#they are both DYNAMIC and COMPLICATED characters

[artbyblastweave]

How did Ultimate Marvel manage to be so good and so bad at the same time? Like on the one hand you have salient criticism of both the military industrial complex and the world of the mainline Marvel comics. But then on the other hand you have characters like Ant-Man and Luke Cage that getting butchered.

I've gradually come around to the stance that Millar's handling of Hank Pym in The Ultimates was "bad" largely in terms of the externalities it had for the character as a whole; If you like Pym, you're now generally up shit creek due to the extent to which the fallout from this story has marginalized the character in further adaptations, most predominantly the MCU. But in the context of the narrative of The Ultimates specifically, I think his characterization works incredibly well, and I think it's difficult to cleanly separate from what you're characterizing as the book's salient criticisms.

Part of the point of Hank's characterization is that everyone on the Ultimates- except Thor, we love Thor!- are deliberately "getting butchered," they're all horribly morally compromised in some way. These people are boots-on-the-ground in Iraq! Their first big legitimizing success was stopping one of their own guys going nuts! But Hank specifically gets the wall because he's morally horrible in an easily-recognizable, hard-to-spin way that there's a clear cultural script for condemning.... and nonetheless nobody bothered to do anything about the abuse going on behind closed doors for years, until their hands were forced by the bad PR of a high-profile incident. A thing that gets lost in the discourse churn is that the extent of Hank's abusive behavior is, within the progression of events, presented as an end-of-volume plot twist- for the first five issues and change, he and Jan are framed as an fairly legitimately happy and well-adjusted couple, and Hank himself is pretty well integrated into the team socially....until his ego is slightly bruised and the mask comes off and he vents his frustrations on the target of opportunity presented by his wife. The story is gesturing, with neon signs, at a Very Real Type of Guy, one that we've all probably been in proximity to at least once even if we weren't aware of it at the time. I also enjoyed the follow-up thesis of the subplot- that Steve's righteous golden-age chivalric retaliatory beatdown on Hank might be cathartic, but it's ultimately not going to solve any of the underlying dynamics that led to this situation in the first place. There are additional complicating bits of texture- Jan's closet-mutant situation and her status as the token minority in the initial Ultimates Lineup both feel like they're intersecting with this dynamic in a way that could be a whole separate post- but on the whole I've really come around on what Millar was trying to do with Pym, even if he was often doing it with his characteristic sledgehammer anti-tact.

Cage is different, but also interesting. The following would probably take a bit more involved research to lock down as a plausible read on what was going on editorially, but what I've come to suspect happened with Cage's deeply unflattering portrayal in Ultimates 2 is that Cage as a character was just barely beginning to exit a serious fallow period he'd been stuck in, and his portrayal in this represents the tail end of that. I've gotten the impression that during the 90s, Cage was viewed as a bit of an awkward figure who no one was entirely sure what to do with- viewed as a testament to the pitfalls of letting the predominantly white bullpen of the 1970s try to write dialogue for a black superhero. (The pastiche character of Buck Wild from Dwayne McDuffie's Icon is an example of this discourse making it into an actual comic book.) Cage wasn't nonexistent in the 90s, I've read some solo stuff of his from that period, but he's visibly not the fan favorite he'd grow to be in the 2000s.

As near as I can tell, his star seriously started to rise as part of the mainline Marvel Universe as a result of his inclusion in the supporting cast of Brian Michael Bendis's Alias from 2001 onwards, and he was cemented as a real setting regular by around 2005 with The Pulse and New Avengers; Ultimates 2, meanwhile, ran from 2004 to 2007 with some production delays. Given the timelines, it's plausible to me that Cage's one-note characterization as an unserious, mercenary second-stringer, participating on a team of the same, was conceived just before that stopped being the general read on the character. Equally possibly, it may have been conceived without any certainty that the stuff Bendis was doing with him was going to actually stick over the long haul; if New Avengers had flopped as a direction for the character, or if he and Jessica had ridden off into the sunset of editorial limbo after getting married, I think that Cage's portrayal in Ultimates 2 would be way less incongruous to a modern audience.

If they'd held off on using him a bit longer, he almost certainly have been part of the coalition of street-level heroes that show up part way through Ultimate Spider-Man; as it stands, his absence from that subplot is extremely conspicuous and easily the worst knock-on effect of his inclusion in Ultimates 2.

[mrentrapta]

Jax definitely had a falling out with ragatha and Zooble and idk what it is but I do feel like Pomni is going to have a dispute with him. (This is not hate to jax btw)

Jax is definitely a little bit of an asshole but other than Gangle he clearly knows these mfs really well, ig he just likes to mess with people as effectively as possible but whatever.

He also wanted Ragatha to crash out btw idk why anybody got anything else from that scene he was clearly amused and messes with her all the time for that purpose. He was playing in her face that entire episode.

Also btw Gangle didn't say that she thought ragatha was a bad/fake person. Jax also did not say that. They both said that her positivity is hard to take seriously because she acts overly cheerful everyday . It's like Pomni when she 1st arrived, they are kinda annoyed in a way idk.

She isn't evil because of that. Neither of them said she was being malicious. There is a huge difference between what she's doing and manipulative behavior . It's not exactly the best behavior tho don't get me wrong.

Also, Jax is chronically online and a big ol nerd . He doesn't like slice of life anime bcs it's boring and "embarrassing" which implies that he watches other genres of anime. He also made a reference to breaking bad and to me when someone can make references like that it means they are a nerd through and through. He also acts in a very theatrical way. Like all the time, he speaks acts and moves in a very over the top fashion

And to Segway into my next point, he knows way too much about Zooble being gay + the less negative stereotypes of it(the batista and tattoo artist combo)

Jax is ALWAYS clocking Zoobles tea about them being gay, and idk maybe it's just the fact that Zooble is they/them (if their not please tell me bcs im actually getting confused about that) but it's so weird that he has so managed accurate jokes locked and loaded😭😭

"And Zooble turns straight." A funny ass joke but why does he know that Zooble is gay in the 1st place😭

Zooble only expressed disliking their body to Caine, and it is a reoccurring issue, but Gangle and ragatha don't seem like they know anything about it. So it's not like Jax knows it's because of that😭

He also says " Wait You're giving away parts now" and like idk it just seems as if he really gaf in that moment chat😭 like I swear he clearly has some kind of messed up affection for them both.

Also I would like to articulate that Zoobles problem with Jax is more about how he is as a person, but whatever tf is going on with ragatha is some deep shit. Cause Zooble stays on his NECK all the time. But ragatha is..... yoh honestly their dynamic gives me stress

Ragatha might have a uncomfortable and complicated relationship with him but Zooble certainly does NOT 😭 they don't gaf 💀

Zooble is like the only person who seems to be viewing jax from a very objective standpoint, so I have a feeling that if Pomni spends time with Zooble in the next episode she might not like Jax as much .

Zooble is actually the only person Pomni has had basically no interactions with so it's a possibility that the next episode is going to either be about Ragatha or Zooble and Pomni. Honestly I want another Zooble episode bcs they're cool as hell

It also could be an episode where we learn more about jax / his relationship with the others bcs so far the only episode Jax wasn't a main character in was episode 3 so he's clearly important.

Overall at this point I'm just wary of jax but really interested in him. He is definitely a complicated dude

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

What's your favorite Batman and protege dynamic? What's your least favorite? Either overall or from a specific author.

this is so mean but I love the era where Helena's running around Gotham really WANTING to be a Bat and then pretending she totally doesn't unless of course Batman happens to be hiring in which case she would do it in a heartbeat until he's mean to her again and then fuck him. like she's his un-protoge, she's as Not his sidekick as it's possible to be. especially love that her and Tim are just buddies that whole time, he's regularly hanging out with her while Bruce and Barbara are hissing and spitting every time she comes up.

in terms of like an actual straightforward answer at risk of being a basic bitch I guess obviously Bruce and Dick are very special to me because No One Will Ever Do It Like Them (complimentary) and No One Will Ever Do It Like Them (derogatory!!!). their dynamic is so fucking complicated and messy and I eat that shit up with a spoon. I don't know, they hurt and love each other in such awful ways. really great stuff when it's written with enough breathing room for both of them to really feel their feelings.

ummm I guess I don't really have a least, like even when Bruce treats his proteges badly I still love them and watching Bruce reap the awful outcome that he's sown. like I like them all as characters interacting with each other and telling an interesting little story even when I think the actual relationship is dogshit.

[madbard]

You know I gotta send Loop for the character ask meme 👀

Here is the link to the ask meme.

(Deep breath.)

