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kitspindles · 2 years

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Nobody crucify me for this but I really don’t get why people are so mad about the “Percy is still 17 thing” because like… Rick’s explanation made sense enough to me? In a book series that’s spanned almost 20 years now and takes place in “our world” but not “real world time” (and where there’s schist like literal gods and monsters), people are fuming that the timeline doesn’t make sense with all the references to pop culture? Like, we already know the actual plot timeline within the books is a little screwy and not perfect, but why are we all big mad out here trying to fight the author in a Denny’s parking lot? Just because Percy isn’t canonically 18 yet? (Or 30 something). I don’t blame him for keeping Percy on the cusp of legal adulthood with the way some of you guys have been acting lately.

There’s no year ever given in the books to date the exact time of Percy’s adventures (or his birth year) because, like Rick said, his adventure is happening whenever you pick up the book and read it. Yes, there’s a wide range of pop culture references and jokes from over the years in the series but like… so what? He writes jokes that the current audiences and year will understand, that’s all. The series has been going for, what, 17 years now? And new fans of varying ages are always joining. The series and the jokes are ever evolving to reach these newer fans (many of whom are elementary and middle school aged, remember). As far as I know he never claimed for there to be a strictly linear timeline based in our real world time. He’s kept stuff vague on purpose to avoid giving exact years.

I think we all forget that The Lightning Thief started out as a bedtime story for Rick’s son, and that it took some time to even be accepted and published as a book. He didn’t initially set out to create a whole series with 15+ books spanning almost 20 years. I’m sure he didn’t know how large and expansive the series would become, and so that’s why there’s no set in stone timeline. Some authors give their series set years and stick with it throughout (Cassandra Clare, for example, has a whole intricate timeline going for her Shadowhunter books and sticks to it like glue), and some don’t. It’s just how it is. And most characters don’t tend to age outside their books… so yes, Percy is still 17 because, as of The Tower of Nero (which came out 2 years ago now, btw), his last canonical book appearance, he had yet to celebrate his 18th birthday or even officially start college. Just because we’re out here “celebrating” his birthday in the real world doesn’t mean he’s actually aging. It’s just a little goofy thing because he’s a popular character.

Are people just mad because this character we grew up with who kept aging in the books is now frozen at 17 (because his story is done) and we keep aging? We do need to remember that it’s a kids/young adult series, ergo, the characters are all still teens and pre-teens. Not yet adults.

Anyway I’ve just been thinking about that sorry

#please don’t rip my head off for this #I’m just really confused as to why some fans are frothing at the mouth about this #you can be mad about him not aging #free country and all that #but some people really went off the deep end over this #percy jackson and the olympians #heroes of olympus #trials of apollo #pjo hoo toa #percy jackson #pjo fandom #pjo #rick riordan #rrverse #riordanverse #my stuff

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sorrelpaws · 3 months

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what are your personal favorite hcs for morty? (coming from another guy who is prime morty irl) and this could be any morty ^___^ or even hcs for how c137 and pmorty interact and just stuff about them/their dynamic since i really really enjoy how you depict them i feel like you’re one of the few that really Get the way they act around each other yknow. if that makes sense. you are just very epic like that /gen

ANOONNN this is such a cute ask SRYY its taken me a gazillion years to answer this its cuz a lot of my hcs/ the way i interpret rick and mortys dynamic is like. its hard to explain i sort of just get visions of dialogue and scenarios in my mind. BUTTT!!! ive managed to clean up the sludge a little . a huge hc i have for pmorty is that he has a lot of tiny miscellaneous scars because as he gets older he sort of wants to feign independence a little and act like he doesnt want/need rick's help. could also be a form of reclamation, "here's me exhibiting bodily autonomy" and all that. i love drawing him with a little eyebrow scar, its one of the more prominent ones i think um. For Reasons I Will Not Disclose but that i imagine are incredibly apparent either way. But an "canon" explanation for it is that he gets it sometime during the entire rickshank rickdemption fiasco, specifically pre-showdown. since this episode reallyyyyy tests mortys loyalty to rick, i think it'd be kind of fun to have his faith in him be punished with something so tiny but so permanent.

i've mentioned this before but i really think the best parallel to draw for rick and mortys day to day dynamic is high school guys who say they're best friends but dont even know each others favorite colors. like they just spend a lot of time hanging out and doing things together, but emotionally there's very little conscious substance, if that makes sense ???!! in the sense that they dont turn to each other if they need actual comfort, they just sort of bottle it up and cry about it behind the corner.

their whole dynamic is jumpstarted by rick needing someone by his side. he's just an old man who's desperate for company, and so he intentionally isolates morty from his peer, which in turn makes morty very reliant on rick, but rick really doesn't want to or know how to meet the emotional quota he deprives morty of. IF THAT MAKES SENSE. rick wants a loyal dog but doesn't want to put in the effort to earn its trust and respect. this kiindd of changes in newer seasons, with rick being less reliant on morty and instead opting for therapy and Friends in the same mental and physical age group as him, but it seemingly pretends rick's actions in earlier seasons have no consequences, and that morty is in no way affected by being robbed of a social life, which is ugh. whatever. i guess.

they're forever super clingy though. they're each others favorite person, even if they maybe kind of hate each other. rick is very emotionally stunted due to years of unprocessed trauma, and morty is hopelessly devoted to someone who gives him a semblance of positive attention.

#rick and morty #asks #RAAGHHHH #this kind of devolved into a meta analysis but o well......#morty smith #rick sanchez

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aroaceleovaldez · 1 year

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I think one of the problems with the HoO characterizations is Rick kind of forgot to give half the cast hobbies and general interests, and maybe like people they know outside of their families and outside of camp, or if he did remember to it rarely gets brought up for most of them, or in the special case of Annabeth - she randomly develops a hobby in weaving for exactly one scene and then never again. Apparently she just knew how to do that, even though it is a skill she has literally never used before nor uses again.

The best examples I can give of this are comparing/contrasting the examples of when we do actually get this with the lack-thereof: Hazel and Frank are good examples. Hazel has hobbies and interests generally unrelated to all her demigod stuff (horses and art) and we see this repeatedly discussed and brought up. She also knows and interacts with people outside of the necessities of her quest/Camp Jupiter or her family - Sammy was her best friend at school and they hung out and stuff! Meanwhile, Frank, as far as we know, doesn’t know anybody outside of his family even though he presumably went to school before Camp Jupiter? His hobby is... archery? That’s the only thing he ever really shows interest in but at the same time it only rarely gets brought up except for him using a bow as his main weapon and the like two instances of noting that Frank had hoped he was an Apollo kid for a little bit. The closest other detail we get to Frank having any other kind of hobby/interest is him mentioning off-hand that he used to play Mythomagic.

Piper and Leo - We can presume that Piper knew Shel before moving to Oklahoma, because Piper used to visit her grandpa often and as far as we know that’s also where Shel lives. But we never see Piper ever mention knowing anyone else in her grandfather’s community. Heck, when she’s introduced we’re basically outright told that she doesn’t interact much at all with any of her classmates outside of necessity, and we don’t even have any confirmation that before Hera’s mind-meddling that she even acknowledged Leo’s existence. Also, Piper has like, exactly zero hobbies. We do not know what Piper does in her free time or what she likes (except vaguely that she has surfed before), only really what she dislikes. Leo at least does have some kind of excuse for not really knowing anybody, and an explicit explanation about why that is the case and how he feels about it. Leo also has a repeatedly referenced interest/hobby in mechanics that’s very core to his character.

