✨ MANIFESTING ✨

hey *whispers* hey. hey. i saw your post in the wow tag. i would read THE SHIT out of your interpretation of wow lore. i have homework right now but i think i might just read through your blog a bit. the characters have always been such a high point for me (listen. i know knaak did a lot of shit. but you can pry Krasus from my cold dead hands he was EVERYTHING to middle school me) and i feel so conflicted over what theyve done to the characters - sylvanas, anduin, everyone. would love ur take

You might be a little disappointed, most of my blog isn’t about WoW (it postdates my WotLK raiding/RP guild phase, and I’ve only just recently got back into it with Classic). Lots of opinions on WoW characters below the cut.

I actually don’t hate Krasus as a character. He’s fine, he’s not a Designated Idiot Ball Carrier like some of the others are. In re: the dragons generally, I don’t like the simplistic thing WoW lore does a lot where one faction leader going bonkers turns the whole faction into baddies for no apparent reason, because all political entities are monoliths except when they’re not. I’m also not a huge fan of how crowded the, erm, metahuman bureaucracy on Azeroth has become in the lore–like, the Keepers and the Dragon Aspects serve similar roles, and the lore could have done fine with one or the other, and the dragons were here first (and Ysera and Alexstrasza are BAMFs), and so should get to stay.

Sylvanas is bae, obviously, and Sylvanas as Warchief was a terrific move plotwise. I think it’s a pity they had to kill Vol’jin to do it (because I am also very here for Warchief Vol’jin), but she is obviously the more interesting choice. Speaking of Warchiefs:

Thrall doesn’t have the Green Jesus Marty Stu quite as bad as some people think, but he does kinda have it, and I don’t see them grappling quite with the fact that he done fucked up. Like, not only did he install a Warchief who should have had all smart members of the Horde tugging at their collars nervously when he started his rule, Garrosh turned into a Sha-summoning Old God-corrupted, casual-atrocity-perpetrating maniac, not to mention all the bullshit on Old Draenor I do my best to forget about lest my blood pressure spike. We don’t really get a satisfying mea culpa from Thrall for that, and then his response is to fuck off to fiddle around with the Earthen Ring for a bit, before retiring to a farm in Nagrand. Keep in mind, one of the whole reasons the Horde came together in its current shape in the first place is because of the charismatic, hopeful figure of Thrall. It ran the very real risk of splintering under Garrosh for good (ESPECIALLY after the murder of Cairne, RIP Cairne Bloodhoof, you were too good for this world), and even the most unifying successor (which I think Vol’jin was) didn’t have Thrall’s inclusive, unifying vision. Sylvanas doesn’t, either, and even more, is sort of low-key hated by everybody else, so while I don’t think she’s a maniac like Garrosh who would recklessly divide the Horde, she’s also not, I am forced to admit, necessarily the ideal Warchief from a political standpoint.

Even if he didn’t return to the post of Warchief, Thrall had a moral obligation after the Garrosh debacle to try to help hold the Horde together and heal the divisions his negligence caused. At least to throw his support behind Garrosh’s successors, and not to pretend that Deathwing’s death meant everything was OK forever, job done. And if he wasn’t going to do that (and he has excellent motivations for not wanting to do that!), I think the consequences of that have to be explored. I think some people would blame him, and be justified in doing so. I think somebody like Varok Saurfang, who has had decades of experience with the damage bad leaders could do, would rightly be a little pissed, even as he sought Thrall out for help, that Thrall had let the Horde he built languish under subpar leadership. Thrall has been selfish–and that’s great, because he desperately needed some character flaws more significant than “cares too much” and “believes in people a lot.”

Anduin: better than Varian, still a little bland? Varian was a Professional Idiot Ball Handler, who seemed to do stuff not out of a coherent conception of his character, but just because the plot required a Generic Human King to do it. Plus there was all that stuff with the cloning and the kidnapping that never really made any sense. I like Anduin’s optimism; I like that he feels like a thoughtful, reasonable guy, who’s doing his best in often-impossible circumstances. I feel like they could show him being a little more frustrated sometimes, though, and a little pissed at people like Jaina who obstinately refuse to do the strategically correct thing even if it means setting aside their resentments for a bit. Disclaimer: I play almost exclusively Horde toons, they may address this better in the Alliance quests in WoW.

But oh man, besides the Draenei, I hate most what they did to Jaina. Jaina was that rare jewel, an optimist in a world whose setting demands perpetual chaos. Yes, yes, Theramore and the mana bomb, I’m not suggesting she should be made of stone, but it breaks her character to have her suddenly go from someone trying to forge a lasting peace between the Horde and Alliance in WC3–to the point where she would see her own father dead–to someone who now blames the whole Horde as one no exceptions for what happened at Theramore. Should she struggle with grief and pain and anger? Absolutely. But she should deal with them in more complex ways than “now I am become the mirror image of Daelin.” Nevermind that even if she did that she should at least regret not listening to him back in WC3. (Do they address that in BFA with the introduction of Kul Tiras? Idk, I haven’t played BFA at all yet.) It seems like Jaina’s role now is to be the Person Who Hates The Horde, and honestly, that’s a tired trope. It’s just not interesting, it has no nuance, it has no interesting outcomes. You could maybe get away with it with the generation of leaders from the Second War like Daelin and Genn who knew the Orcs only as the fel-corrupted servants of the Burning Legion, but it’s obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together than the current Horde is a very different animal politically and strategically, so even if you hate the Orcs with a burning passion, that is not going to transfer to the Tauren, nevermind onetime allies like the Blood Elves.

Gul’dan: oh my god the time travel plot was so stupid. Did the whole universe get duplicated in the alternate timeline? Since travel between the universes is cheap and easy that means there’s a whole nother Burning Legion with a whole nother Sargeras out there that’s still a huge fricking threat! Not to mention a whole nother Azeroth! Did just Draenor get duplicated? That doesn’t seem to match up with the fact a lot of the Burning Legion characters in WoD seem to be parallel universe versions of Burning Legion villains we already know, but it’s not directly confirmed or disconfirmed. Is it some sort of weird Bronze Dragonflight timey-wimey thing that doesn’t have its own independent reality? Ok, fine, but obviously this alternate Draenor has enough of an independent existence for us to visit it again and see what it’s like decades later, not to mention bring some of the people there back. Gul’dan was a fine, if one-dimensional villain but bringing him back from the dead was dumb, dumb, dumb, in a setting where death often feels meaningless and seems to be reversible at random. And the general incoherence of magic in the setting combined with the perennial incoherence of time travel plots (Gollum voice: *we hates them!*) really just reduced WoD to a quivering mess of plot holes, like febrile fan speculation made manifest.

