#Coven Of Queers is the name I think we going with for this (;

[let-us-cultivate-our-garden]

I had a long argument with someone on whether or not stomping Belos before he dies was better than letting him die pathetically, and I asked myself if that is what fans really believe in... or if they would hail any Belos' death as the perfect one if Dana choose a different one?

They also justify the stomping as being part of horror-comedy genre and that Belos should not have any dignity what so ever because apparently letting him die in despair with no stomping is running the risk of making the audience feel "sorry" for him.

Honestly, these justifications make The Owl House feel more shallow. Like, why shouldn't the audience be allowed to feel sorry for Belos? What is the danger? That people would agree with Belos' views?

Or are we supposed to develop a black and white view of the world akin to a conservative view but inverted? And then hide behind the horror comedy genre to justify less drama? I hate to say it, but Nostalgia Critic is right about Belos being this strange outlier. The show seems to be afraid of actually doing a complex, tragic and yet irredeemable villain.

It doesn't make any sense to argue that Belos' death fits because of toh's genre as a horror comedy because the scene was neither played for horror nor laughs. At best, you have the image of Philip slowly being dissolved by the rain and then Raine's smug "that was satisfying" line. The overall tone of the scene is one of contempt as Philip tries one last plea to Luz only to be snuffed out (and weirdly validated) by the heroes. Its intent is to be cathartic for both audience (though as you know doubt know, YMMV) and the characters.

Frankly, despite its marketing, I don't see toh as either a horror or a comedy because it spends more time on slice of life stuff and high school teen drama and romance. And even when it does go for the horror and comedy, both are rather tepid. You want a real example of a horror-comedy for kids, then go watch Courage the Cowardly Dog or Invader Zim.

The reason why I argue the heroes validated Belos is because in the moment of his death, he clings to the idea that as humans, "we're better than this!" It's a moment of pathetic delusion that is appropriately met with silence but then it's ruined with Eda and Co. barging in with "Well, we ain't!" only to then prove his point by mercilessly stomping an already dying man to death. There's a reason why kid shows usually end with either the villain being imprisoned or not outright being murdered by the heroes. Evil has to die by its own hubris, not get killed by the heroes after the Big Battle when they're no longer a threat. I made a post about the importance of defeating a major antagonist twice.

Belos' death also doesn't work with a "Kill your oppressors" theme because the show isn't about that. The show barely spends any time showing why the EC is bad for the Boiling Isles and Eda is the only named wild witch we see getting harassed by them and even then, it's mostly played for laughs given how inept the coven scouts are (seriously, they're able to quit without fear of repercussions).

I think a reason fans are split on Belos' death is because of differing expectations; the fans who paid attention to Belos and the implication of his backstory and waited for every lie to come crashing down on him since that's what the show seemed to be building up to only to be unceremoniously ignored in the end were no doubt disappointed. Then you have the other fans who hated the character to the point that any gruesome death will do, regardless whether it made narrative or thematic sense or not.

Ultimately, I think the biggest reason his death doesn't work is because Belos fails as a villain.

Belos' status as a colonial puritan only works on a meta-level; it serves a cathartic release for marginialized people to see a representative of real world oppression beaten by queer characters as it fulfills the fantasy of finally overthrowing an oppressive system. The fatal flaw though is that none of this works on a narrative level because the coven system is either treated as a joke or simply a career path one must choose and we never see the disenfranchisement of wild witches. People largely get off scot-free opposing Belos, which undermines his credibility as both a dictator and a villain because no one cares about him until the plot needs them to. Luz doesn't even care about proving he's evil until Hollow Mind, which is halfway through season 2.

Belos as a villain only works if you project your own feelings and desires in wanting to see the Evil Christian/Evil Parent destroyed. While this is extremely satisfying emotionally, it does not make a sound story.

All the reasons why people like his death ("it's great the evil colonizer died so pathetically!" "omg, the white christian colonizer was killed by two queer people and their adopted son!" etc) are all meta reasons. And to be clear, it's totally fine if you thought his death was satisfying. But for many people, it did not work for a variety of reasons, including narrative ones. And that differing opinion should be respected instead of arguing some nonsense like "we have to make our villain as stupid/evil as possible or run the risk of people liking/sympathizing with him."

Belos should have died in a manner that connected back to his original sin: the murder of his brother. All of his lies and delusions and fear of being wrong should have played a part in the finale. He should have not died thinking he was right. He should have died realizing that all he did was for nothing. And that he is to blame. And that there is no one waiting for him back home.

#the owl house #toh critical #toh criticism #emperor belos #philip wittebane #long post #asks

[space-writes]

OC in 15

tagged by @little-peril-stories, thank you! i'm going to do this for Rainier, because he's The Worst and i love him <3

Rules: Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!

No pressure tagging @loopyhoopywrites @kaylinalexanderbooks @serenanymph and @talesfromaurea

Rainier Mortem

“Then again, that form is usually comprised of a multitude of spiders, so you tell me: is the state of womanhood a thousand spiders in a skirt?”

“I’m nice to the boys too, Holls—honestly, it’s like you forget I’m a filthy queer these days.”

“I make it a point to know the names of pretty boys.”

“I seriously don’t give a shit what you do as long as I don’t have to see it. You’re not staying. I don’t have room.”

“Fuck, that’s hot.”

“In shitty IPA veritas.”

“When I said to fill your head with geometry, I didn’t mean you had to beat it in.”

“Are you a good boy for me, Vivien?”

“I want you to think about me when you come.”

“Not that I’m asking you to come and conspire against the Grand Magus with me or anything.”

“Good job you’re not the one fucking me, then, isn’t it?”

“Get out of my house, Sofia. Cry to daddy if you’re struggling so much. Those NDA’s between me and Greta Riess are going to stay undisclosed until the day you fucking die, because—and are you paying attention, Sofia?—I do not give a single shit if MTech crashes and burns this quarter or the next. Riess can chew you up and spit you out and the day it does I will celebrate by fucking my boytoy on your grave.”

“Why do you assume I did something?”

“Don’t kinkshame me, pup. I’ve seen your browser history.”

“Probably. But that’s what we are, isn’t it? Couple of fucked up faggots?”

claws taglist: @belovedviolence @foxboyclit @coven-archives @mjjune @revenantlore @sarandipitywrites @noblebs @k--havok @asterhaze @verba-writing @indecentpause (ask to be +/-)

#writeblr #tag games #oc in 15 tag #wip: claws #c: rainier mortem #he's just so *clenches fist*

[charlataninred]

Forgetmenauts Intro Post

Heya y’all! Since there have been a few posts/asks about the Forgetmenauts, I figured I’d make a introductory masterpost! If you think anything should be added, just lmk (ask, dm, in the replies, whatever ur comfortable with). All helpful links are attached to the end of the post <3

Created: 12/1/22

Last Edited: 11/30/23

FAQ

Is there a right way to start listening? Nope! You can jump in anywhere and anyway you want. If you really want advice on where to start, the general consensus seems to be a) listen to Gay Werewolf Murder Ballad or The Marriage of Bigfoot and Mothman first to get the vibes, then listen to the songs in album order, or b) go straight to listening to the songs in order. The main reason this is recommended is because some songs are explicitly connected to each other, so listening to them out of order first may be a bit confusing. Still, if that isn’t your speed, let me reiterate that there is no wrong way to listen.

Why are we called the Coven? Back in September 2022, the fmns found our little fandom here on Tumblr. In the notes of this post, mountaingnomes (one of the fmns) called us a “tiny coven” and the name stuck! I’ll link some other posts from that very eventful day bc it was quite a fun time.

Miscellaneous Info

They have a YouTube channel (linked below)! There are a LOT of gems there, including live recordings of songs, some recorded shows (Musical D&D is a fun one), and two music videos: one for Dancing Plague, one for Summer King. Highly recommend checking it out.

Also on YouTube but on a different channel is a radio show done on KXSF! This is where the songs Cottonwood and Rusulka & the Shepherd Girl where first introduced (to the Coven, at least). There's also a lil Coven shoutout there :3

They have a segment in volume 3 of the queer horror zine The Quiet Ones. It starts on page 47, but I highly recommend reading the short stories and poems before and after! There’s also a mini interview with each member that includes their pronouns <3

The fmns have an insta where they post announcements/updates. If you have insta, go follow and support them!

Helpful Links

FMNs Youtube

KXSF Show (Cottonwood at 0:00, Rusalka at 27:00, our shoutout at 37:50)

FMNs Insta

FMNs BandCamp

FMNs Genius Page

The Quiet Ones [Vol 3]

Approximate Coven/FMNs Timeline (done by the lovely Rio)

Fan creations!

I’m not above plugging my mutuals’ or my own work, so here’s some fanworks for your enjoyment

Atlas’ skull embroidery

Casper’s Rusalka facts

Kitt’s short story

Mina’s fabulous Fox fanart

Mina’s Guide to Listening

Marlene’s Rusalka embroidery

Marlene’s skull embroidery

Rua’s choreography

Rio’s audio crimes (34 seconds of the word “run”)

Rio’s audio crimes (the entire fmns discography in 2 minutes)

Rio’s (confirmed!) Hawker theory

Rio’s vampire quiz (audio on!)

Aegis’ color picked pride flags

Aegis’ trans interpretation of CiR

Aegis’ skull embroidery

The Coven Compels You (to listen to the fmns)

The Day the FMNs Found us

Breaking News

Coven origins

#the forgetmenauts

[nerdygaymormon]

Lift+Love featured ME!

David Doyle has become a familiar name at the LDS-LGBTQ intersection. Some may have heard his poignant thoughts as a guest on a gamut of podcasts or at his Instagram site, @nerdygaymormon. Many have read his essay about how to better support the marginalized in Christian Kimball’s recent book, Living on the Inside of the Edge. And Lift and Love followers may recognize him as the facilitator of the Over 30 LGBTQ+ monthly support group. 

As a 52-year-old single gay man who serves as his Florida stake’s executive secretary, David appreciates that his unique status has granted him a plethora of interactions with general authorities—some after stake meetings, and some via invitation for David to meet them at church headquarters. While he doesn’t lead such introductions with his orientation, he says it doesn’t take long for it to come up when he’s typically asked about his lack of a wife and kids. And he doesn’t hold back when asked to share his thoughts about being asked to walk an extra difficult path in the church. David recognizes these interactions seem to be beneficial for both parties as he is able to share his unique perspective, and in turn often feels ministered to. He’s grateful that most with whom he speaks grant permission for him to share his notes from these “sacred conversations” in an effort to improve understanding.

