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tomatograter · 3 years

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I was wondering about your take on Lesbian Jane?

I’ve been thinking about her a lot. Jane isn’t inherently a villainous character. She was raised to take on a position of power so it’s not surprising she seek that out in adulthood. But more the that, I think about how she was born in a time when certain things were expected of women. And how she may have internalized the idealism of husband and child due to that. In HS2 it’s clear she doesn’t have any true romantic feeling for Jake. And part of me wonders if she ever really did? Or if her infatuation with Jake English as a person was due to the fact that he was a “attractive boy”. After all, in HS2 she does marry him and they do have a child. Fitting what would have been seen as a perfect family construct in her original timeline. But she openly neglects both in favor of things she actually finds important. I know Gamzee exist. But I still wonder if her performative gender roles and inherent straightness isn’t all one in the same. I.e, BS.

I’ve always been partial to lesbian Jane. I don’t think ‘gamzee’ is much of an argument against it if you’ve ever been in contact with actual lesbians; there’s women who spend decades of their lives putting work into a straight marriage that doesn’t truly satisfy them beyond the barest needs for companionship, but it is what they’ve been taught to accept and what they believe Everyone Else Feels. The human experience doesn’t work in a tight binary where you automatically know *what* is wrong with you. Sometimes the problem makes you believe it is actually a feature, and that it’s normal, and that you should just muscle through it no matter how shit it feels like. And that’s kind of Jane’s whole thing- Jane has Girlboss disease.

Like, “yeah, this all sucks, and it makes me feel like garbage, but I have Numbers, and i have Prizes, and I have Accomplishments, and I am a Strong Independent Woman, and that’s what everyone tells me SHOULD make me happy, so I guess this is what happiness feels like.” And she just doesn’t know when to stop. She’ll dig her own grave with a golden shovel if you leave her to it.

I think It’s interesting to note a few things when breaching this subject:

1) Nanna Egbert chose to be a single mom. It’s not that she’s a widow, is that she never pursued marriage. You can make a lot of fail arguments on this one like ‘oh but in the lore nannasprite section we learn that jane and jake had a marriage prophecy or whatever blah blah’ but Beta Jake avoids her for eternity and while Beta Jane found someone to have a son with, she didn’t make it any more than that. Instead, she built a practical jokes and pranks shop and ran it for as long as she was alive, because again, she’s a girlboss. A lot of lipservice about traditionalism on this one and very little actual effort put into fulfilling it.

2) Jane doesn’t actually “love” Jake. She’s infatuated with what he represents, which is a recurring theme in Homestuck. Be it about Terezi and her relationship with Alternian Law, or Dave and his coolguy schtick, or Jake and his flimsy adventure hero persona- characters have “expectations” and these come with a set of rules that must be fulfilled. Sometimes, these self-imposed challenges are more harmful to the character than they’re ever going to beneficial for their growth. It’s effectively like shooting themselves on the foot.

This is actually an ongoing thread during act 6, but not one that I see brought up a lot. Jane projects what she believes are desirable qualities about a man onto Jake, what she’s been taught is the norm and dreamy- but she has negative interest in who he actually is. If anything, Jane finds him tacky, annoying, weird, and unbearably boring. But she thinks she can ‘fix’ him into a model companion if she tries hard enough.

Jane “reinterprets” a lot about Jake as a person to make him more digestible. She does this deliberately, to pad out how little interest he seems to have into the whole thing, and also to depersonalize him enough that she doesn’t have to feel bad about not... actually liking him.

(worthy of note, her “two favorite dames” are married as of catnapped in HS2)

They’re friends, i’m not disputing that, but friendship doesn’t necessarily translate into “compatibility” or “romance”.

“Jake” as a concept in Jane’s glossary is interchangeable with “7th grade 1st place trophy on the national Spelling Bee championship”, and that’s where most of our issues come from. He’s an achievement to be crossed off from a checklist, on the road of becoming an Independent, Successful Businesswoman. At best he’s a status marker, at worst he’s a commodity. Jane didn’t come up with this by herself, though, these ideas are closely linked to HIC’s influence on her life and Jake’s. (It’s not for nothing that Crockertier Jane is the one to be most outspoken about it, or that Epilogues Jane is characterized as a Crockercorp-monster. None of this exists in a vacuum.) These ideals are part of her familial upbringing and corporate brainwashing, the endgoal of them being simulating the Condesce as closely as possible.

When HIC goes undercover as a Human Woman Of Earth, the figure she picks to represent her is a housewife. The fictional Betty Crocker is the apex of Girlbossery- and how can you be a housewife, in 20′s America, without a husband?

Jane is discouraged from being an “individual” and told what she needs to be is a suitable heiress, and that’s her own tragedy. (She has failed to consider wives can have other wives.)

I have babbled about Jane before, particularly when it comes to her also being trapped by gendered expectations she doesn’t want & being gender-nonconforming (a butch, if you will) here.

#meta #jane crocker #jake english

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bookishable · 3 years

Text

some harry potter opinions

speaking as a ravenclaw, slytherin is my favourite house because they have some of the most human qualities of the four, as well as the best aesthetic

dumbledore is not a bad person

all his backstory is so interesting and i really like the way his character develops across the series as harry/the reader grows to see him differently. but people in the fandom will reduce him to a terrible old man without bothering to think about the complexities of his character

sirius black is slightly overrated

goblet of fire is the worst film and adaptation in the series

malfoy and hermione aren’t compatible even if you disregard how badly he treated her

prisoner of azkaban is overrated. the film is very well made but badly adapted

deamus > wolfstar

luna lovegood is the best female character

dumbledore and percy weasley should have been in slytherin

books ranked from best to worst: deathly hallows, half blood prince, goblet of fire, philosopher’s stone, order of the phoenix, chamber of secrets, prisoner of azkaban. this opinion may change

philosopher’s stone is the most underrated film and i personally think it’s one of the best in the series. it’s also the one i have almost no problems with

kindness isn’t one of the main traits of hufflepuff because it’s a practice, not a personality trait. anyone can choose to be kind. better positive hufflepuff qualities are patience, fairness, loyalty and friendship

a lot of people over criticise elements of the narrative to the point where it’s less about critical thinking and more a case of finding things to be annoyed about. i personally am not affected by a lot of the issues raised so i can’t speak on those, but i do think people should stop holding a book series written in the 90s to the standards of society and literature in 2021

ron weasley is my favourite character so i always love seeing posts defending him/criticising the way the films portrayed him. however, a lot of people are prone to forgetting his mistakes in order to build him up; to me the reason he’s such a wonderful character is because of his flaws so more people should remember them

it’s very in character for harry to name his child after snape, even if i don’t like it that much

i find it a lot more convincing for dumbledore to see his family alive and happy in the mirror of erised, rather than grindelwald. i think it fits in so much better with what he says in the cave in half blood prince

harry wouldn’t have been happy as a hogwarts professor. he needs to be where the action is, and he’s not an academic

luna and charlie are asexual and i do not take criticism

as a stickler for canon, it’s rare for me to find headcanons that i like because a lot of the time they seem to be very over the top ways to add diversity (which is valid because there isn’t much, i get that people want to add their own ideas). to me the best headcanons are the ones that support other areas of the narrative and sit comfortably within the story, as well as things that could have been true but didn’t need mentioning e.g. the headcanon that harry has adhd fits in with a lot of his behaviour and hobbies, but it’s also something that didn’t need to be explicitly written

i don’t care that dumbledore didn’t say it calmly

the weasleys all being in gryffindor is one of the main reasons the sorting system is flawed. although it makes sense narratively (they all have similar values and would probably choose to be in gryffindor) it would have been way cooler for them all to be in different houses

i personally think arthur and bill would be in ravenclaw, molly in hufflepuff, percy and the twins in slytherin, and charlie, ginny and ron in gryffindor. another concept™ would be fred and george in different houses because imagine the shit that would go down

shipping hermione and malfoy is basically the same as shipping her with crabbe or goyle but because they weren’t played by conventionally attractive actors those ships aren’t popular

also what is the obsession with shipping hermione with every single character

the best house pairing is slytherin and hufflepuff

the golden trio belong in gryffindor because they use the traits they have from the other houses in order to be brave (harry has a strong survival instinct, ron’s loyalty helps him defend others, and hermione uses her intelligence to find solutions to dangerous situations they find themselves in)

luna embodies ravenclaw house more than any other character

voldemort’s death in the film was actually quite cool but i still do not forgive them for undermining the entire point of his character by not having him die like a regular man

the golden trio all chose to be in gryffindor

i’m glad the deleted scene of draco malfoy throwing harry his wand wasn’t included. i think it’s out of character because malfoy wasn’t heroic

snape loved lily, but he did so selfishly because he only cared about being with her and not about the lives of the people she loved

i like remus and tonks together

hagrid is underrated

harry and hermione’s dance scene is nice but it would have been better placed in literally any other part of any of the films. i don’t think it has to be read with romantic undertones, however the fact that at the same time in the book both harry and hermione were feeling too depressed to even bother cheering each other up was a really important way of showing how ron was the glue that brought the trio together. also they cut out ron and hermione’s dance scene and still had time to do this

one of the most underrated quotes is “we’re all human, aren’t we? every human life is worth the same, and worth saving” as said by the elite sir kingsley shacklebolt sir

in comparison to the rest of deathly hallows the epilogue wasn’t very well written, but it was the right ending the book needed

lupin was a better professor than mcgonagall

draco malfoy actually did have a choice, even if it was a difficult one

#updated version of my old post with some new and better written points #hp #hp textpost #harry potter books #harry potter opinions #harry potter series

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thisweekingundamwing · 3 years

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This Week in Gundam Wing (January 10-16, 2021)

Hey everyone! Here’s your weekly roll-up. Be sure to give your creators some love!

--Mod LAM

Fanfiction

December on the Outside by @lemontrash for @2pcbart

Characters: Duo and Wufei

Pairings: N/A

Rating: Teen and Up

Tags / Warnings: friendship fic, Post-EW, Preventer AU, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Friendship, Local man attempts emotions for sake of best friend, Gift Giving

Summary: Christmas. Wufei understands the concept, in theory. It’s a Christian festival now mainly about shopping, with some guff about finding the true spirit of family and happiness tacked on. It’s something both sentimental and aspirational, which to Wufei summarises Duo in a nutshell. Duo is famously a people person in the exact way that Wufei is not, and Christmas is very much a people occasion. An occasion that Duo's not getting this year unless Wufei does something about it. Armed with 24 hours and an awful list of suggestions from the Internet, Wufei's on a mission to deliver a last-minute holiday.

Strangers (Ch.15 and 16/16) by @chronicwhimsy

Characters: pilots + OC Oliver McGann

Pairings: Duo x Wufei, background Quatre x Relena, background Heero x Trowa

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: long lost twins, pining, post-Endless Waltz

Summary: In which Duo and Wufei finally use their grown up words, and then do some grown up activities. Followed by an epilogue.

Without Prompting by @doctormegalomania for @antarespromise

Characters: Trowa, Quatre

Pairings: Trowa x Quatre

Rating: Teen and Up

Tags / Warnings: fluff, post-wars

Summary: It's been so long since we last saw each other. I wonder, do you think he remembers me?

Just a Thought by @expewrites for @lemontrash

Characters: Duo, Trowa, Wufei

Pairings: Duo x Wufei

Rating: Teen and Up

Tags / Warnings: friendship/love, partners to lovers, developing relationship, reunions, reconciliation, companionable snark, romantic gestures

Summary: They do say it's what counts.But Wufei would like to know just what Duo was thinking, meeting him at the spaceport with a big bouquet of flowers.

Champagne and Cider by @noirangetrois for @seitou

Characters: 5 pilots

Pairings: Heero x Trowa x Quatre

Rating: Teen and Up

Tags / Warnings: crossdressing, MPREG, nonbinary character, fluff, cuteness, happy beginning, happy ending, good natured teasing

Summary: Heero, Trowa and Quatre have a happy surprise for Duo and Wufei.

Winter Wonders by @lifeaftermeteor for @noirangetrois

Characters: Mariemaia, Une

Pairings: N/A

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: family fluff, holiday fluff, domestic fluff, post-canon, post-EW, ice skating, holidays, Christmas

Summary: Mariemaia and her guardian, Cordelia Une, enjoy a night out in Brussels’ Christmas Market.

Once Upon a Time in Mars by @tziganecaffiends and @zaganthi

Characters: Wufei, Treize, Sally, Kathy Po, Mariemaia, Une, Zechs

Pairings: Wufei x Treize

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: major character death, body swap, identity swap, PTSD, memory alteration, grumpy old men

Summary: He held the device in his hands, turning the helmet over and over again as he thought about it. He had been quite adept at ZERO even before they had modified it. It had never been difficult for him. He could choose so many ways to go, if only he wanted. He already knew what he was going to do, though.

Thin Ice by @seitou for @lokineko

Characters: 5 pilots + Relena, Hilde, Cathy, Iria, Sally

Pairings: N/A

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: trans character, trans Sally, unintentional deadnaming, mostly fluff, let them be children

Summary: Sally believes there are things everyone should experience at least once.

LAM!verse Snippet by @lifeaftermeteor

Characters: Trowa, Quatre

Pairings: Trowa x Quatre

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: slice of life, post-canon, post-Endless Waltz

Summary: This was not the first time Trowa’s next photography excursion had come up during their video calls, but it was the first time Quatre had seriously pressed him about financing the trip. In full this time.

Looking for Yourself Out There by @amberlyinviolet

Characters: Duo, Wufei

Pairings: Duo x Wufei

Rating: MATURE

Tags / Warnings: PTSD, guilt, self-recrimination

Summary: The story teases out of Duo in bits and pieces. He scatters it into conversation over coffee, sprinkles it like salt over dinner. Talks around it in the living room. It’s not that he doesn’t want to tell Wufei, it’s that he doesn’t know if Wufei wants to know.

Stone Soup by @2pcbart for @original-kakabel

Characters: 5 pilots

Pairings: N/A

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: fluff, softness, loosely Ep Zero compliant

Summary: The pilots are stuck spending the new year in a safe house post-Endless Waltz and decide to make it a special night for themselves by cooking some of their favorite dishes from their memories.

Fanart

Cheesy Mistletoe Shenanigans (13x6x11) by @trickzill-art for @simulacraryn

Heero and Duo celebrating the New Year by @manybeary for @duointherain

Hot Mess x 6 x 3 by @lokineko for @2pcbart

Trowa and Quatre by @antarespromise for @expewrites

Several by @idrawprettyboys

Duo with his hair down

Relena Darlian

Heero Yuy

Heero Yuy (tw: self-harm, cutting)

Duo Maxwell in a kilt

Duo Maxwell 90s fashion

Duo Maxwell (cw: non-explicit masturbation)

Heero and Zechs

Zechs and Noin

Heero, Trowa, and Apples by @seitou

Noin on Mars by @theboringbluecrayon

Trowa Barton by @sabisbastelkiste��

Quatre x Dorothy by @alphaikaros

Relena Darlian by @alphaikaros

Trowa and Quatre (WIP) by @keiko1183

Other Fanwork

Headcanons and Discussions

Duo is the only normal one by @cynthiaandsamus

GW Critical Analysis by Students, shared by @ikuzeminna

Other Fun Stuff

Duo and Relena’s first meeting by @incorrectgundamwingquotes

@incorrectgundamwingquotes continues to make us laugh (example)

Calendar Events

Cocktail Fridays with @gwcocktailfriday

Post your response on Fridays between 3-5PM EST

This week’s prompt is over here.

The Holiday Exchange just wrapped up yesterday with @thisweekingundamevents

I’ve tried to catch as many as possible that were posted here, but in case you (or I) missed one, @thisweekingundamevents will be posting a roll-up of all of htem on January 22, so stay tuned!

Month of Heero as advertised by @thisweekingundamevents is still going strong.

The current prompt (Training) wraps up on January 18. The next one (Technology) will run January 19-25.

Valentine’s Event by @thisweekingundamevents

No formal sign-ups, but be sure to check out the link to vote for this year’s prompts.

Lemony Shenanigans Event hosted by @gwlemonyshenanigans

Sign ups to participate in the NSFW event run January 6-March 1.

Posting will run May 1-31.

2021 Rhythm Generation Zine with @gundamzine

Theme will be announced on February 1, 2021

Mods are answering questions from the interest check so be sure to follow the zine account for info and updates!

