The team is all here together at last, for what feels like one of the first times ever!~

From screen left to right: Omen (@ex-garlean), Lorenza (me, @fell-court), S'ria (@snow-system-wol), K'pheli (@crystal-verse), and Nimda (@soothingmind)!

The early demo for Tumblr is live!

You can play it here! Thank you so much for following this blog (and for being patient while I wrestled with dashingdon to get it uploaded! ^_^'). I hope you enjoy the game! 🧡 Notable additions this demo:

Chapter 7 Part 2 is complete 🎉 Attend the festival with the date (or friend) of your choice. There will be food! Romance! Probably some weird crap happening at some point! 😆

Some changes to Wren's character.

Choose the style of MC's quarters at the Den in chapter 3!

Choose MC's parent's gender in chapter 3, and get a little more backstory on MC's family situation.

Achievements have been added to the game!🏅

Enter your own pronouns in chapter 1, if the default options aren't your preference.

Change your pronouns from the stats screen anytime throughout the game.

Jewelry choice addition (by request) to Chapter 7 Part 1 in preparation for MC's trip to the festival. 💎

Consolidation of the stats screen (by request). There are now two stats pages instead of three: one for personality and relationships, and the other for MC's skills.

Thank you so much for playing!❣️ This will be the last demo for Leas: City of the Sun until the game is published, but there will still be plenty of content on this blog! Everything you can expect is below:

What happens now, if this is the last demo?

Good news on that front! You can still expect demos, just not for the first game. I've been working on the Fey minigame and will be posting demos of that as I work on the final chapters of Leas: City of the Sun. There will be previews of other things as well in the upcoming months, but that's all I'll say, since I don't want to spoil anything for now 👀 🤫

Will this blog still update?

Yes, absolutely! You can expect business as usual: weekly writing updates, preview snippets on Sundays, answers to your asks, and news on when chapters have been completed. It'll be easy for you to track progress and know how close the game is to completion.

When will the game be complete?

My original goal was to have it submitted by the end of 2023. I'm still shooting for that, but there's a decent chance it'll take a bit longer depending on my life circumstances. I'll keep everyone informed on chapter-by-chapter progress here, so you'll always have a good idea of how things are going.

Will there be any major changes to the existing demo between now and the game's launch?

Probably not. With this demo I feel like I really ironed out everything. I've got the right elements in place to set up the final chapters and future story plots, and the character voices feel solid. So while there may be minor changes to wording here and there, the core of the story should remain the same 🙂

With how bunch of freshmen like team RWBY have been cleaning up the house you'd think Remnant would be free of grimm by now.

Honestly?

I think that's one of the issues where the showrunners wrote themselves into the corner.

On one hand, Remnant is supposed to be this scary world with huntsmen barely holding back literal manifestations of evil. Villages disappear off the map, towns get overrun, the terrifying Goliaths roam the lands and a single mistake can mess up an entire Kingdom.

On the other hand, though, the "good guys" have to have progress and have cool fights (even if there's nobody to animate them anymore) where they win in cool effortless ways (effortless because they miss the point on why people praised stuff like Nevermore fight), get to one-shot the very same unbeatable Goliaths without really having improved in strength all while also cleaning up fodder everywhere.

Yet the viewers also would assume that teenagers who barely spent a year at Beacon would be nowhere near as powerful as actual full-fledged huntsmen, right? The show even tries to highlight that at first with the professors and the like having an absurd level of power.

At the same time, there's an absolute fear of doing anything in terms of human conflict. Can't showcase the more grim aspect of being a huntsman too much either because can't have the good guys' side look even remotely morally ambiguous either. So you just have four kingdoms sort of sitting there filled with overpowered people(and more and more get trained every day).

Just think back to all the good Grimm designs that were built up as ultra-powerful and get deleted in seconds by four kids who haven't even finished their training.

And at the same time the show shies away from any specifics about Grimm or how the threat even works (because, honestly, likely even the showrunners have no idea). They are this basic non-human redshirt enemy mook option that just shows up when the showrunners need to use Ruby as a flashbang.

No wonder half the audience doesn't get why something like Atlas wanting to take the Grimm threat seriously would be a "valid point". Despite what the show tries to tell the audience, super-sci-fi contemporary weaponry, and the like doesn't even seem to be needed. An average literal dog can likely clean out a few square kilometers of land a day.

Honestly, I think that's one of the reasons why they tried adding relics nonsense (beyond it giving them just a very simple plot structure without needing to think why people are where they are) - to invent another reason to make "The Bad Guys" scary. One that the good guys can't simply shoot their way out of. It's why they are attempting to give Salem an immediate goal that she'd be doing (despite her just sitting around for hundreds of years) that would lead to very bad things happening.

It is also why they make ridiculous attempts at over-playing the importance of Salem's immortality (when, if thinking logically, even the nature of the threat of the Grimm is already something that SHOULD be taken as something that can't be eradicated with how the civilization works in RWBY - another unkillable threat shouldn't matter in the face of endless waves of Grimm).

The showrunners, in the crudest way possible, are trying to point at Salem and go - "Look, guys, you should fear her and treat her as an actual real threat to characters you care about. She's not like all the Grimm that plot eyes one-shot after all the build-up. She's the real deal. Look - the threat of Biblical Apocalypse!"

But at the same time, she still...just sits off-screen making vague remarks and not really managing to do anything of note, while her lackeys end up jobbing to kids or, in case of Cinder, undergoing character regression as they throw around temper tantrums.

When all of those factors get put together it's easy to even forget that this setting is supposed to be about civilization barely hanging on against unending waves of eldritch monstrosities. Or that they just had a world war less than hundred years ago and the Kingdoms still don't really like each other that much ("Hey its all fine, guys, we just dropped the entirety of Atlas population into the middle of impoverished Kingdom they tried to literally eradicate eighty years ago, while also creating ultra-scarcity of the resource the entire world runs on - so everyone's friends now").

They could have deleted the Two Gods nonsense in the planning phases and instead used the team separation to expand upon the world and how the threats to it work but alas, Miles Luna wouldn't be able to incorporate a random dream he had into the story then.

Usually, one wonders what you think are the best episodes of SPN. Instead I wanted to ask you what do you think are the worst episodes. Thank you.

Easy, the worst episode is 10x09, introduction of a character that NOBODY asked for, Claire Novak. Even worse, they wasted the mid-season finale on her, a character that NOBODY asked for. No surprise that showrunner Jeremy Carver was tote on board because Claire was his creation in season 4, meaning he would get paid residuals every time his character shows up on screen.