How I feel about this character:

I love them, I love them, I love them. Then again, that much is clear from my blog and pfp. I think Loop is one of the best and most tragic characters I’ve encountered. They loved their family so much, that love trapped them in a living hell where their family was gradually lost to the haziness of their own memory and the unreality of the loops. They tried again, and again, and again to save the world and save their family, pushed past every imaginable limit until, battered and broken, they asked the Universe for help - and were torn from themself to help another Siffrin succeed where they had failed. In an impossible situation, they then chose to offer that Siffrin the guidance and companionship they had so desperately needed in their own loops. In the depths of hell, Loop chose kindness (albeit laced with theatrical annoyance and harshness) and love towards this Siffrin, themself. I relate to Loop and Siffrin on a visceral level. Stories about weird, intense, difficult journeys towards self-love and acceptance will always sink their teeth into my ribcage, and thinking about Loop breaks my heart. There is so much more to be said, but for now I’ll leave it at this - I love this character.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

1) Siffrin. Stars above, Siffrin. Even aside from their spectacular dynamic in canon, perfectly blending humor and genuine heartbreak, I adore Sifloop as a metaphor for self love. I like to think there is healing for them in learning to hold each other. I like to think there is healing for them in knowing every vile, dark thing about the other that no one else could ever see, and loving each other just the same. I like to think there is healing for them in looking at the other and feeling, on a deep and basic level, that they were always worthy of love. 2) Isabeau. I’m a sucker for tragedy, and stars above these two hurt me. In my mind this goes one of three ways - ISAT Sloopis where both of them date Siffrin and slowly come together (this deserves a post in and of itself, but Sloopis provides the perfect combination of regret, yearning, resentment, confusion, guilt, awkwardness, theatrics, and of course the continuing tension of identity and the reveal… ah it’s beautiful), SASASAAP Isaloops where Loop gets sent back to their timeline after the loops are over (extremely context dependent but this has the potential to be so heartbreaking and complicated but ultimately sweet, gives me real “will you fall in love with me again?” vibes), and ISAT Isaloops where the two fall apart onto and into each other after something goes terribly wrong and Siffrin dies (again, extremely context dependent, but something about Loop desperately missing Siffrin and trying to find pieces of him within themself, and Isabeau desperately missing Siffrin and recognizing, or trying to recognize, pieces of them within Loop, and their affair effectively becoming a ghost story where the ghost cannot live while still bound to the haunted living? Yeah. Also, I need Isabeau to accidentally call Loop “Siffrin” at some point and effectively end both of their worlds). 3) Odile. Honestly, this one is more for the fun of it than anything. I really love Siffrin and Odile’s dynamic, and I’ve seen some great Loopdile art. I think it’s intriguing, and warrants a longer description than I currently have the energy to write.

My non romantic OTP for this character:

The idea of Mirabelle and Loop’s dynamic haunts me. The false chosen one whose character arc revolves around realizing that she doesn’t have to Change her identity to Change the world around her, and the failed chosen one whose identity was forcefully torn from them after they failed to break free of a horrific cycle of sameness? Both of whom were ‘blessed’ so that they could defeat the King, and struggled under the weight of that blessing? Both with such uniquely complicated relationships with their faith? They can relate to each other better than any duo besides Loop and Siffrin (and I think that’s technically cheating). Their relationship appeals to me on so many levels; I love them. I also think that Mirabelle’s perceptive enough to figure out what’s going on with Loop fairly quickly, while simultaneously being the party member most capable of accepting someone’s new identity after a Change and helping them through. And Loop just loves her so much. So while I don’t ship them romantically for obvious reasons, I would consider this my nonromantic OTP for Loop.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

Hm… this is a tricky one since I’m not entirely sure which of my Loop opinions are popular or not outside of my specific circle. Honestly? I think they’re dead. I think the end of Two Hats was their death scene, and they disintegrated back into the Universe, and I don’t think they’re coming back. I think that the moment they stopped being Siffrin, they stopped being able to exist outside of the time loops. (I regularly ignore this opinion in favor of reading and writing fanfic where they survive because I want them to be alive - even in my own brain, this opinion is unpopular. But canonically I do think that’s what happened.)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

