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larksinging · 6 years

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@nerdramblings101 replied to your post “diaz is a terrible villain and it’s a shame they’re using laurel being...”

What makes Diaz a terrible villain?

okay, so. diaz is just badly written. i think it comes down to two major points: he is badly set up, and he isn’t memorable enough

up until cayden james dies, which is about halfway through the season, diaz is just kind of... nobody? he had that one episode with a plotline about drugs and diggle, though that doesn’t read as “setting up the main villain” as much as “here’s a throwaway villain for an episode developing diggs more!”. like what if you’re watching s2 and it turns out the clock guy from the episode about felicity feeling insecure ended up being the big bad? yeah

and even after his first introduction, before he usurps cayden james, he doesn’t really... do anything? he’s just kind of in james’ little villain group and has an occasional comment. it’s not that hard to figure out that he’s the one that framed oliver, since black siren makes no sense and it’s more likely than anatoly. either way, he goes from “idk random guy” to “oh that’s the season’s big bad”

that never happens? or at least, you never get bait and switch villains in this season. in s1, you don’t really figure it out until a ways in, but you know there’s something tying the list together and malcolm’s being established as a character early on. in s2, slade is established in flashbacks before he shows up, and his sub-villains do stuff earlier on that build him up. s3 is a bit convoluted, but ra’s is already a figure we know and the league is built up as a threat for a long time. s4 it’s clear early on, s5 you know prometheus is a problem early on even if you don’t know who. but s6 goes “the villain is cayden james-- jk, it’s this guy.” what? especially because cayden james doesn’t built to diaz in any way. he’s not a similar type of villain. nothing that happens with cayden james really matters to diaz and his plan, except getting oliver arrested i guess?

let me talk about cayden james. he’s established as a character in s5, so we know already he exists. his motivations are clear, if kind of generic: he wants revenge on oliver for his son’s death! he is calm and kind of pretentious in a way that’s a little different from past villains. he’s a hacker, which is a different skillset than previous villains, and they have a couple ways to show off that being dangerous. they have a good actor for him who sells it. he’s nothing amazing but he’s a solid enough villain.

and then there’s.... diaz. his motivation is ??? idk power i guess? he had a rough life and was bullied as a kid and now he has to do macho posturing. he shows up pretty much out of nowhere. he’s kind of a typical “acts calm but really unstable” criminal villain character. his skills are ??? crime, and being extremely violent. his actor is.... well, i hate to knock on the actors, and i don’t know if it’s the acting or directing, but he doesn’t match up to the raw screen presence that other villains had.

his villain episode was decent at showing just how extreme he is, but it’s so late in the season that it feels weird. imagine, establishing your villain and setting him up as scary in the 19th of 23 episodes. and then they have a lot of characters be a mouthpeice to how scary and strong he is without... really showing it. before it happened mostly with the cop characters, but now anatoly and laurel are being used for that.

also i don’t want to get into it too much, but there’s nothing really sympathetic about diaz, at least imo. dude’s a complete monster. he’s toxic masculinity embodied, and maybe they could’ve worked with that, but they only occasionally bring up that take by having laurel be like “yikes”. the comparisons to zoom are actually kind of apt, because like zoom he’s an abusive monster, but unlike zoom he’s... just some dude? he some money, i guess.

we keep being told he’s “not just a thug”, but why isn’t he? what makes him so special? i can suspend my disbelief to believe that a hacker could pose a problem for team arrow, or someone psychological like chase could cause problems. but some crime lord is grinding team arrow, who beat the league of assassins, who beat literally magic damien darhk, to a halt? uh. i think this is a big part of the problem, and seeing people be skeptical that he’s a legit threat is a common take in the fandom rn. generally, when there’s an issue of people feeling it doesn’t make sense for a character to be beaten by another character, that’s a suspension of disbelief problem. s6 hasn’t established reasonable suspension of disbelief with diaz

this problem could stem from a lot of place, and it’s not the only problem with s6, but honestly if i had to take a wild guess i’d point to: maybe things are kind of chaotic behind the scenes, with how many things have changed or will change, OR that being the first season without flashbacks, the show is kind of at a loss on how to write itself without them.

tl;dr diaz basically burst in halfway through the season and said “hello i have toxic masculinity, i’m you’re new villain” and everyone went “uh”. his powers include “manipulating black siren to work for him” and “twisting the writing for plot’s sake”

(though that being said, that doesn’t make laurel suddenly “weak” for being afraid of him. she’s being used as a bit of a mouthpeice, but that doesn’t excuse gross rhetoric that can be really harmful against abuse victims. in the situation she’s in, her reaction makes sense. it’s just that the larger situation is bad writing, and so this all is a mess)

#nerdramblings101 #long post cw #arrow #this could probably be more condensed and neater but #yeah #hes not developed hes not established he's not believable #also i @'d you since i figure you'd wanna see this reply

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untamed-sun · 4 years

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MDZS vs Untamed Plot Differences

Now that I’ve written (a grand total of two) fanfic for MDZS, I wanted to sound out some of my thoughts on the plot differences. Or rather, some of the struggles I have with deciding which parts to use with which. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll write, but it will probably have spoilers if you haven’t finished at least one of these stories.

The problem is that the plot differences are interconnected. For example, if I have Jiang Yanli end up with Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng after the fall of Lotus Pier (something I had considered because I really liked her conversation with Wei Wuxian, where he admitted feeling responsible for what happened) then I have to consider how to remove her from the situation before Wei Wuxian gives Jiang Cheng his golden core.

In the CQL they did this by handing her over to Song Lan. But in the novel, Song Lan (and Xiao Xingchen, and Xue Yang) all appeared after Wei Wuxian’s death. Which means I would either have to include the CQL timeline for Song Lan, Xiao Xingchen, and Xue Yang or find some alternative way of leaving Jiang Yanli behind.

Something similar happens with Wei Wuxian’s death. On the one hand, I really really like the novel version of the second siege at the Burial Mound. It makes more sense, plot-wise, to have them all become truly desperate before Wei Wuxian draws a lure flag on himself in order to draw away the puppets. The blood corpses of the Wen Remnants are powerful, and make it more believable that Wen Ning would realize Lan Sizhui is Wen Yuan. The novel version also really develops some of the ongoing novel themes regarding blame, forgiveness, etc.

But.. the novel plotline also seems strange to me. We get it in bits and pieces, and if I understand what happened correctly we have the following:

Wen Qing and Wen Ning turn themselves in.

Wei Wuxian goes to Nightless City, it turns into a bloodbath.

Lan Wangji helps Wei Wuxian leave, and hides him in a cave somewhere.

Wei Wuxian tells him to go away, Lan elders come... Lan Wangji fights with the elders and ultimately winds up back at Cloud Recesses where he is severely punished.

Wei Wuxian winds up back at the Burial Mounds, and although I’m fuzzy on where all the stuff happened with Lan Wangji (to be fair, the novel is narrated from Wei Wuxian and he pretty much forgot all that, so... shrugs), it apparently took three months after Nightless City for the sects to gather enough strength to attack (i.e. the first siege at the Burial Mound). That’s where the remaining Wen are killed, Wei Wuxian destroys the Stygian Tiger Amulet and dies in the backlash. Oh, and Wen Yuan is hidden by a tree, where Lan Wangji finds him (after hearing about Wei Wuxian’s death and rushing over).

Three months? Three months, where we don’t really know what Wei Wuxian was thinking or feeling. It seems sort of stupid that they all just sat around on the Burial Mound waiting for the siege? And the whole bit with the cave, and telling Lan Wangji to go away, and the elders... I’m not really clear on it, probably because Wei Wuxian isn’t. It just doesn’t really make sense to me?

The CQL version has it’s own problems, though. It’s weird how Wen Qing and Wen Ning make a big deal about sacrificing themselves, and tell Wei Wuxian he’ll be taken care of by the others for the three days her needles knock him out... and yet they all just... leave? To die?

On the one hand, it makes Nightless City even more understandable. Wei Wuxian feels he’s truly lost everything. His brother and sister, all of Lotus Pier, being at his sister’s wedding... and now all the people he’d made those sacrifices for are dead, and he thinks everyone hates him.

I still prefer the death-by-backlash (Wei Wuxian isn’t really suicidal in the novel, despite being seriously messed up. Unless he knew the backlash would kill him?) and in one fic I basically decided he could tell the backlash was coming, and chose to fall of the cliff as a way to let it happen away from everyone, but whatever.

It condenses the plotline and makes it cleaner, neater, but the CQL version doesn’t have that moment where Lan Wangji protects a Wei Wuxian who is telling him to ‘Get Lost’ (the CQL explanation for Lan Wangji’s punishment, where a grieving Wangji fights off anyone trying to get close to Wei Wuxian’s den seems... a bit odd given Wei Wuxian is already dead, but people do weird things when grieving so I’m not saying it’s completely wrong. I’m not quite sure where finding Wen Yuan fits in this timeline... he did it before Wei Wuxian died at Nightless City?).

Deciding which version of Wei Wuxian’s death to use therefore depends on what you want to have happen in the second siege, as well as the relationship you develop between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.

I touched on this already, but the Yi City Arc is another place where you really have to know what you want in your fic. In the novel, Wei Wuxian never got to meet Xiao Xingchen. It’s sort of poetically tragic? Xiao Xingchen trained with Baoshen Sanren, same as Wei Wuxian’s mother. I gather that sort of relationship is a big deal (based on how Wei Wuxian acted in CQL when they met, and various other things) so it’s kind of sad that they never did? Also, Xue Yang had an easier time pretending to be Xiao Xingchen because Wei Wuxian had never met him... so you didn’t need that whole face mask trick Xue Yang did in CQL.

