Just some random thoughts on the 3rd Arc (Spoilers Below, Swearing)

Honestly, I think the 3rd Arc would have been better if it was a self-contained story.

No traveling to Pyrrhia, no characters from the 2nd or 1st Arc. Animus magic wouldn't be taken away (Boa might still have done that, but since we never travel back to Pyrrhia, we never know).

I mean, it feels like the main characters of the 1st and 2nd Arc had their time to shine, and with their addition to the 3rd Arc... I can't help but think that they take precious time away from the characters we're supposed to follow. Sure, it's nice to see them again, but personally, I'm just here for the Pantalan dragons.

There were so many things that were set up and NEVER resolved or utilized.

The Chrysalis? Just a couple chapters in a book, then NOTHING. Where's the big uprising? Where's the part where SilkWing slaves gain the courage to fight off their masters? "Oh, SilkWings are so helpless they need help from Pyrrhia dragons to save them!" I call bullshit.

Flamesilks in the cavern? Forgotten.

Queen Wasp? Surprise! She got kicked out of the big baddie role for fucking scavenger, and then she just got a slap on the wrist for all the shit she did. We don't even have the satisfaction of watching her be defeated, we were told. She was an amazing villain, and it's such a shame she was swept under the rug.

Don't get me started on scavengers suddenly becoming a big part of the story for... some reason? Honestly, they should have just stayed unintelligible rats, IMO. Humans are always a big part of basically every dragon book in existence, and it grinds my gears SO MUCH that WoF did the same. I'm here for the DRAGONS, I don't want to read about humans! I thought you were different 😩!

The ending of TFoH was so goddamn rushed, I kept looking at the pages, thinking, "What? That's the end of the book???? Where's the rest of it?"

It's just... the canon story is a clusterfuck. I love The Lost Continent, The Hive Queen, and The Poison Jungle (mostly), but the lackluster ending really soured my experience. I don't know if I could ever read it again because the ending is just so disappointing.

It's such a shame. Because I really do LOVE the dragons of Pantala. HiveWings, SilkWings, and LeafWings. The designs of Pantalan dragons are so interesting and fun! I can't help myself but keep drawing them. That won't ever change.

Some good news and some bad news regarding Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The good news is that now that the strikes are over, production of Season 3 is set to begin next month! This is good because there have been rumours swirling around possible cancellation in the wake of Star Trek Discovery being ended after its 5th season. But SNW continues (Lower Decks has also been renewed for Season 5). The only caveat to that is Paramount Plus still cancelled Star Trek Prodigy even with its Season 2 complete, so nothing is a guarantee anymore. (And even then, it's been reported that Prodigy S2 will at least get some sort of Netflix release).

(Further good news is Season 2, with its amazing musical and Lower Decks crossover episodes, is set for Blu-ray release before Christmas.)

The bad news - though this is likely educated speculation on Screen Rant's part - is the possibility that the 10-episode 3rd season my be split, with only 5 episodes airing in 2024 and having to wait till 2025 to see the rest. Aside from that wrecking viewer momentum, those 5 weeks will come and go very quickly. If this news is correct, though, they could be telegraphing some sort of 5-episode story arc, which should be good but I actually prefer SNW's episodic format as it better supports the type of experimentation we got with not only this past year's musical and part-animated episodes, but the episodic format is what made TOS what it was. No official word on any cast changes, though I will be surprised if S3 doesn't reintroduce Dr. McCoy in some fashion.

I haven't written much about SNW but it's my favourite of the live action modern Treks. I stopped watching Discovery and Picard but SNW has kept me. I've had songs from the musical earworming for the last week or so after I rewatched it. And I greatly appreciated the time-travel episode "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" for finally canonizing an explanation as to why the prequel series haven't always lined up with what we know as canon from TOS, TNG, etc. which as far as I'm concerned frees the writers to deviate and retroactively serves to rectify canon issues dating all the way back to some episodes of DS9, never mind Enterprise, Discovery and SNW itself. I will explain for those who don't know but I will put a spoiler break here for those who might be waiting for the Blu-ray or haven't had a chance to stream season 2 yet. If the break doesn't appear below, stop reading now if you don't want the spoiler.

