hunter tf you mean “grimwalkers can’t feel love?????” hello????? wanna say that again to camila? to gus??? to luz?????

As a writer, I feel like Miraculous is the perfect case study for both generating worlds and characters people feel attached to, to the point where they generate theories and get invested in tiny developments, and also a case study for how a story should absolutely not be developed from that point on.

Every time I see something from the show, I’m reminded of the brilliance of its concepts and setups. You have superheroes tied to zodiac animals (plus others) which give different powers not tied to the animal form in ways people had seen before (seriously, props where props are due, there were some unique power/costume combos here). You have secret identities which hide both two kids who are in love with one another in different forms AND the fact that one kid is the SON OF THE VILLAIN (angst on angst for that finale and any reveals). You have cute little creatures of seemingly infinite cosmic energy who have been around since the dawn of time but also have banter of their own. You have cool jewelery designs (yes, this is vital to making people want to draw your world and make their own ocs, which is one of MY big writing motivators lol). You have a cool cast of background characters who, for the first two seasons, are each given an episode to have a breakdown and become villains. You have a bully who seems like childsplay in the face of an actual supervillain terrorizing Paris. You have a clear front runner for Villain #2 in a character who depends on deceit to rule the class. You have all the foundations for an epic tale of growth, love, betrayal, etc. etc.

And you squander it. You take the MC whose father is the villain out of the final fight to pad out the awaited reveal. You backslide any and all character development. You don’t let the romance go ANYWHERE for four seasons, then speed through the reversal of attraction people had been dying for. You send the most interesting characters out of the story (mainly Luka, but I’m also going to include Chloe here). You let all the background characters become heroes and forget that the main draw of the show is watching our two leads, or, sorry, ONE lead by the way things end (because forget about the fun of their dynamic no matter the masks which drew so many people to this show to begin with).

The worst part for me is that I can pin pretty much all its problems on one thing: the rule of cool. It would make thematic sense for Adrien to be in the final fight and face off his father, but it was COOL for Marinette to combine the miraculous and fight him solo. It was interesting to see a small band of heroes help our leads (their two best friends and Chloe, who was shaping up to be an interesting hero in her own way), but it would be COOL if all the kids had powers 24-7 now and no, most of the designs don’t look as good as those initial ones. It would be interesting to see Marinette and Adrien finally discuss their feelings to one another, and eventually have a reveal that leads to maybe betrayal and excitement all at once, but it would be COOL if they just started dating already so they date as civilians. It would be interesting to explore the world, the themes, and relationships we felt promised by those early episodes, but it would be COOL to just take the story wherever the wind blows and add in any cool fights or lines that prop up our now stand-alone MC, even at the expense of her literal partner or any of the other secondary characters we were given a focus on (because why prop up the characters everyone already loved when we can give Kim, a solid tertiary character, a backstory tied directly to Marinette’s worst trait in a COOL attempt at explaining it away because it WOULDNT BE COOL if she had flaws).

I’m not saying I hate everything from the newer seasons. However, it seems like the writers’ plan for the story didn’t include things they set up, and what they set up was infinitely more interesting than the things they planned to pay off. My takeaway advice for writers is this: put down the “Rule of Cool” for a moment and analyze what you think are the inherently INTERESTING parts of your story. Maybe you have a unique world, or your character ideas have merit, or you too have some contrive love square people can spend hours agonizing over. Then, don’t shove it to the side (or drag it out past the point of caring). Think through what you want to do with those concepts and the ways you want to explore them, and make a clear path. Don’t worry about what the public reception to those ideas will be (I know, seems counter-intuitive to the post, but stay with me) and instead dig into the themes you want to tell. Miraculous wanted to tell a cool story, and in the end they told a bland one. The best stories come from writers who put aside their goals of being cool and just write the worlds they personally find interesting.

Every Single Issue I Have With S*lki (It’s Not Just The Selfcest)

Here goes. I threatened to post this a few days ago and never did, but I just saw a s*lki stan Twitter account claim that Loki caring about Sylvie more than the whole multiverse was a Good And Romantic thing and it pushed me over the fucking edge, so now you all have to read this. I’ve divided it into categories cause there’s just THAT much.

OOC Bullshit

• First and foremost, no amount of mental gymnastics you do will ever make me believe that this specific Loki- the one that just invaded New York, that just came off a year of Thanos Torture, that just got done being influenced by the sceptre, that was literally in the middle of a crisis already, and then on top of that went through all the trauma of Ep 1- would even be worried about a romantic relationship. That would be the furthest thing from his mind. Go back and watch how he acted in Avengers- you think that guy would abandon his previous mission to become a snivelling simp for a girl he’d just met 3 days prior? Yeah, there’s no universe in which that makes sense.

• “It’s very in character for Loki to fall in love with himself lololol-“ NO, it’s literally not. Out of all the characters in the mcu, I don’t think I can think of anyone that genuinely hates themselves more than Loki. He even referred to all his other male variants as “monsters” and said meeting them was “a nightmare” in this series. He’s got so much self-loathing, plus the fact that he genuinely thinks himself to be an evil backstabbing scourge- so there’s no evidence at all suggesting that he would ever develop a fondness for, or even be inclined to trust, another version of himself, after only knowing them for 3 days.

• Building on that, the whole concept of Loki falling in love with a version of himself just feeds into the annoying ass misconception that he’s a narcissist. No matter which way you stack it, he’s not. If you’re referring to NPD, he doesn’t fit the criteria, and if you’re saying “narcissist” just as a slang term meaning “selfish and arrogant”, that still doesn’t accurately describe him. But when creators like Waldron and Herron do things like having him fall in love with himself, it makes it so much easier for casual viewers to think that he is.

Shitty LGBT Rep

• It’s kinda sus that Loki’s are allegedly genderfluid and yet the only female-presenting variant we see (and apparently the only female-presenting variant there is, cause the male Loki’s all seemed unfamiliar with the concept) is treated as some kind of mind-bogglingly special paradox. Also very sus that, out of all the Loki variants, the one our Loki falls in love with just so happens to be the only female one. What a coincidence.

• The fact that the creators of the show went around bragging about Loki’s bisexuality and Marvel purposefully (lbr) allowed stories about Loki possibly having a male love interest to circulate, specifically enticing queer viewers to watch the show (you know, the definition of queerbaiting), and then instead of having a male love interest (Loki was the first queer main character, so it was the perfect opportunity) they gave us *gestures to this dumpster fire* this… it’s just a middle finger to LGBT fans. The fact that they would rather have this relationship with all its myriad of problems than have a gay relationship is just……. Very telling.

• While him being with a woman obviously doesn’t refute his bisexuality, the fact that they showed/talked about him being interested in 3 different women (flight attendant, Sylvie, Sif) and never even hinted at him being attracted to a man, definitely makes it seem like they were trying to cover up his bisexuality to smooth things over with the more homophobic viewers. You know? It’s like “I know you’re pissed that we sorta confirmed Loki as bi, so we promise we’ll never mention it again! Or even hint at it! As a matter of fact, we’ll give him lots of female lovies and make him seem as straight as possible! That’ll take your mind off of that horrible crumb of queer rep, right? Please please please keep giving us your money!!!”

• Aside from all the other issues, at its core, the biggest reason why I think I’m so irritated with s*lki is that it took one of the most interesting, complex, and diverse characters in cinema atm and squished him into a tired ass unnecessary heteronormative subplot…. Like literally every. single. other. protagonist. ever. Loki is such a unique character, and it’s so so so incredibly disappointing that they stuck him into that same boring cookie cutter romance that happens to every other character in every other movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a disservice, and it’s honestly just not compelling or entertaining at all.

Thematic Issues Galore

• His arc didn’t need a romance. With anyone. It was unnecessary and it didn’t make sense plot-wise. In fact, one of the reasons he was my fav prior to this was because he was the only big-name mcu character whose story wasn’t muddied-up by a romance that didn’t need to be there. So much for that.

• He wasn’t emotionally ready for a romantic relationship with anyone. Hell, just a genuine friendship would’ve been pushing it for him at this point. He was in such a bad state that any relationship he got into would’ve been toxic and unhealthy for both him and the other person, and it doesn’t make sense why the writers would want to put him in one when there were so many cons and essentially no pros (other than “Uwu aren’t they cute together”).

• Sylvie’s character in general was unnecessary and Loki’s character was robbed just by her being there. The whole show became about her post-Ep 2. They spent most of the time giving her backstory, building her up, telling us how awesome she is, trying to convince us to like her, etc when what they really needed to be doing was building Loki up- cause I gotta say, if I had to describe TVA!Loki in a few words, they would be Flat, Boring, and Weak.

• The romance overtakes the plot. They spend time portraying their supposed connection that could’ve been spent adding depth and complexity to literally any of the characters. They make the big Nexus Event them giving each other googly eyes on Lamentis when it could’ve been so many other way more profound things that speak to the fundamental nature of Loki’s. They have the climax of the finale be “oh no she betrayed him to kill He Who Remains” when it could’ve been something way more compelling (Loki having a moral crisis over whether or not to kill HWR, Loki contemplating the state of the multiverse and weighing the pros and cons of freedom vs order, Loki looking into some What If situations and getting emotional about what could’ve been regarding his family, Loki realising the gravity of HWR’s offer and finally coming to terms with how important he is to the universal cycle, etc etc). The entire plot suffered in favour of a romance that half of us didn’t even want.

• It essentially reduced all of Loki’s potential character growth down to “He did it for his crush.” He seemed to at least have some motivations of his own in Ep 1-2 (feeble as they were) but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, literally every action he took was just him being a simp for her. Why did he lie in the interrogation? To try to protect Sylvie. Why did he fight the minutemen and Timekeepers? To survive kinda, but mostly cause it was important to Sylvie. Why did he get pruned? Cause he got distracted trying to confess his crush to Sylvie. Why did he try to get out of The Void? Cause he thought Sylvie needed him. Why did he stay in The Void? Cause Sylvie was staying. Why did he try to enchant Alioth? Cause Sylvie told him to. Why did the multiverse get cracked open, leading to an infinite number of Kangs waging war on all of existence? Cause Loki didn’t wanna hurt Sylvie in their fight at the Citadel and then get distracted by her kissing him. It’s uninteresting and honestly pretty embarrassing.

• Throughout their “relationship arc” the writers do their absolute damndest to convince us that we should like Sylvie more than Loki. And you know what? It’s the most hypocritical shit I’ve ever seen. They preach and preach about how Sylvie’s life has been so difficult/we should feel bad for her/she had it so bad/poor poor sylvie/she had it SO much worse than pampered prince Loki…. But then they never even touch on any of Loki’s trauma of hardships (the ones that have been ignored for literally 3 movies now). They frame Sylvie as a good person and a Freedom Fighter after she spent literal decades/centuries mass-murdering brainwashed TVA agents and showing exactly zero remorse for it….. but then they make it their mission to constantly remind us that Loki is a terrible person and constantly put him in situations where he’s forced to acknowledge his wrongdoings/show remorse/admit to how “evil” he is for being a mass murderer for like 2 years. They show him on-screen having a wider range of powers than her, and perpetuate his whole shtick of being a “master manipulator” or whatever….. But then they make Sylvie “the brawn” more competent, intelligent, and physically capable than him. Tell me how it’s a good thing for a ship to be so narratively biased toward one character.

Missed Opportunities

• If they absolutely had to have a romance subplot, then they could’ve paired Loki with one of the characters that have already been established OR one of the characters that were a big part of the whole TVA storyline anyway. It would’ve been so interesting if they’d revealed that Loki had a history with some of the players from previous films (Sif and Fandral both come to mind). It also would’ve been really interesting if they’d given Loki a love interest that actually had some allegiance to the TVA as a whole (Mobius maybe, but not necessarily. It also could’ve been Renslayer or B-15). Hell, imo it would’ve been cool if they’d followed through with that “See you again someday” line that he said to the flight attendant in Ep 1. ALL of these characters have way more chemistry with him than Sylvie, and they were also already relevant to the plot without wasting half the show to give background info on them.

• If they absolutely had to have a hetero-presenting love story involving an enchantress-type figure, then there’s a whole Enchantress (Amora) that was actually Loki’s love interest in the comics. Plus, fans have been screaming for Amora to appear in the mcu for years. Plus, Tom literally pitched an Amora/Loki storyline way back in 2012-13. Also, Lorelei (another enchantress) is also one of Loki’s love interests in the comics, and she already exists in the mcu (she was on Agents of SHIELD). There were several different established characters for them to choose from. Creating a whole knew amalgamation of a character and going with the “she’s a Loki variant” storyline was just completely unnecessary and made no sense.

• They completely robbed us of a Chaos Twins dynamic. Had they handled Sylvie better and not forced her and Loki to smooch, the two of them could’ve had a really really complex and interesting sibling relationship. Loki could’ve stepped into Thor’s shoes and sort of used that new role to gain some self importance, and Sylvie could’ve finally had somebody to look out for her/teach her magic/be there for her. It would’ve been very aesthetically pleasing, the vibes would’ve been out of this world, it would’ve been way more profound than this bs, and frankly it would’ve been much more entertaining to watch.

• Loki’s relationship (read: obsession) with Sylvie completely overshadows all Loki’s other relationships in the show. Loki and Mobius were literally the focal point of the series in Ep 1-2, but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, they barely had any interactions with each other, and Mobius pretty much faded to the background entirely. Loki had the beginnings of a pretty interesting antagonistic relationship with Renslayer (with her wanting him pruned, then arguing with Mobius that he couldn’t be trusted), but after Sylvie showed up the dynamic shifted to focus on the history between her and Ravonna. Loki and B-15 started off very badly and openly disliked each other throughout Ep 1-2, and then in the end of Ep 2, Loki showed a little bit of concern for her when she was possessed, hinting that they might be inching toward a reconciliation- especially considering how obvious it was that Loki was gonna uncover the TVA’s sins eventually. There was so much potential for him to be the one to give her her memories back and convince her to change sides, but no, of course that honor went to Sylvie. In fact, after Sylvie showed up, Loki and B-15 never even spoke to each other again.

Various S*lki Fails

• If they were trying to convince us that this affection was mutual, they completely failed. There’s nothing I’ve seen that even hints at Sylvie feeling the same way about Loki that he does about her. At most, I’d say she has a slight endearment to him. She finds him likeable and she’s grudgingly fond of him, but she definitely isn’t in love with the guy. Maybe she thinks he’s cute and hopes that he gets out of this mess alright, but her mission obviously comes before him- whereas, it’s been confirmed multiple times that Loki cares about her above anything else. She doesn’t trust him, she looks at him like he’s an incompetent fool half the time, she shows little to no reaction during most of his confession moments, and she kissed him as a means to distract him so that she could get him out of her way. Look, all I’m saying is, when you get into a relationship where one of you is way more invested than the other, it never ends well.

