#the concept of this character is so good but it's so apparent the crew does not give a shit about him

[user-name-h3re]

If Nurf ever does ONE horrible thing or ever so slightly CONSIDERS hurting Preston in the new episodes i'm going to projectile vomit and gouge my eyes out the ENTIRE REASON HE WENT TO CAMP WAS TO BE BETTER WHY IS HE THE ONLY ONE THATS HASN'T GOTTEN BETTER WH-

[subway-tolkien]

Okay, this is 1600 words of (positive!) meta regarding the OFMD finale. Included is character analysis and a treatise on why a certain trope people keep throwing around does not apply here.

This is of course just my take, and I'm sure people will disagree, but I needed to get this out. Apologies if it comes off disjointed, I've had like no sleep.

Spoilers within, obviously. You have been warned. Heed the tags. I didn't tag any characters because I consider it a spoiler, but you know who this is about.

Listen. Listen.

Let me start off by saying I have been where you are. I’ve had beloved characters die, either because it was important to the narrative or for shock value. I’ve been there, so I’m not coming at this without empathy. I’m not an Izzy hater. I loved him as a character. I’m truly sad to see him go.

But from what I’m seeing around Twitter and tumblr, some of you do not understand the role of an antagonist in a story.

Izzy was always meant to die. The moment he said, in the first season, “the only retirement we get is death,” I knew he was meant to die in the end. The foreshadowing ran through both seasons. Izzy was the true antagonist of S1. He was there to keep Blackbeard tethered when he started pulling away, and yet he also set the plot in motion. He inadvertently introduced Blackbeard to the person who let him be just Ed. He put Ed on his own path to redemption without even knowing it.

S1 ended with Izzy getting what he wanted as Ed lost everything he had. S2 was about Izzy coming to terms with the fact that he’d gone too far, he’d turned Ed into a monster. It wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted Blackbeard back, just like old times. Instead, he got the Kraken, and it was more than he bargained for.

Especially after it cost him his leg and he realized how far gone Ed really was. The conversation that ended with Izzy’s half-assed suicide attempt was the final blow to Izzy—Ed really didn’t seem to care anymore. Where Izzy wanted him to stop giving a shit about his silly boyfriend, he instead got a Blackbeard who didn’t care about anything, and he was apparently now included in that category.

(I said half-assed suicide attempt because Izzy wasn’t meant to die then, THAT would have been an empty, pointless death. It wouldn’t have taught Ed anything—in fact, all it did was make him more self-destructive, which was Izzy’s purpose to the narrative, but not his endgame. That Ed thought Izzy killed himself pushed Ed to the brink. Ed wanted to die and take every scrap of Blackbeard with him. Had Izzy successfully killed himself, Ed and the Revenge would be at the bottom of the ocean.

It wasn’t until the crew left Izzy the unicorn leg that he realized the power of compassion, the incredible act of grace from a crew that suffered so much from Izzy’s own machinations and didn't need to forgive him. It moved him to tears, and it moved him to accept that maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to let people in, to let himself be cared for. It was a foreign concept and something Izzy likely hadn’t experienced since losing his family (I fully expect a shit ton of fanfic of Izzy’s life before piracy).

Israel Hands found the capacity to let love all the way in and by god, did he pursue it.

But, again, Izzy was always meant to die, and I’m glad they stuck to the narrative they set out with instead of placating fandom and letting our influence dictate how they told this story That’s never good, trust me. Fandom should not influence a creator’s decisions regarding their own characters. It rarely if ever ends well.

[Stares in Voltron S8]

And I see a lot of people out here throwing the “bury your gays” phrase around—I beg you, please look up the definition of the trope. Izzy didn’t die because he was queer, he didn’t die because of his disability. He wasn’t one half of the only queer couple in the show fridged for shock value. He wasn’t killed off due to pressure from conservative viewers. He wasn’t the only queer, disabled character.

They didn’t kill off Lucius, or Jackie, or Wee John. Would you be as outraged if it was any of them?

Killing Eve is bury your gays. Supernatural is bury your gays. Pretty much any film, book, TV show, whatever, where a queer character dies because they’re queer, of AIDs, to further the narrative for a straight person, etc—that is burying your gays.

Izzy’s death was none of those things. Izzy’s death had meaning.

Izzy’s death freed Ed from the Blackbeard persona. It finally forced Izzy to say the things he couldn’t say until he realized it was his last chance. Izzy was also tired. I honestly think he stuck it out for Ed’s sake, because he was afraid to let Blackbeard go without making sure Ed would be ok.

He loved the idea of Blackbeard, but over time, he learned to love Ed. He finally understood what Ed tried to tell him the whole time.

“Fuck off, you twat. You’re surrounded by family.”

You’re safe. You’re loved. You don’t need me anymore. You don’t need to be reminded of who you’re capable of being, you need the people who will guide you to who you will become, and I’m not one of them.

I know a lot of Izzy fans are stung by his death, some of you are deeply upset. I get that. Like I said, I’ve been there. Sirius’s death made me throw that fucking book across the room. That Fucking Woman™ killed off my entire OTP, purely for shock value and, imho, a direct response to shippers. Trust me, I have felt betrayed by a creator for their decisions.

But I need you to understand that no, this was not a personal attack, this was not malicious, this was not “bury your gays." A show that celebrates queerness and diversity is not suddenly homophobic and ableist because your favorite character died and happened to be both of those things. But when the majority of your cast of characters is different in some way, and they’re in a show about 18th century pirates, you have to accept that one of them could, in fact, die. “Anyone Can Die” is also a trope and the more accurate one to describe E8.

If only being queer and disabled made you invincible.

Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.

And no, I’m not an Izzy hater. I loved him, I loved him as an antagonist, and I loved his redemption arc. He was fascinating and Con put his whole O’Nussy into that part. I’m sorry to see him go, but as a mystery writer who often has to kill off beloved characters, I understand that he served the purpose he had from the beginning.

I swear, if some of you had your way, there’d be no conflict at all in any form of media. This what a steady diet of nothing but fanfic gets you. This is not a fluffy one-shot with magical healing dick and a happy ending where everyone sails off into the sunset. If that’s what you wanted, what you headcanoned, you did this to yourself. It’s not David et al’s fault that we took that character and babygirled him. That’s the risk we take when we decide to love a specific character, when we take a genuinely terrible person (in S1) and woobify him.

So, please stop harassing and attacking David, Alex, et al. David did not and should not change his story to placate us. The fact he went ahead with it despite the backlash I’m sure he expected makes me respect him as a creator even more.

Anyway, I’m going to revel that we have three (!) queer relationships with happy endings where one or both didn’t immediately die (again, the actual definition of “bury your gays”) and that we got at least two seasons of a little show that celebrated individualism, diversity, queerness, compassion, and love.

In the end, it all came down to love.

“There he is.”

Goodbye, Blackbeard.

Hello, Ed.

[communistkenobi]

Hi, genuine good faith question if you'd like! How is TOS racist? It was my understanding that the OG Series was like, huge for equality in media?

I’m speaking primarily about the content of TOS itself, not its historical impact - I understand it had various historic firsts in terms of having characters of colour in respectable roles, which I’m not dismissing. My experience with the discourse on here surrounding the show is that people front-load these character representations as emblematic of the show’s progressive politics. Which, if we want to go that route, TOS was contemporary to the US civil rights movement, which provides us with a handy measuring stick to see how TOS actually grapples with race, not just the presence of characters of colour themselves. I'm going to be kind of defensive in this explanation, not towards you specifically, but because I have had this conversation with people online many, many, many times, and so any defensiveness on my part is in anticipation of arguments I know will come up as a result of making the basic claim that a show made in America in the 1960s is racist. I'm also going to be copy + pasting from an older post I've made on the subject since it's been a while now since I've watched TOS so some of the details are fuzzy.

Like okay, the premise of TOS is that the Enterprise, as an ambassador of Starfleet/the Federation, is seeking out new alien life to study. The Prime Directive prohibits the Enterprise crew from interfering with the development of any alien culture or people while they do this, so the research they collect needs to be done in an unobtrusive way. I think this is the first point at which people balk at the argument that TOS is racist or has a colonial conception of the world - the Enterprise’s mission is premised on non-interference, and I think when people hear ‘colonial’ as a descriptor they (understandably, obviously) assume it is describing active conquest, genocide, and dispossession. Even setting aside all the times where Kirk does directly interfere with the “development” of a people or culture (usually because they’ve “stagnated” culturally, because a culture "without conflict" cannot evolve or “develop” beyond its current presumed capacity - he is pretty explicitly imposing his own values onto another culture in order to force them to change in a particular way), or the times when the Enterprise is actually looking to extract resources from a given planet or people, I’m not exactly making this claim, or rather, that’s not the only thing I’m describing when calling TOS racist/colonial.

The show's presentation of scientific discovery and inquiry is anthropological - the “object” of analysis is alien/foreign culture, meaning that when the Enterprise crew comes into contact with a new being or person, this person is always read first and foremost through the level of (the Enterprise’s understanding of) culture. Their behaviour, beliefs, dress, way of speaking, appearance, and so on are always reflective of their culture as a whole, and more importantly, that their racial or phenotypic characteristics define the boundaries of their culture. Put another way, culture is interpreted, navigated, and bound racially - the show presents aliens as a Species, but these species are racially homogeneous, flattening race to a natural, biological difference that is always physically apparent and presented through the lens of scientific objectivity, as "species" is a unit of biological taxonomy. Basically species is a shorthand for race. This is the standard of most sci-fi/fantasy genre work, so this is not a sin unique to Star Trek.

Because of this however, Kirk and Co are never really interacting with individuals, they are interacting with components of a (foreign, exotic, fundamentally different) culture, the same way we understand that a biologist can generalize about a species using the example of an individual 'specimen'. And when the Enterprise interacts with these cultures, they very frequently measure them using a universalized scale of development - they have a teleological (which is to say, evolutionary) view of culture, ie, that all cultures go from savage to rational, primitive to advanced, economically simple to economically complex (ie, to capitalist modes of production). And the metrics they are judging these cultures by are fundamentally Western ones, always emphasising to the audience that the final destination of all cultures (that are worthy of advancing beyond their current limited/“primitive” stages) is a culture identical to the Federation, a culture that can itself engage in this anthropological mission to catalogue all life as fitting within a universal set of practices and racial similarities they call “culture.”