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The episode reveals that due to the many time travel events over the years (including ones we haven't seen on screen by enemies of the Federation; the episode relates one involving Mary Queen of Scots (in-joke for the actress) what we have been seeing in SNW etc. is an alternate timeline. Maybe not as extreme as the Kelvin timeline of the films, but events such as the Eugenics Wars - indeed, the birth of Khan himself - were delayed by decades. This major change to the timeline - and then you fill in the blanks by factoring in even minor changes such as the guy who accidentally killed himself with McCoy's phaser in City on the Edge of Forever, Sisko replacing Gabriel Bell in the Bell Riots, the Voyager crew going back to 1996, Archer and T'Pol heading off agents of the temporal cold war in the early 2000s, etc. - and you can see how it's possible that things progressed differently resulting in SNW and Discovery being more technologically advanced than TOS-era ships should be as established in TNG, DS9 and Enterprise that used the original tech and designs. Also character differences, like Pike's crew being aware of T'Pring and Khan when Kirk's crew in TOS did now despite Spock having worked with La'an Noonien-Singh and Kirk being aware of La'an's feelings for him. Or the lack of reference to Kirk's brother, who dies in a famous TOS episode, having been former Enterprise crew. And it literally stems from two lines of dialogue. It's exhibit A of how quickly and simply a show like Doctor Who can fix things.

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks..

Of course I don't mind! This is a tough question though, because the scope is too broad, so I'll list some recent ones that come to mind.

Bokuto Koutarou (Haikyuu): Such a talented and fun character! But the reason I love him a lot is because, contrary to the way fandom reads his character, he's quite smart and extremely perceptive. As we saw in the 3rd Gym arc, he doesn't go through training mindlessly and when asked, he was able to condense three years of his experience into useful advice in a non-forceful manner. He's the real star (together with Yamaguchi) behind Tsukishima coming to terms with effort and volleyball. Again, contrary to people that make it all about Akaashi or Kuroo. I can give a 3 hour long ppt presentation about Bokuto.

Julius Novachrono (Black Clover): I recently started reading Black Clover so I'm around chapter 200. Julius immediately became a favorite because of his glimmering eyes, childlike curiosity towards magic, and compassion towards other people. I generally like characters that are unbelievably strong but instead of going around acting big, they just... vibe. And occasionally cause problems for the authority with good intentions.

Kageyama Shigeo (Mob Psycho 100): Talking about characters who are unbelievably strong, I couldn't NOT mention Shigeo. I ugly sobbed watching the last season and it never ceases to amaze me the way One incorporates the notion of power into his works. Forever proteccccc!!!

Bocchi (Bocchi The Rock): This series was easily one of the best one, especially in terms of its visual prowess, I've watched in a long while. I love Bocchi because she's an anxious mess and a lot of the time she's running away from reality, thus dream grandoise dreams on the daily, which is... very relatable tbh. She's also extremely cool when playing the guitar.

Emilico (Shadows House): I love Emilico because, she's a smart and strong young woman, but not in ways we conventionally define "strong" or "smart". She's a quick thinker and very practical, and her strength lies in her ability to move others and create a support system where everyone can rely on others when needed. I'd like to be friends with her!

Minare Koda (Wave, Listen to Me!): I'd probably think twice before befriending her but gosh she's a ball of fire! And it was so much fun watching her fuk up a lot but manage to somehow make it through the day! Plus, people who can find stuff to talk for hours unprovoked have my respect.

Sieon (Love For Sale): This is a BL manhwa by Dal Hyeonji that I will never EVER forget and will always carry in my heart. Sieon is the older male lead who works in publishing and he's one of the most, if not THE most, well-written characters I've come across. I felt like I had a lot of similarities with him and appreciated greatly that among the generic romance stories, we got one that was able to look beyond the cliches and was able to show there are different ways to love people romantically. Another 3 hour long Ted Talk topic for me.

Mitsuya Majime (The Great Passage): The Great passage is a series that I always remember fondly and Majime is the serious (like his name) quiet and book-loving male lead. He's especially particular about words themselves and I felt like he was my spirit animal. Love him to bits.

Karlyle (Define the Relationship): Another character from a BL manhwa. I'm super fond of Karlyle because he's so tender in every way. I adore characters (and also, tbh, envy secretly)who are naive but not dumb, maybe a bit inexperienced and they take smaller steps/are timid but always work hard towards what they want and are honest to themselves about their feelings. This probably won't make sense if you haven't read the manhwa, sorry... But I just want to encourage him and pull him into a tight hug! Deserves the best!!!