I rather liked their interaction in the CQL timeline, but if you adopt that then you probably have to adopt the Yin Iron plot. That, or come up with some justification for why Wei Wuxian and gang were there at the time.

It also messes with the novel timeline a bit, since in the novel Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji find yet another missing piece of Nie Mingjue’s corpse at the former Chang Sect residence.

These are the sorts of problems I run into when trying to piece together the bits I like of the different plotlines.

Like - I like some of the scenes in the CQL. They develop the characters in greater detail and some of them are really, really cute. But then you generally have to adopt other aspects that I find less compelling. I find the Yin Iron plot a bit... deficient. (They make a big deal about how terrible Yin Iron is, and how uncontrollable it is... and then they just destroy all the pieces off screen, except for the Stygian Tiger Amulet? And it takes away from the whole ‘inventing an entirely new cultivatation style’ to make the Wen use Yin Iron like that. It takes a story that really tries to deal in nuance and grey areas, and makes it more black and white. I could go on, but you get the gist.)

I also find the whole ‘locate missing pieces of Nie Mingjue’s corpse, which then are assembled together and go after Jin Guangyao at the Temple’ a better plot then ‘go to the Nie ancestral hall just to realize the sword spirit you’re dealing with is actually Nie Mingjue’s saber spirit, then find the headless corpse of Nie Mingjue at Coffin City... and fight the saber spirit as it first possesses Wen Ning and then just floats into the coffin where Nie Mingjue’s corpse lies’

All of which is a rambling and complicated way of saying that there are some things I like and things I dislike about both storylines and that trying to weave together the parts I like is challenging.

I do recommend reading/watching both, though. :)

#mdzs #untamed #mdzs meta #untamed meta

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sunken-standard · 7 years

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Hello not the anonymous of before. You could make one (or all, your decision) of these prompts 12, 47, 48. Thank you, I love your writing.

Thank you, Anon

“I’m pregnant.”/ “I thought itwas a one-night-stand…and now we’re married…”/ “We’vebecome the clingy couple that you used to complain about.”

“I’m still recovering. No.”

“It wasn’t even a major surgery. There won’t be any running or climbing fences or getting shot atwhile hiding behind a hotel bar,” Sherlock said, pulling one ofMolly’s nicer (and more subtle) dresses from her wardrobe. "Thistime. Hopefully,“ he amended.

“Like I haven’t heard thatone before. And, just to be clear, it was a fairly major surgery,seeing as my appendix almost ruptured and killedme.”

“Like a week ago. You went towork yesterday.”

“I sat in my office and playedCandy Crush most of the day.”

“And that is why the NHS isin such bad shape.”

She gave him a Look, but grabbed thedress he held out. "Don’t go far, I’ll need you to zip me.“

Sherlock, ever the gentleman, turnedhis back. If he happened to be facing the mirror, well, that washardly his fault.

Molly shimmied on the dress and turnedher back to him. "Zip,” she ordered, holding her hair tothe side.

Sherlock did as he was told,encountering resistance just past her lower back. "Suck it in,“he grunted, struggling with the zip. "Maybe lay off the Ben &Jerry’s for a bit.”

“It’s the air in my abdomen, youlump.”

“Weeelllll—” He squintedand cocked his head.

“It is!”

The zip finally gave and he pulled itup the rest of the way. "Put your make-up on in the cab, we’vegot a half-hour to get there and it’s in Westminster.“

“Oh, no thanks, I can’t. I’mpregnant,” Molly said when their rather unpleasant dowager hosttried to push a glass of champagne on her for the thousandth time; acocktail of antibiotics and pain medication were about the only thingthat would make her turn down a drink. "I thought it was aone-night-stand…and now we’re married…” she tittered,twisting the ring he’d given her ages ago for just such occasions.

Sherlock groaned inwardly, even if itwas a good cover. The distension in her abdomen really did make herlook about four months gone, especially with the heels.

“And I knew from the moment I sawyou there would never be anyone else for me,” he said with aplastic smile. The most convincing lies started with a grain oftruth, after all. His fingers twitched against her lower back.

“Probably should have got ourstory straight in the cab,” he said as they moved around thedance floor. "Ow! For Christ’s sake, would you stop trying tolead?“

“I can’t help it. I went to anall-girls’ school, when we learned this it was always the taller onewho led,” she hissed.

“And you were the taller one.”he asked flatly.

“My partner was the Indonesianexchange student.”

“Mm. Oh! This could work. Steerme into the one over there, midlife-crisis contemplating an affair.”

