i’m sure this has been done before but. here’s the f1 2022 grid clone fucker alignment chart <3

have you done a “how I would fix that movie” meta post? I’m also interested in your stricklake manifesto or something about guillermo del toro’s horror sensibilities and toa

send me a meta prompt (currently closed); thank you for the ask!

how did you know exactly what prompted this lol

stricklake manifesto is...tentatively forthcoming. possibly. probably. stay tuned. while i know i've certainly thought about how i'd fix the movie (and not even purely for niche side blorbo reasons), but i'm not sure how compelling (or coherent) that end product actually is. 🤔

unfortunately my fixit of the movie starts roughly thirty seconds after bellroc vaporizes that poor pigeon in chicago (or wherever metrocity is) and diverges wildly from there. tldr: someone on team trollhunter remembers they're in a gdt show, and asks just why are they all blindly following merlin, anyway. is it barb? god, i want it to be barb. obviously blinky is like "because he's the esteemèd merlin ambrosius, duh" while all three changelings just look directly into the camera. merlin blusters. barb backs off. 

then, once merlin wanders out of earshot, she asks again.

i do think that would be probably the biggest single change. i'm very self-conscious when i sit down in my lil sandbox that i don't want to give barb another job; she has enough already, and she gets mommed by the fandom in a way i don't always think is malicious but which nevertheless generally rubs me wrong. but truly: who else is doing it like her? okay, sure, there's jim: until the last four episodes of trollhunters, his actual, textual superpower is his humanity. he then gets browbeaten into discarding it—the quality that has, until now, been his unique and cited qualification—because the guy who made an amulet out of his student's severed hand acted like he had some kind of moral high ground.  

barb, meanwhile, is also an extraordinarily human human. she's the normie! she's the clueless mundane, a single mother dragged into the supernatural by her only son.  and while she does freak out—rightly! understandably!—when the supernatural puts her and her loved ones in danger, she never speaks against it just for being different. obviously stricklander is the example i've thought about most here: she's mad when he comes back (again, rightly), but her objections are because you lied to and endangered and my son, not because you're a dirty changeling. she's mad (and hurt) when jim lies about fighting off goblins, but because she's scared for him! once the masquerade is broken, she's immediately on his side. she's also the only character to even try to make merlin answer for trollifying jim, even if it's presented humorously. best girl.

so. back to this theoretical fixit: i think barb would be the most natural choice to start the questioning, here. blinky would still push back a little, but with merlin elsewhere, nomura and stricklander don't have to worry about being nice; maybe aaarrrgghh would even chime in on their side (what exactly do the gumm-gumms think of emrys, anyway?). it's not an easy conversation. it's also not the last one. but it starts. for a series that is otherwise unusually arthurian, arthur in trollhunters is conspicuous by his absence. but you have merlin. you have morgana. you also—pace wizards' giant slimy monster, who was cute, but completely overlooked preexisting developments—have the lady of the goddamn lake: legendary enchantress, giver of excalibur, single mother of the best of knights. 

and, most importantly, the one who seals merlin in a fucking tree.

u see where i'm going with this.

once barb starts that question—well. i make no claims that this is recognizable, but you did ask how i would do it, lol. from this i can't help but feel it would cascade pretty dramatically. if stricklander and nomura united behind her, i think jim would follow. claire and toby after him. once the humans (and adjacent) are convinced, i don't think blinky could hold out any longer; maybe the smarter version of him other people keep seeing could be brought around to some kind of "trust, but verify." soft and stupid as i am about wretched wizard blorbos, obviously the order are still being assholes. we don't want them to actually burn it all down. but is that what they're actually trying to do? or is this just another received merlinian dictum? 

god—and if they got to talk to nari about it! once again, one of the biggest failures of wizards (and rott) was how utterly it sidelined its characters in favor of punchy punchy bang bang. this i know have written about somewhere: jim's reduction to a vicarious highschool bully fantasy, how bellroc was flattened into cartoonish, beautifully rendered cardboard-cutout evil, while somehow still staying the most consistent character in the room. stricklander—whose entire character arc in trollhunters was built on 1.) the infinite possibility of an individual for change and 2.) being the smartest bastard in the room—took the first step into his new life by marrying barb and then immediately paid for it with the stupidest death possible. (see a longer and much keener essay about this here, from @millennialmoviereviews.) i cannot overemphasize how frustrated i am—still, yes, i know, about a children's cartoon—about how that movie treated its characters, even ones (the tarrons! douxie! steve!) i don't normally have any investment in.

...but what if that changed? what if we took what used to be the gdt hallmark—sympathy for monsters, without excuse—and committed to the goddamn bit? jim reached out to bular back in trollhunters. yes, what you're doing is wrong; you're hurting people i mean to protect; but i understand you're hurting too, and why, and how we might not be so different. you don't have to do this.

then barb sends merlin to treeby deeby, and bellroc and skrael fucking kiss.