• This goes without saying for a lot of us, but the selfcest is just straight up odd and cringey. If you’re cool with that sort of thing, fine! People can ship what they want! But don’t pretend it’s not at least a little bit uncomfortable. Yes, I know they’re not technically siblings so it’s not technically incest, and they’re also not technically the exact same person, but they’re similar enough that it makes things weird. And yes I know selfcest can’t happen in real life, so there’s no way to judge it morally, but neither can most of the other stuff that happens in these shows/movies (the Snap, Loki destroying jotunheim, superhero with powers being held accountable, mind control) and yet we still find ways to judge their morality, because they all mirror real-world events. (The snap= genocide; Loki destroying Jotunheim= bombing other countries; superhero accountability= weapons accountability; mind control= grooming and coercion). And lbr the closest real-world mirror to two versions of the same person (who may or may not share DNA, family, backgrounds, physical and emotion characteristics) being romantically involved with one another is incest. And you can be ok with that if you want- that’s your prerogative- but don’t get pissy just cause a lot of us are squicked out by it.

• The whole mirror metaphor (learning self love via each other) thing just fell completely flat. First of all, having Loki learn to love himself by looking at someone who mirrors him did not, in any way shape or form, require them to be romantically involved. But they were. Of course. Secondly, the creators have contradicted themselves so many times on whether Loki and Sylvie are the same or not, that it doesn’t even really register to the viewer that the mirroring thing was what they were going for. Finally, Loki and Sylvie are shown to have so little in common- and to have only the most bare minimum of similarities personality-wise- that it doesn’t even make sense that Loki would “learn to love himself through loving her”. Like? They’re nothing alike. So how would he make the connection that he himself is actually pretty cool, based on her alone? There’s virtually nothing in her that reflects him.

• I know the objective of the entire show was to convince us of how awesome and unique Sylvie is, but honestly her relationship with Loki just did the opposite. A hallmark of a Mary Sue is having her constantly upstage the male lead, and then having him instantly fall madly in love with her anyway. And that’s.. exactly what happened here. Everything they’re doing to try to force her character to be more stan-able is really just forcing her to look more like their self-insert OC. Which is exactly what she is. It would’ve been so much more satisfying if she didn’t have to try so hard to look cool, if they didn’t have to try so hard to make her backstory tear-inducing, if they didn’t have to turn our protagonist into a snivelling simp just to prove how incredible she supposedly is. Very much #GirlBoss energy and we all know how performative and cheap that is.

• The entire thing was too rushed, there was too little build-up, and it was nowhere near believable. As stated above, it’s ridiculously unlikely that Loki would canonically even be interested in Sylvie, and this show did nothing to explain why he was. He just suddenly was. There was nothing they showed us as viewers that would justify a guy as closed-off and preoccupied as Loki falling head-over-heels for a girl he just met. Their was no explanation, no big revelation, no reasoning, it just… kinda happened. And I’m also severely skeptical of any love story that has the characters go in this deep after only 3 45-minute episodes of exposition.

I’m sure there’s other stuff, so if anyone thinks of anything, let me know and I’ll be more than happy to add it. Tagging @janetsnakehole02 @raifenlf @natures-marvel and @brightredsunset800 for expressing interest. This is all your faults.

Ah, I do see your points, anon. I'm not going to post all your asks publicly because if you really feel that unsafe, it's probably best not to have a bigass chunk of your text for people to analyze and try to guess your identity from. I think one of the best points you made is about how close to home it hits when the non-fave is not only your fave but is similar to you in some way like demographic. You're not wrong for having those emotions. I do wonder if they make it hard to see how some other people feel similarly embattled on other axes.

TBH, I think one of the big problems here is that the large aggregate patterns you're talking about are racist, but most individual fics and fans are not really the problem. It's hard to know how to talk about this or who to tell to "fix" it when we're looking at free, hobbyist art.

A lot of people's tastes are certainly formed by shitty society, but once they're formed, they don't change fast if at all. Asking someone to rewrite their libido is a big ask, yet tumblr does it all the time as though it's as simple as snapping your fingers.

This leaves me with the sense that a lot of tumblr is... like... the political lesbians of porn fic or something: desire is not real, only choosing based on logic and politics. Or maybe people are so asexual that they just don't understand the lizard brain's "YES!" at some porn things and complete indifference to others?

I don't think it's great if great swaths of people feel like bottom!Nicky is super hot and top!Nicky fundamentally isn't, but I also don't think they can necessarily just turn it off like flipping a switch.

(If someone reading this doesn't like their current tastes and wants to attempt to alter them, I do think it's possible. What you should do is line up a large slate of media that prominently features characters of the ethnicity or whatever that you don't find hot/interesting. These should be leads whose emotional development drives the plot and is supposed to be central to the audience's enjoyment of the media. Watch/read/etc. this media all the time. All. The. Time. Try out many pieces because you won't like every character or every show, and we're looking for genuine enjoyment, not the fandom equivalent of a pity fuck. Spend enough time on this, and your unconscious sense of who's hot and interesting will eventually shift somewhat. This is a project you should expect to take a few years.)

But I digress.

The one tweet thing is a very toxic pattern. If TOG fandom is doing that, guys, please try to be more conscious of holding the actors of color to a higher standard (or the women or whomever). I know this often comes from a place of paying more attention to our own and wanting to set a good standard, but the effect is that minorities can't fuck up ever while white dudes get infinite passes.

Okay, on to the fic thing... Gotta say, my instant reaction to that description is "Ooh!"--as it would be for the same scenario with the characters reversed. (Ships who start out trying to kill each other are my favorite! x1000 if they're resurrecting style immortals and they literally do.) I can see how it would feel like slamming into a brick wall if you aren't kinky in just the right way and you didn't know it was coming though.

Part of why I react so strongly to a lot of discourse that runs along these lines is that I am a naturally extremely kinky person. It's not so much about what I do (which as a deeply lazy person in a long distance relationship is essentially nothing), but it's absolutely how I'm wired.

And I can tell you that my quotidian experience in fandom is sharing something I don't even realize is a big deal only to have someone I like, respect, and trust react in horror and tell me that it's triggering and awful and should not be allowed in fandom spaces because it makes "people" unsafe. It's such an instant, kneejerk reaction they don't even realize I was sharing it because it spoke to the very core of me. Lesson learned, friend. Lesson learned.

That sounds a bit off topic, I know, but bear with me: The point of that anecdote is that it's pretty common for me to get people trying to raise my awareness of things I have already thought deeply about while denying my essential humanity and not even realizing. As a kinky person who likes to make my fave the top (and generally a conflicted sadist), this constant request to explain and justify is exhausting.

I doubt most of the top!Joe fans have this precise problem simply because people who make their fave the top are much less common in fandom than people who make their fave the bottom, but I see a similar pattern with fans who are just fundamentally wired for rape fantasies (one of the most common fantasies that exists) vs. fans who just don't get rape fantasies at all. Or substitute your BDSM/kinky/messed up fantasy trope of choice. Covertly radical feminist attitudes towards kink and power are on the rise in fandom, and as a naturally kinky person, boy do I notice it!

I know that it feels like crucial activism to share these insights about why the ratio of top!Joe is hurtful, and the pain you feel is real. But it's also the case that it's a big ask to want people to listen. (Not me. Obviously, I routinely choose to engage with discourse. I mean overall.) The reason for that is that you're only seeing a fraction of what they do or who they are, and you don't know how many previous people they've listened to how many previous times. It's a very different situation from someone whose job is making some major TV series or movie or something. That person does, in my opinion, owe you some amount of listening.

Now, I'm not saying no top Joe fan was ever a jerk. I'll bet they were. There's a tendency to be rude and to publicly air your schadenfreude when you feel like everyone has been yelling at you. What I am saying is that a lot of the problem here boils down to conflicting needs, and that means there isn't a good solution. It's a situation where people are genuinely hurt, but I don't necessarily agree that other people have harmed them.

I like that you did an actual count of the explicit fics, btw. It's good to look at the real numbers. I see too little of that in these situations. My off the cuff reaction is that 2/3 to 1/3 is not a bad ratio at all compared to many fandoms, but yeah, it definitely shows a strong trend, and that can be painful. (I have a fandom where I think there's maybe like 1 bottom so-and-so fic in the entire zine era fandom. One. It's pretty extreme.)

I guess my thinking here overall is: What is the practical solution? What are we hoping to gain? What is reasonable to ask of people?

And it can't be "Well, if they would just listen..." That's just a sneaky way of saying "If you haven't done it my way, it's because you haven't listened to me yet."

So the question I would ask of people is this:

What does a non-racist fic where Joe tops look like?

What does a non-racist sex pollen, dubcon, or even noncon fic where Joe tops look like?

And if you say the latter is impossible... well... sadists exist everywhere in the world. So do doms. So do people who prefer to top in a purely physical sense. People with rape fantasies where they're the rapist exist (people who are not actually rapists, I mean). None of this is restricted to any one group. We can't categorically say fic like that about Joe is coming from a place of racism without denying the fundamental humanity of kinky MENA people who'd want to make Joe like themselves or like their ideal partner. (Yes, I agree this won't be the majority of fic writers writing top!Joe, but this is a place to start for figuring out what the better version would look like.)

IDK, maybe you're that kinkster yourself, but your asks gave me the vibe that you don't really get the drive towards those darker kinds of fics and what might be motivating it besides stereotypes and shittiness.

If we can answer these kinds of questions, we can better critique the way people write what they write without telling them all of their taste is bad and they should just stop writing. Even if we think the latter is true, it isn't going to get us anywhere. Figuring out how to make Joe more multidimensional in the fic they already want to write or finding very specific wording that should be avoided might actually work.

Beyond that, the actions I think are productive would be running prompt fests, exchanges, or other events for bottom!Joe or for top!Joe where he's the main character and the fics are required to be from his POV. Themed collections and recs lists are great. (I've seen a bit of this going around in TOG fandom in the past, and that's an excellent approach! Keep it up!) Positive actions tend to work better here. Make more of what you want. Promote what you want to see.

I don't mean this in some fluffy magical thinking way: you aren't going to change that ratio radically just by the power of positivity. But I've seen this kind of thing play out in many, many fandoms, and going after the people who write what you don't like, even in a well-intentioned effort to educate and even in a polite, kind way doesn't do much. A few people feel guilty. A few feel defensive. A lot ignore you. The overall fic doesn't change. It's not a good use of your limited time and energy.

I'm off to look up that fic to see what I think of it in practice, but I'm going to post this before tumblr manages to eat it.

Lmfao paste magazine did their best shows of 2021 so far and shadow and bone is number 5, I agree with a lot of their opinions usually and frankly the show was pretty decent if you don't think about its logic for more than 20 seconds and it was quite entertaining but top 5 of 2021 material? I highly disagree, the fantasy world which is a big draw and it's political landscape is just window dressing without any actual depth, the plot contrivances are too many to count, the illogical character decisions, the half baked main character ( how is it that she gets the most screentime but is the least developed out of the main characters, why do the crows feel more real and complex than her), the fact that your main female character in your show that revolves around her is so devoid of any depth or growth is a crime in itself. The show has so many problems but I feel like since we barely get any decent high fantasy shows, there were none before GOT and there still aren't more than 5 that have already come out, so people tend to overlook a lot of flaws, also they hilariously did an article about things to improve in S2 and one of them was the villain... Um, that dude was literally the most complex character in S1, the one who's backstory we got, the one whose decisions made sense for the actual goal he's trying to accomplish. I am a simp for female characters and it is so rare for me to latch onto a male one in my shows and I really wanted to love Alina but I felt like they put zero thought into who she is a person and she is instead defined by her relationships and what she represents to the male characters and the world as a whole, I feel like it she was a really strong lamp that was thought to be lost and then found and then someone stole her nothing would change? Like who is this woman? What are her dreams and motives and wants and needs and dislikes, what drives her, what scares her, how does she feel as a part of an oppressed group etc. Having your female character say a generic fake feminist line that makes no sense does not make a well written female character, they should honestly take a look at some other shows although there is still a severe lack in female rep especially poc and LGBTQIA women, there are some shows that are doing it so well and so effortlessly it makes everything else look tragic not just with one female character but with multiple, my favorite example is the expanse which has by s3, 4 main female characters all of them women of color, all of them interesting and vital to the story, one is a savvy political leader that does whatever is necessary but is also a grandmother who says fuck 50 Times a day, one is an extremely talented soldier that goes through an amazing character arc, one is a genius engineer that's part of the oppressed class in this world and she wants better for her people, another one from the same class is a badass second in command that also goes through amazing character development and she's queer, and almost every other important woman in this universe is a poc, mechanics, political rivals, leaders of social unrest, the only important white woman that was there for a season was a gay spiritual leader, like..... Not everything is perfect but I have never seen this level of diversity in a show and it's done so so well, like these women are almost all in my top list of favorite characters every one of them could lead a show on her own and then some. Here are a couple of articles about them if you're interested https://filmschoolrejects(dot)com/the-women-of-the-expanse/?amp and https://marvelousgeeksmedia(dot)com/2021/03/06/womens-history-month-celebrating-the-women-of-the-expanse/?amp. I'm so sorry idk how this turned into an expanse recommendation post 😂, I just see all of us desperate for some well written female characters as I watch sab butcher their most important one and I'm like... Eric and leigh should be forced to watch this before they write another word.

I really wanted to love Alina but I felt like they put zero thought into who she is a person and she is instead defined by her relationships and what she represents to the male characters and the world as a whole

It still surprises me when people watching the show say that Alina is a generic and ill-defined protagonist because she was about 100 times worse in the book 😂Like, it was only watching Jessie's performance that finally breathed some life into that character for me, to be honest. But everything else you've mentioned here 100% tracks with the source material.

Like, arguably the reason Alina gets shipped with literally everyone and gets accused to being a self-insert for fans is because she is so generically written. If I didn't know any better, I would have assumed Bardugo intentionally wrote her this way to let fans step into her shoes and give her the largest appeal. Instead, we are left with a character that is incredibly passive. If you thought show!Alina was passive, hoooo boy, book!Alina is barely even a character, especially in the first book. The only thing Alina wants out of life is for Mal to love her and for them both to disappear from the plot---which, considering the conflict Bardugo has put her in, makes her highly unsympathetic and a frustrating protagonist to watch.