#gundam wing

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lucy-ghoul · 3 years

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Mikasa Ackermann, Levi Ackermann, Amane Misa, Aeron Greyjoy for the charactet ask :3

SOMEONE HEARD MY PRAYERS AND NOW MY TIME HAS COME, tysm!!!!! <3

okay, let's start with levi (my beloved):

hogwarts house: gryffindor (maybe....?) | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

ugh, the hp sorting house system is way too reductive. he has qualities of gryffindor, slytherin, and hufflepuff - brave, astute, loyal to a fault, etc. so it's a hard choice. but if i really have to choose, i'd go for gryffindor. i know that his Bad Boy facade shouts slytherin, but while he has larger goals (killing all the titans, then saving the world etc.), he's got no actual ambition for himself. hufflepuff would also be a good option.

daemon (from the his dark materials series): (because i've just decided that's just way more accurate than the hp method) some kind of big feline. maybe a panther - a black panther would be the ideal - aloof, predatory, dangerous, fiercely independent.

best quality: besides his obvious strenghts as a leader and warrior, the way he cares for his comrades-in-arms. it's very hard to gain his trust and respect, but once you have it, it's forever. he's pragmatic and ruthless, yes, but he also has a huge capacity for compassion and friendship. not that he would be effusive about his affections, of course.

worst quality: none, he's absolutely perfect ❤ jklsdfhjk jokes aside, he really struggles to open up (a serious understatement), idt he ever talked about his traumatic past with anyone. i mean, maybe he mentioned it to hange and erwin (erwin knew him when he was still an undergound thug, so...), but... he's not great with feelings. despite his apathetic, intimidating mask, he feels and cares deeply, but he has a long history with losing the people he loves, so he tries to not personally care about his squadmates, which can be both a strenght and a weakness. of course, he spectacularly fails at this.

ship them with: well, it's not a secret that i'm a huge rivamika fan, this ship is almost literally consuming my waking thoughts lmao. imo they're perfectly compatible: very similar personalities (stoic, the strongest warriors, absolutely terrifying on the battlefield but with a soft underbelly), very similar pasts/experiences, so many parallels that it's actually ridiculous, etc. i love how they're both each other's equals and likeness (yes, i took it from jane eyre. no, i don't regret anything lmao). a lot of tropes i love, too: Terrible First Impression (the Pride and Prejudice vibes are so strong with these two, you have no idea), Kindred Spirits/Mirror Images, Veteran/Young Prodigy, The Last of Their Kind, even Height Difference lmao. i could write a whole rivamika manifesto, but this is already too long. (maybe for some other time ��) i would've loved for their dynamic to be more explored in canon but alas, isayama clearly didn't give a shit about the ackerman legacy, he just used it as a plot shortcut to give them conveniently unique powers, since they never really talked about it 🙄 (and before some troll comes into my askbox shouting "you iNcEsT fReAk!!!!1!!", they're only very distantly related. we know shit about the ackermans but we know for sure that they've got at least several generations between them. biologically their shared DNA is 0%, obviously they don't see each other as family, all the eldians have a dead ass common ancestor from 2000 years ago so they're all basically ⁓related anyway. if you really wanna scream about i.ncest, go watch got/dark/the borgias and shut the fuck up please. or alternatively go outside and touch some grass) sorry for the rant, uh. anyway, i can also see levi/erwin. idk if i'd ever care enough to read a fic about them (i'm usually a huge multishipper, but for some weird reason not when it comes to rivamika? same with braime and kastle tbh), but still, i can see it.

brotp them with: hange and erwin, obv. veteran trio >>> ema trio, sorry not sorry (at least h. and e. died before yams had the chance to ruin their character arcs)

needs to stay away from: ...uh, filth, i guess? lmao

misc. thoughts: besides the stupid teenage fangirl crush i have on him, i'm genuinely fascinated by the man himself. he's a huge mess of a contradictions, and yet somehow it works: he's violent and brash and kind of an asshole, but also has a strong moral code and integrity; he's obv very skilled at all the killing/torturing stuff and yet he has a huge respect for life; he's got a potty mouth to say the least, and yet some very aristocratic manners/tastes (the way he sits, his preference for tea and usually refined clothes); he comes from what's supposed to be an illustrous bloodline, he's methodical and very precise, and yet he was born and raised in the underground, he's been used to filth and blood and poverty since he was a child, kenny of all people was his father figure, and probably has known no other life than a perennial survival mode existence. he's "humanity's strongest soldier", but while well-built he's also small, the david to the titans' goliah, and probably not what people would assume a born warrior looks like. he's also one of the few characters who stayed true to himself and his original characterization until the end, bless you smol king ❤

(okay, this is getting long!)

mikasa:

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

this is actually easy: mikasa belongs to hufflepuff and no, i won't take criticism (just joking lol). enough with this "hufflepuffs are fluffy puppies/Cinnamon Rolls <3" thing: mikasa values loyalty and duty more than anything else. she's also hardworking... and fierce, strong, lethal. yes, hufflepuff and lethal are not mutually exclusive concepts.

daemon: (finally the better option) a she-wolf, fiercely protective of her pack.

best quality: loyal, brave, incredibly strong (alongside her more fragile qualities). practical and level-headed on the battlefield, at least when eren is not included in the picture.

worst quality: struggles to let go of the past (understandable, considering her trauma). tunnel-vision when it comes to eren, obv. extreme levels of delusions ("if only i spoke openly about my romantic feelings for him - as if i didn't made them abundantly clear in ⁓6 years - he wouldn't kill 80% of humanity :(((" lmao okay. just. okay), but that's more on the writing. she's sadly more static than any other main character throughtout the whole series.

ship them with: see above :) but recently i've also started to be intrigued by mikasa/annie and mikasa/sasha. also, i'm sympathetic to jeankasa fans, though i don't actually care for the ship.

brotp them with: EMA trio, especially armin+mikasa. their friendship is so beautiful and special. also sasha.

needs to stay away from: ...... eren, at least romantically. again, that's more on the writing than anything else, but e.remika unfortunately encompasses many tropes i loathe with all the strength of my old shriveled heart: childhood friends-to lovers where the (male) childhood friend doesn't acknolewdge/is completely indifferent to the other (female) friend's romantic feelings, she hopelessly pines for him for years without anything more than a cold shoulder... until in the last chapter it's revealed that he loved her all along and doesn't "want other men to have her!!! :((" (then why did you have no reaction whatsoever to jean's years-long crush on her while she was jealous of any vaguely female-shaped human being you were friendly to, including hange? are you that dumb, man?); the female character's development and entire arc 100% revolves around the male protagonist - she has no goals, no dreams of her own except staying with him forever and ever; the romance is based on an idealized childhood dream, therefore reaffirming those childish illusions would make the character regress, not actually grow up (and nope, epilogue!jk doesn’t count; that also lacks build-up - i would’ve said the same about rm as well, so it’s not about shipping, guys, it really isn’t - and mikasa needed an inner change; getting married to another man but still praying to eren’s shrine is not substitute to actual development lol). post-time skip she's never really frustrated/angry with him, they never get a confrontation about him becoming a, y'know, mass-murderer of gigantic (pun intended) proportions; she puts him on a pedestal, and never stops idealizing him/never sees him for what he actually is (the narrative framing him as some kind of tragic martyr/saint eren from paradis with zero agency and basically... no clear motivation for the abovementioned mass murder, and not the actual complex tragic anti-hero/villain motivated by revenge and righteous fury he deserved to be, does not help). it lacks a good or even decent build-up - it's basically all tell and not show. now, if they'd actually been childhood friends to enemies to lovers/mutually co-dependent... it could have been interesting. sadly, it's not my cup of tea. of course this is just my personal preference, no hard feelings to the shippers.

misc. thoughts: enormous potential. she's been my fav female character since s1 - and ah, i miss s1!mikasa, when she had actually other stuff to do besides mothering eren. i love that she's the strongest warrior (second only to levi, obv), that her skills are never called into questions despite her gender, i love how she stands up for herself and the people she loves, that she may seem cold and stoic and yet has a such a huge heart, that she's not perfect but also sometimes awe-inspiring. sadly, she never really gets out of eren's shadow; what she lacks is an arc focused on herself. that's why imo getting deeper into the ackerman lore would've helped (also, you cannot make the main female character and the most popular male character descend from the same Unique Bloodline or whatever, and never really make them acknowledge it out loud; as a writer, you just can't lol). my spite is so strong that i'm currently writing a ridiculously pretentious fic that's 70% development for her character, to give her a voice, and 30% ackerthirsting. (yes, that's the fic i'm always vagueblogging about lmao, rip @ my brain). if any other rivamika fan is interested… mind you, it’s in italian tho, and idt i have the skills to translate into english.

misa:

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

daemon: mmh, maybe some kind of butterfly? beautiful, colorful, and short-lived.

best quality: glorious fashion sense, more inventive and ingenious than fans actually give her credit for.

worst quality: shallow, impulsive, and obv her dependence on/obsession with light (which stems from trauma btw, but still… the very opposite of a relationship between equals).

ship them with: rem, kinda (monster/human ftw!). also weirdly enough mogi, a little bit? she deserves someone who actually respects her… though she’s far from being a perfect angel. she may actually be crazier than light on some aspects. but in this house we stan evil ladies anyway, so i have no problem with that <3

brotp them with: uh, idk, maybe matsuda?

needs to stay away from: obv light. also takada.

misc. thoughts: a tragic victim of sexist writing. she may be… unhinged to say the least, but she didn’t deserve the abuse she got from light (and from the fans). the female characters’ writing in dn is so bad that idk if it’s on purpose, to kinda mirror the reality of women in a patriarchal society (dependent on men, housewives whose life entirely revolves around their husband/boyfriend etc.), or just casual misogyny lol. it’s even more baffling since we don’t know the author’s gender (they may be a man, a woman, nb, anything really). i tend for the latter option tho.

aegon greyjoy (now, i wasn’t expecting him lol):

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

i’m so sorry, i haven’t the slightest idea lmao. maybe gryffindor? mind you, it’s been a long time since i’ve re-read the books, so i don’t have many thoughts about him.

daemon: maybe it’s cliché, but some kind of fish/squid lmao

best quality: ugh, i really can’t remember much from his chapters :(( he’s not a coward, i guess? (lame answer, sorry!)

worst quality: definitely his religious fanaticism.

ship them with: no one.

brotp them with: uh… his family, ig? except euron.

needs to stay away from: obv euron. brr ://

misc. thoughts: i genuinely like the greyjoys chapters, though i vastly prefer the martells (with the exception of theon and asha, bcs i love them). yes, they’re deranged. yes, victarion is… well, victarion lol. but the drowned god religion is actually interesting, grrm knows how to write trauma - every time aeron mentions euron and that freaking door i’m like… :// - and the tragedy of it all… just great writing all around.

okay, that’s the end lmao. thank you so much, love!!! ❤❤

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #asks #cafeleningrad #if *anyone* dares to start stupid wank on my super niche blog they'll be blocked on sight i'm warning you #snk salt

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mattbrothersscriptwriter · 4 years

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My Top 20 Films of 2019 - Part Two

I don’t think I’ve had a year where my top ten jostled and shifted as much as this one did - these really are the best of the best and my personal favourites of 2019.

10. Toy Story 4

I think we can all agree that Toy Story 3 was a pretty much perfect conclusion to a perfect trilogy right? About as close as is likely to get, I’m sure. I shared the same trepidation when part four was announced, especially after some underwhelming sequels like Finding Dory and Cars 3 (though I do have a lot of time for Monsters University and Incredibles 2). So maybe it’s because the odds were so stacked against this being good but I thought it was wonderful. A truly existential nightmare of an epilogue that does away with Andy (and mostly kids altogether) to focus on the dreams and desires of the toys themselves - separate from their ‘duties’ as playthings to biological Gods. What is their purpose in life without an owner? Can they be their own person and carve their own path? In the case of breakout new character Forky (Tony Hale), what IS life? Big big questions for a cash grab kids films huh?

The animation is somehow yet another huge leap forward (that opening rainstorm!), Bo Peep’s return is excellently pitched and the series tradition of being unnervingly horrifying is back as well thanks to those creepy ventriloquist dolls! Keanu Reeves continues his ‘Keanuassaince‘ as the hilarious Duke Caboom and this time, hopefully, the ending at least feels finite. This series means so much to me: I think the first movie is possibly the tightest, most perfect script ever written, the third is one of my favourites of the decade and growing up with the franchise (I was 9 when the first came out, 13 for part two, 24 for part three and now 32 for this one), these characters are like old friends so of course it was great to see them again. All this film had to do was be good enough to justify its existence and while there are certainly those out there that don’t believe this one managed it, I think the fact that it went as far as it did showed that Pixar are still capable of pushing boundaries and exploring infinity and beyond when they really put their minds to it.

9. The Nightingale

Hoo boy. Already controversial with talk of mass walkouts (I witnessed a few when this screened at Sundance London), it’s not hard to see why but easy to understand. Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) is a truly fearless filmmaker following up her acclaimed suburban horror movie come grief allegory with a period revenge tale set in the Tasmanian wilderness during British colonial rule in the early 1800s. It’s rare to see the British depicted with the monstrous brutality for which they were known in the distant colonies and this unflinching drama sorely needed an Australian voice behind the camera to do it justice.

The film is front loaded with some genuinely upsetting, nasty scenes of cruel violence but its uncensored brutality and the almost casual nature of its depiction is entirely the point - this was normalised behaviour over there and by treating it so matter of factly, it doesn’t slip into gratuitous ‘movie violence’. It is what it is. And what it is is hard to watch. If anything, as Kent has often stated, it’s still toned down from the actual atrocities that occurred so it’s a delicate balance that I think Kent more than understands. Quoting from an excellent Vanity Fair interview she did about how she directs, Kent said “I think audiences have become very anaesthetised to violence on screen and it’s something I find disturbing... People say ‘these scenes are so shocking and disturbing’. Of course they are. We need to feel that. When we become so removed from violence on screen, this is a very irresponsible thing. So I wanted to put us right within the frame with that person experiencing the loss of everything they hold dear”.

Aisling Franciosi is next level here as a woman who has her whole life torn from her, leaving her as nothing but a raging husk out for vengeance. It would be so easy to fall into odd couple tropes once she teams up with reluctant native tracker Billy (an equally impressive newcomer, Baykali Ganambarr) but the film continues to stay true to the harsh racism of the era, unafraid to depict our heroine - our point of sympathy - as horrendously racist towards her own ally. Their partnership is not easily solidified but that makes it all the stronger when they star to trust each other. Sam Claflin is also career best here, weaponizing his usual charm into dangerous menace and even after cementing himself as the year’s most evil villain, he can still draw out the humanity in such a broken and corrupt man.

Gorgeously shot in the Academy ratio, the forest landscape here is oppressive and claustrophobic. Kent also steps back into her horror roots with some mesmerising, skin crawling dream scenes that amplify the woozy nightmarish tone and overbearing sense of dread. Once seen, never forgotten, this is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea (and that’s fine) but when cinema can affect you on such a visceral level and be this powerful, reflective and honest about our own past, it’s hard to ignore. Stunning.

8. The Irishman

Aka Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus, I did manage to see this one in a cinema before the Netflix drop and absolutely loved it. I’ve watched 85 minute long movies that felt longer than this - Marty’s mastery of pace, energy and knowing when to let things play out in agonising detail is second to none. This epic tale of the life of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) really is the cinematic equivalent of having your cake and eating it too, allowing Scorsese to run through a greatest hits victory lap of mobster set pieces, alpha male arguments, a decades spanning life story and one (last?) truly great Joe Pesci performance before simply letting the story... continue... to a natural, depressing and tragic ending, reflecting the emptiness of a life built on violence and crime.

For a film this long, it’s impressive how much the smallest details make the biggest impacts. A stammering phone call from a man emotionally incapable of offering any sort of condolence. The cold refusal of forgiveness from a once loving daughter. A simple mirroring of a bowl of cereal or a door left slightly ajar. These are the parts of life that haunt us all and it’s what we notice the most in a deliberately lengthy biopic that shows how much these things matter when everything else is said and done. The violence explodes in sudden, sharp bursts, often capping off unbearably tense sequences filled with the everyday (a car ride, a conversation about fish, ice cream...) and this contrast between the whizz bang of classic Scorsese and the contemplative nature of Silence era Scorsese is what makes this film feel like such an accomplishment. De Niro is FINALLY back but it’s the memorably against type role for Pesci and an invigorated Al Pacino who steals this one, along with a roll call of fantastic cameos, with perhaps the most screentime given to the wonderfully petty Stephen Graham as Tony Pro, not to mention Anna Paquin’s near silent performance which says more than possibly anyone else.

Yes, the CG de-aging is misguided at best, distracting at worst (I never really knew how old anyone was meant to be at any given time... which is kinda a problem) but like how you get used to it really quickly when it’s used well, here I kinda got past it being bad in an equally fast amount of time and just went with it. Would it have been a different beast had they cast younger actors to play them in the past? Undoubtedly. But if this gives us over three hours of Hollywood’s finest giving it their all for the last real time together, then that’s a compromise I can live with.

7. The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Wow. I was in love with this film from the moving first trailer but then the film itself surpassed all expectations. This is a true indie film success story, with lead actor Jimmie Fails developing the idea with director Joe Talbot for years before Kickstarting a proof of concept and eventually getting into Sundance with short film American Paradise, which led to the backing of this debut feature through Plan B and A24. The deeply personal and poetic drama follows a fictionalised version of Jimmie, trying to buy back an old Victorian town house he claims was built by his grandfather, in an act of rebellion against the increasingly gentrified San Francisco that both he and director Talbot call home.

The film is many things - a story of male friendship, of solidarity within our community, of how our cities can change right from underneath us - it moves to the beat of it’s own drum, with painterly cinematography full of gorgeous autumnal colours and my favourite score of the year from Emile Mosseri. The performances, mostly by newcomers or locals outside of brilliant turns from Jonathan Majors, Danny Glover and Thora Birch, are wonderful and the whole thing is such a beautiful love letter to the city that it makes you ache for a strong sense of place in your own home, even if your relationship with it is fractured or strained. As Jimmie says, “you’re not allowed to hate it unless you love it”.

For me, last year’s Blindspotting (my favourite film of the year) tackled gentrification within California more succinctly but this much more lyrical piece of work ebbs and flows through a number of themes like identity, family, memory and time. It’s a big film living inside a small, personal one and it is not to be overlooked.

6. Little Women

I had neither read the book nor seen any prior adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel so to me, this is by default the definitive telling of this story. If from what I hear, the non linear structure is Greta Gerwig’s addition, then it’s a total slam dunk. It works so well in breaking up the narrative and by jumping from past to present, her screenplay highlights certain moments and decisions with a palpable sense of irony, emotional weight or knowing wink. Getting to see a statement made with sincere conviction and then paid off within seconds, can be both a joy and a surefire recipe for tears. Whether it’s the devastating contrast between scenes centred around Beth’s illness or the juxtaposition of character’s attitudes to one another, it’s a massive triumph. Watching Amy angrily tell Laurie how she’s been in love with him all her life and then cutting back to her childishly making a plaster cast of her foot for him (’to remind him how small her feet are’) is so funny.

