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chrismcleaneatspants · 4 months

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General season 2 opinions. MASSIVE TDI 2023 season 2 spoilers ahead (as well as a huge wall of text.) You've been warned.

Ok, so here's everything I like about the season (I can count them on my fingers)

-There were some funny jokes

-MKulia was entertaining and it's now in my top 5 favorite ships, but it's not perfect, as I'll explain later

-Hockey dudes were a joy to watch I suppose

-Bowie stole the show as usual

-There are a lot of neat challenges (The canoe, slide, and dog challenges was a particular stand outs to me)

-MK herself was really funny

-MacArthur's cameo was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one, and she bounces off of Chris really well

-Duncney is still broken up lol

Honestly that's about it in terms of positives, cuz I have a million other negatives for this supposed sequel to (imo) the best written season of the show.

-The Relationships were the single worst aspect about this season full stop. Ripaxel and Praleb are probably the worst couples the show has ever subjected me to. For Ripaxel, they basically removed anything interesting Ripper had going on and Axel wasn't allowed to live up to any kind of hype she created because one lame ass poem turned her into Ripper's girlfriend for the remaining duration of her run, only for the both of them to be tossed aside in episode 7 in perhaps the worst double elimination in the entire show.

-Praleb started off ok. I thought it was gonna be a one-sided crush plot initially before Episode 6. They had a couple cute moments before episode 8, of which their screentime became suffocating because afterwards is was this painful back and forth where Caleb tried explaining himself and Priya would be mad at him, then ally with him, then be mad at him again like it was so tiresome. By the time they got together in the finale again, I was wishing they had just followed up on Pramien instead. Caleb by himself was funny in the first half of season 2 and Priya was great in season 1, but the two of them together were insufferable

-Speaking of Priya, she went from one of the best characters in season 1 to one of the worst in season 2. Why did she have to make it all the way to episode fucking 12 after winning season 1?? Just for some generic heterosexual romance? They also made her so dumb with shit like knowing Julia is manipulating her but then getting a surprise Pikachu face when Julia manipulated her??? You spent your entire life preparing for this show, how the fuck did you not see this coming???

-Segwayying into Julia, she's the worst antagonist full stop. I've never seen such an absolute downgrade of a character. She was a goat in season 1 who was aware of her situation and acted accordingly because the stakes were real. Here? Reality basically warps around her just to keep her in the game. She does things characters would never fall for in season 1 and they just go with it?? They insist on keeping her in the finale and do basically nothing interesting with her. She's not even as funny as Island Heather at the end of the day.

-I mentioned MKulia earlier, so I'll just get to it here: I like it in concept. Two evil sapphics causing chaos together is really fun. My main issue is that it was very sudden. They both were not fans of each other at the end of season 1 and now I'm supposed to just believe they became friends off screen? I mean, I guess, but it's kinda cheap. I would have really liked it if it was straight up enemies to lovers ngl. Also the fact MK had very little agency outside of being Julia's lackey doesn't help either. I want to point to the fake contract thing, for instance. Why did Julia do that? That sounds like an MK thing to do.

-Time to dive into other characters: Damien is an absolute fucking tragedy. At the end of season 1, Damien had one ambition: win next season. They kinda did that, sure, but they regressed Damien into being a complete coward to do so, not to mention he didn't even go all the way either. Damien didn't get a W until episode 6 and tbh that was his only W. By the end of his tenure, I was left confused on what the point of his run was. (I'll come back to this later.)

-What was the point of Nichelle? Like seriously, what did she contribute to the season at all? They didn't do the ironic underdog story with her, and considering she was getting all egotistical and aggressive, i thought she was gonna be the antagonist for sure...until Julia got rid of her in episode 5 in a way that really shouldn't make sense cuz like Nichelle is an actual celebrity that stars in blockbuster movies, I'm pretty sure she could sniff a fake contract a mile away, right?

-Hockey dudes were great, but I felt like they were very dumbed down at times? Like they were just generic dumb dudes that just meandered around a lot of the time (Wayne in particular just straight up floated away from a challenge at one point)

-Bowie was alright too. His line delivery is great as usual, but let's not kid ourselves: In a well written season, he'd be going straight for Julia the next time his team lost. Bowraj was nice to see even if the season didn't really do a whole lot with it

-Am I the only one who thinks this season is a tad bit misogynistic? Like this is the shortest them phase the show as ever had (to the point where i'd argue teams don't really matter) and 4 of the 5 team phase boots were girls. Millie and Emma in particular were really bad. Like, you could make Millie a team phase boot without like shitting on her that hard. And Emma got like fuck all closure outside of breaking up with Chase off screen like wow, way to utilize such a high potential character, Fresh. And this is saying nothing about how the girls that did make it to the merge had plots basically dominated by romance and like nothing else. And then there's MKulia which is apparently intended to be a friendship but like is written like a romantic one at times. It gives me all-stars gwourtney vibes and (as a fan of gwourtney myself) not in a good way. At least MK and Julia were somewhat in character I guess, but they had their edges really sanded off and honestly as a friendship (situationship?) it's a complete downgrade from Millie and Priya in so many ways

-And another thing: who's the protagonist this season? Outside of Praleb, who am I supposed to care for? Who am I supposed to root for? By the halfway mark, the show doesn't really make any convincing arguments to root for like anyone there outside of maybe Damien? And he went gone in episode 10, so like, hockey dudes? No one has an interesting enough narrative for me to care.

-The immunity idol stinks as usual. Like, why did Damien do THE SAME FUCKING THING HEATHER DID IN ALL-STARS?? That actually pissed me off so much holy shit. The immunity idol as it stands in the show is basically a shitty plot device made to keep characters in as there's no real strategy revolved around it.

-Oh and another minor thing: Owen's cameo sucks, and that's entirely due to him not being physically aged up at all and just being a vehicle for the same dumb jokes they always make with him. so stupid

-Anyways, I spend an entire season with two shitass straight relationships taking up screentime, a whole multiude of potential plotlines from last season (pramien) and this season (scary girl's revenge, millie being the new ripper, damien's comeback, julia having internal conflict over her friendship (feelings?) for MK) being set up and just nothing being done with them, and characters in general just being nerfed or borderline out of character (Ripper) and what am I rewarded with?

-Soar Losers. The most boring nothing finale in the entire show. The choices for finalists suck, Wayne, while being the least bad option for a winner (and i do still like him a lot), is still a mid ass winner in the grand scheme of the entire show. And more praleb drama? fuck off I hate them so much. The challenge did not feel finale worthy at all, and honestly it was the worst challenge in the whole season. On top of being a bunch of nothing, the show decides to bring back the worst trope it ever had: losing hair as karma. I almost ragequit the episode on the spot that shit makes me so irrationally mad. I think it's even worse here because Julia still had hair after the fact, which makes it seem like they were aware it's not a popular TD trope but wanted to half commit to it anyways for the sake of tradition or something. Terrible finale to an already decently sized letdown of a season, but it has some ok MKulia moments I guess. The finale was just emblematic of the entire season, where things just happen and you're just expected to go along with everything. (Also side note how come Chase wasn't the one to jump off of the cart for pizza immediately?)