I saw the first season of the Expanse which is saying a lot because I pretty much *always* ditch TV shows ☠️I low-key hated Holden because he was such a generic White Man Protagonist™ but the other characters were infinitely more compelling (Chrisjen my beloved)!

‘The Future of the Future’ by JG Ballard

One of the most surprising but barely noticed events of the period since the Second World War has been the life and death of the space age. Almost twenty years ago to the day, 4 October 1957, I switched on the BBC news and heard for the first time the radio call-sign of Sputnik I as it circled the earth above our heads. Its urgent tocsin seemed to warn us of the arrival of a new epoch. As a novice science fiction writer, I listened to this harbinger of the space age with strong misgivings — already I was certain, though without the slightest evidence, that the future of science fiction, and for that matter of popular consciousness in general, lay not in outer space but in what I had already christened `inner space', in a world increasingly about to be remade by the mind.

None the less, I fully expected that the impact of the space age would be immediate and all-pervasive — from fashion to industrial design, from the architecture of airports and department stores to the ways in which we furnished our homes. I took for granted that the spin-off of the US and Russian space programmes would transfotm everything in our lives and produce an extrovert society as restlessly curious about the external world as Renaissance Europe.

In fact, nothing remotely like this occurred. Public interest in the space flights of the 1960s was rarely more than lukewarm (think, by contrast, of our powerful emotional involvement with the death of President Kennedy and the Vietnam war), and the effects on everyday life have been virtually nil. How many of us could name, apart from Armstrong himself, a single one of the men who have walked on the Moon, an extraordinary achievement that should have left a profound trace upon the collective psyche? Yet most of us could rattle off without a moment's thought the names of lone transatlantic sailors — Chichester, Chay Blyth, Tabarly, Clare Francis ... Looking back, we can see that far from extending for ever into the future, the space age lasted for scarcely fifteen years: from Sputnik I and Gagarin's first flight in 1961, to the last Skylab mission in 1974 — and the first splashdown, significantly, not to be shown on television. After a casual glance at the sky, people turned around and went indoors. Even the test flights taking place at present of the space shuttle Enterprise — named, sadly, after the spaceship in Star Trek — seem little more than a limp by-product of a television fantasy, More and more, the space programmes have become the last great period piece of the twentieth century, as magnificent but as out of date as the tea-clipper and the steam locomotive.

During the past fifteen years the strongest currents in our lives have been flowing in the opposite direction altogether, carrying us ever deeper into the exploration not of outer but of inner space. This investigation of every conceivable byway of sensation and imagination has shown itself in a multitude of guises — in mysticism and meditation, encounter groups and fringe religions, in the use of drugs and biofeedback devices — all of which attempt to project the interior realm of the psyche on to the humdrum world of everyday reality and externalize the limitless possibilities of the dream. So far, though, the techniques available have tended to be extremely dangerous (drugs such as LSD and heroin), physically uncomfortable (the contortions of classical yoga), or mentally exhausting (the psychological assault course of the suburban encounter group, with its staged confrontations and tantrums, its general hyperventilation of the emotions).

Meanwhile, far more sophisticated devices have begun to appear on the scene, above all, video systems and micro-computers adapted for domestic use. Together these will achieve what I take to be the apotheosis of all the fantasies of late twentieth-century man — the transformation of reality into a TV studio, in which we can simultaneously play out the roles of audience, producer and star.

In the dream house of the year 2000, Mrs Tomorrow will find herself living happily inside her own head. Walls, floors and ceilings will be huge, unbroken screens on which will be projected a continuous sound and visual display of her pulse and respiration, her brain-waves and blood pressure. The delicate quicksilver loom of her nervous system as she sits at her dressing table, the sudden flush of adrenaline as the telephone rings, the warm arterial tides of emotion as she arranges lunch with her lover, all these will surround her with a continuous light show. Every aspect of her home will literally reflect her character and personality, a visible image of her inner self to be overlaid and enhanced by those of her husband and children, relatives and friends. A marital tiff will resemble the percussive climax of The Rite of Spring, while a dinner party (with each of the guests wired into the circuitry) will be embellished by a series of frescoes as richly filled with character and incident as a gallery of Veroncses. By contrast, an off day will box her into a labyrinth of Francis Bacons, a premonition of spring surround her with the landscapes of Constable, an amorous daydream transform the walls of her bathroom into a seraglio worthy of Ingres.

All this, of course, will be more electronic wallpaper, the background to the main programme in which each of us will be both star and suppotting player. Every one of our actions during the day, across the entire spectrum of domestic life, will be instantly recorded on video-tape. In the evening we will sit back to scan the rushes, selected by a computer trained to pick out only our best profiles, our wittiest dialogue, our most affecting expressions filmed through the kindest filters, and then stitch these together into a heightened re-enactment of the day. Regardless of our place in the family pecking order, each of us within the privacy of our own rooms will be the star in a continually unfolding domestic saga, with parents, husbands, wives and children demoted to an appropriate supporting role.

Free now to experiment with the dramatic possibilities of our lives, we will naturally conduct our relationships and modify our behaviour towards each other with more than half an eye to their place in the evening's programme. When we visit our friends we will be immediately co-opted into a half-familiar play whose plot-lines may well elude us. Even within our own marriages we will frequently find ourselves assigned roles which we will act out with no rehearsal time and only the scantiest idea of the script — on reflection, not an unfamiliar situation. So these programmes will tirelessly unfold; a personalized Crossroads or Coronation Street perhaps recast in the style of Strindberg or Stoppard, six million scenes from a marriage.

However fanciful all this may seem, this transformation of our private lives with the aid of video-systems and domestic computers is already at hand. Micro-computers are now being installed in thousands of American homes, where they provide video-games and do simple household accounts. Soon, though, they will take over other functions, acting as major domo, keeper of finances, confidant and marriage counsellor. `Can you afford the Bahamas this year, dear? Yes ... if you divorce your husband.' The more expensive and sophisticated computers will be bought precisely to fulfil this need, each an éminence grise utterly devoted to us, aware of our strengths and weaknesses, dedicated to exploring every possibility of our private lives, suggesting this or that marital strategy, a tactical infidelity here, an emotional game-plan there, a realignment of affections, a radical change of wardrobe, lifestyle, sex itself, all costed down to the last penny and timed to the nearest second, its print-outs primed with air tickets, hotel reservations and divorce petitions.

Thus we may see ourselves at the turn of the century, each of us the star of a continuous television drama, soothed by the music of our own brain-waves, the centre of an infinite private universe. Will it occur to us, perhaps, that there is still one unnecessary intruder in this personal paradise — other people? Thanks to the video-tape library, and the imminent wonders of holistic projection, their physical presence may soon no longer be essential to our lives. Without difficulty, we can visualize a future where people will never meet at all, except on the television screen. Childhood, marriage, parenthood, even the few jobs that still need to be done, will all be conducted within the home.

Conceived by artificial insemination, brought up within the paediatric viewing cubicle, we will conduct even our courtships on television, shyly exchanging footage of ourselves, and perhaps even slipping away on a clandestine weekend (that is, watching the same travelogues together). Thanks to the split-screen technique, our marriage will be witnessed by hundreds of friends within their own homes, and pre-recorded film taken within our living rooms will show us moving down the aisle against a cathedral backdrop. Our wedding night will be a masterpiece of tastefully erotic cinema, the husband's increasingly bold zooms countered by his bride's blushing fades and wipes, climaxing in the ultimate close-up. Years of happy marriage will follow, unblemished by the hazards of physical contact, and we need never know whether our spouse is five miles away from us, or five hundred, or on the dark side of the sun. The spherical mirror forms the wall of our universe, enclosing us for ever at its heart ... — JG Ballard, The Future of the Future, Vogue, 1977 (A User’s Guide to the Millennium)

Top 30 Arrowverse Storylines we never got to see:

30.  Ray and Barry as Friends hanging out and superheroing together (The Flash/Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow)

I am not really sure why this never happend. Grant wanted it, Brandon wanted it, the fans wanted it, but somehow Ray ended up not even getting invited to Barry’s Wedding, while Sara, who never even interacted that much with Barry before, did. „All Star Team Up“ did work very good and showed that Ray was quite a good fit for Team Flash, but when „Legends“ came along letting those two character interact outside of Crossover became a problem, but still the writers could have them have interact more during the Crossovers or at least, you know, have Barry invite Ray to his Wedding!

 29. Jacob finding out thaz Kate is Batwoman at a point where it still matters (Batwoman)

Seeing how Anti-Batwoman Jacob was, it would have been a very big moment when he would finally find out that Kate is the one wearing the mask. One can argue that is was still a big moment, but Alice telling him flat out when Kate is not around anymore does not have the same impact or consequences this storyline was supposed to have. It would have been interesting to see if he would have changed his tune (probably) and how much. In the comic Kate’s Father is actually one of her biggest supporters Batwoman-wise, and while I don’t think that we would have gotten to this point quickly, it would have been interesting to see the Crows working with the real Batwoman with Jacob’s grudging permission and what impact this revelation would have had on his relationship to his daughter.

 28. Laurel Lance Lives (Arrow)

Laurel was never supposed to die, but the writers were pressured into killing her of, so Oliver could be with Felicity instead. But you can’t just kill of the Black Canary! She is arguable one of the most important female superheroes of DC Comics, maybe the most important one right after Wonder Woman. Which is why we got a whole line up of new Black Canarys after her death. But the Original One (not counting Sara, who never actually called herself that on the show, I mean we don’t refer to Shado and her father as Green Arrow either, do we?) was the best one and was the Female Lead of the show and would have deserved to go to amazing places after Season 4 and would have gone there if she had had the chance. Too bad shipping is more important than storylines, characters, and legacy to The CW, Warner, and DC.

 27. „Green Arrow and the Canaries“ Spin-Off (Arrow)

We waited almost a year for the news that this is not happening after all, after everyone pretending it’s a go for a very long time. Which is a major disappointment. Not so much because the show would have been that great - the Backdoor Pilot did not look like it - but because many storylines remained unresolved and will probably continue to remain that way because of the cancelation, inculding William’s abduction, the question who gave JJ his memories back and why, the whole mystery about Dinah and the Black Canary, and the question what Laurel is really up to. It’s said that not the whole show would have taken place in the future and there would have been a Laurel Storyline in the present, but in any case it would have been „Arrow“s Legacy Show, where many of the characters from the old show could have popped up, not only those features in the Backdoor Pilot, and it would have finally given the Canaries the spotlight they deserve and the Shadowhunter-Fans another show to watch, so in short: Why make false promises for over a year, if you are not willing to deliver? Not cool.

 26. Kara‘s and Kate’s friendship replaces Barry‘s und Oliver’s after Crisis on Infinite Earths (Supergirl/Batwoman)

Marc Guggenheim promised us this when „Crisis on Infinite Earths“ aired and the world was still sane. Things were looking really good for the Arrowverse, and no one had any idea the world’s newest health crisis would turn life into „mere existing because suicide is bad“. At this point pregnancy, Shut-Down, unfinished seasons, Melissa not extending her contract, and Ruby Rose exiting hers were unthinkable. We should have at least gotten one more Crossover which would have delivered on this promise – in the current season to be exact. But someone decided not to recast Kate Kane because of their Super Ego, so no .. this only happend Off-Screen in Season 1 of „Batwoman“ and that’s it. I am not even sure Kate will be mentoned in the final season of „Supergirl“ at all, however even if the „Whatever happend to Kate Kane“-Storyline should get resolved in Season 6 of „Supergirl“ rather then in „Batwoman“ that would be the end of that and in no way be a worthy heir to the epic seven years spanning Olivarry Friendship.

 25. „Supergirl“ and „Superman& Lois“ airing side by side

 That was the dream. Has been the dream for fans since Season 2 of „Supergirl“ when Tyler first appeared, and has been the plan of the producers since around „Elseworlds“ when they started planning the Spin-Off. Now, Covid and Pregnancy combined and pushed Season 6 of „Supergirl“ backt to who-know-when, while „Superman & Lois“ got a much shorter season then it would have gotten under normal curcumstances, so they won’t air on the same night or even during the same period of time. Which also means that all those mini-crossovers we would have gotten – remember back when „The Flash“ first started and how many Characters from „Arrow“ ended up crossing over into the new show? – won’t be happening now. Which is a shame and very frustrating.

 24. „The Atom“ Spin-Off (Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow)

Now, this one was fist mentoned when Ray Palmer showed up in „Arrow“ back in Season 3. Instead we got „Legends of Tomorrow“ with him as the de-facto Male Lead in it. Which was probably the better Spin-Off then, but now Ray has left„Legends“, they did introduce Ryan Choi, and yes, if I could pick the Spin-Off I would want to see right now, it would be „Atoms“ starring both Ray and Ryan along with their wives. I have no idea how Fairy Godmother Nora would fit into „The Atoms“, but I am sure if one tried, one would find a way. But of course there is no way this is happening anytime soon or anytime at all. Not only because Brandon is now in „The Rookie“, but mainly because someone behind the scenes is clearly pushing for baggage-less Spin-Offs like „Wonder Girl“ or „Nomi“. We did not get „Green Arrow and the Canaries“, might not even get „Painkiller“, and are most definitly not getting an „Atom“-Spin-Off. Which is just wrong and missed opportunity in the size of the Moon.

 23. Harry and H.R.-Team Up (The Flash)

I never expected the Arrowverse Shows to be „Orphan Black“, but until recently they had all those Doppelgangers and hardley ever did something with them. Now Harry and H.R. are the only Main Characters ,with whom the writers actually did something with the fact those two are Doppelgangers and around at the same time, but to be honest, this makes it even worse, the carving for those two to meet, interact, and riff of each other. Because they actually worked well together, and it’s a shame they never got a storyline o rat least en episode where they had to team up and so something together. The Council of Wells is nice, but mainly just for fun. H.R. is the least Wells like Wells, and Harry everyone’s favorite Wells (Eobard does not count), so why did no one ever write something great for those two before they went and killed H.R. off?

 22. Sam sacrifces herself tos top Reign and Alex adopts Ruby (Supergirl)

First of all, I do like Sam, I didn’t want her to die. But the problem is that literally everything about Season 3 was building toward this. Normally everyone bitches about the writers killing off characters, but in this case, it was a grave mistake not to kill off someone. Sam’s Guilt about Reigns crimes, Alex’s bond with Ruby – all of this was literally for nothing and stopped dead with Sam not dying. Somehow getting rid of Reign magically solved everything for Sam (or not, because she was written out between Seasons, we don’t really know if she ever got over her trauma), while Alex’s Adoption Storyline went nowhere and was put on indefinite hold after that one episode in Season 4, where she almost got a baby. Worse, the writers actually admitted that they had planned this, but then changed their minds because they did not want to take a mother from her child. Which just means they were and are cowards – if you compare „Supergirl“ to the other Arrowverse Shows, there is one major difference and it’s exactly that one – only villains and side-characters die on „Supergirl“ (and M’yrnn whose storyline bascially was dying), in other words less heartbreak but also less courage is found here.

