#and also representing the fact that they both had a lot of pressure and expectation put on them to save the monsters because of the legend | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

heesdreamer · 1 year

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SUNSHINE

PAIRING ➩ basketball player heeseung x cheerleader reader

WARNINGS ➩ um its super rough smut lol

WC ➩ 5k

AUTHORS NOTE ➩ i hate both short works and straight smut but i guess that vlog got to me so here you go NOT PROOFREAD also i don’t like writing the boys completely out of character and i do not think hs would say or do half of these things lol but for the sake of the story

“You might just be the least positive cheerleader of all time.”

You were turning your head to the side to glare at the voice suddenly appearing from your left, sighing and rolling your eyes when you spotted who it was and going back to your position with your arms crossed on the side of the court as the game continued on.

“Aren’t you guys supposed to be all smiley and ‘go team’?” Heeseung was continuing on even though you were clearly ignoring him, something you did every time he attempted to bug you during the games and rile you up enough to get a reaction.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on the court and not sat next to me on the bench?” You were snapping back at him and you quickly glanced at him before looking away when you saw the familiar smirk creeping up on his face.

Heeseung was definitely not a bench warmer, far from it considering he was practically the star of your schools basketball team and he knew you were aware of this. That still didn’t stop him from occasionally allowing the coach to switch him out so he could come and sit near the cheerleaders, seemingly finding a lot of mid game entertainment in you and your cold reactions.

You’d gone to school with him for most of your life but you never really noticed him until high school started and you joined the cheerleading team under the pressuring words of your mom.

She’d been one when she was your age and she claimed it to be the sole reason she loved high school, the place where she met all of her friends and eventually your father when he transferred their junior year. You’d pretty much expected to be forced into it since you were a child and now on your fourth and final year, you were more so just going through the motions.

Your stoic, and borderline aggressive, personality mixed with the image of you in a small glittery skirt and your hair sporting a giant obnoxious bow in your schools representative colors, seemed to catch the attention of the star player and he hadn’t left you alone since.

“When would I get to talk to you if I wasn’t on the bench?” He was leaning sideways towards you and you frowned softly, trying to ignore him and the stupid smirk sticking to his face now. “It’s not like you stop for me in the hallways.”

“Have you tried taking a hint?” You were once again harshly spitting the words at him and you felt a bit frustrated with yourself for not being able to keep your composure like normal, already stressed from an intense workload and the building pressure of graduation as it approached. “Why can’t you go bother your fan club, I’m sure they’d be more than willing.”

Heeseung definitely didn’t have the same concerns as you and you didn’t necessarily blame him. It isn’t his fault he was immediately offered full ride sport scholarships to multiple different schools and as much as you hated to admit it, he worked hard for his success and he deserved it.

That fact still didn’t make it any less annoying that he was constantly bugging you with his quick comments about your attitude or his countless attempts to flirt with you, asking for your number or sending you Valentine’s Day singing grams every year since you’d met, even though you’d stormed into the cafeteria freshman year and dumped his soda on his head for humiliating you.

He hadn’t gotten upset and started to dislike you like you had hoped for, instead he smiled and moved his wet hair out of his face before asking if you liked the flowers he’d left at your locker.

“Why would I do that? You know you’re my favorite, sunshine.” His tone was lower now and the nickname fell from his lips casually, routine by now considering how much he said it despite the fact you told him to knock it off every single time he used it.

You were sparing him once last glare before turning back towards the game and ignoring the fact he was a lot closer to you now, one small sideways scoot away from being off the bench and on the same bleacher seat you were on.

He was persistent to a point that you could almost admire and you’d never be foolish enough to deny that he was almost stupidly attractive but that didn’t change anything for you. You had too many differences for you to be truly interested and it didn’t help that he smelt like sweat almost every single time you saw him.

Plus, you weren’t lying about his fan club and you already had to deal with numerous sharp glares and mean whispers throughout the years and that was without you reciprocating the interest.

You’d long associated the boy with negative things so it was pretty common for you to greet his smiley face with an eye roll or a straight up sneer, trying your hardest to ignore him but typically falling into a small session of half bickering half flirting before he was giving up again and leaving you to sit and seethe. You couldn’t even escape him at home either, something you were especially aware of right now.

It was two hours into trying to get some homework done and your patience was wearing thin the longer the sound of the basketball outside continued on.

You just so happened to be in the universes shit list and you lived directly across from a park in the neighborhood. You’d been excited when you first moved in, being able to play constantly when you were younger and eventually developing it into a nice place to sit and relax after school. You would have solo picnics under one of the big trees or just go and listen to music laying in the grass.

That is until Lee Heeseung also moved into the neighborhood, starting off your sophomore year with a big obnoxious moving truck on the other side of the park and what followed nearly drove you insane.

He was outside nearly every single day after school and practice, no matter if it was cold or hot, rain or snow. What once had been a calming spot for you to unwind was quickly overtaken by the sound of rubber against cement and you stopped going the day he started.

Sometimes he’d wave at you from the court, catching sight of you glaring down at him from your open bedroom window, but he never made any attempts to talk to you or invite you to join him unlike he did in school and neither of you ever mentioned the fact you were neighbors during your little moments of heated conversation. You learned to ignore him over time but you were particularly stressed recently and before you knew it you were letting out an annoyed yell before marching out of your room.

You’d barely processed the fact you were moving as you tugged a hoodie over your head and slipped on your boots, heading out the door and slamming it as you passed through.

Some of your fire had disappeared by the time you were actually pushing out into the cold night air and crossing the empty street, your steps becoming more hesitant as you entered the park and approached the basketball court, realizing you were going to have to actually speak to him. He didn’t look over as you got closer and your frown appeared again at the sweat gleaming from his skin, his neck red and agitated like he was pushing himself past his limit.

“Do you ever go home?” You were asking before you had decided it was a good idea and you were almost as surprised as he was to hear your voice, jumping slightly at the same time he did as he whipped around to look at you.

He looked confused for a second when he saw you standing there on the court with your hands stuffed in your pockets but when he seemingly processed it was you, he was breaking into a small smile.

You watched him as he continued to pant and try and catch his breath to be able to respond to you, sighing in the meantime and taking a few step backwards so you could sit on one of the benches and stare up at him in the middle of the court.

“Almost didn’t recognize you without your pretty little skirt, sunshine.” His response was eventually coming and it immediately pulled an eye roll from you despite the fact your stomach flipped as he took a few steps in your direction, tucking his basketball under his arm routinely and watching you with amusement and interest.

“Yeah well…” You couldn’t think of a good comeback as he continued to get closer and you inwardly blamed it on the cold.

“Did you come to cheer me on?” He was asking in a soft voice but it had a mocking hint to it, not necessarily mean but potentially bitter and you stared up at him as his eyebrow cocked. “My own personal cheerleader?”

You were trying to get a good read on his expression but it wasn’t making any sense to you, his face lacking it’s usual lightheartedness and almost looking conflicted as he watched you and seemingly waited for you to finally think of a witty response. You didn’t have one, thrown off by both his strange demeanor and having a conversation in an unfamiliar place and you couldn’t tell if he was pleased or disappointed at your sudden loss for words.

He wasn’t saying anything further and you would’ve sighed in relief if it wasn’t for the fact he was watching you so intensely, eventually sitting beside you on the bench and you tensed up when you felt his thigh pressing against yours.

“You didn’t have to stop playing.” You were eventually muttering and you would’ve been more self conscious about your out of character behavior if he wasn’t already being so strange.

“Yeah I did.” He was sighing and you turned your head to look at him, being met with his side profile as he stared straight ahead towards the court and ignored the fact you were staring at him. “You’re a distraction.”

A laugh was bursting from your lips accidentally, almost a scoff and you cut it off short by covering your mouth and giggling out an apology when he shot you a sideways glare. You were shaking your head and trying to gather yourself before clearing your throat softly. “You see me every time you play, never been a distraction then.”

“Are you kidding me?” Now it was his turn to laugh but it was a lot more dry than yours and almost sarcastic sounding, like he couldn’t believe you’d actually said that. “You don’t think seeing you in that outfit every game is a distraction?”

He was finally looking at you now and your face flushed at how close that made you, nearly touching noses if either of you leaned forward slightly but you stayed perfectly still and scanned over his face as you tried to take in his words. You would’ve thought he was joking around and doing his usual rounds of mindless flirting but his tone was flat and his face remained serious, even as you watched him curiously.

You weren’t exactly sure how to respond and your words felt caught in your dry throat, letting down your guard for just a second too long and being struck with nerves.

“A good distraction?” You were eventually pushing out and your voice lifted in a curious tilt, his serious face breaking into a small smile again at the sound of your soft question and hesitant tone, two things he rarely heard from you.

“Yeah sunshine, it’s good.”

——

You spent the next two days avoiding Heeseung as much as you can, having ended the night in some more whispered small talk before he was resuming practice and you were eventually slipping off back to your house once the cold became too much for your hands and nose.

It was weirdly nice to watch him play in a place where he wasn’t obviously trying to show off and under the pressures of competition, watching the skillful way he moved and the sweat that continued to reflect off his deep tanned skin despite the bitter cold touching on yours.

You still felt awkward for having interrupted him and it didn’t help that you had finally played into his flirting for once, mistakenly letting your guard down once you saw him in a more neutral environment and you felt extremely embarrassed about the whole entire encounter. You were telling yourself it had nothing to do with the fact he made your face flush every time he leaned closer or the way your stomach flipped as he talked about your skirt distracting him.

Sadly, you couldn’t stay away from him for long considering a school year quarter pep rally was approaching and everybody involved needed to come to the gymnasium to practice together, including both the cheerleaders and the basketball team.

You frequented the gym a lot more regularly than other students and were pretty used to being in front of a crowd or performing routines to all of your peers but you could tell some of the clubs who would be involved were feeling nervous, striking up conversation with one of the boys from the dance club to try and ease his nerves.

The conversation was entirely friendly and even a little bit awkward considering you barely knew him and he was a lot younger than you but little did you know, Heeseung was watching you from across the gym and making his own assumptions about the interaction.

You completely missed the way his jaw was clenching as he watched the two of you laugh, you instinctively leaning forward and touching the boys arm as a comforting gesture and giving further reason for the hard glare being sent your way from the other side of the room. It didn’t help that you hadn’t been speaking to him and had went right back to actively avoiding him, he’d been overthinking it and looking forward to talking to you about his worries today since you had to be in close proximity.

So it was driving him crazy that you still hadn’t approached him and even worse, you were too caught up in a conversation with some kid he didn’t bother to place a name to.

Eventually the first round of practice was going to start soon and Heeseung watched as your coach said something to you briefly, stared as you nodded in acceptance and then wandered off to go and gather whatever it was that she had asked for.

He was following behind you without even thinking about it, completely ignoring the calls from his teammates asking where he was going and urging him to hurry up before the run through started. You were heading back towards the storage lockers where there was plenty of extra balls and uniforms, anything that might be needed during a game or an event.

You were barely thinking about the basketball player during this whole time, too distracted with the busyness of the day, but he immediately came to mind when you felt something pressing up against you from behind after entering the storage room that was tucked behind the large indoor bleachers.

“What are you doing?” You were grumbling out to him in your usual annoyed tone even though your stomach was flipping at the fact he was actually touching you for once, something he rarely did despite his constant advances.

He wasn’t fully pressed against you but just enough so that you could feel his clothing near yours, you could sense his large frame looming over you and practically caging you in near the wall you’d been passing when he arrived. You shifted slightly so you could turn your head to look over your shoulder and glare up at him when he didn’t respond.

“Who’s the kid?” He was responding and his voice was lower than usual, lacking it’s typical lightness and humor that came along whenever he felt like teasing you.

“Don’t be jealous of a freshman, it’s not a good look on you.” You were shaking your head and sighing, turning back to look at the shelf and try your best to ignore him despite your alarming awareness to how close the two of you were.

It was only increasing when his hand was finally touching you, snaking forward and resting against your hip in a way that caused your breath to catch in your throat, making you lose your nonchalant demeanor for just a split second before you were attempting to compose yourself again. He was just holding onto your hip, his hand large enough that his fingertips were pressing into your stomach.

You didn’t say anything as he touched you and you still didn’t when he was tugging you backwards softly, pulling your bottom half against his instead of fully pressing against you. Your eyes fluttered shut for a second at the feeling of him but you didn’t want him to see the obvious effect he had over you.

You were wearing a hoodie over your cheerleading uniform and half of his hand was underneath it so he could feel the hem of your skirt properly, bunching up the thick fabric around his arm slightly. He’d only pulled your lower half backwards so you were partially bent over now, barely enough to be noticiable but the implication made your cheeks burn.

“Why would I be jealous?” He was finally asking and his voice didn’t cut the tension at all, if anything worsening it. “Wasn’t him you were thinking about when you put this on.”

A scoff was falling from your lips at his sudden claim, despite how true it was considering you’d stared in the mirror particularly long this morning thinking about Heeseung calling you a distraction. Your careless attitude wasn’t holding too strong especially since he was squeezing your hip bone softly, your body instinctively pushing back further against him and causing your breath to stutter.

You felt slightly dizzy from the feeling of him against you so intimately, mixed with the fact that he had obviously been jealous over something as simple as you having a conversation. It should’ve annoyed you like it normally did but your heart raced slightly instead and you placed your hands against the wall subconsciously.

He took that as a cue to bend you over more, bringing his other hand up to your empty hip and using both of them to tug you fully backwards by the waist so you were flushed against him.

“Why are you wearing this?” He was suddenly asking and you were confused for a second before you felt him tugging on your large hoodie, childish annoyance in his tone at the fact most of your uniform was covered up.

You laughed softly at his whining, your voice embarrassingly affected and breathless. “Didn’t want to be a distraction.”

“That’s bullshit, you like knowing I’m watching you.” He was mumbling again now and it almost sounded like he was talking to himself, not really caring if you heard him. He was taking another step forward now and you could feel him more now, your head falling forward at the realization he was hard against you. “You’d let me take you right here, wouldn’t you?”

You considered not answering for a second and lowering his ego but he was slightly shifting backwards and releasing the pressure and a wave of panic ran through you.

“Yes yes I would.” You were rushing out and moving backwards to try and feel him again, ignoring the soft chuckle he gave and the way he squeezed your desperate hips in amusement. “You know I would.”

“Always so mean to me sunshine.” His voice was mocking again like it was the other night at the park and you were slightly thrown off by his change of demeanor, not expecting the roughness from the boy who was always big smiles and loud laughter everytime you’d seen him. He was bordering mean at times with his rough touches and provoking voice but you didn’t mind it at all, knowing you’d be dripping down your thighs if you were less clothed.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry for being mean Hee.” Your voice was high and whiny but you were too turned on to be embarrassed, knowing how pathetic you must look.