Percy and Annabeth? Pre-HoO, they both have plenty of interests and know people outside their general circles! Percy knows kids at school. Annabeth’s general outer social circle is Camp Half-Blood, because she grew up there, but she clearly knows people at camp. She’s also super into architecture! And Percy does a ton of stuff in his free time - he skateboards! He plays basketball! He has two pets he takes care of (Blackjack and Mrs. O’Leary)! Post-HoO he’s on a swim team! But during HoO? Percy’s hobbies just kind of disappear, besides “oh yeah he uh. Does water stuff.” There’s no acknowledgement of like, “Yeah Percy sets up a little basketball hoop on the back of his door on the Argo 2 and shoots trash at it.” Literally anything! And yeah, Annabeth’s architecture interest is somewhat acknowledged, but also like, not really? We at least get some kind of “Yeah, in her spare time she’s usually on her laptop working on stuff” but we also barely get any instances of Annabeth thinking about her friends at camp except for like, Tartarus.

For Jason it at least kind of works because a.) he has amnesia and it’s implied he doesn’t really have close friends at Camp Jupiter besides Reyna, so it figures he only ever really references random other legionaries like, twice. and b.) there is also the heavily implication that Jason doesn’t have hobbies, because his entire life was so focused around his training at Camp Jupiter. This works less with Reyna, but she also kind of has an excuse for not knowing people besides like, her sister and Jason, given she ran away when she was young, Circe’s island was destroyed, and she could have only been at Camp Jupiter for like 3 years maximum at that point. And she’s not exactly the most social character. We also don’t get much indication of her hobbies, besides she also likes horses and it’s heavily implied she likes nature/gardens? Presumably, given we get like, one note of that in HoO, maybe two if you count her living on Circe’s island, and then like one more nod to that in TOA. And we only get her POV chapters in BoO anyways so again, she has some excuses. Coach Hedge also is incredibly bland besides maybe him having a hobby in sports, and... violence? Which definitely does not count. And him lacking any POV chapters doesn’t really help.

I think this is why Nico continually feels like such a strong character, simply because we know what he does in his spare time. We know he knows people outside of the camps (most of those people are gods or ghosts, but he at least knows people) and technically you could argue him knowing about Camp Jupiter between BoTL and TLO counts too. He even references his old neighbor at one point. Obviously, he’s very into Mythomagic, and that comes up a lot because it’s his special interest and is usually also relevant to their quests. He travels a lot, and apparently used to when he was younger as well. We also learn he used to have a special interest about pirates and that apparently may have played into his crush on Percy. Like, all that is so simple and minor but it makes such a difference for how Nico feels as a character. Most of Nico’s stuff though is established in the first series, which definitely helps because the first series was pretty good about giving characters hobbies and maybe some people they know - Annabeth, Percy, and Nico we’ve already covered, but also like, Grover knows other satyrs and is usually practicing music and also we know what foods he likes. Thalia is very into punk culture and music. We know she particularly likes Green Day. We know she knew the Hunters of Artemis before the events of TTC. Rachel's whole thing is that she’s super into art and she has a bunch of connections through her rich family, and she’s basically Percy’s only mortal friend. They have lives!

If you put a protagonist in a room and told them to occupy themselves, you should have an answer for what they do. They should be able to name one person outside their immediate social circle who they are generally friendly with or vaguely know, unless they have a specific reason for that to not be the case. HoO crew needs to occupy their time by themselves, no weaponry, for twenty minutes? Hazel could be drawing, Nico could be organizing his cards, Leo could be tinkering, Annabeth could be working on her laptop, Percy could be trying out little skateboard tricks. Jason, Piper, Frank, and Reyna? What would they be doing?

TOA does actually answer that question for Jason, at least, because we learn that Jason makes tiny dioramas! That’s adorable! Why doesn’t he do that in HoO?! TOA also gives us more depth to Will Solace besides “He’s a medic and does medic things” with telling us that he’s into Star Wars. Like, that’s actually so much information to work with! Thank you! And then we also find out in TOA that Nico’s also kinda into art! We still don’t get anything new for Piper, Frank, or Reyna - besides again one more potential implication that Reyna thinks plants are Pretty Okay, and that nature is Mildly Alright. Like, not even “maybe she keeps a houseplant” territory, all we have is “if she had the option, she might be interested in visiting a flower garden.” But honestly TOA at least gives us something for most of the characters we see. Like at least one thing. Most of the rest of the writing is a mess but at least the characters are mildly interesting.

Anyways, give your characters hobbies, it’s good for them.

#pjo #riordanverse #hoo #heroes of olympus #analysis #long post //#long post #always forget which of those tags i use #congrats to Hazel for being the only protag introduced in HoO with a life #i just would like Piper to have a personality besides disliking things #anyways i think this whole situation is another consequence of Rick not being used to writing large main casts #but it's not impossible! you can totally have huge casts where each character feels like they have a life #i'd actually say HS is a really good example of that - each char is introduced with their personality and a hobby/interest #there's at least 20 major characters but we know the basic outline for ALL OF THEM #also again with this kind of thing - i talk a lot about how Jason's lack of character could absolutely be utilized in interesting ways #and it makes me really sad that we *don't get that!* because it *can* be SO COMPELLING!#a character having a lack of personality can *work* if you actually *do something with it*#HoO never acknowledges that Jason doesn't have. like. a *life.* which is why it doesn't work #if we got any kind of exploration at all into ''hey. jason doesnt have hobbies or interests outside of Being Roman''#''and he doesnt really have friends besides the argo 2 crew. or even know who he is as a person and what he wants''#like HEY THAT'S REALLY COMPELLING ACTUALLY! and would be *really* interesting to contrast with his ''perfect'' reputation!#but no. he's just kind of There.

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lavender-rosa · 1 year

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Kny characters + most traumatizing internet experiences

(modern au obvi)

That time Nezuko sent Tanjirou a text that said "look at this adorable video of a puppy and a raccoon being friends!!!! :0 🌸" but then when he clicked on it, it was the music video for the song "never gonna give you up" by Rick Astley. Why would Nezuko do this to him?

When Douma left his laptop open for Akaza to accidentally read some of the replies to his most recent tweet. He doesn't even know what those comments meant, but they were scary.

When Douma texted Akaza and Kokushibou a link to an article that talked about a gruesome murder that took place in the town like thirty years ago, with the caption " omg do u guys think ur house is haunted ? O-O" Akaza replied "Douma why are you being so ridiculous" but Kokushibou, who has always been personally convinced that his house is haunted, felt a chill run down his spine...

That time Shinobu sent Giyuu a text that said "giyuu have you seen the latest mitski mv" but then when he clicked on it, it was the music video for the song "never gonna give you up" by Rick Astley.

Sanemi taking the "Am I Gay?" quiz at 3am and then promptly deleting his browser history and attempting to set his computer on fire for good measure, setting off his smoke alarm and waking up the entire house, for which he had no good explanation other than the wholly unbelievable lie that he was trying to lit a scented candle but his hand slipped and landed on his computer keyboard instead.