This is a western, colonial understanding of culture - racially and spatially homogeneous people comprise the organs of a social totality, ie, a society, which can then be analysed as an “object,” as a “phenomenon,” by the scientists in order to extract information from them to produce and advance state (ie Federation) knowledge. The Enterprise crew are allowed to be individuals, are allowed to be subjects with a capacity for reason, contradiction, emotion, compassion, and even moments of savagery or violence, without those things being assigned to their “race” or “culture” as a whole, but the people they interact with are only components of a whole which are “discovered” by the Enterprise as opportunities to expand and refine the Federation’s body of knowledge.

Spock is actually a good example of what I'm talking about, because he is an exception to this rule - unlike the others in the crew, his behaviour is always read as a symptom of his innate Vulcan-ness, where his human and Vulcan halves war for dominance in his mind and character. Bones (the doctor, one of the main cast) constantly comments on Spock's inability to feel things, that he is callous and unsympathetic, ruled by Vulcan logic to such an extreme that his rationality is a form of irrationality, as his Vulcan blood prohibits him from tempering logic with human emotion and intuition. Now you can argue that Bones is a stand-in for the racists of the world, that Spock proves Bones wrong in that he is able to feel but merely keeps it under wraps, that Vulcans are not biologically incapable of emotion but merely live in a socially repressive culture, but this still engages in the racial logic of the show - Vulcans are a racially-bound species with a single monolithic culture, and Spock's ability to express and feel 'human emotions' is the metric by which he is granted human subjectivity and sympathy.

And on the flip side you have the Klingons - a “race” that is uniformly savage, backward, violent, and dangerous. In the episode Day of the Dove, where Klingons board the Enterprise along with an alien cloud that makes everyone suddenly aggressive and racist (this show is insane lol), the Enterprise crew begins acting violent and racist, but the Klingons don’t change. They aren’t more violent than before (because they already were fundamentally violent and racist), and they don’t become less violent when the cloud eventually leaves (because they are never able to emerge from their violence and savagery as a social condition or external imposition - they simply are that way). Klingons are racially, behaviourally, psychologically, and culturally homogeneous, universally violent and immune to reason, and their racial characteristics are both physical manifestations of this universal violence as well as the origin of it. The writers and creators of TOS are explicitly invoking the orientalist idea of the “Mongolian horde,” representing both the American fear of Soviet global takeover as well as blatantly racist fears about “Asiatics” (a word used in the show, particularly in The Omega Glory where a fear of racialised communist takeover is made explicit) dominating the world.

This is colonial thinking! Like, fundamentally, at its core, this is colonial white supremacist thinking. Now this is not because TOS invents these tropes or is the origin of them, it is not individually responsible for these racial and colonial logics - these conceptions are endemic to Western thought, and I am not expecting a television show to navigate its way outside of this current colonial paradigm of scientific knowledge. I’m also not expecting an average person watching this to pick out all the intricacies of this and link it to the colonial history of Europe or the colonial history of western philosophy/thought. But this base premise of Star Trek is why the show is fundamentally colonial - even if it was the case that the crew never intervened in any alien conflict, never extracted any material resources from other people, this would still be colonial logic and colonial thinking. The show has a fundamentally colonial imagination when it comes to exploration, discovery, and culture.

I think a good place to end is the opening sequence. The show's first line is always "Space! The final frontier." I do not think the word frontier is meant metaphorically or poetically - I think the show is being honest about its conception of space as an infinitely vast, infinitely exotic frontier from which a globally Western civilisation (which the Enterprise is an emblem of) can extract resources, be they material or epistemic

[buffyfan145]

Wow, Fellowship of Fans posted today their final scoops article now that the season 2 "Rings of Power" promotion is finally starting and they'll be switching to posting what comes from the cast/crew and the entertainment media, but it's majorly changes things as they were given false information again. They apologized too as it turns out who they said Calam Lynch was playing is false. I feel bad for those fans as they also confirmed that character never was cast for season 2 but will appear in a later season. I'm going to post a recap of their spoilers, as they got more about Charlie Vickers' Halbrand/Sauron and even Haladriel spoilers, and who Calam really is but the article above as so much more to read.

Again confirmed what the other scoopers were saying that Celeborn has not been cast for the show yet. Calam is playing an elf but FOF is saying it's not Annatar and Annatar is another actor. Calam's role is small too and he actually shares more screentime with Selina Lo, Charles Edwards' Celebrimbor, and the other elves. The chemistry test with him and Morfydd never happened either but was also false spoiler spread by Amazon to catch the leaker among the crew.

I know a lot of the Celeborn fans are going to be upset about this as they have to wait even longer for him to show up and I feel for them.

The actor playing Annatar wasn't revealed to them but he has dark hair unlike the white/blonde hair most fans think. They shared a concept photo of what Annatar looks like too. This actor only filmed a few scenes with Adar and in Eregion, and both him and Charlie filmed flashbacks telling Sauron's backstory. Apparently doesn't affect Charlie's screentime as much as we thought which is a good thing imo.

Charlies Vickers does turn back into his form of Sauron during the Battle of Eregion and will be shown in his full black and gold armor (I was hoping for this LOL).

Charlie and Morfydd's Galadriel share important scenes together in the finale after he transforms back to the Halbrand form.

[barry-j-blupjeans]

ooh i would love to hear about the planar belts wip 👀 -tom

this one has been a wip for so longgggg. Apparently, I created the doc in November of 2021, for frame of reference. good lord. i know I've talked about it before, bc I love it a lot, but the basic concept is that the planar belts were in Exclusively created to steal lup's 15 dollars back (though that was a plus). they were made as a way to finally Complete their mission and report back home with their findings

plus, yknow, 100 years of back pay.

it's focused on davenport, bc i love him, and also he's such a good character to focus on when it comes to bridging the gap of what they lost and what they gained. davenport doesn't have anyone left on twosun. in fact, most of the crew doesn't.

but (through weird time fuckery hunger magic i cannot fully explain in this post), magnus does. lucretia does. and it's now davenport's job to not only complete his mission, but fulfill a promise he made over a century ago that they will see their families again. here's a snippet about that!

“So that prompts the question: When will we release this information to the public? And how? Is there anyone you would like to inform before the general public knows? Family members, friends…?” “Uh,” Lup said, sitting back in her chair. “That’s a no from me. On the- the family-friend thing.” “No for me, also,” Barry shrugged. “I mean, share the info, go for it! But my mom was my only living relative and she, uh. Passed away before the mission even started.” “I understand,” the Director said. “Captain Davenport?” Davenport bit his tongue, wanting desperately to have someone he could say he wanted to contact first. But he came up blank and it was… uncomfortable. The idea of having no one, of being alone like that, reminded him of Lucretia and all she had done. And the reminder of Lucretia had been looming on him all meeting; hearing the scratching on the transcriber’s pencil made it feel like she was sitting beside him, taking notes. Davenport swallowed. “I can’t say I have anyone,” he said carefully. “But a few of the younger members of my crew- Magnus Burnsides and Lu- Lucretia, uh, Williams, I think it was. They might have someone.”

[honourablejester]

PF2e Character Concept: Shackles Goblin Rogue

Again, I’m watching Mythkeeper’s lore videos, this one on The Shackles, the pirate archipelago in Western Garund. There’s a lot of fun things in this area of the world, but a very small, random one snagged me. There are several goblin tribes in the Shackles, but apparently on Blacksand Beach, in the vicinity of Kelizar’s Atoll, there’s a tribe called the Reefrunners who are primarily swimmers and wreckers more than sailors and pirates, and I’ve no idea why that stuck in my brain, but … I’d really like to play a Reefrunner goblin horizon walker rogue? For reasons.

(Possibly it’s my choice of ghost fiction, and obsession with lighthouses, but wreckers have slightly more of a pull for me than pirates. Also I like the Reefrunners’ combination of almost-courtesy and raw pragmatism, in that they like to run ships aground and then let the crews go, not necessarily out of goodness, but because it’s easier to loot an empty sunken ship than fight a pinned crew. Which I love. This is about the shinies, the crews are just awkward obstacles that need to be shooed away first. Or, you know. Killed if it absolutely has to come to it, but let’s try the less risky methods first).

I was browsing backgrounds on Pathbuilder, and it has a regional one called Pearl Diver, which when I look it up on Archives of Nethys is actually regional to Absalom, not the Shackles, but I’m from the pirate isles, here, so I’m going to steal it anyway. Because I want a swimmer goblin who likes shiny things, a Reefrunner who’s fine taking the ocean’s bounty whether grown there naturally or lured there by a judiciously placed light on the rocks. Heh.

The idea here is just … I want a tough, scritchy little gal who’s in love with the ocean and all the shiny things the ocean can provide, and who’s not too particular about how the shiny things get in the ocean in the first place. She’s not mean, necessarily, just … single minded. Very loyal, courteous in a rough, absent-minded sort of way, but extremely pragmatic and with roughly one priority in the world, maybe two if she gets especially attached to anyone.

We’re in the pirate isles, so I am feeling rogue. But she’s a pearl diver and a swimmer and a scavenger, so I also want a survival emphasis, and I thought the Horizon Walker archetype? With aquatic terrain. I could take the ranger archetype instead, but I just like the vibe of horizon walker. Skillwise, we’re going to build around stealth, survival, intimidation, acrobatics, athletics and thievery. Because we’re a rogue and we can have that many skills levelled high. Heh.

Starting stats we’ll have a +4 in Dex, +3 in Con, +1 in Int/Cha, and +0 in Str/Wis. As we level I’m going to prioritise Dex, Con, Cha and Wis.

I’m going to go for Unbreakable Goblin for my heritage, because she’s a tough little gal, and also it’s just such a fun heritage. We’re tough, and we bounce, and we don’t go down!

Feats I particularly want as we go would include Breath Control as my first general feat, because pearl diver, Magical Adaptation from Horizon Walker as we hit Level 10, because water breathing, Quick Swim from Athletics Mastery, Fleet and Mobility and Catfall and Cave Climber and Skitter and just a lot of general movement feats, because we a bouncy goblin, Kneecap from goblin, to attack other people’s move speed, and a bunch of Intimidation feats because this girl is all teeth.