“Show me how sorry you are.” He was instructing and you paused for a second, not exactly sure what he meant until he was lessening his hold on your hips. “Fuck yourself against me.”

Your breath was catching in your throat again and you let out a soft whine, one of your hands on the wall sliding down it slightly as you almost lost your balance.

He wasn’t exactly radiating patience and you were beyond desperate so you wasted no time in giving him what he wanted, pushing yourself back against him harder and crying out when you felt that he wanted it as much as you did, almost painfully hard now. His hips instinctively moved forward to meet yours but he immediately froze and stopped, letting you do all the work as you continued to roll your hips against him and try to get some sort of relief.

It wasn’t nearly enough for you, barely enough pressure for you to feel him and imagine how deep he would feel inside you but not enough to actually help you out in your building desperation, overwhelmed with longing for him as your hand fell off the wall and reach back to grab into his wrist.

“Please, I need you to touch me please.” You were begging him and a soft cry sunk into your voice, your head spinning with how bad you wanted to feel him anywhere.

“Fuck look at you.” He was grunting out before caving into your request, pulling you up softly and walking forward so now your entire body was pressed against the wall.

The cement was cold on your cheek and it would’ve been too uncomfortable if it wasn’t for the immediate distraction he was providing, his large hand slipping under your hoodie and aggressively groping your chest. His knuckles must’ve been rubbing against the wall but he didn’t show any signs of caring about the pain, twisting your hard nipple in his fingers and humping himself against you.

Your head was falling backwards to land on his shoulder, panting and letting out streams of high pitched whines as he roughly played with your mounds and thrusted against your skirt covered core.

He was using his free hand to reach over and grip your chin, holding it tightly between his fingers and turning your face so he could sloppily kiss you from where you laid on his shoulder. You were happily humming into his mouth despite the amateurish way you were moving against each other, more combined teeth and swapped spit than an actual kiss.

You could feel it dripping down your chin as he licked into your mouth, completely filthy and dirtier than you ever imagined him being. It was driving you absolutely insane and you’d completely forgotten about where you were or the fact people were expecting you back, the door not locked and accesible to anyone who came looking for you.

“Want you inside me Hee, please.” You were crying out into the kiss and he was only pulling back enough so you could speak, watching you with hooded eyes and parted lips and he tried to catch his breath and process what you were begging for. “I need you so bad, I can’t breathe.”

“Want me to fuck you sunshine?” His mocking tone was back and he squeezed your chest aggressively to emphasize his words, rutting against you in a sharp thrust that sent you harder into the wall again. He ignored your shocked cry and did it again before laying another wet kiss against your mouth. “Tell me baby, go on and beg for me.”

“I’ll do anything please, anything.” You were nearly sobbing now as you desperately tried to appeal to him, rocking yourself backwards into his hard cock to try and get him riled up enough to snap. “Need your cock in me so bad, do anything.”

Your words were slurred and mainly gibberish by now but it seemed to be enough for him, he cursed under his breath as he watched you desperately beg for him and you barely had time to process the fact he was moving before he was tugging down his basketball shorts and pressing your face against the wall again.

You moaned sharply into the cold cement and you were grateful it muffled it slightly considering you only got louder once he was roughly pulling up your skirt, ripping down your panties in one go and not bothering to warn or prep you before he was pressing the head of his hard cock against your entrance.

“Next time I’ll take my time with you, make you fall apart for me slow.” He was muttering in your ear as he lined himself up, pressing forward slightly and covering your mouth with his head when you let out a loud cry. “Can’t wait anymore though, gonna fuck you like the slut you are.”

You were nodding enthusiastically at his demeaning words, the more coherent part of you fluttering with butterflies at the fact he was already thinking about a next time that wasn’t so rushed. You had no issue with him simply fucking you now, feeling like you’d die if he spent another second teasing you or building up to it.

He was finally pushing himself fully inside you and your legs would’ve gave out if it wasn’t for his arm that was snaking around your stomach and his heavy weight pressing you against the wall, practically suffocating you as you lost your breath from the feeling of his complete length inside of you.

“Fuck, you’re so tight.” He was hissing out between gritted teeth and you instinctively clenched around him at the comment, satisfaction rolling through you when he groaned at the feeling. “No idea how long I thought about this.”

“Then show me.” You were snapping out, immediately hearing him laugh as your usual attitude resurfaced for a second, quickly growing impatient the longer he stayed still inside of you.

You were quickly taking back any anger you had when he was pulling out of you, almost all the way, before slamming his entire length back in. You could feel him so deep that you almost couldn’t catch a breath, bucking forward and your mouth parting in a silent cry that was immediately interrupted when he started to fuck into you at a fast pace.

He gave you no time to adjust to his thick size and you were grateful for it, the rough burn of him stretching you being exactly what you needed after years of bickering and teasing with him. It was beyond what you could’ve imagined, all that tension finally bursting into relief as he fucked you so rough you’d surely be coated in bruised by the time the pep rally actually rolled around.

You’d gone completely dumb and you knew he had too, holding his composure just enough to continue his aggressive thrust but losing all ability to tease you or make more comments towards your behavior.

He was holding you tightly against him and you almost wished you were somewhere more private so you could see him undressed, suddenly overcome with the need to feel his skin against yours and be completely covered in his warmth. You tried to ignore the unusually soft thought towards him and focus on how good he was making you feel, the familiar tight coil building in your stomach as he continued to fuck into you deep and rough.

“Please please.” You were begging again but you weren’t even sure what for at this point, your mouth just moving on instinctively so he didn’t stop under any circumstances.

“I know baby I know.” His voice was more gentle than it had been before but still just as tight and overwhelmed, definitely reaching the end rapidly himself like you were and trying his hardest to prolong it considering how good you felt as you kept getting tighter and tighter around him. “Squeezing my cock so good sunshine, you’re so perfect for me.”

“For you, just for you.” You were quickly responding to the casual possessiveness he had showed and this seemed to affect him more than anything, his hips faltering for a second in their assault before he was fucking into you even harder than you thought was possible. He clearly liked hearing you claim yourself as his own and you felt overwhelming dizzy at the realization.

It was a complete blur now as he fucked into you, coming undone faster than you ever had before and blacking out for a few seconds from the pleasure of him doing the same inside of you. You were too out of your head to care about the fact he had came inside of you and you didn’t even think about it.

You were immediately worried it would be awkward once you were coming back to your senses but then you processed the fact that Heeseung was placing soft kisses against your neck, turning you around gently so you were finally facing him and you felt a bit emotional from how kind he was being now after he’d just taken you so aggressively.

You were definitely in some sort of dropped space after the intensity you’d just been through because you were kissing him suddenly, happy you’d had him in that way but now feeling like you’d missed out on seeing him from this point of view.

He was grateful accepting the kiss and tugging you forward by your lower back, the same place he’d been holding but very different context now as he softly moved his mouth against yours and brushed your hair out of your face.

“Are you going to let me take you on a date now?” He was asking into the kiss and you pulled back to laugh softly, laying your head down on his shoulder and feeling the way they lifted as he chuckled at your reaction.

“Yeah hotshot… I’m sure we can work that out.”

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thegirlwhowrites642 · 3 months

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Hi, please free to ignore( huge fan of your metas btw)

What are your thoughts on Peter pettigrew? In swm we saw him fanboying over james to being responsible for his death. Just because he was afraid or he never really loved his friends. Many people say James and Sirius treated him shitty thats why he betrayed. Some even say he was just a tag along. Please share your thoughts.

First of all, thank you!

(also, unless they are rude, I don't ignore any questions, it might just take me two years to answer)

Peter Pettigrew

My very controversial opinion on Peter is that I love him (as a character).

To me, Peter is one of those characters who represent how Rowling's clear lack of self-awareness as a person translates in her work into her being unable to recognize her strengths as a writer. The majority of the most interesting things she comes up with are not the ones she focuses on.

And that's the case for Peter Pettigrew, who might be the Marauder with the most interesting story.

It's way too easy to reduce him to a coward as the author seems to want you to believe. And even claiming he didn't love his friends is a flattening of his character.

You can have a tendency to be influenced by peer pressure all you want but you don't become an unregistered animagus to help someone if you don't love the friend you are doing that for and you don't have a bit of courage (especially considering how long the whole thing was and that he wasn't particularly talented). He risked extremely severe consequences on his body due to the possibility of the process going wrong and he risked Azkaban for being unregistered.

That's fundamentally the opposite behavior of the one he later has with the Potters.

I also think it's important to point out how Remus is not a close relative (father, son, brother) and how the help Peter provides is not essential to Remus' survival, it's emotional comfort. The lack of necessity of the animagus matter and the easily cancellable bond with Remus increase the braveness and love of Peter's act (in contrast for example with something like what Narcissa does with her son by lying to Voldemort).

I think Peter's story is the one of someone who lost his courage, not the one of a person who never had it.

Doesn't this also make it so much more delicious how his downfall is caused by the return of a glimpse of honor?

I do agree with the fact that in SWM, James and Sirius don't treat him particularly well, especially Sirius, but I don't think they are that aware of it, especially James. They are a bit crude, and they are arrogant. They are two bright posh 16yo guys in a boarding school in the 70s. I don't expect from them a particularly high level of sensitivity in how they talk to people, especially to someone they take for granted knows to be their friend. Sirius is probably more aware of it, but I believe James to be quite unaware of himself at this point in the timeline. This is before his maturation really kicks in, his whole interaction with Lily shows a lack of self-awareness in how he talks to people (we know Lily turns him into a bit of an idiot, the problem is that he doesn't seem to be aware of it). Sirius on the other hand seems a lot more self-aware than James. A lot of people are not going to like what I'm about to say but: James is canonically a better person than Sirius.

And yet, it is abundantly clear that both James and Sirius love Peter.

James gives into Peter's hands his own life and the ones of his wife and son. Sirius gives in Peter's hands the lives of the family he chose.

In the Shrieking Shack, under all the pain Sirius has for the death of James and Lily, it is evident that there's also the pain that comes from the betrayal of a friend.

"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" roared Black. "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!" - Chapter 19, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban

Lily herself is very attached to Peter, in her letter to Sirius, she calls him Wormy (how cute is that?). And, let's remember that she too puts her life and the ones of her husband and son in Peter's hands.

It's too easy to say Peter was just a tagalong, that they didn't love him. It incredibly diminishes the pain of his act.

I also would like to point out that Peter isn't stupid. He was a double agent, he managed to frame Sirius by using in his favor people’s low opinion of his skills (and Remus and Sirius' rocky relationship). James, Sirius, and Remus might have thought of themselves as smarter than Peter but I don't think they actually believed him to be stupid. Considering who the Marauders are, their knowing how good of a liar, and how cunning Peter could be, would be a perfect explanation of why they became friends in the first place.

Does this mean they all loved Peter but Peter only loved Remus out of his friends?

We can't really be sure of his feelings for Sirius, but the admiration he shows for James and the sense of guilt we know he has for his double agent activities don't really align with that image.

I think Peter's fear for his own life ended up winning over the love for his friends.

But why at this point? Why not at Hogwarts?

Something quite interesting is how Peter's father is the only parent of the Marauders who is never mentioned, not in the books, not in any additional material. Doesn't that align just so well with Peter always putting himself at the service of the most important male figure around? First James, and then after school, with the war going on, Voldemort.

Isn't it such a fitting image, Peter growing up without a father, with a too-cuddling mother whom he ends up resenting, faulting her for the absence of the father? It's so natural to paint him as a young man crushed by a sense of inadequacy towards an image of masculinity he idealizes but can't fulfill, supported by a society filled with a very toxic sense of masculinity and an absent father he can sew on any fantasy he wants.

When Peter was at Hogwarts, being friends with James, and being part of the Marauders, gave Peter a sense of security that allowed him to be brave enough to prioritize his love for his friends over himself.

Out in the real world, though, Voldemort is the dominant man and being positioned against the Dark Lord takes away the sense of security he had as a student. Both times Peter goes to Voldemort, he does it because he doesn't feel safe.

It's also abundantly clear how Peter's siding with Voldemort doesn't come from ideology. He becomes an animagus for Remus, he's a dear friend of Lily.

Peter dies because Voldemort doesn't trust him, and he is right in not trusting him. Somewhere in Peter, there's still the boy who risked his life for a friend.

Try to tell me this is not an interesting character.

He's still a coward overall, but a complex one.

Also, Peter Pettigrew is a clear victim of pretty privilege when it comes to the fandom. I'm ready to bet whatever you want that if he had been described as handsome the most popular ship with Sirius would be Sirus/Peter.

Actually, he didn't even have to be described as handsome, he just needed to not be described as ugly. Draco is described as having a pointy face and people have been lying to themselves claiming he's incredibly handsome for the last twenty-five years.

#peter pettigrew #marauders #james potter #sirius black #remus lupin #lily evans #harry Potter

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almacambiondaughterofsaleos · 5 months

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Stolas Has A Blandanthy Problem

If anyone who is a fan of the Canadian comic strip, "For Better Or Worse", you would understand what I am talking about. It was a long running comic strip focusing Patterson family a usual sitcom family consisting of the typical nuclear family stuff. However, unlike many other comics they did age the characters where we see the parents become 30 somethings to 50 something grandparents. The children go from toddlers to preteens to teens to finally adults who get married with children of their own. As a result, the kids eventually get love lives of their own as well. Here comes in Anthony or as the detractors call him "Blandthony".

Anthony was the high school boyfriend of the middle child and oldest daughter, Elizabeth Patterson, during the later strip years he got focus on the one who would definitely get together with Elizabeth. But as you can see from my argument this would be looked on as cringe and in hindsight have many similarities with the forced Stolitz ship.

Just like both, the series establishes Stolas and Anthony as childhood sweethearts/friends of the main characters in order to emphasize how they would truly be together in the end and young love revived again. For Stolas and Blitzo, it's really a forced retcon in contrast with the latter how established it was from the beginning. But it's all the same thing which is your first love should be your only love and you can ignore the rest who were side steps (even if you have better chemistry).

Also both parties would drift apart and end up with spouses they really don't like. In the case of Anthony like Stolas with Stella, he would end up with a French-Canadian woman named Therese who is presented as a thorn in Elizabeth and Anthony's relationship not so different from Stella when it comes to Stolitz.