Like I said in the last question, I wish they’d lived. I wish they’d gotten the chance to heal and speak with the party again and learn what it meant to be Loop instead of Siffrin. I wish they’d been able to feel the rain on their skin and eat food they’d never tasted before. I wish they could have woken up from a nightmare to remember it was just a nightmare, that they escaped the loops a long time ago, that they might not ever be fully OK but things are starting to get better. I wish they could have had a crisis over what it meant to fall in love with yourself, and what it meant to be worth loving. I wish they could have met Bonnie’s sister, and traveled with Mirabelle, and worn clothes Isabeau made, and visited Ka Bue with Odile. And I understand that this would have been too much content to include in the game itself, which is why this wish really boils down to a single thing - I wish Two Hats could have ended with Siffrin holding their hand and leading them over to where their family stood, waiting to say “thank you, Loop. Thank you.”

[hamliet]

Hi, I love that you’ve started reading the aftg books and the sequels. The meta you’ve written up until now has all been great!

Andrew is my favorite character! Could you do an in depth analysis? Your favorite part of his character or maybe his relationship with Aaron and what it means to the story. I love a complicated family/ sibling dynamic.

I sure can!

Andrew is my favorite character as well. And he's a well-done identical twin! As an identical twin, that NEVER happens! Lol.

I said in my review that Andrew is the heart of the series, and he is. So my favorite part of his character is the slow peeling away of the onion-like layering that covers his character, and we see that at his core Andrew is a bleeding heart, not a monster and not a violent psychopath.

But much like a traumatized child, he hides that away. See, I actually think that despite the hyperbolized narrative, Andrew's trauma response is very emotionally accurate. Kind of like Ash Lynx's in Banana Fish. The people we want to write off and throw away as psychopaths are often the people actually hurting deeply inside.

Andrew and Aaron (and Nicky)

Andrew commits himself to not opening up. But he still binds himself to Aaron, wherein they agree that they will stick together for college. But then they never make any effort to have a relationship, because if they do, then Andrew would have to be vulnerable and admit he cares deeply about Aaron and killed their mother to protect him.

Essentially Andrew attempts to adopt this philosophy (quote from CS Lewis):

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.

Hell is all Andrew thinks he deserves.

But, well, because Andrew can't quite give up on Aaron (or on Nicky), blood leaks out of his casket and draws Kevin, Neil, and the other Foxes in.

Andrew's relationship with Aaron mimics the tropes about twins in a deconstructive light. See, identical twins (speaking as one, again) are seen as one half of a human being. Both twins are dehumanized within the narrative, so Andrew clings to this idea--that he has a more human half in Aaron--and won't let it go. He's determined to protect Aaron, and his determination to protect Aaron and Aaron's future unwittingly ensures Andrew is protecting his own future as well.

The series also addresses the oft-written codependency of twins which is greatly exaggerated in fiction. The Minyards are codependent, but only because they're both fearful of vulnerability. Which is why Nicky Hemmick is such an important member of their trio--he routinely pushes Andrew and Aaron out of their comfort zone, for better and for worse.

See, Nicky basically walks around advertising his vulnerability. If Andrew and Aaron withdraw, Nicky holds out his vulnerabilities and brags about them. It's potentially also a maladaptive coping mechanism based in self-harm, but it's also drawn from his past in having to shut down everything he is and was because of his parents.

But Nicky's loss of his parents and the way he struggles to hold on despite their condemnation of him definitely resonate with Andrew. Again, he agrees to go back to the Hemmick household because he knows it matters to Nicky (and to Neil) despite knowing it will end badly. He knows Nicky has to see it for himself, not just be told it. He can't protect Nicky from that heartache--the heartache he himself experienced with Tilda abandoning him at birth while keeping his brother, and then abusing Aaron.

Someday I'm going to write about Nicky Hemmick and why he's one of the most important characters in the entire story...

Andrew and Neil

Everything about Neil is a lie, but everything about Andrew is twisted to the point of covering up his bleeding heart. The pot doth calleth the kettle black, despite what Andrew likes to think. Like, Andrew, you literally use your twin to trick Neil about your actual identity because he can't trust Neil. Neil likewise can't trust Andrew or anyone with his true identity.

Perhaps it's this similarity that makes them so good for each other. Neil, unlike Kevin, Nicky, or Aaron, challenges Andrew to open up to the others, to the wider world. To the full team, and the funny thing is... he succeeds.

"We're never going to make it to finals if we're a fractured mess. You two are holding us back." ... "If you ask for half the truth, you'll only get half the truth," Neil said. "It's your fault if you don't like the answers I give you, not mine.

