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bigskydreaming · 3 years

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I am looking (disrespectfully) at the trope of Bruce and other family members only seeming to respect Dick’s wishes when doing so aligns with what they already wanted to do.

Let’s go to the examples!

1) Bruce not broaching adoption with Dick because he wants to respect Dick’s first parents and feels like he would be taking their place or overstepping or putting himself in between Dick and his memories of his parents. Sometimes its cited that Dick himself expressed this wish early on after his parents died, sometimes its not and this is still just upheld as Bruce’s reasoning for not adopting Dick before he was already well into adulthood.

THE FATAL FLAW (in mine own personal opinion, natch. Personal mileage may vary, check your speedometer to be safe):

This particular plot point or tangle is in my experience ALWAYS paired with Bruce’s own insecurities about his role in Dick’s life, or not wanting to push that or receive an answer he doesn’t want to or is afraid to hear. Sometimes its about his fears of unworthiness to be Dick’s actual parent, etc, etc. But the bottom line is, there is always the presence of SOME element (and not a small one) in which Bruce’s own self-interest or feelings are protected by him NOT broaching the adoption conversation with Dick and having to confront these fears head on.

This is additionally juxtaposed with the problem that although there’s a lot of variance in regards to stories where Bruce fired Dick versus stories where Dick gave up being Robin and moved on to Nightwing voluntarily....there’s NOT a lot of stories where Dick makes Jason Robin himself or is asked by Bruce first. The part where Bruce takes this initiative on his own, without thinking through its repercussions on Dick emotionally.....this is practically always present.

Now, the problem here is that......Dick became or began becoming Robin well into his time with Bruce. Its frequently cited as the thing that began allowing them to truly connect, their time training and acting as Batman and Robin.

Meaning no matter WHAT interpretation you go with as to why specifically Dick chose the name Robin, whether it was a family nickname or an homage to Robin Hood.....the fact remains, NOTHING of Robin, THEMATICALLY, nothing that spoke to Dick in regards to what he wanted Robin to be - specifically in honor of his parents because avenging his parents and making sure what happened to them didn’t happen to others like, this was literally a key part of what bonded Dick and Bruce, the fact that Bruce was TRYING to help Dick specifically BECAUSE they shared this particular overlap of purpose - like the bottom line is, nothing about Robin CAME from Bruce. Or Dick’s feelings about Bruce. That....didn’t really even exist yet, at the time he created Robin. Everything about Robin, other than the physical costume itself, not even the design just the actual creation of it....all of that came from BEFORE he met Bruce. None of it was thoughts or feelings derived from BRUCE. Its the whole reason Dick was never Batkid or Batlad, or any derivative of Batman.

It all, ALL came from what Dick came to the manor WITH. Remnants of his life with his first family.

So the fatal flaw of Bruce’s reasoning that by not broaching the subject of adoption with Dick before well into adulthood, he was actually just respecting Dick’s relationship with his first parents and not trying to come between them and Dick’s memories and feelings about them....

All of this is inherently undermined by Bruce’s own actions.....when by repurposing Robin to ANY degree, even just to give the mantle to Jason.....this meant that he was inherently viewing Robin as being more about being Batman’s partner, HIS partner....then it was about being Dick’s heritage, his last intangible keepsake of his first family and life BEFORE Bruce.

In effect....Bruce making Jason Robin or firing Dick as Robin, either way....both betray Bruce’s OWN alleged intentions for only wanting to respect Dick’s relationship with his parents, and that being why he didn’t want to overstep by trying to impose or even ask for his own official parent/child relationship with Dick. Because that’s exactly what appropriating the Robin mantle was. It was Bruce ignoring the relationship Dick had with his parents and their memory and the fact that Robin was directly born of that....and making Robin entirely about Bruce’s OWN relationship with Dick, heedless of any other factors.

And the second Bruce did that.....his entire justification for not raising the adoption issue....disappears. It goes away. Because you can’t claim inaction being just a result of not wanting to disrespect something you’ve already voided respect for. No matter whether Bruce INTENDED it or not.....by crossing this boundary, Bruce already acted against Dick’s feelings in this regard and well, disregarded them....which makes claims of Bruce not raising the adoption issue pretty much JUST self-serving at that point. Its an alleged viewpoint of Dick’s that Bruce largely just ASSUMES....and only ultimately respects - in direct contrast to how he didn’t respect the associations Dick had with Robin - because it aligns with something Bruce ALREADY wanted to do, rather than what Dick actually wanted. It provided justification for Bruce to just....not have a conversation he was afraid to have. And that’s about Bruce at that point. Its not about Dick. Its just like...not.

2) Another example of this that is not unique to just Bruce, but recurs frequently in both canon and fanfics in Dick’s dynamics with other characters he’s close with.....is characters not apologizing for things they’ve done to Dick or raising the issue of things they did a long time ago but never apologized for....while claiming to do so because they thought DICK didn’t want to talk about it.

THE FATAL FLAW (in my own personal opinion. Nuances and variations may not be identical at all store locations, please see your local branch for details):

The particular problem I have here is that....Dick never ever ever in the history of ever and also the before ever time.....has EVER expressed a desire to avoid confrontation.

Like. That’s what he DOES. That’s his JAM. That’s literally CITED time and time again as one of the reasons he’s viewed as more of a people person and natural team leader than Bruce and other Batfam members....because he’s not afraid to cut straight (or bi) to the heart of the matter and air out a dispute.

In fact, this very character trait is one of the ones most commonly utilized AGAINST Dick in various depictions of him, as he’s often cited as TOO confrontational, TOO eager for a fight or conflict especially when his temper is engaged, such as when he’s well....personally hurt or offended.

So how does it follow, then, that avoiding tough conversations ONLY when its on the OTHER person to INITIATE, because they were the ones who DID the wrong-doing and Dick the subject of that rather than the instigator....how does it work, exactly, that these are the only times in which we DON’T tend to see a direct conversation about the harms done and the fallout that resulted? With it being claimed that this is solely for Dick’s benefit, out of a desire to avoid pulling him into an allegedly unnecessary (but really just unpleasant) confrontation?

When the concurrent reality is that whether stated or acknowledged or not.....avoiding these specific conversations and ONLY these conversations (as there never seems to be a problem finding canon or fanfic stories in which Dick apologizes for harm HE’S caused to others or is clearly expected to).....this avoidance also carries the side benefit of allowing the character who DID something wrong to Dick to....not ever have to have that super uncomfortable conversation in which they actually verbally acknowledge the thing they did to him and the effects it had on him, and apologize for that.....and then render themselves vulnerable to actually hearing whether or not he accepts their apology or is still upset with them regardless.

While - as long as they DON’T ever have this conversation, for whatever reason - they can look to the clear and consistent precedent of Dick continuing to work with people who have done things like oh, I don’t know....punched him in the face cuz they’re mad at him (and this isn’t a Bruce critical point, this is a whole damn family critical point as the only one who HASN’T actually done this is Duke. Well, Cass technically just threw him out a window, but I mean, tomato toh-mah-to). Writers and characters both can lean on the fact that actually Dick has a pretty clear track record of ultimately giving up a grudge or at least showing a willingness to look past those grudges enough that it doesn’t prevent him from still maintaining or resuming some kind of relationship with the person who hurt him.

And thus, like Example Numero Uno......this ultimately just lets other characters off the hook while claiming to do Dick a favor, but actually Dick receives no real benefit from it and instead now just has another instance of characters saying “see we respect your wishes” when ultimately their inaction is MORE in service to their own wishes and self-interests.

2b) See also the variation of this in which characters such as Bruce, Jason, Tim and assorted others like....are written specifically determining that they’re not going to apologize to Dick or beg his forgiveness because they feel they don’t DESERVE to be forgiven, and once again....its in HIS best interests that they not even give him the opportunity to say he forgives them....because they know Dick Grayson of course, and they know he’s too forgiving for his own good, so its better to like....not make it ever a possibility in this particular instance.

With the problem here being like.....Dick can’t and shouldn’t be expected to KNOW that’s their logic? So....all he’s going to actually SEE is loved ones just....not expressing remorse for hurting him or acknowledgment it even happened? Which....hurts?

So......hurting your loved one MORE after already hurting them....because you don’t feel you deserve to be forgiven for hurting them in the first place and are actually PROTECTING them from being hurt more when mistakenly forgiving you.....by.....hurting and continuing to hurt them with your silence and lack of evident remorse....

Mmmm.....

Its not the best approach, y’know?

Flaws are detected.

3) Dick’s friends and family manipulating situations in order to get the end result THEY desire, while claiming to do so for his benefit only. Dick being willing to manipulate people to achieve his own ends comes up a LOT actually....but there’s relatively little examination of how often people do this to him, claiming his best interests but really just circumventing his clearly stated desires for independence and the right to make his own choices about what HE needs....or when this is brought up, its usually limited to JUST Bruce doing it, but uh....no that ain’t it.

Specific examples of this are like when Wally joins the 1999 version of the Titans specifically to get Dick to join up, because in his estimation Dick needs more of a social life and is drowning himself with his responsibilities....and then quits not long after Dick is finally officially invested in staying with the team. Another example is when Roy gets Dick to join the Outsiders based entirely on his pitch of NOT treating the team like a family, like they did with the Titans, so that Dick could keep emotional distance and not be as worried about losing them like he suffered from losses like Donna....with his claim again being that he worried about Dick in the aftermath of that loss, etc.

And to be clear! Its not that I think Wally and Roy and others who do similar things have NEGATIVE intentions in mind for Dick. That’s the whole point of this post.....like the other examples, I fully believe THEY believe (or writers believe when writing them this way) that they have Dick’s best interests in mind and not their own. I just....disagree.

THE FATAL FLAW (at least as I see it here):

Is that I view this and Batfam members who do similar stuff as like.....falling into the trap of the savior friend complex. Its that thing when you see a friend hurting, and over time get FRUSTRATED by seeing this when a solution seems obvious to you but think they won’t take it because they’re too stubborn or don’t know what’s best for them....with this specifically recurring a LOT with Dick in particular, due to his core characterization of wanting to be the one to make his own choices. The problem here, same as the problem with the savior friend complex....is that it treats the subject of these views as like....incapable of determining what they need. Its a tacit condemnation that they actually don’t know how to cope with things and are doing it wrong - even though the ones making this assessment will never be the ones actually having to LIVE with the outcome of their meddling. Its the conviction that someone like Dick needs to be HANDLED, for his own good....because he can’t be trusted to KNOW what he needs, not as well as them at least.....and so they jump to manipulation rather than just....ASK him what he needs, or HOW they can best support him, or even just WHY he’s making the choices he is.

For instance, the problem with what Wally did was never that Dick wasn’t struggling. He was. He was drowning in his responsibilities, he had very little to no life outside of them.....Wally is not remotely in the wrong for WANTING to do something to change this situation. The problem is Wally basically defaulted to just...HANDLING his friend by restarting the Titans just to give Dick a social life again, which is pretty much a line straight out of the comics...and basically railroaded right over Dick’s initial ‘no’ when he first heard the proposal. And kept pushing things until Dick eventually joined up in order to get Wally to commit to the team too, because Wally spun it as though Dick was helping Wally by getting Wally to commit to the team for the very same reasons Wally wanted Dick to. And then....right after that, Wally quit to go back to just focusing on the Justice League, which was part of what Dick predicted would happen all along.

The thing was.....at no point along the way did Wally actually ask WHY Dick initially said no....he jumped straight to assuming his own view of the problem, that Dick just COULDN’T be made to ever see the reason to take a break occasionally and put his mental and emotional health as a priority. If he’d done this, Wally could have had dozens of other options to achieve his desired end result....he could’ve like....set up regular hangouts with Dick.

But Wally jumped to assuming he knew the answer, he knew what was best for Dick, and that Dick’s logic was inherently self-destructive and self-flagellating.....and he felt the solution was to bring back the Titans, as he recalled their earlier times as Titans together as a time when Dick was better able to balance his social life and responsibilities.

But by not ever stopping to LISTEN to why Dick felt the way he did and was initially opposed to rejoining the Titans....Wally overlooked one crucial fact: He isn’t Dick.

And more important, his view of the past wasn’t Dick’s view of the past.

Wally was a lot more capable of viewing the Titans as not just a family, but an inherent social life, a hangout, a kind of club....because that’s what it had always been to him.

But he’d never been the leader.

Throughout all their childhoods, the whole time the Titans WERE all of the above, and relatively light-hearted in comparison to their older selves....Dick STILL had the weight of responsibilities that none of the others had by virtue of just...not being the leader. Ultimately, all of their lives were in HIS hands. He was the one calling the shots. The buck stopped with him.

And this is precisely WHY Dick had gotten to the point he had in adulthood. It wasn’t because he’d changed. It wasn’t because he’d stopped figuring out what he needed and how to take care of himself. Its because the position he’d ALWAYS been in as leader....has WEIGHT. That eventually added up more and more and weighed him down. A huge part of the reason Dick had ended up leaving the Titans in the first place, before they disbanded prior to the 1999 revival....is because of the sheer WEIGHT of all the deaths and misfortunes that had befallen the Titans....and how much he and he alone struggled with it in ways the others didn’t....because they didn’t have to. It hadn’t been their plans, their calls, their RESPONSIBILITY to find a way the others could have all made it out alive or at least less traumatized.

So.....of COURSE Dick said no when Wally first proposed restarting the Titans, before Wally defaulted to using his own membership as a lure to get Dick to agree.....because......nothing about the above paragraph had changed, via Wally’s ‘plan.’ It wasn’t because Dick just didn’t KNOW how to be a fully rounded person....it was because nobody was helping him find actual OPTIONS for doing that....that didn’t just double as MORE responsibilities! Because that’s exactly what ended up happening! Dick wound up the leader of the Titans again, just as responsible and just as invested as always.....just like he always knew he would....and also as he knew would happen...Wally ended up quitting not long into it and persuading Jessie Quick to step in as his replacement....aka just one more person for Dick to worry about when it wasn’t like he was going to be worrying any less about Wally, just now he wasn’t going to have Wally there to even POTENTIALLY be able to support him when tragedy inevitably struck because they’re freaking superheroes....and instead he’d just have another person looking to him for the answers but with no reason or chance of being the support Dick could ACTUALLY use at times like that!

Wally’s manipulations circumvented Dick’s opinion that no, actually he knew what was best for him and it wasn’t what Wally was suggesting....without actually accounting for the fact that hey, Dick might actually know that. And in the end, Wally got the result he was after, he got to feel that he’d HELPED his friend....which again, this isn’t WRONG to WANT to....but Dick didn’t...exactly....benefit from this. It wasn’t actually in his best interests ultimately.

I mean...see Donna’s death for details.

And in the aftermath of THAT....Roy essentially did exactly what Wally did....just in REVERSE! Roy got Dick to agree to lead the Outsiders, to shoulder responsibility once again....by promising that Dick WOULDN’T have to view them as family. And did Dick go too far and end up TOO uncaring about their welfare? Yup! No disagreements there! Problem is though....he only ended UP in that situation because yet again a friend thought they KNEW the solution to what Dick needed.....only for Dick to end up essentially punished and further self-blaming....just for doing exactly what Roy had told him TO do, with this particular team. Again - Roy hadn’t EXPECTED Dick to take it this far. But that’s the whole point! Roy had expectations about what Dick would ACTUALLY end up doing, that didn’t match up to the pitch Roy actually gave Dick to GET his agreement.....because Roy all along was of the assumption that by virtue of being Dick Grayson, he wouldn’t be ABLE to avoid connecting with these new teammates and viewing them as family, and thus he’d end up ‘snapping out of it’ with it being the funk he’d been in since Donna’s death.

Roy’s intentions might have been noble, once again.....but his methods stuck to the same pattern of people around Dick believing they knew what he needed or knew who he was or knew what it meant to BE Dick Grayson....better than Dick actually did...particularly when Dick said no, this isn’t what I need or this isn’t a good idea or just...I don’t want to do this.

And in the end....its Dick who ended up paying the price for it, as well as the people who got hurt because of his INTENTIONAL emotional distance.....because the ‘view all surrounding people as new surrogate family’ aspect of the Dick Grayson Experience hadn’t kicked in as Roy thought inevitably would....but the ‘view all this as directly my fault and suffer guilt for it forevermore’ aspect of the Dick Grayson Experience most certainly did! Not at all actually helped along by the fact that like....Roy also expressed frustration with Dick that like.....Dick hadn’t actually responded to Roy’s intended manipulation of his emotions the way Roy had expected him to when he EXPRESSLY TOLD DICK TO BEHAVE THE WAY THAT DICK ULTIMATELY BEHAVED. (Just, he didn’t tell Dick to dial that all the way up to Extra, but given that’s the only setting Dick does ANYTHING at, I feel its a possible outcome Roy should have at least considered. I mean, wasn’t the whole point that you know Dick Grayson better than he knows himself?)

But lo, I am salty.

LMAO, but I mean, you get it right? Obviously, I LIKE Wally and Roy. I LIKE Jason, etc. I’m not saying all of this to be like ugh how dare these characters do all this to Dick....I’m saying it because like.....they all keep falling into the same patterns of making a big fuss and acknowledgment of how much Dick prioritizes being able and free to make his own choices and decide what’s best for him and what HE wants.....

But without ever like....actively asking him AT THE RELEVANT TIME....what he thinks and feels about all this. What he thinks and feels he needs. What he ACTUALLY wants from them, or why he’s ACTUALLY saying no to something and maybe it being for reasons that aren’t just him inherently being stubborn and self-destructive.

And instead just defaulting to falling back on whatever he might have said or expressed in an entirely different context at an entirely different time.....and saying okay, by doing so, we are abiding by his wishes and thus doing what he wants and respecting his right to make his own choices.....

But ONLY when doing all of the above just so happens to align with these other characters then getting to do the thing or take the approach they’re already predisposed towards wanting to take because of their OWN self-interests at the same time.

With this never actually coming into play when respecting Dick’s wishes aligns with them taking actions they DON’T personally want to undertake, because it makes them uncomfy or they think its a bad call, even if it is something that should be his call to make.

Like....the pattern. It very much exists. And abounds. Like I could cite examples allllllllllll the way up to Ric Grayson, where Bruce respected RIC’S wishes to be left alone and not interfere in his life no matter what.....in ways Bruce almost never respects Dick’s actual expressed wish for Bruce to butt out of matters when Bruce is actually quite keen on meddling and would very much like to....

But notice how the other thing about the Ric Grayson storyline is that Ric’s expressed desire to stay the fuck out of vigilantism and superhero work, like.....just so happens to align with Bruce’s longstanding desire for Dick to like...get out of the vigilantism and superhero work? With butting out of Ric’s life and respecting his privacy in ways Dick has to FIGHT him for, like......absolutely the optimal action to take in order to allow this expressed desire of Ric’s to flourish in the ways Bruce always wished would kick in for Dick?

.....just saying.

The pattern. It abounds.

And the key to breaking any pattern, of course, is to first recognize....and acknowledge....that it exists.

Otherwise you tend to fall into the trap of repeating and perpetuating it over and over without even realizing it, simply because its what’s familiar.

This has been A Post by Me. Thank you and have a nice day. Or don’t. Idk. I’m not the boss of you. Whatever.

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inventors-fair · 2 years

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Putting the I in Team

Congrats to our runners-up this week! @nicolbolas96 with You’ll Be Mine, @simsarwel with Here I Stand, and @snugz with United We Stand // Divided We Fall

You’ll Be Mine

I remember there being some discussion in the discord, and I’d just like to say, personally, I think this card and its first ability is entirely in-color. I think it’s outdated and not something you’d do regularly, but this is exactly the type of card where you’d prefer it to a tap or transforming effect. That said, I think there’s two things a little off about this. First, It’s a little cheap. A pacifism alone has lately been going for a little higher than 2 mana, and even with the double blue color restriction, I think it needs to be more, especially since it’s something blue isn’t supposed to be better at than white. Similarly, I like the idea of the activated ability being higher. Four mana is really cheap. You can curve into this while still getting the pacifism bonus. I think it would play better if it were more expensive, like something you’re leading up to and hoping to get the mana for, rather than something that will definitely happen and happen soon. I know it’s technically 6 mana total, but it can often play like a 4 mana card. Last big one: I want it to be sorcery speed. Partly so you can’t just leave up mana and do this when they don’t cast a spell, and partly to not mess with combat math and make things complicated. Like I said, I think this plays better when it’s something to work for and earn. Tapping out on your turn to steal a creature feels good and powerful, so you should make it happen on your turn. Make ‘em work for it. So with all that said, I still like this card. The concept is great and the execution is pretty close. The name is also fitting, if a little cheesy.

Here I Stand

Place: Battlefield on Bant

Description: A soldier is facing an overwhelming legion of Grixis horrors. The character looks bruised, but determined.

Mood: No hope, no rest, not a flinch.

