#and it's very underexplored as an idea
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Are you going to keep Goosefeather's curse? If so are you going to change anything about it? From my memory the book was... depressing.
It will probably get rolled into Pinestar's Crusade, building it up into an SE rather than just a novella. There's actually a lot going on in that specific moment, and it makes sense to go over it all at once.
So to answer your question, yes, most of Goosefeather's Curse is staying. Most of the Crusade Generation have depressing stories to tell. If the Thistle Period is defined by the fact that Thistle Law metastasized and went terminal, and if the Campaign Era was when it was newly born, then the Crusade Era was when it was first conceived.
I've been thinking about Pinestar's Crusade idly and mentioned it a few times, but here's my fragments so far;
PINESTAR'S CRUSADE
(Fuses Pinestar's Choice and Goosefeather's Curse)
We start in the Crusade Era; there is now more focus on 3 major characters, though it's still built around Pinestar as the POV
Pinestar, Goosefeather, and eventually Pinepaw's apprentice Speckletail.
Pinepaw is born into the start of the Crusades, a bloody period where the Clans are invading Chelford and brutalizing cats in the hopes of appeasing StarClan. He only begins to learn the full story of what happened in Darkstar's Commandment once he begins going to Gatherings as a warrior
The truth being that Oakstar came up with this idea because he couldn't take an L
But even as an apprentice, it becomes quickly apparent to him that what they're doing is evil. They were brutalizing kittypets who aren't trained to fight back.
During his first raid as an apprentice, he allows a ginger-and-white mother and her kittens to escape
This came back years later, when that queen, Crystal, forms BloodClan in response to the Crusades.
Pineheart watches Oakstar die barely a year later to the queen he saved, using early claw extenders to cut right through him. Even if he hadn't been on his last life, it would have ended him.
But, Crystal lets Pineheart go, recognizing the Clan cat who had saved her life.
Watching his dad die along with several friends, and countless more innocent Chelford, plus being released by Crystal, is a Formative Moment.
Doestar continues the Crusades in the name of revenge for Oakstar, but now that BloodClan exists and is ARMED, the easy raids become bloodbaths.
They slowly peter out, not with a bang but with a whimper. She never announces an official end, eventually she just stops organizing them. No one gets closure, especially not Pineheart.
But the 'peace' doesn't last. Just before Heatherstar takes power from Smallstar and begins the Campaign to take the Mothermouth Moorland, ThunderClan deals with the Great Hunger
Pineheart and Goosefeather become very good friends, part of a little buddy group that also included Tawnyspots and Pheasantfeather (who will become One-eye later)
Pineheart was given his first apprentice, a rowdy little one and the niece of Doestar, Specklepaw. He's tasked with helping her fill the pawsteps of greatness she's destined to walk in.
Just like canon, Goose predicts the Great Hunger... though, he is an adult this time around because of some timeline changes.
And, like canon, it fails. They couldn't stockpile enough food to last an entire year of famine, a scorching summer and a frozen winter, they end up losing a huge stock of their food as if it was destiny.
Goosefeather was forced into a role he hates, given horrible visions of the future, and argues ferociously with Pineheart; if they hadn't tried to stockpile, they wouldn't have lost all that food to begin with.
It is in this moment, he comes to realize that every time he's fought back and used his visions like a warning, it's backfired.
So, perhaps, they are instruction.
But, meanwhile, Pineheart can't loose his apprentice or his friends. While others were hunting desperately, he was keeping cats alive through scouting for grubs, foraying into other territories, and...
Every bite of kittypet food he took for himself was a morsel in someone else's mouth. But this... this he kept quiet.
It started a "bad habit" he could never break.
Having lost the previous deputy to starvation and on her deathbed, Doestar nominates Pineheart to the position. He was shocked and upset by this, but he was the obvious choice.
Son of Oakstar, Hero of the Hunger, the cat who had kept Specklepaw alive when all the other kits and apprentices starved.
But, Pinestar took the helm to extreme controversy.
Everything Pinestar's ever done that worked was nonviolent. He's never seen battle do anything but bring harm, and the thought of leading people into war... it makes him feel sick.
But the rest of the Clan can't see what he sees. They yearn for the glory days (even though they were not glorious at all), itch to die for a cause, and leave this old, disgusting subsistence survival behind them. ThunderClan wants blood and Pinestar just wants peace.
Taking back Sunningrocks is an example of this. To avoid losing Clanmates, he proposed to Hailstar that they would have a Joust, instead.
ThunderClan's strongest against RiverClan's strongest. Adderfang vs Mudfur.
It didn't go well.
The problem with those sorts of situations is you have to abide by the deal. RiverClan took Sunningrocks for 6 months. It was humiliating for ThunderClan.
Even the cats he'd saved from the famine were furious with him
The only things that DID seem to please the Clan was when he would throw them fully into battle. Such as Goosefeather's prophecy that WindClan's herbs needed to be destroyed...
Every time a situation like that happened, where Goosefeather would phrase things as a Holy Struggle, Pinestar was thrown right back to the Crusades
Terrified eyes, screeching, cats begging for mercy, his father dead at his paws and feeling horror and relief swirling
Sitting vigil for old friends killed in these horrible fights, like Moonflower, it made him feel like how he felt the day he buried Oakstar.
And the bile rose in his throat, remembering that Oakstar was not there at his Leadership Ceremony, damned to the Dark Forest.
A thought was born, here. What does StarClan truly want? What do they expect of him? If they will send the architect of the Crusades there...
What of a cat who stayed fed on human food and fed grubs to his Clanmates? Or a leader who never knows the right thing to do?
When Mumblefoot retired and Sunfall became deputy, the Clan seemed to love him more than Pinestar. He found himself just... sitting back, and allowing Sunfall to call the shots.
It was towards the end, when Leopardfoot proposed an Honor Siring. He was from a glorious legacy, she wanted kits... and on his end, he wanted the peace that raising kittens could bring.
The warmth of human dens was calling him, but perhaps the warmth of love for children could keep him home.
UNLIKE CANON; Nothing about Tigerkit was born evil.
There was no StarClan vision of Tigerstar; Goosefeather knew full well that Thistlestar was the Leader of Prophecy.
But Pinestar would never give Thistleclaw an apprentice in time. Nor would he ever give his own little son to a cat as vicious as him.
Goosefeather never hurt anyone... but Pinestar just needed a push.
Pinestar was already anxious, unhappy, clinging to the goodness that was his little kits. Even as two of them were lost to minor illnesses, shortly after receiving their names.
It wasn't a lie. It was just half of the truth.
"Pinestar... you have a choice to make. StarClan has given me a vision of blood and war, and Tigerkit will have a role to play in it."
He DID have a vision... of Thistlestar. Not Tigerkit. But that was enough for Pinestar, his fear and trauma took the helm from there.
He'd seen his friends, his apprentice, the kits who had been born and died in his rule, all of them turn into the monsters Clan Culture demanded
Nothing he did ever seemed to work, why would THIS moment be different?
How could he prevent Tigerkit from becoming like that too?! Was StarClan telling him to KILL his son??
