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alistonjdrake · 3 years

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The Rusnak Party

Of Blood and Stone, The third book in The Saints’ Song Series, showcases the Escana Empire on the verge of crumbling as a murdered king and a divided government threaten to tear the country apart. As some grapple for power and wealth, others decide to jump ship.

Season One World Building Posts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Season Two World Building Posts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Season Three World Building Posts: 1

Bonus Episodes: 1 2 3

Main Wip Intro here

People are never completely sure where Vito Rusnak came from. Born in 1698 (after the fall of our Saints), he was likely of Abenian origin or raised in Palogne. Both are usually considered, sometimes a combination of the two, for his supposed education and for his future work and attachment to Abenland as a country. Most of what is known about him was provided by the man himself as backstory during his involvement in the late 1730s riots that eventually lead to the creation of the Republic of Abenland in 1743.

In Rusnak’s own words, he was raised partially in a Dackten conservatory, a minority sect of the Santivian church which preached for the dissolution of of the “aristocratic” hierarchies of the church as well as holding all properties in common and the collective ownership of the “charity of Santivian men”. Presumably talented in music, Rusnak would leave this conservatory at the age of sixteen to attend Doxseth College in Nomworth, Palogne. He took his Dackten ideals with him. Nomworth, often being dubbed the city of scholars and made up of a supremely diverse population for its predominantly foreign students. It was not long, according to Rusnak, until he switched out of the school of music and landed into a study of law after joining a literature group where they read books likely continuing the criticism of the Santivian church’s power structure as well as antique philosophers (an assumption made on Rusnak’s future proclamations about primitive society and the happiness and richness of cultures and societies that had not yet discovered poverty, a claim also found in some antique writing).

At some point, Rusnak began writing his own work. His early pieces were reflections of the Dackten sect and their eventual prosecution by the more dominant Santivian groups throughout the east, but he eventually landed on writing what would later be called idealized pieces about egalitarianism, communal ownership, and the redistribution of property behind the world of the church. Rusnak was very likely influenced by the amount of failed protests going on in the east that was fueled by anti-monarchy sentiments and the increase of religious prosecution as Oskyan Orthodox Santivians rose to prominence in the region.

Similar bodies of work to Rusnak’s work were outlawed by eastern governments in the aftermath of minor rebellions, but Rusnak sold his work as Utopian fiction and was able to bypass the book bans that targeted most of his colleagues, although any positive references to Dacktism had to be removed.

Rusnak graduated in 1721 at the age of twenty-three with a law degree and moved back to Abenland where he struggled to find a job and would eventually find himself working as a music teacher for another conservatory. Although by the time he would return to Abenland, the Dackten groups had all been removed and he would instead find himself under the employment of Oskyan officials. As the Abenian government weakened, Oskyan influence in the country grew greatly. Many of the dukes of Abenland were paying for their favors. This was the spark of decades of uneasiness in Abenland, as the weakened government and the advantages taken by Oskyan officials allowed ruling dukes to get richer and gain more power while the rest of the country was stuck in a stagnant struggle. One that would eventually lead to the dissolution of Rusnak’s job as the commodification of education resulted in private tutors for the children of dukes instead of more open institutions.

When the riots of the 1730s began, there was no such thing as the “Rusnak Party”. However, Vito Rusnak did become a prolific figure during them. It should be noted that while he was allied to many of the early leaders of the anti-duke and anti-Oskyan protests by the Abenian lower classes, he openly rejected armed revolution and instead advocated to “re-education” for the benefit of a classless society. However, due to the popularity of his writing at the time and the fact that he is credited with the messaging system rebels used to communicate, Rusnak is also usually to blame for the Kirdan Massacres.

The Kirdan Masscares is the term used for the event in which, as a reaction to the discovery from spies that many of the dukes had written for help from Oskyan forces (something that would surely squash the rebellion), so they planned a series of attacks on affluent dukes by smoking them out of their homes with controlled fires and shooting them down. Surviving members of noble families and those that fled the country in the aftermath of this event ultimately planned Vito Rusnak due to him being the most known rebel. As such, going forward all references to the rebels became dubbed as the “Rusnak party”.

The Kirdan Masscares are named after Arseniy Kirdan, the general of the Oskyan army at the time and the presumed receiver of the Abenian dukes’ letters. In the rebel party, they used Kirdan’s name to sign off all messages related to this plot. This event is also called “the Culling” by supporters and survivors on the rebellion side for obvious reasons.

In the aftermath of this, the ruling party was so scattered and weakened, it allowed for the creation for what would be known as the Republic of Abenland in 1743. Rusnak was quickly recognized as someone who would help reframe and rebuild the country.

It should be noted, that not all of the nobility left. In fact, what is known as the Abenian Republic was actually a relatively small collection of its states united under the former rebellion council. The massacres only weakened them and further pushed the nation into poverty as the Oskyans pulled out in fear of similar attacks as it was clearly apparent to King Niclas at the time that they had no insiders in the party and could not predict their movements, and he had no reason to help Abenland if they could not pay him.

With Rusnak’s familiarity with law, he was often called upon for insight on how to run the republic. It had its failings. The first being they had no money and the second being they were arguments about the future of governance. In the beginning, Rusnak wanted to turn to widespread Dacktism and political order based on popular sovereignty. He continued his criticisms about private property and in the injustices of unequal wealth and social classes, and while plenty agreed with him due to the bad taste left after the Oskyan Orthodox Consistory, there were few eager to back a movement fueled by religion.

The Republic also had many enemies since it’s creation. Many of the surviving dukes had fled to Oskya or Slovy and there were several attempted coups or the blocking of roads to isolate Abenians from much needed supplies. The remaining duchies also continually launched attacks in order to retake the Republic.

The Republic would crash in 1759 as a result of the failed assassination of Urs Felganhaur, a returned Abenian duke who had survived the massacres and had presumably captured someone with intel of the innerworkings of the Rusnak party. The shooter’s gunpowder would be too damp due to rain on the night of the plan and his capture would lead to the arrest of several of the republic’s key figures (including Valera de Martí, Rusnak’s mentee and then just sixteen going on seventeen). The invasion of Oskyan forces, now under the banner of King Vadik who took a much harsher stance against them, and the installation of dukes back to their abandoned duchies, killed the Republic and its leaders either went into hiding or continued to rebel in secret.

This would result in the continuation of bloody altercations, affairs similar to the Kirdan event, planned food shortages, and mass executions of those considered to be part of the party. Vito Rusnak at this point likely gave up his ideals of revolution without arms as it would be said that going forward Rusnak rebels usually carried guns or would be to blame of bombings and other violent forms of protests.

His books, along with the work of Valera de Martí, were banned and burned by the Oskyan forces. A jail sentence of four years was carried out on anyone to be found owning any of their writing, an increase of a year based on the amount of books owned. Rusnak himself went deep into hiding while his mentee spent much of his time in and out of Abenian prisons where he would write poetry, a brief history of the Republic, and further criticisms of the ruling class until he would be forbidden from having pen and paper during his repeated sentences.

Vito Rusnak would eventually be found and arrested in 1767 after an increased Oskyan presence and the slaughter of several other rebel groups. He had time before his arrest to warn his own daughter, Darya Rusnak, and Valera de Martí to flee the country and the east before he was taken in by Oskyan forces. Some months later, Darya would be arrested trying to cross the border and she would give out the names and presumed locations of all of her father’s allies in exchange for her own life.

in 1768, Vito Rusnak would be executed in Porsdal, Slovy in front of a crowd of Oskyan soldiers who would then take his head on a tour throughout all the major cities in Abenland to warn away any hiding or remaining rebels.

Likely unbeknownst to the Oskyans at the time, the execution of Vito Rusnak only sparked a continuation of his ideology.

Surprisingly, Valera de Martí escaped execution and was able to flee to Escan which exiled him instead of handing him over to the Oskyan government due to his being an Escana citizen. He is credited with spreading Rusnak Ideology to the west as he translated much of his mentor’s work and continued writing his own (before its eventual ban by the Escana government, much of his work was taught in schools due to his start in poetry). In fact, Valera was often more criticized for his open support of atheist beliefs. Much of Valera’s work was easier to swallow in the west, as even when he bemoaned about the things he thought was plaguing society the western (and importantly the Escana) powers saw it more as a criticism of the east instead of the inherent power structures carried by both nations.

Rusnak and de Martí were not the only people who were critical about private property, social classes, and wealth distribution but they quickly became the most famous to the point where most writers and speakers from this era (and beyond them) either get lumped under Rusnak or Valerist theory. At their core, both ideals are the same except Rusnak and people like him tend to take a stance rooted in religious idealism whereas Valera, born from the pioneers of the Escana middle class, and the people who came after him tend to focus more of plights afforded to working and lower class people as well as mocking individualism or earlier sentiments that stopped at “common good” and “common wealth”. Most Valerists are considered to believe that that the Rusnak party was not ambitious enough and that a further step needs to be taken for the advancement of society.

There is however, very little record of just how much de Martí may or may not have disagreed with Rusnak as very little is known about their relationship beyond what Darya Rusnak said about them when she was imprisoned, claiming that her father saw de Martí as more of his own blood than her. Although, de Martí himself would go on to reflect on the Republic years later and would not be very kind to its leaders while he talked about all the missed opportunities.

Even after Valera de Martí’s exile from the Escana Empire and the complete eradication of a rebellion in Abenland, the Rusnak party quickly spread throughout the continent and survives in much smaller but still active groups during The Saints Song series. All of the books outlining their early roots are illegal although a few are kept in university libraries in Palogne for the preservation of knowledge and it is also illegal for Rusnaks to assemble in parties larger than groups of four but whether or not that stops anyone is dependent on who you ask.

#my writing #worldbuilding #world building #guess how long this took me to write #a couple days to be honest #it's because Vito Rusnak is literally only a name mentioned in TSS whereas Valera has more of a fleshed out backstory #but Val's mentor had to have come from somewhere #tss trilogy #I'm not gonna go into the evolution of Rusnak and Valerist theory #in TNC Justyna has read some work by what she calls Valerist philosophers and I assume there would be shifts in the ideology especially #100 years after the riots and the failed republic but I'm not here to completely write all that out #this is just the stuff relevant to tss

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internallydeceased · 7 years

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fyi

you know how you guys get impatient and excited abt new fic updates? we writers (not speaking for everyone here, but me and some others) get impatient and excited bc we really want y’all to see it

#i’m not kidding #i had no self control and i just posted stuff right after i finished bc i wanted people to read it #relevant rn bc we tss ladies don’t want to wait until saturday to post the next part

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iclaimedtobethebetterbard · 3 years

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For the Sides impressions ask game, have you gotten Remus yet?

I HAVE NOT, THANK YOU SM AAA

[ask me abt my thoughts on tss characters]

First impression: i do not think i liked him all that much lol. i was definitely grossed out by the “logan’s teeth” thing and the “shuriken in logan’s forehead” thing in dwit, which probably emphasized that initial weirded-out-ness. like janus, i used to sometimes enjoy u!remus fics back when i first got into the fandom, but generally don’t anymore.

