift for her character and a cool way to mimic rj's whole thing about showing how easily characters can end up in over their heads. ALSO from a craft perspective, some of the strongest material to come out of the books, and arguably one of rj's greater talents as a writer, can be found in how much characterization is laid out in how characters see/perceive other characters. if you make moiraine the guiding force of the start of the narrative, you can translate this strength rather well to television -- you get to see how she sees the Edmonds field kids.

also. would you deny her the gift of receiving head bc they decided to confirm and expand on her gay little backstory. would u really go as far as to say she doesn't deserve a little (gay) head for all her trouble + suffering

[yandere-daydreams]

Okok gonna face my fears and send this off anon . . . ♡ I woke up at 6am and have been plagued by the concept of yan!satosugu with idol darling like all morning

Walk with me here okokokokok. So like satoru obviously has like sooo much money. What if just to get a break from focusing on sorcery all the time he became a sponsor or even producer for a very cute girlypop idol group,,, (and yes I do think he would be kinda weird/creepy to idol darling, especially with how he views himself as basically untouchable (I mean he has enough money to pay the right people off) sooo). 

That’s where suguru comes in (I see this as a mostly canon-compliant geto never defected au). Obviously he would want to keep up with what his best friend is up to, so he’s like a day one supporter of said idol group. With how the japanese idol industry seems to have a focus on the youth and purity of female idols, I could definitely see suguru wanting to “protect his oshi’s innocence” . . .

So if (let’s be honest, WHEN) satosugu bring idol darling home, I could totally see suguru just absolutely babying the poor girl to kind of a weird infantilizing degree?? If that makes sense?? Like very much trying to condition darling into relying on them for everything

I would assume that satoru would be a lot more upfront about how much of a gross perv he is (especially since he probably mistreated the group members to some extent)

I think they would expect total compliance from darling, but if darling ever acts up I can’t help but think one of their go-to punishments would be forcing her to perform the groups choreographies with some sort of “handicap” ie vibrator taped to her pussy at the full speed (and yes they would probably reprimand if she messes up - gotta make sure their number one idol isn’t missing practice!!

Speaking of missing practice/group activities, I fully believe it is within satoru’s capabilities to spread the narrative that darling just kinda . . . suddenly “graduated” from the group and left without a trace, so therefore the other members shouldn’t worry about her and should instead just resume group activities!! (I could also see satosugu using this as some kind of mental leverage over idol darling - like “hey, your group is actually way more popular now that you’ve left”)

Sorry gang I fear I let the thoughts simmer for too long . . .

please let me know your thoughts :3

tw - non/con, kidnapping, idol exploitation, long-term stalking, and obsessive behavior.

WAIT may i suggest: suguru and satoru as parasocial ultra-fans of the same idol as kind of an escapism thing from the stress of being some of the world's most powerful sorcerers, with satoru having the fortune to completely devote himself to making him and suguru your #1 fans. you start to recognize them around the fifth time they miraculously appear at the very front of the line for your post-concert meet-and-greet, but since they're a little bit older and they always have a small gaggle of shy, but polite preteens with them, you just assume they're a pair of wealthy fathers eager to fuel their kids' shared fixation. sure, it's a little strange that the white-haired man always seems more excited to shake your hand than his standoffish son, and it does raise a few concerns when the twin girls spend the majority of their time with you gushing about their black-haired father, but you're a very popular idol with a very busy schedule. you don't have a lot of time to think about one strange family out of the hundred or so you'll meet, that night.

you don't have a lot of time to think about them until your group starts getting extravagant, expensive gifts and donations - always paired with the a gushing fan letter and always sent from one of two increasingly familiar names. since you always seem to be the primary focus, you're the one pressured by your producers to film 'thank you' videos that are just a little too intimidate, to post the type of pictures your generous sponsors compliment the most heavily more often than you may like to. it gets to the point where you're being asked how you'd feel about ""private shows"" to ""ensure the support of a select demographic"", but you adamantly refuse every time it's brought up. it's enough to have to deal with satoru's touchiness at your handshake events, suguru's prying gaze from his permanent seat in the front row of your group's concerts. you don't need to be trapped in the same room as them, alone and all-but paid to cooperate, to know that you want as little to do with them as possible.

that is, until your producer slips you a drink that's just a little too bitter during rehearsal and you wake up in a large room decorated entirely with your merch and memorabilia, to satoru's head between your thighs and suguru behind you, an arm wrapped around your waist and his chin propped on your shoulder as he tells you about how excited they are to finally meet their favorite idol in person, how patiently they've been waiting for you to finally retire and take on a more domestic lifestyle. they'll be delighted to find out that, because of how long you've been in the industry and how protective your fans can be, you're still very much a virgin, and you very much need your two biggest fans to show you what you've been missing <3 if you're lucky, they'll even add pictures of your first climax to the shrine they've been building since they day they first discovered you, the shrine they're going to be keeping you inside of from now on. you might be crying, sure, begging to be let go, but that's alright.

in time, you'll realize how lucky you are to have such devoted fans.

[snapscube]

In Dawntrail did you enjoy a different character playing the main role, or do you prefer when the player character is leading the narrative?

this is definitely a major point of contention in the fanbase rn and i can generally see valid feelings/criticism on both ends of the spectrum. i myself do fall somewhere in between the most extreme takes on this. i won't go into too much detail about actual events but ill tag this as spoilers anyway just in case. ok so my thoughts are:

firstly, i like Wuk Lamat a lot. i don't think she deserves even half of the pure unfiltered ire that she is receiving from a large subset of the community rn. the amount of people who have already turned being a wuk lamat hater into an advertised personality trait really frustrates me. i really enjoyed seeing her personal journey through the story and i was overall very satisfied by her inclusion. however, i do not think the story was perfectly paced or balanced, and i definitely do understand where people are coming from when they say that they could have used a little less of her in the forefront. honestly it did kind of ultimately disappoint me that we missed out on a lot of potential interaction/development with someone like Krile, who in spite of being promised a big breakout role in this expansion still somewhat felt like a SLIGHT (i have to stress slight) afterthought. she did get some notable moments of development and emotion, but i feel like there could have been more.

okay but, your question is about our role as a player in the narrative. i hold the opinion that for THIS EXPANSION SPECIFICALLY, the warrior of light taking somewhat of a narrative backseat actually made a ton of sense and fit the themes of the narrative as well as the promise of a somewhat breezy summer vacation for our heroes. now, i will say this: i really do not agree with the idea that the WoL should be in a mentor role indefinitely because our story is done developing and we need to give the spotlight to "the next generation" of heroes in the world. i appreciate the SENTIMENT of this, but like for me personally.... i don't want Pella's story to be done, yknow? i definitely would be disappointed if this was the DE FACTO role she played in every expansion past this. but i don't even think that is factually what's going to happen. we're currently in a setup phase! and, again, bringing it back to this narrative and the themes within, a lot of Dawntrail about the experience of entering unfamiliar places and learning about the customs and the traditions of people already within it to best help them without unwelcomely trampling on their culture in the process. i think a story like that is the PERFECT time for the WoL to take a bit of a backseat. wuk lamat is also somewhat unfamilar like us yes, but Tural is still her home and she is about to be tasked with leading it. i feel like centering our character in that equation would feel.... really disingenuous? it was kinda frustrating sometimes when it felt like hey.... there's a situation happening right now that can be solved by skilled combat and you have a literally god killer standing right here doing a frown emote, but at a certain point i could chalk it up to growing pains or necessary suspension of disbelief in the interest of the overall emotional hook of the narrative. a lot of those moments could be explained away with enough thought about the character motivations and culture at play, though sometimes it does feel like a stretch. again, far from a perfectly written MSQ. it starts slow and it's messy and it throws a LOT of stuff at you that doesn't always pay off like you expect or want. but i dunno! i think we're gonna see some really interesting stuff come to the forefront in the future, and i think especially now knowing that much of the playerbase thought we took TOO much of a backseat here CS3 will probably adjust their focus accordingly next time. so i can't be too upset really about the stuff i wasn't into. the rest of it was great imo!

[secondhandsorrows]

3 Quick Tips on Writing Dialogue

Okay… so one of the biggest writing hurdles I often face is writing dialogue. Good dialogue. I know such a statement can be pretty subjective, but there’s something to dialogue that demands attention. There’s things involved like subtext, purpose, characterization, and sense of realism. On the other hand, there’s also character voice, expression, body language, and dialogue tags (sparingly, if you can)… all of which can be important, too. Sometimes it’s tricky for me to get a handle on writing dialogue that sounds natural, less stilted, and more as though the characters are real and conversing like we humans would (not to say dialogue should include unnecessary filler-words and repetitions we tend to overuse in our day-to-day conversations). 

Today, I’m going to share three quick tips I’ve accumulated from research and from my own experiences in creative fiction workshops on improving your dialogue. 

1. Avoid needless filler-words and phrases.

Let’s just get this one out of the way. I know this was already mentioned a few sentences ago, but it needs to be further cemented. This is the kind of fluff that we use in day-to-day chatter, like misused grammar, useless small talk, and talking in circles that, more often than not, comes across as boring and trivial. We may think this is a good way to create realistic dialogue, but alas, there is such thing as too-realistic dialogue. Focus instead on crafting dialogue that sounds as natural as possible. At least, try to get rid of the fluff, or use it with caution, as it may bog down your pacing and slow down your readers. 

This doesn’t mean you can’t utilize some small talk, repetitions, filler words, or speech patterns like stammering. Rules are sometimes meant to be bent, just a little. It can be used to create distinctions between unique character voices, lighten the mood, express an emotion that is being felt, if you know where to put them. Dialogue can — and should — be personalized to each character. 

This brings me to the next point:

2. Refrain from revealing too much information at once. 

Not only is this considered info-dumping, but giving away a ton of detail in a piece of dialogue can come across as stiff and out-of-place.  Though it may seem convenient to utilize dialogue as a way to pass information to the reader without getting all repetitive or boring within the narrative, it tends to break away from what the character (or a real person) might actually say. Especially when it’s given to a character that has no reason or incentive to recite drawn-out exposition to give the reader some background. This can be attributed to being uncharacteristic. 

Try tweaking it as to fit your character’s voice: their mood, how they communicate their values, which aspects they find more important to discuss, which topics they actively avoid or tend to overlook. Also keep in mind who they’re speaking to, and whether or not they need to hear the information, as well. 

3. Think about what is being left un-said.

Now, I’ve mentioned subtext quite a bit, already. Subtext, as the definition goes from Literaryterms.net, is “the unspoken or less obvious meaning or message in a literary composition, drama, speech, or conversation.” Knowing this, we can implicitly communicate to the reader covertly a truer meaning or mood within a conversation or interaction between characters: that a character is smiling through a grimace trying to look as if he’s enjoying what his friend had cooked for him when in reality he’s forcing it to spare their feelings. Or, when a woman says “she’s fine” when actually she’s not fine (real). Her answer is forced, her tone clipped, her arms are firmly crossed and she’s angling herself away. How about when a character is pining for another? They might stammer over their words and are prone to blushing whenever they’re around. 

There’s a lot of different ways you can go about using subtext. I probably could’ve added a lot more, but all I want to say for now is that the beauty of subtext allows to stir interest and to further character examination, especially in dialogue. There is more that can be said, but the characters may choose not to. It could also be used to hint at the reader, to foreshadow, facilitate themes, make contradictions, to build tension and emotion… there’s internal conflict that can be explored here. Let your characters tell their own stories in their own, unique ways.  

That’s all, for now. Hope this helped!

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Season One was Fun, but it’s the Reason for All of Chat Noir’s Problems

While season one of Miraculous is certainly not perfect, it’s got a lot of good content. Fun episodes, interesting character setups, and interesting plot setups make it a solid opening season to this type of show. There is, however, one massive flaw, the repercussions of which we’re still feeling to this day. That flaw is the dynamic that it establishes between Ladybug and Chat Noir. A dynamic that works great for a duo, but falls apart when you add a larger team.

General Talk About Team Dynamics

When you’re writing a story with a team or core group, the characters need to be designed around each other. How will they interact? Who are the key characters? Who is the leader? Who is the brains? Who is the comic relief? And so on. 

Each character should, by and large, fill a unique role. This is especially true in larger cast because you’re going to have to balance writing all of these characters, so you need to have clear logic for who will be doing what. This is a big reason why having 18 heroes with only one clear main character is a terrible idea. There just aren’t 18 unique roles to be filled. There will be overlap and characters will end up being defined by their powers and little else. That’s why most shows cap out at 7 or 8 people in that core team and why the core team usually starts as much smaller group.

The size of your team is a huge factor in deciding how clearly the character roles need to be defined. If it’s a team of two, then the fact that the team is so small will make the characters feel important just because they’re the main focus. This means that you can get away with one of the characters being more silly and less obviously important. One of the best examples of this is Kim Possible.

That show sees the titular character doing most of the heavy lifting. She’s the fighter, the badass, the brains, the one everyone knows. Her partner, Ron, is mostly there as comic relief. However, you don’t watch this show and think “why is Ron even there? Why doesn’t Kim bring X?” Because there is no X. Kim and Ron are the only options, so Ron can be as silly as the writers want him to be without coming across as just another part of the team. There are even episodes centered around showing that Kim and Ron can’t function without each other. They are the only viable team.

Let’s contrast them to these four:

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are four of the best know hero characters in modern media and they are exceedingly well balanced. While different versions will mess with the family dynamics, the general pattern is that Leo is the serious leader, Raph is the tank/second in command, Donnie is the brains, and Mikey is the artsy comic relief. The property would not be enjoyable if you didn’t have all four characters there to balance each other out.

However, if the world is ending and you have to pick two turtles to save the day, then you’re probably not picking Mikey for your roster. He’s a strong fighter and a fun character, but the roles that the other three play make them better picks in almost every scenario.

This is true for pretty much any show with this kind of dynamic. If you have a comic relief character, then they’re going to be fun. They might even be the fan favorite! But from the perspective of the story, the comic relief character is there to lighten the mood and assist the team. The other ones are there to take charge and solve the problems. The only way to get around this is to give the comic relief a strong second role that elevates them to more than just the comic relief. (Quick note: this isn’t something that you need to do, btw. Mikey is fine as-is because he doesn’t need to feel more narratively important for the story to work.)

A decent example of a character who is both the comic relief and a key member of the team that you can’t remove if you want to win is Sokka from Avatar the Last Airbender. If you look at the core team, Sokka is the one who is usually cracking the jokes and lightening the mood. He also has no powers, making him the weakest fighter. However, he’s also the one who makes the plans. He’s the “idea guy”. Take Sokka away and the story doesn’t work. The team can fight without him, but they probably won’t win without him because they won’t know where and when to fight.

This is Chat Noir’s problem.

Team Dynamics in Miraculous

Miraculous season one didn’t make Chat Noir a Sokka. It make him a Ron and that worked because there was only Chat Noir and Ladybug. Chat Noir didn’t need to have his importance clearly defined, he was important just because he was Ladybug’s partner. He was the one who kept her from fighting alone. No one else was treated as a viable alternative.

But she’s not alone anymore. There are 17 other people on her team. We’ve seen her fight with different groups and win even though Chat Noir wasn’t able to make it (something that you would never see in Kim Possible). This is the problem. The issue that’s been building and building ever since Rena Rouge first got her miraculous.

If you ignore personal preferences and just look at the roles filled by the different miraculous holders, then Chat Noir doesn’t feel like the obvious pick to stand beside Ladybug. What does he offer that no one else does? What is his unique role outside of comic relief? What makes him scream “duteragonist”?

To fix this problem, you have to go all the way back to the beginning and either nix the larger team or rewrite season one to establish Chat Noir as something more than the comic relief. This doesn’t need to be an aspect of his powers (though I do have thoughts on that). Looking at the previous examples, we see that Donnie is vital because he’s extremely good with technology. Sokka is vital because he makes the plans. Chat Noir could have been vital for a reason as simple as “Ladybug trust him above all others and they constantly work together.” But that’s not what the show did. Alya is both Ladybug’s second in command and her sole confidant. The one who knows all the secrets. Now that Alya - and the rest of the class - have permanent miraculouses, be ready for even more episodes where Chat Noir feels like he’s just there to be Ladybug’s silly arm candy. Which isn’t a problem if Chat Noir is mostly just the love interest a la Tuxedo Mask, but if that’s all he is, then maybe don’t have his family be the center of the plot or put his name in the title?