Pinestar's never had a vision from StarClan. He doesn't have the aptitude like a Cleric... what he has is a nightmare, of Tigerkit growing so large he crushes the whole camp under his claws
After a week of agony, Pinestar unknowingly creates a prophecy of his own,
"Can only the death of a child break fate?"
Sensing he was close to victory, Goosefeather dipped his head, not denying his question.
And it's the last straw.
And that is the climax of Pinestar's Crusade. Broken from his experiences, every turn taken for peace causing him more pain, the idea that he might have to hurt his own son plaguing his mind, he makes the choice to leave.
It wasn't hard, he'd still had that old bad habit of taking bites of kittypet food, a couple friends on the other side. But what he doesn't know is that by leaving with his life... he prevents Sunstar from acquiring his own.
Sunstar had ONE single life, StarClan was not able to give him more with the previous leader still alive. For leaving his Clan, for unknowingly preventing the transfer of power, and for dismissing the Warrior Code, Pinestar is sent to the Dark Forest after his death.
He can choose to walk there, or spend time in the mortal plane as just a spirit, but StarClan offers him no place in the cosmos.
#Pinestar's Crusade#Better Bones AU#So yeah it's still depressing LMAO sorryyyy#im a sucker for the theme where someone you raised and loved became part of an evil system#failure to protect. How COULD you have done differently? Was there anything at all that could have saved them?#i've mentioned it before but I love Pinestar most as the foil of Firestar#and it's very underexplored as an idea#How Firestar succeeded where Pinestar failed#Literally like a brighter version of you#someone who never gave up past the point where you would have broken#and how painful and uncomfortable that idea must be#It doesssss things to me#Also I am still shuffling the timeline#Pinestar might end up being old enough to remember Mapleshade... BUT we'll see#It might be pretty funny to have Pinepaw watch his dad take several Ls in Darkstar's Commandment#''this is my cringefail boomer dad who I have a complicated relationship to. he cannot swim. oh god. oh fuck''
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ugh i kind of want to do my diss about music + trance states possibly gender mediation through trance states or something like that but ritual and trance have been a hot topic in ethnomusicology for ages so I doubt itd be very original whereas ik the stuff ive been getting into about englishness, the past, race, and cultural hybridity is more hot off the press or whatever plus ive done it before so i have a lot of groundwork already. and then I feel like what I would love to do abt neurodivergence would actually feel like the thing thats most important and revelatory but I genuinely dont know how I would actually go about it like i think id have to do fieldwork or something like I feel really out of my comfort zone when im not basically just synthesising theory from two previously unconnected fields I know that is basically what my brain is just good at 😭😭😭 basically torn between what I should do what I can do and what I want to do eeeek
#I think when term starts I can just like bring my three ideas to my supervisor and see what they say#Im literally just so scared of making a fool of myself that I want to come with like everything already laid out or something like#I have a year to do it I don't think I have to have started before term begins 😭😭😭#and wrt the second one like that is important too it's just that firstly it's a very small field and secondly ik there are other ppl kind#of having the conversation as well now like since lockdowm#when I started they were still v much in nationalism and I was like I think race and the empire is like an underexplored component in this#but I think 2 years on there are definitely like wheels turning more now#and also outside of trad like it's been explored for years most of what I did was just like taking decades old work and inserting it here#its just that this is honestly a very very white field (which is exactly like. my point) so nothing really made it in#and like idk its weird as a white person to try n make my career out of that I don't want to do that Im also just like in 3 years of this I#have not had one non white lecturer or classmate#so it does feel like it kind of. is my job to make the ppl around me think abt like. why that is#ik if I go into arts education racial equality will always be a big part of my priorities but like. my goal would really be helping someone#to become A Voice on the issue rather than trying to be that myself which I think is an important distinction#sorry this is so long and. no one cares this is just my thinking to myself place and also I need to remember what my prev thoughts where#I mean if anyone is like oh that one sounds dumb or whatever then i welcome that ayeueisidhdj but im just like u don't like. have to read#this I know its sooo rambly
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Notes Toward Finding Community, Or, How to Find Community When You Feel Isolated
Neoliberalism sucks for a ton of reasons. From the enclosure of every common, to the commodification of every creation, it feels like a muzzle on humanity that gets tighter and tighter. One of the most underexplored aspects of neoliberalism is the way in which it creates and reinforces isolation. People don’t really have communities outside of consumption or compulsion. This is problematic for a ton of reasons, namely that it prevents us from fulfilling our basic needs. Humans are social creatures. People need to have connections with folks. People may not all need the same levels or intensity of connections, but connections are important nonetheless. To lack in the ability to socialize meaningfully is to ensure worse health outcomes, mentally, emotionally, and physically. But, I don’t mean to freak you out. I think that there are steps we can take to star building community, bridging gaps with the people around us.
Think About What You Want
When folks feel very isolated, it can be easy to accept anything. If we’re in a vulnerable state, that could leave us open for ending up in precarious situations. One way to fight against this is to start from the position of imagining what community looks like. Is the type of space we want to occupy based around interests (fandom, hobbies)? Religions, spiritualities, social issues? If we are able to list the things that excite us, we have a good idea of what to look for, and can focus our efforts towards finding those spaces.
Find the Watering Holes
With the spaces we’re interested in on hand, youcan find where folks gather. Every community has virtual and/or in-person spaces. For example, if you’re a film fan, you can look for indie cinemas, folks putting on screenings, or look into film societies where you live. For activism, I’ve written a whole guide on how to get started. Looking for those spaces will allow you to start getting integrated in the space. Really think about how you can occupy the same physical and digital spaces of people who are into what you’re into.
Go Meet Folks
Now, this may be difficult, depending on your disposition. The quickest way to meet folks is to put yourself out there. It’s always vulnerable to put yourself on the line in this way, but it’s super necessary. When you’re in spaces with similar folks, you have talking points built in! You don’t have to worry if the folks around you will like movies at film club. If you are enjoyable to be around, through being nice, interesting, and/or being an active listener, you’ll be making connections in no time. If you’re not willing to talk to folks, it’ll be hard to make connections. Being open is an asset towards the end of getting connected. At the very least, consistently go to events and spaces in your interest area(s). Maybe you’ll bump into an extroverted person that can show you the ropes.
Be the Change You Want to See
As you get out there, think about how you can start catalyzing community. Maybe you host a dinner for neighbors. Maybe you start a book club. Or even a neighborhood garden, or cleanup event. In this way, you’re flipping the issue on its head. You’re creating the space to meet folks yourself. It’s like being a magnet, drawing others to you.
We need community. It’s a necessary thing, you know? So, hopefully, keeping these things in mind helps in that regard.
#economics#economy#econ#anti capitalists be like#neoliberal capitalism#late stage capitalism#anti capitalism#capitalism#activism#activist#direct action#solarpunks#solarpunk#praxis#socialism#sociology#social revolution#social justice#social relations#social ecology#organizing#complexity#resist#fight back#organizing 101#radicalization#radicalism#prefigurative politics#politics
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Charlie as an underdeveloped character
One thing I was genuinely dissapointed by when watching Hazbin Hotel was that they never cared to dive into Charlie's Morality more.