Impression now: ohhhh you have no idea how hard i can project onto this boy, y’all. and the fact that he really doesn’t have shame? SO cathartic. i project onto him and then have him do all the things i’m scared to. it’s amazing. he’s officially tied with roman for my 3rd favorite (but in reality my favorites ranking is all very very close together), i love him SO SO SO much gkhgdfkshgs. also. punk remus fanart hot. and he should kiss janus about it.

more relevant to his actual character, though: i am SO excited to see how he affects the plot of the show moving forward!! i’m very curious just exactly how involved he was in whatever drama went down between virgil and the other dark sides—like, is the beef mostly between virgil and janus, or is it between virgil and everyone? i’m also just. very excited to see his relationships with every other character on the show develop. and to see what directions he pushes them in. bc i’m pretty sure one big role of his is going to be an instigator of change. i’m excited for it!!

i also really want to see how he and patton will start getting along. bc i think that “everyone being friends” is one of the ultimate end goals of the show. but i don’t yet know how patton and remus are going to start being friends. bc see, the thing is, i could see either of them individually deciding the other isn’t that bad, but not in a way that would lead to a mutual feeling and then friendship. like, if patton warmed up to remus, i think he would do it in a similar way he did to virgil, all “omg that’s my weird new kid <3 what a sweetie!!” and even if he has learned to tone that down since virgil, i think that that treatment, even watered down, would be very off-putting to remus. meanwhile, if remus warmed up to patton, i feel like it would take the form of “my cat just dropped a gutted dead rat on my pillow to show me how much they love me” type stuff, which would be very off-putting to patton!! so i’m very curious how their relationship to each other will develop and what it will take for them to actually make friends with each other. they have a lot more in common than i think most of us realize, but they take it in such different directions that it can be hard to reconcile.

i ALSO have a theory that the show is going to have remus’s character arc actually be kind of similar to patton, not in content, but in outline. bc patton’s arc took the shape of him mostly being comic relief for a long time, and then he got his 2-part character development episode, and it was revealed that BAM there had been hidden angst all along. and i could definitely see remus’s arc following a similar pattern (while the specifics of what it’s about are different). (based on some stuff thomas has said about remus on his patreon livestreams, i’m not quite as sure about this now as i used to be, but i do still think it’s a very plausible option.)

Favorite moment: honestly everything he did in the 5 year special?? but especially how he responded to the very first question. it was. fascinating. i have many thoughts but will probably not be elaborating on them at this time bc this post is already going to be long enough lol.

Idea for a story: OH I HAVE A VERY SPECIFIC ONE I’VE BEEN WANTING TO DO FOR AGES NOW. IT’S SO ANGSTY YALL ARE GOING TO CRY WHEN I GET AROUND TO THIS. so this would be a songfic based on 18 by anarbor. it would be intrulogical, but with a bittersweet ending at best and honestly really just h/nc.

basically: logan, fresh to adulthood, decides to have a Rebellious Phase, instead of being the perfect son of his rich suburban parents like he always has been. and the main part of this rebellious phase takes the form of pursuing a relationship with remus, who is a year or two older than him and is Cool and Punk and is a studio artist and has a motorcycle and tattoos and is basically logan’s Bad Boy fantasy (and his parents’ Bad Boy nightmare).

and on the one hand, remus absolutely knows better than to indulge logan in what is clearly an impulsive choice, motivated by the desire to spite his parents and assert his individuality and ability to make his own decisions, rather than out of any actual love for remus. but on the other hand, remus has been hopelessly in love with logan since they were teenagers (they used to be childhood friends, together with roman; they were next-door neighbors growing up, but haven’t seen each other in a few years, as remus has quietly been cut off and estranged by his and logan’s families, who disapprove of his having dropped out of college to be an artist).

so even though he knows this is only going to end badly, remus lets logan kiss him (all clumsiness and tongue), and he takes logan for rides on the motorcycle, and paints him in his studio, and lets him live in remus’s tiny apartment. and when logan’s parents (who are probably patton and virgil) send logan’s rich lawyer uncle janus to try and intimidate the pair of them into sending logan home, remus tells him to fuck off, and ignores the way janus whispers to him as he leaves that remus doesn’t deserve logan. and remus lets himself pretend that logan loves him for as long as it lasts.

and of course it all comes crashing down a few months later, as logan realizes that this is not the fun glamorous life he imagined. and he realizes that following his parents’ plan—four years of college on a trust fund, get into a relationship with a nice guy, get a well-paying job, and settle down—is a lot easier and, frankly, more appealing to him than staying with remus would be. and remus pretends that it doesn’t hurt as he watches logan leave, to be welcomed back home with open arms, having used remus to give himself a prodigal son narrative and then thrown him away when he got what he really wanted all along. (he knows logan didn’t realize that was what he was doing. but that’s what it was.)

and then for the epilogue: some years later, remus crashes the wedding, which he was not invited to, of roman and logan. roman is the kind of Nice Guy logan’s parents approve of. roman is good and perfect and not messy or weird or disapproved of. roman is what remus never could be. the measuring stick remus was always held up to and found lacking against. it makes sense that when logan was done with remus, he would ultimately fall into roman’s perfect, gilded, golden waiting arms. it makes sense, and it hurts, just like everything about remus’s old life.

remus sits in the back of the reception, drinking champagne and quietly smuggling food from the buffet into the backpack full of tupperware he brought with him. later, he congratulates logan (who accepts it in a slightly strained way), and tells him he hopes that he and roman will be happy together. (logan hesitates for the barest instant before agreeing.) roman comes over, puts his arm around his new husband, and exchanges some extremely passive-aggressive small talk with his twin. remus takes a small bit of delight in needling roman, but it’s not all that fulfilling. the conversation is… dull. logan is no longer the bright-eyed, curious young man, passionate about so many things and ready to take on the world, that remus fell in love with. he has curled up into the mold of the perfect life he is expected to live, and left all the best things about himself behind. remus feels heavy inside, almost desiring to mourn—but he also feels a breath of air. he has not moved on from logan, and he knows he won’t for some time, but—now he knows it will happen. the logan he loves is gone and the man wearing his face is cold and clinical. remus can already tell that, through the disappointment and grief, he will find his way to closure.

logan’s eyes follow remus as he leaves the reception, something almost like regret on his face. but that’s fine. remus knows logan will box that up and put it away and content himself with his perfect husband and perfect life, because that’s what he should do, and logan really does love to do as he should. and that’s fine. logan chose stability where remus chose self. that’s fine. remus will go home to his art and his motorcycle and his new cat and learn how to start again.

Unpopular opinion: okay so. i don’t think remus has a ton of internalized angst about being “the evil twin” or around rejection. but i 100% do think his brashness and being so open about everything is a defense mechanism against rejection. like. i make myself very very visibly queer irl (which, let it be noted, i have the privilege to do in relatively total safety because i am white, have wealthy White Liberal TM parents who support me, and live in a relatively progressive area of the united states, all of which makes it much safer for me to do this without fearing repercussions) as a defense mechanism. i got treated really really badly by some homophobic friends in high school when i first came out, and i put up with it for way too long because i cared about them so much, and it gave me uhh a Lot of trauma; so now, being visibly queer is a way to make sure that those kinds of people stay away from me, and i don’t have the opportunity to start caring about them before they hurt me. i think remus is doing something very similar with his leaning so fully into self-expression. what you see is what you get, so he doesn’t have to worry that someone will act like they care about him and then change their mind when they get to know him better.

Favorite relationship: dukeceit my beloveds <3 but i already talked about that on my post about janus for this ask game, so a close second is creativitwins!!

i have a ton of younger siblings and i have really good relationships with all of them, and strong sibling relationships is one of the most common recurring themes in both my original writing and in my fics; i definitely project my feelings about my own siblings onto the siblings i write. (this is why u will find very few mentions of r*mr*m on my blog. it squicks me out so incredibly hard that i just. generally don’t even acknowledge its existence unless i have to.)

so i LOVE creativitwins stuff with all my heart. i always love angst, but honestly for creativitwins content i’m even more fond of fix-it fluff where they just care about each other and get along. i love giving them a really close healthy sibling relationship, instead of,,, [gestures at canon]. i really love them as twins in aus, of course, but i also enjoy making them be non-twin siblings!! and i like both options for who is older and who is younger, tbh. they both create really fun dynamics to play with. i really want them to start getting along in canon. (their logos are a sword and a shield they LITERALLY are MADE to work together and thomas will be SO much better off if they learn to get along and unlock their full potential!!!! they are brothers and they deserve to love each other again!! I Would Like To See It!!!!!!)

(ooh, and on a different note, i’m also a HUGE sucker for platonic/familial intrulogical, which i sadly don’t see content for all that often. romantic intrulogical is fine, sure, but platonic? i will give you my soul.)

Favorite headcanon: man has tentacles. because uh,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, no further comments.

in case ppl don’t want to scroll back up: [ask me abt my thoughts on tss characters] [if anyone is curious: at this point i have talked about janus, patton, virgil, and now remus!]

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #thatsthat24 #remus sanders #ts remus #peregrin said a thing #peregrin answers #peregrin plays a game #edupunkn00b

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count-woe-laf · 3 years

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Bro, ok, look, i know i don't like tss anymore, but i was thinking about what made me actually dislike the show and i realized it's the lack of acknowledgement that all the characters have about stuff that happened?? Like, in the whole puppet episode and what not logan physically harmed roman and everyone was just ":0" and then it never got acknowledged or even affected anything besides stuff in that specific episode?? Like, stuff is brushed over so easily- patton literally turned into a giant frog because of stress and he had a freaking breakdown and then janus showed up and was like "lmao what was that about- anyway here's why thomas needs to listen to me, patton's well being isn't relevant for the plot anymore", ya know what i mean??? Also i really hated how virgil's actions got dismissed regularly- like, he caused severe distress to the other sides by making them anxious and stressed about stuff and he sometimes even got to the point of making the others feel bad about themselves and it's always just "oh it's okay actually cause he was feeling anxious and that means he gets to take it out on other people and never face any consequences :)"- that and he also never makes an effort to try and work around his own anxiety, the others always have to help him or else he just can't do anything about it boo hoo the little baby :( - like, yeah, having a support system is good but also he should learn to try and also take care of his anxiety by himself, he shouldn't be fully dependent on the others to make him not anxious, that's not good :/

Anyways, you're v pretty and smart, love u mwah

I'm sitting here nodding along- yeah you're right and I get it!! and maybe it would've been better if there we quicker episodes and less Extra things to do so there would be acknowledgment before it all broke. And like a lack of communication really bothers me especially if it's not for an actual Reason. Anyways I'm drowning in other media I enjoy how are you doing?

#asdfgjhasj #there were definitely some things and yeah i still find the videos amusing but i'm glad i've removed my emotional state from it more yknow?#like. i felt like it was done to show how bad it felt or something?? (I'm not making sense sorry) but like. looking back it all seems a #little much. it could've been dealt with better! and also the last real video was a year ago and it was a year before that #got a little sick of it- glad i've immersed myself in even worse things #ask #sanders sides #(for the blacklist)#ts negativity #(just in case)

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illusion-reality-steve · 3 years

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Reaction to RQ!Reverse episodes (Librarian, Nightmare’s Return, Sandwich Boi’s brief moment of glory, Chaos vs Ultra)

First of all.........wow.

...I have many negative feelings about these episodes.

Ok. These episodes.

It’s all RUINED, Can I fix it? Can Chaos Steve be STOPPED? I’ll find out IMPORTANT tips on how to STOP the DARKNESS 1 reason NIGHTMARE STEVE is still ALIVE This is how Nightmare Steve TRICKED me! Mysterious Figure CONFRONTS Nightmare Steve TRAPPING Chaos Steve and STEALING his power! I created ULTRA STEVE, and you won’t believe this but... WOW...Ultra Steve did THIS to Chaos Steve Why would Dark Steve BEG Rainbow Steve for THIS? This Steve actually RETURNED!! NO WAY! The ONLY way to defeat the ULTIMATE Steve in Minecraft How to make a PORTAL to the VOID! Reverse Steve finally LOST IT

14 episodes. 14 episodes total after the Faceless arc to finally deal with Reverse Steve.

Compared to how long the arcs in the Steve Saga are, 14 episodes seems like a short, clean amount of plot advancement.

But while I was bingewatching these episodes, it didn’t feel like 14 episodes of story to me. It felt like....chaos.

The plot in these episodes is really jarring to me because it was doing WAY too much in a SMALL amount of time. And most of the plot was the heroes reacting, rather than being proactive. And I...didn’t like it.

Let me explain:

So, the Steve Saga did a “Villain of the Week” format. Where one (1) villain is introduced and dealt with, and then the next villain is introduced. It was repetitive, but easy to follow.

Examples from the Steve Saga: Dark was a threat. Dealt with. Shadow was a threat. Dealt with. Nightmare was a HUGE threat and Shadow and Dark were added, but it worked because we know who Dark and Shadow are. Dealt with. Then Reverse, then Positive/Negative/Infinity, then Plague, then Faceless, and so on.

Rainbow Quest doesn’t follow that formula. It’s connecting all of its villains into one arc, where one villain is naturally the consequence of another villain.

Rainbow Quest Season 1 mainly set up the villains, the main plot, and a sequel hook. This is unlike the Steve Saga because while the villains just spawned into the story line, Rainbow Quest is showing us the rise of the villains. We know Nightmare’s origins, Dark’s origins, and Reverse’s origins, and they were all spaced out and connected to the main plot (getting the crystals) well.

We had Nightmare as an antagonist, or an obstacle in the main plot (finding the 7 crystals while saving Steves from doom), and his actions created Dark Steve. That worked. And since Rainbow Red was established early in the series and had little cameos before his transformation to Reverse Steve, that helped set up the sequel hook for Season 2. That also worked. imo, the format RQ Season 1 uses is a lot better than TSS’s formula; it’s less repetitive so it feels fresher to long-time viewers, and it connects to the overarching plot well.

But Rainbow Quest S2 didn’t follow the format S1 used.

While Season 1 has a good balance between main plot (finding the crystals) and subplots (setting up villains and future story), Season 2 had WAY too much and an unbalanced amount of subplots. S2′s subplots TOOK OVER the main plot.

What even is the main plot of S2? Well, based on the first episode where we heard Rainbow’s voice, I think the audience was expecting the main plot to be Rainbow Steve saving Steves and adjusting to becoming the new hero and keeping his identity secret to boost morale, while Reverse (later Chaos) will be the main villain.

We were supposed to see Rainbow and Sabre go from color to color to help everyone defend against the Darkness and restore hope.

But then that got hijacked by Reverse, who drained all of Rainbow’s powers and forced him to be saved by the Orange Steves, outing him as being Main Orange reincarnated as the hero.

Rainbow and Sabre haven’t even saved anyone yet at this point. They just went to the Yellow Steves to receive Light’s training and the Orange Steves to see that they’re doing well.

The beginning of the season made a huge deal of keeping Rainbow’s true identity a secret. It was going to be part of his character development about responsibility, bravery, and being someone else. But S2 just did a speedrun of that character arc because he was immediately outed, and the Orange Steves were ok with the truth. So why was there so much stress on Rainbow’s secret when it wasn’t going to impact the plot anyways??

Anyways, then they did their side quest of helping Ghost Steve (which was a valid thing to do), which led to the Faceless sideplot. And immediately after Faceless’ defeat (with hints of Void’s debut), Reverse and Dark just came in and destroyed everything. Not even a moment to breathe. They just caught Rainbow and Sabre off guard. This makes these two look easily distracted. They should had done better to prepare for Reverse and Dark (especially since they asked Leader to help increase defenses in the Rainbow Hub).

Like, there’s a difference between struggling with your new responsibilities as a hero and being just completely uncapable, and it felt like Sabre and Rainbow were the latter.

And finally, for once, Sabre did something proactive and found Light Steve, bringing him to the library to get help. But they got side tracked and decided to go investigate Nightmare’s “death”. But was that even relevant to rescuing Rainbow?

And then they went to the Void (proactive), but they were just pushed around, given a villain monologue by Nightmare until Galaxy saved them (reactive, deus ex machima)

Basically.....S2 sacrificed its main plot of having Orange adjust to being Rainbow in favor of all of these subplots that were made to set up the third season (which will probably be about Void Steve), and I dislike this approach. It makes S2 feel chaotic and unfocused. It felt like the heroes accomplished nothing. It seemed like things were handed to them too easily (help from Ghost Steve, the Orange Steves, and Galaxy), or they were completely unprepared and not suitable to be heroes (not even getting a chance to save Steves and fight villains until later).

And worst of all, this arc just made the heroes look reactive, bending to the will of the villains. We didn’t get a good story of Rainbow learning how to adjust to his new life as the hero. We didn’t get a story of Rainbow learning how to be brave. Instead, we got a story of villains always having the upperhand and the heroes looking silly trying to stop them last minute. And a bunch of events/subplots that weren’t even connected well together.

It’s just really hectic.

And it’s a shame. Because the content IS good. But the way the season was structured and what it chose to focus on...just ruined the story.

So....yeah.

I really disliked the Reverse Steve arc. The Void and Galaxy arc better make up for it, so I can forgive its setup for ruining the Reverse Steve arc.

Disclaimer: I’m aware that the Void Steve arc isn’t the third season, but another part of the second season. Keep in mind that these reaction posts are just my initial reactions and opinions and me explaining them. Rn I’m behind on Rainbow Quest and trying to record my genuine first reactions as I binge-watch this stuff. Overall, these posts aren’t meant to be about facts or theorizing what the future episodes will be about, but me just discussing my thoughts on these episodes as they are (and people are of course welcomed to join the discussion regardless of their opinions). Just wanna clarify in case anyone is confused XD

#reaction #rainbow quest #rainbow quest spoilers #negative #analysis

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sign-from-god-complex · 4 years

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Um, so you're like a Tumblr god with writing, so do you have any tips on how to get your stories noticed and out there? Thank you!

ashdgfsdh that’s so!!!! nice!!!!! ty!!! so, to be totally honest, part of my situation is that I got really lucky with one of my fics early on, where it got like,,, a lot of notes and as such I ended up with way more followers but I can still try to give some tips!!!

(this got a little long, so I’m putting it under a cut)

1. Tagging

People (me included) will go through the Sanders Sides or character tags to find stuff to reblog. Only the first five tags you throw in will actually have your work in them (i.e. if you tag ‘1′, ‘2′, ‘3′, ‘4′, ‘5′, ‘6′, the fic will only show up when you search 1-5) and it won’t show up through searches at all if you use certain words (swear words, in particular, I’ve noticed).

Making sure to tag your stuff in a way that people will see definitely helps but also make sure it’s relevant tags. People looking for prinxiety won’t be thrilled to have analogical in the tag they’re searching. You can check my fics for the way I tag them if you want!

And, in relation to a different kind of tagging, use tag lists! I know there’s some general ones online (@the-taglist-repository has a bunch) but sometimes author’s will also just straight up tell you to tag them in stuff (e.g. I love being tagged in aspec or autistic sides content, @/rosesisupposes likes being tagged in superhero AUs, @/sleepless-in-starbucks demands /j to be tagged in all losleep content, etc. etc.).

I would be careful about just tagging people though. I’m, personally, not a fan of being tagged in things that I haven’t asked to be tagged in. It strikes me a little bit as ‘you’re a big blog so I’m just using your followers to try and promote myself’, even if that isn’t the intention.

2. Make content regularly

Now, I get that regularly putting out content is definitely not as easy as just saying you will—life gets in the way sometimes and creativity is stressful—but it definitely helped me when I started writing. I wasn’t doing much else with my time (an unusual circumstance), so I was putting out like,, at least 2 fics a month. In the entirety of last year I wrote 80 fics. But seriously, the more you write, the better your writing will be (practise!) and the more likely people will see it.

You can also try doing writing games like I’ve done for follower milestones in the past. You can find lists of prompts on tumblr, reblog them and ask people to send you a prompt and a ship for you to write a drabble for. There’s also things like Secret Santa (where people trade content for the holidays) and Soulmate September is this month, organised by @tsshipmonth2020! So participating in writing events that you find could also help!

3. Interact with other writers

The biggest thing, I think, personally, to help content creators is for them to work together to lift each other up (sounds kinda cheesy but I’m serious). If you comment on other people’s work telling them how much you enjoyed their fics, I guarantee they’ll be thrilled and you may become friends! (I’ve had,,, several friendships start this way; @/sleepless-in-starbucks and @/max-is-tired, among others).

And you can interact with writers outside of tumblr too! Discord is a super great way to chat with other writers and get your fics out there, I’ve found. There’s even some discord servers dedicated specifically to writing tss fanfics (@potestessemagishomosexualitatis has a great one that I’m in and ik there’s one run by discord user ‘parallelwrites’, though I’m not certain of their tumblr URL).

4. Write what you enjoy!

I guarantee people can tell if you’re writing stuff you’re not enjoying. You don’t have to write only the most popular ships to get notes on your writing (I mean, just look at Lia, who’s basically made their blog on the foundation of losleep). You should write the things you like, even if they’re niche, cause I promise if you want to read it, there’s other people out there who do as well.

I mean, I just read a qpr sleepxiety soulmate AU that the author (@averykedavra) described as ‘self-indulgent’. I’m a huge fan of platonic/queerplatonic sleepxiety but I never see it written! It’s not popular! But Avery wrote it and I loved it. I did not expect so many people to be thrilled about my aroace-Logan coming out story! I wrote it for Me but people really seemed to enjoy it! You never know what people will love.

