#them being a soldier has impact on the plot which means

[silverskye13]

Will enby Helsknight/trans Tanguish/top surgery scars/stubborn avoidant Welsknight in a gender crisis make it into the main story of RnS? Like, a full acknowledgment of it? Because yes, us on tumblr are aware (and happily bully RnS Wels for it) but I’m curious to how it may be brought up in the main storyline instead of rambles and drabbles. (Don’t get me wrong, those rambles and drabbles are what get me through the day. But my best friend, who isn’t in the MCYT fandom whatsoever, just caught up with RnS and doesn’t use tumblr, and besides spamming her with tumblr posts I wanna know how much I can revel in the glory of the skrunkles with her!)

That is a great question, actually. And the answer is I don't really know.

So this is one of the downsides to writing things chapter by chapter. If I had gone into this going "oh heck yeah they're trans", this would've come up in the plot way sooner. It's nice information 1) for all the trans folks reading and 2) because it has the potential to inform the themes in the narrative. This whole story is about two chief things I think: death [the inevitability of] and identity [what defines you and why]. Why should you care if literally no one else (including the universe) does? That would be so cool to speak about in terms of a trans allegory! Why do you care about gender when it's just one thing in a world of crazy things? Or at the very least, how does it inform your identity? But this is a change I made on a whim suddenly, and I know Exactly Where I Want This Plot To Go, so trans topics and allegories as Plot Points probably won't happen.

On the more technical side of introducing trans characters -- how do you do that without just dropping "oh btw they're trans" in? Like, how do you make it a relevant thing to talk about, that doesn't feel forced or shoehorned in, especially this late in the story? Probably me overthinking, but I read it done wrong so often. It gets tired. And if I ever work on my original stories, there are trans characters in there! If I can figure out how to Do It Well in a fanfic, then I can figure out how to do it in original fiction someday maybe. So I kinda wanna take the introduction seriously? I've actually been thinking about it so much I've thought about rewriting the intro to the next chapter ahaha [it already needs rewritten in general, there's a lot going on, but the intro was going to be Helsknight waking up from something, and he sleeps shirtless, and not addressing top surgery scars then would be kinda silly I think.]

I can say at the very least, Gender Avoidant Wels probably won't factor in the story much. He is a character, but I don't think he'll become Enough of a character to faithfully address something like a trans self discovery arc. At best his issues with gender might be mentioned in passing.

Sorry! I know you probably want a better answer! My answer is basically: I don't know I'm still working on it. I want it to be there, but the capacity it's there is undecided.

That being said, I've been sitting on this glorious ask since the shenanigans started and the temptation to just Do That grows every time I read it:

[iam93percentstardust]

one of the things that really bothers me about modern franchises, and in particular over the last 5 years or so, is their refusal to commit. what i mean here when i say this is that it's not uncommon for a major franchise to make a decision, whether about the plot or the characters, that should have had huge, world-changing consequences... and then just never address that again or worse, immediately go back and undo it. and i'm gonna pick on star wars and the mcu here because those are the two big franchises i'm into at the moment (and i think they're kind of the worst at this), but i don't want you to walk away from this thinking that this is solely a disney thing. i've seen this happen with game of thrones and supernatural and plenty of other non-disney franchises. spoilers ahead, you've been warned:

in ant-man & the wasp quantumania, scott and hope make the life-altering decision to stay behind in the quantum realm and defeat kang instead of going through the portal to return to their world. this should have been a huge meta decision for the mcu, and when i first saw it in theaters, my immediate thought was wow, what is this going to mean for the mcu going forward? are we going to get a movie/miniseries about scott and hope helping to rebuild the quantum realm? how are cassie, janet, and hank going to react to the losses of their loved ones (in some cases, for the second time)? is cassie going to become the "first" young avenger because she has to take her father's place among the team lineup (and i only say first because as of this moment, none of the other young avengers introduced to the franchise are official avengers yet)? except nope, because less than 2 minutes later, cassie had fixed the portal that had broken way back at the beginning of the movie and brought scott and hope back.

and it felt like such a cheat. i was so disappointed in that theater, not as someone who was invested in these characters on a personal level (because yay, cassie gets her dad back!), but as someone who has spent years investing themselves in the story of the mcu. what was the point of wasting screentime on scott and hope accepting their new lives in the quantum realm if it was just going to immediately be undone? the entire scene could have been cut to scott and hope making it back bare seconds before the portal closed and it would have had the same emotional impact. there was nothing added by making scott and hope (and us) think that there was no way back only to rip the rug out from under us and go "gotcha! you really thought we were gonna give this movie a sad ending? haha! you're so dumb!"

and this isn't the first time the mcu has done this. one of the biggest complaints about endgame was the decision to set it five years in the future with no consideration for how that would actually change the setting of the mcu. characters were brought back to the exact place they disappeared from with no consideration for how things might have changed in the interim five years (like planes that weren't in the air anymore, buildings no longer standing, even just something as simple as a chair being unoccupied). and then the mcu didn't even really have the courage to address how this would have shaped the world other than a few jokes and making the bad guys in the falcon and the winter soldier people who cared about how the world had screwed them over during the blip.

and things like this happen over and over and over again. the accords are put into place in civil war, but by the time we get to she-hulk, they're gone with no explanation because, as best as i can tell, the writers didn't want to have to deal with the worldbuilding that went into the accords. gamora is killed in infinity war, but heaven forbid quill not have an emotional investment in a film he appears for maybe 10 minutes in so now she's back in endgame. steve got to go live in the past with his ex-girlfriend (which is in itself a refusal to commit after the mcu both gave her a different husband and had the woman herself tell him to move on) but we need to establish that messing with timelines is bad because that's what the entire next phase hinges on so actually his ending was predestined and it's only everyone else who can't change time. whoever took this entire town and also wanda hostage and forced them to live out a sitcom fantasy is bad and needs to be stopped but wait, it's actually wanda and she can't be the bad guy yet, we need her for doctor strange 2, so actually everyone's going to defend her now and say that no one else could ever possibly understand her grief. thor has decided to accept responsibility as king of asgard, but we can't use him for any more movies if he's stuck in asgard, so actually he's decided to pass it on to someone whose entire leadership capability is developed offscreen. i could list more examples but this is making me angry, so let's move on to star wars instead.

with star wars, i look at first the oft-quoted meme, "somehow palpatine has returned." yeah, i shouldn't really need to go into detail on how that counts as a refusal to commit but. the last jedi was a study in how johnson refused to commit to anything that abrams had laid down in the force awakens, but rise of skywalker was almost like abrams had looked at the franchise and said "screw you for taking it away from me, i'm going to come up with the most bullshit stuff just to spite you for doing that in the first place. and i'm going to start by undoing the most important plot point of the first trilogy: the emperor dies." and yeah, disney's kind of tried to salvage this by dropping hints into the bad batch and the mandalorian about cloning, but that only really works if you're watching the franchise chronologically and not considering that both of those series came out after rise of skywalker.

and then there's the mandalorian, my sweet summer child, who is, in my opinion, the worst at backtracking their plot points. i'm not entirely convinced that any of the higher ups for this show really knew what they were doing when they started working on it and i'm not convinced that they know what they're doing now. yeah, there's the tie-in to the last season of clone wars, but the mandalorian has managed to walk back pretty much every single major plot point it's had. din is this legendary warrior who can't be beat, but no one will watch this show if he defeats everyone too early, so he's constantly getting beat up (tbf, sometimes some of the fights he loses makes sense like the krayt dragon and the mudhorn, but a lot of them don't. at all). moff gideon is dead, no wait no he's not, now he's imprisoned, no wait no he's not, now he's definitely dead, you can totally believe us this time guys. grogu can use the force and must be placed with the jedi, but wait, the only person still actively teaching the way of the jedi is luke and all of his students will be brutally murdered ten years from now, and we can't have that, everyone will be mad at us for killing off such a cute character and no one will buy baby yoda dolls (and also we have to set up luke's character degradation from hopeful, believes-in-love cinnamon roll to "i'm going to kill my nephew") so in between seasons let's have grogu decide to go back to din (and don't even get me started on how frustrating it is that a casual mandalorian watcher also had to watch book of boba fett to understand why grogu is back). din has the darksaber now which makes him king of mandalore, that's totally going to be important and what the entire series has been building up to, right? wrong! he might have spent the first two seasons making connections, learning about the world outside his sheltered upbringing, and demonstrating the various qualities that would make for a good leader, but the entire third season will be about din realizing that actually he's super unworthy and the darksaber should actually go to someone who... saw an animal in the water.

and it's really, really frustrating as a viewer! because how am i supposed to get invested in any of these plot decisions when they almost always get reversed? why should i care that mj and ned have forgotten peter when ant-man 3 has shown me that they'll remember him the next time they're all on screen together? why should i care that tech is dead when half of the last season of clone wars was about how echo was actually alive? if none of these decisions have any permanence, then where are the emotional stakes? why should i watch your movie if all you're going to tell me is that nothing matters?

[comicaurora]

(sorry for the long ask)

So there's this thing? That's been kind of bothering me, I've noticed it in the shera remake but also other places, where all these faceless minions are just there to show how hard/easy it is for the protagonists to get rid of them.