Tirion Fordring: good example of a purely heroic character done well, which WoW has few of. I think because he actually has challenges to overcome, and he doesn’t feel like an idiot.

Bolvar Fordragon: Literally did not know or care who this guy was until the Wrathgate cinematic, but what they did after that with his character was terrific, 10/10.

Malfurion, Tyrande, Illidan: These characters all bore me to tears. My WotLK main was a druid, and I’m a big fan of the druid lore, so I wanna like Malfurion, I really do, but he’s just so dull. Partly because it doesn’t feel like he has any real limitations on his power, just whatever the plot demands he be able to do or not do at any given moment, partly because he just feels like a stiff-necked scold. Tyrande is even more one-dimensional. Illidan is pure 3edgy5me, and the demon hunters in general feel like they get to be too cool to actually traffic in any of the pathos of what should be their emotional equivalents like the Death Knights and the Forsaken. It’s like, “oh man, my life is so tormented, I have these bitchin’ horns and tattoos, and I’m, like, totally immortal, here, hold my rad sword thingies for a second.” At least with the Death Knights you get the feeling that being a Death Knight is a genuinely miserable experience, so there’s some genuine conflict at the heart of the class: sure, you play as a hero, but not the kind of hero you’d necessarily want to be. Demon hunters are just pissed they don’t get to sit at the cool kids’ lunch table, and Illidan genuinely acts like a giant asshole and then gets self-righteous and whiny when his friends and family are like “Dude! Stop being such an asshole!” There’s room for a prickly character, who’s a dick, but who’s our dick, and maybe that’s what they were going for, but Illidan is just the worst.

Azshara, Lady Vashj: The Naga were a giant fucking mistake. A symptom of the inability to let backstory stay backstory, to have to resurrect and retread the same events over and over again that plagues serials when lesser writers without original ideas get let loose on them. Settings like WoW (like Star Wars, like Star Trek, like Dune) are whole universes. You should be expanding the borders, making them feel bigger, more fine-grained, more alive, not beating the same major characters to death over and over again. The ancient Kaldorei are way more interesting as a lost past and a lesson in hubris than fish-snake-people who live under the sea.

Also, water levels are dumb and I hate them. This applies to coral-and-shellfish themed zones regardless of whether swimming is involved.

Cho’gall: I loved the “insane nihilist death cult” reincarnation of the Twilight’s Hammer Clan in World of Warcraft, and Cho’gall as the many-eyed crazed ogre mage with two heads was great. Would much rather have more Cho’gall than Guldan 2.0.

While I’m on Cataclysm: one thing you don’t often feel in worlds like WoW is the possibility of real defeat, because for extradiegetic reasons, it’s impossible to truly lose in any long-lasting way (or, in quests like Battle for the Undercity in WotLK, they just… don’t let you, which feels dumb as heck). I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, a world where the bad guys won, and all the worst things the good guys feared came to pass. I think this is one reason I loved the original interpretation of the Draenei so much, because we saw in Draenor what that really looked like. It was bleak, and it was poignant, and even though it was set within a silly melodrama, it actually moved me. Cataclysm did something similar with the postapocalyptic time-travel instance (time travel being used well for once in WoW!), where you saw that Deathwing’s victory wasn’t just an abstract possibility, but a thing that could actually happen. It made the possibility of defeat feel more real, and it gave you a taste of that same bleak, poignant feeling: this, it said (just for a moment!) is what failure looks like, an Azeroth without life, without hope, in which everything you ever struggled for was utterly in vain. And that motivated you to work even harder to prevent it.

Alleria, Turalyon: “You last saw us in WC2, and since then we’ve been fighting a thousand years (subjective) of endless war against the Burning Legion and been irrevocably changed by the experience” is actually pretty great! But if I were going to rewrite WoW lore, I would make that a thousand objective years and set the final victory over the Burning Legion in the future, at a time when the Alliance and Horde have made a durable peace, and Azeroth has moved on from decades of endless war. I think there’s a real problem with trying to make the player one of the heroes that brings down Sargeras for good because it’s *such* an epic battle, but it’s a massively multiplayer game. Making every player the grand master of their class order was bad enough, but when you are obviously playing out entirely different diegesis from everyone around you, even if you didn’t have problems like sharding and a glut of phasing and cross-server activities and instant teleportation to dungeons, it really feels like a single-player RPG with a chat function. I mean, conflicting diegeses is always going to be a problem with questing-based MMOs, but suspension of disbelief worked when you were plainly one person embedded in a larger effort, like in vanilla, BC, and WotLK. But “you are one of thousands of people who is the Best Warrior Ever and sole Leader of the Warriors, and who has the Only Artifact Weapon that somehow also has thousands of copies”… yeah, that just doesn’t work for me. I feel like I’m being pandered to, and not in a fun way, like with the Pandaren.

Sargeras: I like that they retconned Sargeras to have a better motivation than “demons made me nihilistic.” The idea of a void-corrupted titan being something so terrible a member of the Pantheon would shatter worlds to prevent it is interesting. But the Void gods still feel… kinda non-threatening? We don’t see them actively working to threaten anything we really care about, the Void is mostly a pretty passive abstract force like the Light, and in general I feel like the setting isn’t really dualistic, but er… trialistic? Is that a word? In that there’s a three-way opposition between the Void, the Light, and the Nether/Arcane, from the perspective of which each is the opponent of both of the others, but that’s never laid out explicitly anywhere.

[Review] Kamen Rider Build - Episodes 38-41

It's time for an actually timely review for once! I seem to be bucking the whole "I'm consistently halfway into the month when I decide to catch up on last month" trend.