Wow, this card is way better than I thought it was at first glance. The two different ways to use this card are very interesting. First, you can use it on one of your own creatures as essentially a giant fog at the cost of sacrificing a creature. Or, if you’re lucky, you’ve got something that can survive. Second, you could use it as a removal spell. Attack with your two 1/3 creatures, then cast this targeting their 2/2, and even if it attacked you get to untap it and kill it. It’s both the card Culling Mark and Gideon’s sacrifice at the same time, while also being Valor Made real, all for two mana. Normally I’d say that’s too much value, but with combat tricks small amounts of mana matter, and none of those are good cards anyway. But if you combine them all together, they sort of are! I like this card and its versatility. I will say, though, that that last ability would probably be written differently. I’d have phrased it “Enchanted creature can block any number of creatures and blocks each attacking creature if able.” You don’t need to specify ones attack you or planeswalkers you control because those are already the only ones it can block. The only thing to keep this from a top spot is its complexity. This is very hard to comprehend, even for experienced players, and I wish there was a way to make it easier to interpret without losing its versatility. It’s complexity might be okay if it were a rare, but I don't think players would like a fog / conditional removal spell as their rare. Other than that, very impressed, very cool card.

United We Stand // Divided We Fall

WotC doesn’t have a way to denote it, so I’m going to assume this is a modal double faced card. The naming convention does feel a bit closer to a split card, since most MDFCs have no naming convention linking the two sides, but I don’t think that’s important. It’s two cards with very thematic effects. The first is great for going wide and smashing face, and the second is great for shrinking your opponents board. Though, weirdly, they play out pretty similarly I think. Since you’re only giving indestructible, not trample or vigilance or lifelink, an all out attack isn’t going to get much damage through, just force your opponent to chump a bitm removing about as many creatures as the other half. I think MDFCs work best when the two sides are used in entirely different situations, and I think these overlap maybe just a bit too much. If the first side were a little more aggressive, providing either a way to finish out the game or get in a relatively free attack, that might help make it stand out more. As is I actually think this card is pretty good, just could be a bit better. Do or Die is an old card, and I think it’s fine at 4 mana when it’s got another option, and a board pump is always going to be at least a little playable. So yeah, quite good, but some room for improvement.

And there are your runners-up! Good job! I’ll have the commentary up shortly, hopefully.

- Mod Mr. ShinyObject

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #commentary #runners-up #you and me #inventor's fair

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lucemferto · 3 years

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WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT TECHNOBLADE (or A Narrative Analysis of the Dream SMP Doomsday Event) - Script

Heyo! Per request I am posting the script to my video of the same name here on tumblr. I must warn you that just reading the script will probably not give you the full experience, so I would encourage you to watch the video (linked above).

There might also still be a lot of grammatical errors in the text, because I don’t proofread.

Okay, so! I don’t want this to turn into a reaction channel OR a Dream SMP channel for that matter! I am planning on doing a big dumb, way too long analysis video on the Dream SMP which will – at my current pace – come out in five years. I am already way too late on this one.

Spoiler Alert for the Doomsday Event that took place on the 6th of January in the Dream SMP. Surely the worst thing to take place on the 6th of January 2021 … I’m sorry, what’s this about the Capitol?

In case you don’t watch the SMP and need context: The Dream SMP is a Minecraft Multiplayer Server, that, throughout the last year, has transformed from a normal Let’s Play to an ongoing new-media series streamed by multiple high-profile streamers such as Dream, TommyInnit or Technoblade. It comes complete with script – by which I mean loose bullet points – and story events. It has attracted a large fanbase specifically invested in the story and less so in the actual gameplay content. Like I said before, I will probably do a big video on the Dream SMP at some point in the future.

The storyline is long and complicated and trying to explain it all would take up the majority of the video and there are other channels who have already done a much better job than I could ever hope to do, so give them a watch. I’ll try to summarize all that is pertinent to what I will talk about in this video.

Okay, let’s speedrun this summary. Cue the music!

Major Players here are TommyInnit, a founder of the independent nation of L’Manburg, Technoblade, an anarchist who was deep in conflict with L’Manburg, Tubbo, Tommy’s best friend and current president of L’Manburg, and Dream, the ruler of the Kingdom of the Dream SMP (even though he is not the king, but we’re not going to get into that right now). Tommy had in the past been exiled by Tubbo for endangering L’Manburg’s shaky peace with the Dream SMP. Tommy had then teamed up with Technoblade, who was hellbent on destroying L’Manberg after some prior altercations – more on that later.

Tommy and Tubbo came into conflict during a festival set-up to celebrate the friendship between L’Manburg and the Dream SMP. After punching out their feelings, Tommy came to the realization that his friendship with Tubbo was more important than his vendetta against Dream and those who exiled him. Techno took that change of heart badly and teamed up with Dream to destroy L’Manburg … and that’s exactly what happened.

Techno and Dream, with little to no opposition, obliterated L’Manburg with no hope for recovery leaving its inhabitants stranded hopeless and alone.

… And that’s what you missed on Dream SMP!

Okay. So, usually I just put whatever thought slime drips out of my mouth hole into your subscription box. But then I asked myself: “Am I not taking this a largely improvised nonsense story from a bunch of 16–24-year-olds a little too seriously?”. And then I remembered. I’m a pretentious bitch. I made an 18-minute video explaining why the popular commentary YouTuber memeulous is secretly the time travelling Anti-Christ, REASON HAS NO SWAY OVER ME!

So, like the English Major drop-out that I am, I will present you with two theses, which I will then combine into one … supratheses! That word doesn’t exist, I just coined it, it’s mine! I am very smart!

[I know words, I have the best words!]

Thesis #1: The Fandom focuses too much on Character Analysis in Favour of Narrative Analysis

The Dream SMP is truly something special. It is uniquely singular in how it tells a story of this scope through its chosen medium. While there is an overarching script that lays out the plot points of the future, each of the 30+ streamers on the SMP are their own cameraman, director, writer and actor. You cannot watch “the Dream SMP” – if you attempted that, you would be 80 by the time you caught up to the Doomsday Event. You have to choose whom to watch. You have to choose your focal point character.

Because by the way the story is told and consumed – aka in such a compartmentalized fashion; you watch one streamer and get one character’s perspective – it has sort-of unintentionally conditioned fans to look at the SMP and its characters less as one coherent story with messages and themes and more as sports teams they can root for. You’re Team Techno or Team Tubbo or Team Tommy or Team JackManifoldTV (formerly known as Thunder1408) and every other side is in the wrong! It’s like Twilight for a decade old children’s game about virtual Lego!

Okay, I’m exaggerating, but the amount of discourse perpetuated by and revolving around so-called “apologists” – a terrible term that unfortunately has caught on – is really not something that I think is good for how we interact with the story of the Dream SMP.

The Dream SMP is discussed a lot on character-based level, which is, like I said before, hugely advantaged by the way the story is consumed by its audience. With traditional, visual media such as film for example, the audience can be made more aware of what messages the narrative might try to communicate on a narrative level without the need for an explicit narrator to tell you the moral.

As an example, in a movie you could have a smash-cut from the Butcher Army’s discussions about neutralizing the danger Technoblade poses to Techno being nice around villagers or taking care of animals. This would communicate on an extradiegetic level, that the Butcher Army is in the wrong with their assumptions. Alternatively, you could contrast Techno’s declarations that power corrupts and that Tubbo’s administration is cruel with Tubbo choosing not to punish Ranboo for his association with Techno – thus the narrative would communicate that Techno’s view of Tubbo and by extension the government is one-sided and not true to reality.

Stuff like that helps the viewer understanding a story holistically and manages to communicate stuff like themes and morals without having to solely rely on in-character logic and argumentation, which, as Ghostbur put it so eloquently, is comprised of a bunch of unreliable narrators.

Character analysis is great if we want dive deep, if we really want to give a character flavour and understand their motivations. It helps make the universe feel like it is alive, like it’s real. But – and this might be a shocker for you – it’s not real. It’s written. It is construction – and as such, in its construction, it has messages and themes and morals, intentionally or unintentionally.

By being so focused on specific characters and their individual journeys, viewpoints and motivation we really run the risk of not looking at the bigger picture and fail to see what the overarching narrative is actually communicating. And we may also fail to understand how characters might or might not fit into the overarching narrative.

Speaking of which …

Thesis #2: Technoblade experiences very little Meaningfultm Thematic Conflict

Okay, let’s talk about Technoblade. I’m sure I’m not going to get any hate for this one.

I want to preface by saying that I don’t watch Technoblade’s streams; I catch up though clip channels and summaries. I’m mainly watching Tommy, Tubbo and Quackity – which is honestly already more than I can handle – but I want to be clear that while I’ll try to be as even-handed as possible – like I explained previously – the way I consumed the storylines will undoubtedly leave me with some bias.

Also, needless to say, I’m talking about the character Technoblade, not the actual content creator, unless I specifically say so. That should be obvious.

Now, I’m not doing a Technoblade character analysis, because that would be hypocritical of me – seeing how I just bitched about the overwhelming amounts of character analyses in the fandom – but I’ll try my best to summarize what is necessary.

Technoblade’s interesting in that he is a very static character – at least inwardly – he doesn’t change much. He is very steadfast in his beliefs and ideals and has very little introspection. He doesn’t question himself; he doesn’t waver, he is never in a bind about whether what he’s doing is right or wrong. He is very much a parallel to early TommyInnit – who, of course, famously said “I’m always in the right”.

And I want to emphasize that I mean this in no way as a critique of Techno’s character. A static character provides a nice contrast to more dynamic characters and can balance them out. It can also be utilised by the writing as a character flaw – which is what I hope content creator Techno is going for.

Like Techno doesn’t have a lot of empathy in the sense that he is particularly skilled at or interested in trying to see the viewpoints of others. There is never an attempt to reconcile, for example, the goal of the Pogtopians to reclaim L’Manberg and install another administration with his desire for an anarchist society. This is also compounded with his overreliance on violence as the only tactic for conflict resolution – Techno has a whole thesis statement about violence being the only universal language. I’m sure you’ve heard the quote.

And lastly, what really drives this all over the edge, is his all-or-nothing approach when dealing with the enemy – he is not so much eye for an eye as he is – to use another biblical example – you make fun of me for being bald and I’ll sic two bears on you that maul and kill you and 41 other children.

There’s also the open and completely unacknowledged hypocrisy of a self-described anarchist working together with a man that installs and dethrones Kings with his every whim – someone who – and I cannot stress this enough – hits about every box when it comes to the definition of tyrant.

So, what I’m saying is that Technoblade is the Dream SMP equivalent of Dick Chenney. C’mon you know it’s true! He will bomb that freedom into your country whether you want him to or not. That’s some cogent political commentary in the year 2021.

Okay, so now that I’ve outlined his character, what kind of conflicts does Technoblade face. Well, it’s mostly physical or external. He fights a lot whether it’s against Quackity or Sapnap or bodying Karl Jacobs five times in a row. And – with the exception of maybe Sapnap – none of it is challenging. Technoblade is the best PvP-Player on the server – there really isn’t much tension to be had from a purely physical fight.

So, how are these fights supplemented emotionally. Well, internally there is not a lot going on. As I said before, Technoblade isn’t really an introspective character. Even during his shouting match with Tommy there’s not a sense that Technoblade is wavering or unsure of himself in the way that Tommy is. He exposits that one of the reasons, he acts like he does is that he feels dehumanized; that people only use him like a weapon and then discard or even try to neutralize him once he’s no longer useful.

But that is not something that Technoblade has to grapple with – it’s not conflict for him, it’s more conflict for Tommy. Technoblade is self-assured in that he’s a person and not a weapon – it’s almost like there was a character arc there, where Technoblade self-actualizes and breaks away from the people that want to use him. But we didn’t see any of it. Technoblade unleashes the withers; then he goes into retirement because he wants to be, I suppose, and then he returns to violence as a reaction to the Butcher Army. There is a story of vengeance here, but not any conflict about being used. There is never a point where we see Technoblade come to this realization or comes to assert himself.

In season 1 there’s never a push from Pogtopia where the narrative frames them as exploiting Technoblade. He fights with them of his own volition, he gives them weapons and armour of his own volition. Nobody pressured Techno into procuring their inventory for the fight. And in Season 2, he’s the one to approach Tommy about their potential partnership – he is in the position of power here, explicitly not Tommy.

Like, I’m sorry, if this ruffles some feathers, but I really don’t see this arc where Technoblade is being used. There’s a story of misunderstanding and maybe co-dependency – but not of dehumanization. This entire line of thought seems to solely reference that moment, where Tommy says to Sapnap “I have the blade” during one of their wars – which, to base an entire emotional arc around that without any further set-up, is, and I’m sorry to say that, incredibly flimsy.

Okay, so we covered physical and emotional conflict? But what about conflict on the narrative level? Well, that leads me to my suprathesis …

Suprathesis: The Narrative is Unclear on how it treats Technoblade … and that’s Not Good.

Here’s a Hot Take: The narrative of Season 1 treats Technoblade way less sympathetically than that of season 2.

Let me explain. The narrative of Season 1 revolves mostly around Wilbur and Tommy. The emotional fulcrum of the overall narrative is Wilbur’s rise and fall from Grace – and Tommy succeeding him as symbol of L’Manberg’s “special”-ness. Now I will talk about all that more in detail, when I talk about Season 1 of the Dream SMP. So, you’ll just have to go with me on this one for now.

Technoblade, by contrast, doesn’t really have much going on thematically in Season 1. He mostly exists as a sort-of utilitarian character – he is an accessory to make story beats happen. Like him executing Tubbo doesn’t open up any sort of thematic conflict involving him – on a character level it sets up antipathy between him and Tommy and it grants us some insight into how he operates with his violence speech – but on a larger-scale narrative level it really just shows how far Wilbur and Tommy have drifted apart in how they react to the event.

His biggest contribution is during the Season 1 finale, but even there he plays second fiddle to Wilbur. Not just because Wilbur does way more destruction with his explosion than Techno does with his Withers, but also because Wilbur had an emotional and thematic climax to his arc and by extension the entire storyline. Like Techno’s is a cool moment and very epic visual but in terms of thematic relevance, his Theseus-speech is really more set-up for Season 2.

And Season 1 is very unambiguous about L’Manberg being good and Tommy’s ideals ultimately being morally justified – I mean, they have a whole speech about it in the end and it was built-up throughout the entire Season – Techno is cast in a … less than sympathetic light. He is, if not a villain, then definitely an antagonist.

But with Season 2 the narrative is either uninterested in or not very clear on exploring Technoblade’s flaws.

Like ask yourselves: is Technoblade’s character ever consciously challenged by the narrative? Are his actions ultimately shown to not be in the right? Are his beliefs about government and power ever called into question? Are the negative consequences that his actions cause ever shown to be larger than the “good” he does?

I think what exemplifies this the most is how the Butcher Army event played out on December 16th. Now, during that event, the Butcher Army, which was comprised of Tubbo, Quackity, Fundy and Ranboo, managed to apprehend Technoblade, who at that point was living the quiet retirement life, and tried to have him publicly executed – without trial.

Now, smarter people than me have pointed out that the Butcher Army had a bevy of in-character reasons that can justify or explain their actions. And that’s definitely interesting, but as I said before, I want to get away from that and look into how the Butcher Army is treated on a narrative level. Because this is one of the few instances where the otherwise grey-loving Season 2 has some very clear narrative intent when it comes to morality.

The Butcher Army is very deliberately framed as almost cartoonishly corrupt and violent. They very forcefully investigate Philza, mock him and then put him under house arrest – and there’s just no remorse in the script even from normally sympathetic characters like Tubbo.

Compare and contrast with the Tommy-exile scene, which is also an act of moral ambiguity and is treated as such. And things get even worse once the Army arrives at Technoblade’s abode and attack him after he softly tells them that he has left that live behind him. They then proceed to take his horse hostage, mock him and execute him without fair trial – and I haven’t seen it but from live commentary I gathered that Techno really played up the whole softie-schtick before the Butcher Army arrived. I mean, before the big Technoblade vs Quackity fight, Quackity had whole villain monologue for Christ’s sake.

And even afterwards, the Butcher Army really plays up the corrupt angle with Tubbo proposing a festival as a guise to publicly execute someone. And again, I know that on an intradiegetic there’s nuances and it’s not really comparable to the Red Festival, but in combination with what the audience has seen up until that point and with how much it feeds into the already established themes of history repeating itself and becoming like your predecessors, it really does not paint a pretty picture of the Tubbo administration.

You can feel the heavy hand of the script on your shoulder, which is a feat seeing how – as discussed before – that’s not something that can be easily accomplished in this medium.

And that is what I mean when I say that Technoblade is not really challenged by the script and is in this case even emboldened by it. Because after this whole ordeal the thought of Technoblade taking revenge by destroying L’Manberg doesn’t seem like such an extreme response to the viewer – even though in my opinion, it is.

As of right now it is too early to say how the narrative will judge Technoblade’s actions in the future. Will they be framed as extreme but ultimately justified or perpetuating a cycle of ever-escalating vengeance? Will we ever see a government that’s not just at best misguided and at worst completely awful?

Ultimately, I believe and hope that Technoblade will be challenged by the narrative, mostly because a character that cannot, believably, be physically challenged, who doesn’t have any meaningful internal conflict about what he’s doing; and who does come out on the other side having everything he always believed in be proven completely in the right by the narrative, would be incredibly boring. Not just to watch but also to play as.

As it stands now, if the destruction Techno, Phil and Dream inflicted upon L’Manburg is framed as ultimately in the right, I would find it personally a distasteful message to send. I would ultimately say that the “correct” way to counter corruption in government is to completely obliterate the entire country. Like we’re not talking simply disbanding the government – that’s not what Doomsday was – we’re talking complete and utter annihilation. And that would be cynical and depressing. Like, call me a big softie, but even bothsidesing this argument would be bad.

Like, I’m not calling for Technoblade to be transformed into or treated a monster like Dream. But I personally feel like the narrative needs to acknowledge that the Doomsday was something that was taken way too far and that it ultimately brought more harm than good. And Technoblade needs to held accountable by someone who is not a cartoonishly corrupt government-official or who is in conflict with him anyway, like Tommy.

I thought Philza or Ranboo could do that but seeing how their storylines are progressing I don’t believe that will be the case. But who knows, maybe Captain Puffy will come through for us. We stan a Queen.

Conclusion

So, yeah, I made this entire video just to air out my grievances with how one-sided the mode of analysis is in the fandom, because no person actually involved with the production of Dream SMP will ever see this.

But after everything I am cautiously optimistic, that content creator Technoblade knows what he’s doing. He has talked in the past about how his character is a bad guy and he loves his Greek myths. After all what’s more Greek myth than hybris being rewarded with punishment? [Technoblade never dies] That bodes well for him.

Also, this isn’t the video I promised at the end of the last one!

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thebadchoicemachine · 3 years

Text

SBI HadesTown AU That Lives In My head Rent Free

(in fact I probably pay it to live there)

Links at the end under the cut.

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Starring:

• Dream, George, and Sapnap as The Fates • Philza as Hermes • Wilbur as Persephone • Technoblade as Hades • Tommy as Eurydice

and

• Tubbo as Orpheus

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Changes to the story -

Instead of spouses, Wilbur and Techno are estranged brothers.

Instead of lovers, Tommy and Tubbo are best friends.

The focus is still on restoring balance to the world but through familiar and platonic love instead of romantic. Also, the reason the world is so bad is a more social crisis (some people work too much while others can’t work at all) instead of a natural one (the seasons being wack.)

It takes place during a seething summer drought rather than a frozen cropless winter but its still the same tune of spring/fall disappearing because the the world being out of tune.

Character Changes -

+ Philza is an old god. He’s not weaker nor stronger than Wilbur/Techno, just fills up a very different role. He’s god of history, of legends, of simple stories and narration. He’s very human compared to most gods, some theorize perhaps he straight up IS human in some way shape or form. He lives a human life to meet people and collect their lives and stories and appreciate them. He can’t really interfere as more than a mortal man but still just tries to give as many happy endings as he can.

+ Tommy’s a scrappy lost child. His problem is similar to Eurydice but a little inverted. Rather than learning to trust people he needs to learn to value them. He’s no issue with interacting with people and enjoying their help/company but he’s a tendency to use them. He doesn’t believe they’ll stick around so he doesn’t bother caring about them.

+ Tubbo is also an abandoned child. Unlike Tommy he grew up in one spot, although still homeless. Philza found him camping in a crate box behind his station and gave him a job and a bed. He’s pretty much exactly like Orpheus, optimistic, sees the world for what it could be instead of what it is, but maybe spends a little too much time looking forward and not around.

+ Technoblade is basically the god of work and motivation. His problem is generally the same as Hades’ in that he misses his family and is too busy working and building security for what he wants to get what he wants. He misses his brother so much he’s hardend himself to the reasons they’re apart so much in the first place.

+ Wilbur is basically the god of play and rest. In this AU, instead of Hades, Persephone’s role is the biggest reason the world is out of wack. His problem is that he doesn’t face his problems. As the god of such frivolous things as music, games, rest, etc. he is (feels) weak and useless. He’s jealous of Techno and how needed he is so Wilbur retreats away to somewhere he feels needed and wanted, entertaining miserable people. He’s stayed away for longer and longer amounts of time, not realizing his distracting them from their troubles (inadvertently preventing them from fixing them) is a reason they’re so miserable in the first place. All he can do is have a good time so he’s begun forcing it every second of every day and ignoring his brother in the meantime. He needs to learn that he CAN do good, people NEED breaks and fun, but recklessly enforcing it only enforces what he fears, that he’s a liability.