She’s 19, I feel like. Young for most people, but pushing the limits of survivability for goblins. She’s wiry and scarred and toothy, cheerfully pragmatic, polite as goblins go, and she has a collection of shinies sewn into/onto her clothes where she can see and admire them. She does favour seed pearls, all self-gathered, as a point of professional pride, but she also sees diving shipwrecks as much the same thing, so any old shinies will do if they’re pretty enough. As will glass and buttons and whatever was sparkly and caught her eye, to be honest. She’s out wandering, looking for better ships to dive, different waters to swim, because she is pushing survival age for a goblin, and she might as well. Most of her people die not much older than her, so why bother being afraid? Let’s just get the good stuff before we go!

Her name is Early Reefrunner. Early, to rhyme with Pearly. She’s a tough little goblin survivalist rogue from Blacksand Beach near Kelizar’s Atoll, and if you promise her good waters and good treasure, she’ll follow you to the ends of the earth. Or, well. The ends of the ocean, at least. Heh.

Ahoy, longshanks! Let’s go!

[zemantler]

Hey Mac! I just saw the new video you made about episode 4 and 5 of Our Flag Means Death and wanted to share with you a perspective I thought might be interesting to you.

(p.s sorry its so long and wordy! I tried to condense my thoughts as much as possible😅)

I read an article recently by Screen Rant (https://screenrant.com/our-flag-means-death-season-3-release-date-cast-story-everything-we-know/) which says that our boy David Jenkins himself mentioned that if the show gets renewed for a third season then season 3 would be the final. He apparently also said that he has the entirety of the show beginning to end already mapped out, and this information kind of changed everything for me in terms of how I view the show and the way it is being created.

Shows that go for 5 to 10 seasons (roughly) are shows MADE for streaming, that being said their formula is usually to follow a storyline that can be started and ended every season and it's the characters that keep us coming back. OFMD isn't like that, I think the key is to think of it more like a long movie. and what we know about movies, or just classic storytelling in general (literally one of the first things you learn in elementary or middle school) is that a story has a beginning, a middle and an end. If you think about the seasons of the show like this-season 1 beginning, season 2 middle, and season 3 end-it kinda makes all the pacing issues and the ‘Ed problem’ make sense (or just seem more intentional-again David says he has this all planned out) and you can follow the trajectory of the show actually pretty clearly from there. Take for instance season 1, you said it yourself it's like season 1 (baring the last two episodes) is like setting up the story (love story) with rose coloured glasses on. That being said the show also lines up with a rough outline of what your classic hero's journey looks like-call to adventure (the opening of Stede and the crew in ep01s01 and the flashbacks of Stede and Mary's unhappy marriage), meeting with the mentor (Ed-who is also the love interest-and the whole 'teach me how to pirate i'll teach you how to etiquette' deal). You can think of the last two episodes of season 1 as like the crossing of the threshold (aka glasses come off) cause not only does Stede realize he wants to be a pirate indefinitely and leave Barbados for good, but also because season 2 opens with the next part of the hero's journey which is meeting new enemies and allies (Zheng Yi Sao, Archie, Richard Banes,etc.(Does Izzy count as a new ally?)). 

Again, it's all very classic in format, but usually just not how tv shows made for streaming choose to operate-cause most of the time network execs are literally just trying to make the most money by keeping a concept going probably longer than they should-but I digress. Also again, if you factor in the part where season 3 would be the last season it's not unusual at all.That being said I think the reason they decided to have the crews trauma and ESPECIALLY Eds issues only start being addressed in the 5th episode is because they are hoping to have this be one of the plot points that drifts its way into season three and subsequently have resolution occur at that time as well, instead of forcing hollow resolution in the final three episodes of s02 and then have nothing to work with in season 3-this is another point that Screen Rant made in their article.

Using the three acts/hero's journey formula, we can start making really rough guesses as to how season three might pan out and given the circumstances of season 2, it kind of feels more right to me. Not to mention our dude Taika is the guy who wrote the initial screenplay of Moana which focused more on family than the screenplay which actually got made into the Disney film, so I can't imagine him and David of all people just glossing over all of the emotional reconciling parts of the core relationships. Anyways I thought this was interesting to think about and might also help in easing the nerves over the last 3 episodes of this season, again there is always the possibility this might not be true, or work out this way, but I thought it clicked too perfectly in my own head just to not talk about it. Like seriously the hunch is hunching right now!

Anyways Mac, loved the video and hope you have a great night! 😊

Hi!! First of all, thank you, I'm really glad you enjoyed it. Hope you'll have a good day too. Wow thats a lot of text, sorry if I misunderstood something.

While I understand what you mean, series dont really work like that. There are lots of "series like long movies" -plot based, not too stretched out, character dynamic focused, few series long, etc. For example, Good Omens, Sherlock, Hannibal (i think, never seen it) and more...

Movies start plotline in the beginning and have to resolve them in the end. BUT that doesnt mean there cant be a cliffhanger at the end, to help a sequel continue the story. And thats how (good) movie franchises are born- multiple movies are made to elaborate on the first original story, because there simply wasnt enough time to tell it in its entirety in one movie.

Series like ofmd go hannibal etc.. Were made to be series, because they couldnt possibly fit the entire story in a movie format. But when you make the decision to make a series, you also have to comply to the series format. So if its not a limited series, it will probably have multiple seasons, overall theme and will start a plot in first season that will to some extent, continue until the last one, while at the same time having multiple sub plots that will end with each season. They have to end at the end of the season, otherwise the overall season experience wont be satisfying. You watched all that and for what? Just to wait another year to actually see anything happen?

Now i can finally explain what I meant by all this :D OFMD in its entirety cant be like a movie, for its a series. They are formatted differently. If we wanted to compare it to a film, then the only way to do so is to make each season a new movie in a franchise. Each season has to have a satisfying experience on its own while ending in a way that leaves stuff that the next season can work with.

You cant make a bad season and then try to excuse it with "Its only a filler between act one and three" because while that would be excusable in movie, it's not really in series. because then youre just left with a second season that feels unfinished and rushed.

But even story wise, it just doesnt make sense to start redemption arc of the protagonist in act 2, get him together with the love interest and then actually redeem him in act 3. Its weird idk

I'm not saying that this season is bad when it hasnt dropped in its entirety yet tho. Dont quote me on that. I love ofmd and i really am enjoying this season. It just has more flaws than the first one.

Sorry that i rambled a bit and also sorry if it doesnt make sense. Im in school rn its hard to write something sensible while trying to pay attention to geometry or whatever we're doing

[asherlockstudy]

LMAOO!! ok I'm not gonna spoil the R&L video but plspls if you watch it tell us what you think!!

OKAY I have watched it twice now. It is obviously another symbolic work but the first time I was so dumbfounded by all the weirdness that I got like only a couple of symbolisms. The second watch was more fruitful. So let's get to it!

The Brown Diamond

First of all, the moment we got the title and the teaser I knew this would have potty humour and that, also, it would be about anal again.

The standing doggystyle in the beginning is fun but does not have a significance in the story. However, since the title is "The Quest for the Brown Diamond" it might be an attempt to create a subconscious connection between the two.

It is interesting that the very next scene sort of subverts the expectations formed from the previous one: Rhett is a very awkward and reserved, shy, gentle, intelligent man with many phobias, Horst, whereas Link is Sandy, a loud, crude, angry but good hearted man, with an established interest in women. They seem like total opposites of the characters they play, however there is truth hidden in them i.e Rhett is an introvert and he can be gentle and intelligent and Link can be angry and loud despite being a good person. I don't understand what was exactly the concept behind making the characters diverge so much from Rhett and Link in other aspects. Perhaps it was a red herring.

Whatever they said in the end, there is no more genuine statement of affection than "You look weird as hell...... but you always do".

Horst says he has this hair to have a form of natural shield and this might give as a hint as to why Rhett's character has so many phobias and puts up so many defenses; maybe it's about all the things he considered sinful and unacceptable when he was still in the faith.

The whole quest to essentially steal the diamond is Sandy's initiative and passion, while Horst simply follows because that's what he does, he follows Sandy. This might explain Sandy's assertiveness; by every allegorical work of theirs we have seen before it is implied again and again that Link (perhaps counterintuitively) was actually the pursuer of their relationship. Don't forget Carney in Friday's GMMore freaking saying that Link was Romeo between the two, whom Stevie had just described as an extrovert who pursued his relationship with Juliet! And that was the last episode before this video! Isn't all this...WILD? This also suggests that at this point a lot of the crew members know.

Horst opens tentantively the door and Sandy sarcastically says: "Look, Horst contributing already to the project!". They get in the mansion, where Sandy decides to rub himself on every single surface while Horst watches scandalized. The one time poor Horst tries to mimic Sandy, he realises he was trying to rub on a cherub which obviously kills his mood again. So this is likely about how much Link had to "throw himself out there" to make this work and how hesitant and scared Rhett was in the beginning.

By the way

Of course.

This gives me Rhett mixing his words flashback and saying "Link McLaughlin". Except this here is intentional. Then again someone could say best friends and branded business partners could do that too. However, with all the other stuff here, we can suspect this is not that simple of a case.

Horst pumps them both up with energizing food for the quest and it might be associated with the whole theme of the puzzle video, where it was implied they needed some... assistance in their first times. Sandy has to eat some seaweed, an experience he describes as "cunnilungus with the ocean" and Horst eats a sausage wrapped in bologna, which is the point where he breaks character a little, as Rhett apparently finds this too amusing! This all means that the energizing food scene though is heavily sex-coded.

After a straightTM moment, when Sandy builds up the courage to ask his ex-stepson (Tanner? Tunner?) if his mom still thinks about him, he starts looking for the diamond. He mentions he was looking at his Nana's drawers when he was young but then he asks this to be cut from the film as he doesn't want people to think that about him, which means this too is suspicious and in this case it probably implies he was exploring his feminine side. Ironically, this was also mentioned in the last GMMore, when Link asked for a few more years before he starts dressing like Miss Pingy...!

Meanwhile, Horst doesn't look for the diamond but gives as an empathetic, admiring, caring and loving description of Sandy. Yes, Sandy is frantic, angry, a brute but Horst sees through him and understands why he is the way he is. Sandy's childhood is similar to Link's to some extent.

Sandy follows and gives a shorter but emotional description of Horst: he stands out, he is a little weird but he is good and smart. Sandy also establishes he is protective of him and warns the stepson to not hurt Horst.

AND THEN OF COURSE THEY BROUGHT UP THE PUZZLE ARRYFFUJBIOGD Sandy even has a tattoo of the notorious puzzle piece, while Horst keeps it in his bracelet of things he fears and loves. (If you don't know what the deal with the puzzle is please read this).

Horst finds a guitar and starts playing a sweet song... so sweet that it is literally called

Sandy, much like real Link every time Rhett sings and plays music, stops his frantic search and listens hypnotized to Horst's playing. He joins him by the fireplace and they sing together. It is very sweet, very domestic. When the song ends, the silence between them is heavy and uncomfortable but full of warmth. Sandy asks Horst how he is feeling and Horst admits he is still scared. Sandy, pensive but respectful, decides that they should go, as apparently this whole thing isn't working out for them. He expresses regret for dragging Horst into this.

But, lo and behold! At the last moment, Horst finds a secret door and is suddenly the more excited one who reminds Sandy of their quest. In this secret room, they find a video recorded by the deceased owner of the mansion and the diamond, who gives instructions on how to get the diamond. The quest is bound to a riddle and this riddle IS THIS ONE:

To be shared between three, the heart must not be free but the damage is done if the heart is given to one.

Get it? If you have to give your heart to other two, your heart is not free, but then again when the heart is given to THE one only, that's when shit hits the fan (well literally in this video).

Can you believe it? Can you believe this is the story of these apparently extremely romantic middle-aged Southern youtubers?

The heart, the diamond, is of course inside Bahau moon, a three-ass artifact. Reminds of "the way to a woman's heart is through a worm's / woman's anus".

Sandy and Horst hear noises from upstairs and it appears Brandy, Horst's best friend at work, was trying to steal the diamond before them. And that is because Horst told her their secret as “he tells her everything”. What does Brandy symbolizes? Horst loves her a lot as a friend and keeps no secrets from her, Sandy is antagonistic to her. Sandy gets his hand in this ass first and competes with her for the diamond. Horst follows hesitantly again. They realise neither can win over the heart and all be happy. So Horst implores them to all lay off the heart diamond. In fact, Sandy has grabbed the heart and agrees to let it go only if Brandy promises to also not stick her hand to the ass again. Sorry for suggesting this...but can Brandy be a wife, like Jessie? Once they are all out of the Bahau moon and safe, Horst realises that his "phobias and loves" bracelet is dropped inside the artifact. He begs the other two to get inside the Bahau moon once more so he can retreive his bracelet. This might be associated to Rhett always having this pattern that he wants this to stop, to prevent it but then he is the one falling back to it (check Hazel where he tries to save Link but then Hazel takes him first and in the dig-a-hole video where he pulls Link out of his enjoyment only to later suggest a larger hole than Link did and drive the excavator himself). Horst really begs Brandy, tells her to do it for the sake of their “old good memories” together. This whole thing reminds me of that time Rhett was bringing up a lot that his marriage had gone through a milestone, that he and Jessie had had a very big and serious talk that changed but also supposedly “strengthened” their marriage. And then once Link let it slip that he was present during that serious talk of the couple, which one would expect would have happened privately.

Brandy betrays them, takes the brown diamond and leaves them. The Bahau moon starts releasing toxic gas. Sandy tells the camera man to save himself. The camera man still records Sandy and Horst's last moments from outside the window. As they are dying, they hold hands with their still free hand. Sandy asks forgiveness for everything but Horst does not hold anything against him. Before he takes his last breath, Sandy tells Horst he loves him. They die there, trapped forever. This ending resembles Hazel a lot, where they disappear forever in Hazel's forest. In Hazel, Link was also trying to tell Rhett he loves him before what he thought would be their last moments.

This gives the riddle another dimension, because in the end Sandy and Horst remain with their One, meaning each other, also stressed by the love confession, and this kills them. It is perhaps suggested that Brandy (a wife?) got her heart back and went on with her life, while they can't do the same. They stay trapped with the love that kills them.

And here's another ANON I got, I hope they read it cause I am answering here:

Thanks a lot for telling me!!! Yes it doesn't surprise me one bit. The ending is supposed to have that despair and melancholy of always staying trapped, hidden. Just like Hazel. Very interesting that it was braver before the cuts. Perhaps they thought it would make it too obvious? But, too little is obvious for A LOT of their fans, right? I also don't understand, do they actually want people to pick up on it after all, or not? They confuse me so much.

Unless the few of us still imagine all that stuff lol never in my life before have I seen friends act like that but the funniest thing is that I haven't seen people in love act like that either! Will we get an autobiography from them in the distant future, I wonder? Because we should.

[sshbpodcast]

Tasha Yar vs. Ro Laren: Fight!

By Ames

We’re taking a quick break from our normal character spotlights because I just couldn’t justify doing individual articles about either of these characters, but when I realized I could discuss both of them, I got a little carried away. So welcome, one and all, to the Enterprise-D’s contest between its two resident badass bitches. Your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By needed to know – who wins? Tasha Yar or Ro Laren?

This calls for another Big Board (seen previously when we ranked the Trek films and Star War films)!

To determine this as fairly as possible, we’ve designed this competition and discussed it at length in this week’s podcast episode (jump to 50:53 for the boxscore) to score our two contestants against each other in eleven categories. Not every battle went as we thought it would, there are surprises in store, glavins to be thrown, and the occasional double-cross to keep things interested. Ready? Fight!

Some major spoilers for Picard are below and discussed on the podcast, if anyone cares. Shrug emoji.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

1. Childhood History

Yar: If there’s one thing (and one thing only) the writers knew about Tasha Yar when writing her character, it’s that she grew up in a failed colony full of rape gangs. Which she brings up all the time. Like, way too much. We see a brief glimpse of it in a flashback in “Where No One Has Gone Before” and yeah, it does not look fun. Basing a character around horrible trauma for no good reason is just the kind of thing the season one writers did, for better or for worse.

Ro: Ensign Ro arrived when the series was much more established with a much more established history that made for the background of the episode “Ensign Ro.” The whole concept of Cardassia-occupied Bajor came along with her introduction, and the story that she tells about watching her father get tortured to death by Cardassians was the complex foundation that this show (and others!) found worthy to explore.

Winner: Ro Laren. The story of the Bajorans ended up being such a major seed for all of DS9, while the established rape gangs of Yar’s childhood only ended up getting entirely contradicted later in “Legacy.” Speaking of which…

—

2. Pre-Enterprise Backstory

Yar: Picard tells Tasha’s sister Ishara in “Legacy” about the first time he saw that woman who would later become the chief of security on the Federation’s flagship. He encountered her rushing to rescue a colonist on a Carnelian minefield. Picard was so impressed that he immediately requested that she join his crew, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Ro: We learn that Ro had a very different standing in Starfleet before her reluctant posting to the Enterprise-D in “Ensign Ro.” Apparently, she got eight crewmen on the Wellington killed due to disobeying orders, and was given the choice between going to prison or performing a mission for the definitely corrupt Admiral Kennelly. Hell, Picard’s first impression of her was basically “I don’t want someone like her on my ship.” Lucky for us, he eventually came around!

Winner: Tasha Yar. These two couldn’t be more different in standing within Starfleet when we first meet them. I’ve got to rule that anyone who piques the interest of Captain Picard is worth a point in this category.

—

3. Friends

Yar: Tasha seems friendly with pretty much everyone on the ship! Worf plays Parrises Squares with her in “11001001” and he even bets on her for a martial arts competition in “Skin of Evil.” We see her borrowing clothes from Troi in “The Naked Now.” And it’s all the more clear that she leaves an imprint on all her friends’ lives when she leaves final words for so many crewmembers after her death in “Skin of Evil.”

Ro: On the other hand, Laren is so much more reserved and particular about who she chooses to spend time with. It’s so significant that Guinan decides to befriend her in “Ensign Ro,” and we see more of their dynamics together in “Rascals.” There was also something hinted at between her and Riker when he says in “The Next Phase” that he wants to deliver her eulogy, but we never get to see what that was.

Winner: Tasha Yar. Clearly she has a rapport with so many of her shipmates in a way that actually affects them deeply and personally, as we’ll see in a moment with Lt. Commander Data.

—

4. Pets

Yar: We see in “Where No One Has Gone Before” that at one point Tasha had a kitty whom she cared for and kept safe from the rape gangs on Turkana IV. Surely, that cat was probably the only good thing going for her through her traumatic childhood.

Ro: None we’re aware of! Your loss, Laren!

Winner: Tasha Yar. This podcast full of cat people has deemed it so! We can’t not spread the love to fellow cat parents, so the winner here was a given.

—

5. Romantic Interests

Yar: I can cite that really hot scene with Data in “The Naked Now” as much as I like, but when you think about it, both of them were under the influence at the time so it’s a little bit squicky. And while it’s clear in episodes like “The Measure of a Man” and in the series Picard that it was meaningful to Data, for Yar, it was just Tuesday. However, the truly lovely romance that we see for her comes in the alternate timeline in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” where she gets to make googoo eyes at Richard Castillo, and we are here for it!

Ro: Similar to that caveat above with the drunken Data, we have to put an asterisk on Laren’s romance scene with Will Riker in “Conundrum” because they were both amnesiacs at the time. Again, there’s something not fully consensual about the thing because they don’t have all the information to know what they’re doing, no matter how much chemistry they have together.

Winner: Tasha Yar. If it had just been a Data versus Riker battle for this category, I’d be uncomfortable making a call because of the lack of the ability to consent involved in both. But that budding romance between Yar and Castillo actually holds meaning for her and we ship them hard!

—

6. Fighting Prowess

Yar: Here’s where we start to put up our dukes in this competition. As chief of security, Tasha clearly kicks some ass. We see this many many times in “Code of Honor.” She drops Lutan’s bodyguard Hagon like a load of bricks in their first meeting, displays her combat skills in the holodeck for the Ligonians, and finally wins in the combat ring against Yareena without killing her. Points off, however, for getting utterly destroyed by Armus in “Skin of Evil,” but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Ro: While phased in “The Next Phase,” we get to see some killer moves from Ro when the phased Romulan confronts her. She sneaks through a wall and gets the jump on Parem, a chase ensues which leads to a fistfight. And while we may have misremembered Ro being the one who threw the guy through a bulkhead (turns out, it was Geordi), she still holds her own and kicks some phased butt!

Winner: Ro Laren. Okay, so we’ve established that both of these women are badasses, so which of them would win in a fight? Put that way, we’ve got to give it to Laren because she’s Maquis and may be more likely to fight dirty. Catfight! Meow!

—

7. Command Skills

Yar: I bring up this category mostly to talk about some missed opportunities on both sides! Ro and Troi were the obvious choices for who should have taken charge while dealing with the matriarchal society in “Angel One,” but Riker walks all over them because it turns out all these bitches needed was a man to tell them what’s what. C’mon! This should have been Yar’s show and instead she relinquishes command.

Ro: Similarly, there’s a power vacuum during the disaster in “Disaster” and Ro is this close to mutinying against Troi who is utterly flailing and refusing to make the hard choices. Ro is there and making the right calls for the situation, displaying that she has the nose for command should the situation arise, but frustratingly, nothing comes of it and she has to apologize to Deanna at the end (even though she was right!).

Winner: Ro Laren. After we later see Troi pass the command test by killing holo-Geordi, it stings that much more that we see how right Ro was when she advocated sacrificing the engineering section, so the point goes to her for being willing to make the tough calls.

—

8. Ethical Stands

Yar: Oh boy, the most up on her high horse we see Tasha get is in the infamous scene with Wesley about drug addiction in “Symbiosis.” The whole scene reeks of Nancy Reagan’s war on drugs and the scene feels forced as hell, like an after-school special somehow invaded an episode of Star Trek. And ya know, the messaging was perfectly clear without Yar spelling it out with a heavy-handed “say no to drugs, kids” speech.

Ro: We do give Ro a lot of credit for coming clean to Picard in “Ensign Ro” after that chat with her new bestie Guinan. Ro’s more obvious display of standing up for what she believes is her joining the Maquis, even though it gives Picard a sad in “Preemptive Strike.” BUUUUUUT! Somehow all that gets undone in the Picard episode “Imposters” when she has apparently rejoined Starfleet, shitting all over that big moment of character growth. Oh Laren, you’re making this one tough!

Winner: Stalemate. Sorry, but we’re going to have to give half a point to each since we could not agree on a winner after that episode from Picard really ended up complicating things (as I’m sure Chris refused to cut from our discussion in this week’s podcast episode). We’ll see in a moment how this affects the overall competition in the Verdict section…

—

9. Strategy & Tactics

Yar: This category was meant to be a catch-all of miscellaneous things the characters have done, and it really made us realize that the tactical officer rarely makes decisions that are particularly… tactical? Yar and later Worf seem to get punked whenever they try to do anything. In both her confrontations with Q, she gets knocked out – frozen in “Encounter at Farpoint” and sent to the penalty box in “Hide and Q.” Is there really anything else worth mentioning? No, really. I’m asking. Comment below.

Ro: We see Ro in fewer episodes than we see Yar, but she at least gets to attempt to do some things. Her plan to use the unmanned Bajoran transport to trick Kennelly in “Ensign Ro” was pretty ingenious. While it’s a good idea to try to knock out all the aliens possessing crewmembers’ bodies in “Power Play,” she does miss Data entirely and her little scheme is foiled. And finally, she and the other child-shaped folks in “Rascals” outthink some Ferengi, low bar that that is.

Winner: Ro Laren. This was an easy win for Ro because, frankly, Yar just plain doesn’t get to DO much in her season of Trek, and when she does, she gets Worfed (before Worfing was even a thing!).

—

10. Death(s)

Yar: A character so nice they killed her twice. There is still much controversy over her death in “Skin of Evil” because it’s so abrupt and pointless, but that was the point. Is that a good or bad thing? Aside from her nice post-mortem message, we’re barely affected by it. Her sacrificing herself in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” would have been an excellent resolution to her character… but that seems sullied by the knowledge that she survived, was kept as a Romulan concubine, and then killed when baby goddamn Sela ratted her out, as established in “Redemption.” Dang, Yar can’t catch a break.

Ro: This one’s tricky because it does mean we have to dip into the Picard series, which we haven’t been doing for other characters in our spotlight series because we haven’t covered it on the podcast yet. Say what you will about the myriad character deaths in Picard (and we can, have, and WILL), but Ro’s death fighting the conspiracy in “Imposters” is a pretty good place to resolve her character. She resolves some character stuff with Picard, uncovers a huge Federation-wide plot, and goes out in a blaze of glory. Is there a better way to go?

Winner: Ro Laren. Especially for a Picard death, Ro’s character resolution actually feels earned and not like the writers picking and choosing who lives and who dies just for shock value (*cough cough* Ah cHugh *cough*).

—

11. Personal Style

Yar: Ooh la la. That hair in “Haven.” Get it, girl. We don’t see either of these characters out of uniform very often, so it’s in little personalizing elements that we get to see their own style, and Yar sure knows how to doll herself up for a wedding-planning dinner. I’ll also give a couple nods to that outfit in “That Naked Now,” though I’m pretty sure it’s alluded to that Yar yoinked that from Troi’s closet.

Ro: Ro’s defining stylistic feature is her big Bajoran earring, which she defiantly wears as a statement of heritage, culture, and a big F YOU to Riker, and we like that about her. Her little headband that we see in “The Next Phase” and “Rascals” is a little funny since it’s so matchy matchy with her uniform, so it might be a wash. I’m also gonna say the undercover garb we see her sporting in “Preemptive Strike” doesn’t count because that was for a mission.

Winner: Tasha Yar. Did we include this category just so we could give heart eyes to that great hair pouf from “Haven”? Yes. Yes, we did.

—

Verdict

That’s 5.5 points for Tasha Yar and 5.5 points for Ro Laren. We have a tie! We really weren’t expecting this, though I must admit throwing Yar a few bones (and cats) since I really thought Ro would run away with the whole thing. Even when we tried to agree to stop citing plot elements from Picard so that we could pick Ro as the winner of the Ethical Stands category, then we’d have a stalemate in the Deaths category and we’d STILL have a tie. 

So what does that mean for us? Sure, we can continue to claim that Ro Laren is the better written character from a strictly story perspective (and Michelle Forbes of course is a stellar actress), but she also has the advantage of joining the show after the writers’ room chaos of the first couple seasons had sorted itself out. If Tasha Yar had been given that same chance (as we glimpsed in something like “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” we’ve just proven she’s got the potential and backstory to go toe-to-toe with one of our favorite recurring characters from TNG. You go, girls!

—

So our big fight set piece ended with both combatants sort of hugging it out, which seems the Star Trek way! We’re back to our usual character spotlights next week with a character that bridges our trajectory from TNG to DS9 (and it’s not O’Brien!). So join us for that, continue listening along to our Enterprise watch-through on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast, do the wave with us over on Facebook and Twitter, and punch like a girl!

[crusherthedoctor]

Your hottest Sonic takes?

Most of these are ones you'll already know, but here goes. I'll number them in no real order because bullet points always get lumped together when I use them no matter how I space them, which bothers me lol. And as always, these are just the ones that come immediately to mind, as I'm sure to have plenty more (I'm not a contrarian for contrarian's sake, I swear D:).

1. Just because I take faithfulness to the game canon seriously - hence my disapproval for adaptations that change shit for the sake of changing shit out of a misplaced sense of superiority - doesn't mean I think the game canon is perfect. Putting aside the obvious questionable quality of certain installments, there are also certain traditions in the games that I don't exactly appreciate, and refuse to tolerate them just because I'm apparently expected to (ie: the friends standing around being cheerleaders while Super Sonic does his thing, Eggman being usurped and/or forced to team up with Sonic so damn often, characters having a limited range of interactions with other characters, certain characters being rather obnoxiously OP, etc).

2. IDW Sonic is still a holier than thou asswipe whose actions and overall behaviour don't line up with how great and virtuous he supposedly is. Prime Sonic is still an unbearable dumbass, and the show and characters are grilling him for the completely wrong reasons.

3. If your only idea for redeeming Tails is making him a yes-man for Sonic, then I don't think you actually care about Tails aside from how good he makes Sonic look.

4. Shadow coming back after his not-death doesn't undermine SA2's ending. But him coming back so soon afterwards kind of does. They should have waited a lot longer before bringing him back.

5. Rouge is not a villain. Rouge is not a villain. Rouge is not a villain. And outside of her jewel obsession, she's not even that majorly anti-heroic after SA2.

6. Eggman is a villain. Eggman is a villain. Eggman is a villain. And you can flesh him out without softening him up. Pre-Frontiers games already did it FFS.

7. Just because Cream is a little girl, and acts appropriately for the most part compared to Tails, doesn't mean she should be infantilized by the other characters and by the writing. She's more capable than she's given credit for.

8. Merlina isn't that amazing. Better than the Mephiles-tier villains of course, but she still fell short of her unique concept.

9. Erazor Djinn AKA Qui-Gon Djinn AKA Tonic Djinn AKA Other Djinn Pun is the best villain who isn't Eggman, an Eggman robot, affiliated with Eggman, or Chaos.

10. I've made my apathy for Silver well known during the last few days cause of all the IDW Silver discourse, but I'll take it one spicier step further: when people defend him by saying he earned his place, I think "...Did he?"

Make no mistake, he absolutely does not deserve to be treated like garbage by the IDW crew either way, but compared to other recurring game characters, including similarly divisive ones like Shadow, I've always felt as though he was shoehorned into later games because he was already set to as the hot new character of the initially anticipated '06, rather than earning his place more organically if you get me. And when people say how awesome it was that he almost killed Sonic effortlessly twice in '06, I ask myself when Sonic getting textbook Worf'd in a game with his name on it was considered a good thing. I mean, is that the level of '06 stanning we're at now?

Or maybe I'm just letting my bitterness at (IMO) better characters remaining one-offs do the talking. I'm willing to admit that I am indeed bitter about that. :P (Also, I'd like to apologise to Silver fans for harping on about him like this a lot as of late. I really have nothing against his level-headed fans, and I still sympathise with them on his poor treatment in the comics despite my apathy towards him.)

11. Forces is one of Eggman's best showings despite the underutilized premise. That fans' only idea for "fixing" the game is usurping him with Infinite and/or the Phantom Ruby says a lot about how much they want him to be out of the way.

12. I don't understand why the in-game racing banter in TSR is taken so seriously. Speaking as someone who otherwise takes characterization very seriously, this is like if people started shitting on Mario Kart because of Luigi's death stare.