5. Take care of yourself

This is maybe not so much writing advice as it is a caveat for all the stuff I’ve said here. At the end of the day, writing is fun and getting praise on your stories feels awesome, and I totally get that, but you gotta make sure not to burn yourself out. I went through a period when I started fic writing where I was,,,, a little too dependant on the feedback I got and if I didn’t get what I considered “enough notes” it basically sent me into a downward spiral.

Now, that’s me and I know not everyone will feel that way, but it’s good to remember you have worth outside of what you create. If you can’t manage to write the amount you think you “should” be, that’s okay. If you can’t manage to finish a piece you’ve been working on, that’s okay. If you go for months without writing because of stress, life or simply writer’s block, that’s all okay.

You are the most important thing in your creative endeavours; don’t forget that.

#sanders sides #sanders sides fic #I'll leave the tagging there since this is #barely tss-related ajhgd #I'm sorry this is so long but also I'm not #if you ask me for advice you gotta be prepared for /advice/#I truly never shut up ajskdhfg #but I do hope this is helpful!#lo speaks #anonymous #ask lo #also! anyone is free to add on if they want

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callmearcturus · 4 years

Text

a list of sports things i know

philly teams have the best drama, the absolute best drama. gritty is a worker and you have to Trust the Process. also that time the GM for the sixers set up a bunch of sockpuppets on twitter to safely attack his star player and then got fucking caught is aaaaaamazing, best story in sports.

the patriots are really the fucking worst. they illegally spy on other teams in the league, their coach is a genius but uses his powers for evil, and for a long time they basically dodged the "fairness" of the allowance cap by tom brady purposefully taking less pay for a QB so money could be rerouted to buying better players in other positions, which is cheating by having money.

however they did loan their jet to Mass to move PPE from china to Mass so trump would stop stealing it, so i guess they did one good thing. also i think brady left, so how's that gonna affect the salary cap thing????? who knows.

there's a lot of stuff to be worried about sports-wise but the NFL is probably the worst sport ever and regularly ruins the lives of its players and then denies involvement in their long-term brain injuries. just the way the game is played is literally dangerous. and yet, we all still love to see the patriots lose.

MLB is fucking boring. i'm sorry but i've never retained any baseball story i have ever heard, they don't even have the juicy gossip like who even cares.

besides, blaseball said Trans Rights and is therefore the more culturally relevant sport anyway.

so madison square garden is home to the knicks right, and also its owned by this scion to a cable tv empire, right. so the knicks are run atrociously bc cable scion guy is bad at teams. HOWEVER one horrible and true and amazing fact is that..... if a band comes and plays Madison Square Garden in NYC, instead of their usual opening act, whoever that is, there will be ANOTHER opening act. JD & The Straight Shot. JD&TSS is the vanity rock band of the cable scion. the band is made up of James Dolan, frontman, wealthy billionaire, and a bunch of paid-for talented session musicians. they've opened for ZZ Top, Jewel, the fucking Eagles, Keith Urban, the Dixie Chicks, etc. It's dreadful.

these are the things i know about sports. all the drama. do i know how a sport is played? no. and i never will.

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popatochisssp · 4 years

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do- do you have more to say about the bros' personalities- dont mind me being absolutely NOT gay, nothing's happening, no sir. (also if you have more precise physical description of them i'm all ears. i'll have to reread the stuff you said but im just a teeny dumbass who likes details dont mind :pensive:) -B☆

Hmmm, stuff I haven’t already said...

Well!

Ash is a real go-with-the-flow type: there’s not much that gets under his skin...maybe ‘cause he doesn’t have any? Ba-dum-tss... His general attitude is ‘c’est la vie,’ whatever’s gonna happen will happen and there’s not really anything he can do about it. Underground, that outlook was uh...not...doing him a lot of favors... but on the Surface, it’s actually pretty functional and even optimistic at times, so there’s that!

He’s a big softie, and also a weird kind of social in that he doesn’t talk all that much (not unless he’s got something really relevant to say), but he likes to be around people anyway. Community and family are big for him and he likes being part of things, around happy and smiling people, even if he’s not directly contributing or specifically being addressed.

Yrus is an optimist, even when it’s hard to be, the sort of guy who doesn’t like to see anybody struggle without help or hope...probably because he’s had his fill of that for a couple lifetimes already! Underground, when everything was still bad, it was a little...like this. But on the Surface! There’s so many options and possibilities and things he they can all do when something’s going wrong, so nobody has to just sit around and accept their fate if they don’t want to! Isn’t that so amazingly cool???

He’s absolutely a helper type, likes to check in on his friends and family to make sure they’re all doing good, and if the answer is ‘no,’ to see if there’s anything he can do to change that. He’s...working on establishing boundaries there, because, um...well, there’s only so many people he can give his time to before he doesn’t have any left for himself!

(There may have been....a small...very minuscule...emotional breakdown, of sorts, shortly after Surfacing, to the tune of, “OH STARS ABOVE, I WAS SO WORRIED WE WOULD NEVER GET UP HERE AT ALL, HOW CAN I NOT BE DOING EVERYTHING I CAN DO AT ALL TIMES?!”)

(Luckily, that was plenty to make Ash realize he may have been taking his brother’s seemingly endless optimism as a given while he was stuck in the middle of his own emotional junk, and, “aw, bro...”)

It’s all good now, though! They hugged it out and figured that...probably the best way to go about stuff is somewhere in between ‘can’t control everything, so why worry?’ and ‘if you can do something, you should.’

They’ve both got their brother there to check them if they’re going a little too far in one direction, so they’ll be alright. :3

#bulle-blackhole #undergloom

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jzixuans · 4 years

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hi blink :D do you like curate your blog/the stuff you reblog?? Bc I kinda wanna start posting my writing etc. but I’d feel and if I was like spamming ppl with reblogs of just stuff I find neat

lmao everything on this blog ranges on a spectrum of Relevant To Fandom (tss, taz), Vaguely Related To Fandom (tropes and misc), Cats, My Own Shit (art, writing, talk posts), Current Events That I Think Are Important, and uh. Shit That Has No Correlation Whatsoever

#idk there's like a vague theme that i follow but it's gotten so loose now #it used to be Solely tss and my stuff #now we're uh #*gestures*#that #cursing tw #sassycc8 #ask

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ask-whitepearl-and-steven · 5 years

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I'm sure you've probably already answered this but how did you get your comic to really take off? Was it just consistent posting or luck or something else? What would you recommend aspiring online comic writers do?

What made my comic take off was

1. Having a reliable fanbase of people who already expected Steven Universe art from me. I already had followers on my main blog who knew I drew SU stuff, and they were already there to reblog my SU related posts, which meant the early comics got a lot more mileage than they otherwise would have.

2. Posting every day for the first uhhhhh 2-3 months of the comic? Reliability is a really good way of building interest and trust in your readership. I posted at a breakneck pace that I would not recommend to ANYONE - it kind of destroyed anything I could call a personal life. But I can’t deny that it did help boost my readership. I don’t want to say you need to post daily. In fact, please don’t do that to yourself. But posting more leads to more chances of people discovering you.

3. Tagging things properly and making sure the comic was easily found by someone who might be interested in it. That means tagging it things like “Steven Universe” and “Steven Universe AU” and “momswap AU” (a word I had to find because I didn’t realize that’s what these types of AUs were called). Basically, advertizing! I tagged the comic as everything under the sun for the first few months. Just in case.

Also, this one is kinda debatable but I’ll mention it anyway:

4. Having a storyline that is easy to understand even when it’s in its baby-stages!

A lot of young and beginning artists/authors I find struggle with one big thing...

MAKING YOUR STORY READABLE!

This is difficult. I mean, it’s the most difficult thing in writing.

I still struggle with it. Published authors struggle with it.

As authors, we already know our own story. BUT knowing a story and writing a story are different. It’s a matter of organization.

You can’t just dump everything you want on your readers and hope that they’ll be able to sort it out in chronological or relevant order by themselves. Sure, some really dedicated readers will do that, but most WON’T!

Your writing HAS to be digestible to the average reader!

A lot of really great stories - really great premises - have really really muddled beginnings. They start in the middle of things, instead of the beginning. They introduce too many characters, or give too many details, or dive into a scene before the reader fully knows the relevance of each participating party.

Sure, these things are all interesting to YOU because you already know WHY they are interesting. But to a first-time reader, they will be meaningless without the basic building blocks of a story to MAKE it interesting.

Many people have stories with LoTR levels of worldbuilding, history-crafting and character-building. And they try to cram this into the opening paragraphs (or opening scenes) as if that’s what readers want.

(And yes, that’s what readers want. But like... there’s a time and place for everything.)

But if I have to drudge through 13 pages of Who-The-Fuck-Is-This-Guy and Why-The-Hell-Is-She-Depressed-And-Why-Do-I-Care and What-Is-The-Great-Event-This-Isnt-Interesting-If-Everything-Is-A-Mystery then I’m putting the book down and walking away.

MAKE. READABLE. CONTENT.

A lot of the greatest hooks are simplest. People like understanding stuff. Concepts that can be explained in one sentence are the key.

“Evil ring needs to go into Lava, but it’s being delivered by a hilariously unqualified crew.”

“Boy realizes he is a wizard, life is good after all”

...

Basically, I didn’t plan my story to be digestible. I ain’t that smart.

BUT I got lucky in the fact that it WAS digestible. It was simple.

The premise was - White Diamond Steven exists. White Pearl watches him sleep. They decide to run away together. Funny shenanigans ensue.

Literally when this comic started, although I already knew the larger, more dramatic and more complicated plot, I decided to forgo it because I really just wanted to make funny comics about White Pearl pulling stacks of cash out of her gem.

And that kind of humor and storyline is VERY easy to follow, because it’s very simple and to the point. You don’t even need to know anything about SU to enjoy it.

Boy needs money? Magical forest cryptid friend procures cash by PROBABLY illegal means. Ba dum TSS!

Anyway, the readability of this got me a lot of people commenting things like “I know nothing about Steven Universe but this is hilarious” and I later got people telling me that they were reading my comic and only THEN going back and watching SU for the first time to catch up on relevant background details. That SHOCKED me, to be honest, but I later realized that the readability of the comic was basically my saving grace all along.

And now I can preach to you about it, which is hilarious, because I didn’t even mean for it to happen, but here we are!

Anyway. That got outta hand! Sorry.

#chekhov answers #cocobunny313

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blissicle · 4 years

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Hello! So this post is just gonna be for if your new to my blog (hi new people!) Where I’ll be explaining some of the tags that I have and how I run this blog.