Gerwig and her impeccable cast bring an electric energy to the period setting, capturing the big, messy realities of family life with a mix of overwhelming cross-chatter and the smallest of intimate gestures. It’s a testament to the film that every sister feels fully serviced and represented, from Beth’s quiet strength to Amy’s unforgivable sibling rivalry. Chris Cooper’s turn as a stoic man suffering almost imperceptible grief is a personal heartbreaking favourite.

The book’s (I’m assuming) most sweeping romantic statements are wonderfully delivered, full of urgent passion and relatable heartache, from Marmie’s (Laura Dern) “I’m angry nearly every day of my life” moment to Jo’s (Saoirse Ronan) painful defiance of feminine attributes not being enough to cure her loneliness. The sheer amount of heart and warmth in this is just remarkable and I can easily see it being a film I return to again and again.

5. Booksmart

2019 has been a banner year for female directors, making their exclusion from some of the early awards conversations all the more damning. From this list alone, we have Lulu Wang, Jennifer Kent and Greta Gerwig. Not to mention Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers), Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Jocelyn DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe (Greener Grass), Sophie Hyde (Animals) and Rose Glass (Saint Maud - watch out for THIS one in 2020, it’s brilliant). Perhaps the most natural transition from in front of to behind the camera has been made by Olivia Wilde, who has created a borderline perfect teen comedy that can make you laugh till you cry, cry till you laugh and everything in-between.

Subverting the (usually male focused) ‘one last party before college’ tropes that fuel the likes of Superbad and it’s many inferior imitators, Booksmart follows two overachievers who, rather than go on a coming of age journey to get some booze or get laid, simply want to indulge in an insane night of teenage freedom after realising that all of the ‘cool kids’ who they assumed were dropouts, also managed to get a place in all of the big universities. It’s a subtly clever remix of an old favourite from the get go but the committed performances from Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein put you firmly in their shoes for the whole ride.

It’s a genuine blast, with big laughs and a bigger heart, portraying a supportive female friendship that doesn’t rely on hokey contrivances to tear them apart, meaning that when certain repressed feelings do come to the surface, the fallout is heartbreaking. As I stated in a twitter rave after first seeing it back in May, every single character, no matter how much they might appear to be simply representing a stock role or genre trope, gets their moment to be humanised. This is an impeccably cast ensemble of young unknowns who constantly surprise and the script is a marvel - a watertight structure without a beat out of place, callbacks and payoffs to throwaway gags circle back to be hugely important and most of all, the approach taken to sexuality and representation feels so natural. I really think it is destined to be looked back on and represent 2019 the way Heathers does ‘88, Clueless ‘95 or Easy A 2010. A new high benchmark for crowd pleasing, indie comedy - teen or otherwise.

4. Ad Astra

Brad Pitt is one of my favourite actors and one who, despite still being a huge A-lister even after 30 years in the game, never seems to get enough credit for the choices he makes, the movies he stars in and also the range of stories he helps produce through his company, Plan B. 2019 was something of a comeback year for Pitt as an actor with the insanely measured and controlled lead performance seen here in Ad Astra and the more charismatic and chaotic supporting role in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.

I love space movies, especially those that are more about broken people blasting themselves into the unknown to search for answers within themselves... which manages to sum up a lot of recent output in this weirdly specific sub-genre. First Man was a devastating look at grief characterised by a man who would rather go to a desolate rock than have to confront what he lost, all while being packaged as a heroic biopic with a stunning score. Gravity and The Martian both find their protagonists forced to rely on their own cunning and ingenuity to survive and Interstellar looked at the lengths we go to for those we love left behind. Smaller, arty character studies like High Life or Moon are also astounding. All of this is to say that Ad Astra takes these concepts and runs with them, challenging Pitt to cross the solar system to talk some sense into his long thought dead father (Tommy Lee Jones). But within all the ‘sad dad’ stuff, there’s another film in here just daring you to try and second guess it - one that kicks things off with a terrifying free fall from space, gives us a Mad Max style buggy chase on the moon and sidesteps into horror for one particular set-piece involving a rabid baboon in zero G! It manages to feel so completely nuts, so episodic in structure, that I understand why a lot of people were turned off - feeling that the overall film was too scattershot to land the drama or too pondering to have any fun with. I get the criticisms but for me, both elements worked in tandem, propelling Pitt on this (assumed) one way journey at a crazy pace whilst sitting back and languishing in the ‘bigger themes’ more associated with a Malik or Kubrick film. Something that Pitt can sell me on in his sleep by this point.

I loved the visuals from cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar), loved the imagination and flair of the script from director James Gray and Ethan Gross and loved the score by Max Richter (with Lorne Balfe and Nils Frahm) but most of all, loved Pitt, proving that sometimes a lot less, is a lot more. The sting of hearing the one thing he surely knew (but hoped he wouldn’t) be destined to hear from his absent father, acted almost entirely in his eyes during a third act confrontation, summed up the movie’s brilliance for me - so much so that I can forgive some of the more outlandish ‘Mr Hyde’ moments of this thing’s alter ego... like, say, riding a piece of damaged hull like a surfboard through a meteor debris field!

3. Avengers: Endgame

It’s no secret that I think Marvel, the MCU in particular, have been going from strength to strength in recent years, slowly but surely taking bigger risks with filmmakers (the bonkers Taika Waititi, the indie darlings of Ryan Coogler, Cate Shortland and Chloe Zhao) whilst also carefully crafting an entertaining, interconnected universe of characters and stories. But what is the point of building up any movie ‘universe’ if you’re not going to pay it off and Endgame is perhaps the strongest conclusion to eleven years of movie sequels that fans could have possibly hoped for.

Going into this thing, the hype was off the charts (and for good reason, with it now being the highest grossing film of all time) but I remember souring on the first entry of this two-parter, Infinity War, during the time between initial release and Endgame’s premiere. That film had a game-changing climax, killing off half the heroes (and indeed the universe’s population) and letting the credits role on the villain having achieved his ultimate goal. It was daring, especially for a mammoth summer blockbuster but obviously, we all knew the deaths would never be permanent, especially with so many already-announced sequels for now ‘dusted’ characters. However, it wasn’t just the feeling that everything would inevitably be alright in the end. For me, the characters themselves felt hugely under-serviced, with arguably the franchise’s main goody two shoes Captain America being little more than a beardy bloke who showed up to fight a little bit. Basically what I’m getting at is that I felt Endgame, perhaps emboldened by the giant runtime, managed to not only address these character slights but ALSO managed to deliver the most action packed, comic booky, ‘bashing your toys together’ final fight as well.

It’s a film of three parts, each pretty much broken up into one hour sections. There’s the genuinely new and interesting initial section following our heroes dealing with the fact that they lost... and it stuck. Thor angrily kills Thanos within the first fifteen minutes but it’s a meaningless action by this point - empty revenge. Cutting to five years later, we get to see how defeat has affected them, for better or worse, trying to come to terms with grief and acceptance. Cap tries to help the everyman, Black Widow is out leading an intergalactic mop up squad and Thor is wallowing in a depressive black hole. It’s a shocking and vibrantly compelling deconstruction of the whole superhero thing and it gives the actors some real meat to chew on, especially Robert Downy Jr here who goes from being utterly broken to fighting within himself to do the right thing despite now having a daughter he doesn’t want to lose too. Part two is the trip down memory lane, fan service-y time heist which is possibly the most fun section of any of these movies, paying tribute to the franchise’s past whilst teetering on a knife’s edge trying to pull off a genuine ‘mission impossible’. And then it explodes into the extended finale which pays everyone off, demonstrates some brilliantly imaginative action and sticks the landing better than it had any right to. In a year which saw the ending of a handful of massive geek properties, from Game of Thrones to Star Wars, it’s a miracle even one of them got it right at all. That Endgame managed to get it SO right is an extraordinary accomplishment and if anything, I think Marvel may have shot themselves in the foot as it’s hard to imagine anything they can give us in the future having the intense emotional weight and momentum of this huge finale.

2. Knives Out

Rian Johnson has been having a ball leaping into genre sandpits and stirring shit up, from his teen spin on noir in Brick to his quirky con man caper with The Brothers Bloom, his time travel thriller Looper and even his approach to the Star Wars mythos in The Last Jedi. Turning his attention to the relatively dead ‘whodunnit’ genre, Knives Out is a perfect example of how to celebrate everything that excites you about a genre whilst weaponizing it’s tropes against your audience’s baggage and preconceptions.

An impeccable cast have the time of their lives here, revelling in playing self obsessed narcissists who scramble to punt the blame around when the family’s patriarch, a successful crime novelist (Christopher Plummer), winds up dead. Of course there’s something fishy going on so Daniel Craig’s brilliantly dry southern detective Benoit Blanc is called in to investigate.There are plenty of standouts here, from Don Johnson’s ignorant alpha wannabe Richard to Michael Shannon’s ferocious eldest son Walt to Chris Evan’s sweater wearing jock Ransom, full of unchecked, white privilege swagger. But the surprise was the wholly sympathetic, meek, vomit prone Marta, played brilliantly by Ana de Armas, cast against her usual type of sultry bombshell (Knock Knock, Blade Runner 2049), to spearhead the biggest shake up of the genre conventions. To go into more detail would begin to tread into spoiler territory but by flipping the audience’s engagement with the detective, we’re suddenly on the receiving end of the scrutiny and the tension derived from this switcheroo is genius and opens up the second act of the story immensely.

The whole thing is so lovingly crafted and the script is one of the tightest I’ve seen in years. The amount of setup and payoff here is staggering and never not hugely satisfying, especially as it heads into it’s final stretch. It really gives you some hope that you could have such a dense, plotty, character driven idea for a story and that it could survive the transition from page to screen intact and for the finished product to work as well as it does. I really hope Johnson returns to tell another Benoit Blanc mystery and judging by the roaring box office success (currently over $200 million worldwide for a non IP original), I certainly believe he will.

1. Eighth Grade

My film of the year is another example of the power of cinema to put us in other people’s shoes and to discover the traits, fears, joys and insecurities that we all share irregardless. It may shock you to learn this but I have never been a 13 year old teenage girl trying to get by in the modern world of social media peer pressure and ‘influencer’ culture whilst crippled with personal anxiety. My school days almost literally could not have looked more different than this (less Instagram, more POGs) and yet, this is a film about struggling with oneself, with loneliness, with wanting more but not knowing how to get it without changing yourself and the careless way we treat those with our best interests at heart in our selfish attempt to impress peers and fit in. That is understandable. That is universal. And as I’m sure I’ve said a bunch of times in this list, movies that present the most specific worldview whilst tapping into universal themes are the ones that inevitably resonate the most.

Youtuber and comedian Bo Burnham has crafted an impeccable debut feature, somehow portraying a generation of teens at least a couple of generations below his own, with such laser focused insight and intimate detail. It’s no accident that this film has often been called a sort of social-horror, with cringe levels off the charts and recognisable trappings of anxiety and depression in every frame. The film’s style services this feeling at every turn, from it’s long takes and nauseous handheld camerawork to the sensory overload in it’s score (take a bow Anna Meredith) and the naturalistic performances from all involved. Burnham struck gold when he found Elsie Fisher, delivering the most painful and effortlessly real portrayal of a tweenager in crisis as Kayla. The way she glances around skittishly, the way she is completely lost in her phone, the way she talks, even the way she breathes all feeds into the illusion - the film is oftentimes less a studio style teen comedy and more a fly on the wall documentary.

This is a film that could have coasted on being a distant, social media based cousin to more standard fare like Sex Drive or Superbad or even Easy A but it goes much deeper, unafraid to let you lower your guard and suddenly hit you with the most terrifying scene of casually attempted sexual aggression or let you watch this pure, kindhearted girl falter and question herself in ways she shouldn’t even have to worry about. And at it’s core, there is another beautiful father/daughter relationship, with Josh Hamilton stuck on the outside looking in, desperate to help Kayla with every fibre of his being but knowing there are certain things she has to figure out for herself. It absolutely had me and their scene around a backyard campfire is one of the year’s most touching.

This is a truly remarkable film that I think everyone should seek out but I’m especially excited for all the actual teenage girls who will get to watch this and feel seen. This isn’t about the popular kid, it isn’t about the dork who hangs out with his or her own band of misfits. This is about the true loner, that person trying everything to get noticed and still ending up invisible, that person trying to connect through the most disconnected means there is - the internet - and everything that comes with it. Learning that the version of yourself you ‘portray’ on a Youtube channel may act like they have all the answers but if you’re kidding yourself then how do you grow?

When I saw this in the cinema, I watched a mother take her seat with her two daughters, aged probably at around nine and twelve. Possibly a touch young for this, I thought, and I admit I cringed a bit on their behalf during some very adult trailers but in the end, I’m glad their mum decided they were mature enough to see this because a) they had a total blast and b) life simply IS R rated for the most part, especially during our school years, and those girls being able to see someone like Kayla have her story told on the big screen felt like a huge win. I honestly can’t wait to see what Burnham or Fisher decide to do next. 2019 has absolutely been their year... and it’s been a hell of a year.

#top 20 #films of the year #films of 2019 #10-1 #toy story 4 #the nightingale #the irishman #the last black man in san francisco #little women #booksmart #ad astra #avengers endgame #knives out #eighth grade

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aahhhhhhauniverse · 4 years

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hooooooo boy this is scary

this is probably my first time posting but i think that it’s time to do so, i have a proper account wow!

this is a small thing i did a few months ago based on a prompt that Death has a crush on Life.

The first time Death sees life, it is not the ’person’, it is a small flower at the edge of a clearing. Death has just crawled out of the ground, and it is the first thing it sees. It is beautiful, pulsating with a glowing blue aura. Death goes to touch it, and for a moment, It glows brighter. Death is glad to see what it does to this little flower. Soon after it dies. Death is distraught, but accepts it, and wonders if there is another like it. So it starts to wander around. Soon, it reaches a small clearing, and in it, there is another one of those blue lights. Death is instantly drawn to it, and goes to touch it. It soon materialises into a being, another one just like it.

“Hello. I seem to be Life. And you are?”

“Death. I am Death.”

It is a language that no one will ever understand, for this was when the language of love was born. The first time death and life meet, a love is born. They know that whatever happens, they will always work together, always know each other.

Soon after, plants emerge. giant sequoias dwarf any other living thing, but still Life finds them all beautiful. All the tiny blades of grass, all the delicate petals, all the shades of leaf. Death is close behind, cradling the wilting flowers and treading on the dead grass. It accepts that it will always follow Life, and it will, gladly. For Death has never met anything like Life.

There is simply nothing like it.

Animals come and go. Life breathes energy and being into small ideas that soon dominate the world. Death touches their skulls and brings them to rest. Dinosaurs rise and fall. Yet the plants still grow and the trees get bigger and Life carries on, getting stronger with each living thing that it creates.

One day, Life was relaxing in a meadow, when it feels the presence of another being, but not one created by it.

“Hello Death. We have not spoken in a while. How are you?”

“Cleaning up after you.” It jokes. “I have been putting things to rest. Just like you make things live, I help them die. It is all a cycle. But it would help if you could slow down.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” Life replied sheepishly. “But I was wondering, how about we talk. Find out about one another. Don’t you ever wonder what we think of each other?”

Death sighed and stepped out of the shadows.

“Very well. Let's talk.”

And so they did. For aeons. And more of that beautiful melody, the music of love, came pouring out of that clearing. It went into every heart, and a select group of animals got a little bit more, and soon they started to evolve. And all the while Death was slowly slipping into the sway of the music.

“Death, look! Those are new.”

On the palm of Life’s hand, there now crept what seemed to be monkeys, but they had much less fur and were standing on 2 legs.

“Homosapiens and homoneanderthals. One of these will live, whereas the other will burn out and cease to exist.”

“Do you want to hold one?” Life asked, fully aware of the consequences. So Death picked up one of each, and marveled at how they stumbled and groped around. The neanderthal started to slow down, whereas the homosapien kept on going. Death had decided which one it would take for its own.

“You may have the homosapiens. They are stronger and will blossom with you. I can take care of the neanderthals.”

And flourish they did. Death and Life could no longer stay in their true forms, as the humans were slowly learning and developing their own ideas. Their roles changed. Life still breathed energy into all the beings, and Death still touched every decaying skull. However, they were only aids now, when before they were creators. Yet they were both ok with that. They knew that this era of humans would soon be forgotten. After all, Life and Death will always exist, long after humans are gone.

Skip forward to 2018. Death has taken the form of a university student. Death chose to study art, for it was something it never understood. The concept of capturing life in a single image was fascinating to it. It also enjoyed looking back on the past, and enjoyed listening to stories from those who were closer to it than Life.

Life chose Biology. It enjoys looking at the fundamental aspects of what humans call life. It is fascinated at what humans are able to do with life, and wants to help. It likes to keep itself healthy, as an inspiration to humans. Life has many friends, and it likes integrating into human life.

Death, on the other hand, feels as if it is not wanted. In most parts of the world, death is avoided and shunned. This is reflected in it's friendship. However, in a few places, death is celebrated and not seen as a negative thing. Therefore Death has a few friends and enjoys their company.

Ever since the talk with Life some millenia ago, Death has been hearing a soothing melody that repeats itself over and over again, and crescendos whenever Death and Life are near each other. They are mutually friends, as they coincidentally reside in the same city. Seems like fate. (Or carefully planned plot? Who knows.)

One day, during class, Death is painting. It's mindless painting, but when it is finished, it is an exact replica of when it first saw Life. A blue, glowing figure in the middle of a lush, untrodden clearing. Life seemed to be playing with small flying things, like the modern butterflies, but brighter and with bigger wings. Death’s art instructor came round and marvelled at the work.