13. Other games are objectively worse (like '06 and Chronicles), but Frontiers is my personal least favourite Sonic game for... well, nearly everything about it. And neither Sage or The End are as deep or as fans make them out to be.

14. At this point, I separate the IDW characters into two categories. The first category consists of the characters who I just hate or find lame full stop (Surge and Kit, Rough and Tumble, Mimic). The second category consists of the characters that I think could have had potential if it weren't for the awful writing, that I begrudgingly feel somewhat bad for as a result, and as such would be willing to attempt to redeem if I could (Tangle, Whisper, Lanolin, Starline before he got turned into Toothpaste Snively).

15. I respect Daniel Barnes, his work and understanding of Sonic's character in particular is certainly of a higher quality than that of Flynn and Stanley, and he also has more integrity to be sure. But I can't currently buy into the full hype since I wasn't that interested in Scrapnik Island, and since I'm very cautious of the golden pedestal mentality, since that's how people like Flynn got as far as they have in the first place, I really wish the fans who are as tired of Flynn and Co's antics as I am would keep that in mind.

16. I prefer What I'm Made Of over Live & Learn.

17. I'm not a literal "Classic Good, Modern Bad" type of fan, but the things that I appreciate most about Sonic games tend to be associated more in the public consciousness - at least in terms of gameplay, use of playable characters, and aesthetics - with classic and classic-in-spirit games.

18. AoStH is better than SatAM because it had Long John Baldry. *dab* And SatAM was the first serious split in the franchise, and the influence of said split continues to this day with the Freedom Fighter stans and their desire to make everything like SatAM/Archie, meaning I wholeheartedly wish this show never existed. *double dab*

19. I don't have a guilty pleasure, because that would imply I feel any guilt for enjoying them. I enjoy 3D Blast as a fun little time waster without any shame, and I have ironic enjoyment for ShtH, also without any shame.

20. If you use mandates as an excuse for bad writing, I officially cannot trust anything you have to say on the writing, the characters, and probably the entire franchise.

[notallthosewho-wanderarelost]

Ahsoka 1x01 1x02 Thoughts/Questions

Spoilers for Ahsoka of course, and spoilers for Star Wars Rebels.

WHAT IS SABINE’S CAT’S NAME???? This is unironically my number one question. What if she named it Ezra.

Where is Jacen? My broccoli boy 💚

Wtf is up with Morgan Elsbeth being a nightsister? She’s very clearly human and not the same species as Talzin, Ventress, and Merrin, etc. Is Dave bringing back the concept of a group of human Nightsisters from the EU? (In which case, I’d like to see Teneniel Djo please.) Morgan says she’s a “descendant of the witches of Dathomir,” does that mean she could be part Nightsister but mostly human? Worth noting she is clearly able to do at least a bit of Nightsister magick in the scene with the map- she summons green smoke while opening it. Why the inconsistency in species? It seems silly to suddenly have a human Nightsister character when it’s needlessly confusing.

Also, the instant she said she was a Nightsister and a survivor I was like “who does she think she is ripping off Merrin like this?!” I will not tolerate this dollar store knockoff wannabe.

Update: checked the wiki and apparently there were a few small human Nightsister clans (the Singing Mountain clan is apparently still canon!), but mostly it was the big Dathomirian Nightsister clan led by Mother Talzin. Morgan could be from one of the smaller human clans. I think she just feels annoying to me because it’s like someone saw how cool Merrin is, thought she’d be a good villain for this, and then took the character concept wholesale for a piece of Star Wars media that’s more mainstream, but didn’t put in the work so it falls flat. And then her being human just makes it weirder. I wonder who made the decision to use the Nightsisters for this storyline, because doesn’t… fit. Even Morgan’s name is odd. Just feels like no effort was put into the character.

How did Ahsoka find Huyang? I’m so curious when and how this happened. I’m really happy to see him in this though, I loved him in Clone Wars.

Ahsoka can do psychometry now! Can we please get some canon Ahsoka and Cal Kestis interactions? Rebellion era would probably be best but I’m not picky. Obviously Cal’s abilities in that area are a lot stronger, but it’s nice he’s not alone and it’d be great to see them interact. They’re almost the same age, but just far enough apart that their experiences since Order 66 have been radically different.

Mando/Din spending seasons raising a Jedi foundling and Ahsoka taking on a non-Force-sensitive Mandalorian as a padawan is so funny to me. The irony of the inverse.

It’s also the perfect continuation of the disaster lineage attitude imo. Obi-Wan “I’ll train the kid you all say is too old to train” Kenobi, then Anakin and Ahsoka’s… you know, Anakin and Ahsoka-ing, and now Ahsoka’s like “I’ll take a regular non-Force-Sensitive person as a padawan.”

Merrin and Sabine would get along, I think.

Sabine being like 30 and still acting exactly like a rebellious teenager feels like a cry for help to me. :( I’m glad Hera seems to have her back, and it’s good that she has a cat, but I’m worried about her. It makes sense, but gosh poor Sabine. I’m sensing depression. She’s had such a tough life and a tough time with the concept of family, it feels like losing Ezra was the last straw for her emotionally.

Actually, where is Sabine’s biological family? Are Ursa, Tristan, and Alrich okay? Or did they not survive the Mandalorian Purge? (God no I WILL cry. Also @ Dave where is Korkie, why is Bo-Katan calling herself the last Kryze.)

So wait, the rest of the crew has spent 15 years thinking Ezra’s dead?? He said to come find him! I always felt like he was pretty clear he wasn’t dying when he pulled his purrgil stunt. Did they all just turn pessimistic and lose hope? That’s so sad.

I actually really love Sabine kind of being the Republic’s version of Thrawn as an expert art analyst. Continues the Sabine/Thrawn contrast Rebels started where Thrawn analyzes art in a more academic fashion and treats the culture it came from as a curiosity- he’s very into cultural appropriation!!- while Sabine makes her own art and is more capable of stepping into other people’s shoes to appreciate their art.

Ahsoka refusing to train Sabine because she’s too busy being sad and lonely, and Sabine refusing to talk to Ahsoka or train (or give speeches) because she’s too busy being sad and lonely. This is so sad and I want to hug them both.

It works because we have a new actress playing Ahsoka, but I’m so curious what this would have been like animated. Ahsoka feels similar enough to herself but very different, because she’s in such a different place emotionally, and I’m curious how this would’ve felt in animation with Ashley doing the voice.

There were a few scenes where I felt like I was watching a live action Rebels episode and it was the best! The entire sequence with Sabine on the hover bike getting away from her own New Republic squad lol, Hera in the Phantom with Chopper chasing after the ship and planting the tracker. Chopper not being able to find the tracker until Hera told him where it was felt SPOT ON.

The T-6 actually looks pretty roomy and comfortable so far. Like, not the best living situation, but it looks way bigger than the Falcon! Heck, it looks bigger than Ezra’s tower that Sabine’s living in.

That said, Ahsoka having not had a real home since leaving the Jedi Temple is killing me. She really has some abandonment/attachment/commitment issues she needs to work on. Extremely understandable issues given what happened, but it’s like after the end of Rebels she just… quit. Maybe finding out Kanan was gone and then coming back to find Ezra gone was the last straw for her.

I also feel like her giving up on Sabine’s training was because of how her own training ended and Anakin’s fall shortly after. She doesn’t feel capable of dealing with the feelings stirred up by having a student. So she just doesn’t.

Sabine’s collecting little brothers. :) Tristan, Ezra, and Jacen.

I yelled at Senator Jai Kell!!! Good for him!!!

Had a watch party with my friends for this and we all screamed the instant Chopper showed up!! And here I was thinking maybe he was off babysitting Jacen.

What in the world is with the map showing another galaxy?? Yuuzhan Vong vibes. (The way they were almost canon because we were supposed to get a Clone Wars episode with them… :’( )

Why DO the Nightsisters have a map to another galaxy? Didn’t they mostly stay on Dathomir? I can buy them having outposts like the ruins where Ahsoka found the map in an era when they left the planet more, but a map to whole other galaxy seems a bit off. Space exploration on that scale doesn’t seem like something they would do. I wonder if maybe the map is a relic from someone else that they picked up. I like the Rakata theory I saw floated by someone. I could see the Nightsisters picking up a Rakatan map. Those guys left random stuff everywhere iirc.

Does the Eye of Sion have anything to do with Darth Sion? (Of KOTOR 2 fame)

WHERE IS MORAI??? This is a really big question for me!!

Also wondering where Ahsoka’s Gandalf the White outfit is? Guessing she won’t get it until the end of the show. She has to go through her journey first. I wonder if the if it’ll mirror the Topps cards Filoni did after Twilight of the Apprentice at all.

It’s really sad to me that this show is coming out during the strike, because I really need Filoni commentary on things. Actor commentary would be great as well. This is ridiculous, the studios need to pay the people who make things a fair wage.

Shoutout to Natasha Liu Bordizzo’s portrayal of Sabine so far. She feels JUST like Sabine and it’s great. We haven’t really seen enough of Hera yet for me to comment on Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s acting. (It was so weird seeing Hera be taller than Ahsoka though lol.) And Sabine had much more of an arc in these two episodes than Ahsoka did so I can’t really comment on Rosario’s Ahsoka either. Will say she’s been excellent so far, especially in her first appearance in the Mandalorian episode. Looking forward to seeing more!

[cadybear420]

Cadybear's Reviews- Ride or Die

Welcome to the seventeenth official Cadybear's Reviews! Today I'll be talking about Ride or Die, which I have ranked on the "Wood Tier" at 3 stars out of a possible 10.

(Peter Griffin voice) Before we all die, there’s one secret I have to share with you. I did not care for Ride or Die. 

Yeah… I do not get this one. I do not get why so many people say this story made them cry or that it was so emotional and tragic. I do not get why (at least in more recent years) this has been paraded as one of Choices’ bests along with the likes of TCATF, ES, and ILS. Like, even if you really really love this book, I don’t think it comes anywhere close to being among the bests. It’s been a while since I last played, but even when right after I did play it, I could not buy into the “tragic and bittersweet” themes that people praise this book for. 