I feel like a lot of people can agree that Charlie felt very flat/sidelined in a show she was supposed to be the main character of and I think that that's because they ran out of Character Moments for her. Her Backstory is pretty much just infodumped at the start so there's nothing you can really explore there (except for her relationship with her parents ig but they only really brought that up and resolved it in one episode). Alastor has the mystery behind him of what his goals really are, Angel Dust has his arc about standing up to his abuser, Vaggie has her dramatic backstory reveal thing and Sir pentious gets focus as the one real guest at the hotel and with his goal to be redeemed.
Charlie really has no conflict at all, which is weird since the whole plot is that her idea is relentlessly mocked and never succeeds until the end. But she doesn't have a personal conflict. All the issues she faces come from the ignorance of the people around her who don't support her, but never from who she is. She never has to change. They try to hint at this with her being possibly invasive and not respecting boundaries in the Angel Dust and Valentino episode. But the episode doesn't focus on her and Angel as they talk it out and she realizes how she might have to change as well (from how I remember it). It focuses on Husk and Angel's relationship instead.
I feel like the easiest route they could've taken for her character was that of a moral dilemma. Charlie believes in second chances and being able to change demons and her opposite is Adam, who doesn't think demons should be redeemed and should just be killed instead. But it's never specified if Charlie truly believes everyone deserves a second chance or if there are restrictions to that. Adam sings a song in the first episode and explaines his reasoning for why he believes demons shouldn't be saved, which is that they had their chance to be good and didn't choose it and now they can't expect another one (I guess the real reason is that he's just an asshole who doesn't care but that's because Vivzepop can't write Villains so I'll just pretend like that's his real reason).
The problem is that Adam is presented as fully in the wrong and I just don't agree with that. I'm not saying he's right with killing random demons of course but the show never takes the time to consider that sometimes people go to hell because they are actually terrible and have done inexcusable things. Like yeah, someone who had an addicition or a mental health problem while they were alive obviously doesn't deserve eternal suffering without any chance for redeemability, but we know that those aren't the only people that go to hell (in the pilot it's literally confirmed that real life criminals like Jeffrey Dahmer are also down there).
The show blatanly shows us characters like Valentino who are shown to do irredeemable things and be purely evil.
My question is just if Charlie would also look at someone like Valentino and say: "Yeah they deserve to be saved and get a second chance". She obviously thinks Valentino sucks, which we see in the Episode were she meets him.
So like, what would she have done if in the second episode someone like him stood at their door and wanted to be redeemed instead of Sir Pentious. Does she draw a line? Or would she have really heard him out? Her morality with this "everybody deserves a second chance" attitude is so underexplored even though it would have been the perfect place to develop her more. If they had confronted her with an actually tough situation, where she is presented with a truly terrible person, they could've had two interesting ways to take her character.
She could've accepted the person and with that she'd have taken her role a fully 'good' saviour for the demons. Someone who is truly without judgement, or atleast believes that there is good in everyone that just has to be brought out. Which would've also given room to think about if people like that are even inherently good, if they can 'excuse' the actions of terrible people and still want to help them. This would have made her a very extreme character in her believes, but something coherent and definitive is actually something Charlie desperately needs for her characterization.
The other way would've had her reject the person and with that she would have to face the idea that maybe Adam isn't fully wrong. In that situation she would have found herself in a similar position to the Angels in heaven, where she basically is the one deciding over what's acceptable and what isn't. This could lead to her having a moral dilemma. Is she even a good person if she's deciding what's moral and what isn't? Can she just be okay with making exceptions to her idea to protect her people? Does she even want to view EVERY demon as her family? Or does she think there are some demons that maybe deserve death?
I'm just really dissapointed that the show takes such an interesting idea and such a difficult topic and then just does nothing with it. What we view as bad and good and which people we judge harder than others will always depend on social norms and the situation. It's a topic with no real right and wrong answer because there are so many things to consider. But this moral grey conflict that is literally one of the MAIN CONFLICTS in Hazbin Hotel is so incredibly underwritten, that it's not even funny.
Instead of acknowledging the difficulty of the subject Hazbin does what it does best and takes the easy route with seemingly clear right and wrong sides. This is especially stupid, since morally grey characters are supposed to be the point of the show. Like there are these demons who have done bad things and who aren't perfect, but that doesn't make them bad people. Its about revealing that a person has layers (which the writing doesn't). This is also a big point in Helluva Boss, where characters like Blitzø or Stolas who mess up repeatedly, are supposed to be shown as still having interests, aspirations, and good things to them.
The easy route which is taken constantly in both shows however makes it so that Charlie is completely in the right and anyone who criticises her is one of the evil people who try to ruin her plan, just like Adam. Who's also such a straw man for anyone who even dares to bring any objection to Charlies ideas, because everyone who does is apparently a hypocrite who just doesn't understand her and would rather side with genocide (I wonder were Vivzepop takes her inspiration from).
Charlies writing was just really dissapointing with almost never any reflection being done on her part. She doesn't have really striking moments, discussions or ideas to her in a show she's supposed to lead. That's just an issue that comes with Vivzepop never really putting as much work into her female characters, even tough they would desperately need it.
I know that only the first season is out so far, but I highly doubt thay they'll bring up a discussion like this in s2. Especially since Adam is dead now and the Angels will probably try to work more with the demons, after Sir Pentious' redemtion and the reveal of the exterminations to them. Also the Vees, Lillith and Alastor will be more of focus from what we can assume by the ending scenes.
I just don’t like that Viv can take interesting conflicts and write them to be completely one-dimensional and boring.
#hazbin hotel#hazbin hotel charlie#hazbin hotel critical#hazbin hotel criticism#hazbin hotel critique#helluva boss#charlie morningstar#vivzepop critical#vivziepop
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an underexplored aspect of red robin 26 (the one where he sets up a weeks-long rubes goldberg scheme to kill captain boomerang only to choke at the last minute) to me is the impact tim thought this would have on his place among the bats. like what he thought would happen *next.* because he absolutely did consider it and wasn't at all surprised by dick and bruce showing up afterwards to talk to him about the choices he made that day.
to start with. why now? there was no particular event that made him decide to do it. tim does say he heard harkness was trying to regain lost power, but in context its not reasoning behind his decision, it was an opportunity to kick his plan off.
and i think its fair to say tim was never gonna be able to go through with it. that was never gonna happen. but he *thought* he could, and he decided he was going to, despite repeatedly questioning what the hell he was doing. he explicitly makes the points that he thinks its wrong, he knows his dad wouldn't want him to, and he doesn't believe itll even be more emotionally satisfying than bringing harkness to justice. and yet thats still the plan! for weeks!
and he does set up an emotional failsafe for himself which he calls plausible deniability, where all he did was manipulate events so that he expects harkness to be killed by victor fries by the end of it.