David did not come out publicly until a 2017 blog post went viral that he now calls “the most important moment of my life.” In it, he shared that when he first came out to Elder Joaquin Costa, he was told, “Dear Brother, the church has much to offer you, and you have much to contribute to the church.” David decided one thing he could offer was his personal experience. 

While speaking to member of the Seventy, Elder Vern Stanfill, David explained how he is not able to complete the covenant path, and that has affected how he worships. He explained his observation that many in the church see Jesus as a secondary means to an end who allows them to be sealed to their spouse and see grandma again. But David shared, “For me, since I can’t be sealed and have those promises made to other members, I focus on Jesus. Seeking a relationship with Him first has been transformational for me. I also shared that queer people in the church hear a lot of negative, rejecting messages. We’re children of God and we deserve to feel hope and love and hear good news; that doesn’t happen enough.”

When Elder Kevin Hamilton asked David what he thinks his life and eternity will look like, David expressed that people seek answers to questions like that by coming to church, but queer people find far fewer answers. “I believe I’m included in God’s plan, but not so much the church’s version of that plan.” When David was then told that authority knew several people who “changed and no longer experience same-sex attraction,” David explained how he, too, had grown up being taught that if he had enough faith, God would change him. “I tried my very best, but my best was never good enough… I was always deficient, and it felt so defeating. I felt like if I couldn’t be good enough, then what was the point? That was very damaging. But fortunately, I got an answer to my prayer: ‘You are not broken’.”

David has always been impressed by the loving heart of Elder Dale Renlund, and how he invites his wife to join him at many speaking engagements--even turning the mic over to her entirely when the audience is predominately female. David is related to Sister Renlund, and at a recent lunch with the two when David asked their opinions on supporting LGBTQ friends and family members, Elder Renlund replied, “I can go to a gay wedding to show I love and support them. I’m not there to participate in that choice--I’m not marrying a man; he is. I’m going to show up as my authentic self, and I expect them to be their authentic self. I prefer to meet with people who are being authentic and not pretending to be someone they aren’t.”

Of all his conversations with general authorities, David says perhaps his favorite happened when one top church leader excitedly told him how a distraught father had approached the leader and said he didn’t know what to do when his daughter came out as a lesbian. The leader proudly told David he responded to the father by saying, “It’s going to be alright. I have a friend named David who taught me that love is what’s important. Keep loving her as you always have. She’s the one who has to make hard choices. Don’t make your relationship and love another difficult choice for her.”

While opening up to leaders and his very affirming stake president (who is the father of a gay son and hosts a bimonthly LGBTQ support group at his home) have been positive experiences, David says it hasn’t always been sunshine and rainbows. David’s parents met at BYU, married in the temple, and raised their seven kids in the church. His family moved often in David’s youth, forcing him to rely on family over friends as constants. While David sensed his attractions from a young age, he says his family never said anything supportive of gay people and tended to not talk about hard things. To keep his sense of safety intact, he stayed quiet, only confiding in a handful of people.

When David finally came out publicly at age 46, some family members were immediately supportive, while others expressed more conditional love, saying that David’s continued church attendance would affect his affiliation with their individual families. David’s parents are supportive of his life in many ways, but this is still a subject they tend to avoid. David thinks this is probably because his mother sees his orientation as an upset to her vision of eternal families. Several of David’s nieces and nephews have engaged in conversations and asked him questions, especially as they have queer friends; and he loves to be there for them.

After earning his MBA from the University of Florida, David took a job as a research administrator at the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he has been for 18 years. David says, “It’s fun to work at a beautiful campus with a fight song, mascot, and team to cheer for,” and he likes knowing that what he does goes to the greater good of acquiring and spreading knowledge. But living in Florida, David has felt the political tension as of late as the governor has championed anti-LGBTQ legislation. He says, “The last two years, it’s felt like we’re moving backwards and many don’t feel safe… if we continue on this path (of stripping DEI programs and minimizing rights and protections), I worry what the future holds. I feel like we have to be on guard now.” David joined friends at a drag show recently, and for the first time, saw protestors outside, and observed his friends were checking out evacuation routes at the venue, just in case.  

David recognizes that the church can be a wonderful community for those who fit the mold but, “being a queer member is a hard space in which to exist.” He says this is why it took so long to come out and begin exploring his identity. “Before being out, I spent a lot of energy and time worrying about if I said or did this or that, would people pick up that I’m gay. But now I can choose clothes I actually like to wear or do activities I never would have considered before. I used to experience a lot of dissonance because of how differently I presented myself to others compared to how I viewed myself, but once I was out – that difference went away. I became more confident, and people seemed to notice. Also, now I know people like me for me, and that’s a huge relief and blessing. I used to worry that if people knew the real me, they would reject me, which meant even the friendships and love I had from others always felt tenuous. Being able to authentically be me and express my thoughts and feelings is so freeing.” David also values now being able to meet with health professionals to seek help for a variety of conditions he’s suffered over the years including low self-esteem, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, internalized homophobia, a social anxiety disorder, and an eating disorder. “Being out meant I could begin healing.”

David takes seriously his role as an unofficial consultant to several ward leaders in his stake who have asked how they can be more inclusive and sensitive to the needs of LGBTQ members. When queer members contact David directly, he says, “I do my best to try to be the person I wish I had in my life when younger. I try to express God’s love for them, and encourage them in their path forward, whatever that looks like. Sometimes just having a person who truly knows what its like to be you is important.” David feels his stake’s LGBTQ support group is an exceptional strength and opportunity to commune with others who understand. The group includes gay members even in their 70s and 80s who have chosen to remain active in the church, and is an opportunity for the stake’s queer members to feel seen and supported and to find friends who understand their experience in a way few others do.

When David was processing his internalized homophobia in therapy, he consulted with his stake president about the possibility of dating men while maintaining his calling and temple recommend. Together they went through the church handbook to be clear which lines, if crossed, could alter his church status. They determined that the same opportunities and limits extended to an unmarried straight couple apply to David. But with dating, David says he has often felt “like a teen in a man’s world because it’s not LDS-land here in Florida, so I tend to just stick to first and maybe second dates.” David says if he did find love one day, he would pursue it.

Through all this, David says, “I’ve become more and more certain the two great commandments are what’s really important in life. Being vulnerable and seen, binding hearts together and treasuring each other, building each other, being there for hard times – that’s the hard work. We need to see the humanity and divinity in each other. Zion is a community, and we need to extend the borders of our community to be welcoming and inclusive of all our Heavenly Parents’ children.”

#lift+love #queerstake #tumblrstake #long post

[midnight-in-eden]

Sorry to bother you. I'm a transmasc exmo and my brother is inactive but intends to leave someday. He brought something to my attention, but so far I've only seen a reddit post about it, allegedly a story about a transgirl was affected by this already is on facebook, but I can not find it. It's being said that a new policy has gone to affect, that "Any one who has socially transitioned, is now excluded from baptism." In other words, transgender children can not be baptized, and neither can any other transgender individual, unless they detransition. People are confirming that this policy is going into the Handbook within the next few weeks. I don't have a big exmo support system, has anyone heard of this policy? Are they going to announce this change or are they literally just trying to slip this in and hope it goes unnoticed?

You’re not bothering me at all. Yes, I’ve heard of this. I don’t know any more than you do, I’m afraid.

I think the surface reason is this way they just don’t have to deal with transgender people. Just like they don’t have to deal with gays. Either group will still be “welcome”—as long as we don’t “act on it.” “We love you, but only if you stay in the closet and don’t make problems for us.”

I think the underlying reason is the church has elected to try and ingratiate itself with mainstream American Christianity. (I mean, it’s been doing this since it got rid of polygamy, but it’s accelerated in recent years.) That is why they’ve emphasized the church’s full name instead of “Mormon,” that’s why they’ve quietly backed off more outlandish beliefs (Kolob, exalted people getting their own planets, etc). That’s why they got rid of the various pageants showing parts of 1800s church history—and kept the Easter pageant in Arizona, redoing the soundtrack and script to be more appealing to Christians in general. And that is why they’ve dug in their heels when it comes to accepting LGBTQ people. Genuinely, I believe that this policy is meant to play out like the first Policy of Exclusion, which banned the children of gay parents from baptism until they turned 18 and could disavow gay marriage. That policy was reversed after a few years, but not before flushing out a lot of people who—up until then—had been trying to stay in the church but advocated loudly for LGBTQ acceptance. A lot of undesirables, in the church’s view. A wave of those people left when the original PoX was instituted. Another wave will leave with this one. That will leave the church with a membership that skews even more strongly conservative, that is even more acceptable to American evangelicals. They do not want gay and trans members. They want to be respectable to American Republican Christians.

(Most evangelicals are never going to accept Mormons as Christians, imho, but that isn’t going to stop the church from trying.)

My feelings on this are torn. I think it is actually better for LGBTQ people to leave/not join the church, and perhaps this will protect some trans people from the harm the church does. On the other hand, I know queer people who consider the church their spiritual home. I think everyone should have spiritual autonomy—but in Mormonism, you really don’t. Your access to every covenant necessary for salvation and exaltation is locked behind a gate that is only opened if a priesthood leader decides you are worthy. Trans people who transition are being deemed unworthy en masse and that seems like spiritual abuse to me.

We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out. Even among Mormons I know who are relatively accepting of gay people, few are as welcoming of trans people, so I doubt they’ll get much pushback from the majority of members.

#exmo #exmormon #apostate #policy of exclusion #policy of exclusion 2: electric boogaloo #sorry for the wall of text! #queer shit #long post #ask #anon

[italian-wall-lizard]

WATCHING AND DREAMING SPOILERS!!!!!!!