So, the main problem is a cycle the brothers have spiraled into:

Techno does obviously important things (stirring progress and improvement) and Wilbur feels bad, unimportant, and like a burden.

Wilbur leaves Techno to go distract himself/play with the humans.

Wilbur becomes useless and detrimental without Technoblade there to balance him out.

Techno works even harder, becoming empty and cold without Wilbur there to balance him out, trying to get enough work done so Wilbur won’t have to worry and will come back.

Wilbur sees Techno working so hard and shies away even more so as not to disturb his brother’s important work.

Technoblade has to basically force Wilbur to stay with him now, making it more work.

Wilbur sees Technoblade as both too important for him and now generally unappealing as unnecessary effort. Besides, he’d probably just get in the way.

Technoblade now sees Wilbur as just another part of his endless job. Keep people working, keep things improving, keep the numbers going up, try to keep Wilbur here. Its become work for the sake of work instead of work to the sake of rest.

So even when they’re together neither is relaxed enough to balance the other, both are distant.

Wilbur’s become too carefree, he ignores Technoblade and drops anything that seems challenging, including reconciliation and self-examination. He’s still just playing, even when with Technoblade.

Technoblade’s become too obsessed, focusing more on how to get and keep his brother with him than on being with his brother. The work has become meaningless without the end goal that Wilbur provides. A self sustaining cycle of labor for more labor’s sake.

Now the humans are suffering because they find themselves trapped in an unbalanced cycle of being either incapable of work or incapable of play.

Thematic notes:

- The dancers in the station during the first half are Skeppy, Antfrost, Bad, Eret, and Puffy.

- The workers (the dancers in the second half) consist of Niki, Fundy, Quackity, Ranboo, and Awsam.

- Tommy is implied to vaguely know/be brotherly to Techno and Wilbur, this is partially how Techno convinces him to leave and go work for him.

- Likewise, Philza has a few lines about feeling sorry about how Techno and WIlbur have ended up (implying he took some part in raising them) and already knows Tommy when he enters (implying he’s been a dad to helped Tommy out before.

- Technoblade is less malicious than Hades, more just cold and apathetic. In a way, he thinks he’s helping by pulling Tommy away from Tubbo. He, like Wilbur, believes that work is good so more work must be better, even if you’ve nothing to really work towards. At the end he listens to the fates because needs to figure out how to let Tommy go without undoing either all of Wilbur’s power or all of his.

- Tubbo’s song has a bigger impact on fauna than floral, specifically insects. His first song brings out bees, butterflies, and moths that Tommy goes all star eyed for because pretty bugs but more importantly, living things that don’t want to hurt him!

- Instead of a flower Tommy gets a big beautiful orange moth (named Clementine) that hides in the back of his coat neck whenever Technoblade is near. He remembers in ‘Flowers’ when he goes to wipe some sweat from his neck but its Clementine and she flies around him while he sings. (I thought that’d be much prettier than him just holding her like Eurydice holds the flower.)

- During ‘Living it Up On Top’ Wilbur dances specifically with Philza (who greets him very much like a father might greet a son who’s been away for a long time) and Tommy (who he teases and ruffles his hair a lot).

- Wilbur does drugs instead of alcohol. He... he makes a lot of drugs so I thought this would be an appropriate swap. Also it’s really funny to me that he sings Our Lady Of The Underground (or, Brother To The Underground) just completely stoned; handing out weed and shit to the workers.

- Instead of a mine Hadestown (Technotown? Technoville?) is a farm in a giant glass case built way up high. Instead of going through the dark that challenge is Tubbo has to climb up its side to avoid the train. Its an unnatural and unwelcoming greenhouse. Everything grows in lines but they’re mismatched and overrun with thorny weeds. Everything is grey and tough and flavorless. There’s so much dust and dirt being kicked up it’s hard to breathe and see. The workers are using various gardening tools during the beats instead of swinging a pickaxe. Half will sharpen while the other half swings (tilling the ground/cutting weeds), it makes a real nice schwing/thunk mix sound.

- During ‘Word To The Wise’ George sings (“if you tell them no you’re a heartless man”) Sapnap sings (“if you let ‘em go you’re a spineless king”) and Dream sings (”here’s a little tip”) and (“men are fools, men are frail”)

- Tubbo still looks back during ‘Doubt Comes In’ because he's scared of Techno and feels bad about himself (“Who am I? Who am I to think that he would follow me into the blazing heat again”). Techno, Wilbur, and Philza try their best to take care of them but it’s still a tragic ending.

- Tommy and Tubbo may or may not become (very sad and minor) gods. Unofficially and not in the story, but still... maybe. If they WERE, hypothetically, they’d be a very tragic pair. Tubbo would help mend relationships and guid people towards good advice while Tommy would help catch/ignore/cut out bad ones. Always working together, never together.

Lyrical Changes

> Pronouns are changed, obviously.

> Techno and Wilbur sing “brother” instead of “lover.”

> During ‘The Wedding Song’ (The Friendship Song, I do not care if it’s childish, Wedding is replaced with Friendship) They sing each other’s names instead of “lover.” (Tubbo, tell me if you can...////Tommy, when I sing my song...)

> Anytime they’re complaining about the cold winter replace it with a hot summer

> Tommy’s lines are much sharper. He never loses his edge with Tubbo. Instead of him remembering him and going “my best friend, Tubbo” he remembers and says something more along the lines of “that fucking idiot, Tubbo” but he’s say it with a quivering smile and bittersweet tears in his eyes. Harsh in words not in tone.

> Wilbur still pours a glass for a toast during ‘Living It Up On Top’ but the rest of the time he’s smoking something instead of drinking. (Who gives breaks when the work is hard?//That's right, Wilbur Soot!//Who makes the music? Who’s your bard?//(Wilbur Soot!)//Thank you//Who makes a rough life fun again, in spite of a pig//(You do!)//Who’s the most awaited gig? Eh? Wilbur Soot, that’s who!)

> When Wilbur shows up during ‘Chant’ he complains about how cold and dark it is. (Colder than a tundra) Techno explains it away as having set up shades/coolers to counter the glare from the sun through greenhouse glass and how he did it to protect/comfort Wilbur. (Brother when you feel that chill, it’s my protection from the kill, its my protection that i’ve built for you.)

> In the Chant Reprise the workers are singing about why they’re working if they can never enjoy the security and safety they keep making. Technoblade, instead of telling him to buy Tommy’s love, tells him to make himself needed. He, instead of warning Tubbo about Tommy leaving, scolds Tubbo for being too light and fluffy and spinelessly letting Tommy go. He scolds him for trying to take Tommy away, back into uselessness and empty fluff, when he’s found a good purpose because clearly Tubbo wasn’t point enough.

> Philza’s still the narrator, but diegetically his lyrics show more clearly that he knows everyone in the story already. I really like the idea of him giving Tubbo advice on making friends that gets shown in ‘Come Home With Me’

> When Tubbo sings about Techno, instead of singing about minework, he’ll sing things like ((from the second stanza of Epic II) “Technoblade, king//of power and pain//of a hard days work//that never ends//and for half of the year when Wilbur’s away//the strain and the stress just won’t give way//he thinks of his brother, light and carefree//and is taken in a rage of obligation and need//to ensure wants are met and safe//so there will be time for play//so his bother//his brother comes home)

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This post all started because I was thinking of Tubbo singing the “La lala laaa” that was originally Wilbur’s song.

Also, I realize this entire AU is just one big punch in the gut to Philza, like, “HEY, ALL YOUR SONS ARE SCREWED UP, NOW SING ABOUT IT.”

#drugs tw #ask to tag #sleepy bois inc #sbi AU #sleepy bois inc AU #Philza #technoblade #Wilbur soot #tommy innit #tubbo_#sbi + tubbo #sbi hadestown au

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magica-witch-project · 3 years

Text

Hello! I completely understand why you have both asks and messaging closed and don’t worry, this isn’t a magica question! Well, not specifically a request for my own, but if this does cross the line, you are completely free to delete this! First off, you all write amazing descriptions for the magica and witches!!! They are so vivid and amazing to visualize!!! I followed and put on notifications specifically because it is so exciting to see new posts and soon be able to send my own in time!!! So, somewhat connected to that and the magica question I had, is there specific things that help you in creating them? Like, do you have generators you use for the posts or is there a sort of prompt list thing set up? If possible, I would reccomend making a help post so that others could have help making their own magica, which could also help lighten your load! No matter what you do with my submission, thank you for the inspiration and joy I feel from finding this blog!

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Thank you so much for your kind words!! I’m really happy you’re enjoying our work here. So, this is kind of a hard question to answer, but I’ll do my best.

To start, there is no generator or anything behind the scenes that you guys don’t see- just the prompts themselves and myself (or mod Kyoko) at the keyboard. I can’t really say how exactly they go about their writing process, but I would imagine it’s probably pretty similar to mine! Everything I write for these prompts pretty much comes from my head- I generally read the prompt over a few times and then let my mind take me wherever it wants to go! There are a few exceptions to this though, so I’ll give you those pointers here. Just know that creating a Magica is such a personal process that everyone’s interpretation of a wish is going to be different!

Colors- usually these are just whatever comes to mind for me first, though they do occasionally have meaning (particularly in witch forms). These are the easiest intentional choices to notice- gold for riches, black for darker themes, white for purity, blue for serenity or altruism, etc. Sometimes though colors are picked more for their thematic appeal or just because they feel right.

Weapons/abilities- Another “whatever comes to mind UNLESS” kind of category. Often times a weapon or ability will jump out at me for an individual- you see a lot of swords because I have a lot of graceful or knightly magica, though the type of sword is always deliberate. But my biggest advice there is to not get caught up on typical weapons! I don’t do them very often (only when I really think it fits the prompt) but I will occasionally use a really fantastical weapon in a prompt, like the pill bombs or a shovel. The best advice I can give here is to go with what feels right and don’t be afraid to get a little wild! Abilities work the same way- they should generally complement the weapon chosen as well as the thematic elements of the magia you’re creating. A gentle, dreamy magia may float, while an aggressive one is super fast, and a darker one may pass through the shadows particularly well. Definitely feel free to get creative with these too, because they really can be just about anything. Just be careful not to go too powerful- the nature of magia is that they will inevitably fall, and you want that to feel as organic as possible!

Soul gem placement- this is ALWAYS intentional (except in the few prompts where I forget to write it in…)! This I do based on where I think the wish came from in terms of its motivation. Logical wishes come from the head, compassionate ones come from the chest, self-driven ones come from the belly, and action-driven wishes come from the hands! There are of course exceptions that lead me to put them in other places (strength can be shoulder, and escape can be ankles, etc) but most of them fall into one of those categories! The shape is usually thematic or vibe-based by the way. Dreamy ons are moons, love ones are hearts, and so on. Just pick what feels right to you! (noticing a theme yet?)

Witch names- Another one that ALWAYS has meaning. I’ve joked here before about the number of diaper ads I get because of this blog, but I mean it when I say that baby name pages are your best friend! If you look them up, every name I use has a meaning that is relevant to the magia or witch’s nature. Names are the easiest way to inject meaning, so don’t miss out on the opportunity! If you want to stay really canon-compliant, stick to German names! I usually try to at least stay European, but I’ve written so many at this point that I’d start repeating certain names if I didn’t branch out a little.

Witch natures- like names, they’re always relevant to the wish in question, or particularly, how I turned them on their heads. By the way, the best way to go about making your character fall is to directly create a consequence of their wish (a theme you will notice in most prompts). Barring that, make it a downfall of your character’s personality if turning a wish against them is impossible or just crosses a line (I had a trans girl wish to have been born female once and turning that on her would have been incredibly cruel). If you’re really stuck, have them overexert themself in battle and fall that way. Anyways, the nature will usually have to do with the wish or how they fell into despair, like one who was betrayed by a friend might have a witch whose nature was suspicious or hesitant.

Witch labyrinths and minions- My best advice here is to just go ham! Take the themes you established with the magia and dial it up to an 11. This is also a prime opportunity to use color symbolism or even look up classic symbols for certain things to incorporate. I use a TON of floral symbolism in mine, especially in older prompts, and usually if any animals are present it’s also intentional. Now is also the time to introduce references to the magia’s backstory and personality. If their hobby was art, work that in somehow! Did they have a love of fairy tales? Throw in a reference to a classic story! Did your magia feel like they were robbed of their childhood? Discarded plushies and toys are a cool way to make reference to them. Even how dark/bright or dingy/clean the labyrinth appears can represent something! Just write what feels correct and don’t be afraid to get super in depth with it.

The Witch- Basically the same process as above. Think of the themes, and represent them how you want! From there, really try to picture how the witch would move and how it would attack. From there you can decide how it is best to fight the witch! A plant based witch may have quick, thorny tendrils whereas a technology witch may be bright and disorientating. I also recommend basing how powerful the witch is based on the magia themself. A really powerful wish might make an intimidating witch, whereas a timid or passive magia may become a relatively harmless witch. Two-stage witches are also cool but definitely call for a the right kind of prompt. Usually I only make that kind of witch when a prompt deals with themes of rage, deception, or a sense of underestimation. Witches are really complex, so make sure to spend a good amount of time thinking them through!

Wow, that was… a lot more than I planned to write! So yeah, everything about my process 100% came from my own brain and years of experience doing this kind of thing! As such, every person who writes is going to create something that is truly their own, which I think is half the fun of it, really. I sincerely hope this helps and was what you were looking for! I can’t wait to create even more magia and wishes for you all to enjoy. Much love!

-Mod Mami ✏️

#submission #Mod Mami #not a wish

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poi-bigbang · 4 years

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Art Claims

(Thank you @caviezeldaily for this amazing banner!)

Here are the remaining summaries up for claim in the POI Big Bang:

1. Title: Carbines and Capacitors

Relationships: Gen (Joss & Cheyenne, other Team Machine friendships); background John/Joss, brief Harold/Grace and Laskey/OFC, brief unrequited Shaw/Cheyenne, mention of past Joss/Cal and Cheyenne/Irene Travers, two staged scenes that are explicitly not preludes to romance Characters: (in order of appearance) Cheyenne Bodie, Joss Carter, Mike Laskey, Lionel Fusco, John Reese, Harold Finch, Bear, The Machine, Sameen Shaw, Zoe Morgan, Patrick Simmons, Raymond Terney, Genrika Zhirova, Timothy Sloan, Root | Samantha Groves, Peter Collier, Anthony Marconi, Carl Elias, Peter Yogorov, Grace Hendricks, Andrew Monahan, Alonzo Quinn, Fermin Ordoñez, Arthur Claypool, Tom "Sugarfoot" Brewster, Bronco Layne Rating: Teen Summary: A routine day for Team Machine turns into anything but when a cowboy from 1880 falls out of thin air and lands practically at Carter's feet. Getting him well and acclimated to life in 2013 is only half the battle. Computers are out of his line, but he does have other skills Finch can use… so the best laid schemes of Greer and Quinn are about to run into a 6'6" tank named Cheyenne Bodie. (Season 3 AU, crossover with Cheyenne, with cameos from Sugarfoot and Bronco)

(Wikipedia links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne_(TV_series); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarfoot; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronco_(TV_series); Fandom wiki: https://cheyenne.fandom.com/wiki/Cheyenne_Wiki; IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047720/) Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply; References to historical atrocities, uncomfortably timely conversations, canon-typical violence, canon-typical threats of violence, crude remarks by Shaw, Cheyenne comes from a 1950s Western and speaks/thinks/acts accordingly (but as in canon, he hates racism and injustice) Art Wishlist: Open to any media, although traditional/digital might be more suitable than manips because most available images of Cheyenne are B&W--as was the show, so vids and gifs might have the same problem. Podfic would be welcome, and the story is finished (and long!), but recording could be a challenge because Cheyenne's voice is lower than John's and because there are lots of footnotes and a few words in the Northern Cheyenne dialect, Dutch, Spanish, Sioux, Russian, and Hebrew. Cheyenne wears a very distinctive hat (brown with silver arrowheads around the band) that could be drawn as part of a still-life banner or divider, possibly with a Colt Peacemaker and a Desert Eagle (crossed?). Also, if you're interested in illustrating a scene, there are... rather a lot to choose from, but I think I'd go for one of Cheyenne with John, Joss, and/or Shaw. I will happily work with any artist to find what source/reference materials are needed--I don't know where Cheyenne is available to watch outside the US, but there are at least clips posted on YouTube.

2. Title: Spare Me Relationships: Lionel Fusco/John Reese Characters: Lionel Fusco, John Reese, Lee Fusco, Harold Finch, Bear, Root, Original Characters Rating: (use AO3 system) T (for a kiss and Fusco's bad language) Summary: (<100 words) "I don't need a genius to tell me that you're lonely." Fusco invites John to join the NYPD bowling league to give John something normal and fun to do for once. But soon Fusco realizes that John isn't the only one who's lonely. Warnings: (use AO3 system) None Art Wishlist: (what media you're open to, hoping for, any ideas) Anything is fine by me! I've never had someone make art for a story of mine, so I'm easy to please!

3. Title: Kingfishers

Relationships: Harold Finch/John Reese/Grace Hendricks

Rating: M at the moment, maaaybe E by the time I’m done

Summary:

One morning, a handsome stranger walks up to Grace Hendricks in a park and introduces himself. His name is John, and he likes her paintings.

That afternoon, Grace meets a wealthy insurance executive who offers her a sizable art commission. He’s intelligent, interesting, and easy to talk to. His name is Harold.

(A different-first-meeting story, in which Harold ignored the Machine’s attempts to set him up with Grace in 2006, only to receive her number in 2012 after he and John have been working together for over a year.)

Warnings: inexplicit references to child abuse and alcoholism

Art Wishlist: Grace’s paintings and sketches, and her feelings about the art and artists she admires, are pretty important to the story. There are passages where I describe pictures and paintings she’s created, or beautiful objects of various kinds that she and Harold both admire. An illustration of any of that stuff would be amazing, or maybe a kind of Pre-Raphaelite picture of the characters. Also, kingfishers are kind of thematically/symbolically important, and very beautiful, and would make lovely art.

Two requests: please don’t make art of Harold and John that excludes Grace, and please no NSFW art.

4. [Fic previously claimed! Should not have been here! Apologies!]

5. Title: More Than Words Relationships: John Reese/Harold Finch/Grace Hendricks Characters: John Reese, Harold Finch, Grace Hendricks Rating: General Audiences Summary: John and Harold have a lot in common. They've loved. They've lost. They've done their best to help people. And now they have a matching pair of soulmarks- tattoos bearing the first words your soulmate says to you. The marks aren't what bring John and Harold together. But they might end up tearing the two of them apart. Warnings: Choose Not to Use Archive Warnings (this fic should be tagged for some of John's suicidal ideation pre-season 1 and in the fic) Art Wishlist: Looking for visual media/graphic design. Since this is a soulmate/soulmark AU, I would be very happy if someone could design the tattoos I have in mind, in their medium of choice. I am willing to collaborate, or just see what they come up with. But while that is my ideal art pairing, I am open to anything!

6. Title: Untitled Relationships: Harold/John Characters: Harold, John, Bear, Shaw, Fusco, Carter, OCs, *possibly* an appearance by Root Rating: Teen & Up Summary: When a number goes wrong and Harold is stabbed, his entire life is thrown into disarray. Seriously injured, he's left with no choice but to rely on someone else as he recovers. He chooses John (or, rather, John chooses himself) and invites John into his home and his very private life as he slowly heals from the trauma and the wounds.

What happens when he realizes he wants John to stay close? Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply (additional warning for panic attacks and memories of a violent attack) Art Wishlist: I'd especially love illustrations (traditional or digital), but I'm game for anything.

7. Title: Bonds Not Broken - Maybe??? Relationships: John Reese/Harold Finch Characters: John Reese, Harold Finch, Sameen Shaw, OCs, Elias, Heralds of Valdemar characters, Rolan, Weaponmaster Hersch, King Jesse, Bear the dog, a cast of thousands Rating: Adult M/M Summary: An AU Person of Interest/Heralds of Valdemar crossover. John is not only a Herald, but the King's Own. The story begins with the death of the king, and this is John's journey to find his place in Valdemar. Warnings: Author Chooses None Art Wishlist: I like most styles of fanart except chibi. I love a good photo manip but really anything! If the artist is interested, I have an Instagram where I put pictures that helped me write this monster. The instagram is blackchaps with a Hawkeye icon, easy to find.

8. Title: Untitled (for now) Relationships: Harold Finch/Lionel Fusco, Lionel Fusco & Sameen Shaw, Harold Finch & Sameen Shaw Characters: Harold Finch, Lionel Fusco, Sameen Shaw, Bear, Leon Tao Rating: E Summary: One year after the death of Samaritan, Harold Finch returns to New York City and reunites with his old friends. Sameen Shaw and Lionel Fusco, who have believed him to be dead for the past 12 months, are not exactly eager to trust him again. As Harold handles mysterious cases on the outside of their new organization, he works to repair his relationships with both. Sameen, who doubts his commitment, will be hard to convince. Lionel, who bears deep emotional scars, will be impossible. Warnings: Canon typical violence, drug/alcohol use Art Wishlist: I’m super flexible re: medium. I’m very into the idea of space-centric or detail-centric art, as opposed to character-centric art, if that makes sense. Re: space-centric, a lot of the fic is about loneliness and puts the characters in empty, uncomfortable, or sad rooms and the vibe is very like these Edward Hopper paintings, I think. Alternatively, it’s Finch POV and he’s doing a lot of focusing on tiiiiiiny details and significant objects, and I’d love some fancypants studies or edits of those.

9. Title: Degrees of Separation Relationships: Gen (but the whole point of the story is that they’ve all been separated, so there are no relationships in action) Characters: John Reese, Harold Finch, Sameen Shaw, Root, Lionel Fusco, Bear Rating: Teen and Up (due to a limited use of common profanity) Summary: The lives of the members of Team Machine in their new identities during the first months of Samaritan’s full operation, from the separation of the team at the end of “Deus Ex Machina” through the events that take place in “Panopticon.” Warnings: Choose Not to Use Archive Warnings Art Wishlist: I am open to any medium. It would be great if the art focused on the separation that the characters are experiencing.

10. Title: If I Could Tell Him Relationships: Harold Finch/John Reese; Harold Finch & Root; minor Root/Sameen Shaw; past Harold Finch/Nathan Ingram Characters: Harold Finch, John Reese, Root, Nathan Ingram (mentioned) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Summary: Harold manages to tap on the fourth wall of 4x17 “Karma” and has some thoughts about the mirroring of himself with the victim counselor vigilante Shane Edwards. He and John go on their walk with Bear, but Harold keeps what he’s feeling to himself. Years later, after all of Team Machine survives the defeat of Samaritan, Harold comes across Edwards and realizes he never talked with John about all of the emotions that number still fosters, specifically regarding Nathan. Root gives him some advice, and they all work on a happiness that encompasses the past, present, and future. Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Art Wishlist: I’m open to anything, from digital art to fanmixes and anything else, really. This is a rinch fic but it’s also basically a Harold character study (entirely from his POV and a lot of internal narrative) so any art could probably focus on him.

11.

Title: The Mysterious Human Heart in New York Relationships: Jessica/John, Harold and Jessica, Harold and John Characters: Jessica, John, Harold, Fusco Rating: Teen Summary: Agent Jessica Reese has managed to claw her way back from Ordos after being betrayed by her partner and the CIA. Gutshot and purposeless, she spends her days haunting the hospital in New Rochelle, watching her ex, John. John has his happily ever after: got his nursing degree, married a great guy, lives in a beautiful house. Jess is glad. He should be happy with Peter.

When she bumps into the mysterious Harold Finch, who knows too much about everyone, he tells her the unpleasant truth about John's dream marriage. Jess must face up to the fact that John needs her help to find safety and happiness. Warnings: Show level violence, some medical detail as John is a nurse. Art Wishlist: I am open to any medium except audio.

12. Title: To my God, I sacrifice Relationships: John Reese & Root, John Reese/ Kara Stanton Characters: John Reese, Root, Sameen Shaw, Hersh, Kara Stanton, Harold Finch (mentioned) Rating: Mature Summary: Former soldier and CIA agent John Reese has condemned himself to a slow death after being burned by the agency. After witnessing a strange woman answering a forgotten payphone, he suddenly finds himself entangled in a web of secrets, zealotry and violence. Warnings: Canon typical violence, canon typical torture, mentions of suicide and rape, abusive/unbalanced dynamics, alcoholism Art Wishlist: I don't have any particular requests in regards to the art, I'm curious about what will the artist choose to interpret. If I had to choose, a scene illustration or a cover would be very cool :)

If you’d like to make art for any of these fics, the sign-ups for artists are here:

https://poi-fanworks.dreamwidth.org/27461.html

And the claim post is here:

https://poi-fanworks.dreamwidth.org/31548.html

#person of interest #big bang #fanart #fanfiction

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zeravmeta · 4 years

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fuck it. soma cruz fgo servant profile bc i make my own content

Servant: / Servant Class: Soma Cruz / Alter Ego

Origin: / Region: Castlevania Series / Japan, 2035

Alignment: Lawful Neutral(?) “Yeah, not sure how I classify as Lawful given my past life, but whatever.”

Aliases: The Dark Lord, Dracula, Soma Cruz

Parameters: STR (B) / END (A+) / AGL (B+) / MP (EX) / LUK (A) / NP (???)

Class Skills: Authority of Beasts (Fake), Core of Chaos (A), One Who Severs Fate (A)

Character Info: “In order for God to be perfectly Good, there must always exist an embodiment of Chaos, a Dark Lord to emerge from the evil of humanity’s hearts.”

For one thousand years, the Belmont bloodline had opposed the terrible night that Count Dracula would bring with his powers. After generations of suffering, the Belmont’s latest mantle bearer, Julius Belmont, along with their generational allies, the Belnades clan and a nameless soldier, had managed to permanently defeat Dracula with the help of the Hakuba Clan’s shrine magics. Severing his connection to his power and sealing Castlevania, the embodiment of his power, within a solar eclipse, Dracula had finally faced his demise in 1999, prophesied by Nostradamus one millennium ago. Thus, the strongest Dark Lord had fallen, his throne empty and awaiting a new master.

In 2035, Soma Cruz had visited the Hakuba Shrine to meet with his childhood friend Mina, unaware of the birthright he would claim.

Skills:

Chaos Ring A: An extremely powerful construct that channels the very essence of Chaos. It can only be found by the one who can traverse and control the Chaos Realm, the Dark Lords personal right. Wearing it grants the unlimited magical power of the Chaos Realm, but actual output depends on the user. If the Demon King’s Ring is the symbol of Dracula and his reign, then the Chaos Ring could be considered the symbol of Soma and his new beginning.

Thematic narratives aside, it’s a very convenient tool for Soma.

“It’s weird, but it feels like…it was made for me. Almost like a welcome gift.”

[5->3 Turns] [Charge NP (20%->30%), Increase NP Gain (10%->25%) (3 Turns), Gain a Delayed buff 1 turn after skill use (Unremovable): [Charge NP (20->30%)]

Armament Master D: Soma is extremely proficient at using any and all forms of weaponry. Due to Dracula’s vast reach, Soma has a vast number of different modern and mythical weapons and gear at his disposal, notable weapons including Excalibur (sealed in the stone), Hrunting, Caladbolg, Mjolnir, and even a Positron Rifle, to name a few. However, one weapon unique to Soma is the Claimh Solais, an Irish sword of light mentioned in many legends and defining the archetype of “Sword of Light.” It provides a great boost to parameters and is surprisingly light weight despite its size. Another unique weapon he wields is the Valmanway, the “Blessed Wind” that is always ‘cutting’ even when still.

(The rank is D because despite his proficiency, Soma has never had any formal training.)

“I mean, it’s just a sword, right? How complex is it? You can just swing it and things die. Though…considering I have ol’ Drac’s memories…sorta, maybe I’m just remembering it?”

[8->6 Turns] [Increase Atk (10%->20%) (3 Turns), Gain Critical Stars (5->15), Increase Critical Star Absorption (3000%) (3 Turns), Increase Critical Damage (10%->20%) (3 Turns), Apply Special Attack against Sky, Star and Beast attribute enemies (20%->40%) (3 Turns)]

Power of Dominance (EX): Soma’s inheritance from Dracula, or more fittingly, the Chaos Entity opposite to God. The Power of Dominance is a unique ability that grants a complete mastery over the abilities of any and all souls Soma can acquire from the enemies he defeats. All the monsters that Dracula unleashed in his crusade against humanity are the countless souls under his domain, even that of Death itself, and their powers rightly belong to him.

Soma can differentiate between the types of Soul Arts he uses, and this reflects accordingly in his Noble Phantasm.

“I never wanted this power, but I guess I’m stuck with it. I’ll always carry the target on my back, but at least I can look awesome as hell while doing it, I suppose.”

[5->3 Turns] [Decrease Enemy Charge by 1 (20%->50%), Select own NP Command Card’s type between Quick, Arts or Buster for 3 Turns. Effect of NP changes depending on which Command Card Type is selected. This skill is immune to debuff effects (such as Skill Seal)]

Noble Phantasm:

Advent of Sorrow – He Who Severed His Fate Against Chaos and God / Anti-Divine, Anti-Self / Rank (???)

A manifestation of Soma’s power truly made his own, separate from the title of Dark Lord and Dracula. Having defeated the Chaos Entity, he managed to sever its connection to his soul, and be saved from his Fate. Even so, he carries the Power of Dominance with him always, and the countless souls and followers of Chaos always wait and offer themselves unto Soma to lead and command them. In his own imperfect way, neither holy nor demonic.

After all, he’s only human.

(Note: If used by the true Count Dracula, this would be considered an Anti-Humanity NP)

[Type: Buster] – [Deals massive damage to a single enemy (1200%->2400%), Chance to Decrease Charge by 1 (80%->100%). Overcharge: Increases own Buster Card Effectiveness (20%) (1 Turn) and NP Damage (1 Turn) (20%) (Activates First)]

[Type: Arts] – [Deals heavy damage to all enemies (400%->800%), Chance to decrease Atk (15%->25%) and Critical Chance (20%->30%). Overcharge: Inflict Curse (5 Turns).]

[Type: Quick] – [Apply Debuff Immune (1 Time), and Restore HP each turn for self (3 Turns) (1000->1500), and Increase NP Gauge each turn for self (3 Turns) (5%). Overcharge: Apply Def Up for all allies (3 Turns) (25%->50%).]

Bond Lines:

Bond 1: “Heh, thanks for having me! I’m still not too sure about how all this stuff works here, but if you need a monster taken down, I’m your guy.”

Bond 2: “So the rest of those dudes call you ‘Master’? Kind of awkward, but I guess they’re magical familiars at the end of the day. What? So am I? Sorry but, vampiric powers aside, I’m just a normal guy. I was even in University before I got dragged here. I’ll just call you [name] for now.”

Bond 3: “Do you like curry? Arikado said I shouldn’t be using these monster souls for dumb stuff, but they don’t mind. They always talk to me and really want to help me out wherever I am. Except Death, that guy sucks. He’s always breaking into my home and trying to convince me to become the next Dark Lord and to ‘accept my throne’ and stuff.”

Bond 4: “…It scares me, sometimes. Knowing not only what I am, but what I’m very capable of.”

Bond 5: “Y’know…you could always come back with me to my world, if you want to escape. I’ll take you to meet Mina, and Hammer and Yoko and Julius and Arikado and…Hm. Sorry. I know you can’t abandon this world, it’s where you grew up. There’s…a lot of people here who love you. You should always remember that and hold it close. It saved my life when I thought I couldn’t go on, and I know it will also save yours.”

Voice Lines:

(1): “I’m glad this place is a lot simpler than the castle. That place had so many hidden rooms and puzzles that I felt like I was going insane…No, as a matter of fact, DON’T tell me about all the secret workshops here.”

(2): “Hm? What’s up? I’m just relaxing here. Sorry if I’m taking up space. It’s nice to just take a moment.”

(3): “No, no, don’t worry. Even if I could, I’m not the type of guy to just go around stealing souls. I only do that to monsters, and even then, they become complacent once they return to me. I could show you some of the fun ones, like the Skeleton Gardener, if you’d like.”

Likes: “What I like? Curry! Oh, and Mina. She’s been with me for my whole life. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

Dislikes: “This is gonna sound cliché, but garlic. It just tastes bad.”

Event: “Whoa, a party! Let’s go, I’m super bored cooped up in here.”

About The Holy Grail: “Wish granting? No thanks, I’ve read a ton of comics and things always go wrong. What? Of course, it’s a valuable source!”

Summon Quote: “Yo! My name is Soma Cruz. I’m just a regular high school student. Um…Where am I, exactly?”

Happy Birthday: “Happy Birthday, [name]! I’m so gonna throw you the coolest party ever! I’ll even invite Mina…If, uh, if that’s cool with you?”

(King Hassan): “D-Death!? Why are you…Oh. Uh, sorry about that. You reminded me of...someone. I’m sure you’re a cool guy underneath all that armor.”

(Vlad/Vlad III (EXTRA)): “Huh. So, in this world, the legend of Dracula is just that? A legend? Well, that’s a huge relief. I’m not exactly the kingly type.”

(Gilgamesh/Gilgamesh (Caster)): “Hey [name], could you give me a hand? This gold idiot keeps saying I stole his weapons, but they’re mine! …Hey! Stay back with those portal things! Someone, help!!!”

(Scathach): “Jeez, I bet Arikado will get along with that slave driver. Seriously, Arikado’s method of teaching me my powers amounted to locking me in a room with monsters and a pocketknife. Huh? She’s stomping over here!? [name], help me!”

(Marie Antionette): “I don’t know why, but…Looking at you makes me sad. I’m sorry.”

(Sessyoin Kiara): “Master, this lady is coming onto me WAY too hard. She keeps telling me to ‘embrace what I am’ and junk. I already get enough of that crap from cultists back home.”

(Sakata Kintoki/Astolfo/Romulus/Romulus-Quirinus/Ashwatthama): “Hey, you’re a pretty cool dude, huh? Finally, someone with some style!”

(Amakusa Shirou): “Ugh, you remind me of Fortner. And stop using rosaries around me, I’m not Satan, you jerk!”

(Mephistopheles): “Please, leave me alone. I’m not evil, nor will I ever be the Dark Lord. Just because I have those powers doesn’t mean I’m defined by them. Also, the alarm clock you gave me exploded, so I don’t think you’re all that trustworthy anyways.”

(Beni Enma): “Aww, you’re so cute...Wait, from the Underworld? A yokai? Guess you’re one of mine, then. If you want, I can loan you some Skeleton Waiters for your chain.”

(Any Avenger-Class Servant): “Hey, you guys are kinda like me! Everyone says you’re evil, but you’re actually really nice!”

(Arcueid Brunestud): “Master, that girl is shooting me some pretty weird looks....Huh? Reincarnating vampire? Oh, I guess I’d look pretty weird in that case. That’s not her fault, though. Maybe I’ll go say hi.”

QQABB Deck:

Buster Card: 2 Hit / -Soma raises Excalibur (still in the stone) and smashes it into the enemy-

Quick Card: 5 Hit / -Soma holds Valmanway in front of him, turns around, and multiple slashes envelop the enemy-

Art Card: 3 Hit / -Soma does two horizontal strikes, then a third overhead strike with Claimh Solais-

Extra Card: 6 Hit / -Soma punches twice, does a spin-attack with Claimh Solais, then jumps back and fires his Positron Rifle-

Level Up: “Whew…I feel so powerful.”

Ascension 1: “Whoo! Good job, [name].”

Ascension 2: “This…This is just like then…[name], maybe don’t do this anymore.”

Ascension 3: “Please…stop. I don’t know if I can pull myself back this time…”

Ascension 4: “I see. Well…as long as you’re by my side, I’ll never succumb. So please…don’t die.”

Battle Start ½: “Just how many monsters out there!? In any case, let’s do this thing!” / “I’ll carry the mantle and defeat this terrible night!”

Skill ½: “Bullet, set…Enchanted, set…Guardian, set…” / “How about some of this!”

Attack Selection ½/3: “Hmm.” / “Seriously!?” / “Nice.”

Attack ½/3: “Hraagh!” / “Take this!” / “You’re going down!”

Extra Attack: “Let’s see you handle THIS!”

Noble Phantasm Selection ½: “Are…Are you sure?” / “I’ll trust you on this.”

Noble Phantasm: “I will never be the Dark Lord…You, God, and The World will just have to deal with it!”

Noble Phantasm Damage: “I won’t…Submit...!”

Regular Damage: “Gah!”

Defeated ½: “Mina….” / “Julius…our promise…”

Battle Finish ½: “That was a close one…” / “Anyone need some healing? I have some spare spoiled milk…Oh wait, none of you have a Ghoul soul, huh?”

#fgo #fgo fanservant #soma cruz #castlevania #read this and catch my disease #fucking LOVE this funky little pimp coat lad #'but zerav this is way too op'- shut up i deserve this my cock is huge and yours can be to if you let go of such foolish notions and go ham

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vedj-f-bekuesu · 4 years

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Hey, I’ve finally gotten another step in my Ninjago watch!

Before I go through the season, there are some reasons why it’s taken so long to get to Possession.

1. Mum’s course I mentioned before is due to be handed in by tomorrow, so it’s been a bit hands on deck for her. Naturally, this means I’m being pulled in more to help. 2. The reason I started this was because I wasn’t able do my own work so had a lot of time to use up. Well, in the past week, it went from “oh you can’t work from home” to “you could but your smart card is at work and we won’t let you in so you’ll have to reject it” to “actually we can totally Indiana Jones it, here’s some WARs”, so I’m actually working again, so this will probably be a lot slower to go through. 3. Honestly, Tournament of Elements took a bit of wind out the sails. I mean, it was such a slog to go through, I was hesitant to do that again in a hurry if Possession ended up being a rinse and repeat of that.

But today, I’ve finally gotten through the season and...it’s serendipitous that this features the Elemental Master of Wind because this really was a second wind. I said that perhaps with it parring down the cast to a central focus that it would improve the quality over Tournament of Elements and that seems to have been the case. Let’s go through the points.

-I have barely anything bad to say about the characterisation of any character, main or side. Like, this season was mostly on point. I guess the main ninja were a touch on the mean-spirited side at the start, but this get smoothed out by the plot advancing. Jay could also get a little obnoxious at the start, but this was balanced out by him sassing out Wu for his absolute failure to disclose Morro’s existence anyway. -Of course the standout character is Nya, what with her whole sideplot and ending up a water-based BAMF in the ending. -The events of the Dark Island part of season 2 makes Kai’s fear of water and inability to swim jarring at first (because he swims just fine there), but I guess this was a change brought on by Rebooted’s soft reboot. -Even Lloyd has his moments even though at this point his character feels fairly weak since the show is pretty much just interested in his status as this really powerful hero. But his moment to reconcile his grief with his dad is done nicely, and makes a better sendoff than season 4′s. -Ronin’s good but that one moment was pretty uncomfortable. Thankfully due to circumstances it didn’t actually happen which prevents it from pushing it over. -But can I talk about the fact the show seems to expect you to have seen media outside of the show to understand his debut? When the ninja talk about Ronin as an old annoyance, I was like “man, you really think I played Shadow of Ronin, huh”. It would have been a shaky assumption in 2015 because the 3DS wasn’t exactly a big hit. But five years later, when the 3DS is nigh obsolete and I haven’t used mine in ages? It doesn’t help that the game is actually technically non-canon, only happening in vague. -Morro is probably the best villain of the old stuff so far. I don’t care if he’s this edgy teenage bad boy that younger fans tend to veer to, his biggest strength is that despite him being another conqueror and having a lot of power, he still comes off as very human. He still has attitude quirks (like being a bit casual in places), he treats his minions different to any other villain so far, he makes mistakes and has slip-ups, and the conflict felt more like an actual to-and-fro as opposed to one side completely dominating over the other requiring some deus-ex to balance it (even season 1 had this issue, lest we forget how the ninja failed to secure a single thing in their fetch quest). Thus, when Morro is faced with his mortality and finally sees what Wu was trying to teach him, it feels like that would be a natural conclusion to his arc. -So Kai and LLoyd’s dynamic is good, it’s a callback to Kai’s development from season 1 where he got over himself and dedicated himself to looking after Lloyd (I mean, the episode itself fell a bit like an asspull, but S2 and S3 stuck it as a recurring theme), but what surprised me is that there’s actually relatively little of it in the season. There’s a bit at the beginning, then it tapers off until like the third to last episode. The way people talked about it made it seem like this big recurring arc but it’s not. -Kai and Nya get surprisingly little throughout Nya’s actual training arc. You’d think Nya training to be the water ninja would be a bigger deal for Kai. They remember to give us a good dollop of it in the finale though. -Can I take an aside to talk about Kai and Cole’s dynamic again? After S1 had such a good thing between them, I thought it was going to drop off entirely. S2 seemed to make good on that...but then S3 brought it back, albeit a bit more reserved. Even S4 had the same level. Why bring it up now? Because S5 turns it up to the point where it was one of the dominating dynamics outside of all four ninja together. And yet I have never heard this referred to by anyone. What, if two characters aren’t explicitly honed in on for interaction (ie Cole and Jay’s whole drama thing, Cole and Zane in S4/S8...I can’t think of any I’ve seen that don’t involve Cole yet), then it’s just pushed to the wayside? No wonder S13 seems to have decided that it finally needs to be addressed after the last two joint seasons focused on Jay and Nya then Kai and Nya. -Speaking of, Jay and Zane actually get a cute dynamic going, albeit not as pronounced. Jay and Nya is surprising neglected, only getting some visual cues in the ending. Then again, I guess that’s what the next season is for. -This season is not actually dark to be honest. There’s a couple of points where it drifts into that territory, but one moment is the climax which is typical for a kids show, and the other I guess is Cole’s thing (although the next episode took the edge out of that). That being said, kudos to them for sticking out the change to the status quo so it isn’t just a one season gimmick. -Season 5 really said “That green ninja jealousy from S4 was shit so we’re just going to ignore it”. While I still have an issue with it as above, this is a relief. -Pacing here is fine, I have no issues with for once.

So overall, Possession is a pretty good season, I can see why so many consider it one of, if not, the best. My only real beef with it is that the secondary dynamics (outside of the four ninja but within the general team) end up surprisingly underutilised. Otherwise, the only other barrier it has with me is just my preference for more light-hearted affair than this season’s fairly middling (but not dark) tone, but it’s so competently done that it still manages to outpace seasons that do hit that tone.

I would have to see S11 again to see how I’d stack it up to this, but my current season ranks are as follows;

S12>S11>=S5>S1>S2>S4>S3

So, next time I watch again, it’ll be one of the more marmite seasons in the pack; Skybound. One of the coolest season names, but can it continue Possession’s quality?

For now though, I have a whole thing lined up gushing about Prime Empire’s thematic roots because Prime Empire is amazing. And also I’ll have a (probable) season finale to watch and S13 leaks to look for.

#ninjago #vedj-f reviews #vedj-f talks #ns5 #I was surprised how little the whole ghost thing showed up in the actual settings tbh #the only ones really horror-based were the haunted temple and the ending #this isn't a bad thing though

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octagoncalibrator · 4 years

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Some thoughts of Heart of Deimos.

I made a reddit post but I thought I might repost it here and see if the response is any different. Mild spoilers for Heart of Deimos, the most recent Warframe update, under the cut.

First off, this is a bit of an effortpost, and it will be quite meandering and confused, sorry about that. We are now two days into Heart of Deimos and I had some thoughts I wanted to put on paper as it were. There's a TL;DR at the bottom.

The Bad:

In all honesty, taking into account the usual DE release-then-fix cycle and the quick patching they've already done to things like the Son token costs, there's very little about this update that I think is objectively bad. Deimos might be the single best open world release of the set, lack of a catchy musical number aside. It's not any buggier than any other release, which may say more about DE's QA than anything, but I have fallen through the map a few times, and host migrations have broken multiple vault runs.

The combined token system is a pretty big departure from the other open worlds, and I found it very confusing initially. Without the prior context of using Ticker for bonds in Fortuna, I think it would be really opaque, particularly for new players who aren't already up to speed on how the open world resource loops are expected to work. Alongside the complex token system, it's also understandable that people are frustrated with the expectation that they -must- participate in mining, fishing and conservation to get the tokens, since these don't really leverage the well developed aspects of gameplay.

The initial quest was lackluster from a storytelling perspective, with some really nonsensical events, a lack of development for each individual beat, and a frustrating lack of building on the already existing lore in favour of introducing new lore. It was pretty blatantly a tour of the zone mechanics, though maybe we'll see a more engaging plot when the equivalent of the Profit Taker and Exploiter bounties are introduced over the next year. The new warframe being dropped in by Mother as an afterthought, without a scrap of context, almost felt worse than the way previous quests have just given us the blueprint with no explanation at all. Protea's quest felt a lot clearer so it's disheartening to see them taking a step back there.

Finally, prior to finding the Albrecht lore I thought the playable content of the update was quite short and uninteresting.

The Good:

The Family voice acting is really, really good. Some of the writing is a bit iffy in the classic overwrought DE sense (which IMO is charmingly earnest anyway) but the delivery is fantastic, and while initially I was put off by the characters being shallow, I came around on it - I will go into more detail under 'The Ugly'.

With regards to the grind: even though the resources from the open world minigames are mandatory, participation isn't - so far I've run conservation exactly once, for about an hour, and I am clear for the third rank up with the Entrati. The world drops and bounty loot are more than enough to cover the vast majority of other costs, which is honestly fantastic. For all the complaining, DE has definitely learned from PoE and Fortuna with regards to letting people dictate their own playstyle without handicapping their progress. You can focus down specific requirements with specific minigames, no trouble, or you can just play bounties and run and gun your way to incidental loot. The combined token system was really confusing initially but combined with the incidental drops it makes progression quite organic without forcing you to spend your time on any particular task (looking at you, pre-Thumper PoE). There also seems to be a pretty solid spawn chance for tokens in the caves of the open world, and since the rank ups are now 1 of each kind of token instead of 10, this is possibly now a feasible way to skip the conservation grind entirely.

With regards to the lore: despite my earlier complaint about narrative quality and disconnection, DE does seem to be tying Parvos, the Entrati and the Glassmaker together, which is interesting. Prior to finding the Necraloid area and hearing the excellent Albrecht Vitruvian lore (seriously, mad props to the writers and the VA, the fourth log gives me powerful Darkest Dungeon narration vibes) I was ready to drop the game until a few patches and more content was added, but now I'm fully willing to grind for a couple weeks to hear the rest. I'm curious to see where they will go with the Heart and the Man in the Wall, particularly in regards to stuff like the reliquary drive and how it relates to the Necraloids and pre-warframe Orokin technology in general.

The Ugly:

The Family are the ugly, get it? This bit is mostly just because I want to talk about the new characters and the themes of Warframe as a narrative.

There's a kind of tension around the family that I initially found offputting - here we have a family of immortal alien gods who made their name ripping secrets from the flesh of reality, literally sprouting from the meat flowers of an infested moon... and they act like the cast of Arrested Development, switching between lofty poetic proclamations and petty squabbling that wouldn't be out of place on a sitcom. At first it seemed like it was just bad writing. Over time though, with exposure to the wider plot and the various deeper interactions, I started to warm to it. It's really interesting how DE has juxtaposed the deformed appearance of the Entrati, their perfect-marble-statue-like Orokin aesthetic, the pulsating infestation, and this very human, very relatable behavior. It really pulls back the skin on the Orokin as a people and uses a bit of clever metanarrative to show us that even the Tenno remember the Orokin as being more than human, when they were just as flawed as anyone else.

The individual characters felt very shallow at first, like cardboard cutouts of the typical family transplanted into a blob of writhing meat, but the pleasant surprise of the relationships mending between Entrati rank-ups and the subtle undercurrents you start to notice when interacting with them over a longer timeline really turned that on its head. There's some really excellent combinations of writing and delivery that add subtleties to each character, like the Daughter's undercurrent of thirst for either the Tenno or for butchering mutant fish, or the animalistic yearning of the Son and his bleeding heart hidden under the callous and cruel facade.

Family, parenthood and belonging are arguably the core themes of Warframe's narrative - the Tenno are orphan children clinging to a single parental figure who herself is a stolen child, while their allies like the Ostrons and the Solaris are people who cling to their human connections and their shared culture despite outside forces, and draw their strength from each other. The grand enemies of the setting are collectivist empires who have shredded their humanity in pursuit of strength and profit respectively. Then you have the Orokin, whose grand flaw is hubris in isolation, and a deliberate abandonment of shared humanity in pursuit of impossible perfection. The entire Parvos questline related to blood, with Nef wanting to abuse it for gain and Parvos denouncing him. Even the Sentients, arguably the only alien culture in the setting, love their families and oppose the Orokin and by extension the Tenno largely in defense of their people.

DE has leaned hard on quite creepy, quite -relatable- strangeness to give the Family depth, which helps reinforce that they're demigods of a dead empire, even if they are also quite friendly and personable. It lends some real weight to the way the Orokin have been depicted as cruel, hollow people, since we now have direct evidence of how their culture and the expectations of their various roles tear at those interpersonal connections. There's a lot of heart and clear work put into developing these themes, and I think that it's a bit sad that the quality of the writing is frequently overlooked in the broader Warframe community in favour of focusing on the flashy mechanics and cool new novel features. DE's writers are some of the best in mainstream video gaming currently, and even with my complaints about the main quest earlier, this consistent ongoing thematic cohesion and the variety of individually good beats more than make up for incoherent feature-driven storytelling.

TL;DR:

Despite some teething issues and bugs Heart of Deimos might be the best open world update so far, the way DE presents the Family and develops on the overarching themes of the story are pretty excellent, and I am excited to see where they go with it. Thanks for reading my incoherent and largely irrelevant thought-spew. Have a good one.

#warframe #heart of deimos #rambling diatribe #I have no qualifications just many opinions

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ayankun · 4 years

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yalright let’s do this

AGENTS OF SHIELD SEASON ONE REWATCH COMPLETE BREAKDOWN MEGAPOST

hella spoilers for the entire canon up through season 5, but not 6 because I only saw it the once and am having a hard time remembering ANYthing about it.

I cannot determine specifically what it was about this season that caused to be branded “literal garbage” in my mind-hole for seven years.

Best guesses:

there’s some cheesy stuff that probably didn’t sit well with me at the time, and, at the time, there was no way of knowing that that kind of stuff was going to be ultimately eradicated

there’s some good stuff, like character stuff and plot stuff, but it didn’t successfully implant positive emotional responses in my brain-hole, leading me to be frustrated/offended at its own self-importance

there’s some stuff that just Doesn’t Work. I won’t call anybody out, but there are some main side characters whose casting, in my opinion, leaves much to be desired. when it comes to acting ability, I feel that it’s important to have the ranges of your entire cast match each other. if you’re gonna hire B-listers, at least make sure they’re ALL B-listers. if you’re gonna splurge and get some S-tier talent, pleeeeease don’t embarrass the B-listers by thinking you’re doing them a favor by including them on your project. Understood, this opinion is highly subjective and I can’t expect everyone in front or behind the screen to buy into it, but it’s definitely a pet peeve of mine that causes strong reactions in me*

some of the plots are tired and/or straight up boring. I got through them easily this time through because I was able to focus on the things I like, which is largely character interactions and re-learning the backstory for stuff that I know will continue to be important later on. imagine listening to your grandpa’s stories about his life, but instead of telling you the cool stories about going to the moon or whatever, he’s telling you in great detail about the time he got his shoelaces stuck on like, a rusty nail sticking out of a fence. It’s not a great story but it does explain why his mom only bought him velcro shoes after that and one time when they were trying on shoes in the store a couple of years later, some other kid started making fun of him for having velcro shoes and long story short your grandpa’s relationship with that kid is what got him interested in astrophysics and also he married that kid twenty-five years later -- but right now the story is specifically about spending forty minutes trying not to get tetanus.

Now that I’m older and wiser, what really surprised me throughout, though, was that not only was I not having any type of reaction that validated my “literal garbage” classification, I was noticing that there was A Lot of stuff that ticked a lot of boxes.

I’m talking technical stuff, the textbook basic filmmaking stuff, the stuff that I subjectively find objectively “Good” because it means that creative decisions were made with intent and were also executed proficiently enough to make that intent clear.

I’m talking SYMMETRICAL NARRATIVE which has to be one of my all-time favorite techniques, one that I personally use a lot, and I’m very biased in responding favorably when I see it, so I think ultimately this is a huge reason why this season cannot be classified as garbage this time around. Because it shows that they cared! It shows that they had A Plan! It’s an emotionally satisfying technique that can be used to great effect when tipping the audience off to how far we’ve come from where we started. It creates this nice tidy structural loop which I find very appealing.

Just real quick, you see this in individual episodes or even scenes, too. Here’s a classic A+ example from episode 2:

Simmons has given Skye a bottle of water as a gag because that’s what happens on planes, and that bit is a set up to this bit, where Coulson is talking about how he rebuilt the Bus from the “studs up” and it demands to be treated with kid gloves; ergo:

Only to have the thing completely wrecked over the course of the episode. In the denouement, “just starting to warm up to this place,” Coulson says ruefully, righting a broken glass as if that will put the plane back together; Skye immediately tosses a coaster down and moves the glass on top of it.

As a callback, it juxtaposes the starting-state and ending-state in your mind and highlights the contrast between the two. And it’s also a nice character-building beat where you, the audience, get to observe Skye’s character in that she remembers a trivial detail that happened to be important to Coulson. You also get to see Coulson observing the same, and you understand a little bit more about both of them. *chef’s kiss*

So this is a pretty powerful and common technique, and I guess you could say that any well-resolved narrative is by definition going to recall you to the specifics of how it started. Like ep 1 we start with Mike and Ace, their call and response “what are we/we’re a team,” and an understanding of Mike’s desire to be his kid’s guardian and hero and his desperate search for the tools that will allow him to become that. In the finale, we see the pay off where Ace (via Skye) reminds Mike of this motivation, and Mike is finally in the position to protect his kid by taking out the Big Bad.

But I don’t want to go through the list to demonstrate that everyone’s character arcs likewise left them in a thematically resolved position relative to where they started. Obviously this is an expectation of all (well structured) narratives.

(And I don’t really mean to talk about callbacks themselves, such as Fitz’s obsession with monkeys or May’s repeated demand of “don’t call me that.”)

Stuff that only comes up at the beginning and the end. Here’s the kind of symmetry that I mean:

Skye’s use of GPS encryption and the location of the diner where she first meets Mike. Both topics come up in ep 1, and are revisited in ep 20 when she’s stalling for time against Ward and brings him to the diner by telling him that it’s the GPS coordinates necessary for decrypting the drive. It says, last time you were here, Skye, you were living out of a van and fangirling over people with superpowers; now you’re an official agent of SHIELD (fun while it lasted, anyway) and you’re currently doublecrossing your own doublecrosser who was directly responsible for transforming you into the competent spy you are today.

Same thing: the only time we see Lola fly is at the end of ep 1, when Coulson and Skye are heading back to the Bus, and in ep 20 when Coulson rescues Skye from off the Bus.

Ep 2: 0-8-4. We’re introduced to the very first object with the titular designation, and Simmons idly wonders “imagine what it would do to a person.” Ep 22, it’s used to evaporate Garrett. Same ep, we also meet the little, what even is it, that dendrotoxin EMP (??? I don’t recall whether the gadget is named) that Ward uses, and Coulson uses it in ep 17 to incapacitate Garrett.

Similarly, all the cool alien gadgets we spent the first few episodes gathering and locking up, including that first 0-8-4, are all broken out into the wrong hands in ep 18.

Also in ep 2 we are introduced to the idea of being thrown out of the airplane and Skye & co specifically prevent Ward from being sucked out. We’re introduced to the concept of Coulson’s cellist! Fury also makes a cameo (”talkin to me about authority”) !

It’s a little later on, but ep 6 has Simmons jumping out the plane, and Ward proving his Good Teammate status by jumping out after her (while Fitz is struggling on his way to do the same). Ep 21, Ward boots FitzSimmons out the plane, and in ep 22 Fitz finally has the chance to properly save Simmons himself.

Ep 19 Coulson has a chance to save his cellist (again)

Ep 22, Fury comes back all Deus ex Machina and relinquishes authority of SHIELD directly to Coulson.

There’s also some dialogue recycled on purpose to make a point, like Fitz-Simmons introductory scene is recreated almost verbatim in ep 21:

Ep 2, talking to Skye about his mission vs ep 18 talking to Raina about his mission

(gotta admit, the man took this role seriously. check out that cheekbone game he achieved in such a short time)

And again, Ep 1 Ward vs Ep 18 Ward. They even framed it the same!!

All this to say, Season 1 is Structurally Sound and it has my blessing.

Now let’s move on to the list of things I liked that surprised me:

It’s pretty well polished, visually. Joss Whedon’s veteran control of the director’s chair is readily apparent in the pilot, setting the visual tone for the series. There are some made-for-tv shots over the course of the season, sure, and the least impressive compositions tend to involve CGI backdrops, but they do make the most of their interior sets and work hard to dress up various LA locations to, er, inspire the idea of the international scope of the show. In my last update, I talked about ep 8 The Well in the context of Quality Directing, so it definitely goes above and beyond the basic shot-reverse shot when it wants to.

Ward. Just for the record, I think Brett Dalton is great at his job and really brought exactly what they wanted to this character. Eps 1 and 2 are a little shaky and stiff, but everyone’s performances are, as they let these characters coalesce around them. I remember not liking Ward when I was watching this live, and honestly I think this was intentional. He’s that character that you expect that you’re expected to like, you know, the traditional cocky savior type that lots of those fancy heroes are. But because he’s so tropey in his characterization, you’re just ... over it? And then when they flip the script and you’re supposed to hate him -- WOW. It’s like two Christmases at once. They took something you were already doing and rewarded you for it.

I’m not unaware of the “redeem grant ward” phenomenon. I’m aware that the character had fans who were honestly drawn to and appreciative of the character before that persona was revealed to be a lie.

And honestly, it’s not that I like OR dislike Ward at all. As a person. It’s annoying that he’s a cocky bad-boy. But it’s sweet when he plays nice with Simmons. It’s embarrassing that he and May have “a thing.” But it’s cathartic when he opens up to Skye about his past. And Then, the sequence where we know he’s Hydra but Skye doesn’t. And Then, the sequence where Skye knows he’s Hydra but he doesn’t. And Then, his weird yucky confusion where he still wants to pursue something with Skye or doesn’t want to put down puppy-dog-eyed Fitz.

As a character, Ward is a great character. His set up is so bland that the twist does appear to come out of nowhere, but on a rewatch all the groundwork is there. His characterization as a baddie is enthralling. I’m forecasting into season 2 a bit, but you want to follow his nefarious exploits just as much as you want to see his ex-friends smash his face in. Brett Dalton played it right, A+ good job. It makes Framework!Ward just that much more of a beautiful thing, to get to see what it would have been like if the Season 1 persona had actually been the man.

Also as covered in the last update, I was really very pleased to see how much character work was being done in this season. Because I only watch and rewatch starting from the second season, there are important plot points that I’d been grudgingly attributing to this season about which I’d forgotten the specifics, such as, what’s the deal with Gravitonium, howcome we hate Ward so much, where did they get that memory-torture-machine, why are you acting like I recognize Titus Welliver’s character? What surprised me was how much of a focus there is on character development as well. A lot of good origin story stuff, like how green FitzSimmons is and how soft and good-hearted Skye is and all the reasons we respect and trust May and all the reasons we would follow Coulson to the ends of the earth. Watching a found family start to put down roots is worth it, too, ten times out of ten.

The tie-in stuff wasn’t as overstated and stifling as I remembered it being. They were allowed quite a long leash even this far back. Centipede is based on Extremis, but helms a a unique narrative. The Asgardians-of-the-week are just MacGuffins for driving character stories. Turns out all of SHIELD has been Hydra all along! Sucks to be you, a show about the Agents of SHIELD ... oh wait, Daddy MCU’s insane twist is mirrored in the DNA of your team’s composition AND baked into your overall season arc? Well then. Carry on!

Engaging with Season 1 explicitly as a prequel is a powerful thing. First time through, I had the distinct realization that “too much of a good thing” was at play regarding Coulson. He’s everybody’s favorite MCU character in 2013, hands down, but ... getting intimate with him for 40 minutes a week really waters down his mysterious G-man appeal. BUT. After spending six+ years with the man, Season 1!Coulson is a precursor to the 3-dimensional Director you’ll fall in love with, rather than a distortion of the one-liner MCU!Coulson you thought you wanted.

So what’s next! Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and here all all the things I associate with AoS that were not present in Season 1:

Robot hand.

DaISy JoHnsOn

AGENT/DIRECTOR MACK where is he I need him

Fitz’s facial hair

Their underground SSR base with the exposed brick, I miss that place all the time

Hive, Bobbi*, Hunter, Kyle MacLachlan, Maveth (everything** about Seasons 2 and 3, really). Robbie Reyes. Aida and Kasius!! I know these things are temporary, but they’re so important to the best bits and I love them.

Getting to see episode after episode where there are scenes at a time containing a majority (up to 100%) of women and/or POC characters with executive agency, and none of those characters are token or temporary but were placed there with intent to normalize a diversified cast.

My absolute favorite episode of all time, 4x15 Self Control.

Things I am not looking forward to:

**Lincoln. I’ve seen these seasons four times and just now I had to google his name because I wasn’t sure it wasn’t Logan. He’s garbage and I’m glad he’s dead. Other opinions are available.

Misc. Thoughts

*I said I wouldn’t name names but Adrianne Palicki is a C-lister who can swing a B+ if the stars align. I love Bobbi, though, especially the way the character’s reputation precedes her, how her adorableness complements her badassness. In fact, the character’s a great foil to May, who is also a badass lady and S-tier agent but has a completely different approach to being those things. Bobbi’s a reminder that badassness and aloofness are not correlated at all. Also there’s a headcanon out there that she’s non-binary (one of the reasons she prefers Bobbi over Barbara) and that is a concept I can get behind. Bobbi’s perfect and I’ll fight you if you don’t agree.

Poor Trip!!!!!!! When you always start from Season 2, he’s really just a flash in the pan, there and gone. I’ve always been like, “well, he didn’t really have a home here, no carved-out niche, so I guess getting Coulson’d and becoming something to avenge is the best a character like him is gonna get.” But now that I see that he comes late to the game as a literal stand in for Ward, his story is that much sadder. He was never intended to BE a character. He’s introduced with Garrett as a pawn/distraction during this arc’s who-is-Hydra shell game, he’s kept to demonstrate what kind of friend and agent Ward should have been, his defining character trait as a gentle flirt only serves as a catalyst for Fitz’s coming to terms with his feelings for Simmons. The poor guy is just a walking plot point, up until the bitter end. :<

I had entirely forgotten and/or never tracked the fact that Fury put together Coulson’s team specifically to monitor him after project T.A.H.I.T.I. I’d forgotten the distrust Coulson has for May after he perceives that she has betrayed him by being a part of this. It’s a season-specific reveal that is literally never mentioned again. It’s important to the fabric of the narrative of that particular arc, offering up May alongside Ward and Trip as fodder for the aforementioned shell game, but the true inciting incident of this entire show just gets swept under the rug and ceases to matter. I’m kind of :/ about that.

When you’re bi and non-binary, you’ll get a lot of mileage out of wanting to be/be with Daisy and/or Fitz, don’t judge me

In conclusion, Season 1 is the opposite of literal garbage, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is my favorite show and my favorite MCU movie, Daisy Johnson is my favorite Marvel superhero (not related to Season 1 but still true), and nobody had better spoil Season 7 for me pleaAAASE don’t let it happen.

#agents of shield #aos #so I guess this is what I ended up doing today #v productive

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the-blue-sandglass · 5 years

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A SophBot’s Thoughts: Kingdom Hearts III - Why Yen Sid is Human Trash

Ah, we’ve been here before.

But yes, as of kH3, I’ve grown to dislike this asshat. Here’s why! :D

So, how do we stop Xehanort? DO EXACTLY AS HE SAYS!

Now, this one isn’t as bothersome to me - though I do question it. I could be wrong and it might have been stated somewhere why exactly the heroes had to form the Seven Keyblade Wielders of Light to begin with, but none that I could recall - but if there is, feel free to correct me. I’m just going off what I know and remember.

Why did they have to be formed with that specific number? Why in story did they have to go as that group against that group? It’s doing exactly what Xehanort wants them to, and sure enough, how does everyone react when doing as he was wanting them to means he only needs one key left to forge the X-blade?

Who thought that was a good idea!? There were other ways of dealing with Xehanort, at least at the time. Why not go after one at a time? Why not have some people (LEA) use non-Keyblade weapons so that the ‘fated clash’ doesn’t occur?

Granted, Xehanort being Xehanort, likely would and could have ended up turning the tides so that there was no other choice but to fight him under those circumstances. But when he hasn’t done that yet, why make it easier for him to complete his plans?

Technically this could have went for all of the main heroes, but I’m looking at Yen Sid specifically for this because he’s meant to be the one guiding them. He should know that doing this has a high risk, if not an 100% chance of helping Xehanort’s plans!

Thanks for the reminder! Not like he went through it...oh WAIT.

Now, I could discuss quite heavily whether or not Sora should have been failed for his Mark of Mastery, and there’s arguments for both sides. So that’ll be a discussion for another day. But my issue doesn’t lie there, even though holding something so important like a Mark of Mastery with a separate conflict while not making sure there wasn’t outer factors kicking in is sketchy to me, but again, I don’t know how it all works so I can’t say for sure he had a way of knowing.

My issue lies with how Yen Sid speaks to Sora about the events of DDD.

Take this one here, as I'm gonna tear it apart.

“Your Mark of Mastery exam was conducted in the hopes you would acquire the power to wake them. However, the darkness nearly took control of you, and your grasp of your new abilities leaves much to be desired. Furthermore, Xehanort nearly made you his vessel, and in the process stripped you of most of the power you had gained by then. I suspect you have already noticed this, correct?”

Sora already knows all of this. I’d get telling somebody like Kairi this, as she wasn’t there for the exam and wouldn’t have known about it until someone told her about it.

Of course he’s noticed this! It would be impossible for him not to. So why the hell would you reinforce it, it’s like rubbing salt in a wound that’s still open.

And I get telling new players about this - but one...why would a new player start with what’s labelled as at least the third game? Especially since the PS4 (which a majority of players are likely to have) has a game that offers the first game, Chain of Memories, what’s basically a cutscene compilation of 385/2 Days, Kingdom Hearts II, Birth by Sleep, what’s basically a cutscene compilation of Re:coded, and the same console also has 2.8, which offers Dream Drop Distance, A Fragmentary Passage and a movie of X Back Cover. It’s not that difficult to figure out what happened last time, especially when KH3′s been hyped enough to be the grand finale of the Dark Seekers arc.

But, that aside, why does Yen Sid have to remind someone who went through the traumatic experience about what he went through and how it’s impacted him as if he’s an outsider who had little involvement with it? Story-wise, how in god’s name is that remotely helpful!?

Speaking of not being too helpful...

Did Yen Sid get amnesia about who Terra was?

Like, I don’t want to offend anyone who’s a fan of Lea. I really don’t. I like the guy too! He’s funny, he’s cool, he’s got some great lines, I’m fond of his friendship with Kairi in the game, his interactions with Isa in this game are also wonderful. Butttt...I feel he was sort of forced into this role that he wasn’t really made for to begin with. Something tells me between DDD and III they swapped some roles about...namely because of this line that I mentioned before.

Those three missing friends being, as I've said, Ven, Aqua and Terra. And yet...most people just kinda ignore the latter exists in this game, and as someone who’s actually quite fond of him, it’s quite sad. He’s namely spoken of by Aqua and Ventus when they come back, and Sora for a brief moment. If Mickey does, I can’t remember when.

But to an extent, I can sort of understand, Lea being around and having a Keyblade as well as the help he’s offered so far, he’s an easier option to have at the time of the game’s events. I just feel Terra would have fitted better thematically - what a better way to conclude his character arc by having him return to the side of the light to help fight against the man who hurt so many and wronged him so much? Alas, we don’t get to see...well, much of any of that. I know that’s more of a general writing problem, but I thought I'd note it here as very few in this game seem to really care about the guy anymore, Yen Sid included, especially since it’s not the first time he does something like that, and the fact that he didn’t really bother to state outright that Xehanort could be up to something suspicious (all he says is that he may be linked to the Unversed, and in that case, you could say Ven is too, say what you mean!) And as for not caring about him in general, see the scene in Birth by Sleep when Aqua is in the Mysterious Tower after Ven’s heart shatters and Terra disappears.

Amateur Hour

Onto something in a similar vein - why send two Keyblade warriors in when they have all the time in the world to train and become powerful, and when they’re clearly not ready and one of them has next to no serious battle experience? Xehanort’s relying on the heroes to fall into the seven lights category, so why not get everyone as powerful as possible? That way even if the X-blade ends up forged, everyone will be equipped to send Xehanort packing and destroy the X-blade again. Hell, at least give the pair of them some battle experience so that when a true threat pops up, Kairi doesn’t freeze up. It’s not her fault - she’s only fought Shadows before, she’s not been in a situation like that before.

Her first proper battle with a Keyblade...is the final battle. Who thought that was a good idea!?

And what happens? As you’ll have seen - Lea’s Keyblade gets broken, and Kairi gets kidnapped...again, and later killed.

That plan turned out great. And now, my biggest issue with this guy...

The Power of Waking

There’s a reason why I left this to last. Namely because it’s probably the worst thing this guy’s done - all through inaction.

I think this is something you’ve all noticed - throughout the game, Yen Sid is constantly pounding in that Sora has to get the Power of Waking, over and over again. What is one thing he doesn’t do?

MENTION OVERUSE OF THE DAMN THING COULD KILL HIM.

And there’s not even any physical side effects from what I’ve seen, so the only thing Sora had that told him there was danger in the Power of Waking was Young Xehanort telling him about it. That guy he literally has no reason to trust! Yet he tells you more about the dangers than Yen Sid does.

Combined with literally falling into Xehanort’s plans, sending out someone who was still learning into the final battle (as her first battle as well) and pushing for this power to be found without explaining the responsibilities of it, all of this is why I blame him a lot for what happens to Sora at the end. They still could have had this ending without changing too much. There’s an awesome video by SirSkyward on YouTube called Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Written that shows a way you can do it, which actually addresses quite a few of these problems of mine. But that’s alas not what happened in canon. Not only does this lead to Sora getting caught up in another of Xehanort’s traps, AGAIN, not only does him sending in Kairi too early lead to her not being ready and getting killed to ‘motivate’ Sora (I’ll get to that shitshow when I talk about her, don’t you worry-) thus causing the boy to sacrifice himself just to save her life.

Thanks for that, Yen Sid.

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fortheheavenssake · 4 years

Text

PG MM Anon Interpretation Collection - 25

💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG INTERPRETATION MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜💜

171: Jan 16

MM ANON,……… laugh and carry on……… isolation desperation ……… W&K leapfrog ……… not jaw jaw …… pseudo Trudeau ……… re-distribution …………” just scrapping by ,sausage” ……… LA NA. ……… gizza job……… ahhhhh’ the ubiquitous tape……… brotherly shove ………… “ the tour will proceed” ………… Diamond Dogs……… 🦂🦂🦂………… twice shy

💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜💜

RIDDLE #171

January 16/2020

1835 hrs CST

laugh and carry on

THE ROYAL FAMILY MOTTO HAS BEEN KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON. LIKE A DUCK SERENELY FLOATING ON THE WATER, BUT UNDERNEATH ITS PADDLING LIKE MAD. NOW WITH ALL OF MADAM’S MACHINATIONS AND PHOTOSHOPPING GAMES ONGOING, BESIDES EXPLODING WITH ANGER OR BREAKING DOWN IN TEARS, LAUGHING IS THE BEST RESPONSE. SHE! HATES!🤬🤬🤬🤬BEING! LAUGHED!AT! THERE IS NOTHING MORE A TRUE NARCISSIST LOATHES IS NOT BEING TAKEN SERIOUSLY AND LAUGHED AT. SO PLEASE KEEP THE FUNNY POSTS AND SUBMISSIONS COMING. WE MUST CARRY ON WITH OUR LIVES. IF YOU FEEL CONSUMED STEP AWAY BECAUSE THAT IS GIVING HER YET ANOTHER VICTIM. LAUGH AT HER!

isolation desperation

MADAM HAS GOTTEN EXACTLY WHAT SHE WANTED, ALMOST. SHE WANTS PERMANENTLY RID OF ANY ROYAL DUTIES BUT STATES WANTS FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣SHE HAS NEVER HAD THIS HER WHOLE LIFE HAS BEEN ABOUT USING OTHERS OR USING HER BODY FOR MONEY. IT PHYSICALLY SICKENED ME TO SEE HER , A DECLARED FEMINIST, BE SO MISOGYNISTIC AND USE WOMENS SHELTERS OR AT RISK WOMEN CENTRES FOR HER OWN PR AND MERCHING REASONS. GOD SEES YOU RACHEL, HE KNOW THE BLACKNESS IN YOUR SOUL, I SAID I WAS NOT GOING TO PLEAD WITH YOU TO REACH OUT TO GOD BUT I DO , REACH OUT AND RID YOURSELF OF IT! SHE IS SO DESPERATE TO REMAIN RELEVANT AND IN THE TABLOIDS SHE IS DOING ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING, ALL THE WHILE MERCHING AND USING VULNERABLE CANADIAN WOMEN. PEOPLE ARE LIVID!

W&K leapfrog

LEAPFROG IS A SET OF ELECTRONIC INTERACTIVE CHILDRENS BOOKS AND TOYS, EXTREMELY LEARNING BASED AND POPULAR. I THINK THEY USED THE NAME FROM THE OLD CHILDREN’S GAME OF LEAPFROG,WHERE YOU CROUCH AND HOP OVER THE PERSON CROUCHED AHEAD OF YOU. IT WAS GREAT FUN. USING THE JUMP OVER EFFECT, THEY HAVE LEAPFROGGED OVER MADAM IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE. I THINK THERE IS AN INSTAGRAM GAME, I JUST CHECKED AS OF RIGHT NOW THE SUSSEXES HAVE 10.8 MILLION FOLLOWERS AND THE CAMBRIDGES, DRUMROLL PLEASE HAVE 10.9 MILLION.FOLLOWERS. THEY HAVE LEAPFROGGED OVER. WITH A NORTH AMERICAN ROYAL TOUR WITH THE CHILDREN, THAT WILL EXPLODE!!! RIBBIT RIBBIT 🐸 🐸 🐸 🐸 🐸 🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣

not jaw jaw

JAW JAW, SEEING THAT REMINDS ME OF THE MUCH MALIGNED JAR JAR BINKS CHARACTER IN STAR WARS. ANNOYING AT FIRST I GREW TO KIND OF LIKING HIM. SERIOUSLY JAW JAW MEANS TO YAMMER ON TALK AT LENGTH , LONG WINDED, POLITICIANS FOR EXAMPLE. THE BARD, “FULL OF SOUND AND FURY SIGNIFYING NOTHING” OF INTEREST, I FOUND THIS QUOTE, YOU KNOW ME YOU GET DINNER AND A SHOW WITH EACH INTERPRETATION 🤣🤣😂😂😂

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war. ATTRIBUTION: WINSTON CHURCHILL, remarks at a White House luncheon, June 26, 1954. His exact words are not known, because the meetings and the luncheon that day were closed to reporters, but above is the commonly cited version.

SO HMTQ IN HER BRILLIANCE, DESPITE ALL IN FLAMES ABOUT HER, USING PEACEFUL MEASURE STEALTHILY AS WE HAVE SEEN THIS WEEK. MADAM NATTERS ON AND ON, HMTQ SAYS LITTLE BUT OH HOW POWERFUL THE CHOICE OF THOSE WORDS WERE. WELL DONE YOUR MAJESTY.

pseudo Trudeau

OUR PM , FOR ALL HIS FAULTS, IS LOVED BY MILLIONS WHO LOVE HIS FATHER THE SAME DESPITE HIS. PSEUDO IS FALSE. IS OUR PM AND CREW APPEARING TO GO ALONG WITH ALL THIS AT THE REQUEST ON HMTQ AND TO EMBARGO OR NOT BE PUBLIC ABOUT ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE USUAL POLITE CANADIAN STYLE!! HE AND SOPHIE ARE OUR POWER COUPLE AND MADAM HAS WORMED HER OR SOMETHING ELSED HER WAY TO THE HIGHEST ECHELONS OF CANADIAN SOCIETY.

re-distribution

DOES THIS REFER TO HER PATRONAGES AND CHARITIES BEING SPREAD OUT, REDISTRIBUTED AMONGST THE OTHER SENIOR ROUALS, I AM CERTAIN AS SHE HAS VOICED HER WISH TO NOT LIVE OR WORK, 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣, WORK IN THE U.K. I AM CERTAIN THERE IS A GRAND PARTY AMONGST THE THEATRE COMMUNITY OVER BEING RID OF HER AS THEIR PATRON.

just scrapping by ,sausage”

I KNOW SAUSAGE IS PP PET NAME FOR HMTQ BUT I KNOW THIS IS NOT HMTQ JUST SCRAPING BY. IT IS AN INSULT TO MADAM, LIKELY BY PP, TO HER BEING BROKE AND HAVING TO MERCH AND HEAVEN KNOWS IF SHE HAS ACSUGAR DADDY GIVING HER MONEY.

LA NA.

LA IS LOS ANGELES NA IS NOPE. SO SHORT AND SWEET, NO LA FOR NOW!

gizza job

IN THE UK AND SCOTLAND EVERYTHING AND NAMES ESP WERE CHANGED TO A Z SOUND. EXAMPLE MY FRIEND KAREN WAS CALLED KAZ, HARRY HAS BEEN CALLED HAZZA YOU GET IT. GIZZA MEANS GIVE US A JOB, MEANING MADAM NEEDS MONEY AND SHE NEEDS A WAY TO GET A LOT IF IT. SHE IS COMPLETELY UNQUALIFIED FOR ANY WORK SO LETS NOT THINK FURTHER HOW SHE WILL GET WHAT SHE WANTS.

ahhhhh’ the ubiquitous tape

THIS HAS ARISEN AGAIN, ITS BEEN TALKED SBOUT SO MUCH AT ONE POINT WILL IT BE MADE PUBLIC? I AM CERTAIN IT WILL BE WHEN IT CAN DO MAXIMUM DAMAGE TO MADAM AND MINIMUM FOR TO CROWN IF IT IS EVER RELEASED.

brotherly shove

IS WILLIAM GIVING HARRY A SHOT IN THE ARM SO TO SPEAK? HELPING HIM WITH THIS LONG TERM PLAN AND DELAYING HIS LEAVING WITH CONTINUED PUBLIC ENGAGEMENTS? I AM ASSUMING BEHIND THE SCENES THERE IS A LIT IF BROTHERLY COMMUNICATION GOING ON.

“ the tour will proceed”

THE OFFICIAL GO AHEAD FOR THE CAMBRIDGES TO TOUR CANADA! MARVELLOUS!! THIS IS SO EXCITING, I WONDER IF THEY WILL STOP BY MINE??😁😁😁😁 I ALSO WONDER IF AMERICA IS INCLUDED?

Diamond Dogs

KNOWING MM ANONS LOVE FOR HIM I HAVE NO DOUBT SHE IS REFERRING TO WIKI

Diamond Dogs is the eighth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 24 May 1974 by RCA Records. Thematically, it was a marriage of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell and Bowie’s own glam-tinged vision of a post-apocalyptic world. Bowie had wanted to make a theatrical production of Orwell’s book and began writing material after completing sessions for his 1973 album Pin Ups, but the author’s estate denied the rights.[2] The songs wound up on the second half of Diamond Dogs instead where, as the titles indicated, the Nineteen Eighty-Four theme was prominent. End wiki. SORRY KIDS IT SAVES MY HANDS TYPING.

SO EYES ARE ON MADAM 24/7/366 AS THIS IS LEAP YEAR. GIVEN THE CIRCLES SHE TRAVELLED IN, IN THE MISSING YEARS , CANADA AND MARRIED INTO, I HAVE NO DOUBT SHE IS ON THE RADAR OF THE FIVE EYES AND MI6. SHE REPRESENTS A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO THE MONARCHY, ALONG WITH ALL IF HER BACKERS!

🦂🦂🦂

Lobster 🦞 is this, lobsters mate for life. These are 🦂 scorpions, three of them. SCORPION STINGS ARE EXTREMELY PAINFUL AND TOXIC. HERE WE HAVE THREE SCORPIONS POISED AND READY TO ATTACK, WHO DO THEY REPRESENT?

THE MOS/DAILY MAILY LAWSUIT IS 🦂 NUMBER ONE. TM, DADDY DEAREST IS 🦂 NUMBER TWO. THE COURT JUSTICES, LUMPED TOGETHER ARE 🦂 NUMBER THREE. THEY ARE CLOSE TO THE PATERNITY DECISION AND ANNULMENT OR DIVORCE. I TRULY BELIEVE SOMETHING HAPPENED AT CABADA HOUSE TO MAKE HER SWEET AND ILLICIT THAT SMILE AND THIMBS UP FROM HARRY!!

twice shy

HERE WE HAVE TWICE SHY AGAIN, I WENT THROUGH THE WHOLE ONCE BITTEN TWICE SHY EXPLANATION JUST A FEW DAYS AGO I THINK. HARRY COMING TO CANADA IS BEING DELAYED BY TODAYS RUGBY AND NEXT WEEK HE HAS HIS ROYAL DUTIES. SO HE WAS BITTEN NOW TWICE SHY TO RETURN TO BE ANYWHERE NEAR MADAM.

1950 hrs CST. GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Fantastic! Thank you PG! We so appreciate this! Sounds good!😊💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

—————-

172: waiting for MM anon....

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drsilverfish · 5 years

Text

The Siren and The Gorgon (4x14 and 14x14)

Medieval image of a Mermaid-Siren.

Sculpture of Medusa by Bernini (1630, Rome)

This meta links to, and elaborates further on, an earlier post of mine about queer subtext in 14x14 Ouroboros, “The Kiss of the Queer Gorgon”.

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/183323000224/the-kiss-of-the-queer-gorgon-in-14x14-ouroboros

Yockey has been playing with the Ouroboros form of Dabb’s narrative by having some of his episodes recall numerologically similar previous episodes in order to, additionally, illuminate them thematically. 14x10 Nihilism recalls 4x01 Lazarus Rising - Pamela Barnes appearing in Dean’s mind-bar wearing her Cas-referencing “To Hell and Back T-Shirt” and her silver winged-figure necklace, just as she first “introduced” Dean and Cas in 4x01. Yockey does it again in 14x14 Ouroboros, this time, recalling 4x14 Sex and Violence, via certain correspondences between Nick the Siren and Noah the Gorgon, not least their similar sounding names, Nick/ Noah...

The Siren and the Gorgon in Ancient Greek mythology are both feminine supernatural beings. One lured sailors (men) to their deaths on the rocks with sweet and deadly singing and the other (specifically Medusa, although there were two other Gorgons) turned men to stone with her snake-haired gaze.