except ofc when it comes down to it tim cant let fries kill a guy, which he takes to mean he wants to do it himself. any interesting moral questions here about who would potentially be at fault are very tidily sidestepped as irrelevant. bc i mean to tim they kind of are. his veneer of plausible deniability was always an excuse. the interesting thing here for the character is that this means he's willing to do away with that plausible deniability, and intends to follow through regardless. (i went back to delete some images bc i ran out, but he does explicitly say theres a change of plan and he's gonna kill harkness himself.)
this is the point he dispatches dr fries, which he calls in to 911, and follows harkness. bla bla confrontation bla, and harkness fuckin trips off the edge of the roof.
the implication here to me, with the way tims flashback is framed as an interruption and the way harkness goes from saying he has no idea who the hell tim is to saying tim doesn't have the stones, is that harkness was babbling this whole time, and that's just what actually makes it through to tims ears. and i also think the implication here is tim being like ".......heartbreaking: the worst person you know just made a great point." hes like shit! hes fucking right! i *dont* have the stones to do this!
anyway. the next page we have dickie and damian show up. hi boys!!
so to recap. tim decided he was going to murder harkness himself rather than using a proxy, *called 911 knowing the other bats would hear it,* and went off to do the deed.
(side note its always dickie loving hours in this house and. you just know dicks thinking of blockbuster here. oughe.) .....i also get the impression that dicks "timmy down the questionable-choices-well" senses were tingling somehow from the 911 call (which, i cannot stress this enough, only even mentioned fries), and i think him and damian most likely fucking hauled ass to get there, which is also fun to think about hehe
i have a lot of thoughts about whats going through dicks and tims heads here lol. but i want to get back to the point. this is the segue into the reveal that bruce was also there the whole time, he knows what tim had been planning to do, and now hes yelling at him for thinking about killing harkness at all.
AND THE COWL COMES OFF WHEEEEEEE :elmofire:
(ok actually i am going to derail here for a minute i gotta spell it out. tim kept it on when he was talking to dick bc he was lying to dick by omission. he wanted dick to think well of him, and he doesn't believe he earned the praise--most likely thinks dick would think less of him if he knew the extent to which tim had planned the whole thing. the end result--not killing harkness--does not, in tims mind, count. what dick was saying was "I understand how hard it was to not let him die, and i love you," and what tim heard was "i know you were always going to make the right choice, because you care about doing the right thing." and when you interpret it the way i do--that the deciding factor for tim was actually that he *couldn't* do it, not because he changed his mind? yeah, tims not gonna be looking dick in the eye anytime soon.)
but anyway. buce:
and the thing is that if you don't look at it from the *batshit* bruce-and-tim-mutual-god-complex perspective... tims actual non-thoughtcrime actions began and ended with a series of misdemeanors, no matter how successfully he arbitrated the end results. again any actual moral questions around hand crafting a bespoke scenario tailored to end in a mans murder by inciting another to kill him are completely sidestepped, bc to both tim and bruce its cut and dry; its just murder using another person as the weapon. tim never once actually believed the plausible deniability thing and there was no tangible difference to him btwn manipulating an intermediary, doing it himself, or even *just letting harkness go splat.* it was all fucking talking points for the sake of argument, he was preparing to play devils advocate against bruce to defend his own choice bc. this was always the endgame.
and
which like. i cant help but think of batman 424 bc, well, im the jason todd think-abouter:
and im officially out of images for this post but what happens next for tim is bruce flying away vs in jasons he tells bruce "i guess i spooked him. he slipped." and flies off in the back of a big silent panel of Angst Buce. i love how completely fucking opposite these scenarios were for the both of them but ykw actually thats its own fucking post.
all this just to say tim planned to murder a man in cold blood *fully knowing* dick and bruce would find out. tim can't even face dick when dick tells him he did good, and the confrontation with bruce feels almost like tim did the whole damn thing just to prove a point to bruce which is. hilarious bc it WORKED to that end even though tim did not actually kill anybody at all. like that was a pretty significant thing that happened. tim very much did not kill digger harkness.
(i also think its significant that this issue is like immediately after tim tries to give cass her batgirl outfit back and shes like "...No." and hes like "please i miss you so much 😭 just come back to gothammmm i dont care what name you go by you could even be black robin if you want that would be fun right cass we could be red robin and black robin together? no? what if we put your name first? ....no? .....okay just promise youll think about it... bye............" [paraphrased])
anyway. *holds tim drake up under the arms like simba* Perceive him
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I just saw your recent rant on the manga and i couldnt agree more.
My main issue with the current manga chapters is the fact that the characters are not fully developed enough to the point where the main themes and arguements can be handles correctly.
What i mean is, the LOV initially starting out kind of aimless and mad at the world to confronting the fact that the problems they faced were systematic would better help their arguements as well as if they were allowed to be morally grey and showcase compassion and empathy for people who suffered as they did then we would feel more sympathy for them and make the conflict more dynamic. Instead they are saying all the right things but it all seems to be surface level and not like the characters fully contemplated this.
Likewise, the heroes havent been allowed to consider the corruption and ramifications of hero society prior to the war arc in a meaningful way. It all came during the war arc and when it did it felt flat, like there was little depth to their arguements at all. Like Hori didn't really consider the deeper implications of his themes here. This is extreamly prominent in the side characters such as Monoma, Shinsou, Shoji and Tsuyu. All have themes of discrimination they discuss and showcase but Midoriya nor they contemplate it any further which renders the heroes feeling so shallow in their arguements. The most moral greyness we get is Monoma saying that they cannot be heroes the typical way to Shinsou and must act unheroicly to compensate for it.
Its all there. But it hasnt been explored well enough so we end up with Bakugou and Endeavour getting more focus without contemplation for how hero society helped create this and Midoriya being wierdly naive and hypocritical. All the heroes end up being hypocritcal alongside the villains and not in a 'oh theyre just as bad as the other' intentional way but in a 'i did not consider the arguements in their totality' kind of way.
This and the entire premise and consequences of the Nomu's not being acknowledged (thats a whole different rant) feel so underexplored and end up making me very fustrated with the manga. Because the building blocks were there, but for whatever reason it ended up being so underdeveloped.
I've said it before, but a lot of the villain/hero dynamic is built off a situation Hori seems actively afraid to explore after the manga progressed to a certain point.
Originally, MHA was built off the idea of flaws in society, the failures it causes, the people it alienates... deep ideas, and deeply interesting ones. But the thing is, looking at that kind of thing makes the good guys look bad. If heroes are flawed, if they fail people because of their own issues, then that makes them harder to root for, and at some point, probably because of Endeavour and Bakugou, Hori started almost running from that happening.
But, its so baked into the story's lore that he can't ditch it, so we get surface deep nods to 'failure' of heroes, while we watch heroes do and say everything right, all the time. No indivision, no selfishness, just all in devotion to the cause of making everything better.
At the same time, though, the villains are supposed to have a point, but if they go into that, if they seem like rational actors, again, the heroes look bad. So, the villains double down into cartoon villainous bullshit, before spouting out empty sounding platitudes about how unhappy they are... that everyone response to like that makes sense.
It runs the overall narrative, but more than that, without these imperfections, without the real people in the bad guys, it destroys their character development as well. No one like a one dimensional character, they want the interest and depth of a person to connect to, doubly so when this one dimensional character seems to be so wildly disconnected with the actual reality they're living in.
If the heroes, the perfect, selfless heroes, willing to give their lives amass to save one person, live in a society so corrupt as to make these monsters, to the point where that corruption surrounds their day to day life... why aren't doing something about it? Why are they fine with this status quo? Why is no one trying to reform the heroic system, however that works in reality? Why aren't they fighting the HSPC?
If the villains have all these causes and ideas and grievances, why don't they do something about it beyond just killing people? Shigaraki (who lived an absurdly sheltered life before being lead by the nose to losing his shit about reality, before he stopped being a relevent character/villain) and Dabi (who had executed a plan to solve his problem, even if it got fucked up by writing changes later on) have excuses, but why don't Twice, Toga and Compress, these big, dramatic personalities, broadcast... anything about what they want to say? Being part of the League, these big time villains, gives them, among other things, a platform to spread their message to all of Japan, and this is by design on their parts; they joined to fulfil these dreams and ambitions, and fight everything that oppressed them.
Why doesn't Toga, like, break into news stations to spread her message? Why didn't Twice flash-mob an elaborate graffiti manifesto onto an entire city? After all, a hint of them talking would bring slavering reporters to televise everything in droves, there's no way the heroes could suppress the sheer amount of publicity they could so easily generate.
Why? Because then that ruins the story. Not the actual story, but the little one Hori has made inside of it, where the good heroes beat the bad villains, then everyone cheers and goes on with their lives, the end. No depth. No deep thinking. No villains you can truly sympathize with, or heroes you can despise.
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the kevjeanee posts you're adding to my dash are actually making me go feral thank you for doing god's work 🙏🙏
imo kevrenee as a dynamic is very very underexplored. hear me out: kevin, the absolute asshole that no one in the team can bear to be around, aka "its rotten work", x renee, who believes that everyone can be forgiven, or "not to me, not if it's you" ofc thats only at the surface level. but,
also in the first jeanee scene at the banquet, when renee introduced herself to jean, right after the ravens cornered kevin, neil and andrew. renee just looped her arm in kevin's out of literally nowhere??? and kevin had no reaction, despite being hyper vigilant because the ravens were around??? you cant tell me that we arent missing something there.
THERE IS SOMETHING MAGICAL IN THE AIR. kevjeanee........... the seed has been planted. i do really think renee would let kevin have an outlet i think she'd let him talk about history even if she's not actually listening :) it's not her fault she's not listening he has a lot to say and she has a very short attention span. in return kevin listens to her talk about whatever silly little thing she's interested in and then also religion and he LISTENS bc its interesting to him both as a historian and as a Catholic ? let's discuss
the idea that kevin let renee do that because it comforted him........... and then we bring jean in.................... bro let's go. kevjeanee im into it. lets do it
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The final battle! Dark Matter reveals his true form and fights Kirby one-on-one!
Dark Matter himself is a rather underexplored character I think. He's not the only one of his kind (Zero has at least 4 Dark Matter henchmen, so even though DM Blade reappeared in KDL3, there's still 3 others just like him), he is the only one who can transform the way he does (into a swordsman). I like to think he's 'special' and favored by Zero, though we have not met Zero yet. Its generally accepted that he returns in KDL3 with reinforcements to finish what he started in KDL2, this time with his master's help.
However, what's less well known, is that Dark Matter Swordsman is... surprisingly lonely! This is sub-canon and not mentioned directly in any game, but he targeted Dreamland because it's supposed to be a friendly place, and he's jealous. He honestly has no idea how to befriend anyone, maybe he isn't even familiar with the word 'friend'.
As I see it, friendships among Dark Matters are basically unheard of-- they're all 'bonded', but in a very formal way. Zero is their leader, commander, and parent, but they are very distant and hands-off, merely giving orders to the Dark Cloud and treating it as their army (its like an insect colony, I suppose). As such, Dark Matter Blade echoes this with his treatment of Gooey, Blob, and his non-Dark Matter subordinates. He 'respects' them, but he is distant with them and doesn't know what it means to 'love' them. Maybe if things had gone differently between him and Kirby, he'd be able to learn? Who can say...
also LOL im 85 days into this challenge!!!! I'm going to pause it in October so I can draw Insektober stuf again since that was fun & I know I can do one or the other, but not both at the same time!
#art#traditional art#kirby#Kirby's Dreamland 2#kirby gijinka#gijinka#mixed media#marker art#pen art#colored pencil art#King Dedede#Dark Matter#rainbow drop#Rainbow Sword#Dark Matter Blade#Real Dark Matter#body horror
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I FINALLY HAVE A IDEA ok so hear me out
Alastor has the ability to go to Earth using radio waves and during one of his trips he finds Vox a cult leader whose followers are losing faith in him so they strike a deal Alastor would pretty much help Vox with his cult and would make sure no one would lose their faith or would run away in return every two weeks Vox would choose two of his followers to be sacrificed and would be eaten by Alastor and all of this goes well Vox keeps his followers and Alastor gets to try new meat eventually they become closer and even consider eachother friends but Vox’s followers adoration become an obsession and they end up killing Vox in some twisted passion and hangs his head up in glass box to be gawked and stared at so when Alastor comes back he ends up finding the box and hears about his friends fate and is appalled by it so disgusted in fact he just clears the whole group so there is no proof anyone even lived there and vowed to never go back to Earth but he did keep the head
You can do whatever you want with au since it’s really not completed but the basic formula is cult leader Vox and demon Alastor
(judge gavel banging sound) SUSTAINED!!! nonny this is sooo interesting. i think in general the human/demon relationship dynamics are just underutilized as hell (heh) in this fandom which is. so so weird to me honestly. something else ive brought up with mk is that religious blasphemy is also very underexplored for whatever reason... anyway. cult leader!vox and demon!alastor making a deal is SOsoso good to me. and the image of alastor keeping voxs head... oh my god. ive always been a sucker for the radiostatic hc that al keeps voxs old heads... of course its so much worse here too because Alastor that is a decapitated human head instead of just an empty tv WHAT are you doing with that you freak! do they meet in hell together you think. like do you think they meet in hell alastor befriends him and realizes 'oh wait this is MY vox' and then shows vox that he's kept his decapitated head for years LMAO
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the thing with hama is that at this point, she doesn't seem to really "care" about the water tribe. obviously she does, that's her home, and who she is. but it's changed so much, and she's become so deep in her revenge that i can't see her ever assimilating fully back into her home. the people there are desperate for some sort of peace, and hama doesn't want nor care for peace, she wants revenge. I kind of wish somebody would explore this idea more because yes a lot of people would have sympathy for what she's suffered, but I can imagine a lot of people, like sokka, would not like her (especially if you consider the fact that from the southern water tribes point of view, she attacked katara and sokka, two children of the tribe and that the majority of these people have never met hama). idk I think this is a very fascinating concept to explore bc it shows a more realistic side of the war in that some people, even if they thought they wanted it to end, can't live without it because of the traumas they endured. and like you said, the swt is a majority nonbenders society and one that's inherently changed. hama comes from the southern water tribe before most of the raids, and back then the culture was more closely linked with the northern water tribe. as the raids went on, water benders were lost, the culture developed to fit these conditions. we see in north and south that a lot of people do not like northern intervention, and changing the south pole to fit its standards, and since hama was from a time where cultural wise the south mimicked the north a lot more, I can imagine that would also be a point of strife
same, I think it would be a great concept to explore in a fic since it would bring up a lot of contention among the tribe (because I do think there will be at least a few people like kanna and hakoda who will advocate for her rehabilitation) but also between sokka and katara. at the end of the day, katara is a waterbender and she has this power, she and sokka both know what it feels like to be bloodbended but she’ll never be in sokka’s place where he literally couldn’t fight back against it at all if he wanted. i think sokka would hate her and would to hate to have to live with her in his home where he’s supposed to feel safe and I don’t blame him.
also katara once again feeling like an other because she’s the only other bloodbender in the tribe and most people don’t know that she’s bloodbended after that either. and what if the tribe decides hama can’t come back? what does that say for someone like katara who’s done the same thing?
the water tribe post war is truly one of the most underexplored parts of canon (!!!) i just imagine aang being invited to the council meeting trying to reconcile all these conflicting ideas lol. knowing him he’d probably want to give hama a chance but it’s not up to him. and it’s be a great problem for hakoda to reckon with too because as you said, most of the tribe is not going to want her back, and the swt is a democracy at the end of the day.
the southern water tribe in hama’s time does seem to be very different, aesthetically and culturally, from the north tho so that’s probably where i disagree. i think it’s more that she will miss her friends and everyone she knew. the presence of northerners would probably upset her the most. that being said, I think hama would want to go to back. I mean she fought hard for her tribe (another way the swt and the nwt is so different) and it’s not their fault she got taken so i don’t think she will hold any malice in her heart upon arrival. but i do think it will be a rude awakening for her to realize everything is so much different than it once was, once she gets there.
if i were to write the story, i’d probably end it with hama living on the outskirts a few miles away from Wolf Cove, where she can’t be a threat to anyone but still be close to where she grew up.
ugh the potential character development for katara, sokka, hakoda, kanna, hama and even aang for a story like this is literally limitless. sigh
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“Distant Shores” (Voyager short story collection, 2005) review: meh
I'd hoped this collection would be better, frankly; luckily the stories that involve B'Elanna (and there were quite a few of them, to my surprise) are mostly okay. Kes also appears prominently in at least two stories but Harry didn't really get one where he's the protagonist, and I'm surprised none involved Naomi or the Borg kids. Three stories seemed very concerned with the surviving Equinox crew and at least two seemed to want to vindicate them somehow?? I don't know, weird choices. But regardless, the problem wasn't so much in the ideas but in the execution, which was often atrocious.
story-by-story breakdown under the cut
“Da capo al fine” by Heather Jarman - this is the 'frame' story, you get to read the first half at the beginning and the second half at the end, but this story doesn't work so well for this purpose as the one on “The Lives of Dax” did for that collection. The plot is about Admiral Janeway and her last moments with the Borg Queen in “Endgame” but, idk. I think the author wanted to write a reckoning with all of Janeway's arch-nemeses but the story fails to have any stakes.
“Command Code” by Robert Greenberg - Tuvok and Chakotay get snippy on the bridge once Chakotay is left in command very soon after “Caretaker”. The concept is intriguing! Unfortunately the author's style is as dull as watching paint dry.
“Winds of Change” by Kim Sheard - this one was really fun! After being possessed by Tieran, Kes is struggling with her anger and reactivity so she goes to B'Elanna for help, and they try some of B'Elanna's sports holoprograms. This does not go well! Everything seems lost until B'Elanna offers a different approach to holoprograms, and it turns out they can work well together. This was just a really nice take on a dynamic that was really underexplored in the show (the author makes a point to say so as explicitly as she can), and it's honestly one of the best stories in the bunch.
“Talent Night” by Jeffrey Lang - my man Jeffrey (of “String Theory - Cohesion” fame) contributes to the collection with a hilarious story concept and great characterization for all involved, mostly B'Elanna, Tom and Harry, who are in charge of organizing said talent night. I can almost forgive the fact that it just an elaborate setup to get B'Elanna and Tom together by making B'Elanna needlessly jealous. Almost.
“Letting Go” by Keith R. A. DeCandido - this story is about the ones 'left behind' by Voyager, the families and loved one of the crew back in the AQ. I think I would've liked this way more if the author had chosen to follow anyone else other than Janeway's fiancé Mark. I liked how grounded the story is in the events of DS9 and First Contact and the range of reactions that all these people have to Voyager's disappearance, but I found myself wondering more about Greskrendtregk and T'Pel than Mark. I also found it hilarious that the story ends with Mark having married someone else and having to write to Janeway, who he's just learned is still alive, about it. I have to say though that it was a nice touch to have a lot of the people involved be the families of the crewmen who died in “Caretaker”—they obviously don't know what happened but the reader does, so their presence lends a lot of emotional gravity to the narrative.
“Closure” by James Swallow - Seven and Neelix get trapped in a cave that used to be inhabited by aliens and Neelix walks off to find a way out when—Kes shows up. Is it a vision, induced by the Ocampa artifacts in the cave? Is it actually Kes who's come back to say goodbye? It doesn't make much difference to Neelix, who is very glad to see her again. I think I would've appreciated this story more if it hadn't turned Neelix into too much of a lovesick fool; I don't like the idea that he actually never got over Kes with this kind of intense sentimentality. The story was enjoyable but something about it rubbed me the wrong way.
“The Secret Heart of Zolazus” by Robert T. Jeschonek - this one is terrible. Seven crash-lands on a planet and is saved by an outcast who pretty much gives her life for Seven and it's supposed to be ~inspirational~ or something but it's written in a way that... I don't know, reads exactly like one of those corny christian moral stories? I swear it's one of the most artless, embarrassing things I've read this year. The one thing it has going on is that Seven gets to kneel beside this dying alien girl who's taken a hit for her and so you can read some subtext in there, but the horrifying ableism is truly not worth the ticket!
“Isabo's Shirt” by Kirsten Beyer - the horrors aren't over though because this story is worse!! It's unabashedly J/C but oh boy both Chakotay and Janeway are so HORRIBLY out of character I couldn't cope. How did this even get published? Is this shipping brain at its worst?? Plus it's embarrassingly racist. I was never particularly interested in this ship but if THIS is in any way representative I am for sure steering well clear.
“Brief Candle” by Christopher L. Bennet - note: if you can't understand the distinction between romance and workplace sexual harassment you should probably not be writing romance! This is particularly galling because this is the 'Marika Wilkarah lives on Voyager for a few weeks' story which is something I wanted to see explored for a long time, and like... Marika HAS some interiority and convictions in this story but 1. we never see her really interact with other Bajorans if not in hindsight (why??) 2. her remaining resentment for Seven is barely mentioned and 3. she basically wants to be close to someone before dying and? essentially harasses Harry into having a relationship with her?? what???? If this were a fic it should get a 'dead dove do not eat' label. That was so, so awful and such a disappointment for the interesting concept this story promised to be. As I said in a previous post, the one thing this story has got going on is that Marika sides with B'Elanna during the events of “Barge of the Dead”, which I think it's a great take! But not enough to make me forget how bad the rest is.
“Eighteen Minutes” by Terry Osborne - the story of the time the Doctor spent on the planet from “Blink of an Eye” before he got beamed back to Voyager. I'm always extremely ambivalent about Doctor episodes/stories and this one is no exception. On one hand, the conflict he faces between his programmed-in hippocratic oath and the prime directive is believable, but on the other it ends up being another one of those weird power fantasies in which the Doctor gets the boundless gratitude and undying affection of the people around him because... he's done his job as a medical practitioner? It feels in character but I don't have to like it!
“Or The Tiger” by Geoffrey Thorne - LOVELY B'Elanna characterization in this one right until the ending, which I hated. Authors always tend to exaggerate B'Elanna's propensity for violence when in reality the show consistently shows her being very restrained and extremely remorseful whenever she snaps (and she only snaps because people tell her constantly that she's unable to control herself!) It's one of those stories where the point is 'aw the Equinox crew is trying very hard to make amends and the Voyager people are being mean to them' which... baffles me as a setup? It was interesting to see B'Elanna believably get into a rabbit hole when confronted with new technology that could help Voyager! But I'm not sure she wouldn't have snapped out of it as soon as it was pointed out to her that she might've been hurting living beings with her actions. We've seen B'Elanna struggle with this kind of moral quandaries before (“Prototype” and “Dreadnought” come to mind), so that the conflict dragged out for as long as it did here (and that she beat someone up for it!) feels deeply out of character to me.
“Bottomless” by Ilsa J. Bick - another one of 'the Equinox crew deserved a second chance!' stories, this time with crewman Marla Gilmore. I loved the technological conundrum (what do you do if your submersible is stuck on the bottom of the sea??) and Marla's lingering guilt and resentment felt believable and genuine. Shame that she expresses this mostly by being mean to B'Elanna (thought it happens mostly in her head), and you get the feeling she's just sharing the author's POV, since she has Tom saying some terrible garbage too... there's really nothing quite as diabolic as misogyny (and misogyny that's racially coded) coming from women authors! Ultimately Marla sacrifices herself to save Janeway and Chakotay and in so doing she expiates all of her Equinox sins, which would be okay (I guess) if it wasn't the exact same plot of “Brief Candle”, for some reason.
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I really loved Babel or the Necessity of Violence a lot and I want to get some more of my own thoughts out.
What I liked: I mostly read/listen to/watch scifi/fantasy stories, and while I love scifi/fantasy for allegory and metaphor that can focus in on and provide sharp commentary on the real or how the hyper real can heighten the emotions of a real thing, it turns out it was very grounding to read a story about empire set in the actual British empire about people who would have been its actual victims. And even then, I really do love the fantastical elements of the setting and the way silverwork and translation convey the ideas and themes so well.
I like the way the premise of the story and the positions of the characters so clearly and directly conveys the exploitation and extraction of imperialism, the way educating and shaping Robin into an Oxford student is so deeply and inherently abusive. I love that actual real world translation work from the time fits so neatly into the story. Commentary on everything being translated into English but rarely would something be translated from one colonized language to another. Commentary on the way imperialists treat texts written by cultures they don't respect. It all works together so satisfyingly well.
Translation as a kind of magic, as a central theme is also just such a great tool for a writer to do fun and good writing stuff with. I love the way etymology and translations give weight and new layers of meaning to the text the way other literary devices might. It's a book where the thinness of any single language is part of the conceit of how the magic works and Kuang is like, supplementing the inherent thinness of language by offering the reader translations as supplement, trying to get *us* closer to the "realm of true meaning" as it were.
I love very much Robin's internal turmoil throughout the first 2/3 or so of the story. His love and hatred of Oxford. His inability to choose between his father and his brother. His fear, his wonder, his resentment. The way he feels extremely at home and never at home at Oxford. It's all done extremely well imo.
Things I'm less sure about:
I really wish Victoire were more fleshed out earlier in the book. I think what we get makes sense with the story being Robin's perspective, because Victoire and Letty are pretty much always together and Letty has a way of sucking all the air out of a room. But I still wish more room had been made for us to learn more about Victoire before the last act.
I would like to see a little more about sexism and Letty's relationship to feminism. We know she is very aware of the sexism she faces at Oxford but what does she think of suffragists? I can imagine white feminist Letty supporting women's suffrage and still not taking racism or imperialism seriously, and I can also imagine ivory tower rich girl Letty being entirely skeptical of addressing any social issue in a way that isn't about personally fighting to improve your own position, including sexism. I also think Victoire's experience of misognoir is relatively underexplored and that's too bad.
There's also this thing in the writing I'm not sure how I feel about. That is, there are a couple of intractable arguments characters have repeatedly on and off the page. I found myself not loving this as a reader, but I'm somewhat convinced that the way I didn't like it was that it effectively conveyed the boredom and discomfort of having the same argument over and over without making progress, and isn't that the book doing its job well? I still sort of feel like it would help to get these arguments in ways that highlight different character's perspectives each time or something. Or like, ifl having the same best reappear in a story you want the circumstances to change such that the thing happening feels importantly recontextualized, and I didn't always feel like this was happenijg. idk I'm not sure my instincts about this are good.
Anyway, it's a good book, I liked it a lot.
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imo an underexplored part of Corlys is how admitting to Rhaenyra's children being bastards would slight both his son and him, and his entire house. He'd rather play make-believe than admit that for one, he arranged his gay son into an unhappy marriage which eventually led to his early death, and secondly, actually give the rumours that his son is indeed gay and can't produce children concrete affirmation. for a story so concerned with misogyny, the homophobia is so easily handwaved away as if these two are not integral in upholding of cishet patriarchy.
what you're saying is true, but, at some point, it becomes a matter of just cutting down your losses and doing some damage control. where was corlys when laenor was spending most of his time on driftmark gallivanting with knights while rhaenyra was popping out babies he had nothing to do with? he didn't do a damn thing about it
i actually had a conversation with @duxbelisarius today where he pointed out that the silent five (aka vaemond's cousins whom viserys ordered their tongues be cut out) actually fought for the greens during the war and three of them even died in battle, that's how deep their grudge went. not to mention the fact that the remaining two plotted to murder alyn after corlys' death so that he wouldn't inherit in their stead.