Episode 38: "Mad World" (マッドな世界)

So we ended last month on two big cliffhangers. For starters, Evol now has what he has declared is his final form, which is kinda neat - typically you only see the "final form" term applied to the main Rider, and its origins are with the final boss of a video game, so here it's 100% on point. 

But we also discover that having Sento be possessed by Evolt resulted in his brain being kind of jumbled back together, meaning he remembers being Katsuragi Takumi. It seems like this would be an obvious thing to have come up at some point, in retrospect, but of all the times for it to happen...

As everyone makes a hasty retreat from an overpowered Evol, he decides to take a moment to do some kind of ssspace magic, turning some Fullbottles into these black and gold variants - thanks to magazine reveals, we know these are called Lost Fullbottles...

Anyway, Katsuragi proves to be an unsettling one for everybody to be around since he doesn't entirely trust Ryuga, he makes half-hearted apologies to Misora for using her, and he has a real emotional argument with Gentoku which I'm sure will be elaborated upon in the Rogue spinoff. This scene was interesting since they do some cool editing to alternate between showing Sento's actor and Katsuragi's actor in the same outfit.

When it comes to the whole presentation of Katsuragi being "brought back", there's ways this could go that could be a little bit... clunky, and I don't know if I can properly put into words why. I guess the best explanation I can think of is, it'd be real weird to me if this involved his face turning back to normal as well, because then you'd have to figure out a reason for why he'd want his face changed back that isn't insulting to Katsuragi (since the point of this subplot is to redeem him). Basically I'm glad we just got Sento's actor with a different personality.

So what the hell is Evolt doing right now? Well, to keep that actor involved, Evolt just decided to take on Soichi's appearance because I guess he can do what he wants. That's probably gonna be used to trick us at some point. He's decided that Namba has an ultimatum to answer to: Let him rule the world as a whole while Namba is just a prime minister of Japan, ooor he dies. At the same time, he gives Utsumi an offer to join him since he's a very useful scientist... which both seem like things that wouldn't meet in the middle, but just you wait.

Things get interesting as Utsumi tries begging for help from Gentoku, everyone else (minus a bitter Kazumi) is getting involved, and Katsuragi is staying in the lab working on the block item Sento pieced together before. When it comes time for Utsumi to approach Evolt in Pandora Tower about the ultimatum, Utsumi instead unleashes some Hard Guardians, the gear bros, and suddenly even the other Riders show up! I gotta imagine this was in reference to the talk he had with Gentoku since Kazumi is indeed nowhere to be found. I would have liked to see the moment where Katsuragi agreed to all this but it was interesting to see him try fighting. Especially since he specifically had trouble with a form SENTO invented. Cute.

Then something unexpected happens: Evol takes out the gear bros! They got powered up earlier in the episode with the implication they would die from any further nebula gas dosage, but I figured this was a seed planted for several episodes from now. Nope, one falls, the other switches into Hell Bro mode, then takes a hit from Evol to protect Great Cross-Z. He dies realizing that fighting for the sake of others actually feels pretty good, after seeing how Cross-Z seemed to be stronger for a previously unknown reason.

So, I feel like the gear bros are characters I can completely see others getting attached to, and I HAVE seen that, but they ultimately didn't do much aside from look cool. And if I'm being critical, I'd say they have 3 things that make for a weakly written character: If you make them too cool then they're flawless and boring, if you make them too stoic then there's not much room for personality, and if you focus too much on them being a duo then they have no idividuality - they're just the gear bros, which I've always called them since I can never remember their actual names. They had their moments, as few as they were, but I kinda leave these two deaths with a shrug and "Huh, didn't see that coming."

Then shortly thereafter, Evol kills Namba! And it's so beautiful becaue not only does Utsumi watch it unfold in terror on a tablet, where he can't do a thing besides watch from the camera Namba was recording from, but Evol also fakes him out with a laugh and a hug then turns him to fucking dust. It's so brutal, enough to make a man crack.

And I think he might've, considering Utsumi's memories of being a brainwashed Namba boy flash before him as he laughs maniacally and gladly joins Evol. With a duplicate Evol Driver, he uses a clever pair of Fullbottles to transform into Kamen Rider Mad Rogue, which we will see in more detail next episode! But it's a real cool suit. It's basically all of Night Rogue's suit with color changes, which makes for an interesting Rider suit. Plus, y'know, bringing us aaall the way back to when people found the BatEngine sound on the belt and wondered if Night Rogue would become a Rider.

Episode 39: “The Genius Can’t Be Stopped” (ジーニアスは止まらない)

And so, Mad Rogue takes on everyone with pretty great ease, which isn't surprising since he's a new Rider. Despite not wanting to take part, Grease shows up to help them escape, and once we're back at the cafe/lab we see that Katsuragi still isn't trusting of Ryuga. He's pretty much decided that Ryuga is part of Evolt, and even though Ryuga keeps telling him he's now fully human... he has these strange visions that appear to be from Evolt's memory of destroying Mars. Which is weird since one of them is from the perspective of someone seeing Evol. But maybe that's intentional.

Katsuragi has created what he believes is the ultimate bottle, combining the ingredients of all 60 Fullbottles to form the Genius Fullbottle. Misora isn't impressed, however, because Katsuragi lacks a certain heart that Sento had, which bothers him. He's left with even more to think about as a weakened Gentoku tries desperately to move so he can go fight and redeem himself for his sins.

Katsuragi goes out to fight Mad Rogue, but as he tries using the Genius Fullbottle, it won't activate - something is stopping him. As he takes a quick beating, Great Cross-Z jumps in, giving a wonderful speech about Sento was A DAMN HERO OF JUSTICE and making Katsuragi really come to terms with what Sento had that he doesn't. It's something that will use the Rider system for good, and put a stop to Evolt, so he has no choice. With Katsuragi literally standing face-to-face with Sento in his head, he puts his trust in this person to do what's right. Sento's back, baby.

With his new gadget, Sento transforms into Build's final form: Genius Form. A suit covered in 60 Fullbottles, which happen to be uniform enough to make one red side and one blue side. Super fun transformation.

So, Genius Form has grown on me, and it's certainly had time to. The form got leaked like 6 months ago, and... man, I dunno how that happened since we didn't get proper confirmation that it was legit until more toy catalog stuff came out. That was a leak that made me go "Oh I hope no one got FIRED for that".