TL;DR reboot season 2 imo was a step down in every conceivable way from season 1 apart of i guess comedy and it's left a very sour taste in my mouth. I'm probably missing a few points that I'll add onto later but man it feels nice putting my opinion out there.

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daisywords · 2 months

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Finished The Night Circus. underwhelming. felt like it needed at least two more drafts tbh.

sorry to everyone that absolutely loves this book like I do see it. I see the appeal. But imo none of the elements that made it interesting were used to their full potential. I thought the plotline would have benefited from a tighter causal chain instead of things just happening at some point because someone decided it might as well happen now, I guess.

It's definitely a valid choice to treat the reader as a sort of outsider in order to prioritize a sense of mystery, but in some ways I felt too far removed to properly care about any of the characters or stakes.

Lots of unnecessary summary; not enough convincing me. More moodboard than story. Also apparently no one involved in any step of the publication process knew how to punctuate.

#daisyreads #I know it sounds like such a nitpick but the misuse of commas in this book was EGREGIOUS #like just continually distracting #but anyway #I think some of my dissatisfactions come from matters of taste #about which kinds of stories and methods of storytelling I prefer instead of which are objectively better #but there are other things that I think objectively don't work as well as they could #Not to say that it was entirely bad! I enjoyed it mostly and don't regret reading it #but idk I finished it and was like...okay yeah whatever #I felt like I was reading a pretty good first draft that definitely didn't stick the landing #like I've read other books that were way worse but I'm complaining about this one because I expected better

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tayasigerson · 9 months

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Contains Good Omens 2 spoilers!!

So I know there are some theories floating around about the ending. Season 1 wrapped up so nicely, it’s strange to have a cliffhanger to think about. I hope we’re not waiting for another four years. This feels like Sherlock all over again.

First of all, I admit that I didn’t read that one big theory going around and I know I shouldn’t criticize a theory that I didn’t even read, but it seems very implausible that anything that happened was fake. Having something be fake all along is not good writing, I learned this in junior high. So how can you claim Neil Gaiman is a good writer and then say he wrote some sort of fakeout storyline? Like I said, I didn’t actually read the theory, I just read the part about how the whole season was strange and odd. I didn’t think it was strange at all, why are people confused?

The plot is that Gabriel showed up under mysterious circumstances and now Aziraphale and Crowley need to keep him away from both Heaven and Hell to prevent something bad from happening. The side plot about getting Maggie and Nina to fall in love is part of this. There’s nothing weird about any of this, imo. It’s not all that different than Aziraphale and Crowley working together to prevent Armageddon, except the stakes are little lower.

Plus we know that this is a transitional season between book 1 and the planned book 2. The first book was about the Antichrist and it seems like the sequel book was going to be about the Second Coming. This season just gets all the players in position.

The coffee theory makes sense to me, but also I think it makes sense if the ending is exactly as is shown. So if Aziraphale chose to give up his bookshop and his life on Earth in order to “save” Crowley plus he gets to be together with Crowley, then that makes sense to me, but if his behaviour was altered to force him into a position where he can be better monitored by Heaven, then that makes perfect sense too. I think both of these are true simultaneously.

As much as Heaven and the angels treated him poorly and doesn’t love the humans as much as he does, Aziraphale still even now believes that Heaven is good. With him in a higher position, he feels like he can help save humanity and save Crowley too. I believe this is true whether the coffee was tampered with or not.

But the weird smile at the end, and the almond syrup, and the scary look the Metatron gives Crowley, and the fact that Aziraphale and Crowley are together capable of absurd miracle power and would need to be supervised or removed entirely can’t be ignored.

I also saw a theory that Crowley and Aziraphale switched places, but I don’t think that is true.

Anyway I just wanted to get some thoughts out there. I liked season 2, I thought it was a lot of fun.

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens spoilers #text post

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nicolinocolino · 10 months

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rwrb reread and upcoming movie thoughts no one cares about or asked for:

Found myself getting a little bored once they were “together” — aka the chase is the best part of their relationship so everything kind of burned out fast (but also I’m a Gemini Venus (derogatory) soooo take that as you will).

Really hope the movie is just as funny as the book because some of it truly made me laugh out loud.

The like, political and moral plot lines of the book seem contrived and I don’t care about them. However you can’t totally remove them because then you’re removing immersion into their world and problems. This can be solved probably by coming up with better political plot lines lol.

Saw in some posts that June wasn’t in the move or that her and Nora’s character are being merged together and honestly? That’s fine by me because she really served no purpose narratively. Not that she wasn’t sweet or funny but yeah I can see how and why they’d cut her to fit everything else into a 2 hour movie.

I honestly feel like the movie would have to actually try really hard to be bad because there aren’t a lot of stakes lol. Like if anything it might actually do a better job with all of the political and royal nonsense because even with my limited knowledge I knew that some of those processes just… weren’t correct. So hopefully a team working on a screenplay and script consulted with experts (bare minimum imo) to make it more believable.

Rereading this was fun and easy but also solidified that at the end of the day I prefer old books that suck out my soul in a depressing way.

Still really really hype for the movie in ways I can’t pinpoint. I’m probably just bored.

#if you read all this nonsense please let me know your opinions and thoughts and predictions about the movie

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djdeviljin · 2 years

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Hype and fear regarding Tekken 8!

I have so many thought right now but I'll try to write them down as coherently as possible:

This trailer looked so good! And apparently it's not a cutscene but actual gameplay!?!

Okay so I'm really hyped right now but I also have one BIG fear for Tekken 8: Are they gonna merge Jin and Devil Jin into one character?!?

Cause I REALLY hope that's not the case! Partially because I main DJ and it'd really suck if I won't be able to play as him anymore but rather have to choose Jin and then transform during the match! I also fear that doing that would limit DJ's movepool as him and Jin would be one character and they'd probably give him a mix of both of their movesets instead of giving them both their own full movesets (these are just my theories though).

But the main reason I don't want this is that I like Devil Jin as his own character and it'd really really suck if they "removed" him from the game by just making him a part of Jin now. I always enjoyed Devil Jin's presence in the games and the role he played, both directly and indirectly. He's been such a huge part of Jin's storyline for so long that it feels kinda anticlimactic if Jin just "got rid" off him so suddenly. Even though DJ wasn't playable from the very beginning, he's still been in every game that Jin's been in and has had a huge role in the story. So for Jin to just be able to control his devil gene all of a sudden just doesn't feel right to me. But I might also be jumping to conclusions here.

Since we don't see Jin fully transform (like Kazuya does when he switches to Devil in the games) I hope that it means that Jin still doesn't have full control, or at least that they're gonna make Devil Jin his own playable character in Tekken 8, I guess it depends on how much of DJ's moveset they're gonna give Jin in his half transformed state (cause it'd be wierd to give him DJ's flying moves with just one wing, on the other half it'd also be wierd to give Jin a lot of DJ's moves and then also add DJ as there'd be two characters with basically the same moveset). But I feel like many people would be upset if they merged the two since their figthing styles are so different from one another.

A good solution imo would be that Jin can't fully transform or he'll still lose control! That would also add some more stakes to his fights, as he still has to be careful not to give in fully to the devil gene.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see but for now at least I'm holding on to the hope that DJ will be his own character in this game!

So while I'm hyped for a new game and the continuation of the story, I'm also anxious to see how they handle Jin and Devil Jin going forward.

#I have so many thoughts on this #and so many mixed feelings #like I'm super hyped for a new game #but I'm also really scared they'll get rid of The Boy #it's so late now I should really go to bed #but I have so many thoughts I doubt I'll be able to sleep anytime soon haha #man this reveal came outta nowhere #like I know we got that teaser with Kaz a while back but I did not expect them to just drop a trailer like this #tekken 8 #jin kazama #devil jin

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pink-strawberry-kissess · 1 year

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Not me putting on my clown makeup waiting for the RE6 remake.

No but seriously, with the four different campaigns and all, how do you suppose Capcom would approach a remake for 6? If they're continuing with the re-horroring of the franchise, then things would need to be tightened up but I'm not sure what they would cut. Maybe some of Chris' campaign? (although I do like Piers but yeah I don't think they're too important aside from Carla constantly killing Chris' team and Chris and Jake's connection). and then like some of Jake and Sherry's campaign? Maybe cut down/restructure the first chapter of Leon and Helena, although it was more in-line with horror it really did feel sluggish. Or remove one of Simmons' boss fights? IDK I'm hesitant with them because 6 is literally Aeon The GameTM so I don't think they could/would touch those two campaigns too much.

They could just drop the C/P and J/S campaigns and make them side characters but then I'm not sure how the information with Carla or Jake's blood needed for the C-Virus cure would be conveyed because Leon, Helena, and Ada are never in Edonia. It would be fun to see Chris as more of an antagonist though (after that little taste we got in Village) if they were to remove him as a protagonist so the only contact we get is his and Leon's fight and him chasing after Ada.

😭😭😭

the fact that re5r is heavily hinted at makes me wonder if they'll do re6r. i really don't know tbh

there's two issues with this, will they

change the story unlikely but re6 has not been touched upon lorewise *that we know of

cut campaigns

or both

re6 is very much an aeon game, as Leon/Helena's campaigns and Ada's are NEEDED to understand re6 as a whole.

The Jake/Sherry campaign is nice and good for information, but I agree I think Chris/Piers campaign can be SEVERELY shortened or cut and not affect any large portions of the games. P/C (gonna change the order of that for reasons 😭) campaign is much more action based and touches more with Carla, but since we have that with Ada's, I think a lot of that can be cut on Chris's side. As it also ruins the whole mystery of it imo.

J/S is only needed for the smallest portion of Leon's campaign so that they can save J/S near the ending.

i would not be heartbroken at all if Chris's campaign was cut ENTIRELY from re6r. tbh it was my least favourite out of the bunch. and it did not seem to have that much story that pertained to re6 as a whole. it was more so about chris's trauma which i guess is fine to explore but (i don't care about chris that much to be completely honest. I think he has enough games)

the idea of painting chris as the antagonist is PERFECT set up for village. and it also drives a stake between chris and leon, which was one of the pivotal moments for re6.

i don't know i have many thoughts

#ask heart #heart answers #re6 #re6r #resident evil 6 #leon s kennedy #chris redfield #helena harper #piers nivans #sherry birkin #jake muller #ada wong

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skelltan · 1 year

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how i'd do a new mutants movie trilogy

tbh i'm not a massive fan of the demon bear saga

i think the ending doesn't give dani a lot of agency and tom and sharon are. Yeah

i think you could totally rewrite it to give dani more agency and remove/get rid of the shitty parts of tom and sharon's part in the story but if i were to do new mutant movies i just wouldn't touch it and explore dani's arc in an entirely different way, probably having her be one of (if not the) members of the team with the most focus

i really think an adaptation of warlock's origin would make the best initial new mutants movie. we'd have the founding members of dani, xi'an, sam, roberto, rahne but also obviously also doug and warlock. and illyana cos why wait.

i just feel like it's a big scale story that'd work well on the big screen. you can just have the simple excuse of 'charles used cerebro to locate young mutants' and delve into each of their backstories like the issue they debut in and then in act 2 and 3 focus on magus and warlock

though honestly my idea for a second movie is pretty interchangeable with the first and imo the stakes in villains works more naturally. so if you'd want that to be the second, it can be, or it can be the first

the other 1st/2nd movie i had in mind was, well, obviously the new mutants vs the hellions. if this was your first movie, you could build up tension between the hellfire academy and xavier's school in recruiting members and maybe throw in a twist or two like warpath joining the new mutants, or magma joining the hellions as eventually happens with them. illyana would be introduced in the first movie whether its this or the magus one because she's important

but regardless of if its first or second, for the new mutants team it introduces amara so quite obviously the main villain would be selene. i'm not a fan of nova roma so ideally we'd change that but still have amara and selene be related in some way but if you really need nova roma, sure, go for it. but yeah the two teams fight but then selene does some evil shit, as she does, so they gotta stop her. you could also have the hellfire club as a whole be villains but selene doing her own shit works best imo

the final movie would be inferno. hyep. the animator sucks as a villain so we're not doing that and i mean. illyana is one of the main players in inferno so why not? this also gives us an opportunity to do all the terrible shit to the team and make them disband. instead of shadow king we could have xi'an be possessed by any rando demon and lose her leg, doug dies, illyana deages at the end. then from there you can have your x force trilogy or whatever else you want

if this was part of a larger x men universe though, i doubt inferno would be a new mutants only movie, so i would still have that shit be where they disband and all the bad stuff happens, but if i had to do a third new mutants movie that wasn't inferno

without planning out what other x-men movies i'd do it would be hard but i feel like it would be hard to do a film adaptation of god love man kills as an x-men movie, but as a new mutants movie? you can fold reverend craig into stryker and obviously it's a story where magneto's face turn started, so we could use that parallel to give the team (and all other x-men) faith in him as their new leader after xavier either dies or goes to space as he probably will

you'd have to give xavier's role in that story to someone else or change that part entirely but i'm sure you can figure something out. jean would probably fit best if she was on the road to phoenix, but if not you'd probably have to change the role because it counts for a. the character being a psychic b. being a well known member of the x-men, which emma or rachel or anyone else at this point wouldn't really fill. xi'an could work maybe? but obviously her powers aren't as straightforward as just being psychic

obviously those are just. "what villains and main plot developments would i have" but as i stated the main four characters i'd focus on in the saga would be roberto, sam, dani and rahne with douglock having a focus in the magus movie, warpath or magma getting a focus in the hellions movie, illyana having a focus in inferno and xi'an in god loves man kills (or inferno if glmk isn't adapted), but obviously i'd want to give all of them equal development. xi'an doesn't seem to have a lot of focus here in theory but i'd 100% want to focus on her growth after ther challenges in inferno/glmk in whatever came next.

but yeah thats loosely what i'd do with a new mutants film trilogy

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rimouskis · 2 years

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okay for me i found the gideon the ninth audiobook narration kind of off putting, the voice actress just wasn't my vibe, but once i physically read it and like developed my own like narrative voices for all the characters i really got into it. it's also one that's meant to be read and reread with a lot of foreshadowing and clues and worldbuilding that can be confusing on a first read but on rereads are super engaging and really click. the second book messes around with different pov structures and flashbacks that seemingly contradict the first book until various plot things are revealed

(also there was a post that said something along the lines of "all the narrators in the locked tomb series are people who are constantly three steps removed from having any clue what's going on" and while i really loved that aspect i know lots of people find it frustrating)

I liked the voice actress! I was amused by her accent, haha, but I'm easy in that way. I typically love books with lost of foreshadowing and delicate plot things going on, but I felt, like.. so disconnected from the actual plot in a bad way.

[spoilers below!]

like I think it started off in a very promising way... gideon wants to escape, the escape fails, she gets whisked off-world... but as soon as they got onto first house I always felt like I was waiting for some higher stakes to connect gideon to the goings-on.

in a way I think harrow might have been a better POV character for this first book? she, imo, had more of a personal stake in winning. I personally didn't really get why gideon would need to care much about "winning" and ascending to lyctorhood. harrow... sure, I get that: she wants to obtain power since she's destroyed her house and family by being curious and not following rules, but when it came to gideon I just kept thinking, "why do you care? why wouldn't you want to run away? what is keeping you here (emotionally)?"

I also think the "lesbians in space!" bit was oversold, which was a slight bummer for me 😅 I LOVE ROMANCE I would have probably been happier if gideon and harrow had done a little "oh shit feelings reveal" moment halfway through the novel. I get that it isn't a romance buuuuut with all the chatter about it I almost wish it was! I do respect the fact that almost all the main characters were women and there were a lot of conflicts between them that were, like, "okay cool this is a Lesbian Narrative" but alas I am a romance girlie at heart.

back to the plot: I think gideon lacked motivation and stakes. I think she needed a more personal connection that was more clearly revealed to the audience. I LOOOOVE Big Reveals in books, but I like when they're deftly done. personally I felt the end fight (that took up like a solid hour of narration, I'm not going to lie ahaha) was basically an excuse to tie gideon up and have characters monologue at each other to explain why they care at all about the plot.

when we finally get the reveal that gideon and harrow have a shared past of being the only surviving children of the ninth and that gideon was feared for surviving the nerve gas, I was like: cool. when we got the reveal that gideon felt guilty for killing harrow's parents, I was like: ahaha wait. because we should have found that out much, much sooner as readers.

if muir had spent more time doing character work with gideon and delving into her headspace during the trials, I might have been more engaged during them AND we wouldn't have needed an infodump at the end. it MAYBE could have worked if harrow hadn't known about gideon's involvement at all (so there would be more stakes: I Must Keep My Secret From Harrow), but harrow knew everything [except for the precise "I'm personally culpable for their deaths" emotion gideon had, but even that was like... immediately introduced and immediately resolved, so we didn't even get any tension between them about it!].

I'll compare it to one of my favorite books ever, the queen of attolia. if you haven't read it, stop reading this post NOW and go read it, because I'm about to spoil the big twist that had me yelling in my car when I got to its section in its audiobook:

when it was revealed that Eugenides was in love with Irene, and had been in love with her when she cut his hand off, and had STAYED in love with her, and had pursued her once again and taken her because he STILL LOVED HER AFTER WHAT SHE DID TO HIM, AND THAT WAS WHY HER ACTIONS WEIGHED HEAVILY ON HER, AND THAT WAS WHY HE CONTINUED FORTH IN THE WAR, I was GOBSMACKED and I was like OH EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE, but the only reason I felt satisfied about it was because leading up to that, Gen and Irene both had other motivating factors to be involved in the plot. the reveal of Gen's feelings radically deepened that investment, but there WAS investment there in the first place.

and back to gideon the ninth: I felt SO removed from the plot, and gideon felt uninvested in the plot, and we had this HUGE swath of characters when all I really wanted to focus on was gideon and harrow and what the fuck was going on between them!

I think confused and removed narrators can be done well, but gideon the ninth didn't quite hit for me. I think a big part of it is how HYPED this book has been on the corners of booklr and booktok I've seen. Like, I had high expectations, and that's always dangerous!

I liked the humor, and I found gideon fun, and I want more of gideon and harrow, but the book as a whole didn't quite give me what I was looking for. that's okay! not everything is for everyone, but I'm glad I read it and was able to get an idea of what everyone was buzzing about

#my feelings on this book aren't strong btw #like I don't regret having read it!#and if anyone's super into it I'd be curious to talk with you!

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sunieepo · 5 months

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If bad localization interests you, have you read how several recent Fire Emblem localizations try to "Christianize" fictional religions.

Like a recent artbook, Legacy of Archanea, completely altered and removed the polytheism, Naga being genderly ambiguous, and Naga being a minor god among many in favor of making everyone worship only Naga with no other gods, changing the male or gender neutral dialogue to refer to Naga to instead being solely female, and making Naga an absolute god.

Sorry for the late response - I was away from my PC for most of this weekend!

I haven't actually heard much about this, but in fairness to me I've kind of checked out of Fire Emblem series lore after FE14/16/17 LOL

The thing is, like, Fire Emblem localizations have famously changed a lot about the games. Like, way more than almost any other series I've played, down to altering the difficulties (ex: the infamous FE10/11 difficulty renaming/modifying switcheroo) or updating entire gameplay mechanics (ex: FE10's class change requirements were changed to no longer need Master Crowns in the English version, and the English version also doesn't use forging points).

The newer FE games (AKA FE13 and later) don't make gameplay changes like that anymore, but the number of translation changes they make are still extremely gratuitous. In very few instances, I can see why it's warranted - like the stuff with Soleil or FE17!Anna - but in other cases it feels like holdovers of old-fashioned Nintendo localization.