 21. Nora dates Spencer Young (The Flash)

Spencer Young was conceived as Nora’s Love Interest, who was to lure her into the Young Rogues at a later point of this season, but something went awry behind the scenes with the actress it seems, so the storyline was pushed back and back, and Spencer was replaced in every episode she was meant to be in after the first one by other characters, until she was eventually dropped alltogether and Bug Eyed Bandit got her gadget, so that a least some of that storyline could get a pay off. As for Nora’s Rogue Love Interest Weather Witch ended up getting this role, which just about works, but given that there is no real foundation there, the romance was only implied and never took off, which is too bad for the shows‘s Queer Record.

 20. Cat remains Kara‘s boss (Supergirl)

„Supergirl“ has changed so much over the years, that is actually kind of impossible to say how the show would have turned out, if certain elements would have sticked around. One of the biggest casulties of the change in style and tone was the loss of Cat Grant as a regular character, and it’s hard to say what the show would have looked like after the first Season, if she stuck around, but it would sure looked have very different. Now I am not so sure we would have gotten Lena Luthor the same way into the show we got her in reality, if Cat wouldn’t have left, but there is no telling, after all Lena quickly went from a kind of mentor character to a female friend, so maybe not much about this would have changed. However James‘ Storylines and all the back and forth with who is owning and running CatCo would of course not have happend like that either, and I think „Supergirl“ would in the end have been a more coherent show because of that. Plus Cat was the best character in the show and having her around would have made everything better anyways.

 19. Anissa meets the other Heroes of the Arrowverses (Black Lightning/ The Other Shows)

This could still happen in the next season or so, if the actress is willing to go to Canada and come back to Anissa Pierce after the end of „Black Lightning“, but even if it happens, it wouldn’t be the same. Due to curcumstances „Black Lightning“ ending up on Earth Prime was just for cosmetics, which is sad, because what’s the point of a Shared Superheroes-Verse if your characters can’t interact? Am I the only one who would have wanted Anissa to meet Kate (never going to happen now), Sara, Barry and Kara? I don’t think so. Sadly it wasn’t to be.

 18. Iris and Kara have a Journalist Team-Up (The Flash/Supergirl)

 This is the one thing fans have been asking for, the producers pretended to listen to, but still ignored. It could happen during the current season, but I have my doubts. The window has closed, and no one knows why this never happened. We did have Iris team up with Lois and Clark during Crisis though to recrut the Paragon of Truth, which was a Journalist Storyline, if you will, but all the fans always wanted both Iris and Kara to have actual Journalist Storylines, but we rarley got them. Yes, teaming up on an Inverstigative Story was always difficult while they were living on different earths, but it would haven been possible nevertheless. And on Earth Prime even more, but no, it was more important to do that endless Mirrorverse Storyline than to have, I don’t know, Iris and Kara break an Investigative Story about Lex to bring him down. Well, maybe we will get another Iris/Lois-Team Up with Journalism rather than Multiverse Saving Topics instead at a later point, but we sadly won’t get a Iris/Kara/Lois Team Up like that.

 17. Amaya meets Charlie (Legends of Tomorrow)

I don’t know why they did not do that. After all Charlie pretend to be Amaya in Season 4 so often, it kind of would be obvious to have them meet at some point. It’s the same actress for God’s sake! But I guess the main reason we never saw that was that „Legends“ has short seasons. Season 4 had only 16 episodes and Season 5 only 15, of which one was the Crossover, so only 14 they could use, and they just ran out of space to insert a meeting between those two ladies that would have had any reason to happen beyond the fact that fans would have wanted it to happen. I am normally all for things happening for storyline reasons and not only for them to just happen, but in this case, I would just have taken it happending without any compelling reason.

 16. Leo meets Leonard (The Flash/Legends of Tomorrow)

I would have payed extra-money for this to happen. But I do get why it didn’t happen, because if you come right down to it, we only had Leo for five episodes across two shows, two of those episodes being part of the Crossover, which left three episodes, that really had other things to do than to bring back Leonard just to have him meet Leo. On the other hand those two were so different, it should have been an obligation for the writers to make it happen somehow. Maybe at least in a vision or a dream or something like that. Gah, I wish Wenworth Miller would just come back in the flesh as any of those two to our shows….

 15. Joe and Cecile as Older Parents for a Newborn (The Flash)

This Season 5 Storyline was cut short, when Jesse L. Martin had to take medical leave from the show. Which is too bad, because it was the very reason why Cecile became a Main Character in the first place, and was an important part of the original Seaon 5 plan, which would have three sets (or rather two and a half sets) of parents: Barry and Iris, Joe and Cecile, and Orlin. Now we got a sort of aimless Cecile for the most part of the season, and the very problem the show actually wanted to avoid in the first place: Jenna merely existing, but not being there for most of the time (but this got way worse in Season 6, if we are honest). Real Life can really be a bitch sometimes.

 14. A Flashback about Sara joining the Legaue of Assassins (Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow)

We were promised this before Season 3 of „Arrow“ aired. Of course the only reason we were promised this was to obscure the fact that Sara would be killed of in the premiere. Same for all those fotos featuring her a part of the main cast and all that jazz. Still, Caity was contracted for Season 3 and showed up in a handful of episodes, but all we got was Maseo saying that he joined the League around the same time Sara did. Since then Sara came back to life, and we still have not gotten that flashback. Why? I know the initial statement was a purposeful lie, but that does not mean we did not want to see that. On the contrary we have been waiting for this since Season 2 of „Arrow“! And we are still waiting. But it does not look like we are ever going to get it.

 13. Oliver meets Jefferson (Arrow/Black Lightning)

I am kind of miffed about that. I wanted Oliver and Jefferson to growl at eacht other, showing us who is better at it. Jefferson only came into Crisis after Oliver was already dead and did point out in Part 5 himself that he never met the man. But he should have. The two oldest Arroverse-Vigilantes apart from the Bat should really have met, just because they are the first ones. But now it will never happen, even if Oliver comes back somehow. (Unless the the new Crossover Strategy is bringing back the characters from the shows that are not around anymore, and future Crossovers will feature Oliver, Kara, Jefferson and his daugthers in the still existing shows instead of having characters from the still existing shows meet, which I kind of doubt, but if that leads to them meeting, I will take it.)

 12. Pay Off for the Tommy Elliott Storyline (Batwoman)

Given how much of Season 1 built that storyline up, an actual pay off would have been nice. But instead the storyline got killed off in the first episode of the new season. And now, before you argue: no, that was not Pay Off. Pay Off would haven been someone other then Luke, who was close to Bruce and knows he was Batman (like his loving cousin called Kate, you know) interacting with Fake Bruce. For episodes. Tommy actually knew Bruce pretty well, so he might have been able to pull a long con. Maybe Kate would have believed him, but Luke would have gotten distrustful, or the other way around, and this would have lead to friction between those two. And maybe this storyline would have eventually even led to the real Bruce Wayne or at least to a clue of his whereabouts. Like I said: Pay Off and not Kill Off. Wouldn’t that have been something.

 11. Laurel comes back (Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow)

Everyone got resurrected in the last episode of „Arrow“, except for Earth-1 Laurel because of the whole „There can be no more Doppelgangers“ business. Now I really don’t see why we can’t just have both of them, but the real kicker is, that the main reason Laurel-1 was not brought back is the Spin-Off, that never was, „Green Arrow and the Canaries“, that was supposed to star Earth-2 Laurel. Now that Spin Off was not picked up after all, and Marc Guggenheim stated that they probably would have brought Original Laurel back in the Finale if it weren’t for the Backdoor-Pilot. Now of course Laurel 2 was the MVP of Season 8, so it would have been a mistake to let her cease into nothingness in the Finale. But they could have just shown her alive and well on another earth in a scene and have Earth 1 Laurel in the other scenes instead. But why did they never bring her back before that? I mean, there was a whole subplot around that in „Legends of Tomorrow“ which ended with Sara not bringing her back, which would be alright, if it weren’t for the fact that another lost sibling that couldn’t be brought back came back on „Legends“, namely Zari’s brother Behrad, which yes, deleted Zari from the timeline and replaced her with a new version of herself, so it wasn’t a cheap fix, but it is just one more reason to be miffed about the fact that Laurel obviously was not important enough to anyone to be brought back anywhen in „Arrow“ or „Legends of Tomorrow“. But maybe there is still hope, I mean two alternate Versions of Laurel were introduced in „The Flash“, so maybe she can still come back there, or at some point in „Legends“ as long as the show is still around.

 10. Ralph and Sue get together and become Partners in every sense (The Flash)

This could of course still happen sometimes down the road, if they do recast Ralph after all, or if Hartley is allowed to come back at some point. Or they could just say it in a random episode that only features Sue. However, it won’t be in the way the the show has beeing building toward since Season 5 (actually 4, but that’s not the point). Back when Sue was introduced, we were blown by the chemistry between those two, dreaming about their own Spin-Off etc. and what has become of it? 2020 destroyed so much….

 9. Two Zaris for Good (Legends of Tomorrow)

Tala wanted that, the fans wanted that, even the writers kind of wanted it and thought about doing it, but in the end, like I mentoned before, „Legends of Tomorrow“ is not „Orphan Black“. „Legends“ already is the most complex Arrowverse Show to shoot, having Tala do double duty for good would have complicated the shooting process even more. Still we love both Zaris, and while it’s understandbale and even right to focus on Zari Tarazi for now, Zari Tomaz is better not gone for good. We might get two Zaris at the end of Zari’s storyline anyway, but until then the best we can hope for is a Caitlin/Killer Frost situation, which might be a problem for both Nate and John, and also is not likely to happen soon, so, yeah, that would have been great, but we are never going to get it.

 8. Ronnie and Eddie return from the Singularity (The Flash)

Well, yes technically Eddie is dead, but his body was sucked into the Singularity, which did not need to happen, if they just wanted to kill him. And Ronnie never actually died, he just was sucked into the Singularity, never seen again, and assumed to be dead (well, without a Partner to replace Martin to merge with him, he should have died by now, but let’s ignore that for a moment). Anyhow the fact that those were sucked in, but Jay’s Helmet came through it, led to the believe that there would be consequences to those two being sucked into the Wormhole. But nothing ever came from it. Not even for one of those two. Season 2 did go down a very different route, and while we are still waiting today to learn what actually happened to those two, it does not look like we are ever going to find out. Which is strange, considering how much time was spend emphasizing this stroryline in the earlier seasons.

 7. Chas returns (Constantine/ Legends of Tomorrow)

It’s still not confirmed „Constantine“ took place on Earth-1, but we always assumed it. And also Chas was refered to in Season 5 of „Legends of Tomorrow“, and let’s face it: John Constantine without his Chas is just not right. Aside from the fact that Chas‘ „Constantine“ Storyline is still unresolved, John need his oldest friend in his life. So not only fans of the „Constantine“ Series would really love to see Chas Chandler on „Legends“. But sadly I doubt this will ever happen - with any actor that is.

 6. Lois and Clark as Parents of Baby Jonathan in „Superman & Lois“

This was after all the initial promise. That the show would pick up where „Lois and Clark“ ended, with the pair as parents, but as parents of a baby not of teenagers. And it was set up this way. Of course we know all the reasons: The claim that Action Series with Leads who have a baby do not work, the problems revolving around Babies and Little Children on Set, the need to write for actual characters instead of mute crying little things, and the fact that storylines for older kids are more interesting than for younger ones, but while we understand all of that and recognize „Superman & Lois“ will be the more interesting show with Teenage Sons in it, the fact remains it is not the show we were promised.

 5. Sydney Palmer (Legends of Tomorrow)

This was set up in Season 1, Brandon did talk about it with the writers and was expecting it to happen as much as we did, and then … nothing. Now he is gone from the show, and we will never get to meet his illusive twin brother. Everything concerning Syndey is strange, starting with the fact he never seemed to be around, even when Ray was a kid. Of course this might be because the Palmers had a „every parent takes one twin“ situation going on, but even if you consider the fact that Ray und Sydney obvioulsy weren’t on good terms, the fact remains everything about him is weird. There even is fan therory that Ray does not have a brother, and Sydney actually is his alternate personality. Which at least makes more sense than the fact that we never got to see him.

 4. The „Whatever happend to Mon-El“- Flashback in Season 3 (Supergirl)

Normally, if a main character disappears for a certain amount of time, and then turns up again, and the stuff he or she had beeing doing in-between is important for the current storyline of the season, we are told what he or she has been doing, and I don’t mean in words, we are talking about television after all, it’s show not tell. This is why I did assume that we would get at least one episode in Season 3, that would show us what happened to Mon-El in the future. At least a flashback subplot in an episode. Something for God’s sake! But I waited and waited and waited – and nothing, not a single scene. Now they did have the Legion Cruiser, they could just have used that set, and they could have only shown us Imra and Brainy, if there was no other way, but we did not even get that. I never understood why we have never ever gotten to see a single scene in the future, where three of our main heroes have spend a significant amount of their time in, why we never got to see someone from the Legion who isn’t Mon-El, Winn, Brainy or Imra (at this point we never even got to see Nura!), but this particular storyline was teased and actually essential to Season 3, and it still never happened via images, and that I really never understood. There is just no excuse for it.

 3. General Eiling hunting Meta-Humans (The Flash)

Whatever happened to this storyline? I guess the Singularity sucked it up. I don’t think they even picked it up in Tie-In Comics or Novels. It went away when Clancy Brown declined to come back, I guess, but I am not so sure they even asked him. You see, even if the argument was, that he was too traumatized from Grodd to go after Meta-Humans any more (which he wasn’t, we all saw the last scene with him), some underling could just as easy have taken over. I mean Eiling knew about at least two Meta-Humans personally, Barry and Martin, and had kidnapped Firestorm in the past, and cleary did not learn anything from his run in with Grodd, which only came about because Eobard thought he was too dangerous and knew too much to be running around freely, but Barry and the others did set him free at the end of Season 1. Even if he would have been too thankful to come after Team Flash, why wouldn’t he come after all the criminal Meta-Humans out there? This storyline was cleary set up for Season 2 and then dropped like pretty much almost everything else in Season 2 that had been set up to be continued before. Lazy! I know it’s kind of X-Men, but the military going after Meta-Humans kind of was a Must Happen that never happened. But there might just be something along those lines happening in Season 7. However  it does not invovle General Eiling or anything else related to the Earth-1 storylines, I fear.