“Hair plugs?”

“That’s the one,” he said. “And hold on tight when I dip you. I don’t need you falling andmaking a scene. Again.”

“If I pop a stitch…”

“They’re disolvable anyway.”

He let Molly waltz him over toHairplugs and dipped her.

“Oh God, one of my boobs just fellout of my bra,” she said as he held her there while he liftedHairplugs’ phone.

“That’s what you get for goingwith demi-cup,” he said, unable to even sneak a peek because ofthe cut of her dress.

“You said there wouldn’t be anyrunning, I thought it was safe,” she said, wiggling hershoulders and arching her back when he pulled her upright. "Yep,there we go.“

Sherlock used Hairplugs’ phone to senda text and discarded it in a potted palm on the edge of the dancefloor. "And now we wait,” he said.

“At least we’re not behind the barthis time,” Sherlock said, moving the tablecloth aside to peerbetween two chairs.

“No we are not,” Molly said,flicking the broken heel of her shoe with one finger. "How longuntil our extraction?“

"Oh for—this isn’t a spy film. We’re not getting an extraction.”

“Wait, that’s a real thing?”

“In theory. Usually just easierto let the agent die in the field. Neater.”

“Remind me never to get on yourbrother’s bad side.”

“He doesn’t have any other sides. He’s like a sphere. Ooh, I have to remember to try to work that intoconversation next time he’s on a diet. Maybe something about a beachball, but they’re an irregular polyhedron… Oh bollocks. Molly, Imay have misrepresented the possibility of running.”

“I can’t run in a broken shoe!”

“Then do it barefoot.”

“There’s glass all over thefloor!”

“They’re at the other side of thedining room and they’re checking tables. Shift!”

They blended in with the other partyguests that had been herded to safety; he had yet to put Molly downbecause there was broken glass everywhere. He supposed withno waiting staff they were just dropping their empty champagne fluteson the ground like it was Glastonbury.

And then they got cornered by the hostagain, still none-the-wiser that he was, in fact, who the Portuguesehit men had been looking for until Mycroft’s B-team finally showedup. The old prune made some kind of sniffy comment about how darlingit was that he was so chivalrous; he had no idea how she made itsound like an insult, but she did.

“We’ve become the clingy couplethat you used to complain about,” he said, looking down at her withan expression he hoped was suitably besotted.

“Heh heh heh, oh you,”Molly said, giving his shoulder a playful not-so-little push. Theshoulder she knew he’d banged on the table when he’d pulled her underit. Not only was she a terrible actress, she was a terrible humanbeing. And freakishly strong for her size, but he already knew that.

Finally he put her down and let herlean on him while she stood on the one foot with an intact shoe likea flamingo; it was either that or drop her. He wisely refrained fromreiterating his Ben & Jerry’s comment from earlier.

He got the text that their car hadarrived; he carried her all the way out of the building because itwas easier than putting her down in the lobby only to pick her backup again before they exited the building.

Mycroft’s assistant was inside waiting;she pushed a pale pink shopping bag tied with a ribbon at Molly.

“What’s this?”

“Shoes. Consider them hazardpay,” she said, actually taking the time to look up and smilebefore going back to her phone.

“Wow,” Molly said. "Thankyou.“

"Should be thanking me, I’m theone that brought you,” he grumped, looking out the window.

“You don’t need me to carry you,you have shoes now.”

“I don’t want to get them dirty.”

“They’re shoes, Molly. Youput them on your feet so your feet don’t get dirty.”

“They’re £400shoes. My sofa didn’t cost £400!”

“Yes, I know, I’ve sat on it. Certainly get what you pay for,” he muttered. "Fine.“ He scooped her up and carried her up the stairs to the door.

"Don’tdisappear right away. I’m going to need you to unzip me,” shesaid, letting them in her flat.

“Don’tworry, the only place I’m going is the bathroom. My back is killingme—no idea why—and I need a good soak. And I’m using the goodbath salts,” he said, unzipping her dress after she put her bagsdown.

“MyGod, we really are anold married couple,” Molly said, heading for the kitchen.

“Skippedthe one night stand, though,” he said before he could stophimself.

“Giveme like three weeks and I’ll get back to you on that,” she said,patting her stomach. Then she realized what she was doing. "Maybenot the, ah, other thing, though.“

Sherlockstared at her for a moment, looking for the perfect witty rejoinder,something about that requiring more practice or… something; he cameup empty. "Right, I’ll be in the bath if you need me.” Assoon as the bathroom door was closed behind him, he pulled up the calendar on his phone and set a reminder for exactly three weeks inthe future.

(I cheated with this; it’s a heavilyremixed and condensed version of a scene from one of my unfinishedpost-TRF stories.)

#anon #drabble ask meme #sunken's secret stash #sherlolly

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