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#It would just be tightening up

mysteriouslybluepirate · 7 months

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Can't send asks from my sideblog, but this is @chewing-the-drywall

I feel like much of s2 fell into Frenchie's "we put it in the box and then lock it and don't open it again" in the sense that it set up A LOT that I was intrigued about how they would address it, but it either never was mentioned again or was handled poorly.

Examples range from light, like how I wish we saw more of the crew interacting with each other in ways that built on their characters from S1, where in S2 they didn't feel any more developed, or even regressed. (Example, Fang used the word Fingies 2-3 times through S2, and it felt like they were using it almost as a shorthand for his character, rather than making him feel more real and multidimensional as a character.)

100% @chewing-the-drywall. When I first heard that line I had I was so excited for the story to prove Frenchie wrong. Or show how important it can be to put aside problems to stay alive in the moment. But in the end, this one line summarized how the season handled everyone, besides Stede and Ed. Below, is an in depth discussion on where this season decided to spend it's limited amount of time. Instead of focusing on the characters and plotlines they'd already established.

This season had so MANY ideas it wanted to touch on.

Izzy trying to deal with his unrequited love and opening up to a new way of living. The traumatized 'Revenge' crew trying to adapt to a softer way of life again. The abandoned crew learning how to help their traumatized friends. Introducing new characters like Zheng, Auntie, and Archie into our main group. Setting up a conflict to resolve in season three. Along the way, referencing Pirates of history like Ned Low, Mary Reed, and Anne Bonny.

Notice, I've said all this and we're not even at our romantic leads.

Which is fine. Stories are fluid things. As long as the story knows how to flow from our leads to our side characters. Which leads us to how I feel this show took a lot of time away from establishing our central crew-

[Warning- this will be a controversial opinion- I want to know what y'all think about this] Zheng/Oluwande. This seasons habit of retreading old plotlines and referencing scenes from S1.

What S1 did so well was paralleling the side stories with what was going on with Ed/Stede. Usually, highlighting how well Stede/Ed worked by showing how much Ed/Izzy DIDN'T work. Or general hijinks that tied into the plot (Oluwande and Frenchie on the French ship).

Season 2 chose to parallel our main story with what was going on between Zheng/Oluwande as a budding romance and Izzy's slow recovery. The reason Zheng/Oluwande scenes felt like a waste for me in that the story was JUST a retelling the story we watched from S1.

A frustrated first mate(Auntie), and a legendary captain(Zheng) fighting over the captain falling in love with an idiot(Olu). In season 2, much like every callback for me, it felt like it slowed down the plot by pulling us out of the story. Like...yeah, you did the thing again, do you want me to applaud you for it?

I LIKE Zheng and Oluwande as a couple! I like that Oluwande was debating leaving Stede and taking Jim and Archie with him. But at the same time, I didn't care about Zheng until episode 7 when she beat up Stede, showing that yes. She's not just some all powerful woman taken down by a mix of love(the crew in ep3) and thinking that she was above it all (ep 7). She's fast on her feet, smart, and willing to stab someone who gets in her way. She's her own person. But.

Every other scene that established her was about her romance, felt like we could have put Rhys and Taika in there. It didn't feel...unique. It's as if the show only knows 1 way to write a romance between a badass and a bumbling idiot. Again. Oluwande in season 1 wasn't dumb in the same way everyone else was. He was protective of Jim, a bit nervous overall, but he was the person the crew chose to lead them. The season just dumbed everyone down a bit and called it a day.

This comes to the larger issue. When we only have eight episodes I don't want to rewatch the exact same plot beats with different characters. Time spent here ends up taking away from other stories we could have told about trauma and growing as a family and other forms of growing as a family. We didn't need another romance plot line. Imagine taking this time instead to show Lucius reaching out to Pete AND the crew for help. Or Frenchie finally feeling safe enough to play his lute. Or Roach helping Fang get over his thing with cakes-you get my point.

The fact we took all the found family stuff from season one, and pushed it onto only Izzy in S2 means when he dies, all the found family shit falls away. His death makes us realize we've been ignoring the central family we were supposed to care about. Because in so many words, their trauma was ignored.

[I even theorize if Izzy was alive and sailed away with them. Showing how he was taken in and loved by his crew, the ending wouldn't feel so hollow. This crew doesn't feel like a caring family. The person who protected them for months died, wasn't mourned, and then they threw a wedding the same day. Not even a full day to mourn. The 'New Revenge' feels like a heartless crew of characters we barely recognize because they aren't a family like they were at the end of S1. More like coworkers who sometimes fall in love with eachother.]

