#to work on my main project :1' and then i do and it Backfires!! this is some kind of sick sick joke hshhfsd

[keeps-ache]

drink on the bed to my left. we know where this is going, but

[pain-in-the-butler]

Hiiii. I have two questions about your story, Coattails!

 

First of all, I love your fic so much omg. I binge-read it in like 5 days a few weeks ago, and ever since then, it's been the only thing I think about. You write the characters so beautifully. I love how you write Sebastian's descent into Dadbastian, and his relationship with Ciel.

 

Feel free to not answer any question :)

 

1. Are we reaching the climax of what Happened to Fairclough in Chapter 1? / Nearing the end of Coattails? 

 

I'm so excited to know what Fairclough is going to do and for all the Dadbastian moments that will come out of it. At first, I thought Fairclough wasn't human, but I'm pretty sure you confirmed somewhere that he is definitely human. Then I was thinking, What if Fairclough is working with or for something that isn't human? I really don't know; there are so many possibilities! I'm really curious. Oh, and I just know that order that Ciel made where Sebastian can't get within a mile of Fairclough is definitely going to backfire. Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder how Sebastian is going to save Ciel when Fairclough kidnaps him or something, since it's not like he can get within a mile of Fairclough. Unless Ciel manages to break that order or Sebastian himself breaks it and goes "demon mode," idk. But breaking an order would probably affect their contract, What if the contract breaks?? That would be pretty interesting 🤔 

Oh, and the whole thing with Sebastian being able to feel love and stuff with the magic that's inside him. I wonder, how did that happen? Although Fairclough is obviously the main villain of the story, I don't think he has anything to do with it. Because why would he want Sebastian to become more gentle with Ciel? That would just cause him to become more protective when people like Fairclough are near, right? Affecting Fairclough if he tries to do something. Unless Fairclough did have something to do with it, it might've backfired on him?

 

Sorry, I just realised I'm rambling, lol. Those are just some of my thoughts/theories.

 

2. What's going to happen after you finish writing Coattails?

Like, do you plan on stopping writing Dadbastian? I hope not. I love how your writing, so I'd definitely miss it a lot. But I understand if you choose to stop. Coattails is currently at like 350k words (plus, it's probably going to have a lot more than that after you finish), so if you don't want to write any more Dadbastian after that, I understand — it's a lot.

 

Anyway, thanks for reading! Once again, feel free to not answer any question! I really don't mind. Oh and I just realised I wrote a lot here, lol. I hope I'm not being annoying or anything. Bye :)

Ahhh, what a wonderful message to wake up to in my inbox! 🥰 Thank you so much for binging and enjoying Coattails! These characters are deeply important to me, so I always hope to do them justice. I would be happy to answer your questions, at least without spoiling anything as much as possible!

First of all, are we near the climax? Yes! Are we near the ending? Yes and no. We are probably about eight chapters away from the end, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're close time-wise or word count-wise. I still anticipate that I won't finish this story until late 2025.

Your ideas about Fairclough and the effects of the foreign magic are an interesting read and I thank you for all your predictions, but I can confirm or deny nothing! Just know that the answers are very close now...

And will I keep writing Dadbastian after I finish Coattails? Yes, absolutely! The Coattails universe is one I will come back to, no doubt — for instance, I'd really like for Ciel and Sebastian to meet Sieglinde and Wolfram. I have ideas for other fluffy post-main story scenarios too. And I have other Kuro projects I'd like to get to someday as well! A rewrite of the Weston arc and a humorous modern AU fic where Ciel and Sebastian have a mission on a Disney cruise are just two ideas I'd like to explore. No doubt there will be some Dadbastian influence there as well... and more Dadbastian fics I have yet to think of.

You were certainly not annoying, I'm really grateful you could be so invested in my writing! Thank you so much for your questions, have a wonderful day!

[yakdee]

Ramblings on Only Friends Ep. 1

Part 1/4

Table Keeper Gang WYA?!

Is that the same lounge/bathroom from Between Us? Gotta check that later

Love that the only thing Ray heard was that Sand was gonna pee on his head XD

Mew's first word to Top was "shit" and he's already locked in — he's gonna fall sooo hard lol

Open relationship and maybe poly rep? We love to see it

Idk how I feel about helping Mew lose his virginity being a group project

The intro is niceee and the vibe Mew is giving off is quite interesting

Ray's family got MONEY money — imagine having a spare house lying around to use for a school project lol

A lot talk about services I see *wiggles eyebrows*

Ray, sweetie ... your liver

Oof the tension between the boys at this table is something else and then we have our girl Chueam just vibing lol

Again with this "Mew needs to lose virginity " talk urghh

Love that Boson telling Top that Mew is a virgin backfired on his ass; that is none of Top's business until Mew wants it to be

How good is Top's dick game to have Boston low-key badmouthing Mew like this?

DRAKE???!!!

Ray, sweetie ... your life ... other people's lives

"What a burden to society" my new fave insult

Part 2/4

Oh, this is new — loving the honesty between Top and Mew

Mew may be a virgin, but he is far from a prude — love that they are showing us this side of him

Ray and Sand's relationship is gonna kill me

Again I say, DRAKE???!!!

Nick, baby ... what is you doing?

I was so happy when I found out that Samsung has a Repair Mode feature because this is my ultimate fear if I ever need to take my phone in for repair. Can you imagine???!

The cut to Top and Mew eating ice cream is sending me XDD

Again *clap clap* for the honesty and understanding

Top's game is indeed top tier but as I already said, he's gonna fall for Mew so so hard

Part 3/4

Ray, sweetie ... this is no way to thank your savior smh

Top seems genuinely intrigued by Mew, but we all know that he's just in it for the chase (for now, at least)

Imagine waking up in a strange place after blacking out, finding out the friend you have a crush on is on a date with some guy who's known by many as "Top Tier", and finally having your seatbelt decide not to work whe you're trying to go home ... I would need a drink tbh

I feel like that "1 year warranty" line between Nick and Boston will come back at some point

The chemistry between Neo and Mark is insane

Part 4/4

Boston and Ray side-eyeing Top and Mew during this montage, especially the shot in the photobooth is just lmaooo

I see that Chueam is the captain of the Top x Mew ship

Lighting cigarettes as a form of foreplay

So Top is genuinely interested in Mew

Again I ask, how good is Top's dick game to have Boston on his knees like this??? Stand up!!!

Ahhh public declarations/proposals my be-loathed

From table keeper to main character — we love to see it!

See y'all next week (if I have the time lol)

[europesroyals]

Wales Work

Everyone has an opinion on the Wales's working numbers. Good, bad, or otherwise. So I thought I'd throw my opinion into the ring.

The Wales and their family aren't my #1 favorite royals, but are on my list of favorites. I am an American Monarchist and, therefore, WANT to see the British Monarchy survive past William. My main concern is that their current levels of privacy could be perceived as separating and alienating. Do they need to take off for the entirety of EVERY school break?

The Queen said she must be seen to be believed, allowing in a photographer to snap a few photos during audiences, then the photographer leaves, and she continues on with the visit. She had an IMMENSE amount of privacy while still giving the people what they wanted: to SEE her.

I understand William and Catherine do things their own way, like having pet projects and focuses instead of hundreds of different patronages, but those organizations enjoy having a royal patron shine their magnificent platform on their good works. Being this selective and not taking on more organizations left without a royal patron, since Harry, Andrew, The Queen, and Philip are out, (the Gloucesters and Kents are soon to retire as well) could backfire on them, and I genuinely DON'T want to see that happen.

It was brought up that William attended a men's football or rugby game (I'm not a sports person, so I don't care which one it was), but not a women's game when the women's team was winning trophies and the men weren't. He's an Aston Villa fan, I get it, but what's the harm in taking in a game or making a private visit (with photographers) to the training facilities of a different team?

They want to be better parents than Charles and Diana were. Great! How does that equate to not doing engagements each week? Why can't Chris Jackson (a trusted friend who works for Getty) be allowed to snap a few pics of Duchy of Cornwall or Early Years meetings? Why can't people see these select snippets? William and Catherine can still do school runs and grocery shopping and helping with homework while also stepping out for an hour-long engagement somewhere nearby.

William's popularity because he is Diana's son is currently matched by his popularity as the next in line to the throne. It doesn't take a lot of effort to cultivate and continue these levels of popularity, but it does require some effort. Visible effort is easiest to quantify.

Some will say that this isn't a popularity/visibility contest, but when your place in the history of your country depends on whether the people and politicians are satisfied with the work you are doing...?

Yeah, it's about popularity and visibility. And again, I DO want to see them succeed ❤️

[novelmonger]

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 of the Tolkien 20 questions.

If you could be the Middle Earth race you would like to be, which would it be?

There's always been something about Numenor that I've really liked - in its glory days, not its decline. And yes, I consider that a different race than what I already am, because they were much more long-lived and robust than we are today.

2. If you were the Middle Earth race that your personality most matches, which would it be?

Hobbit. I like to stay at home, stick to my routines, and eat good food. No adventures, please. Makes you late for dinner.

3. When did you first come into contact with Tolkien's work? Who or what introduced you?

My dad is entirely to blame XD One time when I was six and my brother was eight, we'd just been on a long trip and were severely jetlagged to the point that we were getting up at 3 a.m. and such. So my dad, in a desperate attempt to bore us and get us to fall asleep, started reading The Hobbit to us. I'm sure he thought the language would be so far above our heads we wouldn't understand it, but his plan backfired, and we kept begging for him to read more, poor guy.

(Secretly, it did go way over my head, but I still liked it - and would rather listen to a book being read to me than lying in bed in the darkness. I walked away with no real understanding of what had happened - all I remembered were a bunch of dwarves that I imagined like the ones in Snow White, a spooky forest with black squirrels, and the impression that Hobbits were little anthropomorphic hedgehog things with waistcoats.)

Fast-forward a few years, and in 2001 my dad decided we were old enough for him to try reading LotR to us. I'm not sure if the impetus for that was that he'd heard they were making movies of it and he wanted us to read the book first, but the timing was impeccable. At the age of 10, I was much more able to grasp the language and the story (though I labored under the mistaken impression that Merry was a girl for an embarrassingly long time), and I liked it a lot.

But then we went to see the movie...and in those three hours, my life completely and irrevocably changed. I remember staggering out of the theatre, dazzled by the normal, everyday December sunlight, and wondering how everybody could just...carry on with their lives when such ineffable beauty existed in the world. As soon as we got home, I grabbed the copy of TTT we were reading together and ran off to my room to read it myself, because I could read so much faster. My life has never been the same since ^_^

4. What passage in Tolkien's books or in any of the films/shows/media speaks to you the most?

There are so many great passages, but the one that has always stood out clear and beautiful, like the star peeking out from the clouds over Mordor, is this passage from TTT:

Sam looked at him. The early daylight was only just creeping down into the shadows under the trees, but he saw his master's face very clearly, and his hands, too, lying at rest on the ground beside him. He was reminded suddenly of Frodo as he had lain, asleep in the house of Elrond, after his deadly wound. Then as he had kept watch Sam had noticed that at times a light seemed to be shining faintly within; but now the light was even clearer and stronger. Frodo's face was peaceful, the marks of fear and care had left it; but it looked old, old and beautiful, as if the chiselling of the shaping years was now revealed in many fine lines that had before been hidden, though the identity of the face had not changed. Not that Sam Gamgee put it that way to himself. He shook his head, as if finding words useless, and murmured: 'I love him. He's like that, and sometimes it shines through, somehow. But I love him, whether or no.'

5. Ruthlessly rank the main projects of the Tolkien universe (the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Rings of Power, the Silmarillion). You can break Lord of the Rings into three books for additional chaos, if you like.