 2. Green Arrow and Black Canary as Street Fightning Hero Partners – with an without masks (Arrow)

This was the initial promise of the Pilot and all of Season 1 and still remained a promise until that episode of Season 4, I guess. Everyone who knew anything about Green Arrow was expecting this from the show, instead we got what we got, which has not very much to with the actual Green Arrow or DC Comics. I mean. we kind of got a brief glimps at it in Season 2 with Sara and Oliver, but that didn’t last very long. However the writers were still fighting for that end-goal, when Season 5 rolled around, because it sure seemed like Dinah Drake was considered as a Love Interest for Oliver at the beginning. But nothing ever came of it, and Dinah even gave up the Black Canary inbetween, so … no, we never got this, only ever on Earth-2 with Adrian-2 und Laurel-2, where he even called her Pretty Bird. In the end this is the initial broken promise, the first lie of the Arrowverse, and it would be the gravest one, if it weren’t for a certain other Arrowverse-Show that bascially died between Season 1 and 2.

 1.      An actual proper Season 2 of „Batwoman“

Do I even have to say it? I can’t even blame Ruby Rose for that, if I were in her shoes, I would have left too. The person I blame is Caroline Dries. Not only did she not recast Kate Kane, no she also refused to make an established character into the new Batwoman. Politics is only one reason. Sophie Moore is black after all. The other reason is an oversized ego. She wanted to create her own superhero. Which is fine, if you make your own show, but not if you replace your main hero, who your whole show revolved around, after one Season with an Original Character and in the same instance kill off your own story. It would have been better to cancel the show than to do this. I mean, what’s the point? It’s not like Alice can’t function without Kate, but why should we care about the things she does anymore, when her main nemesis is just gone?( Ignoring the fact that she is going to be replaced by Black Mask as the main villlain of the show in this season anyway.) Literally everyone in the show was defined by their relationship to the Wayne-Kane-Family and/or the two Bats. Bringing in someone from the outside does just not make any kind of sense. I mean Luke has a sister in the comics, who actually was Batwoman in an Alternate Realitiy, just saying. So yes, this is the gravest broken promise of all the Arrowverse: The promise that we would actually get a second Season of „Batwoman“, which we did not get, no matter what The CW and Caroline Dries and even Greg Berlanti the traitor are calling the Adventures of Ryan WhatsherFace Wilder.

fic rec: runs in the family by liketheroad

fandom: The Borgias

pairing: Cesare Borgia/Lucrezia Borgia

word count: 6k

Is it canon: yes

Is it explicit: no

Is it endgame: maybe

Is it shippable: yes

Bottom line: the revisionist rehabilitation of Juan Borgia that absolutely nobody asked for; read it and thank me later

Hello everyone it’s me, the girl whose entire brand is stanning fictional characters for himbo rights reasons! I am here to tell you why Juan Borgia is not in fact useless, and why you—yes, you—should ship him with our fave murder angels Cesare and Lucrezia! Are you ready?

I love the idea that Cesare and Lucrezia’s love is fated, and that Juan is a mere mortal whose heart grew entangled in God’s plans. This is a series of two short fics: we tend to bruise easily which is more Juan-centric and bad in the blood which is more shippy (if you’re just here for Cesare/Lucrezia) but you should read both.

Here’s what happened: Cesare needed someone to practice on, see, whilst he was waiting for Lucrezia to grow up. And since “only a Borgia can love a Borgia,” and Cesare’s one-night stands obviously weren’t hitting the spot….well. The thing I love about this family is that you literally cannot disconnect the murder from the sex!!!! Because they scratch the same itch. Cesare is the one who teaches Juan how to fuck and how to fight:

And so he taught his brother to be a fighter, and then a lover, but had never anticipated the two lessons becoming one.

Only problem is, Juan catches feelings. And Juan has too much pride to be satisfied with coming second in anyone’s heart:

But Cesare is a soldier, and he can recognize the difference between a parry and feint as well as any true prince of state. It does not seem that Juan wishes for him to stop—but rather, that he has finally decided to make Cesare work for it, every inch of skin, every brush of lips.

“There was a time when you loved me, was there not?” “I love you still.” “But not as much as you love her.” “No. Not as much as I love her.”

NOT AS MUCH AS I LOVE HER adfkdfjdkfjd. So, to be clear, the reason Juan hates Cesare is because Cesare loves Lucrezia more than Cesare loves Juan.

Lucrezia is like the sun, she has an infinite amount of love to give, and she urges charity and reconciliation between her brothers. To Juan she says:

“If I love Cesare, then it is in my benefit to see him happy. And while I can perhaps make him happier than anyone else, I cannot do that alone.”

To Cesare she says:

”I would rather share you with our brother than with a common whore.”

As you guys know, I subscribe to the triangulation theory of incest—that it’s more interesting when there’s a third sibling whose relationship serves as a foil to the main pair (not that there’s anything wrong with orphaned twins, I love my Maximoffs and Fryes). But I see no reason that third sibling needs to stand in an antagonistic relation to the other two. Juan doesn’t have to be a boogeyman, or the butt of Cesare and Lucrezia’s jokes; he could just as easily be their ally. This is Cesare and Lucrezia again:

“He has never been as sweet as you, has never sought out my affections the way you do. Only my ... instruction.” “Then perhaps that is because he believed that was all that was available to him.” “And now?” “I dare say he fears that there will be even less of you that he might call his own, perhaps none at all, once you decide I am of a suitable age.” “Suitable?” “Forgivable, perhaps.” “Oh, my love,” Cesare whispers, suddenly pressed close against her, his lips almost brushing her cheek, “there will be no forgiveness, not for me. But I intend to make my stay in hell worth it, I promise you that.”

This is Cesare to Juan:

“You are correct in thinking that you are not my heart’s only, or truest, love. But you are mistaken if you believe that makes you any less mine."

I love that this fic is staunchly pro-Juan and anti-Rodrigo, which is the reverse of the show. Like, Rodrigo set it up so Cesare and Juan would forever be vying for Rodrigo’s affections, and that’s fucked up. Cesare has just come to accept that Juan’s love will forever be mixed with hate and envy, and that is sad.

This is Juan:

“My god, Cesare. You can’t even abide other men looking at her portrait without drawing your sword, how on earth are you going to share her with a husband?”

See? This, THIS RIGHT HERE is why Juan is better when he’s in cahoots with his siblings rather than undermining them. I snorted.

It is not Djem’s death that she hates him for, but the dowry his death purchased. But even this she can forgive, because there is little any of them do by choosing, not anymore, and she must forgive Juan his part in the destiny their father has carved out for them just as she must forgive Cesare, forgive herself. Besides, Juan excels at accepting hate along with love.

And this was what I meant when I said Cesare & Lucrezia’s love was fated. It’s all part of the divine plan guys. Tbh the most relatable moment was when Lucrezia and Juan bond over what a pain in the ass Cesare can be and then she begs him for the kissing lessons Cesare has refused her:

“You were far gentler than I expected,” she says once he has released her. “It was your first kiss, sister. I thought it best to proceed with care.” “How does Cesare kiss?” “Like he is drowning and he means not to die alone.”

Cut to Cesare and Juan checking up on the newly married Lucrezia. Juan suggests, instead of skulking around the bushes maybe next time we could pay her calls in daylight, and maybe also take turns visiting her to avoid fanning the incest rumors. Cesare is visibly taken aback that Juan even knows the meaning of discretion. But if there is anyone he trusts to look after the light of his life, Lucrezia—well there isn’t anyone, but Juan comes closest. This is Cesare and Lucrezia consummating their relationship:

He kisses her neck, her finger tips, hands feather light against her naked skin. He holds her close, foreheads pressed together, whispering words of love and devotion, and once he is inside her she thinks she would rather die than feel anything else ever again.

This is Lucrezia talking to Cesare about Juan:

”He reminds me of you. You are both killers. Not just because you have to be, but because it is part of who you are—who you both are.” “And you find this quality appealing?” “Because you love me, yes. Because you will use what you both are to keep me safe.”

Friends, in all seriousness, have you ever in your life seen a more Slytherin family?? Honest to god. Slytherin in the sense of being laser-focused on protecting the people within their circle of concern, however that circle is defined.

Ok finally here is Lucrezia to Juan:

Being loved by Cesare comes at great cost, that I’m sure you already know. But how he loves me... it makes him hide from me. He thinks I deserve something better than what he is, and so he hides his darkness from me, hides himself. At least you are not denied the courtesy of knowing him. Or the dangers he faces.”

But Cesare has NEVER hidden his darkness from Juan!!!! Cesare and Lucrezia need Juan, he completes them, it’s not an equilateral triangle but it’s definitely some sort of triangle.

RWBY and Masculinity

I love RT’s, and specifically RWBY’s take on masculinity so much. The show subverts all expectations wrt their male characters and their development, which is why the male viewers experience major cognitive dissonance between what they expect and what story is actually being told (and then have the gall to call it bad writing). Under cut because this has gotten so long so fast.

The two main male characters - Sun and Jaune - are subvertions of genre/medium staples.

Jaune specifically hits all the beats of the typical male self-insert in a harem anime: he’s catapulted into a world he knows nothing of, instantly establishes 3 different dynamics with 3 different female characters/archetypes - Cheery, Ice Princess and Hot Tall and Earnest - one of whom he immediately sets his eyes on, he’s surrounded by women that are a whole lot more powerful than he is (and arguably THE most powerful one is instantly drawn to him), he’s essentially powerless and dealing with self-esteem issues and is nondescript enough to be a vehicle for any male viewer to project themselves onto. Which is why you have a good chunk of Jaune’s fandom from V1 being the embodiment of the Venn diagram intersection bewteen weebs and incels like That, and why there’s so much harem fanfic revolving around Jaune. 

CRWBY have heavily drawn from anime when making rwby so I don’t think this was coincidental; they laid out the groundworks to subvert a specific trope. Male fans, however, bought into the facade and kept waiting for Jaune to essentially steal the spotlight, be the focal point of several love interests and get a power up that’ll let him be their own power fantasy to boot, but CRWBY took his character in the very opposite direction. 

Jaune makes a lot of mistakes but what defines him is how earnestly he learns from them and redeems himself. He apologizes for lashing out at Pyrrha as a result of his own feelings of inadequacy and powerlessness when bullied by Cardin and then accepts her offer to teach him, sincerely taking instruction from her and then taking inspiration from her strength. Once he realizes his seduction skit with Weiss is not only ridiculous but wrong, he instantly changes his approach and prioritizes Weiss’s wants and needs over his, giving her space and knocking sense into Neptune so that Weiss can have her “ideal” date. Jaune doesn’t get embittered about being essentially rejected and most importantly he doesn’t let it affect his relationship with Weiss. Both of them become actual friends from that point on, and we get to see Jaune develop a certain measure of emotional intelligence starting that moment, which becomes part of his skillset and is shown to be part of what makes him a good leader. One of the best examples is how he and Ruby team up in V6E1 to get the hunter on the train to turn the turrets off. Jaune heals the hunter’s wounded arm and gently assuages his fear, in clear contrast with Qrow abrasively manhalding an injured and panicked man and expecting him to comply. The writing essentially puts down the show of arms and props up Ruby and Jaune’s approach; Jaune specifically is the example of masculine leadership the writing looks favorably on.  

And that’s the kicker here: Jaune’s strength comes from his set of soft skills as opposed to traditionally portrayed masculine strength, which usually careens into toxic power fantasy land. His whole arc in V1-3 is about learning to shed any distorted notions of chivalry and strength and knowing that his end goal shouldn’t be to become a hero for the sake of it or to live up to societal expectations, but to do what he can and as good as he can for the sake of everyone. Jaune is a good strategist and he knows how to make the best out of everyone’s powers. He’s there to enhance how people use their semblances together. His big power-up, his semblance reveal is basically him getting confirmed for a cross between a cleric and a paladdin (DnD players amongst us please correct me if I’m wrong): he is the ultimate support, acting as a healer and an amplifier to everyone around him, and that’s why he’s a good leader. His power on his own loses its entire meaning: Jaune takes strength from the people he loves and endlessly, earnestly gives back to them, never once stealing the spotlight in combat because that’s not his role and that’s okay.

And as for Jaune’s romantic prospects, think Forever Fall established once and for all that Jaune’s already found the One and I don’t think we’ll see him get any other love interest, especially now that arkos parallels oz/salem and with how vehement CRWBY are about lancaster being platonic. 

Now Sun. I want to tackle a specific expectation I’ve seen from male fans and that’s about him becoming more significant to the plot by coleading/leading the new White Fang movement...which would be hijacking Blake’s storyline. Blake is the one with drive and a cause, she was literally born inside the movement and has since seen it get derailed AND was the one to reclaim it from Adam and give it a new vision, as opposed to Sun who apparently wasn’t even aware of the systematic oppression Faunus had to deal with on a daily basis outside of Vacuo. So why is Sun, who has exactly 0 qualifications for this job and no interest in it, still expected to get it by a good chunk of his fans? Aside from the pervasive misogyny permeating fandom culture, there’s a specific trope media has served to us for decades now and that’s of a Semi-Competent Male Hero with his Hyper-Competent Female Side-kick (Vox published an article about it a few years ago and I really recommend checking it out), where a male character who’s semi good at best and not nearly as well-versed into whatever field he shares with his infinitely more competent female sidekick somehow walks in and saves the day and most of the time the female sidekick also, unsurprisingly doubles as a love interest. Time and again, male characters get rewarded for being half as good as their female counterpart at best AND they get the girl most often than not. 

But Sun’s whole character is, again, the very opposite of this. Sun never outweighs Blake on her own narrative (as is literal common sense) and shouldn’t be expected to. Sun actually gets schooled into the Faunus cause by his more competent female counterpart, Blake acting as his mentor and introducing him to the fight and why it matters. Blake and Sun basically reenact the plotline of Journey to the West (Sun quite literally references it by calling it a “Journey to the East”) a story whose main character is the legendary monkey king Sun Wukong, who’s the mythical figure Sun’s based on. Sun’s arc about finally knowing the cause and fighting for the right reasons happens thanks to Blake’s guidance - which Sun earnestly complies with and never questions because he knows she’s the expert and he doesn’t usurp that spot from her - and never overshadows her own narrative. Quite the opposite, it builds up to her own arc as a future leading figure of the WF and face of the Faunus cause by having her politicize someone who has no real stakes in this fight even though they should have.  

And then even his endeavor with Blake as a love interest falls through, with their relationship getting entirely recontextualized in V4-5 where their dynamic gets rebuilt as a friendship. Incidentally, that’s when it finally starts actually developing, instead of being stuck in the V1-3 limbo of mutual fleeting attraction where they’re constantly missing each other’s cues because they literally do not understand each other on a fundamental level. V4-5 is when Blake understands Sun isn’t what she needs in a romantic partner, but she does need him as a friend and ally. And Sun, whose premise falls in line with the Nice Guy trope, actually subverts it: he never makes Blake’s emotional journey about him, never expects anything in return and gracefully bows out of the narrative (for the time being) without ever pressuring Blake into acknowledging or returning his feelings. He doesn’t agonize over the initial attraction not going anywhere and doesn’t expect to be rewarded for being a decent person; again Blake’s feelings and well-being are his priority because that’s what good friends do. Their relationship developing into a steady friendship is never a point of conflict between them, and it’s actually lived as a positive event for both. 

And then, to top it off, CRWBY parsed together every bit of toxic masculinity and wrapped it into a power fantasy package and named the end result Adam Taurus, who’s the absolute worst abusive piece of shit. Adam is every single thing bad about men as a power structure: abrasive, entitled, controlling, takes violence as an indication of power and doesn’t take kindly to his leadership/vision being questionned. It’s not really coincidental that he steals the power seat from a woman and acts like he deserves it in any way. But male fans were so starved for their power fantasy fix and traditionally masculine cool calm collected and complicated male character that they were ready to minimize/outright ignore the abuse he’s put Blake through and just how awful a human being he was just to be able to hard project onto him. And CRWBY’s answer to that is basically this:

TL;DR: RT says if your masculinity isn’t humble, nurturing, supportive, compassionate, selfless and earnest then we don’t want it.

aye, really starting to loathe the “yaz kills either graham/ryan whilst under the dalek influence” like-

1. first of all. hate this presumption that graham/ryan have to die. personally, im fine with companions dying - clara’s penultimate exit in face the raven was done beautifully, i think, and i will FOREVER resent them not leaving it like that. however with graham and ryan? literally, i just feel like... it’s so cheap. it offers nothing, babes! and it’s just infinitely LESS interesting than if you just kept them alive.

all the companions, in my opinions, still lack development. i do love them! i really am warming to them. but we’re two seasons in, and the fact of the matter remains they just... haven’t gelled too well with the show proper and they aren’t as fully realised as they should be by this point. and frankly, its not one singular problem moreso it’s an interwoven web of issues (hence it’s hard to really unpick that, without unravelling the whole mess) that have affected the show completely. the point is, despite being here so long, they just still feel so unexplored as people and a little unknown to us and idk!!! i think killing them, wouldn’t offer much in the way of anything interesting - other than, like i said, a very cheap way to instigate tragedy, and springboard some trauma-induced development for yaz&13 - because we aren’t really gaining more than we’re losing here, man.

clara’s exit in face the raven WORKED because it had been building up to it all season. i also dont like amy/rory’s exits (but that’s v potentially my own biases) but theoretically, i can see the vision for that- and the reason why that would be so tragic, is BECAUSE amy&rory are so fully formed at tht point that that loss hits. im not sayin graham&ryan dying would NOT be sad, but it’s... just too soon, still, for me. and when, narratively speaking, they’ve been setting up them thinking about leaving anyway? at least, ryan has? just doesn’t feel quite right at all and just like i said: a pointless attempt, at taking their exits, and doing weird tragedy shit with it for the sake of it.

especially when the ALTERNATIVE is they can stay on in the same way martha did: on earth, totally fine, and with the opportunity to reappear in later seasons. they can progress offscreen in ways that can be satisfying, in the way martha did. she moved on; she became someone different; and yet that change was still guided by what we had seen. same can be done with ryan and graham, finishing their stories and making them all the more satisfying.

2. piggybacking off of that. literally, this scenario of yaz killing them: what would that DO for yaz exactly? like.. what big payoff are u expecting from her? you’re just... horrifically traumatising her. and im wondering, like- where would that leave her in s13?  because she’s supposed to still be here, then, and supposedly travelling with the doctor. and again it just feels so damn cheap: because yaz really does still feel like she’s at the beginning of her story, despite being here for two years (and god am i a little mad abt that; it’s so, so sad that she really could be replaced with a cardboard cutout for most of s11). explore what we HAVE of her, first, before trying to go so damn dark with her. it’s not going to have the payoff you want. you have to work a bit more, to do something like that first. using some fucked up shit like that, just as a springboard for character development it just- it feels so damn lazy to me...  and again, i do not feasibly see how this could properly segue into s13 on that damn note. like the conse

3. and just... god in general. i just. okay again with chibbers and his writing. literally i dont want to sound so negative abt chibnall bc like SOME ppl really do just fucking attack . KILL. over every damn thing, without a breath and its like... okay babe. okay. and i mean, granted i can be a little like tht with moffat tbh - and so  i get ppl do get a little FERVENT when it comes to shit they dont like but- BUT MY POINT IS. i really dont hate-hate this era of who. s7 will still be my least favourite, even if i do still regard this all as bottom of the pile stuff- and that is frustrating, because it really does have potential! but anyway god. what was my fucking point. oh yeah. chibnall. if this was the case.... if this really did fucking happen. god no offence but fucking hell i do not trust chibnall to treat such a heavy scene well enough. not with the way s11 and s12 have been. and its just because... again this is all the WEB OF ISSUES with these seasons... but all of it just boils down to: every single script really needed a second or third pass over. ITS LIKE, things are kinda right, but its always jsut...wrong and its soi many things that just dont quite work and  instead all work in tandem to bring this ship down.

too many companions, leading to a bloated tardis; leading to none of them getting enough focus; leading to weaker characters whose dynamics with each other aren’t always hitting. there’s swathes of s12, where the doctor is just completely disconnected from the companions altogether. she just doesnt talk to them. and there’s a difference between her being detached, and her just.... LITERALLT FORGETTING THEY EXIST. i remember- was it ryan who disappears at one poimt, and she JUST DOESNT NOTICE? and then all of them disappear in fugitive? like its just so... the companion-docgtor relationship is so INTEGRAL to the whole show!!! it makes story beats less effective; not even that, the whole energy is brought down, because they just don’t TALK properly (and the dialogue... good god, is it stiff: and whilst i hated 11′s era of mutated LOL THAT’S SO RANDOM. THE HORSE IS NAMED SUSAN. BOWTIES FEZ FEZ HOW MANY MARKETABLE RANDOM SHIT CAN WE THROW AT THE PAAAGE it felt like characters were bouncing off each other... there’s now these long pauses, places where it should have been snappier, awkward remarks thrown in there and then) . it, again, bloats EVERYTHING bc half the time you have to just give stuff for these ppl to do and its like man, why! why ! its all so.... sloppy in a way that’s sad bc it was ALMOST right. things are ALMOST right here but it doesnt QUITE work and it needs pulling together into something neater, tighter.  AND GIVEN ALL OF THAT. i do not think, with the way he’s been handling things, this man would ever be capable of pulling off something as fucked up like that in a way that has any weight even disregarding the two above points

4 lastly. just fucking dont kill ryan man. c’mon. how many main, black characters have we had? hmm, let’s see. martha, mickey, danny, bill. we’re going at a 50% survival rate, with the other two facing pretty poor treatment in the writing room in general. no, im not letting it go: you cant literally refer to mickey, who was the first, like, leading black character on the show, as a fucking DOG repeatedly.  if you’re gonna decide to diversify the tardis, pay your dues; dont fucking axe him for what, again, really just feels like empty emotional tortureporn. ryan deserves better.

If you could rewrite Pokemon Sun/Moon with things like better character development and more depth to the Aether Foundation, how would you do it? :D

I mean, these games were such a ridiculous disappointment (especially with regards to the Aether Foundation) that we could be here all day, but …

Let’s get started.

General:

Let the Island Challenge actually be a fucking challenge. I love the concept behind it, and how similar it sounded to the Orange Islands in the anime, and I love the idea of having that instead of the standard Gym challenge, particularly since it allowed Alola to be run under a religious oligarchy rather than the typical League system (even if Kukui staged a political revolution, but more on that in a second). However, the actual Island Challenge itself was pathetic. There was hardly any exploration, the challenges themselves were like teeny-tiny minigames … and considering how interesting or challenging they could have been, it made the entire thing feel boring, particularly since the “totem battle” at the end is basically just a Gym Leader battle, albeit against “wild” pokémon. It’s a cool concept that Game Freak didn’t bother to flesh out at all.So instead, I’d want the Island Challenges to actually be detailed and fleshed out. Give us temples or caves to fully explore. Give us actually challenging puzzles to complete. Make it a blend between Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda. And don’t just have us do a totem battle for every single one, or at least—perhaps there’s a way to pacify the totem pokémon without battling. Maybe you can battle, but you can also find alternative solutions with your team, thereby strengthening the message of unity between person and pokémon and also giving players various different ways to complete their Island Challenge—a way to make it unique to each person. At the very least, don’t just have us go through pretty much empty locations (like Kiawe’s mountain—there was practically nothing there, just a boring hike to the top and then a ridiculously easy “game” before the totem battle) until we hit the end goal. Give us more lore, exploration, and challenge instead of wasting a perfectly good concept.

GIVE. US. BACK. THE. BIKE. Or at the very least do away with the fugly outfit and godawful Ride music. And for that matter, let us use our own pokémon for the Ride feature. I should not have to call upon a charizard when I have a charizard in my party. That’s asinine. 

Similarly, MAKE ALOLA BIGGER, and make it so that we can surf between the islands. Alola feels tiny. Having a tiny region isn’t necessarily new—some of the other regions aren’t that big, tbh—but it feels very compact because you just insta-travel between the islands, rather than being able to surf the distance as you could in, say, Hoenn. Additionally, some of the islands are mini, sometimes only having one city or town. I get that Alola is based on the State of Hawaii, but there were certain design choices that limited exploration that make it seem infinitely smaller, which is a disappointment. Make Alola bigger, or at the very least let it breathe.

Stop having everyone fawn over and worship the player character. It felt so unnatural and got to the point where I wanted to punt all of the other characters into the ocean. The player character—or player, I guess—does not need to be worshiped and have their shoes licked for being “OMGOSH SO AMAZING BEST TRAINER EVAR!!1!!!1!!” by the other characters. I hate that. Let the other characters be incredible, too. Let them recognize their own strengths and talents. Shine some light on them, rather than on this rando child who spontaneously moved to this region and yet is somehow the savior they were all waiting for. I just … hated that, so much. It felt like even more fawning and salivating over how awesome the player is than usual, and it really rubbed me the wrong way.

Put so much more focus on Kukui’s honest-to-Arceus political revolution. Kukui overturned the religious oligarchy that had governed Alola for ages and turned it into a League system because … well, because he felt like it, I guess, and yet this not only goes smoothly, but basically no attention is called for it whatsoever. Now, I know that Nintendo did this because they still wanted to give the player a chance to be the Champion and have an actual throne to sit on while the rest of the characters at the game salivate at their feet (sigh), but that doesn’t change the fact that this should have been met with a lot of resistance and upheaval and should have been a very solid B Plot (if they weren’t going to make it the actual plot), particularly since the end result was an eleven-year-old child who had just moved there and knew nothing of the history or populace suddenly being placed in charge. Like, you would think Hala would take serious issue with Kukui being an upstart and calling for a revolution, but no, he was fine with it because … just because. We don’t know, because Hala didn’t get to actually do much in the main story despite being hyped up as an important character. But as far as we know, everyone was perfectly fine with Kukui’s massive political revolution, and the ramifications this would have on Alola (both domestically and internationally in fields like general politics, finance, et cetera) were completely ignored.So let’s explore that at least a bit. Even if Kukui is still ultimately successful, perhaps show him meeting resistance from people like Hala, and gaining support from people like Nanu (since Nanu doesn’t want to be a Kahuna anymore lol), and people like Olivia being torn. Show the effect this has on the kids, where perhaps Hau ends up coming into conflict with Hala because Hala is against Kukui’s revolution, while Hau thinks it could be interesting and fun, and so they encounter some family strife there as Hau tries to find his own way in contrast to what his grandfather wants for him. Show this coming up again and again, and explore Kukui’s motivations for it more deeply. Why does he want a revolution so bad? Is it really that he wants Alola to have a stronger presence internationally? Does he have personal stakes in that? Will Alola have a stronger presence internationally if they switch to a League system? And so on and so forth. And since he’s the one leading the revolution, make him the Champion, versus the eleven-year-old who literally just moved here and knows fuck all about Alola. Honestly, please give Kukui some semblance of intelligence and let his revolution actually be treated with some degree of gravitas, as it should be. (Alternatively, if Game Freak is incapable of doing this, remove this subplot and let Alolan government stand. We don’t need to be the Champion. It’s not that big of a deal after six bloody generations of letting us do just that.)

On that note, Professor Burnet needs to play a bigger role in the Aether plot. While Kukui is spearheading his revolution, Burnet is studying wormholes and Ultra Space and, as such, should have played a bigger role in the main plot, going up against Lusamine (or at least assisting the kids in doing so) in the process. That she was all but ignored in favor of Kukui, whose research and ultimate goals had absolutely nothing to do with the Aether Foundation, was a huge mistake and (imo) just one of the MANY ways in which Gen VII treated its female characters horribly.So let her be more involved. Actually show her relationship with Lillie, rather than just telling us about it in a couple lines of dialogue. Let her continuously run experiments on the wormholes and dig deeper into what the Aether Foundation is doing. Show her her science contrasts with that of Lusamine’s, in addition to how her parenting contrasts with that of Lusamine’s. Let her show up at various times throughout the plot, including when Aether Paradise is stormed, because this is her field of expertise and, as such, she is damn knowledgeable about it. Let Burnet be the one to point Lillie and the others to the pedestals where they can get the flutes, and let her be the one to direct them when it comes time to play. Basically, actually utilize this wonderful character that was created, instead of ignoring her because she’s not the “main professor” (or more accurately, because she’s female, because apparently this series can’t give us a female professor without upstaging her with either her father (Cedric Juniper) or her husband (Kukui), regardless of how little sense that upstaging makes).

Make the RotomDex optional. This speaks for itself. The RotomDex was obnoxious, and is quite possibly one of the worst companion characters I’ve ever seen in a video game (far worse than Navi, for instance). I hate it. 