There's a couple of things, but I think that it just boils down to that they're not treated as characters? The hero will push them into a volcano and celebrate, then get all conflicted when facing the villain captain puppy kicker because "if I kill/hurt you I'll be just as bad" and in the same shot there's a pile of downed henchmen. And I get that, because from a meta perspective it would be hard to animate several hundred or however many individual people all fighting, but it's just weird right? In the show the only people without helmets on 24/7 are the main cast and of course the Rogelio/Kyle/lonnie group. Which is Confusing?? Because it seems like there's only a few options, either every single other person likes wearing the helmets all the time with no breaks, or they're breaking dress code and getting away with it, or "cadets" means they're in training. And somehow way more competent than all the other trained soldiers. It's weird, and I'm not even fully sure how to describe it. Do you have any thoughts?

Faceless minions are a time-honored storytelling tradition that persist despite being slightly reality-breaking story convention because-

They make it very easy to choreograph cool-looking fights against a big pile of interchangeable bad guys

You only need as many extras as you'll be showing together in one shot, meaning you can imply a vast army of evil with only like five costumes/character models

They make it easier to pick out the heroes in group shots and fights

They provide contrast against the important villains with unique designs

Easy protagonist disguises for sneaking around in

This is pretty useful stuff, but it does all feed into the effect that armies of faceless minions are generally not composed of full-fledged characters. They're a pile of broadly interchangeable mooks. This is one of those things that's technically dubious from a realism standpoint, but I honestly don't think it's automatically a bad thing for a story to make it really easy to tell who's an important character and who's an interchangeable obstacle in their way.

This does get shaky when the characters start acting like that. To them, in the reality of their story, those mooks ARE real, dangerous people, and their facelessness doesn't detract from that. The protagonist's morality shouldn't depend on how important a character is to the plot or how unique their design is, and that character inconsistency is the more disruptive bit of writing. Mowing down minions by the truckload only to spare the big bad makes it feel like the main character is standing apart from their own story and making the kind of value judgment the audience is, and that's weird. It's not weird that the faceless minions exist, it's weird that the protagonist evidently doesn't see them as real people.

But that doesn't mean every stormtrooper or background orc or ninja needs their own unique design, name and backstory. Narrative conventions exist for a reason, and while I do love a setting that feels like it's absolutely full of unique main characters all living their own lives, it's absolutely not mandatory. Sometimes things in stories are made unrealistic so they don't undercut the impact of the story itself, whether that's simple theater sets that don't draw the eye away from the actors, unrealistic lighting so a movie viewer can actually see what's going on, song and dance numbers, flashy showstopping villains, or convenient armies of ninjas to take down with one punch each. Storytelling has its own tools.

[theredhairedmonkey]

Morality in the Dragon Prince

TDP does an excellent job weaving in several ways of moral reasoning without outright stating whether any of them are right. To wit, there exist the Big Three types of moralities: consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics, which we will call here (1) Outcome-driven, (2) Rule-driven, and (3) Character-driven. There are main characters who are influenced by each of these three camps.

Outcome-driven morality focuses on the ends. Creating the greatest good for the greatest number. Actions don't have values in of themselves, all that matters is what the result of those actions were, and what the benefit was. The characters who mesh most with this morality are Viren, Claudia, and Karim.

Rule-driven morality focuses on following principles and duties (like don't lie or steal), rather than consequences. Actions are inherently right or wrong, depending on whether our moral obligations were fulfilled, and are universal and impartial. The characters who mesh most with this morality are Ezran, Rayla, and Janai.

Character-driven morality rejects both of these camps. Morality isn't about achieving good outcomes or following good actions, but about cultivating good character traits such as compassion, courage, and wisdom. The idea is that pursuing virtuous behavior leads to personal flourishing, which in turn leads to good conduct. The characters who mesh most with this morality are Soren, Callum, and Amaya (i.e. the ones who are training or learning all the time).

But each of these moralities have serious pitfalls, which in turn influences the flaws of each of the characters above.

Under outcome-driven morality, the ends justify the means. It doesn't matter if Viren has to kill the princes, Claudia has to do unspeakable things, or Karim has to kill his sister. The outcomes (bright future for humanity, saving one's family, or saving one's people), at least in the minds of each person, are good, so any action taken, no matter how terrible, is justified. Hence why each of these three descend down the slippery slope of villainy pretty quickly.

No matter how dangerous. No matter how vile.

Rule-driven morality avoids this problem, but instead creates a different one: these characters become rigid and inflexible, and unable to deal with nuanced situations. Hence why Ezran gives up the crown: violence is bad, so he does what he can to avoid bloodshed, which only leads to a much larger war in Xadia. Whereas Viren and Claudia can justify too many actions, Rayla and Ezran can't justify enough to do what they should be doing.

How can I let this happen?

Character-driven morality, meanwhile, has two big problems that matter here, one impacting Soren and the other impacting Callum. The first is that virtues don't really provide clear guidance in complicated situations, so people may get roped into situations that are hard to justify. Such as...a plot to kill the princes.

The right thing? I don't know if I can do that.

The second is that what's virtuous often differs based on roles. The virtues in being a soldier (bravery, strong will, etc.) is going to be different from the virtues of being a scholar (intelligence, wisdom, etc.). But what if you are both things? What happens when what's virtuous in one role is wrong in another?

This is where Callum often finds himself in. On the one hand, being a good primal mage involves integrity, and adherence to ethical standards when using magic. Dark magic is a clear violation of that, yet on the other hand being a good prince means Callum should display duty and courage, especially in defense of those people he's loyal to. So in that case he should use dark magic if it means he can fight to protect those same people. Thus, Callum's character gets splintered into two, hard-to-reconcile halves.

Look at you. Slave to your friends, your loyalties, your pride.

There aren't any easy answers to any of these, let alone which moral code is most correct. But where these moralities succeed or fail parallels pretty closely to where these characters rise or fall.

[kunikiiida-kuuun]

BSD Anime vs. Manga

S4 Episode 7 & Chapters 59-61

This is mostly going to be a compilation of the ADA moments, focused on Kunikida in particular, since Bones seems to freely pluck out parts from his characterization that takes away a lot from his personal arc. They have done it before, but in this arc, where each detail sensitive to his entire arc, I find it is quite a shame they were excluded.

Here are some moments that didn't make it to the anime, or simply didn't translate well into the episode because of a number of reasons.

A short disclaimer: I've never written any kind of analysis posts or even theories so I'd say this is more of my personal thoughts rather than a very objective comparison, since I hold Kunikida and the ADA very close to my heart. Buckle up for a really long post because oh boy, I have a lot of thoughts.

1. First signs of despair

(BSD Chapter 59)

Quite contrary to how Kunikida is perceived as emotionless, among all the characters in the room, we get a close up into his mind and thoughts first. They have been just declared as national criminals, and Ranpo, the most vital pillar of their agency was just shot and presumably out of commission. The all-knowing Ranpo who has gotten them out of trouble numerous times has been cut off. They sit there in shock as the realisation sinks in. They have no way out. Kunikida looks at his notebook, pondering out loud, "Is this where...my ideals come to an end?"

2. Kunikida retaliates back

(BSD Chapter 59)

This is one of the sides of Kunikida we may rarely get to see. While he is a character with a strong moral compass compared to the other BSD characters, there are moments when he prioritizes to protect himself and would go to any lengths to to prevent harm to his comrades, sometimes at the cost of his own well being. He wouldn't kill anyone, but should the circumstances call for it, he wouldn't hesitate to remove that obstacle. This is similar to how he shoots a little kid who was firing at him and Atsushi in the cannibalism arc. However the circumstances are entirely different in both scenarios. At that time, his inner conflict was more evident, since the children had been lied to, and instructed to shoot and didn't know any better. He had to protect himself and Atsushi. Over here, he is more or less wrongly being accused, which would explain his actions.

Before this, there's also a gentle look that passes over his eyes, as he reminisces about working along with them, and the fact that they see him as an enemy now.

I do however, appreciate that in the anime, his voice is softer, and not rude or mean to the soldiers they just defeated.

3. Remorse

(BSD Chapter 60)

Just as they are able to escape and catch their breaths, Kunikida is immediately filled with remorse for his actions. There is the special emphasis on the "light in the eyes" that Kunikida refers to, something which is very important to a character in Harukawa sensei's art style. He struck down a person, who was someone just like him, someone who was simply holding up his own ideals for the "good" of the nation, something Kunikida himself resonates with. He questions the justness of his own actions, and is in an inner dilemma about everything he stands for. Despite his "tough" exterior, Kunikida is inherently a person who is deeply vulnerable. He puts up his walls, but these walls even seem to break too easily, caused by his own self doubt.

This internal conflict is completely missing in the anime, and while it may seem inconsequential to the overall plot, it takes away a lot of impact that comes ahead. There is a lack of a dramatic pause that this scene gives, as the horror sinks in not just for us, but our characters as well.

4. Ray of hope

(BSD Chapter 60)

Before everyone, especially Kunikida sinks into complete despair, Kenji speaks up, starting on a completely unrelated and seemingly pointless note. He offers everyone some rice balls, surprising everyone.

(BSD Chapter 60)

Kenji is just such a precious boy. Kenji's logic is eating = happiness so by offering the rice balls, he's literally saying "please don't feel dejected!! I want you all to stay healthy and be happy!!"

Kunikida tries to reason, initially feeling that Kenji was making light of the situation. But Kenji is clearly having none of it and stops him immediately. We unfortunately missed this absolutely hilarious scene of Kenji shutting up Kunikida by shoving a rice ball into his mouth LMAO.

In hindsight, as I rewatch the anime, Kenji's speech is a nice optimistic boost in very Kenji fashion, but it comes across as a touch too happy go lucky in the anime and you can't deny how much more impactful it is when instead of just a random speech, he's purposefully uplifting everyone's spirits.

He isn't just being optimistic and is aware of the grim situation. He understands that he would need to use his ability for the obstacles they may face ahead and forgoes eating the rice balls (as Kenji cannot use his skill if his stomach is full). That's when even Kunikida realises that he is being serious. He understands how everyone feels, and reassures them, essentially saying that the agency will get through, rebuild, and continue on their path no matter how many difficulties come their way.

I have to say, this moment here is even more touching with his backstory that was recently revealed a few chapters ago. Kenji actually comes across as very mature for his age with his outlook on life and his kind and humble nature.

There is an immediate change in Kunikida's demeanor after this. He acknowledges Kenji's words and bites into the rice ball, accepting his 'unique' way of encouraging them with gratitude. And hereforth emerges the leader within Kunikida. I'm working on another post related to Kunikida and his role as the future ADA leader, but Kunikida is truly a people's leader. He spurs into action when he has the trust and support of his comrades and is the most confident when backed and reassured by the ones near him.

Unfortunately I find that this moment completely fell flat in the anime. They included Tanizaki's line about being criminals and it's in response to that that Kenji gives his speech which isn't bad per se....but doesn't give the same impact as the manga. They added some sparkles ✨ as he was speaking which made it a tad bit animated whereas in the manga it seems like the sun is shining on him...which makes me wonder how the anime would've looked if they actually showed a progression of time instead of just sticking to twilight hues...

5. Just your friendly neighborhood terrorist gang...

(BSD manga chapter 61)

And here is the most iconic and probably the greatest scene of all times, which was only partly animated. I'll let this one slide, but imagine how much funnier it would have been if they did include the first part. The fact that they are being pursued right now as the most wanted criminals, and how every second is extremely precious to them if they want to escape safely, and yet, Kunikida would steal someone's vehicle only after confirming they have an insurance for it (and letting them go if they don't).

Even him choosing to take a private vehicle rather than public transport to avoid jeopardizing other's lives...Kunikida is just so good. I love him so much you don't understand 🥹💕

6. Comprehensive personality analysis by Jouno Saigiku (Kunikida edition)

Okay sorry this is just me being salty but like....did they seriously give us an extended fish eye cut for this entire scene??!! I was so shocked I couldn't even focus on the weight and symbolism of the dialogue. I get the fish eye potential of this scene but like why....just why.

It's such a pivotal revelation about Kunikida, not just to us, the audience, but even to Kunikida himself, his deepest and innermost thoughts and fears laid out in the open like that. Jouno tears him down effectively, making him question himself and his ideals.

This part makes me crazy emotional in the manga, because the whole thing about Kunikida's ideals is that it actually weighs so heavily on him that he doesn't really realise that he is crumbling under the pressure of it. Deep inside, he is aware about the futility of pursuing them, as seen from how he admits it himself in Chapter 40 to Katsura, but instead of letting go, he keeps pushing himself. His ideals are not for others to follow, but something he demands of himself, in order to create a better world. And if the people whom he wants to protect are taken away, his ideals would come to an end, hence he'll be "free" from the heavy burden of his ideals.

Reducing all of this into a mere fish eye moment....bones I will remember this 😭😤

However, I do appreciate that they added a scene of Kunikida shielding Yosano from Tecchou, a nice parallel to when Yosano takes a bullet for Kunikida. It was just very heart warming to see all of them protect each other. There's also a small panel that was not animated, one where Jouno kicks Kenji out of the moving car and asks Kunikida and the others to go ahead, and there's a look of uncertainty and despair that passes on Kunikida's face, another instance of his internal conflict not included.

(also what is with all of Kunikida's enemies reading up on him and studying him?? Like I'm no different from these guys tbh I get it, I'm obsessed with him too but back off will ya...🙄)

I'm only considering this fan-made video by cocoa as the true anime scene because wth were they thinking 😭

Additional thoughts Episode 8

Kunikida's final answer

I would recommend going and reading the full manga for better reading experience, but in case you're feeling too lazy, I included the screenshots. I'm mostly satisfied with how this part was animated, but here are some of my thoughts about it anyways. Looking back to this chapter in the manga, it's definitely much more dramatic than its counterpart.

There's a panel where they just show him with his back hunched all alone as he ponders over what Jouno said which is really neat. The look of horror that passes over his face as he sees Kenji being stabbed is much more dramatic. In the anime, Kenji being stabbed was even more horrifying, and obviously more realistic of a reaction than him just going "huh?" as if it was nothing much.

There's even a panel of Kunikida gritting his teeth, until he realises what he needs to do. I loved the way he swung off the helicopter in the anime, it kinda lives rent free in my brain ngl. When Kunikida jumps off and kicks Tecchou, there's a close up of his face, full of determination and light in his eyes... it's just so beautiful because he's no longer hindered by self doubt. This light in his eyes remains the brightest in all the three panels.

While originally I was under the impression that this would be a very sad scene, the anime and the choice of music made it seem more of a heroic moment instead, which the more I think about, the more I feel was a good choice. After a series of unfortunate events and near death situations, Kunikida is faced with the choice to either give up or save everyone. His choice to sacrifice himself was one stemming from his role as a leader and also, most importantly to protect anyone else from getting hurt. This is also his firm answer back to Jouno's words, that he would continue striving for his ideals, even when sacrificing his own life.

And also, spoilers alert: he doesn't exactly die, so I think it was alright if they didn't make it too dramatic or melancholic. Still made me cry buckets nevertheless lol.

I'm not very good at character analyses so I would recommend reading this one over here. It's one of the best character breakdown I've ever seen for Kunikida and they have covered this part of the manga as well!

Of course, another amazing explanation of this scene is by Asagiri-sensei themselves, which you can find here.

Yet another deleted scene...

Kyouka decides to go save Atsushi

(BSD Chapter 63)

If you're curious about when Kyouka decided to go and save Atsushi instead and how they concealed themselves so well in that hole, here's an extended explanation in a flashback that was skipped in the anime. It's no surprise this was deleted, and I was pretty much expecting it as it's not that important of a detail. The most significant part of this scene of course would be the sheer determination in Kyouka's eyes to save Atsushi. I think it is a neat parallel to Atsushi back in s1 who insisted on saving Kyouka, even after Kunikida told him not to. In both instances, Kunikida tries to protest, but eventually relents and acknowledges their will and determination, lending them his aid. The anime also kinda missed giving us a cool render of that page in which Kyouka stands heroically before the military when she comes to save Atsushi (unfortunately I'm unable to add the image because of Tumblr's ten image limit...sigh).

Final thoughts

I've said this before, but I understand that anime has time constraints and other production matters that I'm unaware about, but the number of details that were removed while not surprising, was surely disappointing. My major problem was mostly with episode 7 with how rushed it was. By removing the build up, there's a certain lack of emotional depth in a number of scenes. There are many who did not find the episodes fast paced and rather consider it quite alright considering the theme of the arc, which is totally valid. However it's natural for manga readers to go into the anime with preconceived ideas about how they think the scene will go down. I'm personally just a little sad because firstly, Kunikida is my favourite character and secondly, I think he's one of the best written characters in all of BSD. He is one of the core characters in BSD, so I'm obviously disappointed that many of his parts just get removed since he's not one of the greater "fan favourites".

Of course, I have to give the anime credit where it's due. The animation is amazing this season and the voice acting is simply phenomenal. The OST is also pretty good and I desperately want that track they played for the hunting dogs introduction. They've truly given their heart and soul for this season, and I couldn't be happier as a BSD fan!! I'm super excited for the upcoming episodes!

Welp that's all from me! Thank you for coming to my ted talk! This was initially going to be just a simple compilation, until I started talking and couldn't shut up. I'm really grateful for anyone who reads this. Thank you very much!! If you've come this far, please do drop a comment because I'd love to hear your thoughts!!

Lastly, please go read the manga if you haven't already! Who knows, maybe you'll find some other missing detail of your favourite character!

[endiness]

(the following contains book and show spoilers.)

i have to say, i think the main reason why radovid was aged up beyond the romance with jaskier was to provide redania with the stability it lacked in the books after vizimir was assassinated in order for the show to have a central pov for the north. because the show almost has that with philippa and dijkstra, but the one area that's really lacking — if the show stuck exactly to the books — is the war itself as redania was not in a place where it could fight until the end of the series. but aging radovid up old enough to be king should fix that issue by virtue of redania actually having a leader and therefore not falling into chaos. and even with that change, the show could still feature later issues redania runs into with the war just by having them run out of money by the end of the series and needing more and/or facing so many losses in their army that they need to hire more soldiers.

and within that whole idea, i can see the show using radovid as a substitute for other northern nobility and royalty. like, given the little that is known about radovid in the books and what philippa's plans in them are, the show could easily use radovid in tankred's role as both characters were almost betrothed to ciri in the books. (and i say this fully as a radskier shipper in radskier shipping mode, but i am still ✨ manifesting ✨ radovid being used as a daniel etcheverry replacement.) (also, like, insert speculation about radovid being jaskier's anna henrietta here.)

all of which is to say that i think it makes sense that the show would do something like that — having a central pov for the north and condensing things a bit — because it is a tv show, and one with only 8 episodes per season at that, and as such there's a limited amount of time to work with. the show's focus just with next season alone will already be split enough as it is between geralt, jaskier, and the hansa; ciri and the rats (and bonhart); yennefer and the lodge; francesca and the elves and the scoia'tael; and nilfgaard with emhyr (plus wherever vilgefortz may fall into.) philippa, dijkstra, and king!radovid round out a northern pov — the one pov that's missing — without having to split the focus even more if the rest of the northern nations were really featured. (just to say: i don't think that means the show will erase the rest of the nations, i just think that when it comes to having a central one to focus on, it'll likely be redania.)

(also just to add: i think radovid being aged up old enough to be king likely has to do with philippa, too, and her storyline — or lack thereof. because yennefer has largely taken her role in the lodge, so she kind of needs another storyline to focus on. at least initially, anyway, as i suspect yennefer will eventually leave the lodge to go to skellige and try to find ciri. but in the meantime, philippa still needs a plot and puppeting king radovid makes sense given everything that happened last season.)

but just to bring it back around to the radskier of it all... i think these reasons are why it does make sense that the show would make them love interests. jaskier is already connected to redania by virtue of being the sandpiper, so they have completely feasible reasons to know of each other, meet each other, and fall for each other — and all without taking up time introducing someone that would never have the same political impact and ramifications to the plot that radovid does by being older. (which i do still largely think was the point of aging him up.)

and then there's how their relationship will affect everything in the future — and we know per lauren that their relationship is going to have ripple effects in the future. i know there's been some speculation that losing jaskier on top of everything else will turn radovid ~evil, but i think that's speculation largely based off of the games — which the show has nothing to do with. i think what will happen is actually the opposite and that radovid will try and do his best to remain a good person and a good king — which imo also makes the most narrative sense, too, given that the place we last left off with them was radovid basically vowing to jaskier that he would prove himself to him. he can't exactly do that in person anymore, but he can still try to prove himself to jaskier even if he’s not with him.

plus i still think that the show hasn't based radovid solely off the stern, either, and that he'll end up being more of an amalgamation of all of the king radovids throughout redania's history. and as far as i know, no one on the show has ever confirmed which radovid he's supposed to be based off of and the only thing we do know is that lauren said he's a character that "continues to show up in the books." but that's a description that fits the stern, the bold, and the great. so i think it's entirely possible that through having met jaskier and falling for him, radovid will end up as the great rather than the stern. (also something something radovid, like the bold, going to kovir.)

and just as far as jaskier's side of things go... obviously there's speculation about radovid being jaskier's anna henrietta. which imo does have merit given radovid's status in society and how what we saw of their relationship in s3 fits the picture (and even the timeline, if only vaguely) of jaskier and anna henrietta's romance prior to the books. i don't know how the logistics of it would work exactly, but i think it's completely possible that when jaskier and geralt (+hansa) separate that jaskier somehow stays with radovid. because jaskier really does need to be put on a busTM to escape the fate of the rest of the hansa, and radovid fulfils the same role of jaskier's love interest that anna henrietta did.

and just for one last thing. but it includes season 4 spoilers. like, for real writer's room spoilers. so, y'know, beware of the following if you're trying to avoid those.

imo the leak that happened already kind of proves at least some of my speculation and theories, specifically about radovid and redania being used as a central pov for the north. because they say radovid will lead the troops out into battle when geralt and jaskier escape the northern army camp. but in the books, the forces at the northern army camp were from cintra and temeria. but in the show, the only forces we know for sure are there are from redania as radovid is the one leading them. so either redania has replaced both forces (i don’t see this as likely as the show could’ve just said ‘redanian army camp’ if it were only them, but it’s referred to as ‘the northern army camp’ which implies multiple northern forces), they're there in addition to both forces, or they've replaced one of the forces — likely temeria. either way, it probably means that radovid will either be there as a daniel etcheverry replacement or a vissegerd replacement.

[marvel-starwarsfangirl]

The Endless Cycle: In Defense of the "Filler" Episodes in "The Bad Batch"

I'm up to the the half way point of season 2 of the Bad Batch and there's something I've noticed about the filler episodes: there's actually a point them. The Batch doesn't simply "do." Whether immediate or later down the line, the "filler" episodes do have a point even if we an all agree they're not the best. I remember first watching and being like, "where's the plot" and "when can we get back to Crosshair?" And I'll admit, I did prefer the episodes where there was something more impactful happening. However, the more filler-y episodes weren't pointless either. The biggest difference between season 1 "filler" and season 2 is that season 1 sets up arcs and other characters while season 2 "filler" has more emphasis on the Batch themselves. The "filler" episodes make up what I call the survival arc in which the Batch must learn how to make a living for themselves.

Season 1

Ep. 4 "Cornered"- this is the episode where we meet Fennec Shand. Fennec is a part of the bounty hunter arc. Although there doesn't seem like much happening other than Omega getting chased, this episode sets up future conflict. The Batch now has to keep Omega safe from bounty hunters who are after her.

Ep. 5 "Rampage"- like the previous episode, this episode serves as a means to progress the bounty hunter arc. It is also the first time we see the boys work for Cid. Although it seems like a pointless episode, there is a point. The Batch go on a mission and in turn, Cid gives them the information on Fennec. Fennec was established in the previous episode as an antagonist.

Ep. 6 "Decommissioned"- in this episode, we learn about Rex's involvement in the show. Although the majority of the episode is just a mission for Cid, the end gives us a hint of what's to come. Rex is crucial for the Batch's understanding of the chip. This culminates in the events of episodes 7 and 8.

Ep. 13 "Infested"- this furthers the Batch's relationship with Cid. But other than that, this is the only episode I'd truly call filler.

Season 2

Ep. 4 "Faster"- Tech finally gets the spotlight. Not only do we see more of how clever he truly is, but Tech gets recognized and appreciated for it. It's a fun episode that lets us know Tech more. There is also an interesting contrast between Tech, a human who talks more like a droid at times, and TAY-0, a droid who talks more like a human. However, Tech is human and it's what makes him smarter than a droid at the end of the day.

Ep. 5 "Entombed"- another fun episode where we see more of Phee and her dynamic with the Batch. Two things I noticed: Omega tends to mimic others she finds cool or role models to her and how tired Hunter is. As my cousin pointed out, this episode solidifies the fact that the Batch is just going through the motions at this rate.

Ep. 6 "Tribe"- this episode is the foundation of what Pabu later solidifies: the Batch, Hunter in particular, being tired of constantly doing missions and wanting to find their own place to raise Omega. Gungi is separated from his home because of Order 66 so the Batch decide to help him. Through their interactions, Hunter pays attention to Omega and realizes that she deserves to be a kid, not a soldier.

These "filler" episodes take the Batch through an arc across the seasons. In the beginning, it was their means of survival. Not only could they use those missions as a way to get info, but it was a means to get money for food and repairs. In season 1, they were so eager to do what they could in order earn their keep. But as the Empire's grip began to tighten around them, that attitude slowly began to change. We see it in the form of Hunter's tiredness and frustration. By season 2, it feels like the boys and Omega are just going through the motions: need to live, go on mission, get money, rinse and repeat. This is no life for Omega and Hunter realizes that. While life as mercenaries might fit some like Cad Bane or Fennec, it clearly doesn't suit the Batch longterm. They want something more. Echo in particular realized that this was not the life for him or this brothers.

Echo as a character is very interesting even if he unfortunately doesn't get much to do. In the Clone Wars, he was part of Domino Squad who were sort of a Bad Batch themselves. Following orders as a cadet was Echo's thing; it was what earned him his name. However, there is more to Echo than just being a rule follower. Echo is very loyal and sticks to his beliefs firmly. He's kinda like Cross in that aspect. After losing Domino Squad, he only had Fives left. Fives, similarly, is someone who has a set of values that he sticks to without fault. I think they both inspired one another to be honest. Echo is then lost at the Citadel and turned into a cyborg. Fortunately, he is rescued by Rex, Anakin, and the Batch. Despite his suffering, Echo never lost his fighting spirit. I firmly believe that Echo feels indebted as a result of his rescue and second chance. He sees the Batch as a chance for a new life and to help others the way they helped him. When he chooses to off with Rex, it is to further his goal of helping others. Whenever Echo talks to Hunter, it's usually about what the Batch could be doing. Echo has a very solid set of moral values. He longs to give others a second chance at a better life. He was given that chance and he won't waste it. This is why I think he leaves in the second season. The Batch have been stuck in an endless of cycle of mission-payment. There's no greater good being fulfilled, only survival. Echo is tired of sitting around and doing nothing; he needs to find his own path. He's getting worn out. So, when Rex comes along and asks for Echo and the Batch's help, Echo makes a choice to fulfill what he needs to do. He's going to give others a second chance make a difference.

Then there's Hunter. Hunter spends the first half of season 2 in what I call "tired dad mode." Like the rest, this man is going through the motions and it's slowly eating at him. Was this the life he or his brothers were promised? No. Hunter is supposed to be the leader and look where the Batch is now. And then there's Omega. Hunter imprinted on her. That's his kid, the reason he wakes up each morning, and you can't argue otherwise. No one is going to get between them without a fight. But Hunter knows too well that war and a life as a mercenary isn't what Omega needs. She needs somewhere safe to grow up and be a kid. The clones never had a choice, but now, they do. The episode "Tribe," is a foreshadow to Pabu in my opinion. The Batch get a small taste of domesticity and they like it. More importantly, Hunter likes it. He realizes this is exactly what Omega needs.

In contrast to Hunter's tiredness is Omega. While the filler episodes show us just how the rest of the Batch is tired of this endless cycle, it has the opposite affect on our girl. Omega has never been outside Tipoca City until the Batch rescued her and adopted her. The filler episodes, which see the Batch on various adventures, let Omega explore worlds and things she's never seen before. Her wonderment always amazes me. It emphasizes her role as the heart of the Batch even more. The filler also lets Omega learn lessons about life and teach others as well. Twice, she convinces her brothers to help Cid because Cid helped them. Omega's personality is a complete 180 from the Batch but that's not a bad thing. She gives her brothers a new perspective just as they give her one. However, there needs to be a balance in life. Omega is still learning and growing. She may love all the crazy adventures and what they might teach her, but that also brings the inherent risk of danger. She needs to be allowed to be a kid. This is why Pabu and the events of "Tribe" are so important to Omega's growth. She may prefer adventure, but knowing life without worrying about one's survival is equally crucial. Omega still has a lot to learn, but her spunky energy and love for life will take her far.

With Wrecker and Tech, it's a bit different since they both kinda just float along with the rest of the group. They both are tired of the same old but don't have strong reservations the way Hunter or Echo do. Wrecker at the end of the day just wants to live happily with his family and blow things up. The missions give him fun things to do; there's never a boring moment when things go awry. Wrecker is more a less a child. But he knows when something is serious and can handle it with maturity. Where Crosshair struggles to open up and keeps his feelings buried, Wrecker is an open book. His "go with the flow" attitude is similar to Omega and makes missions more bearable. Tech, on the other hand, is more irritable. Being the logical one, he understands why the Batch continues doing what they do. However, his tone of voice and casual quips reveal that he too is done with everything. He needs to break out of the cycle. This isn't working anymore. Tech is someone who always goes for what's most strategic and to quote Mori from Bungou Stray Dogs, "the optimal solution." Need more speed? Just drop the weapons. Gonna go racing? Study the track beforehand. Even in season 1, he does what's needed to be done in order to continue surviving. He doesn't visibly show that he is tired; he does it through his words. Tech and Wrecker seek to continue on living and keeping their family safe. They don't feel the need to do more like Echo or have to lead like Hunter. That's the difference. Because Tech and Wrecker don't carry a heavy burden the way Echo and Hunter do, they drift along and it's gradually getting to them.

To summarize after such a long post:

The filler episodes drive the plot along by introducing certain ideas and characters. However, they also represent the endless loop of going through the motions. Mercenaries isn't the life the Batch should be living but are stuck in because they have no choice. Echo longs for more, Hunter is tired, Omega enjoys them for the adventure they bring her, and Tech and Wrecker go along with it because what else can they do?

That's my analysis on the Batch and filler episodes. I'm sure I'll have more to say, specifically Tech and Crosshair related in the future. Anyways, take care.

[lovecanbesostrange]

ouattober2023 Day 7: Fav Side Chara

Mulan (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

I think Once Upon A Time has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to great characters everywhere. I may not be a fan of a lot of the way romances got handled, and I have opinions about the untapped potential left and right, but the characters we got to witness are pretty amazing. That's why even when I didn't care about the larger plot, I always had fun with this show. So many cool characters. But making me pick one who left an impact on me with not much screentime (well, at least I have 12 eps) and had me screaming for more - it's Mulan. Of course she does have the advantage of having one of the best animated Disney Princess movies.

Although that's a funny thing here. Where known fairytales got a little twist here and there, Mulan's backstory isn't really touched upon. She wears her armor, is a well-trained soldier/warrior and now travels a lot. It's like "we know you know the movie, let's get on". The one re-occuring thing we get is this fabulous moment when she takes off her helmet and people go "omg you're a girl" and she gets to correct them "woman". A+ Being viewed as a dude and if not getting underestimated is her thing.

An outstanding moment I love about Mulan? In 2x06 Tallahassee Emma tells her to cut down the beanstalk should she not be back within ten hours and also to do everything to get Snow back home to Storybrooke. It's the classic situation doing something dangerous while the clock is ticking. And usually a hero will be like "five more minutes", everything is very close. But we need moments of real tension to undercut the usual. And Mulan is so perfect for this. Because she will honor this agreement to the letter. She is one to ask to follow difficult orders. Snow actually does tackle her to the ground and yes, Emma arrives a few minutes late, then all is fine. But this is the cornerstone of Mulan as a character - give her a task, she will do it, with everything she has. It could even be something detriment to her own happiness or well-being. A character trait that can be a strength and a flaw at the same time. The range! We could have seen this later on if Mulan had stayed. She could have been a person to side with "the reasonable option" against the group of hope-loving heroes even.

That doesn't mean Mulan is uncaring. We got to witness how she fell in love with Aurora, we know she has a soft side. Sure, she protected Aurora, because she promised Philip to take care of her, but that situation became very personal. And omg that scene when Mulan gives Aurora her heart back... has any heart been placed back with such care? Such a sensual scene!

It's soul-crushing they kinda did this to Mulan twice. Robbing her of finding love, watching on as somebody under a Sleeping Curse gets True Love's Kiss, never experiencing that magic herself. But apart from that, when she gets her heart crushed (only figuratevily) in 3x03 Quite a Common Fairy and announces she'd join Robin Hood's band - I did hope she would. She could have been an excellent addition. Especially since the Merry Men could have used more to do (just like the dwarves). That would have been such a fun mix and overall a great way to eventually get Mulan to Storybrooke. That ep did make it clear that Robin would have a bigger role, attaching Mulan to him seemed logical.

I also like that Mulan's first instinct is to not trust people. She sees Neal, she recognized the style of clothing and she is suspicious (great contrast to Aurora's reaction). But Neal wins her over and boom, once Mulan is in your side, you can relax. Such a good partner for whatever errand you have to run. Which is why it makes sense that when Ruby asks if Mulan wants to join her on a search for werewolves, Mulan says yes. (Not like she has anything better to do.) Mulan craves a purpose. Imagine somebody would have introduced her to colorful textmarkers and color-coded itineraries. Belle showed her how useful information out of a book can be, they could have solved more situations together.

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Magical Healing in Triangle Strategy

I'm currently working on a fic, and I wanted to have some clearer rules to play by as I try to make sense of Triangle Strategy's in-world healing system. I mostly made this for myself haha, but thought I'd share in case it's helpful for anyone else!

It's mostly just a breakdown of canon moments and potential implications, along with a more cohesive potential set of rules at the very end. Quick warning for spoilers: I discuss a lot of main plot points.

Canon Fact #1: Symon's heart-related condition couldn't be cured with magic.

This might imply an inability to fix some of the following:

any physical irregularity that the body naturally develops (e.g. a deformity in the structure of the heart) 

long-term injuries (e.g. gradual wear on the heart due to stress)

internal injuries

natural non-traumatic health issues in general

Canon Fact #2: Lyla is said to be in critical condition and then to be in stable condition relatively soon afterward. 

This supports that healing can have an impact pretty quickly. The two above screenshots are more than likely the same day, and seem to be around the same time of day as well. However, we don't know exactly how much Lyla improved (are her wounds completely healed? still pretty severe?), so it's hard to say exactly how fast the healing is going.

While it's unclear what specifically Jerrom is doing, we do know that he's not a magical healer. This indicates that magic healing isn't the end-all-be-all as far as healing goes.

(Though both of those points could also theoretically be handwaved away by assuming they were short on healers post-battle, and therefore couldn't heal Lyla as efficiently as they might like.)

Canon Fact #3: During in-game battles, members of your party are cured via magic and immediately continue to battle.

This includes injuries related to blades, arrows, fires, ice, lightning, wind, and blunt trauma; it seems like there isn't much that healing can't fix.

That said, temporary status effects (including poison, paralysis, immobility, and blindness), are a different story. There are non-healing spells that remove status effects as well, such as Geela's "Heal What Ails You," but they're uncommon. This might support the idea that these are two entirely different fields of healing and/or that they can't be done at the same time.

Healing appears to be more or less instantaneous, and after a unit is healed, they can continue battling on as if they had never been injured to begin with.

For a more specific time estimate: assuming that the turn system is supposed to reflect an actual battle with everyone moving and doing things all at once, we can say that a healer takes about as long to cast a healing spell as it does for a combat unit to make an attack on an enemy soldier (however long you think that takes).

There are also a variety of different costs to healing. In most cases, healing expends the healer's energy (i.e. TP), but in some cases it uses the healer's own health instead (like Cordelia's "Self Sacrifice").

We also have healing/status recovery pellets to consider. During a battle, they allow non-mages to heal themselves and others just as a mage would. Additionally, Medina has abilities to enhance the efficacy of those pellets, which could potentially mean there are methods of administering them that make them more powerful.

Canon Fact #4a: Dragan dies despite a healer being in the same vicinity. Cordelia, however, survives under similar circumstances.