Oh, I'll do you one better and also rank all the adaptations I've seen too ;) Please understand that, though I'm splitting up the three installments of LotR, I only like one marginally more or less than the others. They're all amazing, and best taken as a whole.

The Two Towers (book)

The Return of the King (book)

The Fellowship of the Ring (book)

The Fellowship of the Ring (movie)

The Return of the King (movie)

The Two Towers (movie)

The Silmarillion

The Hobbit (book)

The Lord of the Rings (BBC radio drama)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

The Hobbit (animated movie)

The Lord of the Rings (animated movie)

Rings of Power does not belong on this list because it has nothing to do with Tolkien except what it has plundered and then trampled underfoot. Also I haven't technically seen it, just extensive reviews that expose every last flaw for the world to see.

Tolkien Twenty Questions

[subduethedragon]

Chaos Theory Primer

WHAT IS THIS:

An AU of an AU.

Once upon a time, I came up with a fighting game AU, where a bunch of series I like crossover. While this involves plenty of logistically questionable mechanics/character movesets, it also involves a story and Lore (TM)

Eventually, I decided to turn that fighting game AU into a story. As I am still on Act 1 of 3 and it’s been a year or two since the previous part, you can tell that that is going swimmingly. But, I got the idea for DLC for this AU. Eventually, as I picked up some new interests, and got deeper into the lore side of things, this escalated into what I like to call a “side B/Reverse-Side” of the AU: It’s still got the same fundamental key elements (with some new ones thrown in) but it’s gotten far beyond that: More SRW than fighting game, so to say.

Will I actually be writing this?

I dunno. I’ve got enough fics that I should be working on but aren’t. This project is just as much to unload the concepts in my head as it is to have it out there in some form. One could also argue that it’s also a bit much for a mediocre fanfic writer to handle.

If I get any particular ideas that I got an itch to write (I do have one idea in the wings, in fact) then I’ll definitely go for it.

But as is, think of this as more of a frame work. Maybe something akin to a TTRPG setting or something.

THE PLOT:

There is an overaching plot to Chaos Theory, as well as three different throughlines. Said throughlines aren’t fully thought out in regards to how they interact with the main plot so how it all shakes together at this point in time is… not too developed (cue AUs of an AU of an AU).

The overarching plotline revolves a mysterious space known as The Fantasy World or Minus World. This space twists and warps, creating new realms or shortcuts into existing ones. The result is a labyrinth, and later an “ocean” of structures such as shrines. This is due to the space being a hotbed for various types of energy, such as Star Power, Moon Power and especially Chaos Power.

Through some method, a warlock by the name of Xande found himself in the labyrinth. Seeking to recover his immortality, Xande began toying with the energies at play. While he was fruitless in directly making use of it, he came to understand the nature of the Chaos Emeralds, the Master Emerald and the space-time abilities of the rings. Thus, Xande began to experiment with the rings in hopes of drawing the emeralds to him.

Perhaps by fate, perhaps by coincidence, two parties found themselves within the labyrinth: The Warrior of Light, his four vassals and one of their allies, all of whom stood opposed to Xande previously, and an organization from the World of Darkness known as “World’s Eye” who bear similarities to the “Dark Cloud tribe”, a group of cloud-like aliens who control and corrupt planets, their callsign being their leader’s singular crimson eye.

However, not knowing of Xande’s presence, the two forces assumed that the other was up to some neferious plot. In the end, the Warriors of Light attempted to use Chaos Power against World’s Eye. However, it backfired and the four vanished. At the same time, five new structures arose in the Fantasy World: A treasure filled dungeon, a scholar castle, a lava-filled weapons forge, a manor atop a massive mountain range and a tower made of crystal, the lattermost of which creating a sea of light that makes entry towards it difficult, if not near impossible. One could also see massive airships flying around the space...

To make matters worse, Xande caught wind of his enemies being in the labyrinth and was able to secure biocells from them to create clones to search the world for anything useful. Mostof the clones are focused on their objectives, but other clones seem to be more self-interested. Then there are those that are so independent that it’s questionable if they came from Xande...

Time passes. Word soon spreads of the mysterious “Minus World”. Eventually it catches the attention of certain people. Some are explorers, such as Mag Launcher and Linear Cannon from Pannam Town or Rock Volnutt of the Skylands. It also catches the attention of power hungry people in high places, such as King Bowser of the Koopa Kingdom of Dr. Robotnik of the Eggman Empire. Some people enter for their own personal missions, such as Alex Kidd (& Stella!) of Radaxian, who enters in pursuit of the Bloom; A greedy star who has stolen the stars of planet Aeries. And finally, there are those who find themselves in the labyrinth purely by accident.

With so many people in such a place, chaos inevitably follows...

The three other plotlines/throughlines are as follows:

Plot A: A greedy Star known as the Bloom is absorbing all of the stars in the universe. When Planet Aries’ stars are absorbed, Alex and his good friend Stella set forth into the Fantasy World in order to stop it. But the Bloom isn’t the only villain who has their eyes to the stars…

Plot B: The age of Adventure is alive and well as all manner of diggers and adventurers strive to uncover the lost secrets of ancient civilizations. When the Launcher Clan (Mag Launcher and Linear Cannon) and Rock Volnutt find themselves in the labyrinth, they begin to discover a link between the ever present rings and Chaos Energy. Of course, while navigating the strange new world and unlocking the secrets, they’ll have to contend with ancient mechanisms, imperial forces and sky pirates and even secrets from their pasts...

Plot C: The odd interdimensional nature of the Labyrinth leads to some unforeseen results. When Kirby & Klonoa find themselves at an intersection between awakening and dreams, the two become fast friends. However, they quickly discover a threat that puts the dreams of all in jeopardy and the two set off to protect all good dreams everywhere. However, a certain Wizard is lurking in the shadows and is determined to make Klonoa’s greatest dream into a Nightmare of a reunion…

INVOLVED SERIES:

This rank has three categories to it; “Definitely” means that I envision it as a staple part of the AU. “Maybe” means that, had I been writing this for real, the series probably or probably not would’ve stayed. “Probably” just exists for the game that I want to include but haven’t actually played yet.

Definitely: Mario, Sonic, Kirby, Evolution/Evolutia, Mega Man**

Probably: Skies of Arcadia/Eternal Arcadia***

Probably Not: Pokemon, Legend of Zelda, Madou Monogatari* ***

* Probably the least likely on that list, but I’m putting it there anyway.

** The original AU this is based on had X as the Mega Man series in question. For Chaos Theory, it has been swapped to Mega Man Legends.

*** Have not played at the time of this writing.

[guardiandae]

Tagged by the wonderful @rayadraws!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 70

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

710,529

3. What fandoms do you write for?

One Punch Man, Marvel. Formerly BTVS.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

" - 2,391 kudos "Natural" - 2,448 kudos "5+7" - 3,341 kudos "Milkyway" - 4,601 kudos "Salvaged" - 6,567

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Oh yes! But i have a habit that tends to backfire on me... I'll respond to all comments for a while and then after a couple weeks I'll stop responding because I want to finish a chapter first.... this is fine except sometimes by the time I let myself respond to all those old comments it's been like.... 5 years. LOL. But I really do like to reply to every single one.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The Distance Between Us

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Sugar & Spice

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Lmfao. Surprisingly rarely! I've maybe gotten two actual hate comments on my more spicy account. I've gotten more hate comments for making Saitama transmasc, but not by much. But like... I didn't make him transmasc anyway, it just happened. But yeah if people are whiny little bitches and I just roast them and then delete their comment because that doesn't fly for me, especially the transphobic weirdos.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Hell yeah. Ummm I like it when the weiners touch 👉👈

Actually lemme see. On my main account, my top tags are kind of all over the place. Mainly fluffy stuff, dirty talk. On my secret second account we'll get better results.... Watersports/Urination - obviously. Anal sex - duh, but boring. Dubious consent - spicy. Felching - MM. 🙏 Male lactation - MILK. HIM. 💦

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Only "Now Recruiting", which still gets a lot of love tbh. It's about the Avengers trying to recruit Saitama, which isn't too crazy. Fun though!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

WOOF. I hope not. The sites that scrape fics are scary.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Oh yeah 💜 I love my international fans, and I always say yes when someone asks to translate. I just ask that they remember to link up with mine!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

My memory is bad but I really don't think so. I don't play well with others >.< Also why I have turned down RP requests every time.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Wade/Nate. It might have hibernated for years, but it came back with a vengeance when it came back. But any ship I've written for, it's gotta be a hyperfixation for me, so I promise I love them all.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

[Redacted]. But I'm not sure it's that I never will - it's that I think I overshot my ending and I actually need to hack it back a little and just end the fic. The way I kept going, it would've added another small arc to the fic that made it end on a sad note. And That, I'd probably never finish. The fic is old enough though that even thinking about opening it up to do that makes me cringe.

Secondary: Salvaged. But don't panic! It's not that I'll never finish it, it's that I will but still not any time soon. ;; It'll be a lot of work to open it up again and finish it. I wanna finish some other projects first, including new ones (oops). But I don't feel 'cringe' about opening it again. Just a loooottt of files to sift through.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm told my dialogue is amazing. I think it's because I enjoy practicing the lines, over and over again, and pacing everything out to make sure it sounds like something the character would actually say, and somewhat flow in real time.

I'm also quite lucky at being able to have details fall into place in really interesting ways. So that thing that seems elaborately planned out, who knows, lol. It's sort of half elaborately planned and half happy coincidence.

People also tell me that I manage to capture their imagination and especially their emotions. 🫶

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Finishing. Haha. I'll either catch stage fright if something gets really popular (especially if there's a sex scene, oop) or I'll get bogged down with things needing to be perfect, or a secret third thing - I get really attached and don't want to end the AU because then I worry I'll forget it exists.

Memory problems. Returning to a fic is harder because even after a month I don't remember what happened. And if I'm going without writing for any period of time I feel like I forget who I am as a writer completely. Sometimes I really can't understand who wrote a fic of mine, because it doesn't feel like it was me.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Ummmmm I do this very sparingly because I know that google translate is very flawed and I'm not fluent in any other language. Sometimes a little bit of french or spanish has been appropriate for a Deadpool fic, but not full dialogue.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Buffy The Vampire Slayer <3 I didn't include that in my fic count tho.... I don't dare go back to That Place, even just to look (FF.net)

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I'm gonna have to break it up by ship otherwise this ain't even fair--

"Hello, Handsome" - Cablepool - it's just soooo creative and fun! and COMPLETE! "5+7" - Genosai - another really fun one, emotional ups and downs but ultimately soooo fluffy and nice and one of those fics that changed my life. Almost done! "Yours" - Skirth/Agony - a rare f/f pairing but I really enjoyed writing them <333 COMPLETE "Milkyway" - Eddie/Symbiote - can something be a fluffy family fic AND really dirty filthy kinky at the same time? Apparently, somehow. COMPLETE.

Tagging @aeriamamaduck @pohjanneito and @theomnicode!

[fedor-bortnik-fmp]

Stalker. Progress. Part 1.

After being done with the weapon, I decided it is time to start working on the final asset - the stalker

Before starting, I checked again on what kind of main references that I used for the Stalker. I really liked those renders, since they carried clothes and items that I originally wanted on the character: With rugged apparel and dirty gear.

I like the reference, however, there are things that I would avoid from this reference from my production:

I won't be doing long-hanging clothes, as that would force me to use physics in Unreal Engine. While it is easy to set them up (thanks to Royal Skies (2024) tutorial). Applying the physics could easily backfire on me later on by having some problems or attention, that I can't just deal with (what if something starts clipping through the physics, or it would bug out during the animation sequence). So I decided not to risk it.