Katsuki Yuri (Yuri!!! On Ice): I wrote my thoughts on his character before on my Twitter (you can read it here if you'd like) but... yeah. Another talented, sweet, lovable character that I felt lucky being a part of the series' fandom and watched it week after week together with other fans!

Honorable Mention // Higuruma (Jujutsu Kaisen): His arc was brief, but packed the biggest punch for me. His backstory and fight with Yuuji will be the arc that I'll never forget in Jujutsu Kaisen. Masterpiece.

Hope this was interesting enough! Have a nice 2023 ~

Okay so, someone said they wanted this so

Here's my idea for a better setting/story starter for arc 3

Also just as a notice I haven't read book 14 or 15 so keep that in mind

So here we go

So I propose, Wasp after becoming queen becomes increasingly paranoid about being overthrown and having her throne taken. Mostly her paranoia manifests with the idea that her daughters (she had had before coming into queenhood) are planning to overthrow her, or even worse team with other tribes to overthrow her.

She becomes so paranoid about this that she was convinced that one of her daughters was secretly planning with the silkwing queen to dethrone her. So she kills them both (in secret), and just goes, yeah, silkwing just become a part of my kingdom since you don't have a queen.

Wasp's thought process is too get rid of the major threat of the other tribes with queens that aren't her, who can plot against her. And soon to to eliminate her heirs.

The silkwing integration actually goes well, they are regarded as just another part of the kingdom by most hivewings.

However soon after this, there is a failed killing of the leafwing queen which sparks war between the two kingdoms. And this war has been going on for many years and has been in an on and off state forever. And book 11 starts in the longest stand still of the war.

Back around the beginning of the war, Wasp started to neglect the care and giving of resources to the middle to lower class hivewings and silkwings. She is starting to provide the most support for the rich, the ones who fight for her and those who endorse her.

And this brings a spark of revolution to the minds of silkwings. Who are beginning to talk in secret, gaining the support of hivewings who are beginning to become irritated with Wasp's lack of support. Leading to the creation of an underground rebellion of the mistreated members of the kingdom.

Near the beginning of the first book in the arc the rebellion hasn't been able to do much because of the tightening of surveillance of the hives. After a particular incident where via a tip the royal guards managed to raid a meeting of some of the rebellions more important members. Which then lead to the very publicly reported on threats that Wasp made to anyone out there who planned to rebel against her. That they would meet the same fate that these members did, which was death.

This scared many people outside of the rebellion but to the rebels this only made them more determined to succeed in their plans.

And that's pretty much my idea for a better background to the 3rd arc. Maybe if enough people like this one I might try and see if I can reconstruct book 11 with this base.

S4 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. thoughts, spoilers I guess. Though I haven't watched since the end of S2

AOS has been this thing that I’m too obsessed with not to track down spoilers and GIFs but I can’t actually watch. So I’m kind of thrilled for the actor, and for my favorite character, that he was missed too much to stay gone. I still don’t trust them to respect the characters or the audience. The showrunners don’t even know what actors do… The only reason it was *such a twist* that Grant was Hydra was that Brett had no freaking clue. They didn’t trust their writing to lead us there but not reveal it, they didn’t even trust the actor to play a man playing a part!

Further proof why I’m hoping but not expecting for AOS to get this do-over right:

1.They tried to redact the child abuse backstory to make Ward look more evil. that’s it. Just claimed we never saw it. Then revisited it in those amazing scenes with Christian. 2. Killed the character twice in less than a full season- between which they disrespected his corpse (didn’t even think about it really until it came back to life…) 3. The most important point to mention about Ward’s redemption has always been that, when he did all those terrible things, he did the worst of it to Fitz & Simmons. Fitz the most, because let’s face it, if it weren’t television he’d be struggling forever with what would be *hell* for a genius *engineer*. So if anyone had to the right to decide what to do to Ward it should’ve been Fitz.

Just in case anyone does read my rants, I know the end of LMD arc was crazy so maybe Brett will just slip into the cast like he never left. Grant will come back an entirely new man (for the 3rd/4th time?). I’d like Hydra having actually NOT defeated S.H.I.E.L.D. and everything be Team Bus again.

tldr; I am angry because Grant is back and I’m going to be too afraid to start watching again at least until the whole season wraps and I already know exactly what happened. I’d watch just for Iain but the show has been known to cut the science babies down to 5 minutes an episode, during which they torment them.