Just like Stella, Therese was never given any nuance or redeeming characters just so she represented everything the author hated in a woman. She was meant to be again an obstacle that both end game pairs were to come and just a tool for drama, but never her own character.They were even used as an excuse to make the male intended character more "sympathetic". As a result, many fans were disappointed that the creators used such lazy characterization to move an end game ship.

Also both Stolas and Anthony have a daughter who is meant to give them good daddy points. However, due to the bad writing surrounding them they could instead come off as neglectful or self-centered in their desires with their children. With Stolas, despite the narrative often telling us he's a good dad he's often shown to neglect her in favor of trying to get in Blitzo's pants and Octavia having to forgive whenever he falters. With Anthony, it's the fact he wanted a child and pressured his wife into it under the promise he would take care of her. Despite emphasizing how Anthony is being presented as as the one doing all the parenting, it never dawns on it that maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to have a child with someone who as reluctant to have children and again expect to drop everything to raise her when it was your idea in the first place. Both daughters are used to bring them together with their love interests further due to both having either a connection with kids or their own daughter. Again these kids are tools for the narrative and not their own people.

There is also the narrative's focus on the constant wangsting about the titular creator's pet problems over bigger issues that other people have. For instance, in context for Anthony in this scene he's driving Elizabeth after she had been assaulted by her co-worker, but the narrative can focus on is his marriage problems when Elizabeth tells him that she doesn't want to be a homewrecker and he retorts he has no home. Again despite trying to make him into a uwu nice guy he comes off as self-centered and only interested in his problems than his supposed love interest and a lot of issues with him are because of his own damn fault. The same thing with Stolas the narrative tries it's hardest to make him sympathetic but all it ends up is making him look so pathetic and self-pitying when a lot of issues are self-inflicted and despite saying he truly loves Blitzo he actually comes off as trying to flick true responsibility for what he's done like extorting him for sex and the narrative switches blame to Blitzo when he rejects hsi advances. Instead of them coming off as sympathetic it's more like whiny babies who can't understand other people's problems that are not their own.

And again emphasized again how despite the narrative tries to make the hated spouse so hated it ended up with fans emphasizing with them because it made the other sympathetic guy look worse or showing that maybe they weren't the only contributing to the marriage's dysfunction. With Therese, the narrative basically shames her for getting post-partum syndrome and Anthony doesn't do shit to comfort her and just pities himself. The same thing with Stolas and Stella who the latter never gets considered in the fact that she as well is saddled in this loveless and forced situation, but nope she's just a one dimensional obstacle for Stolas to overcome and eventually conqueror just like Anthony with Therese.

And again the narratives does everything it can to treat what they did (cheating) as if it wasn't bad. For Anthony, it treats his emotional affair with Elizabeth as okay because they are the destined pair. While with Stolas they treat him cheating as Stella okay, because they did everything to demonize her into a bitchy witch. Also again it treats Blitzo as the right one for him and that Stella is an obstacle to overcome to get his deserved ending. Again instead of letting the narratives let them own up to their issues it instead just lets them be innocent angels incapable of doing wrong

All in all Stolitz and Elizabeth x Anthony are an example of author favoritism infecting a story's quality that it derails good storylines and potential for characters. Also despite the intended endgame getting talked about it ends up just turning people away when you realize the intended isn't as good as they are played up as. Both pairings really lack good chemistry and it is shown with the way everything about them feel forced instead of natural. As a result, just like Anthony and Elizabeth when they finally get together everyone will be just fed up.

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aberooski · 6 months

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My friend is trying to get me to watch GX, and they really like stormshipping. I’m just barely starting the series, but I want to understand the appeal of these two. So… take this as a chance to ramble about why you love them, I guess?

OOOOOH!!! 👀👀👀👀

Okay first of all, yes! Totally watch it! It's so silly and fun but also filled with The Horrors. It's flawed and all as most things are, but it's my favorite!

BUT STORMSHIPPING TIIIIIME!!! Let's see if I can do this with as few spoilers as possible aksksk

Those two are everything to me 😭 my roman empire, if you will.

Stormshipping is your classic introvert/extrovert, golden retriever/black cat, emo kid/theater kid, summer/winter, sun/moon type of pairing, for one, which is delightful. They compliment each other so well, and with just how MUCH subtext and stuff, and literally so much to analyze about them like that that we get considering how little the amount of screen time they have together is, there's no heterosexual explanation for like 90% of their interactions. And there's the complimentary parallels and associations and things like that. For example, Light and Darkness, they do have that parallel in what they're corrupted by against their wills. (Also the fact that Chazz has Light and Darkness Dragon as his ace card in the manga and he and Atticus totally represent it in the anime but shhhhhhhhhhhhh 🤫) also can't really delve as deep into that without talking about some major plot shit so

And it kinda as always, comes down to what those two are to each other.

As a blanket sentiment, they're best friends. But Atticus is the only person Chazz is shown to be genuinely comfortable around and willingly vulnerable and open with. Chazz comes to him when he has problems, he confides in him, he seeks him out when he needs to be vulnerable for a moment. I think he also gravitates towards Atticus at first, obviously because he wants his help to try and get a date with Alexis seeing as he's her brother and all, but I think also because his own brothers were so awful and abusive and didn't truly care about him. Most people don't, actually. But Atticus takes a genuine vested interest in him and legitimately cares about him and that's not something Chazz is used to. Not to say the squad doesn't care about him, they do, but not in the same way Atticus does. I think he starts out as a sort of surrogate big brother figure for him in the way Jaden is for Syrus for kinda similar reasons seeing that Zane was an abusive and really bad brother to Syrus for many years as well. But this isn't about them 😜

Atticus is also a mentor figure for him, that goes into the Japanese version, where Chazz actually calls him "master" and I mean 🤨 there are other words you could use buddy but okay you do you 😏

Atticus takes care of Chazz. He looks after him and is a kind hand and a shoulder and a steady rock when he needs it. By the end Chazz is the person other than Alexis that Atticus is closest to and is the most important to him. But also Chazz's friendship is very healing for Atticus. Their friendship is significant and is healing for both of them.

They both have a lot of trauma and baggage to varying degrees, and like I said Chazz isn't used to having someone genuinely care about him because of his abusive brothers and having to put on a facade and hide his authentic self as a means of being able to meet their impossible expectations of him and being able to handle the pressure any way he can. Atticus is probably the only person who's ever truly seen the real, genuine, vulnerable Chazz. He's basically the only one who makes him genuinely smile too honestly and that hits. Atticus is the first person he genuinely accepts as his friend and accepts love and care from too. He's comfortable with him, he feels safe with him. He feels cared for and loved with him.

And for Atticus, Chazz is the closest friend he's had in a long time. He was good friends with Zane before his disappearance the year prior, but because he missed so much he doesn't graduate with Zane so he's not around and with what happens with Zane after graduation, yeah they're not nearly as close or as good of friends as they used to be. And when Atticus returns, well he suffers a lot. He's so physically and mentally affected by what happened to him that I personally believe his entire personality and his quirks and eccentricities, as genuine and authentic as they are, have become a coping mechanism. And Atticus takes care of anyone and everyone but himself. So when he realizes how Chazz has all this trauma and baggage like he does, albeit to an entirely different degree and of different circumstances, he takes him under his wing and devotes himself to looking after him and kinda coaching him through life in a way. He helps him try to get a date with Alexis when he asks him for help, but personally I think Atticus set him up to fail there but in a loving way. Alexis doesn't like him like that and I also think Chazz is honestly confused about the nature of his feelings about her. I think Atticus sets him up for failure in that situation and I think he does it to so she can reject him, which she does very kindly I might add, and he can move on and learn and grow as a person and develop more emotional intelligence from it because of how stifled he is in that way because of his brothers.

Also going back to how Chazz's friendship is significant and important for Atticus, another reason for that is because Chazz is the only person other than Alexis he's that close to now. He has a friend to confide in and share his own feelings and innermost thoughts with that isn't his now fiercely protective little sister. There are things he can't talk to her about and things he can't go to her for and confide in her with because she'll worry and he can't do that to her. He can't make her worry about him again. And Chazz is so easy for him to talk to. Atticus is a social butterfly and and extrovert unlike Chazz, he has no problems with talking to people and being open about things, but we only ever see him actually do that with Chazz. They have private moments and they confide in each other and they look out for one another. Atticus is also protective of Chazz in his own little ways too as he is with Alexis.

Atticus protects and cherishes everyone he cares for but none more so than Chazz and Alexis. They are his world. His everything. His reason. His.

Also the fact that when you looks into all the GX media, the dub, the sub, the manga, everything. Across it they each are associated with a weather phenomenon. One of Atticus's titles across the manga and the sub is Blizzard Prince. Which makes sense seeing as his Japanese name "Fubuki" literally means "blizzard". And as we all know, Manjoume Thunder. They are each associated with a type of storm which in my opinion, is why they are stormshipping. And long those lines, I associate each of them with a season. Atticus's season is summer, for obvious reasons, and Chazz's seas to me has always been winter. And I made these associations before I ever connected these two dots here. Atticus is associated with blizzards. A winter storm. And Chazz is associated with thunderstorms. Which generally speaking, are summer storms.

They are each associated with the storm that corresponds with the other's season.

That blew my mind when I finally connected those dots, literally destroyed my mind.

ALSO HERE HAVE SOME CONTEXTLESS VISUAL EVIDENCE

Leaning more on Chazz than Alexis when he's a little fucked up 👀

ONLY Atticus would picture him smiling like that. Only Atticus COULD picture him smiling like that because nobody else has ever SEEN it before.

LOOK AT CHAZZ. LOOK HOW ADORABLE HE IS WITH HIM.

CHAZZY'S AWKWARD B L U S H I N G !!

THE WAY HE SMILES AT HIIMMMMM

T H I S S H I T. THE WAY THEY LOOK AT EACH OTHERRRRRRR. HE'S BLUSHING AGAAAAAINNNN !!!

There is no heterosexual explanation for this shot being from Chazz's POV.

LOOK AT THIS ROMANTIC ASS PRIVATE CONVERSATION ON THE BEACH AT FUCKING SUNSET.

Also the 0 heterosexual explanation shot is like right before this and that scene happens in the dead ass middle of the day and there were tons of people around. They waited until sunset when people had left the beach for the day to have this private conversation. So Chazz and Atty were probably hanging out together for a while already before this. Like they could've just gone somewhere else and had this conversation right away, but no. They WAITED. Maybe for a few HOURS. To have this conversation ON THE BEACH. ALONE. AT S U N S E T. O K A Y 😭

ANYWAY STORMSHIPPING IS EVERYTHING TO ME AND I ACTUALLY HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO SAY BUT I CAN'T EVEN ARTICULATE IT RIGHT NOW I'M SO MENTALLY ILL OVER THEM SO I'LL SAVE IT FOR ANOTHER TIME AKSKSK

BUT THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME RANT AND RAVE AND GUSH ABOUT THEM MY ANON FRIEND !!!!

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adragonsfriend · 2 months

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can I just say, I am living for your rots liveblog rn. please tell us what this essay you're writing about it is for 🙏

Thank you thank you *exaggerated curtsey*

If you haven't read Othello then this is going to be incomprehensible but,

My paper is for a class about the play Othello. I have to pick a performance/re-staging of Othello and write about what it's saying about the formation of identity in the original play.

When I say I finessed my way into using ROTS for this i really mean i mentioned I had been thinking about arguing it was a re-staging of Othello to my professor and she was immediately super enthusiastic about the idea.

It's not a one to one comparison, but there are a lot of parallels--like soo many--especially with the way that both stories are framed as myths--and I can definitely wrangle an argument out of it.

Currently thinking something along the lines of "race plays into Othello's isolation from any peers and therefore Iago's manipulation of him, while Anakin's isolation and manipulation by Palpatine is largely an idea he creates artificially (racism is also artificial ofc but it's also already present in Venice/Cypress society for Iago to use)

…that's incomprehensible ik, i'll figure it out later

also thinking of the fact that ROTS is part of the much larger series, in which we get so much more context for Anakin's existence and choices than we do for any of Othello's choices in Othello, which is a pretty short play. even more so because Othello the play has been the most prominent portrayal of a black man in white european art for like 400 years and so has been under so many microscopes and perspectives and expectations that it's really difficult to have any definitive opinion on the play or the character. as oppose to Star Wars which is significantly less ambiguous and also there are plenty of angry white boys in western media so Anakin isn't under the same pressure as a character to represent every white boy ever

Also SW framed as a myth is pretty clearly a story with a moral of "greed is bad and you'll do bad things if you cant handle losing things", if you frame Othello that way the moral pretty quickly becomes "white girls should listen to their fathers and not marry black men because if they do bad things will happen," which is obviously awful. anyway.

Also featuring parallels like:

Anakin also falls partly into Roderigo's role of being kind of a dupe, not just Othello's role of manipulated murderer

Both Desdemona and Padme get strangled/suffocated and then die still insisting on their husbands' good character

Mace Windu is kind of Emilia, but better

Obi-Wan is Cassio, but better

Bail Organa is, like, Lodovico? but better

The council are kind of the governers of Venice for a minute? but not really. kinda, idk

ROTS and Othello both start out looking like comedies and then hold you on the edge of believing the tradgedy is actually going to happen with the sheer ridiculousness of some parts of their plots, but also you already know they're going to be tradgedies because ROTS is a prequel and Othello's actual title is The Tragedy of Othello, Moor of Venice.

#star wars #revenge of the sith #othello #shakespeare #anakin skywalker

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kelbunny · 3 months

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roland glenbrook

how much I like their personality

I latched onto him extremely quickly. I like how reckless he can be, he still has his compassion, gentle side (seen with how he interacts with Cordelia, I love these siblings sm), but on the other hand, his hatred and anger also feels extremely natural. Unfortunately I'm not great at explaining personality details, but suffice to say I like it a lot.

how much I like their design/aesthetics

I honestly really like his design. I love how it has a lot of royal vibes to it (studded doublet(?), the gold woven into his green shirt, and the gold on the bands on his sleeve ~~forgive me I barely know modern fashion terms, let alone medival ones~~) but it also has details of his more reckless personality (such as the messier hair and the unbuttoned doublet and shirt).

And for details that get missed often, I really like the vibes his boots and the little ties on his sleeves gives

I think it speaks to how much I like him and want to draw him as accurately as possible considering he's one of the few characters I've put together extensive collage references for haha

Also masked Roland in general *chefs kiss*

how interesting I think they are

I think he's really interesting. He's a mess of a 20yo who went from being ignored by many to suddenly have thousands of expectations placed apon him in less than a week and breaking under the pressure accordingly.