While I will follow the original design as possible, I decided to make some minimal changes to the design: I will change the mask from the current design into something more industrial, and crude - as if the Stalker has found that mask and decided to use it. I thought about designing the mask just like the 3M 7500 respirators, since they are compact and simple, and would look great on the character's face, highlighting the eyes. I also won't make a face cover, since originally I wanted the character only to wear the mask itself, without any upper head cover.

Finally, I will be creating the character in a priority order, meaning I will do the essential clothes first, and If I have time to add extra content to him (like pouches, or some metallic objects on his belt), I will.

While checking with my schedule, I decided that I would be avoiding long fabrics in order to avoid relying on physics engines, since I was already tight with the project in terms of schedule, and did not have time to learn new features. To create the bottom part of the character - I decided to make a short skirt, some jeans and classic running shoes since I feel like this is an ideal apparel for such a character.

I was suggested to use a MetaHuman rig in order to create realistic faces and meshes, and I decided to give it a go since I believed I had enough space in time even if something would have went wrong. I launched the metahuman, selected some faces and began the designing of the human character.

It's really interesting to use MetaHuman in order to build faces: you can select multiple faces with different origins and mix the meshes together in order to get what you need. I find it quite an interesting tool since it can help artists to get a hyper-realistic face of many kinds by just selecting some models that have the exact features you want: It is a wonderful tool in cases where you need a starter mesh for many purposes, trying to make a realistic project, or need some references in terms of sculpting.

Upon creating the mesh, I decided to give the MetaHuman a try - I figured that I could have exported the simple mesh of the MetaHuman in order to build clothes around the body, and in order to do proper rigging - just build the rig as usual, with the exception of avoiding the head. While sounds a bit risky - in reality, it should not be a problem, since in theory, we can see only his head and the beginning of the neck - meaning the rest of the head would be hidden with a craft, which will implement all the needed animations.

Upon exporting the model, I noticed that it was harder than expected to export his textures and materials - there was no FBX file that contained all the mesh information, only pieces of various body parts and some texture pieces - since Unreal Engine used composed materials of various filters and alphas, in order to create the shading.

I decided to not think too hard about it for now - since I needed only meshes themselves for now, and in the end, I could just import the mesh into Unreal Engine, apply the head mesh onto the stalker body, and not worry too much about it.

Also, during the breaks - I create a forum thread in PolyCount in order to get some feedback on the work. I know that in order to get some feedback I would need to actively engage with posting my work, and I will try. Since I don't have any final posters and renders - I just posted whatever I had at the moment and images from previous presentation slides. I will change that once I get some nice renders.

References:

Royal Skies (2024). Unreal5 Applying Cloth Physics (In 2 Minutes!!). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMUD297S6zk [Accessed 20 Jul 2024].

Safety Supplies | PPE, Workwear & Safety Equipment. (n.d.). 3M 7500 Half Mask Respirator & 6035 Particulate Filters | Safety Supplies. [online] Available at: https://www.safetysupplies.co.uk/product/respiratory-protection/half-masks/3m-7500-series-reusable-half-mask-respirator-6035-particulate-filter-kit/.

DreamStudio (2024) Image of a stalker in white and yellow colour robes with a gas mask. [Digital Art].

DreamStudio (2024) Image of a stalker in white and yellow colour robes, standing. [Digital Art].

MetaHuman (2024). MetaHuman Creator. [online] Available at: https://metahuman.unrealengine.com/.

D3lta_Fe. (2024). Fedor Bortnik Final Major Project - project EUROPA. [online] Available at: https://polycount.com/discussion/235751/fedor-bortnik-final-major-project-project-europa#latest.

[edublogsworld]

Following Robin Sharma's 5am Club - Here's What Happened

The 5am Club believes that a morning routine that helps prepare the body and the mind to perform at their highest level is a multiplier of impact. It's not suitable for everyone. The first pocket for exercise is the one that you can't miss. Exercise sessions that are intense release BDNF which increases brain capacity and connections to the brain. Additionally, it's been demonstrated to improve mood and boost confidence. 1. I was able to sleep better. The book recommends following the 20/20/20 morning routine that is a set of twenty-minute increments that prepare you for peak performance throughout the day. This includes 20 minutes of vigorous exercise to reduce cortisol and boost BDNF (which increases neural connections, increasing concentration), and 20 minutes of planning or journaling.

This program is meant to give you the strength and motivation to tackle every challenge, meet any goal, and lead a the life you want to live. It's certainly changed me! This approach can backfire if you don't sleep enough. Sleeping well is vital for productivity and health, and I've been sleeping more. I have noticed a change in my creativity, energy and brain. The main change has been in my sleeping. That's something I wanted to show you! 2. I was much more productive. The 5 AM Club suggests a set of strategies to help you reach your goals. These include committing the first 90 minutes each day to a project or activity you're the most passionate about. This "Victory Hour" or "Victory Hour" as it's referred to and can positively impact the remainder of your day and the day. One of the tenets of the daily routine is to ban electronic devices at the beginning of the day, including your phone and computer. It's difficult to convince people to do this, but it's an excellent method to increase the efficiency of your day. It is possible to stick to a schedule by having a plan in place and knowing your goals. Set your alarm for the same time each day of the week. This means setting out your workout clothing the night before, creating an area for meditation or making smoothies. Being consistent will help you notice the effects of your new routine faster. 3. I noticed that I was more active. Sharma suggests that readers develop their own morning ritual that is customized to their specific goals and preferences, rather than adopting the "one-size-fits all" method that a lot of self-help book authors follow. Sharma believes that everyone should begin their day early and devote the first half hour of their morning doing a variety of things like working out, writing or planning, in addition to studying. This method allows people to utilize their mental, physical and emotional energy to make the most of their performance throughout the day. Sharma's method has proven successful with billionaires, athletes, and other high-achieving individuals. In this day's MarieTV episode, I interviewed Robin Sharma, an internationally known leader, best-selling author and musician who has collaborated with billionaires, royalty and top athletes. The bestseller he wrote in 2018 The 5 AM Club teaches people how to become more productive and experience personal development by waking up early. 4. I was content. Sharma, one of the top leadership experts in the world, coaches his clients to create daily routines that enhance their productivity as well as improve their health. He claims they're also bulletproofing their peace in a world filled with overwhelming complex. The 5am Club is a non-fiction book that follows a narrative structure. The story tells the story of an artist struggling, and a businessman who encounters a mentor named the Spellbinder who introduces to them the ritual of waking up that Sharma has been using for a long time. The fundamental aspect of the practice is an hour of self-mastery prior to the sunrise and also when most people are sleeping, leaving no distractions. Sharma suggests 20 minutes of vigorous training, 20 minutes for reflection through meditating and journaling in addition to another 20 minutes to improve your reading skills and absorbing. But the guidelines are flexible and you are able to tailor them to your own requirements. This is an hour that profoundly shapes the remainder of your day. It According to Sharma will alter your life forever. Go to the video

[sparrowwright]

The Passion Principle:  How Loving Your Job Can Backfire

Have you ever been super excited about working on a new project? Maybe it’s a piece of woodworking, or a drawing, or a song you’re writing, or whatever other hobbies you just love to do. But whatever it is, you just can’t wait to get home and start working on it again. You have a feeling that this is really going to be something great. It’s not just the final product that keeps you hooked, though:  the process itself is satisfying too. Doing something you love is fulfilling in a multitude of different ways. As you’re happily chipping away at that amazing project, you think to yourself, wouldn’t it be wonderful if I just did this for a living?

Many people have thought that exact same thing. In fact, passion-led careers are often the most sought-after. According to The Atlantic article Loving Your Job is a Capitalist Trap, over 75% of college-educated workers say that passion is an important part of finding a career that suits them, and 16% say that they would rather have meaningful work than a high-paying or stable job, or a healthy work/life balance (Cech). When it comes to career advice, it is always seen as a positive to go for a career that you have some passion for. Everybody, it seems, wants a job that is rewarding outside of just a paycheck.

In this essay, we will go over (1) what it means to have a rewarding job, and what it means to be “passionate”; (2) what happens when businesses try to capitalize on passion, including a history of “crunch culture” in video games; and (3) some common justifications used for these actions, and why employees endure these conditions.

Many people want to work jobs that have meaning or are fulfilling or rewarding. But what is a rewarding job? Rewarding jobs are jobs that one enjoys doing; these can be creative, transformative, relaxing, or challenging. Whatever the case may be, the main component of a “rewarding” job is that the worker is passionate about working. Maybe you’re an artist, or a music producer, or a videogame level-designer. You might sometimes go above and beyond when you become really invested in a project in ways that, say, a bank teller just wouldn’t. When a labor of necessity becomes a labor of love, you’ll stretch yourself out trying to achieve your goal.

This is quite common for an artist to experience. An artist might neglect all other facets of life, like food, sleep, or socializing if they are extremely focused on completing a project that they are passionate about. Disrupting an artist’s focus can throw off their “groove,” as one might say, and it can be difficult to get back on track. I know that whenever I’m extremely focused on finishing a drawing, I can be sitting at my desk for hours getting all the details right and not even realize that time has passed. There is nothing inherently wrong with putting more hours into a project that you like working on.

When passion meets paycheck, however, several ethical issues can arise. First, is it ethical for companies to profit off of workers’ extra, uncompensated labor just because of their passion? It’s been observed that many companies will specifically seek out passionate employees just because they are more likely to do additional unpaid labor (Cech). Companies do this because workers who enjoy their labor are more likely to work faster, more efficiently, or extra hours, even when they are not being paid. This is great for companies, because they get work done at a higher quality, faster, and at less cost. However, it can lead to passionate employees being uncompensated for a lot of their work.

Another problem arises when an employee is expected to work those unpaid hours outside of their own volition. That above-and-beyond approach fueled by pure excitement is then treated as a new standard. When the average employee is expected to work just as fervidly as the most passionate worker, it can lead to exhaustion, burnout, and numerous negative effects to mental health.

In the video games industry, depending on the studio, it’s not at all uncommon to see employees work for 70- to even 100-hour workweeks (Gilbert). Co-workers will even work extra hours alongside overworked colleagues in solidarity (Shreier). Extraordinarily long workweeks, though it puts undo pressure and stress onto the employees who have to scramble and stretch themselves thin to get their work done on time, are just part of the culture of some studios.

This phenomenon is so common that it actually has a name: “Crunch.” Crunch is when a game studio makes its employees work extreme and unethical hours to meet a deadline, oftentimes just to set another deadline as soon as the first one is finished. This destructive cycle will repeat until the game is released. Many studios are guilty of engaging in crunch culture; but a notable selection, and some of the most widely known, are Telltale Games, Rockstar Games, Electronic Arts (often abbreviated to EA), and even Cary, North Carolina’s own local game publisher:  Epic Games.

In November of 2004, an essay was posted on Live Journal called “EA: The Human Story,” by a user, Erin Hoffman, known at the time as “ea_spouse.” The post detailed the harsh and unethical work environment that EA forced upon its workforce during the development of Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth (Gameqol). At the same time, employees filed a class-action lawsuit against EA for similar business practices. The lawsuit was successful, and the graphic designers received a $15 million settlement while the programmers received $14 million.

Many other whistleblowers have followed in ea_spouse’s footsteps:  for example, an anonymous employee of a different videogame developer, Rockstar Games, calling themselves “Rockstar Spouse,” posted a letter to Gamasutra Blogs in 2004 detailing similar workplace abuses at Rockstar Games (Gameqol). It’s safe to say that the open letter and subsequent successful lawsuit sent ripples through the games industry and continues to reverberate today. However, though the issue of worker’s rights in and outside of the games industry has been ever-present and increasingly more pressing, little has changed over those 15 years (Lefebvre, “EA”). Workers are still rarely paid overtime, and crunch culture has not slowed down a bit.