(and then go about actually protecting/repairing the balance of the world or whatever, but i know what i'm about.)

postscript. i admit i pick a lot on merlin. don't get it twisted: i think my own evil wizard blorbos were also complete dumbasses here. but i think part of the reason i am so invested in merlin experiencing a goddamn consequence is pretty closely related to the original reason i was so drawn to gdt's stuff in the first place, namely: decoupling "good" and "evil" from "normal" and "monster," respectively. i don't think this is too much to expect of a kids show, especially one for toa's age group. trollhunters does a great job of doing this—of allowing nuance, of showing how it's possible to think outside the frameworks you know, while still remaining accessible to children—and 3below kind of? tries to keep it up. i think. but wizards...doesn't. even for all it does (inadvertently or otherwise) end up pointing out how merlin and arthur, founts of the same authority, massively screwed up. i've also had many people point out that wizards was pretty much set up to fail: executive meddling, rushed production, etc. etc. which i do sympathize with. 

but it's still. tremendously bitter. to see six seasons' worth of such a unique message get discarded so easily. especially when this was done with such breathtakingly little love for the material.

i'll be honest idk how this works but i have a feeling you alr know my ships too well lmao. oli she/her & my mbti should be infp orrrrrr intp i can't remember hehe :D congrats on 1k cath!

No worries! After doing research it seems to me like you’re a INFP but I could be wrong. Also since you didn’t include sexual preferences I just went with whatever felt right but if you’d like me to redo it let me know it’s no problem :)

Anyway, on to the ship!

I ship you with: Sero Hanta!

(Pls this gif is so funny to me)

Congratulations you get one of your blorbos!

I love to ship my moots with their blorbos but rest assured I also genuinely think this would be such a cute relationship?? Like pls?? Where can I get something like what you two have??

Sero is great bc he is very versatile, he can be very laid back but he also definitely knows how to join in the chaos. (He also instigates things 100% for his own entertainment you cannot convince me otherwise)

I just feel like this would be such a good relationship bc Sero is always getting over looked but you, you noticed him and kept paying attention. You knew he was special. I just know you would cherish him and take such good care of him and that’s exactly what he deserves.

I’m sure he gets insecure about his quirk and maybe he gets worried that he won’t be a good hero or something and you would shut that shit down SO FAST telling him how much you love him and how he’s going to be an amazing hero. Your favorite hero.

And just imagine all the soft looks he would giving you 🥺 like boy constantly has an arm wrapped around your shoulders or your waist or is holding your hand bc he loves to be close to you and imagine him just standing there with his arms around you giving you such a fond look while you ramble about something you’re excited about to Mina. And she can see him simping over your shoulder and PLS WHERE CAN I GET ONE

In conclusion Sero is prime bf material and I couldn’t be happier for him to have found someone like you :)

gosh, im so happy u reblogged the character bingo I've been dying to send u him. the man. the myth. the fattest ass in the family. miya osamu.

THE WHOLE ASS, THE LOVE OF MY L I F E🤤

(As you can see I got very excited for this HA-)

Also I stole this format for explaining from my lOVE @meloomi I hope you don’t mind! 🥺💍

If they were real I would marry them: even aside from all my posts and my memes for Osamu, I genuinely feel like he’d just be an amazing husband. He understands insecurities about feeling inadequate or not enough *cough* atsumu u bITCH, he works hard, literally opened a restaurant, and I just… like he’d be such a good husband, give him tO ME-

They’re like a blorbo to me: assuming I know what blorbo means (which I probably don’t LMAO), there’s just constantly a song or scenario where he’s the star, and it does bring me plenty of motivation and excitement to introduce him to said scenarios and make it reality

They’re deeper than they seem: going back to the first part, I feel like the insecurity piece is just. So real. Yes, he was liked among his peers, people said he was better than Atsumu at VB, but nothing hurts worse than being told you’re not good at something, than by your own twin, who’s been by you since day one. All that comparison, yet still not approved by his brother. And I feel like that really stuck with him, and now that his brother is this successful player? Come on. That must sting

I like them enough to project my own issues onto them: lmao pls see above HA- also if you’ve read any of my osamu angst, or even some of my fluff? Those very much stem from a place of MY insecurities, or from a place where Osamu’s love and playfulness is something I so desire to have, but fear I may never get the chance to.

I want to carry them in a handbag like a tiny dog: uhm he’s the literal cutest and I’d take him everywhere. If he were real and he were my man, I’m flaunting you EVERYWHERE dawg

I’m mentally ill about them: again, assuming this means what I think it means, I’m an absolute wreck over him. He plagues my dreams and heroes my nightmares. I can conjure any scenario and stick him in it, hence why he’s my most frequented character. If there’s an idea I like and I can’t think of anyone else, I known darn well Osamu is a perfect fit, and more often than not, I HAVE to find someone else bc otherwise, everything I write would be for samu, I’m just. Like stop plaguing me sir, I’m already in love with a fictional character what more can I give-

They work better as a dynamic: even in the manga and the anime, him and atsumu were together. They were the OTHER freak duo, that twin telepathy is real yo. I also feel like he just doesn’t like to do things alone; he loves having support, be it from his teammates, his mom, tsumu, anyone who’s on his sideline (let’s not forget that scene where him and Atsumu practically beg for kita to keep his approval for them oh my GOD I CANNOT SOMEONE BURN ME ALIVE-)

They’ve never done anything wrong in their life <3: and you caNT CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE-