#there's like 10+ chapters left...

[hqbaby]

Man i just want to have my beloved Atsumu😞 the new chapter tore up all my hope it has the underlying suna vibe 😭 I don’t want them to make up Fr I just wan atsumu🫶🏻 crying they all deserve a happy ending

i would suggest you stop reading after two more chapters ☺️

[sadibadimadi]

Some notw doodles of Kvothe, Ambrose (ew), and Denna. Made this in a magma with @stivya :]

[malenchka]

“If you’ll pardon the observation, you appear to be in your underthings.” “…Yes.”

I am once again asking you all to read Mortal Follies pls and thank you

[tricks-n-illusions]

Calamity@Lady Ombre: The florges approached the trio as she looked voer the small giratina "Greetings all mighty," she greeted her politley "I havent seen any gods or goddesses from my universe so im not sure how its suppose to be..." she thought out slightly before looking towards Silas "This prison...." she said lightly in thought patting her chin with hand "Why was he imprisoned? It has something to do with the young zorua...?" her gaze wondered to the collapsed zorua who still haven't moved "Right...?"

Silas's shouting had quickly melted into silence, I suppose this was a job for Calamity then! She happily approached Lady, ready to answer her question.

Her reply was interrupted as Calamity seemed to zone off in confusion, that couldn't be right. She didn't say he could use that. There were no spirits of Giratina around beside her. A look of horror began to bleed into her expression. There was only one person who could do that. Someone much more important than a lowly spirit, someone divine.

Reality quickly hit the spirit as she began to squirm in a panic, everything was going wrong and so quickly. "W-wait!! No! I-"

The fox raised his arm, bringing the spirit much higher. Though his face was covered it was clear he was upset, the tone of his voice was harsh and unforgiving. "I am not your Nym." "I gave you no permission to address me as such." He growled, "Call me that again, Next time I'm going to do more than just kill you. I don't want your stupid nicknames. We are not friends and we will never be friends. I don't want to be anyone's stupid fuckin' friend, Okay? So just, fuck off. Alright!" Instead of fighting Silas, Calamity quickly began to accept her fate, she was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it. As much as she wanted to live she didn't have the heart to fight back. Tears quickly began to fill her eyes and as she shook in terror.

The impact was rough, dust-filled but the results were clear. Silas gave a huff, he felt nothing towards that thing's death. No sadness, no guilt, he had no connection with it. Why would he care about the death of a thing that couldn't even feel true emotions or pain? Everything she did was just an act to earn trust, a facade to seem like she was real. Something to make him care about her. He wasn't going to fall for it.

The silence was eerie, all that could be heard was the occasional small sniffle from Silas as he stared off. It seemed the fox's thoughts were wandering again.

"I hope you didn't want to talk to that thing, I think you should have asked a little quicker. It's much too late now." His tone was mocking, and demeaning as he leaned towards the Florges.

"I've taken down much worse than a poor little lost ghost. Just ask anyone~ I'm sure they'll tell you how much I love killing small, little helpless ghosts like you. They always like to squirm and scream." "So, This is what's going to happen. You're going to turn around, you're going to walk away and then you're going to leave this place, alright? How does that sound, hm?" Though he phrased it as a question, it's clear it wasn't. This was a threat, but something in his tone wasn't quite right. Something was off… there was almost a slight tremble to his voice? It was quickly covered as the fox gave a soft hum, "Well, Unless you want to find out why I was stuck in that stupid little prison, and I both think we know you don't." "If not, I'm sure we can arrange otherwise." He grinned, even with his face covered it echoed in his voice. "We can see how quickly you can die if you'd like~" "Maybe you can beat the bug's record? But, I doubt that, you seem like a stubborn one having stuck around this long."