‘This is truly an amazing capture of life. You should be proud of that. You know what? I’ll let you take it home, if you like.’

Death was ecstatic at this opportunity. And so it did. It walked all the way home, instead of the usual modes of transport. It then went to the store and bought nails for paintings. By the end of the day, the painting had made a home on the far wall, secluded enough that you could only see it if you were snooping, but public enough to be noticed daily by Death.

For the first time in it's existence, Death had created something that would last.

A few weeks later, Life was wandering the halls afterschool of this art uni that it knew Death was ‘studying’ at. It is to be noted that although Life was not consciously seeking out Death, it was already forming an excuse for when they inevitably bumped into each other in the hallway.

And sure enough, a few minutes later, it walked into a seemingly empty classroom and collided head on with Death.

‘Oh, hey! Long time no see. How’ve you been?’

By being caught off guard, Death's shape was fluid. One moment, it was a young art student with chestnut hair and big, round glasses. Another was a lanky young adult with black jeans speckled with blue. Eventually, it settled into a form which resembled it's true form, but smaller.

‘I, I study here.’ Death said, red sliding over it's skin.

‘You do? What a coincidence, my friend studies here. I was just trying to find her. You know, pop around after school.’

‘It's 7:30 in the evening.’ Death quipped with a thin eyebrow arching up and a smile tugging at the corners of it's lips.

‘Well, it's time for dinner. Do you wanna go get some? I heard it's what humans do when they want to spend time with someone.’

‘Like you want to spend time with me. People don’t really like me. It might ruin your reputation.’

Life looked taken aback.

‘They will be gone in a few millennia. My friends will cease to exist in less than a blink of an eye. You, however, will be here forever. And I would like to get to know you better. Dinner?’

For Death, Life was finally starting to make sense. Life heard the music too. And at this point in time, their melodies were combining to create a beautiful harmony. For Death, Life was starting to make sense.

‘Yes. Yes. Lets go have dinner.’

Epilogue:

Millions of years later, when mankind have disappeared off the face of the earth, after the world became a molten hell, then grew back again. Millions of years later, the earth was the same as when it started. And Life and Death were there.

They liked to look back on the days when they had power. Walking along the earth like kings and queens. They enjoyed remembering all the dates they went on, how humans were single handedly the most powerful race of animals they had ever encountered. They were swayed by that constant, lulling music that reminded them of the days when they were strong and so full of energy, of life. They remembered for the last time.

And now, on the last day of eternity, they lie, hand in hand, in the green clearing they first met, and slowly, they die.

#writing #death #life #prompt #writing prompt #death has a crush on life #modern au?#its a work in progress #writeblr

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httydfan234 · 4 years

Text

Hiccup and toothless; and their friendship in THW and other media

Before I start this post, I would like to explain its purpose and meaning.

This fandom is full of people who will indeed support this opinion no matter what directors or people “in charge” say.

Because ultimately it is the fandom that shapes the franchise. Without the people including myself who love HTTYD, there would be no fandom. The points I am going to elaborate on have been carefully thought out, and after watching key scenes from the film, as well as analysis of the script, character actions, dialogue and more, I have drawn some conclusions. Conclusions which I am sure that people in this fandom will indeed agree with.

It’s clear already that hiccup and toothless share an undeniably unbreakable bond. That bond has always been more of a physical one than anything else; and there is plentiful evidence to emphasise this throughout the franchise- focusing in depth on the third film, homecoming and indeed snoggletog log. The symbolism of hiccup and toothless both losing a body part is what binds them, and has been cemented as vital in terms of their friendship from the first film.

Firstly I would like to draw upon the idea that the core element of this franchise is indeed hiccup and toothless.

Hiccup:

gave toothless his flight back

cares for him

Protects him

Was the first Viking reinforcing an positive change within society

And most importantly, loves toothless unconditionally.

These points are the same for toothless.

Which is why their relationship is the strongest in the franchise.

Not toothless/LF or anything else, for that matter. The very fact that hiccup touches toothless’ snout is a reference to making peace. The beginning of a new era between humans and dragons. Hiccup and toothless are the sole reason why coexistence is possible.

Coexistence. This is what we, as fans, really all want. No one can honestly say that they want hiccup and toothless, or dragons and vikings, apart for that matter.

And at the end of the film, this is something toothless makes hiccup realise.

This same gesture is repeated at the end of the film. Toothless wants peace between humans and dragons; and this gesture is seemingly just that- the beginning of a new generation. When hiccups kids touch toothless, we realise that this is exactly what toothless wanted.

And notice the expression hiccup shows.

A smile. When toothless repeats the gesture. Perhaps… this is the moment. The toothless we know would never deny an opportunity to go back to his best buddy. This is evident despite what directors say.

There is a saying; it’s not what you think, it’s what you do. Both toothless and hiccup long for coexistence between their species, and this point can be reinforced in a number of ways including toothless’ actions when he returns from the Hidden world with Hiccup midway through the film. Toothless is upset at the fact that the light fury is not there with him, he wants co existence and for the light fury to connect with hiccup.

Toothless doesn’t want hiccup to not be at his side. The stage directions clearly say that he gestures from the light fury to hiccup, saying “my home”. Never once does toothless outright state that his home is the hidden world. He in fact states the opposite. As before the concept of human dragon coexistence is toothless as it is hiccup’s.

Even in the separation scene at the end, it is not permanent. And it is again toothless who does something to fix that. The concept is universal. When one friend does something the other doesn’t or wouldn’t want, the other tries his hardest to recitify it and return to the way they once were. It’s like an argument; all arguments between friends are resolved over time. The actual dialogue from the film, specifically toothless and what he says to hiccup, indicates a strong sense of resentment and ultimately disappointment at hiccup’s actions at letting him go. Toothless doesn’t want to, and this is what he says;

Hiccup: ...Lead them to the hidden world

Toothless: but, why? (Confused/unsure)

Hiccup: you’ll be safer there… safer than you could ever be with me…

Toothless: No (indicating… if you let me go, I will return.)

Toothless (hugging hiccup): I don’t want to leave you…

While many people were upset at this seemingly indefinite separation, I can assure you that it is not. The epilogue scene at the end, it’s meaning, it’s real meaning symbolises hope, optimism and a promise of a new era of dragons and Viking’s: references by the hand to snout touch. Sometimes actions speak volumes; not words. The fact that the two alphas, hiccup and toothless are there together to witness this reformation of bonds between dragons and Viking’s says only one thing. We are ready. This leads me to my next point; how is this all possible? Well, it lies on a fundamental principle of science, chemistry. Chemistry is the fundamental science; why shouldn’t it apply to universal situations?

Le Chateliers Principle states that when an change occurs; the reverse will happen in order to counteract that change and restore an equilibrium, an restoration of balance. None of the dragons wanted to leave including toothless, and he knew that. Toothless was not okay with leaving. Which is why toothless comes back at the end. I am sure people will agree with this. The toothless we know would do exactly this.

And further emphasis on this point. When toothless reunited with hiccup in the epilogue, he seemed the happiest I personally have ever seen him. Why would he, after that, personally choose to leave hiccup again?

I think he decided to stay permanently the minute he recognised hiccup; because this is the moment he was waiting for. For ten years. Ten years is an long time.

In homecoming, we get definite proof of this fact.

Toothless sits, alone, drawing hiccup. At first this drawing is just of hiccup, symbolically speaking “I wish I was with you…”. This speaks volumes.

Toothless has been with the light fury for ten years, and yet he isn’t really happy in that position. Indicating that toothless wants to go back. Hiccup even says “he’s my best bud… I want him to be happy.” Toothless’ happiness is found in hiccup. And then, toothless does something spectacular. If you closely notice and analyse the details, toothless, himself, with no hesitation, draws a bold line in the sand. The symbolism of this is extremely important. He draws it going from Toothless to hiccup. Symbolic of two things. The first, toothless seeks to rectify the dragon migration to the hidden world. Note that migrations aren’t permanent. And two, it is not a drawing of toothless and his family. It is of him and hiccup. It is implying he will get back to hiccup no matter what. Toothless will not give up. Also, it signifies the reverse of the separation. Toothless, being the alpha of all dragons symbolises dragon kind. Hiccup symbolises the berkians. Dragons will therefore go back to the berkians. And this is what I love about toothless; his drive to get back to his best friend. Also, something else. At the end people might argue toothless left (in homecoming). Actually he didn’t himself. The light fury insisted on it. This is the scene when he was with zephyr. The way he looked at her after was as if to say, I will come back to you/the berkians, for good. The very fact the alpha witnessed an attempt by the berkians to spread good opinions on dragons; I think that was that initial confirmation from toothless that he wants to completely return.

Also, I would like to say that one of the soundtracks at the end of HTTYD 3 used is coming back around. This soundtrack symbolises the beginning of a new age, much like it did in the first HTTYD.

Please comment, and I really hope this post spreads this positive idea among the fandom.

That hiccup and toothless are better not apart, but together.

“We can do this… me and you… as one”

#httyd #hicctooth #how to train your dragon #dreamworks

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ardenttheories · 4 years

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Dirk Route notes:

Very long, very rambly. I went on a fucking journey with this one. And... probably have to try and kick my ass back into gear about reading Homestuck^2.

- Why did the Reader have that flash of a failed end? That’s significantly more in depth than other death scenes have been, and in general this isn’t a power we’ve seen from the Reader beyond maybe the pie-scene and other scenes wherein someone else has influenced them. Have I missed something (as I’m still not caught up from Tavros onwards) or is this subtle Dirk influence at a time he’s not aware of his powers?

- Dirk potentially being excited at the first human touch he’s ever had hurts my heart, just a little

- Dirk disliking the sea because it’s a physical boundary to reflect the metaphysical boundary of his distance to human society is fucking SAD

- On that note, Dirk fucking loves theatrics and is almost too excited to have another friend, particularly one he can interact with. This poor by is so desperate for attention

- Again, Dirk can interpret when the dead end is coming up, and steers Reader away from it - which allows them to vividly imagine it. There has to be a union of powers occuring here, Dirk’s Heart with the Light bestowed upon the Reader?

- Reader can hold the Sord because of their disconnect from the narrative and their simplistic form and I think that’s beautiful. It also brings into question what will happen to reality if the Reader wields it for long enough.

- Update: What happens when Reader swings the Sord?

- DIRK LAUGHS, HAS DIMPLES AND FRECKLES. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. I REPEAT. THIS IS NOT A FUCKING DRILL!!

- Dirk thinks he needs to “earn” the right to see his friends. That’s... just about the saddest thing I’ve ever read. He’s so mean to himself. He doesn’t think he’s actually worthy of seeing them without proving his worth first.

- Dirk being unable to stop the thought that the game’s in motion simply because he can’t handle the idea that everything that was planned has been tipped right the fuck up by Reader, and believing that he can still put things back on course, partly being linked to a possible suicide if he’d literally been unable to continue with the game or to visit his friends/get the promise he’d always been promised signals that he’s always had a very strong connection to narrative relevance and his own sense of importance within it. Lacking that importance, or that strict narrative to follow, ruins Dirk

- Dirk finally giving the Reader his trust, just. He’s so eager for friendship, huh? Scared to trust but pleased by the results.

- OH GOD FUCK ULTIMATE DIRK. First of all, how’s he found Dirk and the Reader? Is it through their connection, as Splinters? He mentioned trying to ignore it - this must be a universal part of him being the Ultimate Self. He’s connected to Dirk, perhaps living it, and... not pleased with what he sees. Which leads onto a second thought; how much does he hate seeing himself happy? Both instances of his arrows pointed to his smile - and his scribbles crossed out his face, his head. He doesn’t like seeing himself vulnerable, trusting, and willing to make friends.

- Well, there’s some interesting rammifications in the fact that Dirk speaks through a Dirklog. His narrative control only lets him communicate through a Homestuck-recognisable style? Why the fuck is he so buff.

- What the fuck do you mean he’s making a species from scratch? What the fuck have I missed in Homestuck^2?

- Ultimate Dirk still seeing people only as what their arcs define them as, their narrative role, rather than as actual people who exist outside of that concept... And, interestingly, implying that he can fix the entire timeline. Would he intend to go back in time and fix it, or remodel it as it is? Curious how he hasn’t attempted to fix it before - which, yeah, he said he was waiting for Reader to die, but why not before this point?

- Reader finally remembers Homestuck, and Dirk considers the Reader as enough of a friend that he’s concerned for them. This is not how I wanted this to go down, but I wonder if this will increase the power the Reader has over the narrative?

- The Reader refusing to stoop to Dirk’s level and instead remaining firm that he won’t wrench Dirk’s choice away from him... please. Reader oh my god make things right. With that said, young-Dirk is still being so caring to Reader. It shows... a lot about my theory on Princes, honestly; that friendship tends to be what they have least of, and that it’s what they need to change their toxic course. That seems to be the biggest divider between Dirk and Ultimate Dirk - although I will note the irony that Ultimate Dirk, being the Prince of Heart, is destroying his Self by refusing to allow Dirk happiness.

- “Your alliegence is not to the story, but to the people within it” <- a primary example of what Ultimate Dirk’s doing. He’s not connected to the people within the story anymore, just the story itself. He’s forsaking those people for the narrative they live within. Nurturing the text rather than the people he used to love.

- “... wanted to align every part of yourself to know it all, feel it all”. Fuck. Is that what Dirk thinks this is? No wonder he’s gone off the deep end and assumes this is the Ultimate form of himself, the purest sense. He’s completely fucking insane. Not so much in the traditional sense as in the fact that he’s so overwhelmed with his Self that he thinks he has it all figured out. Reader’s right. He can’t imagine existing on a path that isn’t Ultimate Dirk any longer, and I think is so far up his own ass about it that he doesn’t even begin to assume that anything outside of Ultimate Dirk is worth it. He sees that as his perfect self.

- The point on Dirk not needing to create more pain to control how much punishment he gets and what he deserves brings me back to the Meat Epilogue - Dirk positioning himself as the villain because he believes that’s what he should be. Reader’s trying so hard to encourage Dirk not to be that, to tell him he can have better, but Dirk’s self loathing is so severe he believes he deserves punishment. I would assume just for existing.

- “And you know how he loves -- though it’s fierce (to a definite fault), he does not do it easily” Fucking owch. That’s the Dirk we see in canon. The Dirk that couldn’t bear the thought that he’d hurt Roxy because he didn’t love her, the Dirk that adored her and saw her as their perfect leader, the Dirk who had something good to say about all of his friends, the Dirk who held Dave and talked him through his abuse with Bro. He loves a fucking lot, even if he doesn’t love freely.

- Ultimate Dirk pointing out that Dirk won’t be able to live a happy life because he’ll always wonder if it was the right choice is fucking me up. That boy can just never be happy, huh?

- OH GOD I KNOW THAT’S EARTH C. THAT’S THE TOWER DIRK OFFED HIMSELF ON IN CANDY. OH GOD NO.

- Oh my god he got Candy Dave, a Dave who just lost his Dirk, to come talk to Dave. That’s so fucking sad, what the fuck. On top of that, “Does Dirk even believe that others can, of their own violition, love him?” Yeah, probably not. He thinks he has to manipulate people into loving him - we see that for sure with Jake in Homestuck, during their main intro section - and even now, seeing Dave, he’s not sure he can just... chill out with him. Why is this route so fucking sad.

- Dave looking heartbroken when he says “it’s okay to not have all the answers”. You know he wishes he could’ve said that to Candy Dirk. But it’s interesting, too, how Dirk fixates on canon and that being the answer, and anything that’s not canon meaning he has NO answers - is that what Ultimate Dirk is so afraid of? Not knowing? It seems very likely that this lack of control and uncertainty of what he’s doing is why Dirk becomes suicidal.

- Forgot to mention this early, but also “The ends justifies the means”; you mean, Ultimate Dirk, the same way Bro justified beating the shit out of Dave and forcing him through daily abuse with the fact that it “had to happen” for him to survive the game? They’re... a lot more similar than I realised.

- Something to note, interestingly:

Ultimate Dirk has the Heart symbol. Dirk has the hat symbol. Candy Dave has the scratched record symbol and the Time symbol at once. There’s an implication here that there’s more unity in Candy Dave than in Dirk as a whole - that Dave has accepted the things he’s experienced both as a kid and as a retired hero. Which would make sense, considering this is the non-canonical Candy timeline, prior to him becoming a robot; one where he’s still relatively unimplemented. Ultimate Dirk is still trying to identify himself with the game, with relevance, while Dirk is just a kid, on that precipice of choice.

- ... What shit did Dirk have to deal with on his end? I need to check Homestuck^2

- The importance of Dirk making his own choice is incredible. The allowance to NOT regret it, to make his own “right” choice, and not to be forced to question what things should have been... holy shit. And what a fucking switch. We’re playing AS Dirk. We’re not making this choice for him, it really is just HIM doing it. I fucking love this. Narratively speaking, this is cool as fuck, and it says something awesome - that Dirk’s right choice is the Reader and Dave, not Ultimate Dirk, which leads to a bad end.

- Dirk’s innate need to know is, ultimately, what ruins him in the end. I find it endlessly fucking interesting that he doesn’t seem wholly into it, though - that he’s trying to convince himself as much as the Reader that it’s right.

- “It’s not about this being the real timeline or the fake one, the hard one or the easy one. It’s about it being his. If he wants it.” I will never stop being sad and elated at the same time over this single paragraph. Dirk finally accepting that he doesn’t need answers, grandeur, or a narrative. He just needs to accept his timeline, let himself live within it.

- Oh. Well that WAS a happy ending, until Ultimate Dirk CHOPPED THE FUCKING THING IN HALF TO REVEAL THE CODE.

- Ultimate Dirk slamming Reader into the Afterw@rd? Okay. Sure. Lets roll with it. Hi Aysha.