FE as a franchise in general is in a very confused spot, IMO. Like, look at FEH (or don't, actually). Nintendo, which has staked its entire brand on family-friendly entertainment, has FEH as one of their flagship mobile games, and it's literally about as scummy as FGO in terms of gratuitous fanservice and sexualization of girls. The newest FE games in general are just dripping with weird otaku fanservice and creepy anime tropes, and yet Nintendo still tries to damage control their English versions by stripping as much of the creep factor as possible.

This strategy might have worked before the age of the Internet, but nowadays everyone can tell how much they've changed, and not only that, but FE has now attracted a huge audience of horny weebs who scream and cry whenever you censor a single vagina bone, so they don't take ANY kind of censorship well. I wish Nintendo would just like... stop trying to change their shit depending on the audience and just maybe not make weird creep shit in general? LOL but who am I say.

Anyways I rambled way too much, all this to say, no I wasn't aware of all of this specifically - I did know that Naga has always has their "genderfluidity" censored and is always referred to as female in the English versions, but I haven't really seen much about the removal of the polytheism as that might be artbook-specific. In the FE games I've played, it's pretty clear Naga is only one of the gods, particularly in FE15, where the main god of the plot is Mila. But it also doesn't really surprise me, because it's Nintendo and they love to censor the shit out of their own material.

#thanks for the ask!#sunie answers #anon #anonymous

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mermaidsirennikita · 2 years

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I just realized a majority of the Bridgerton books (4? 5?) involve a "we got caught in a compromising position/role so we must wed" plot, which might be part of the reason why I lost interest in the other books after reading TVWLM, since I personally am not a fan of that trope

I enjoy that trope, but it is used a lot for an eight book series. I think this is why, generally speaking, a lot of HR series are limited to three to four books unless they are kind of loosely connected (see: Maiden Lane). Imo, there are a lot of books in that series for it to center squarely on one family and their exploits. There are two books from that series that I would re-read, and while that's not HORRIBLE odds for eight books... In contrast, Maiden Lane has like, 12+ books and I would reread most of them under the right circumstances.

I also think the issue with having 8 books surrounding one family is that the stakes kind of naturally diminish? So half the heroes are Bridgertons, but only one Bridgerton man truly has like... a lot of solid power. And that would obviously be Anthony, as he has the title and the money and the land. While that doesn't mean you can't love his brothers, of course, it does make them fairly dependent on him (I don't care what they say--Benedict and Colin ain't making a solid enough living on art and travel blogging to not bum off of Anthony in some respects, and I doubt Gregory's investments are pulling the weight either). To me, people read... most het romance... and certainly most HR to have a hero who is like. If not a traditional alpha, then at min independent, because let's be honest, we are escaping real life where every other guy you speak to on Tinder has to ask his mom to Venmo him after he pays for dinner.

Plus, as s2 showed, there is a lot of natural conflict in a hero when he has to be the head of the family. Lots of responsibility. Whereas the guy who's just living off of him has an insecurity complex? But you can't repeat that effectively (though Quinn... does repeat that with Benedict and Colin, though I don't know if you'd consider it effective).

And also, as I've mentioned before, Anthony is the guy whose opinion actually matters on these marriages, practically speaking. He's the one who can withhold a dowry for his sisters and essentially veto their marriages, barring a Gretna Green moment. His brothers can marry who they wish, but they'll have a hard time effectively supporting their households with NO input from the estate. If he cuts them off, the rest of the family will likely do the same because Regency Rules Mean Big Papa Is King.

But there's like, zero way that Anthony would believably do this after his book. He's healed. She fixed him, ladies! A round of applause for Kate's pussy, he is GOOD NOW. And he married a woman who, while well-bred, was not particularly aristocratic or "logical" to marry (as is the point). So do we really believe that this man, who is from a family that prioritizes love over all else and happily married, would cut his siblings off for "marrying badly"--especially when there's a fucking billion of them and he's the only one with a title to pass down? Nah.

So while I'm not like... shitting on the books (they're not for me, but they obviously work for a lot of people) for ME the stakes just become lower for every book after TVWLM, and therefore I'm not interested. Imo, WHWW is effective in part because Francesca is so removed from her family. She's really more a part of her dead husband's family. Their approval is more important, and we don't know that they're down with being a dumbass for love like the Bridgertons are.

#bridgerton #romance novel blogging

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youngjusticeslut · 2 years

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Like a lot of people are saying, I was also disappointed by this arc. I love Zatanna and I was looking forward to seeing her again in an arc focused on her. It felt super disorganized with Gar’s plot and all the narration and cutaways. I feel like instead of breaking up the backstory between all the different eps, they should have had a single ep dedicated to the backstory and then have the rest focus on the present and how Z is as a mentor and have her as the main character rather than just a hero dealing with another villain. I think the overall idea was good, but it was so disorganized it didn’t work out well, and maybe they could have left Gar’s stuff to the credits scenes or just touch on his stuff at the beginning of each ep (I’m not 100% sure how I would’ve handled Gar’s stuff since I don’t really know the exact place they’re going with it, but I felt like they wanted to do a lot in this arc but there just wasn’t enough time)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me! I agree with you, more or less. I think a big problem was that there was simultaneously not enough time, and yet too much time. When you devote five episodes to an arc, it's possible that you're so drunk on the potential of a plot spanning five episodes that you don't actually plan/structure it well, where some things are left dragging on forever (bb plot), and some things are barely touched upon (Zatanna). I wish everything would have been framed from Zatanna's POV. I would have loved to see what she's up to and her own, personal stakes in the magic war. As is stands, in this arc she had no agency and nothing of interest to do. You could remove Zatanna and essentially 85% of the plot would remain the same-- which is a huge shame, imo.

#young justice #yj spoilers

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eyayah-oya · 3 years

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okay spoiler free? tbb ep.14 talk

THIS IS WHAT WE WANTED !!!!

in terms of storytelling this episode is so much better, also in terms of character development and interactions between the characters. i mean we had the howzer episodes and the one with rex but this one actual being centered on tbb and other clones? best one yet imo

uhm actual stakes?? yes please

echo?? my king shone!! tell em off boo

there actually being discourse and planning between tbb and not just the hunter does whatever he wants variety show

captain traitor?? total babe as always, hope we see more of him/ possible lead up to the future

the cameo?? did not expect that and hope we see more of him and/or them

didn't think they'd go there for the ending but ooh am i excited for the next ep.

SLIGTH SPOILERS

the desperation in omegas voice broke me holy shit, and the way that they built up to it throughout the ep. with her being worried and wrecker kind of shrugging it off?? so good, i might be reading into it but it def seemed like she knew something would happen

also do we think we'll see wolffe?? i've been hoping we would see the seelos trio get together and that actually seems like a possibility now. was that what rex was doing?

really hope they continue with this

also costumary where tf is cody??? is that what rex was doing??? but have to imagine if he goes after cody he would actually tell tbb because they knew him too but idk

TBB EP 14 SPOILERS!!!