Trauma, Timelines, and Tonal issues when jumping from Episodes 1-3 to Episodes 4-5.

When the crews meet up, the story chooses to focus on the fun plot. Ed and Stede recovering their relationship, only dipping back into that serious tone when Izzy or Lucius come on screen to 'make things sad' again. I don't think the transition from 'serious' to 'comedy' was handled well.

I don't have an official timeline of the events of season two. But from what I remember, everything happens within 2 weeks.

In episode 4, Stede ignored the vote of his crew- to let the man who was torturing half his 'FAMILY' for at least 80 days- back aboard. This rubbed me the wrong way, as it showed Stede being a selfish prick in a way that could seriously harm his crew. That's when I started to see how not adding a *single* time-skip mid-season would hurt S2.

Imagine if we had a one-week off-screen time skip between episodes 4 and 5.

Maybe it's implied that they stay in that town for a bit. Izzy would a bit more time to learn to move on his new leg and start to open up to those he already trusts. Include a scene of Izzy WITH the crew, maybe laughing about something with the old traumatized crew, even if it's just a 30-second opener. Imply that the traumatized crew would have more time to settle in with the family they miss. Show that yeah, the traumatized crew needs more time to heal. Imply at the start of the 'Ed apology' that Ed and Stede have had more time to talk their issues out.

THEN have Ed apologize. You can even keep the bullshit corporate to show that Ed still has to work for this.

Healing takes time. Setting a series over the span of two weeks after half your cast was tortured by your lead love interest? After five of your main crew thought they would sail off into a storm and die after months of stress and life threatening battles? Why did that shit get shoved to the side so quickly?

Framing episode 5 as the START of Ed making amends with the crew, only to drop the plot by episode 7? Not a smart move. Because let's be honest, 'poison into positivity' in episode 6, referring to the fact that they sold all of Ed's loot to pay for the party, ignores the sacrifices the crew made to live that long. (The death of Ivan, and intense trauma they all need to work through). In a way, Ed throwing this party was him asking the crew to start putting everything away in that imaginary box.

It's Ed retroactively letting himself say 'hey, that time I spent torturing my captives was worth it because we got something good out of it' while still ignoring his own guilt. Ed needed to take accountability for his actions. No more 'I took 'a' mans leg' bullshit. The reason his arc feels so unsatisfying is that the plot easily forgives him. Fuck. I hate what they did for Ed's arc, but that's not the point.

Overall.

My issue with this season is not that it chose to do these topics, it's that it didn't think about the implications of what they were bringing up. It didn't dare to think 'maybe it's fucked if we quickly brush off a trauma like this'. Again. I know we have to blame MAX for cutting off two episodes. But I don't think 2 additional episodes would fix a tone problem seen going from episodes 3-4.

Fucking hell. Each member of the revenge had the potential for their own arc, so it's baffling to see them all reduced to 'well meaning idiot' when they all felt so fleshed out in S1.

When izzy gives his speech about belonging, there's a reason the only image in the show of the crew all together was from S1.

At the end of the day, Season 2 didn't let our surviving side characters grow. This is a mean spirited bit on how I feel the writers see the their own characters.

Stede and Ed are our leads. They won't die, not in this genera. Their shitty actions will be forgiven because it's a comedy, and as long as it's joked about, it holds no weight. They won't die. They won't get fatally hurt. Their trauma will be taken seriously, but it's a 50/50 on if they'll talk about it before breaking up again. They will eventually get a happy ending, their trauma looked at head on, because duh.

Jim, Olu, Lucius, Pete? Characters who used to have defined personalities in S1, but haven't been defined much beyond their relationships with their partners? Whose trauma might be mentioned, but will quickly be 'resolved' in one scene? Shame. Seems like they're only useful as set dressing, But we might make you useful as interchangeable side characters to riff against. Oh, and you're in love! Isn't that cool!

Izzy? I'll just quote Jenkins here. "To have him become a father figure to Blackbeard, and on some level to the rest of the crew, and to see him become the heart of why we’re giving pirates the chance to stand for being able to live how you choose. In reality, they’re thieves and criminals, but what our pirates stand for is a life of belonging to something larger than they are in the face of a crushing, slightly fascist normalcy." So...Is Izzy a pirate and accepted into the Revenge family? Or is he still an outsider? Jenkins gave us a romcom but still defines Izzy's character as that of one stuck in a drama/tragedy. Point and laugh, because tonally these two things clash HARD and will make an audience lose trust in it's writers unless well established. Leading us to the entire issue we've pointed out of not letting your characters actions hold in dramatic weight in your story.