Back when we still just had the debut demo, he was the character I was the most excited to see the arc of.

how well-written I think they are(if applicable)

I believe I've mentioned it before, but Roland is (imo at least) probably the most interesting and well written character in Tristrat. I like how his fatal flaw (his lack of self worth) is visible so early in the game and how it shapes his different actions.

And speaking of actions, both his fall in utility and redemption in golden feel so natural. Neither feels forced. And I like how even though he changes throughout the story (going from young carefree prince to one saddled by the pain from his family's deaths and the deaths of people in his name) his constant motivation remains the same. He wants to help people. Which makes sense considering he's the one to represent Morality, but he also shows how that ideal can be twisted into something less noble during his own ending.

how much I like their mechanics in-game

I really like how he plays. He definitely gets more glass-cannoney as the game goes on, but at the same time, he becomes a really effective boss killer and finisher with abilities like Four Dragons and Opportune Attack. And he synergizes well with his sister, as Cordelia's over-heal helps to negate his squishyness.

if I think they are a Good Person(tm)

I think he's a good person who makes stupid decisions out of desperation. He genuinely wants to help his people, but his own lack of maturity at times, as well as the fact he was never taught to be king lead to mistakes that make things worse for the people he wants to protect.

I think it speaks to his character that he realizes he was wrong in the non utility endings, and especially in Golden where he's willing to try and put away his hatred of Aesfrost to try for a better future.

#triangle strategy #triangle strategy spoilers #roland glenbrook #Kelbunn answers #There's a reason he so quickly toppled all my other faves and that's because I like how everything about him tickles my brain #My favorite sad princeling

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netripper · 2 months

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well i didn’t expect that post ab fem v to take off but i’m glad it did tbh. it’s really been bugging me how some ppl treat fv in general, like complaining ab her getting more attention n shit, cuz it’s just like ???

my own dentist, after i told her i was gonna pursue game design, told me to put more women in games. it’s no secret that this industry remains male-dominated, and while there have always been female characters in games, there’s that history there of hypersexualization and the complete misunderstanding of who women can be and what they can want. by nature of cyberpunk’s design, having both binary genders of man and woman playable in the same role, fem v is more realistic as a woman because she’s just… written like a person. this seems like an obvious thing to do, but it’s extremely easy for some writers to get hung up on the Man and Woman thing and write with the classification of ‘woman’ in mind before anything else. if that makes sense

also yeah, i could’ve brought up the fact that masc v dominated most of the marketing for cyberpunk and that fem v only really got the spotlight at the end of the game’s life with phantom liberty. i probably should’ve, honestly; there was a day a while ago where i got so steamed about this shit that i went to tally up their appearances in trailers and teasers, but i gave up, because i had actual important stuff to do and didn’t want to waste the energy. but like, i don’t need to go by the numbers to recall that masc v got most of the attention in marketing and promotional material, because that’s the primary audience of the gaming industry to this day: men. ultimately i just decided to meet the ppl i’m arguing against on their level, because it’s a little easier than upending the entire premise of their argument and going from there.

i get feeling disappointed. i get feeling left out. i get it because i’ve been disappointed and left out my entire life in this space, same as so many other women in gaming, same as any demographic in gaming that aren’t straight, white, cis guys. i mean to give you an example of how low the bar is for me, i was pleasantly surprised by helldivers 2 having feminine voice types AND a lean body type you can choose, and that game’s a satire on the imperial war machine! like wow omg i can present as a girl in this hyperironic war crimes game, yay!

i’m just rambling at this point but yea idk. i think it’s really easy in spaces like this, where the “minority” is a majority, to fall into certain traps. like thinking it’s a bad thing that a woman is center focus, or that the clothing mod disparity between male and female characters means that women have more power or control in the space, when in reality a lot of what’s produced is a standard byproduct of the sexualization of women and often does not represent what the women in the space want. obviously this isn’t true of all the women here; i myself love some skimpy clothes, and i want to clarify that i’m not dumping on the effort that’s gone into making these things nor am i disparaging “feminine” clothing or interests. my question is, why is that which is labeled feminine, more often than not, sexualized? why do some of these things go hand in hand with the act of objectification, independent of the subject’s agency or sense of self-expression? this is a lot more complex problem than i think any of us are qualified to solve, but there’s a quote i’ve had on my mind lately about stuff like this, that i use in my own reconciling of “feminine” interests with the societal expectations, pressures, and prescriptions placed upon them. dan olson of folding ideas said this of his interest in building & constructing games as a person whose culture prioritizes and encourages the western idea of “progress”, and i think it could apply here: “My interests and values are authentic, but they didn’t form in a vacuum.”

i’ve lost the plot at this point, maybe i’ve made my point well, idk. in any case thx for reading i just spent way too much time pondering this and trying to put it into words

#vanta rambles #no rbs cuz this would be really annoying to argue about if it got traction #im just bloggin

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just-an-enby-lemon · 1 year

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@unrestrainedbalderdash said they don't care if I put Jonathan Crane into my idea of how I would do an adult Scooby cartoon. And since they are someone who I really liked and I really just need one person saying "hey is okay" to me to overly babble over something here we are.

Disclaimer: I did not watch the Velma show. I saw the trailer and reviews but that is it. This is also not a recreation of it. It's merely how I would do an adult scooby doo story with a more representative cast.

▫️Alpha Kappa Scobby (I'm bad naming stuff)

Is time to grow up.

With the end of high school comes the anxiety inducing question of what to do next? To the Mystery Inc. the answer was always obivous: continuing solving mysteries together. Unfortunally fate appeared to have other plans. Between parental presure, a crashing economy, a shitty job market and an investigation that abelit sucefull ended up breaking the Mystery Machine, hurting a civilian and facing the local authorities ultimatum that they could not keep their unregulated detective agency it appears to be the end.

But the thing is mysteries never ever leave the gang. Where they are things happen and as they face the monsters of adult life other monsters may appear on the way. Are they ready?

▫️The Gang

- Velma is our main characther. She is a second generation imigrant kid from an indian-american family, possibly autistic (mostly represented by her sensory issues and examples of masking) and a genius who suffers from anxiety and the pressure that both comes with societal expectations related to prejudice, familial expectations (especially as a second generation imigrant) and being a gifted kid. She is also a lesbian.

- Shaggy is Shaggy. They are a possibly stoner black latino (he may be a stonner or it may be just harmfull steriotypes possibly both) and they are also ace and non-binary using they/then pronouns. Norville is their deadname and the fact their parents call them that is a dead give away of the time of people they are. Shaggy was adopted and their parents are upped middle class white guys who adopted three POC kids and act extremily white saviour over it. Their bio parents are implied to be scientistis at Star Labs that died in an freaky accident when they eere still little. They may have something to do with Scooby being a talking dog. Though they met by Shaggy adopting a stray puppy. Their personality is still the same. Except for the parents issues. Like they are still the same glutonous coward who cares a lot for their friends and likes bad horror movies.

- Scooby is Scooby. Like nothing changed at all about him. Except that outside the gang people do question the fact he is a talking dog. Since their world is really weird people go from allien to failed scientific experiment of either LexCorp or Starlabs. The more accepted theory is that he is the first non-human to manifest a meta gene. He isn't being studies because he flied over radar until the gaang started solving mysteries and at this point he was too popular plus the governent had other more important issues going on. So he is just a fact.

- Daphne is a girl who defy expectations. She is weird. She has two mons (a thing I know is cannon on the Velma cartoon and am using), one is a british martial artist and the other a american fashion designer and she got very deep into both of her mons careears. She has some relatives in jail and she learned a bunch with them. She loves to learn except not the school stuff, so her grades were meh and people usually saw her as just a pretty face, even though she has a bunch of great skils like fighting, fashion, faking signatures, lock picking, stealth, acting, a bunch of sports and more. She is bissexual and has a huge crush on both Elvira and Hex Girls. She also loves escape artists (being good at scaping herself) and is a fan of bad horror movies and campy actors. She also has a crush on Fred.

- Fred is a sweet bissexual himbo and he is very clearly neurodivergent and definitvaly autistic. He stims a lot, has dificulty getting social clues, misses most sarcasm and some abstract expressions, has a huge special interest in traps, sometimes goes non-verbal, just the whole book. He is a rich white boy but fails to meet his misoginistic racist parents expectations not only by hangin with the gaang but by having a disability. His parents never took him to a doctor to be diagnosed because they believed it would bring shame to the family to have a disabled kid and just hoped he would "grow out of it". He does have some internalized prejudice but it's working to be better. He also has a huge crush in Daphne, is a very supportive and loyal friend and infodumps people a lot.

▫️The Pilot

The pilot episode starts with the gaang reciving their ultimatum and having to undergo an state aproved course to became private investigators and be abble to keep the Mystery Inc. going. Shennanigans issue and they all end up failing.

Daphne is too good on the self defense courses and also may have caused a teacher who implied she would need to do sexual favors for him if she hoped to pass in his boring law class to never be able to walk again. Luckily he was too afraid to press charges.

Fred keept trying to insert trap making into the course to ridiculous extremes.

Shaggy broke the vending machine, ate all the food and also just keept running away from the clues in all the pratical texts. They answers also mostly involved running and getting uninvolved.

No one knew if Scooby should do dog training or humam courses and he ended in a confusing stream of buerocracy.

Velma should by all means had suceeded though and the only reason she failed was racial bias. She tries to brush it off, after all she was not going to be a detective on her own anyway and all her friends failed, but it clearly afects her and this will be a thing hanging over her head the whole season. The episode ends with Velma discovering she got approved to a full scholarship on a fictional ivvy league university outisde of Crystal Cove she had applied more for her parents sakes than her in criminology.

▫️They failed what now?

After a whole debate during the second episode and the gaang being supportive even if it means it is the definitive end for them, Velma decides to go to college. Of course trying to keep together the whole gaang somehow ends up involved with the campus.

- Shaggy and Scobby get a job at the college cafeteria that Shaggy uses to move into a trailer in the college parking lot (that they plans into turning in a food truck) so they can get away from their transphobic parents. Scobby of course moves with them.

- With help of white rich cis man priviledge Fred gets accepted to the same school but into architeture (he does uses this knoledge to plan traps but also realizes he likes projecting rooms on general). The thing is thanks to missanderstanding a sarcastic coment from Velma he ends up being part of a very "bro" fraternity. It's mostly played for laughs as he definitivally doesn't belong there but also accidentaly starts turning the guys into better people. But also features on Fred understanding his priviledge and the internalized prejudices his parents dumped on him and evolving past them and also dealing with ableism.

- Daphne decided to try to work in a close by cafe and became roomates with a goth girl called June that works with Shaggy and Scooby. Both are fired and decide to open an etsy store together. She is also doing an online course on fashion. Velma has a crush on June and June is implied to have a criminal past. The etsy store is mostly used for laughs though it also is used to show Daphne dealing with being different from soceity expectations and the hardships of having a small bussiness.

▫️The Plot

The story focuses on their adventures on campus as they deal with adult life but also as weird things keep happening and students end up either getting murdered or disapearing all the time. While focused on episodic shennanigans with characther growth as the linear aspect there are some key episodes that show that there's a major conspiracy involving the university's past and the looming presence of an white supremacist cult.

▫️Cool and all but where is Jonathan Crane?

The thing is if I was writing this series I would make the connection with DC be mostly references with some few special episodes starting on the second season (including the obligatory Batman team-up and a episode were Riddler, who is on his P.I arc, is hired to the same case the Mystery Inc is in and they have to work together). So we would have things like Scooby possibly having the metagene, Velma being a Batman fangirl and having some batfam merch in the middle of her detective merch, Fred being a Green Arrow fan and buying trap material for Ace Chemicals and LexCorp, Daphne mentioning her uncle Alfred or Shaggy's bio parents having been Star Lab scientistis. Some name drops like WayneTech or Lex Luthor.

The exception being Jonathan Crane. Jon is an actual relevant secundary characther. After mysterious circunstances involving a fight with the dean, a recomendation letter and an ultimatum, Jonathan leaved Gotham University and became a teacher at the Yet To Be Named University where the gang is.

His disciplines are an eletive about phobias, psychophatology and forensic psychology. He is famous over the campus for being a genius and a great teacher but also for being harsh, having extremely high standards and hard exams and just being creepy and really really weird. There is legit theories of him being some kind of cryptic or a ghost. He has the uncanny hability of walking without making any noise and being abble to be silent and quiet until he suddently scares someone with his presence. He speaks little outside the classroom and is always alone. And if someone tries to be friendly with him, he will just leave and let the person hanging. No one ever saw him eat only drink coffe (that may be spiked with whisky sometimes). He is mostly saw outside classes either writing/typing or reading (he only reads text books and horror stories). He has a crow in his office and while the bird is calm and sweet with him it sings creepy old childrem rhymes and it definitivaly attacked a student who got emotional over a bad grade and started screaming with Crane.

With all that being said Crane is Velma's fsvorite professor and she is his favorite student. He doesn't presure or mocks her and is fascinated by her theories and they can discuss psychology, chesmistry, literature and criminology for hours. They respect each other and have a deep understanding being fairly similar (and yes make Crane be also POC, prefencialy south asian), they are friends and with her family alway Velma sees Crane as a pseudo father-figure. Even Crane's bird Ichabod seems to also enjoy Velma a lot. The rest of the gang has more mixed views of Crane. He is always polite with them but he is also creepy as hell specially with Shaggy and Scooby as he asks them a lot of questions about their fears.

Every single time someone either dies or disappears everyone accuses Crane. He is ALWAYS a suspect. And Velma is his only defender (sometimes the gang as whole also). And he is always show to be innocent. But is also hinted that he is still planning and doing Scarecrow shit and while it's played for laughs the huge impact Crane and Velma's bond have to Velma overcoming her issues is a hint that when it finally happens of Crane being the guilty part and his Scarecrow persona coming to light it will break Velma's heart.

#scooby doo #scooby gang #jonathan crane #professor crane #velma and dr crane brotop supremacy #daphne blake #shaggy rogers #fred jones #velma dinkley #scarecrow #scarecrow dc #that or I would just do a new season of mystery incorporated with an other demographic in mind

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nothinggold13 · 2 years

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Susan and Her Mom: A Scene Analysis

We often talk about Susan as a mother figure, young as she is, due to her gentle, practical, nurturing nature. Don’t get me wrong: she is absolutely a child, too; she is rash and fearful and wondering and playful, and I don’t mean at all that we should ignore those qualities. But there is also a lot of pressure on her as the eldest daughter to help and look after her siblings, (especially as they are sent away from their actual mother,) and there is something of a mother in the way she does this. (One of my favourite examples of this in the books is in Prince Caspian when Edmund and Lucy want to leave their shoes on the beach to explore barefoot, and Susan insists that “this would be a mad thing to do.” She is concerned that they may lose their shoes, and is thinking about the fact that they might need them later, and this reflects a specific quality of responsible practicality which reminds me of a mother who knows where her entire family’s belongings are at all times. Susan is aware, because she feels it is her job to be.)