Anyway, next episode.

Episode 40: “Ending Revolution” (終末のレボリューション)

Once Mad Rogue tries to fire away at Build, he finds that he's severely outmatched. Build is damn near bulletproof and can move at speeds he can't keep up with. Not only that, but we learn that Build's new bottle can actually get rid of the effects of the nebula gas, which I assume is what he does here to weaken Mad Rogue - otherwise I dunno why they showed it. He unleashes a finisher, then is rescued by Evol. But not before Evol randomly hits Kazumi just to take the Fullbottles his former comrades used to transform into Hard Smash.

So this is a thing we got mention of in episode summaries a while back. These episodes deal with "Lost Bottles", which is a term also brought up in the show by Evolt. I THINK what's going on here is some miscommunication between the show writers and toy developers, because the black and gold bottles are officially called Lost Fullbottles in promotional material for the summer movie and are being called Lost Bottles here. The reason why I think it's miscommunication is simple: Katsuragi referred to the Genius Fullbottle as the Genius Bottle. I'm decidedly going with what sounds like the proper designations.

Back at the cafe, everyone is still processing the fact that Sento is Sento again. He seems to remember all of Katsuragi's memories up until the Skywall incident, so there's that. Gentoku is going through some identity crisis of his own as he has decided to become a gag character - he's dressing informally for once and-- I kinda like him better this way. And I'm glad the sound mixing department knew that the scream from his transformation item was made for comedy.

After a whiplash change in tone, Sento is thinking about the Lost Fullbottles that Evol referenced, when suddenly the voice of Katsuragi pops up in his head with some answers - Katsuragi never made these bottles, but they were made by his father. Sento decides to go to Hokuto, and it just so happens Kazumi also wants to go there to sneak into Faust and retrieve his comrade's bottles. Ryuga, for once in his entire life, recognizes these are all stupidly risky ideas and just gives Kazumi his (apparently now repaired) Dragon Sclashjelly in case he needs it.

While at his mother's old house, Sento finds an odd photo in his father's belongings: A woman by the pier with a boat. I thought this woman was familiar, and it's because she's one of the victims from one of the first episodes who smuggled them to another location by boat! I remember how nice it was to see a victim used that way. However, Sento finds it odd that his father had a photo of this woman in his belongings since he SHOULD be dead, and a Guardian - which would not have been around at the time he was alive - is seen in the background.

Meanwhile, Kazumi does something stupid and sneaks into Faust in disguise, only to be caught and be given more nebula gas - enough that he might die if he loses a fight. He manages to escape, but is cornered by the Hokuto prime minister, who's become Evolt's latest experiment: A Lost Smash. This is a combination of a Hard Smash and some Clone Smash, and he considers it to be this monsters' final form - so it's cool we get that kind of lore for these monsters! She uses Kiba's old Fukurou Fullbottle to transform and beat the crap out of him, only for Build then Mad Rogue to enter the mix.

As Grease feels like he's on the ropes, he thinks about the idealistic speeches Build always gives and about how he's letting it get into his head - using the Dragon Sclashjelly in his own belt, he suddenly gains TWO Twin Breaker weapons, along with a significant power boost!

So, this is another talking point, because if there's anyone that fans wanna see with a new form, it's Grease. He is truly the Necrom of this show, except Necrom's eventual power-up was a whole new weapon, whereas Grease just gets two of the same weapon he had before. So that's a little disappointing. But hey, Necrom did get a new form in some post-finale material - here's hoping they keep the V-cinema thing going and you get a Grease movie!

So, Grease overpowers Mad Rogue, sending him running, and Build uses the power of his bottle to deliver a Rider Kick to our new Lost Smash to safely defeat her and undo the effects of the nebula gas. After she wakes up, it seems like she's come to her senses and the effects of the initial Skywall incident have worn off, so she's become a decent person again. Evolt shows up, however, to proclaim that he's going to use the Lost Fullbottles to create a new world!

And then we get a most unexpected twist if you didn't think too much about the previous photo of the boat woman. She talks with Ryuga and Sawa and she remarks that she did indeed know Katsuragi's father, because he was just there the other day... which means he is very much still alive.

Episode 41: “The Best Match Truth” (ベストマッチの真実)

Picking up where the show left off, Evol tries taking on Build in his new form, and Build manages to catch him before he can switch to his strongest form, which gives him an edge. He does some kind of change to Evolt's body genes, but we don't know why just yet - all we know is he's excited about it.

Hot off the heels of the realization that Papa Katsuragi is alive, the boat lady passes on a USB device to give to Sento, which contains several documents on his inventions, but for now we're getting details on the Lost Fullbottles. I did a post about it, so I'll just say the key parts here: Gathering 10 of the black Lost Fullbottles causes something that defies the laws physics, which certainly raises the stakes. Also later we learn about the origin of Best Matches which is beautiful and tragic, but I also talked about that in a post. Good stuff.

This episode also provides us with a proper recap of the show so far, with the meta commentary I love from the cold openings, and it kinda tosses out a fact I hadn't even caught onto: Every Smash has been a person connected to the group in some way, be it a loved one, a possible witness to an event, or even one of them, like Sawa. But that brings into question who the guy from episode 1 was.

We don't have to wonder for long, as Sawa manages to get enough info on him to know that he was connected to Katsuragi's dad. Sawa arranges a meeting between him and Sento, which he hopes will get him closer to his father.

Meanwhile, we've learned just what effect Build's new form had on Evolt, as he tells all to his masked ally in Faust's lab. It seems that up to this point, Evolt has just mimicked human emotions, but Build's attack has basically caused him to gain actual emotions. Now he's feeling high on life and it seems like he's just being quirky... but there's some implications to that.

Sento meets with the man, but he reveals that he was sent to attack Sento as another Lost Smash, proclaiming that he'll be killed if he doesn't follow orders. Build finishes him off safely, and he starts to learn the truth, until Evol shows up and kills him instantly, then explains that Build's attack gave him emotions. Then Evol attempts to turn Build into a Smash using a bottle he has, but Build's form neutralizes it, allowing him an upper hand. As he successfully starts overpowering our main villain, Evol's rage begins to build up, then he disappears.