(Yes, I simplified some of these characters' roles. I'm just making broad statements here to provoke reflection on the writing. I'm not critiquing any property save for Miraculous.)

[burr-ell]

To expand on the previous post (with excellent addition by @kerosene-in-a-blender), I genuinely believe Laudna as a character would be a lot stronger in one of two scenarios:

1. Ditch the Whitestone stuff. I say this as someone who has produced almost nothing but de Rolo content—that is too big a part of Campaign 1 not to completely overshadow anything different the character tries to do in a long-form narrative. I think they could have threaded that needle, but that requires so much more focus and attention that a fast-paced story about a moon conspiracy just isn't built for. It's been 65 episodes and Whitestone nostalgia is all the character has meaningfully contributed to the narrative.

They put themselves between a rock and a hard place before the story even started. You can't bring in Delilah too often without inevitably treading on Campaign 1, but you also can't use her too little—not just because she's Delilah Briarwood, but also because that's the patron of a PC and your PCs need to be taking center stage. And yet there is nothing Delilah's presence has done in the story thus far that could not have been accomplished by a completely different, hitherto-unknown necromancer patron. Laudna's experiences in Whitestone could be replaced with a similarly traumatic backstory (it's not like Exandria is hurting for necromancers abusing power) and she'd have to actually elaborate on it and flesh out the worldbuilding and think about the backstory instead of being able to lean on "Hey, you guys remember that Briarwood arc? Freaky, right?"

2. Keep Laudna as she is and use her in an EXU miniseries. Set it in northwestern Tal'Dorei, where she's been wandering aimlessly for thirty years, spending half the time disassociating and half the time making her dolls. She meets a colorful group of people and they go on some adventures, and she finally decides to take back her life and do something about the voice in her head. You'd basically keep the Whitestone episodes of C3 as they are, give or take a few beats, as the climactic episodes of the series, and then the newly fire-forged friends set off for whatever new journey awaits them.

Maybe Laudna switches patrons; maybe she ditches the warlock thing entirely; maybe she ends the miniseries not knowing what she wants but excited to learn about it with her new companions. Mini-campaigns don't have to worry about that kind of thing! You can have your Whitestone nostalgia and some fanservice while still telling a pretty fun story, and it won't feel like a weird extra appendage to a main campaign that otherwise has very little to do with it. I wouldn't say it's a story I'd be interested in seeing continue, but it's perfectly serviceable for something small and self-contained.

What it has not been serviceable for is the long-form story of Campaign 3.

Honestly, I was a little concerned about all of this even before I started watching all the way through, but I wanted to give it time and judge it for myself. I don't believe in unfounded doomsaying, and I wanted to give the show a chance to do something interesting. And it has been 65 episodes, over 260 hours of content, which I think puts us well past the window of "give it a chance", and Laudna has spent the vast majority of her time not meaningfully engaging with her levels of warlock if it doesn't contribute to creepy girl vibes. (She frankly isn't engaging with her levels in sorcerer, either.) She's never even addressed potentially finding a new patron—so does she not want to? But then why is she so distressed about the idea of Delilah resurfacing? And if she does want a new patron, why has nothing actually happened in the almost-thirty episodes we've had since the Whitestone trip? If she's been "fighting Delilah for thirty-odd years", why didn't she take the chance to explicitly try to connect with, say, the Sun Tree? Or literally anyone else?

And honestly, as a Campaign 1 fan I have to say I'm also frustrated at how Delilah's presence specifically undercuts that story. Like, yeah, you have a technical reason for why she's still here, but "well she IS a powerful necromancer" is just a mechanical explanation, not a dramaturgical one. Her story is done. The chapter closed. She had ample opportunity, including when specifically asked by the Hells, to state any specific goals—any at all—and didn't. This is the woman who menaced Percy and Vex? This is the woman who permanently killed Vax? ...Really?

It could have been an interesting challenge to take on in referencing something from the past while bringing something new to the table, and it's not like they haven't done that before; they've already shown with Jester and the Traveler that it can be done. But they haven't done it here; any opportunity for Laudna to grow beyond her vague concepts—"What if Sun Tree Body...with Delilah patron? What if weird scary girl...but happy?"—has been generally ignored. Her killing Bor'dor is the first time in the entire campaign that she's done something that really got my attention, and in two episodes it's almost immediately papered over, followed by some inexplicable "must you continue to reconquer?" word salad about the gods.

Marisha explicitly refused to create a new character until she knew for sure whether or not Laudna would be resurrected. But if she enjoys her so much, when is she going to do anything meaningful with her?

[itsclydebitches]

It should be noted Arryn, in an official RWBY book, referred to Ilia as the archetypical “lesbian in love with her STRAIGHT best friend”

For anyone who hasn't seen it:

(Image taken from Oddlyhale's post about the topic.)

To reiterate, it's not just the in-universe depiction of the girls and their relationship that has fans side-eyeing the 'It was planned' comment, it's how Blake/Yang have been discussed by their creators throughout this whole process. If you'd always planned to make them a couple - even if it was just in a 'Hey, wouldn't it be cool if someday we could do this?' way - you don't make statements like this. This isn't a throwaway, ambiguously interpreted comment by someone low on the RT totem pole (like, say, the Yang's "sisters" line in the video game), this is one half of the couple's VA being quoted about her character's sexuality. She's not just tossing it out either, but using it as the basis for Ilia's characterization: the reason she's struggling is because of the specific, relatable experience of being a queer woman pining after a straight friend. That interpretation doesn't just come out of nowhere, especially when you can easily change your answer to fit the supposedly planned endgame: toss in a "presumably" before the "straight," emphasize that this was Ilia's incorrect assumption, drop the label entirely and focus only on how her feelings are unreciprocated, etc.

When I spoke before about not believing this 'It was planned' narrative, that's largely because worries about queerbaiting didn't appear out of thin air. It's not possible to worry about queerbaiting (the official definition, anyway) without the story hinting at a romance while the creators simultaneously do things that undermine your hope. This is one of those things. As time passes, moments like this will be buried under the simpler, happier story of how RT built an "earned" romance between a canonically queer couple and honestly? That's pretty frustrating to me. Critics - queer critics - are already called slurs, homophobic, and generally railed against for bringing up their disappointment in how this has been handled and that's while such details were current and on prominent display. The farther we get from 9x06, the more this kind of evidence is going to get forgotten, making it seem more and more ridiculous that anyone could be disappointed in Blake/Yang. These problems weren't taken seriously when they were immediately relavent, the girls still unconfirmed. Now that they have been confirmed, trying to get people to understand the complexities of, "Yes, but we didn't know that at the time and the creators were NOT consistent in reassuring us that they would follow through" becomes that much harder. It becomes oh so much easier to just slap a "You hate queer people" on a post and move on.

[authoralexharvey]

INTERVIEW WITH A WRITEBLR — @broodparasitism

Who You Are:

Lottie || She/her

I’m Lottie, and I’m currently doing a master’s in creative writing. I mostly write things in between historical, literary and horror about postwar Britain, and other than writing I’m a bit of a music nerd!

What You Write:

What genres do you write in? What age ranges do you write for?

Historical Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Psychological. Adult.

What genre would you write in for the rest of your life, if you could? What about that genre appeals to you?

Literary, if only for its room to be experimental and weird.

What genre/s will you not write unless you HAVE to? What about that genre turns you off?

Romance - I’m just not a romantic type of person!

Who is your target audience? Do you think anyone outside of that would get anything out of your works?

I don’t think too much about it, but I think other young queer/neurodivergent women would be the biggest readers of my work, particularly if they’re also British. But I hope that anyone from any demographic would be able to get something out of my work! It’s for anyone who wants to read it.

What kind of themes do you tend to focus on? What kinds of tropes? What about them appeals to you?

Motherhood is something that always creeps up in my work. Hedonism and moral masochism as contrasts is also very important to me! Feminism and class tensions tend to have a big presence in my work as well. It’s harder to say with tropes but if the central themes are there the tropes don’t matter too much to me. I couldn’t get into why they’re important to me without getting much too personal for writeblr, however.