I love both of them so much, because although we could understand them as representations of the monstrous feminine in a patriachal culture, I will always, always hold Guillermo del Toros’ beautiful quote (from his Shape of Water Golden Globes acceptance speech) to my heart:

“Since childhood I’ve been faithful to monsters — I have been saved and absolved by them. Because monsters, I believe, are patron saints of our blissful imperfection,”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/golden-globes-guillermo-del-toro-wins-best-director-shape-water-1072334

There is a lot of academic writing on the subject of the “monstrous feminine”. Here is a relatively accessible popular article on the “monstrous feminine” in the horror genre, titled “Medusa’s Gaze: The Monstrous Feminine”:

http://nickelodeon.org/7197-2/

In Supernatural, in 4x14 we see that the Siren’s “true” form is indeed monstrous-feminine:

In 14x14 Ouroboros we get this shot of a lore text Treatise on Gorgons (not an actual book as far as I am aware, so one made specially by the props department):

It reads (excerpt) “Physical descriptions of Gorgons vary. Winged creatures in the form of young women, with scaly golden bodies and a horrifying visage wreathed with locks of hair made of living, coiling venemous snakes. Broad, round heads, round-faced and flat-nosed. Large staring eyes, flaring nostrils and wide mouths. Their tongues hanging loosley and their mouths possessing large overhanging teeth. Their wings are of gold, claws brazen, and with the tusks of bears. And in some instances, they have been witnessed with short coarse beards. In modern times, the gender of Gorgons has reported to be fluid.”

So, SPN gender-queers both the Siren and the Gorgon we meet. Because, in going after Dean, the Siren famously appeared in the form of Nick Munroe, who we see here looking at his true!form reflection, although to other male vics, it had appeared in female form:

Noah the Gorgon also appears in male form (although the episode tells us via the lore book he too, like the Siren, may be somewhat “gender-fluid”).

Yockey also uses Noah to comment on the earlier, less self-aware and more misogynistic, treatment of the monstrous feminine in Supernatural by making Noah a feminist:

VIC: “You’re just preying on helpless men?”

NOAH: “”Helpless men? That’s rich! No, I do eat ladies too, but women have become so cautious lately, must be all that finally waking up from centuries of misogynistic oppression. Good for them.”

(If you look at the Script for Sex and Violence, in old school SPN form, both “bitch” and “slut” are used about the strippers in the story, in the final confrontation between Dean, Sam and the Siren. I love Yockey.)

Whilst the Siren and the Gorgon are traditionally associated with the “monstrous feminine”, in SPN they are also mobilised in another narrative tradition, that of the “monstrous queer”.

“Since the earliest days of the moving image, the figure of the monster has been implemented as a way in which to mobilise ideological tensions and socio-cultural anxieties connected to particular time periods and historical moments. Within the horror genre (the monster’s native milieu), these ideological messages are mainly constructed and transmitted through the performance of the abject body and its sexually transgressive desires, both of which have been critically understood by some as an allegorical conduit for queerness – that is, non-heterosexual or non-normative desire (Benshoff 1997).”

from “There Is Some Thing Within Us All”: Queer Desire and Monstrous Bodies in Penny Dreadful by Jordan Phillips:

http://refractory.unimelb.edu.au/2017/06/14/phillips/

In other words, there is a long history of the monstrous being queer-coded in the gothic and horror genres SPN is contiguous with, both by queer people themselves, seeking affinity with the monstrous because of their outcast status (e.g. in closeted Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 1897) and by homophobes, or simply unthinking creators, who have used queerness as a shorthand for monstrosity because social norms have seen it as monstrous (e.g. in Hitchcock’s Rope, 1948).

Yockey makes Noah the Gorgon a more sympathetic figure than Nick the Siren, because we are given some of his interior loneliness:

NOAH: “Honestly, it’s not like I enjoy eating people. It’s a lonely way to live, and there’s only so many ways you can cook human. But sometimes fate is cruel and boring.”

This is is Yockey’s way of indicating which “side” of the mobilisation of the “monstrous queer” he is on (i.e. the queer creator sympathetic side).

In terms of queer seduction, I think there was a lot of argument, back in the day, about what exactly Nick the Siren was offering Dean - something erotic? The perfect brother-companion?

Here is Dean being seduced by Nick the Siren (talking about classic rock music with him, and indeed, Nick specifically mentions Zeppelin <3 <3 <3)

As Wincest subtext was a much more regular part of the show back then, there’s really no need to choose between them. All three readings are available - erotic, perfect brother companion, and erotic brother-companion.

The text of Sex and Violence does make it quite clear, however, that the Siren operates by sexual seduction. The victims, as Sam discovers talking to Cara, all had very high levels of Oxytocin (the “love hormone”) in their blood. Sam says, of the victims:

SAM: “It’s almost like they were under some kind of love spell.”

DEAN: “Sure seems that way.”

Later, this is added to in another conversation between the brothers:

DEAN: “So whatever floats the guy's boat, that's what they look like?”

SAM: “Yeah. You see, Sirens can read minds. They see what you want most and then they can kinda, like, cloak themselves. You know, like an illusion.”

The sexual element of that is emphaised by the Siren itself, in disguise as FBI agent Nick Munroe, who says of the previous vics:

NICK: “They were all banging strippers from the same club.”

The Siren was, in fact, disguising itself as female strippers for all the vics except Dean, for whom it chose a male FBI agent form.

In Sex and Violence, Sam and Cara are paired whilst Nick and Dean are paired, and Sam and Cara have sex (again, in subtext, emphasising the sexual element of the Siren’s seduction of Dean, via this mirroring). Yockey also makes use of a similar type of mirroring in Ouroboros, by having Sam and Rowena pretend to be a married couple, at the vets with puppy-Jack, at the same time that Dean and Cas are investigating the Gorgon crime scene together (in subtext, emphasing the “married couple” element of the Dean/ Cas contemporary partnership via this Sam/ Rowena mirror).

Just as Nick the Siren seduces Dean, Noah the Gorgon is also somewhat “seductive” towards Dean. He writes him a personalised note warning him off (addressed to Dean only, although Noah has seen that Rowena and Sam are part of the hunting team chasing after him, thanks to his eye-ball consuming visions). Dean himself picks up on something creepily erotic about Noah’s address (given they already know Noah is into cooking and eating dudes) when he says, in response to Cas’ query about why the Gorgon has failed to see Cas at Dean’s side in his vision:

DEAN: “Maybe you’re not his type.”

Later Noah does queer-target Cas (proving Cas is, in fact “his type” i.e. queer men) by giving the angel his seductive/poisoned kiss.

By linking the two episodes, narratively, numerologically and thematically, Yockey strengthens the queer reading of the earlier one, Sex and Viokence, by its mirroring in Ouroboros, by having Noah explicitly seduce male victims via poisoned kiss on camera (one of those kisses being on the lips):

In Sex and Violence, we do not see a same-sex kiss. Instead, the Siren passes the poison, which is in his saliva, to Dean via a subtextual kiss (sharing swigs from Dean’s hip flask in Baby):

The Ouroboros narrative of Dean’s (and now Cas’) subtextual queerness has, in Yockey’s hands undertaken a tail-swallowing spiral, from male Siren to male Gorgon, but Yockey brings queerness more strongly into his text, via:

1) A more sympathetic “monstrous queer” character (yes, Noah the Gorgon eats people, but he’s lonely and miserable about it, whereas Nick the Siren was just gleeful about exerting eventual total power over his victims).

2) A monstrous character who’s more on the men-seducing end of the Kinsey scale. We don’t see Noah seduce any women (although he is seductively bisexual, as he tells us he eats women too) whilst see the Siren undertakes more hetero seduction, by approaching mostly men in female form (Dean being the exception).

2) An explicit M/M seductive kiss on screen (between the Gorgon and the trucker at the start of the episode) whereas there is only a sublimated exchange of M/M saliva, via the hip-flask, in Sex and Violence.

3) One of our queer-coded heroes himself (Castiel) does gets explicitly M/M kissed (albeit it is a monstrous, poisoned and non-con kiss).

I <3 everything about Ouroboros.

#Supernatural #14x14 #Ouroboros #SPN meta #Meta #Dean is bisexual #Still subtext #But subtext IS part of narrative #4x14 #Sex and Violence #All hail the queer Gorgon #Dean's male Siren #Mythological meta #The monstrous feminine #Queerness and the monstrous

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creative-poptart · 5 years

Text

Long Rant Incoming

If you don’t want to read this, that’s fine, just keep on scrolling and your life will remain as it is in the moment. What I have to say caters to very few people, but if you’d also like some insight on a personal topic of mine, keep reading. I can’t promise it’ll be fantastic, great, or even exciting, but it is informative.

That being said, if you’re still interested, let me tell you a little something about theater.

This is inspired by a neighbor of mine, one I’ve known since my childhood. He’s pretty nice, used to babysit me for my parents, and overall a great dude. He’s a lot older now, and his wife is no longer with us, may she rest in peace, but that’s just a little backstory. The real reason I write this is not only because of him but because of so many people doing the exact same thing he did.

I happened to come across him walking through the neighborhood, and he stopped to talk to my dad, so I thought I’d say hi. We chatted for a bit about the usual stuff, how’s life, what are you doing for work right now, do you have a boyfriend, etc. etc. Then he asked me if I’m still in school (I am), and then asked where I’m going to school. I tell him the name, and he asks what I’m studying, so I tell him: theater.

He gives me the look.

You all know exactly what I’m talking about when I say that, the one face that someone makes when they don’t want to say anything, but they do. The look that practically screams, “I’m too polite to outright diss you, but I’m very clearly questioning your choices in life.”

I don’t like to be questioned a lot, because it makes me challenge myself, and I am trying to stay out of a mindset where I don’t know things about myself. This face got me thinking, and I am pissed.

On to the actual meat of the topic, then, the theater. When most people hear the word theater, they automatically think “actor” as the next word. That’s about the extent of their thought process, and I don’t blame them for that, I used to be the exact same way. All theater is, is just a bunch of people on stage, singing or talking their way through a show while wearing fancy clothes and prancing around under hot lights with a set-piece or two behind them, right?

Wrong.

I mentioned in that last sentence three jobs that have nothing to do with the actors themselves. Clothes, lights, and set-pieces. Those three things are all jobs that have nothing and everything to do with the people on the stage. Let’s take a closer look.

First off, clothes, more specifically costumes. That seems simple enough, right? The purpose of the costume is to clothe the actor/actress in a way that they aren’t just naked on the stage. Another use of costumes that people often forget is that it’s supposed to put you in the world on the stage. A shoddy, two-dollar outfit from the party store down the street is going to look terrible under the lights of the stage, and people will automatically be able to tell that it’s cheap. So when you don’t want that to happen, what do you do?

You make them. Sewing’s super easy right? Not for the theater.

Like any average amount of sewing, you have to know how to piece together fabrics and work a sewing machine or needle and thread. There’s more to that though when it comes to theater. The colors have to give the intended effects to the audience that the director wants to portray. Is the character supposed to pop when they make it on the stage, standing out? Are they more of the invisible type, blending in better with the crowd? Are they clean and rich or broke and dirty? All of those and more have to be factored into the costume design.

When the costume is put together, you also have to make sure that actors can move in it as needed. A stiff suit in a physical fight scene may need to be modified so that the actor can actually move around accordingly. The costumes also have to be sensitive to what era/time the show is taking place. Are we in the 1930′s or the modern-day? What sort of thematics are we going for, sci-fi or hyper-realism? There are several other categories of course, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to theater.

What about the lighting on the stage? Is it soft, harsh, blinding even? Are we going for a pattern on the floor? What color is it? How many colors are there? Is it dim and low for dramatic effect, or are we going full brights to illuminate the stage? Is there a spotlight highlighting a certain actor? That has to be designed and crafted for the stage to look its very best and set the mood for a scene. When the lighting is off, it can throw the entire thing into utter chaos and make the stage and the actors terrible. No matter how good your acting is, if your audience thinks you’re looking awfully yellow and sick when you’re not supposed to, they won’t focus on what you’re doing.

Lighting technicians are a huge part of the theater, and wouldn’t you know it, but there’s actually other jobs that require lighting. The best example to go for: concerts. Think about it, if you can’t see your favorite band on the stage, what’s the point of listening to all the music? Part of the experience at a concert is getting to see the musicians working live, in action. If the lights suck, then you have an issue right from the get-go.

Another thing, while I’m on the topic of concerts, is sound designing. Sure, your musicians are playing the music, but they have to set up microphones, speakers, wires, the whole shebang. Theater also requires a lot of sound design. Do you have a door slamming sound effect for an off-stage door? What about a musical interlude between scenes? Is a television playing cartoon sounds? What about a radio with a cue to cut off at a particular time? All of that has to be carefully cued up and ready to go before a show starts. Who else uses sound design? Music studios. This is not a singular skill just made for the theater.

Now the third job that I mentioned way back in the wall of text above set pieces. Someone has to make those, and sure, while there are people who just buy certain things in, most of the theater stuff is made nearby in a scene shop. Any stairs, platforms, windows, seats, walls, etc. that are made for a show can be made in the scene shop. The funny thing about the building of stuff in a scene shop, though is that all the tools, equipment, and materials that are used in there are things that you can find at any hardware store. The same techniques that you use to build a platform in a scene shop, or a wall, are the same kinds that are used in construction work for building houses. The dimensions, purposes, and durability of these things are far different, but they are all made the same way. Wouldn’t you know it, but there’s also a whole lot of options in construction, and that’s a “real job” in the world.

But sure, I get it. Some of these things aren’t that great to think about, and they don’t make a whole lot of difference. Let’s take a step back from the actual theater though, and take a breather. What about using the acting side of it somewhere else? Is there anywhere else?

I’m glad you asked.

The courtroom.

What? There’s no way that acting can be done in a courtroom, right?

Think about this: what’s the job of a lawyer in the courtroom? They have to present their cases to the jury and the judge, give the evidence, and hopefully, they’ll win the jury over to thinking that they’re right and give the verdict in their favor. That’s the bare basics of it, but also consider this.

Is a lawyer genuinely effective in their job if they don’t convince the jury that they’re telling the right side of the story?

A lawyer has to learn how to capture the attention of the room to make sure that everything they give is compelling evidence. They have to make use of their bodies, their facial expressions, their tonality when they speak, all to get the answer that they want to see in the courtroom come to pass. Do you think law school teaches them how to do that? Not really, they’re focused more on giving them the appropriate laws and regulations they have to follow.

Theater does that.

When they act on a stage, a good actor/actress will captivate you. Every single word that comes from their mouth will compel you to want to know a little more. That’s how it should be. A lawyer’s job is much the same, but instead of having an audience of a few hundred, they have an audience of twelve to convince. One of my friends is gearing up to be a lawyer, and he told me that a theater degree in law school is more desirable than a criminal justice degree. Theater also teaches improvisation, which is handy to have when your opponent brings up a point in their case that you didn’t prepare for.

If none of that has convinced you that theater degrees are not totally worthless, then I just have one last piece for you to chew on mentally. Actors and actresses have one of the hardest entertainment jobs that we know of. They have to be able to remember what to say, where and when to say it, where they stand, how they move, where they’re moving to, what’s coming up next, and they do it for hours on a single night, not including all the prep work in rehearsal. On top of that, there’s no do-overs if something goes awry.

If one actor forgets their line and they can’t get back on track, the other actors have to improvise, or basically make something up on the spot, to try and get themselves and the other actor back on track. If something physically goes wrong, like an actor getting hurt or a set-piece breaking mid-show, they can’t stop everything and start again. The show must go on, and they all have to do it with a smile on their face and keep everything running as smoothly as possible.

Additionally, actors have to believably portray emotions and feelings to an audience all night long. This is done, mind you, before a live audience who watches their every move, analyzing whether that actor feels the emotion. It can be exhausting to do, and many actors train for so long just to be emotionally open enough to get one or two feelings on the stage.

To summarize: theater contains so much more than just people standing on a stage and acting. My school makes me experience all the backstage stuff, working in the scene shop, helping to build costumes, learning about the lighting, and set designs. All of that says nothing about props, actual furniture pieces, who’s actually running the freaking show mid-performance. Theater is more extensive and more diverse than people really think.

To all of you who say that theater isn’t a real job, or that I’ll never get anywhere with this degree, read this first. Read this, do some digging, talk to people who work in the backstage areas of actual productions.

Then come talk to me. My degree is not useless, but until you at least take a look at some of the other facets of theater, I really don’t care what you have to say about my degree.

#long rant #im sorry for the wall of text #this isnt aimed at anyone here #im just upset about this #people keep telling me this degree sucks #and i know it doesnt #there's a lot more here #poptart speaks #tarts speaks #tarts rants #theater

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soraegeeks · 5 years

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Review: Quiet Rapture

Alright kids I’m back with another review/reaction piece, whatever you want to call it. Up next is Quiet Rapture a BKDK story by Lalazee. Set in the canon universe with Quirks but Izuku is Quirkless. The story is 22 chapters in right now and might be the first Alpha/Beta/Omega story I read. I think? Maybe? Anyway, before we get started a few things:

A. This will be a LONG piece. While I reread I ended up with eight pages of notes in my notebook. *smdh*

II. Warning for anyone planning to read QR there are discussions of past abuse, intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and violent acts so there are some dark moments.

三. Lalazee created thematic Spotify playlists and there’s a Quiet Rapture one that I’ve been listening to while reading, rereading and writing this.

Alright so let’s get rolling with the official summary:

“That ABO fic where cocky Alpha Bakugou falls in mate-love at first scent, while Midoriya is just a poor bookstore-owning Omega who got his nose punched in is a kid and can't smell a damn thing. Also known as: That time an Alpha had to use his actual personality to woo his mate instead of relying on his scent.”

Off the break we have Katsuki Bakugou losing his shit walking into the bookstore and being overwhelmed by Izuku Midoriya’s scent. I love the description of his scent: “Thunderstorm, ozone, electricity.” I know EXACTLY what that ozone smell is. The smell of the air right before a thunderstorm. I was an adult before I found out that it wasn’t my imagination that there was a smell and a name for it.

So, Katsuki is overcome by his Alpha instincts and subsequently almost ends up with a broken nose. Izuku is no ordinary Omega and he was having none of that aggressive shit..and Katsuki was intrigued by this. Katsuki's inner Alpha, though, immediately believes that Izuku is his mate. Imagine his shock upon learning that Izuku can’t smell him and he has to talk to explain what he’s smelling. HAAA! The twist that Izuku can’t smell anything so he isn’t driven by pheremones and uses his other senses to try and figure people out is so quirky. I can imagine Izuku cocking his head to the side with a look of curiosity. Then the ego popped up when Katsuki introduced himself. LAWD LOL “You at least owe me one damn date…” someone stop this fool. And Izuku easily just dismissed him and blew poor Katsuki’s damn mind.

A stakeout. Katsuki Bakugou and Kirishima Eijirou on a stakeout?! Oh, this is pure comedy!!! Katsui pumping out all of those damn Alpha pheromones and killing poor Kiri in the car. Please someone help Kiri as he gasps for air out of the window. BWAAAAA Kiri really wants him to get laid and chill out and he can’t figure out why Katsuki smells the way he does. And Katsuki’s ass is smelling the book he bought from Izuku like a lovesick puppy. Did they even gather any intel during their stakeout after all of their shenanigans?! LOL

Back to the bookstore and big bad Alpha Katsuki is in trouble again. Izuku is a FIGHTER and not going to let himself get boxed in by Katsuki’s Alpha shenanigans. (Shenanigans is my son’s favorite word and one of mine as well. LOL) ANNNDDDD we have now crossed the line. Katsuki scent marked Izuku without his consent. WOO BOY! No, Just NO!!!

We get some insight into Izuku and why he smells the way he does. In this telling Omega’s smell very sweet, almost pastry-like and Izuku has an earthy smell. By luck of genetics Izuku is an Omega with Alpha traits. His body could have presented as either one being dominant and the other recessive. As a result his scent is strong and suppressive drugs don’t work for him. Of course, this is something private that he doesn’t easily share.