It was really nice to see Echo shine in this. There were some very interesting details that caught my attention throughout the episode. When Hunter, Tech, and Echo jumped down, the other two were soft thumps while Echo's landing was a lot louder. On the one hand, Echo is an ARC and should know how to land quietly, but also he now has metal legs to deal with so that was an interesting choice.

Echo's speech! He and Fives are so similar! I love Echo finally standing up and telling the Batch to stop being idiots! The regs are just as important! They don't have to be "different" to be special.

Gregor was a delight. "Insubordinate plebe." I love him. It would be nice if we got to see Wolffe, too, but at the same time, I feel like putting the Bad Batch in every major thing that Rex or the clones did after Order 66 is erasing what made Rex and the other clones special. I'd rather not have the Batch rescue Wolffe, personally. But it would be interesting if they show up to hand Gregor over to Rex and Wolffe was standing next to Rex, that would be okay.

Hunter's capture leads to a possible theory of the finale that I've shared with a few friends before. One that I think would be amazing but that Disney will be too cowardly to do.

I saw a tweet from one of the people involved in making TBB saying that they cried during the finale. And I've seen theories that Crosshair dies in the finale, and that's what is so sad. I can see Disney doing that, but then the show will go on as if nothing has changed and there wouldn't really be any major changes to characters or plot.

But . . .

I think Hunter should die in the finale. Not only would it be an epic twist, but it would allow growth for several characters.

1) Crosshair gets his chip removed but Hunter dies. He has to deal with all the trauma of being under the control of the Empire without his Sergeant there to lean on. Everything he knew gets shaken up again and he has to figure out how to be Crosshair again.

2) Omega. Omega imprinted on Hunter and she's been following his lead from the start, but she's still incredibly naive and innocent. She asked Tech what the war was like and he gave a very Tech answer. But now she's got a small taste of what it was like and it's awful. Maybe losing Hunter to the Empire encourages her to push the rest of the Batch into joining the Rebellion.

3) Echo would finally have his time to shine. There is no one else in the Bad Batch that has so many skills that they could feasibly replace all of them. He has experience at being a leader, giving orders, taking charge, and everything else that he is the only one that could feasibly take over. We'd get more than three lines an episode and see Echo bloom in a way we didn't have an opportunity to in TCW.

The others would struggle, too, and it would change the way the show and the plot developed. It would be a great way to add more character development and story development to the show.

Anyway, I'm not particularly thrilled with how they've done the show so far. I think the characters are really static and boring, as well as just being the epitomes of every American Action Movie Trope. I hope the writers give them more character development in the future, but 🤡. But this episode was significantly better than last week's, that's for sure.

Howzer's arc is still my favorite though.

#lizzie rambles #tbb spoilers #arc trooper echo #my theories

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michibikionmain · 3 years

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Ik the drama with Tommy and Tubbo is like cool and all on the Dream SMP but can we PLEASE talk about the other arc that’s going on??? Because despite the super jokey name, Mexican L’manburg is SUPER interesting from a story point alright? And so are the people in it.

IK Eret is kinda doing a redemption arc thing, which like cool good for him I love him, but the redemption arc of everything in Mexican L’Manburg is slightly better written and more compelling imo. Like consider... everyone that’s a citizen in Mexican L’manburg right now has done horrible things or been associated with horrible things on the server. Quackity helped get Schlatt elected and was his vice president. Sapnap was a loyal solider to Dream, killing and causing chaos at the drop of a hat for him. George also assisted Dream in wars, but also from a story perspective just sat by and essentially ignored all the struggles going on in Manburg while he was supposed to be part of the cabinet alongside Quackity before becoming King for literally being so separated from the country he was supposed to help run that Dream saw him as the most neutral person on the server. Karl hasn’t exactly done anything bad/redemption worthy, but he is desperate for attention and affection from anyone and to be recognized.

What do all these characters have in common? A need to prove themselves, whether it be their goodness to others, to themselves, or just their own worth. They all need a new start that they’ve created with Mexican L’manburg. Quackity lost Schlatt, who he’d canonically been in an abusive relationship with, and while he’s the new vice president of L’manburg, he still clearly feels torn up over what happened in the Pogtopia and Manburg war. Sapnap believes/has realized that Dream has just been using him as a war pawn and that he doesn’t care about him according to his outburst to Tommy, and now he has to deal with the crippling reality that all those horrible things he did in the name of friendship were done in the name of essentially nothing as he deals with that sense of betrayal. George is in a similar boat, but he also has the struggle of realizing that the reason Dream made him King wasn’t because he trusted him with the power to rule, but because he trusted that George would be a compliant idiot and do whatever he told him, and now his power is removed because Dream doesn’t trust that he can take care of himself and follow Dream’s directions without hesitation. Karl has been on the sidelines for all of the Manburg war, trying to get involved anywhere he could, but no one took him seriously and he was essentially pushed to the side until the final battle in the war where he was used more like a meat shield/extra body to have around than an actual ally.

This is also helping lead into a humanizing arc for Dream. Since he stopped streaming the SMP, a lot of his character’s thoughts have been a mystery to the audience, and the fact that he’d rarely been appearing on his teammate’s streams meant we only ever got to see him through the eyes of those who saw him as an enemy, which is never a good look. Especially Tommy, who he has a historically bad relationship with, to the point of Tommy basically just seeing him as a stereotypical bad guy on the server. But this arc? It’s changing that, even if we still don’t directly see his perspective. We see Dream experience actual anger at what’s happening. Literally the whole thing going on with Tommy and Tubbo and the exile is because Dream was furious that Tommy griefed George and demanded retribution. He was never properly angry during the revolution, only wanted to hold onto L’manburg for the sake of power. He had no proper stakes in the Manburg/Pogtopia war, and only got involved for the fun of chaos. But this? This is personal to him, a direct attack. War isn’t fun now, it’s personal and so he’s going to make it personal for everyone else. However, he doesn’t realize that by making it personal, he’s left himself exposed. The logic he usually uses to handle war isn’t as ruling as before and he makes multiple slip ups. Similar to the story Technoblade used to compare Tommy to a tragic hero, Dream’s hubris has become his downfall.

He says he doesn’t care, not really, and that everything has been for power, severing the threads of friendship he has with some of his only remaining allies. He’s not completely alone, but almost all of his friends and allies have left him now, not that he had many to begin with. The Badlands emancipated themselves from the SMP Lands, most of the new members joined L’manburg, Wilbur died, Techno retired and became an anarchist, his fiancée is part of the cabinet in L’manburg--his greatest enemy nation--, he ruined his friendship for now with Sapnap and George. All he has left is Punz, who only sticks with him because he’s being paid a massive amount, and Captain Puffy, who’s loyalty isn’t even set in stone because she has plenty of loyalty to people outside of the SMP lands and is likely to side with friends over her country in conflict if it came to it.

He’s slowly losing his power and control over the server, and that’s also partially of why he wanted the disks so bad. If he can’t use people to get what he needs, he’ll need material items to accomplish his goals, hence him calling the disks his now. Dream is definitely still the villain and in the wrong right now, but his humanity is showing, and it’s leading to some of the most compelling personal conflict on the SMP in my opinion. Sure, he’s fighting normal L’manburg and what not too, but he’s mostly fighting with Mexican L’manburg, his friends, all of them trying to prove themselves in one way or another.

I probably has a different perspective of the overall story than a lot of people because I didn’t get into the lore watching Tommy or Wilbur’s perspectives of things, but GOD if you take the time to look into it the other characters are so fuckin cool.

#dream smp #dream smp spoilers #Dream Team #dreamwastaken #sapnap #georgenotfound #quackity #mexican l'manburg #karl jacobs #Oops #Its a long post sorry yall #i just have SO many ideas and thoughts about this arc and NO ONE is talking about this #ik the tubbo and tommy stuff is cool but we are SLEEPING on this storyline that we've needed for a while!#i've barely seen any works talking about this #so yknow what? ill do it myself #if u have thoughts PLEASE DM ME IM DESPERATE #Im also making much fanart but that takes longer so zzz #mcyt

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sirescumbag · 3 years

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AA7 thoughts

So I just finished Spirit of Justice and then I heard about Ace Attorney 7 apparently in the works, so my brain decided this is the time to make up potential plot twists to be excited about that don’t actually exist. I know this is divergent from my usual fanart posting but here’s a very long text dump of some new stuff I’d be interested in seeing but will probably not happen because it is all very specific and caters to my own desires, probably not the fandom’s in general:

Phoenix is still there, but not as active as an acting defense attorney, though he’s still key to the plot (as a mentor, or to be used as emotional blackmail). He’s not playable (or if he is, it’s not for long), but more there as a plot point in a Maya sort of way (oh the turntables). This time, he’s the one under threat or danger. Instead of switching around from lawyer to lawyer, I think that Athena should undergo some more development as a main character this time around since Phoenix and Apollo have had their time to shine. The removal of Phoenix and being all alone, I think, would also be interesting in her character development

On that note, bring on the major character angst!! Having a big tragedy occur, with a fairly major character. Usually the tragedy pulled is a murder/death, but how about a different sort of tragedy-- a fate worse than death/on par with it to someone who is still alive? Someone is severely incapacitated, a psychological injury (classic old memory loss, or perhaps a genius who is reduced to a very limited mental capacity), coma, or even a temporary death (like with Petenshy, Edgeworth), or perhaps a kidnapping (not Maya this time, please). If it happens to a major character, it’ll have greater impact, BUT there’ll be fan riots if it’s not reversible. So have the tragedy with the character get resolved, but not in a deus ex machina way-- recovery is slow and angsty but filled with hope.

There’s often a focus on the past haunting you-- let’s try shifting this to the present! Building suspense on a case that is happening in real time-- I am fond of the idea of a serial killer on the loose in the present and the dread of suspense in present time throughout trials as they continue to kill and hinder key advances in solving the mystery.

Very often, there are personal ties in court-- both the prosecution and defense are tied together in some way in the past, resolving their own personal backstory. Instead of oneself, maybe let’s have some focus on a client instead? It might be interesting to see a lawyer get so deep into protecting a single client-- instead of a new client for every case, protecting a single person over multiple cases-- that they get roped into an outsider’s story instead. A little idea in my head is of playing around with maybe witness protection, or say (off the serial killer idea) someone is expected to be the next target for a murder and you are tasked with trying to protect them in real time (and then a tragedy happens to them that moves plot forward, bonus if players gets to build an emotional connection between you and the client).

In SOJ and DGS, the stakes were big on “saving the masses” and government reform-- the stakes can still be high, but instead of something lofty like reforming the world or community, instead it could focus on the relationships with the people immediately around you, protecting them, or just some good old self-preservation.

Newer characters like Athena being really fleshed out! Whether there are new or old characters, really build and explore the depth of their character beyond that of a plot point. Not just slapping on relationship labels that immediately trigger emotion but have no context beyond it (like the killing off “my best friend” Clay in DD, or the classic parental death). I thought the fleshing out of Dhurke and building an emotional relation to him in SOJ was a lot more effective in making it really feel like a tragedy than with Clay in DD.

For introducing any old characters, please show some personality changes due to age. Or, maybe! Even a 180 change from the personality from the original trilogy for intrigue-- what happened to the old person I knew (and have it be integral to the plot)? I know I griped about the old “ah That Event 5/7/10 years ago” past plot thing being used but I wouldn’t mind this being used as a part of plot development either

Maybe try to bridge the feeling of separation between the old trilogy and newer characters’ worlds by, instead of kind of sequestering them into their separate spheres of interaction to preserve nostalgia (like in Turnabout Time Traveler, where the old gang is all together in the same dynamic, Maya and Phoenix and Edgeworth, etc), have old trilogy characters interact with newer ones in significant ways and build their own unique bond. So, not just a passing mention where the old encounters the new, having the old interact with the new and build a bond through going through significant conflicts together (for example, this has already been mentioned but if Athena is the main focus of the next game, there could be an opportunity to explore this if she confronts Franziska in court!).

I know there’s already so many gimmicks added (Apollo’s perceive, Athena’s widget) but if there has to be something new added, instead of making it individual-specific, maybe have be similar to spirit channeling as a concept-- have it be a broad phenomenon in the world that plays a key part in causing a case, rather than a tool for discerning the truth of a case.

Or, if we’re sticking with the same gadgets/tricks, instead choosing to tamper more with the tools of the trade that were supposed to never lead you astray-- this has already been seen in DD, where Apollo’s bracelet led him to the wrong conclusion about Athena, and AA4, where evidence was tampered with. Perhaps instead of adding new gadgets, let’s manipulate, tamper with, lose, have it used against them in new ways!

The use of a civil case in SOJ was very much unexpected but in my opinion a very interesting one! Would be very interesting to see more in-fighting among the prosecutor group or within the defense attorney group and see how that moves the plot along. Messing more with the court system instead of adding new gadgets would also be interesting.

More threats during investigation, not just in court! Remember when von Karma tased you in the evidence room? Let’s have suspense in AND out of the courtroom.

I’m sure there’s plenty of interesting psychological phenomena that could be used to complicate court cases (for example, that use of Justice Minister Inga’s cognitive disorder in recognizing faces coming into play)!

Different approaches for moral ambiguity for clients using psychology-- we’ve seen this with defending clients who are actually guilty, or being blackmailed. I’d be interested in seeing a Jekyll and Hyde situation where 2 different sides of one person commit a crime, but one side is unaware of it-- and how a defense lawyer would handle this!