Frenchie, Wee John, Roach, and Fang- Ah. No love interests again...shit. Well. Background actors it is... for now. We'll see. But we need 2 more scenes of the couple breaking up, so MAYBE you'll get some backstory hinted at in dialogue. You all have 1 thing your good at, so that's easy enough to put you where you belong.

Buttons and Swede? Well. They're still alive!! Don't be sad, fans :) The actors just couldn't show up anymore. We don't want our silly happy queer pirate rom com to not end on a happy ending! (Closes the lid of the trash can where they're keep Con O'Neill a bit tighter, thanking God Con was silenced by a strike this entire season from social media)

Do you agree, or disagree? Leave any lingering thoughts down below!

I'd love to chat down below.

#I am absolutely screwing myself over spelling-wise by adding a poll but fuck it. That's what we do #Overall: Just because you can fit something into your story doesn't mean it needs to be shown on screen.#I wanted to add a section of all the scenes I'd cut/tighten to make my added scenes work but I don't think we're there yet as a fandom #I theorize that the reason they couldn't change the script and had to hack it up was due to them already having 10 episodes fully written #also I SWEAR I LIKE ZHENG- but the part of me that sees her as a hollow Ed 'narrative mirror' finds her a bit boring until episode 7 #I LOVED her ship and how she hated Stede. But that's just because I generally don't enjoy Stede when he's unquestioned #Stede on her ship was a pacified lamb slowly getting fattened for the slaughter. She would have turned on him SO EASILY. She almost did too #I semi-tolerated Ed/Stede's love story of not communicating and puppy love. Seeing it again but sped up didn't make me like it more #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd critical #?#yeah I'll tag that just to be safe #izzy hands #edward teach #ofmd s2 finale #ofmd season 2 spoilers #ofmd s2 meta #ofmd s2 analysis #trauma

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doedipus · 6 months

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Last weekend I was having fun playing elphelt and kind of just mashing but I can tell that actually turning out results as the character is going to end up being really fraught once players catch up on the counterplay

Like her rekka is completely bonkers but the fact that she has to play multiple rounds of losing rps on her own offense to get there means she's going to be playing gio vs baiken against everyone

I've spent way too long in this game being like man it's such a hassle to have to save up 50 tension every time I want to try hitting someone, I wish gio had good mix on her own, maybe I should try picking up i-no or millia sometime so I'd have an easier time scoring hits

And then the monkey's paw curls and they release a character with unbelievable mix and a killer design who I really want to like but the deeper I go the more I realize that gio really did have everything I wanted all along. Or maybe the grass was the same straw colored tinder on both sides.

Tap dust RC I hope you can forgive me someday

#I hope they just make rekka reactable and tighten her blockstrings up down the line so she's kind of just girl anji or something #but they probably won't because that would fuck with her character identity a lot #the funny thing is because of how swiss cheese her blockstrings are I ended up just using tap dust rc to score hits half the time anyway #what a weirdly balanced character

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dandelion-wings · 9 months

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if it has "orders" that vague, would showing obvious enough dismay that Jean doesn't accept his agreement to them be "refusing"? In a situation where he is aware that having those tells caused him to get out of the order

I envision that as part of the ramping-up: the magic, as it grows out of control, starts actively reacting to anything Kaeya does to evade Jean's orders. Enforcing less and less explicit orders over time comes hand-in-hand with shutting down each new way Kaeya finds to work around them.

In fact, the cause-and-effect might even be the other way around! I'm tempted towards the notion that aside from the issue of a Vision's power being way more than the spell needs (and the Pyro-on-Cryo complications), the fact that a Vision responds to the intentions of their bearer is also playing into this. At the time Diluc does this magic he is still reeling from the revelation that Kaeya was deceiving him for all those years, and afraid on some level that he's going to somehow be able to wriggle out of this safeguard by fooling Jean as well. He does not want Kaeya to find any loopholes! And if I go with that, then the spell, turned by the Vision into an active rather than passive restraint, closes said loopholes as soon as Kaeya finds them--each strategy, including that one, has only a limited window before the magic starts triggering on it. And if that's what's happening, then forcing indirect or non-orders is just part of that overgrowth, because 'she didn't make it a direct order' is just another loophole, as far as that nasty mess of Abyssal magic and Vision power and Diluc's mistrust is concerned.