Ok, Izuku’s cat Natsume isn’t a cat! That’s a small bear, I don’t care. LOL The headbutting and whining thing is very familiar. My cats act like the world is ending when the food level is low in their bowls. *smdh* Enter Hitoshi Shinsou!! I read the manga in addition to watching the anime and Shinsou has grown on me as one of my faves. I always love how his quiet, brooding character is portrayed. And he’s wearing the scarf. The LONG white scarf capture weapon!!!! And who the hell pops up out of nowhere but Katsuki in full-on Alpha protective mode. He shoved Shinsou into a bookshelf and when Shinsou realized who it was he looked like the cat who ate the canary. Immediately into how much can I tease without overstepping mode. Like oho my best friend purposely didn’t tell me who his “stalker” was, who scented him and it’s big bad Katsuki Bakugou who has never shown an interest in anyone. “As much as I love the whole mystery surrounding this, because – let’s face it – your life is about as exciting as a game of backgammon at the old folks’ home these days.” WHAATT???!!! LMAO Shinsou’s an ass but a master of diffusing a situation. LOL Izuku on the other hand is a firecracker. He was PISSSEEED off by Katsuki but his inner Omega was like ok let’s do this especially after finding out that Katsuki had cooked for him (a subconscious Alpha provision method)! I did find it interesting that Izuku didn’t notice/point out that Katsuki was overly familiar by calling him by his first name!!! Katsuki wants that damn date so bad and still feels entitled to it. *smh*

Whoahohoooo. What do we have here?! Katsuki had a wet dream (and apparently has BEEN having dreams) about Izuku. Lawd, his inner Alpha has it BAAADD! For the record, who the hell drinks scalding hot tea??!!! No one but this fool. LOL And why he thought that demanding a date as opposed to asking and confirming was a good idea. But ya know, Alpha who knows nothing about relationships especially not with a skittish mate. His “spiteful little Omega” is MORE than a match for him. LOL I love that their interactions are forcing Katsuki to humble himself little by little. Always being told how great he is by everyone but Izuku breaks that mold. I also love that Izuku is sharing who he is through books. To me it’s a very intimate move. Izuku’s perspective on the world is interesting, though. He sees hero life as war mongering while Katsuki sees it as his duty to bring down the evil in the world. Izuku can learn to widen his world view, while Katsuki can learn to not be so aggressive towards his “miniature Alpha.”

It’s Bakusquad time!!!! Katsuki’s crew is a joy to me. I love these fools especially when they’ve been drinking! And their sworn mission for the night is to rescue Katsuki from the train wreck that is his love life. The interaction was interesting when they realized that Katsuki was pining after a guy. He was very concerned that they’d tease him for his sexual preference and I felt sad for him. To him he has never had an orientation, he just is and the only person he’s cared about is Izuku so that’s him, Izuku-lover. Good job Mina with the suggestion that he apologize for his behavior with a gift for Izuku. And yay Kiri for the advice on physical no-nos when approaching an Omega. Katsuki did well with gift selection and presenting the gift without crowding Izuku. Izuku surprised him with his preheat reaction. Izuku’s inner Omega was so happy to receive a gift and Katsuki’s inner Alpha was SO happy to provide. Good on Katsuki for immediately leaving, not so good when he came back to the bookstore and got into an argument. He is the king of self-destruction. Pre-heat Izuku and a riled up Katsuki. *sigh* I’m enjoying how there are little signs here and there of how Izuku’s inner Omega is reacting to Katsuki. The early heat, the fact that Izuku is WEARING the gift that Katsuki gave him, and how he scent marked Katsuki. Izuku is determined that his mind will overcome his nature.

Enter a character who I think had SO MUCH potential in the manga, Kai Chisaki. Katsuki ran into him while looking for Izuku at the bookstore. Izuku’s heat had come on and Kai was manning the store. He instantly goaded Katsuki into an argument. Kai does NOT like heroes and Katsuki was defensive about that and also irritated that here was another of Izuku’s friends that he couldn’t figure out the connection with. Katsuki jumps off of the deep end after leaving the bookstore. He totally abused his position as a Pro Hero and had the database searched to get Izuku’s address. Sigh. Not cool Katsuki. Izuku accused you of being a stalker and that is totally stalkerish behavior!! Katsuki learned more about Izuku while talking him through his heat from the opposite side of his front door but it was a HUGE gamble and inappropriate. From the talking though Katsuki started to realize how naive his worldview is. He’s always been focused on being the #1 hero and he never entertained the pain others’ paths may have contained. Hearing Izuku alluding to being sexually assaulted was heartbreaking. Katsuki did show restraint in not breaking down Izuku’s door. Honestly, even without his quirk he was strong enough to do it. It was heartwarming that he sat outside the door and read to Izuku so he could sleep. It was STILL wrong that he was there and Shinsou said as much when he saw Katsuki there. It’s interesting how they’re all bending/skirting the law even Shinsou when he used his Quirk on Katsuki to find out how he got there. I can’t say that I wouldn’t do the same while trying to protect my best friend and Katsuki knew it. Shinsou didn’t seem to bat an eye when Katsuki called Izuku his “mate.” Shinsou has a soft spot for his classmate and as he’s said before he knows more than he lets on about people. I was surprised that none of Izuku’s neighbors said anything. Maybe they were too scared of the imposing Alpha sitting outside of Izuku’s door.

Guys night out and as expected Kai and Inasa were NOT happy to learn about the stunt that Katsuki pulled. (Side note: I love Inasa Yoarashi. He’s so big and full of life!) Lawd, if Inasa had gotten a hold of Katsuki. WOAH! Shinsou is still an ass, but what else is new. He’s an instigator but also calmed the situation when he called Katsuki’s number and gave Izuku the phone. It threw Izuku for a loop but it also allowed him to be the one to deal with the situation. Shinsou and Shouto are good friends and knowing Katsuki better than anyone else in their friend group, they tried to give Izuku some more insight into him. Izuku was confronted with some preconceived notions that he had about Katsuki. Maybe he isn’t the playboy that Izuku assumed he was. Hmmmm. It was good to read about Izuku’s pack and to see that he does have people who care about him.

The Omega murders. There’s evidently someone or some people attacking Omegas, tearing out their scent glands and leaving them for dead. Like WHAT THE HELL???!!!! It was interesting to see Momo Yaoyorozu and Mashirao Ojiro mentioned. I like to see what the rest of class 1-A is doing in this AU. Soooo, why does Camie smell like blood??!!!! Her day was “extra murdery?” The hell did she encounter in the day and can they send her back to take another shower?! And why is she so against her Omega secondary gender?! I noticed in an earlier chapter when she overheard Katsuki talking to Kiri about Izuku. How do you call others like you “weak” and dissociate yourself just because you’re a Pro Hero? And wow at Katsuki’s confrontation with Amajiki. It was all Katsuki’s fault, though. He raised Amajiki’s suspicion that Izuku might have something to do with the murders and Katsuki TOTALLY overreacted to his Omega superior. Katsuki LOST IT and was put in his place when Mirio scruffed him. Pack hierarchy at work. Up until that point I hadn’t thought about who would be bigger and badder! LOL Something that caught my eye though was Katsuki mentioning an Alpha smelling like “rot and sewage.” Was he saying that Mirio smelled like that or was he having a flashback? Anyway, he’s lucky that he was only sent home early and told to take the next day off. Who would have expected Katsuki to seek out Shouto for advice? Shouto Todoroki of ALL people! And wait, Katsuki asking someone for help in general??!!! Growth in his adult years. LOL I chuckled heartily that Katsuki and Shouto ended up wearing matching turtlenecks. TWINSIES!! Shouto, as is, canon was no help as expected and a little oblivious. But Shinsou in his Pusheen pajamas did what he could. (Pusheen pajamas, though! My son would LOVE some LOL)

Next chapter is a flashback of how Izuku and Shinsou met in their first year of high school. We learn that male Omegas are rare in this AU and even rarer as Heros. Izuku got into a fight and Shinsou stepped into help. They formed a bond, understanding each other like no one else could. Omegas that no one deemed worthy of anything. It was sad to read that that was the fight that cost Izuku his sense of smell.

Back to present and after Katsuki left Shinsou and Shouto’s place he went to Izuku’s apartment hoping to talk to him. Izuku’s building now has an outside lock and intercom system. I’d bet my house in the Hamptons (which I don’t have) that that was a result of Katsuki’s visit there a few weeks ago. Katsuki wasn’t sure if Izuku was going to let him in and it looked like Izuku wasn’t sure either. It’s interesting reading Izuku’s point of view and the tells that he notices about Katsuki. The little things that Katsuki is doing to not intrude or the semblances of control that Izuku hasn’t seen in Alphas that he had dealt with previously. Izuku’s hands are bigger than Katsuki’s?! Oooooh. Awww, Katsuki took Mina’s advice and he took a few seconds to stop himself from firing off his usual knee-jerk responses. And he is so shy talking about anything sexual and so blushy. I’m glad that those two goofballs were able to talk without arguing. Almost like they could be civil with each other. Ha! A slight ease and honesty. When Izuku teased Katsuki about knowing what Katsuki wanted to do more than he did Izuku assumed it had to do with what Izuku said before that other Alphas had done to him. Katsuki blushed but I think it was actually because he’s inexperienced. Katsuki meeting the “lion” Natume was HILARIOUS! I’m personally shocked by how big those things get. I have cats but that’s TOO much for me. LOL Izuku finally made an effort to find out a little about Katsuki, asking him how he liked his job. Izuku is oddly focused on “battles” and “killing” as if that’s all heroes do. But Katsuki loves his job and made sure to emphasize that killing is a minor part of it and only when unavoidable. Katsuki keeps surprising Izuku. He’s been so traumatized by previous Alphas that Katsuki's non-violent reactions throw him.

This is one of my favorite chapters. It’s New Year’s Eve and karaoke with the crews, Bakusquad and Izuku’s pack. Katsuki recognizes that Izuku has a lot of traumatic baggage and he is SPRUNG! It was supposed to be a night of enjoying time with his friends but all Katsuki can think about is Izuku. As if by magic BAM Izuku is next door in another karaoke room and the scent is OVERWHELMING. “The punch of petrichor was a sudden deluge to Katsuki’s senses, an overload that soaked him to the bone and weakened his wobbly knees.” Look “petrichor” might be my new favorite word. It’s going right into my commonplace book. LOL Why was Izuku ON TOP of the table singing??!!! I’m 5’5” as well and I’m just imagining walking in and seeing my drunk ass singing on a table and I can’t stop laughing. Comedy!! Katsuki almost got into a fight just swinging the door open, though. Kai was NOT happy to see him and Inasa was ready to play bodyguard. When Shinso was described as a meerkat looking above Inasa’s shoulder I immediately thought about that show Meerkat Manor. I LOVED that show...but I digress. I’m glad that their groups met thanks to Shinsou’s and Mina’s meddling. Katsuki and Izuku felt so played. LOL I thought Mina was a little uncouth with her comments about Izuku’s “smell”, though. Yeah, it’s “different” but she could have found another way to word it or just not said anything at all. It shouldn’t have been surprising that Izuku followed Katsuki when he went outside for a breather. It was surprising when Izuku kissed him (Katsuki’s first kiss!!!) and Katsuki was right for calling him out on trying to blame the attraction on him. These two still have lots to work out.

During their morning run, Mina did seem to make up for what she said during the party. She just has an odd way of wording things. Katsuki is starting to see that he can get advice from his friends but his connection with Izuku is different than those of his friends. Their advice can only take him so far and he and Izuku have to figure out the rest. Of course, it isn’t long before thirsty Katsuki heads to the bookstore. I love that Izuku’s scent immediately soothes him. And glad they’re talking a little more and slowly knocking some kinks into Izuku’s wall and opening Katsuki’s world.

The next chapter is hard. It’s a flashback into Izuku’s past. A glimpse into Izuku looking for something, anything to make him feel alive. Discovering hallucinogens, having his first sexual encounter, allowing someone to harm him leaving him with permanent damage. Unprotected sex that he barely remembers since he was under the influence. The introduction of Dabi, as Shinsou described him “a guy who looks like he wears other people's’ skin for fun.”

Back to the present and Izuku is at a therapy appointment. First off, I am so glad to see that with all of the trauma that we readers know about so far (and the trauma we don’t), he is seeing a therapist. As an aside, I was going through the chapters in my mind while in the shower and his conversation with his therapist went through my mind. Specifically, Izuku’s fear of going beyond moderation to excess and backsliding. That sat with me for a while. I am happy to see Eri in this AU and with Kai as her adopted father role. Also, happy to see “Mr. Yagi” as leaving his bookstore, his legacy, to Izuku. In a crazy turn of events Izuku is a witness to an Omega attack and kept the attacker from doing more harm. We definitely saw his Alpha traits as he hauled ass over to figure out what was going on. PROTECTIVE KATSUKI TO THE RESCUE!!!!! He was on duty and heard about the attack so he went to pick Izuku up from the police station and take him back to Katsuki’s house. OF COURSE these two butt heads because what else do they do. I giggled when Katsuki walked him outside and said “let’s go home, already.” I don’t think that he purposely phrased it that way but Izuku internally responded to it. When they finally make it to Katsuki’s house, he has a very sappy moment when Izuku compliments his place. Katuki prefers Izuku’s smaller place because it’s like him, “small, warm, smells like home.” Kiddies our boy is GONE! LOL Izuku is still convinced that Katsuki has/has had NUMEROUS romantic interests no matter how many times Katuki and their mutual friends have told him otherwise. And then they had A MOMENT in the kitchen!!!!! The desire and attraction is palpable in the air but they really need to get to know each other better.

And we start the next chapter with Katsuki’s very vivid ass wet dream. Good thing that Izuku can’t smell anything because that apartment had to have smelled like complete lust. LOL Katsuki saw Izuku’s damaged wrist gland and it broke his heart. All of the things in Izuku’s past that Katsuki couldn’t protect him from. There have been multiple references to Izuku “drowning” and not being able to breathe and it’s so sad. When will he be able to be out from all of that?

We’re introduced to Kota as a character but sadly as the kid in the latest Omega attack. And Camie with the Omega degradation again and now she’s on Katsuki’s case about Izuku. Sigh. Oh, I’ve been looking through the story comments and saw that folks are starting to suspect that she has something to do with the Omega murders and I’m inclined to agree that it’s suspicious. When Izuku rescued Kota he noticed that the attacker just disappeared and Camie’s quirk IS illusions. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Hmmmm. Welp, it took a few weeks but Katsuki’s abusing his privilege to get Izuku’s address finally came back to bite him. A month’s suspension! OUCH! Again he’s lucky because he started to get aggressive against his superior again. Any mention of Izuku sends him over the deep end. Side note, I’m glad that I reread this chapter and noticed the unnamed mention of Dabi in Izuku’s file. With nowhere else to go Katsuki sought out Shinsou for advice. They’re becoming better adult friends. It’s amazing what a mutual connection will do. Our boy Katsuki is so sprung. He took his drunk ass to the bookstore, complemented Izuku and walked him home hand-in-hand. All full of sweetness and fluff. LOL

Wow Kai and Izuku. Kai has his own baggage that colors his view of heroes, all the while Inasa, a PRO HERO, has been sniffing around him for years trying to get his attention. Like brothers, Kai and Izuku argued. But if you can’t argue with your family about their bullshit who else can you argue with? Kai used the fact that Izuku’s last boyfriend raped and tried to kill him like a weapon. And the way Kai was described I don’t think that he’d ever seen Izuku as angry as he was at that moment. Kai was completely thrown off by the truths Izuku spouted back at him and “Tornado Gold Retriever” Inasa flew into protective Alpha mode when he saw them. Thankfully, Kai interceeded and calmed Inasa. When Inasa returned to give Izuku a pep talk it was so adorable. He’s just so honest and BIG with his feelings about life. Inasa was able to make Izuku consider a different way of thinking about himself and Katsuki. Izuku isn’t the scared younger man that he was before and maybe Katsuki isn’t that enemy Izuku was making him out to be. “But think of it this way. Bakugou is not your adversary. He’s on your team.” Well now! Thanks to Inasa, Izuku and Katsuki took a step closer in their relationship through the exchange of phone numbers. OH, and evidently the night that Bakugou has a vivid dream, so did Izuku. Well, WAYLE!!!

More fun with Bakusquad!!! With Katsuki being at home suspended I loved Sero teasing him when he claimed to not be bored. Yeah right Mr. Always Has to be Doing SOMETHING Work Related. Good friend banter is always the best. Like how do you tell your friend that his attacks against villains are just “light bondage??!!!” LMAO The worst. Yay, for Ochako being worked into the story. I like the mutual respect they developed in first year continues into their adulthood. I have to totally agree with his assessment that he is “lawful good” and Izuku is “chaotic good” cause these two fools are a mess!!! Katsuki the enemy of villains, Izuku the almost-vigilante turned pacifist. Heaven help them. LOL

Ugh, I was starting to wonder when Camie would show up and there she is again surprising Katsuki when he leaves the company gym. And that whole interaction made my skin CRAWL, like YOOO!!!! DO NOT TRUST HER!!! She came onto him so strongly. WHHYYY??!!! On some no one can resist her type crap. With her mentioning Izuku combined with my suspicions about her being involved with the murders makes me worried for Izuku.

Danger, Will Robinson! DANGER!!!! Katsuki is NOT prepared to deal with a pretty much in heat Izuku. YOO!!!! ABORT MISSION! RUN!!! Izuku flipped between wanton Omega and aggressive Alpha and Katsuki's head was spinning. Katsuki displayed the strength of Hercules (ha, a reference to Inasa’s comment back in chapter 10) when he kept his urges at bay and stopped him and Izuku from making a mistake. On end of all that he got the promise of a date! Way to go Ground Zero!

So first, Katsuki’s descriptions of Izuku’s anxious thoughts were SO familiar. UGH “Did Midoriya even sleep through a night for all the worry he brought into his own life?” THAT’S ME, THAT’S ME! UGH!!!! Next, we get more interaction with Ochako and it’s the best. Katsuki is so excited about his date with Izuku that he can’t think straight. “You go from scowling like a murderer to smiling like a shark in the span of minutes, and I think you’re legitimately scaring the children.” A SHARK??!!! BWAAAAAAA Everyone can tell that he’s smitten and his face can’t hide anything. And the moment (well, one of the moments) we’ve been waiting for has arrived. IT’S DATE DAY!!! OMG Katsuki killed me when he didn’t care who Izuku had been with prior. “Did you screw like twenty dudes in the past? Trick question - I don’t care.” WHO DOES THAT??!!! Katsuki F-ing Bakugou, that’s who. LMAO Poor Katsuki is so messed up that Izuku wore scent blockers and he can’t smell Izuku. He even WHINED!!!! Lawd, Katsuki is a goner. LOL And these two can’t go 5 minutes without arguing. They both have to be in charge. Indoor rock climbing with these two competitive asses. What could possibly go wrong?! Oh, only Izuku’s blockers wearing off and their combined scenets driving the Alpha customers into ruts. And the employee just wanted to earn his paycheck and now he has to deal with all of this insanity. LMAO Katsuki may have made an honest misstep when he offered to get Izuku’s nose fixed but he didn’t see it as a big deal. Add that to the list of things that should talk about in the future. Katsuki completely forgot that he’s a public figure and out of nowhere came some fans. As annoying as they were, it may have been a blessing in disguise because it interrupted the argument they had brewing. And it led to their cuteness in the convenience store trying on hero paraphernalia. Another Mr. Yagi reference. Of COURSE, it has to be the same person and I can’t wait to find out in what way Katsuki knows him in this story. I mean they already have the overlapping friend groups even though they never met in high school. Katsuki gets so riled up in their flirting that he’s pumping out pheromones again “in technicolor Alpha waves.” iDied!!!!! LMAO I really didn’t expect Mirio to call Katsuki but it was only a matter of time before SOMEONE saw his familiar face out in public. It tickled me when Katsuki was spinning in circles looking for a bodiless Mirio poking his head out of a potato chip display. LOL Now the question is what did Mirio see on the internet and how did it get there? Maybe at the rock climbing fiasco, or the fans who saw them on the street or maybe even at that convenience store since they’re eating right by a window. We shall seee!!!!!

The next chapter is another Izuku flashback. I love that Izuku has known about Katsuki since back in high school but when they met Katsuki didn’t know anything about him. LOL Izuku first meets Shouto over drinks with Inasa and Shinsou and inadvertently reveals that he knows about Shouto’s brother Dabi, err Touya. This connects with chapter 11 when Shouto brushed over how he first met Izuku while talking to Katsuki and in chapter 18 when Amajiki mentions that Izuku had a restraining order against a now villian. We also find out that Izuku has multiple cigarette burn scars from Dabi on his body. :( We also get more information about Jin, Izuku’s former boyfriend. I completely forgot that Jin was Twice’s real name and didn’t make the connection at first. Oops. Then his character description made complete sense. It connected to chapter 18 when Amajiki mentioned him and said he’d almost killed Izuku and also chapter 19 when Kai talks about Izuku’s rape and hospitalization. So, we’re getting a glimpse into Izuku’s life post-Dabi and during his time with Jin right before Izuku hits rock bottom. Looking back on the threats that Kai made against Katsuki and there’s no way he WASN’T response for Jin’s disappearance. Izuku is bruised from a previous interaction with Jin. We don’t know exactly WHAT happened but we know it’s happened multiple times with Jin not remembering or pretending to not remember. Sadly, I wonder if the end of the chapter lead into Jin’s attack on Izuku.

“Izuku flopped face-down on his own bed in a drowsy, drunken stupor, that he remembered he was meant to meet Jin at the end of the night.

Ah, well. He could handle a few more bruises.”

Welp, that’s it and it was A LOT. I can’t wait for the next chapter and the aftermath of the date.

#bnha #mha #ktdk #bkdk #bakudeku #katsudeku #So Rae Geeks Reviews #fic: Quiet Rapture #lalazee

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