What themes or tropes can you not stand? What about them turn you off?

Something entirely fluffy and comforting or something entirely cynical and hopeless, albeit the first is more annoying. I need some degree of light and darkness or the story feels too uncomplicated to me. For something very specific, I’m not keen on premises where every type of fantasy folklore is incorporated: there’s often too much that isn’t fleshed out enough. I also hate stories that use weight loss as shorthand for positive character development, because that’s plain old fatphobia. And stories without women. There’s no excuse for that.

What are you currently working on? How long have you been working on it?

I’m working on a manuscript for my MA so I prefer to keep vague on it, but it’s a small town horror about four people in the early 80s coming to terms with a recent death of someone they all had a wildly different relationship with and the way the town becomes increasingly haunted. I’m quite attached to it now. I began working on this at the end of August 2022!

Why do you write? What keeps you writing?

It simply brings me joy to do it. I want the stories in my head to exist on paper, because that’s such a rewarding feeling!

How long have you been writing? What do you think first drew you to it?

On and off since I was very young. I can’t remember what drew me to it: it was just something I knew I wanted to do for as long as I can remember (cliche, I know). I say that I began seriously writing in November 2013, when I started what would become my first completed draft of a manuscript.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Is that how you got your inspiration for your current project? If not, where did the inspiration come from?

I get my inspiration from my local area, and from researching history - and very often, music with connection to that. I think that the starting point of inspiration for my current project was the band Xiu Xiu, but what nonfiction I’ve read since then has fleshed it out into an actual narrative.

What work of yours are you most proud of? Why?

A short story called ‘Minutes’ that helped me get into my MA in the first place. I just struck gold with the plot, and it’s naturally one of my most “polished” pieces of writing. I would ideally like to do something else with it!

Have you published anything? Do you want to?

Not yet, but absolutely in the future.

What part of the publishing process most appeals to you? What part least appeals to you?

The publishing process doesn’t appeal to me at all - I’m not yet familiar with it. I am afraid of having to water down my work for “marketability”, however.

What part of the writing process most appeals to you? What part is least appealing?

It’s quite hard to say. I like the feeling of when an idea comes to you just as you’re typing. That’s always a godsend. The part least appealing…it can be quite intimidating when things are workshopped, definitely.

Do you have a writing process? Do you have an ideal setup? Do you write in pure chaos? Talk about your process a bit.

I don’t have much of a process. I have to be able to write almost anywhere and at any time of day in order to get things done.

Your Thoughts on Writeblr:

How long have you been a writeblr? What inspired you to join the community?

My currently blog is under a year old. I was peripherally involved from about 2018 to 2021, after which it became my primary tumblr community.

Shout out some of your favorite writeblrs. How did you find them and what made you want to follow them?

Some of my favourite are @queenslayerbee, @aninkwellofnectar , @ryns-ramblings, @dallonwrites! Tumblr either suggested I follow them or I found their blogs via discord.

What is your favorite part about writeblr?

I like a lot of the tag games - especially find the word.

What do you think writeblr could improve on? How do you think we can go about doing so?

In the nicest possible way, a lot of the writing advice is really, really bad. I am begging writeblr to realise not everyone needs to post writing advice and that is okay!

How do you contribute to the writeblr community? Do you think you could be doing more?

I could be doing more, but I have reservations about sharing my own work and I’m not qualified to be giving advice so all I can do now is help promote others.

What kinds of posts do you most like to interact with?

Posts that ask a question to the community as a whole about their creative processes, tag games and excerpts also.

What kind of posts do you most like to make?

I don’t know! There’s not a lot of writeblr posts I can make. I do like making silly little jokey posts about what I’m writing that only make sense of me, I suppose.

Finally, anywhere else online we may be able to find you?

I am on storygraph as @/fortunavhs, Instagram as @/absinthiumwriting and discord as malcontent#7884!

[will80sbyers]

1) Mike & Will in season 1

In the first season Mike's focus is not on Will alone, the focus of the narrative and the focus of the camera is on his reactions to Will's fate and are enough to show that these two characters will have ( in the future ) more relevance to each other compared to the others but from observing Mike's reactions they are not that much different from the other Party members, they add a level of drama by having the moment in which he finds out that Will's body was found in the quarry be more sad and heartbreaking for Mike when they focus on him believing that El betrayed his trust and he not only thinks he lost one of his best friends in the whole world but also that he's being lied to about something this much important from one of the new friends he made- by this point he considers El to be one of his friends too and that's exactly what he says to her after he goes back home and she's in his house again, he takes her in anyway even feeling betrayed and tells her he did think of her as a friend and he now feels like he lost two people... Not only one!

But then she finds a way to have his trust back by making him listen to Will singing on the radio and this not only brings him back hope to see his best friend again but also gives him back a friend and makes him feel grateful towards her...

When Will is finally back home he's shown to be worried about his wellbeing and the camera focuses on him when Will starts coughing but the reactions Mike has are the same reactions Lucas has in the first seasons towards Will and even Dustin, all of them cry for him, all of them risk their own well-being for Will and decide to go into the woods and they are really happy to have Will back at the end of the season and eager to talk with him and play d&d again etc...

Mike is being established as the leader of the group in season 1 so he's the one that has the most focus on for who gets the group to start this- he's the one that inspires them to go out to search for another party member because as Will said, Mike is the heart and he wouldn't have left any of them to just be missing without him and the others going to at least TRY to find them!

Mike is the leader but I do believe the focus on him is also because the writers intended to connect Will to him later on, either because it was already planned that Will would be one of his love interests or just because they knew Will was intended to be gay and had already decided Mike was gonna be the one Will fell for eventually... I'm inclined to believe they did want to slowly build them as a future couple in a crescendo and started to place some small foreshadowing in the framing in particular and with the focus on Mike's heartbreak-

At this point of the story I don't think Mike was aware of having any sort of romantic feelings for Will, he was still his first friend and his best friend and he would have done anything for him and to have him back safe but it would have been the same for any other party member because they purposefully place the whole storyline about Mike jumping from the cliff for Dustin's safety right after he told him they were all his best friends in the middle of the season so that it was clear to the audience which type of character Mike has in general and why he does deserve to be the leader and to be considered the heart, they show just how much Mike's character cares about all of his friends and how compassionate and kind he can be!

They start to create a window into mike's heart and show how big it is, how he's capable of loving and being loyal to so many people at the same time and I do believe we see that after season 1 even after he starts feeling insecure about himself and that starts to make him falter a little and become a bit more self concerned because of that, his focus shifts too much into keeping El in his life to the point he slowly loses himself in the process and becomes lost, Will is the one that brings him back to himself regularly

[variousqueerthings]

I’m from space, I’ve got two hearts and… 27 brains

it's "Bells Of Saint John" time. this is the first proper Clara-As-Companion and she's doing shit!

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 10/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 6/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 7/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 7/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 7/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 9/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 7/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 7/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 6/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 6/10

FULL RATING: 72/100 (if I can count….)

Could it be? A pretty highly rated M*ffat episode??? You crazy son of a bitch you did it!