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ok but can we PLEASE talk about the future seen in watching & dreaming????

first of all: dana terrace is doing gods work out there. queer, latina, black, and trans kids will be able to see themselves in her characters and i think that is really beautiful. fuck disney for cancelling the show x100000

secondly: STOP IT BECAUSE ITS LITERALLY THE CUTEST THING EVER. i will admit at first i was VERY against huntlow but now i straight up love them, they're so perfect for each otherrrr!! also my boy hunter finally got some sleep, his eyebags are gone (hunter x sleep best ship)

also THE MATCHING FLAPJACK TATTOOS??? too cute i might (read: definitely will) cry

i LOVE how everyone was so supportive of luz!!! they all gathered together and threw a quinceañera (or should i say KING-ceañera) for her bc she missed it helping them rebuild the boiling isles... they r so cute!!

also everyone's futures are SO PERFECT. the designs are GOLD and they all got to do what the wanted to do (willow with flyer derby, gus with human studies, hunter studying wild magic and carving palismen, luz doing literally everything)

here is a comprehensive list of what the hexsquad + parental figures are doing in the future:

- hunter is carving palismen with edas parents and the bat queen. he also has a new blue-jay palisman and her name is waffles and i love her very very much

- willow is a pro flyer derby player

- flapjack..... i think we all know what happened to flapjack

- lillith is an architect and is helping to rebuild hexside (she also still has a personal vendetta against flora desplora) + she can go harpy mode!!!

- hooty is still and forever will always be just hooty and i love that.

- amity is making abomination tech with her dad and has an AMAZING new look

- mattholomule finally grew a moustache

- principal bump is now a gardener. good for him he deserves a break

- alador is a good person now and has figured out a way to get rid of coven sigils. he's also gay for darius i think (FUCK odalia bro!!!)

- darius is... idk what darius is. basically he's now hunters full ass father and is also gay for alador

- raine is helping to conduct research on the new sigil removing process but more importantly is OFFICIALLY BACK TOGETHER WITH EDA

- gus is now directing a human exchange program at a school for wild magic (!!!) and has a SICK new look

- quite possibly the best of all, eda is the headmaster of the school!!! she also has a captain hook-style hook for an arm and i think that is wonderful. she also FINALLY learned how to do the staff spin from season 1

- vee is still amazing and has a new look, also i'm seriously hoping she's with the human who worked at the gravesfield museum and did tarot because they would be SO CUTE

- luz reigns supreme as the queen of doing literally everything and has about 10 different majors at her college. she also has eyeliner skills that i am seriously jealous of

and HOW COULD I FORGET. king now has glyph magic???? he's getting powerful as fuck apparently so now luz gets to learn a whole new glyph system while she's at college

anyways final thoughts are: this episode was a masterpiece esp considering what dana was working with only having three episodes to fill. and of course, say it with me now:

FUCK WALT DISNEY!!!!

#the owl house #toh #toh watching and dreaming #watching and dreaming #luz noceda #toh season 3

[saltysaltdog]

I've spoken about how op was jealous of Megatron and projecting, but I never actually went into any detail. Tbh, I'm not certain it's truly jealousy. It's more of a "Do I want to be her? Or do I just want her."

I can read so much queer subtext into the aligned op and meg plot lines.

Quickly brushing over Megatron, he's actually not a very jealous person. He readily admits to himself his jealousy about Soundwave, in that Soundwave was s triple changer who could fly, but he was also awkwardly jealous of his relationship with his minicons- either because he couldn't do the same, or of the quasi-family type bonds a deployer and minicon share. I'd bet on the latter because when Megatron is jealous/envious, he sets out to get it. He wanted to fly. He gained a jet mode. He wanted a family, he found a "brother".

Orion Pax, however... doesn't. There's not actually much we see orion pax go out of his way for aside from contacting megatron. He usually just obeys alpha trion and offloads most of his thinking to him. In the covenant, it's not until alpha trion praises him for being idealistic that "For the first time he considered himself as something potentially worthwhile, -a bot who had something to offer the world instead of one who awkwardly negotiated with it." Which is just sad. From there, he helps name and catalogue the cybertronian ages, but there's a limit to that.

Orion doesn't set out to fix the world until he comes across Megatron, and even Alpha trion can't really shake him from admiring Megatron.

His jealousy is a natural thing to follow from here. Megatron has a purpose, Megatron believes in his own ideals so strongly he'd kill for them. He has physical strength, is apparently mesmerising in a fight, has connections across the planet, and tons of devoted fans and followers who obey his every command.

Orion to his credit does start combat training and gaining curious fans of his own, and is flattered when Alpha trion asks him to give an opinion for the council, but all of this is prompted because of his connection to megatron.

There's room to grow resentment here, even in the strongest of friendships... but there wasn't much of that to begin with.

Weirdly, though Orion risks a lot by warning Megatron, by breaking travel laws to see him, by continuing their acquaintance even though Megatron is a criminal and then a suspected terrorist, Orion is always unsettled by Megatron's gestures of friendship, first by the title friend, then upset even more by the title "brother".

You see where I'm going with this.

When orion gains the primacy and becomes Optimus, he doesn't get what's happened and at some point to Ratchet calls it jealousy. Because Orion would have been jealous if Megs was acknowledged by the council in the same way.

Even when Optimus has everything he was jealous of. A cool new title, a bigger alt mode, followers, etc. He doesn't feel like he has any real power, making him a bit sensetive to any signs of disrespect. In spite of this, He prefers Jazz's way of interacting with him (with the nickname op,).

But the title of brother still bothers him when Megatron starts using it again, though he never denies any of Megatron's claims of an unbreakable bond between the two of them.

...

I'm saying Optimus is deep in whatever cybertronians have instead of a closet.

#transformers #megatron #Optimus prime #megop #tfp #maccadam #aligned continuity

[the-apostates-martyr]

So I initially added this to another post but then saw multiple others talking on the subject so I decided to just make my own take on it.

Ageing Daniel up was a mistake because Daniel Molloy isn't meant to grow old.

Youth is *such* a factor in the story of the Chronicles, with so much of the cast being young. Teen (Armand, Benedict, Antoine, Mona, Eudoxia to get more obscure) or their early -mid twenties (Lestat, Louis, Quinn). Of course there are those in their forties and over (Marius and Gabrielle come to mind) but I think it would be hard to make an argument that youth is not over valued in the Chronicles. Even putting David into a young, sexy body rather than having him remain in his 70 something form speaks to this.

So for Daniel to be made so specifically in his thirties is poignant enough to be noteworthy, but what makes it even more so is that Daniel had a *really shitty time* through his youth. He's a baby boomer who grew up with air raid drills and the threat of never growing up. He's queer in an era where it was still considered a mental illness, and then once it wasn't it was still illegal, and even in San Francisco he had such a huge risk of being beaten, arrested or murdered for being gay. He meets Louis, and his life ended that night. In QOTD we are told that the spark of life went out for Daniel that night. Knowing about immortality ruined him, as it would ruin so many people. And *then* comes Armand. Then comes survival, running around the world to escape this thing that might kill him. Then comes the sexual abuse of Armand forcing him to sleep with people he doesn't want, then comes the alcoholism, the cold streets, exhaustion, the complete lack of control. Then it's the 80s and ya know what queer men had to deal with in the 80s? AIDS, which I'm sure didn't help Daniels sense of impending death.

And yet even despite this, the price Daniel paid for this treatment was changing the world, his future world. Louis could have told anyone his story that night but he had no guarantee that anyone would believe him, or that anyone would do anything with his story. But Daniel "fuck it" Molloy did. He had the balls to sit in a room with a killer, and then seek them out, and tell their story. Daniel set the entire series into motion, he changed the trajectory of their lives, even those he had not yet met. And for his troubles he lost his youth.

I'm 32 years old this year- this is not old, but not only is Daniel a very old 32, but spending 12 years as the Devil's Minion, and then 30 years sick and in the care of another, isolated from his coven, that's the majority of Daniel's life to this point gone. He has only, in the modern day, began to live, for the first time since 1973.

Daniel Molloy didn't get to go live a live after the interview. He would never have survived to 33, let alone into his seventies. You can slap his name on this character, but it has fundamentally changed everything about him and reduced him down to just The Boy.

#Daniel Molloy #the vampire chronicles #tvc #queen of the damned #interview with the vampire

[thecagedsong]

So, just caught up on the light novels for My Next Life as a Villainess, and I have some takes I need to share somewhere on how I think this is going to end according to character, themes, and foreshadowing.

Of course, this story isn’t necessarily consistent with character. Or themes. Or foreshadowing. But light novel 11 gave me hope. Spoilers under the cut.

In #11, we learn that there are two secrets routes in FL2, as opposed to the single secret route in FL1. 

One FL2 secret route is pretty obvious: Caesar Dahl. Not only does this boy have the unique physical features that scream important character energy (gold eyes!), but he’s been in almost every light novel since he was introduced. He was at the assembly in #8, the southern sea port in #9, constantly referenced in #10 as Katarina dealt with orphans from Ethenell. And finally confirmed to be a secret route in #11. But Katarina can’t figure out the remaining secret route. 

And the reader can’t either. All five love interests from FL1 have a route, plus three new, Cyrus, Dewy, and Sora. The story since Katarina joined the ministry has been really good at letting the reader know what special events were supposed to happen on the routes for each character as you read between the lines. Part of Alan and Geordo’s route is the meeting with the King and learning that the Deike family got the secrets to dark magic in the royal family’s bloody fights for the throne. Part of Ceasar’s route is meeting at the National Assembly, then meeting at the mission for the kidnapped children, and will probably see him again. You can do that for each of the love interests, if you read between the lines. (You can also see what event and romance flags Katarina steals from them, lol. Dewy should have been the one to help Maria confront her father, Sora should have had a date with Maria in the city, but Katarina was there).

We’ve had named male characters with signifcant roles, but they aren’t mentioned again outside of their singular novel, so they aren’t contenders. We’re halfway through the year of FL2 at the ministry, by all story telling rights, we should have seen them already. To introduce someone else to play another role is not only bad writing, but also incredibly boring.

I think the final secret route is Katarina Claes. 

Before you jump on me about how “no way, FL has played the straight agenda from start to finish” and “It’s all queer baiting” and you “refuse to be disappointed again,” those are valid. But hear me out. 

1. Sirius was the main antagonist of FL1, and he was the secret route.

Parallelism is my first argument. In every bad ending, and even the good ones in FL1, it’s implied that Sirius is pulling strings in the back ground, cackling over the misfortune, and is actually the underlying cause of all the problems. This is normal for secret or true routes in Otome games. The true route shows information that would spoil the rest of the routes, it explains the mysteries of the previous routes. Sirius’s route does that. So would a Katarina route. 

