#it sequel baits but do people even know if its getting one?
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Marvel's Midnight Suns Deserved Better
I finally finished my second playthrough of this game, with all the dlc. On stream, and after a disaster dumpster fire of the game and stream obs lagging as hell, I just want to jot down all my thoughts.
Marvel's midnight suns is a perfect example of the modern gaming scene and why it's failing so many gamers.
The core concept of this game, the story, voice acting and gameplay are great and fun- but it has so many fucking problems.
From being visually buggy as hell- to optimization issues in the final fight- characters having soulless faces and textures going missing at random.. To the DLC and the price tag.
If you buy legendary edition, for 99,- (season pass, plus all the extra cosmetics) I'd say its not worth it.
The dlc add 4 characters, one of which has a bugged steam trophy- It adds extra story missions (which are fun, but they don't add much more than there was) and some more cosmetics for those characters.
Out of every dlc character, Storm felt the least developed. Storm has a similar problem to Steve in this game- in which their personalities are not really shining, and reduced to a singular character trait they have. The voice acting not being the problem- but the writing. While I can remember Venom's story, Deadpool's banter, and Morbius' emo shit making me laugh and tear up like hell- Storm really deserved better. All I can recall is saving the morlocks and doing one final mission were she happened to also be.
Steve is ''Mr leadership man''- Storm is ''hold your emotions in'' Lady.
Villains and dialogue- all the little things in the cinematics. It was great. You really care for Wanda- You worry about Hunter and their horrible family dynamics. You're concerned for Tony and the avengers when the Hulk gets caught- You mourn with the midnight suns when Wanda screams ''You will never hurt me again''
Corny superhero banter (which i love, but sometimes repetitive mid-battle lines get old.), cute evil devil doggo. Very sexy mephisto. Magik is frigging awesome. Blade x Captain marvel- Epic frigging final moves- and cool fighting animations. This game has so much going for it.
Sometimes dialogue will not match the subtitles, I assumed at first this is because you have a female / male voice actor depending on the bodytype you pick- so the dialogue must be different yes? But no- even all the other heroes have mis-matching subtitles to different dialogue lines. It's minor things usually- Like a word or sentence being said very differently than how its written.
But its essentially a cashgrab with texture bugs, deadpan doll expressions- visual glitches (enemies not disappearing after they're slain sometimes), copypasta idle animations and bodytypes- the further you go in the game, the more there seem to be of these little things. First they're funny- then it gets a little too distracting.
This game had all the building blocks of a great game, but it comes with the typical dlc problem too- and just doesn't deliver. It feels very empty promises eventually. It drops a nice typical after credits cutscene that teases Dr Doom and a potential sequel. And I wonder if there's even going to be one at all. Or an expansion instead.
I love each and every character brought into this game. (except for Steve and Storm, they just weren't done much justice.) This game made me like Captain marvel while otherwise I dislike how she is portrayed personality wise in other media.
The final mission should've felt like the most epic conclusion- and by how laggy and sparkly it is it feels like it just explodes in your face with what its been build up towards. A child and mother reunite- but they meet an open end. All after defeating the longest- laggiest- spammiest battle.
It's quirky, it's silly. It's got all the feelings. It has cool things in it and yet it feels very cheap. It should've been cheaper. But its still treated as a finished product. It did not feel finished. Even if I loved and enjoyed this game to the end.
My stream recording literally contains frozen visuals while the audio is in tact. I can't even. Sure my pc isn't the best but this is beyond absurd.
Voice acting 9/10 Majority of characters are great- everyone has a fitting voice. Some lines could've been better. Characters will banter and sometimes have unique dialogue for certain team combinations but not much.
Writing 7/10 A bit corny and predictable at times, but enjoyable nonetheless. Flawed stories tend to be easier to absorb and follow- Superhero stories follow such recipe.
Wish they added pronouns- To save on voice line costs they made hunter standardly nonbinary regardless of bodytype- so Hunter only has ''they/them'' pronouns. Isn't referred to as son/daughter, only child and gender neutral terms. This is completely fine, but I personally like to be able to customize my character more. This game offers no romance- but hints that Wanda may have a crush on the player character. You can't tell her you're not interested but you can joke that you're a couple with one dialogue option.. (I tend to make my PCs gay because I am a gay dude myself.)
The lore they used for this game was really intriguing. Chthon and Atum have some more appearances in the comics from what I can remember, so learning about The Blood and the Old gods mythology in particular in the game's universe did make me really like the backstory they gave the PC. Caretaker x Agatha lesbian witch moms. The hunter has three mothers canonically if you don't think too hard- but both Caretaker and Lilith are horrible people lol. Wanda is definitely the best character in this game, if not for the rest of the midnight suns- (Nico, Robbie, Blade and Magik are AWESOME) The avengers are here too, but they don't outshine the rest. Oh- and spider-man gets kind of adopted into both groups.
Gameplay Loop 6/10 Combat! It's fun and challenging sometimes but gets eventually and quickly repetitive. At some point you'll get more and more copypasta enemies with just different textures slapped on and similar animations. The DLC enemies are not worth it and don't offer much more. The dracula boss fights were the most interesting and felt a little rewarding once dealt with. Exploring the abbey with stale walking / running animation does not feel smooth. Crafting potions or items doesn't feel like it adds much sometimes. I've not used items often in my gameplay. The chests make me wonder if at some point they wanted to put more micro transactions in this game.
Pricetag 2/10 Honestly- Get it on sale. Big sale. Legendary edition is not worth it.
DLC does not add much to the core gameplay unless you really want those character interactions and dialogue. The side missions are fine story wise, but they aren't attached to the main campaign. Deadpool and Eddie have the most additional dialogue during abbey time and other interactions- Morbius has unique dialogue during a very few main story quests- and Storm just has the least. They slipped in the morbin' time meme.. I just.. PFFF its time to morb everyone- 20 bucks worth at least. If not less.
TLDR Game funny, characters great, fun but very repetitive, very buggy, not worth 99 euros- 20 maybe, stop making dlc with texture swap enemies please. I love deadpool. Great design but very unpolished in places.
#midnight suns#marvel midnight suns#marvel#video game#review#my thoughts#final thoughts#its not worth the pricetag#its worth the experience#good gameplay#questionable dlc practices#get it on sale#dont bother with legendary edition the cosmetics arent worth it#finished not perfect#polish it please#yet still feels unfinished#it sequel baits but do people even know if its getting one?#funny banter and silly superheroes#theres no romance its all about friendship
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It’s wild that in the Jurassic World movies they were like “we’re going to invent a new dinosaur!” And then for all intents and purposes made another T-Rex. Yeah for the characters it’s supposed to be smarter and stuff but to the audience the dinosaurs were always as smart as a situation needed them to be, yeah it’s bigger but I don’t have any scale and the T-Rex was already really big so after a certain point I can’t tell the difference
If you’re telling me this park needed a new wow factor to bring people in I don’t buy that a different color T-Rex would do it. They could have gone absolutely insane, taken some of the most iconic elements of different dinosaurs and slapped them together with the idea of “we’ll just put everyone’s favorite bits on one thing so that means they will love it even more” which also fits into the movie’s theme of making fun of the fact that it’s a rebooted sequel
Give me the scary jaws of a T-Rex but a long neck like a brontosaurus so it can now see way up high or around corners, maybe have it be extendable and retractable like some birds so it doesn’t look goofy all the time but have it be tension that they don’t know how long the neck extends
Give me crazy triceratops horns and stegosaurus spikes so it’s just weapons going in every direction, give me Deinocheirus long arms so it’s not even limited by the T-Rex stubby arm thing, make it able to swim like the Spinosaurus, give me acid spit like the Dilophosaurus
Fuck it, give it wings! I don’t care! I’m here to see people get eaten by dinosaurs, you think I care about physics? Give me a T-Rex with a long neck that can swoop down from the sky like a fucking dragon
Maybe have it be omnivorous and while in containment it was really docile and people were safe around it because they always fed it when they came in but then when it gets out and the humans are acting agitated and don’t have food it starts to get aggressive and tries to eat the people instead, so anyone who sees it and isn’t in the know thinks it’s safe
Hell, maybe it’s not actively trying to hurt people at all. Maybe to show off the different dinosaur talents they taught it tricks so it keeps trying to do the tricks for a reward and the tricks are now dangerous to humans and it’s not being fed so it’s doing them more and doing them more aggressively. Maybe it had a target it shot acid at or it would swim towards a moving piece of bait and attack it, or they would play a noise to make it extend its neck and investigate so now it automatically does that at unfamiliar noises, maybe it had things it was trained to smash with the spike tail or spear with its horns. Give it a seaworld/circus angle of “hey maybe these things shouldn’t be doing tricks for human amusement”
You’re gonna make it CGI anyway, why not make it cool! Make it insane looking! Make it even kind of silly at first until it gets out and all of a sudden all those things that make it silly are now actively coming to get you
#I just don’t understand why you took ‘new dinosaur we can invent’ and both times just made another t-Rex#jurassic park#jurassic world#dinosaurs
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Is Rise of the Guardians 2 possible? Yes!
Let's list all the facts supporting the possibility of another movie:
1. The director of the first movie is open to the idea of creating a sequel. "I'd love to be involved in something like that again, just because there are so many things I'd like to improve on from the first time because of inexperience or the circumstances that we didn't get to do.’’ (2020) The director? Peter Ramsey, the guy behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse!
2. Speaking of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Dreamworks started to experiment with 2D and 3D. Their newest movies The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots the Last Wish are huge critical and box office successes.
The Bad Guys earned $250.5 million from the $69–80 million budget.
Puss in Boots the Last Wish earned $263.6 million and still counting from the $90 million budget.
3. When we're on the topic, Rise of the Guardians wasn't a flop but it didn't make as much money as Dreamworks anticipated. The movie cost $145 million to make and made $306.9 million at the box office. With the new art style being cheaper to make but not dropping in quality future films will make much more money. And that's how it should be. Not getting more expensive and looking like an early 2000s CGI video game, Disney!
4. Dreamworks has no problem with making sequels even when there is a big gap between the last release. They announced Kung Fu Panda 4 for the 2024 release meanwhile Kung Fu Panda 3 came out in 2016. That's an 8-year wait while the original trilogy had about two 4-year gaps between installments. Between the original Puss in Boots and its sequel passed almost 12 years. Puss in Boots 2 also foreshadowed a potential sequel to the Shrek franchise for which the last movie was Shrek Forever After in 2010. The Croods came out in 2013, and its sequel The Croods: New Age came out in 2020. Again with huge positive critical and box office reception. $216 million from a $65 million budget. Dreamworks is the master of sequels!
5. Furry bait! People at Dreamworks have a connection to the internet. They know people went wild over Mr. Wolf and Death. Bunnymund voiced by Hugh Jackman? Come on, people will go crazy!
6. Great villain potential! Everybody is praising Death for how scary he is. People love tragic and complex villains like Ramses, Tai Lung, and Lord Shen. If Dreamworks leans into Pitch Black's backstory from the books they might create one of their best villains yet! I'm not going to spoil it.
7. Jude Law, VA of Pitch Black, will be in the Star Wars Skeleton crew and Pan and Wendy. Whether or not those projects will be good in their own right people will know him from those roles and might want to watch an animated movie just because he's in it.
8. Dreamworks wants to please its audience. Unlike so many creators who destroy franchises out of spite or try to ''fix'' them to their own liking, Dreamworks respects its audience, characters, and lore. I'm sure they know fans want more, but they only make a sequel if they know it will be great.
There is only one huge problem. Alec Baldwin, the voice actor for Santa, killed someone. In October 2021 on the set of “Rust”, a Western being filmed, Baldwin pulled the trigger with a live round, killing the film's cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins. I'm not going to get into detail. Find it on your own accord, there are plenty of people already cowering it better than I could.