Now don’t get me wrong, as a story in itself, it isn’t terrible. It’s a pretty simple story about a MC who wants a taste of adrenaline and independence before going off to college. And in some aspects it does manage to somewhat subvert the “Ohhhhh, the innocent studious good girl falls in love with the immoral criminal bad boy and he turns her bad, but oh no her dad wouldn’t approve of his innocent little daddy’s girl running off with a bad boy, and she’s gonna be all like ‘But Daddy I love him!!1!!1!!11!’ when he finds out and scolds her about it” kind of story that it comes off as at first (though I still found it very pointlessly genderlocked, both MC and Logan should have been GOC). Granted I’d still like to see the dynamic changed up for a bit, with MC as the immoral tough baddie and LI as the innocent one who breaks out of that image as they fall for the MC.

I did like the parts (though I think there were only like 2 or 3 of them) where you could choose between focusing on your studies or spending time with the Crew, and you could pay diamonds to combine the events. And if I’m not mistaken, it does affect whether or not your MC becomes valedictorian at the end. But that’s about the only thing that affects your story route I think. 

And credit where credit is due, it is unique in that MC and LI don’t get together and have a happily ever after in the end (not that it would have been earned if they did anyways lol). It’s not a fantastic ending, but it is solid and at least a different change of pace. Why couldn’t the “MC and LI don’t get together in the end and live happily ever after” have happened in books like TNA, Surrender, FCL, and TBB?

So in concept, I do think this kind of story could have worked. Unfortunately, there are so many things that bring it down for me. 

To start off, MC’s relationship with the Mercy Park Crew felt incredibly shallow to me. It technically makes sense, since they’re all meant to go their separate ways, but it also kind of makes it hard to feel any sadness for when we actually get to that point. So any “tragic” themes just felt… very lukewarm to me. The only part that actually felt emotional to me was when Teppei Kaneko sacrificed himself, because… you know. My dude got himself blown the fuck up in a car crash on purpose to save the others.

Most melodramatic and forced of all was Logan. I seriously do not follow Logan’s supposed “special reason” for taking interest in MC. Even after seeing other people explain it, I still don’t get it. I don’t understand why it’s so god damned special, nor why Logan himself is so god damned special and why he of all the LIs was the main LI. He just seemed like a standard bad boy where I know fuck all about his character other than that he and Colt kind of had some beef with each other. 

On that note, Colt was the only LI I felt had any real emotional stakes and character and thus the only one I felt I had any reason to give a damn about in this story (also, he’s apparently a good passenger princess and says “you’ll always be my best driver” or something like that). And Mona… well, she had slightly more character than Logan at least, but she still felt like an obligatory token female LI (especially considering the book’s subtitle, seriously it’s really not helping the story at all). 

All of this would probably put it on my Bronze Tier. But there’s just one more thing that brings it down. The story pacing. 

The plot has some of the worst pacing I have ever seen. Like, MC’s dad should pull it over and charge it with a DUI. There were way too many things going on all at once, and I could not follow any of it. So if there somehow was any actual emotional substance or narrative depth to this story, I completely missed it. 

That all being said, this book being mid isn’t completely the story’s fault. This was originally slated to have a sequel, and the plan the writers had revealed on Storyloom actually sounds pretty awesome and much better than what we got in the first book. Basically, it takes place 5 years later where MC has just finished college, and she’s apparently contacted because of her connections with the MPC and has to bring everyone together again for a new adventure, ending with MC and LI driving off into the sunset. 

Originally, I figured the ending was conclusive as it was and there wasn’t really much that could be done with a sequel, even in a meeting-again-older-and-wiser side story set in the future. But now knowing the scrapped plan? We did kinda miss out. I mean, the ending it does have still works, but the story they planned for the sequel would have greatly improved the series. Though the thing where “MC and LI ride off together into the sunset” should at least have an option for MC to not get with her LI of choice by saying “I’ve long since moved on”. 

To me, this is just a simple story about a MC who wants a taste of adrenaline and independence just before the end of her high school years. Nothing all that emotionally complex or narratively deep. Yeah, I know I give high praise to stories like OG HSS and TH:M that aren’t exactly complex or deep either, but they at least have highly varying story routes, compelling characters, and good pacing to show for it. 

I don’t hate this one, but man is it overhyped as hell. Even if I did like this one (and who knows, I just might end up liking it after I give it a replay), I don’t think it’s nearly as good as people have made it out to be. I just don’t see it. 

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

do you have one of those childrens tv shows that you used to love when you were a kid, but that you now realise is actually kinda fucked up? can you explain what you think is creepy/weird about it?

Good question!

Okay, so I'm going to make this reply very very long so I can indulge my love of dispensing long rants about this subject.

First of all, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "creepy" or "weird." If you mean that they just seem kind of "off" to you now, like they aren't made for the intended audience, then you should definitely check out MST3K, which is a parody show on a station called the Comedy Central that makes fun of old B movies.

That aside, my "creepy TV show" is probably When Worlds Collide, a show from the 50's. It's about aliens invading the Earth, and it follows a family on a spaceship that is the only surviving vehicle from the Earth. (For some reason, they had to flee, and they do not seem to be allowed to go back.)

In the context of the time, this show was probably revolutionary. It was one of the very first science fiction shows, and it introduced lots of concepts that came to be characteristic of the genre. (In fact, I'm not sure there was a "science fiction" genre until science fiction showed up on TV and in movies.) This show is notable as an early exploration of the time travel concept. It's also one of the first time fictional characters in American TV dealt with the idea that there is intelligent life outside of Earth.

The problem is that, in the present day, much of this stuff is kind of hard to parse. You kind of wonder what's going on when, for example, a character on the ship is like "oh no, our spaceship is running out of oxygen!" He starts babbling about some sort of family emergency (the ship's oxygen is a "family inheritance," apparently). His brother is like "don't worry, here's a portable oxygen tank." And it's all just weird.

And the special effects are amazingly bad. In general the show is kind of "cringeworthy," because it seems like they made all the budgetary choices that would lead to a low-rent campy production. This is sort of hilarious if you watch it with the benefit of hindsight, but back when I watched it as a kid I just wondered why it was so "bad," in my best approximation of adult aesthetic taste.

One thing I remember from this show is that the aliens talk very oddly. They're always using this one weird word, and it's annoying when they say it a lot. For some reason, when I rewatched the show as an adult, I kept hearing "fuck" in that odd voice.

I think this goes to show that this show does not really have any charm -- it's what you'd get if you started making a new show with the worst possible budget, crew, and effects, and expected it to have a long run, and maybe eventually they'd do all the things that "good" sci fi shows do.

Also, I should mention, the show seems to support the nuclear family as an ideal, and at one point I remember a lot of kids like me being very disappointed by this, because we didn't have a nuclear family at home.

[icantescapemikewheeler]

Apparently Tumblr wants to know more about Mike Wheeler's clone (aka Eduardo) so here's all of the lore I can think of off the top of my head:

- Eduardo is a clone of Mike Wheeler that was created in Hawkins lab. Why did they clone Mike Wheeler? They just did.

- Eduardo looks exactly like Mike Wheeler except he is always wearing Mike's airport outfit ™

- Eduardo is completely fluent in Spanish (it's his first language) and has some sort of strange innate ability to access and reference pop culture from the future. A prime example of this is the song Despacito.

- Eduardo uses Despacito as a curse word. Eventually Mike begins to as well because Eduardo starts rubbing off on him and it pisses him off SO MUCH.

- If it wasn't already apparent, Mike HATES Eduardo.

- Eduardo loves Mike, and for some reason thinks that he is his long lost brother José.

- Eduardo eventually escapes the lab and becomes a sort of Hawkins cryptid. He unintentionally gets Mike in trouble for the things that he does because everyone just assumes that he's Mike (because who would EVER imagine that Mike has a clone who speaks Spanish and is in love with the Chupacabra (me)).

- Eduardo makes his entrance into our favourite characters' lives when he accidentally hops on board a plane to California (his reasons for this are unclear, but seeing as he is Eduardo, that makes sense).

- Eduardo arrives to greet the Byers and Argyle at the airport. They immediately all sense that something's off about 'Mike' and Argyle proclaims that he is, in fact, not Mike, but "a shitty knockoff".

- As it turns out, the REAL Mike's flight was delayed so he arrives a few hours later and meets HIM.

- Eduardo essentially joins the California crew to go and rescue El. He sits in the trunk the whole time because Mike refuses to make physical contact with him.

- Within a few seconds of meeting Will and Mike, Eduardo KNOWS. He is a Byler shipper and is tortured by how oblivious the both of them are. His Byler-based frustration evokes a sizable amount of "Despacito"s.

- Mike has no idea Eduardo can speak English, as he only speaks Spanish around him. Mike also has a C in Spanish at school so he can't understand anything Eduardo says at all. As it turns out, Argyle is a surprisingly good translator.

- Obviously, because Eduardo is a clone of Mike, he's head over heels in love with El. As in El Chupacabra, the cryptid goat sucker. Once he learns about the concept of a "celebrity crush", he decides that his is El Chupacabra, and makes it his mission to find it. "El Chupacabra mi amor"

- When the crew arrives back in Hawkins, they decide that Murray should hide Eduardo in his bunker, at least until everything blows over. This turns into Murray accidentally adopting Eduardo as his weird little surrogate son.

- Eduardo stays locked in the bunker for the duration of the events of season five. After the final battle is won, Eduardo's world changes forever. He gets a roommate. His roommate is Henry Creel.

- A now powerless Henry and Eduardo form a strange sort of brotherly bond while being locked up in the bunker. However, there is one force that threatens the strength of their relationship: veggie tales.

- Somehow, through his ability to access future pop culture, Eduardo gets his hands on a VHS tape of an entire season of veggie tales. He loves it. He watches it every day. Henry DETESTS it. He wants it to stop. When the two are finally deemed responsible enough to start integrating themselves into society, Henry emerges rambling about the singing vegetables (which makes Murray regret his decision of letting him out).

- For some strange reason, only characters with a connection to the upside down can see the veggie tales tape. To anyone else, the screen just plays static. In a moment of weakness and desperation, Henry brings the tape to El and falls down on his knees sobbing, begging her to destroy the evil that is veggie tales. She has no idea that veggie tales is just a tv show, and Henry makes it sound super dangerous, so she uses her powers to obliterate the tape. (It took Henry FOREVER to be able to get into contact with her, since literally everyone else in Hawkins was doing their best to make sure they DIDN'T interact).