A Katarina route would show her obtaining Pochi and the dark covenant and how she pulled the strings in the slave trade to cause all the other dark magic misfortunes Maria faces. She is literally the cause of all the other bad ends in FL 2, like it’s implied Sirius was in FL1. A Katarina route would highlight FL Maria’s best qualities: forgiveness, goodness triumphing over evil, and allow for a redemption of a very interesting villain. Katarina as an interesting villain is the whole reason they brought her back in the first place. 

A Katarina route would fulfill the same role that the sirius route did.

2. “You have to discover who the shadowed figure is to get the good end”

An odd goal in an otome game, where each route is supposed to have different challenges to overcome in order to reach the happy ending according to the trials/personalities of the characters. Katarina really must be working all the evil angles in FL2 to keep it interesting. She must be the noble pushing the slave trade, the one with Sarah as her pet, the one creating dark magic experiments, and the one increasing tensions for foreign nations. Honestly, OG Katarina could probably do it. 

But it’s really boring from a game perspective, because you know the answer after the first route. The author knows otome games really well, and like I said above, you can read FL2 between the lines of the light novel, showing she REALLY know otome games. It’s boring. Unless it’s all set up for the Katarina route. 

Then you have a major payoff in FL2, 9 routes worth of secrets and intrigues and bad ends, to get the chance of keeping the villainess from doing all those things. That’s something an Otome game would do. 

3. The possible endings from the secret route being a katarina route would fulfill the major character arcs in a satisfying way. 

I see three main possible endings if Katarina learns the final secret route was a Katarina Route.

First, Katarina decides that the Katarina Route ending is the friendship ending. Consistent with her characterization, plays the straight agenda again, this is the most boring ending. It would free Katarina from the weight and dangers of FL2, the remaining block keeping her from exploring Keith and Geordo as romantic partners, the same way the friendship ending of FL1 freed her. It’s an option, but the worst option.

Second, Katarina, in realizing the secret route is a Katarina route, finally figures out she’s in love with Maria, and takes the good ending with Maria. This pays off all the Katarina/Maria moments throughout the entire series and the arc of Katarina coming to accept romance for herself as something she can be aware of and a beautiful thing that won’t lead to her destruction. Katarina is again released from the worries of FL2, she grows in self knowledge regarding her own likes, attractions, and knows she gets to live happily ever after for avoiding all her doom flags. This would be a good ending, I think, but not the best, because Katarina is still trapped in the narrative. She gets a happy ending, but only because the story says she does. Maybe you could write that out with some bakarina introspection, but there’s something better.

Third, Katarina realizes the final route is a secret romance route with Maria, acknowledges she can feel romantic attraction for girls, and picks Geordo anyway. Geordo haters are not going to believe this is the most satisfactory ending, but from a literary analysis perspective, it is. Geordo has had the most character growth throughout the series. Both from his willingness to step back and acknowledge Katarina’s feelings in #11 and respond according her needs over his own wants and his acknowledgement that the boys are his friends and not just obstacles to Katarina’s affection in #10. He was the first one to take the plunge of confessing in a way Katarina could understand, and the one Katarina was the most afraid of through the events of FL1. He is set up to be end game.

This choice would make Katarina grow past the feeling of being trapped by the narrative that has dominated her internal struggles so far. She’s worried about turning into OG Katarina, she’s worried every time she get more dark magic it is going to make her evil, she’s worried about interferring with Maria’s love life. Those have been her internal struggles, and choosing to life a happy life as Geordo’s wife, something shown as impossible in the original narrative, would truly show she has grown past her struggles against being controlled by the narrative. Other romances wouldn’t do that. Maria would follow the narrative, Sora, Mary, Nicol, all of them would be sideways to the narrative of FL, like nothing technically blocking it from happening in post credits of a different route. A relationship with Geordo is the only one that is explicitly impossible by FL standards, especially considering katarina ends up exiled no matter what between FL 1 and FL 2. 

(Keith is the only other explictly impossible pairing with Katarina in FL 1, but it would stunt Keith’s growth as a character to be with Katarina because Keith’s arc is about becoming confident in both his charm and dealing with his physical intimacy issues, and to let him keep his childhood crush doesn’t close that satisfactorily)

False romantic leads need to be shown that they lack something that the true pairing has, and this “break from the narrative” is that something. 

It would pay off the Maria moments, showing them as an option and true feelings, just as she knows it’s true feelings Cyrus and Dewy have for Maria, but ultimately her want of Maria becomes second to her need to break from the narrative. It would free Maria from being just a character in a narrative to Katarina, because honestly that’s what some of their moments feel like. Katarina saying no, you don’t get this happy ending, or a bad ending, you get to live outside the narrative too, would bring those implications to a close. Maria being given the same freedom as Katarina would make pay off their romantic moments.

It would pay off all the harem nonsense, because she finally knows she has her options, and she choses the one who has grown the most with her. 

There is so much to do with a final Katarina secret route. I honestly think this is where the narrative was heading. 

Though, last time I did an analysis this deep pointed towards a Zuko/Katara ending, so .  . . 

#long post #bakarina #hamefura #my next life as a villainess #ending predictions #natarive analysis #light novel spoilers #spoilers up to LN 11

[wanderthescribe28]

Things I love love LOVE about The Owl House's ✨Hexside✨ (which also goes against everything J.K. Rowling creates and stands for, so of course I'm gonna enjoy making fun of that fucking terf, because she's awful and Dana Terrace is a legend):

1: The Magic Tracks

The Magic Tracks are amazing, considering that you're not being forced into a magical group (well actually it was like that until Luz came to The Boiling Isles. We all can thank Luz for being the amazing witch she is)

But what I'm trying to say is, it's not based on "good or evil" like Hogwarts is.

Like fr, the majority of Slytherins are "OH NO SOOO EVIL" well blame Rowling for that.

In the Demon Realm, your magic isn't based on how pure or malicious you are, you can just choose a magic, any magic, and just so HAPPEN to be good or evil.

If it was the same as The Wizarding World, then I think that all people in, for example, the Abomination Coven/Track would be evil (which thankfully they're not)

2: Grudgeby

Grudgeby is SO MUCH BETTER THAN QUIDDITCH AAAARRRGGHHH-

Like Luz said, you actually PUT EFFORT AND HARK WORK INTO PLAYING THE SPORT, not catch some dumb flying thing that automatically makes you win ("that's SUCH a stupid rule!!!" - Luz Noceda, 2020)

3: the diversity

Honestly, Dana, I love how you added characters that go against queer/racial stereotypes

We all know how racist, ableist and homophobic/transphobic Rowling is

(I dunno if there's any canon autistic characters in The Owl House???)

Gus doesn't have an athlete name like all of Rowling's POC characters (thank Titan)

Raine is portrayed positively as a trans person!!! (male??? to non-binary. I think. Could be wrong.... Is Raine trans????)

well tbh EVERY CHARACTER is amazing and goes against the dumb and gross stereotypes put on diverse people.

4: any species of demon can attend Hexside

I love this

I always was confused why other magic beings couldn't attend Hogwarts, I think it was something dumb and prejudiced like they're "dangerous and less intelligent", some dumb bullshit

But look at Hexside!!

It's overflowing with (figuratively and literately) colorful characters!!

Demons of different types (Barcus (he's amazing, he doesn't get a lot of love/attention, i think... where are my Barcus fans!?!?), Moon Girl (I forget her actual name), Boscha, you name it!!!)

And that's all I can think of

Please reblog if you wanna add more to this (as in put in your ideas/things you like about Hexside, or just the Demon Realm in general!!!), and if you're reading this Dana (which the chances are very low), this is my way of saying you're fucking awesome and so much better than Rowling >:]

a fellow Untold Storyteller

#Wander's Ramblings #Wander The Untold Storyteller #The Owl House #Hexside #Hexside School of Magic and Demonics

[queerlymormon]

Happy Sunday!

Sorry I have just ... not actually been doing my youtube channel. I want to. There have been circumstances.

I just wanted to give a little update! I have recently moved and started a new job, and navigating being a queer mormon continues to be complicated and interesting.

I went to my new ward for the first time today. Last night I prayed to the Heavenly Parents for guidance on how to make sure I could feel at home in this ward. I pulled a card from my Oracle deck that basically said "be vulnerable."

I sat through sacrament meeting by myself, getting a few looks from people. Maybe because they didn't recognize me, maybe because of my red plaid shirt and tie on an obviously afab body. I enjoyed singing the hymns (some of which I don't think I've heard before, whoever is picking songs in this ward was reaching for the uncommon ones today) and the talks were good. I haven't had the sacrament in a few weeks (moving hassle stuff) so it was really nice to sit and talk a little with God about stuff I know I need to work on.

After Sacrament meeting, I just kinda followed the crowd until I ended up in the Relief Society room. I hadn't realize we were split this week. I haven't gone to Relief Society since I came out as Nonbinary (Feb 2020) but I decided to try and be vulnerable and I sat down. I made myself ask someone her name, and we ended up having a very nice conversation, she was very welcoming. She complimented my outfit and I told her that I'm nonbinary, don't feel comfortable in dresses, and usually don't go to relief society. I wasn't sure what she thought about that information but she accepted it without comment.

The lesson was about finding strength in trials. I didn't say much but it was cool to listen to the experiences and beliefs of the women in that ward, I really felt like they knew what they were talking about -- as opposed to some of the singles wards I've been in when people say "trials" and they just mean too much homework etc. When we started talking about covenants, one woman said "some of us in this room might not be able to go to the temple right now" but she clarified the ways that this topic still applies, and the love that Heavenly Father has for all his children. That meant a lot to me, because I can't currently attend the temple, and I've never had someone interrupt a lesson to make space for that before.

I talked to another sister after the lesson and mentioned that I use they/them pronouns and she was eager to learn, she says that her daughter uses them too. I hope I get to meet this kid.

Overall, everyone seemed friendly and kind, a couple of people remembered me from last summer when I came to visit, and I am hoping I will continue to have a good time in this ward.