This youtuber's reaction sums up my anti-Claire Novack feeling even though Kathryn is playing a different character: “I swear to God this girl through the entire movie makes me feel like placing my forehead against her forehead and having my forehead absorb her brain for the empty calories because it’s not like she’s using it anyways.”

The other worst episode was 6x20, “The Man Who Would Be King”, a Castiel centric episode that should be taught in screenwriting class on the wrong way of using flashbacks to retcon and salvage a character instead of adding to the plot.

There should be only one reason for flashbacks, the character has a backstory that matters to the main plot and moves the plot.  Even then, it’s not a good enough reason for flashback to be worthwhile unless it has enough information to be important.  After that, the flashback must be a plot catalyst for a plot revelation that jumps the character’s arc into higher gear than ever before.

Now did any of Cas’s flashbacks do that in Supernatural?  Be honest now, this is a safe space. NO IT DIDN’T. The episode was literally telling the audience that Cas is a swell guy through Cas’s narration.  Worse, his backstory was used for padding instead of progression because it wasn’t integral to the narrative.  None of Cas’s flashback offer new information other than making look Cas worse, like confirming that he took Sam out of the Cage and despite knowing something was wrong with Sam, took no further action to rectify the situation.

Most of the appeal of Cas’s story is the subtext.  The moment TMWWBK brought his backstory into the clear light of dramatized narrative, it cease to be subtext and instead it became blatant and on the nose.  It lost more than half its power.   Cas’s main story was sacrificed to a needless exploration of a backstory that could have been revealed with more power and precision without the flashbacks.  Flashbacks should be earned, just as any plot development is earned.

Writers need to always ask if the fun of dramatizing the backstory is worth the subtlety and mystery they lose in the main story.  Edlund turned Castiel into a charisma-vacuum character.

I think Misha and Edlund knew the main audience will turn against Cas when he breaks Sam’s mind in the finale two episodes later and why they (or maybe just Misha) campaigned hard to have a Cas-centric episode before the finale to excuse explain Cas’s actions.  Except I don’t think it worked since most Cas stans don’t refer to TMWWBK to defend Cas.

ETA: correction on the episode number for 10x09

I got 3 questions for you

1. So, if persephone can do bad things and get a reward for it, does it mean you can say the same argument for apollo when he SA persephone but he the bad guy for likely persephone and hate hades?

2. Why does everyone still talking about Apollo SA persephone like it 2 weeks ago and not 10 years ago(like it said) plus persephone may or may not forgotten about it? 

3. Will you change all the females (not all them tho, but) hairstyles or keep them same because I'm very tired of the same slick back and slick side, it's not that I don’t hate them or anything just it doesn't have unique to the hair like persephone having flowers on hair ( sorry, it hard for me trying to explain).

aight let's do this

1.) this is a question that comes up a lot because it helps us observe the morality line in LO and how it's applied effectively (it is not). one does have to wonder why we're supposed to root for Persephone but condemn characters like Minthe. one has to wonder why people will use "well greek myth was fucked up" as a defense of LO but then still expect people to take the SA plot seriously when SA is something that happened all the time in greek myth. this isn't to say things like the SA shouldn't be taken seriously, they ABSOLUTELY SHOULD, but then the comic will ask us to not think too hard about persephone abusing a lower class person. tl ; dr: lore olympus can't pick a lane and it shows in how it expects us to root for some characters and trash on others even though they've both committed similarly-heinous acts.

2.) i'm gonna apologize in advance because i'm really gonna like, come at you here, but this question comes across as very victim-blamey. I get if that wasn't your intention so I'm not gonna drill into you too hard, but that's often used as an argument for SA victims to just "get over it". There's no timeline as to when or how long it should take for a victim of SA to heal from what happened to them. Speaking candidly an SA victim myself, I still struggle with sex as an adult because of how much it affected me when I was younger (especially considering it happened when I was still in my formative years, like my brain straight up wasn't done developing yet so that had lasting effects that I still feel today). People are still talking about it, not because Persephone seems to have forgotten about it, but because Rachel herself clearly wants the narrative and her own audience to forget about it, as it's the one plotline she clearly never intended to write.

And when I say she "never intended to write" I mean that literally, apparently when she first uploaded the assault episode she didn't even put a trigger warning because she legitimately didn't see what happened as assault. So she quietly retconned it by adding the trigger warning and later expanding on the plotline through Eros explaining to Persephone what happened. Which wasn't necessarily the wrong thing to do, I think that initial conversation with Eros is quite meaningful in getting across that being nagged into sex =/= consent, but it's become abundantly clear that Rachel is just pretending this was her plan all along, when the proof in the narrative and writing shows that it never was. You can't just throw in an SA plot for drama but it's very clear that's what Rachel's using it for and that's where the criticism lies when people talk about Persephone's progress - the comic tries to convince us she's "over it" but we've never actually seen her side of things, we see more screen time and backstory given to the assaulter's POV (Apollo) and the POV of the friends of the victim (Hermes, Artemis, Hades, etc.) than we do from the actual victim (Persephone).

I hope that makes sense? The ten year time skip in and of itself isn't the problem, the problem is that Rachel wrote in a 10 year time skip that she clearly never planned out so she could get Persephone's AOW punishment over with ASAP and so she could artificially retcon things on a whim by inserting them as flashbacks. Rachel doesn't use flashbacks as an actual narrative device, she uses them as a crutch so she can patch together things as she comes up with them because she hasn't written out an actual story. And there's no single plotline that demonstrates that more than the SA plotline.

3.) I'm definitely trying to have fun with the hairstyles, the way the hair is done in LO just goes to show that Rachel only knows how to draw 3 faces LMAO That said, I'm also trying to keep it within the design choices of the original comic as much as possible, so aside from new characters (such as Dionysus and Charon) I won't be changing things too much, just enough to make them feel fresh but still recognizable (ex. Persephone's mid-length hair when she cuts it at Hades' house).

RECREYO - CHAN: THEORIES / THOUGHTS

As of right now, "Recreyo Chan" has had three official appearances in videos, one possible season 2 design sketch, and two off-hand references.

Aaand, with promises from Curt that the SCP arc will have actual lore, and a VC that signified that Recreyo definitely knew about the fandom's thirst for lore... I think it's safe to say that RC may have more to do with it than what was initially planned from when she was first created. Especially when her recent appearances have been.. odd, and a specific event in the official Recreyo Discord had thrown us all for a loop.