But, for this post, I want to analyze a scene in the first movie which gets me every time, and that is the scene of the Pevensies saying goodbye to their mother in the train station. To begin, we will look at the way Mrs. Pevensie hugs Peter:

Firstly, when she approaches him, she does so with a brave face. She’s a little disappointed/hurt, of course, having just been rejected by Edmund, but as she hugs Peter, she makes it a point not to look as upset as she feels. Her eyes are wide open, and her face is soft.

Once Peter can no longer see her face, however, her composure crumbles. She squeezes her eyes shut tight, fighting off tears of her own.

Lastly, as she pulls away again, the moment he looks at her, she smiles. It’s back to brave faces: don’t let the children know you’re upset.

Now, look at the way Susan hugs her mother:

Greets her with a smile.

Cries when she can’t see.

Smiles again. Don’t let her know you’re upset.

She hugs her mom the same way her mom hugged Peter.

In the books, Susan has a very specific type of bravery; it comes and goes, but it is far from nonexistent. There are plenty of moments and ways that she takes a stand others might not expect her to take. And I think this moment in the film showcases one type of bravery that Susan reflects: the courage of her mother.

Susan is emotional. We see her cry plenty of times, and she does not hide her emotions very well. Especially in the books, we see that softness (or sometimes harshness, in the case of Prince Caspian) very well. While I am analyzing this movie scene, and as much as I love what it represents, I am not saying that an accurate portrayal of Susan would hold in her emotions all the time; this is something Susan struggles with.

However, there is something about her mimicking her mother here. There is something about her holding in her tears because she thinks she has to. There is something about her feeling like she must be strong, and that this is how she chooses to be strong.

There is good and bad in choosing to be what people need you to be: both righteous self-sacrifice, and the risk of a burnt-out, hardened heart. And, honestly, that’s a bigger point than I came here to make! When I think of Susan later -- in the time leading up to The Last Battle -- I can’t help thinking she took it too far; she became what the culture and society around her wanted her to be, because it was so much easier than holding on to her grief. That wasn’t a courageous decision; it was a scared one. But when I think of Susan here...?

When I think of Susan telling herself, “They need me to be strong,” and holding back her tears because she wants to look like she has that strength, I just can’t help but think... that’s courage. Even if she never should have had to have that courage. Even if she needed to be a kid, not another little mother for her family. Even if we wouldn’t call it fair. Even if it’s not healthy for her at all.

That was Susan choosing to show courage.

And it touches my heart that that was the way she chose to show it: by reflecting her mom.

#narnia #the chronicles of narnia #narnia analysis #susan pevensie #mrs. pevensie #the lion the witch and the wardrobe

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watching-pictures-move · 2 years

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Movie Review | Daughter of the Dragon (Corrigan, 1931)

When it comes to certain genres, especially ones that are no longer in fashion, it’s an unfortunate fact that a lot of them will contain negative stereotypes and condescending or outright hostile attitudes towards other cultures. I have a weakness for jungle adventures, but I can’t deny that even ones I like espouse colonial attitudes and have less than admiring portrayals of the locals in whatever country they take place. I think it’s possible to appreciate the positive qualities of these films without endorsing the negative ones, and perhaps healthy to try to understand how the interact, and I’m personally not a fan of the checklist approach I sometimes see taken towards evaluating art that contains such elements. I’m also not going to pretend my reactions are representative of the norm. For example, I’ve seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom cited as a blatant example of Hollywood racism, but as someone of South Asian descent, I’ve found it difficult to be offended by it because the portrayal of its Indian characters is so far over the top that it severs any relation to reality. (If anything, I’m more offended by Gunga Din, a movie I mostly enjoy quite a bit, as it doesn’t seem quite as fantastical in this respect.)

But I also think older movies can be more thoughtful about their use of such tropes than we give them credit for. Along the vein of Temple of Doom, if I can direct you to this great review of The Tiger of Eschnapur by the Letterboxd user sakana1, who argues much more articulately than I can about the ways in which the movie transcends the kind of orientalist pulp it’s sometimes dismissed as. This dynamic is something I had in mind as I watched Daughter of the Dragon, a pre-code Fu Manchu picture currently playing on the Criterion Channel as part of the Hollywood Chinese series programmed by Arthur Dong. I am not a Fu Manchu expert, but I understand the series is full of portrayals of the Chinese as devious and villainous and is heavy on the use of yellowface, and that’s certainly the case here. But at the same time, I think the movie navigates these tropes more interestingly than I expected given the time period. For one thing, while Fu Manchu is portrayed by Warner Oland, a white actor in yellowface, he’s quickly removed from the proceedings and instead we spend most of the movie with his daughter, played by Anna May Wong, and a heroic policeman, played by Sessue Hayakawa. Fu Manchu seeks revenge on a man for killing his ancestors, and pressures his daughter to continue his vendetta. The way Fu Manchu explains his motivations to his adversary reminds me of Charles Grodin’s explanation of who lied to who first in Midnight Run. In a way, they’re both right.

The programming notes indicate that this movie was notable for casting two Asian American stars and letting them share the screen together, and the fact that it lets them speak in their actual accents. (There is some talking in third person, but otherwise the stereotypical qualities of the dialogue are refreshingly toned down.) I was perhaps expecting them to be supporting players, but no, they are the stars of the movie, with one or both of them onscreen for most of the movie, and they’re much more engaging than the less thoroughly developed white supporting characters. And beyond the amount of screentime, it is interesting to see how Wong’s character navigates the pressure placed on her by her father to enact his sinister plan, and how she ingratiates herself with her targets, alternately pushing against and weaponizing stereotypes depending on the situation. I’d like to get more context around the release of the movie (I have yet to see Dong’s documentary Hollywood Chinese, which I hope will provide some interesting information), but judging by the fact that both Wong and Hayakawa are credited on the poster and that this wasn’t the first Fu Manchu movie, I have to assume there was some intent in this subversion of expectations. (Alas, these empowering qualities didn’t extend to the actors’ paycheques, as Wong apparently got paid half of what Oland did despite having substantially more screentime. Also, apparently this was made to capitalize on a Fu Manchu book that Paramount didn’t even pay for the rights to adapt, so it seems the frugality ran deep.)

And the movie is otherwise a reasonably diverting suspense piece, with some nice stormy, rain-drenched atmosphere in the last act. Over the last few months, I’ve developed a growing appreciation for ‘30s Hollywood cinema, largely because I sometimes sleep quite poorly and wake up too early, and at well under an hour and a half, a lot of the movies are the perfect length to squeeze in before I need to log on for work. Clocking in at a cool seventy minutes, this hits the spot. This does however share the “problem” of the Ilsa and Olga movies in that casting an actress as the villain who happens to be substantially more magnetic and sexy than most of the supposed heroes will maybe have you rooting for her over them. All I can say that in one scene Wong wears an outfit with notably sparkly sleeves, which is very important to enjoyment of the movie. Yes, she’s a devious, murderous villainess, but the heart wants what it wants.

#film #movie review #daughter of the dragon #lloyd corrigan

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islestea · 2 years

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Part 3: Do wags look alike?

Hello me again hahaha a few days ago I answered a question where someone asked me my opinion about the fact that wags feel pressured to follow a certain physical stereotype and get to the point of having plastic surgeries, I gave a little of my opinion but today I want touch the subject a little more in depth of what they are expected to look like and certain stereotypes that are seen and misunderstood.

Mainly I think that being a wag is already a pressure I came to see a while ago a post from another blog where they mention that being a wag in other countries or cultures was really not a big deal but within the American culture they definitely have more presence and they are more publicized, in the same way this varies both from the sports league and from the groups themselves because that whole issue has been changing over the years

Being a wag at least on this side of the world in most of the country's major leagues is a big deal and when I say they carry pressure I mean that they are expected to be perfect in absolutely every way because they "represent their men socially" and it has to be in accordance with the status they are presenting, many of them are considered the image of their husbands so they have to be perfect and give that image in public, from physical, style, personality, behavior etc. ..

I don't know what you think but the physical issue here I think is like a cultural pattern as I mentioned that day in the post, the physical stereotype of a wag is very easy to appreciate, most of them are thin girls, blondes (of course also there are chestnuts), with colored eyes. Sometimes I have come to find similarities between them of how identical they can look, and I think that this has many causes, one of them may be that it has been for a long time time the stereotype of the ideal woman and although fortunately the new generations are working to create greater diversity in the image of women, I consider that there is still a lot of work to do to reach the goal (although progress is always excellent) on the other hand I especially believe that the male community is still looking for these characteristics already mentioned in a woman. I think we've all heard stories where girls have changed their hair color or something like that because the guy has asked them to fit in (there are things like this that I can't confirm but with how crazy the world is nowadays I wouldn't be surprised that really happens) The truth is I don't know what psychological effects this whole situation has in the sense of what the difference is or what psychological image it represents that the wags have to have certain features in particular, I hope I make myself understood. On the other hand, I also consider that the fact that they all have these characteristics in particular may be due to a psychological pattern, for example, as they often see that they go out with girls with these characteristics, they also begin to look for the same thing and that way they produces the pattern, or… maybe I'm thinking about it a lot and it's just a coincidence. Coming back to the main point I think all of this puts them under pressure to have to look a certain way to fit into this circle.

I didn't want to be left with the doubt so I asked @nhlhelp101 and @hockeyencyclopedia opinions on whether they believed that the fact that the wags had physical similarities or was due to a psychological pattern on the part of the players since they know about the subject and this was what I was told. I can anticipate that I found their opinions very interesting and I thank them very much for their answers.

nhlhelp101:

“Great question. There’s no way it can be just a coincidence - it’s not representative of real life to have all these gorgeous blondes in proximity. I believe that this phenomenon is totally due to the players actively seeking these girls out. A lot of the origins of hockey wives can be traced back to Scandinavia - Finland, Sweden etc. most of the girls who live in these countries are blonde by nature. My belief is that when the NHL started and guys from Europe came over to the US to play, they took notice of the “ideal picture perfect hockey wife” that their teammates had. This then lead to the American and Canadian guys (perhaps subconsciously) seeking out girls that fit this description. I think there is a lot of peer pressure on these teams, believe it or not, to date these so called “dimes” that are sexy and beautiful. I think these players are too afraid to date someone that might lead to them getting roasted by a teammate or looked down upon. It’s a contest, really”

Hockeyencyclopedia:

“I think it’s a part of the hockey culture. Cause being a blonde skinny girl is kind of like the beauty standard, especially in America. These guys are so afraid to date someone, who doesn’t fit that whole “wag stereotype” because they’d stand out. Which is something hockey players are taught not to do. Do not stand out, don’t have a unique personality, it’s “beaten” (in some cases literally, unfortunately) out of them because it’s hockey that matters and not their personal lives. And on the other hand, I think a lot of girls try to change their appearance just to either fit in, or if they’re not already dating the player, to make themselves more noticeable. So do I think it’s a coincidence? No. Do I think you HAVE to fit into that whole stereotype to get with a player? Also no, because if you have to change your physical appearance for someone, they’re not worth going after.”

Their opinions are not so far from what I thought, we can say that, no, it is not a coincidence, yes, there is a stereotype that is waiting to see if it can be fulfilled or not, there is that fear of the preferences of the players to step outside the box, and there is clear pressure to have a certain image to fit in.

This is not the only aspect where they are asked to be "perfect" but also in their day-to-day lifestyle, for example the wife of LA Kings goalkeeper Jonathan Quick, Jaclin tells the nhl the following "Game days in the Quick household are stressful for Jaclyn, who, as the chef in the family, needs to know what Jonathan wants for dinner the night before, and whether he will need a pre-game meal or if he plans to go out with teammates .” and although we may think that this is not a big deal, we can also say that there is pressure within this since they are expected to fulfill this kind of responsibilities so that the players have a good performance in the game, part of how they perform on the ice rink depend on them.

I think that another aspect that makes me very curious regarding this perfect stereotyped image of wags is fashion, a lot is also expected of them in that matter and it makes me curious how this idea has been changing from generation to generation, for example Sydney Esiason or Marty whatever you call her, Wife of New York Islanders player Matt Marty mentioned on Sophie Julia's "Home Team" podcast that fashion within the wags has changed too much, this also depends from team to team because I see many styles in each group of wags but at least here she tells the experience of them and their group. Within the podcast she mentions that she and other of the current wags entered at the same time so they all had the same doubts about not knowing how to go to the games dressed, and since they were just entering the group she mentioned that they were going super casual to the games and they saw the wives of the players who had already been there for a long time and they were super dressed, glitter, accessories, heels, large bags, she says that it surprised her a lot. Currently and as we can see the fashion to go to the games or in general it is much more casual within their group they continue to look super fashionable but in a simpler and more casual way and it seems to me an incredible way to adapt and create changes according to what makes them feel much more comfortable.

Going back a bit to the subject of the physical, we turn to the question of plastic surgeries, I wanted to leave this section until the end because I think it is a little more complicated to talk about in the sense that here there can be much more varied opinions regarding the inclination of plastic surgeries. I think that within the world of wags this topic is not talked about so much, but I think that there may also be a certain influence (I am not sure) given the same physical stereotype that is expected of them, I cannot give examples since in this case I don't know information on particular cases, but if we base ourselves on what society in general says and what is physically expected of women as such, plastic surgeries go hand in hand with physical stereotypes to a certain extent, since they seek to fulfill a image especially in the woman.

I think we have been able to observe that there are many implications when it comes to being wag in terms of physical appearance and lifestyle in general as we have seen previously. In my opinion I can say that I think it is quite noticeable that there is a lot of influence of stereotypes here and it can be easy to fall into that, and I'm not saying that they're wrong or anything like that, of course not, but I think that can also be related a little bit to the fact that they always keep as themselves and stand out for what they are as women and their achievements and their personalities, which I think is super good so as not to be pigeonholed into a stereotype. I also think that regardless of all this all these women are beautiful. On the other hand, in a more general aspect, although in this circle this aspect is still very marked, it seems incredible to me that within society in general we are creating greater inclusion in changing the idea that people have of the body of the human being and that there are great varieties of this and not closing ourselves to the idea of a single body type, we still have a lot of work to do but I think we have made good progress. Definitely the fact of being a wag implies many expectations and fulfilling many responsibilities beyond the physical aspect as many may believe, so I think it is interesting that we can see these different perspectives of what is expected of them as wives or girlfriends of athletes.