#queerstake #personal #journal entry #I'm just typing this up instead of making a youtube video rn #one day I will get back to making videos and stuff #nonbinary #mormon #religion #church

[satorus-leftarm]

the ahs seasons and what i think of them:

murder house - when u think of ahs u think murder house. its a classic. some of the most iconic characters, even now. one of my comfort seasons for sure. as much as i love it, its not my favourite. it as amazing tho

asylum - wHEN I TELL U THIS SEASON IS LIKE A FUCKING DRUG I MEAN IT!! its at the top of my list, best season. again has some super iconic characters. for me, as much as it weirded me out, i kinda liked the alien plot. was it the best choice for a side plot??? probably not but it was kinda fun

coven - this is hands down the most iconic season of ahs. its also up there with murder house for the “when i think of ahs i think of this”. again, iconic characters. it has a good plot, good ships, great characters. its an awesome season and i get why people claim it as they’re favourite. but watching this coming off of asylum was hard. bc asylum was AMAZING and this to me was just great. still love it tho

freak show - im gonna be honest, im still not done. it was alright. i liked it more towards the end (i have less then half an ep left) but it was pretty meh. the pepper ep got me in my feels tho. she was by far the best character that season along with dessie. it was decent, not my favourite

hotel - loved it. binged it in like a day. and i loved it. this is the season with the best soundtrack and setting. the hotel was gorgeous i wanna fuckin live there. the plot threw me off a little here and there but ultimately, great season. loved jpm SO MUCH!! best boi fr. and liz and tristan r one of my all time favourite couples of the whole show. it was really good i enjoyed it a tone

roanoke - imma be honest, it started out slow. but like mid episode 4 i think was when it started to get GOOD!! it was definitely the scariest of all of the seasons. but the cinematography was beautiful and the acting was spot on. it was beautiful and if im being brutally honest, was low key scared of the “murder” thing. like i would go down into my basement and yell “mY NAME STARTS WITH A T MOTHERFUCKERS!” but yeah, amazing season and super underrated

cult - FUCK EVERYTHING I SAID ABT ASYLUM BEING THE BEST! cult had me scared, in my feelings, blown the FUCK away by the acting. like holy shit. it was incredible. there were a couple of “oof i dont like that” parts (mainly with kai) but other than that, it was fucking amazing. i was sad finishing it. it made me like pace around the room, yell my ass off at the tv, and i was like ranting abt to my friends who had no idea what the fuck i was saying. outstanding season. but ill forever be pissed that evan didnt win an emmy for kai

apocolypse - its up there with the most iconic. like micheal langdon as a whole is just iconic. the idea of incorporating all of the seasons in that universe together was really interesting. its a solid season with good plot and i really enjoyed it. but i gotta say, my favourite part is that they made madison less of a bitch. dont really have much to say abt this season other then the fact that its iconic and that the gallangdon fandom is dying and we need more stans

1984 - i actually liked it a lot. was kinda bummed that there was no sarah or evan but now that ive finished it, i dont think they would have fit. i think its kinda underrated. it was funny and sad and honestly kinda wholesome. i am pissed with the brooke and montana queer baiting but im a marvel fan so im hella used to it. brooke thompson is the loml tho she is bestest i love her sm actual badass. also jingles needs a hug. big time. and that scene when bobby finally met his dad and they had a really nice moment (i was in tears) but then MARGRET DECIDED TO REVIVE AND STAB JINGLES IN THE HEAD!!! but it was a great watch!!

#ahs murder house #ahs asylum #ahs coven #ahs freakshow #ahs hotel #ahs roanoke #ahs cult #ahs apocalypse #ahs 1984 #tate’s bs

[ghostlyerlkonig]

so. the school for good and evil movie..

I have thoughts

Forwarning: this was done using googles speech to text and then edited and not every name is spelled right, forgive me. Spoilers for the original trilogy of The School for Good and Evil. All three books

also this is 12152 words. I go through the entire first book

TLDR: i didn't like it, the screenwriters seemed to have a fundamental misunderstanding of the book and the queer subtext and the characters;

Thoughts on The School For Good and Evil movie

Forwarning: this was done using googles speech to text and not every name is spelled right, forgive me. Spoilers for the original trilogy of The School for Good and Evil. All three books. 

The opening of the movie is in itself not horrific. We do not see much of the town or the people and Stephan is set up quite terribly with Honora already being in the house with the boys. That is bad. Sophie is introduced without her selfish flare of taking hours to pretty herself which leaves the beginning hits about her being evil out of the world. Agatha is in turn shown to be way nicer than she is. Her mother is largely the same however Agatha does not ONCE come off as possibly evil based on the stereotypes people hold. . 

The town is quite shallow, we don't get much of the fear in it, the elders are not present, Radley is there but not well? The book is given time to tell us about the kidnappings, and the rules of them even, but this is just nothing. By making it feel more like Rafal chose Sophie it removes the need for readers and why he was searching for them. Gavaldon specifically is not given the established rules that it has in the book. 

So then we get to the school the act of taking them to the school itself was poorly written in my opinion the book is very well written because you have Sophie being so eager to go that she does her little things; she writes a letter she puts cookies out she makes herself so pretty and THEN she goes to sleep.  So then you have them leaving and they leave and they're taken into the woods largely in the same fashion you have the shadow that comes and grabs them and then you have the the the the bird that takes them up and over wasn't a super fan of the school for evils moat it felt very plane where where is in the book it it's quite it's disgusting I mean it's gross its horrific I would not want to be dropped in slime that's f****** terrible so she dropped in there and I think the wolves are ruined a bit because they're described as being quite rough with her and that doesn't happen. Of Course, Hort is Hort In This Moment he is he's him however he's also not him he's very much not how I imagined him take imagine with a grain of salt I have aphantasia but he's just not a stereotypical villain, we’ll put it that way the actor is still an attractive guy and I think that giving a pale skinny guy with long long hair does nothing, in this case, he just he's not - the costuming and the makeup are not quite right, we’ll put it that way. Agatha waking up I think is it's pretty book accurate so I'm okay with it.

I do think not having the princesses wake up at the same time as her was an interesting choice if not just to speed up the scene, which I don't have too much of an issue with but it does make it feel wrong, not too bad, it just feels weird. All the princesses themselves feel very book accurate to me I enjoy them quite a bit except for Beatrix who is massacred what do you mean she tries to hit on hard at the end no lies she would not, not even shaved head book two Beatrix would hit on Hort yet here we are. The removal of a lot of the elements that make the schools feel foreign felt bad to me. They completely take out the flower ground which I think was to like keep exposition to a low but also it was a signal of worse to come.

 The coven feels terrible to me, not going to lie, they boil them down. Hester is not near as terrifying as she is described in the books she always felt very reminiscent of a friend I had in Middle School who was an extremely tall goth metal rocker, terrifying, beat someone up for me once and this version of Hester is very shallow. Anadil has nothing. Anadil has not given a single vibe in this entire thing her character is nothing in the movie, The Rats are never discussed they are never shown they're never used, she's nothing. Dot is also nothing. Dot does nothing. Not only Is her Casting something I wasn't super happy with from the beginning - I loved her growing up because she felt very much like finally a decent plus-size character that I enjoyed as someone who is plus-sized and who she was just Unapologetic in a way that the movie fails to use because the actor that was cast for her was just not the vibe. I also hate that Lesso likes her that feels counterintuitive.

Movie Sophie is shown to have very little drive to actually reunite with Agatha through the movie. I mean you have on page 54 in the book they are literally trying to like grab each other so heavily that they have to be pulled away from each other and I think that that's also a consequence of the introduction of the characters themselves. It is very much shallow, it's just shallow, like their friendship is there I believe that they’re friends but not in a good deed kind of way. Not in a “oh God you're the only person who's ever been nice to me” kind of way. I also think that getting rid of the inclusion of like Nevermore and Nemesis is terrible and the way that they did use nemeses made them inherently useless because at that point there was no buildup to Agatha and Sophie being anything regarding Tedros and love and shit. 

All right, so then we get to page 72, in which Agatha is in the gallery of good. This feels very shallow in the movie and simply a way to like shove Rafal and the stupid blood magic in there - Speaking of which, I hate how much he's included in the movie. He is not that heavy of a presence in the book and that's what makes him terrifying in this (book one) book and then in the World Without Prince's later on when you realize like  f*** he didn't die and then in the f****** third book The Last Ever After when you get to that point where he's like are terrifying teenager with teenage hormones and you just lose all of that by including him as heavily as they do. but this interaction specifically between Dovey and Lesso pissed me off in the movie their interaction is ruined by the inclusion of the Schoolmaster because the Schoolmaster is no longer a terrifying force in this moment he is just some oldish guy who is there and telling them “oh don't worry don't worry no worries needed” no that's not it! there should be fear here! These two women have been in this position for years and years and years and years we know that Lessohas been there for at the very least I'm going to say 15 years because I don't know if her son has an official age that is mentioned in the third book but I have always assumed that he is somewhere around 16 or 18 because that feels like a very that guy's older he's a legitimate threat to me as far as Sophie goes. Dovey has been there probably since she retired I'm going to assume that Cinderella was one of the last stories that she had much interaction and Ella is old as f*** in the last book but yet you're not getting any of like the fear that is described as to how the Readers are going to ruin things because Lesso is turned into a cartoon villain.

Now we get to the orientation in the theater help I didn't despise this but I don't like the Castor and Pollux are not in the movie I think that they add quite a bit to light the vibe of the school where when I first read it I was like “huh so one of them's good one of them is evil but they're brothers” that means something for me, it didn't like hint anything towards the Schoolmaster it hinted more towards like the very dichotomy of Good and Evil and what is good and what is evil which is what the book is ultimately addressing that's beside the point. 

In the movie you have the introduction and the wolves do nothing, the fairies do nothing. The boys come in and they do a fight which I'm so fine with because I think that that adds a good bit to like what is good in this world; “is good when boys pretty is good when boys fight good?” no it's not and that's the point. That is why you have everything else happened in the book because this is the starting point where we need to address this is where we meet King Arthur's child who is so severely f***** up that he thinks that this is what good is he looks at Beatrix and says “I have to fall in love with you because I have to be better than my father did.” We don’t get that in the movie. Agatha is not near as disgusted in this moment in the movie as she is in the book and I don't know how I feel about that. Because while I think that they wrote her being a little bit more bantery with Tedros for a reason (and the reason is that the screenwriting was incompetent in my opinion) but it was just not good there was no scraping for the Nevers to get all “We're going to f****** beat you this time we're going to get you this time you're all going to die by our hands this time”. There was none of that in this moment.