Like, I'm not sure if people realize, but Andrew's confession to murdering his mother happens right after this scene, where Neil urged Andrew to start acting like he was a member of the team and also tells him to accept the full truth. Then blood falls and "happy birthday jr" (a parallel again--part of Neil's identity is forcibly revealed through blood, but Andrew's identity comes out via him confessing to shedding blood). Andrew goes on to do exactly what Neil challenged him to.

His confession was Andrew's very Andrew way of opening up to his team: telling them the worst thing he'd ever done to see if they would stay or go.

"She didn't kill herself, Andrew," Aaron said, savage with grief. Andrew flicked him a cool look. "I told her what would happen if she raised her hand again. She had no right to look so surprised." "Oh, Jesus," Matt said. "Did you just—?" Wymack pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled noisily. "Could you at least let us leave the room before you confess?"

Actually it was important that they not leave the room, during the scene or symbolically in the aftermath. They're not okay with it, but they also don't condemn Andrew for it. This enables Andrew to be able to trust the team, at least a little bit.

Andrew and Kevin

Kevin promises Andrew that he can give him a purpose. Just like Andrew, Kevin is kind of purpose-less. Yes, "all for the game" and obsessed with Exy, blah blah blah. Kevin's drinking habits suggest otherwise insofar as his Exy-fills-the-void-just-fine argument goes.

The irony is that Kevin does help introduce Andrew to a purpose, but it's not through Exy. Exy is a means to an end, and that end is love with Neil and a family with the Foxes, even if he's always going to be the grumpy one. And through Andrew and Neil and the Foxes, Kevin sees maybe, just maybe, there's something more than just Exy that gives his life value.

Andrew may not care about Exy itself, but he cares a hell of a lot about the people playing it. Because what Andrew really always wanted was just love.

Andrew and Jean

In the sequel trilogy, we see how Andrew foils Jean. It's not a coincidence Neil hears Jean compare Grayson to Drake, or that Riko helped orchestrate Drake's last assault and many of Jean's assaults. We're supposed to compare these characters.

(Side note: I did appreciate how Andrew immediately demanded to know if Grayson had hurt Neil when he was at Evermore.)

But the way in which Andrew and Jean foil each other isn't just in their abuse. It's primarily in their shared humanity, and the kindness they possess. They both tried to protect their abusers and the bystanders because they believe that firmly in the potential of others. Andrew protects Cass at the cost of going to juvie himself. He protects Aaron at the cost of murdering their mother. He protects Kevin and Neil at the cost of being abused by Proust. Jean still saves Zane's life despite his betrayal. Jean still mourns Riko despite the evil he did to him.

But they afford none of that mercy for themselves. Jean doesn't see himself as a human being, and neither does Andrew. No, what Andrew sees himself as is a monster.

The "Monsters" nickname Andrew bears in a typically Andrew way. He acts like he likes it. I think that the text pretty clearly indicates he hates being called a Monster, and the extra chapter from Bee's POV indicates this as well.

"Monster" is a label Andrew uses to self-harm. Him starting to step away from it in the end via admitting to Aaron he loves Neil (even if he never says the words) and continuing his relationship with Neil shows his own healing. He's the one who comes up with the winning strategy of having Neil revert to defense to cover Riko during the final showdown with the Ravens.

By the end of the series, Andrew is well on his way to having a full and fulfilling life with family, friends, and hobbies like sports. He's loved familialy, romantically, and platonically.

[slightlycomicobsessed]

i need more people to talk about Cass & Shiva bc their relationship is so Interesting. Cass supposedly hates her but can’t really. Shiva loves Cass but doesn’t know how to express it. It’s such a fucked up and complex dynamic that NO ONE EXPLORES in favour of ‘ooo scary evil assassin parent’

[crashtesting]

as someone who has been at the devil's sacrament for too much of my life, I like to play the game "guess the popular ship (without scrolling through tags or ao3)" when im getting to know a new media/fandom. (would recommend, it's equally satisfying to be exactly correct and completely wrong).

that is to say, I'm new to the brilliant Discworld novels, and the fandom didn't strike me as particularly ship-y. which is fine and cool and sometimes the interesting thing is the rarepairs and the platonic dynamics and the world-building!

however. I just finished Guards! Guards! and I'm 100% certain that whatever the hell Vimes and Vetinari have got going on, a significant number of y'all are deeply into it. that's the one.