A more recent and massively popular game is Fortnite, an online multiplayer first-person shooter developed by Epic Games Studio that first launched in 2011. Many people find this game absurdly fun, but its creation came at a great cost. One Epic Games employee told Polygon, “I work an average 70 hours a week, there’s probably at least 50 or even 100 other people at Epic working those hours. I know people who pull 100-hour weeks" (Gilbert). Another employee said, “I hardly sleep. I'm grumpy at home. I have no energy to go out. Getting a weekend away from work is a major achievement."

Grueling labor has more than a mental effect on workers. Physical symptoms can arise from overworking as well. Game designer Clint Hocking reported memory loss as a result of crunching on a game. Brett Douville, a respected veteran of game development, described being temporarily unable to step out of his car after working on a game too hard (Schreier).

Similar reports came out of Rockstar Games where they were caught actively bragging about their crunch period when working on Red Dead Redemption 2. Responding to backlash on Twitter for boasting about their 100-hour work weeks, Rockstar Studios asserted that nobody at Rockstar was being “forced” to work those hours, but that they simply put in “additional effort” as a “choice” (Lefebvre, “Rockstar”). “We have some senior people who work very hard purely because they’re passionate about a project, or their particular work, and we believe that passion shows in the games we release. But that additional effort is a choice, and we don’t ask or expect anyone to work anything like this” (Lefebvre, “Rockstar”).

This is a great example of what is called “the passion principle.” The passion principle is defined by Erin A. Cech as “the prioritization of fulfilling work even at the expense of job security or a decent salary.” The passion principle is something many companies that oversee creative or fulfilling jobs seek out in workers. Though not as obviously morally wrong as practices like overseas child slave labor, passion exploitation is still a form of exploitation that often escapes our attention (Kim, 3). Writing in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Jae Yun Kim uses the term “passion exploitation” to refer to a means of justifying exploitation of workers on the excuse that the workers are just naturally passionate about the subject and are glad to do the uncompensated work of their own choice, even if it is demanding or outside of the job description (Kim, 6). Kim further defines the term as “maltreatment of workers that uses attributions and assumptions of passion as a justifying tool” (Kim, 5).

There have been studies on the passion principle that show how effective it can be. In the essay “Love Your Job? Someone May be Taking Advantage of You,” Aaron Kay found that participants who were given a situation where a worker was being exploited by their boss were more likely to say that the exploitation was justified if the worker was more passionate about their job rather than less passionate. This exploitation included being asked to do work that was not in the job description, such as leaving a day with family at the park to clean the office bathroom (Kay).

But why would someone being passionate about a job they’re doing lead to employers thinking it was okay to exploit those people for additional or excessive labor? Do they really think what they’re doing is justified? There are two cornerstones to the justification of passion exploitation: first, the belief that, to the enthused employee, work is its own reward; and second, the belief that the worker would have volunteered to do the labor anyways, just out of sheer enjoyment (Kim, 10).

The belief that work is its own reward is widely held. In South Korea, some workers use the term “passion wages” to cheekily refer to the expectation that they should work for little to no pay because it is presumed that the work itself is its own reward (Kim, 5). Likewise, it has been proven via study that there is a correlation between a job’s perceived passion and people’s belief in the legitimacy of its exploitation on the basis that the worker would have volunteered for the work regardless (Kim, 20).

But a counterargument to the passion exploitation theory is that, while sometimes employees put in extra hours on their work, and sometimes employers benefit from this free labor, if it really is the employee’s choice, then what does it matter? Wouldn’t forcing an artist away from the work that they’re passionate about be counterproductive and borderline cruel? That would be a good argument if employees truly did choose to work overtime. But, in most cases, this is not exactly true. If an employer asks an employee to do a menial task that is outside of the job description, like cleaning an office bathroom, it can look like the employee has a free choice in the matter and can decline if they so choose. But, to the trained eye, the power dynamic is obvious:  an employer has a substantial amount of power over an employee, like controlling their job security and promotions. It is likely that an employee may not feel entirely safe saying “no” to an employer for fear of some sort of repercussions (Kim, 7). Going back to the videogames industry, crunch culture happens when people “crunch” to meet a deadline. If that deadline is not met, it will result in dire consequences. People may lose their jobs, their livelihoods, or they may be demoted. This does not give the employees a meaningful choice about whether or not they want to crunch.

To conclude, people often prioritize fulfilling or enjoyable work over high-paying, stable, or less demanding jobs. Companies will seek these people out, because they can be coerced to provide free labor if they are passionate about their jobs. Some companies will hire passionate employees and then work them arduous and unethical hours on the excuse that they should be loving it, since they love this line of work. Employers justify their actions by saying that the work is its own reward, and that the employees would have volunteered for this work anyway if they had the chance. Employees often endure this treatment because of intimidation inherent in the power dynamics of the workplace. Employees need protection in the form of effective workplace regulation to avoid falling victim to their own “passion”.

Works Cited

Cech, Erin A. “Loving Your Job Is a Capitalist Trap.” The Atlantic, 12 Nov. 2021, www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/11/danger-really-loving-your-job/620690/.

“EA Spouse.” GameQoL, www.gameqol.org/ea-spouse/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2022.

Gilbert, Ben. “Video Game Industry ‘Crunch Culture’ Explained: Epic, Rockstar, EA.�� Business Insider, 9 May 2019, www.businessinsider.com/video-game-development-problems-crunch-culture-ea-rockstar-epic-explained-2019-5#a-trio-of-recent-blockbusters-red-dead-redemption-2-anthem-and-fortnite-are-the-subjects-of-major-investigations-detailing-the-messy-work-of-creating-blockbuster-games-4.

Kay, Aaron. “Love Your Job? Someone May Be Taking Advantage of You.” www.fuqua.duke.edu, 24 Apr. 2019, www.fuqua.duke.edu/duke-fuqua-insights/kay-passion-exploitation.

Kim, Jae Yun et al. “Understanding Contemporary Forms of Exploitation: Attributions of Passion Serve to Legitimize the Poor Treatment of Workers.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 118,1 (2020): 121-148. doi:10.1037/pspi0000190.

Lefebvre, Eliot. “EA Spouse Was 15 Years Ago, and Not Much Has Changed in Games Development.” Massively Overpowered, 11 Nov. 2019, massivelyop.com/2019/11/11/ea-spouse-was-15-years-ago-and-not-much-has-really-changed-in-development/.

Lefebvre, Eliot. “Rockstar Boasts of 100-Hour Work Weeks on Red Dead Redemption 2.” Massively Overpowered, 15 Aug. 2018, massivelyop.com/2018/10/15/rockstar-boasts-of-100-hour-work-weeks-on-red-dead-redemption-2/.

Schreier, Jason. “Opinion | Video Games Are Destroying the People Who Make Them.” The New York Times, 25 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/25/opinion/work-culture-video-games-crunch.html?searchResultPosition=5.

[itz-darktrax]

The dictionary defines evil as “profoundly immoral and wicked.” In Big Hero 6 The Series there are a few villains who deserve the title of being evil. Because in my eyes being evil means you also dare to hurt or kill people. Those people are Obake Aken, Diane (Di) Amara, and Momakase. Today I’m going to psychoanalyze them to see why they are evil in the first place and why they need help deep down.

First up, Obake. The main antagonist in season 1 is infamous for trying to recreate the great catastrophe. It all started with his days at SFIT. He was a young prodigy just like Hiro. His mentor, the now Professor Granville encouraged him to explore fearlessly. Unfortunately, this caused a fatal accident with an experiment he was doing. Therefore, Obake suffers from a brain injury that causes him to lose the sense of morality or right and wrong. Because of the encouragement from Granville, he tries to destroy Sanfransokyo to get rid of “lower class” people and rebuild the city in his perfect image. When Hiro thwarted his plan to destroy the city with a star, Baymax offered to save Obake from his crumbling lair, but he refused probably because of the saying “A captain always goes down with his ship” and to stew in his failure. You know that Obake’s condition was treatable, but he refused help from Baymax. He took some pride in his little incident and wanted to be the center of unethical knowledge and power. In the end, Obake had good intentions of making incredible breakthroughs but because of not having any limits he meets his demise. He had a lot of potentials. I’m not saying that he is 100% innocent. I’m saying that he needed help. A friend or someone to cope with. He was misguided.

Now, onto Diane Amara. She was Liv Amara’s clone after her Immortality project backfired on her. The clone was engineered to save her no matter the cost. She then posed as the real Liv for several years before she exposed herself to Hiro after he was kidnapped in the city of monsters. During those years posing as Liv, Diane ran Sycorax while trying to cure Liv. Her breakthrough came when Karmi was introduced as an Intern. Diane then exploited her to try to cure Liv without Karmi knowing while getting the supplies herself with the help of the mutated assistant named Chris. When Diane knew that Karmi alone couldn’t cure her she used Karmi to set up a trap to lure Hiro in and force him to save Liv with Karmi’s serum and Hiro’s microrobots. Similarly, to Obake, Diane was also misguided as she did not understand the limits to saving Liv. She biogenetically turned people into monsters to do her dirty work for her. This is what Liv didn’t want. If only Diane knew that. At this point, we know that Diane and her assistant are imprisoned to pay for her actions.

And finally, onto my favorite villain, Momakase. We first see her as one of the better -urm I mean the best sushi chef in Sanfransokyo. She was making food for Krei when it was all a ploy to steal his gravitational disruptor from Krei. She poisoned Krei and promised to give the antidote to him if he revealed the location of the gravity disruptor. So, he complied, and the first half was stolen. Yama then hired her again to steal the other half but was lost when she was captured by Aunt Cass during the food fight. We later find her now employed by Obake because of their mutual hatred of Big Hero 6. Momakase was then sent to Kidnap Karmi and use as bait to lure Big Hero 6 out. Momakase finally had her chance to get revenge on them. Especially Hiro after landing her in jail. Later in the season, she helps Obake carry out the events in countdown to catastrophe.

After Obake’s death, she invests in Sycorax which in return gives her mutated powers to again try to defeat Big Hero 6. Now let’s speed up to the episode named “Hiro The Villain” where Diane is now incarcerated and Momakase is once again out on her own. When learning about the location of the family swords she extorts Hiro to use his technical abilities to help Momakase carry out a heist in Yama’s place. Once the swords are retrieved and they’re about to make their escape, Hiro questions why they stole normal-looking katanas. Momakase then answers with keys to her past. Those swords were her family’s passed down from generation to generation. Gangsters threaten Momakase’s family, and her father traded the swords for their safety. There she says the very reason that she became a villain. “I vowed to never be pushed around again.” And honestly, I relate to that. But first, let me wrap up Momakase. So, at the end of the episode, Hiro and Momakase were caught by Big Hero 6. Where they fought. Hiro urged Momakase to not hurt anyone. Despite that Momakase still attempts to stab Gogo and Wasabi only to be saved by Hiro and his sonic wave Cannon. At the end of the episode when Hiro was exposed and explained himself, the SFPD was alerted to the location. At the time Momakase and BH6 were both fugitives. So, to ensure that Big Hero 6 escapes Momakase diverts the police away from their location and both parties escape successfully. This is the beginning of her journey to becoming an Anti-Hero. Unfortunately, the series didn’t develop that as much but hey that’s what is content creators a here for. The reason we knew she became an antihero is that in season 3 we last see her help Big Hero 6 de chip with mascots with the coordination of Hiro. It’s amazing to see how far she has come from a contracted ninja thief to an anti-hero helping Big Hero 6. God, I miss my knife-wife so much!

Anyways in the last paragraph, I say I relate to Momakase’s reason for being evil. Now let me tell you why. As some of you may know that I’m evil. It’s obvious is it not? If not, then look at my blog’s page and then come back. There now you know. But do you know why? Well, if we’re close friends on discord then you may already know. Evil back story short it’s all because of my parents. They neglect and don’t care about me. They force me to bottle up my feelings and don’t even care about my mental health. They force me to do things I don’t like and insult me every chance they get. This way I’m being “pushed” around by my parents. And it’s the source of all my aggression in rage which I automatically turn into sadistic/murderous impulses. See the relationship?