I think what didn't help was just like Sophie wasn't desperate in this moment. She was not desperate in this moment and that desperation is something that sets up why she does what she does later on and, it's like yeah, she sees the pretty boy in the movie, she sees the pretty boy she sees the Prince, but also she never really liked talked about in the town in the beginning how badly she wanted a prince, she never really talked about how badly she needed to be whisked away by a handsome man from the life that she's in and it just it falls kind of flat, especially when at that moment you lose Pollux and Castor where is Castor is being a dick and giving like the gentle exposition of what happens when you fail you get turned into an animal a tree or something that gets pissed on by a dog. You get none of that, none of that is present, and it just feels very icky. That's the word for it.

In this moment, you also lose the line Sophie remembered Bane’s scared face on the wall and you lose that moment of exposition of Sophie understanding what the f*** happens to people from their town that get brought here. You get no mention of Bane or Garrick and you don't get them later on either. They are not included. There is no talent show so they're not included, there is nothing there, no moment of Agatha showing how truly good she is.

And you also miss out on like this very heavy moment of anger between the two schools, you miss out on Castor losing control and yelling that good is cheating you miss out on Hester being passionate that evil hasn't wanted two hundred years you miss out on those things and it feels bad.

Because of the lack of Pollux and Castor and the changing of Lesso and Dovey into their position, at this moment, you really aren't getting a sense of how the school is run and besides that, half the teachers are gone, you don't get a lot of the teachers, Lesso takes Sheeba's position later on which is a choice, it's a bad choice. Sophie also never once in the movie panics over her clothes which means that the scene in which the scene after the Doom room when she comes in in her fancy new dress made out of her uniform means nothing to me. It would mean something if she had had that moment of like “oh my God this to dress, this dumpy black disgusting dress that I have to wear” she never got that, she is not once set up is like the selfish princess that she is in this book ever she's just not that.

Agatha has a little bit of that moment but not even Agatha has that moment, the clothes she’s wearing in her introduction and in the scene in which she is taken, she is wearing plain clothes. Not like “I hate my body” clothing and I know I hate my body clothing I'm trans. I know that Vibe of dumpy black sweatshirts and shoes that make you unconceived to other people. I understand that Vibe and you want to know what, they didn't give Agatha that f****** vibe. They never once take Agatha's character and understand her as someone who genuinely hates themselves because of what they been told. She does not experience that. She barely glaresat the boys who say burn the witch. The one time that she is legitimately threatened with something, They Break The Rules. Because of that Sophie does a thing, Sophie f****** defends. By giving Sophie that moment of Defense in the beginning it not only trips up the rules it trips up the entire storyline because Sophie doesn't really ever have that moment. It is always Agatha coming in and having those moments in which she tells people off and she does it very carefully because she doesn't know what has happened to people in the past it is very clear in the book that she does not find out what happened to other women who were suspected of being witches until the third book in which Callis tells her. 

They completely remove the halfway Bridge which I don't like. I think the halfway Bridge was a very wonderful way of giving you hints that Agatha was the good one because of those interactions with her subconscious essentially. Agatha is forced to confront what is in her in those moments she does not fully confront that until later in the makeover scene but she is forced to confront those fears. Movie Agatha is not once forced to confront any of the fears that she has because it seems that she does not have any fears. Her Devotion to Sophie is unreasonable in the movie there is no okay that's a Reason there is the only time they show how they met was when they were tiny little baby children. While I don't think this is a terrible introduction in the movie considering we learn in the third book that Stephen always had a small affinity for Agatha when she was a child because of the circumstances, it still feels very shallow, that's the only way I can put it, like you have the whole first few chapters where it's just like they're just bantering but they're doing it in like a fun way but in a way that you kind of question whether or not they're actually friends because in those first few chapters it does feel like Sophie's treating Agatha like a pet. I understand why they wouldn't want to convey those vibes in the movie However by not conveying those vibes it does seem like Agatha has no mind of her own but not in the way that the book presents where she's so afraid of not having a friend that she's willing to die in order to get Sophie back it feels more like we’re told they’re friends so they’re friends.

So movie-wise we go straight from theater of tales to the Schoolmaster introduction I hate the school Master introduction. By making the schoolmaster's tower as accessible as they made it via the invisible stairs et le Indiana Jones they take away your next hint that Agatha is the good one. You do not see the moment between her and the Stymph and you also skip over Sader, you skip over Sader and you want to know what you do when you skip over Sader? Not only do you skip over a pivotal character in this book you skip over another pivotal character in the second one that they tried to set up really hard at the end of the movie and failed miserably at. And you skip out on the person who ultimately “kills” the Schoolmaster in order to achieve a girl boss moment that already existed in the book where Sophie and Agatha have their moment of Agatha literally choosing her best friend over her prince and then immediately getting snapped away but did that happen? No, it didn't happen.

Also by skipping over the inclusion of the bridge and Agatha having to sneak into the school you miss out on Agatha's entire identity crisis in the exhibition of evil in which she says I was meant to be here all along and then she panics and essentially is like “holy s*** I was meant to be here all along”. I mean she sees all of these things that she was surrounded with growing up because her mother was a school for evil student and she feels at home which it is so understandable as to why she would feel at home in that moment, but then we know that that's not true there's a difference between liking vibes and being evil. And even that statement doesn't line up with the whole message of the book because the point is what is good and what is evil. I also hate that they took the gargoyle scene and gave it to a Cupid I understand probably what they were going for there because they weren't doing henchman they were like well s*** we got to use Grimm somehow let's use it like this instead of her being up on the school for evil, she’ll be up on the school for good. I think it's idiotic and a shallow understanding of Grimm. I guess she no longer has the Mad Dash to get to Sophie because instead of bursting into a room, she's almost stabbed, that's nothing the book describes her literally falling almost to her Doom, barely escaping, and finally, Finding Sophie only to stumble in on a hilarious situation in which the coven is in shock over Sophie and Sophie's action of flooding the floor in order to do her makeup and Agatha is immediately like put down for being in whatever Panic that she is in by Sophie and her roommates immediately say “oh s*** sophie's right we want you want you so badly”. and that was a Vibe because this is one of this is another time in which we see Agatha say there's no way in hell I'm leaving you that we don't see in the book because Sophie goes so willingly in the movie with Agatha to go see the Schoolmaster. 

Professor Manley is there, I think he is actually decent in the movie, I think that scene because it's so true to book it comes off in the same way I still don't think Hort is threatening enough will put it that way because he's not exactly like threatening in the book however there is a difference between like skinny the emo boy and big hulking guy grabbing you and shoving your face into a potion The Vibes are different in ways that don't work with how the ideas of evil=ugly work. Hort being as loud as he is in the movie ruins the scene just a little bit because he's loud initially he says “Me!” with enthusiasm but then he almost tries to like comfort her not in an awkward way but in like a whispery way which he has multiple times through this book were he is a very caring character, I think that is something that completes him in the question of what is good and what is evil because Hort really hasn't come off as evil. he's a lil mischievous, his dad's a little bit f***** up, but like he doesn't come off as the son of Captain Hook, he wears froggy pajamas his dad gave him, he’s just as soft and someone who like actually wants to help Sophie and in the movie he just comes off as like hyped up teen incel? Maybe I don't know if that's the best wording whatever it's what's coming to brain.

I don't hate the movies rendition of Professor Anemone but I also don't love her I think that the casting was decent. I think what ruins her later on for me is the combining of Anemone and Uma. (EDIT: I said the wrong names. This is what I get for speaking instead of just typing it all out. DOVEY takes Uma's place. My issues remain the same.) Uma is a very particular character that was set up to be used later on (I assume at least it feels that way on rereads) where she is so ready to get the f*** out of the school and get her life going that she rescues Agatha and Tedros in the third book and she does great in the third book which is why her being replaced with Anemone in the Wish Fish scene feels bad. 

I guess it's just the stupid attitude that they give Anemone, in the movie is very counterproductive to the beautification scene because it comes off as like they read this scene and they came off with like beauty standards bad when it's more so at least in my opinion it's more so that like good is f***** this is what good has been reduced to. And by reducing it to this it's bad but the way they handled the scene in the movie it genuinely just feels like haha yeah makeup sucks we don't need to smile for boys which is like Baseline teenage feminism that just feels so shallow. and I say this as a butch lesbian who paints facial hair on everyday. (EDIT: Anemone is actually decently book accurate. Dovey is on the fence. I continue to mix them up, dyslexia curses me)

Again no Castor and Pollux, no henchmen training which means we've completely cut out the Golden Goose and replaced the Golden Goose with in spirit the scene with Rafal and the swarm. By getting rid of the Golden Goose scene you miss out on yet another moment of “those things only like Evers” you miss out on those vibes which means you're missing out on another kind of like twisty turny bit of “is Sophie actually evil oh  is Sophie maybe good-o is Agatha really good oh is Agatha actually evil”. So you miss out on that and you missed out specifically on the scene where instead of Rafal being the one to say “hi yeah that's the girl, the pure evil girl” it is a being that literally sacrifices itself to show how evil Sophie is. 

After henchman training we get curses and death traps Which is Lesso’s class, I love the scene as it follows the Golden Goose scene I think it is a wonderful scene that actually f****** introduces the idea of a nemesis that the movie doesn't really ever introduced it just drops into our laps and says you know this is right? right? You also miss out on some of Lesso antagonizing Sophie directly because they wanted to make her a cartoon villain instead of like a legitimately terrifying villain.

Now we have the wish fishing which is an amazing scene within itself and honestly not the most terrible scene in the movie I do however this is Gregor was unneeded. Gregor was not needed, the screenwriting was shit so they felt like they needed a way to shovel in all this Exposition they completely forgot to use. Because they cut more of the scenes before this you miss the whole paragraph on 127 in which Tedros is trying to be nice, he's trying to be good, he's trying so hard to be good, and then he remembers what his father said to him which is “the best villains make you doubt” and that is something that gives us a hint towards what might happen with him and Agatha and what might happen between him and Sophie because he's kind of a f****** dumbass he's a little bit of an idiot he's a cute idiot so he's lucky in that fact but he's still an idiot and that's why Sophie is able to trick him so easily, later on, every time she does it. 