OBJECTIFICATION: Wait for it.... THERE IS NO OBJECTIFICATION! (takes a medal for Steven M*ffat and wacks him in the face with it)

PLOT-POINT: so the Thing with Clara is that she's "not possible." (she is... Impossible... sort of like an Impossible Gi- *strangles M*ffat with the medal chain), and so while she does do stuff in this episode that gives her more than in the previous episode, we still don't have thaaat much sense of her

we know she's taking care of some kids, because their mum died and she's a friend of the family, and we know there's something about a leaf, and that she's bad at tech (in a very funny kind of way where it's 2012 and she can't access wifi without help, which I honestly cannot remember if would still be plausible in 2012 for a 24yr old, but fuckit) AND that she's got this book 101 places to see, that she's saved for her travels

so there's definitely Clues, but most of it is the Doctor's POV for now

COMPLEXITY: the beginning with the Doctor as a monk painting Clara and waiting for "the bells to ring" because it's a sign or whatever is dumb, but get past that and...

we bring back The Great Intelligence and it's quite a neat follow-up to the last one, in which it's now gone into the Internet and is snatching up peoples minds to feed off of them -- never mind if its depiction of The Internet is good or not, I'm no good at gauging that + I love the movie Hackers, so my judgement is skewed anyway

it makes sense! and then at the end The Great Intelligence isn't defeated, but just goes back into hiding a biiit stronger than before, and has a genuinely quite creepy moment of returning the mind back to someone it infected as a kid, who is now in her 50s or smthin, and becomes a child again in that body... lowkey creepy stuff

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: SO the Doctor and Clara have now met properly -- as in this Clara, who is actually going to get to travel with the Doctor, and maybe won't die (but maybe she will)

The Great Intelligence is shaping up to be a recurring problem

Clara and the Doctor like each other and I also don't hate Clara (that's a strong word anyway, but I'm not UNvibing with her character, apart from a few moments, and a choice to make every conversation between them go so flipping fast as a way of showing Wit and Smarts, and is a trend in that era which I was never a fan of)

COMPANIONS MATTER: Clara does things! she correctly surmises that because she briefly became a part of the Internet (it is a bit silly, but it's 2012 or thereabouts, and silly in a DW way, not a "let's be convoluted for the sake of it" kind of way) she can hack into bad guy base but! she accesses their webcams, takes pictures of them, and uses them to find their social medias where they've put down their job location! which is where they are!

which is actually proper hacking! it's pretty great

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: the Doctor is pretty capable in this episode, and uses his savvy to get shit done, but isn't the total winner. his goal is for Clara not to die (again), so it works out pretty well on the whole

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: it's got this line I don't like, which is just a tad too flipping smugly meta, where a kid is reading a book and Clara asks which chapter the kid is on (Ten) and then says, "Eleven’s the best, you’ll cry your eyes out." it's... come on, stop making promises you can't keep mate! and don't make this a competition

otherwise it's more The Great Intelligence, and a scene where the Doctor is rooting around looking for a non-monk outfit, and discards Ten's jacket, which is fun

“SEXINESS”: it's not egregious, but I am fucking watching you M*ffat, about not making Clara into another innuendo machine

she calls the Tardis the Snog Box twice, and talks about how the Doctor talks people into it, and that's the main thing. W A T C H I N G you with that heavy metal at the ready!

INTERNAL WORLD: Clara is sooomewhere in London and there's a thing about that family where she's helping to take care of the kids, because the mother died. there's stuff about the internet, but not as community as such, it's more sort of a... somewhat ungrounded mildly Luddite attitude to it. it's not bad or over-the-top, but it's certainly got a very firm Internet = Bad stance

POLITICS: speaking of the Internet = Bad stance, that's kind of at the heart of the episode, with not much else to focus in on I think.

it's not the most or the least well-rounded argument, it's sort of middly

FULL RATING: 71/100 (if I can count….)

So this episode is a not-bad introduction of Clara on the whole, except for the fact that it's more the Doctor being introduced to her, than her being introduced to the Doctor

the Doctor is our lens more than Clara, which I think is also why she's not quiiite so well-rounded (yet, next episode gives a bit more Stuff)

in terms of pacing, it's sort of middly, but on the whole it's not a bad episode I would say, and not a bad companion intro episode

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

this ask i’m about to send gets into fairly personal territory regarding ruby’s suicide attempt, so just delete this right now if it’s something you’d rather not have to deal with from a stranger (it okay, it’s been a long while and i’m doing pretty good in the present 👍)

something that’s frustrating me a little more than i’d like is the amount of people bringing up yang’s abandonment issues and how that might come into play. on one hand, yes, that is something that i thought about and would be interesting to see in the future, but as of the more immediate situation…

it brings up this old memory about me asking my own sister what she thinks about suicide, and her replying that she thinks it’s selfish. i love my sister, and i know she was well-intentioned, but it hadn’t helped at the time and there’s a reason why i go to my brother first instead.

the thing about suicide is that it can be selfish, but when a person is in that kind of pain they just want it to stop hurting, and even think it’s better for everyone else that way. on top of that, this response has the side effect of making the pain of the person affected, their own struggles, about other people instead - ‘you should think about how others would feel, if you did it’. it doesn’t stop a person from feeling depressed or suicidal, it just makes them feel invalidated. it makes them feel like their feelings don’t matter in the long run. and when they feel they don’t matter, well… yeah.

this is something that ruby has been struggling with all this while. she’s hurting, and she feels (particularly after that episode) that she’ll only make things worse if she sticks around.

ultimately, fans should be allowed to focus on the characters they connect to more, so they shouldn’t stop contemplating just because people (me, in this specific instance) is getting butthurt about it. i just, personally. keep seeing multiple people hoping for the story to focus on yang’s feelings about being abandoned in the next few episodes and. something about that just frustrates me, a little, because to me ruby’s pain has been building up for a while now, and the narrative should get to focus on how she hurts, without the idea of how that affects others from interrupting the narrative. because she’s always been keeping her pain quiet for the benefit of others, and now she can’t do it anymore.

given how rwby9 has thus far been making good development on ruby as a character, i doubt they’ll cut away from the focus on it now. i’m trusting crwby on this, at least. i’m just a bit miffed at seeing people want to shift the focus onto how it affects yang right away. it’s not a bad idea, but right now isn’t the time; ruby is hurt in a way that’s beyond what wby had all expected and she deserves to have the time to let herself feel. let the spotlight sit on her woes, for the moment. that’s what i hope for, at least.

Yeah I'm thinking that Yang's abandonment issues and how she was hurt by this are going way in the back seat and probably won't be addressed this volume. We've got to get Ruby back on her feet and the rest of them will be focused on rescuing her, and any fallout from watching her die will not be addressed until she's out of the Ever After.

And yeah, when you're in that much pain your brain will do anything to make it worse. My mom once had a friend's son commit suicide and she tearfully asked me "Please don't do that to me", and my brain interpreted that as "Don't kill yourself because it would make me unhappy.". But outright saying that someone's selfish for having suicidal thoughts is just unbearably careless and I'm sorry you had to go through that.

[yanderefairyangel]

I might going to sound biased but I'd like to say something

I saw some people saying that if 3H uses trauma to puch its character, so does Engage with bringing comparison to Bernie and Alfred or Yunaka so it's going to be spoily but I will try to explain the difference

In Engage, much like 3H it will turn out that a character has a gimick for reason that are deeper then "ah, ah silly character" however I'll explain why it's not making fun of their trauma.

In Alfred's case, he isn't traumatized by his illness. As the OP perfectly nailed it in this post, Alfred has already accepted that he is sick and that he can't heal from it. His obsession with training and muscle and acting as a gold retriver isn't a coping method, it's a sincere wish of being stronger and being remembered as the sunshine prince doing everything he can around other to help them. Doing this makes Alfred feel better because he wants to enjoy life fully and that's how he enjoys it. When we see him in that state, he is at his highest. When we see him at is lowest is when he is being sick, weak in his support with Céline, but how he habitually behaves is when he is at his highest. If the narrative was mocking Alfred's illness, it would make jokes about how he faints every three seconds or how weak he is, but it isn't the case. Learning that Alfred is chronically ill and maybe doomed to die at a young age contrast with his usual behaviour, but it makes you realize it's a character who have a very strong mentality. He is always wanting to be stronger, to enjoy life with his friends, he want to be remembered at that kind of prince and he is one of the most supportive character towards Alear since at the begining of the game, they are rather dependent of him. Despite his illness, he doesn't let him be depressed and moody, he instead choose to focus on each day he lives and enjoys it, the very original meaning behind carpe diem. Learning of Alfred's past when we see his gimicks makes you realize that this character isn't just a funny silly little guy, but a real warrior with a strong mentality, and you can't help but find him even more endearing.

Meanwhile, Bernie's gimmicks are actual direct result of PTSD. When the narrative is making jokes about her, it's always when she is at her lowest : when she is having a crisis because there is people around her, when she doesn't want to go out, when she is nervous abour her behaviour being seen as unfitting etc. it's Bernie being shown are her lowest and when you learn the reason behind her behaviour, you can't help but feel bad that stuff that are directly resulting from her trauma are used as slapstick comedy.If Bernie's gimicks was something else, such as her acting like a golden retriever and making us and her classmates smiles and then you learn her tragic backstory, then it would be different because she would seem as strong like it was the case for Alfred. But it isn't.