I conclude with one last statement. Every villain deserves to be loved and helped. Because deep inside they need help. They want to be loved. They feel lost and alone. Most people are criminals because of something happening in their childhood or relationships. Like bad parents as an example. Or some people are just lost or desperate. My point is that we must emphasize with them. They’re humans after all aren’t they? They all want peace and everything nice. No matter how many brutal crimes they may commit. Honey lemon once said, “There is good in everyone”. And I 100% agree.

Let me know your thoughts in a reblog chain or in the comments. I would love to hear from you!

[loyalshipper]

May I introduce the Tumblr DC community to one of my two favorite Batfam AUs I have created. Bruce Wayne owns a hotel/museum near an ocean cliff and still has a chronic adoption problem but doesn’t fight crime. (If anyone writes this you can make it to where heroes still exist, the Batfam are the inly no capes)

WE still exists but it isn’t run by Bruce it is run by Lucius because back in the 60s Thomas and Martha bought the hotel and wanted that to be their legacy. They still die the same way but Bruce puts all his efforts into running and blossoming the hotel which was his parent’s dream project.

I’ll get back into the hotel in a minute I’m taking about the kids now

Dick is gotten a similar way, he visits the Cape with Haly’s Circus, his parents die because of faulty wiring sold to the circus by Zucco and Dick becomes an orphan. Bruce just so happened to use his one night off in a while to go see the circus. He keeps thinking about Dick and ends up adopting him. He helps Dick and the Circus bring Zucco to justice and sues the hell out of him and shuts down his business. (Adopted at 8))

Jason was found living in one of the shut down rooms of the hotel. Because his dad left and was in prison and his mom od. So Bruce treats him like a wild animal and starts to leave food out on a regular schedule until Jason gets comfortable with him and he adopts Jason. (five years younger than Dick)

Tim was the son of two wealthy archaeologists who were gone 11 out of the 12 months. Bruce met Tim because he liked to come into the museum and take pictures of the museum exhibits and hotel architecture and shoreline which he would develop and give copies to Bruce. So he opens his house to this little boy with a penchant for photography. Until one day Tim’e parents call Tim telling him that they are staying in Egypt permanently because the archeological dig is producing wonderous results and they’ll be hiring him an around the clock sitter. Only for Tim to wait three weeks and no one shows up. They went so far as to fire Ms. Mac but never hired a sitter for their son. So he goes to Bruce in tears and explains everything, because this is it-his parents finally did abandon him, and Bruce sues them for custody of Tim. (Three years younger than Jason, adopted at 7)

Damian was the result of a relationship Bruce had in college while studying hotel management and hospitality. Talia is the daughter of a hotel conglomerate owner who is currently trying to buy Bruce’s hotel so it can be torn down and Ra’s can built a new hyper expensive hotel in its place. Damian was sent to live with Bruce to try and get Bruce to have Damian inherit the hotel so Ra’s can get it and destroy it, but that backfired because instead Damian falls in love with the hotel and his new family (reluctantly) and wants to see the hotel and museum flourish, not tear down this historical piece of architecture to replace it with a soulless hotel only available to the wealthy elite. But something available to everyone that families vacation to because there is so much history and beauty in a thing that has stood for centuries. So Damian turns against Ra’s. Due not that while Damian and Tim do have a sibling rivalry it is not as vicious and cutting as it is in canon. They love each other they just don’t mesh well while in the same room. And yes, Damian still has his variety of pets (7 years younger than Tim)

Cass came to the hotel with her “father,” David Cain, who went to the Cape for business, and just ended up leaving and forgetting Cass at the hotel. He was still abusive and Cass had trouble speaking but he wasn’t “turn Cass into the world’s greatest assassin” abusive. After Bruce finds Cass, he sues Cain for parental custody and then ruins his life unrepentantly. (Couple of months older than Jason)

After Martha and Thomas died, Alfred took over managing the hotel while Bruce was still growing up and while he was getting his degrees, now he is the grandfather to Bruce’s many kids and helps to keep them running and cared for while they run and care for the hotel. He’s also the one that helps the new kids transfer into the life of running a hotel.

Barbara is the daughter of the Police Comissioner still who became friends with Dick and works, first part time at the museum/hotel and then full time. Same with Steph and Tim (1 year older than Dick)

Cullen and Harper work at the museum, Helena works at the hotel. Carrie does both. Duke is the newest acquisition. Only, his parents disappeared and no one has been able to find them yet. So Bruce currently had temporary custody of Duke who lives at the hotel with everyone. (Harper is a year older than Tim, Cullen is a year younger than Tim, Carrie is the same age as Jason, Duke is a few months younger than Tim)

Each person has different jobs. (Dick is concierge/check-in, Jason does guided history tours of the hotel/museum/grounds, Tim works in financials because he deals with the least amount of people, Helena, Carrie and Steph are both maids, Carrie also does janitorial stuff with Cullen, Barbara works hotel check-in with Dick, Barbara and Harper work cashier at the gift shop, Duke doesn’t have a job yet because he is still dealing with the disappearance of his parents, Damian does every job to see where he fits in best.

JARRO IS THE FAMILY PET STARFISH THAT TIM ADOPTED WHEN HE FIRST JOINED THE FAMILY AND RESCUED FROM BEING EATEN OFF THE BEACH

The hotel is still fully staffed with not-batkids, like grounds keepers and other hotel cleaners and janitors.

Location time!

I’m turning Gotham nicer and changing the geography of the city.

The hotel Museum rests about 200 yds from a cliff that overlooks a beach. There is a well maintained stair case put into the cliff for people to walk down, as well as a longer gravel path that follows the cliff edge down to the shoreline. It is frequented by seals, sea lions, and in the distance, dolphins and whales. The hotel it’s self has about 100 or so acres of land and a long drive but it is technically within walking distance to the city. And it’s a normal coastal town with a port and touristic areas. Kinda eerie at night when the fog rolls in but that’s part of the charm of the NorthEast.

Selina is just Bruce’s friend in this. She is Helena’s mother and Bruce was a surrogate for her. She decided she wanted a baby and Bruce offered to be a donor. So Selina had Helena and Bruce is part of her life but not as her dad, which was the agreement. Selina takes care of the stray animals on the grounds and favors the cats.

Clark is a reporter that was tasked to right an article on the hotel and it’s history, became good friends with Bruce and brings his family (Lois, Jon, Bizarro, Kon, Kara, Lena, Chris, Ma, Pa, and Lex) on vacation to it every year. Lex and Clark are divorced husbands that left on good terms and are friendly enough to coparent their son, Connor, who was made the same way as canon but less hush hush and illegally, Kara is Clark’s cousin and Lena is her fiancée, Lois is his wife, Jon and Bizarro are their two biological sons (Bizarro has autism), Chris is their foster son. Bizarro latches onto Jason in a way that he hasn’t before and always loves coming to the hotel, Jon and Chris are best friends with Damian, Connor and Tim are long distance dating.

Collin, Maya, and Maps are Damian’s best friends from school (Damian has a crush on Collin) and he’s trying to convince them to join the hotel staff like his siblings’ friends but they are a) too young and b) not interested.

Roy has all of his problems as in canon and gets help for it, so as a way to try and bring the family closer, Oliver and Dinah arrange a vacation to the hotel for them Roy and Lian. As a stepping stone kind of thing. Get away from daily stress. Roy is resistant at first until he and Jason hit it off and start talking and Jason talks sense into him and they strike up a friendship turned romance.

The Flashfam visit the museum diring a countrywide roadtrip and mad the stop because Bart is a history buff and wouldn’t stop talking about it the entire trip. He becomes fast friends with Tim and is the only person to ever get a Tim Wayne history tour. No matter what Kon tells you he is super salty about it. Wally and Dick were internet friends and used the roadtrip as a way to be able to meet up.

Thad is the obligatory complainer who doesn’t want to stay in a musty old hotel.

Ivy is the main grounds keeper and is in charge of the native wildlife sanctuary most of the land is used for, as well as taking care of the native plantlife and lives in town with her girlfriend, Harley. Harley helps the kids prank Bruce.

Harley is a children’s psychiatrist hired by Bruce to help the kids deal with their various traumas. Her coming to the hotel for sessions is how she and Ivy met.

They started dating between Dick and Jason and Dick talks up each of them to the other, but each individual kid that comes in think they’d be cute together (since they are both professional while working there isn’t immediate proof that they are dating. But they will flirt with each other if they see each other) and it’s basically a right if passage to try and convince their siblings to help them get together and then try and set them up on their own and find out the hard way that they’re already together. They love seeing all the different way the kids try and set them up. They tend to go along with it until either the kids realise or they take pity on them.

Their favorite was Damian’s where he set up an entire romantic dinner at the hotel restaurant and Dick managed to slyly convince him to set it on a certain day that turned out to be Harley and Ivy’s anniversary.

Alfred is the head chef for the hotel, making room service meals and the breakfast buffet line up. Jason will help him out if he isn’t busy with other things.

Victor Fries and his wife hold an ice cream social ever summer at the hotel with all the ice cream flavors they came up with over the last year.

Edward Nygma, famous escape room designer, is hired to make an escape room themed on the hotel and museum that is built on the grounds near the main building.

Another ritual that starts, begins with Tim, where the older siblings convince the newest one that the hotel is haunted and Jason takes them on a “haunted ghost tour” of the abandoned part of the hotel (the part that is too dilapidated and run down to remodel safely) while the others are stationed at different parts of the hotel and grounds to run whatever scenario to scare the new kid. The only one that hasn’t been done to is Cass because even after several years she still jumps a little too hard at loud noises. But one time Jason accident closed a door a little too harshly while Cass and Tim were doing something and it caused her to jump so hard she knocked over Tim and started crying. They were contemplating whether she was strong enough to do it or not and that cemented that she wasn’t.

Tim and Cass are nearly inseparable and are commonly referred to as the Wayne Twins. For Halloween they decided to go as each other.

[swiftadrift]

hey chickpea it’s me, wishy, your friend, colleague, but mostly importantly, your joy.

I’m too lazy to find and name specifics but do any of your main/secondary… or really any ocs have any cool lore you’d like to share? in particular I want to know about leaf because i named him and he’s very special to me

also if heronflame was born in the polix, alleyclan, or nouveau flame, how would she be different as a character? also what would her alleyclan name be… I think trashfire

If you're my joy then I'm your Swift

Anyway- 1) I do indeed have some OCs that have storylines I'd like to talk about! It's Night and Jay!

Night is not the most social cat ever.. she tends to stick to herself. A lot of people find her very eerie, especially since paranormal events happen around her all the time - lights flicker, ominous howls cry out, things fall over, and the space surrounding her is really cold. Unnervingly cold. There's a reason for it, too! Ghosts really do crowd towards her, because she can see them, and they find her fascinating. She's a mortal, after all, and that's different than a bunch of dead ghosts! Occasionally, she allows them to possess her, feeling bad that they missed doing basic things like eating food or feeling warmth. One day, a new spirit came up, claiming to have died before she could finish a project she'd been working on for a while. After hearing of Night's charity, she decided she couldn't just ignore an opportunity like this! And Night agreed.. but, unfortunately, vengeful spirits don't exactly tell the truth. Also it's stupid but I named her Night Umbra because an umbra is like the really dark part of a shadow where there's absolutely no light and I thought it'd be so cool to name her that-

Jay is a prince in a kingdom that's ruled by only the richest cat. After all, if you're rich, then surely you know how to be successful, and can lead others to the same success! However, that backfired, and only taught everyone spite, manipulation, and selfishness. Jay hasn't seen any of this before, due to spending his whole life in the castle, but that doesn't make him any less bad - a long time spent in isolation let his most negative habits fester until they overtook him. Then, he's sent out into the wild for the first time ever. And the world's a lot more cold than he thought it was. However, as fate has it, there is something he can do to change it.. That makes it sound really serious but his story's like really lighthearted and comedic- it's like watching a cartoon with primarily filler lol. Also his name is Jay Roi, and Roi means King in French! I would've done 'prince' but in French that's just 'prince' so

And as for Leaf - I have the main OCs with stories, like Snow, Night, Thorn, Jay, and Brooks. Leaf, as you've probably noticed, is not one of those- I don't really know about a storyline for him 'cause I've got noting. I do have a few notes, though? He's constantly babied (Not due to anything in particular, I just suppose he looks like a child or something??) and can't do many things on his own, so a minor storyline (Probably a part of Thorn's story?) is him learning to do things by himself.

2) If Heronflame was in the Polix, she'd be like.. the same lol but with Crescendo instead of Sumire! Her name would probably just be Heron or something

If Heronflame was in AlleyClan, I don't think she'd be as much of a stickler for the rules but she'd be a lot more diplomatic than most of the clan. Really taking in a bit of the Warrior Code like it's a moral compass lol. Also TRASHFIRE?? /lh Trashflame is much more fitting, keeps the suffix /j /lh In all seriousness, she'd probably be like. Orangepeel maybe?? Orangeslice?? Maybe Orangeslice.

If she was born in the Nouveau Flame, she'd be so anti-Sumire it'd be crazy- like "Damn Sumire really sucks!! The laws in ParaClan are horrid!" Despite probably never meeting Sumire.. ever..

Also, another thing may also be changed if she wasn't in ParaClan.. can't say too much about it here though lol

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Happiness Is

This is possibly my favorite episode of season two. Yet, it is also the point the where the series starts to fall off a cliff. Only that’s not something that you would realize upon a first watch; just in hindsight and only with some basic knowledge of the behind the scenes drama that led to this and the fall out with the fandom that followed afterwards. 

Summary:  Rapunzel begins to feel homesick for Corona when she finds an old letter written by her father in one of the many lanterns sent from her previous birthdays. In attempts to uplift her spirits, Rapunzel explores the island and comes across a magical idol that brings instant happiness to whomever possesses it. Rapunzel begins to hallucinate her family and friends back in Corona and soon shares the idol with the rest of the group. However, everyone starts to become obsessive over the idol, desperately wanting it for themselves. Rapunzel tricks everyone into giving her the idol, but when the Lorbs try to help Rapunzel, they fall under the idol's control and soon begin to terrorize the village.

Let’s Start with the First Elephant in the Room; Frederic 

So throughout the episode Rapunzel is struggling with being homesick. Which is fair enough, that’s an understable reaction to being on the road for months by now. However, to showcase this Rapunzel keeps seeing hallucinations of her father. There are some other characters too, but her dad is the first person she sees and the only one in Corona with speaking lines. He’s the one to tempt her with the idol. 

Did we just forget that Frederic is her abuser? 

Look, even if you accept his apology in Secret of the Sundrop and believe he has learned his lesson, that doesn’t just erase the pain he caused her. Her thoughts about her father should be more realistically complex then this. Now add in how she makes a such a clean break from her other abuser, Gothel, but still holds him on a pedestal shows a disturbing bias on the part of the writers. 

Also where’s this love for Arianna? You know the only real mother on the show? The show that’s aimed at little girls? The one parent who hasn’t flat out abused the main character yet? 

Seriously, Chris, what the fuck? 

This is a Missed Opportunity 

So part of the reason why I like this episode is that we get insights into each of the characters and their desires. As such this is one of the few episodes where the group actual feels like a group friends. However, Cass’s vision is wasted here. 

So at first glance this seems to aline with what we know of the character thus far. She loves her dad and wishes to impress him. That’s only if you take season one into account, though. Later episodes will contradict this goal. If you wanted to set up praise and validation in general as Cassandra’s motives, then here is where that should have happened. 

Show her getting a medal, have cheering crowds surround her, have her be a hero, or something. You can’t claim her relationship with her parents as the driving force of behind her later actions if you don’t actually involve one of those parents as part of the resolution to her arc. 

Either she lacking attention from her dad or she’s jealous of Rapunzel. You can’t have it be both because those two things don’t intersect. Rapunzel is not and never was a threat to her relationship with her father. 

So Umm...I Don’t Think This Plot Point Has the Impact That the Writers Think It Does 

So this hilarious, and it is intended to be funny, but it’s not for the reasons that the show gives. 

The idea is that this is some shocking revelation. That Rapunzel would never do this under normal circumstances and it’s a hint that the idol is corrupting her. 

Only the rest of the series doesn’t aline with that at all. This is just the real Rapunzel behaving as the she normally would but without the usual veneer of excuses. 

It’s funny because it’s the show calling out Rapunzel hypocrisy for what it is plainly, not because it’s out of character. 

But funny only gets you so far. The show is perfectly happy to play up Rapunzel’s awfulness for laughs, but then conventily ignore it when it comes time for the characters themselves to call her out on it so that she can grow and learn.       

The show runs under the sitcom idea that comedy excuses all sins; which then backfires horribly when it tries to be serious and mature. 

You can’t joke that the king threw a random person in a stockade for little reason and then expect us to still like him when he persecutes a child. Same applies here. 

The sitcom set up only works when there is minimal at stake and all parties involved are equally awful in their own ways. 

Then Why Not Just Go Home?

Once again, there’s nothing at stake in season two. Rapunzel has no real reason to be on this trip. Nothing is stopping her from just going home if that’s what she wants. The idol only makes her happy because it shows her want she wants, but she could actually have what she wants as soon as the next ship arrives. So what’s the issue here? 

This is why you need external conflict in order to make internal conflicts work. There’s has to be something preventing the main character from achieving her goal or otherwise she just comes across as a dumbass. 

And Now Here Comes the Second Elephant; Varian 

I have several things to talk about here, and none of them actually concern the scene itself but the creator’s treatment of the character and the show’s fan base.

For you see, Chris did a very, very stupid thing.  

He wrote the character driving the plot out of the show. The character who also happens to be the most popular person in the series. Only to then use said character’s VA and this one cameo as promotion for this whole season. 

Needless to say, fans were disappointed.   

However, the Tangled fandom is exceedingly polite; more so than most. The lack of Varian was met mostly with confusion, and maybe a few off handed jokes, rather than anger. When opportunity arose people naturally had questions concerning the character.     

And that’s when Chris put his foot in mouth. 

This Tumblr post details how Chris got kicked off the Tangled The Series Discord by bullying a bunch of Varian fans while on there. 

https://starxapple.tumblr.com/post/617852117763391488/zhantiri-uuugh-fine-since-people-are-getting

I shan’t get into it fully, but for those who discovered the show after season two had aired, this caused a massive backlash from the fandom. 

A good chunk of the fandom just walked away, and rightly so. The few that stuck around despite these remarks found themselves harassed by certain sections of the fandom who saw Chris’s bullying as permission to pursue the same behavior. However, most importantly, the ratings plummeted. 

Season one hovered around the the 1 million mark, give or take a five point difference. The first part of season two dropped to half of that, and after this episode and the hiatus it sunk even lower, down to the mid-thirties. That’s over 20,000 people who just jumped ship over this. That’s not a normal decline. 

No matter what your personal feelings are of the character of Varian or how he was handled in the show, that’s still a massive PR fassico that cost the series big time. 

To add to this mountain of bullshit, there was also a massive walk out of crew members after season one had finished production. Most of them women. They even desperately threw out ‘we’re hiring’ calls to cover this. Which given that’s it’s Disney and that nepotism is usually how one gains employment in the entertainment industry, something unusual must have happened behind the scenes. Especially if most of the people who left were women. 

We’ll probably never know what really happened. People don't usually talk about behind the scenes stuff like that due to contracts and the aforementioned nepotism. However, all clues point to Varian.   

Something changed at the last minute concerning his story. Chris himself had confirmed as much when discussing the note and the Brotherhood. We also gotten other hints that content was edited out at the last minute. Plus the writing becomes more shoddy as the series goes along, showing how slapped dashed everything is together.  

Then there’s the rumors. 

I must stress to you that this is only a rumor. As pointed out earlier, most animators aren’t in a position to talk freely about what goes on behind the scenes. Do NOT harass them over it or make things awkward by asking them to clarify this. However it’s been suggested that the female crew warned Chris that removing Varian from season two and re-writing his story, along with making Cass the villain, would be a bad idea before they left and Chris didn’t listen. Much to his folly. 

Chris is no longer a Disney employee and has yet to move on to any other projects. He says he left, but I more suspect that Disney just didn't renew his contract and no one has picked him up since. I take no joy in the idea that someone may have lost their job, but if true, then Chris has little to blame but himself. 

So What Did Change?

We don't know anything for sure. We know from discussions about the note that there was a proposed Brotherhood plot that involved Varian that was then cut. There was also talks about a Cass and Varian team up in season three. 

This was then changed to the Saporian take over, which is foreshadowed in this scene. However even that got edited down and under the flimsiest of excuses. 

One of the writers, Ricky, suggested that they thought cutting back to Corona would be too confusing for the audience; which is a load of bull. I mean how poorly do you think of your audience’s comprehension skills that they wouldn’t understand a change of scene or a flashback? Yet you fully expect them to pick up on your lazy foreshadowing involving the mirror? So much so that you sent them on a quest to find it between seasons two and three.

Then there’s this gem from Chris. 

Ok ignoring the fact that you so totally could have featured both Gothel and Varian, seeing as they serve two different functions in the story and mean different things to Rapunzel.... What guilt?!!! 

Rapunzel doesn’t ever act guilty over anything involving her treatment of Varian. 

That’s when you realize Chris isn’t talking about her feeling guilty about Varian’s predicament. He’s saying that Rapunzel feels guilty of leaving her father behind with this ‘dangerous’ criminal. Which is a big fuck you to everyone. 

That’s why Frederic is the center focus of Rapunzel’s hallucinations. Why she’s more concerned for his safety over Varian’s trauma. Chris really be out here trying to use the abused 14/15 year old orphan as a scapegoat for the grown ass dictator who ruined countless lives. Because he thinks a grown woman should feel guilty for leaving her abusive father behind and pursuing her life’s dream.

Dude, I try not to assume the worst of people just cause they write fictional characters that I dislike, but Chris really makes things hard not to when he treats his self insert this way. 

Oh but we’re not done yet. 

When Varian Fans Complain About the Lack of Varian; We’re Complaining About the Lack of a Coherent Plot. 

Certain sections of the fandom, bolstered by Chris’s BS, try to act like simply being a Varian fan is grounds for dismissal of any criticism of the show and it’s writing. As if having personal preference for something makes you automatically ‘entitled’ or some such bull. Yet doing so ignores the fundamental complaint that they are making. 

We’re not whining about our favorite character not getting enough screen time. No one would have complained about his lack of presence in season two if they had properly resolved his story in season three and had Chris not been a dick to the fans. But it becomes evidently clear as the series goes along that removing Varian left a major hole in the plot. One that makes the entire story and the rest of characters suffer as well. 

Think season two is boring? That’s cause they cut out their main villain at the last minute and failed to replace him with anything. 

Upset that Hookfoot was brought along for zero reason?  He’s the replacement character for Varian who no doubt was going to appear in season two originally. 

Wish there was more on the Brotherhood and the Dark Kingdom?  Their story impact was greatly reduced when Varian was written out.

Are you a Eugene fan and mad about how the Dark Prince plot went nowhere?  That’s cause the original Brotherhood/Dark Kingdom plot was dropped when Varian was.

Dislike how Cassandra’s character was ruined with her villain arc?  She was originally meant to be possessed but was changed last minute to be a Varian rip-off in the hopes that she would gain some of his popularity.   

Wish Zhan Tiri, Demantius, and the Disciples actually went somewhere and that ZT had coherent plan?   That plot were changed last minute to make Zhan Tiri a scapegoat for Cassandra now that her story was changed to replace Varian.

And of course let’s not ignore the character who suffers the most from lack of Varian.... Rapunzel. 

Chris’s defense for leaving Varian out of S2 is that it’s “Rapunzel’s Story” and that Varian was only ever a plot device meant to push her along on her quest.  Which means that Rapunzel no longer has anyone pushing her along on her quest!!!

All characters are plot devices. If they aren’t there to serve a story function then they need to be cut. Even Rapunzel herself serves a plot function. She’s meant to be the protagonist of a coming of age story. Which means she needs both an external conflict to face and an emotional arc where she grows as a person. Varian is the plot device that serves both of those functions but he’s now been removed and is no longer allowed to serve his original purpose. 

Chris reached into the machine while it was running and pulled out one of the main gears and acted like he always meant to do that. He legit sat there and pretended that everything was running smoothly even as smoke poured out and warring alarms blared. He then tried to shove bubble gum in its place hoping no one would notice as everything fell apart around him. 

Cause he’s the thing; no idea is without merit. It’s all about presentation. Removing Varian from season three still could have worked, but it required A.) replacing him with another foe and B.) making sure his arc still got a proper conclusion. 

I’ll talk more about Varian’s half-arsed redemption when we get to it; but for now let's focus on the more immediate problem. No one thought to give season two an actual overarching conflict in light of Varian’s absence. 

That’s a fundamental oversight that pretty much signals that season two was re-written at the last minute. You have an overarching plot in an action adventure show but no main adversary? I refuse to believe that everyone involved was too stupid to do that on purpose; but if they were rushed and lacked a crew because they walked out due to last minute story changes....yeah that’d I buy. 

Because there’s more than enough options to go around; Lady Caine, The Baron and Styalan, Hector and/or Adria, Zhan Tiri’s Disciples ect. were all options. So was keeping the rocks a threat, or have Cass start her villian arc earlier; with proper motivation this time. They could have even come up with someone entirely new. 

You had over four years to plan this shit out; why is it not more well put together?! 

How Come Rapunzel Can Easily Admit Fault to Pascal But Not Anyone Else? 

Pascal should have sat perched on Varian’s and Eugene’s shoulders giving Rapunzel ‘I’m done with this’ looks all throughout season three. It’s apparently the only thing that she responds to. 

Why is the untalkative camelanion the only one allowed to call out the main character’s BS without going villain? 

Conclusion

That’s all there really is to talk about in this story. The actual episode itself is good. It’s the behind the scenes crap that bubbles underneath its surface that needed to be discussed. That way when going forward with the marathon you’ll better see what I’m talking about when I explain how future episode suffered from the lack of planning and foresight. 

[cakeandpi]

Parker!! spoilers abound

hm, so Harry (aka Lawyer) has been fired/let go and no one gave him the memo on it. Is his old job/boss going to be this episodes mark?

oof, Harry is bad at being subtle with his ‘okay look in [place]’ comm directions

ah okay so isn’t a legal firm that’s about representing their clients to the best of their ability. it’s a firm whose about smoothing bad things over for rich clients so that there’s little to no consequences.

“I remember when you wanted to change the world.”/“World did change. We just went along for the ride.” So the world changed the boss, the boss gave up on changing the world because he saw a way to profit from it and didn’t care that he hurt others along the way.

The way that car drove up onto the curve, I thought that was Sophie in a big hurry at first. (I would have thought Parker but there wasn’t enough time for her to crack the safe, get to the relevant files, get out, and then drive there.) But no, it’s Maxwell’s thugs because the man holds a grudge apparently. So I’m going to guess he’s going to be the season big bad? Or is he just a 2-episode bad guy and we’ll find out who the real big bad is later?

Hardison: listing various problems on various international efforts he’s helping with Eliot: let’s make this a restaurant metaphor Hardison: *very much regretting ever buying Eliot that brewpub*

Nuts and bolts about bad guy details

Also that bit about Hardison being distracted by problems is definitely a distraction, there’s no way he’d pause on making sure their safehouse was secure

Eliot is not so much pissed as insulted that the world is at the point of advertising the corruption rather than him needing to beat it out of someone.

drone!!

*snort* eliot's usually the grouchy one, and he’s carrying a trashcan right now. there’s no way hardison doesn’t make some oscar the grouch joke once he sees that.

“It’s like you never stopped.”/“Yeah. Quite the act.” Sophie slows down at Hardison’s comment, then sighs and sits. She’s finding this tiring now. Is it because she’s out of practice? Or because after so many years of retirement, her hearts not in it anymore? And Hardison notices. He doesn’t say anything concrete immediately, because Sophie hasn’t really elaborated on what’s going on with her. When she does - it’s her grief, and how its affecting her grift now - there’s this concern in Hardison’s face. There’s absolutely going to be a meeting between the OT3 about how to straddle not straining Sophie too much and not babying her should she stay on for another job after this.

“But I can’t work forever, can I?” There’s a defeated tone to this, and it’s true - Sophie’s just human, one day she too will pass on. Her grief for Nate (and how being back with the team keeps reopening that wound) is coloring her view on this for sure. (Did Nate work himself to death?) It’s also, very distantly, a remark on the OT3 - they too can’t work forever. They were Sophie’s and Nate’s proteges. And it’s not that the OT3 doesn’t have anything in place if they go down - they’ve got small teams running all over the world. But they don’t have their own personal proteges. Harry’s a decent start, but they’ll need to recruit and open up their circle to at least one, maybe two more before they’re ready to retire. Before they, too, burn too hot for too long.

“You hear that? That’s a very distinctive sound.” YES

Another Basil & Brick truck! This one has.... empanadas, ropa vieja, sancocho, and I think the last one is yuca frita. Mm, yuca fries.

BREANNA!!!

Parker! Taught Breanna to tail people! (Hardison in particular?) When she was 11! Wait does that mean Parker’s met Nana?! Also Parker is so smug and satisfied that Breanna paid attention to her lessons.

“I teach every kid I meet how to do crime.” <3 be gay do crime

This is a big ‘I’m telling mom!’ argument and I love it, especially the “I think she’s napping” LMAO

“How you saved Eliot’s life all those times” Oh man Hardison is sleeping on the metaphorical couch tonight. But also I need to come back to this later because honestly and really? Hardison has - as part of a group team effort - saved Eliot’s life from himself. By giving him a way to work through his anger issues, by caring for him, by showing Eliot he’s needed and that he’s more than just a hitter. The team saved Eliot’s life. (And there’s probably a bunch of erasing digital trails/etc where Hardison did more directly save Eliot’s life but that's besides the point.)

“But hacking’s kind of old school anyway.” And as she goes on, Eliot goes from aggrieved to ‘oh, a new best friend’ because now he has someone to help him annoy Hardison.

Parker pulls Hardison into a side room (by his ear, but he’s not protesting in pain so that’s got to be just for show). And then pushes him up against the wall and Hardison is like ‘okay whatever lecture is coming can it not be like this?’ If it weren’t for the glass walls that’d be some makeout stuff right here.

LOL at Parker’s standard for a ‘normal’ person being ‘uses Uber, pays taxes, and has a birth certificate’.

“Wait is this like that time in Paris?” I... don’t remember an episode set in Paris with a robot and explosions so this must be during the time skip. And - “... but you didn’t want to hurt Eliot’s feelings so you secretly wanted us to agree.” I’m going to scream if there’s no confirmed ot3 by the end of the season. And cry. And read a whole bunch of fic.

Look at these two being honest with each and communicating and respecting each others opinions, they’ve grown so much from pretzel metaphors.

“You’re not mad. You did the Picard tug.”/“I am mad.“/“Did the tug. You know I like that.” Parker might be mad (at Hardison? Breanna? Both?) but not so much that she’s completely shutting out Hardison, giving him a nonverbal signal that she’s not pissed, just needs some time to be upset before everything’s okay.

“One. Job.” Parker says. And we the viewers know it’ll be more than one. But really what that means by now is that this is an audition. Parker may have taught Breanna some things, but now Breanna has to show that they do better with her rather than without, that she’s an asset and not a liability or dead weight.

I laughed so hard that because this shit’s illegal, there’s no cutting corners on the paperwork.

“And you didn’t get tortured.”/“Not this time.” I can’t tell if Eliot wants Harry to get a little bit tortured or if he’s just reminding Harry that this time around people were in a good mood and showing off.

Breanna stops herself before suggesting something, and Hardison, for all that he isn’t delighted at her presence and protested her being here, encourages her to speak up. If she’s going to be part of the team, even for one job, she’s part of the team and that means speaking up and throwing ideas out there for others to bounce around, even if it winds up being a football that can’t be dribbled.

OT3 TEAM JUST GOT DUBBED ‘DRILL TEAM’. (why is that also somehow a dirty joke i’m dying here)

Oh one of the baddies is a Com4r4t fan... oh wait no this is the beginning of a plan backfiring.

Aww Breanna is so proud of what she’s done! It’s very much like season 1 Hardison. So Sophie and Hardison go to do their own thing, only that means the baddies are here to talk to Breanna and she doesn’t have backup.

THE 'LET ME GET MY BOSS’ THE SPIN AROUND AND THE ‘WHY ARE YOU BOTHERING MY STAFF’ I LOVE BREANNA.

“I’m your neighbor who runs a business built on discretion.” This is going to go very badly depending on how Breanna plays this. At least she gets the earbud in to call for help!

Another Brick&Basil truck! Etoufee and jambalaya, dammit eliot stop choosing delicious food to advertise. 

“I monkey-shamed the DJ” I. Love. Her. Also Sophie’s already read Breanna as having the skills to just need general guidelines for an impromptu grift rather than needing to be fed specific lines.

“Okay here’s the thing.” And there’s a pause, we’re thinking he’s about to come down real hard on Breanna, and then we get “I love Com4r4t.” he is a fanboy I guessed it right!! And then he does go through with the threat, but not as a ‘cancel it or die’ sort of threat, but a ‘if i’m disappointed you die’ way.

Breanna nails the impromptu grift though she’s understandably a bit shaken by the threat at the end. (What newcomer wouldn’t be?) But the threat is what pushes Parker into deciding Breanna should go home ASAP. This is Hardison’s family, from before the team, and Parker isn’t about to risk messing that up. If she pushes for Breanna to stay when Hardison doesn’t want Breanna to, and something goes wrong? Parker would never, ever forgive herself.

But as Sophie has pointed out, they’ve all been out of their depth at one point or another. That doesn’t mean that someone should be sent packing.

Lmao Eliot being possessive of the drill.

“Then you ain’t got no more problems ever again.” There’s a certain sense of morbid humor with the team, one that’s both necessary but also a reality. They deal with this level of danger on a semi-regular basis. Harry just hasn’t caught up to that fact yet.

I have a feeling this particular baddie is going to end up dead for managing to drive a 40% cut.

“I’m just saying dude.” I love that Eliot and Hardison don’t have to rehash their entire arguments anymore unless they’re really enjoying themselves, that they can just be all ‘you know I’ve said my piece’.

“Don’t get distracted by the side gig.”/“Is it a side gig?” For all that the team has been their main focus for so long, for all that they all have side projects and gigs, this has been eating up more and more of Hardison’s time. What I thought was him pretending to be distracted earlier may have been a real distraction. And Eliot’s noticed, and he’s noticed that Hardison hasn’t noticed, that Hardison needs to make a choice here.