Some little things to know about me and the blog:

I’m a Roman and Virgil Stan so I reblog and create content surrounding them a lot. And also a Prinxiety Stan (platonic/romantic)

((and yes, with that information you can assume FwSA absolutely killed me))

I try not to reblog any politicial topics or push any beliefs on here since it makes me uncomfortable or down and I just want this blog to be a safe escape from the world

I also try my best not to reblog anything with character negativity and I don’t really make posts about stuff like that, but if I ever do, I’ll be sure to tag it as so

I am a butt about tags, sometimes I use tags like ‘ts (character)’ or ‘ts mention’ but I don’t do it very often because I’m lazy. I usually use tags as a way for me to SCREM™️/ ramble into the void. But I do tag the content I make to kinda get it out there in the world

I draw and write! None of my stuff is perfect, but I’m growing!

I have ADHD so ye

I’m incredibly socially awkward, but feel free to send me asks!

I sometimes use weird terms that you may not automatically know the meaning to (Ex. Butt= stubborn or dramatically lazy)

I say yall

If you send me appreciation, I have the immediate instinct to send love and appreciation back, as well as make more content. And then constantly give you support in return. (Can you tell I’m a hufflepuff)

Side note: Please be kind, and not send any hate or negativity. It’s an absolute waste of your time to send hate to me or to any other blog, and it’s a harmful way of making your voice heard. This is a small blog so hate is very rare for me, but I’m just saying this for future pretences and just for the sake of it.

Here are some of the tags that I do actually use:

(For your purposes of if there’s something you want to specifically find or block from showing up. And don’t worry, blocking any tags are valid so don’t feel bad about it)

#god tier artwork and #beautiful artwork are artworks that I reblog, the majority being TSS related

#my art is well, my art. It’s not the best, but it’s something you might want to check out.

#blissful writing is my new tag for fanfics or just concepts that I write!

#screaming appreciation at mutuals is me loving the wonderful people who are my mutuals (that I highly suggest following if you haven’t already)

#sleepy drawings that are too pure for this world is the wonderful traditional art made by sleepy-starling that I always have a soft spot for, so they get their own tag as a treat

#my favourite fics are my list of fanfiction that I absolutely adore/ my personal preference

#rambling in the tags and #rant I tend to get carried away and end up writing essays in tags for posts/reblogs so these tags are just for stuff like that

#random thoughts and #me being me are just the random posts I make whenever I have something on my mind that I absolutely can’t rest until I write it down and post it. Sometimes it’s just me being a butt, And other times it’s posts that are basically the equivalent of me slamming your door open saying “YOURE NOT GONNA BELIEVE WHAT I JUST CAME UP WITH” at 11 at night, running on 2 hours of sleep and a Dr.pepper.

#important posts are just going to be reblogs/ posts that I think is important to share. Posts about the blog for if I change something or make an announcement that affects the blog don’t go under this tag, but instead go under #blog announcements

#mental updates these are posts I make for when I’m expressing my stress and anxiety, as well as letting you know if I’m taking a break from tumblr

#character negativity and #not so blissful are tags im going to be using for any topics that put down other characters in a unsympathetic way or have political/controversial topics. I suggest blocking this one if stuff like that makes you uncomfortable, but don’t worry posts like that are not going to be a common thing on here. This is just for if I do, since the guidelines I make for myself aren’t guaranteed.

#somewhat character negativity is going to be for post/reblogs that fall in the gray area, where it doesn’t put them in a bad or unsympathetic light, but does still criticise them/ antagonises them. I don’t think blocking this tag is necessary, but go ahead if you want to.

#the gods of prinxiety writing have blessed us with food is literally any prinxiety content I especially really like, and it’s more than just writing, so basically this is just the prinxiety tag

#being relatable with the kids heh- me making a meme or joke hoping that it’s relevant

And that’s pretty much all I can think of right now, I will probably add more to this post in the future, but that’s it! Love yall!

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suzie-guru · 6 years

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Suzie Watched “Coco”...

...AND SHE LOVED IT!

Ahhhhh, this scene!

So, as I mentioned before, I wanted to write my initial impression of what the story is about before I actually saw the movie, for the sole purpose of looking back and seeing just how much I was off by.

So, this is (gathered from what little snippets I have seen on Tumblr) Suzie’s impression of Coco:

There’s a young boy named Miguel who loves music and playing the guitar (he also has a dog but that doesn’t seem to be too terribly relevant). He has a grandmother he loves very much, but he has to keep his passion for music and guitar playing a secret from her. There’s one famous musician he really admires, Señor Big Chin.

Somehow, Miguel is transported into the Land of the Dead, where everything is super colorful and whimsical and all in all a really amazing tribute to animation and Mexican culture. There, Miguel meets a Hobo Skeleton named Héctor, who seems to be a pretty cool dude and who also loves the guitar and doing crazy stuff with his limbs/bones. He will frequently combine these two things in very clever ways.

Héctor appoints himself Miguel’s guardian in the Land of the Dead since Miguel technically shouldn’t be there because he’s, well, living. Héctor, being a Hobo Skeleton, doesn’t seem to be very popular with the other skeletons (I don’t understand why, he seems like a really cool dude). Miguel eventually finds Señor Big Chin and wants to play with him at a big concert the Land of the Dead is holding. There’s a Skeleton Señorita Singer who is Drop Dead Gorgeous (bah-dum-tss) and both Héctor and Señor Big Chin are crushing on her. But Skeleton Señorita Singer wants nothing to do with our Hobo Skelton because apparently they have HISTORY.

Miguel finds out that Héctor is suffering due to some strange flashing light which turn out to mean that someone in the living world is forgetting him. This person turns out to be Miguel’s grandmother because - SURPRISE - she was actually Héctor’s daughter he had with Skeleton Señorita Singer while they were alive, and Héctor loved her so much he wrote a song for her.

But apparently Héctor pulled some Real Bad Shit when he was alive, which pissed off Skeleton Señorita Singer and made Miguel’s grandmother erase every reminder of her father and hate music. BUT BUT BUT--

--it turns out that Señor Big Chin was actually the one to pull the Real Bad Shit and stole Héctor’s song and basically set Héctor up before killing him. Why Héctor doesn’t remember this, I don’t know - maybe he was pickling himself with embalming fluids to numb the pain?

Señor Big Chin is eventually exposed and banished from the Land of the Dead, Héctor and Skeleton Señorita Singer reconcile, and Héctor’s daughter/Miguel’s grandmother passes away and reunites with her father in the Land of the Dead and Miguel is able to carry on with his passion for music.

Also, there’s GREAT music.

(So, that’s what I gathered from what I saw on Tumblr before I blacklisted things to keep myself from getting SUPER spoiled. And now I’m off to watch the real thing...! )

And now I’ve finally see it, and I can address what I had right and wrong and just generally gush about this wonderful wonderful movie <3

What I got wrong:

It was actually Miguel’s GREAT-grandmother who was Héctor’s daughter Ernesto never had a crush on Imelda (THANK GOD)

Ernesto basically stole ALL of Héctor’s music

Héctor had no way of knowing that Ernesto had poisoned him until Miguel pointed out the connection

Héctor did leave his family of his own accord but he never intended to stay away for so long and he was trying to get back to them before Ernesto did him in. Therefor, technically, Ernesto didn’t frame him for anything just stole his music and murdered him the bastard

I also thought Miguel would meet Héctor before he met Imelda

Imelda doesn’t immediately reconcile with Héctor (MORE ABOUT MY FEELINGS ON THAT LATER)

I also had not a single clue about Héctor desperation to cross the bridge/get his picture up before seeing this movie

OKAY. SO, THAT’S OUT OF THE WAY.

This movie is STUNNING - not only in how it captures and honors Mexican culture, not only in its breathtakingly gorgeous animation, not only in its INCREDIBLE music, but in its story. Pixar films are revered for so many things, but for me, its their stories that are the heart of it. You can have the most breathtaking animation in the world, but will fall flat when it doesn’t have a story worthy of it.

And my God, does Coco have a story that has both the happiest and heaviest of hearts.

For me, it all comes down to Héctor. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a Pixar character as tragic as he is.

(my poor sweet Skeleton Boy, I’m so sorry I called you a hobo)

Betrayed by his childhood friend. Killed before he could return home to the family he loved so much. Never got the chance to witness his beloved daughter growing up. Had his music stolen from him by his childhood friend. Continually rejected by Imelda and his family in both life and death. Almost is erased entirely because his beloved daughter so nearly nearly forgets him...

My God, my heart just breaks for him.

And yet he’s so loving, all the same. He’s so encouraging and comforting, all the same. He could have been eaten up by bitterness - the rejections from his family, Ernesto reaping in all the fame and recognition that should rightfully be his - but his determination to see his daughter one last time outweighs that. Héctor flat out tells Ernesto that he never cared about the fame, he only wants to see Coco...

We met a Héctor who has suffered for ages upon ages, and yet he’s still not beaten down. I can only imagine what he was like in life if that’s how he was like after death...

I just love him so much.

And that leads to...Imelda.

I get it. Truly, I do. Héctor did leave his family to go with Ernesto, and we see how deeply that hurt Imelda. Héctor did want to stay away for so long, but it doesn’t change that he did leave. He had the best intentions, but they came at a horrible price.

Imelda is actually one of the most realistic characters in Coco, in my opinion. She was hurt by the man she loved, and she took that hurt and made it into a weapon that both kept her safe and hurt her and her family. She made sure that she and Coco would survive and have a business and a legacy that would endure and help their family...but it came at the cost of Héctor’s memory and legacy.

Imelda was strong and smart and loving. She was also angry, hurt, and bitter. She was at once incredibly proud and incredibly full of pain, for better and for worse. She was all those things, and is all those things.

Did I want her to immediately forgive Héctor once the truth about what Ernesto did came to light? Yes, because I felt Héctor suffered so much already.

But the thing is, Imelda also suffered.

“And so what if it's true? You leave me alone with a child to raise, and I'm just supposed to forgive you?”

She wanted to forget about Héctor because remembering him brought back all the pain his departure caused her. Because she loved him.

And now she has a chance to be back with him, let him back, and she is scared that as soon as she does, it will all fall apart. She has held onto her pride and her strength and bitterness for so long, all in the name of her family, that she doesn’t know what to do if she let’s go.

The line above is a hard truth and Imelda, proud and strong and scared, uses it to lash out.

He left her! He might have tried to come back, but that doesn’t change that he left her and their daughter! Doesn’t she have a right to be hurt? Doesn’t she have a right to hold onto her pride, her pain?

But then when she sees what awaits Héctor...

“I... I can't forgive you. But I will help you.”

For someone like Imelda, so proud and strong and bitter and hurt, forgiveness seems impossible. I’ve often felt the same way. But even as she acknowledges that, she sets her pain and pride aside and helps. Because that’s what family does.

And Héctor and Miguel just gave her the proof that Héctor wanted to be a part of her family...

I’m sure it’s just because I feel so desperatelyfor Héctor, but I really struggled with Imelda saying what she did when the truth came out. But everything I described above stands for a reason. Imelda has a right to her pain. And eventually we do see that she and Héctor reconcile...