This post is to showcase my thoughts and hopefully provide some clarity on who she actually is. (And if I'm sensible, then what she also could be.)

Warning: this may be a little long.

RC's debut was on Nov 16, 2021 for an Anime NYC announcement. You can find the video here.

From this video alone, RC definitely appears more like a mascot than anything- a one-off character who would only be mentioned for two visual gags from then on, plus a drawing that Ivan did shortly after the second video.

It's important to note that one of these references were definitely coincidental, and I don't want that to be forgotten. However, I wanted to address it just in case. After all, an accidental reference could very well be spun into a lore tidbit.

( The picture below is from a video's ad I can't remember, so if you find it please lemme know )

The video that that frame is from is old, that much I know. But recently, definitely after that video was up for months, Ivan dropped a possible season 2 design for RC. (3/23/23)

And what do you know, on the 17th, only 6 days before that drawing was sent in the Discord, we saw RC again. Albiet, it was just by name, so we don't know if it was just another gag. It likely is, since the animator could've drawn it ages before we saw it uploaded, but...

Let's just keep it in mind.

( The picture below is from We Let an AI Write This Video )

After these small bits, though, we got two actual appearances from RC. Ones that actually kept her design and so we know for a fact that they are the same character. INTENTIONALLY this time, I should add.

( Picture below is from Can You Survive Dr. Stone? )

At 9:31, Curt says "Nah, I gotta progress the plot." and we see the screen glitch with this frame showing up. This is, without a doubt, RC. From the blue hair, the red tie, and even the spiral cheeks- this is the mark that she was becoming something more.

(Plot-relevant, if you will.)

Being deliberately consistent now, we can take this a little more seriously.

I wanna say that although I don't know the specific time, the video was uploaded at the latest: 2:48 PM. I know this since that was time of the earliest message about the video in the Discord.

You might think it's redundant, but I bring the time up because everyone who was in the Discord would know that something else had happened that day, and it's incredibly important that we're all aware of it.

This person, who I'll call CA, had joined at 4:12. Two whole hours after the video was released, and so a lot of people had already watched it by then and had theorized about RC's surprising return.

Everyone's lore theories were public. And although framed as a hacker, CA was all obviously a plot by Recreyo to get us riled up for the lore. We know this, since Curt himself had showed up in the general chat prior to "play dumb" about everyone's collective breakdown.

Anyway, to summarize what had happened after CA showed up:

Everyone was pinging them, flirting, etc. Basically trolling, but also publicly theorizing that they were RC's account. By the way, "c̶" also was in the video's description, almost matching CA's name.

CA had a role (shown above) that put them at the top of the member-list. They were also apparently unbannable according to the mods.

Curt got "hacked" and if memory serves right, his PFP changed to the glitching RC picture. He sent the message "c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛͛c̶̓̈a̶͛" into the announcements channel.

Den banned Curt after confirming that he was "hacked."

Curt rejoined and got his Recreyo role back. However... CA is still online as I type this.

Again, everything was obviously a stunt, and I don't need to argue about that. However, I want to take all of this seriously in the sense that it's lore-related, because if we keep on going "it's just a joke" then everything in Recreyo's lore wouldn't matter. So SHUT THE FUCK UP IF YOU'RE TYPING "IT WAS AN APRIL FOOL'S JOKE" (BECAUSE IT WASN'T EVEN APRIL FOOL'S FOR THEM!!!!)

Anyhow, I think it's obvious that CA is connected to RC. Whether they're the same person or not, the glitch theme mixed with the hacker idea is way too similar. And if you're not convinced that it's even a motif, then let's go into today's upload.

( Picture below is from Officially Announcing the New Recreyo Member )

..Yeah, so this is happening. This is real.

An interesting detail is that RC was originally Den before glitching onto the frame. And if you continued watching, you'd notice that the screen pans over and Den shows up on the other side of the picture.

So... this is where we end with our sudden appearances, and we actually begin diving into what RC could be doing here, and what her place in the lore will be.

Let's run down the thoughts that I have:

A popular idea right now is that RC is an AI gone rogue. With the theme of glitching, it definitely fits.

As an explanation for her appearances, we can also assume that she hacks into the videos itself, and what we see on screen wasn't actually what was happening. So instead of her just appearing next to Christian like when they were recording, she instead corrupts the video as it "uploads." This is my current idea, since when questioned about the Dr. Stone video, Curt said:

As for her place into the story, there's a few possible ways for her to be integrated with the current SCP arc. Maybe she's an SCP herself, maybe she's the mystery guide...

I personally believe that she's the one who caused the blackout in the sculpture scenario. In my own headcanon, I had stated that RC worked with the SCP foundation and was integrated with all of the technology. I might not fully believe that now, but I still agree with the latter half.

If she's a professional hacker due to her AI abilities, I don't think it's farfetched she'd be messing up the SCP foundation and trying to get Recreyo killed...

But why? What incentive would she have?

...Well, I've had an idea for a while. I've had RC in my own headcanon lore of Recreyo for quite a bit, and I even called the possibility of her being an AI. The malice I believe that she'd hold towards her creators involves the theme of freedom. Being a real person rather than a character. Vengeance.

I definitely doubt that The Bunker Trio would be brought back (as much as it pains me to say) but something I associate a lot with them is how much tragedy they went through.. solely because of Recreyo. Being original characters, all of their pain was directed by Curt and exploited for content, IN-UNIVERSE.

These themes I have with them are something that extends to RC. I believe that RC is intending to take over the Recreyo channel as payback for bringing her into a world just as a mascot. If she was given the blessing of intelligence, then why the hell was she only used as a mascot?

This is getting a little meta, but I want to emphasize how she was only a lifeless one-off character. I honestly believe she only has lore now because Recreyo realized how obsessed with it we are. So they dig up an old character who hasn't been touched in two years, and suddenly she's the star of the show?

RC is sick of being used as an "idol." She'll let her face haunt the videos for now, but she's going to take over one way or another.

....Or something like that. I can't tell if this even makes sense, but that's basically what I think about RC. I have other headcanons, like how I think she and Roberto work together as a duo, but those are far from what's actually happening.

But then again, I only have these stupid headcanons because I hadn't counted on her becoming a character again. I thought that she was honestly retired.

I might've originally dug a path far from the road of canon, but if it means Recreyo is finally exploring their potential of storytelling, then hell- you already know that I'll be running back.

(Also while I was typing this, CA changed their name to CAN. So.. yeah.)