The solution is easy, just cast a new voice actor.
It looks to me that practically everything is in perfect configuration for the Rise of the Guardians 2.
It also looks like Dreamworks has a new strategy. Release an original movie and then a sequel to the franchise, another original, and another sequel.
#Rise of the Guardians#Rise of the Guardians 2#dreamworks#Puss in Boots the Last Wish#The Bad Guys#Mr Wolf#pibtlw#Kung Fu Panda 4
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“My five stars danmei novels.” | Short maybe not short reasons why I like them.
🎋 —Yuwu.
carrd.
Another one by the Queen. I wanted to read Yuwu a long time ago, and when I finished it, I was extremely satisfied. Meatbun just doesn't fail.
Mo Xi and Gu Mang are characters that I both love and respect. In fact, Gu Mang is one of my best friend's protégé (in this parentheses, I want to cheer on her because she had to bear with my curses on a certain character at 5:00 a.m.)
Yuwu is a novel that shows the cruelty of slavery. It makes feel horrified when you read the pain slaves have to go through —people of high class often forgot that they were humans, just like them. The fight for their rights is depicted in the book and the way it was managed with was immaculate.
Yuwu also has two of my favourite things in novels: politics and cultivation. There are a lot of intrigues, and I want to mention that this novel is connected with 2ha and if you have read said book before, you'll understand more about the character's origins.
Did I cry? For God's sake, this is a novel by Meatbun. I remember I was traveling with my family when I was reading the last chapters and I was this )( close to cry in public. Meatbun just has a way to get into your heart with her words.
🎋 —Fanservice Paradox.
carrd.
This is my most recently read novel, and the first thing I want to say is that YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO THIS BOP NOW. Pozhen help this novel get its five stars.
Fanservice Paradox is about a boyband! I actually stan BTS, and Kaleido sort of make me thing about them because they both started in a small company and now they're superstars love by millions of people!
Zhichu knows how to write that tension between her characters. It was so satisfying reading it —you end up shipping them as hard as TingJue fans!
This book also has a lot of philosophical and mathematical thinking. Fang Juexia has a degree on mathematics and Pei Tingsong is a student of philosophy. Their studies have a lot of influence on the way they view life and they make you reflect.
🎋 —TGCF.
carrd.
TGCF holds a special place in my heart. I read it when I was going through a hard moment in my life, and it helped me a lot.
I didn't know I could cry so much reading a novel until Hua Cheng popped up. Yes, that handsome gentleman made me realised I wasn't as strong as I thought. There moments I was doing OK and then I thought about him and I had tears in my eyes, I'm not lying.
And guys, there's a reason why Xie Lian is Hua Cheng's only god —he makes you want to worship him once you've gone through all his story (but remember to worship them together so that your wishes come true!)
THEIR RELATIONSHIP, OMG. Just one word: devotion.
I liked the way the story is written, with one volume in the present and the other in the past. The arcs are also amazing <3.
🎋 —Wushuang.
carrd.
I TAKE FULL OFFENSE if you've been following me all this time without reading this novel, seriously, stop what you're doing right now and go read it.
Wushuang is a Qian Qiu's sequel (another amazing novel, by the way), and it has POLITICS AND MARTIAL ARTS. 💖
Feng Xiao is a beauty with amazing martial skills (hey, he even had a fight with Yan Wushi once), and Cui Buqu has the kind of brain you want to kiss. FengCui is my best friend's favourite couple! Although these two aren't the kind to recite poetry, their actions speak how much they care about each other.
The plot is [chef's kiss]. I didn't want to do anything besides reading Wushuang at that time because it was just so addictive.
🎋 —Nan Chan.
carrd.
I remember this novel as the one with the best first chapter I've read in my life, just read the following:
“What do you see?”
“A mountain of corpses amidst a sea of blood.”
“Why have you come?”
“To kill.”
AND THIS IS LITERALLY WHAT YOU FIND WHEN YOU OPEN THE NOVEL. Tell me you if you're not baited.
Nan Chan is a novel that covers the Eight Sufferings in life according to Buddhism in a series of arcs that have characters that make you easily connected with their stories.
The main characters are 🥺. And, oh, this novel has a dragon, A DRAGON. Cang Ji is the best. ♡ And Jing Lin, get behind me, I'll protect you! (said the girl who is 1.50 m tall). Reading their wedding was literally one of the best things that could happened in my life.
And, ah, how can't I not say this? This novel has the character I hate the most. Tao Zhi, fuck you.
And that's it for this part of Angie recs! Hope you give a try to all these amazing novels. ♡
I'll post pt. 4 when BAB has more official art.
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Jen Tortures Herself With Every Dreamworks Animated Movie Ever: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Alright it's time to out myself in front of the entire HTTYD tumblr fandom. I like this movie. A lot. Ok? Like I think its really fucking great and I will not deny that. Is it as good as the first two entries in this franchise? No, but it's still damn solid in its own right. So let's get into it.
We pick up a year after the last movie, with the arrival of another new threat to Berk, the "Night Fury killer" Grimmel the Grisley. To protect his people and their dragons, Hiccup moves the entire tribe to a new island while in search for the Hidden World, an unreachable utopia for all dragonkind. Meanwhile, Toothless is allured by the arrival of a new, mysterious female dragon, the Light Fury, which complicates matters even further as Hiccup begins to worry that he and Toothless are growing apart.
So yeah still a pretty good plot, though not as solidly cohesive as the first two. Still, I enjoy the ride here a lot; we still get a lot of great scenes of the riders fighting their foes, lots of great flying scenes (especially that one between Toothless and the Light Fury, man that scene is just gorgeous), lots of action and strangely enough, a bit more of a focus on humor here than usual? I mean it's ok, but a little strange given this is the final entry in the franchise and the stakes are supposed to be higher than ever.
Speaking of stakes, let's talk about that. Grimmel is by in large the only real new character here (aside from the Light Fury I guess, and she's fine, I don't understand the hate towards her design, I think she's cute). And he is... probably the lamest fuckin villain in this franchise, there I said it. He's just... some dude. He's nowhere near as unhinged and intimidating as Drago, nowhere near as smart or interesting or even just fun to watch as any of the villains in the HTTYD shows, he's just... idk man, a really boring villain. Certainly not what I think the "ultimate" challenge for a protagonist as well developed and interesting as Hiccup should be imo.
I know there are plenty of complains thrown around about this movie, the other riders are poorly-characterized, Grimmel is a lame villain (as I just said, I agree with that one), and of course, it's biggest controversy, it's ending. But here's my take on the ending. I think it's actually pretty bold of them to have the dragons leave? Like yes, there is a heavy sense of finality to it, but that's sort of the point. There's a massive change to the status quo, it feels like a genuine ending with little in the way of Dreamworks doing what they always fucking do in trying to bait any unecessary sequels. And then of course, there's the epilogue, which may be one of my favorite scenes in the entire franchise. I literally cannot watch it without crying, I'm such a fucking wreck for this boy and his dragon oh my god.
As usual, visually and audibly, this movie is absolutely wonderful. The animation here is especially impressive, the lighting took my breath away in some spots with just how realistic some of it looked, while still maintaining the series' usual style. The Hidden World especially, we don't see it for very long, but it is so damn pretty to look at. The music is, of course, also absolutely lovely, once again drawing on familiar themes from throughout the series to send it off one last time.
There's lots of other little things I love about this movie too, like the flashbacks to Stoick and Hiccup when Hiccup was little (I cry), any cute Hicstrid moments, especially the wedding (I cry), Toothless being an absolute mess while trying to impress the Light Fury (I die laughing), just... god, it's more How to Train Your Dragon, man, I fucking love this franchise, how the hell can I possibly hate this movie when there's still so much of what I love about the first two in here?
I do understand, this movie is flawed in some pretty big ways. And yet... it's still so beautiful all the same. I adore it, even if others don't, and I think that's ok? We can all enjoy different things and I just so happen to enjoy this. No, it's certainly not the best this series can do, and maybe the HTTYD franchise does deserve a better conclusion. But for what we got, well... I think it's pretty damn great all the same.
Overall Rating: 9/10
Verdict: How to get your dragon some rizz bc gottdamn he needs some
Previous Review (Captain Underpants: The Epic First Movie)
Next Movie (Abominable)
#jen watches#how to train your dragon#how to train your dragon the hidden world#dreamworks watch#dreamworks#jen tortures herself with every dreamworks aniamted movie ever
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choose violence: 8, 12, 16
8. Common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about
Tears of the Kingdom is a completely normal Zelda game, with plot holes big enough to drive trucks through, unexplained new races (anyone remember chicken tits Ooccoo??), failure to be an explicable sequel, and asspull macguffins to save the day.
Do I think it was amazing and deserved Game of the Year? No. But I think it did exactly what it meant to do, and it should be judged according to that and not according to the Sequel To Breath of the Wild built up in your head.
Criticizing it for another iteration of racist Gerudo stereotypes? Yes. Criticizing it for failing to keep the Sheikah tech in any meaningful way? They were never going to do that and any look at Zelda history can tell you that much.
Put on your big girl pants and wade into the mud-filled plot holes with the rest of us. It's fun down here! There's no canon to stop you, and it's a good consistency for throwing at the walls!
12. The unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them
You're just baiting me to geek about Spirit Tracks, and you know what? Fine. Speaking of Zelda games that created by means of Nintendo having zero relationship to continuity, this is a fantastic game that, once again, did exactly what it intended to do and did it with flair.
I was extremely skeptical of the premise to begin with, but dug into a walkthrough (bc I own one console and am not patient enough for weird emulators) and honestly I really enjoyed it. The story set up is amazing. The characters are adorable. Byrne is my favourite butch and you cannot tell me otherwise. I love that Spirit Tracks Link is absolutely devoted to one thing and it permeates the whole game.
I ran a little wild with my characterization for him, but that's just what i do when I love stories. The gaps in the worldbuilding are again, wide enough to fit the entire Demon Train through with room to spare, but that's part of what makes it a Zelda game like any other. i filled in the gaps with some of my own experience with heavy machinery and historical knowledge, and its taken me some wild places.
16. You can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)
Arson in Breath of the Wild. Like. What?
Not even remotely how I played the game. Probably it's very personal but IIRC it's not supported in LU which tends to feed into a lot of people's headcanons, it's just like a joke people tell and keep telling and I'm so very confused. There's not even that much shit to burn??
My Breath of the Wild playthrough was mostly spent going "Ooo what's over there" and getting myself halfway up a cliff and praying my stamina food would suffice, so just. Very not me, very not my thing.
Then again, I backclimbed from the boss fight in Tears of the Kingdom recently, and ballooned and climbed out of another pit for kicks (aka a No-Warping run) so...
I just have a thing for "Can I do it, though?" what can I say. That just doesn't include "Will it burn?" most of the time.
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Me again! Here's a sequel-ask to the 'Real Doll' scenario for Jervis (BTAS, Gotham, Arkham) I sent you. The reader is a doll, and she's very happy with Jervis! But a strange man comes around demanding Jervis hand her over, and the reader is clearly terrified of him. It's her creator, and he's come to take her 'home where she belongs'. Such a fragile girl can't survive in the outside world. How does Jervis react? Is he going to let this weirdo take his Alice?
"A Real Doll pt. 2" Mad Hatters x doll!s/o
OH HELLO A SEQUEL? WE LOVE SEQUELS. Also spoiler: of course he won't let the weirdo take Alice.
Tw: murder, implied abuse, hypnotism/mind control, drugs, self-harm under the influence
BTAS
- The first time the creator sees them it's by chance in a crowd. Alice stops in place and looks like an arrow has been slung through her. Pulling on Jervis to go as the man's eyes go wide at seeing her.