But I desperately wanna read fanfic about Imelda finding it within herself to forgive. Because not only has Héctor earned it, but she’s earned it.

"Forgiveness is not to give the other person peace. Forgiveness is for you.”

#Suzie watches Coco #coco #coco spoilers

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feadae · 6 years

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Yo so I’m gonna rant a little about the murder mystery dinner theater show I did over the weekend because I’m still in Post-Show Mode, which means that this is all I’ll be talking about for at least a week, if not more, because I miss the show and don’t want it to be over Brace yourself

So the show is called Final Cut and the story is that all the characters are B-list Hollywood stars (3 actors, a director, a casting director, and a makeup artist) and the audience is a bunch of potential backers for the director’s new movie, in which all of the characters are involved. Then murder happens and one of the actors takes it upon himself to solve the case before anyone calls the police, since being witnesses/accessories to a murder would not be good for the careers of anyone present.

It occurs to me that I’m gonna be using names a lot and that you know precisely none of these people and presumably none of these characters so quick key: Me = Cherri Pitt (ba-dum-tss) = Slightly desperate actress new to Hollywood, hellbent on keeping Eddie in line and keeping the lead role, dating Rock because he has connections, pretending to be dumber than she is Nick = Rock Stud = Leading man opposite Cherri, dating Cherri, neither the brightest nor the humblest crayon in the box Jason = Eddie Cheek = Director of the movie, stole the script and claims to have written it himself, Douchebag of the Year (played by the sweetest human being on the planet--gotta love acting), murdered second Faith = Nova DeVoe = Second lead in the movie, One Diva to Rule Them All, known for stealing lead roles from other actresses, murdered first, Rock’s ex-wife and Eddie’s ex-lover, found Eddie and Cherri sealing the movie deal as it were Katherine = Billie Clubb (ba-dum-tss) = Casting director, head of a bankrupt management company, the real author of the script Eddie stole and SPOILER ALERT the killer, the script doesn’t say so but Katherine decided that Billie’s gay--it’ll become relevant later Shannah = Quinnie Winston = Eccentric makeup artist, works on all of Eddie’s movies because Eddie hit her with his car and arranged a deal with her where he’d employ her if she didn’t take him to court, it’s revealed about halfway through that she faked the car accident and that she’s done it before and been arrested for fraud Savannah = director of the show = One of the most amazing people alive

It was a lot of firsts for me, including my first murder mystery dinner theater, and every second of it was So Much Fun

We only had two weeks of rehearsal, and even though there were some bumps along the way (missing people for several rehearsals due to unavoidable schedule schtuff; being told two days before our dress rehearsal that we couldn’t actually pull costumes from the costume closet, etc.), those bumps resulted in really fun things (one night we were missing Faith, Nick, and Jason--half our cast--so Shannah, Katherine, and I did character work with Savannah for nearly three hours, just talking through our characters’ backstories and attitudes toward various things and people and backgrounds with each of the other characters, which was really fun and resulted in us doing the same thing the next day with Faith, Nick, and Jason, which was even more fun, because Faith and Jason did the whole thing in character like they were on a talk show, and their characters are giant divas/asshats, so it was hilarious. Because of the Costume Veto, we had/got to go thrift shopping for our costumes, and Nick, Jason, Shannah, and I all went together, which was super-fun. We talked and joked and it felt really nice to become closer to these people who are all so sweet and so much cooler than me. Jason found a scooter, wheeled around on it like a giant, adorable child, then proceeded to buy it for himself along with the tux he needed for the show. I was looking for a red dress, since my character’s name is Cherri and it Works, and we couldn’t find one that fit that day, so the next day, Jason drove me to another thrift shop and we found a perfect dress nearly straight away and spent the next half-hour or so just browsing the store and chatting and if he weren’t in the most adorable relationship I’ve ever seen with Nick, I’d have the Crush to End All Crushes on him, like the child I am. That being said, I have Friend Crushes on literally this entire cast and just about 90% of the theater department as a whole. Anyway)

Like I said, the show was a lot of firsts for me, and more firsts included the first time I’ve ever worn red lipstick, liquid eyeliner, or fake eyelashes (all very fun to play with but way too much effort to be worth wearing for anything other than theater). I had to have help putting on the eye makeup; otherwise, I would certainly have gone blind. But multiple times, I was told I looked really nice, which you better know I have internalized like there’s no tomorrow (compliment people, folks; you never know, you might just make their day/week/life/etc.). This was also my first role involving sex, bc I am a Smol Bean Child both inside and out. No sex happened during the show (see again the Smol Bean Child point), but it was a big part of my backstory and a big part of why I’m suspicious. It’s established that my character, Cherri, is new to Hollywood and has had so many failed auditions that when she auditioned for Eddie (played by Jason the Adorable) and he proposed a casting-couch deal, she agreed (don’t worry--she got evidence of it so she could blackmail him if he stepped out of line), and now she’s got her first lead role in a movie. Also, Cherri started dating her costar Rock (played by Nick the Tol) at the first readthrough for the movie, and that had really fun implications for our cast because 1) Nick is 6′4″ and I’m 5′2″ and Rock & Cherri were supposed to be all over each other all night and she was supposed to be hanging on his arm a lot of the time so for half the rehearsal process my hands were up by my face, then I got 4-inch heels (which were 3 sizes too big for me--ha!) and during the actual show they were closer to my sternum but it was still funny whenever I cuddled him because it was like “here let me nuzzle your elbow, Rock, dearest” and 2) Remember when I said that Jason and Nick are dating each other? They’re the Cutest Cute to Ever Cute and I will fight you on this I get diabetes every time I see them interact out of character but it was really fun to pretend to have slept with both of them when they’re dating each other irl. I think it was our mutual friend & castmate Jamie (a different Jamie than the one who will turn up later) who called it “living the dream” when I told her, and I was only half-kidding when I agreed (It doesn’t help my juvenile brain that Jason is bi, so me dating him is a “plausible” fantasy--dammit brain knock it off).

I’m really proud of all the character work I did, though, and I loved going really deep into my backstories with everyone and with myself (I have a 12-page Word document of stuff I came up with for Cherri and I could easily have done more if we’d had more than 2 weeks of rehearsal), and I loved the guided-improv style of the show (we had less of a script and more of a sequence of events, with really important Here’s-A-Clue lines being scripted, and in between big important “scenes” we mingled with the guests in character but we had so much character work done that it was less like improv, which terrifies me, and more like a real conversation, which terrifies me slightly less). We’d done so much character work that I felt like Cherri was for the most part a full-fledged human, whom I was temporarily inhabiting, rather than a character I was playing, which I’m told is what acting is supposed to be, and it was a blast. There were hiccups, of course--improv’s not my strong suit, and I did sort of procrastinate on memorizing the scripted lines I did have--but it was all still super fun, and the show went really well!

More miscellaneous memories:

-The time Faith was helping me fix my hair and just looked me in the face and said “Cali, you’re so pretty” and I Melted -The few times people would tell me I looked great in Cherri’s dress (you better know I internalized that shit) -The lift that wasn’t (at the end of the show, after the killer is revealed and apprehended, I’m supposed to leap into Rock’s arms and proclaim him my hero. Remember, Rock is 6′4″, I’m 5′2″, and I’m in a floor-length, close-to-the-legs dress and 4-inch heels that are 3 sizes too big. That ain’t gonna work. So we changed it to a ballroom-dance lift where I’d be on his hip and he’d spin me around then put me back down instead of me being in his arms and kissing him the way the script says (cue sigh of relief because I’ve never kissed anyone before onstage or off and I didn’t want to subject poor Nick to what I’m sure would Not have been a Good Time). Then we tried it in costume and between me not being able to jump in the Hell Heels and Nick not being able to get a steady hold of me, we decided to just cut the lift altogether and just hug each other instead) -The stage fall that wasn’t (nearer the beginning of the show, a kerfuffle is heard offstage: Rock says, “What are you doing? No!” And screams and you hear an explosion and Rock throws himself into the room as though thrown back by the explosion. He pretend-dies and freaks us all out, then reveals that it was a prank and Eddie threatens to fire him for it. When we started rehearsals, poor Nick was understandably apprehensive about throwing himself onto the hard-wood (or whatever the heck that substance is) floor, since he’s so Tol and he says he wasn’t very good at stage falls in Movement (I refuse to believe there is anything this Angel is not good at, but I digress). So we ended up having him crawl onstage as though mortally wounded, which we decided was funnier anyway, since it took so long and was exactly the kind of extra Nick had decided Rock was) -The dumb names that our audience members wrote on the name cards we gave them and with which we had to address them all night (including but not limited to Captain Schmitty Jones, Two-Tap Shakur, Me No, Schnitzel, and Dr. Dixmal--I had fun appealing to “Dr. Dixmal” when Nova died; I looked right at him and said, “You’re a doctor! Do something!” And he Panicked. “Me No” about died laughing.) >“Me No” later told me that his name came from when everyone was mingling around before the plot really started and Eddie had come up to him and said, “I like your shirt; who made it?” He responded, “Me,” because he had in fact made it himself, and Eddie went, “What’s Me’s last name?” Jamie (“Me No’s” real name) just looked at him and went, “No...” Eddie walked away, muttering “Me No...” And Jamie put it on his name card and that was that. -The audience’s investment in the show and in messing with us >They had really vocal reactions to both of the deaths and to everything else. >I was asked point-blank what was in my purse multiple times during the ten-minute window where there was nothing in it but Cherri didn’t know there was nothing in it, so I panicked and said “just lady things,” and that became a meme for the rest of the night, including when we were lined up along the front for questioning and it was brought up again and I kept insisting it was “just lady things” and Jamie (“Me No”) said “It’s okay, honey, we’ve all seen a tampon before” and started a chant of “Lady things! Lady things! Lady things!” Reacting to that in character was an Adventure. >Jason’s sister and cousin gave all the characters nicknames, which we didn’t discover until the killer was revealed and Jason’s sister shouted, “Billy Ray Cyrus, no!” (I asked them later what my nickname was and they admitted to calling me Cherri Armpit--I expect nothing less) >When Eddie died, he had the knife that killed him in his hand (he was stabbed in the back, though; clearly homicide) and Rock took it and later used it to threaten Billie when she was revealed as the killer. He pulled it on her and Jamie shouted “Kill her!” Billie took the knife from Rock and threatened him with it while she monologued and Jamie shouted “Kill him!” >One person called me over while we mingled to ask what my favorite color was (I said red, because my name is Cherri and it Works) and why my dress was red and why I had “lady things” in my purse (“for...I dunno...blood??”). >A few people asked what was on my recorder after I’d semi-privately threatened Eddie with it and after he’d stolen it from my purse but before I was scripted to reveal it to everyone, so I had to dodge the question and when they asked if I could play it for them, I ended up saying it depended on how Eddie behaved and walking away as mysteriously as I could before they could ask any more questions. >There were a few instances during the mingling sessions where Billie called me over to insist that I could do better than Rock and several audience members overheard and agreed with her (it pained both me and Cherri to have to defend Rock). >When Eddie died, he had my recorder in his hand and it was scripted that I go straight for it, and when I did, Jamie yelled at me, “He’s dead, girl!” >He also challenged Rock to spell motive when Rock was saying he was going to figure out everyone’s motives for killing Nova and Eddie, and Rock stood there for a second before starting, “E...” and I ended up having to feed it to him. >During one of the mingling sessions, Rock was talking about how smart he was, and to prove it, he said, “Did you know that there are actually two Himalayas? Yeah. One’s in Africa and one’s in Europe.” Eddie overheard him and mocked him for it, and it came back later and Jamie overheard and yelled, “That’s not even a little bit true!” I ended up having to defend Rock again, leading to me looking Eddie in the eyes and saying, “If there’s only one, why is it called the Himalayas?” Cherri was screaming inside her head; she graduated magna cum laude from Bryn Mawr, and this is what she’s doing? >My friend Gaston came to watch our dress rehearsal, because we needed humans on whom to practice, and I need you to understand before I tell this story that Gaston is Good and Pure and Must Be Protected. When Nova died, it was revealed that she’d prepared an acceptance speech for when Eddie took the lead role from me and gave it to her, and Quinnie had to read it out loud (it was a Cleverly Disguised summary of everyone’s motives to kill her), and it hammered home just how much of a diva she was. So during the subsequent mingling session, I went over to Gaston and said, “I’m surprised she didn’t write anything about how humble she was” (I was supposed to let how smart I really was show upon occasion so that audience members would suspect me). Gaston the Good and Pure responded, “Well, I’m sure she’s humble wherever she is now.” >There’s a scene where I lose my recorder and accuse Eddie of stealing it because he knew it would get him blacklisted if I played it for anyone, and Rock comes up and asks me what’s wrong, and I’m supposed to say, “I’ll tell you what’s wrong, Rock. Eddie promised me the female lead if I, well...if I...you know...well, let’s just say that he’s a strong advocate of the casting couch,” and I keep going. But in those pauses on Saturday, our dear friend Jamie took the opportunity to interject, “It’s okay; you can say blowjob.” This guy made it really hard to stay in character sometimes, let me tell you. >So when Eddie died, he had a blood pack that was supposed to be in his mouth but was too big for him to reasonably conceal it and still be able to bite down on it, so he held it in his hand and broke it with his hand while coughing to make it look like he was coughing up blood. For both the dress rehearsal and the performance, Jason left that blood pack on the floor with the knife that killed him, which he had also been holding, when Nick and Shannah picked him up and carried his “body” offstage. At the dress rehearsal, our test audience was two people and neither of them said anything about the blood pack, but Rock pointed it out and asked, “Is that a used condom? Such a pervert.” (Our blood packs were indeed condoms filled with stage blood and Scotch-taped shut.) For the performance, while Rock and Quinnie were carrying Eddie away, several people asked, “You’re just gonna leave the knife there?” before Rock was supposed to pick it up, and “Captain Schmitty Jones” asked what the blood pack was, to which Rock responded, “It looks like a used condom. Eddie was always a pervert.” The whole room exploded (led by--you guessed it--Jamie), to the point where I almost didn’t hear Billie comment, “Well, I wouldn’t know.” (See it’s funny because she’s gay and therefore doesn’t use condoms--humor) >After the remaining suspects were lined up and questioned, we asked everyone to write down who they thought was the killer and why, and then before revealing who the killer was, we went over the solutions so we could give prizes for the most and least correct ones. Three separate people submitted that Billie killed Nova and Eddie because she was in love with me (Katherine had decided that Billie was gay, but hadn’t outright told anyone, because the show was supposed to take place in the 1950s), so snaps to Katherine for Quality Acting and letting her character work shine through. >One person submitted the solution that I had thought was correct when I first read the play: Quinnie killed Nova because Nova knew about Quinnie’s habit of jumping in front of cars and suing the drivers, and Cherri killed Eddie because he had broken his promise to her and given the lead to Nova and then to a random audience member after Nova’s death (and also I decided that it would have been because she hardcore hates Eddie because he’s a scumbag and she hates that she stooped to the casting-couch level and just Angst) -General fun with my fellow actors >One rehearsal, we didn’t have Katherine, so Jason stood in for her when we had to run over the end of the show, when and after Billie is revealed as the killer. This scene includes Billie being shoved into a chair, forced into handcuffs, and screaming and kicking in frustration after she’s caught. The sounds and facial expressions Jason made were generally adorable and hilarious (he has one sound in particular that can only be written down as “oh!” but is So Much Cuter and that’s the sound he made when Nick shoved him into the chair it was great) >The script says that Cherri and Rock are very lovey-dovey with each other almost at all times, and that was an adventure at first because Nick is really only lovey-dovey with Jason and I’ve never had an opportunity to be lovey-dovey with anyone so I Don’t Know How, but as the rehearsals continued, we got more comfortable with cuddling each other, and it got to the point where he booped my nose of his own accord and it was Great (is this what human affection feels like) >When we entered, we all had a quick introductory spiel to give, and in Rock’s, he mentions that he was the lead on a TV show that was cancelled after 6 episodes. The show was called Sky Fling, Pilot PI, and Nick decided to make it a running gag that Rock could never say it right, even though he was the lead in the damn thing. So I made it a running gag that every time Rock stumbled on it, Cherri would say quietly, “Sky Fling, Pilot PI, dear.” To which Nick/Rock responded by patting me on the head and telling anyone who was listening, “She’s so cute when she tries.” And like it was a dick move for Rock, and Cherri hated it, and I’m not usually a fan of being patted on the head (which has actually happened to me before, very condescendingly, and I hated it), but I kinda liked it when Nick/Rock did it?? >Our introductory spiels weren’t in the script; we had to come up with them, and when I improvised mine the first time we did it, it was a bit of a trainwreck, so that night after rehearsal I wrote a speech up and sent it to the director for editing and she said it was great and didn’t need to be edited, so that was Validating as Heck >Backstory: there’s a scene before Nova’s death when she says one too many rude things about me and I run up and shove her and say, “I heard the horrible things you said about me!” Then she proceeds to continue to be a terrible human being and says loudly enough for the whole room to hear, “We could have even been friends if I hadn’t found you with Eddie in my bed.” I lose it and try to strangle her, shouting, “Take it back!” because this is the first time it’s revealed for the whole audience to hear that I slept with Eddie (this is after I confront him with the recorder, but that’s quiet and only implies that we slept together). So, during one of the last rehearsals, while Rock is monologuing about how Nova’s body had red marks on her neck, so she must have been strangled, I felt someone’s eyes on me and found Billie staring pointedly at me, which was legitimately terrifying, so of course we had to put it into the actual show. >During the dress rehearsal on Friday, I had a real live good improv moment! During one of our mingling sessions, Billie got fed up with me and said that I was nothing special, because there had been a thousand new, desperate actresses to whom Eddie had given the casting-couch deal. She said to me, “There are a thousand Cherri Pitts out there.” Without even thinking, I innocently tilted my head and said, “No, I’m the only one called Cherri Pitt.” Savannah told me afterward that she had had to physically restrain herself from cackling when I’d said that, so that felt really good. >The performance on Saturday night was the first time we’d run the killer reveal with actual (plastic) handcuffs, and it turned out to be an adventure. Quinnie spent at least a whole minute, if not longer, trying to get one of Billie’s hands cuffed, and then was struggling so hard with the other hand that Rock had to help her (I desperately wanted to help, but I was supposed to stay on the other end of the room so I could run to Rock all dramatic-and-romantic-like after Billie was cuffed), and when they finally got her cuffed, there was enough time for the audience to applaud just a little, and then Billie tried resisting and yanked herself right out of the cuffs, so I gave up on my blocking and went over there and ended up just hovering uselessly while Quinnie just held Billie in place while Rock gave his triumphant monologue, ending with “Who’s the moron now, Billie Clubb?” Our dear friend Jamie chimed in with “Still you, dude.” I ended up only crossing a couple of feet to declare Rock my hero instead of the whole room. Dramatic. >So, by now you know that the recorder on which I recorded Eddie’s arrangement with me is pretty dang important to the plot. Well, for the whole rehearsal process, I’d been using my phone as a stand-in for it, assuming we’d have one in the prop closet which we could pull and I would use and it would be great. Not so--the closest thing the prop closet had to a cassette recorder was this big-ass boombox that must have been two feet across and weighed as much as a small dog. For the performance itself, Faith lent me a cassette player she had, and that fit in my purse and it was fine, but for the dress rehearsal, I got to run and get this behemoth for my big reveal for Eddie, and poor Jason had to drag it in with him when he died, and he had to pretend that Eddie hadn’t seen me recording us with it! >In the ending scene, when it’s revealed that Billie is the killer, she takes the knife that she used to kill Eddie back from Rock and holds Rock at knifepoint while she monologues and explains that Nova’s death was an accident but she meant to kill Eddie 100% and why she didn’t care that Nova was dead and why she killed Eddie and yada yada yada. Then at the end of all that, Rock rushes her and forces her to stab him, and he “dies,” and it looks real and I rush to him and cry over his “body” while Quinnie tries to keep Billie from escaping, and it’s revealed that Rock isn’t really dead, there’s a callback to his first fake death, it’s great. But this onstage death-by-stabbing means that we need a retractable knife. The only retractable knife we have is at least a decade old and on its last leg. So in Billie and Rock’s struggle for the knife during the dress rehearsal, it breaks before Billie’s had the chance to stab the blood bag Rock’s got in his shirt pocket. This means that Billie, panicking a little bit, starts trying to punch his blood bag open before giving up and sprinting off and the show continues as normally as it can. During the actual performance, we used another fake knife which wasn’t retractable, since the retractable one broke, and I couldn’t see whether or not Rock’s blood bag had broken properly because of where I was standing, so just to be sure, when I threw myself onto his body, I made sure to hit the blood bag. This was when I discovered that it had in fact broken and sprayed blood all over Rock just like it had been supposed to do. So I had fake blood on my dress and hands and arms and in my hair, and when I threw myself onto Nick, I heard the poor guy go “oof,” because he wasn’t expecting me to hurl myself on him with that much force. Sorry, Nick. >So, it’s been established that Eddie, Douchebag Director of the Year, was played by Jason, the Sweetest and Purest Human Being to Ever Grace the Planet. One of the notes he got from Savannah on Friday after the dress rehearsal was to be even sleazier and grosser than ever before for the performance, because when he died, she hadn’t felt like “Good, Eddie’s dead;” she’d gone “Awh, Jason died.” So on Saturday, while we were waiting for people to show up and starting to get into character and all that, this precious bean came up to me and asked in the politest manner you could possibly ask this question if he could slap my ass just to show how sleazy and gross Eddie is. This precious ray of sunshine and purity couldn’t even say the words “slap your [ass/butt/whatever he says, idk];” he had to mime it and say, “you know...” Now, the most intimate thing I’ve ever done with anyone is a Congratulations-On-Doing-Well-In-Your-Show Hug, so I panicked a little bit on the inside, but what I told him was, “It’ll make both Cherri and me really uncomfortable, but it’s 100% in character for Eddie, so yes. Go for it.” He looked unsure because I’d said that it’d make me uncomfortable (the BEAN), but I reassured him that I’d given him permission, so it was okay, and we agreed that he’d do it. So I was on tenderhooks the whole show waiting for that to happen, and then the grossest thing he did the whole show was get really close to me and tell me I looked “ravishing” (which still had my brain going, “Well, mark me down as scared and horny!”) and hug me mock-protectively when Nova called me “tainted goods” (I wasn’t expecting that, and neither was Cherri, and oh boy was it startling). I asked him about the absent ass-slap after the show, and he told me what had happened: there’s a bit where Eddie’s gone for a few minutes and right when we start to wonder where he is, he comes back in with women’s lingerie on over his shirt and pants, and he explains that he wanted to try it because he saw Ed Wood, Jr. do it and because it helps him relax, but he assures the audience that he’s still “all man, all right.” He had been getting closer and closer to me during this bit, and I had walked away to give him room and because I felt like that’s what Cherri would have done, since, you know, she’s slept with this sleazeball and hardcore regrets it and would rather not be closer to him than necessary. Jason told me that he was getting closer to me so that he could slap my ass on the words “all man, all right,” and I had walked away. So that happened. >Cherri’s supposed to be pretending to be dumb the whole show, with little bits of how smart she really is leaking through at key points, and I was kind of struggling with the dumb act for a while, especially with physicality and voice (bc my voice is v low & I naturally stand up hecka straight, and neither of those things is true for Cherri’s dumb act), but then I talked with the director about just what kind of voice she wanted from me and as she demoed it my brain went MARY KATE WILES AS ANNABEL LEE, so I gave her my Annabel impression and she said it worked great so Cherri’s dumb act was basically Annabel Lee but a little dumber and on the one hand I’m so sorry, MK, that I used Annabel as my basis for a dumb character, but in her defense she’s only pretending to be dumb, and also I got lots of compliments and was told it worked well, so I’m proud of myself and v excited >On a related note, while I was getting the note that I needed to be dumber, the director told me straight to my face that I naturally walk “very strong and tall, leading with [my] chest,” and like, it wasn’t explicitly a compliment, but it still felt really nice to know that this was a thing she’d noticed about me, and I considered it a good thing (ofc when I’m not playing a character who’s not supposed to do that), and it’s really nice when people tell you things they notice/think about you. idk >After the show, it was announced that we’re hoping to make the murder mystery dinner theater an annual thing, which is super-exciting because I freaking adore this and wanna do it more (although at this moment I’m still in post-show mode and specifically want to do this show with this cast and director again) >There was a lot of just chatting with the folks in the cast like actual friends, which was super-fun and still feels really special to me because Socialization Is Not My Strong Suit, nor is Having Real Live Friends With Whom I Interact Face-to-Face, and this entire theater department is filled with people who are all so much cooler than me, so it’s validating as hell when these people actively include me in their conversations and straight-up tell me nice things to my face and it’s clear that they mean it and it feels like they think I’m cool too which just??? Does not compute???? But feels so nice