Another example : Yunaka is acting like very peppy and all, but that's not a result of trauma. It's who she wants to become : a joyful person. Her speeches, her gimicks. Unlike PTSD who manifest with the vicitm without having control, those are things that Yunaka choosed. She acts like this on purpose because that's the person she wants to become as she is trying to distance herself from her past. So it's not coping, it's not Yunaka being made fun of when she is at lowest point, it's when she is at her highest point, when she feels safe and it is used as a way for her to bond with people like how it's thanks to her acting she and Seadall can team up to produce spectacles. Again, learning about Yunaka's backstory makes you realize she is trying to be a good person and is working hard for it and it makes her gimicks more endearing. And those gimicks are a direct invitation to smile. After all, Alear does return her "Hiya Papaya" so she isn't made fun of by the cast for that.

Another character in the 3H cast that however doesn't have this chance would be Sylvain. Guy hates crest system because his brother hate him, beated the sheet out of him and tried to kill several times after being disinherited by Margrave and is quite misogynistic because he thinks women wants him only to transmit crest to their children, so what does he do to cope ? He flirts with them and never have a serious relationship. It's Sylvain being at its lowest since in timeskip he is supposed to grow from that behaviour. What does game does with it ? Make fun of him. Oh look he tried to hit on the granny of his childhood friend when he was 8, oh look he can join your class automatically if you are a girl.

And again I ain't saying Engage is completely exampt from that criticism. After all, it did mock Alear's trauma in the introduction, however, it should be noted that it happened only ONCE and never again after that. In 3h, that kind of stuff is present in literaly all of the game.

Alcryst also comes to mind with his low assurance and apologetic nature often creating gag. However, this doesn't prevent Alcryst from being a character portrayed as protective and the game is showing that this can be a strengh as this allows him to see in people the quality they don't perceives such as when he helps Citrine or Lapis, and this makes him able to appreciate even more the quality of others such as his brother or Fogado. And this never cause him to adopt a behaviour that prevents him from fufilling his duty, unlike what he believes, he is still pushing himself too protect those he loves and this low self confidence somehow pushes him to always try to surpass himself.

Goldmary might be the only character whose gimick of being an attention seeker resulting from her very low self confidence when in competition being mocked, but again, this allows her to inspire other in being more confident like how she helps Yunaka deals with the chores reminding her of her childhood.

Other character such as Chloé who seek escape within fiction is again, not her being at her lowest, it's her being in a state where she feels at ease. Céline drinking tea ... is never mocked in game even if that's her anti-stress coping mechanism. Etc.

I could go on and on, but the key to that idea is : what is learning the reason behind the gimick/silly trait creating ? Does it give the impression that there is something more to the character or is used as a way to explain the character's gimick used as a joke. The key word depends entirely on whether the narrative mock them when they are at their lowest or if the character acts purposefully like this because they feel better that way.

Basically, it's whether or not you feel like a character belonging to a trope is damaging its character or if it add level of layers

I think that's why those stuff ends up being different, I have no idea if you'll agree with me on this though

[sapphire-weapon]

Okay so hc time, I think Capcom went so hard with Ashley's redesign not only because they knew people complained about her but because they were planning on bringing her back...?

Like I just hope Capcom is giving us hints that the Remake timelines will be a bit different and it might even include characters that had disappeared from the narrative like Ashley. To me this would seem logical since now she is a fan fave and a lot of people already loved the models/cosplayers who represent her in the game.

Also the fact they keep making you acknowledge that Ashley and Leon are a team, and a good one at that, maybe hints that we might see her again? Or at least give us info on what she's doing atm... idk man, I really think Capcom knew what they were doing with Ash like how they did with Lady D in REVIII, they knew the fans would love these characters and want more from them. Maybe even dlc? I would love for DLC before Leon arrives like the scenes with Ashley from the trailer that wasn't in the game. Or at least maybe we get something in Separate Ways from Ada's POV or from Luis' since he knew Ashley was captured before Leon arrived.

So, I... go back and forth on this.

Right now, I'm kind of at a place where, like. I don't think that Capcom looked back on Ashley Graham and was like "We need to bring her back" when there are other characters (like Billy Coen) who were much more beloved and would fit much more neatly into the narrative that they could've focused on bringing back instead.

I think they looked at the task before them of remaking Resident Evil 4 and asked themselves, "What are the fans going to expect from us after we make this game? How do we follow this up?" Remaking RE4 is such a bold fucking endeavor, and they knew that this was going to have a massive effect on RE's branding and fanbase.

I actually feel that the RE4 remake was a much riskier, gutsier, more influential move than remaking Final Fantasy VII was. Both games were arguably the same level of influential on their respective releases, but FF7 has been fucked with over and over and over again by Square Enix, and they knew even as far back as the PS2 era that they were going to have to inevitably remake that game (the story Tim Rogers tells about it is fascinating, actually).

But RE4? Has always been treated as this sacred, precious, sacrosanct thing by Capcom. They have not fucked with RE4, they have not dared to even suggest fucking with RE4. Hell, they treated RE4 as so sacred that they wrote themselves into a corner with Leon and Ada just because of how RE4 handled the relationship -- which then bit them in the ass with the fan reaction to RE6. But it was all because of their steadfast position that RE4 is not to be fucked with.

So, to actually do it was a really, really big fucking deal. They knew that the fanbase was probably somehow even more protective of that game than they were.

So, step one: make sure that a remake of RE4 is hailed as "one of the greatest games ever released" all over again.

But step two was: anticipate what the fanbase would want next as a direct result of RE4make's existence and follow through with it.

And that's where I think the focus on Ashley actually comes from.

To make this game one of the greatest games ever released all over again, they had to turn Ashley into a character that would be beloved. We now live in an era of games that were influenced by RE4 and took the formula and built off of it. Ashley had to be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with characters like Ellie from TLOU, or else the game would fail.

And, if they were to make Ashley into a character that beloved, they knew that fans would want more of her.

So, yes, from a business standpoint and a practical standpoint, it stands to reason that Ashley's final appearance will not be RE4make. Capcom will bring her back.

The question is how and when.

The story of RE has now moved forward nearly twenty years into the future without her. In order to keep using her character, they either have to execute the greatest rug-pull in video game history and slap her back into the story twenty years into the future somehow and make it work, or they have to completely remake the series from the ground up.

And then I look at Infinite Darkness, and my brain goes, "either ID straight-up retcons Degeneration, or it's secretly Remake-verse and Capcom just hasn't said it yet." Because Degeneration and Infinite Darkness cannot coexist in the same timeline. They just can't. Degeneration takes place after RE4, and the president in that movie is not President Graham -- and even if he was, that motherfucker resigns at the end of it.

Infinite Darkness can't take place in 2006 if Degeneration is still canon. Or, Degeneration can't take place in 2005 if Infinite Darkness is canon. It doesn't work. It's impossible.

And you know who's mentioned and cameo'd in Infinite Darkness? Ashley motherfuckin Graham.

So, I mean. The table is already set for her return. It's just.

I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen or how Capcom is going to handle it, but I'm fairly certain Ashley will be back again. All we can do is wait to see what Death Island does, then wait to see what Separate Ways does, and then wait to see what happens with the RE9 reveal.

That's all we can do, man.

[caatws]

Hi there! I have just seen gotg vol 3 and stumbled upon your blog and a few of your comments about Gamora and Nebula. I am enjoying reading your thoughts so much! I have been feeling like I'm in a pretty lonely minority because I went to see vol 3 spoiler free with an open mind and walked out more disappointed than I was expecting. Mainly because of the female character side of things. Gamora and Nebula's relationship has been a constant thread from vol 1 thru EG and vol 3 had the most amount of material to work with and yet vol 3 has the least amount of focus on their relationship out of all the movies. I have felt similarly about Mantis too. She spent 4 years with Gamora and having a certain vibe on the team. I was expecting at least some exploration of what a huge shift change Gamora being gone would bring. Or even being someone Nebula could confide in. But generally the women's relationships seemed to get shortchanged in ways that weren't a problem before from what I remember.