2022 FANFIC REC LIST

Thought I’d do something like this a few times a year where I rec fics I’ve read. Not all of these I read this year, but for my first rec post, thought I’d just share some of my favorites. Also if any of these authors have tumblrs and I didn’t tag them let me know I’d love to tag them, or tag them yourselves!

RIORDANVERSE

Seeker - first of a series, oc fic, about a kid who can sense danger and crashes the great prophecy, series is up to book 3 as of adding it here (July) I am emotionally attached to this series it’s one of the best things I’ve ever read

Phyrrhic - oc fic, twin children of Persephone who acted as spies during the Titan War, in progress. I am so emotionally attached to Calista it’s an issue

Second Chances - oc fic, four demigods die in the Battle of Manhattan and come back to life, in progress. They’re deaths are all so sad but they come back to life and ahshdhdhhdhhdhdhh

HUNGER GAMES

I posted another hunger games fic rec earlier this year with more fics so check that out if you want more

hell has frozen over by @dandelionsandviolets - 72nd Hunger Games. In progress. I love Evelyn so much. Her and Claire are so <3

As Long As I’m Burning by @heathercubedfic - Johanna’s point of view throughout the series, including her Games. 21/48 as of writing this I think. I love Johanna’s characterization so much it feels so realistic

TLC

literally anything by Elwin (@salt-warrior)

I know it’s one of Elwin’s but The Time it Takes to Fall changed me as a person so

THE WILDS

anything by @blinkaftermidnight

Curtain Call by @smileymikey - Toni is forced into a production of Romeo and Juliet, where she meets Shelby, in progress. I love Toni’s characterization it’s influenced how I think of her so much

haunted by @halcyon-hyacinth - leatin ghost hunter au! In progress

LEGENDBORN

I used to say I read basically every legendborn fic on ao3 but I haven’t read bloodmarked so I no longer have that claim. It was fun bragging rights while I had it.

Cariad - Sel and Bree make plans to find Nick, discontinued

Slow Magic - Bree and Sel save Nick, one shot. One of my favorites

Broken Trust - Lord Davis tells Sel the consequences of the second trial, one shot

A Quest is a Dangerous Thing - one shots with a connecting plot

We Deserve It - Nick, Bree, and Sel get together, one shot

AVATARVERSE

Legend of Haruko - story of the Avatar after Korra, in progress, book 4 (of 4) is almost done. I love it so much all the characters are so good and it feels like a natural continuation

The Rise of Rangi by @d7kyoshi - The Rise of Kyoshi through Rangi’s pov (has a sequel for The Shadow of Kyoshi). Absolutely amazing characterization of Rangi I love it so much

Sunstroke by @soupdots - Azula healing fic, 8/?. Azula is very in character and I love her so much

moonsoon season (book: air) by @maisazula - au where Azula is the Avatar. A lot of worldbuilding and really good writing.

FIRST KILL

Twelve Years - Cal and Jules see each other 12 years after their break up, one shot

because we are doomed - the raid goes a little differently, 2 chapters? maybe three

THE OWL HOUSE

(not) Oblivious - Luz tries to figure out who Amity wanted to ask to Grom. One shot. They are so so so cute

The mortifying ordeal of being known - Amity sleeps over at the Owl House and is very gay

AMPHIBIA

If I Die Before I Wake - when the Three-Stones-Deity sends Anne back, they send her back 5 years in the future. In progress and I love it so so so much

WILLOW (2022)

Knight of Coins, Page of Cups - canon compliant tanthamore one shots

In the Silence - Kit and Jade talk about what happened to Ballantine. So soft but so angsty.

invisible string - Jade and Kit love each other so so so much. One shot.

sorry to my unknown lover - Kit and Airk talk about their ideas of love. I love them so much I can’t wait until they get screen time together again. One shot.

put your lips close to mine, as long as they don’t touch - Kit really wants to kiss Jade. One shot.

I Suspected… - Kit uncovers the truth of Jade’s past

you’re on my mind - Jade turns down the Shining Legion for Kit. I love them so much. One shot.

and this house of mirrors - Kit joins the Crone. You have no idea how much I want this to be canon. One shot.

WEDNESDAY

indelibility by @foibles-fables - Enid gets scars from fighting Tyler. One shot.

Now that this season of ES is complete I wanna go over what I liked and disliked in the show. I starting with what I disliked because I like to end on a positive note.

Everything under the read more because this will be longer :)

Okay dislikes:

The tone is wildly inconsistent. The Soundwave episode is the most glaring example of this to me. You have Megatron being confronted by someone he failed, interesting fight scenes, and then... A bunch of kids beating a different group of bad guys by singing the world's most annoying song. It felt like two episodes of different shows in the worst way possible.

On that note the show frequently feels like two different shows! It's either more mature (for a children's show) and dealing with ideas related to war, and identity, or it suddenly takes on a very young tone. The plots about the Terrans learning VS plots about GHOST and such do not have any synergy and I felt like I was bouncing between two shows about different things.

The animation can be... Rough. Mo looks different than every other human and it's incredibly noticeable, and in some scenes the animation is just lacking any polish. It's very noticeable. Hopefully this is a budget issue that can be resolved for season 2.

A lot of these characters talk like they're trying to win at therapy.

Alex and Dr Meridian's connection was a letdown. You have the moment of recognition and then it's just... Oh yeah we were coworkers.

A number of things were left as loose ends. Sure, they may be resolved in season 2 but the show didn't have a guaranteed season 2 at the time of production.

A lot of stuff that could have been interesting just happens off screen. Shockwave apparently was betrayed by Croft. We don't even get to see them interact at all. For a kid that's confusing, as an adult it's annoying.

What I did like

It's really nice to see a show with a unique premise regarding transformers, I like the idea that they're disconnected from Cybertron, that Megatron regrets his past but not the entirety of it, everything going on with the Terrans.

The character designs are great. I'm a huge fan of Grimlock, Soundwave, Jawbreaker, Nightshade, all of them. Very fun.

The show manages to balance a large cast fairly well! Every Terran got a little moment or episode focused on them that helped flesh them out.

The tension consistently rose. The stakes got higher as the show progressed but there were no massive out of nowhere jumps that made it all seem out of place.

I enjoyed Dr Meridian and Croft as villains. They both had something different going on, and the way they would work together and betray each other added to the show a lot.

I like how the show dealt with the trauma that comes from not having control over yourself. It really hit home for me.

The fact that Megatron's redemption began with Dot is fantastic. I think she's a great character and I would love to see more focused on her going forward, and more of their friendship.

In contrast to one of my complaints, there's a lot about the animation that I love in this show. The use of more 2D animation for things like smoke and flames looks wonderful, and adds a great level of visual interest.

This show is very good at making characters who are nice to care about. Even Hashtag, who I initially found very annoying, I grew to love.

Overall I enjoyed the show more than I disliked it and will probably keep watching, but I really hope they improve, especially in regards to consistent tone.

A refreshing take on the Cherry Magic prologue that unfortunately fell (a ltitle) short in the last few minutes. 

Cherry Magic Thailand chooses the Jdrama route where we first meet Achi without his powers. It was nice to see the difference in culture immediately; from Achi’s living conditions to means of transport. Though I thought having Achi immediately lament on his life choices 2 minutes in was maybeeeee too quick.

It’s very interesting that Rock/Rokkaku here is introduced as Achi’s subordinate and their whole first interaction, with Achi feeling awkward that despite their big age difference he hardly holds a senior position over him, which in turn further proves Achi’s averageness. Plus, having Rock approach and get attached to Achi is going to rationalize an aspect of Karan’s jealousy which I am very excited to see. I liked the flashback montage about how different Karan and Achi’s progress in the workplace was. It gives the viewers a better idea of Achi’s mix of jealousy and admiration towards Karan and it’s also a first look into Achi’s feelings of inferiority that will eventually become an obstacle to his and Karan’s relationship.I also like how in the most recent flashback you can see Karan kind of burnt out, which should be around the time he falls (or has already fallen) for Achi. 

 *BTW Karan here is supposed to have won employee of the year 7 years in a row (from the FIRST year he joined) and honestly I find that less realistic than I found jdrama Kurosawa being in love with Adachi for 7 years 

Besides that, however, I found some other scenes unnecessary and very exposition-y, even for a pilot episode. For example, learning about Achi’s trauma regarding romantic relationships should have come up later imo.

Unlike other adaptations this one didn’t really feel the need to excessively point out Karan’s popularity among women, which is a very vital plot point later on; I am not really big fan of that trope so I found it kind of refreshing; and it will come sooner or later. 

I am VERY interested in Pai and Dujdao. Big fan of adding another relevant female character and one who is nice to Achi, at that! Pai is leaning to Fujisaki’s more extroverted and mischievous side while I think Dujdao has some of Fujisaki’s qualities as well but her role is more equivalent to a nicer Urabe-san or Achi’s very own Asahina-senpai. Side note, the implication that Pai-Dujdao are some kind of cupids that help Karan seduce Achi is a concept I can 100% get behind. It also seems like the boss will be a recurring character so maybe he’s the Asahina?  Anyway, the character department has me invested.

And speaking of characters - Jinta! JInta is…a character who is… not Tsuge. A lot of people are not fans of Tsuge, especially Jdrama Tsuge. But well I don’t know if the solution is to completely change him? He looks and acts way younger which is very contradictory to his role in the manga; Especially to his relationship with Minato. But, I won’t judge too hard yet since they haven’t even interacted on screen. The udon backstory is an AMAZING detail and the GREATEST introduction of the side couple in any version of the story. 

So. Nothing is going to top the jdrama elevator scene and every adaptation is going to have to make peace with that. The lighting work during Kurosawa’s imagination in the office was a work of art and Achi’s (and Rock’s later) reaction was hilarious. The sound effects also got me a few times ngl.

Part 4 however…disappointed me. First off they replace the scarf scene with a way less emotionally charged umbrella scene. To which I ask, do you know how hard it is to make an umbrella scene seem so unromantic? And then we have Karan asking Achi to stay over and BEFORE Achi agrees, he reads Karan’s mind and his wild imagination. And then…agrees? The entire gag of the scene relies on Achi agreeing BEFORE he sees all that stuff and then immediately regretting it. Having him regret it after the fact is … pointless? I also found it very abrupt to jump to domestic life scenarios fantasies from the get-go when in all other version’s Karan is just contend with Achi being at his place (with his designated pyjamas). He’s a horny bastard in general, I am not denying the mole scene earlier but I felt like the domestic fantasies being shown so early on was a bit fanservice-y for the Taynew fans? (As someone who doesn’t gaf about these men outside their roles and as someone who knows Kurosawa personally this is what it felt like to me.)

Karan's smirk was precious though hehe.

TLDR the show has a very promising and compelling beginning but declines in quality in the last minutes. That being said, I still have faith that the next episodes will be better. The next episode clips I’ve seen are promising and since there was a lot of exposition (and scenes from later chapters) in the pilot it will probably help the pace of the later episodes. Personally, the jdrama hooked me with EP3 (the events of which will be in EP2 of the Thai one) so I think (and hope) the show will only get better from here!

Hi! I came across your art after playing NitW for the first time this weekend. Apologies if I overlooked it, but do you have a post explaining the Home Again AU? I'm curious about the story behind it.

Hi there! No, I have not uploaded an official post explaining the Back Home AU. The story up until this point has mainly just been little notes and ideas I’ve jotted down to myself over the past year, which I now intend to turn into an actual written work. I’m thinking that upon the first chapter’s completion, I will upload it to AO3 as that seems to be the most well known site for fan works, though I’m not too familiar with how the site works haha. I’ll keep you guys posted on when that happens. As for a little taste of the plot, I will try my best to explain it without spoiling too much:

Basically the story follows a similar plot to the original game, Mae comes back home, reunites with her friends, fights some cult dudes. I don’t believe I’ll focus on/mess with too much of the paranormal stuff, I’ll be mainly focusing on character relationships and Mae’s internal dialogue. The differences in Home Again to it’s source material are heavily built around Mae and Casey’s relationship, which will be discussed much more in depth. We’ll see just how much Casey’s absence is affecting Mae and her ability to form bonds with others, as well as a secret surrounding her absence that’s eating her up inside. The thing people probably know most about this story is that it’s the “Transfem Casey au”, which is just one of my personal headcanons added to her character, and the story will dive a bit into the implications of that but it won’t be a heavy focus.

I plan for the AU to be split up into 3 parts, 1 central plot and 2 additional ones, supplementals, if you will. The first being the main, present story line, “home again” which is what you’d expect and mainly just what I explained earlier. I want to focus on the friend group and building their relationships further than they did in the game. The supplementals both occur in the past. The first one revolves around Mae and Casey’s relationship. Casey is still dead in my au but I wanted to still give her screen time to explain everything that happened with her and Mae and just delve into who she is as a character. The second one, which I am still a bit unsure if I want to make into an actual separate work like the other, or just keep to flashbacks, is what happened with Mae in college.

For confirmation on what I mean by ‘supplemental’, I basically mean that these side stories will get their own separate AO3 works, while also being featured in flashbacks in the main story.

This is a still one big work in progress right now so I hope it doesn’t just sound like nonsense, but I hope you guys will stick along with me for the ride!

I’m always open to more questions <3

OPENS DOOR VIOLENTLY

Fandom: Arknights Number: 9 ("Which characters I think should have interacted more in canon")

Ship: Ptilopsis/Silence Number: 12 ("About three of the scenes that make me have feelings and (if available) find the gifs (well screenshots here lol) that underline my point.")

Character: Dorothy Number: 10 ("If I liked them immediately or if it took a while before I warmed up to their character. Alternatively, if I disliked them immediately or if they lost my trust as their story progressed.")

Thank you for the ask!!! And also thank you for including the questions with the numbers LOL I immediately forgot every single question as soon as i looked away from the ask game post Fandom: 9. Okay well first off I would be doing a disservice if I didn't mention Fiammetta and Exusiai who have tiptoed around interacting for 4 years despite being in an event together and being both directly tied to Lemuen and Mostima, their dynamic could be REALLY interesting and I would love to see them both talk about how Laterano treated them. Why is Exu in Fia's skin btw. Who at HG put that apple pie there. Adding this on to the end because I dont want this question to be the Fiammetta show but she also should've interacted more with Mostima in Guide Ahead, their dynamic is the most interesting part of that event to me & I feel like it gets suprisingly little screen time compared to the angel boys I need Mayer to show up in the Rhine plotline to interact with Silence again and maybe Ifrit or Ptilopsis, I loved her interactions with Silence in Mansfield and it feels like she's sort of fallen to the wayside with all the new plot points and characters. As a whole a Mansfield follow up for the non Rhine Family characters would be greatly appreciated, I wanna see Robin and Kafka interact more too I also want Aosta, Broca and Chiave to interact with Vigil or Penance in whatever follows up on Siracusano, I really need to see the dynamic between those three goofballs that got kicked out of Siracusa and daddy's boy Leon and law-obsessed Lavinia And for one final crackship mention I think Honeyberry and Cantabile should get some screentime together.... I think Honeyberry helping Cantabile get over her trauma response to the metal crabs and All That which happens in her backstory would be really cute... Ship: 12: Well I would be remiss not to mention THE cutest moment in the manwha that everyone's seen

But also the moment of the two of them holding hands after the RL staff start insulting Joyce and Olivia for being infected & Saria steps in to defendd them

All of the moments of them being physically affectionate in the manwha are really precious to me and its really sad that we don't see either of them be that affectionate in the present timeline chapters... the Crisis really hurt them... Even before the Manwha I really like their interactions in Silence's operator record where we see how she met and started taking care of Joyce when she joined RL, this moment in particular

Also this section from DV literally makes me cry every single time I read it wehhh ;-;

Character: 10 I think I already had a predisposition to liking Dorothy because I started playing when Dorothy's Vision was in event limbo and everyone was posting about waiting for her and making jokes about her being CN-exclusive , so I was really excited for her event and saved to pull for her (I still don't have her D:) As I was going through DV though and the truth about her experiments was slowly revealed I started to lose trust in her and definetely started to dislike her for her actions a little bit but by the time it's revealed what her motivations are and her backstory of being from a pioneer family it really didn't take me that long to forgive her and go right back to loving her again (Her design is also really great thank you jackknife <3)

A devpost? It’s about time for one of those.

I’ve put this off for too long, but I have some free time for a minute, so now’s the best moment to finally unveil my first project! So, without further ado, I hereby announce..

RETINA

A puzzle-platformer metroidvania about memories, letting go of the past, and finding oneself; RETINA is now in development!

From here on out, I’ll be cataloging the development of the game as it happens! In this first (technically 0th) devpost, I'll go over my progress so far and an overview of my rough plans for the game.

RETINA Development #0 - You Gotta Start Somewhere

Over the past couple weeks, I've been busy trying to get some basic movement and animations working. That has been substantially more difficult than I thought it was going to be.

In hindsight, this makes sense, given that I'm still relatively new to using Godot and GDscript. In any case, I've managed to get basic running and jumping working, as well as a rudimentary dash ability and test level; which you can see here:

The dash is pretty janky in its current state, though: The vector is added to the player's current velocity, which is technically how it's supposed to work, but that means it only nudges the character a bit when they aren't moving. The dash vector is also determined by the cursor's global position, which is what allows it to work in the code currently, but that causes a player intent issue - the direction the character dashes in sometimes won't match the one the player wants them to. Unfortunately, I'm still not entirely sure why this is the case. Using coordinates in relation to the viewport (the camera, effectively) would fix this, but that has its own problems I need to work out. Additionally, the velocity issue means that it's possible to gain speed theoretically infinitely by just dashing along the floor. Oops!

Once I fix the dashing issues, my next goal is to implement crouching, sliding, and/or climbing walls. After that, I intend to start working on adding a grappling hook mechanic.

A Roadmap(ish)

Since RETINA is the first game I plan to release publicly, I'm trying to keep it relatively small in scope. That said, I've found that I'm rather incapable of keeping the ambitious side of me in check, so we'll have to wait and see.

Currently, RETINA is planned to be split into several distinct zones, of which two are currently in progress at the time of writing. I don't have a concrete final number of these zones in mind, but I want to aim to have a minimum of 4 in the final release. At the time of writing, I also have an idea that would necessitate having there be a variation of each zone - I'll talk more on that later in development.

When it comes to the narrative of the game, I'm aiming to convey the plot with no spoken words - some non-diegetic text will be present that will give you hints as to what's going on (The text on a game over screen, for instance), but otherwise no dialogue is present. I also plan to make a number of animated cutscenes - These are probably going to be the most ambitious and time intensive parts of the game artistically. I want there to be at least two cutscenes for each area, totaling to a minimum of 8, but the final number will depend of a variety of factors, including the scope.

Speaking of cutscenes and narrative, I also intend for RETINA to have multiple different endings. Currently, I'm aiming for three - One acquirable from the outset, one for finishing the game, and a secret "true" ending requiring finishing the game under certain conditions.