So now we have the introduction of Princess Uma I adore her I think she is wonderful and it is important that she's described as far too young to be a teacher which tells you at that moment she shouldn't be here she shouldn't be here. None of the other Fairy Tale people are here, so why is she here? If she's here then why isn't Cinderella here teaching beautification? We know why cuz Uma got f***** over that's why. It is Uma's line specifically that if you are not good enough to be a princess then you should be honored to die for one that's a little size a little bit of what's Happening as far as the transformation goes. Agatha then remembers all the stuffed animals that she saw in the gallery for good and that is another reality shaker. All of the girls one by one go up and they wish for their princes, fine and dandy exactly what I'd expect. Uma then encourages Beatrix to go after Tedros we don't get that with Anemone in the movie but with Uma it feels different. And then after that moment we finally see Uma make her own wish and she receives a suitcase, a suitcase, that becomes instantaneously more painful when you remember what her backstory is and the fact that she is far too young to be in the school. (EDIT: Dovey not Anemone >:●)

Now it's Agatha's turn. You know her wish become so muddled that that's what traps her, in the movie they make it seem like it's just that because the fish is grabbing onto her to pull itself out, I find that shallow. The last word Agatha lands on in the book is give that is far more emotionally impactful as far as how good Agatha is in her heart than just an instantaneous “we should all go home I want us all to go home”. By giving her the wish that she wants to go home in the movie Not only does not make her seem like she knows what she's doing but it ruins part of her character development. I understand why they wouldn't do a whole Stampede of animals going after her for the sake of editing and like time and money and s*** I do however think it is terrible. The inclusion of Gregor was not a terrible idea in the idea of like a “Watcher” character and what I mean by that I mean characters that allow exposition to be given to the people watching who don't know what's going on. It's notable in playwriting, it's usually the main character is that kind of the view into the new world if the world is complicated. By giving us Gregor, you gave us a very shallow emotional moment (He-Man reboot did this too and I Hated it) we're in which I've had maybe 10 minutes with this boy, 10 minutes that most of which I was focused on whether or not he was Cinderella's son, and how that would work and then he's. So Gregor dies immediately after he's introduced for the most part I'm not going to lie when I first saw him be introduced I thought maybe he was Tristan because he seemed a little out of place and Tristan was just kind of that way in the books. But no Gregor is a completely new character, a completely different guy, and by immediately using the emotional moment of the Wish Fish in which we are really told what happens to people who fail via someone that we've had 10 minutes with it feels very weird because in the very end of the book, you know, when you're at the the talent show and Agatha comes in in her gorgeous gown and she frees all the wolves and all the fairies you have already been introduced to Bane and the others, you've already been introduced to them as far as like who they were what connection Agatha and Sophie had to them, and what happened to them in the end. You've already been told all of that at that point and that is what makes that very ending moment in which everyone is freed that's what makes that so emotional. the movie fails at this. 

Page 138 is where the scene takes place you have Agatha who has run so far to try and get away from the Stampede of cursed students who just want to be freed and you have her find this gargoyle who is already established I'm just going to read it. 

“She opened her eyes and found the gargoyle kneeling before her so close she could see the reflection in his glowing red eyes reflections of a scared little boy.

“You want my help?” she breathed the gargoyle blanked back a few hopeful tears.”

They do not achieve that level of emotion in the movie Gregor he's not someone that I had an attachment to no matter how much they forced it and this child in the book is not someone I have an attachment to the difference is that this child is described as a scared little boy who has been cursed to be a Gargoyle on the school that cursed him forever. And Agatha manages to reverse the curse just with her own magic. You are given the description of the gargoyle melting back into being a little boy and that is when he's killed. 

We are told that this child is being returned back to their original form and then immediately after he is killed. End right after because Tedros couldn't see it, Tedros couldn't see that he was turning back, and that is amazing foreshadowing of the fact that Tedros cannot tell the difference between good and evil and we did not receive that. The movie instead makes it into a “why couldn't you tell who it was” which is not the point. And Agatha is angry at that moment and I am so grateful that the only good thing they managed to do in the scene in the movie was make her punch him. Not that it paid off. 

Next is chapter 9 where we have the introduction of the talents and it begins with a reminder that just because Sophie was able to talk to the Golden Goose doesn't mean s***. Hester puts it very lightly by saying “or 100% evil depends on if we believe you or if we believe the stems the robes the goose and that wave monster”. Hester then goes on to say “when you were just a snake in sheep's clothing” which is wonderful foreshadowing to what Sophie would wear later on (where the f*** was her snakeskin cloak in the movie where was it where was it where was it.) So now we get some Agatha we get some gorgeous lovely perfect Agatha in which it is the aftermath of the animal incident in the tower and she is being dragged by a wolf which is particularly menacing at this moment because as of yet we had not seen the Wolves interact with anyone but the evil students and the inclusion of the knowledge after reading that the wolves are good students makes the seem even worse because Agatha looks up with the wolf and says “I don't want to die” and the Wolf in that moment understands and says “I didn't either” and even then he still pushes her into the room. I think that is a wonderful example of the horrific things that happened in the school that the movie Never addresses. And then right after that were thrown right back into the talent she was gone this this whole scene is given to Lesso in the movie, which while I don't think that is a terrible decision I also don't think it was a good decision because it has made Lesso more of a joke than she needs to be or she is. You have the introduction of the circus of talents which in the movie is not once mentioned and honestly, makes an entire scene useless except for the fact that that is where they included Rafal saying something directly to Sophie. This is also a scene in which you see Sophie being terrible the entire time not just one time to Hester which is largely in character in the movie it's in character for her to be Bitchy because she is through this entire scene, she's terrible, however, this scene is ruined by the inclusion of Rafal. Because in the middle of this scene I had to stop and think “huh did they make it so Rafal is the one giving her all of these powers did they really do that?” the answer is yes kind of actually which is terrible. I also think the way that the Swarm behaves in the movie scene is not super fun but that's also because they wanted to make Rafal control it? Make Rafal send it? I don't know what the Vibes were I don't know what they were doing. but specifically it is the lines on page 147 “the Swarm went dead still like scolded children they whimpered obediently and fled out the window like a dark cloud”. Sophie is not given that level of control in that moment and I think that it ruins how much control she should have later on. Sophie also has immediate regret in this situation she does not call off the Swarm immediately because she is panicked in the book she is terrified of what she has just called because she's a princess and princesses are supposed to call something good they're supposed to call Birds a deer something she called a swarm of wasps, bees, Hornets - terrifying things that did almost kill Hester and she immediately tries to help Hester and that doesn't happen in the movie. Sophie is not given time in this scene to have an identity crisis and it severely Messes up her character development.

Right after this you have a meeting with Dovey which does happen in the movie however it is not done well in the movie. This scene is largely Dovey trying to fully tell Agatha if you don't shape up you're going to die like all those people and she (Agatha) asks “can I say bye to my friend at least before you kill me”. And then Dovey tells her no no no, just shape up. These lines are given to Dovey directly after the Wish Fish debacle happens which I think is a mistake because Dovey in the movie comes off as very superficial and a wobbly character at best. But this scene is something that kind of solidifies Dovey as truly an educator and someone who does want the best for her students at least. That comes in later when she gives Agatha the makeover and she explains what her role as a fairy godmother was before she came to the school. At the end of the scene, you also have “Agatha wasn't listening her eyes were still in the dead Eyed Doll bleeding feathers in the wind. The doll that looked just like her”. The movie fails to give Agatha the sense of fear that the book gives her, Tedros legitimately hates her in this book he is terrified of her he thinks she's the devil incarnate and because he is who he is all of the other princes are going to fall in line behind him. The only one I could ever imagine having anything extra to say about that would be Tristan but also Tristan is too soft-spoken to actually say anything to Tedros about it.

Next is Yuba, Yuba is not terrible in the movie but also not good I think the fact that they cut most of his content in the movie kind of takes away from it and also just like not having the classes combined and not giving Sophie and Agatha time to be together as well as fighting in the way that they do because of Tedros, it ruins all three of them. it ruins them in a very specific way that is Agatha is so insistent on getting home that she is constantly protective of Sophie but also Sophie’s being a f****** dumbass so Agatha’s not like hanging over Sophie and Tedros is being even worse and Tedros wants to kill Agatha very obviously he is preparing to kill her at the end of the last chapter so why would she want to hang around him even if her best friend has a crush on him not happening. So you have this whole scene in which half of this was given to Dovey in the Wish Fish Scene. It is the half that is very important which is “evil attack good defend evil punish good forgive evil hurt good help evil take good give evil hate good love”  those are the base rules of this universe and we never see those explained to the evil students. We never see this specifically where it is distinguishing between never and ever. and by not giving us the scene we do not get any of the heavy questioning as to whether or not Sophie is evil or Agatha is good and we don't get any of that from Tedros specifically. Tedros is a very well-written character in my opinion as he wants to be so good because of what happened to his father and what his mother did and what his father did to his mother that he is terrible at being good but also he's very good at being good when it counts just like at the very end of the book where he f****s up but he tries so hard to make it right and then he continues to fuck up but he continues to try so hard to make it right which is the important part. We also miss out on just banter between the the two girls which makes it seem in the movie The like there's no reason for them to be friends outside of like the five minutes we see them in town in which Sophie would risk breaking a nail. 