This was definitely a very long chapter, as I told you I think this topic has a lot to cover, maybe I missed some things but possibly in a next part I will come back with this topic, I hope you like it, share your opinions with me you know, either in the questions or by message, any opinion is welcome and remember that if you want me to talk about a specific topic like this you can tell me. Before finishing, I want to thank again to nhlhelp101 and hockeyencyclopedia for the opinions and the help they gave to today's post, since I think they really helped me understand the point I wanted to reach and the idea could be understood much better.

#hockey gossip #hockey tea #hockey #wags #nhl wags #hockey wags #islestea

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greysfall · 3 years

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My 4444-word review of NEO TWEWY (with personal illustration + heavy spoilers)

My overall critical score for the game is 7.5/10, while my personal enjoyment score is 8.5/10. This review is posted as I have 80% completed the game, got the secret ending and achieved the Angel psychic rank. I’ll first start with the main pros and cons as follows.

PROS:

- Enjoyable as a whole, still upholding the first game’s spirit in world building and sharing the same backbone - which was mostly revealed in the Secret Reports, it’s impossible to grasp the story without reading them.

- The new cast and new game is charming in their own way

- The old cast’s return is one of the biggest highlights for sure, it was fun and impactful. Everyone stays true to themselves and also had their own stories wrapped up nicely.

- Boss designs are cool, new pins are fun to use and collect

- The connection between the old and new cast is well written and executed, including but are not limited to the tension between the old and new protagonist, the weird but fun interaction between the 2 Composers, the new friendships revealed and formed

- Sho being in the main cast is something so uniquely TWEWY and uniquely Sho

- Still good music

- Still many fun side quests, some of them really uphold the same quirky spirit of the old game and some are surprisingly touching

- Many new nice stores and yummy looking foods to explore

- The map is really easy to memorize for me, it’s fun to travel around the “current” Shibuya to see all the differences compared to the past

- The social network is crazy and interesting to read through

- Has an anti-frustration system to help 100% complete the game more easily and earn money faster, so post-game is relatively managable.

- Overall, I really feel the efforts the team poured into making this as their passion project, not just during the development process but for all the last 14 years. They showed the vision of what they wanted to make, at the same time giving something to both the old as well as new fans.

CONS:

- The biggest problem with the game is scenario writing. The story is so heavily back-loaded. The director himself thought it would be better to balance out the tension flow by adding more at the beginning but gave in to the scenario writer in the end, probably due to time pressure. This results in an underwhelming execution of characterization and lots of wasted potentials for the first half of the game.

- I struggle to view it as a stand-alone game, since the backstory and the old cast both play such an important role in the core of the game. If someone plays this game without having played the OG, they can only enjoy it on surface value at best.

- The new cast is nice but most of them aren’t quite as intriguing as the old cast, maybe it’s cuz they’re all too nice deep down that they lack a little bit of an edge, of that batshit craziness that everyone in the OG used to have? I think some characters (Fret, Nagi) ended up weaker in terms of characterization because the writer is too afraid of making them unlikeable – which kind of backlashed cuz they only became likable in the most expectable way to cater for a specific group of fans. I would have wished for the other team leaders to be more crazy too, had they not suffered 30+ loops of the Game…

- The CAMERAWORK IS HELL.

- Gameplay does get tedious at certain points with all the time travels.

- Shiba is so badly written as a villain, some Shinjuku characters should be given more screentime cutting into Shiba’s– like Hishima or Kaie or even, Hazuki (though his limited presence also solidified his importance).

- Some of the main character designs, for example Beat’s hairstyle and his food reactions are hilariously bad. What’s the point of covering up most of his unique facial features?

- Some of the minor/side characters’ design are too cool for them to have such a small role (eg: Ayano, Eiru). Ryoji did get much screentime but is nowhere as fun as Makoto was.

- Overall the scope of this game is made a little too big for the team to handle as perfectly as the last game that was very compact, it felt somewhat rushed in development too so the missing pieces are clearly there in the final picture

The entry fee versus paying for it all in the end

An important difference between the Neo game and the original Shibuya game was that the Shibuya rule asked for an entry fee that is the Player’s most important asset, stated as a chance the Composer gives them to reexamine themselves. Meanwhile, the Shinjuku rule neither encourages nor allows personal growth and ultimately aims to erase as many Players as possible. It’s a pity we were never introduced to the full Shinjuku rulebook, as it seems like the system there focuses more on building up power and a grand government to compare with the individuality-driven system of Shibuya.

When you have to compare the new game and the original game (OG), this is an important factor to consider. Also, the OG has a serious storyline running through and through, locked with a different partner/GM creating unique atmosphere for each week and you don’t get to see your old partners again until the end. NEO’s team system does not allow such deep insight and communication between the Players. All of your teammates are always there throughout, the dynamic does change with each new addition but it is not as prominent as a partner change.

Another important factor is how the OG was built from scratch for a new platform as “something no one has ever seen before”, while Neo recycled a lot of old unused ideas from the previous development (check out this interview for more details). The development team for NEO lacks 2 key members and had a change of writer so the final product is not as strongly bound together as the last game.

The new cast is definitely inspired by today’s teenagers (from the view of creators), compared to the old cast they’re more sociable and always seem to take whatever works for them despite feeling unstable inside. They are all innocent and genuinely nice kids, avoiding to hurt each other to a degree that they end up keeping some sort of distance. They’re also unable to communicate at deeper levels, always stagnant at this half-baked stage of equilibrium without any motivation to get to the core of things. That is the cost of entering the game without an entry fee, without even dying or having a reason to be there/to fight seriously. These kids were stolen from the RG into a Game that was decidedly the worst environment for them to change or develop, just wandering around cluelessly to find a way “out” until tragedies started to unfold one by one and they ended up being charged the total sum of the price for their actions – ultimately losing everything in the end.

That is, I believe, a story arc which can resonate more to the youth of today rather than of my generation. If the message of the old game was to “listen”, enjoy life to the fullest and accept to trust others, the message of the new game is to “speak up” from the inside, trying to understand yourself and take actions instead of just going with the flow and finally, to take responsibility for such actions.

If Neku was handpicked by the Composer for being the special one with an all-dense soul to ensure victory of the game then Rindo was just a normal kid chosen out of random by Kubo to be his back-up plan, who just happened to have a high enough imagination to awaken the incredible power from his pin. Rindo was then officially chosen by the Composer as Josh picked up and handed the pin to him again, this time not as Josh’s personal Proxy – but as the Proxy to represent the normal people of Shibuya and via whom he could gamble if humans can fight for their own fate.

The underworld heroine and the hero with little of his own

Shoka is for me a refreshing and layered heroine. She’s the kind of character that took at least 3 trials of creators to form as a complete individual – that included Nomura who gave her the base design and Reaper background, Gen who gave a more cunning touch and the writers who made her English dialogues more punchy. Dishonesty equals “tsundere” is such a cliché, so the English writers tried really hard to avoid that trope in my opinion, while still letting her good intention come through.

She serves as the character who is informed of everything the players should have known, and there was almost nothing she could do about it. Almost. Until she met Rindo.

They were drawn to each other by sharing a state of “not having anything of their own”. They both started out with not being able to truly know themselves, Shoka even hated her RG life but also managed to mature from that stage before Rindo. She must have vibed with Shiki’s love and passion in the Gatto Nero threads, initiating her connection with Shibuya and understanding herself more. With Shoka as Swallow, they were able to open up to each other and offer mental support… but was still not getting to the centre of their problems because for all this time, Shoka could not tell Rindo the most important things about herself.

How did Shoka feel when she met Rindo at the UG? She probably didn’t want to hope that he would live the day until she witnessed the Twisters’ potentials. From the very beginning, they were both incredibly conscious of each other and also constantly frustrated that the person they happened to “notice” was such a condescending bitch/a clueless loser. The Shinjuku Reapers are overall quite drunk in power and uncompassionate to Players, Shoka included. She is also a master of dissociation, which results in her constant boredom, tone swings, haughtiness and subconsciously distancing herself from the friend – the boy she cares about – from false hope, as she judged from facts that it was a hopeless situation where nothing could ever be. Maybe she is naturally a bit of a chameleon just like her name suggests (Shoka 紫陽花 = hydrangea, the color-changing flower), so putting on an act and always dissociating herself from what’s important was easy, while hiding her contradiction was impossible. It was the ex-Reaper Beat who broke it out to her, that she should decide whether she really cared and wanted to do something for a change. He knew how it felt like to cross that line, and knew she wanted to too.

Shoka is endeared by many of the Shinjuku Reapers and has shown independent acts of kindness (the Shinjuku ghost), proving that her kind and truthful side is as real as her harsh and dishonest side – which makes her a nice mirror to the previous heroine Shiki, who also embraced a dichotomy of self-complex and self-love within her character. In the end, she was the first of the new cast to ultimately accept all that is important to her and independently made the decision to help save Shibuya despite all costs.

She was jealous at Rindo’s interaction with Tsugumi and Kanon but remained silent cuz she wasn’t at a place to have any say about it. She also didn’t reveal about Swallow because that would only add an awkward irrelevance to their current situation, as she was too ready to face erasure at the end of the Game. She only wished to “play a game” with him, be it FanGo or the Reapers’ Game. The tension that the team could only feel at the end, she’s felt it the entire time. The song “DIVIDE” is applicable to not just one bond in the game, but it always makes me think of theirs. There is always a “divide” between her and Rindo throughout the course of their journey, as the living and the dead, as a Player and Reaper, as someone who has a place to return to and someone who doesn’t, someone who knows little but wields too much power and someone who knows a lot despite not being able to do much.

“If only I had the chance to connect with you on the other side

But time goes on, and without us realizing it

The battle is getting heated

Time goes on, and without us realiazing it

Divided again”

To be honest, maybe I didn’t grow any affection for the new main cast from Rindo’s perspective but from Shoka’s. Since I started to sympathize with Shoka, I started to see the boy in a more “real” way. The real Rindo, behind his peaceful façade with others, would lash out on Shoka for her unfairly harsh attitude while none of the others cared. He could also subtly feel that mantle of unspoken secrets from her, her own contradictions, the unresolved chemistry between themselves – and not knowing what to do with it rather than to feel angry with all the unfairness he could not process. (As a Libra too, he’s triggered the most by unfairness!)

It is actually a positive development as he’s at least “reacting” to something strongly now rather than to keep evading his problems. During my replay, I clearly saw the difficult situation Shoka was in, her remaining harshness after the Motoi incident was due to her internal struggle with a mission to save her own life, versus a chance to really be with the team. Her decision was to do both at the risk of losing favour from both sides. Rindo started to accept her layer by layer, as the person who resonated the most to her contradicting nature from the start and knew that via learning her resolve, he has learnt his too.

Later into the game, she even got too much of his attention. Maybe even without knowing she’s Swallow, he’s familiar with her thinking direction and Swallow had always been closer to him than any other friend. It was only after she had to betray her important ones twice that she could start being truly honest. The scene when she died a 2nd time left a strong impression in me, the little reveal let Rindo know that he is also losing Swallow as he’s losing Shoka – and that only death could drive the last secret out of her. Her final “Later, loser” echoed through Rindo as it was the final truth, with only him remaining to hear it: they had actually, already lost everything.

Rindo was the boy who never dared to face all that matters to him until he lost it all, fighting an unfair battle in the faith that they would somehow still win. Shoka was the girl who always knew what was dear to her, but never dared to think she could be together with them ever after and still threw her all into a battle she knew was losing. I think they stir each other on naturally to fill out their gaps, similar to what the Shibuya game partner systerm would have aimed for. The end reward was a little divine intervention to help close up the divide between them once and for all.

During the game there was not enough space to process anything personal so at the ending when they officially became “friends”, it was an important affirmation of their bond. Some people complained it was friendzoning but it’s not, they just have arrived at the perfect place to start something more. “From now on, we will truly be together” – I read it as that kind of message.

The heroine from a lost battle, with her story taken away

After reading the secret reports and playing the game to be surprised of how small a role Tsugumi had in the main game despite being the “Hype-chan” thought to be a major character of the next TWEWY installment, many fans would feel sad at a missed opportunity to see the Shinjuku arc in full depiction.

It was shown clearly that, a Shinjuku arc was very carefully planned out and is a vital part of the whole story, yet it could not be made due to various circumstances behind the development scene. I would assume, that the team were not able to make a TWEWY game that ended on a despairing note, but it already happened in their mind, thus becoming a mental burden that forced them to break away from it and started the game anew with NEO. A significant part of NEO became the healing arc for the Shinjuku characters, especially for Tsugumi though I really wished more emphasis should have been placed on her rather than Shiba. We didn’t even get to see her brother – Shinjuku’s Conductor who had a vital role and instead was given the clueless Shiba, who had absolutely no idea what’s going on all the way until the last day in NEO. It’s as if Tsugumi has had her story stolen away from her, because her own battle ended with a saddening loss.

I think every time the game creators look at Tsugumi, they would feel that sadness too. Maybe to them, she is a bigger character than what is seen by the fans, as despite their failed effort to depict her story, she’s lived in their mind for all these years through periods of destruction, healing and rebuild. Though it is a pity we could not get to experience the full scope of the Shinjuku story, the creators was clear about the place they wished for it to arrive at.

Individuality, connection and the social network

The team system adapted from Shinjuku rulebook does not allow much room for personal development, as the team dynamic is closer to a work relationship forced to bear results, than a spiritual bond to max out all corners of understanding as found in the partnership system. The old Shibuya system allowed only 1 winner and 1 week limit per game, while the new rule declares for a 1 winning team and only the team at last place will be erased – the other teams will enter another loop. Furthermore, whichever team to challenge the unwinnable Ruinbringers will face the risk of ending up dead last followed by erasure. As a result, the longest-standing teams are most likely not the strongest ever recorded, but the ones who have figured out a strategy to simply survive until something changes, enjoying their newly found social constructs while they are at it. Basically, it is a system to hypnotise players into the illusion that they are still “living”.