- Well. I need to process everything with the Director. Ultimately, it’s... just a lot to pick apart, even if it’s very blunt. She used the Reader because, knowing what’d happen, the Reader would’ve been too eager to avoid some things and force others to happen too quickly, would’ve been too awkward or weird to truly make friends - hence, lost memory. But why? I’m not quite sure about that. Doc Scratch had a reason for Friendsim - to put everyone in place for Hiveswap - but why Pesterquest? The Director mentions about things being... better? That Reader’s taken these kids universally destined to end up without happy endings, and given them a chance at a happy ending, but I really don’t know why.

- What the fuck does “they’re an artifact of the medium” mean? Where the hell did Dirk steal those muscles from?

- Ultimate Dirk, still so fixated on character arcs that he sees Eridan’s gender exploration as a “gender arc”, and not personal development on a more human level. It’s... actually a little worrying how impersonal he’s gotten. He’s not even really seeing any of the characters as people anymore.

- “Happy people don’t get stories told about them” ... he’s. Technically not wrong. Without conflict, there’s no story; there NEEDS to be something to overcome, some arc to follow, for a good, compelling story. But I’m not sure Dirk realises that they don’t need that. They don’t need a story arc because they can just exist and be, outside of the spotlight. They don’t need OUR focus. Even if we don’t see it, they can still exist - which brings an interesting point to the Epilogues, honestly. They were a sort of punishment for our own curiosity to see how the story ended, to see more - and really, that’s what Dirk thrives on. He needs the “and more” after, not the happy ending. He needs a story, needs to be seen.

- Ah. Ultimate Dirk trying to take over the narrative has me slightly fucked up, not gonna lie.

- Ah. So my original theories were right, and why shit never made sense even all the way back in Jade’s route. This IS the Alpha timeline, and the Reader has been doing a retcon the whole time, turning the Alpha into an outright Doomed timeline. Nothing makes sense or works because it can’t. Paradoxically, the Reader isn’t creating a new timeline - they’re changing the only one that “matters”. They’re actually changing Homestuck.

- “You would create a paradox so catastrophic it would literally tear the multiverse apart”. Well. At least we know what happens when the foundation universe is fucked up by an outside influence.

- You get the option to not betray your friends... and the game just closes. The only way to get an ending where you don’t ruin everything you’ve worked towards is one where you never see what happens next, where you don’t have to make that choice, where you just let everything go black. Fuck.

- Sidenote: The Director wins out against Ultimate Dirk because it isn’t his arc. It’s not his story, not his role, and he doesn’t have the same power over it. And, of course, the Director is the one writing it. She has the ultimate power.

- The Green Sun being able to tear at the narrative within Reader is... interesting, to say the least. And just that description of Reader... “The impossibility that is you, protagonist, reader, carrier of the story”. They really are just this weird little metanarrative entity that doesn’t have any right to exist, and maybe only makes the barest amount of sense to actually exist. But the Green Sun being the sum of all the narratives - the narrative itself?

- IS THIS ULTIMATE READER. DID THEY JUST MAKE THEMSELF ULTIMATE. WHAT THE FUCK.

- They did not. They just became a First Guardian and created a fucking Locked Timeline. What the hell are the rammifications of this in regards to Homestuck? Reader’s removed this timeline from the narrative itself, while also remaining within it - so maybe this means that everything’s... both stable and unstable, somehow impossibly allowed to exist at once? Homestuck, Pesterquest, Homestuck^2? I assume Pesterquest is now disconnected from the rest of the canonical universe - in order to stop everything from ceasing to exist entirely - because how else could it work? A universe that only exists once.

- The Reader made the single best timeline. One where the kids can just exist happily. I’m unsure if this is a good or bad thing - that yeah, there should be no consequences, since Reader is looking over them, but on the other hand... is this really the good ending we’re allowed? Will more be added to this, the good ending abruptly continued and the story resumed? There’s a lot of things unanswered - such as what’s going to happen with HIC, since there’s no game influence left to provide her with LE power - but do we want them answered when we know the Epilogues were our punishment for wanting answers? Will they be answered?

So the question becomes: Sequel, or no sequel? And what does the True Ending mean in the grand scheme of things?

#ardenttheories #long post//#pesterquest spoilers

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snowtimeisbesttime · 4 years

Text

Thoughts and questions on Pesterquest Volume 14, and the Afterw@rd! The last one... for now?

~VOLUME 14~

-aaaand we didn't get an alpha kid reunion here :(

-Looks like very waterproof technology is a leftover from when the Condesce tried to turn Future Earth into Alternia 2: Electric Boogaloo, because otherwise I'm pretty sure that having a wholeass computer out there right next to saltwater would be a very bad idea.

-There's Hal! This time with Speakers. Also, it's neat that Dirk knows exactly what's up with MSPAR in Pesterquest's last volume, while Lanque had no idea that an alien was running around befriending everybody in town in Friendsim's (i know friendsim didn't quite do chronology between volumes as much as pesterquest has done, but the soleils were kinda busy being stuck inside a weird timeloop manor and therefore couldn't have heard of mspar's quest of friendship, while lanque could have definitely heard about them from like. wanshi or something.)

-Dirk is also very much on board (whoops ocean adjacent phrase) with MSPAR's quest of friendship, which is awesome and also adorable.

-Instead of experiencing awful offshoots, we just get weird visions of them, which kinda beats “drowning by aesthetically focused robo scuba suit” and “puppet katana accident” any day.

-Cal is empty, thank fuck. At least Dirk's one...

-MSPAR can wield the sord....., revealing its power to deepfry reality with a single slash. Which could actually make it incredibly strong in the hands of a Strider, as they're probably immune to jpeg artifacts thanks to SBaHJ so they could exploit that ability without getting headaches.

-There is some talk about Assorted Dirk Topics, which get answered quickly as the bread and butter of the route is mainly the topic of trust, and also. You Know.

-Of course Ult!Dirk just Had to pop in. Hooray. Dude can fuckin play spore and instead he decides to fuck off all the way here and fuck shit up. And expects MSPAR to agree with him once they get their Homestuck memories back even. The whole “process gif” effect he's got does look very cool though.

-What separates Pesterquest from any fanfic where characters screw around with retcon powers? Legit question here. What's the difference between MSPAR befriending everyone and a fic where John accidentally breaks Jane's tiaratop while retconing stuff and makes it so she never even goes Crockertier, for example? What makes it so the first one kills reality but the second one doesn't?

-also nice (/s) to see the epilogues are as dubiously canon as water is dubiously wet, as it's never even implied that things could ever go differently after the kids win the game. Maybe that's more an “ultdirk absorbing assorted dirks and hogging all the narrative relevance as bgd said that time in hs2” thing though.

-To convince PQ!Dirk to not leave with Ult!Dirk, MSPAR gets the Big Gun: Candy Dave. And of course he would go along with a mission to help his bro without a doubt... (and he also gets taken along to the locked timeline)

-In the end, it's Dirk the one who gets to make the Choice this time, between friendship (and family) or infinite knowledge (and loneliness).

~THE AFTERW@RD~

-dirk: some other me went with you so don't be a sore loser the less cool dirk, almost immediately:

-Unlike Friendsim's Epilogue, this one can only be accessed from Dirk's good end, apparently.

-And here we get to talk to the Director of Pesterquest, also known as the t-pose or a-pose or whatever silhouette from the funky troll hell nexus hallway of metaphysical realities. She's the one responsible for MSPAR losing their memories (for friendship reasons) and not being able to reach their friends from Friendsim (for hiveswap act 2 reasons i hope).

-MSPAR is straight out called that and MSPAReader here, But it's also revealed that they do have a name- which might be revealed in a future sequel... ( @carcino-gnostalgic-s pointed out that the sequel might be those friendsim routes the hiveswap crew wanted to make for like dammek and trizza and the guys, and i'm personally very on board with that idea)

(-I started calling them MC (as in Main Character) all the way back when Friendsim Vol 12 came out... Hope we get to learn their real name soon!)

-there was this post going around not that long ago that was about how in stories Without a happy ending to look forward to and provide catharsis, having lots and lots of suffering can make it feel senseless and gratuitous or something and like. What that post said. Sure, conflict can drive a story, but constant conflict 24/7 forever and ever just gets tiring after a point.

-Again, what makes MSPAR's friendship escapades so harmful to the multiverse compared to any random fic with Retcon Shenanigans on the internet? As in, choosing to not betray our Pesterquest friends or throwing out John's beta again straight up causes the game to close, implying reality just perished and despawned.

-Ult!Dirk also has to come along here and push for canon's preservation. To the point he tries to screw with MSPAR's thoughts directly, though luckily they can shrug it off and the Director isn't having any of that bullshit.

-First of all: fanfiction exists, and so do AU fanfics that take characters into a whole new genre or spares characters that died or puts the spotlight on background characters, so between that and me having heard the concept of “fictional character Lives On Forever in the minds of people who read their story, even if they get maybe eliminated by the author” in a book (Niebla, by Miguel de Unamuno idk if theres any translated version available online rip) that I had to read for a class, I sure was just standing there while the Director and Ult!Dirk talked about how we Absolutely Must destroy Pesterquest.

-Thankfully, MSPAR found a third option and took it, inspired by Jade and with Aradia's moral support. You ever love your friends so much you literally absorb the Green Sun's power to create an entirely new concept (the Locked Timeline containing iterations of them that can grow up without Sburb) and become its First Guardian?

#pesterquest #homestuck #pesterquest spoilers #dirk strider #mspa reader #thoughts and questions #long post #<- just in case #its like 4:20 in the morning here. time to Sleep

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madlori · 5 years

Text

Unveiled - Chapter 6

Chapter 1 || Chapter 2 || Chapter 3 || Chapter 4 || Chapter 5 || Chapter 6 || Chapter 7 || Chapter 8 || Chapter 9 || Chapter 10 || Chapter 11 || Chapter 12 || Chapter 13 || Epilogue

by MadLori Word Count: 3300 Fandom: Men’s Hockey RPF Pairing: Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin Rating: NC-17 (like, heed this, please) Tags: Arranged Marriage, Modern Royalty AU, Mpreg, Not Omegaverse, No Consent Issues, Veiled Sex, Weird Traditions, Don’t Think Too Hard, Handwavey Biology

Definitely sex in this one.

Read it on AO3

A week passed.

Zhenya and his consort did not have sex every day, but it was frequent. Temporarily free from the pressure to conceive, they engaged in a variety of non-procreative activities as they explored one another’s preferences. He learned that his partner did not enjoy having his feet touched (the first thumbs-down signal he received from him) and had to deploy their signal himself when the consort had started to maneuver them into the 69 position, one he found deeply uncomfortable. That still left a lot of options, though.

He saw Sidney almost every day. Sometimes they took a ride together, sometimes they fished. Sidney made good on his promise to teach Zhenya to spar, and he flattered himself that he was picking it up quickly.

He tried to keep his outings with Sidney...unobtrusive, and away from too many observers. But he was pretty sure that his fondness for Sidney would be apparent to anyone who saw them together, and he was becoming increasingly confident that Sidney was fond of him, too. He worried about the staff gossiping, or thinking him a cad for socializing with another man, but given that he was literally prohibited from socializing with his consort, Sidney’s friendship was a luxury he couldn’t seem to deny himself. He’d had so few genuine, true friends in his life, and he didn’t want to give it up. Not to mention that whatever people assumed, he wasn’t actually having an affair with him -- his interactions with Sidney were wholly platonic. His attraction to him lay uneasily alongside his intense desire for his consort, and his continued admiration for how his husband was conducting himself in his new life. Seryozha sang his praises at every opportunity, and embargo or no embargo, the palace staff were all becoming very fond of him.

Of course they are, they actually get to talk to him, Zhenya sometimes groused to himself. He yearned for the day when he’d see the man’s face, and hear his voice, and finally share his life with him as they were meant to.

But unveiling his consort would mean losing Sidney. It was a trade he was prepared to make, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dreading it.

His parents had departed on a trip abroad right after his wedding, and the day they returned was the day Zhenya hoped that they’d get news about his consort’s conception or lack thereof. He’d seen his husband several times in the palace that morning, guards in tow (no sign of Sidney, for which he was guiltily grateful)...everyone seemed to be milling around in a holding pattern, as if they all knew that today was important.

“Zhenya, my son, you look good,” his father said, hugging him enthusiastically and slapping his back. Zhenya’s father was nearly a foot shorter than he was, a source of much mirth around the palace, and it made such greetings awkward to say the least.

“You too, Papa. How was your trip?” He bent to kiss his mother’s cheeks as they moved to the settee in his parents’ drawing room.

“Dull, dull, dull. Balls and dinners and meetings and the same boring conversation every time. The only bright spot was the many congratulations on your marriage.”

“We appreciate them.”

“How is your consort, my dear?” his mother asked.

“He is very well.”

“And you are...getting along all right?”

He smiled. “We’re getting along great, mother. He’s a remarkable man.”

His father frowned. “You haven’t broken embargo, have you?”

“No sir, absolutely not. It’s just that one can’t help but deduce a few things about someone you see so often. I hear how the staff speaks of him, and I know how he’s behaved towards me. These things reveal a man’s character.”

“Of course. Just...be cautious. The whole idea of embargo is to minimize attachment.”

“I know.” He didn’t mention that the task of minimizing attachment was already a dismal failure, on several fronts.

The door opened and a page entered. “Your Majesties, Dr. Rjskov would like permission to enter with His Highness the Prince Consort.”

His father sighed. “Was he waiting by the door for a cue? I imagine this is news we should all hear.” He looked at Zhenya. “Embargo will be observed once your husband enters, son. Anything you want to say now before they come in?”

“No, sir.” Zhenya was on his feet and all but vibrating out of his clothes.

The page opened the door and Dr. Rjskov entered. At his side was the consort, draped in his dressiest veils (Zhenya had gotten to know the range of drapings he possessed) over a suit. He bowed to the King and Queen, then came to stand next to Zhenya. Dr. Rjskov was walking ramrod straight, like he was being filmed. “Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness. I come before you this afternoon with the news that His Highness, the Prince Consort, is with child.”

His father whooped and his mother cheered; they embraced each other, beaming wide, happy smiles, his mother dashing tears from her eyes. Zhenya’s heart felt like it might burst from his chest. He stood there stunned for a moment, then looked down into his consort’s upturned face and wished he could see it. He grinned and a fast exhale escaped his chest. He lifted his eyebrows in a “really?” gesture, watching the consort...he nodded quickly, the gesture containing all his own excitement and relief.

If he’d been a regular person with an ordinary spouse, learning that they were to become parents, he’d have been able to kiss him, to see the joy on his face, to babble excitedly with him and talk about what to do next. But none of that was available to him, because he was a prince, and this was his embargoed consort, and he did not even know the man’s name to exclaim it aloud in jubilation. All he could do, all he could think to do, was clasp his consort’s gloved hands and press them to his lips.

“Doctor, do you know when the consort conceived?” his father was asking.

“Yes, based on our bloodwork, I believe His Highness conceived on the wedding day.”

Zhenya’s heart soared again; that was the best possible outcome, as it meant the shortest embargo. If all went well, he’d see his husband’s face in less than three months.

As his father and the doctor continued to talk about the embargo and the pregnancy, Zhenya just stood and let happiness wash over him. Out of sight of his parents, his consort slipped his hand into Zhenya’s, lacing their fingers together, and squeezed.

----------

Zhenya paced in his bedroom later that night, hoping to hear a knock soon. He considered going through and knocking himself, but he didn’t want to presume. He preferred that any contact they had was initiated by the consort, and he felt pretty confident that contact would be initiated, tonight of all nights.

He’d barely had time to internalize the news before the consort was whisked away by his mother so they could start talking about whatever baby-related plans had to be made, which of course had to be done out of Zhenya’s earshot. His father had immediately started harassing him about plans for the unveiling. Such a large occasion, the formal unveiling followed by a public introduction and a grand ball, required a lot of work and even though there was always a chance it would have to be cancelled, they’d proceed as if it would go ahead when the consort’s pregnancy reached three months.

Zhenya had finally been allowed to retire after dinner, his head spinning, half-dizzy from the emotion of the day.

A child. He’s carrying my child. I’m going to be a father. We’re going to be parents.

I wonder if he’s told Sidney.

The thought drew him up short. He realized with a jolt that Sidney hadn’t crossed his mind all day, which was unusual. He also hadn’t so much as glimpsed him today, which was also unusual. He wondered where he’d gotten off to. He’d seen the consort’s guards, including Fleury and Letang and Crosby (the strong blond ponytailed woman he’d noticed the first day), but not Sidney.

He jumped when the knock finally came, feeling guilty that he’d been thinking of someone else when his consort asked for his attention. He leapt to the door and flung it wide, grinning. He couldn’t see it but he could almost sense his consort’s answering grin beneath his drapings. Zhenya couldn’t help himself; he rushed into their bedchamber and swept his husband into his arms, embracing him fully for what was actually the first time. They’d held each other in bed, but had never hugged like this. It wasn’t forbidden, but it was generally considered bad form to touch an embargoed consort anywhere he or she was veiled, which sort of ruled out all but the most perfunctory hugs, which this was not.

He didn’t care, and judging by the enthusiasm with which his consort hugged him back, he didn’t care, either. He felt broad and strong in Zhenya’s arms, his hands digging into Zhenya’s dressing gown and his face tucking into the side of his neck.

Zhenya pulled back and knelt at his consort’s feet, the man’s hands lingering on his shoulders. He slid his hands to the curve of the consort’s waist, those ridges of muscle over his hips forming a V framing his abdomen. Zhenya leaned in and kissed the smooth skin of his flat belly, feeling a hand card through his hair as he did so. He looked up at him, palming the softness at his waist, and the hand in his hair slid down to cup his cheek, the consort’s thumb stroking across his cheekbone. He pulled Zhenya to his feet and held up a “just a moment” finger, then went over to a table near the door into his bedroom. When he returned he was holding a piece of black cloth -- Zhenya realized that it was a blindfold, a large one molded to fit over the upper part of the face. He looked up, confused.