Exploring the plea for insanity in court! Double jeopardy! Escaped convicts! A murder whose trial to find a good jury has been delayed for a long time and is forced to find its resolution outside of court due to the murderer striking again!

Also, to pull in some stuff I read about elsewhere, after reading about moral psychology in Jonathan Haidt’s book The Righteous Mind and moral triggers that typically pull strong reactions (care, fairness, loyalty, authority, sanctity), I was also thinking about how ace attorney manages to build emotionally compelling cases in relation to this model. Ace Attorney imo so far has done pretty alright at hitting most of these triggers at some point to hype the emotion, but for the final case, it ends up being played in what I see as generally the same way (ex: character development starts from from my duty as a lawyer is my role as the defense/prosecutor into that of my duty is to find the truth, authority corrupt and that is bad, justice should be served fairly, I am loyal to my group of prosecutor/defense, also played with loyalty and betrayal in DD with Apollo and Athena splitting, also triggered sanctity a bit in SOJ with the religion, lots of other examples probably but that’s a few). I’d be interested in seeing these same moral triggers played upon in different manner for some variety! Maybe even pursuing some different themes than justice and truth and duty and all that jazz, but idk what else could be alright to explore cause the courts kinda embody all that and deviating to make a statement about other themes might not fit as well in the courts hmm

Also part 2, I wonder if there’ll be romantic undertone somewhere (or heavily implied) for any new or old major characters. Romantic love isn’t usually used with major characters as a plot point (usually platonic stuff, friendship, family, or duty to the truth is instead) but I’d think it’d be interesting if romance was used this time around as an emotional motivator to drive the plot

#ace attorney #ace attorney 7 #aa7 #i kind of wrote this all at once so it's probably really jumbled ahhhhfhhhh #basically i want that sweet major character angst #i might just end up making an AU with these ideas if they're not in AA7 because i want an excuse to see these in a plot hohohoh #anyway i'm trying not to have expectations but i got myself all excited anyway so here we are

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zukadiary · 3 years

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The whole top star subject is fascinating! Would you be willing to hypothesize on who seems to be the next top star/nibante/Sanbante in each troupe? Purely for fun, we know things can change!

Ok ok ok.... I will do this if

we all remember that in Takarazuka the rules are made up and the points don’t matter... I’d never stake anything on anything

no one @’s me about my hunches!!

(Full names only because lots of newbies in my inbox this week)

🌸 Towaki Sea is for all intents and purposes Hanagumi’s nibante. I know like... she’s not getting cast in nibante roles yet, and even with Seto Kazuya’s weird nibante-but-not reign coming to an end, Minami Maito might keep pulling rank for a bit. BUT, Towaki Sea is the Visa girl, she was pulled into Hanagumi to be top star, and barring transfers I think she’s pretty much guaranteed to be the the next top star.

Below that, well, Hanagumi isn’t exactly flush with upperclassmen. Seino Asuka is the next definitely tracked person, with 3 shinko leads and a solo bow, but she’s allllll the way down still in shinkos. Between her and Towaki Sea there’s Hiryuu Tsukasa with 1 shinko lead and 1 shared bow lead hovering in a kinda will-they-or-won’t-they scenario (I’m betting they won’t which is NOT my assessment of what should happen, just what I think probably will happen). I have no idea who they will treat as sanbante once Towaki Sea is consistently getting nibante roles, and honestly I think that between Yuzuka Rei and her so many years will pass that the landscape will change before Towaki’s successor.

🌙 Tsukigumi’s line of succession hasn’t changed since the Tsukishiro/Asami swap in 2017, with the exception of Miya Rurika removing herself from it. Ostensibly, Tsukishiro Kanato > Akatsuki Chisei > Kazama Yuno.

HOWEVER, the next top combi has not been announced yet, and despite the relatively clear lineage, I also think Tsuki is the strongest candidate for RECEIVING CHAOS, just by virtue of the fact that they’re the only troupe with a top spot coming open in the visible future. I still think Tsukishiro Kanato WILL be top of Tsuki (even if there is a chaotic interlude), and if it’s immediate, I don’t know if Houzuki An is planning to stick around and steal the nibante roles for a little while, or if she’s going to leave with the outgoing tops.

This is based on NOTHING but a hunch but.... there are also a couple of troupes that feel, uh, a little unstable. I personally think Kazama Yuno is a good transfer candidate, because she’s IMO one of the few youngsters with I-can-save-this-troupe vibes almost as strong as Towaki Sea’s.

❄️ For the purposes of this exercise, I’m commenting on Yukigumi’s already announced next generation led by Ayakaze Sakina. I suppose TECHNICALLY, the lineage is Asami Jun > Aya Ouka > Agata Sen... however, I think Agata Sen is the only one of those three who might actually become a top star.

I HOPE they let Asami Jun do it, I think she’s interesting. But tbh, I don’t think Yukigumi’s next top star is in the troupe right now.

⭐ FuuuuUuuUuuUUuuuck if I know. Seo Yuria was the latest bloomer out of the 95ths who became anyone, and literally just as the company decided “hey maybe Seo is a thing!” they also boinked Aizuki Hikaru right in front of her. So now we have something that looks like Aizuki Hikaru > Seo Yuria > Ayaki??? Hikari????? > Amahana Ema > Kiwami Shin

Except...

The last and only time a nibante who outranked the top star (in terms of graduating class) was actually present in the troupe with the younger top AND actually became top afterwards was Kuze Seika taking over from exception-to-every-rule Amami Yuuki in 1997, so I don’t know if that’s a great endorsement for Aizuki Hikaru’s prospects statistically.

Why move Aizuki Hikaru in front of Seo Yuria if they really wanted to keep Seo on the path to stardom?? That said, I still think that of all the CURRENT in-troupe possibilities, I feel like her taking over next is the least far fetched.

(I don’t actually think Ayaki Hikari is a contender here)

They just like, FEEL WISHY WASHY about Amahana Ema to me. I can’t explain it with concrete evidence, they just do.

I think Kiwami Shin will be a top star. I have no idea when or where.

My actual prediction is they plan to milk Rei Makoto for like six years, and by the time she’s ready to retire the troupe will look nothing like it does today. In the meantime, we should all start stocking up on smelling salts for Amato Kanon 2029.

🌌 Serika Toa > Sakuragi Minato... however, especially now with COVID, either Serika Toa’s clock is hella ticking, or giving her a proper top run would force Sakuragi Minato’s clock to start ticking. I personally hope they just chill out, practice patience, and let them succeed one another, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some chaos surrounding one of them.

After them, I think Kazuki Sora will get the roles, but we’ll be talking Rukaze Hikaru/Takato Chiaki/some transfer when it comes to the actual future top.

Maybe I’ll reblog this in 3 years and see how much I embarrassed myself :)

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