When Zenitsu made Tanjirou listen to some of Kaigaku's soundcloud rap and instead of finding it funny like Zenitsu assumed he would it gave Tanjirou such a bad migraine he actually started crying.

When Gyutaro is accidentally in the background of one of Daki's selfies and a couple of her ig comments are "who's that guy behind u ????" leading him to fear that they would track him down, invade his home and tear him apart like a pack of wild animals. Daki said "uh...that's definitely not going to happen" but based on what he knows of her following, he maintains it's a likely possibility ok????

When Tanjirou had strep throat and couldn't read aloud to Muichirou like he usually does and Genya, out of the kindness of his heart, offered to sub in, and Muichirou made him read all 38 chapters of "My Immortal" to him, insisting that Tanjirou would do this for him, and therefore if he doesn't that means he is a bad friend.

That time Uzui sent Rengoku a text that said "hey i read this article regarding an unlimited free pizza coupon winning competition i thought you might find interesting, tell me what you think" but then when he clicked on it, it was the music video for the song "never gonna give you up" by Rick Astley.

And last but not least: When Kaigaku left his laptop open for Zenitsu to accidentally read his latest reddit post. Terrifying stuff.

#kny #demon slayer #kimetsu gakuen #kimetsu no yaiba #tanjiro kamado #zenitsu agatsuma #giyuu tomioka #sanemi shinazugawa #genya shinazugawa #kny headcanons #kaigaku #akaza #doma #kokushibo #muichiro tokito #kyojuro rengoku #uzui tengen #gyutaro #shinobu kocho

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sophiaforevs · 6 months

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Between the early cancellation of Discovery, Seven/Raffi and Mariner/Jenn being erased in their respective shows, and SNW having queer coded characters but not confirming anything on screen, I'm really afraid that we're entering another "No Gays in Trek" era.

For those who don't know, 90s era star trek featured so few queer characters b/c Rick Berman largely held a policy of not wanting any homosexuality in his shows. And yes, we all remember the handful of episodes that slipped through that addressed it but the fact remains that there were no canonically queer main cast members before Into Darkness in 2016 gave us a five second shot that could be cut when whoever was showing the movie found the idea of two men in a loving relationship disgusting.

Then we got Discovery with multiple queer characters that allowed people to feel seen. And people never stopped bitching about them. The amount of times that I've had to listen to people complain that Adira's only character trait is that they're non-binary despite that literally being a single thirty second scene and never brought up again makes me understand that they very likely don't want to like the queer characters in that show. And it's not that there aren't criticisms to be made about the queer representation in Disco: Discovery Buries it's Gays before the end of the first season. Making your trans characters aliens who already have a history of gender fuckery is problematic b/c it somewhat plays into the idea that queerness is unnatural for human beings. But I never hear those complaints. Only the pronouns. Only the "We get it you're gay but don't shove it down our throats." But I don't want to get too off topic.

Now Discovery is being canceled early. And by early I mean, the writers weren't given proper notice that their show was ending. They were halfway through production and allowed to adjust the end episodes of the season to try to give a satisfying ending.

In Picard and Lower Decks, we got two sapphic relationships ("sapphic" meaning a romantic or sexual relationship between two women who aren't necessarily strictly lesbians) and they were pretty good. People had been asking for Seven to be queer and Jeri Ryan had been playing her as such since her introduction (see again: Rick Berman) and to see her finally get to express that was really healing. Mariner got off to rocky feet when the creators tried to pull a "Dumbledore is gay" where they said she was bi but didn't commit to it, but they she actually got a fairly satisfying relationship in season 3.

But in their most recent seasons, both were completely written out. Seven/Raffi gave us no explanation beyond that they "broke up." They went out of their way to keep them from being on screen together for most of the season. Mattis said in a Reddit AMA that he wanted Seven to be captain and Raffi to be first officer at the end of the season and that Starfleet would have regulations against relationships between the two despite the biggest reason Seven was promoted to captain was that she was a rule breaker. We didn't even get that much for Mariner/Jennifer. Jenn just wasn't in this season except for two background appearances.

And in Strange New Worlds there's just… nothing. SNW is the most recent new show and there's no queer representation. They code Ortegas as gay but don't actually confirm it on screen. There's just… nothing.

And this is how you loose the culture war. The bigots make enough noise that the show that is supposed to be a beacon of diversity doesn't necessarily side with them but they just kinda bow out of the conversation. They decide that it's easier to not bother than to take a stand. And so I and many many queer star trek fans are left wondering:

Does the franchise even want us any more?

#Star Trek #Prick Berman #No Gays In Trek #Disillusionment Trek

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david-talks-sw · 2 years

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Why do a lot of SW fans dislike the Prequel Jedi?

This was going to be the conclusion to this answer about "why a lot of people dislike Mace"... but it's just too long, so I decided to make it a post in its own right.

So why is Mace-- scratch that, why are the Prequel Jedi considered to be "unlikable" by a big chunk of the fandom? Especially when compared to Anakin "I killed a group of children twice" Skywalker.

Overall... I'd say it's three things.

1) Some fans had different expectations.

I touched on this in a recent post: older fans, who are now at least in their 40s, grew up seeing Luke as the ultimate Jedi.

He's Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces, up there with King Arthur and Superman. He's, for lack of a better term, the chosen one.

So when the Prequels were announced and they knew they'd get to see the Jedi Knights in their heyday, they expected to see something like the Knights of the Round Table.

A collective of errant warriors who go on exciting adventures, providing aid from place to place. Like Luke Skywalker.

Instead, they got this:

"A bunch of monk/diplomats who sit around talking about taxations and trading routes and measure the Force based on cell organisms."

"They're nothing like Luke Skywalker! What the hell?" (I address why this is inaccurate here)

Then the second film comes out:

"Wait, Jedi can't get married now? So were all those EU books about Luke and Mara Jade bullshit?" (also addressed in above link)

Then the third film comes out:

"Palpatine is right there, why can't they sense him or read his mind? They're Jedi!" (explanation why here)

Also Luke is no longer the Chosen One apparently? Anakin is? How does that work?

Plus, the way they speak, their jargon, is waaaaay too formal, gone are the OT characters talking informal English with American accents and quips. Even the way these new characters speak - and not just the Jedi, the Queen too - seems detached from reality and makes them harder to relate to. (but we're talking about diplomats and royalty, so how else would they be talking?)

2) How adult audiences perceive "morally pure" characters.

Even if one didn't have the pre-concieved notions about the Jedi... they don't seem to impact the adult viewers the right way.

Then again... neither does Barney the Dinosaur.

Many are the conspiracy theories and negative discourse surrounding him (there's even an upcoming documentary about it). You know why? Because he's not meant to be a character for adults, who have outgrown morally black or white characters and are unable to relate to them... his target demographic is children.

They see him and go "I love you, you love me". We see him and go "What the fuck is this guy hiding? What darkness lies beneath that mask of optimism and joy?"

Same goes for the Jedi.

So I'd say what we have, here, is a similar situation as the one in the recent Rick and Morty episode, "Juricksic Mort".

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In the episode, a bunch of dinosaurs return to Earth and it turns out they're incredibly selfless, diplomatic, moral and spiritually advanced (kinda like the Jedi!)

Rick's reaction is - you guessed it - "what the fuck are they hiding?"

The dinosaurs turn Earth into a utopia, ending all wars, removing all conflict, bringing about world peace and giving everyone the chance to go on vacation... and everybody hates them for it and eventually wants to see them fail and step down from their pedestal.

The writing emphasizes their superior virtue so much that they actually come across as uptight and patronizing. This is done intentionally, so that it's difficult to find them likeable out-of-universe, and we relate to the earthlings in-universe who react the same way.

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Why do the audience and the characters react this way to characters who - again - are good and moral?

Because as Moriarty says in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows... hidden within the unconscious is an insatiable desire for conflict.

It's why the presence of conflict is so crucial in storytelling.

It's why every scene in good movies presents some form of internal, external or philosophical conflict.

It's why protagonists need flaws to be interesting and relatable. Because we're flawed as well.

Also, the protagonist will eventually have overcome their flaws through an arc.

More importantly, the basis of all conflict, in storytelling, comes from something being out of balance.

And the Jedi are trained to not be that :D !

So on the one hand we have Anakin, a flawed, conflicted character who struggles with his inner balance, and on the other we have the Jedi, who are essentially presented as flawless and balanced.

What will a chunk of the audience do? They:

Won't like the Jedi.

Will project a flaw onto them (more on that in the next section).

Side with Anakin, the one that's as imperfect as the audience is.

Sometimes all of the above.

But the thing is, though... the Jedi we see in the Prequels are not flawless or perfect.

They are, for the most part, characters who have already completed their character arcs, characters who have already confronted their own inner flaws and overcome them.

And whenever these flaws resurface? Well, they've conquered them once, and they have the training, so they do it again.

Example, here's Yoda confronting and overcoming his hubris and inner fears:

Has he done it before, in his almost 900 years? Probably, yeah. But it's not a one-and-done sort of thing.

But the Prequels are not their movies. They're about Anakin.

He's meant to be the more interesting character. And they're meant to be the ones with less flaws, because they're mentor archetypes and the Prequels show an interesting situation wherein the protagonist fails to listen to the mentors and fails to overcome his own flaws, which leads him to - instead - be doomed by them.

3) Issues with the writing.

So, for the people who didn't like the changes but want to like the Prequels, there's a headcanon that seemingly fixes everything:

"The Prequel Jedi... are intentionally written as arrogant, hypocritical moralists. They are meant to come across as dispassionate. I mean, isn’t that what being a Jedi is, apparently? You purge yourself of attachments aka emotions, and act only logically (which was typically-encouraged behavior for a long time, in the US). They've become too systemic and lost their way." And guess what? With this interpretation, "Luke is special again! He's like Qui-Gon in that he found a middle ground between the unfeeling Jedi and the Sith, who have become slaves to their emotions. Like, sure, Anakin can be THE Chosen One, whatever, but Luke? Luke has found the balance, he succeeded where Obi-Wan, Yoda (who wanted Vader dead instead of believing he could be redeemed) and the other Jedi failed. So that's what the Prequels are about: the Jedi's failure."

The issue is, though... it doesn't align with what George intended. (as explained here and here).

But it does use most of the ingredients the films give us. Which - short of unleashing a barrage of George Lucas quotes, interviews and videos - makes it hard to disprove.

Because - seeing as the films aren't about the Jedi, they're about Anakin and his own inner demons - we don't see enough of the Jedi's culture and lifestyle and day-to-day unless it directly relates to Anakin.

So George's very clear idea of how awesome the Jedi are is never truly conveyed or fleshed out and as a result they feel like a group of people who always say "no" to the protagonist. The flawed, passionate and more relatable (by contrast) protagonist.

We get glimpses of it in The Clone Wars, but then it's tarnished by the fact that the Jedi are at war.

Then there's the reads that could easily be disproved... had George been more explicit about what he was going for.

"The Jedi Council bully a 9-year-old." This read could've been avoided had the scene ended with the Jedi telling Anakin that being afraid is normal, but his fear must be conquered otherwise it'll lead to the Dark Side. Which, they do, but in a vague way rather one with a kind empathetic smile.

"Obi-Wan is always berating Anakin, their relationship is tense." The whole movie partially features an arc where their relationship is on the rocks, so removing the tension isn't an option. However, the interpretation that it's been like this for a decade (rather than recently because Anakin reunited with Padmé) could've been avoided if, instead of just a minute-long elevator scene, we maybe saw a set-piece of them on a mission, maybe showing them working in tandem and joking as they escape that nest of gundarks.

More could've been done to frame the Jedi in the positive light thy were meant to be seen under. But again: the movies aren't meant to be about the Jedi.

Though it seems that a lot of people wanted them to be. And maybe that explains the hate re: the Jedi.

Older audiences wanted to see Campbell's Hero they grew up with again, they had a preconceived notion that the Jedi would be wandering, exciting adventurers... instead they got a bunch of "stale" diplomats whose whole job is to avoid conflict and adventure.

So instead of taking the story for what it was - a movie for kids - they projected a "morally gray" narrative that said these characters were flawed and weren't how they were supposed to be in-universe, when the truth is they weren't happy with the characters they witnessed out-of-universe.

#long post #in defense of the jedi #jedi order #meta #star wars #sw meta #prequel trilogy #star wars analysis #also holy shit this is my 300th post apparently :D

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glitteringcrab · 2 months

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...So, uh...

...You guys remember how the most common fan theory about Evil Morty before S6E01 was that he was Rick C-137's original Morty?

Obviously, after S6E01 that theory went out the window, because it was revealed that Rick C-137's Beth died as a child (so Rick C-137 couldn't have his own Morty). In turn, Evil Morty's familiarity with the Citadel's Morty Market and cloning process and the facts that he was enlisted in a Morty Agency and seemed like he had no home to return to, point towards him being a clone Morty.

HOWEVER.

It's still possible Evil Morty is "Rick C-137's Morty", in a way...

...if he originated from a batch of clones that were created using Morty Prime's DNA and memories, that is.

Given that Rick C-137 created the Citadel, and depending on why exactly Morty DNA was necessary to bring down the Central Finite Curve...

...and why "it's complicated"...

... it's theoretically possible Rick C-137 used Morty Prime's DNA and memories to kickstart the Morty Market.

So there might be a batch of clone Mortys who were identical to Morty Prime in every way up until the time the series starts, that is.

Now, while I absolutely LOVE the possibility of Evil Morty being a literal clone nobody who managed to rise above the ranks through sheer determination, instead of him being "a copy of the protagonist"...

...I also like this theory, because of its implications on Morty Prime's capabilities and Evil Morty's well-masked emotions.

Of course, whether this specific theory is true or not, Evil Morty is still a "Morty", and therefore the above mentioned implications still hold true. However, we've seen various "small" differencies among the Mortys from different dimensions/different clone Mortys (eg a girl Morty, Morty with Glasses, fat/left handed Morty, etc) which open the possibility of Evil Morty really being more cruel or capable than Morty Prime. Therefore, those two having the exact same DNA, memories and personality up to the point the series starts would make the implications hit THAT MUCH HARDER.

However, I would absolutely HATE this theory if it were to really influence any characters' decisions in the show. I mean, I don't mind this revelation triggering Morty Prime's self-reflection or something, but I would hate it if the reason Evil Morty asked Morty Prime to come with was "we're the same person" instead of "he's also sick of Rick and has been kind to other Mortys and I don't want to be alone".

Likewise, I'd hate it if Rick C-137 was ever to help Evil Morty in the future and the reason he decided to help were to be "he's a copy of the specific version of my grandson that I love, the specific version of my grandson that I love could be in his place" instead of "this is a very hurt child and the creation of the Morty Market is partially my fault".

Or if the reason Evil Morty didn't try to kill Rick C-137 when he escaped the Citadel was because "he's my grandpa" instead of "his death will bring me no satisfaction, as I know from experience, and I have better things to do, like escaping".

Or if Morty Prime is forced to confront his own dark tendencies because of a metaphorical ugly mirror placed in front of him in the shape of an evil clone, instead of him pondering over the actual violence he has personally committed.

That being said, them being literal copies of each other would explain the following stuff, which however I want to stress also have other possible explanations:

The strange lingering look Evil Morty gives Morty Prime in this scene (assuming he already knew whose Morty he was a copy of, which admittedly we have no indication is a thing that clone Mortys know) (and his look could also be triggered by the anti-Rick stuff Morty Prime had said up to that point)

"There's our guy" (lol) (also possibly Evil Morty simply being ironic, given that "Rick had two Mortys" in this adventure, and that Evil Morty pretended to be Rick C-137's Morty for part of the fight)

Morty Prime's stats in the attribute slider (also possibly explained if all Mortys are actually smart and charismatic, which, you know what, they probably are)

The CFC universe Evil Morty is latched on could very well be the very Universe Morty Prime currently lives in, because I suspect if a Rick was to ever search for him using his unique genetic/dimensional/whatever signature the presence of Morty Prime might make it seem like a false positive lol. (And it would be HILARIOUS if he's hiding under their very noses).

ANYWAY I wrote this theory but I want Morty Prime and Evil Morty to be ACTUAL FRIENDS, not their relationship to be reduced to "he's a copy of me, so I'll be more understanding". I don't mind if this theory is true, I just don't want it to matter in the plot.

...I still prefer the theory of Evil Morty being a literal clone nobody though.

#evil morty #rick and morty #morty smith

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imagitory · 7 days

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@andrewmoocow Personally I find them to be misguided. There is a very well-done analysis video I've cited before that talks about the animation and why it ends up looking like AI, and I think it really addresses this argument better than I could --

youtube

-- but TL;DR, the animation looks "fake" largely because of stylistic decisions (l.e. turning off motion blur with the thought it would look "more like 2D") that weren't well thought-out. And I actually think the film's writing issues run into the same problem.

Because here's the thing -- writing high fantasy is not as easy as it looks. I can testify to this because I myself am writing a draft for a high fantasy novel right now.

All these years, Disney has been in an advantageous position with their animated films largely being adaptations of previous works, since they're already given a lot of the parameters a writer needs to build a world, plot, and characters. In a Snow White adaptation, for instance, you need a vain queen, an innocent princess, a prince, seven dwarfs, a magic mirror, and a poisoned apple, as well as a fairy tale world where these things fit comfortably. And since so much mainstream fantasy is largely inspired by medieval Europe, that aesthetic remains very familiar with audiences to the point that you need a lot less explanation for things. We don't really need an explanation for the political landscape of Cinderella because we see "fairy tale kingdom" and immediately know it's an absolute monarchy led by generally amiable rulers. We're not surprised when fairies appear in Sleeping Beauty, or when a magical sword predicts who should be king in The Sword in the Stone, or when Tiana and Naveen are turned into frogs in The Princess and the Frog, or when trolls appear in Frozen -- all of these magical conventions fit within the usual fantasy aesthetic and really don't need any explanation or backstory. I'd hazard to say that most people -- aside from those nitpicky critic types who get all hung up on how many servants are in Beast's castle just because they saw a bunch of extra silverware in the Be Our Guest sequence -- just don't bother questioning these things. And the original material also gives some shape and form to the adaptation's story, characters, and overall feel. It doesn't matter how close the finished product matches the original idea or even how familiar the audience is with that original material -- it still provides a jump-off point and sense of focus for the writer(s), the same way fanfiction (even an AU fanfic) can, in contrast to original content.

All right, well, what about those Disney projects that aren't fantasy? Well, in the case of stories like Treasure Planet, Robin Hood, and Mulan, they're still based off preexisting properties that people will find familiar enough that the writers can focus more on the adaptation's unique additions and not focus on detailed backstories and explanations about how the world and societies depicted in the story work. It's a lot easier to just focus on the fantastical elements like the space tech, talking animals, or Mushu and the ancestors if the rest of the story and cast are relatively easy to understand. Even in the case of original stories like The Lion King (which admittedly was largely inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet, but I digress), Lilo and Stitch, and Lady and the Tramp, they still exist in a non-magical world that closely resembles ours, with only superficial changes like animals being able to talk or the existence of aliens. Even quasi-historical settings like The Great Mouse Detective and Atlantis: The Lost Empire look enough like our real-world equivalent that their settings are largely recognizable to us.

In just about all Disney animated films, the screenwriters didn't have to world-build that much. They didn't have to put the character development and plot on hold to explain the rules of the universe these stories take place in that often -- not unlike how writers like Rick Riordan didn't have to explain as much about the country his hero Percy Jackson lives in, because his books are an urban fantasy where our real world is just "plused up" with magical elements. We don't need to know if gravity works on the story's characters the way it does for us. We don't need to be told about the political landscape, history, or terrain of our location. We don't need to ask whether dying is something our characters can come back from.

Wish, on the other hand, is an original story in a high fantasy setting that doesn't resemble our world. People might try to claim it takes place in the Iberian Peninsula, but come on -- Rosas is a completely fictional country in a world that has magic we don't know the rules of and countries that faintly resemble cultures from our world, but we don't know the histories of or how similar they actually are to their real-world inspiration. We also have a cast of characters we've never met in any other media and a story and messages that we know nothing about beforehand. This means that we have no preexisting framework going in for what's possible and impossible in this world; no frame of reference about who these characters are and what their histories are; and no parameters that the plot, characters, and themes must fit inside, whether based on the fantastical story being adapted or a real-world setting that's a lot like ours. And I don't think that Disney really thought through just how challenging it can sometimes be to tell this kind of a story without stuffing the script with a lot of "tell" and not "show," which, as just about any film person can tell you, is the exact opposite of what you generally want. In film scripts, you want to show your audience a lot more than you tell them -- this not only takes full advantage of the visual medium and communicates your point in a much more natural and artistic way, but it also lets your audience think for itself and come to its own conclusions.

Now of course, can you write a high fantasy original story that's easy to follow and evokes a lot of emotion in your audience? Of course! But it does take time and a lot of careful and creative world-building. J.R.R. Tolkien was the king of such things. George R. R. Martin has done it. Neil Gaiman has done it. Ursula K. Le Guin has done it. Even the writer of the Nimona graphic novel, ND Stevenson, did a good job of it! But I think it's quite clear that Wish's script was not in the works that long -- development of the original idea started back in 2018, yes, but it wasn't until January 2022 that it was announced Jennifer Lee was writing it and Julia Michaels was brought on to write the songs, so the film's current trajectory likely wasn't pinpointed until then. And if the film was released in November 2023, then that means Wish's script was finished in under two years. Although there are successful Disney scripts that I daresay needed only that much time (Frozen, for instance, was quite rushed, by all accounts), once again, those scripts were done for stories with some sort of preexisting framework that allowed the writers to skip explaining certain visual or contextual short-hand in favor of focusing on their own creative flourishes in character and story. They were written with a tighter focus on the plot and its players without the need to build a complete stage under them.

The reason some people want to cry "AI!" when they look at Wish's writing is that they're looking at a script that makes the rookie writing mistake of exposition-dumping in an attempt to make its audience care, rather than evoking emotion. That kind of exposition-dumping is something that most novelists usually have to trim and rewrite in future drafts of their work: it's a mistake done while the writer is trying to world-build enough that their audience understands all of these original rules, societies, locations, and characters they're not familiar with. This exposition is then often trimmed down before publishing, and when adapted for the screen it's often trimmed even further or even completely rewritten, in favor of more visual methods of conveying the same information. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz writes about Dorothy traveling down the Yellow Brick Road and about the long journey that takes her and her friends through a lot of side adventures on their way to the Emerald City: it's the famous film adaptation that cuts out the Kalidahs and puts the whole trip to jaunty music for the characters to sing and dance to. Wish could've communicated to us the importance of the wishes to their owners through more visual means, but instead feels the need to reiterate this idea over and over through written dialogue. And again, this is a common mistake by writers when they're inexperienced in creating completely original content, as opposed to spin-offs, sequels, or adaptations of other people's work.

AI writing is generally known for repetitive phrasing and sentence structure, lack of accuracy, and lack of a personal touch. As much as I'll agree that there are a lot of character and world-building choices in Wish that don't make sense, I don't think that's the same thing. There clearly was a story someone (or multiple people) wanted to tell about a person hoarding the precious ideas of other people away, even if it means those ideas can never be shared with the world -- it just wasn't a story that ended up being told that well. And I think this is why Wish is almost worth seeing -- it serves as a good example of why certain writing decisions work better than others and how writing for fantasy projects and/or "family entertainment" is an art form that's worthy of respect when it's done right.

To sum up my stance on the matter -- I think Disney just bit off way more than it could chew and then didn't give its writers enough time to properly digest it.

#disney #disney wish #wish (2023)#wish critical #analysis #opinion #oh boy here i go #personal

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joycew-blog · 2 years

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I’ve been reading around a bit on the Rick and Morty reddit and actually found an interesting explanation of what Rick was doing with the wine bottle at the end of this episode

They explained it as Rick literally locking away the alcohol from Beth, to make sure that she doesn’t become an alcoholic like he is. And I honestly really like it, he’s really looking out for her more and more. And it compliments with his other actions in this episode where he doesn’t judge her and gives her advice of how to deal with the situation she got herself in.

It also shows great growth in him too. He doesn’t run and drink his problems away anymore, he’s willing to talk about them.

#rick and morty #rmspoilers #rick and morty season 6 spoilers #text post

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thesoftboiledegg · 1 year

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Starting from the first episode, Rick and Morty's sixth season mirrors, references and counters season three. Season six references other seasons, especially the second, but the writers really want you to focus on season three and how much has changed.

Season three starts with The Rickshank Rickdemption, which I think is the best episode in the series, but it also shows Rick at his worst: a horrifying monster who destroys everything in his path on a rampage that culminates in a full-on mental break as he yells incoherently at a terrified Morty in the garage.

The Rickshank Rickdemption shows Rick's "fake" backstory, features a return to Morty's original dimension and involves the whole family in a zany adventure. Unfortunately, this also kickstarts Rick's spiral into nearly irredeemable madness.

Solaricks goes to similar places: Rick's backstory, Morty's original dimension, the family's complicated dynamic. By now, season five has revealed that Rick's "fake" backstory wasn't fake after all. Instead of mocking the audience with a "Fuck you, you can't have what you want!" sneer, the episode shows us Rick's quiet sadness.

Meanwhile, Morty ends up in his original dimension yet again. But he doesn't find the goofy Mad Max-esque characters from season three. His father, who's become a more realistic deception of an apocalypse survivor, tears into him and tells him--and the audience--that he, Beth and Summer were real people, not plot devices.

The episode abandons the cold and mocking earlier version of the Cronenberg Smiths. Jerry abandons Morty, too, leaving Morty to wander away crying. No brutal destruction and bloody corpses on the citadel. Just a sad, lonely teenager in an empty landscape.

Rick comes back for him without claiming that he doesn't care about Morty. He doesn't yell at him, insult him, subject him to horrifying violence or bait him into trying to kill him. Morty's not angry at him, either. After everything that's happened, after all the fucked-up shit that Rick's pulled, after all the screaming and fighting and abuse, Morty runs to him with a smile on his face and his arms outstretched like a young child.

Nothing could make Rick abandon his revenge-fueled atrocities in The Rickshank Rickdemption. In Solaricks, he abandons his chance to kill Prime when Morty calls him "Grandpa."

Likewise, Final DeSmithation is the second Rick and Jerry episode that we've been hoping for since The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy. The first episode battered viewers with Rick and Jerry's hatred for each other. Rick unleashes rage-fueled tirades while Jerry focuses on his desire to get back at Rick, to hurt him and even kill him.

In Final DeSmithation, Rick isn't the one terrorizing Jerry. In fact, he actually gets annoyed at the Smiths for making fun of him (while doing household chores, which is another first for Rick.)

He has no reason to help Jerry. If anything, he has a chance to endlessly mock him. But he gives Jerry a half-assed explanation that he "just didn't want to see someone get bullied into going to a zoo," which would still be nice if it were true. Rick doesn't even bother making up a mean one, such as "I'm only doing this so that my daughter doesn't kick me out of the house for not saving your stupid ass."

Final DeSmithation also had a fandom staple: Rick in a suit and tie. The series full of fakeouts suddenly pivoted to giving fans what they want.

Rick's mean to Jerry throughout the episode, but you can tell that he's getting tired of the act. He's a little more patient, and his remarks are less incisive. At the end, Rick tries to take it back by slapping Jerry, but the episode doesn't end there. He immediately looks guilty and accepts Jerry's offer of friendship afterward.

I also loved when Rick said that he's "dead center on the alignment chart." Earlier seasons, including season three, glorified the idea of Rick being close to evil.

Analyze Piss is the most direct callback: a sequel to Pickle Rick. However, Rick's not concocting ridiculous plots to get out of therapy. He willingly attends therapy. He paces around and fights against it, but ultimately, he seeks help.

He respects Dr. Wong, who knows how to talk to him on his level. He puts her ideas into practice even when the family pushes back because Rick's not doing what they want him to do. Rick still struggles and falls apart, but he tried this time.

He has chances to manipulate the Smiths, but he doesn't take them. Instead, he looks at them sadly. His ego is slowly eroding.