- It's far too late for that. The man manages to get her arm and talks in a flurry about how he's searched for her to bring her home! She's so fragile, he worried that she would already be gone- She murmurs that it hurts-
- Jervis is the one who breaks them apart, moving his beloved S/O behind him for protection. He's never seen her look frightened like this. He looks around.
- Too many people. The only thing he can do at the moment is to get her out of there. He's almost lifting his dear off her feet and booking it, the creator unable to keep up. All those years chased by Batman had some benefit, after all.
- After she tells him her story over several cups of tea (and a small amount of bourbon on his end), he decides they need to be rid of this man before... well before things get out of hand. If he searched for her for this long, there was no way he was going to give up now.
- As discomforted as it makes him, they need to set bait and catch this creator. Ultimately this means putting Alice somewhere he can find her... Jervis watching closely.
- It works like a charm, almost. She knows Jervis is right there to protect her. Even as her creator tries to yank her up by the arm, commanding her to go with him- she tries to show no fear.
- The Mad Hatter leaps out of the darkness and tussles with the man. There's a struggle for dominance, the tension palpable. Until, finally, the doll can see what he planned.
- Jervis gets up and brushes himself off. He swipes at his bloody nose. One of his mind control devices has been attached to the creator's neck.
- "And now... dear boy, go walking. Walk until you find a lake deep enough. Put rocks in your pocket and continue down. That will be all."
- there's a darkness there in how he speaks. Callous and cold. Yet as he turns to his Alice, its all smiles again. Holding her close. Feeling the ticking of her "heart."
- "I promise as long as I'm alive, I shall always protect you."
Gotham
- This is directly because of working with her on heists where he pretended to be her creator. Neither of them realized, but someone was there... watching in the crowds.
- He approaches them after one of their "performances", somehow finding the back door they leave out of. As the doll waits in her box, a strange man is approaching Jervis to ask to see her. That really, she's his creation.
- Jervis manages to get him away and rushes home. By the time the box is opened, he finds his beloved partner curled in a ball, terrified. "Please don't let him take me."
- He gets the story then, the whole story. It's dark and horrible- Things he would never want her to have gone through. Holding her against him and even offering to try and hypnotize her to calm her down if she wishes.
- The man comes back after the next heist, this time banging on the box. Telling her to face him. That Jervis is leading her down a criminal path that will "break" her! Trying to feed into any paranoid fantasy he can.
- When she peeks through the box the first thing she sees is Jervis cold clocking the man. She exits and watches as Jervis steps on the creators chest and takes out his watch.
- "Look me in the eyes. Not above, not below, but right in the middle. You're feeling dizzy. Lightheaded. Look at me. You feel your mind coming under my control- Get up."
- As the creator goes under Jervis's spell, he circles the man and looks to his Alice. "What shall we do with him? I think... I'd like you to make the choice."
- She's quiet. The man who created her- who caused her so much pain and agony and fear... he can't do anything to her now. It's a strange feeling. Is this relief?
- "Make him go away." She says, Jervis putting his hand to her back. He kisses the side of her neck and puts his head on her shoulder from behind.
- He waves his hand at the man, "...Disappear." He has a grin on his face. The creator walks away. They'll never see him again.
Arkham
- Alice, Alice, Alice... His beloved clockwork companion. His. That's one of his favorite parts about her, that she loves him and they belong to one another.
- So when a strange man with a dour expression approaches them, saying that the Doll was his... That he claimed ownership being her Creator. She's to come with him immediately, she's far too fragile for this world...
- Well, that just won't do at all, will it?
- There's a brief moment where Jervis worries that hurting her creator will make her hate him, but as he turns, oh- the look on her face. Of horror and distress.
- He's jumping at the man with a look of murder in his eyes and rhymes of mauling on his tongue.
- The man manages to get away. Barely. Jervis has to stew in the knowledge that he's out there. Briefly, ever so briefly, he thinks about reaching out to someone. Friends? Authorities?
- No. What if they claim she's merely a possession and that she's to go back? Can't trust anyone with something this important. No, not at all.
- He holds her tightly at night, scared of him trying to take her away while he sleeps. It's not an entirely paranoid thought as that's exactly what the creator intends to do.
- About a week after that first clash, the pair wake up to noise in their home. The doll, already tense, knows likely what's to happen next. Jervis leaves her only for a moment to grab a syringe he had prepared on the nightstand.
- When the creator does enter their room, Jervis is off to the side and jabbing his chemical mix into the man's neck.
- Its then, knowing that the man can no longer hurt her, that Alice tells him everything. The abuse and cruelty, isolation and her escape. Things she shouldered on her own because she worried no one would understand she had feelings of her own. She just wants the creator to forget her. To leave, forever.
- Jervis understands, yes yes, of course. Whatever she wants. It's so helpful he has some... tools around the place. Ice picks and a hammer. That will do nicely.
- He gives Alice the option to watch as the Creator is ordered to give himself a transorbital lobotomy. Jervis isn't going to judge her either way. He can dump the man in the streets of Gotham after if he survives the procedure.
- it's strange. One might expect Jervis to feel more sympathy of such a punishment considering what was done to him in the past. Yet he watches every tick and listens to every crunch of bone.
- Alice, Alice... his beloved companion. No one will hurt you again.
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I have no backing for this but I feel like every post about KH I’ve been making lately has been very negative??? Idk I reblogged a post today and realized it was really really negative? And like. I don’t like KH3. I stand by that. And it’s because I fucking love this series. I love it’s characters. I love how much of a madman Nomura is.
But. I can also feel the lack of love that went into KH3. That’s not to say there wasn’t any love. The world designs are phenomenal (did you know they modeled a specific city block in San Francisco for San Fransokyo’s level? I need to post that comparison soon). The gameplay, while too flashy and breaking the flow of gameplay constantly, looks really good. The game looks good. It feels good to play. I hate the game yet it’s my most replayed KH game to date.
Yet I can’t help but feel like Nomura was tired when writing it. He was tired of these characters. Tired of this arc. He wanted to move on. I don’t blame him. He’s been working on the Xehanort arc for around a decade. Damn, I would be tired too. But it’s a problem when I can feel that tiredness in the story.
And it permeates the story. The sequel-baiting. The bringing up things out of left field. Fucking Verum Rex. It’s just. KH3 feels tired. It feels tired of its own IP. It feels tired of the arc it’s supposed to be ending. It feels tired of Disney and Sora and the characters we’ve been following for years.
Idk, I mostly just feel disappointed about KH3. At this point, I’m just tired of it. I loathe the game because I love the series and I hate how lackluster of an ending KH3 got because Nomura got tired/wants to do other things with the series (*side eyes the hideous rebrand of Versus XIII as Verum Rex*). This series is near and dear to my heart and it’s just sad. When the game came out, I felt betrayed. There was too much coming out of left field. Too much focusing on what was ahead instead of closing off arcs. It was too little too late.
We waited thirteen years—and for what? For Sora to be sent left and right with no direction across 6 Disney worlds? For everything to be wrapped up in a nice little bow with little to no struggle or emotional agony that all of the previous games have consistently given us? For Sora to just be able to fix things with no consequences? For every world Sora was sent to to feel inconsequential (and I can see the effort there. I can see so, so much effort to make something. Each movie featured has themes of loss and sacrifice but it’s just not there in KH3)? For Sora to not even take a front-seat in most of the story? He’s just there, a vessel for the player to watch events that he has nothing to do with unfold? What happened to Sora, the main character? Why does no one want to involve him on anything? Now he’s just the dues ex machine all the important people get to call when they get in trouble. Where’s the setup? Where’s the payoff? Where’s the hours of Lea agonizing over Roxas and Xion? Where’s Aqua and Ven trying desperately to save Terra, knowing he might be too far gone? Where’s Sora, facing up against the biggest foe of his life, who’s supposed to be the most conniving, deceitful man ever? It all just gets shoved to the end, barely mattering outside of a single world.
The worst part is—I know Nomura can write something good. I know he can do the setup and payoff. He explained why Mickey was shirtless in KH1 for Pete’s sake! He did really good at Union X’s story and making us really care about the new characters we have never met! He made impeccable Disney Worlds in Dark Road that had plot relevance! I know he can make something good, great even! So why didn’t he with KH3?
Sorry for the long post. Figured I’d explain some of my disappointment in KH3. I really do love the series, and it’s what makes KH3 so disappointing and bad to me. I know this is a 5-year old conversation but I’d figured I’d put my 2 cents into the pot.
#kingdom hearts 3#not kh3 friendly#collectors thoughts#not linked universe#I’m feeling chatty today I guess#I love kingdom hearts#but it’s been feeling bitter lately
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Break and Mend
A/N: Welcome back! Thank you so much for all the love and support "Lost and Found" received! I'm so proud of it and how far it's come. This sequel has been a blast to write, Season 2 is my favorite season, so I was so stoked to finally start writing for it. I will warn you now that chapters for this fic will be long. I got v passionate about this! Anyway, I don't know what else to say other than thank you again and enjoy this first chapter ❤️❤️
Warnings: very brief mentions of prostitution
Word Count: 4629
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Chapter One: MADMAX
“Eleven. Eleven twenty-five. Eleven fifty. Eleven seventy-five. Twelve.”
Quarter after quarter thunked onto the desk belonging to Doc Wheeler as she muttered her counting to herself. She was nearly reaching the end of her piggy bank by this point and she was becoming quite proud of the amount of money she managed to make. “Twelve twenty-five. Twelve fifty. Twelve seventy-five. Thirteen. Thirteen-”
“Gator Bait, do you copy? This is Rug Bug.”
“Shit!” She banged her hands onto her desk in frustration. Glancing over at the walkie on her bed, she huffed and stood to her feet before shuffling over to it. That would have marked the second time she had lost count and she was willing to just skip the counting and take a guess.
“Gator Bait, do you copy? This is Rug Bug calling in.”
A soft smile on her face, Doc picked up her walkie and stared at it for a bit, letting the voice continue on in its attempts to get her to answer.
“Gator Bait… this is Rug Bug. Are you there?”
Returning to her desk, Doc sat back down with a chuckle.
“(Y/N)...?”
“This is Gator Bait. What’s your haul, Rug Bug?” She answered, running her free hand through the new length of her hair she had grown out over the past year.
“Why do we have code names if you only answer to your real name?”
“Because it’s cute listening to you say the names. Now, what’s your haul?”
It went quiet for a bit before the voice answered, “I’m counting. You?”
“Well, I was counting, too, but you made me lose track.”
“Sorry…” The voice quietly chuckled. Her heart warmed at the sound despite it battling with the crackling of their walkie connection. “What number do you remember leaving off on?”
Doc let out a slow breath as her (e/c) eyes roamed over the coins grouped on her desk. “Uh… Like, thirteen-something?” She shrugged even though the voice couldn’t see it.
“Thirteen?! That’s all from you selling hats?”
“Will, when I said I was starting a business, I meant I was starting a business,” She dumped the remainder of her quarters with the rest before swiping them all off of her desk and into the bag she held at the edge. “Whatever, thirteen-something is more than enough.” She muttered to herself.
“I still can’t believe you made that much. You’re so dedicated.”
She scoffed and reached her arm out to the walkie to answer. “It’s nothing. I make stuff all the time. Now I’m just… making money off of it.”
“When will you start selling shirts and dresses?”
Doc answered him as she picked up her bag, exiting her room and down the stairs. “Soon. I’ve got the sizing down, I’m just still focusing on my logo. I don’t know if I want it to be ‘Doc’ or some kind of symbol. I’ll figure it out.”
“I know you will.”
“I’ll see you there, okay?”
“See ya, (Y/N).”