[ Ask from - @ask-noonescity ]

[bedlamsbard]

running through plot ideas for The Next Big Fic in a "well everyone ELSE did this ten years ago but I haven't done it yet" *shows up ten years late with Starbucks* kind of way

[drbtinglecannon]

Alright I'm a few episodes behind on Dungeon Meshi but I didn't realize the new unimaginably upbeat cutesy opening was implemented the episode Falin was kidnapped and turned into a chimera

Like. Damn that was an impactful time to change the opening

[dkettchen]

me, procrastinating on one project with another one: it's fine they're both for content I do this for the people and the people will receive SOMETHING sooner by me working on either one 😤

[juniperhillpatient]

Circular narratives with a twist my beloved 🥹🥹🥹♥️♥️♥️ Stories that end with a subversion of how they start 🫶🫶🫶

[moonfurthetemmie]

Untitled.MP4

Previous | Next | First (with warnings)

Part 15

June 29, 20XX.2

Mercury sits in front of the camera. His eyes are bloodshot. Most of the lights are out.

“Zuli…Zuli’s asleep.” Mercury rubs his face. He’s clearly exhausted. 

“He hasn’t really gotten better since he saw Jade this morning. Not that I can blame him…That sounds fucking horrific.”

He sighs, and stares off.

“I…Don’t have anything important to say, really. I just…I’ve been thinking about everyone. How they ended up here. Zuli’s been asleep for a while now, and I need someone to talk to, so…”

He looks up at the camera uncertainly.

“No one- except for Koroit, sort of, no one wanted to be here. No one. I got dragged here because Obsidian realized he’d need a doctor. Zuli was put in a cell for reasons unknown to me, but Jasper said he was put in there alone, and Obsidian usually does, like, batches of prisoners. I didn’t know there was anything unusual about it until he told me, when we were coming back from sealing the basement from the infection. He told me the only reason Zuli comes up as often as he does is because Jade found him down there, brought him up, and was banned from the dungeon but told Zuli could come up if he was good and ‘asked’. I don’t think Jade knew Zuli was still down there. I think Obsidian told him Zuli was let out for good.

“Jasper hasn’t talked about his story, but he’s been here longer than anyone, even Zircon. Zircon refused to join Obsidian on the first offer, and now his spouse is dead and Obsidian’s holding his daughter as blackmail- assuming he hasn’t actually killed her and was just saying she’s alive to keep Zircon compliant. He implied his home was destroyed, too.”

Mercury props his head up on the desk with his arm. His voice fills with emotion as he continues. 

“Koroit he found in the Anti-Void. She barely even remembered her name, but he told her she worked for him, and she’s been working pretty willingly ever since. I don’t know where she is from, but I’m sure he hadn’t known her before then. I don’t think he even fully trusts her, either.

“I don’t think Silver’s ever talked about how they got here, except maybe to Paraiba, but I remember when they first got here. They were so miserable and nihilistic. They weren’t even part of the team at first; I think Obsidian was just absorbing their negativity. They only became part of the team because Paraiba showed up, became friends with them, and taught them to fight so Obsidian wouldn’t kill them when he got tired of them. Now they stay alive as long as they’re useful and do as their told.”

“And Paraiba- despite how much she likes to talk, she doesn’t talk much about how she ended up here. I know her AU was different from most of the ones we’re familiar with. I’d call it a sort of…high-fantasy AU, based on what she’s said. I think Obsidian killed her friend–or maybe sibling? I’m not certain what exactly they were to her–and he brought her to the manor after she tried to fight him. If she doesn’t do as she’s told, he’ll kill her.”

His voice starts to shake.

“Jade was locked in his room for a very long time when he first got here. No one was allowed to interact with him except for Obsidian. Even Jasper was only allowed to bring him food, and nothing else. When he was finally let out, he…he didn’t seem to understand that he was being abused.”

Mercury takes a few deep breaths. He stares off for a moment, lost in thought.