His consort held up the blindfold, pointed to it and then to Zhenya, and then mimed removing his veils. Zhenya’s heart stuttered -- was he suggesting...? He was. Zhenya nodded eagerly, and between the two of them they stripped him quickly of his dressing gown and pajamas. The consort sat him down in a chair then hesitated a moment, holding the blindfold. Zhenya squeezed his hand in encouragement. His husband gave a nod, then carefully placed the blindfold over Zhenya’s eyes and tied it behind his head. Its shape, sweeping down over his cheeks and halfway up his forehead, meant that not even a sliver of vision was left to him. He felt a hand stroke down his face and then sensed him step away.

He heard a quiet rustling of fabric and anticipation clenched in his belly. Here in this room, mere feet from him, his husband was unveiled and exposed, naked before him. He felt the warmth of his body as he stepped close again and then...oh, and then.

The consort joined him in the chair, straddling his lap. No drapings separated them now. Zhenya’s hands twitched nervously; he could scarcely believe he was allowed to touch him freely. His husband had to pick up his hands and place them on his smooth, bare chest. Zhenya shuddered and his hands trembled against his consort’s warm skin. The consort slid his own arms around Zhenya’s neck and leaned in; there it was again, the smell of him, clean and strong, earth after a thunderstorm. His breath ghosted over Zhenya’s face, bearing a hint of the spiced hot tea that he liked to drink.

The consort cupped Zhenya’s face and leaned even closer. Zhenya craved him; he was desperate to close the gap but he didn’t dare -- he could barely bring himself to touch him. Then, barely louder than a puff of air, his mate whispered “Husband” and pressed his mouth to Zhenya’s.

The touch sent a shock through Zhenya’s whole body. No kiss in his long history of kissing men had ever felt like this, had ever felt so consuming, so earth-shattering. He fell into his husband’s mouth, Zhenya’s arms winding around his back and holding him close. The consort’s lips were full and plush; he was solid and strong in Zhenya’s arms. His mouth opened beneath Zhenya’s and they tilted into each other, breath coming faster and hearts thudding against each other’s chests.

Zhenya slid one arm underneath his hips and stood up, bearing the consort with him. He felt a slight gasp escape the man at being hoisted up like this. He wrapped his legs around Zhenya’s narrow hips and kissed him harder as Zhenya carried him to the bed and laid them both down. For an indeterminate time they writhed together, hardly able to contain their mutual excitement at this newfound freedom to touch.

But that freedom did have its limits, Zhenya realized after a few moments. Several times he lifted his hands to his partner’s face and had them gently redirected. Clearly his consort didn’t want him forming a visual picture of his face through touch. Zhenya could have told him that his fingers weren’t so skilled that he could see with them as a blind man would, but his consort wasn’t taking the chance. Zhenya could kiss his face -- and kiss it he did, all over and then again -- but touching it was off the table.

He kissed down the man’s throat, feeling his pulse throbbing beneath his lips, and then down his chest. His nipples were flat and soft; Zhenya’s tongue flicked over them, wondering when they would begin to distend in preparation for their child’s arrival. His consort’s hands were all over him, in his hair, on his face, clutching at his shoulders, as if he couldn’t touch enough of him. Zhenya’s hands roamed his back and chest, sliding down to his ass; they were both hard but the novelty of this new contact was distracting enough that neither of them were paying much attention to their cocks.

Even without touching his face, Zhenya gleaned a little new information about his husband. He had short hair, which wasn’t exactly a surprise. His features felt strong, his jaw sharp and well-defined. None of this told Zhenya much at all, but he hoarded any morsel of intelligence about his consort that he could find.

It didn't help that his mind insisted on conjuring up Sidney’s face, much as he commanded it to discard the image as irrelevant. The two men seemed to be merging in his subconscious to the point that if he imagined what Sidney’s cock looked like, he saw it as like his husband’s, and when he imagined his husband’s face, there was Sidney.

They rolled on the bed, kissing wildly and grabbing at each other, for what felt like a very long time before Zhenya’s arousal began demanding that he move things along. All at once, he knew what he wanted. He pulled his consort on top of him and parted his legs so his partner’s hips slotted between them. The consort pulled back a bit, moving his hips forward carefully, his body asking if this was what Zhenya wanted. Zhenya nodded and wrapped his hands around the back of the consort’s neck, pulling him back down into a kiss.

His husband slipped a hand between them and positioned his cock, then thrust forward into Zhenya with a shuddering sigh. Zhenya couldn’t help it, he cried out a little before biting it back and grabbing the consort’s ass, hoping he’d get the message that he wanted it, and hard.

He got the message. The consort dropped his head into the hollow of Zhenya’s shoulder and fucked him just as he wanted. The day’s news freed them to reverse their habitual roles without concern that Zhenya could become pregnant as well; pregnancy left the consort temporarily sterile. Zhenya couldn’t seem to hold him tight enough, his hands roamed restlessly over every part of him he could reach. His husband had a fantastic cock, and he’d taken great pleasure in it before now, but nothing could have prepared him for what it would feel like inside him.

Nor for the sheer athleticism of his consort. Zhenya was taller but his partner was broader and stronger; he felt wholly surrounded and dominated by him, and to his surprise it was touching a place of arousal he’d never reached before. Being pressed down into the bed by the solid, heavy body of his mate woke a deep desire he hadn’t known he had. His whole body shook and his orgasm snuck up on him, breaking and crashing over him, his cock jerking and spilling between their bodies. The consort kissed the gasps out of his mouth, slipping his hands underneath him to seize his shoulders as he thrust in harder; his body shuddered, he held deep and came into Zhenya.

They sagged into a sweaty, sated heap together, pulling in fast breaths and stroking each other’s skin. Within a few minutes the cooling perspiration felt uncomfortable, and both their bellies were splattered with Zhenya’s come. He felt his husband sit up and get off the bed, then he grasped Zhenya’s hand and pulled him up, too. He led him to the door -- not the door to his own chamber, but to Zhenya’s. Still unable to see, Zhenya let his consort lead him into his own bathroom and then into his large walk-in shower.

Still a bit muzzy-headed from the frankly life-changing sex he’d just had, Zhenya let himself be taken charge of. He stood in the shower while his consort started the water and began washing them both, clearing the sweat and fluids from their bodies, stopping frequently to kiss him. It was an odd sensation to be bathed while blind, but Zhenya was finding it pleasurable. There was something about being cared for like this. Usually it was him looking after his consort, who was embargoed and seen as a precious treasure to be protected and coddled, but having the roles reversed was pleasingly subversive.

They dried each other off and then Zhenya was led to his own bed and sat down on the edge; the consort pressed one finger to his lips in a “wait” gesture, then Zhenya heard him walk away. He returned in a few moments, untied and removed the blindfold. Zhenya blinked as his eyes readjusted; his consort’s drapings were back in place.

The consort leaned closer, stroked his hand down Zhenya’s face again, and turned to leave. Zhenya caught his hand and held him back; he jerked his chin back over his shoulder at the bed and tugged at his hand.

Stay. Stay here with me.

The consort’s head cocked, questioning. Zhenya nodded. He wasn’t sure his husband would agree. If he stayed, he’d have to sleep in his veils. The consort hesitated, went to the door that led back into the royal bedchamber and his own bedroom...and shut it, staying in Zhenya’s room.

Zhenya grinned and got up, holding out his hand. His husband joined him and they peeled back the sheets and blankets, climbing in together, the consort careful to keep his veils secure around him. It took them a few tries to maneuver into a comfortable sleeping position but they finally spooned up together, Zhenya behind with his husband curled against his chest. He slid his hand over the consort’s hip to rest low on his belly; after a moment, his consort covered Zhenya’s hand with his own.

Next Chapter

#unveiled #sidgeno #sidgeno fic #hockey rpf #unveiled chapters #my writing

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peachdoxie · 5 years

Text

MAJOR HTTYD 3 SPOILERS

I have now seen How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World a grand total of three times and I’m at a point where I can give a more complete “review”, though this will be less of a typical review and more of a place where I dump a bunch of thoughts I have pertaining to the film.

As another warning, in case it wasn’t obvious, this review contains massive spoilers. Like, I spoil probably every major moment and detail I can think of in this film. Read forward at your own risk.

Also be warned that this is probably disjointed and rambling. Also very long.

Note: I saw the film for the first time on Jan 26, and twice today on Feb 1.

Where do I even begin?

I loved it. Like honestly, I cannot imagine a better possible ending. Obviously yeah I would have loved if Hiccup and Toothless could have stayed together forever but....I don’t know. It just wouldn’t be the same, you know? The books ended with the dragons returning to the sea, and we knew for the longest time that the movies would end the same way as the books, with an explanation for why there are no more dragons. It’s an extremely timely message (well, when are messages about peace untimely, lol) and just. Wow.

My biggest issue with HTTYD 3 was the same one I had with HTTYD 2, which is that the pacing was a bit rushed and some things weren’t as fleshed out as I would have liked them to be. That’s okay. I didn’t have as big of problems with that today as I did in my first screening. But wow. They really jam-packed a lot of things into it and I’m so impressed. How can something that lasts 104 minutes contain so much in terms of character development for a sizeable cast while also making it funny and enjoyable? I don’t know.

Honestly though the worldbuilding was fantastic. Expanding on the end of the war on Berk in the first film and Hiccup’s battle with Drago in the second, and how his efforts to bring peace have made them a target. It’s so good.

And the fact that the dragons left for their safety - what they need instead of what Hiccup wants. “The world doesn’t deserve you. Yet.” Fuck me up, DreamWorks. I mean, I figured that’s how it would end, roughly, because that’s how the books end and honestly why else would the dragons leave when those on Berk don’t want them to?

I remember back when we first learned about the Light Fury and how she would “draw Toothless away” from Hiccup or some other weird phrasing that made it seem like she was a weird seductress or something. If you were following me then, I had a lot of anxiety from her reveal on the poster to the time of the first trailer, after which I immediately fell in love and decided to stop caring about my criticisms of her design and character.

And even though she kind of did pull Toothless away from Hiccup, it wasn’t just her character that did it, if that makes sense? After watching the movie, it’s clear to me that the Light Fury isn’t just meant as Toothless’s mate. She’s supposed to represent what life could be like - what life is like, in a way - when dragons are “free from the tyranny” of humans. Like. The reason why Hiccup was willing to let Toothless go even before Grimmel came and ruined things even more was because he saw how much Toothless was enjoying his freedom being among the other dragons in the hidden world, his freedom when he wasn’t bound to Hiccup’s participation in his flight. The Light Fury represents the doorway into that world that Hiccup had never been able to see. Honestly, that Toothless was probably not even aware of, since his entire species was hunted by Grimmel.

I’m reminded of the exchange between Hiccup and Valka in HTTYD 2, when Valka says “When I’m up here, I don’t even feel the cold. I just feel...” and Hiccup concludes it with “free.”

“This is what it is to be a dragon, Hiccup.”

That freedom in the Hidden World. It’s not something that Toothless can have when still flying with Hiccup.

The subtitle “The Hidden World” doesn’t just refer to the physical place where the dragons come from. It’s metaphorical as well. It’s the world of the dragons that was hidden from Hiccup by his own desires for peace and unity. It’s the world of their freedom.

Who is Hiccup to take that freedom away from Toothless? It would be different if living with the Vikings didn’t pose a risk to the dragons because of the warlords who are determined to use them as a weapon or to kill them all. That’s why the other dragons had to leave, as well.

It’s such a complicated situation and there’s no perfect solution, rationally. I’m emotional.

As smart and intelligent as the dragons are, they’re not human. Sometimes I think it’s easy to forget that.

H O W is this trilogy so good???

I think the thing that really gets me is that, even though they had to separate, it’s clear how much Hiccup and Toothless love each other. I mean, it’s always been apparent, from the end of the first film and all through the second one, but just. It’s really, really there in The Hidden World.

The way they work together so flawlessly during the raid, the way that Hiccup talks to Toothless and Toothless “talks” back, the way that Hiccup let Toothless play with his prosthetic, the way that Toothless looked to Hiccup for guidance on how to court the Light Fury, the way that they slept in the same bed in Hiccup’s tent, the way that Hiccup didn’t hesitate to rebuild the autonomous tail from Gift of the Night Fury so that Toothless could fly with the Light Fury, the way that Hiccup scoots over and says “good morning” to Toothless when he’s waking up from the poison dart.

The way that Hiccup was ready to let Toothless go on his own and have his freedom.

The way that Hiccup was prepared to die so that the Light Fury could save Toothless.

The way that Hiccup said “It’s okay. I love you too.” to Toothless when they were saying goodbye.

The way that Toothless hugs Hiccup goodbye.

(By the way, I’ve been lightly sobbing for the last several paragraphs.)

I love How to Train Your Dragon and How to Train Your Dragon 2 for a lot of reasons, but the main one is because of the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless. And like I said, it’s so there in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.

I think that’s why I’m absolutely okay with the Light Fury and her role in this film. Yes, she leads Toothless away from Hiccup, but it’s not like it’s an issue of “romantic” (if you can say that dragons have a concept of romance) relationship taking precedence over a platonic relationship, which is what I mostly feared back when I first learned of the Light Fury’s existence. I mean, that interpretation is one to make, but it’s not the one I’m choosing to make when talking about The Hidden World. It’s a much more complicated situation than that.

That’s the real tragedy of this trilogy. It’s not that Hiccup and Toothless couldn’t still be as close as they are if Toothless mated with the Light Fury. The Light Fury is capable of changing and coming to trust humans. That’s clear from her character development and the way she saved Hiccup at the climax. Maybe she’d never be “tame” like Toothless is, but I think it would be possible.

No, it’s not that the Light Fury is incompatible with Hiccup and Toothless. It’s that the rest of the world hasn’t caught up with Hiccup’s message of peace. Too many people see dragons as something to be used or destroyed without care for what it does to the dragons themselves. And even Hiccup and Toothless’s love for each other can’t withstand that. At least, not together.

The epilogue to How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is really important to me for this reason. Even after years apart, even if Toothless at first didn’t recognize Hiccup, they still love each other so much. You can see it in the fear that Hiccup had that Toothless wouldn’t remember him, and in the joy that both he and Toothless have when Toothless sniffs Hiccup’s hand and does remember. It’s there in the way that Hiccup and Toothless fly together, once more, during the epilogue, with their families right there beside them. A love that strong never really goes away.

I’m still very emotional.

I have to give credit to John Powell for the music he composed for the epilogue. The way it goes from the themes in Wounded from the first movie, when Hiccup and Toothless aren’t exactly enemies anymore, but aren’t friends yet, mixed with themes from the Hidden World, showing Toothless’s....wilder nature as he’s been living among the dragons, and into the themes from Forbidden Friendship when Hiccup and Toothless reunite....brilliant. And continuing that music when Hiccup’s children first make contact with Toothless, and, of course, into themes echoing Test Drive and Coming Back Around while they’re flying WHILE ALSO incorporating some of the music from THW. Music can make or break a scene and, boy, did the music in this film make the entire thing work, so well.

And the Hidden World ends the same way that HTTYD does, musically and cinematographically. It’s the same musical motifs, with instrument and tonal changes, as the end of How to Train Your Dragon, and it’s Hiccup and Toothless flying off into the sun with their friends and family alongside them.

I honestly don’t have the words to appropriately describe how this makes me feel. I’m not sure I really understand yet. I love it, though.

Switching gears a bit.

I can’t believe that HTTYD 3 made me happy to have a Hiccstrid wedding. I’m not anti-Hiccstrid or anything. I’m rather ambivalent to shipping in general, but Hiccstrid in HTTYD 2 and into HTTYD 3 was good because it wasn’t full of angst or drama or sex, and so I was fine with them. When it came to a Hiccstrid wedding, though, I ranged from ambivalent to not really wanting one. I was worried that it would detract from the film’s narrative if they got married.

Boy, was I wrong.

The Hiccstrid wedding was about as perfect for me, a non-shipper, as it could have been. The thing is, the Hiccstrid wedding wasn’t just a wedding between Hiccup and Astrid, but the culmination of their character arcs and the pinnacle of their character development. The concept of their marriage also played a role in Valka’s - and also Stoick’s, by extension - character development, which is astounding.

See, Astrid wasn’t ready to marry Hiccup, despite him being ready to marry her (I think). She wasn’t ready because Hiccup kept doubting himself as Chief and Astrid didn’t want to marry him until he believed in himself. And, like Valka pointed out, Hiccup didn’t really believe he was capable of being Chief without Toothless, so when he was struggling to protect Toothless while at the same time Toothless was being dragged away and Hiccup was realizing why that mattered, it really broke him. Especially from being defeated twice by Grimmel and risking the lives of his friends and family.

I’m not going to get into discourse about whether or not Astrid’s character is feminist or whatnot because I don’t feel like opening that can of worms, but the truth of Hiccup’s arc is that he wouldn’t really be able to be Chief without Astrid’s help. Like Valka said, Hiccup “thinks he has to lead alone, because that’s what his father had to do.” But Hiccup doesn’t have to lead alone. He has Astrid, who is supposed to support him in his role as Chief.

I’m fine with the Hiccstrid wedding for what it represents. It represents Hiccup realizing he can be Chief without Toothless and that he doesn’t have to lead alone. It represents Hiccup really, finally, coming to terms with who he is and what he’s capable of. And it represents Astrid helping Hiccup realize this, and also realize that he doesn’t have to go at it alone. What did Gobber call them? “Start acting like a proper royal couple.” It was part of their character development to realize that they actually can, and that’s what the wedding represents.