Doc pushed down the antenna to her walkie before sitting on the last step of the staircase. Reaching over, she picked up her skates and shoved her feet into them. After the events at Hawkins Middle School with Dr Martin Brenner and his people, Doc’s yellow skates had mysteriously gone missing. She knew for a fact that she had left them in the cafeteria when the kids had to up and run, but when the police went back to retrieve them for her, there was no sign of them. Not in any classrooms, not in her locker. Nowhere.
This upset Doc immensely. She had gone about two months without skating until Will, her savior, gifted her the best Christmas present she could have asked for that year. Her new pair of skates, while not yellow and a little big for her (Will was ashamed that he couldn’t find any yellow ones or any in her size in which he could afford), Doc treasured them. Even more so than the first pair, all because they were from Will.
She all but leapt for joy and into his arms when he presented them to her with a big cheesy smile. The boy was met with a big, wet kiss on both his cheeks in thanks. Doc could still remember how red his face had gotten. Of course, he had blamed it on the cold air.
And because of the icy and snowy climate, Doc had to wait another couple months before she could begin skating once again. She had always taken a break during the winter since she was absolutely terrified of attempting ice skating, but with the added time devoid of roller skates, the springtime had been her time to break out the new pair. Of course, Karen and Ted couldn’t complain about the amount of time their daughter had spent out by herself; she had grown unhappy in the winter and they were pleased to see her as her usual self once again.
And indeed, Doc had gained back her cheeky grin, the pep in her step and the lilt in her voice. But she had also become more alert. She sometimes jumped at certain sounds, she lacked a good night’s sleep due to nightmares, and she swore she was beginning to see and hear things. A voice at night, as soon as she drifted off to sleep, would whisper her name into her ear until she’d shoot up awake. Even then, she would not leave her bed to open her door.
It had been a year now that she had gotten over her fear of being in closed off spaces. Every night, she forced herself to sleep in her dark and silent room, no crack of her door allowing the light from the hallway to seep in. She already assured her family that she could do this, and while they all understood if she couldn’t, she wanted to prove it to them.
She wanted to prove to herself that she was moving on.
As Doc began lacing up her other skate, she could hear the thumping of footsteps on the stairs behind her. Rolling her eyes, she scooted closer to the edge so as to not get trampled by her siblings.
“Mike!” Nancy screamed as she chased her brother down the stairs. “Get back here!”
As Mike shoved past Doc, his foot accidentally kicked over her bag of quarters, sending the coins scattering across the floor. “Dammit, Mike!” She gasped, dropping down to gather them back into the bag.
“Hey. No running in the house.” Ted called out to Mike and Nancy as they ran through the kitchen.
“What is going on?!” Karen shouted after them. Meanwhile, still in front of the staircase, Doc quietly muttered to herself and she steadily got to her feet with her bag in hand. With a growl of an exhale, she skated through the kitchen, waving to her parents and little sister as she went. “(Y/N), no skates in the house! And be careful out there!”
Once Doc was outside, she could see that Nancy was still chasing Mike, who was now hurriedly biking down the road. Nancy stopped abruptly when she realized it was no use in following. “Asshole!” She shouted, raising her arms up in exasperation and disbelief. Not a second later, Doc was at her side.
“What did he do this time?” She huffed.
“He stole from me. God, he’s been more of an asshole than usual lately.” Nancy shook her head and began walking back to the house. Doc watched her go with a saddened expression. All three of the older Wheeler siblings had changed from a year ago following the events of Eleven’s disappearance.
Nancy had been down since finding out her best friend, Barbara Holland, had died after being taken by the Demogorgon and into the Upside Down. She had been blaming herself for leaving Barb alone the night she was taken and took it upon herself to check in on Barb’s parents when she could. But it seemed her boyfriend, Steve, was keeping her in better spirits than she could’ve asked for.
Mike was a different story, though. After finding out about her powers, Mike had been just a bit standoffish towards Doc. Not in any way that had been obvious; he still included her in group hangouts and she played D&D regularly with the Party, but their sibling time had been cut shorter and shorter as time went by. Doc knew it was partially because Mike was keeping himself in the basement every single night, sitting in El’s old fort and trying to find the girl through his walkie.
Doc also knew that the other reason was because she had lost some of Mike’s trust in her. She had never told him about her powers and where she had come from (though knowledge of the latter was limited), and that somewhat hurt him. The two had always, always been honest with each other and she had kept a huge secret from him for years.
And while he could understand why she never told him, he still felt somewhat betrayed by his sister.
It also didn’t help that Mike was extremely emotional about El’s disappearance. He cared deeply for the girl and she quite literally vanished with nothing but black ashes in her wake. But Doc couldn’t get a word out of him about that situation. He would just brush her off and leave her to her own devices.
She couldn’t really blame him, she supposed she would do the same if she were him. It just pained her to know that she put a strain on their relationship by being dishonest. However, she knew he still loved her, otherwise he would’ve given up on her entirely. So, she had to hold onto that and keep moving forward.
By the time Doc caught up with her brother, Lucas had joined Mike’s side and they were now on their way to Dustin’s. When she silently reached them, Lucas grinned at her. “What took you so long?”
“Mike kicked over my haul, so I got a little behind.” She answered, shooting a look at her brother, who only shrugged.
“Sorry…”
“So, what’s your count?” Lucas asked as they neared the Henderson residence. Doc lifted up her bag and hummed as she assessed the bottom of it that hung low with the weight of the coins.
“About… thirteen-something.”
“Thirteen?!”
After picking up Dustin, the four were off to the arcade. Pulling into the parking lot, Doc waited by the rack as the boys parked their bikes. As they did so, a familiar car pulled up near them, honking their horn.
Turning around, the four saw that it was Will and his mom. Joyce had become more protective than ever over Will since he returned home from the Upside Down. He now had a very strict curfew and he wasn’t allowed to walk or bike anywhere. At least, not without Jonathan or Joyce with him.
From within the car, Will sent Doc a smile, causing her stomach to do flips as she returned the expression. After speaking with his mom for a bit, Will exited the car. Immediately, the two rushed over to each other, their hands finding a place in one another. “Hey.” Doc grinned as they moved toward the entrance.
“Hey. I-I like your hair clip. Is that new?”
“Oh,” Her hand instinctively reached up to the yellow flower clip in her hair, her face heating up. “Yeah, it is. Thanks.”
As the duo passed the boys, Will opening the door for the giggling Doc, they all rolled their eyes at them.
“They’re so gross.”
“Seriously.”
“Get a room, honestly.”
-------------------------------------------------
“To slay the dragon, use the magic sword.”
The animated woman of the Dragon’s Lair game breathily spoke. The Party was gathered around the machine, watching as Dustin played. “Oh, Jesus! I’m in uncharted territory here, guys.”
“Down! Down! Down!”
“I’m going! I’m going!”
The four shouted to Dustin as his fingers smashed on buttons. As the game intensified, the kids’ shouting became insistent. Dustin’s smile slowly fell as he became more irritated with them. “I’m going! I’m going! I’m going! Okay. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!” He screamed, continuing to smash down on the buttons. However, the music that signaled his defeat soon played, causing him to start taking his anger out on the machine. “No! No! No! I hate this overpriced bullshit! Son of a bitch! Piece of shit!”
“You’re just not nimble enough,” Lucas calmly spoke. “But you’ll get there one day. But until then, Princess Daphne is still mine.”
“Whatever. I’m still tops on Centipede and Dig Dug.”
“You sure about that?”
Turning around, the kids were met with Keith, one of the employees of the arcade. He wore a smirk and held a bag of cheese puffs in his hand.
“Sure about what?” Dustin asked. When Keith only responded by shoving a puff in his mouth, Dustin quickly shoved past his friends to another row of machines. “Move! Move!” He exclaimed. After checking Centipede and seeing that he still topped the game in his highscore, he moved towards Dig Dug. “No, no, no, no, no. Hey, no! No! No!”
There on the screen at the top of the highscores was a player named MADMAX, holding a score of-
“751,300 points!” Will gasped.
“That’s impossible.” Mike shook his head in disbelief.
“Well, clearly not.” Doc chuckled. Dustin shot her an annoyed look before turning to Keith, who had followed them out of amusement.
“Who is Mad Max?”
“Better than you.”
“Is it you?” Will asked.
Keith scoffed. “You know I despise Dig Dug.”
“Then who is it?” Doc raised her brows, now standing between Will and Mike.
“Yeah, spill it, Keith!”
“You want information, then I need something in return.” His disgusting smile made its way to the Wheeler siblings. Dustin, Lucas and Will turned their attention to them, Doc’s face contorting to disgust as Mike was completely shocked at the implication.
“Absolutely not!”
“No, no, no. No way! You’re not getting a date with her.”
“Guys, come on. Just get him the date.” Lucas tried to reason.
“Hell no!”
“We’re not prostituting our sister!”
“But it’s for a good cause.”
Dustin stopped the argument. “No, don’t get him the date. Know what? He’s gonna spread his nasty-ass rash to your whole family, then Doc’ll spread it to the Byers.”
“What?!”
Keith’s smirk dropped. “Acne isn’t a rash and it isn’t contagious, you prepubescent wastoid!”
“Oh, I’m a wastoid? She wouldn’t go on a date with you. You make, like, what? $2.50 an hour?”
“Nice perm.”
“Gonna make fun of my hair?”
Doc watched the argument with a smile, crossing her arms in amusement. She turned to see what Will’s reaction was, but her smile dropped when she saw he wasn’t there anymore. Turning around, she didn’t see him anywhere near them. From the glass doors of the exit, she could see the distant figure of Will standing in the parking lot. Without a word to her friends, Doc made her way outside. Once outside, she could see that Will stood there, staring up at the sky in silence. “Will?!” She called out.
Startled, Will snapped his head to her, eyes wide in terror. “(Y/N)?! H-How did we get here?!”
“What…?” Doc frowned in confusion. Will began to stumble his way toward her, but the closer he got to her, the more her stomach began to twist and the harsher the bile in her throat began to rise. “Y-You just walked out here, Will. Are you okay?” When he was close enough, she reached her hand out, gently touching his arm.
If Doc had blinked, she would have missed the very quick flash of a different setting. She couldn’t make out much of it, but it was dark, it was cold, and Will was still staring at her with those wide eyes before everything was back to normal. The two stared at each other in confused silence before a voice sounded from the entrance.
“Hey. Stop sucking face and get back in here.”
Flinching, they quickly turned to Mike, who stared at them with narrowed eyes. “You okay?”
“Y-Yeah. I just… needed some air. (Y/N) wanted to come with me.”
“Come on,” Mike walked up to Will and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling the boy with him. “You’re up on Dig Dug.” Without so much as a glance to his sister, Mike led Will back into the arcade, the boy’s eyes stuck on Doc’s. Even when they were inside and she stood alone in the parking lot, Doc couldn’t find it in herself to move.
Eventually, she had to, though. She had to keep moving forward. So, with a shuddering breath, Doc glided back into the arcade. She made it a point to steer clear of her friends and find something else to do just for a bit. She soon found herself in front of a crane machine, stuffed animals of all shapes and sizes pressed up against the glass. A small smile making its way onto her face, Doc decided to station herself there.
By the time she had regrouped with her friends again, they had moved onto another game. Dustin looked up at her from where he was watching Mike play. “Where’ve you been?”
“Crane.”
“Don’t tell me you wasted your money on that piece of shit, Doc.”
“Hey it wasn’t for me,” She smiled and walked up to Will, presenting to him a blue plush bug, its several legs dangling as she held it out to him. “For you, Rug Bug.”
Will’s grin widened as his face darkened with a blush. “T-Thanks, Gator Bait.” He chuckled, gently taking it from her. “You really didn’t have to.”
“I wanted to.”
Dustin and Lucas heavily sighed in annoyance.