“...God, I’m even starting to feel bad for Obsidian, in a weird way. I mean…I don’t think I’ve ever seen him happy. Not genuinely happy. He’s always angry or irritated or bored, and it’s…it’s just kind of sad. He’s doing all of this, causing all of this suffering, and it’s not even really making him happy most of the time. I don’t think he even realized it. And now he’s probably living one of his worst nightmares.”

He laughs dryly. 

“He deserves some of it. But it’s…This thing is starting to get to me, god. I can’t believe I feel bad for that bastard.”

He runs a hand through his hair. He’s starting to look even more tired than before.

“...I should probably go to bed. Sleep deprivation isn’t going to help us any.”

He reaches out his hand.

The video ends.

[kyouka-supremacy]

You brought up Naomi and that reminded me of the time Atsushi got kidnapped and while the others were like, debating whether or not to go save him, Naomi went to the president (which honestly is like telling your dad on your siblings) to tell him what was up KNOWING full well he’d prioritize Atsushi’s rescue

Right?? I adore that scene!! It's the one that keeps me from liking the character only out of spite to instead be able to say I genuinely like the character. That was such a badass move!! I'm really grateful to Naomi for being the only one able to symphatize with Atsushi in that moment. And using her position (?) to reach out to Fukuzawa, ahah, that was so cute!! I love her

[quinloki]

I don't forget what I wrote

but

I forget what I wrote.

And then I re-read it and it's like... damn.

[kaykoko]

I finally finished Dungeon Meshi!!! Very fun read and amazing charaters!! The hype i have for the anime now is unreal!

[karnalesbian]

Yowamushi Pedal Ch. 195:

The Man Who Fulfilled His Duty

[yzafre]

Trying to wrap my head around my thoughts re: 2012 and Rise, and how they hit my brain, and it’s like...

The things I think these two series are missing/needed to improve on are what the other series did really well?  Like, each show would be enhanced by borrowing from the other (an impossibility in one direction due to the linear nature of time, but you get me).

And now I'm going to post about it to hopefully trick my brain into thinking I talked to someone about it so that maybe it'll let me think about anything else.

Uhhh putting a read more because this is mostly just a brain-dump ramble to free my mind from the topic-loop and it got.  Long.

Okay, exposing my biases ahead of time: while I very much enjoyed both series, I will admit that Rise appeals more to my personal taste.  I do also like 2012!  I liked it a lot, it’s just that, you know, I’m easily drawn in by cool 2d animation and anime bullshit, and also Rise’s humor matches mine better, which means it's the one I’m more likely to re-watch.  However, that doesn't mean I think Rise is perfect.

Also, for the sake of this rant, we’re going to be ignoring the circumstances surrounding production.  Yes, yes, we all know the executives specifically asked for Rise to have a much lighter tone, and that it got cut really short, and that affected how things panned out – but I don’t know enough about 12’s production to compare them fairly on that front.  So.

MOVING ON FROM THAT.

Let’s start with ROTTMNT.  I love Rise, love a good shenanigan, but... can you really deny that it would have been nice to have a more even split between pure shenanigans and more serious episodes?  Even just getting closer to 50/50?

Don’t get me wrong, the shenanigans absolutely have their place and actually contribute to what I like about Rise’s writing (which I will talk about in the 12 section), but the overwhelming amount of them really messes with the pace of the show overall, and with the escalation of tension.

Obviously, you can’t have every episode have the spectacle of an episode like, say Many Unhappy Returns, I'm pretty sure animating that shit's expensive, and early on it’s not like they really know what they’re slowly being dragged into, but... post Shadow of Evil, you’d kind of like them to acknowledge the stakes more, right?  And even before the turtles themselves know, you’d like the slow build that only the audience is getting to be a bit more consistent, right?

You’d like the weaving together of the plot and character arcs episode-to-episode to just be a bit more well-thought out... wouldn’t you?

And that is what TMNT 12 is good at.

I personally think 12 peaked in season 2 (I was so engaged with that season, the buildup was phenomenal), but throughout the entire series it is obvious just how much effort they are putting into developing these interweaving plots, and it pays off.  Every episode is a self-contained story, true, but even from season 1 you can see how even the most one-off episode is putting at least one thing into the Rube Goldberg machine that’s going to go off at the end of the season.  It honestly impressed me how they balanced “you can watch any episode on its own because tv has re-runs" and “every episode leads into the next until everything blows up”.

The end of season 2, when the tension they've been ratcheting up inch by inch nearly every episode finally releases, and all the dominoes start falling and danger is coming from every direction? Mwah. Stellar. Like, devastating cliff-hanger of an ending, but also the satisfaction of seeing it all fall apart? It's gripping.

Also, they acknowledge the stakes.  12 is obviously going for a much more serious tone, and covers some heavier topics like revenge, obsession, healing, ect (in a kind of surface level way for young kids, yes, but this is a nickelodeon toy-selling series.  Genre and intended audience matters).  I may not always agree with the answers they come to, but they are trying!  As opposed to Rise where the enemies feel... kind of out-of-sight, out-of-mind, in 12 the Shredder, and occasionally the Kraang, are a constant threat that they are always aware of.

While the setup is different (12!Shredder wants them dead specifically, whereas the Rise boys don’t really know what the Shredder will want other than mass destruction when the armor is complete), you kind of feel like the danger could have maybe been a little more acknowledged in Rise.

And like... the move into season 2 had them getting the Shredder armor "contained", which they used to go so far backwards on stakes which is... I mean, there were other choices they could have made.

You can argue that many shows reset the stakes when you beat the season boss at the end, but... Rise specifically went straight back to "straight shenanigans with little awareness of the outside world", repeating the "occasionally things are happening to build up to the end outside the turtle's awareness" and it's. It's a pacing and escalation, issue, again. And yes, we got some of my favorite episodes out of season 2! Season 2 had some good episodes! But also... I would have liked the stakes to progress just a bit?

When you finally had such a huge shift in the plot, and then suddenly you go ALL the way back down the where you started in stakes and tone it can be a bit... jarring. It's a pacing and escalation issue, again.

Also, if we’re going a bit more abstract, Rise could have had more serious episodes relating to their main theme/focus.

2012 was obviously focusing on their plot, and specifically the history between Splinter and Shredder, and the concepts of revenge and obsession.  And it came up a lot!  It was threaded through the majority of the episodes.  I might not always personally agree with the conclusions they came to, but I can’t deny they treated it with gravitas.

Rise seemed to be focusing on family bonds and family baggage.  And it's woven into a lot of the silliness. And there are also some episodes that address it seriously!  And they’re GOOD!  But, uh – there could definitely have been more.  Especially for the Splinter-children relationships.

They went with a very risky play for Splinter and his arc, and while I personally liked the shape of it, I can understand the people who take a very negative interpretation of this Splinter because there were not enough episodes dealing with reconciling his relationship with his kids.  They made a point to show that things were strained, made the theme family bonding, and then... didn’t put in enough episodes to finish off their main theme.

Don’t get me wrong, what Rise does have for their characters is very, very good.  Again, I’ll be talking about it in the 2012 section.  It’s just... the pacing of it all.

So, what I think Rise needed is what 2012 excelled at – pacing and interweaving of the plot, proper escalation of stakes, and time spent highlighting their main theme in more serious episodes.

Now, the other half of the equation: 2012.

I mentioned earlier that 2012 was going for a more serious tone, and that it was focused on the plot.  And they did it well!  It paid off!  I just maybe, personally, think that came at the cost of the character writing.

It’s not that it’s bad.  They’ve got a strong sense of character voice for their main cast.  It’s just that when you go anywhere beyond that it’s really... average for a kid's cartoon, and when compared to the obvious effort they went to when weaving together the plot it sticks out.  Of course, authors are allowed to lean into plot-based narrative over character-based, and this might just be personal taste again, but...

I’m going to put in a reminder that everything in this rant is based on how the writing hit my brain specifically.  Different people will experience the same story differently, yes?  Yes.

That being said, the character writing for 2012 hit me weird.  There were “character episodes” in between the plot ones, yes, but they didn’t feel... connected?  If the pacing of the plot in Rise felt weird and disjointed, the character arcs, if I could find them in 12, felt the same way.  It’s like they would drop in a really interesting nugget for a character into a single episode, and I’d be excited to see where it went – and then it would either be shoved way in the background from there on out, or dropped completely.  It often left me feeling like I’d missed a step going down the stairs, when I expected them to start working on a character arc and they just went back to the status quo.  That’s not uncommon for a kids show, but... they put so much more effort into the intricacies of the plot!

What ended up feeling missing was a development of the characters from an internal perspective.  That is, hm.

I mentioned earlier that there were narrative benefits to the shenanigan structure of Rise.  The first half of this is because it lives and dies by its characters.  They can’t depend on an engaging plot to capture your interest long-term, because the plot is only in select episodes, so by god you better be attached to these characters.  While part of the humor is, yes, the situations they get into, the other part is the character dynamics – both the friction between them, but also the positive synergy between them.  That’s not to say 2012 doesn’t have character interactions – they've got their banter – it's just that it doesn’t have to carry the episode the way it does in Rise.

The other half of the narrative benefits is that more episodes can be motivated by the character’s internal desires, rather than external forces.  Stepping outside of TMNT to reference everyone’s favorite cartoon, Avatar, for every, say, Avatar Roku, you’ve gotta have a The Waterbending Scroll.

2012 is largely driven by its plot – which is a good plot!  But what felt like, eh, 90% of the time?  Everything that’s happening is motivated by what the antagonists are doing – the Kraang/Purple Dragons/Foot are doing this bad thing, or coming after us, and we have to stop them, because we’re the good guys/they’ll kill us if we don’t.  Not bad, objectively, it certainly raises stakes!  But also, it doesn’t really let us in on, like, the character’s internal world or what they want.

With Rise’s shenanigans...

Origami Tsunami happens because the boys got a taste of fighting and want to chase that high.  Shell in a Cell happens because Raph loves wrestling, his brothers seem to like it well enough or otherwise want to hang out/humor him, and Leo is feeding his ego/fighting his insecurities.  Repo Mantis is because Donnie and Mikey were hanging out while Donnie collected resources(?), saw something they wanted, and went balls to the walls to acquire it.  The Purple Jacket happens because Donnie wanted to experience toxic academia and fashion.  I could go on.

My point is Rise leaves more space for the episodes to be internally motivated, and that ends up telling us a lot about their characters!  What did they want?  How did they specifically go about trying to get it?  Did they involve others?  Who did they involve?  It adds depth to them, even in the silly goofy show!

There is also one specific writing trick Rise uses which I wish could go back in time and be implemented into 2012, and that is: “line played for laughs in one episode” > “oh wait they were serious”.

I’m talking the “my first positive reinforcement from a parent-aged adult. EVER.” to Turtle-dega Nights pipeline.  Minotaur Maze to Many Unhappy Returns for Leo.  Arguably Pizza Puffs to the series finale for Raph, if you follow me.  Reparin’ the Baron to Hidden City’s Most Wanted.

Even in the jokes, the throw-away lines, Rise is exposing what makes the characters tick.  And then when it hits, it hits.  This is why, while the Rise arcs are kind of incomplete, the writing still feels more consistent to me and I find it easier to see the intended arc they were going for.