I admit I don't keep up with the entire MCU so maybe lack of female dynamics is an ongoing problem. I just didn't expect it from gotg with the set up they had coming from vol 2 and EG. At the end I was kind of sad to see Mantis going off on her own, Nebula staying on Knowhere and Gamora going back to the male dominated ravagers. I wanted all three of them to go on a road trip or something. Or even have Gamora stay on Knowhere to get to bond with her sister more. I don't want to come across as being pessimistic about the whole movie. It really wasn't bad. It's just vol 2 and EG seemed to be building up to an even more inclusive female character story with 3 women on the team getting to become closer and that didn't really happen. I'm actually kind of frustrated Gamora and Nebula didn't get to spend much time being guardians together. That seemed like the direction they were headed in and very important for both of them.

That said I'm going to go read your Gamora and Natasha fic! I'm glad to see someone playing with ideas for them and their sisters. I think they could have had some interesting interactions on screen if given the chance.

aw thank you anon! i hope you enjoyed the fic hehe 🫶🏼 your ask made me think of a lot of different things that i wanted to talk about so sorry in advance for the long response 😭

but yeah i totally agree with you! the shift in focus away from gamora and nebula's relationship in vol 3 was kinda sad for me too, esp bc i don't think that vol 1 thru eg rly fully resolved their storyline at any point? like it was clear that gamora and nebula grew closer in the 4 years between vol 2 and iw, but we didn't rly get to see much of that beyond gamora and nebula's reactions to each other being in danger or killed. like the trauma from that hello???

i must say though, i think nebula's overall arc from vol 1 all the way to now has shocked me the most, in a good way. i never would've thought nebula would've gotten the focus and chances to be central to the narrative in the ways she has in her appearances—in fact, i was afraid she was gonna be killed off in iw to "resolve" her arc, so to see that at least she got to live beyond that and find a home within the gotg even without her sister is actually pretty fucking awesome and i love it.

and with mantis in general, i feel like there was more i wanted for her too! in addition to more of her relationships with gamora and nebula (though it was fun watching mantis and nebula yell at each other at times but also </3 it's brutal out here being a mantis/nebula shipper), i feel like canon rly underutilized her being peter's bio sister after the holiday special made it canon. if mantis had to leave the team at the end of vol 3, i almost wish she just went with peter, not just to support him but also so they could continue getting to know each other better as brother and sister, especially since peter seemed so happy to find out mantis was his sister in the holiday special!

now i'm just going beyond what your ask was about specifically haha but i think in general, i don't usually love endings where the main cast of characters has to split up, unless it feels necessary or earned by the narrative. i feel like an example of this type of ending done well was the end of my little pony: friendship is magic where, after 9 seasons, the protagonist has to move onto a completely different job/lifestyle and break away from the friend group, but the finale is entirely focused on the emotional fallout of that and shows how the group also makes an effort to stay in touch regularly so that we know they aren't split up for good.

with gotg, i think this ending would've worked better if it had been built up more from the beginning of the film—maybe i missed some foreshadowing since i only watched once, but sowing some seeds of Wanting To Leave Or Retire within some of the characters in the first act (an example of this sorta happening was mantis talking to peter about his grandpa)—and if it felt like we'd gotten more time with these characters.

like, bc vol 1 and 2 take place within months of each other, and then 4 years passed off screen between vol 2 and iw, and then 5 years passed off screen for rocket and nebula in eg, and then another 2 years passed off screen between eg and the holiday special/vol 3, it feels like we only got the core gotg together for like, a few months tops lol. and then to go from that straight to their finale where they split up 10 YEARS LATER is just crazyyyy

[carpisuns]

as an adrien stan, I try not to be too whiny about adrien not getting enough focus in the show bc I know I’m biased lol and of course he is the deuteragonist, not the protagonist. marinette is ladybug and the guardian and it totally makes sense that she has had most of the narrative focus so far in this season. I’m not mad about that and I’m sure there will be adrien-centric episodes in the future. and apart from a few things I take issue with here and there, I don’t generally agree that the writers have made him a “sidekick.”

but what’s been happening in the last few episodes really does feel intentional. the level of sidelining can’t be explained away imo. at this point, Rena Rouge kind of outranks him (for lack of a better term lol). She’s no longer a temp hero—she’s a permanent miraculous holder who knows ladybug’s identity and basically everything that ladybug knows about the miraculous and the grimoire. her giving out miraculous without permission was a mistake this time, but marinette wasn’t mad and it seems like that may actually be part of her role now. so right now....it kinda seems like Rena is more of Ladybug’s partner than Chat Noir is, and even Hawkmoth has noticed.

adrien has been in good humor about all of it so far, but he also doesn't know the extent of it. we know from past episodes how much it hurts him when he feels like he's being left out because it's really really important to him to feel that he is valued and trusted. of course, he's grown a lot since syren, but that's sure to still a weakness of his, and it's really being tested now. his positive attitude can only last so long before he reaches a breaking point—probably when he realizes just how much he's been left out.

btw im not salty at marinette or alya (or the writers) about how this has developed—actually, im pretty excited about it—and of course it was never marinette's intention to hurt chat noir or leave him out. but that will inevitably be the effect, and I can't blame adrien for feeling hurt, either (especially considering his relationship with his father—ladybug's trust means so much to him because trust is something he's never gotten from his dad). marinette was just doing what makes sense and I respect that, but I don't think she realized how it would feel to Chat Noir. he has heard her say "you're irreplaceable," but her words and actions probably don't seem to match up right now. honestly, the number of times adrien verbally emphasizes their partnership almost seems as if he's trying to convince himself. as much as he smiles and pretends it's all great in front of her, he can sense how their relationship is changing, and we saw in "Lies" how much it's bringing him down. it's only a matter of time before everything spills over and they have to deal with the fallout

TLDR; i think the chat noir sidelining situation will escalate more and he’ll come to a breaking point and it will lead to a big conflict with Ladynoiir. so I am preparing for angst and a good amount of adrien salt dhsjdks (and probably marinette salt too). it will be a painful thing to watch them go through but im sure they will come out stronger on the other side because despite it all, they are made for each other and it will always be the two of them against the world💜

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E129 (March 16, 2021)

Tonight’s guests are Matt Mercer and Taliesin Jaffe!

Matt, on DMing Luc’s Revivify: “That was weird. It’s one thing when it happens because of player action and circumstances and the choices they make. When it’s entirely on me, unintentional, and just realizing different chess pieces you’ve set up, that’s rough.” It was especially rough since this was a child NPC related to a PC. “I was hoping somebody had a spell slot left.” He kept in mind that there are two clerics in the room and that they could resurrect the next day even if the Revivify went poorly. “A good chance, since it’s his first time. Okay, okay, okay, okay, I think we’ll be okay, we’ll see how this goes. It was really stressful in the moment! I did not set out to have that happen, but when I realized what was going to happen, I tried to see it through.” He wouldn’t have prevented a chance to bring him back. “There may have been an offshoot short-run series of games to find a way to bring him back. I would have found some way to correct the circumstance so the players could feel good about moving forward with the story and there was no undue punishment beyond their control.”

Taliesin on Cad’s response: “This is a big thing if you’re a cleric. It was very much coming in like an EMT. Everything should be fine... hopefully. Just focused in and got it done. The minute things started to go south it was like, okay, that’s the next problem.”

On Yeza’s feelings: “It is a very complicated situation. I think he, much like how Veth is trying to figure out what it is that she wants, I think he’s trying to help her find that while also figuring it out for himself. I think Yeza’s also noticing that because Veth’s the more active of the two of them she also takes the weight of the responsibility and the blame for things when they go wrong, unnecessarily. Especially when he himself acknowledges that he’s partially at fault for even dragging everyone in with the Conclave. As much as he’s appreciative for them coming back for him, there’s a lot of back and forth. He’s filled with a lot of regret, too, but he’s very much trying to convince Veth that it’s a burden that she doesn’t have to keep to herself, that they can share it and work through it together.” Matt mentions that, as an actor, he really loves exploring interactions between characters first and foremost. “Especially when you don’t know where it’s going to go.” He also praises Sam as a scene partner - “I really cherish that.”