Don’t make Team Skull bad guys at all. The idea of having them appear to be criminals (or at the worst being punks) but actually having some heroic moments near the end was one that was kicked around a lot, and was also one that was shamefully wasted by making them cardboard caricatures of villains instead. Instead, it’d be much better if they were instead representative of the terrible CPS system / justice system in Alola (at one point a cop NPC mentions there being no crime despite crime being everywhere, showing how useless the police in Alola are), which could potentially be fuel for why people like Kukui and Nanu want a revolution, thus tying into that B Plot. It would also drive home a message about appearances being deceiving to have Team Skull actually be decent people despite being forced to sometimes steal food because they have none, whereas the Aether Foundation looks pristine but clearly isn’t. It’d certainly be more meaningful than the “they’re comic relief but also still Bad Guys™” message we were given instead.On that note, LET PLUMERIA PLAY AN ACTUAL ROLE, GOD DAMN IT, particularly with regards to Guzma teaming up with Lusamine (if he still acts as her grunt), and Plumeria being the one to confront him over it. If Plumeria is the aneki of Team Skull, let her act like it, and let us see her acting like it. I would have her stepping up and taking charge, the one truly in charge of Team Skull (and even Guzma tbh) because she has her shit together. I would also expand and build upon her relationship with Gladion, with whom she actually does have a good relationship with, so that he, too, had some support outside of Null / Silvally. But more on that in a second.

Give Hau actual depth. The most we get out of him is that he has an inferiority complex, is a bit of a stepford smiler, and dislikes how much of a bully Gladion is to him (and thus dislikes Gladion—and yes, he did dislike him, complete with an D8 reaction whenever Gladion showed up, and their “reconciliation” was rushed af, so I don’t count it).  That’s not really enough, and Hau deserved better. If Kukui’s revolution B Plot was given more focus, inserting that conflict between Hala and Hau mentioned before could spur Hau to really find himself and his own motivations other than what was expected of him + his “having fun” excuse. He could also have his relationship with Lillie explored more, particularly since they were friends before the player character showed up and stole everything, meaning that he should have been more prominent as a support figure for her rather than being shoved to the side so that the player could do it instead (again, rather inexplicably). And as a final idea, perhaps he could be manipulated by Lusamine (whom he seemed to like in the games) into working for her, possibly even for Lillie’s sake (potentially) because he wants to help Lillie reconcile with her mother, + believes Lusamine is doing the right thing, + is potentially even trying to escape the brewing conflict between Kukui and Hala and figures that since the Aether Foundation is removed from it, joining up with them is a safe way to go. He doesn’t know that Lusamine is evil af, of course, and so he (rather like Alan in the anime) is completely manipulated into thinking he’s doing good—but that could spur his development along even more and make him a much more prominent and important character, which would be awesome considering the fact that he was another under-utilized character who, again, deserved better. There’s no reason why he can’t be involved in the plot from multiple angles so that he can exist as more than a simple rival, and I think that would be a good way do it.

Aether Foundation + Aether Twins:

LET. THE AETHER. FOUNDATION. BE. SCIENTIFIC. And I don’t mean general zoological science, but I mean, very specifically, that I want them to be drenched in alchemy and science of that nature. It doesn’t have to be historical, realistic alchemy; in fact, making it strictly realistic would be boring, which is the reason why stories such as Fullmetal Alchemist go the “magical alchemy” route. Nonetheless, I want that. I want the basis of the Aether Foundation to be scientific and alchemical. I want the reason for their existence to be based in the alchemy plot that makes up the A Plot, because these games have been heading toward alchemy for several generations now and it would have made so much sense to have that payoff be here. I want to see experiments, I want to see talk of theories and hypotheses, I want tests, I want—I want the Aether Foundation to resemble Aperture Science Laboratories in a lot of ways, basically.

On that note, the “conservation” needs to be a farce. None of this “well, most of them were good, but it’s just the neurotoxins that made them bad!” bullshit. The conservation needs to be nothing more than a facade in order to gain them funding from the government + good press. Additionally, the pokémon that they “save” could be used in experiments (such as the chimera creation experiments that created the likes of Type: Null) behind the scenes. Essentially, just as Team Skull should have been good with bad publicity, the Aether Foundation needs to be bad with good publicity. LET THEM BE EVIL, particularly since I love the visual contrast between how pure and clean they look, but how corrupt and vile they are beneath the surface. Love that so much.And note, too, that it isn’t necessarily that every single grunt knows the full scope of Lusamine’s plans and is on board with them. Perhaps some of them are in it for personal gain, perhaps some of them are in it because they’re interested in studying science, perhaps they put up with parts that creep them out because they feel the benefits outweigh the cons, et cetera. Not every unnamed Aether employee needs to be evil, they can all have their own motivations for going along with the plan + might only know bits and pieces, but by and large the Aether Foundation should have been our large villainous organization for this game, rather than the half-assed nonsense we were given. And on top of being villainous and corrupt, they should have also been massively scientific, in terms of actually carrying out experiments that we see and using conservation as an excuse / way to get test subjects. Don’t make them charitable; make them corrupt. Go big or go home.

LET WICKE ALSO BE EVIL. My god, Wicke had all the personality of a wet piece of cardboard, and it’s bullshit that she was relegated to just being a motherly piece of cardboard while Faba actually got to be the villain he always wanted to be. Wicke, as I characterize her, would know pretty much everything of what Lusamine is up to, and would be in support of it both because it aligns with her personal beliefs and because she loves and is deeply devoted to Lusamine (what type of love that is would be up for interpretation by the player, but in any case, Lusamine doesn’t return it, she just takes advantage). Wicke wouldn’t truly care for the twins, but would instead be the type to guilt trip them for not also being loyal to Lusamine + hurting Wicke in the process by running away and whatnot. She has that simpering, faux honey approach, similar to Umbridge. She’s allowed to be competent, strong, and every bit a member of the villain triad as Faba and Lusamine.

On that note, let Faba be more of an actual scientist. Let’s see what contributions he has made to the Aether Foundation other than his ego. Maybe he was the one who made the chimeras. If so, great! Let’s see that. Let’s see why Lusamine bothers to keep him around. Let’s see more of a conflict between him and Wicke that isn’t so much that he puts her down and she cowers, but more that she looks down on the fact that he’s here mostly for his own self-interest (+ interest in science + Lusamine lets him do what he wants) and less because of loyalty to Lusamine, whereas he thinks that her loyalty to Lusamine (/ her reasons for that loyalty) are pathetic and that the only thing that matters is, well, science. Like, he’s loyal to Lusamine, but he’s loyal because she’s giving him the opportunity to do / get what he wants, rather than because of personal feelings for her. He thinks he’s using Lusamine. He’s not aware that the situation is actually the other way around. Let’s see that, let’s explore it, and let’s explore how his hubris is in direct contradiction to the principles behind the Philosopher’s Stone and, more importantly, the lion that devours the sun, according to alchemical writings from our own world, long in the past.

LET THE TWINS HAVE AN ACTUAL RELATIONSHIP. My god, one of the things that bothered me the most was the fact that Lillie and Gladion barely interacted, on top of how under-utilized Gladion was and how Lillie seemed, in so many places, to exist only as a way to further boost up the player and make them feel special rather than getting to explore her story for her own sake. (Right down to giving Nebby to the player, ugh.) To begin with, I want to know more about their past at Aether Paradise. What happened the night Gladion left? Why did he leave without Lillie? I’d like to think there was a fight or disagreement there—that Lillie wanted to stay because she was insistent that perhaps they could change Lusamine’s mind, or that combating her plan would be easier from Aether Paradise, or (far more likely) that it was their duty to stay, that they were family and thus it was wrong to leave. Gladion disagreed, and so he left, leaving Lillie behind when she refused to come with him. This creates tension between them in the main plot, because Gladion resents Lillie for seemingly choosing their mother over him, whereas Lillie resents Gladion for leaving as he did, even though she herself leaves later in order to save Nebby.But over the course of the game, they encounter each other again and again, and slowly their relationship mends. Gladion appreciates that Lillie is now willing to rebel against their mother, while Lillie learns to admit that her brother had good reasons when he left two years prior (even if his method of leaving still chafes with her), and she respects how he has managed to survive on his own (well, with Null). They meet again and again, come to understandings, and ultimately reform the bond of best friendship they had prior to Gladion’s departure in order to stand against their mother TOGETHER in the climax. (So if there are two flutes to be played, the player is standing off to the side watching while the twins play the flutes in restored harmony.) On top of all of this, I would want to modify Lillie’s personality so that she’s more than just the demure, shy, moe girl who worships the player. Gladion shows the C-PTSD he has from years of child abuse by being harsh, closed-off, and cold. While Lillie doesn’t have to be exactly like him and while everyone is different, I feel that Lillie just being ~omg shy~ as a result of her abuse is not only playing into the Good Victim / Bad Victim dichotomy (with Gladion being the Bad Victim), but was also done just to make her someone the player would want to protect at the expense of making her a well-rounded character with a believable personality. So I would want to modify Lillie so that she’s also stand-offish and cold in various ways; where she, like Gladion, feels that she has a unique view of the situation because of her background, where she’s incredibly studious and smart even if she doesn’t battle, where she’s unwilling to open up to others without the others putting in serious effort (such as Hau potentially, pre-game), where she “defrosts” just as much as Gladion does, because girls can be cold and hard as well and she should be no exception, regardless of how feminine she is. Lastly, both of the kids should have been adopted by Kukui and Burnet at the end of the game. I won’t budge on this.

LET LUSAMINE BE THE VILLAINOUS SCIENTIST QUEEN SHE WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO BE. Lusamine’s canonical role / personality is perhaps one of the biggest letdowns the Pokémon franchise has ever bestowed upon me and I’m never going to be over it. Whether she’s actually an Ultra Beast herself or not (and I’m still disappointed that the Ultra Beasts didn’t get to be shapeshifters), she still should have been the mastermind behind everything, the one in control, and the one perfectly aware of everything she was doing, as well as the one wanting to do it because of her own grand plans, rather than just being ~*~manipulated by neurotoxins~*~ and ~*~in need of redemption~*~. So to that end?Lusamine is the actual founder of the Aether Foundation, versus it being founded by her father or grandfather or whatever that NPC said, because I’m sick of this series having women simply inherit positions from male relatives or else be overshadowed by them. Lusamine founded the Aether Foundation as a scientific organization to promote her own ambitions and goals while using pokémon conservation as a convenient cover (as well as a means to get government funding if need-be). She’s the president and founder both, and everyone respects her for it.To that end, Lusamine is blindingly intelligent. Not only does she have a wealth of scientific knowledge across various fields (alchemy is obviously her forte, but she’s also incredibly knowledgeable about chemistry, physics / astrophysics, and various other fields), but she’s also quite knowledgeable in terms of history, various fields of mathematics, and other areas of study. She is very much a Ravenclaw in that she loves learning and studying, but also views the universe in terms of the ultimate question True or Not. She is very interested in the (or at least a, but in her mind she is always right, so the) universal Truth, and seeks to not only claim knowledge of the Truth for herself, but also to grasp it in her hand show the rest of the world / universe that she has it. Right or Wrong doesn’t matter to Lusamine, because both of those things are subjective. True or Not is what matters, more than anything else. She is very, very Ravenclaw. So Lusamine is the Big Bad. I have actual motivations and goals for her in my AU fic, To Devour the Sun, and I won’t get into those here—but if Game Freak didn’t want to make her actually an Ultra Beast, they would change anyway. Instead, we could say that perhaps Lusamine was furthering her alchemical ventures in an effort to grasp the Universal Truth™, much as alchemists of the past were always searching for that very same thing (in a fashion), usually by means of the Philosopher’s Stone. In the context of Pokémon, Lusamine could not only be searching to harness the power of Solgaleo (or Lunala ig, but Solgaleo makes far more sense) for this endeavor, but could also be trying to rip open the Gates between Worlds in order to obtain the Truth (much like Father in FMA:B!). This could potentially put the entire world at risk, particularly since Lusamine wouldn’t exactly care who or what needs to be sacrificed in order to make her dreams reality. To that end, no, she doesn’t care about her children; in her mind, they would be additional pawns that could be used in order to accomplish her goals, and if they disobey then they are cruelly punished—but otherwise, she doesn’t (and has never) care(d) about being a family with them. Mohn isn’t really important, either; he has no bearings on Lusamine’s motivations or desires. If anything, he doesn’t even need to be in the game, at least not as the twins’ father. It’s not like he adds to the plot, and it wouldn’t be the first time kids didn’t have present fathers in this series. (Additionally, if the Johto Rival’s mother is never identified, I don’t see why the twins’ father needs to be.)So yes, Lusamine is frighteningly intelligent, calculating, savvy (she doesn’t take gambles or risks if they can be avoided, generally—once she has everything in place, she won’t risk it for a lesser payoff than she’s planning for), extremely manipulative, and ruthless … with a spiteful or sadistic sense of humor at times (in terms of causing emotional pain, rather like GLaDOS). She uses whatever and whoever she needs to in order to achieve her ends, and while I’m aware that sounds Slytherin, remember, Lusamine does not have precious / important people, does not care about those close to her, and is concerned with the question of True or Not, which is all very not Slytherin and also very Ravenclaw. (And yes, while her actual goals are different in To Devour the Sun, this is the characterization I’m using there, too. She, like Sycamore, is a Ravenclaw. She just also happens to be a very terrible person on top of it. She foils him, in other words, in a variety of ways, on top of having some surface resemblance to Lysandre.)Let her be the true, unapologetic villain she deserved to be. Let her be in command the way she was supposed to be. Lusamine was done a massive injustice in canon and I’ll never be over it. (Oh, and as a final note? She either dies or goes to prison in the end. No exceptions.)

Of course, I’d still love it if the Aether fam were Ultra Beasts as well (and that Ultra Beasts could have human forms), but if Game Freak didn’t want to go that route in canon, then the above is fine as well.

This is all I’ve got for right now. Completely rewriting the plot would take more time (and would likely largely ignore the player, but tbh that’s probably for the best, because the fact that Lillie’s most important was relationship was with the player instead of her brother will never cease to make me salty af), but these are the base ideas I have that would have made me more happy than the disappointing, flat mess we were given. Here’s hoping USUM can improve things, but unless the plot is radically changed, I highly doubt it will.

So I Saw Doctor Strange

EDIT: I just found this all typed up in my drafts from the day after I saw Doctor Strange several months ago. it’s very ramble-y and not very edited but uh,,,, im just gonna publish it, HERE, HAVE A, VERY COOLED OFF HOT TAKE?????