[lesbianjackies]

i did NOT just see someone complain that s3 is “reducing lottie to her mental illness”……….. oh my fucking god two episodes in and the horrible takes are already rampant

[ruggiesbiologicalfather]

ooooooooohhhhhh i’m gonna be sick

the fucking shroud brothers are going to be the death of me. the biggest part of it all for me is the dependency of the whole situation. idia built ortho as a replacement for his brother which would make ortho’s “life” dependent on him. HOWEVER as ortho evolves more and more it becomes clear just how much IDIA relies on HIM instead

idia is a very independent character in most ways. we don’t see him needing interaction or striving for much of anything really. but he white knuckles the FUCK out of ortho. ortho is his social crutch. we see this in the harveston event too where they drag him through the mirror without ortho and his anxiety spikes. he doesn’t do hardly anything without ortho and even the things he manages to do on his own are after a lot of encouragement (and sometimes even begging). and all this comes from not properly grieving the loss of the real ortho. he cannot fathom being separated again

ortho on the other hand is different. he gets excited when he gets to do things on his own and when idia does things on his own too. the fairy gala is a perfect example. ortho spends time pondering what his personal evolution is and what originality means to him. he even builds his own body for the event instead of having idia do it like all the other times. he takes pride in what he can do alone and enjoys being apart in a way that we have never seen from idia. because he has never lived without idia, he sees separation as an exciting opportunity whereas idia sees it as a reminder of the very real and very traumatizing loss of his brother

ortho wouldn’t be alive without idia but idia can’t survive without ortho. i’m gonna start biting

[cupoteahatter]

No One:

Me: Anyone ever think about how because Tyler was tricking her, he accidentally ended up as the one person who was seeing Wednesday for who she is and not who everyone wanted her to be? Specifically not who he wanted her to be, because he didn’t even have another image of her to fall back upon? Weems saw her as trouble/her Mother, Gates underestimated her, Sheriff Galpin only saw her Father, Xavier as his childhood hero, Enid blatantly assigned her a social mask but Tyler looked her full in the face and took her as she was? From their first meeting to their last, seeing Wednesday as she is, as she comes, all her dark edges and bright ideas and meeting her as an Equal Opponent, never underestimating her, never covering her up…. Just her. Only her. (And that in turn blinds her to who he is, until she pulls his mask off by accident).

Me: Anyone else ever think about that?

[taraxippos]

Worlds #1 complainer about "dog motif" fans accidentally makes story with extremely central, predominant even, dog motif

[galactic-rhea]

Thoughts on Padmé x Anakin x Rex?

Padmé and Anakin are so mutually obssesed they would first have to check into that before trying to bring another person to their carefully-balanced-kind-of-damage or something it's going to explode.

Honestly it's a fun ship! But I don't have too many thoughts about them because when I consider them is usually in very low-stakes-fun-AU-scenarios.

And I'm actually a bit of a fan of Rexwalker myself! Athough I tend to like them more as very good buddies, the covering-for-you-dynamic it's so funny for them, lol It's also angsty and complicated because, y'know, the power-imbalance and unchecked trauma? Is funny that the clone that's actually a slave for the republic is the most normal if you bring him into the anidala romance circus.

Also shout out to @phoenixyfriend , she has a lot of rexanidala fics and recs for anyone interested reading this!

[lmaster37]

man ngl i am STALLING in my cosmere reread right now. low-key i think it's because as long as i don't read wind and truth, there still exists a beautiful perfect version of it in my head where shakadolin become canon and i am simply not ready to give that up

(other reasons include: as long as i don't reread rhythm of war, teft is Alive and Well; no version of the kaladin&szeth roadtrip can possibly be as disastrous as the one i am imagining; kaladin continues to exist in a gorgeous quantum state where i can picture him swearing or not swearing the fifth ideal in a way which builds on his character arc, and one of those possibilities is going to get disproven.

prime reason to finally get around to is that i miss these characters so fucking much. your honour i love them. i think about them at least once a week. i have talked about them with my sibling for hours and hours and hours. i am forcing my sister's godfather and my mom to read all the cosmere books. i adore them.)