With regards to releasing the game, I currently only have plans to make RETINA available on PC for Windows and probably Linux. Mac support sounds like a pain in the ass (even though I'm using an engine), and I don't have a Mac to test on, either. I'm highly unlikely to publish it on consoles seeing as though this is my first release project, but I might consider porting it to Switch in the future when I've got more experience.

Moving Forward

All in all, this is a highly ambitious project. I can't promise a schedule for these devposts due to permanent extenuating circumstances, but I'm hoping I can at least get around to making a devpost once a month. Furthermore, this game is going to take a really long time to make. I can't promise a release window of any sort, and RETINA is likely going to be a multi-year project. Real life sucks, we unfortunately all have to participate in it, and it takes more of my time than I'd like.

Having said all of that, thanks for reading! I hope you're as excited about this game as I am, and I'm looking forward to going on this development journey with y'all!

In a potential rewrite, How would you handle the character of Sun Wukong?

To start with:

I am not doing the pointless Menagerie trip where a character based upon one of the most notable Chinese stories just awkwardly tags along to be made fun of, all just because RT felt like they needed to tip the scales of plausible deniability and had no idea what to do with him beyond wanting to make a single pun based on title of the work of literature the character is from.

The way I see it, the focus SHOULD be on Team RWBY, primarily. The original structure of meeting other characters that was in the first three volumes can still work world-wide as the story follows those four specific characters journeys.

The first three volumes introduced a ton of characters from all over the world that RT then proceeded to never use again and instead added-on even more characters(that they also then never used again). Which is weird because all of those characters that were there for Vytal Tournament, Sun included, went through a pretty terrifying event together. There's plenty of ways to use them. It's not just the four leads that went through something life-changing and would have to go their own ways, taking different lessons from what they experienced there.

One of the most annoying parts of MilesWBY for me have been characters just existing to appear when they need to further the main plot. You know how anything characters do or think HAS to be tied to either the leads or the threat of Salem somehow and if it doesn't the characters just stop existing or don't matter. When, ironically, side-characters having their own stories and lives off-screen is basically what you WOULD use "offscreen progression" for - the idea that other characters that are not in the spotlight are doing things on their own and have goals of their own that then get revealed and tie together into main story.

So instead, I sort of charted out where various characters are right now and why are they there, what are they doing and so on. Some are involved in things in the background that characters might hear about, while others might be more involved in a more direct way, if plotlines overlap. If characters travel, the idea of them sometimes encountering people they know should be a given, no?

The way I see it, Sun has a certain journey to go through that's not really directly tied to the lead four, but is important long term. And there's A LOT to pick and choose from as far as allusions go to the work of literature he is based upon. What he's up to is alluded to through the parts I planned out till it's spelled out and starts overlapping with other plot threads.

A bit about the Inn + Other news

Been in the grind zone once again for some weeks, and good news: We’re finally moving on from Liza purgatory! In exchange, we’re now in the Inn Pit.

It’s been another few weeks since my last post on just about any of my socials, but on my Twitter, I showed a small little clip of Liza’s boss fight. It’s not much of a looker (yet), but man oh man was it working! It’s still not very flashy (I’m not worrying about overly flashy visuals and effects until towards the end of development), BUUUUT I can say that since that last post, it’s done!

All of Liza’s possible moves have been implemented and I’ve even added a few little neat things. For example, on certain frames of some of Liza’s attacks, you can hit her and her attack will instantly be interrupted, meaning you can basically cancel the attack completely. Although the “reenvision” mechanic doesn’t work on bosses, you can still use it to instantly end Liza’s current attack and reset her position in the arena (so if she’s cornering you, you can reenvision her and both you and Liza will be reset to the positions you started the boss fight in!)

There’s more things like that I’d love to add to not just Liza, but future bosses as well. This game does not have a level system and depends entirely on player skill. While this is turning out to be quite the challenge in figuring out how to give the player the feeeeeeling of gameplay progression, it also opens the doors for quite a number of cool little tricks like this. Letting the player be in complete control of battles like this as long as they know exactly about their opponents... There’s so much potential with this, it’s a little crazy!

ENOUGH about Liza though, she’s been the center of attention for long enough. Let’s talk art. Let’s talk about Clemence Inn!

SO. THE INN! I mentioned it vaguely at the end of my last post (and “promised” to post more about it the week after... Aha) but Clemence Inn is the name of the main location of the game. It’s a rundown inn in the middle of a small, sleepy town named Clemence. It has a total of 4 staff members: the mayor, a janitor, the town’s bounty hunter, and the Nurse. I’ve shown off the Nurse frequently in the past, so the other 3 will be new characters I’ll show off in time! The Inn is also where you, the player, will live. As the inn comes together and I fill out more rooms (the pictures above and below are only of the inn’s lobby area), maybe I’ll give a bit more of a proper room tour! As well as give a proper introduction the wonderful Inn staff. Who knows? 😳

With the foundation of the game done and Liza + the store system as a whole also being done, my focus will be shifting to some other very important, yet not as “exciting” things to show off. Basically, I’ll be focusing on game locations, art direction (for said locations), more monsters, more enemies, writing and finishing the script, more smaller things I’ve been putting on the backburner ingame (such as some smaller features and tweaks I’ve been meaning to get to). All of this is very important to the game and uh... Well, it’s literally the rest of the game. However, it’s not as “exciting” to show off as it slowly comes along. I’ll continue to show off these WIPs nevertheless (I love blathering about this game, and I’m sure there’s some who love hearing about games in active development), but if things start to feel a weeee bit like a slog, then it’s because it is! Everything will come together with time though. We’re only in year 2 of development, and I suspect this game will take 4-5 years at least.

To end off this long update post, I’ve also been working on newer, more “finalized” tilesets for the game. That’s right, plot twist: The tilesets currently ingame were always just temporary. I had changed the screen size of the game (384x216 to 320x180) a year ago and surprise surprise, big pixel art assets do not scale down very well! I needed new tilesets, but wanted to take is as an opportunity to practice :P

The new tilesets aren’t that different, but I made sure to make the colors easier on the eyes. Here’s the new (top) vs old (bottom) "main” forest tiles!

Thoughts and Notes on Netflix's 2024 Live Action Avatar the Last Airbender (spoilers!)

Good:

The Casting overall I think is good, I have some problems with characterization but overall everybody looks the part -azula.

The Effects good all the way through actually

Some of the Added Scenes, such where Zuko gets his platoon from

The Score, it's the same score

Bad:

Incredibly Show and Tell, like illude to something, foreshadow something, don't just show me it and explain it right away, not every plot thread has to be on screen.