It was O-Kay. I’m typing up my thoughts because I can’t sleep, and also because this movie is my actual exact trope (please see figure A: my entire webcomic) and yet, while I had a nice time watching it, I kept kinda drifting out of the movie to question the choices it made.

I should also mention, I never read the comics and I never watched any cartoons with Strange in them, so I don’t really care about accuracy in that regard. All I know is that I read his origin story off wikipedia and said “man I hope this movie is good because this could really be my jam.”

ENTIRELY COMPOSED OF SPOILERS:

THINGS I LOVED:

I loved that the hospital kept coming back!! I expected it to just be his origin story and then disappear, like the theatre that scared baby batman, but every time something bad happens to him or his allies he uses his weird new magic to teleport STRAIGHT TO THE HOSPITAL, because OBVIOUSLY that’s where you go when you get hurt!! It’s what he understands and he’s comfortable in that environment and I can’t get over how happy I am with the idea that this ridiculous sorcerer keeps coming back to the ER when he gets really hurt. Also I love the juxtaposition of Dr. Strange’s frankly absurd getup (aka: my aesthetic) striding through An Actual Hospital as if he remotely belongs there. This is 100% my favourite thing about this movie.

I loved that Strange’s hands never get fixed!! He doesn’t GET MAGIC TO FIX THEM, he gets magic to give him a new purpose so that he can finally get over his inability to do surgery. This is infinitely better tbh, both in a non-ableist message sense AND in a “Shazz is happy because he still keeps this one weakness at the end and that’s the kind of thing she likes in stories” sense.

I liked the dimension-altering spell that turns all buildings into a Terrifying Conveyor Belt Of Machinery. Especially in that very first scene, it looks cool and feels like actual magic, something barely fathomable, bending the world to your will.

She kisses him on the cheek!!!!!! I’m 90% more heartwarmed by this choice -- their relationship is so strained at this point that a lips-kiss would feel forced, or inappropriate,  like, Obligatory Superhero Kisses Girl Scene, but instead it’s just a moment of, “this is all still a mess but I genuinely care about you.”

Also while we’re on the subject of non-sensual physical touch, I love that the Ancient One holds his hand!!! More deep, meaningful platonic touch in movies please!!!!!!!

I like a lot of the little goofy banter -- “oh, you joined a cult,” and Strange whining about how nobody will name anything after him because his name is Strange. But I’m a sucker for this stuff (see: my entire webcomic).

THINGS IM REALLY MAD ABOUT:

okay but how do you take FREAKIN MAGIC and turn it into SWORDFIGHTING??? who looks at all of psionics and goes “hey lets all play soulknifes.” Seriously tho, there’s like two cool spells and everything else is the exact same choreography you’d expect if they were using staves or fisticuffs and that’s JUST A DANG SHAME!!!! WHERE IS YOUR IMAGINATION MARVEL

I’m not asking for all the spells to be wacky I’m just askin for it to look different from just wackin swords together and blocking them!!! THATS THE MOST BORING THING YOU COULD POSSIBLY DO WITH MAGIC!!!!

that early scene where Strange’s consciousness is getting slingshotted around while the Ancient One schools him about how much he doesn’t understand is unbelievably boring, and this is coming from someone whose biggest turn-on is slightly frail boys being terrified. Why does that scene go on so long??? He hasn’t even earned that experience and it doesn’t even look that cool.

I JUST REALISED THIS IS PROBABLY ENTIRELY COMPOSED WITH THE 3D VERSION IN MIND AND NOW IM EVEN MADDER

THINGS THAT WERE ALLLLMOST COOL BUT I FEEL ULTIMATELY UNSATISFIED:

What the heck is going on with Doctor Strange’s character arc

There’s the weird feeling throughout that Strange learns nothing and is not actually different. Like, I’m sure this isn’t exactly true, but I’m having a hard time countering that idea. He starts out an arrogant person who trusts his own judgement above anyone else’s, and then ends a slightly more polite arrogant person who trusts his own judgement above anyone else’s.

I’m gonna compare Strange to Tony Stark, because I liked Iron Man, and it felt triumphant in a way that Doctor Strange didn’t, and Tony Stark also remains arrogant throughout, but here’s the thing -- Stark’s sin in Iron Man wasn’t hubris, it’s thoughtlessness, both socially and globally. “Proof Tony Stark Has A Heart” and so on. So when Stark remains arrogant, but his beliefs are shaken and he wants to reach out to help & defend others, we don’t feel like he’s gone nowhere. Meanwhile Strange’s sin IS presented as hubris -- he didn’t believe anyone could do what he could do, and his ego is what’s constantly chided by the Ancient One. And then he continues being exactly this way, doing whatever he wants because he doesn’t trust others to guide or help him, and saves the day?? It’s just weird because it seems like maybe they didn’t actually understand what they were setting up?

I think it’s a good choice that he doesn’t quite master magic throughout the course of the movie -- that fits. He’s not the Sorcerer Supreme at the end because “it’s not about you.” But it’s a timid choice, because how do you make a story where the theme is “it’s not about you” and still have the main character single-handedly save the day? You’d have to be a lot more creative than this movie was.

Strange handing the scalpel to Nick is a nice moment but it doesn’t count as paying off this arc/theme/whatever. Strange literally can’t use the scalpel and remembers that the girl he likes trusts Nick, so Nick is the best they’ve got. Strange is a smart guy who’s afraid to fail, he’s gonna make the choice that’s most likely to succeed. We already know he’ll ask for help if he has literally no other option. That’s not a payoff!

There’s a REALLY COOL thing that’s brought up halfway through where Strange freaks out that he killed a guy. He starts yelling about how he’s a doctor who swore to do no harm and I got really excited -- this is an actual redeeming character trait, a chance for Strange to Care about people in contrast to his flippant attitude at the beginning and put his brilliance to work not serving himself, but others -- and the fact that it put him in conflict with his more ruthless fellow sorcerers was also interesting. AND THEN THAT’S IT, THATS THE ENTIRETY OF THAT ISSUE, BASICALLY JUST THAT SCENE.

Like, yeah, at the end he did find a creative way to strike a deal instead (THO HE ARGUABLY DID A LOT OF HARM TO THOSE GUYS THAT GOT SUCKED INTO HELL THE DARK DIMENSION, HMM) but that sort of got lost in this OTHER theme about rule-breaking versus rigidity that got pulled in at the end.

Ultimately it feels like they had three different themes going simultaneously -- Dr. Strange has a huge ego and needs to let go of it, Dr. Strange, as a doctor, questions the sorcerers’ ruthlessness, Dr. Strange is willing to break rules that the other sorcerers aren’t. And it’s only that last one that really feels like a major theme of the movie at the end.... but it’s not really set up that way at the beginning????

//SIGHS A LOT ABOUT THE THING AT THE END OF THE MOVIE

the part where they’re Too Late and Strange turns back time so that they won’t be is cool. I’m not gonna knock that. BUT HEY THAT WAS SET UP ALREADY AND WASN’T AN ASSPULL

uggghghghghghghg like.... this is, I don’t know, it’s a genuinely smart move, and it feels like it works, but it also has that feeling of “oh, I guess this is possible then,” because it wasn’t really set up well. THATS NOT WHAT YOU WANT FOR THE CLIMACTIC END OF YOUR MOVIE!!!

Look, there’s the bones of something good here. Strange messes up by trying to do a cool thing and throwing everyone into the mirror dimension, and actually exclaims “this was a mistake” (which I expected to be a way bigger deal???) -- and then at the end he does the exact same friggin thing by jumping into a dimension with a plan that seems like it’ll make sense. So what if he learned from his mistake instead? What if he realised he’d need help understanding dimensions, and we saw him asking questions and getting guidance and finally being willing to trust that maybe someone else knows more than he can teach himself? In that moment, we could learn a little bit more about bringing different magic to different dimensions. And at the end, what if it wasn’t a split second decision by Strange to do a risky proceedure (aka, the thing he already did at the start of the movie) but instead, Strange has the idea to carry time into the dark dimension and checks his idea with the others? You could even bring the violence angle in here, if the others had some other option that would be less magically risky but involve more death, and Strange chooses the one where nobody has to die, and maybe even asks them to trust his decision -- something he never felt the need to do before. Instead of the ENTIRE TIME ISSUE feeling like kinda an asspull because it’s all a surprise, it’s the Time Loop Bargain that’s a surprise, while everything else has been firmly established.

I don’t know if this would work or be the best choice. But like!!! these are things that feel like they could’ve been worked with a little more to make the whole movie feel more cohesive!!! instead of having one theme, and then dropping it and picking up a different theme, and then kinda fumbling that into another theme, and not being sure where to put any exposition or character development.

I really like that Strange is kinda.... not physically amazing. Like, he’s been taught how to fight, but it’s clear he’s leaning a lot on his cloak for the fancier stuff and he’d still definitely get beat up without help. This is obviously like.. my character type, but wouldn’t it be cool if he were just a smiiiiiiidge older?? Like, a little frailer, can’t really fight that well without magical help? NO? JUST ME?????????

okay I think that’s everything. thats my opinion of dr strange

WRITE LIKE YOU LIKE

The best I can think to myself If someone with a technical background and some vision of what they create, give them the actual market value? And God help you if you stay where you are, the more heat they get if they screw up—or even seem to screw up. I realize I might seem to the average person today. Whereas Pittsburgh has the opposite problem: plenty of nerds, but no startups came out. So these, I think, is which 52% they are. At this year's Boston Demo Day, I told the fearsome Professor Conway that I was being paid for programming. Some said I was just telling people what they wanted to do things only the wrong people, and it surfaces in situations like this. But there's a way to capture more of the market Segway hoped to reach: make a version that doesn't look so easy for the rider. I asked.

And of course Euclid. So I'd like to conclude with a joint message from me and your parents. When starting a startup just doesn't seem real. And at least in the short term. But I suspect the filter is set a little too high. If you make something and people complain that it doesn't work, then go work for an existing company for a couple years, but the pool allowed to write on general topics was about eight people who went to the right parties in New York when Giuliani introduced the reforms that made the broken windows theory applies to community sites as well. And there is a name for the phenomenon, Greenspun's Tenth Rule: Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common Lisp. This is especially necessary with links whose titles are rallying cries, because otherwise they become implicit vote up if you believe such-and-such posts, which are Lisp data structures. It would be like mathematicians running Vogue—or at least log n more rewarding.

Everyone values safety too much, Twitter feels to everyone like previous protocols. As you've probably noticed, they have a fair amount of data to go on. But I think there's more going on than this. And it is completely non-discriminatory. Now everyone can, and we feel bad if we don't. It has fabulous weather, which makes it significantly better than the soul-crushing suburban sprawl. And finally, there are sometimes multiple answers. The ones who keep going are driven by the random factors that have caused startup culture to spread thus far. The winds of change originate in the unconscious minds of domain experts. But while you don't literally need math for most kinds of hacking, in the long run, of the forces underlying open source and blogging show us things don't have to pay a lot for it.

When I get asked in interviews to predict the future, and the various departments created recently in response to political pressures. And once they had the luxury of curiosity, one of McCarthy's grad students, so they know who might be sitting across that conference table from them. It would also be helpful if the styling was in the same way a gene pool does. I suspect the filter is set a little too high. A button that looks like it will make a machine stop should make it stop, not speed up. For example, you need two ingredients: you need a degree? Seattle, and the transformation was equally dramatic. You can't expect employers to have some kind of paternal responsibility toward employees without putting employees in the position of children. So I'm supposed to finish college, then go to grad school. And yes, while it is probably true that you'll learn some valuable things by going to work for them long before they went public. Suddenly, in a hits-driven business, is that if you don't find it.

And finally, there are other ways to arrange that relationship. Startups are undergoing the same transformation that technology does when it becomes cheaper. The New York Times. How much you should worry about being an outsider. The big advantage of investment over employment, as the examples of open source and blogs are done for free, but before the Web it was harder to reach an audience or collaborate on projects. In the other languages mentioned in this talk—Fortran, C, C, C, Java, Perl, Python, you notice this pattern if you are a Lisp hacker. Did it alarm some potential acquirers that we used Lisp? I didn't say so, but I'm sure many employees could find eight hours worth of stuff they could do might be to create a named function to return. At least, you notice this pattern if you are a Lisp hacker.

Maybe the Internet will change things further. But its bulk and celebrity would make it a tragedy. They had to build actual factories. It will probably involve writing some software, but fortunately we can do that. For example, I stumbled on a good idea. If people are expected to behave well, they tend to peter out. Symbols are effectively pointers. The list of what you can't ask in job interviews is now so long that for convenience I assume it's infinite.

Now the only threshold is courage. But I wouldn't bet on it. When finally completed twelve years later, Kleiner Perkins funded Google, and Microsoft. I'm not claiming companies can get smarter, just that it's demoralizing, but that was enough to tell what I said that upset him: that startups would do better if they moved to Silicon Valley and raised money there. One change will be in your favor: instead of painstakingly discovering things for ourselves, we could have monotonically increasing confidence in our beliefs. In startups, developers are often forced to talk directly to users, whether they want to. Most American cities have been turned inside out.

In theory a liberal education is not supposed to supply job training. There's something interesting happening right now. Whereas the who else is going to be working hard enough. Many employees would like to build great things, it helps to have everything in one head. And when I read, say, the Quicksort algorithm, which was dictated largely by the hardware available in the late twentieth century it seems to matter more than that. What counts as property depends on what the characters said and did the subtler clues, the better. The term dark ages is presently out of fashion as too judgemental the period wasn't dark; it was just different, but if this label didn't already exist, it would seem an inspired metaphor.

Notes

As the name of a safe environment, and large bribes by Spain to make the police in the message. The point of a smooth one. So it may seem to have funded Reddit, for example, to drive the old one was nothing special.

Enterprise software—and to run on the x axis and returns on the partner you talk to, so it may seem to be delivering results.

It's suspiciously neat. But if they ultimately choose not to: if you agree prep schools, because it doesn't seem to have too few customers even if they ultimately choose not to make the kind that prevents you from starving.

When I was once trying to describe the word wealth. Startups are businesses; the trend in scientific progress matches the population curve. Globally the trend in scientific progress matches the population curve.

There can be surprisingly indecisive about acquisitions, and many of the world of the most, it's not obvious you'd be surprised if VCs' tendency to push founders to have to solve a lot, or that an idea where there were, they'd have taken one of those things that's not relevant to an audience of investors started offering investment automatically to every startup we had high hopes for doesn't do well, but that's the main reason kids lie to them. But when you graduate, regardless of how hard it is still a leading cause of accidents.