The following day at school, opening his locker, Will scanned the inside for anything he needed. A bashful smile crept onto his face at the photo booth strip of he and Doc, taped just beside a drawing of his. Moving his gaze up, he caught sight of a piece of paper that had to have been slipped into his locker by someone else.
Taking it into his hands, he saw that it was a newspaper article about him after he had returned home. The picture of him had his eyes x’ed out by marker, the words ZOMBIE BOY written just beside the photo. His skin crawling, he looked around at any sign of the culprit.
“Hey, Will.”
Jumping a bit, Will slammed his locker shut and turned to see Doc standing there with a smile on her face. “O-Oh… Hi, (Y/N).”
“Sorry about that… What’s that?”
“Huh?” He glanced down at the paper in his hands before hurriedly crumpling it up before she could see. Little did he know, Doc had already gotten a good look at it and was now internally fuming at whoever had been behind it. “It’s nothing…”
“Okay,” She nodded, not wanting to force him to talk about what she already was aware of. “Let’s go to class?”
“Y-Yeah.” He smiled, grabbing a hold of her hand before the two made their way down the hallway.
-------------------------------------------------
“Meet the human brain,” Mr Clarke set a model of a brain down on his desk for the students to see. Unlike the rest of the students, the Party grinned up at their teacher, eyes sparkling with curiosity and wonder, genuinely interested in everything he was saying. Except for Will. The boy stared down at his desk in unease. “I know. I know, it doesn’t look like much. A little gross even, right? But consider this. There are a hundred billion cells inside of this miracle of evolution. All working as one. No, no, I did not misspeak. I did not stutter. A hundred billion.”
The sound of the door opening and closing caught everyone’s attention. Their principal walked in with a girl. Her red hair was what drew Doc’s eyes first, then it was the freckles decorating her face.
“This must be our new student.”
“Indeed. All yours.” The principal nodded before exiting the room. Without a word, the girl attempted to walk to the back of the classroom, but Mr Clarke stopped her.
“Alright, hold up. You don’t get away that easy. Come on up, don’t be shy,” He directed her back to his side, where she begrudgingly returned. “Dustin, drum roll.”
Closing his book, Dustin drummed his hands upon the hard surface as the girl tried to awkwardly hide her face from everyone.
“Class, please welcome, all the way from sunny California, the latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage, Maxine!”
Dustin ended his drum roll.
“It’s Max.”
“Sorry?”
“Nobody calls me Maxine. It’s Max.”
Lucas widened his eyes at his friends. “Mad Max.”
“Well, all aboard, Max.” Mr Clarke smiled. And with that, Max began to make her way to the back of the room. The four boys turned in their seats in order to watch her every move, staring in shock. Even when she sat down and caught their stares, they hadn’t yet looked away. Doc, still turned forward, glared at the boys out of the corner of her eye.
“Stop staring, weirdos.” She quietly snapped, the boys quickly doing as they were told and turning forward again. Later on, the four boys all stood behind the gate of the baseball dugout behind the school, watching as Max skateboarded.
“There’s no way that’s Mad Max.” Mike spoke.
“Yeah, girls don’t play video games,” Will frowned, but rapidly blinked upon thinking of Doc. “W-Well, (Y/N) does, but she’s different.”
“She’s not good at them.”
“She still plays them, though.”
“Well even if she was good at them, you can’t get 750,000 points on Dig Dug. It’s impossible.”
“But her name is Max.” Lucas stared longingly at the redheaded girl.
“So what?”
“So, how many Maxes do you know?”
“I don’t know.”
“Zero. That’s how many.”
Dustin nodded. “She shows up at school the day after someone with her same name breaks our top score. I mean, are you kidding me?”
“Exactly. So, she’s gotta be Mad Max. She’s gotta be.”
“And plus, she skateboards, so she’s pretty awesome.”
Mike frowned at him. “Awesome? You haven’t even spoken a word to her.”
“I don’t have to. Doc skates and she’s pretty freakin’ awesome. Maybe it’s just something about girls with wheels.”
“Where is Doc?” Will scanned the area for his girlfriend.
“Ah, shit.”
“God…”
“What is she doing?”
Catching sight of the girl, the boys saw that she was now talking with Max, the two girls skating around each other. Max was practicing kick flips as Doc skated backwards, simultaneously talking to her. “I like your skateboard.”
“Uh… thanks?”
“You know, it’s nice having another skater girl around here. Someone who can keep up with me,” Stopping abruptly, Doc stuck her hand out. “(Y/N) Wheeler.”
Doc was afraid that Max would simply scoff and walk away, leaving her to look like a fool in front of everyone, but thankfully, Max took her hand and stiffly shook it before going back to skating. “So, you know the four stalkers?”
Fully aware that her friends were indeed watching them, Doc sighed out. “Well, one’s my brother and another’s my boyfriend.”
“Yikes. I feel sorry for you.”
“Eh, they’re not all bad. They’re actually pretty cool.”
“Really? Because they seem pretty weird to me.”
“Yeah… They are. But it’s endearing.” Doc chuckled, watching as Max began writing on a piece of paper that she hadn’t even noticed she had in the first place. Afterwards, Max tucked her skateboard under her arm and walked towards the stairs. Doc quickly began to follow. “Hey, uh… So, I’ll see you around?”
Max climbed the stairs before dropping the now crumpled paper into the trashcan below. “Yeah. See you around, Wheeler.”
“See ya, Mad Max.” She winked. Max gave Doc a very small curve of her lips before heading inside. As soon as the girl entered the building, Doc could hear the rapid footsteps of her friends rushing towards her. Turning around, she was met with the sight of Dustin bent over the trash can, rummaging around for the paper Max dropped inside as the other three boys stood in front of him as cover from wandering eyes. “You guys are unbelievable.”
“Well, what did you two talk about? Did you find out if she was Mad Max?” Lucas crossed his arms with a raised brow.
“Uh, isn’t it obvious that she’s Mad Max? And no, we didn’t talk about that. There are other things for girls to talk about, Lucas. Besides, I was genuinely trying to make a friend.”
“And?”
“Well, she smiled, so-”
“Got it! There we go.” Dustin pulled himself out of the trash. The boys huddled in order to read what the paper said:
“Stop spying on me CREEPS.”
Doc snorted into her hand before they turned to glare at her. She just shrugged. “I’m sorry, but you weirdos had it coming.”
“William Byers,” The principal approached the group. “Your mother’s here.”
Any trace of happiness on Will’s face washed away into the usual hollow look he had nowadays. At the shift in mood, Doc skated over to him. “I’ll go with, okay?” She whispered, their hands clasping as Will silently nodded at her in response.
There had always been times when Doc walked-- skated down the hallways at school and she could have sworn that everyone was staring at her. That they all knew what she was trying to keep hidden, that they thought she was a freak. Of course, those had just been her insecurities telling her that everyone was out to get her.
But she knew everyone was staring at them. Moreso, at Will.
Hand-in-hand, the two walked with their principal down the hallway. Every single student they passed stopped what they were doing and stared at Will with judging looks, most of their eyes had traveled down to the clasped hands of the couple and then the look in their eyes would gain some disgust. At this, Doc’s hand would always tighten around Will’s. A reminder that she was there for him, that these kids shouldn’t matter to him. She was right here.
Exiting through the front, they were met with Joyce, who leaned against her car, smoking a cigarette. Upon seeing her son, she straightened up and excitedly waved at him. Will weakly waved back with his free hand as they descended the stairs. When they approached Joyce, the woman warmly smiled at Doc. “Hey, (Y/N). Thanks for walking with him again.”
“Of course, Mrs Byers.”
“You guys have a good rest of your day,” The principal nodded. “Safe driving.”
Joyce nodded. “Thank you. Bye, (Y/N).”
“Bye,” She and Joyce embraced before Doc turned to Will, bringing him into a hug. “I know it’s scary and I’m sorry. But I’ll see you tomorrow and we’ll have the best night of the year.” She whispered in his ear as Will hugged back.
“Yeah… Thanks, (Y/N).” He watched in adoration as she pulled away and pressed a kiss to his cheek before he got into the car with his mother. “Bye.”
“Bye, Will.” She waved, watching as the car pulled off. Taking a deep breath, Doc smiled up at her principal before skating towards the back of the school. As she did, she noticed that Mike, Dustin and Lucas had been watching the whole thing from the side of the school.
Mike looked from where Joyce’s car once was and then to his sister. “How was he?”
Doc shrugged and lowered her head. “Quiet.”
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#stranger things#stranger things fic#stranger things x reader#st#st fic#st x reader#mike wheeler#dustin henderson#lucas sinclair#will byers#eleven#jane ives#max mayfield#will byers x reader#lost and found#break and mend
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Hocus Pocus 2 is... a giant missed opportunity
I really hope this isn’t just me being too old and jaded to enjoy new things anymore, but I HATED this movie. It was just boring and unfunny with no direction and the same pandering message that all movies seem to have nowadays. The writing choices honestly led me to believe the writers had never even seen the original, and the whole time, I couldn’t identify who this movie was made for. At first, I assumed it was just nostalgia baiting for people like me who love the original, and then, they nerfed the threat of the witches. Then, I figured it was for teenagers as their first exposure to Hocus Pocus, but then, they overloaded the whole thing with references from the first movie that nobody who hadn’t seen it already would get. Is it supposed to empower teenage girls? I honestly can’t tell. If you’ve never seen the original, the witches are kind of painted like victims in this one with the protagonists winning by killing them. I don’t even think it’s colorful and exciting enough to be for younger kids. Nothing really happens for a good chunk of its runtime.
There is but one good thing about this movie, and that is the original Sanderson sisters. They’re back and having just as much fun as before. They’re fun to watch when they’re on screen, but their chemistry and goofiness wasn’t enough to save this garbage fire of a script.
#1: Historical accuracy is a suggestion in this movie. Those girls would NOT have been allowed to live alone and act the way they did in the 1600s. Blah, blah, blah, witches and magic exist, but this takes place in the real world with real world history and rules. Winnie would not have been given a choice to marry that kid. His family probably would’ve taken her and her sisters in after their parents died, just waiting until they could be married. That’s two more hands to help in what looks like a farming hamlet. If they wanted Winnie to have that protective, older sister vibe, why not make her hate her forced husband? Why not make the sisters’ new guardians awful to them? You get the same outcome with a more sensible, relatable setup.
#2: The main characters have no personality. I didn’t even know one of the girls’ names until the end credits. All three of them are cardboard cutout teenage girls with the edges removed. And their “conflict” wasn’t even a conflict. I assumed Becca and Cassie were acting weird because one of them confessed to same-sex attraction (that’s exactly what that weirdness would’ve been if they were opposite genders). And then, it just turns out Cassie wanted her old friends to hang out with her new friends. Granted, that’s a very teenager fight to have, but it’s resolved and explained in all of ten seconds, and then, everyone’s just suddenly over it. That is not how teenagers act. These girls would’ve been so much more interesting if they’d just lifted them straight from The Craft.
#3: None of the characters have any agency in this story. In the original, the goals are clear and laid out from the start. The sisters need to brew their potion to kill children and make themselves young again before sunrise. Max, Dani, and Allison need to outsmart the witches to stop them, effectively cleaning up their own mess. Simple, clean, and easy to follow. What was the goal in the sequel? Becca and Izzy are following the same mess-cleaning plot as the first, but it wasn’t their mess in the first place. It was Gilbert’s fault, not theirs. They didn’t wake the witches by being stupid teenagers. They woke them because they were tricked. What was the witches’ goal? They didn’t have one until they saw the Mayor. Then, they wanted to kill him for like a second, and then, for some reason, they decided doing the all-powerful witch spell was what they wanted. Again, for reasons. Were they only awakened for that one night? Who knows. The movie and the witches themselves act like they have all the time in the world.