Therefore, we as players would not get to the core of each Player individually as fast and directly as we did in the last game. The Twisters were able to stand out not because they’re powerful, they only started to have a real chance after growing enough to each form a meaningful and personal connection to another teammate. It did not come as a team, nor did it intiate from the existing friendship between Rindo and Fret. In fact, I did not find much solidity or anything truly note-worthy about the main team and new characters within themselves until they started clashing with other team members, Reapers and new recruits from week 2 onwards. Rindo found his personal development with Shoka (via a clash with Motoi and pretty much a mini dating sim between them), then via the confrontation of his role with Neku; Fret found his with Kanon then Nagi, the team learned about the real Neku via Beat, Neku entered the UG via Coco’s wish to save Tsugumi… it was not the team but their personal links that empowered them to fight and solve each of their problems.

The other team leaders may have failed because they did not form such personal links, after 30+ hopeless loops Fuya’s team all fell apart to pursue their own interest even at the cost of erasure, Motoi quit his KOL façade to work like a dog for the Reapers (probably to save just his own ass not his team), while Kanon dropped her tricks to find changes via honest cooperation in acceptance of a fair loss. The despairing note in that is huge without making much of a scene because their failure didn’t happen at their best effort to “win”, but in their last attempt to find a way “out”. Even Shiba got his way “out” in the end thanked to his personal friendship with Hishima and Tsugumi.

Something has shifted in the mindset of the game creators in the last 14 years, as both games are about “connection vs individuality” but the last game focuses more on connection between just individuals and this one on the overall network that is formed out of those individual connections.

The introduction of Beat into the main cast was truly the bridge between old and new, they helped each other out in several turns before officially recruiting him. Beat is a character whom a lot of fans including myself have felt somewhat concerned about after Neku disappeared from the RG, so when the new kids welcomed Beat with warm and organic interaction and Beat seemed happy, I started to feel like I wanted to help them out too! I think the overall team chemistry is enjoyable enough for new players, but I could warm up to the new kids more from the pov of a returning character – whom I’m glad to be Beat, as the older brother figure who is genuinely kind, fun, serious and upbeat at the same time; who is needed and needs the kids in return.

The social network is a fun and refreshing feature. You can read all of the crazy tidbits about Shibuya and the links each character have formed with the town people, it’s also fun to visualize how the characters act off screen. Characters’ profiles provide extra insight into their background too, like how it reveals Tsugumi has been friend with Coco during her time in the RG. During the game when not all characters have showed up, you can sometimes guess which empty spot will belong to whom. For example there is a 1 character linking to Neky that is not linked to anyone else, so I could guess that was Joshua, and that another character linking only to Joshua was probably Hazuki, hinting that the 2 Composers are related before either of them even showed up.

Hazuki only showed up for 5 minutes, but his presence is so vital and true to the game that I think he is the most memorable out of the new cast. The two Composers have such an intriguing bond, with their yin/yang or phoenix/dragon themes, opposite color design, the sempai/kouhai tone and the way they keep some sort of distance/work relationship as if it’s mandatory between Higher beings, yet at the same time they can talk so casually because they are truly equal – and different from one another. I have written a separate meta on them here.

Some people pointed out, that all Shinjuku characters’ names and themes are based off Hanafuda cards and the Phoenix in Hanafuda belongs to the Paulownia suit – which is Joshua’s name flower. This is so interesting because it feels like the creators somehow saw it as a sign to interweave the Shibuya and Shinjuku storylines together. Though it doesn’t come out much on the surface, it’s fascinating nonetheless considering both Josh and Haz had at some point interfered with the other town’s affairs.

“Shibuya tour with Haz” was such a special scene, as it happened between 2 characters who do not/no longer have a reason to care about Shibuya, on the subject of what is worth saving about Shibuya. Hazuki carried out the purification of Shinjuku and stepped in to restore Shibuya just as part of his job and unlike Hanekoma or Joshua who both possess profound understanding of humanity, he really didn’t know humans at all. Rindo’s irrational wish invoked in him a sense of curiosity, to try gambling on something irrationally and learning a bit of what his senior have experienced. With all the pieces put together, it provides an overview on Higher beings as a whole, and that Joshua and Hanekoma are really the odd ones out with Hazuki being somewhere in between them and the rest.

The old friends

It’s easy to have returning characters overshadow the new cast as they have already matured out of their personal story arc and stayed in our hearts for all this time. In the end, I have managed to enjoy both the old and new cast separately and altogether, and they will both find their own place in our memory of this game for the long term.

Sho is truly as crazy as ever, the game wouldn’t be the same if Sho is any less of what he is. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like Neky or Beat is younger than Nagi at all, with moments when it seems like Neky has aged 14 years instead of 3 years. His friendship with Coco surprised me pleasantly, and their interaction together with Beat was fun to watch. Rhyme’s found a new dream and her friendship with Kaie is precious too, especially considering that she can still talk to him online after the game ended. Josh and Neku’s interaction suggested that they have resolved the past and are on equal terms now, they even parted ways in good spirit and I don’t feel any worry about them like I did before.

Neku and Shiki’s reunion scene was beautiful, theirs is such a special bond that it has grown and supported them even without being able to see each other. I am so happy to see them all again and that they stay true to who they are, albeit looking more grown up, cooler and happier than ever before.

Overall, NEO can’t become a classic on par with the OG, but is definitely a good sequel and a good game in its own rights. I’m happy with whether or not there will be a 3rd game to complete the 3 monkeys theme, but if there will be – I hope the creators can really find the time to learn from the last 2 games and start over with a fresh mindset and strong core.

#neotwewy #neotwewyspoilers #ntwewy #ntwewy spoilers #neo the world ends with you #twewy #review #meta #neo twewy #shoka sakurane #rindo kanade #tsugumi matsunae

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vixen-flower · 2 years

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// SPOILERS FOR A STARLESS CLAN #1 : RIVER

Lightleap’s arc in “River” parallels that of Shadowsight’s arc of self-worth and recovery in the Broken Code (Note : This is obviously just the first book of the arc so I have no idea what her arc actually is, but I’m basing this off the first book)

Lightleap is an interesting secondary character. She has an interesting backstory as one of Tigerstar’s beloved daughters, and has a pressure on her shoulders to hold up her family’s name. It makes sense that the child of a leader would feel like a failure if they were unable to represent their clan correctly.

Lightleap is very similar to Shadowsight for this reason. In fact, they even parallel one another in their arcs. They both built themselves on their occupation — Shadowsight as the “chosen one” medicine cat and Lightleap as a brave ShadowClan warrior — and when they failed / realized they could not hold up to the expectations they had for themselves, they resorted to reckless behavior to prove their worth to others, which ended in hurting the cats around them in process. They are both good examples of what happens when you build your self-worth based on what you can do for others.

The consequences of Shadowsight’s actions is often overlooked by fans because he is a very sympathetic character, but he too did unintentionally hurt the cats around him with his reckless behavior (ex. freeing Ashfur, leading to Squirrelflight being kidnapped. He kept entering the dark forest to help defeat Ashfur even though he knew he was endangering himself because he thought it would prove his worth to the clans, and Bristlefrost ended up sacrificing herself for it). Shadowsight obviously is not a bad cat, but he did often utilize his emotions over rationality when making decisions. He valued what he felt emotionally over what was best for himself and the clans.

Lightleap has a similar arc. While Shadowsight was moved to reckless behavior under the belief that he could make up for killing Bramblestar by endangering himself, Lightleap was moved to reckless behavior under the idea that she had to reinforce the idea that she was a strong ShadowClan warrior. Though they are both trying to repair this image of themselves, unlike Shadowsight, she has yet to take responsibility for her actions.

Lightleap absolutely refuses to listen to advice. Shadowsight, Sunbeam, and her parents have all told her she doesn’t need to prove her worth to the clans. This is interesting considering Shadowsight also acted out similarly, with Tigerstar responding that he didn’t need to prove himself to the clans. It was Lightleap who comforted Shadowsight when he was outcasted by the clans. In the end, Shadowsight was able to listen to Juniperclaw’s advice about self-worth, and he grew confident because of it.

In a way, the roles are somewhat reversed. Unlike Shadowsight, who was ridden with extreme guilt and blamed almost everything on herself, she redirects her own faults into the cats around her, refusing to listen to them and cutting ties with Sunbeam when she tries to help her. She also shows her true colors when she proves to Shadowsight that she does indeed blame him for what happened with Ashfur. Interestingly enough, she says this in response to his advice to her about her self-worth, warning her not to make the mistakes he made. Though he was willing to accept her comfort in Darkness Within, she lashed out at him when he tried to do the same.

In the end, I think Lightleap is an example of what Shadowsight could have been had he redirected his pain onto others rather than himself. Neither sibling coped in a healthy way at first, but Shadowsight eventually grew open-minded to the idea that he didn’t need to prove his worth. I don’t think Lightleap is evil at all, she just is close-minded and unable to see the full extent of her actions.

I relate a lot to Shadowsight in terms of mental illness, but I also used to be friends with people who were like Lightleap — and it was not fun. I would try to help my friend who I knew was hurt like me, but they would lash out at everyone around them and end up hurting others in process. Again, I don’t think Lightleap is an inherently bad cat, but she is going down a toxic path and will continue to hurt those who are trying to help her.

I find it kind of fascinating that they gave her such a similar storyline to Shadowsight, especially considering his low self-worth came from being ostracized by the clans. No one ostracized Lightleap, but her own view of herself was damaged. It goes to show that while Shadowsight is heavily impacted by the views of the cats around him, while Lightleap was very centered on what she thought of herself. In the end, that kind of makes their response to help/advice understandable. When Shadowsight bases his self-worth on the way others view him, it makes sense that he would be more eager to listen to advice. But to Lightleap it doesn’t matter what others think, it matters what she thinks, and she’s frustrated when others try to tell her what to do.

I’m excited to see what’s in store for her and I hope they continue this arc for her.

#lightleap #shadowsight #warrior cats #shadowclan #sunbeam #sunbeam wc

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rhysand-vs-fenrys · 2 years

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Why do you think Elain avoids Lucien so much, but still seems to want him nearby?

There are a few considerations for this, and I'm going to balance my answer between shipper kind of thought lines and non-shipper logical ones.

So first, why she avoids him:

Lucien is Elain's mate... and Elain wants nothing to do with being fae || Shipping aside- that bond exists. In WAR a bit and a lot more in ACOSF, you hear about how that bond pulls at you and makes you very much aware of it- also hints that it roils more when mates are in one another's presence. Elain doesn't want to face what she is now and cannot accept it. Humans don't have mating bonds. The mating bond- and by extension Lucien- represents something she simply cannot accept on a cellular level: that she is not human.

He didn't make a great first impression || Set aside any stories Feyre may have told her about how wrong things went for her in Spring (which is not that flattering to Lucien). Her first, initiating experience into the fae world (beyond the visits Rhys and his crew make- power heavily muzzled) is being kidnapped, seeing her staff slaughtered, her home destroyed, being dragged away- and probably at least psychologically tortured- and the reason for that is Lucien's best friend. It doesn't matter Lucien knew nothing and indicated he didn't know in that initial Hybern encounter. Elain is traumatized, she's not reading subtle facial cues. She sees this man standing next to the one responsible for what she's just been through.

The PRESSURE || Again, everything Elain's been through, and then suddenly "Oh and BTW here's your new fiancee" (Not literally with mates but like still, from fae perspective). Plus, you don't know what she was told or what she expects to know. Like- has she heard the horror stories from anyone about how, in other courts, your male mate owns you? "BTW here's your new fiancee and if you reject him he legally can take you hostage and kill your lover". Not that it'd happen in Night- but like what kind of stories has she heard- either just overheard, read in books, or whatever Grayson's family talked about.

He represents her father's death || Lucien was the one who went to find their salvation... and he brought her father with him. Her father probably always would have made it to that fight, but thanks to Lucien he might have made it a little sooner. Would her father have died if Lucien didn't find his ships at sea? It's enough to create an awkwardness for sure.

The shippy one but still read if you don't ship bc I make a fair point- we don't know the visions she's had || We don't know what Elain has seen with her visions. This one is a stretch, but I keep it on the back of my mind when reading/writing anything Elain. What if the vision the Cauldron gave her with her power- or a vision she had later on- was of her Happily Ever After with Lucien? So take all of that trauma and pressure listed above and add someone screaming "THIS'LL BE GREAT" in your brain. It's kind of intimidating, and anyone would understandably be scared off a bit by it. ESPECIALLY given all of the above, but extra highlights on bad first impression and the fact that Elain doesn't want to be fae. Like fate is screaming at you to accept it already.

He represents her failure || I've said before that Elain and Lucien are incredibly similar in that both stood aside when Feyre needed them. Elain during the poverty-striken times, and Lucien when Feyre needed him before fleeing Spring (starting with her arrival in Prythian). Neither stood up when they should have, pitched in when they could have, and both ended up with incredible guilt for it. But while Elain still asks herself in MAF how Feyre's problems in Prythian are theirs to deal with too, Lucien is standing up for Feyre. He started when she went through her Trials, and he did what he could behind the scenes- taking Tamlin's abuse- to try and help her in Spring as well. Even if he failed, and even if it wasn't as much as he could have done. He's still done more than Elain, and Feyre still holds him more in confidence.

Why she still wants him nearby:

They are extremely compatible in some relationship form- platonic OR romantic || Elain and Lucien have very complementary personalities. Even if no romantic relationship existed, they have the potential to form a wonderful platonic one as close friends. Their personalities mean they will often be on the same page in various matters, and will always understand one another very well, even without any mating bond.

He's done a lot for them, and sacrificed a lot || Elain doesn't live under a rock. She can tell all that Lucien has given up to help them, and knows he's done all of that because it is the right thing to do. Abandoning Spring, helping Feyre, showing care and concern for her when she was still catatonic, finding the army, fighting the war- even living miserably in human lands so she doesn't feel overwhelmed with his presence- Lucien has done a lot. Sacrificed a lot. No matter how much the stuff in the above section makes Elain squeamish, Lucien has proven himself a good male. A good person, deserving to be part of the family Rhys and Feyre surround themselves with. The only actions that are attributed to the mating bond specifically is bringing her birthday and solstice gifts, and with the importance fae put on mating bonds, to not do that is probably the fae equivalent of spitting in her face, so I chalk it up to cultural traditions as much as anything.

Again, emphatically, he's not a bad person || Just to underscore it, Lucien is a good male. He's been through shit that stunted him to a degree, but he has shown a willingness and desire to improve and recover from his past, address his flaws, and find a way to be the person he wants to be. He's a brother to Feyre and has been her confidant in the past. He is someone Rhys trusts and who puts himself at great risk to help others because he knows and believes it's right. Now- again, he didn't do it much before but NOW he's working on it. There's really no reason to shove him out the door and estrange him beyond just feeling overwhelmed by the existence of this mating bond. Whatever you feel about Azriel and shipping and all that jazz- Lucien is still a good person. He is part of the family Rhys and Feyre have built for themselves. Making him feel left out and shoving him aside without any reason is unfair and cruel, and Elain knows that. Even if she doesn't want the relationship in the end- she doesn't want to be cruel or exclude him from gatherings he very much earned his place at. And she’s aware that as much as he makes her anxious, she’s making him feel the same thing. I get the impression Elain wants to be friends, but doesn’t know how to do that without giving him hope in being more- which Elain just flat out obviously isn’t mentally ready for yet.

Very very long answers, this ended up way longer than I intended and you probably wanted, but there you go. Thorough af.

Actually I deleted like 6 bullet points because I didn't feel like getting into it lol

#ask

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shihalyfie · 3 years

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Some things to know about the upcoming 02-related movie

As someone who seems to be known for being a 02 metablogger now (and 02 lover in general), and who’s been closely following Kizuna’s development and is generally fond of the movie itself, I figured I’d probably need to address the elephant in the room that is the announcement of the upcoming (unnamed, as of this writing) 02-related movie. This is also especially because I’ve personally been on the record saying that I absolutely did not want a Kizuna sequel. And, well, on top of that, to be a bit blunt about it, a lot of us, especially 02 fans, have a lot of reason to be skeptical of Toei right now given some of the things they’ve done with this series in the past, and 02-related things in particular (trust me, the wound is still extremely fresh), so it says a lot about what it took for me to get even remotely positive about this prospect.

Well, here’s the good news: while I of course still think there’s good reason to be apprehensive, and while I wouldn’t say everyone should be getting their expectations up for it to be guaranteed fantastic (which is something I would say about anything, regardless of whether it even has to do with Digimon or not), I don’t think there’s too much to be panicked about with this movie. Again, it took a lot for the staff to gain my trust in this respect, so it’s not something I say lightly. But if you’re a 02 fan and you’re extremely apprehensive, here are my reasons for feeling this way, and, hopefully, they might make you feel a little better too.

The reason this movie exists to begin with

One of the most striking things about this movie’s reveal was that they’ve literally only just started production on this movie. This was to the point that, at DigiFes, where this was revealed, even the voice actors stated outright that they knew absolutely nothing more than what the audience knew from the trailer. Katayama (Daisuke) only knew anything in the sense that they had him record those few lines for it. So even though it’s been a whole year and a half since Kizuna released to the public, it had only just been decided to make a new movie like this. All of the statements between Kizuna and now stating that there was nothing particularly in the works at the time were completely accurate. Of course, there are obvious hints that they were setting up for this possibility (many, many people noticed the suspiciously favorable position the 02 group was in during Kizuna, and the press releases were carefully worded so that having a movie about “Daisuke and his friends” would allow any statement about Kizuna being “the last adventure of Taichi and his friends” to still be technically truthful), but for all intents and purposes it seems like there had been no actual commitment to making this 02 movie until now, and that they’d at least wanted to gauge the surrounding climate and fanbase reactions for what people were looking for before they decided to go ahead with this.

The obvious reasons as to why this movie exist involve the fact that Daisuke and co. are pretty much the only “out” you can have to continue the Adventure universe without constantly defaulting to Taichi’s group yet again, because at the very least it’d be something that you can’t deny hasn’t exactly had the best representation in recent years. Of course they’re trying to capitalize on this! I’m not going to pretend they aren’t! But producer Kinoshita left a very interesting comment about a particular goal they have with this movie:

This time, the core behind the movie is everyone from 02! Daisuke’s group has their own different kind of charm from Taichi’s, and we want to express that precisely because we’re in the times we’re in right now.

That comment alone has a lot to unpack. (For a frame of reference, Kizuna released in Japan in February 2020; development had already long finished by the time the pandemic first hit, and it was unfortunately one of the first victims of the initial lockdowns because of how bad the timing was.) Acknowledging directly that there’s something different about Daisuke’s group and their dynamic, which makes them especially suited for what we need in “the current times”...hmm, what could that be?

The implied answer is one that many 02 lovers will know very intimately: the 02 group’s particular specialty is in uplifting others and giving each other emotional support. While Adventure had traces of these themes, 02 was the one that went really hard on the themes of dealing with grief and loss, the existential crisis of what to do with oneself in a world placing heavy pressures on you, and how to move on from hardships with the help of others. The fact that the 02 group specializes in this more than anything else is probably one of the most distinguishing factors between them and their seniors, so there’s a very heavy implication here that they understand what distinguishes 02 from Adventure, and what it uniquely would bring to the table in this kind of movie. So this isn’t just “we’re relying on the 02 kids because they’re part of the same universe”; there’s some degree of substantial understanding of what makes 02 as a series unique, and a desire to use this to its fullest extent.

Still don’t believe me? Well, how about this...

This staff really likes 02 a lot

Seki Hiromi, the original producer of Adventure and 02, was involved as a supervisor on Kizuna’s development. Seki was personally involved in the creation of these kids and 02 itself -- she’s the one who noticed the story of the nine-year-old boy skipping grades into Columbia University, the one that formed the basis of 02 itself and eventually came back for Kizuna -- and even personally vetted Kizuna’s script to make sure everyone was in character, gave her thoughts on what the kids would be like in 2010, and was (repeatedly) commented as seeming to love the kids like her own children. As of this writing, it hasn’t been confirmed whether she’s involved on the new movie, but even if she’s not, this means that the staff on Kizuna that is returning all listened closely to those discussions about what the characters are like, straight from the mouth of one of their own creators. The new character song releases had a brief mention in Lounsbery Arthur’s interview that there were apparently extensive discussions with the staff on what the characters should be like at this time, so while Seki’s involvement with that is unknown, at the very least, a lot of conscientious thought seems to be put in at all times into maintaining these characters’ integrity.

Of course, just having an original creator alone on it doesn’t necessarily do it by itself, so here’s another interesting thing: Taguchi Tomohisa, director of both Kizuna and this movie, is also very fond of 02.

I suspect we’ll be hearing more from him as this new movie goes further into development, but Taguchi himself implied that 02 was actually the one he happened to connect with in particular, and when you really think about it, given the circumstances surrounding Kizuna, it’s not actually surprising that a movie trying to be conscientiously aware of 02′s position in the narrative would have someone with a particular fondness for it on its staff. (Reason being: a lot of Adventure fans don’t care much for 02, but you’ll almost never meet a 02 fan who doesn’t also adore Adventure.) The really fun part about this, however, is that Taguchi has repeatedly stated that 02′s first movie, Hurricane Touchdown, is his favorite Digimon movie -- in a climate where everyone else was talking about Adventure. The expected answer for the majority of Adventure fans in terms of “favorite Digimon movie” is almost always Our War Game! by knockout, but no, for Taguchi, it’s Hurricane Touchdown, and not only has he said this, he won’t shut up about it. He’s been saying this since 2019. Even Seki noticed. A whole article got made about this. He brings it up whenever he has a chance to. To top it all off, when a Kizuna event asked everyone present about their favorite characters, and everyone gave Adventure-related answers, Taguchi’s response was instead Terriermon and Daisuke. And I mean, look at Kizuna itself -- its entire plot revolves around having to move on from unhealthy nostalgia, represented by kidnapping people and turning them younger and an antagonist swallowed by their own negative emotions, which, well, is literally the plot of Hurricane Touchdown. (Yeah, that Wallace cameo is very, very likely to be sheer self-indulgence.) And considering that Taguchi said his favorite human character was Daisuke, not Wallace, it means that he understands what Hurricane Touchdown brought out of Daisuke, what his interactions with Wallace meant for both characters, and how Daisuke’s best strengths lie in his ability to support and uplift others.

And, finally, we have Yamatoya, who was responsible for penning both Kizuna’s script (and, thus, being privy to Seki’s corrections) and the bonus drama CD that came with it, on the script, and he personally said that he enjoyed writing for the 02 group because he felt they were important to lightening up the mood of the heavy story Kizuna was becoming. In fact, every comment from this staff about what the 02 group brings to the table in particular has showed a good understanding of what their appeal is -- that they have to be “fun”, that they were “healing in a heavy story”, and Taguchi himself said that he got the impression that the 02 group had more straightforward paths to their epilogue careers (which is interesting, considering that I’ve also personally pointed out that the 02 group seemed to have careers with significantly lower bars than their seniors’ due to their difference in priorities). All of these things are observations you make when you know this group and the importance of the story they came from.

Extend it even further to the rest of the staff members and you’ll find there are a lot of 02 fans on there, including the animation staff, who made some very neat observations about 02 and its finale. Miyahara Takuya is a particularly amusing case, because he seems to love Imperialdramon so much that in the thanks booklet for the deluxe edition for the Blu-ray, he drew a picture of Daisuke and Ken with Imperialdramon Dragon Mode because he didn’t get to be in the movie. (As in, he actually said, point-blank in the caption, that he loves Imperialdramon and wanted to draw him because he wasn’t in the movie.)

Of course, even if you’re trying your best, things may not always work out, so I’m not saying having love for the characters will necessarily guarantee that the product turns out for the best. However, considering that historically a lot of our fears come from the idea of them milking the name value of the characters without really caring about their integrity or understanding what the series was about (especially since a lot of people in the fanbase itself don’t tend to read 02′s nuances very well), I think, at the very least, we don’t need to worry about the staff for this movie not being conscientious, nor the idea that they’re making this movie without understanding or caring about 02.

Furthermore, one thing I appreciate is that they’re actually leading the advertisement with a premise that is distinct from Kizuna’s. Of course, it covers a similar topic of “partnerships”, and it’s very possible it’ll cover the issue of the solution to Kizuna’s problem (especially since the answer was already hinted to have a heavy relationship with 02), but nevertheless, it’s an actual premise that’s not just “Kizuna’s story, but more of it”. It’s an understanding that something 02-related should be allowed to stand on its own rather than just tacking it onto an Adventure-related thing. Beyond that, while I think it’s generally expected that a side story like this should have an original character, I think it’s actually very good this time in particular that there’s a new element/character for the 02 group to interact with; again, as with Hurricane Touchdown and Daisuke, these kids often have the best brought out of them when they’re supporting others, and honestly, because the kids suffered so much in their own narrative, I’m not particularly fond of the idea of seeing them having to go through too much more trauma themselves (it’s a big reason I don’t like the idea of a 02 reboot). So while I’m sure a lot of 02 fans feel a bit antsy that the actual group itself wasn’t advertised first, I actually consider it a positive sign that they have an understanding of what context this group performs best in, and, moreover, well...the last time they unveiled something that was so focused on advertising the return of old characters that it forgot to actually be straightforward about the premise, I don’t think that ended well. So to speak.

In general, the track record is good

It’s easy to just smile and nod at the portrayal of the 02 quartet in Kizuna, because in general everything from them is in-character, but I just want to point out how significant it is that they were portrayed so conscientiously when it is really easy to mess them up. (As I like pointing out very often: even official has not historically been very careful with Daisuke’s character.) There are so many easy pitfalls you could have fallen into and pigeonholed the kids into, but Kizuna absolutely demonstrated the quartet at their best, showing off all the nuances of their character and bringing up all the parts that were most important, especially Daisuke’s best quality being “positivity and cheerfulness” and not all of the other things about him running in circles or having a crush on Hikari-chan. This even goes down to the casting; Katayama Fukujuurou sounds terrifyingly like Kiuchi Reiko in terms of all the little nuances and pitch shifts she had in her performance, and the cast themselves spoke of all the nuances present in their characters as they were studying for their roles. These are things that even fans of the series tend to miss, but the voice actors for the quartet nailed their roles so well that it’s very easy to tell that the direction understood exactly what they were looking for and needed, and casted accordingly. Even those who didn’t care for the movie much had a very hard time disputing the voice casting for the quartet (and this is saying a lot given how much voice actor changes are often a really sore point among Japanese fans).

But while the 02 group had a limited amount of screentime in Kizuna, the staff also had a lot of opportunities to prove themselves with the drama CD and the new character song CDs, and every single aspect of these reflects something that was represented in 02 itself -- again, things that often go over the heads of people who aren’t paying as close attention. The drama CD captures a lot of the essence of the dynamics between the group in only short lines, and all of the statements about the characters in the character song interviews are accurate (and remember: Arthur said directly that there were discussions with the staff about keeping them true to character). On top of that, not only do the lyrics in said songs directly mirror each character’s development from the time of the original Best Partner series, there are also a lot of things in said songs that demonstrate a nuanced understanding of each person’s character and what they got out of the events of 02. Someone with only a surface-level understanding of Ken or Iori’s character might think that Ken should only have a soft song, or that Iori shouldn’t want to do anything ridiculous, but the series goes ahead and gives Ken one of the most passionately emotional rock songs in the batch and Iori outright rap with Armadimon, which are both fitting decisions in light of Ken actually being one of the more emotionally assertive people in this group, and Iori only being stoic because he’s strict with himself and being willing to let loose in certain circumstances (especially after the events of 02).

As of this writing, I don’t know if the new movie is going to be featuring the entire group in a major role, and I’m not sure if I even want it to; as much as I do strongly feel like the group should always work together at all times, one minor personal complaint I had about Kizuna was that it tries to do too much in too little time, and I’m personally fine with this new movie being more Daisuke-centric or something if it means it can just get a nice story on the table (after all, if I wanted something that more evenly represents the entire 02 group, I’d just go back and rewatch a very nice anime series called Digimon Adventure 02). There’s also the very thorny question of what to do about Tokumitsu Yuka, since I don’t personally really like the idea of still dragging her out of retirement like this (but I also wouldn’t want them to awkwardly write around her just for this, and I’m wondering if Sonozaki voicing Tailmon in the reboot would let people accept her as a replacement without much fighting).

Nevertheless, I think Kizuna’s staff has proven more than well enough that they understand the essence of 02 and its characters, so, again, regardless of how it turns out, I at least expect that this can be made with some degree of conscientiousness, and at this point, that’s all I can ask for. I don’t think it’s fair to expect or want this movie to be the second coming of 02, because, again, if we wanted that, I think it’d be better for us to all go back and watch that lovely little 50-episode anime called Digimon Adventure 02. But in terms of being something that can add a little nice thing to the mix, I think, so far, this movie at least has positive signs of turning out that way -- and, remember, think about what I just said about initially being very against this idea; as a diehard 02 fan who has a lot of very picky feelings about how to best represent it, it took a lot for the staff to earn my trust in this sense.

#digimon #digimon adventure 02 #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #kizuna spoilers

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