Finally, Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation mirrors The Rickchurian Mortydate. Both episodes are season finales, and both involve Rick and the President bickering with Morty caught in the middle and getting increasingly sick of Rick's bullshit.

Still, this episode is a little nicer. Rick relapses, but he doesn't entirely backslide and turn into the murderous lunatic that he was in The Rickchurian Mortydate. He's just crabby.

The episode ends with an exciting cliffhanger instead of a dark moment when the Smiths (rightfully) get tired of Rick's bullshit. Rick even says in his usual crazy rant that he'll try to be healthier in season seven as he hunts Prime Rick.

We finally get a fakeout, but this one is gentler than the others. It's disappointing that Rickbot wasn't the real Rick, but the writers don't want us to leave thinking that Rickbot existed only to fool us. Rickbot tells Morty that Rick technically committed those kind, loving acts. It's a surprise twist that doesn't negate the entire season.

Season six countered infamous scenes from other seasons, but the season three parallels stood out to me because they contrast Rick at his worst with Rick at (maybe) his best. He can't change the past, but when he ends up in the same situation again, he can make different choices.

#rick and morty #rick sanchez #morty smith #rick and morty season six #jerry smith #essay

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seaweedbraens · 3 months

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To all the show doubters: you CANNOT say the final episode wasn’t absolutely great. Very few major issues, and actually lived up to the books (mostly)!

i obviously have like 16 full length essays in my head but imma spare y’all that for now.

i speak as a show doubter here. i havent watched the show yet because i have a grad review in 2 weeks that i'm supposed to be working on and i simply dont have the TIME to binge an entire show without feeling a truckload of guilt afterwards.

nothing against you, or anyone who enjoys the show! but i accidentally saw a clip from the final episode that INFURIATED me.

it's luke's betrayal, and somehow....annabeth was there. i don't want to comment on anyone's acting because this is just one scene and i don't want to be too harsh. but my issue is that annabeth was there at all.

first off - if she was there, there is no WAYYYYYYYYY annabeth's first instinct would be to attack luke if she overheard him. this is her FAMILY, the one person she truly felt she knew and who she felt knew her. she'd be stunned, man. not defiant in the face of his betrayal. look at the books! she rushes to hold the sky for him, making that decision in the brief moment it causes him pain!

anyway:

annabeth being absent is the POINT. in the books, she doesnt see luke leave, she doesnt know/understand his reasoning, and ON TOP OF ALL THAT she has to wait for like a week for percy to wake up and tell her how things went down. during that week she has to come to terms with the fact that 1. luke's left her and the camp, 2. he attacked percy, 3. he's joined kronos, and 4. he didn't care about her enough to give her an explanation or even say goodbye.

i feel like this DIRECTLY leads into her attitude towards him in EVERY. OTHER. PJO. BOOK following the first one. she is desperate for answers, desperate to believe that there's still some good in him. she wants to hear it from him. she wants to SAVE him. she defends him from percy's judgement MULTIPLE TIMES, tells him percy didn't know him, but she did. she truly believes he's just lost his way. she doesn't understand how he's fallen because she wasn't there to see it. and when she finally does, it's STILL hard for her to process.

i feel like her being there just ruins a lot of that. or maybe i'm just being overly nitpicky. which...that's kinda my thing. wcwsthwas exists because i'm nitpicky.

i don't want to diminish anyone's experience if it's been a positive one, least of all yours because i really do appreciate your inputs! this is just me ranting here because that scene bugged me so much. maybe the rest of the show is great and i'll be eating my words soon enough. i guess we'll have to see!

i'm sorry if this is very harsh - i don't want to offend anyone! i'm ecstatic you like the show, and i don't want to shut anyone down. i know i come off as a rick riordan hater (which i kinda am), but i wouldnt be writing pjo fic if i didn't have a lot of love for the universe he's created. i want to hear all the opinions - the good and the bad. please feel free to share any thoughts in my askbox.

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yourlastbraincell-kiwi · 2 months

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Hi there

Could you please do a Carl Grimes x fem!reader angst to fluff that takes place during beginning of season 6? Carl and the reader are a couple and super close. Ron likes the reader and is jealous of their relationship. Ron also wants revenge for his father’s death so he kidnaps Carl knocking him out and taking him outside beyond Alexandria. The reader finds a letter Ron left telling her he took Carl. Reader goes over the walls and tracks Ron and Carl and finds where they are. Ron threatens Carl and is about to kill him when the reader shows up just in time. Her and Ron fight with her winning the fight. She then frees Carl and once Carl is free a swarm of walkers start coming. Ron tries to escape but is surrounded and killed by the walkers. The reader and Carl escape the herd just in time and return to Alexandria. Carl kisses the reader all emotional while holding her not wanting to let go telling her he was afraid he’d never see her again and that Ron was going to hurt her. Reader and Carl then have a cozy night in cuddling with each other by the fireplace. Thank you.

A/N: This has been sitting in my asks for a while and I finally got around to it. And I’m sorry it does seem and feel rushed, but I will def come back to it, as well as my other stories, to tweak it and add stuff.

But for now this is the masterpiece, and I’m hopeful it’s still good nonetheless.

Pairing: Carl x Fem!Reader

—————

“Hey, how you been?” I smiled, seeing Carl walk over to me as I helped removed some supplies from out of the truck.

“Good, glad to see save.” Carl said and planted a kiss to my cheek, I laugh. My eyes trailed over to Ron as he huffed and quickly helped get the supplies off the truck.

“What’s up with, Ron?”

“I’m not sure actually, but what you can do- yeah? Is help me with the supplies.” I grin and handed him one of the boxes.

“Fine, fine.” He smiles back and went into the room Ron had just entered.

He placed the box on the floor, and went to go look into the boxes of food and various other items.

Carl picked up one of the cans and examined it, he was just about to put it back when hands grabbed onto him and one held a cloth to his mouth.

Carls screamed were muffled and quiet against the cloth, the can fell from his fingers as he suddenly fell unconscious. Ron taking this moment to drag him out of the room and just beyond the gated perimeter of the community.

(Y/N) waited for Carl to come back, but he didn’t.

‘It normally wouldn’t have taken him this long..’ She thought. She asked around Alexandria, Daryl, Michonne, Rick. Hell, she even asked Gabriel if he’d seen him.

No one. No one knew. No sign of him. Just left without a trace.

(Y/N) then began to panic, she checked the pantry one more time, and noticed something was placed down on the top of the boxes.

It was almost strategic. Like they wanted her to find this.

It was a note, but on the backside it was a hand-drawn with a red circle encompassing one of the locations on it.

She quickly let everyone know where she’d be and left with a gun and knife.

All she needed. Nothing more, nothing less.

She made it to the spot, just before sun down and called out to Carl.

“Carl? Carl? You here?”

“Shut up, or you’ll draw them in.” Ron said, as he held a gun to Carls head.

“Ron, listen to me.”

“No! You listen to me! We’ve known each other fro the start of this shit, and you go ahead and be with him? Him! Of all people?”

Ron exclaimed and (Y/N) slowly creeped closer to Ron. His seemingly still in his long explanation of why I should’ve chosen him instead of Carl.

“And he’s a murdered! He got my dad killed, why would you want to be with someone like that?”

