So, anyone want to read my theory about how and why syIvie cant really continue as a character past Ioki s2?

Warning this is not exactly sylvie/sylki friendly. I’m not attacking anyone but please dont read if you’re going to look for a fight, I dont want one and its literally just a theory.

I don’t think Sylvie can continue as a character past s2.

The only character she really interacted with in s1 was Loki, her storyline with Kang and the tva is pretty much all wrapped up (one could argue her childhood nexus event but it was already l, very subtly revealed. When they arrested her as a little girl, she was playing with her Valkyrie dolls and she was roleplaying the Valkyrie that defeated the dragon and saved the day… she was playing the hero. Loki’s are not supposed to want to become or become heroes at all, they are supposed to be the villian who always loses. so because young Sylvie wanted to be a Valkyrie and protect Asgard, she violated the sacred timeline. She was not meant to be a hero, none of her actions so far in s1 make her a hero, to me she can not and will not be a hero going forward and the Lamentis nexus event was designed by He Who Remains to get her and Loki off Lamentis, back to the tva and then to the citadel). Her individual plot in s1 is only ‘kill HWR’, not even properly stop the tva because she could have been recruiting the tva workers instead of killing them, she knew they were victims like her that had been kidnapped and brainwashed. But she didn’t, she went straight to the top, killed HWR and has seemingly left to live her own life. Her story arc is essentially done. I don’t think she will have a redemption because she doesn’t think she did anything wrong and even if she did think it she wouldn’t admit it (like killing the minutemen she knew were victims - she just said “I did what I had to do”, no accountability or remorse).

She has no meaningful or lasting interaction with anyone else but loki and HWR. The former she betrays and rejects, not just romantically but in every way between “you cant trust and I cant be trusted” and her repeated denials of being like loki/“a loki” and the latter she kills so where else can her character development go? They had some really interesting potential between her and B-15, Ravonna, Mobius, etc. but they barely did anything with that and only really cared about her in regards to TVA Loki. She has no real interaction with the other Loki variants in the void either, and they barely let her remember her own parents or her Thor. She is completely isolated in her story and I cant see her crossing over into the main mcu because even with as much as we’re told she’s amazing, frankly she is very bland and unlikeable, her only characterisation is ‘angry and can fight’. If she interacted with other mcu characters they definitely wouldn’t like her after finding out she was willing to put the whole multiverse at risk for her own selfish desires.

I know from what’s already been said by people working on the show about s2 essentially being “the search for Sylvie and to right the multiverse” but I can’t imagine her going “Oh I was wrong I’m so sorry, let me team up with you guys even though I insult and assault you all the time and betrayed you Loki. We’d make a great team even though we’ve already established we cant trust each other!” It would be out of character. She’s such a lone wolf and clearly hates working with others so I can’t imagine a redemption involving her joining other mcu heroes. Sylvies arc is so self-centered and selfish, her attitude so abrasive and condescending, that without Loki pining after her or the tva hunting her she cant believably interact with anyone else. Ravonna is Kangs love interest in the comics so I can see that happening and her expanding out. B-15 could become a shield agent if she wants or could just go back to her old life and never be heard from again. Mobius is a popular character and has other potential with him being MR Tesseract in the comics. Sylvie, there is next to no potential for her because she’s already achieved her selfish revenge, screw everyone else in the multiverse. There is no redeeming that in my eyes other than a last minute ‘I’m forced to help the mission/fight kang as defence and then be killed’ style “redemption” (and I personally hate those because its not actually redemption because there is no work being put in to be a better person, its just dying) but again I dont see it happening because she doesnt hold herself accountable. I think either she will refuse and live on a timeline, maybe with the postman mentioned in ep3 if they ever actually existed, never to be heard from again or she will in some way be forced to fight a Kang and he will kill her to A) establish him as the big bad both in the show and in the mcu proper going forward, B) as a mirror of her killing HWR (who was keeping his other variants in check) and starting all this multiverse mess and C) as a mirror to Ioki “helping” Thanos and then being killed by him. She could potentially be a villain, it would definitely be interesting and her actions in s1 pointed that way to me but again I cant see anything that could involve her crossing into the main mcu as a villain because right now it would be too similar in the broad strokes to what has been done with Wanda so I cant see them going that route again, especially so quickly.

From what we know sylvie’s only appearance is in 2 locations, the mcdonalds and a record store which I’m assuming will happen in the same episode so I really don’t think she’ll play a big part at all in s2. I dont think they’ll continue with sylki after she betrayed him and all the offscreen controversy surrounding it (incest, transphobia ect). Marvel cancelled brucenat and stevesharon over less harmful criticism. The ship is also just pure toxic, its not a progressive relationship at all, if their presenting genders were swapped it would be abusive but because its a female presenting person doing it to a male presenting person its brushed aside, he’s a simp and she’s a girlboss. There is also no growth for her in the relationship because she has already established that whatever she may feel for him is not as important as her own desires and again she then rejects and betrays him.

As a character most people just dont really care about her much. Critics didnt really like her other than “girlboss we should hype up”. We know that critics were only previewed the first two episodes, the first two episodes were the most watched and highest rated. I fully believe, what with everything Tom has said, that he was proposed the show based off the first two episodes. Everything from episode 3 onwards felt like a completely different show. Sophia herself isnt that skilled an actor or personally likeable, especially after her comments on Loki’s genderfluidity. She doesnt have that much onscreen or offscreen chemistry with any of her costars and she actively shits on Loki’s character to hype Sylvie up and she admits she did not research into Loki at all, not even collaborating with Tom and said Sylvie was basically being made up as they went along and Herron added extra Sylvie scenes in while they were filming which makes sense when Season 1 had a different original storyline (and I’m sensing that season 2 sort of is the OG storyline that they had in mind what with marvel reusing the s1 synopsis for s2). I remember Michael Waldron saying in an interview that they were mid way through writing the show when a female writer came to them and pitched the Loki and Sylvie romance love story, and he said he and the rest of the crew just went with it and Herron has previously said she thought the end of s1 would be the last we see of Sylvie.

palestinians don’t owe you anything

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running around in circles. nimona and ballister. do you get it. she wakes up from a nightmare and immediately calms down when he comforts her because she trusts him. he quite literally jumps off a balcony because he knows she’ll catch him. she tells him what shapeshifting feels like. lets him bandage her leg. he’s absolutely overjoyed when he sees her again at the end. he goes from rejecting her to accepting her to begging her to come back to rejoicing when she does. not only does she come back to life but she comes back to HIM. to her HOME. SHE FINDS HIM AGAIN IN ANOTHER LIFETIME. SHE GOES BACK TO HIM ON PURPOSE. DO YOU GET IT.

my favourite thing is naming new documents when you PROMISED you wouldn’t start any new projects

He's sensitive about that

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was not fucking kidding about a tma kids book i can’t stop thinking about it. spiral page idea

even a worm will turn.

nothing more devastating than coming back to the tag of your fav and seeing the most recent post is still your own

I-

hum.

somehow managed to make matthias look even more bitchy

Ideal ending to WCI is Luffy seeing Sanji cry and then awakening his devil fruit and unlocking Gear Fifth out of sheer RAGE and saying the classic line of “Who made you cry, Sanji?! I’ll DESTROY THEM!!!” and then proceeding to go on a rampage and fucking absolutely EVERYBODY up including the Vinsmokes, Pudding, AND the Big Mom Pirates. Toss in the trope of came back wrong and Sanji can immediately tell something is not right about this Luffy, whose smile is too wide, whose eyes are too distant, who continues to beat upon his enemies long after they’re down, who seems to take a sick sort of pleasure in hurting others, who grins and giggles and tells Sanji he’ll obliterate anything that makes him cry. Eventually he starts to scare Sanji so bad that even Luffy notices his reaction, and immediately turns on himself because if HE’S the one making Sanji cry then he’ll just have to destroy himself too. And that’s when Sanji finally leaps into action and does whatever he can to reach Luffy—including kissing him. Luckily that was exactly what Luffy needed to snap out of it, and when he comes to the Whole Cake Chateau is in broken pieces, the Big Mom Pirates are battered beyond fighting and the Vinsmokes are nowhere to be seen. And softly, tiredly, he asks if they won, if he can bring Sanji home, and Sanji cries again and says yes, take me home to the Sunny, I want to go home with you.

Meanwhile the rest of the Strawhats are like

Emey can I change you and ask for number 5 with Seth/Allison? I understand if not considering you don't draw Seth often <3

Maybe not but that is not to say I won’t draw him 😘

Requests are open until the end of Dec ‘23 💕

I think it’s interesting storytelling how in the beginning of the game Cal says the Sixth Sister’s name, Masana Tide, and reminds her of who she used to be—and it visibly distresses her because it hurts what was done to her and Cal isn’t wrong in what he’s saying. The shocking thing for me was the moment when Cal said “It’s time to set you free”. It was such a surreal feeling hearing Cal say that, those kinds of words, to know he decided it was time to strike her down; it’s understandable because she killed his entire crew, but for Cal to be the executioner in that way was scary to see coming after only experiencing the young kid he was in Fallen Order. Now you really get the feeling Cal has been through a lot, he’s grown as a man since Fallen Order and he’s calloused, not entirely in a bad way given he’d have to be to survive but still in a depressing way, as a result. I know overall and gameplay wise, Cal has killed a lot of people, it’s nothing new, but storytelling wise it’s a serious moment for Cal. It’s a moment you know is going to follow him the rest of the game for character development. After he kills her, it’s made clear by the music and by Cal’s body language that this isn’t a good thing coming from him. It isn’t a triumph. Even BD-1 knows and worries for Cal with his little “Boop…?” and Cal is only able to respond rather shakily, “Yeah… I’m okay”.

When he meets up with Bode and Bravo and they ask him what happened to the Inquisitor, he gives a simple, no emotion, “Dead”. The long pause of Bravo not saying anything in response to me says a lot; it feels like he isn’t used to Cal having a reaction like that.

Then we have Rayvis. Cal defeats him in battle and asks him to join in the fight against Dagan. He doesn’t want to kill Rayvis—“You don’t have to do this”. The oddly tragic part to me is that Rayvis has dreams of seeing Tanalorr again. If Dagan succeeds his dream will be realized, but he’s given up on the dream and wants a warrior’s death now. He wants to die, and in his mind, honorably, by Cal’s hands, and he’s going to force Cal to do it. But for Cal it’s another execution on his part. He pauses before he lifts his saber and kills Rayvis. It isn’t a triumph. Again we’re given a sudden swell of music to tell us the emotion behind the action of killing Rayvis. You can see it’s affected Cal badly. BD-1 seems to ask Cal the same question as before, “Boop…?” but this time Cal doesn’t acknowledge the question and just replies, “We should go”.

Killing Dagan hurts for Cal too. Dagan is a Jedi, someone who held onto the Order, who tied his entire identity to it and all of his goals are focused on restoring the Order and fighting to change the universe. Just like Cal in a way. Dagan is single-mindedly focused on the mission, so obsessively, he lost himself and the one he loved as a result. Cal understands and see the parallel of that kind of drive in his own mission against the Empire and it terrifies him. Dagan could’ve helped him fight the Empire but it became another tragic moment of having to kill a once fellow Jedi. This is another tragedy. Bode doesn’t care about Dagan being dead on the floor but Cal does. Cal has enough respect to place Dagan’s lightsaber on his chest. Cal pauses to reflect but Bode immediately gets back to getting the compass.

We have this interesting arch of reactions to killing his opponents. They were each killed for the mission. It was necessary. They each started the fight against him. No matter the reason though, it’s still very painful for Cal.

Cal is being pushed into this direction of forcing him to question his beliefs and who he is. His whole identity at this point has been tied to the Order, of being a Jedi, and it’s very clear by his conversations in Fallen Order that it really matters to who he is. By the end of Survivor, we have three fallen Jedi: Masana Tide, Dagan Gera, and Bode Akuna. So who is Cal Kestis? What will he become? Is he doomed to fall like they did? That’s what troubles him—“Let’s just say I don’t wanna end up like him [Dagan]”.

He’s afraid he’s going to lose himself.

The fear is almost realized when he’s about to kill another opponent. The one behind the murders of his friends and mentors. Cal’s been killing each of his main opponents up to the point at Nova Garon—this one will be no different. Except killing the man who sent Bode on the mission to infiltrate his team is different. Cal is on the edge of losing himself to the Dark Side. In Fallen Order he pleaded for Cere not to use the Dark Side because “She’s stronger than that”, “[she] still had a choice”. But Cal is failing to remember any of that for himself. He wants to kill because he’s angry, grieving, and in immense pain. Merrin has to bring him back—“This is not you!” There’s a question of whether or not Cal would’ve been able to stop himself if Merrin hadn’t been there though.

When we get to the final battle, Merrin is warning Cal of what’s likely going to happen but he ignores her for a while which prompts her to say, “Well? Say something!” He doesn’t want to acknowledge that Merrin is right and they’re likely going to have to kill Bode, and with that, taking Kata’s father away—a loss of family Cal and Merrin know too much about. So they both try and give Bode every chance to stop and turn away from what he’s done, despite how much Bode had hurt them. Sadly, Cal once again is forced into using the Dark Side to prevent Bode from killing Merrin. It was worth it. It was worth using it to save Merrin. He couldn’t let her be killed. He couldn’t see that happen before his eyes like he had with all of his friends and mentors.

After everything is over, there’s this sickly feeling left behind. Not simply because of Bode’s death, but because of the impact on Merrin realizing Kata has lost family just like she and Cal had, but also because of the impact the death of Bode has on Cal. And after Cal carries away Bode’s body, the music changes to an eerie, ominous, high pitch, minor key when we see Cal board the Mantis. The kind of change in music which lets the audience know there’s something seriously wrong. Things are different now. Cal’s different. And he knows it.

He’s lost in time watching the pyre, reflecting on everything that had happened but also on how grateful he is to Cere, but he knows the impact of her loss will continue to be with him for the rest of his life. Just like Jaro Tapal. Another guiding force in his life is gone. With Cere and Cordova gone, there is no longer any Jedi wisdom to seek out. He’s now alone in that way as a Jedi.

“I’m scared… I almost lost myself… I don’t know if I’m ready.”

Cal and the audience are left with the dreadful realization—

“I don’t know if I’m ready for what comes next”.

me n chenle are on the same crazy shit. crazy bestie vibezzz

And on this Valentine’s I almost broke down in tears at a wife’s dedication to her heart surgeon husband whose brain is deteriorating with a rare case of dementia