Pacing, condensing 20 24 minute episodes into 8 one hour long episodes really hurts character moments and overall story progression.

The War!!! 70% of the dialogue is about THE WAR. That's not really what the original story is about, so much focus is about the war and you lose so much of the necessary innocence of the characters

The Live Action why do we doing this.

Nobody seems like friends when the camera is on, the chemistry isn't working sadly, I think it has to do with Dialogue and Pacing of Dialogue, they need to actually talk to each other rather taking turns performing one liners and monologues. There's too much space in between lines.

Every character is playing their trauma as if it's their first card in the deck, and pouring it out to everyone immediately, it's lazy, and unemotional when it should be.

I feel like I just watched 8 episodes of this show and followed this group but I don't know any of them, we're not given time to spend with them.

Character Notes

Avatar (the war) Aang, this isn't a child, he is played by a child but sadly he isn't allowed to be one. He's too weighed down by his trauma and responsibilities that he isn't given the space to have fun, and he does have a nice smile and he does look like Aang but they're playing him as a fucking rock. A Rock who can fly???

Also all the past Avatars give him such shitty advice which he always disagrees with and then when he leaves the spirit world he's like "they're absolutely right!" stand up for your own beliefs baby!

He gets so boiled down to being a hero and having to save everybody that he loses his own essence and appeal.

Katara (the prodigy) It just doesn't feel like the same character, she doesn't feel motherly, she doesn't feel angry, she isn't shown to be hard working, idk she's just there, so much of her original struggle was learning but through some nice words from Aang and Jet she's already a master before she gets to the North Pole.

Sokka (😐 this is the face he's making) I think he just needs to be more expressive and charismatic, I want to like him but he's just too stiff. Get that man high before filming or something idk. Should've been more sexist. it's a plot point.

Appa and Momo aren't characters, they're just there but not even there.

Zuko!! he's cute! I think he might be my favourite casting. He's frustrated and whiney and annoying in all the right ways. He's by far the most rounded character so far and that's helped by more screentime from not only him but Ozai and Azula. But! that's at the cost of their own mystique and characterisation.

He's also not funny enough, like original Zuko's dialogue is 90% "My Honour!!!!" and new Zuko at least to my knowledge doesn't say it one time. Like they're both hyper-fixated on the same task but one is just naturally funnier. idk maybe that's an easier thing to pull off in animation.

And like most people I think adding the platoon he thinks shouldn't be sacrificed as his crew is a good decision, I just wish he made it himself, rather than Ozai gifting/pawning them off to him. would've made it just all that better in my opinion.

Iroh! loved you at first! great casting, but you're allergic to smiling, I get it this first season we're really playing into the RIP Lu Ten but like Zuko is right here and you need to spend time spending time with this kid, show him that war ain't all that. there's joy and love in this world man, and so many amazing wonders. be happy just to live in a world like that. be happy man please. you're too old to not know how to grieve.

I think Azula's casting has yet to prove itself. The young girl playing her just seems like a really nice person, who doesn't at all look crazy enough.

They're also fucking her character, where is her self confidence? where is her unwavering faith in herself? Why is Ozai doubting her?? She's the mother fucking queen? why isn't she acting like it??? She just isn't giving crazy bitch.

Ozai, fine, but why are we seeing ur face??? sit in the chair!!!!

I think overall i want to give this show the benefit of the doubt, you're not doing a terrible job. Just give us more character moments and relaxation, it's not all about the war. it's about kids and growing and friendship and shit. also like write faster dialogue you can get more lines in like always. Especially for Sokka! he's the filler to any dead air. In 50 minute episodes there shouldn't be this much silence.

I'll keep watching, for season 2 I just hope that even as the show gets more serious, they can still create the beautiful moments of quiet and calm and fun. The show needs more fun, and the kids should have more too.

2 Broke Girls Review

I heard of 2 Broke Girls after seeing a random cameo made by Kat Dennings in Sex and the City (I recognized her as Darcy in the MCU), and immediately set out to find a place to watch it. I found with a regular subscription to Amazon Prime, I could watch 3/4 of a season which would progress each Friday, adding new episodes and taking the old ones away. I immediately loved the show because Denning’s character Max is everything I like in a tv lead. Sassy, dark, funny, and capable. The farther we got along in the show the more I loved it, mostly because of Max and Caroline’s relationship and how these girls never got jealous of one another, which seems like a common plot whenever multiple female characters grace the screen. But the two despite their obvious differences loved each other so completely in one of the best on-screen female friendships I’ve ever seen. By the end I was completely in love. I liked that Max and Caroline’s first go at the cupcake shop was an overshot and ended up failing. I liked that in the end they got the shop placed next to the diner so they’d never part with it, and they adapted it as the world adapted to take on more than one thing (alcohol and cupcakes, which is the embodiment of Max and Caroline). I also really enjoyed the LA storyline because often when characters are out of their natural setting for more than two episodes, the story gets more and more odious. But I really liked the movie concept, and I adored Robbie. He was far the best love interest Max had ever had, and she had some solid ones. Namely the bartender and the dude who lived in the dumpster. (Can’t remember their names right now). We ended the show with Robbie coming back in a perfect moment and proposing to Max. Usually I find the proposal episode to be pretty cheesy (except the Monica and Chandler episode of Friends), but this was just amazing. I didn’t think it would happen and I was so happy in the end. Caroline’s movie had come out, and she met a nice, interesting guy she had immediate chemistry with. One of my favorite moments of the show is a little joke in the final episode was when Max made a joke about how her wish came true because she and Caroline don’t have to die together now, but then Robbie said, “You can die with us”, and that is why I like the relationships on the show. Never were guys pushy or annoyed with either girl’s friend. They adored them, and this line just made me fall completely for Robbie. But as the episode was nearing its end, I knew the show had been canceled. With only two minutes to go we find out that Bobby (Carolines boyfriend) and Randy had met before and loathe each other. We end the show with the two brawling outside the cupcake window with the girls infront. If they had just cut that last scene and made the boys shake hands, we could’ve ended the show perfectly. But originally a seventh season was in mind, so they didn’t do this and the show was canceled leaving us oh so satisfied in all ways, but one. Overall, I recommend the show because I really do adore it and will definitely rewatch it, but by just cutting out the final two minutes we could’ve had the perfect resolution to a six-season long show with the girls having good relationships and their cupcake shops, but still working at the diner with a zero-dollar account balance to bring it full circle. Nevertheless, I looked forward to new episodes every Friday and would give it a 9.5/10. I was never once bored watching it.