That's when Build makes a sudden realization, which the show pretty quickly passes by despite how alarming it is: If Evol has emotions now, that means he can gain a higher Hazard Level and become stronger and stronger.

Finally, Evolt returns to Faust's lab with two more Lost Fullbottles taken from Build during their fight, which means he's up to 6 - only 4 left to go before something unfathomable happens. Then we end on the proper face reveal for Evolt's lab buddy: Katsuragi's father... who I will probably have to start calling by his first name eventually. BUT NOT TODAY.

So that was one hell of a month of episodes! And this latest one tells all, what with the Lost Fullbottles and the motifs of the Best Matches explained. It's actually kinda sad the show's almost over... only a couple more months now.

Next review, however, will be something different.

Yeah. See you Next Build.

In defense of Drarry (Why they are compatible)

Draco shows signs of being interested in Potter and Harry gives in to him and returns that as well. It's hard to ship Harry and Draco together because they are very complicated and complex. Their relationship is the most challenging one because they have to face many obstacles. To understand how they would work out together, one must really look at the clear picture and be open to the idea of male/male together because if someone isn't then he/she wouldn't even try to consider the possiblity of the two together or any other characters. Those people tend to focus more on the negatives then the positives and that's another main factor why people can't stand Harry/Draco as a couple. There are others as well but that is just one example. Harry and Draco have mixed signals towards each other because each of them thinks one thing which means another. For the relationship to work out, they need to communicate one on one more and just the two of them alone without any interruptions. Harry and Draco are very similar but yet so different as well. A relationship can't work if two people are the same because it requires some minor differences too. Ever heard the saying, "No two people are alike?" Harry may get along with other's and share some similarities and differences here and there but the point is, no one is the same as another person even if they do have things in common. Each and every individual is their own person. There are more differences between two people then similarities. Harry and Draco may not even think for one second they share the same interests and that's different from how the readers view that as. They are fictional characters who think something which may or may not be true without realizing it and then the readers can pick up on whats goes on and such. Another thing, a relationship can't be interesting if the couple has only similarities and no differences, none for that matter. Being too alike is just boring and not fun. Although one is Halfblood and the other pureblood it still isn't much of a big difference. Pureblood and Halfblood are pretty close if you ask me. Draco's behavior is the direct result of his parents ignorance and racism. That's how he was raised to act. From the second a person is born the parents take control and action. It's their responsibility to teach the kid right from wrong or one way over the other. Anything they say or do is going to have an effect on him/her later on as they get older. Draco's parents did not do him justice instead the total opposite. Harry's parents on the other hand died while he was just a baby and they couldn't really do anything to help him in any way. shape or form. He was placed into the home of the Dursley's who hate his parents and him. They didn't really pay him much attention. Harry has many choice's of his home and Draco can't pick and choose because he has to do everything his parents expect him to because of their selfish reasons and poor attitude. You think Draco wanted to turn into a bully? No way, that wasn't his decision. He wanted things done differently. If he could go back and change something it would be his lifestyle and parents. Harry has people who are close to him such as the Weasleys and Hermione and that's about it. Sirius and Dumbledore died so he lost them and they were like his family. Draco has no real friends and family support which is sad because he can't discuss his problems with anyone and get help when he needs it. He is alone in the world. Anyone who fights against Voldemort and wins victories is considered a miracle, not lucky. He is the most powerful wizard of all time. Sometimes I think Voldemort doesn't even give his best to kill Harry. Maybe he wants Harry to live. Again, Draco doesn't only have one side to him and I don't like when people only think that. Deep down Draco has a side to him none of us have ever seen and the characters. He has a completely different personality. He wants to hold loyalty to the Malfoy name and obey his parents to make them satisfied and happy. He can't do anything he wants for himself because that would be betraying his whole family and that's not something he wants either. So he is stuck. Harry has freedom and an open mind because no is able to control him and tell him "I want you to do this and that" he doesn't have any restrictions. Harry also has no rules to follow. Draco has Totalitarian parents who tell him what's necessary and what isn't. Harry doesn't take dislike in Draco because he saved him from the fire and that's risking your life for some you supposively claim to not like. He may dislike Draco but not hate him and vice versa. There is a big difference. Draco has other qualities then just one. Keep that in mind. Being a slytherin or Gryffindor has nothing to do with whether or not Draco or Harry dislike each other. From the beginning, Draco wanted Harry's friendship but received a rejection instead which started the rivalry. If it hadn't been for that one incident then everything happening between them now wouldn't be. There would be a different type of relationship. If Draco hadn't insulted Harry's friends and people he loves then Harry and Draco would have become friends despite the houses their in. Growing up in different houses has nothing to do with how they treat other people. Draco grew up with a wealthy family and gets everything he wants and Draco has been locked up in a cell his whole life and didn't have the opportuniy to do any activities. He was always treated unfairly and abused emotionallly and mentally. Draco gets thing handed to him as long as he does such and such. So just because they also have different hair color they can't work? That is the most stupidest thing I have ever heard along with the mention of the house thing. They do have similarities. Both are in connection with Voldemort. Harry didn't couldn't choose to not be the-boy-who-lived and Draco coudln't choose to not join the dark side. Both play quidditch. Both have the same classes. Both know how to fly. Both are the same age and gender. Both have a difficult life. Both know how to ride a blue. Both of them fear something. Those are just a few of many. Draco doesn't intend to be mean. It just happens. A part of who he is. Being a Malfoy is not an easy task. He doesn't want to disappoint his parents and or betray them because that in his case would be considered wrong. Sometimes in life, things don't always go as planned. He insults people because Harry didn't befriend him in first year because if he had then he probably wouldn't be like this. Harry would have become his friends if Draco didn't throw the insults at the people Harry loves and cares about a lot. The results would be different. He is a human being who makes mistakes. Besides, Harry himself is not perfect either. Both of them have faults and fears which is normal for everyone. Neither is better then the other. Both of them are equals and have a very powerful dynamic. The only person who can truly influence Draco in a positive way is no one other then Harry because everything Harry tells Draco he takes to heart and vice versa. They cause each other to react with emotions and feeling something no one else is capable of getting them to do. They are rivals not enemies. They are extremely competitive with each other and their relationship is intense to the point when it's enough. They just don't know when to quit. Perhaps this is a game they have been playing from the start. There is so much Harry/Draco subtext in the books from "Harry hadn't been less interested in Quidditch, he was rapidbly becoming obsessed with Draco Malfoy" to "Harry you are a bit obsessed with Malfoy to "I wan't to see what Draco is doing inside you" those are just three examples. There are more from the first book and so on all the way to the last book and it just keeps building up. Instead of saying obsessed it could have been something like, "Harry wanted to discover the truth about Draco Malfoy" to give us the impression he isn't stalking him or following him around. It could have been worded differently. We already know the only reason Harry even became obsessed with Draco is because he wanted to find the truth about Draco's plot to kill Dumbledore. The point is he is obsessed. That's a canon fact whichever way one looks at it. The attraction is noticeable only to those who are more open minded and want to look for some evidence. It's all written in between the lines. That requires focus. Harry and Draco do not only lack Mutual disdain. One minute they are fighting and the next there is a moment. As for the attraction thing, Draco is more obvious when it comes to that and Harry shows it through his actions. They are clearly infatuated with each other and give each other a lot of attention. Harry and Draco know more about each other then they do about other people. That's the one thing I hate when people refer to Harry as the Hero who saves people because he is Harry Potter the-boy-who-lived. He can't save everybody because that's highly impossible. If it were possible then no one would be dead. If Harry really loathes Draco then he would have let him burn in the fire and die. He did not save Goyle but instead saved Draco. Goyle died in the fire and Harry could have easily risked his life for Goyle but no, he went after Draco. Harry and Draco are nothing without each other. Everything they know now is because they found each other. They overpower each other with words. They both know how to get under each other's skin. It's like a cycle repeating over and over again to no end. Now Peter Pettigrew is an entirely different story. This isn't about him but if it were then Harry probably saved his life too because he used to be an old friend of his parents even though he did betray them which hurt Harry. He felt bad about the whole situation, Peter did. Draco/Harry relationship is intriguing and intoxicating. It's like an addictive drug. Harry and Draco need each other for many reasons. They complete each other beyond comprehension. They can sense each other's presence and know how to start a commotion and make a scene. They don't even try because when they are around each other, it all comes naturally. No one tells them to argue, they just do it. They can't even be away from each other. They only insult each other because they can't really express how the other feels especially when they are surrounded by so many people a day. They don't even have any alone time, barely. Harry and Draco have to say everything that's expected due to their houses who want to hear the negative rather then the positive. People spend most of their time listing and focusing on Draco's Negative characteristics instead of taking into consideration the positives. Draco is not only one person. He has a different personality deep within himself which he isn't allowing himself to show. We never get hear Draco's point of view and a glimpse into his mind to see how he truly feels. People just disregard that. Their relationship is very developed because it kept getting stronger each year and it changes throughout. In this relationship you can always expect the unexpected. Harry and Draco are unpredictable. No one knows whats going to happen. The relationship is exciting and anticipating. Harry is the only person who can cause Draco to change for the better and vice versa. A relationship needs committment, determination, loyalty, respect, honesty, love, care and an understanding. Harry and Draco shouldn't change for each other but remain who they are. The only think Draco would need to do in order to be Harrie's partner is to apologize to his friends and everyone he loves. The apology needs to be convincing and rael. It will take a long time before all those people can forgive him but they will know he did it. He should first start with Harry because he is the main target. Then move his way from there. Harry and Draco are possible. Nothing is impossible. I believe Draco and Harry would have a beautiful relationship if they did get together or do. People seem to underestimate them. They have so much potential.