- When Eduardo finds out about the broken tape he is DEVESTATED. He goes into mourning for two weeks. He doesn't speak to anyone, he doesn't smile, he doesn't do anything. One day, he finds out that Henry destroyed the tape and he is FURIOUS. Eduardo drags Henry to the sheriff's office and tells Hopper that Henry killed Bob and Larry.

- Hopper has no idea that Bob and Larry are vegetables, and since this is Henry Creel being accused of murder YET AGAIN, he locks him up right away. Henry tries to plead his case by telling everyone who will listen that "THEY'RE JUST VEGETABLES" but it only makes things worse.

- That night while Henry is sitting in his cell, the vent on the ceiling breaks open and Eduardo crawls through it. He promptly breaks Henry out of prison, leaving him dumbfounded as to why Eduardo would save him if he got him locked up in the first place. When he asks Eduardo about this, he wipes a single tear from his left eye and says "Bob and Larry... are right here." He puts his hand on his heart. Eduardo promptly removes a tomato and a cucumber from his shirt pocket

- Eduardo also canonically hates Hopper, and has tried to kill him three times. One time involved axe body spray, another hitting him with a pan, and a third lying to him about his wife and child being at the end of the rainbow.

(some tagging because people who reblogged the og post might appreciate: @moomiiii @screamingfrenchfries @mikewontstopwhiningaboutit )

[jheselbraum]

Rewatching Change Your Mind its really baffling to me the writing choices the crew made about Volleyball this early on. So far everything we have on her suggests that she was taken from Pink because she did something that fundamentally treated her like a person in some way, or that she had cooked up some hairbrained scheme that Volleyball wound up punished for for not reining her in. There's nothing narratively in any of the flashbacks we get in Change Your Mind or Together Alone to suggest that Pink physically or psychologically hurt Volleyball, just that she got caught in the crossfire of the rest of the diamonds abusing Pink. There's nothing, that is, until Volleyball says as much in Future. In the moment I never noticed how out of left field it felt and I guess the art book, specifically the "Don't break this one" drawing, sort of masked how little of that was actually evident in the show, but on a rewatch? It's kind of disappointing how much of a misdirect it feels like. I think having the crack in her eye be Pink's doing was always the plan but with the way these flashbacks are written it honestly makes the reveal feel more like a gotcha. Like a "Oh haha, I can't believe you fell for it. Of course Pink is the one who hurt her! This isn't a shocking reveal out of left field, you misunderstood!" Especially with how the narrative treats the concept of thinking Pink couldn't have done it or even just being shocked about the fact that she did ("It looks like I'm still making excuses for her" "Is that what I've been doing?") and the narrative gotcha for expressing vs bottling up your feelings (the Pink Volleyball knew was loud and destructive and constantly expressing herself to the detriment of others, which is bad, and the Pink Pearl knew kept everything bottled up inside, which is worse, and Rose Quartz struck a pretty good balance between the two all things considered, which according to the narrative was apparently also bad. Steven, who is a child, who's had the diamond powers unlocked for what, a week? A couple weeks? Isn't allowed by the narrative to be upset by what's going on, because even though he can't control his powers, even though he doesn't know how to, his anger is upsetting Volleyball. Which, fair enough I guess, but the solution to that problem is for Steven to go into another room or something. At the very least it'd be nice if the narrative didn't act like the fact that he literally cannot control his powers, let alone how his powers affect other people emotionally, is some kind of moral failing on his part, Volleyball's trauma and Pink's decisions notwithstanding).

Like, we know that when diamonds change so do their powers. Yellow went from proofing gems in an instant to being able to alter the forms of cracked or corrupted gems, even if their gems weren't complete. Blue went from being able to force any gem into not just tears but straight up sorrow, to being able to spread joy to others. White went from imposing her being onto others to the inverse, letting others possess her. Which. Interesting narrative choice, but it's not really a stretch to think that after what happened to Volleyball, Pink's powers changed because she changed. That she went from being able to destroy physical structures and gems alike to being able to heal them (fascinating narrative choice to have your healer character's powers be tear activated but then narratively treat her like a crybaby by the way). For the rest of the diamonds this power change is framed as an objectively good thing, a sign that they're growing and changing for the better. But for Rose, for some fucking reason, that's not good enough and she's still framed by the narrative as being awful after she changed. She's the only character besides Bluebird the show can't seem to forgive and God, does it feel like they just keep tacking on reasons for that when things come out of left field like this. With Bismuth, yeah okay. We know from the start that there's a bubbled gem in lion's mane. We know that something isn't right when Bismuth is unbubbled and seems. Nice. Chill. When Pearl says Rose lost track of her at that battle. Spinel shows up completely out of nowhere, without so much as a mention of Pink ever having a garden before (which, didn't the diamonds hate organic life before? Why give pink a garden full of it?) And now this with Volleyball, where it may not have been their intent but it certainly feels like the crew were just lying to us about what Pink was like when she was with Volleyball. The horse has been dead for years at this point, we get it. You don't want us to like Rose Quartz.

[greypetrel]

Hey c:

💐 for Alyra

🌻 and 🌾 for Raina

🌹 for Aisling

Hey there! :3

Another letter for 🌾, a couple of days after the Gallows.

And for Aisling... The concept of "home" is the core of her character so I'm sorry it'll be longer than necessary, oops! xD

Tis the ask game

Alyra:

💐 How does your OC handle being unwell or forced to rest in bed? Who cares for them and in what ways? Does your OC enjoy being doted on or are they a terrible patient? Reversed: is your OC good at taking care of others who are ill or in need?

Alyra takes it rationally. She's the perfect patient until she recognises she is sick or wounded. No point in dragging yourself up and about if your brain can't think straight from a fever and you're just there shivering, just to hinder the others. She stay put and rest until she's better and functional again. She won't be happy about it and will act grumpily for the inconvenience and the loss of time being sick nonetheless. Back in the clan it was Merrill keeping her company and chatting away not to make her feel alone. During the Blight it's Morrigan. She has... A rocky relationship with Wynne, will trust her greatly as a healer and her help is welcomed. But at the first note of a big speech over morality or what she should do, she will groan and fake to be very tired and wanting to sleep just to avoid it. Morrigan has her hedge ways to heal and is nice company to have around if you're grumpy.

Raina:

🌻 What little things do they notice about people or the world around them that make them happy? What tiny little treasures do they find in the normal every day that makes the world seem a little brighter for them?

In people what she notices and likes most is personal coherence and how one stands up for what they believe in. She fell head over heels for Merril in Sundermount, when she confronted the Keeper and stood her ground even if it meant losing her family (which is something that would destroy Raina). Even in the little things: if you go around saying that you believe in kindness, she will notice and appreciate you stopping to pet a stray dog or give him a treat. As for things... She likes flowers growing in the most unlikely places. Dandelions sprouting from a crevice in a wall in Lowtown, she will always, always stop to blow the white puffy ones away. Pots with flowers in Darktown that are just there, apparently abandoned. Weeds creeping in in an unkept garden, or holly growing over an old oak. She's butch and will act thought and uncaring, she's the hugest softie inside.

🌾 Describe your OC through the eyes of someone absolutely head-over-heels in love with them

Dear Kitten,

I’m leaving this here because I know you would need it.

I know you’re both safe in the Alienage, that no one would look for you there. Varric has thankfully kept you out of his books, and for once I’m happy he only included me as the love interest. I can’t but worry about the both of you, tho.

I’m not off yet, and I’m writing these words as the last things, as the crew sets up the ship and finish storing the larder, in the dull moments. They are so much duller without the both of you around, I really wished the next time I would have sailed off I would have you both at my side.

Such are the things of life, I know why you are deciding to stay, and I know why R. did. It is not a farewell but a goodbye, forgive me for being clingy when I didn’t think I could be.

Take care of each other when I won’t be around, please. I know that from the exterior it would look like the one that will need help the most is R. -as much as she tries to shrug everything off and act like she glides through life easily, with a joke and a smile, like nothing really matters, we both know better. And she will need help, by all means. Particularly now that G. is with me. I saw that look in her eyes and I know that she was affected by what happened and what she did, and will surely take the blame of everything. She’s caring that way.

Please, keep an eye on her and hold her for my sake.

And since you’re there, take good care of yourself as well, always for me. I know R. will do it (and yes I am writing to her as well, I’m sure you will read that letter too anyway, there’s no privacy with you both around and seriously you should not allow R. to borrow your toothbrush I see my fair share of scurvy and teeth ailments and you don’t want them). But anyway, I already miss you and I digress.

Take care of yourself as well for me, will you? Take care of you both. I’m leaving you with both halves of my heart and I expect the two of you to treat them exceedingly well.

Dareth shiral to you as well, my heart.

Love, - Bela

Aisling:

🌹 Where in the world does your OC feel most at home? Is there any reason why? If it’s not the place they were born, where were they born? Is there a certain somebody that makes them feel at home where ever they may be? What does home mean to them?

"Home" to her means not a place but a feeling. That feeling you have when you know you can be your weirdest, silliest self and not be mocked for it, when you can talk and you will be listened, when you can freely be sad or angry or happy and it's ok. Home is people. Home was Keeper Deshanna and Pavyn and Radha, home had been Ydun. Home is the nook in the library with Dorian, both sitting on the ground with books and papers scattered around and Aisling crawling in to hug him just because he's owed many, many hugs, and him letting her do it. Home is slipping in Cullen's office when she's the one that really needs a hug, or waiting to be the last ones in the War Room just to steal a couple of minutes with him and feel loved. Home is Skyhold because there are many people she loves, there, and the fortress likes her. Home will be the farm after Trespasser, because she and Cullen renewed it with love and put hopes and emotion into it. And they could do it again if the building burned down, because Home is what they make, not anything material. Home has been animals, and spending time with them. There's something extremely soothing, to her, about gaining an animal's trust, that always makes you feel at home. Sure, you can approach domestic animals by offering them food and pet an halla if you bring them an apple! But there's a big difference between an animal approaching you for a treat and one that gives you their friendship and trust. That trust is home, what never fails to bring her joy in a rainy day and make her feel at peace with the world. An animal who trusts you doesn't have any second meanings, they just learnt to take joy in your company... and you can't be that bad of a person if a skittish horse allows you to curl up against his side and take a nap without kicking you in your head, right?