#4: The rules from the first are broken or ignored. Mary explicitly smells Dani and tells the others exactly how old she is in the first. Yet, they’re fooled somehow by two teenagers lying about their ages in the sequel. How, if Mary can tell a child’s age through smell? Binx states that nothing good can come from the spell book and repeatedly warns Max and Allison not to even open it. Now, in the sequel, the book bound by human skin suddenly can be used for good. It even has a personality now, and it didn’t want Winnie to use that power spell. Why? Because the book cared about her and her sisters? Again, why? It’s just handed over in the prologue and doesn’t seem bothered in the least about losing that master. It had just abandoned Winnie for Becca in the previous scene as well. Are the writers trying to imply that good people can make bad people change? The book has a personality now, after all.
#5: There are no stakes. Yes, this is a family movie. I get it, but you can still have stakes and threatening villains without crippling your script. The sisters have ample opportunity to kill Becca and Co. but choose not to until the plot armor kicks in to prevent them from being able to do so. They even threaten to kill them multiple times and don’t do it when there’s literally no reason why they wouldn’t. Morality certainly didn’t stop them from trying in the first one. As stated in point 3, the witches have no concrete goal for the heroes to stop. There’s no statement made about how to defeat the witches or even a ticking clock for urgency. The girls trap them once, which again led me to question why the writers kept ignoring Mary’s sense of smell, and then, all three witches just end up dead by the end through a combination of hubris and framing murder in a very questionable light. They literally assisted in Winnie’s suicide by lying to her about the spell being able to bring her sisters back. And this is framed as the kind thing to do. Excuse me. What?
#6: The all-powerful witch spell is an awful plot device. The story warns us that this spell is very dangerous and should never be used. The book doesn’t even like it, and it hasn’t removed the spell itself, for some reason. (It can open itself, fly around, and select pages on its own. Why couldn’t it remove a page?) Why is it so dangerous the book gifted by Satan and bound with human skin doesn’t want it used? Who knows. The only indication of its danger is the very clearly stated cost of the spell. Fine. But if Winnie was now all-powerful, why couldn’t she just magic her sisters back to life somehow? She should be able to do anything she wants. She could just rewind time if she felt like it. There’s no inherent limit to omnipotence, and the story never provides one either. It also begs the question of why they never used it before. Why suck the lives out of children to stay young forever when you could just be all-powerful? Why didn’t the woods witch use it? Or did she and she was warning them as a cautionary tale? Who knows. The writers couldn’t seem to come up with an answer beyond Winnie promised she wouldn’t.
#7: Becca’s magic was essentially pointless to the plot. Everything she did with it could’ve just as easily been achieved with salt, which they used multiple times in the movie. She can’t even stand up to Winnie with it. So, what was its purpose exactly? The movie would’ve worked just as well without it. Hell, it might’ve even been better off that way. Then, we could’ve seen some ingenuity from our “heroes” as they stand up to people much more powerful than them.
90% of this movie just left me asking why over and over again. They had the makings of something that could’ve been fun. Maybe not great but at least fun. Bring the witches back by accident and focus on the omnipotence spell. They learned their lesson from last time and are just gonna skip all the child-murder nonsense. Turn Gilbert into an actual villain like Ben Ravencroft from Scooby-Doo instead of half-assing it and having him forgiven by the end for no reason at all. He didn’t redeem himself. He did nothing except trick people the entire story, and he’s a good guy at the end? Turn Becca, Izzy, and Cassie into Sarah, Bonnie, and Rochelle from the Craft. (Nancy’s a little intense for a family movie.) That setup pokes that nostalgia itch for both of these movies. Hell, go the extra mile and turn Gilbert into Nancy. Even that would’ve been cooler than what we got. How much better would it have been to have the girls go up against their power-hungry friend at the end of the movie? For those that want to argue that it’s fine the way it is, sure, that’s an opinion. But why would you want fine when things could be better? You lose nothing by having a solid story and a real magic system, so why not have them and make your movie better?
So, yeah, Hocus Pocus 2 is just missed opportunity 101 the movie. Not as bad as I was expecting but still not anywhere near what I would call good.
#hocus pocus 2#bad writing#movie review#i really just wanted this to be better#it's just a string of largely unconnected plot threads that goes nowhere in the end#damn shame
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Writeblr Q&A
I have been tagged by @scifimagpie (ty for tag) so I shall attempt to answer these questions lezzgo
1. What motivates you to write?
The soup brain has too many thoughts & I have to get them out. Also spite because my asshole 8th grade English teacher said my writing assignment was only worth a C (he was the ONLY one btw I got consistently vv high grades before him) & my Chinese immigrant friend got marked down for not being good at English. Fuck you Mr English teacher
2. A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)
(idk have this one from early chapter 2 I guess)
“You mean to say that I was bait,” Talin said.
“Not the word I would use, but in a way, yes,” Red Wolf confessed.
“Why?”
“You have been on the throne for less than a year. If someone wants you dead this quickly, something is amiss. I’d like to find out what.”
3. Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them and what are they like?
My boy Red Wolf. He's just...yes. Autistic werewolf puppy. Could definitely kill me without hesitation or talk me to death with weapons knowledge. I would thank him if he punched me.
4. What process of writing do you enjoy the most?
I like not writing.
5. What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)
Worldbuilding, no doubt. I am simultaneously the best and worst at worldbuilding. You want a 2000-word essay on how languages & regional dialects evolved over time? I gotchu covered no problem. Want me to stop elaborating on how Hellhound magic is linked to the moon & actually write my sequels? Absolutely not.
6. What is something in the writeblr community is most enjoyable?
I think the writeblr community is chill. Like y'all are just here for a good time and I can 100% respect that & get behind it. I get to write unhinged answers to these questions & not feel bad about it bc I don't have to self-impose ridiculous societal concepts such as 'maintain a professional image on social media'.
7. A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)
Scrivener? Am I allowed to say Scrivener even though I use at most like 2% of their features. I am the kind of person who if given nothing but a notes app & a two-hour uni class to sit through will hammer out a full chapter in those two hours instead of paying any attention to class. On the other hand if you want me to actually write during my free time I'm sorry I'm too busy procrastinating writing with art & procrastinating art with gaming.
8. A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)
This is not a wise question to ask me (see: question 5) unless the goal was to make me sit here for ten minutes typing out an entire essay's worth of worldbuilding word vomit, in which case well played. However for the sake of my own free time & sanity:
The legal system in Kies Tor is probably the single greatest thing I've ever constructed & it plays a crucial part in the plot & was built off the early British/European court system as well as my own special interests in law & criminology. In short it's trying its best but it's also deeply fucked up and I love making the fucked up parts fuck up my characters.
9. What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?
Don't feel pressured to write. If you're staring at the same thing for weeks/months on end of course it's gonna get stale. Heck this Q&A post is the most I've written in weeks.
10. Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters:
@witch-king-of-angstmar ofc (no pressure to answer tho) but other than that I never know who to tag. I have social anxiety what is an interacting. If you see this on your dash consider yourself tagged
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I received a few asks related to the newest Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom.
Seeing as I haven’t played the game, and I have only read spoilers and a plot synopsis, nothing I say can be a very educated response to criticisms of the game.
…Not that this will stop me from still saying something, but, you know, like I said, I haven’t played the game, so anything I say below will be uninformed, so, take this as you will.
Spoilers for the game, and I will just copy and paste the asks I got below.
Yeah the new Zelda story is bad on every level - from the themes, to originality, surface appeal, charachters, consistency, nostalgia-baiting, to its mystery and execution and redundancy and missed potential. Like for example it shows Zelda reapearing and doing questionable things. One thinks that maybe she has some motives, maybe her experience twisted her worldview or maybe her actions get misinterprated - but no its the most generic "just a puppet that looks like her by evil guy lol" obvious
Also the new Zelda can't decide if it just wants to ignore all the "lore" and focus on a self contained world or if it wants to bait people with names, terms and events that have significance for super-fans. Like "oh its about the imprisoning war, you 'member that! But actually it has nothing to do with it just randomly the same event lol!"
Maybe the worse thing about totk is how it just repeats the same theme and arc of the previous game but worse. Botw dealt with lose and grief and how one has to sacrifice and prevail for the future generations to rebuild a better tommorow - so totk does the same just with a ridicoulous time span and plot devices while introducing unecessary timetravel that just confuses why thing happend in that way and doesnt say anything new or leads to any new charachter introspection.
Also sad with how much missed potential it had - it seemed like Ganondorf looked like the ancient hero from 10k in the past (even had the same pose) and the whole theme with circles and reversing things and fusing could have lead to a reaximination about these eternal roles of good and bad, about reconsiliation, breaking the circle, fusing into a synthesis that leads to a revolution - but nah its generic good guys vs bad guys
Also its just stupid on a surface level - things like Space bunny alien super-god races founding hyrule (like its Naruto again, the whole Kaguya myth is geting overplayed...), turning into goody dragons is a major plotpoint that you cant take serious because how stupid it looks, weird things like romance between quasi-humans and literal rabbits on two legs, timetravel, generic artifacts and energy beams and undercooked worlds
Too ad to the weird relationship to if it wants to ignore lore or not - Botw was original in atleast with the whole divine beasts and sheikah tech backstory, while this game kinda ignores it even if it is a direct sequel while going back to rehashing Oot and Lbw while also making an unecesary new origin for Hyrule even though Skyward sword got just recently rereleased. If they didnt care about story they should just have some random new country or aliens or demons invade.
In Botw atleast the calamity was the consequence of the failures of the past, of the arogance of the king, of the strife between people, their hubris and overconfidence. People suffered consequences and made sacrifices while in Botw the good guys are perfect and just "lose" because of out of charachter stupidity for a moment and then just dont do anything for thousands of years and dont prepare. Also zeldas sacrificed gets reversed and she doesnt even remember experiencing all the time she spent
The execution of the story is bad too, with the four sages dungeons repeating the same thing just with a different voice actor as opposed to botw which was connected with links experience in the past and moving on from their lose. Also the new little story arcs either get imediatly resolved or are just things like "he was greedy because of brainwashing and imediatly turns good after that with no consequences!" Also finding memories out of order spoil twistd and feels rushed and disconected
Also it just all feels generic and boring - wow evil "Demon King" (is that even a thing, seems more like something from anime that doesnt fit an western localization), magic stones, super secret furrie aliens and flawless generic goodguys - with the only theme of connection not even really being that deep and just basically turning into "yeah helping and trusting each other is good I guess?"
Also it makes weird plotholes like two masterswords existing at the same time, the whole calamity ganon not meshing with the newn Ganon, things disapearing without explanation making some people think it retconed botw while it actually seems like its a closed loop, how it fits with the other games, if its repeating events or a new continuity or the real new origin and things actually repeat after that, etc
There’s a lot here, so I’m going to tackle as much as I can.
The timeline stuff in this game doesn’t bother me--because I don’t understand anything about the timeline in Zelda anyway.
That’s a dickish comment on my part, but it’s also pretty much why I never got into the games, and it’s a bit of an insult on my part towards the entire Zelda franchise, but also why “the timeline doesn’t make sense in Tears” wouldn’t dissuade me from playing the game--because I’m already going in thinking, “The timeline shit never makes sense in this franchise, why should I start caring about it now?”
(I’m not asking for anyone to explain the timeline to me: I can go read explanations on my own.)
So, if the timeline right now doesn’t make sense, I take that either as, “Well, it never made sense to me anyway, so I don’t care,” or “Oh, shit, if Zelda fans and experts are poking holes in the time travel details, this may not be as well thought out.”
But as I said before, I don’t worry about story when it comes to video games--and on a related note, I don’t really care about whether the time travel rules make sense if the story is good enough. I appreciate that, the longer you enjoy something, the more you will criticize details in the lore that don’t make sense: that is valid, that is a sign of intense engagement with something you like, I would be a hypocrite to criticize someone doing that given what I’ve done with content I enjoy (I wouldn’t be writing about what works and doesn’t work in Soul Eater if I hadn’t engaged deeply with this work upon initial reading and watching).
But even as I get criticizing those details, as I just said, if the story is good enough, and has its characters progress, and has a beginning, middle, and end, and doesn’t screw up the message it was trying to tell, I can ignore the mechanics not working. It’s science fiction or fantasy fiction enough: the science is what allows the fiction to persist, the fantasy is what allows the fiction to persist, if the science or the fantasy is sound enough for me to keep reading the story, I don’t care, it’s about believability, not realism.
The twist about who this Zelda really is, from what I read of the plot summary, works for me on paper: it sounds cool to have an evil Zelda who is not real. Maybe the execution just doesn’t work--again, I haven’t played this game to see whether the payoff works. Granted, I do think, “And then the real Zelda turns into a dragon,” is a little too out-there.
The nostalgia-baiting: using names, events, people, etc, from other parts of the franchise is not a bad thing--that sounds really cool, if the story works. It’s like how I think MCU films used to be: “Here’s a decent story, we make sure that story works--then we’ll name characters, places, etc, after stuff from the comics.” More recent MCU stuff should be great because it finally gets to just bring in stuff from the comics…and yet that stuff right now feels like the real deep cuts-baiting the audience, where name-dropping someone is a substitution for story and plot progression.
(As an aside, this is probably why I soured so much on DuckTales 2017: that series felt much more like nostalgia-baiting that you’re describing, where I think parts of the story and characterization are not working--but, oh, look, here are references to the Disney Afternoon, that should shut up you 1980s/1990s kids and make you love this series. …No, it didn’t. Like, how do you fuck up Kit Cloudkicker that badly? How do you make Don Carnage so boring? Numerous references to original stuff from Darkwing Duck is where I start acting like I think you are about Zelda, where I just want to say, “That’s not what the original show was like,” or, at least with what they do with the two Darkwings in the show, how DuckTales 2017 really felt like it was positioning viewers who just didn’t like the show’s direction as being a hater and the equivalent of the homicidal Darkwing with the chainsaw--which, nah, that’s a pretty petty characterization of viewers who just aren’t a fan of how cynical and mean-spirited this iteration feels (when it comes to making Kit into somehow who just fails despite the talents already shown, that makes up a reason for him to be a sad adult, that makes Launchpad just the worst).)
You point out how you think Tears is repeating what Breath already did with themes, only it makes it worse by adding the time travel. Would Tears have been better if the time travel was held off until halfway through the game? If the big twist was that this was all time travel, would that work?
I ask in part because I remember a commercial for what I think was one of the Zelda games, that was just one of the most effective commercials I saw--because of how creepy it was. It’s a first-person POV video, as you are walking through the castle, but once you reach the destination in that castle, the commercial announcer says you’re going to go through this entire game--and then have to repeat it all over again to get it right this time. Would that have worked better for Tears, where you feel a bigger connection to this story--then have everything about it ripped away from you when you have to travel back in time to do it again?
I do think removing some great complexities about what Past!Ganondorf was up to feels like a missed opportunity. Then again, sometimes you just want your bad guys to be bad guys, not to keep giving them noble reasons or sympathetic back stories, just have them be cruel awful people that need to be stopped. This is probably also why I’m not too bothered by “yeah helping and trusting each other is good I guess”: yeah, sometimes you need a story that says it is good to help others, it is good to look for the good in others--but, as paradoxical as it may seem, there are just some bad people out there, and while obviously we can’t settle differences as you would in a game, or respond to evil as you would in a game, we do have an obligation to identify cruelty and do what we can to minimize its harm.
It’s not like I don’t have my fair share of complaints about origin stories that just do not hold up: see my complaints about Fire Force, or I can go on a rant about the weird choices the various Sonic the Hedgehog comics have made for origin stories that no one asked for.
I don’t want to criticize details about the origins or the romances of the aliens too much, if only because I find most designs in newer Zelda stuff to not be my taste. Zelda works best for me when the designs look like plants and animals from our world; some designs like the Zoras just don’t fit the setting for me.
The various conflicting origin stories: isn’t Zelda as a franchise all about how nothing makes sense? Again, this is a series where it feels like there are so many timelines that having different origins feels less troublesome. In fact, that was what a post I read recently said: this is the _Legend_ of Zelda, so with each iteration, we are getting a different spin on that legend, because it is so far removed from the truth that we are just making up new legends, telling new tales of the same characters and themes, hence why so much stuff conflicts across different games.
(Granted, just because this theory gives an explanation, and makes the title better suited, doesn’t negate the problem: just because you made up an excuse for inconsistencies doesn’t mean that the inconsistencies you created aren’t in themselves bad. At best, it is an opportunity for the game developers to say, “First, we are focused on gameplay and visuals, and we’ll alter the story to make those as effective as possible. And second, we are allowed to ignore continuity to fix what wasn’t working before.”)
(And, granted, I’m also a Star Trek fan--and I remain livid how much newer Trek is just fucking up continuity and canon because “we wanted to do this instead.”)
I do think the ending of Tears just undoing what went wrong, with little obvious ramifications, is frustrating. At least show something that indicates that this experience affected Link in some real emotional way--and if you have to add a physical reminder to him for how that real emotional change will persist, then do that, too, for visual storytelling.
“Demon King” is fine with me as phrasing: this is just the reality of trying to take the Japanese suffix -o and translating it as best as possible.
I don’t know enough about the lore of the Master Sword: is it really a big problem to have two existing at the same time, or is there lore that it can’t happen? I mean, again, there are so many timeline shenanigans and multiple Ganons and multiple Links and multiple Zeldas that I am ready to just throw up my hands and say, “Sure, Master Swords for everyone.”
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alright so this is really fuckin petty
and halfway delusional because of how late it is for me as i’m writing this but i really really really hate the omori pursuit au (ie the one where hero loses it). i fully admit i have not read the sequel in full (as i really don’t want to), but i did read the original story as it was being published. plus, although i definitely wouldn’t count this as me reading the sequel in full, i am generally aware of how it goes from what i did read and from everything i would see of this story in the places i’d go looking for omori fanart.
i’ve got kinda a lot of qualms with the story this au originates from, but the one i wanna focus on here is character interpretation. i have problems with everyone in the group, but i wanna focus on hero. iirc, the author did explicitly state that the version of hero they were portraying was not how they actually saw him as. and i’m inclined to believe them on that, both because they have no real reason to lie about that and because i can tell as much from the other times they’ve written hero.
despite all of this, it’s upsetting to see a character you love so much be interpreted in a way that is completely antithetical to what made them so important to you. it’s especially prevalent in what i’ve seen of the sequel, where hero is so comically far removed from himself that it’s practically diametrically opposed to his original character. where the good ending of that sequel goes completely against the sentiment of the original game (of course that’s not to say it isn’t a justified direction for its story to take, i just bring this up to highlight how far gone it’s gotten from the game). it’s a person that the original hero could never become (pretty much “he would never” but unironically lol). but all that’s really no big deal, not only because of what the author said about this not actually being how they see hero, but because even if it was, people are free to do whatever so long as it doesn’t hurt others. not to mention, it’s not like i was being forced to continue reading. the fact i did finish the original story meant it had something going right with its idea/execution/what have you. what outright frustrates me is that the interpretation got so popular for a time that it seeped way deeper into the general perception of hero’s character than it had any right to. as in, it was being conflated with the original character of hero and it felt like there was more art being made of pursuit au hero than the original character. now some major qualifiers to that statement:
-there’s nothing necessarily wrong about this either. remember, i’m being insanely petty with all this towards a deeply personal work of a person i do not know. and i am generally happy to see when monumental fanworks such as this get celebrated. because they deserve it!
-this was only from my position. it’s incredibly likely it isn’t nearly as bad overall as it was for me, and i only kept encountering it without wanting to as much as i did because of how much i entrenched myself in omori fancontent (and still do)
-not to belabor the point, but this is truly so deeply fucking petty of me to feel this way, let alone type this all out. iirc, the creator’s stated before how personally fulfilling and therapeutic writing these stories were for them, and absolutely more power to them on that. my annoyance should not supercede that in any way.
so i guess my point in all this is that i’m very very glad that shit’s over because constantly seeing it when i didn’t want to got to the point where it deeply upset me. nothing day-ruining, mind you, but always saddening. especially when it’s a bait and switch and i think originally that it’s art or whatever of regular hero. but i digress.
here’s to the creator’s next project, and me liking it more if i end up reading it ever. sorry for all this.
#omori#hopefully if the author of those fics somehow sees this they don't take it personally#i really am happy they got as much out of it as they did and any and all hate they got is absolutely undeserved#zero doubts on them being a lovely person and all that jazz#also big sorry if this is completely incomprehensible there's a good chance i'm deleting it
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I haven’t touched PLA in almost 6 months.
As always, please don’t send me your headcanons, theories, etc. I don’t like to discuss these things with strangers. I’m also not interested in arguing over my opinions, or calling anyone out specifically, nor am I saying all headcanons, au’s, are bad, etc. And please don’t ask for my approval of yours’! Make what you want, just please be considerate of how you portray characters and whether or not making an OC might be a better choice!
bl*nkshippers dni--I will block you.
Sometimes I think about shiny hunting, since the shiny spawn rate in that game is ridiculous, but the game itself made me feel bad because the plot is that you do everything literally everyone asks, but NONE of it helps the player character (or Ingo) go home. I can understand sometimes devs run out of time and sideplots resolve quickly and/or anticlimactically, but not only were some sideplots just dropped, but the main plot as well! Story is one of the most important parts of a game for me, and PLA seemed to not even know what it wanted the story to be. “Complete a PokeDex. Wait, stop Dialga and Palkia. Oh wait, the real issue here is Volo with Giratina! Oh, finish the PokeDex. Show Arceus around...perpetually?” The “ending” is unsatisfying. There’s no payoff. We don’t even find out why two characters have been misplaced in the first place, or if they return home! Yeah, Arceus wanted the PokeDex done, but why was this urgent, and why did this require sending almost definitely Dawn/Lucas back in time? Why wasn’t the player character an ancestor? When a game poses more questions than it answers, it’s often a sign that the storytelling is not good. Some mystery is OK, and not being able to know every last thing is realistic, but dropping everything seems like all the developer effort went elsewhere, they ran out of time, or in some cases, are DLC or sequel-baiting (and doing so via dropping the plot is poor).
It also feels like PLA didn’t bring much to the table in the end; we had some new mechanics that might not even return for Scarlet and Violet, a few regional variants, and one (hideous) new Force of Nature. Being able to choose when Pokemon evolve was great--no more having to press B after every level up or perpetually have an Everstone. Sneaking up and throwing a ball at Pokemon was fun. Being able to send out Pokemon almost anywhere and interact with them was fun. But on the other hand, the trade-off seemed to be the plot, as well as so much of what made battling fun. Abilities are gone and Pokemon can’t hold items. I didn’t enjoy Strong and Agile style, nor did I enjoy that I could only use one Pokemon while someone else sent out three, or getting attacked by multiple wild Pokemon at once. It felt unfair, especially because at times level seemed meaningless when 3-4 Pokemon could attack twice before mine could get a hit in.
PLA itself wasn’t advertised as open-world--fans made that assumption based on the trailers. Scarlet and Violet are supposed to be open world and if some of the mechanics are reused (it’s rumored many won’t be), that makes PLA sound like a test room that was released to the public with a price tag.
And then as a fan of Submas prior to PLA, PLA has now left me wondering if they’re just going to ruin two of my favorite characters, And fan spaces have become unbearable in response to PLA, when they could have been a refuge from a game that left Dawn/Lucas and Ingo’s fates up in the air. First it was overwhelming angst, often without resolution. When you’re not a fan of that, it gets tiring and alienating. Then other trends picked up, such as specifically making Emmet and Volo ooc in order to make them “unhinged”, ships that more often than not center on the characters being unhinged and possibly abusive to each other, bl*nkshipping rearing its head again (though thankfully much more people are opposed to it than during Gen 5′s initial run), Submas and Volo being ooc to the point of asking, “Why didn’t this person just make an OC?”, and of course, the ableism.
As someone who played PLA and combed through every inch of it in order to make reassurance posts for anyone worried they might just leave Ingo, it was disheartening to see how much content that made fan spaces unbearable for me came from fans who hadn’t even played PLA, and/or their takeaway from the game was “Submas = angst” and “Volo and Emmet are unhinged and will hurt anyone given the chance!” I’m aware that some people may be unable to play PLA for whatever reason, and this isn’t about them. This is about people who haven’t played and won’t play, or played and didn’t bother to think critically about what they just played, who just came for the angst and/or s*xymen, and rendered complex, canon characters into two-dimensional OCs without giving any regard to the source material and what the game devs showed regarding these characters, to the extent that fans not into this kind of content, or not wanting to constantly engage with this kind of content became alienated from their own space.
Volo is a complex character dealing with some deep-seeded trauma that, unfortunately due to the story being dropped, we don’t really get any details about what happened. We do however, get hints in-game that he’s not a completely bad person, but more morally grey, likely a more good-aligned character having a bad moment. And Emmet isn’t even in PLA! As of right now, we don’t even know that Ingo is “missing” in the present day. For all we know, Ingo will be returned to the exact moment he was pulled from and nobody will even know, or the devs may go on to say PLA isn’t canon in some way. But for people to take these characters and run wild with angst and then get ableist on two autistic-coded characters (for the second time in 10 or so years), has been a huge turnoff in engaging in any fan spaces, and I wonder if the devs had more time to develop and finish the story, or whatever the issue was that led to this game being released unfinished with little hope of a DLC, if we could have gotten more answers and maybe the fandom wouldn’t have taken this kind of content too far. Many people have tried to address the ableism (here is a link to Submas Autistic Joy’s resources, a by no means exhaustive collection of such posts), but people are going to make what they’re going to make, whether it’s appropriate or not, and sometimes this means people have to leave the fan space, or create their own, which has become sadly necessary here.
PLA looked like it was going to be a great game, but it needed more time and care than apparently the devs were able to give it, and unfortunately in fan spaces, it seems characters in or associated with PLA are all too often not being given time, care, and tact in how they’re being portrayed. All of these issues have made me come to not care for PLA at all.
#moonbeam's personal posts#I'm afraid to tag this because I know how people can be--this site is full of reactionary ppl and#ppl who have zero reading comprehension or critical thinking skills...often all in one! so...yikes#And I don't want anyone to feel attacked because I'm not attacking anyone...I'm just saying PLA ended up being a mostly negative experience#for me personally and fan spaces have only made it worse when they could have been a refuge!
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Movies I watched this Week #97
I don’t know why I waited so long before seeing the British gangster film Sexy Beast, Jonathan Glazer’s first feature. I liked both his ‘Birth’ and ‘Under the skin’, and he only made 3 films. Stylish anti-hero with Gandhi plays a psychopath. 7/10.
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2 by Arthur Penn:
🍿 “… Where were you when Kennedy was shot?...
Which Kennedy?…”
Night moves (1975), the dark Arthur Penn new-noir about weary investigator Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) looking for the missing 16-year-old love-sick Melanie Griffith, who sleeps around and strips naked wherever she goes. (Photo Above). Evocative re-watch. 8/10.
🍿 And so I tried his last theatrical film, the black comedy Penn & Teller Get Killed. It was universally panned by critics, and it gets 3 ‘Ouchies’ from me too. So-Bad-I-Couldn’t-Finish-it candidate, I barely lasted 11 minutes.
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Ebert wrote about Floating weeds: “Sooner or later, everyone who loves movies comes to Ozu. He is the quietest and gentlest of directors, the most humanistic, the most serene.” My 3rd by the Japanese master, a seemingly simple and delicate story of a flailing troupe of traveling Kabuki players who visit a small seaside village. More Ozu please! 8/10.
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3 kites:
🍿 So I finally read Khaled Hosseini‘s bestseller The Kite Runner, about two Afghan best friends who fly kites in Kabul, and the life-long guilt and suffering feelings of one of them over his betrayal of the other. Stories about Afghanistan are hard to appeal to westerners. It’s an unforgiving culture, with absolute and foreign values. The story ends just before 9/11, so at least it does not get involved with the misguided politics of the last 20 years, which helped assure that the Afghani people will never be able to recover or heal.
🍿 Was the 2006 film adaptation of The Kite Runner the first Hollywood-style Afghani melodrama offered to Western audiences (besides fairy tale adventures like ‘The man who would be king’)? It did star Afghani actors, and played in an Afghani-looking locales, but the actors were decidedly un-charismatic, and the locations were sanitized-clean and studio-set-looking. It was a ‘fancier’ tale of friendship, family, and love on the background of real politics. The Oscar-baiting “exotic” class divide between the two characters was sharper than the book, and some of the literary themes were transferred to the screen. However, it didn’t do it for me.
🍿 Higher than a kite, my second (disappointing) Three Stooges spoof, as 1943 Nazi-fighters. An 18 minutes short that left me cold.
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La Cabina (The Phone Box) A nightmarish little Spanish film from 1972, about a man who inexplicably gets trapped in a phone booth.
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Young Jean-Louis Trintignant X 2:
🍿 Il Sorpasso (1962), my first, I think, by Italian Dino Risi. Young student Trintignant is seduced by a charismatic free-wheeling Vittorio Gassman to embark on an exciting road trip in a convertible Lancia. Fun and multi-layered until the shocking and sudden ending. 8/10.
🍿 I haven’t seen Claude Lelouch’s romantic A man and a woman since its original opening. I forgot how lovely and simple it was. They made 2 sequels to it, 20 years later, and another 20 years after that, which I have no desire seeing.
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Red, a 2017 short art film with Cate Blanchett as a redback spider who orgasms then eats her mate. Next year's Halloween costume inspiration.
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I wanted to go through the ‘Top 100 musicals of all time’ that I haven’t seen yet:
🍿 "Hello, gorgeous"... Unfortunately, the first random film I picked was Barbara Straisand’s debut film, Funny girl. The “not-pretty” Jewish girl is also not funny, the musical numbers were mediocre, and the story was dated even in 1968. 2/10.
On the other hand, here’s 19-year-old Barbra Streisand's first TV appearance on April 5, 1961 on Jack Paar's Tonight Show.
🍿 An American in Paris had better score by George Gershwin, and some tap dance numbers by Gene Kelly, but the love story and the touristy “French” plot of the story were trite. It ended though with a beautiful 17-minute dance routine that was worth the price of admission.
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Putin’s Palace is a 2.5 hour long documentary film, made and narrated by opposition leader Alexei Navalny. It’s a bold (and boring but probably true) analysis of the financial corruptions that funded Putin’s ownership of the $1.35 billion black sea complex.
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First watch: Frank Oz’s comedy Bowfinger. For some reason I always thought it was the name of the nerdy Eddie Murphy, “Jiff”. But no, it was the bullshit director Steve Martin in this movie-about-movie-making. With young Heather Graham as a ditsy blond, and John Cho in a cameo as “a man in a club” [It’s funny how all his roles until ‘Harold and Kumar’ were billed as “MILF guy # 2″ and “Aide # 3″, or “Joey”, Etc.] 2/10.
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(My complete movie list is here)
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@masterofthehighgroud has sent:
Questions Often Left Unanswered: Mun Edition 1 | 2 | 6 | 12
Questions Often Left Unanswered: Mun Edition [Accepting]
1. Are there any characters in your fandom or faceclaims you refuse to RP with? Who and why?
// My rules has a section showing the fandoms/communities I don’t want to interact or rp with! Here’s a reminder to it:
MLP, Homestuck, Undertale, Fnaf, League of Legends (Arcane won’t get a pass), Genshin Impact, Fnf, Disney and MCU (I’m debating on whether or not, I’ll give the comics a pass tho...)
Star wars stuff in specific. I’m intimidated and iffy about Legends characters, simply because I’m still not 100% knowledgeable about it (I’m learning more and more about it). Kotor/jedi fallen order/any of the SW games... I’m also not well versed in them, so I’ll also be hesitant to interact with them. With all of these things said, here are my straight ‘no’s. Unless I’m well acquaintanced with the mun behind the muse, I’ll not write with any of the sequels era characters (As stated in my muses directory. Although I’ve watched the trilogy, I’m not entirely familiar with it, which contributes to my overall lack of interest in interacting with it). Then there are the Starcruiser hotel, and the theme park attractions which are at the very bottom of everything thus getting the biggest no (I don’t think I have to talk about how the vibes between those things, don’t fall in line with anything else within the SW universe, right? Nah man, y’all can keep and try to excuse the +6k dollar LARP mess [which I heard that Disney is looking to double the prices so Y I K E S])
And as I’m writing this: I also won’t RP with Andor muses, until the serie is over.
2. Are there any plot tropes you are sick of/refuse to RP? If so, what are they and why?
// I’m not a fan of those fix-it AUs. No matter what it may be about. ‘No order 66 palpie chokes on a croissant & the galaxy is all fine & dandy uwu AU’, ‘clones are just one big family & jango is their dad uwu AU’. I understand the desire for those types of plots for fanarts and fanfics, but when it comes RP? Killing off the tragedy in SW is the equivalent of, burning down SW’s very essence. Also I’ve noticed that with these plots, they always end up watering down so many things about SW. The name of the series is literally Star wars, the war IS meant to be ugly, I don’t think anyone should sugarcoat that.
6. Is there a character that the rest of your fandom adores that you just don’t like/are indifferent to? Who is the character and why?
// I think that the Kenobi series hype is long dead by now, SO I can finally say this, without sb coming out of the woodworks to crucify me for it. Reva was mediocre at best (the actress put on her best, it is just that the script she was handed to was bad. The odds were against her.). She most certainly wasn’t the worst thing that came out of the show, see young Leia (wtf did they do to thIS KID?) and Tala (who? I literally forgot about her 5 secs after her death).
I just wished that Lucas arts hadn’t wasted their time with fan-baiting, hate-baiting its audience, all while using Ingram as a meat-shield for every single criticism towards the show. And instead taken their time to properly iron out this character. BC as she currently stands? It’s bad... That pitiful attempt at a redemption? Yeah, it could use some MUCH needed work, instead of just slapping it on her then calling it a day. But I’ll take what we got, over whatever the drafted one had in it (Cody’s legacy is safe... For now...).
12. What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to the fandom you RP in?
// What’s up with all the weird anons me and many of my mutuals have been getting? I’ve never had to deal with anything like it, in all of my RPing years. What’s up with people not knowing how to use the block function, and blacklisting feature?
I’ve received multiple anons, whining about the fact I write cloneshipping. Or even having meltdowns over some of my HCs. I want to believe this is the result of how the search function on tumblr now operates, so it searches with anything that contains the searched words, instead of the tags. So, I’m chalking it up to being just strangers, finding my blog unaware of what this blog is about. But at the same time, there is a part of me that thinks I’ve received hate from actual RPers over that. BC god forbid, blocking sb and moving on with their day, is just too simple.
There is never a bad reason to not block someone. Even if it may sound silly in your mind, just block/filter out whatever is bugging you. It’s a whole lot better than hate-reading, or exposing yourself to shit you know that causes you discomfort.
#masterofthehighgroud#ooc /#thank you for the ask!#« fandom : star wars »#Would you like some salt in your tea?
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