Dragan seems to be killed by an arrow to the back, and no one even attempts to heal him after he falls, despite ample time to do so—he gives an entire monologue before officially dying. Conversely, when Cordelia is stabbed, a healer is called for and she survives. Some main differences between Cordelia and Dragan's injuries include:

The placement of the wound—Dragan might have been hit somewhere that resulted in a near-immediate fatality such as the heart, whereas Cordelia might have been injured in such a way that allowed her more time to be patched together

Roland might have held back upon realizing that Cordelia was the one taking the blow, vs. the archer who was definitely aiming to kill

Cordelia is a healer herself, and might have been able to aid in her own recovery

On a related note, Dragan was caught in an ambush (and might not have had access to any healer but Geela) vs. Cordelia's case, where they were in the middle of a war and likely had access to several healers and/or surgeons. Lyla, for instance, canonically helps out after Cordelia is stabbed on the boat.

General demographic stuff (Cordelia is likely several years younger than Dragan, and possibly has a history of better health since Glenbrook has historically had more access to salt)

They just liked Cordelia more?????

Canon Fact #4b: Additionally, Cordelia is weak and/or bedridden for at least a few days after her injuries (though due to route-splitting mechanics, she's weak even if she isn't injured, so this could potentially be disregarded as her being exhausted by her captivity, unrelated to her injuries).

This implies that healing can't be done all at once, and gives a better timeline for how long it takes for serious wounds to heal (at least a few days) even with the best of care. The above screenshots are in chronological order for reference.

Canon Fact #5: Healing can resurrect.

Healing can bring people back from death, with some caveats.

Magical resurrection is only shown to occur at the exact moment of death, and only if the spell is cast preemptively. Someone who is already dead cannot be revived outside of Quietus spells.

Resurrection earrings only work once per round, which might be interpreted as them needing time to recharge between uses (or possibly means that a mage has to recharge them). Likewise, Miraculous Light wipes out most of Geela's magic reserves, making it difficult for her to cast it many times in succession.

Since most normal spells only activate at the point of death, this also has some Ajin-like implications (i.e., that characters with the ability to resurrect might purposefully die in order to heal themselves of a non-lethal wound).

In canon, due to the mechanics surrounding it, Quietus can probably be tossed somewhere in the realm of dark magic and/or acts of god. (The word "quietus" is associated with finality, death, etc., which might support the "dark magic" point.)

 

Canon Fact #6: Healing is primarily done with a staff, while elemental magic is done with tomes.

The only exception to this that I noticed is Narve, who uses a staff for both healing and elemental magic.

Because of the consistency of healers having staves, it can be assumed that a staff is either required for healing or otherwise greatly improves efficacy. 

Theories

Taking all of that into consideration, there's a lot of different ways you can interpret what exactly is going on. I have two main theories that I play with while writing fic.

Theory #1: Healing as a time distortion

The linking factor between most of these is that magical healing can only heal what non-magical healing can also theoretically heal. Magical healing, then, might just be a speeding up of the body's natural ability to heal (even potentially an actual time spell that speeds things up, which is supported by Geela's "Haste" spell and Quahaug and Lyla's skillset in general). 

If this is the case, some potential limitations of magic would be:

It can't heal anything that the body itself won't put to right given time, so it can't cure terminal or chronic illnesses, nor save someone from lethal poison unless an antidote is also taken.

Likewise, it can't heal any wound that would kill someone faster than they could heal (e.g. possibly Dragan's wound).

It likely still requires an amount of non-magical healing techniques (Cordelia and Lyla might have required some sort of physical surgery to repair the damage they sustained). If a healing is performed without arranging things first and then the healing process was sped up, it would theoretically heal incorrectly and cause more harm than good.

It would still leave scars and leave the healed character in need of physical therapy when applicable. 

Larger, more serious wounds that would take weeks to heal will take a proportionally long time for magic to fix (at least a few days as shown by Cordelia's bedrest).

Infections and other complications could be an increased danger, assuming that everything is sped up including the growth rate of bacteria. Additionally, if it is a true time spell, then over time excessive amounts of healing would result in an unnatural, sped-up aging process.

Healing pellets/status recovery pellets essentially act as an already-cast spell sealed into a small capsule for use by non-mages, and would have the same effect as the spell that was sealed inside them. Panacea pellets are a little weird because no healer in the game is that powerful, but I guess you can assume there's some healing savant out in the woods somewhere who can make them (and then goes on to sell them for an exorbitant price).

Resurrection magic and earrings are just weird. For the sake of adding some sort of balance to these from a Watsonian perspective, you can always throw in sort of long-term drawback. I like to play around with the idea that resurrections shorten the lifespan/otherwise cost the user something with each use.

Theory #2: Healing as a temporary fix

For plot device reasons, I sometimes want the characters in my fics to be stuck on the sidelines for a few weeks/months at a time. So instead of speeding up healing, I go the opposite route and freeze the healing process altogether.

This theory revolves around these points:

Healing magic can't actually make the body heal, but it can put things back in place such that it heals properly. For example, it wouldn't be able to heal broken bones, but it could temporarily seal them into the right place such that someone could continue to fight in-battle. Same thing with bleeding wounds: it could temporarily stop the bleeding, but it wouldn't actually fix the issue. After the battle ends, both injuries would still need additional medical attention, and would take a normal amount of time to heal.

I usually imagine this requiring about as much attention/expertise as a surgeon would have.

Healing pellets are the same as in the first theory, as are resurrection magic + earrings.

This theory sort of has to work around status effects, since those aren't necessarily fixed by physical surgery-type techniques. For me, I assume that status effects such as poison and paralysis are magical conditions in their own right, and can therefore be negated by magic like Geela's spell (and normal, non-magical poison and paralysis can't be fixed by magic whatsoever). These magical status effects would eventually wear off when the spell runs out of juice, though if left untreated these effects could potentially be lethal.

Related to that, this theory gets complicated with things like burns or frostbite from elemental spells, since those types of wounds can't necessarily be healed by just moving things around. I could argue that a healer could manipulate the tissue on a cellular level, but that gets pretty overpowered the further I push it. (If they can heal damaged tissue from a burn, why can't they manipulate the tissue in Symon's heart as well? Going even further, why couldn't a healer manipulate their own flesh to the point of shapeshifting?) I usually sort of end up leaning on the first theory a little bit and say that it's easier to heal things that the body is biologically built to heal.

In the end, I usually end up using a blend of these two theories, and then pick and choose what I use in any given situation based on what plot device I need (which seems to be what the tri strat writers did as well haha). But it's nice to have some basic rules in place so I can plan around them.

[freuleinanna]

So, I've finished The Quarry, right? I've played it 3 times trying different things but there's stuff I gotta say, and I'm afraid it's really bad

The game is VISUALLY AMAZING, ENDEARING... and EMPTY AS FUCK. Here's what I mean.

1. The plot is easily recognizable from the start, werewolves and shit, and that's not necessarily bad. But it doesn't play on any emotions, okay? Do you FUCKING remember what Until Dawn did to us and to Chris?? Chris who had to not once, but TWICE, decide who lives and who dies????? THAT WAS FUCKING TRAUMATIC GUYS AND IT MADE US INSANE. We had no idea how this was gonna end and what these choices truly meant, and we were scared, with blood on our hands, and completely baffled by the truth.

The Quarry doesn't offer ANY relevant or hard choices, all of them are fucking obvious. Didn't shoot were!Nick? Too naive, too bad, the whole thing was screaming SHOOT HIS WEREWOLF ASS

2. The relationships between the characters had exactly zero impact. YES I KNOW the relationship scales were removed completely, which kinda sucked, but like even major stuff? Again, in Until Dawn, if Chris shoots Ashley, she fucking locks him out of the house, leaving him to die. The Quarry?? You can do whatever the fuck you want, no one is gonna remember the good stuff or the bad stuff.

3. The QTEs are a wet disgrace. The game has literally been dumbed down, you only have to move the stick and press one button occasionally. There's no fight, there's no OH MY GOD I WAS GETTING THE WHOLE SEQUENCE RIGHT BUT PRESSED THE WRONG BUTTON AT THE LAST MOMENT AND SOMEONE FUCKING DIED IMMA GO KILL MYSELF!! No flavor in playing, you get me? Nothing is ever at stake, you have to leave the damn room to miss or screw up the qte.

4. The characters don't grow.

Hard exception: Laura, my beloved werewolf warrior, who started as a usual gal and ended up being a fucking soldier. Also, her relationship with Travis, that's really well done.

The group dynamics never change and it just gets... boring. Again, Until Dawn gave us Mike the Jock who turned out to be the gold-hearted hero, Josh the Quiet Guy aka the full-on psycho, Matt and Emily who were the Unlikely Couple but ended up stronger together than ever, Josh/Chris bromance-turned-anger, and MANY MORE. The Quarry gave us, er... a never developed Dylan/Ryan/Kaitlyn love triangle, and that's probably it? Plus, everyone sort of decides that Ryan might be into Laura - because he went with her to find Chris (which wasn't a choice as far as I know??). Wtf?? Jacob/Emma thing is never addressed either, although I know there can be a scene where they talk in the woods. Not sure what this leads up to though. The rest of the gang just sort of hangs out together, but never truly connects (exception: Kaitlyn/Dylan bromance), there are no conflicts and no affections flying about.

5. The ending was..... anti-climatic, to say the least. I'm not even spending characters on this one, it's just really, truly bad.