so all this make-believe happy families fantasy that i see team black peddling, about how luke & rhaena would have made a great power couple ruling driftmark in peace, because they love and care for each other or whatever, is straight-up delusional. the velaryons would have assassinated luke as soon as possible to get him out of the way and, had they been sent joffrey as a replacement, they would have done the same to him. rhaenyra was living in la la land for making such a fuss about driftmark, while corlys was absolutely incompetent as head of the family for putting his house in such a precarious position that his death would be followed by in-fighting and instability
i think that he perhaps DID eventually realise what a stupid idea that was and, in the aftermath of the luke debacle, decided to make sure driftmark at the very least goes to someone with velaryon blood, but he went about it in the most annoying and unhelpful way possible.*
can you imagine the audacity of this man to clown on (dead) rhaenys' memory AND on rhaenyra's arse at the same time in order to engineer driftmark to pass to HIS bastard son? all the while claiming that alyn was fathered by his gay son? who everyone knew was gay? and couldn't have fathered joffrey? otherwise why would you break the law** to give driftmark to laenor's alleged bastard instead of his alleged trueborn son?*** corlys must have taken lessons from rhaenyra herself, because that's the most boldfaced lie i ever did see
this man was so annoying FORREAL. was there at least one member of his family he didn't fuck over in some way? truly an example of being prideful to the point of stupidity
*not to mention, of course, that he already had legitimate heirs of his own body in baela and rhaena. and, lacking that, there were other true-born velaryons who could have inherited.
[EDIT: i'm wondering if this isn't a behind-the-scenes reason for daenaera being presented at the maiden's ball. daeron velaryon (don't get me started on the audacity of him being named daeron as well) was vaemond's son and also contested driftmark after baela & rhaena had been passed over in favour of alyn. so i'm wondering if baela didn't devise this little match to placate her cousin with a trade-off: if he couldn't have driftmark, at least his daughter would become queen]
**i'm saying he broke the law bc grrm himself states that it's unclear where precisely in the line of succession legitimised bastards fall. whether they go by birth order in between the other true-borns or they just go straight to the back of the line, behind all other heirs born within wedlock. so the legality of shoving alyn in front of everybody else is debatable at the very least
***idek how to call this, he is literally using his gay son to cover up his own arse and inadvertently implies that laenor was both cuckolded by rhaenyra (in that joffrey isn't his) AND that he broke his own marriage vows to rhaenyra by sleeping with another woman. he truly is a poet in the way he manages to implicitly insult everyone left and right
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SCOTT + RUNES IDEAS: SPILL
ok so like two underexplored things in canon that i wish to explore more of are how powerful scott is as a true alpha and also the feats that druids would be able to perform other than just the mountain ash border.
and this fanfic reminded me of that and the idea that popped up was very powerful true alpha scott and his very powerful pack emissary/druid stiles.
like if some earthly powders gave werewolves disadvantages, surely there's also powders that have the opposite effect.
nemeton also got some things to do with it, i bet.
as for the runes i think its cool but if i happen to chase after this idea and do research maybe i could be able to put it in a meaningful way but for now, its a cool effect of scott's werewolf-liness and stiles' druid magic interacting with each other.
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gonna do some chibnall haterism bc I think you’d understand: the 13th Doctor era obviously didn’t deserve all the misogynistic backlash and “Doctor who has gone woke” or “Nurse Who” stuff. And there are things about it I absolutely enjoy and I do get that there was a lot of love put into the era. but after series 12 I watched myself like. fall out of love with 13 because I realized how mediocre, undercooked and conservative her era was. I hate sounding like the dudebros who said she ruined/killed the show when I agree that I’m not 13’s biggest fan (she didn’t kill the show, quite obviously) but to me 13 never got the stories she deserved.
Realizing I liked the idea of the 13th Doctor more than the 13th Doctor we got was heartbreaking. (And I then can at least engage with the idea of her unlike conservative dudebros. God I hope Jodie does Big Finish.)
god yeah i absolutely get it part of me feels so bad when i complain bc i do like thirteen whenever she gets to be weird and alien and an inventor eating dirt being excited etc like that's a joy to witness i do like her as a concept!! but the episodes themselves are so stunningly mediocre.. it's not even that all of them are objectively terrible (some of them defintiely are jesus christ but that's what episodic scifi tv is like it's not like if it's just a constant barrage of one godawful thing after the other) there's just something missing from them yknow... i saw an improvement in s12 but s11 was basically disappointment after disappointment with. like. two highlights. the companions and their relationships to each other & especially the doctor are so underexplored which is an enornous contrast to the past 10+ years.. like i cant rlly speak for classic who yet but nuwho is very much About The Characters and if the doctor has basically no relationship to their companion then what am i here for. the story? most if not all of these stories i wouldnt watch if it wasn't doctor who honestly. at least im seeing some character development now but it took so long....
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Hello hello hello! I am here and I bring writery goodies. Thank you for the tags, @aroace-genderfluid-sheep, @facewithoutheart, @artsyunderstudy, @valeffelees (so lovely of you to join us!), @larkral, @whogaveyoupermission, @ileadacharmedlife and anyone else I missed! It’s awesome to see so many intriguing fics in development and hopefully hitting AO3 in the near future!
My WIPs are moving, including WRATS (I shared a big chapter with my betas and ahhhhhhh). Also, I’m working on a secret project. But today I’ll share a snippet from what could be my next long WIP. It’s a post-apocalyptic snowbaz AU, loosely based on Fallout New Vegas (no prizes for guessing who's in charge of Vegas).
I wouldn’t say I’m an expert in post-apocalyptic stories, but most I’ve encountered are quite pessimistic, placing a lot of emphasis on the worst aspects of humanity. (If anyone is interested, Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel is a great exception to this rule.) I think this fic will break a few genre conventions? So I’m a bit trepidatious. But it’s an idea that gives space for me to explore snowbaz ideas I’ve had that were in need of a setting.
Anyway, here’s the snippet! In this scene, Baz is singing Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall by The Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald while searching for very particular salvage.
“Into each heart some tears must fall, but someday the sun will shine.”
Most schoolhouses were plundered long ago, but this one is off the safer roads. Besides, I’m looking for more unusual fare, and music rooms are often underexplored.
A satisfying clink. I twist onto my side, nudging detritus into the open. I’ve already performed this sweep under three counters and found little more than old coins. Still, there are those who value such things.
“Some folks can lose the blues in their hearts, but—”
My breathing stills as the small container peeks out from beneath the counter. Rosin.
“Well, well, well.” I pick it up, smiling. “Aren’t I a lucky boy?”
Not that lucky, I respond internally. Still no violin strings.
“Now, now,” I mutter. “Hope springs eternal.”
Hello and no-pressure tags below the cut!
@johnwgrey @bookish-bogwitch @erzbethluna @captain-aralias @raenestee @yeonjunenby @cutestkilla @ivelovedhimthroughworse @stitchyqueer @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @sailorblossoms @confused-bi-queer @aristocratic-otter @tea-brigade @nightimedreamersworld @fatalfangirl @thewholelemon @onepintobean @chen-chen-chen-again-chen @shrekgogurt @theearlgreymage @martsonmars @blackberrysummerblog @orange-peony @palimpsessed
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