Sorry about the big ol’ wall of text, but if I hadn’t done this, I would just rant about it for weeks on end and end up telling the same stories a hundred times because I’ve forgotten who’s heard which stories, so here are all of them.

So... yeah.

#cali.txt #theater is fun #i picked a good major #and i'm super glad and grateful i'm friends with these people #but Holy Shit am I gonna miss them when they graduate #murder mystery dinner theater #also known as My Favorite Genre

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wild-at-spark · 4 years

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Tagged by: @polyhexianchicken Thank you for the tag!

Tagging: @x-de-con-struct-ed-x @bytesnbolts @omicrontheicequeen Feel free to do so if you wish and I apologise if you’ve already done it and anyone who I haven’t tagged feel free to steal if you so wish. I’m really crap at stuff like this.

MY MUSE IS. canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless

Is your character popular in the fandom? YES/NO I mean she’s not popular at all but I think being an OC really contributes to that unfortunately.

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom? WELL… / NO / IDK.

I mean I’d say she’s rather cool. (badum tss) I don’t really now if she’s considered hot? I mean atleast one muse thinks she is?? I mean I think she’s an attractive femme. Wild however doesn’t hold such an opinion of herself.

Is your character considered strong in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK. I mean she’s an ex-gladiator? So I’m gonna go yes because damn you need some strength for that. Mentally she’s strong too but she only sees herself as physically strong.

Are they underrated? YES / NO. She does indeed need some love and TLC and sometimes even I underrate her. Sorry Wild.

Were they relevant to the main story? YES / NO. I mean kinda just slotted her in and she can exist outside the main story so I’m gonna say no?

Were they relevant to the main character? YES / NO

Are they widely known in their world? YES / NO. Maybe in Kaon? Tiny femme gladiator kickin aft? I’d like to think she was known for that. Or the fact that she’s now a medic I mean honestly what a career change.

How’s their reputation? GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. Depends on what point in her life you get her at.

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON?

I mean I try and follow canon as much as possible but like its hard sometimes with all the universes and not having knowledge on them all. I do try and match and stick to the canon of whoever I’m interacting with though.

SELL YOUR MUSE! (aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutual.)

ICE AND SNOW GUYS AND GALS! I mean that’s pretty freakin awesome! She’s a really loving caring medic who just wants some damn respect and 5 minutes peace and quiet. She was raised to be a gladiator only because her Sire knew of nothing else and he saw potential. Kaon was tough but Wild was tougher. Once she had enough of fighting and had the funding she went to medical school, battled to become a doctor against the reputation she’d built through pit fighting and then went back in the pits to help those who needed her. She puts up a cold hard front sometimes because she’s known nothing but fear and anger and had the only mech who cared for her ripped away, but with a new location came a new chance, a fresh start. She isn’t perfect but then who is?

NOW THE OPPOSITE! (list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?)

While she is a sweet and loving femme that gladiator spirit still burns in her and some days it just really craves a fight. She is stubborn and she can be a bitch and she knows it and she doesn’t like taking orders because she’s usually the one giving them. Her being an outlier can be off putting which I understand but its part of who she is. I’m not sure what is mostly offputting but sometimes I think its just the idea she’s an OC which is quite sad because OC’s are wonderful and interesting and I think if you gave her chance and got to know her you’d see she isn’t that bad.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE?

Wild was my very first OC I made her when I was about 8-9 years old, she’s gone through many changes and only recently have I solidified the story line and her designs and such. She got put on the shelf for 11 years just gathering dust because I didn’t have any friends who role played or were transformers fans.

Only recently I decided to make a blog for her because I found old art of her and she made me fall in love with transformers again. And I’ve got to say thank you to @x-de-con-struct-ed-x for being so damn supportive of both me and her because I really was considering just damn right deleting this blog because Wild just wasn’t going anywhere. Hell there are still days I feel that way now but they’ve been a big help and they’ve also helped me develop Wild as well. (and got her someone to love at the same time) and I’ve got a best friend now too all because of Wild so I’m grateful for that.

I’ve been RPing for a while now with my fiance through a different OC so it’s not like I haven’t got experience in it but I’m lacking in experience with Wild. I love Wild I really do and I want to see her grow and get more popular I want people to see past the fact she’s an OC and see she is a unique femme with an attitude but will put her own damn life on the line to save others and will mother hen you to protect you but also won’t hesitate to kick your ass.

YOUR INSPIRATION

People’s reactions to this small femme medic are great, especially in reaction to her powers or the fact she was a gladiator. She very much is a trouble maker and she likes a challenge and I like writing her. While I did make her before frozen existed I won’t lie when I say it does inspire me in regard to her powers but and how she reacts and it’s even a running joke between other mun’s and even muses some times. I’m here to have fun and show her off because she is amazing and it took me too long to realise that and that’s what inspires me, I want others to appreciate her.

SOME MORE PERSONAL QUESTIONS FOR THE MUN.

Do you think you give your character justice? YES / NO. I really wish I was more skilled to portrait Wild I really don’t do her justice at all.

Do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO. Yes I do write drabbles and I promise I’ll write some that aren’t all Wild/Ironhide but damn they’re the best couple and I will go down with that ship. I’m working on some currently although practically no one reads them :’) But it’s a bit of fun I think and it goes a little deeper into how Wild reacts to situations.

Do you think a lot about your muse during the day? YES/ NO. I am forever thinking about Wild and there’s always ideas bouncing around my head whether its AU’s, headcanons about Kaon or ideas for Wild herself.

Are you confident in your portrayal? YES / NO. Again I’m not skilled enough to portrait Wild I really wish I was but no one else could portrait her because she is my creation and y’know what that’s okay. Hopefully we can develop together.

Are you confident in your writing? YES / NO. I try my best and just hope the crap I dish out is ledigble and understandable.

Are you a sensitive person? YES / NO. I am and that kinda shows in Wild sometimes?

DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL?

I’m open to constructive criticism and I’d try and take it onboard. Telling me you hate Wild and how I write her won’t end well. I’m trying my hardest and I do this for fun and if you don’t like it just don’t interact.

DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS, WHICH HELP YOU EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER?

I love them! Feel free to send them in anonymous or not I don't mind any question others have about her, seeing people curious about her really makes me happy and it helps flesh her out a bit more too!

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY?

Well I’d be curious about it so sure? but that’s the best thing about headcanons they’re open to interpretation by everyone and everyone has their own. My headcanons are for me and while you don’t have to agree with them please don’t get aggressive.

IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER, HOW DO YOU TAKE IT?

?? Why are you still on my blog then? I mean I might be offended but I do respect that people have their own opinions and that’s okay. Just don’t be spreading hate okay?

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN?

I like to think so? I mean I’m a bundle of anxiety and depression so I do have my bad days so if I’m overbearing please do tell me and I’ll dial it down.I’d love to get to know other muns and make some more friends but I’m so damn anxious about interacting sometimes I could and sometimes do cry. Please don’t hesitate to send me an ask or a private message I will get back to you as soon as possible but do bare in mind I’m from Britain and most likely in a different timezone. Ya just gotta get to know me I’m like a coconut, I take a while to crack but I’m good on the inside? I nearly put delicious? Maybe I am delicious on the inside but we shall never know,

I enjoy OOC interactions as well as IC ones just sometime bare with me because I am very tired and awkward so sometimes replies take a while. If you have a problem with me or my content or you’re having trouble please do come and talk to me about it because honestly we’ve all been there and I like helping. I look forward to interacting with others because I am 100% an introvert and the internet is my only escape from real life. Hopefully we can make some more friends.

#tag meme #ooc

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