How does Caduceus feel about Revivify and Speak with Dead? “Speak with Dead is an interesting middle ground, because he knows that it’s not actually speaking with the dead. It’s really just-- it’s almost medical, really. This is just reactivating a brain at a certain point. It’s practically just a muscle twitch at this point. That doesn’t really prod him in that direction. Revivify is interesting, because it had never really come up. At first I thought of it as bending the rules, but it’s not bending the rules. You knock over a plant, you replant it, you don’t stare at it and go ‘Well, that’s over.’ This is just doing the work. No, we can bring this thing back to health. This is all part of the circle of life, that sometimes we can save something. Especially given the stress that he’s put himself through over the past year of being with these people. He’s started to think of himself a bit as a battlefield medic, and triage is just part of the deal, and it’s completely acceptable.”

Did Trent really just want to talk? “Yeah, that circumstance, as it came together, Trent would never have arrived if there wasn’t an indication that there was some kind of infiltration or attack. Even beyond that, it was Jester breaking the concentration on her charm on that one guard when she created her duplicate.” The guards’ job is to inform a member of the Cerberus Assembly, and Trent lived the closest. “He didn’t know who it was, didn’t have any expectation necessarily. The minute he saw the illusion, he knew a powerful magic user was involved.” Seeing Caleb was an unexpected surprise. “I don’t think he wanted to throw down necessarily. He was more interested in figuring out exactly what the nature of this was.” Matt had multiple battlemaps that didn’t get used. “They managed to cleverly out-maneuver him in his surprise of seeing them.” The Nein rocketed up his priority list after that very quickly. Taliesin: “We’re so fucked.”

On Cad being “Uncle Caduceus” to Luc: “It’s the thing he misses most about home, is being a juvenile shit. It’s nice to be able to express that part of him again, as opposed to the serious, life-threatening, constant intensity. I’m very at home just being a little difficult.”

Cosplay of the Week: an amazing Beau! (_rumor_king, photography by kourtyardproductions on Instagram)

On Marion: “Like a lot of people in this whole narrative from the beginning, getting swept up in things larger than her and trying to adapt. This is a circumstance she’s avoided for a long time. She’s having a rough time in some ways, but simultaneously, she’s enduring. Like a mother would. She’s adapting, she’s making it work. Without much of a choice, you just kind of do the best you can and lean on the people around you to help you where they can. Luckily she has a daughter there. She’s probably surprising herself at how well she’s doing given the circumstances.” Matt talks about how weird it is to feel proud of character he’s created. “Of the many things Marion is incredible at, she’s a studier of the human condition. She’s seen and heard the stories of so many. That gives her a very special perspective. She can see elements of that fractured individual within Caleb, and knowing the good that he’s brought to his friends, and knowing he’s possibly saved her life from bad circumstances, she couldn’t not speak up. She very easily falls into that role of maternal comforter, because it’s one of the many things she’s really good at, she enjoys it, and she can see well when people need it.” He’s been enjoying having Marion along for this (despite the difficult circumstances) because he was always a little sad that they only got to see her for short periods of time.

On the Blooming Grove’s safety: “He’s afraid that it’s a premonition. He’s not pinned it down, but he’s happy to let his imagination wander. He at the very least feels like there’s a reason he’s having these thoughts, and that there’s a reason to go there. He’s a big believer that these things don’t just happen. He’s more likely to think that there’s a good reason to go versus a danger to go. He’s had a couple of ominous warnings lately, and he’s not used to them and not a fan. He’s more likely to read something like that as, there is something there waiting for you that you have to discover. There is something that is going to be helpful to you, even if it hurts.”

On Astrid: “While maybe not as readable in overall personality as Trent is, I still want to be careful to not discuss things that are still being discussed within the game and tossed around as possibilities. Astrid is another complicated character, as anyone would be who’s been through the life she has. I can’t say too much. I can say she’s definitely legitimately happy to see Bren/Caleb after all this time.” His reemergence definitely caught her off guard. “We’ll have to see where it goes from there.”

On Cad’s successful Divine Intervention: “He’s definitely hit the ‘on a mission from god’ stage. He’s been that way for the entire campaign of, this, this is what I’ve been waiting for. Even when it sucks a lot, it’s been nice that those things have popped up to remind him, no, no, you’re doing it right, everything’s good. Probably not going to survive the next week, but you’re doing good! Not quite 1 in a 100 chance, but I forget so often to make that roll, and it’s such a great roleplaying roll. I don’t know how at level 20 you could deal with the fact that you can do that every day.” 

On Zeenoth getting his comeuppance: the kidnapping was a concept Marisha brought up for Beau’s backstory, and Matt went with it even though it was opposed to the Cobalt Soul’s philosophy because he knew rooting it out would make for an interesting story. “I felt it was an important beat to bring to her, because it was something that she was wronged by. And to show that there are still some good people out there who are trying to make things right.” After the tentative peace, dealing with this became Dairon’s next focus. “I was glad we finally got to it. So many people don’t have the opportunity in their lives to get that sort of justice and vindication, so if I can bring elements of that justice into our world, even for our own hope, I’m going to do that. Especially for my wife’s character, especially for a character that deserves that.” Taliesin points out that if it had come too early, Beau wouldn’t have believed it.

Cad’s thoughts on the Tomb Taker betrayal? “He knew it was gonna come at some point. There was no way that was gonna last. He was hoping it was gonna last a little longer. He was really hoping they had a vested interest in getting them all the way to the end. Nope, this is apparently as far as we go, and he was not prepared for that.” He was expecting the potential for de-escalation. “Caduceus is the only character in there that doesn’t have a history with Lucien. I think he sees him a little more clearly than everybody else does. They’re all looking for this person that Clay, at least, is of the opinion that he’s just not there. This is a very manipulative, very dangerous infernal human. Just smarter than all of them. Really aware that there is no calculating what the hell is going to happen. Conversation is the only way you can deal with someone like that.”

Fan Art of the Week: An amazing Caleb closeup! (rynn_birb on Twitter)

Taliesin on Lucien: “I’m excited he’s the one that’s going to kill us all. Poetic that this is how the game ends.” Matt was delighted when Taliesin handed him carte blanche to do what he wanted with Molly’s past. “I was like ‘shit... oh, wait!’ The character of Lucien was always intended to be an antagonist so that it would have been Molly being chased by the person who wanted their body back. But then it happened that he got his body back.” Taliesin: “He’s so much worse than I ever hoped.”

Matt, on the Holy Avenger: “I hadn’t thought to initially even give that sword.” The good roll was the only reason Kima handed that over. “Well, sure, you get the sword. It was very reactionary, it wasn’t my intent originally. I was like, well, I mean, there’s two avenues she can take with this.” Multiclass into Paladin, or lean into the fact that her subclass is essentially a barbarian paladin. “This really works out in a uniquely beautiful way. Let me see if I can lay out a path for her to earn it.”

On Cad’s attempt at lying blowing up in his face: “He was like that kid that had a really bad day in high school and was like, you know what? I’m going to let loose. This is it. I’m gonna dye a streak in my hair. And then tries to give himself a haircut and ends up with half bangs. Well, okay, obviously I’m not that person. I was feeling a little distraught and I didn’t handle it well. Maybe I’m going dark... no, I’m not going dark. Nope.” Matt mentions how much he relates to Caduceus.

Matt, on the Eyes: “What can I tell you? I’m enjoying the hell out of it. The moment they began to really push to read that book, I was like, okay, this is on you. I’m excited for the point in the narrative where the march continues back to Eiselcross. I am almost impatient - not really - because we’re on the cusp of getting to more of the meat. There’s so much to learn, so much to see, so much to explore. I love instilling my players with absolute terror.”

Thoughts on Jester’s Tarot reading? Taliesin cackles. “Molly made the cards, so. Did it to himself, he did, he did.” Matt: “Once again, another example of things working out unexpectedly and too perfectly for an improvised moment. Fuck.” Taliesin: “Bless the wisdom of chaos.” Matt: “I love that even at this point in the campaign, Molly continues to fuck with people. I’m just so proud. That deeply shook Lucien, for reasons.” Taliesin: “It’s the everlasting gobstopper smoke bomb.”