And I so so so wish 2012 had that kind of thing, or ANY more focus put on character development, because, not to harp on this again, but they’ll drop in this one really interesting line or action from a character in a single episode focusing on them, then never mention it again or develop on the concept, and it kind of makes me feral because, like -

I want to gather up all these weird little scraps they give about these characters and pin them up conspiracy-board style and go: why didn’t we get a plot line about this?  Or this?  Did you notice how a lot of the time Raph is pushing for more action against their enemies, he brings up that they’re out there hurting more people?  And that could indicate a unique empathy for the victims, which would have been an interesting expansion on the vengeance theme of the showing, looking at justice v vengeance when ti comes to people without the ability to fight back?  Leo has a lot of tension between wanting to be a good leader and wanting the freedom to make impulsive choices and chase what he wants, which is interesting when you also look at moments we see with his two role models the sci-fi hero (who is kind of an asshole) and Splinter (who, while wise, has baggage that sometimes affects his decisions), and it feels like somewhere between all that there could have been an expanded storyline that actually resolved that tension between responsibility and personal desire that would have lead to his own version of leadership?  What about getting a focus on the few lines Donnie gives about his insecurities/stress re: his scientific abilities/role, rather than dragging him into his extremely bland romantic b-plot?  Can we address the weird way Mikey did chemistry magic two or three times but it’s never brought up outside that, or that one line by the anger-persona in his mind explicitly saying he tries to repress his anger because he doesn’t like the way it feels, or, or -

Why do they keep dropping these really interesting inciting incidents for character arcs and then not going anywhere with them I am losing my mind I am shaking the writers why do you keep teasing me like this -

Ahem.

Additionally... well, I mentioned above that Rise has a main theme of family bonds, where... 2012 kind of struggled to convince me of any relationship. Or, no, that sounds harsher than what I really mean.

I also want to clarify that I am not saying I think they dislike or don't care about each other, or any of the extremely negative takes I’ve seen thrown at the 12 characters dynamics.  That’s not it at all.  It’s just that they all felt... very surface level?  Sometimes it felt like the show wanted you to just accept that the characters were close without putting in the work to really show it.  And definitely not to explore it in depth.  (And I know, I know, I know!  It’s a Nick kids show!  But!  They put so much effort into the plot!)

Again, I think this is affected by the lower usage of internal motivation for episodes.  Characters doing things because they want them, then seeing how those different desires interact, gives you a better view of their relationships than just seeing a team work together because they have a common enemy.

Again, it’s not that 2012 never does this.  We see glimpses of them playing around – competing to do flips when running the city, watching their tv shows, playing pinball (was it pinball? Or an arcade game?).  It’s just that the emphasis on the plot (not an objectively bad thing!) leaves less room for episodes based on them just... doing things together, because they want to.  And less room for engaging in personalized interests together, rather than separately, and seeing how that plays out.

I think I’m devolving into senseless rambling at this point, so to sum up:

2012’s emphasis on plot – which it generally excels at! – leaves less room for exploring stories based on internal motivations, which I find necessary for consistent character arcs or relationship development and are the elements Rise kind of lives on when its plot is running thin.

Hopefully none of this is taken as an attack on/dislike for either iteration.  I like them both!  It’s just they both drive me a little bit crazy with what could have been!

Of course, this is all down to personal taste and interpretation.  I am fairly aware of my biases, I think.  I am very much attracted to character-driven narratives, and even in plot-based ones I have a tendency to care more about the character implications than the plot itself.  There’s a reason Days (the oops all character writing game) is my favorite Kingdom Hearts story!

(I do, also, really, really like anime bullshit, so do with that what you will.)

I am also aware that I binge-watched this series as an adult years after it ended, and that combination of factors may affect my reception.  (Admittedly I did that for both series, but).  Your experience might be very, very different, but I’m trying to understand the way these two shows are hitting my brain.

Thinking it over also gives me a hypothesis (which other people have probably already figured out) of why certain people are drawn to one series of the other: 2012 probably appeals more to people who are engaged by continuous, interconnected plots and careful pacing in a story, while Rise probably appeals to people who are more engaged by pure character pieces (and anime bullshit).

[nervocat]

Got bored hunting might be getting back into the orv obsession HAHA

[the-au-collector]

I actually have such vivid memories of the second half of this

I just didn't realize they were from this