Even if that's not the specific mechanism I go with for why, I do know the magic is shutting down even that kind of passive resistance. The incident that makes Kaeya decide he has to tamper with it involves him being completely unable to give Jean mission-relevant information because it would have changed her strategy and the magic takes that as 'arguing' even though she would want to know. People get hurt because of it (including him)! No one gets killed this time, but... it's worth the risk to him not to put Jean in the position of being unwittingly responsible for someone's death. Because Diluc's coming home someday, and there's "so uh we might have anchored this on you without your knowledge or consent," and then there's "so uh someone died because we anchored this on you without your knowledge or consent," and there's both a moral event horizon here and, on the personal level, only so much forgiveness they can beg.

#fic nattering #asked and answered #honestly both of them regret the 'without her knowledge and consent' thing within the first like. couple weeks. a month max #but diluc assumes kaeya told her and if she's not sending him nastygrams he's not inclined to bring it up and invite them #while kaeya was relieved that he didn't have to tell her up until the point she told him not to break into eroch's office #and he went 'well i'll do it anyway she doesn't have to know' and then realized he physically could not #the moral/emotional regret came later for him because for a while he WAS just. so glad.#to have the choice of whether to betray khaenri'ah or mondstadt taken so entirely out of his hands #he is willing to accept that they've done something to jean that she'll be upset and angry about until the noose starts tightening #and suddenly he's running into the issues outlined above #and now it's SO different from straightforwardly obeying a regular order in the field of the sort that he should be obeying anyway!#(she would have hated even the original plan but kaeya is honestly okay with violating her personal sense of ethics that far #in the same way he was okay with lying to diluc for so long. which is to say he isn't but he's never felt like he has a choice)

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spotforme · 1 month

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i went to fix my glasses yesterday, the temple was loose, and the counter worker asked me "Did something happen to these?" because they had noticed that it was not just a loose screw, like i had thought, but the leaf had been bent, and i completely froze up because what i heard was 'what the fuck did you do to get your glasses in this condition? you lier, we know no-one could fuck them up this bad, what scam are you trying to pull?'

and i honestly did not know that my brain could work like that, it was really disorienting.

#maybe it was that there was a problem i wasn't aware of or that i had never gotten them tightened before yhat got to me idk #but it's scary to think that my brain could just take control like that while me knowing it's making things up #they fixed the classes. they're better than ever #i'm just... why would my brain do that? it's never done that before?? it's scary

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weirdopponent · 1 year

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Today she is red. Glazed in impatient strokes of mine, a gift, red like cremation, like the still-living coals.

She bows her head, a lamb, and allows me to touch her face. She shakes, but is not flinching. "I don't have to do it like this."

Grace does not say anything. Grace pushes into my hands, till they curve under her jaw. Till I can feel the shape of her skull. Till I can time the pace of blood running through her heart. She knows it was a lie - no one else will be able to love her like this, as she is, as she will be.

I break her into pieces.

I dismantle her. I smash her with my open palm until she becomes a formless crumple, blood blooming slowly with each strike. Her dark hair I hack off with safety scissors like gravestones crumbling in bad weather. Her clothes I burn in the industrial furnace - nothing I can keep, so ash it all will be.

The rest is all artifice - I do not change her skin. I open it, step inside it, wearing it, I become her. I wear a too-tight sports bra that makes my ribs ache, each breath restrained against the form, precious. And with the right shirt - it almost looks like me. The memory of her lies crumpled at my feet, an unceremonious death. It hurts like nothing else could hurt, to outlive your daughter. But that's no problem of mine.

Today I am red. My nail polish is chipping, stains the cuticles like blood. Mother looks at me like it is blood, like Grace's body lies crumpled on my feet, instead of in the lines of mine. "I am the only way she could be."

#today she is red (wip)#wip wednesday #creative writing #writers on tumblr #originals #i think this is the last bit of this one im gonna post here #its almost done actually i think i just need to tighten it up a bit and finish a few more sections #i really wanna make a website to host my finished original stuff cause like #i know i COULD use ao3 but i dont rlly wanna abuse its policies too hard #not that they do anything about it 🙄#it would just be nicer to have my own place for my own work i guess #idk how to code tho i know the basics bc like #ofc i do.#but to do what i Want to do is like. it would take a lot of time and practice #i could...... like........ pay someone?#ANYWAYS.#idk if posting here 3xw is rlly sustainable cause i write so slow #and i dont really want to publish the whole thing HERE #we;ll see #actuallu i change my mind abt the community label its really brief violence lol

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angorwhosebabyisthis · 5 months

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have been trying to make more of an effort to use romance-neutral options/language when the option for romance comes up in a mechanical capacity in one of my games/hacks (whether as an actual function in the game, or just 'here's a table of prompts for the tone a dynamic or interaction might have'). i very much want to incorporate the possibility for romance to be A Part of My Games beyond 'idk throw it in during the roleplay i guess' if a player wants that; but i don't want to push people to include romance in games not themed around it if they don't want to, and i don't want them to be excluded from part of the game if a specific romantic dynamic would be a nope.

problem is, 'this option is called a bond: you can choose between romantic, platonic, familial, or Something Else or you can roll to see which you get' has mostly worked pretty well so far! but when feasible and appropriate for the format, i'd like to try to be inclusive of polyam and other more-than-two options, and i can't seem to find a good substitute for 'polycule' without romantic connotations. hm.

#whosebaby does game dev #whosebaby makes things #ttrpg tag #letting the pokemon polyhedral hack cool off for a while was a good idea because the romance/bonding mechanic was kicking my ass #and i think i've got it much more tightened up and cohesive and ready to go now #including the option for vee/triad poly! with minimal logistical nightmare!#would like to make mechanics for bigger ones but for now i'm just trying to get the rest of it in sailing shape #more than anything else the whole section on the bonding mechanic took a ton of gutting and rearranging but i Did It #most of what i have left to do is flavoring to expand on what the lore is; because the default lore is not pokemon at all #as well as making the rules easier on the eye to read format-wise #good news is the ghost hunter game is also very very close to being done and i'm excited to post that one!#it's an original system and not a hack and i'm proud of it #related because it also has a bond mechanic/flavoring although thankfully is not exclusive of poly without Purposeful Extra Logistics #is there a name for that tag

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diesoonandsuffer · 2 years

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beverly your son is fucking dying

~~~

[Image 1: Beverly and Picard embracing. She says “Jean-Luc!”]

[Image 2: Beverly and Picard still embraced, but she turns and speaks to The Traveler. She says “Do I have you to thank for getting me back?”]

[Image 3: The Traveler standing at a table. Wesley is collapsed on the other side. End ID.] @startrekdescribed

#i already knew this happened but seeing it visually had me in fucking stitches #its a good episode but i think san was right with their rewrites #it doesnt even have to be what san did specifically just any tightening up of the end would have helped i think #but what san did was great #beverly #picard #wesley #tng #my edits #sam's thots #crack #tng lb #described

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nightingaletrash · 1 year

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okay but Erin has some serious Jinx vibes

skilled but hasty

creative, good at making stuff

down to murder

makes mistakes that Cause Problems

(partly) responsible for a building blowing up

older sibling issues

wants to be like older sibling

can’t because they are fundamentally Different

not super stable

gets filled with bad juju

becomes even less stable

vanishes after Causing Problems

#thief 2014 #erin #arcane #jinx #i'm just saying that it's probably best to keep them apart #neither the city nor piltover would survive a team up #srsly tho erin's writing just needed some tightening up and give her more screentime and she'd have been amazing

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solradguy · 1 year

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I want you to know your unabashed love for GG2 has led me to pick it up in the steam sale

YEAHHHH!!!!!!!!! Hope you enjoy it!! The gameplay itself can be a little clunky sometimes, I won't lie, but the lore and the setting are so COOL (and it has one of my favorite tracks in it: The Man) and best grandpa Izuna is there.

There's also a mod that makes the graphics a bit better too, if you didn't know about it already: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1702295926

#asks #The gameplay is like soooooooo close to being really really fun tbh like I wish I knew how to code so I could tweak it #I think if they just tightened up the controls for the player character a little and made navigating the map a bit easier-#-it would be *chef's kiss*#But for an Xbox 360 game from 2007 by a dev trying something totally out of their comfort zone it honestly isn't bad #There are interviews with Daisuke from 2007 about a potential Overture sequel and I'm really sad it didn't happen :(#Lmao maybe in 5 years for Overture's 20th (!!!) anniversary we'll get an Overture 2 announcement (please ASW please)#They need to put Asuka in Strive so I can kill my friends guilt free to The Man

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