“You’re right he is one, but why would you stoop to that level? His level?” I asked, reaching for the gun. “Gimme the gun and we can talk about it, no harm done to anyone.”

She was close to grabbing the gun, and Ron looked like he was going to give in but took it away last second and aimed it back at Carl.

She pushed the gun away from his hand, it fired. It missed Carl by a centimeter, but she didn’t have time to get Carl up, as she tackled Ron to the ground.

She took out her knife and stabbed Ron in the side he winced and pushed her off with a quickness, and had his hands around her throat trying to choke her out.

She was starting to lose consciousness, as she was feeling for a rock underneath her palm and quickly picked it up and hit Ron in the head with it, knocking him out instantaneously.

(Y/N) quickly unties Carls after cutting it with her knife, and noticed that walkers were coming.

“We gotta go! Now!” She exclaimed, grabbing her knife, and both her and Ron’s gun. And held onto Carls hand trying to run in the direction of Alexandria.

“Wait.” Carl stopped her wanting to see what happened to Ron. They watched as the walkers bit down onto his shoulder and his stomach. (Y/N) audibly groaned and looked away.

Carl hearing her sounds of disgust, stopped watching and followed her all the way back home.

Once they got there they banged on the gate, Sasha opened it and looked at them concerned. “The hell happened out there? You guys alright?”

We nodded, breathing heavily. They both hugged each other like their lives depended on it. “He, didn’t hurt you did he? Let me see.” He held my neck up to see if he left any bruises, “I’m fine. I swear it.”

“I was so scared he would hurt you, or take you away from me, or anything else. I just couldn’t-”

“And you didn’t, I’m here with you in this moment. So, let’s cherish it, yeah?” I kissed his cheek and led him into the house that was provided to us when we first got to Alexandria.

And one by one took turns taking a very much needed and well deserved, hot shower.

—————

After that whole thing, they set up a bonfire near the lake, and relaxed. Not a care in the world.

Nothing was wrong in the world, just them too.

“Hey, did you mean what you said back there? About me being a murderer and all?”

“No. No, no, I didn’t mean any of that. It was just to get Ron to drop the gun. I promise you anything I said back there wasn’t true. Okay?” He nodded and smiled. They leaned in and planted a kiss to each other’s lips, before admiring the night sky together.

“Don’t ever leave, okay?”

“As long you promise the same thing.”

“Deal.” They smiled and wrapped and arm around her shoulder.

#x reader #carl grimes #carl grimes x reader #twd #twd x reader #wattpad #x black reader #Carl grimes x black reader

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zeep-xanflorp · 6 months

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rambling about the rick-unity-wong talk bc i'm upset about it

r: look, it's clear you weren't lying when you said you could've taken over earth because your finger just took over america. i need you to help me fix that.

u: oh, it took that to make you believe me?

r: why should i believe you? you show up unannounced and hijack a state.

u: i called you! multiple times! you ghosted me.

so there are two ways i think you can read rick not believing unity. one is that he believed it was trying anything to stay in proximity to rick even though he was asserting boundaries, or two, he did actually believe it but wanted to deal with the situation on his own or just wanted it gone. either way, he didn't want to be around it.

then there's the part about rick ghosting it. like okay yes. unity tried giving rick a heads up but the fact is that it knew rick wasn't answering its calls. it Knew rick wouldn't know it was there unless it made a big deal about it being there and that's what it did. it literally showed up without permission and assimilated a whole state on rick's home planet, in rick's country. just to get his attention.

w: rick, is that true?

r: she dumped me. why would i answer her calls?

and now we get a blatant explanation for why rick was ignoring unity. i imagine it would've been clear enough anyway without this explanation but rick is still upset from being broken up with. so he decided to ghost it with no explanation, cutting it off entirely.

w: alright, i'm going to commit a cardinal sin in couples therapy here, but rick, i think you're wrong. [..] you had an outer-space lady who was worried for your life and your response was hostile enough to cause a huge problem.

u: thank you.

w: now you're asking her to both forgive you and solve it?

now, the mistake wong makes here is assuming she knows the full story. obviously she's smart and i think she gave her best analysis based on what she knows of the situation, but in her ignorance she fails to listen to rick, her patient.

the whole theme of this episode is rick asserting his boundaries. he doesn't want to see unity because last time he did it ended catastrophically for him. he's not ignoring it out of pettiness but as a defence mechanism. a coping strategy. and when it decided to follow through with its plan of coming to america anyway, destroying the boundaries rick had in place, it made him lash out.

rick also has a tendency to self sabotage when things are going well for him, whether he realises it or not. he abuses morty when they get too close. he made unity party with him instead of doing its duties. his actions push people away, keeping them at arms length.

i believe his boundaries are in place to prevent these episodes of self sabotage. so when they get ignored and discarded, he goes back into that mindset.

and wong, who would be aware of this at least vaguely, blames unity's actions on rick ignoring it which is not fair in the slightest imo.

w: unity, i think the reason rick brought me here is that he doesn't know how to indicate to you he's changed. because he's changing very slowly. but he is.

now this is something i had trouble understanding bc i am a shameful rick apologist at the best of times and couldn't remember what he actually did wrong. his crime in this instance was when he was distracting unity from its work, influencing it to drink and party all the time and avoid its responsibilities. this became too much for it, especially when it saw how rick used the same methods to detach himself from his family.

so it broke up with him, leaving him to spiral into the worst mental state we as the audience have personally seen him in in present day - his suicide attempt. unity doesn't know about that, and i'm guessing wong doesn't either, because all rick needed to say to wong was that their breakup ended horribly for him so being around it is difficult for him and maybe she would've understood more. but no that's too much vulnerability for old man sanchez.

rick has changed since then. i imagine he better understands why unity left him. i also think he knows that it wants the best for him but struggles with accepting that. that's what led to this mess of a situation.

he feels hurt from being abandoned. it feels hurt that rick couldn't understand why it left. and all of this culminated in a messy situation where unity acted drastically to get rick's attention, and rick in his stubbornness and pain refused to accept it.

and so. i think wong spoke too quickly. i think she definitely knows rick's patterns and is right to call him out but made an unfair judgement on only him because even she expects the worst from him. he is changing, but she is encouraging unity not to give him a second chance because he's not there yet. when really that decision should be up to unity.

even though it does take agency at the end. after unity releases america from its hold, we get this absolutely heartbreaking scene between it and rick.

r: i trust you now.

u: that's nice. but i don't trust you.

unity turns rick's lack of trust in it back at him, and it's telling the truth. it feels betrayed by rick's actions in this episode because it only wanted to make sure rick was alright. to it, rick seems to be punishing unity for caring about him.

anyway in conclusion. rick is mentally ill, wong was a little too harsh on him in this episode bc it's a complex situation, and unity will act drastically if it can't get rick's attention. it's unfair to blame it all on rick in this case (even though things are normally his fault) bc while he did act immaturely in response, he wasn't the only one that escalated the conflict so drastically.

this is not a refined analysis. i might fix it later but no promises.

#rick and morty meta #rick and morty #rick sanchez #rick n morty #r&m #rnm #rick c 137 #rick c137 #rick #rick and morty spoilers #rick and morty season 7 #rick and morty season 7 spoilers #unity #dr wong #air force wong

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