[almightyramtha]

I'm capital R Rambling about Wyll below, but more about story pacing with his choices in game:

I think Wyll's story would have benefited a lot by not having Mizora show up until act 2 as an actual character. A presence, certainly, a force driving Wyll, but a threat that cannot yet act on him. Giving him some breathing room to get to know Karlach, to wrestle with his objective to kill her—which I think would have made for an interesting night event. Maybe he's standing over her while she's sleeping, debating what to do, when Tav sees him and can either stop him or spur him on, then later talk about his headspace, maybe get some clues as to why he still struggles with his choice despite seemingly believing that she’s not the devil he was told she was.

But giving the player some space to see Wyll as a human, get attached to him, see him struggle with the weight of not obeying Mizora's directive (maybe while being really cagey about her, maybe being one of the few companions who was really gunning to get to the Goblin camp and "save Halsin" (which would later be revealed that his objective was really rescuing the already moved Mizora)), have him actually GET TO KNOW and learn to believe Karlach instead of it all happening in a single second and a single night, I think would bond you to him a lot more. I like to see a good internal struggle! And its such a big deal to him! Make going through with it or not a big deal to him too! For more than a single conversation!

You'd also get a lot more time with him sans horns and I think it would ultimately feel more impactful when they are foisted upon him because you would have seen him struggling to avoid this fate, but knowing that he couldn't, because he sees the good in Karlach, (the player also has time to get attached or not to Karlach too instead of making this choice to kill her or not right away). Imagine a guy who was on the verge of making a deal to break his pact with her (like in EA) and now effectively she can't do anything to him. He knows the threat looms, he knows acting too far out of turn might cost him later, but how refreshing would it be to take a full breath of air without her hovering?

Then when you finally rescue Mizora from Moonrise, she could give him one last chance and perhaps this could be a point where the player could stand back and get a sense of where Wyll had been pushed by that point (A la, nightsong, Gale blowing himself to smitheroons, etc) There's rarely a point I felt I truly understood where Wyll was standing without my intervention especially at flexion points like his choice to stay in his pact or not (which you’re not given an opportunity to let him choose for himself :\). So having a point he has the option to act without our intervention would be interesting and very welcome to me. Plus I think the pacing would be a lot better. His stuff is so front loaded the moment you meet Karlach, then so back heavy but without a good solid middle to support the back end. Imagine having a way to make him be his worst self with an all-in durge. Or realizing when you get to Baldur’s gate that not a day ago, had he not saved Karlach, he would have been able to get everyone into the city with no trouble, but now not a soul recognizes him for who he is. (Probably make it harder to get into the city for this storybeat to work better, something that would let the player really metagame wrestle on a second playthrough with which option is better, idk, just spitballing.) Also I think he should have mentioned Ansur in Act 2 so that his city saving promise floated better into act 3 and felt more pulling. It was a fun little puzzle gauntlet! But having three characters just tell me the same thing about it (and don't get me started on the emperor taking over that moment) kind of blew the wind out of the sails of the quest when nothing really comes of it. Like, damn, maybe let Wyll talk him into being an ally to call upon in the final battle or something. You literally asked me to find allies, Emperor! (Which personally I think would have been more impactful TO ME if for instance, maybe Ulder told Wyll the stories all the time as a kid, they had a falling out when he was a young lad, then Wyll comes back like “I’m gonna find Ansur!” and Ulder’s like “Wyll, omg that was just a fairy story I told you as a child, that’s not real!” but BOOM, he finds and recruits Ansur and its like “wow son, that’s so amazing of you, I’m so proud of you” And tav didn’t even have to force feed Ulder tadpole information about his son to get him to believe in and trust him, wow.)

Anyway, this has been part 1 of ???? of my sporadic essay on how I would fix Mr. Wyll with a y. I feel like I can see little snippets of where it was going, both between release and EA, and I would have liked to see him better because he’s a nice boy and deserves it, but also I recognize there’s something missing from the soup.

[neilabramjostcns]

I know that the vackers are the most common example of a messed up sibling relationship but like. what if it was amy and sophie

sophie is extremely smart and beautiful (because she's an elf) and she lives in a world where quite a few boys are in love with her. Younger siblings are often compared to or compare themselves to their older siblings so what if amy was jealous of that and it drove a wedge in their relationship... sophie could also be jealous of how normal amy's life is compared to hers..

[bobosbillionsknives]

Rem named an infant Knives and was surprised when he grew up to have an identity crisis and violently lash out at the world around him 🤣🤣🤣🤣‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️