“In our line of work, you’re one of the best. But in that line of work you’re the only one, man.” Eliot has a soft smile at the end of that, and it's a bit painful, even as I saw it coming, to hear Eliot suggest that Hardison begin to step away from the team’s day to day.

“It’s okay to grow up, to realize you’re not the person you used to be.” None of them are the person they used to be. Not Sophie, not Parker, not Hardison, and certainly not Eliot. They can see that in each other if not in themselves. (Eliot, being the most grounded of all of them, already knew he’d changed eight years ago.)

“You never grew up.”/“Yeah. I achieved perfection pretty early, huh?” Even as Eliot’s the most grounded, even though he’s the one saying that there’s no one else that could fill Hardison’s role in that other work, the idea that Hardison might actually choose to step away from the team is too raw to handle without turning to humor.

Harry’s a bit jumpy, but he’s learning to play it off. I like that he’s a very different character from Nate, that it’s not his anger or ego driving him so much as a desire to make restitution.

And a “Dammit Hardison”

Ooh, Eliot’s in the vents too, just in time to help Parker. (She doubtless has her beloved taser but that would take time away from getting into the vault.)

“I smell lasers” Ahahahahaha

“You’re going to compare me to Eliot right now?” (’over the comms, where others who aren’t Eliot can hear?’ Hardison did not say out loud.)

ouch, okay, Hardison hurting his back like that might be what actually makes him choose the other gig over the team, or at what makes him take a little vacation so he can heal from that. (back injuries are nothing to play around with!)

how did Maxwell get past Eliot? but it’s all good, Eliot’s right behind to disarm him. And Parker’s been doing her hitting lessons, she didn’t even need a taser or to stab anyone!

Oh Harry, the bomb will be used, it’s just not time yet.

New Orleans gumbo is its own food group.

Okay so Hardison’s done a lot of work getting this place in order... WAIT IS THAT A PUNCHING BAG? That’s a punching bag! It might not be the love-letter the brewpub was but it’s definitely a thing added specifically for Eliot.

Oh no, Eliot might realize what Hardison’s doing with this, but Parker hasn’t caught up yet that Hardison’s going to be taking a break from the team.

Parker’s blindsided by this, and she’s upset, but she’s not mad because why didn’t she see this coming she should have seen it, so she leaves to deal with her emotions alone. Hardison follows, naturally, she knew he would, but she can’t face him because then he’ll see her crying, and Parker doesn’t do emotions easily. She’s torn between wanting him to help people and wanting to be with him (and she can’t go with him, she needs to be helping people too).

And Parker doesn’t want Breanna there without Hardison. Again because it’d put Hardison’s family in danger and that’s a step too far for Parker if Hardison doesn’t okay it. And also because with Hardison leaving, Breanna’s just going to be reminders of what Parker’s missing. And Breanna doesn’t have Hardison’s skillset, can’t fill his shoes - not that she should but she can’t, and Parker, I think, is already mentally preparing herself to go it alone again. Because if this job needs Hardison so bad, then surely Eliot’s got some project that needs his specific attention, and it was just one job for Breanna, and Sophie’s been adamant that this is one last job for her, and Harry’s still new and will probably decide to do his own thing given time to think... I think that’s where her brain is at, at least for the next thirty seconds, before she catches up with herself and realizes that more like the time she busted her leg than the team dissolving around her. (This kind of went weird places but that’s stream of thought for me)

And as they come back in Parker’s already cheering up some, because that wave of despair has already blown over. Yeah, she’s not a parent, but she’s good at teaching when she tries.

“It could be a reunion tour.”/“No. I’m retired.” It’s very different from Nate’s old protestations. He was not a thief. Whereas with Sophie it’s not ready. And while they all point out that she’s been happier while doing cons, that they could use the help, it’s not forceful or overpowering. It’s still Sophie’s decision. They’re not going to make her house their new base and taunt her with it; they’re not the sort of people who’d do that anymore, and anyway that’d be cruel instead of a fun sort of goading.

And because they give Sophie space to make a decision, while she doesn’t want to make a long-term commitment, she’s willing to take on ‘just a few more’.

[theleafpile]

Mazikeen and the Importance (and Frustration) of Sub-Plot Characters

Looking over Lucifer Season 5a and the frustration fans are feeling toward the writers’ treatment of Mazikeen has me thinking about the role of subplot characters. More than any other reason, Mazikeen exists in the Lucifer universe in order to be a foil for our titular character, and that is why when we see Lucifer rise, Mazikeen falls.

--- Warning: Spoilers For Season 5a ---

According to The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller by John Truby, there are four main types of characters that populate every story: the hero (or protagonist), the opponent (or antagonist), the ally, and the subplot character. These characters can be further differentiated by adding in second or third opponents, a fake-ally opponent, or a fake-opponent ally. The more complex the story, the more characters that are needed to populate it, and the more often characters change or overlap in their duties; for example, in Lucifer Amenadiel, Linda, Charlotte, Dan, and Eve flip between being allies and opponents depending on whose side they are on, which is usually determined by what they know and dependent on whose character POV we are seeing them from, generally Lucifer’s. From Lucifer’s perspective, Chloe can be an ally one moment and an opponent the next for the same reasons, and vice versa. 

So what, exactly, is a subplot character? According to Truby, 

The subplot character has a very precise function in a story, and again it involves the comparative method. The subplot is used to contrast how the hero and a second character deal with the same problem in slightly different ways. Through comparison, the subplot character highlights the traits and dilemmas of the main character.

--

Before moving on, let’s examine Mazikeen’s arching story lines over the years: 

Season 1: Maze is disdainful about the changes Lucifer appears to be undergoing; Lucifer is curious and takes steps to seek out what might be causing it. She consistently goads and riles him up to be the Lord of Hell she desires him to be, but her actions have a way of backfiring and pushing Lucifer toward further emotional development. As a result, she teams up the opponent (Amenadiel) against Lucifer.

Season 2: Lucifer’s mother enters as the opponent. Maze maintains her stance against her as Lucifer begins to befriend her. Mazikeen begins the process of developing emotional connections (notably with Trixie and Tribe Night), eventually moving toward allying with the opponent to spare Lucifer’s feelings, but becomes a temporary opponent toward him when she feels abandoned/wrong by his thoughtlessness. When the opponent threatens those she cares about, her actions ally with Lucifer’s (predominately in saving Linda’s life).

Season 3: Mazikeen sets out to discover her true self away from Lucifer. Amenadiel and Linda’s burgeoning relationship threaten Maze’s abandonment issues. She begins to demand more respect and care from Lucifer and others. When she doesn’t receive it, she desires to return to Hell. When that is denied her, she teams up with the opponent (Pierce/Cain) in order to get what she wants. Her emotional growth prevents her from taking further action, and she is allied with Lucifer once more.

Season 4: Linda’s motherhood story line brings up Mazikeen’s feelings about her mother and subsequent abandonment, causing her to project her insecurities onto Linda. As a result, she tries to discover her identity outside of the friendship, culminating in a desire to have a relationship with Eve. When Lucifer treats Eve badly, Maze teams up with her desire to have Lucifer return to Hell with Eve as his Queen, resulting in their switching over to become Lucifer’s opponent. When Eve’s desires threaten Linda’s well being, Maze returns as allied to Lucifer and helps defeat his opponent. 

Season 5a: in an attempt to distract herself from both Lucifer and Eve abandoning her and Linda’s focus on Charlie, Mazikeen works with Chloe in Lucifer’s stead. When that backfires, she lashes out and learns that Michael is masquerading as Lucifer. Though her anger at Lucifer causes her to contemplate aligning herself with Michael (the opponent), her ultimate refusal causes Michael to turn on her. When Lucifer’s return and Michael’s reveal about Lilith brings up her abandonment issues, she projects it onto Linda’s motherhood, attempts to reconcile her problems by imitating Ella, then ultimately decides to team up with Michael in the hopes of him giving her her own soul. When Michael goes “a step too far” in threatening her established relationship with Chloe, she turns on him and allies herself with Lucifer once more.

--

The fan’s frustration comes from Mazikeen’s story lines feeling repetitive, which they are. She begins and ends allied with Lucifer, but at some point switches to being allied with the opponent. 

However, each story line develops and challenges her emotional/character-driven issues in the same way that Lucifer’s are developed and enforced. Lucifer, too, backslides in his development and behavior, but the difference is that he is the protagonist and therefore is unable to side with the antagonist in an effort to get what he wants, because that would make the antagonist an ally. When it appears the antagonist is doing what Lucifer wants--Mum leaving of her own accord and Cain dying--these actions are taken because Lucifer has won the battle he set out to fight, making him the hero victorious.

Mazikeen is, essentially, one step behind Lucifer in terms of character development. Her role in season 1 was most similar to his opponent, and from that point on she is relegated with “chasing” him. Lucifer has also projected his issues onto someone else, desired to return to Hell, desired to feel wanted and needed in his job, imitated a coworker, felt threatened by others’ developing emotional connections without him, and so on. 

The difference between Lucifer and Mazikeen’s development, however, becomes most stark at the end of each season.

Lucifer wins, but Mazikeen loses. 

How so?

Season 1: Lucifer saves Chloe and Trixie, is brought back to life by his father, and sends the bad guy to Hell. Mazikeen uses her one ticket back to Hell to save Amenadiel’s life.

Season 2: Lucifer’s sends his mother away peacefully, reconciles with Chloe, and decides to move forward with the truth. Mazikeen’s final shot is of her unsure and in tears watching her loved one (Linda) bloodied and badly beaten being wheeled away on a gurney.

Season 3: Lucifer saves Chloe’s life, exacts retribution on those who would harm her, and kills the bad guy. Mazikeen, drugged, bloody, and badly beaten, is told by Linda that emotions are hard and then apologies for her behavior. 

Season 4: Lucifer is told by Chloe that she loves him; he returns to Hell to save the lives of everyone he knows. Mazikeen, after defeating the bad guy with Lucifer et all, is told by Eve that there is an emotional connection between them, but it is not enough to keep her around. 

Whatever season 5 will ultimately bring may or may not be similar.

But why is this the case? 

Truby continues,

The subplot character, like the ally and the opponent, provides another opportunity to define the hero through comparison and advance the plot. The ally helps the hero reach the main goal. The subplot character tracks a line parallel to the hero, with a different result.

(my emphasis)

Mazikeen is consistently denied her heroic, triumphant moment at the end of each arc, because Lucifer gets his. All her heroic triumphs are in relation to Lucifer, not her own character growth. As a result, her character is the most likely to slide back and/or side with the antagonist because nothing she does benefits her in the end. 

Despite Lucifer’s arguments otherwise, Mazikeen is still very much his henchman, his lackey, his subplot character.

At their core, Lucifer and Mazikeen share the same weakness: they are fearful of being left by those they care for. Since they approach the problem in different ways, we the audience get to see the pros and cons of each. It is important to note that the subplot character is rarely also the ally, and as a result they are allowed to change between being allied with the hero and opposing him.

It is because of Mazikeen that we understand Lucifer. She is our comparative tool. Her character showed us more about Hell and its dynamics than Lucifer. She showed us what Lucifer could have easily been, and throughout the stories, showed us what Lucifer has consistently grown from. Because of her, we know how far our hero has come. By comparing the two characters, we get to see how much each of them has changed in relation to where they began and where they stand in relation to one another at any given moment. 

Mazikeen’s role in important in Lucifer, but it is a subservient one. No matter what arc she is given, the story centers around Lucifer. It is the same with any other character, but because we compare the two more often, her pitfalls are more obvious. I love Mazikeen, but given the way this story is structured, she would be unable to be the protagonist and as such is often left bereft. 

The writers can change this by giving her happier endings at the culmination of each season, and the best way for them to do that is to not have to have her crawl her way back into our hearts after needlessly siding with the opponent again.

Give Maze a true happy ending please! Here’s to season 5b, and season 6!