Verdict: I'd say, Until Dawn keeps the gold and House of Ashes gets silver, with The Quarry getting bronze. Yes, even HoA had a better, more emotional involvement. I get it if you hated the alien part, I do. Even so. But I was really, honestly still over the top excited for The Quarry, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's not a bad game, it just lacks the grit behind all the cool visuals and 168 endings. But it was fun nonetheless!

[skaruresonic]

Can you explain why you feel Blaze is overrated? (Just curious)

Part of it is personal bias. I feel Shade works better for this particular character archetype of "serious, reticent female character who learns to open up to people" because it makes more thematic sense given the context, considering she's a soldier who was abandoned by her traitorous lord to the mercy of her enemies. For her, opening up is a matter of survival. She has no choice but to work together with Sonic, which is especially poignant considering Sonic can refuse. For Blaze, the personal stakes of failing to overcome her foibles should arguably be just as high, since the two dimensions will be destroyed if they merge, but it doesn't... really feel like it, the way it was written. Blaze is a princess and the guardian of the Sol Emeralds. We get a lot on the latter, but nearly nothing on the former. How does being a princess shape her behavior? Does she not relate to common people? Did her parents - does she have parents? - keep her so mired in matters of state that she never grew up learning how to make friends? Why is she this awkward? The guardian thing can only go so far as an explanation imo.

In addition, there are various aspects of Blaze's character which feel informed at best, or not fully realized. I've described her as a grab-bag of traits before because it really does feel like there's not a whole lot of overarching cohesion to her character. She tends to be whatever the plot needs her to be, and this is reflected most saliently in the differences between her role in '06 and the Rush games. In the Rush games, she has a pretty active role, but she may as well be a backpack Silver lugs around for much of '06. Her fear of heights is an incidental quirk mentioned maybe once or twice in Rush. It doesn't impact her gameplay in the slightest, as she pulls off aerial maneuvers with the same degree of aplomb as Sonic. Perhaps I'd buy her phobia more if the gameplay reflected it, like if her mode was Hard Mode and it was more difficult to fill her Trick Gauge or something along those lines. As it stands, it's more or less an informed trait. Her poor cooking skills and her physical insecurities regarding her small ta-tas, while amusing, don't really tell me much about her character other than she's clumsy, which isn't exactly an uncommon trait. But then you get to thinking about it, and you start to wonder, what's the context behind this? Amy doesn't just read tarot cards simply because it's a Girl Thing in Japan; she uses them to tell her where Sonic will be. Conversely, why is Blaze insecure about the size of her breasts? Is she insecure that she won't grow up into a mature queen or something? And why is that fear manifested via an insecurity about her breasts of all things? Likewise, why is her being a bad cook a common anime comedy trope all that important when she's a princess and can just have her staff cook for her? She does have staff, right? So why does it matter? It's just there to make her seem adorkable and not really anything that reveals a new aspect to her character.

In Rush Adventure, she's suddenly able to tell Tails in detail which materials he needs to build a radio tower, despite not having displayed any particular aptitude for mechanics before. And Tails is wowed by this. The abruptness of such a trait makes me feel less impressed and more like, "Ehhhh, you're kinda being Mary-Suish right now, Blaze."

By contrast, even though the game more or less turns her into an exposition fairy, it makes sense that Shade can tell you about the various races of the Twilight Cage since she's languished there for 4,000 years. It makes sense that she's familiar with the technology of her own people. We have the proper context necessary to understand her knowledge and where it comes from. But it wouldn't make as much sense if she suddenly began telling Tails how to build his machines. You know what I mean? Until Trip and Amy in Superstars, Blaze held the distinction of being the only female games character to receive a Super form for quite some time. While it's cool to see the notion of "only male hedgehogs can go Super" be proven false, it also kind of makes her seem special-snowflake-y in that regard. It gives people like Flynn grounds to single her out as the only "legitimate" female badass in the cast since she has Big Boy Powers (a... chain of thought loaded with unfortunate implications), as if badass normals like Cream and Rouge are rendered invalid by comparison.

[mattzerella-sticks]

Holy fucking shit the character work in this episode???? Butcher ? Hughie? Butcher and Hughie? Kimiko? Kimiko and Frenchie? Solider boy??? Black noir???? Just phenomenal all around. I fucking love this show. We have an episode with an orgy and a huge fight scene and humor (while still doing character development) and then we have a longer episode that's almost wall to wall character study and motivations and parallels. They are doing so so well. I'm in awe.

The character work was fantastic - this was exactly the breath of air needed after Herogasm and it was threaded so well.

Butcher, Kimiko, and Black Noir were the STARS of tonight's episode in terms of the emotional weight.

Soldier Boy and Homelander carried the weight of the plot and is driving this whole thing forward, I mean - we're gonna get Soldier Boy versus Billy, Homelander versus Hughie (and Annie) at wherever that address leads them (which might be Ryan's new location). Also, to comment on something I said earlier back when I wasn't aware of the father-son connection of Soldier Boy-Homelander, I have now changed my stance on Mallory's safety for this season.

I can see her dying because, in this case, it's Soldier Boy killing her so Homelander can have his son. Before, when it was mentioned, I didn't see death in her future because Soldier Boy had no reason to go after her because she wasn't part of the betrayal. However, if we are tying up all the loose ends and setting up the next season so that Billy becomes Ryan's caretaker (which this episode did a great job of showing us the kind of person Billy wants to be, on the inside, that he has trouble expressing on the outside), Mallory being taken off the board would mean there's no one BUT Billy to take care of Ryan (especially since they can't trust the government because of Victoria).

Which, since I'm thinking of Victoria - if anyone else thinks her end of the bargain by giving up Ryan's location is for Homelander to kill off her competition so she can be Singer's VP pick raise your hand.

But back to the rest of the characters you mentioned, Annie and Hughie had small moments that were really impactful and got back to the heart of who they were that got lost throughout the season. Hughie doesn't want to be this kind of tough guy, to leave anyone behind like he was. Annie wants to protect those she loves (like Kimiko in a way) and is going to save Hughie despite having every good and goddamn reason to not lol.

Episode 8 is going to be wild and I would love to see Black Noir join the Boys, especially after freeing Queen Maeve.

[low-budget-korra]

Comments on The Boys season 3

I should be able to do a comment for each episode but I just couldn't stop watching so here it's my thoughts on the characters this season and a few other things.

Before I start I just wanna say how much I like the fact that The Boys characters are complex and just feel real for the most part.

Butcher

He is a asshole since his first appearance, so watching him go even worse because of the V wasn't that surprising but watching him become that asshole in episode seven, hits different. We already knew what happened but watching it happening and the impact of Butcher realizing he basically became his father, that's heavy.

Hughie

I dislike him for like 90% of the season. What's the problem with Annie being the powerful one? He was insecure about this girlfriend power and influence. That's a red flag.

And just to compare. Frenchie never felt like that with Kimiko, he always wanted to protect her but he never go that far, and never had a problem with her saving his ass.

At least at the end he seemed happy seeing Annie all powerfull against Soldier Boy

Homelander

What I can say about Homelander? What a terrifying, crazy, deep and charismatic villain. It's so non fair that Anthony Starr didn't receive a nomination for his role this season.

That last scene was scary because we know damn well that, bring to our world, if some politician or celebs blows someone's head like that in front of his crow, he would be praise like that.

Frenchie and Kimiko

Their arc was more distant e from the main plot of the season but I really like because it actually develop both of their characters. By the end we saw Frenchie standing up against Butcher and Kimiko accepting her powers. And they are the sweetest, the care and mutual respect they have for each other are goals

Soldier Boy

I def wasn't expecting him to have the role he had. What a absolut asshole, he make Butcher look like the sweetest guy in the show.

One detail that I think adds a lot into his character is his PTSD, which means that he did felt all the experiments that the russians was doing on him which is awful. And in a way Homelander, his son, is a update of him because he is just as powerful but also can't feel pain (not that I remember at least)

Jensen Ackles did a amazing job. The guy spend 84years in Supernatural and not even for once I saw Dean Winchester in his Soldier Boy

MM and Annie

Those two, Frenchie and Kimiko are the nicest people in this show. Not much to say, both of them being the moral compass of the group.

Annie goes through hell this season, this "wherever it takes" bullshit always goes too far, I'm happy that she ended the season okay.

MM having his moment of justice and bring accepted by this daughter was so nice to see.

Honorable Mentions

- I didn't expect Noir to die.

-Newman is not a villain, she just wants to stay alive and keep her daughter safe. Just like most of the characters this season, she just wants to survive Homelander madness and evilness. Hope they don't murder her next season

-Poor Ryan. Butcher was a asshole with him, Homelander wasn't and now the kid has the worst role model by his side. Don't shit Ryan, what would you choose, a guy that blames you for the dead of your mother or the one that understand that was a accident?

Ryan siding with Homelander was Butcher's fault.

-I still in shock that The Boys give Maeve an (until now) happy ending with Elena. The fucking Boys. And the fact that she face Homelander as a equal match, what a queen

- A-Train and The Deep, two desperate for Homelander's attention even tho Homelander despise them. The only "win" moment for A-Train was when she murder that racist fuck.

-Im glad that Ashley did something human at the end, coving up for Maeve's death angle.

-Herogasm

[sytokun]

If you could indulge me in this little rewrite of Blake's V4-5 arc? What if after Beacon fell Ironwood sent Cordovin to occupy Menagerie to sus out any in-hidding WF, catalysing his paranoia for later volumes and depicting Cordo as an actual scary person. Ghira wants to keep the peace but Blake becomes restless as tensions between Atlas soldiers and the locals grow, and the arc accumulates with a more courageous Blake taking down Cordovin's mech with Sun and Ilia's help.

Tumblr's editor crashed just as I finished typing this and I am willing myself to write it all again from scratch, lmao. This site needs an auto recovery option.

Well this is an AU. I say AU and not rewrite because by definition, it's not following the same plot or the same rules as RWBY, and doesn't pretend to (which makes it even funnier when people complain about it being something it's not pretending to be). Calling it a rewrite implies a strict adherence to canon, which this doesn't have.

But still, I'll add the rewrite tag to this and other future posts simply because a lot of the kind of thing I'm writing overlaps with rewrites and their general philosophy when handling canon.

When you're writing something like this, you're basically asking a question and answering it. Each question shifts the story's divergence from canon by a degree, and when you start moving, the deviation will be enough that even if it travels in a straight line from there, it will never be the same as canon events.

For example, say I ask the question: "What if Team RWBY spent a longer time in Beacon?"

From this, I know that I have to delay the Fall of Beacon, or change its circumstances entirely. What would change about the Fall if Ruby was in her second, third or even last year at Beacon? Would Pyrrha still die if we spend more time exploring her as a character? Where would Cinder be during all this time?

By asking one simple question about RWBY's world, ten other smaller ones pop up that you need to answer, but then you find out those questions lead to entire character arcs, and creating timelines, and making sure the Kingdoms make sense, and now you're reconstructing an entire universe from scratch and hating yourself. /s

So back to your query. I can't answer this meaningfully because if it were up to me, I'd likely just… not have Cordovin at all. Or even Ghira for that matter. Let's look into why.

First, Cordovin. I have to ask myself first, "What does Cordovin contribute to RWBY's story?" Like really? We have to go backwards, from "How do I fit this character in" all the way back to "Do I even need this character?" What is Cordovin's actual role in the story? She's a minor villain - a comical, incompetent one at that - whose only purpose is to be a one-off obstacle in Team RWBY's airship-stealing plan. A plan that was already poorly conceived from the start when better, more sound plans existed but were unexplored by the plot.

So that's multiple strikes against Cordovin. Her impact on the story is low; she has no important relationships with any characters; and her existence is tied to a weak plot point which actually detracts from the story. If she adds little, then the story loses little from removing her, too. We know RWBY has a cast bloat problem, and if someone wants to earnestly solve that problem, that means they have to combine characters or even remove them entirely if the benefit they bring to the story far outweighs the effort to put them in.

The same principle applies to Ghira. This is part of a longer post I wish to write about Blake after this, but how important is Ghira, and by extension Kali, to RWBY's story? How much do they add or take away? Now, depending on your story and preferences, they would indeed be very important. But not to my story, at least not as they are now. And it's not exactly an easy decision to make either - it takes a lot of thought and deliberation, weighing multiple pros and cons against each other.

The fact that compared to Cordovin, Ghira and Kali are more well-liked in the fandom should, ideally, not affect your decision or desire to have a clean house to work from. Put yourself in CRWBY's shoes: when they made these characters, they aren't thinking about if fans will like them or not, they just put them in. I would say they were thinking about how these additional characters would benefit the story they're trying to write, but that implies... thought.

As they say, "Kill your darlings". Fans wouldn't be stuck with half the migraines and heartache writing fanfiction and cleaning after someone else's messy house if CRWBY exercised this for their own story.

[picturejasper20]

¨Steven Universe was important for Amphibia and The Owl House to exist but these shows did everything better than Steven Universe¨ is a bit of bizarre take for me, because, while it could be applied to some things, it doesn’t hold up much either? Amphibia had an important character being mind controlled an entire season after her true motivations were revealed and her arc was resolved in the last episodes because of that. The writers didn’t want to explore a certain character’s motivations through flashbacks/more detail because it ¨would excuse her actions¨. Those flashbacks and development who have helped making the character more interesting. The characters often lack a proper emotional reaction to tragic events, a thing that made the writing feel awkward. This last aspect can be justified since Disney have different restrictions than CN does.

In contrast, Steven Universe had entire episodes or even arcs dedicated to explore how the character reacted to important events or revelations. This was usually related to their characters arcs. (Then again different restrictions). The series didn’t have issues with showing the backstory of its characters because one could understand that their past didn’t justify them doing bad things. (Ex: Rose Quartz) There wasn’t any character that got mind controlled for an entire season. Maybe they lost their agency in other ways, often due to their own actions. (Jasper choosing to not get helped by Steven).

When talking about The Owl House it is a bit harder considering that series was cut out short by executives. What’s more, it doesn’t have the same flaws that Amphibia has. However, i don’t find The Owl House characters nearly as interesting as Steven Universe cast. I don’t mean it in the sense that they are bad written. It’s that they aren’t that flawed for me to be compelling enough. The side characters aren’t that deep to make them memorable. The Owl House first season is centered in Hexside School... which itself isn’t bad but it feels disconnected to the main plot in Season 2. I’m aware that this part of the networks fault, so i can give it a pass. Another issue i have with The Owl House is that i feel it doesn’t do much exploration on how the characters are impacted by their socialization. At times it feels reduced to ¨they are manipulated/tricked¨ and there isn’t more beyond that. And this is a bit of a letdown since a good chunk of the themes in TOH are about this. In Steven Universe, the social position of a gem defines a lot of their mentality and how they view themselves. It isn’t the same to be a quartz soldier than it is to be a peridot in Gem society. This leads to gems having different arcs depending of how they were raised.

I would agree that Amphibia and The Owl House did other things better than Steven Universe. Maybe better use of ¨filler¨ episodes, better pacing or more consistent animation. But everything? Nah, that isn’t accurate.

[rachelbethhines]

60 Years of Doctor Who Anniversary Marathon - Troughton 8th Review

The Wheel of Ice - Novel 

When the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are forced to land the TARDIS unexpectedly, they wind up stranded on a mining colony on an ice moon of Saturn during the early days of Earth’s space exploration. The little colony is little more than a slave camp run by the Bootstrap corporation and it’s melomaniac CEO. But while tensions start to rupture between the children of the colony and their oppressors, a new threat emerges. A much older threat. An ancient threat. And it wants to go home. 

Alright, let’s talk about what I liked about this story first. 

The world building is great, to start with. In fact it maybe the book’s biggest strength. The author not only lays out this futuristic colony and culture extremely well, but he also fills in the past leading up to it’s creation, giving you an idea of how everyone got there and why. 

The author also does a good job of providing little character moments to make you care about his original characters while also representing the regulars very well. I especially liked the conflict Zoe had to visiting her near past, where everything was familiar and yet wrong at the same time to her. The most successful of these new characters is MMAC the Scottish robot, who you wind up feeling for very deeply. 

Though this does lead to a minor problem. Some characters are introduced and then not given much of a resolution... like with First and his growing sentience or Harry trying to reconnect with his estrange kids after a divorce. These plot points are introduced and then either dropped or given a measly pay off. 

Worse is the villain's arc. The author tries to give her depth and and a tragic backstory, and it just doesn’t work because her past doesn’t logically connect back to her current goals. The Doctor says she’s just out for revenge, but revenge against whom exactly? No one aboard the colony has anything to do with what happened to her in her childhood, and her plan doesn’t stand to gain her anything against those she does blame for her woes. 

Which is a shame because I would have gladly accepted her as just a Elon Musk/Jeff Bezos stand in. She doesn’t actually need to be anything more than greedy and stupid. 

Which loops me back around to what I do enjoy about the conflict. The classism and socio-economic disparity between the uber rich and the exploited poor is a tale as old as time, but is sadly even more relevant today than when the book was publish only a decade ago. It’s a nice little allegory to real world problems, with interesting socio-political problems born from advance technology reshaping the world;  just as all good science fiction should be.     

At least the political conflict is interesting, the alien invasion stuff not so much. The Blue Dolls/Soldiers and the ancient being controlling them, are just a little too similar to Autons and the Nestene to really make an impact. And efforts to try and make them more unique, only fail in the end because of the lack of follow through. The idea that they might have minds of their own are dropped in favor of generic base under siege stuff. 

There’s also the weird pacing at times. Like the author builds up to something climatic only to cut away and claim it was resolved off screen. Then we get chapters of exposition instead. Or in the case of the runaways subplot, Jamie having to rescue a bunch of teenagers from their own stupidity over and over again. 

I mean there’s only so many times I can read about a dumb kid braking his ankle on a scooter for the umpteenth time, before I start to think that maybe the adults had a point in trying to ‘ground’ them, so to speak. 

Really the trip to Titan is such pointless filler in the end and is where the book starts to drag a bit. Which is a shame because it would have been the perfect time to give us some more world building/character development and it just doesn’t. It’s also when the more boring alien invasion stuff reaches it’s peak. 

Fortunately, once Jamie returns things start to pick back up again, as the book heads towards it’s finale.  

All this is to say, I really enjoyed the novel over all, despite its weaknesses. I think it’s a strong contender for the top five slot in the Second Doctor ranking I’ll do later, but it’s never going to beat the like of The Invasion.