Stairway to the Stars

Also on Weasyl and AO3! 

~

       The world was always the same. Everything was a boring old grayscale, everybody did the same old stuff everyday, and Sylvia despised all of it. It didn’t help that she was a natural-born rebel - The Empire was in charge of everything, from the tiniest speck of dirt to the murky clouds up above. Sylvia hated every single detail about the emotionless land, especially since she already knew she wasn’t born to fit in.

       The young girl was on the run, having just escaped her father’s wrath and escaping to the safety of her room. As she dashed down the pewter-colored hall, booming footsteps hunted after her, accompanied by the crazed yells of the approaching predator.

       “Sylvia Hart, you get back here right now! Somebody has to teach you a lesson, young lady!”

       The sound of her father’s voice was irritation to her ears, but Sylvia didn’t care about her dad. She didn’t care about his “undying loyalty to the Empire” or his constantly aggravated attitude toward his own daughter. She didn’t care if she got caught, berated, and beaten by him again. Sylvia disagreed with the godforsaken way her world ran, and she knew the world itself disapproved. As Sylvia ran down the hall, nearly tripping over her footsteps, she heard the enraged screams close in on her.

       “Sylvia, if you give up now, maybe I won’t get the stick out again!”

       The girl froze, remembering the sheer pain she felt when her father beat her with that devastating weapon, but she couldn’t waste any time. One step lost meant less time gained, and she refused to allow another one of her nightmares to come to life. Bringing herself back to dreadful reality, Sylvia returned to her run. The boring gray doors camouflaged with the just as boring walls, but her mood perked when she caught sight of her sliver of hope: A sole golden doorknob protruding out of an endless wall of nothingness.

       Bingo! Sylvia felt her heart beat with joy when her escape entered her view, but her father’s thundering footsteps reminded her of her true mission. Shoot! I didn’t expect him to catch up this quickly… I just need to go a little farther, then I’ll be able to lock him out of my safe zone. That should be able to deal with him for now… Anxiety and energy flowed through the young girl’s veins as she raced to the knob.

       It’s either make it or get punished, Sylvie, she thought to herself, and I sure as heck know which choice I want to get.

       With her beast of a father getting closer and closer, Sylvia lunged toward the gold knob and rushed to turn it. She then shoved herself inside, slammed the door shut, and locked it with a small click!

       Safety at last… She gave out a slight sigh as she allowed her emotions to finally calm down. She propped herself against the door, taking deep breaths in an attempt to pull herself together, but the sudden pounding on it caused her to flinch. Sylvia kept her full attention on it, as if the monster on the other side would break through at any moment. She made sure to keep her senses honed and her guard up as her father spouted threats from the other side.

       “Open this door and get out of that room right now, young lady!” He continued to bash on the door with as much force as he could muster, screaming his fury to his trapped prey at the top of his lungs. “Sylvia, I swear by the Empire, I will beat you to death if you don’t face me right now! If you won’t change that goddamn stubborn personality of yours, then I’ll do it for you!”

       He might as well beat the door to death too if he wants to hurt me so much. Heck, why not let the Empire get me themselves? If he praises and adores them so much, he might as well rely on them for the rest of his life. Sylvia kept her thoughts to herself, knowing all too well revealing them would only result in even greater trouble, but she knew how her father was. She knew everything about his violent, savage, and outright abusive nature, and she refused to keep her mouth shut and silent under his tyrannical, iron-fisted rule.

       “I don’t care if the whole stupid military comes after me! Nobody’s in control of myself, and I’m not going to give in to the fucking Empire no matter what!” Sylvia snapped at her father with a screech, rage rushing through every part of her veins. “When will you understand I wasn't meant to be a part of this crazy world?"

       The girl's anger soon turned into frustration, which ultimately subsided into a strange disappointment. In that moment, she didn't care about her father contemptuous comebacks or the cruel, vile punishment she would definitely receive - The only thing on Sylvia's mind was the saddening fact that she was different. There was no escape from this monster.

       Ignoring her father's infinite complaints, Sylvia left the door and slouched to her pastel blue bed. A tiny sliver of glee ignited within her as she appreciated the only splash of color in her dull old room, but gloom was quick to douse it. Her mood turned grim, and she plopped herself right on the bed. She then shifted her position to lay on her back, lifted her arms toward the ceiling, then looked at her palms against the dimmed yellow lights.

       That was when the symbols reappeared. After waiting for just a few seconds, Sylvia recognized the ever so mysterious icons on her hands. Glowing a dark blue, they resembled an oddly-styled lowercase M ending with an arrow of sorts. The girl sighed with displeasure as she spoke her thoughts out loud.

       "Hello again, you two," she said with a tired tone. "Mind telling me what you want from me this time?"

       An empty moment would pass before Sylvia would speak again. "Of course you won't tell me anything," she huffed. "You enter my life for some weird reason, completely endanger it without my permission, cause me to be a social oddity in this barren hell of a world, and not once give me a single clue about why everything ended up this way. At this point in my life, I should pretty much be used to all the trouble you've put me through, but…" She retracted her arms and turned to her side, preparing for a well-needed rest.

       "I guess some troubles just never go away."

       Upon reopening her eyes, Sylvia jumped after being greeted with an entirely different sight. There were no boring walls or the annoying sound of her father's shouting. Instead, she was surrounded by space, her bed acting as the only raft she had in all of the cosmos.

       Where am I? Where the heck did everything go? Thoughts swirled around Sylvia's head as she frantically looked around her strange environment, but her attention was caught by nothing but a simple cough. Upon turning her head to the noise, a very strange being appeared before her: Clad in a flowing white dress and equipped with large, feathery wings, the being looked like an exact duplicate of Sylvia, details and all.

       "Who the heck are you?" The girl blurted out. " Did I die or someth-"

       To Sylvia's annoyance, she was silenced when her strange doppelgänger stopped her words with the lift of her palm. She yearned for all the answers, the only remedies to the poison her crazed concoction of questions tainted her with, but her eyes became transfixed on an unbelievable sight: Sylvia's angelic twin wore the same exact cobalt M on her palm. Confused as ever, the young girl switched between looking at her own decorated hands and her duplicate's hand, only focusing her attention to her other self when she began to speak.

       "I will answer all of your questions, Sylvia," the angel spoke in a calm, serene voice. "I can understand if you are confused and have a vast plethora of questions to ask."

       Of course I'm confused, you dummy! I literally go to sleep for a minute, and the next thing I know, I'm in space talking to a weird version of myself! Sylvia struggled from ranting about the obvious to the angel, but she did so for a good cause: She was in an unfamiliar place with a definitely unfamiliar person - If she wanted answers, she needed to pay attention, not speak her mind.

       "Allow me to introduce myself first. My name is Serena, an alternate universe self of, well, yourself. However, unlike you, my life was not a constant struggle to survive in a cruel, unfit, and horrendously corrupt society. Instead, I was praised as a savior, using my unique powers to protect and defend my world." Serena then revealed her other palm, emblazoned with the same blue sigil, to emphasize her point. Afterward, she brought her hands back to herself and became silent, giving Sylvia the perfect opening to say a few words of her own.

       "So… You're an alternate universe version of me who lived a better life than I did. That sounds like absolute nonsense, but considering your weird getup, I guess that… sort of makes sense."

       "That is correct, although I should make it clear that I did not die, and neither did you."

       "Huh?"

       "You see, Sylvia, despite my angelic appearance, I am still alive, flesh, blood, and all. I have simply harnessed my powers to stretch beyond the boundaries of my universe to arrive in yours and assist you in achieving your special destiny."

       "’Special destiny?’ Didn't I - Well, the both of us, really - already have my own special destiny? I mean, just look at the glowing blue symbol things on our hands! If your 'special destiny' was to be a hero or something, then I'm fated to be a complete outcast in mine.”

       “Oh, Sylvia,” Sylvia whispered as if she had one more hidden secret to reveal,” that is not your fate at all.”

       Before Sylvia was able to respond, magic appeared before her very eyes. A staircase comprised of shimmering starlight manifested right next to Serena. The glittering stars embedded within them led each step upward toward the heavens until ultimately ending at a just as magical platform.

       Entranced by the sheer amazement of it all, Sylvia found herself staring at the stairs until eventually shifting her attention to Serena, who seemed prepared to provide her counterpart with all the answers she oh-so-desired.

       “Sylvia, upon unlocking the unique powers you and I both share, I was dawned upon with vital information: The symbol we carry is the sign of the Scorpion, Scorpio.” A wide grin stretched across Serena’s face as she displayed the effervescent cerulean symbol atop her palm. “We were born to defy the law, Sylvia, to shatter the shackles attempting to encage us. Our souls are blessed with the unstoppable urge to bring justice, to make the world a better place no matter what comes our way, and to, in essence, rebel. The best part about carrying a sign, however…” She lowered her voice to a whisper again, a slight hint of excitement seeping through her tone.