And all the discussions of leadership and weddings and whatnot also helped add depth to Valka’s character and also Stoick’s. Like. I completely forgot that Valka wasn’t just Stoick’s wife, but that she was the wife of a Chieftain. Before she left Berk, she had duties and worked alongside Stoick, who clearly loved her dearly. I’m glad she became kind of a mentor figure to Astrid in helping Astrid realize her own role as Hiccup’s girlfriend/wife/partner. It also makes me contemplate more on what she regrets about staying away from Berk and away from Stoick. Anyway I love Valka more now and will still defend her character to my death.

ALSO. Stoick. He was present for a grand total of two scenes in the form of flashbacks from Hiccup’s childhood, but boy oh boy did this movie give him some EXCELLENT character development. Stoick has always been my favorite character from a characterological standpoint and even though he was killed in the second film, I’m so overjoyed that HTTYD 3 added more depth to his already complex character.

What we got were three major details about Stoick: he spent a lot of time searching for the Hidden World when Hiccup was a boy in order to make the world a safer place for his son; he missed Valka dearly and found it difficult to be Chief without her; and he was an excellent dragon hunter dedicated to eradicating dragons. Granted, this last one came from Grimmel and is definitely skewed towards making Hiccup discouraged, but it’s a fact that I think holds true from what we saw in the first film.

Where do I even begin with this? It helps explain Stoick’s drive in the first film for “one last search, before the ice sets in” and his desire to find the home of the dragons. Well, he found one, and for the rest of his lifetime, it was a time of peace and he was able to watch his son grow up into someone he was proud of (I’m still emotional about this). It shows how much he loved Hiccup, even when they were at odds in the first film. Like, I know that Stoick loved Hiccup, but just...this movie made it even more apparent. I have a lot of emotions about Stoick finally getting to have peace in his life after having it taken away from him because of war. Like....there’s a big contrast to how he dressed in the flashbacks and how he dressed in HTTYD, which is much rougher and less well-kept, because clearly the war was wearing on him. He was able to return to that sense of peace in HTTYD 2 as well.

Honestly, HOW was this movie able to cram this many details about character relationships into a movie 104 minutes long, especially when most of the movie was about light-hearted moments or action sequences??? H O W. I’m even more impressed than I was with HTTYD 2, which is saying something. Do you understand why I’m crying yet?

And I haven’t even touched on all of the other things that just made HTTYD 3 so great to watch, which includes all of those light-hearted moments and action sequences and the music also the VISUALS???????????????????????? Like, the level of detail and scale for pretty much every scene was just so impressive that I do not think my brain is capable of comprehending how impressive it was. It was so real and yet so clearly animated??? I felt like I was watching something play out right in front of me instead of that I was watching a movie at certain times. I just. IMPRESSIVE.

Feeling some of that sublime in the philosophical sense. I just. Don’t even have the words to express what I feel about this movie. About this trilogy, and everything it’s done to me and for me. Like. I feel that the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy (plus Gift of the Night Fury) is the closest thing I’ve ever come to magic, if that makes sense? I just. There aren’t words I can use to describe these things.

I love it. I love this trilogy. I’m so glad it’s a part of my life.

#how to train your dragon #httyd 3 #httyd 3 spoilers #httyd 3 reactions #anecdotes by peachdoxie #httyd commentary

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nonbinarylatula · 4 years

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Gideon Jura - Rogue??? of Doom???

Illustration: Oath of Gideon by Wesley Burt

Warnings: discussion of suicidal thoughts, spoilers for War of the Spark story

Gideon's actually surprisingly tricky to classpect. I was tempted to go with Life, since his powers are all about healing and protection. His main ability is a powerful regenerative factor that basically renders him immune to harm. Knight of Life should be a pretty clear-cut answer, right?

Well, I'm not going to flat out say that's wrong. Classpects are pretty much 100% up to interpretation. But the way Homestuck in particular handles Life and Knights makes me think it's not the best combination for him.

For starters, Life is generally represented by money and political power. The Condesce, a Thief of Life, has an unjust rule over the Troll empire. Her pre-scratch counterpart Meenah (also a Thief of Life) is greatly attracted to wealth and material possessions. Feferi Peixes, the Witch of Life, is also the heiress to the Troll empire and is very wealthy. Finally, Jane Crocker, Maid of Life, is the heiress to the Betty Crocker Corporation (the face of the Troll empire on post-scratch earth.) In the epilogues, she also gains an immense amount of political power.

Actually, "Life" doesn't exactly represent some ethereal life force like in most fantasy magic systems, although it definitely is related to that concept. I think it's more based o how we use the word in everyday conversation. Someone has had a "long life," or is "going to do something with their life," et cetera. It represents the period of time during which we have agency and the ability to affect those around us. (There's a reason it's adjacent to Light on the aspect wheel.) Political power comes with a great amount of agency, as does wealth. The Condesce, as a Thief of Life, rules a fascist empire that robs its subjects of the ability to control where their life is going.

The White/Black Orzhov Syndicate of Ravnica is pretty much the Life aspect defined, if you're more familiar with MtG lore than Homestuck.

Gideon is not at all that. He works closely with the White/Red Boros guild of Ravnica, which makes sense, because if I had to give him a second color after White it would be Red.

White and Red are enemy colors on the color pie. This means that their relationship is more defined by their conflict than anything else. Red's individuality and penchant for chaos clashes with White's authoritarian leaning and desire for order.

That's not to say they're incompatible, though. Red, as the color of emotion, and White, the color of harmony, both believe in the power of friendship. Red's immense passion and White's faith make them the color combination of Zealotry. And White's strong sense of justice combined with Red's tendency to take matters in its own hands create the perfect mindset of vigilantism.

The first one (the power of friendship) is what I'm interested in right now, though. Gideon is the leader of the Gatewatch, a group of planeswalkers who have sworn an oath to "keep watch" against interplanar threats too big for a single planeswalker to handle. People who know a lot about aspects should be going "HMMM" right now. Sounds a lot like Blood, right?

Karkat, a Knight of Blood, is the first "leader" of his "team" of friends who play the game Sgrub. Though he doesn't stay leader very long, he's the one who creates that connection. A lot of what he does is through making deals - his blood bond and deal with Spades Slick being what gets them through the game. Blood is about connections, pacts, and team-ups. It's about the power of friendship, and about social customs and unspoken rules that help people live in a society together. (The Joker's a Bard of Blood, by the way.)

So it's a perfect fit for Gideon, right? Well, again, I think it's a valid theory, but there's still one option I like better. Something that ties together the very beginning and end of his adventure, and provides him with a lot of conflict in between. I think he's a Rogue of Doom.

After his mother died, he became the leader of a gang. They had a whole Robin Hood "rob from the rich and give to the poor" thing. That's what Homestuck's Rogue class's whole deal is about. They're the passive form of the Thief, so instead of taking their aspect for their own benefit, they do it for the benefit of others.

Then, he gets put into prison. One day, monsters attack, and the prison warden frees any prisoners who are willing to fight off the monsters. Surprise surprise, he saves the day with his troop of irregulars.

Then Heliod (god of the sun, ruler of Theros's knock-off Greek pantheon) gives him a quest to kill the Titan of Erebos (a god of death.) After defeating the Titan, he tries to throw Heliod's spear at Erebos himself in an act of hubris - but Erebos redirects the spear to kill all the irregulars instead.

Gideon is now the only one of his irregulars alive. In his grief, his planeswalker spark ignites and he teleports to another plane. The rest of his story is driven by his guilt about killing his friends, and his desire to die heroically in battle both as penance and as a way to get to see them again in Theros's Elysium.

You see, I have a theory about the stealing classes. While they can have a great amount of their aspect, none of it rightfully belongs to them. The Condesce does not rightfully rule her empire, which is why Roxy, the Rogue of Void, dealt the killing blow. Taking an empire from an unjust ruler could easily be considered "stealing nothing."

So Gideon, the Rogue of Doom, tried to take a glorious death by engaging a god in battle - an act of hubris. But he's not a Thief, he's a Rogue. So he didn't get to keep the death for himself, he distributed it among his friends instead.

Throughout his story, he's constantly taking on opponents too tough to handle. But his powers of regeneration stop him from getting the death he thinks he deserves. As the leader of the Gatewatch, he's doing this when he takes them to fight Nicol Bolas on Amonkhet. And the evil dragon Bolas is even able to see what he's trying to do. The entire Gatewatch suffer a humiliating defeat, and are scattered throughout the multiverse. That's when Gideon finally gets over himself.

In homestuck, your classpect guides your hero's journey. Going against it leads to suffering. I absolutely wouldn't call Gideon evil or selfish, and all that stuff I described isn't something he's consciously doing. But it's definitely there in his subconscious, as that nugget of guilt that impacts every decision he makes. Subconsciously, he's trying to be a Thief. There are contradictory forces inside him (two wolves, you might say) that makes him want to die a hero's death while also believing he's not worthy of being a hero.

He chills out though. Then his friend Liliana gets manipulated by the evil dragon Bolas into helping carry out Bolas's "kill a lot of planeswalkers (and also regular people for the heck of it) and use their sparks to become a god" plan. Her friends don't know this though, and feel super betrayed and stuff. Eventually, Liliana revolts, but the pact magic binding her to Bolas's will starts killing her. Gideon sees this, and his suspicions that she hadn't actually turned evil are confirmed. He places his hand on her shoulder, and his regenerative magic fights against the pact sucking her life out. She's saved, but he dies and finally goes to see his irregulars in Elysium.

So, his arc comes to an end! He's embraced his classpect, and found out a way to meet his Doom heroically, while still taking a death that isn't "his own," and simultaneously acting in someone else's benefit because he's a passive class.

Rest in Peace, Gideon.

Again, though, I'm not entirely sure about this - it's just the classpect I've been able to find that most explains all parts of his arc. I could easily see Blood or Life, too. (Is it a coincidence, though, that Life is opposite Doom on the aspect wheel, and Blood is directly adjacent to Doom? 🤔)

#classpects #magic: the gathering #Gideon Jura #Homestuck #Knight of Life #Knight of Blood #Rogue of Doom #classpect

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saltisnacks · 5 years

Text

My open letter to DreamWorks

To DreamWorks Animation, LLC.,

You forgot your audience. Plain and simple. We are an eclectic group of individuals that came together to form your fan base. And, you left most of us devastated and hurting.

That’s blatantly reflected in the Rotten Tomato score of 8% for season eight. There is a petition of over 28.5k signatures on change.org, and it’s still climbing.

This show is listed at TV-Y7. You could have fooled me. You showed a melting corpse to children. That's horrifying beyond words. There are no believable excuses for that. None. Children too young to understand the concept of death should not be exposed to this, and it left parents scrambling to make excuses. It never should have been sent to air. Period. Shame on you.

How Lotor is treated sends a bad message.

• Victims of abuse don’t get their redemption.

• Victims of abuse can't escape from it.

• Victims of abuse are doomed to repeat the cycle.

• Victims of abuse don't find love and their happy ending.

But, his parents can get their forgiveness for destroying the universe for 10,000 years of genocide and death.

Hunk, the gentle giant, is also betrayed in character. Throughout the series he was shown to be a brilliant engineer. And, he loses that growth to become a glorified chef. That was never his passion. That was a hobby.

Lance loses Allura. Then he loses his drive. He gives up being a pilot to become a farmer and a motivational speaker. He’s left with a reminder of what he has lost on his face.

Coran loses Allura, too. The person he had sworn to protect. And, he didn’t even get to say goodbye in the end.

Keith started off alone until Shiro takes him under his wing. Then, he finds friendship and family in the other paladins and Coran. He reunites with his mother. Only to lose all of that in season eight. His friendship with Shiro erased. He's alone during ‘Launch Date.’ The wolf does not count. Krolia wasn’t even there.

I’ve seen parents commenting that their child(ren) are afraid to tell their friends they love them because of the erasure of Keith and Shiro's close bond. If you say anything, you’ll lose that friend. What a message for children.

By the way, why was he sensitive to quintessence? There’s a plot hole. I know a show with limited episodes can’t cover all plotlines. However, there are too many that leave the show hanging. Among the few are:

• Who made the cave drawings?

• Why was Honerva interested enough in Shiro to clone him?

• What were the clones for anyway?

• Shiro's family.

• Shiro and the white lion.

• Keith's Galra traits.

• What did Matt see in the cell?

• Lance’s sword.

• Keith's wolf.

• What were the marks on Lance's face, except a tragic daily reminder of what he's lost?

There are so many more.

And now to Allura.

She was a w.o.c. with a strong personality. A wonderfully written main character that was latched onto by the fandom. The heart of Voltron. However, she is turned into a self-sacrificing trope who consistently loses.

• She loses her home world.

• She loses her father's AI.

• She loses the Castle of Lions.

• She loses her crown for Shiro.

• And ultimately, she loses her life.

Again, parents were left grasping for explanations for this. Did you think of the children watching this show at all? There has not been a main character p.o.c. movie or show with a happy ending geared for children since "The Princess and the Frog," and that was released in 2009. That I'm aware of anyway, because those types of stories are still shadowed and avoided by the entertainment industry.

You made Honerva too powerful. It would have been believable for her alone to be able to fix the damage she caused. Or, the lions could have done something. Allura did not have to make that sacrifice. There were other options, but you chose this one for the tragedy aspect.

The fanfiction rewrites started the very night season eight was released.

Fans should not have to fix a show. That is not how it’s supposed to work. Granted not everyone can be happy with how a show ends, but this ending was atrocious.

You turned season eight into a story of loss. Almost every character loses something by the end. This was not a show where tragedy should have reigned. It was about family, love, and the bonds of friendship that overcame any obstacle. The show forgot that and left us stunned.

And finally to Shiro.

Every aspect you built up of this character was obliterated in season eight. As soon as he was acknowledged as being a gay man, you sought to destroy him in every way possible.

His PTSD was ignored. That is not something that disappears overnight. Especially since it was shown previously to affect him. The chanting in that arena should have sent him running or trembling in terror. My uncle, to this day, still has issues with fireworks and loud noises due to Vietnam.

His disability. You took his prosthesis from something amazing to a joke. He fought Sendak in a hard battle, trading blow for blow. He uses a gun against Zethrid during “The Grudge.” He previously takes hit after hit only to be knocked down by one punch in season 8. With the way Shiro was written, he would have continued to serve, but instead you imply that he retires. I guess disabled veterans don’t matter to you either.

His relationships with the other characters. All we got were barking orders and “Paladins.” Homosexual men can have relationships with heterosexual males. There was no cause for this except blatant homophobia. It was completely erased, especially the one with Keith.

The beautifully written partnership that was a backbone of the entire series. That was admitted could be taken platonically or romantically. He would have fought to save Keith, no question, but you left him frozen with the Pikachu meme face. You don’t write something so profound like that only for it to disappear into nowhere.

Then you try to cover yourselves for the Adam fiasco by tacking on that ending. Just no.

Shiro was already a wonderful representative for the LGTBQ community. He didn’t need to get married to be happy. Especially to an unnamed in the series (only in closed captioning and audio description for the blind) character who doesn’t even have a consistent appearance in the entire season. That doesn’t even have more than five lines, and even those appear edited and added due to found evidence in the subtitles. We were promised that there wouldn't be a shoved in relationship just for the sake of romance, and yet, here we are.

The edits are obvious. Glaring. You tried to erase his sexuality, but then tried to fix those erasures. It was done horribly.

And now the fandom is sinking even further into the mire you landed it in. In order to “fix it,” fans are writing stories of divorce, adultery, and infidelity. That makes Voltron even worse.

You gave into the antis. You didn’t show them that threats don’t succeed. You validated them. Now they'll turn around and destroy something else they sink their teeth into because they think and know they can.

However, the final strike to Voltron was the recent treatment of its voice actors. You left them alone without a statement to face angry upset fans. That was beyond cruel. Beyond understanding. They did not deserve that. Shame on you again.

This is hurting your brand. This is damaging your reputation. You are losing fans and followers daily. I feel sorry for Netflix and HotTopic because this was not their fault.

You can fix this. All of this. All you need to do is say something. Do something. Even if it is quietly removing the epilogue (which we know you can do since you fixed the Adam audio error) and leave it open ended.

Let us hope Allura can return somehow.

You may remain silent, but we won't be.

This is my letter, but the chance of it remaining unread and deleted are high. At least I have it off my chest and planted at your feet.

#voltron #vld #dreamworks #allura #lance #hunk #coran #keith #lotor #takashi shirogane

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homestucky · 5 years

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Davekat fic recs?

hrrmm wow i will have to think. ill probs just check my bookmarks which means i probably wont be able to think of many one chapter fics off the top of my head since i dont tend to bookmark them. also some that havent been updated in yrs i wont put here bcaus thats just frustrating unless theyre rlly notable and may come back i may not link them

also disclaimer that while im not super into smut so its unlikely im gonna recommend just porn fics, some may have some sexy times incidentally i suppose. also a lot of them are dave centric/dave POV bcaus hes my BOY

M.C. Escher that’s my favourite MC by Unda (COMPLETE) is a wild ride and long but i recommend for sure, very well written n thought out. also check out the other fics in the series bcaus if i recall correctly there are some other shorter fics that unda wrote to give some background or develop characters. but theyre also really great even stand-alone! its finished now and i followed it the whole time :0. cw for child abuse and death

Within, Without by reinkist (COMPLETE) i actually read a long time ago so i dont remember it so well. i do remember thinking it was pretty great tho, so i do recommend it. i should probably go back for a reread some time. its just a really good meteor fic that explores everything you’d want it to, and does that well, u kno? its like the fic that u wanted to exist but couldnt find. but here it is!

Doc Scratch’s School for Supernaturally Gifted Adolescents by medical (UNFINISHED AND RECENTLY UPDATED)is great, its like a multichapter magic/superhero au thing. its fun and characters in it are rlly well developed, like, i do enjoy a davekat fic which has a good and significant rose characterisation in there too. but theres some serious plot goin in in here too…. very exciting.

To Be Taken Care Of by shitstuck (COMPLETE)is good, its god some deep convos about troll v human culture and stuff, some rosemary too. bit of body horror but if i can handle it its not too bad. i just reread it lol. the epilogue changes the tone of things a bit n id be interested to know other peoples thoughts on that ;_;

Don’t Forget the Sun by Weevilo707 is rlly good but sadly NOT COMPLETE AND HASNT BEEN UPDATED IN AGES :@!! hope the authors doin ok (EDIT: APPARENTLY the author is not planning on updating this one again, but i still think its a good read :^) )

Book Covers by turntechGeneticist717 (COMPLETE) is rlly great also!! big recommend. dave is lookin after a babby dirk as his big brother in college. i havent read it in a while but i remember when it was updating being like !!!!!!!!!!!Aaa!! also there are others in the series so take a look :)

The Truth is in the Eyes by AcrylicMist (COMPLETE)is like a rlly mythological/fantasy interpretation of canon post game which is very cool????? like the world is sort of medieval or something but w the gods n magicky stuff. rlly interesting. , very dope again havent read it in a while and am running out of steam for ranting about fics but!! yea its sweet w an intriguing plot

The Eurydice Suite by callmearcturus (COMPLETE) !!!!!!!!!!! i love this fic so much like its bonkers n i just. its like an inception sort of inspired au and i have NEVER watched inception but im just super into the concept. its just. a rlly amazing well written fic w perfect pacing and characterisation like the plot is like a beautiful spider web where time flicks back and forth yet makes perfect sense. theres such a sense of atmosphere. ive reread it so many times. also!!1111111 i love the dave in it, and i love the strilondes family relationsy stuff!! i also feel like it ties everything up rlly nicely despite having like all the main characters in it p much. hell yeaaaa. its my fav by this author whos an AMAZING writer like they just DROP U IN to the world with so much confidence and drop context and background in at a perfect pace so ur never confused but always intrigued. but often i find the atmosphere in their fics almost TOO intense u know?? like i feel like i wake up in a ditch after reading one like wh,,h who am i?? i hate using this word but the writing is weirdly like… “sensual” which i think means the writing is great, rlly strong atmosphere but im not always 100% able to handle it. this one does not make me feel so dazed and its just.. yess

The Lucky Ones by daniomalley (COMPLETE) is another one i followed as it came out. a cool spacey au. sorry i cant think of anything else to say aaaa

Off Court by levvan (ON HIATUS?) is great tho strong themes of abuse from the start. not that none of the above have that if i havent said so uhhhh yea be wary of the tags i guess. but yes.

three rounds and a sound by skitpost (UNFINISHED AND RECENTLY UPDATED) is rlly great, like a magic school au. very excited to see whats gonna happen next :0

We’re All Friends & Family Here (And Frankly, We’re Sick Of Your Shit) byLandOfMistAndSecrets (COMPLETE) is TECHNICALLY a dirkjake fic but it has very cute little pastiches of other characters and the DK ones are very cute and well characterised

An Alien and a DJ Walk into a Bar (and Accidentally Start a Relationship) by Kadaaver (APPEARS TO BE ON HIATUS) i was p into when it was still updating. theres not actually MUCH relationship stuff yet if i recall correctly but still. good. and i enjoy the characterisation of dave being p socially anxious.

turntechGodhead is offline by forestknifefight (UNFINISHED AND RECENTLY UPDATED) well relatively recently. i like this one a lot! theres some good beta kid friendship and some good karkat.

Astronomy in Reverse by PunkZucchini, sicklekind (ON HIATUS>??????) cute + features BIGKAT is i recall correctly

Bring You Down by acedavestrider (COMPLETE) idk what to say about this but thats not a criticism. its just a legit cute fic that is good for the heart. human au, earth n whatever. karkat is a student nurse!! yeaa! thats kind of incidental but i like it

Survival of the Richest by ireallyloveicecream (HIATUS???) theres not a lot of it but im so intrigued. some kind of a fae/magic fairy folk kinda thing

Californian Son by LivTC (COMPLETE BUT THERES MORE IN THE SERIES WHICH I HOPE WILL CONTINUE TO BE UPDATED ETC ETC) !! ok this one is kind of sexy n angsty and daves a REAL DICK in it but it rlly well written and i rlly wanna know more jijhihihu

First Contact by yesfir (UNFINISHED AND RECENTLY UPDATED) !! its au but like idk scifi, humans having to make a deal with/coexist with trolls. space colonies!! this one is great… good character development and plot… does that great thing of pacing the revelations of the plot rlly gradually so ur like ! somethings happening here and i must know more!!!

Feathered by AlloftheFandom (UNFINISHED, RECENTLY UPDATED) this ones exciting :3 karkat has only just been introduced to it. its like a magicky world w a bit of mild body horror so far. some good strilondes also… has anyone noticed that i need strilonde family relations in a fic i love….

Soulmates by egossweetheart (UNFINISHED (fairly..?) RECENTLY UPDATED) this is a souleater au which i dont know a lot about??? but its cool, i am suitably intrigued. bit of body horror. idk as always check the tags. idek why im bothering to specify that. anyways,

Vladimir and Estragon Cope with Their Trauma by Volo (UNFINISHED RECENTLY UPDATED ETC) afterlife au. so yea TW death. im into it tho

The Importance of Being Karkat by choicescarfsylveon (UNFINISHED RECENTLY UPDATED ETC) karkat has a radioshow, dave is kind of a dick. some parts of that change. i wont spoil which. theres something deeper goin on too…….. mysterios….

anyways here are some fics that i think are cool. sorry it took ages i just wanted to give it a good effort ukno?? its not an exhaustive list but its what i found. thanks to all these authors and hey, while we’re at it, all fanfic authors!! good work and i hope u all know how appreciated it is. anyways i have a headache so i guess ill finish this up. peace!

#davekat #dave strider #karkat vantas #homestuck #fanfiction #dave #karkat #ask #long post

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swordstrider · 5 years

Text

Epilogue Thoughts

Well, throughout the clusterfuck of meme reblogs, it’s finally time for me to pull up a velvet cushioned chair and discuss the “tales of dubious authenticity”. As such, there will naturally be spoilers pertaining to both the meat and candy routes, although I’ll focus more on meat, since I actually read a hell of a lot more there than I did with candy. Continue under the cut if you wish.

Since it’s the shortest possible spiel I have to offer, I’ll get the candy route out of the way first. My read-through of the epilogues began with this one, although I only lasted through eight chapters before promptly giving up. The reason for this, is, well... The candy route is just a mess, as it is 100% likely supposed to be. What I had expected from it was what some in the fandom have naturally ascribed to Homestuck’s candy metaphor; Fluff, romance, friendship, happiness, low plot, and so on.

However, it’s clear to me that candy itself extends into something more... sour, if you will, and I suppose it should have been blatant from the get-go, what with trickster mode being apparent in the comic. I only have remnants of memories from those few chapters, as well as commentary from fans which I took into account, and it’s naturally fucking insane. I don’t think I necessarily have to prattle too long on the matter, but, wow. It really does seem like the next edition of trickster mode, and that’s just too far for me, for various reasons. Although I didn’t spend much time preoccupied with the candy route, I’m essentially summarizing it as maximum craziness to a very disturbing degree, and as such, I’m not going to involve myself any further with it. As far as I’m concerned, it never “really” happened from my own point of view, despite it being an option likely disposed to... some potentially canon element to it? I don’t even know anymore. All I can truly attribute to this particular route is a metaphorical, sugarcoated mess on my lawn that I never really wanted in the first place, let alone anticipated.

Moving on to the meat route, there’s naturally a fucking lot that I can talk about here. I suppose you could say... this one will be the real meat of this post. Haha, funny.

Anyway, as you may have guessed, I continued onward with this route a bit after clawing my way through barely eight chapters of the candy route. I did it this way since, if I remember correctly, this particular order was recommended by V, or someone else involved with the production of the epilogues. I think such an order was... an okay choice? I didn’t feel particularly affected by it in hindsight, but I feel as though the upgraded prose and general non-wackiness made me feel somewhat better after the sinister experience of the candy route.

I’ll progress by listing the things that I enjoyed or liked about the meat route first.

1) As I mentioned before, I’m quite sure the prose and convoluted narrative were toned up quite a lot here, along with being linear and not feeling like a mess beyond rectifying. It’s more comprehensible, in spite of about forty six chapters worth of content and so many details to catch on to. There seems to be some sort of purpose within this route, rather than the capricious nature of its complement, which is something I can respect. It still feels sort of unstable, since there’s just so much shit to grasp, but I guess I’ll let that one slide.

2) Just like Homestuck was about honesty when inspecting the struggles, conflicts, and inner workings of teenagers, I feel as though the meat route did nicely in continuing that pattern. The characters clearly still continue having conflict through their adult years, and this is especially shown throughout Terezi and John, as well as the drifting relationship of Rose and Roxy, and the isolated state that Rose and Kanaya were in with each other; Likely being so entangled with their relationship that they distanced from others slowly, yet surely. I have no experience in the range of my early twenties yet, but I have heard other people comment that this captures the particular stage well. I feel like it does, too, since individuals can naturally go through general conflicts such as distance/isolation, mental illnesses, physical or emotional ailments, and so on during any stage of their life, whether it be as a young child, a teenager, or an adult. The depictions of John’s depression felt very, very realistic, and, on a more personable level for me, relatable. The numbing of emotions, the isolation from others, his self loathing, all just... very much captured what depression is really like, in a sense. Not everyone’s experience with depression is the same, but this felt very... close to me. It feels like the first time I’ve ever seen a character depicted with such an authentic struggle with depression, and even a character with such a genuine, visible struggle as a whole. I can’t put into words how reality-based this felt. The sheer fact that even in the epilogues, the honesty that life is difficult and filled with conflict is an amazing expansion to Homestuck’s already in-depth examination of such a thing itself.

3) The relationships are yet another point I’d like to make here, particularly Dave/Karkat and John/Terezi. Dave and Karkat still have this romantic bond, even if they were cagey when admitting it for a bit. They still love each other just as much, joke around with each other, support each other, feel good with each other, understand each other, and are happy with each other. That’s a lot of fucking “each other”s, but I’ll be damned if I can’t get the point across. It’s made very clear cut that they’re still very much in love, even in spite of growing political tensions and other conflicts. As for John and Terezi, it’s shown that they have this very unique bond that no other characters quite have with each other. Sure, they joke around and poke fun at each other, but most of all, they have this deep, innate connection in sort of relating to each other, in a way. They both had experiences with numbness, sadness, depression, and their own forms of trauma, and they were able to discuss some of this with each other on a very vulnerable level during that time. They discussed things that were important to them. Their relationship is also another thing that feels very authentic; Two young adults emotionally supporting each other and just having hope that the other has their back, especially in such trying, traumatic times. This particular bond was so strong that it even went into a romantic area, which also feels realistic, because couples supporting each other, especially under such dismal circumstances, is really fucking important. Although their former forms of communication were essentially two people having fun with each other and just fucking around with each other, this showed us that John and Terezi can reach such a wonderfully vulnerable point, to the area that they just connect so much that they’re in love with each other, whether it be redrom or blackrom.

4) As for the closing positive note on the meat route, I loved alternate Calliope’s role in this. She takes on this role that is to be expected of a fully fledged Muse of Space, what with taking command over the story in lieu of Dirk, at some points. She’s become a true conductor yet again, and she’s putting one of her sole hobbies, storytelling, to work just like before, although in a more expansive way. I think it was quite creative, having her narrate many areas of the story and involving herself in efforts to protect others as much as she could.

And now, I come to the areas in the meat route that I didn’t particularly enjoy or like.

1) For starters, I do really dislike this whole “horny Jade” concept that’s enacted in this route. I realize this is because of her dog hormones, but I find it... very perturbing and disgusting that she’s forcing herself in the midst of Dave and Karkat’s relationship, likely just wanting it to deteriorate so they can provide her with... services, and such. It’s especially horrid when you consider how uncomfortable Dave and Karkat respectively seem to be when she brings such awkward topics up. They stutter, flee, and whatnot, yet she still continues, as if none of it is a blatant warning sign. I don’t really know how hormones or even dog hormones work, but... I’d appreciate a sense of social awareness for her if possible, at least down the road. It feels... off of Jade to be doing such a thing, when, even if not the most selfless of people, she is generally quite courteous and respectful of others and their boundaries. Perhaps the hormones are the cause of her seemingly nonexistent cognizance of their discomfort around her during these times, but it still... unsettles me. I suppose we’ll have to find out later, if they happen to expand upon the topic.

2) Then, there’s my... sort of antithesis to my second positive, if you will. While I did particularly enjoy the realism that this route had to offer, it feels a little too unhappy, dismal, hopeless, what have you with your dejected adjectives and the like. Certainly there are some good things, such as Dave/Karkat and John/Terezi bonds, but I feel as though, at this point, the negative state of the meat route’s narrative outweighs the positives greatly. Jane is likely a new threat to Earth C’s society, seeing as she’s this Condesce-inspired fascist and a xenophobe now in office with likely unwell schemes of her own, John is very likely dead for good and died on a very depressing note due to his mental state, Dirk is in his Ultimate Self mode and seems to have quite the advantage at the moment along with Rose as his hostage, Terezi is still depressed and conflicted, Dave and Karkat wallowed in losing the election by nearly consuming alcohol, but also by going back to their typical shut-in lives, nobody knows about John and never seemed to have supported him, aided him, or cared for him much at all in the beginning and the end, Davepetasprite^2 died, and... overall, everything is looking extremely grim. Not to say that I don’t invite conflicts, challenges, and the like to be apparent in media that I like, but it feels... empty. Hopeless. Like nothing is left, nothing is redeemable. It just felt... Too depressing, too poignant, and angsty for me. Naturally, nobody is going to resolve issues such as these overnight, and not everyone or everything in a story will necessarily be happy and perfect in the end, but this feels like such an overdrive to me. Especially since I’m going through a very troubling time in my life at the moment, it makes me feel bitter; Like none of this can be ameliorated whatsoever, and the story is doomed to be depressing and dismal forever. I simply hope it will end on a slightly better note than this in finality, even though not every single problem will be solved right away, and isn’t bound to be solved in the end. I just want some sort of hope for all of these characters.

3) I’m not sure I’d consider this a negative due to reformed views I’ve had from other posts, but... Man. Dirk, y’know? I’ll include my original thoughts and post-reform thoughts here anyway. Initially, I thought this particular Dirk was extremely OOC; Only inserted into the narrative just for last minute villain perks, or some shit like that. It felt like such a shell of Dirk’s former self in the sense that I thought this development came completely out of nowhere for no discernible reason. I thought that it was a complete oxymoron, since Dirk’s arc was supposed to detail a young man with self-loathing issues attempting to cope with his toxic alternates; To, perhaps, create a new slate for himself even in the wake of his flaws and the actions of his other iterations of himself. But I realize now that Dirk is likely undergoing a very advanced and more self-restrained form of this so called Ultimate Self. This means his original self is sort of merging consciousness with that of his alternate selves, such as Lil’ Hal, Bro Strider, ARquiusprite, and a potential sliver of Caliborn, since ARquiusprite was a part of that particular soul. These conditions considered, it very well would make for an actual villain of himself, an intimidatingly cognizant and even powerful one, too. I suppose that, as fan speculation detailed, Dirk’s Ultimate Self is not necessarily going to be the most courteous, amicable being ever. Quite the contrary, in fact. And his mannerisms begin to make sense when considering the Dave/Karkat segment Dirk had, along with his odd commentary on gender discussion. Seems very Caliborn-esque, although it may be a combination of others, too, since his consciousness is merged with multiple Dirk splinters.

4) And for my final negative, I’m going to discuss Roxy’s gender identity. A very welcome surprise, I’d say, because I also said trans rights. Anyway, my essential issue with this topic is how it’s treated within the narrative and within dialogue. It almost feels like this sort of joke from the producers of the epilogue, in a sense. Maybe the shitty “Check Your Privilege Dave” joke is still nagging at me, but I just have this odd... feeling that this isn’t being treated seriously, especially with how Terezi seems to instantaneously point the pronoun change out almost in this shitty method of humor, and how Roxy is experimenting with pronouns quite often and comes off as hesitant when they first come out as nonbinary. I’m going to take this judgement with a huge grain of salt for now, because it’s not outright offensive, and seems to have well intentions. I suppose I could easily be being a pedantic fuck, looking too hard into things and having too much apprehension. Although, if it is a joke, I’d be very disappointed to learn so, seeing as V affirmed that the crew consisted of LGBT+ people who intended to make the reading experience safe and open for the community. Still, I’m going to presume I’m being just a bit too skeptical for the moment.

That’s pretty much all of the points that stand out to me for now. I’m honestly unsure of how this epilogue will turn out or where it will go for the most part, but I’m certain there will be a continuation at some point, perhaps even with a third choice that may combine both meat and candy in a healthy way somehow, or maybe avoid both concepts altogether. Either way, I hope things turn out okay in the end, or at least that the epilogue will end on some sort of happy note, even if some conflicts and issues are still ongoing.

EDIT: Do I consider any of this to be canon, including the meat route, within my own head? No, I really don’t. It’s just... a little too far gone for my tastes, but power to ya if you like it and consider it canon. It’s also sad to see that Dirk stans are hurting from this new development within him, so honestly, I give y’all a collective pat on the back. You deserve it.

#epilogue spoilers #hs epilogue #homestuck

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