       “Is that we’re not alone.”

       Serena brought her hand upward toward the platform in the stars, beckoning Sylvia to turn her eyes to it. It was in that moment the young girl was exposed to true one-of-a-kind wonders: An older-looking girl peered at Sylvia, a red sign resembling a curved V stamped on her forehead. A young pair of twins played with each other as yellow icons bearing resemblance to the Roman numeral 2 appeared atop their cheeks. A boy wearing a white tank top watched Sylvia from up above as his purple dual zigzag symbol glowed on his abdomen.

       They’re all like me, she realized about her unbelievable discovery. All of them have the same weird quirk as I do, and I never knew.

       Questions after questions were popping up in Sylvia’s mind, but all of their answers seemed to arrive when Serena spoke. “Every single one of them, including you, were destined for greatness. There are still more of them - We are awaiting about eight more signs - but together, they are able to change the world into something better. The wretched universe you live in could become a utopia, but only if the Scorpion joins their cause.” The angel paused to give the girl a meek yet firm smile. “What do you say, Sylvia the Scorpio? Do you want to be a hero and have your legacy written in the stars?”

       Sylvia knew this was definitely an impassable once-in-a-lifetime offer she just couldn’t refuse, but she found herself hesitating. An alternate universe version of myself is recruiting me to join a ragtag team of people who somehow have the same colorful symbol thing going on with them too. All of it honestly sounds unbelievable and too mindblowing to be true, but… She looked down at her palms, the sign of the Scorpion pulsing a bright azure. I won’t have to deal with Dad anymore. I won’t be threatened by his abusive ways and the Empire’s constant tyranny and I can finally be… free.

       The young girl brought her head back up to shoot a confident look at Serena. She then bounced off her bed, standing on the flat cosmos beneath her, and strode over to the angel with an aura of determination.

       “Well,” Sylvia began to answer, “somebody’s gotta be the rebel to rewrite all the rules.”

       With an affirming nod, Serena flapped her feathery wings and took to their air, making her way to the platform above. As she watched the angel fly, Sylvia made her own way to the stairs, clenching her hands and feeling the natural rebelliousness of the Scorpio flow through her veins when she took her first step on the stairway to the stars.

Justice League #15

Well, it's got to end sometime, I suppose.

Okay, maybe she's not a time traveler. But she definitely knows what's going on in the future. So she's some kind of time something or other. Probably a Time Witch.

• Superman and Batman learn from the Infinity Corporation that something is rewriting time. You know, the way that sometimes happens. Usually it only happens when an idiot believes a thing they think they remember even when the proof that they're remembering it wrong is right in front of them, like that book with the incestuous bear family and that movie with the African-American Djinni. But in the DC Universe, when something changes in the past, things are rewritten slowly enough that people with a time traveling office building can pick up some hitchhikers and try to set history right once more. Although what is right, really? If the Infinity Corporation hadn't picked up Superman and Batman, they'd be fine! It would just be slightly different versions of them in the new reality. Which might be the better reality. Or maybe the real reality! If time can be changed so easily, whose to say this change wasn't setting it back to the factory settings?

This is how philosophy can be misused by idiots. He's got the whole concept backwards. It's not "The future is malleable so the past must be too!" Because that's fucking nonsense. It's "If the past is immutable, why would you think the future was? Boom! Free will is an illusion!" It's so obvious. Once you make a choice and the present becomes the past, it can't be changed. So why would you think you ever had a real choice anyway? Fate, motherfuckers!

• Also, the guy's ability to philosophize is terrible if he's saying things like "You think somebody ten years in the future reading about you fixes your choices?" Of course that doesn't work! Because the future isn't happening simultaneously with the present, dum-dum! I mean, I suppose it could be. Without our ability to observe it, all history would just happen in the blink of an eye. Our observation slows it down. So why can't it all have happened spontaneously and immediately. That's why some beings are omniscient, like dolphins and gerbils. • During the United Nations fight, Cyborg winds up in 31st century Metropolis beside Brainiac 5. I guess they're all surprised by this happening because The Flash quickly distributed all of the bracelets which kept them from being obliterated by the Timeless. • The Green Lanterns wind up in the 26th Century where Washington, DC, has been devastated. It's probably been that way for five hundred years now. • The Flash winds up in Central City on the day he received his powers. Apparently they've all time traveled to different points in time where the Timeless have set up "temporal nukes." See? It's easy to get your heroes on the mission when you have somebody from the future saying, "This is what is happening and here is the problem and now off you go to solve it!" • Molly the Keeper explains that if these bombs go off, the fans will be super fucking pissed again. A whole new DC Universe! This time it won't be Wally and Steph and Cassie who disappear forever. This time, it'll be all the superheroes. Which would make for a really boring DC Universe. I'm not sure even I would keep reading any comic books telling stories from it.

I wish every time somebody said this in a time travel movie, they'd get punched in their stupid face.

• From this moment on, whenever anybody asks me, "Where are we?" or "Where am I?", I'm going to reply, "When might be a better question!" • Batman and Superman wind up in a time when Earth has built a bunch of scaffolding around the planet. Hopefully somebody will tell them that they have a temporal nuke to disarm. The Ranking! No change! If I wasn't being so lazy and not wanting to change the sidebar, I'd probably drop this a ranking just for being another terrible "The present is changing because of time travel shenanigans that must be corrected!" bullshit story. I mean, isn't it lucky that Molly the Keeper appeared to help everybody save the current timeline! Without her intervention, time would have just changed and nobody would have been the wiser. Readers probably would have been confused though if they picked up What's the Justice League? #15 about a bunch of people who don't remember the Justice League and never mention them at all in whatever boring tale of mundane life Bryan Hitch decided to tell. Probably a story about an artist who is trying to finish the facade of a building with a ton of tiny details on it but he has to pee really fucking badly. Does he finish before he goes? Does he go before he finishes? Does he make a huge mistake in one of several possible scenarios?!