The ending of the class is them getting the Fairy Tale punishment and then we go into them going up to the tower. So in order to get up to the tower in the movie they just walk up a flight of stairs which for money's sake again I understand I still think it's horrendous. The tower is very elusive in the book which I think is aided by the fact that on the original covers with the two girls and the swans you don't see it and then in my copy of the book you see it (in the map extra) but you see it not connected to anything, the halfway bridge is barely close to it, there's no staircase. So in the book, they have to like you know they have to get the stymph and this bird loves Agatha, it cuddles up to her like a puppy and hates Sophie so again one of our hints that Agatha is good and just because the bird looks evil and maybe a little bit terrifying it's not an evil creature. I also am not a huge fan of the birds origin being that they were students in the movie, I think that that was very not great considering that they are built up more to just be like natural beings in the world. But even the moment of them getting on the bird is another instance of the Good vs Evil rules in which Agatha is falling in line with the good rules and Sophie is falling in line with the evil rules we don't get that in the movie. They crash land into the tower,  they see the storian, I'm not a big fan of the way the story and looks in the movie I think the quill is cartoonish not terrifying, besides the point. You have the moment of Sophie walking to the pen and Agatha tackling her trying to keep her from touching it cuz they don't know what the f*** it is going to do and then the storian turns to them while I don't hate that the storian is the voice of Cate Blanchett in the movie I'm not a huge fan of personifying it in that way when it is more of an instrument than it is a being maybe that's a nitpick (all of this is nitpick). But it is at this moment that the storian starts writing their story and it is quite a terrifying moment because right before it you have the storian almost attempting to kill them before it changes it’s mind and then the Schoolmaster is revealed. This is the first time that we have seen the Schoolmaster in this entire story and he is terrifying in this moment. They they haven't seen him yet they've been so focused on the pen and almost dying because of the pen that he is there and he comes in very much reminiscent of Merlin in more serious Arthur adaptions and he's described as having a mischievous smile. And then he says “it must suspect a good ending”. Not only does this foreshadow the ending that happens in the book that he desires and the ending that he doesn't get but it just makes him feel more elusive like oh he's the guy he's the important guy he's the one who brought us here? And then they start asking him to go home. This entire interaction in the movie is played down by the fact that the school master has been introduced to us already and the Rafal is the way that he is specifically. This scene also gives us another moment of Sophie just being Sophie like she's she's complaining about how she smells in the fact that she doesn't have a groom room and nothing is right and Agatha says we'd like to go home right after he asks if they like to switch schools at which Sophie says can we can we switch schools can we please and he says no obviously.

The Schoolmaster says he could send them home but because they're afraid he'll know he can't I've always taken that as a lie because why would he want to send them home if he's been searching for readers for so long specifically as we learn later on that he went after Callis I don't think that it is possible that he Would send them home at all. After this he gives them the riddle Agatha is a little bit more active in this scene the scene ends about the same way that it doesn't the movie They leave, teh floor doesn’t disappear doesn't but they wake up in the rooms (and the movie forgets that Agatha is ALONE).

The next chapter is just some interactions that further the character relationships specifically “the only reason this happened is because you chose me you chose me you boorish brainless Thug”. I love that scene because I think it is one of the first times that we see Tedros really have like heavy faint of heart moments but in a good way it also really is telling how young he is in the scene because of how he reacts. Also Kiko had so much taken away from her in the movie Kiko was wonderful I love her so much she is so cute in the book and they really don't give her an Agatha much of a relationship in the movie. This is also when we find out that the that ever ball is in 2 weeks rather than it being the ever snow ball at Christmas assuming the school year here follows the same school year,  l they got kidnapped September then they have September October November and December, 4 months to figure it out. 2 weeks to figure stuff out the movie. no. 

We miss out on most of the coven versus Sophie moments which I don't think helps very much at all in the case of but the coven is.

And here we see Agatha having to learn how to dance while having a moment of just her pure devotion to Sophie coming out that we don't see in the movie.

None the gallery for good as used and we again we don't have Sader in this in the movie so we're missing out on everything that he brings to the table not only Exposition wise but also like Agatha’s character development and it leaves out Agatha learning about more things via Sader (like Garrick) this is just another moment of them realizing how f*****-up this s*** is that we don't get in the movie the movie tries very hard to play up how f***** things are but it fails because they just don't have the exposition that they should have. The gallery of good could have been done very well in the movie. But because we do not have the gallery of good or Sader we completely miss out on his painting and that painting is kind of a pivotal point in Agatha realizing that things are bigger than she thinks they are. Of course in the movie, they're not that big.

After the instruction of Sader, we have Sophie learning about the Schoolmaster and the story from Hester, Anadil, and Dot.  All of them probably know a great deal because of, you know, their parents being who they are. And it's just another introduction to the fact that evil has been losing and that everyone thinks the brother that got leftover is the good brother of course probably the only person who knows it's not is Sader but he's not going to say s*** because he needs to be alive. After that is when we get pushed into Lesso’s classroom and we see her teaching about specific villains and Sophie is s*** at asking questions and this is when she gets the wart on her and right after there's lunch and then she is laughed which shows Tedros is still a child. Sophie In This Moment also steals Agatha's lunch. We don't see that in the movie even though it does actually show how kind of mean Sophie is a lot of the time we don't really ever see Sophie being like actually mean to Agatha in the movie which is upsetting. 

After that is good deeds and Tedros is trying to get Agatha to tell him how she made him choose her which she didn't do anything but that's the point. she is however a little bit mean to Tedros but it still follows the rules; Tedros initiated the conversation Tedros attacked, Agatha is being rude but she is defending herself. this is also a moment in which Agatha is a little bit more upfront about what she is seen with Dovey which works better here in the sense that she hasn't seen the Schoolmaster for a long time no one knows what the f*** the Schoolmaster has going on. The movie however they talked to him all the time they talked to him all the time he addressed the f****** students. Ruined his character.

Because the school master has already been introduced we don't get this entire scene of the Deans addressing The Schoolmaster rumors that have started specifically what side he's on and Sader says they have proof I'm going to say obviously that proof is just that the storian is kind of its own being mostly and that the Schoolmaster is there to protect the storian and that's it. Then Lesso then they ask if something is actually met the guy and there's a little bit of a fight because Beatrix is a b**** and Agatha again just Defends herself, Agatha, only ever defends herself in these arguments where she is insulted and I adore that. The fight ends because Lesso is hurt by Sophie horrendously enough I love that actually.

After this Sophie is sent to the Doom room Agatha  freaks the f*** out and literally begs people to save Sophie from the Doom room and this moment in the movie is not good she ends up telling like going to Tedros like “why the f****** didn’t you stop the Wolves what the f*** are you” when you look the Wolves felt very like an afterthought. Basically, there was no Agatha being legitimately concerned about Sophie because the Doom room sounds exactly like it should and what it is.

The movie Doom room there is no Beast, it is Lesso, Lesso is the one who is in the Doom room and who is hurting the students in order to get them to fall in line basically become more evil in the way that the school wants them to be and I hate it not only is that so far out of Lesso character, it is just idiotic. The inclusion of the Beast in the Doom room not only adds so much when you factor in the fact that they were probably a good student who failed. It also allows that there is some separation of how evil the professors actually are versus what they produce with their actions. Sophie is brought down to the Doom room in the movie and Lesso is just like “you need to be controlled” and cuts her hair and leaves her there. what is that? There is no moment of Sophie being like truly evil there. And while I have had many thoughts about the Doom room scene in whether or not Sophie was attacking or defending I have come to the conclusion that Sophie was attacking the Beast. The Beast does not harm her. He cuts her hair but she was never in any true Danger. The Beast cuts her hair and then tells her to get out without the weapon in his hand. and Sophie killed him. 

and that is a moment of like true and Pure Evil not just because she can't forgive him but just because she attacks him in the way that she does. She kills him because he cut her hair he does not harm her in any way other than emotional probably but from what is described as he is beat some of these other children relentlessly he could have done that to her he absolutely could cut up her face, all he does is cut her hair. that is all he does and she killed him for it.

The entirety of chapter 14 is essentially taken out because it is mostly just Agatha interacting with Sader’s works and trying to figure out what the answer to the riddle is. The Riddle barely important in the movie also this is when they go on the flower ground, With Yuba they go to the Garden of Good and Evil and it's another instance of like you know Sophie being terrible. 

We also see more interaction between Agatha and Sophie after Sophie's hair is cut immediately after Sophie’s hair is cut in which she's probably at the lowest that she's ever been at other than like when her mother died and seeing realizing that her father was having an affair this is probably the lowest that she's been at in a and that is not addressed in the movie there is no scene between Agatha and Sophie and which Agatha is comforting her in this moment it's not there and it just is bad.

 Chapter 15 is a hint of how close the ball is coming, Sophie being a little bit selfish, the adressing of the Beast being missing, Tedros being an a****** to Agatha and Sophie, Sophie being an a****** to Dot. Then after this, it's more Yuba with the glass coffin test in which Hort picks Sophie and Tedros almost picks Agatha but Agatha panics and switches coffins that is another instance of Tedros and Agatha being kind of pushed together by true love that we don't see in the movie like there is no buildup of their relationship in the movie outside a few awkward pieces of banter. This is also when Sophie begins to realize what the f*** is happening between them.

Chapter 16 is more henchmen specifically with Grimm and you miss all that like that's just not in the movie it none of this is in the movie there are so many parts in the book words like down time where it's the meal break and they're talking and it's just not in the movie. 

Because we don't have Grimm also don't have any of Grimm going after Agatha which kind of ruins the foreshadowing of what truly what they are in their souls.

Sophie tries to use love spells in order to get Tedros to like her after a few embarrassing attempts . We see none of this in the movie the movie does not ever really build up the relationship between Sophie and Tedros or Sophie and Agatha or Agatha and Tedros, and it just really doesn't build anything up.

So chapter 17 is when Sophie begins to do her makeover deals it is only she only does that after Agatha says “show him the real Sophie” that is not featured in the movie it is yet another instance of Agatha and Sophie being very close and caring for each other that we miss. 

Chapter 17 in itself I think is a very important chapter to Sophie's understanding of good and evil. It is particularly just all of it and like the movie takes this interaction and by including Hester and Anadil and Dot in these in like the sped-up version of this I think that they had a complete and utter misunderstanding of why Hester and Anadil act the way that they do in the during the the never ball where they're made to look beautiful by Sophie in that moment. It just I feel like the screenwriters didn't understand what was going on here. And then after this is when everything gets unlocked it is not Dovey and Lesso doing it, it is Yuba. The lack of the Blue Woods is directly connected with the lack of of Yuba and classroom scenes and I think that the movie failed to replace a lot of the interaction that we get between characters in these classrooms scenes with anything in the movie it just doesn't happen in the movie.

Because we don't see any of like the beautification for never scenes we also don't see kind of this doubt that Tedros is having in the moment where he is going back to how his father chose his mother in which she wasn't particularly beautiful but she was the one that would get him the most and that's what was important but also she left him for an ugly motherfucker, described in book 3 as ugly, not by me. So I think that because we remove a lot of this and just a bunch of Tedros’s character development, we miss so much.

We also don't see Sophie struggling with the classes at all because most of the classroom scenes are cut. We don't see Agatha actually doing very well in her classes because most of the classroom scenes are cut. And it is cut in a bad way. All of chapter 18 is cut because they don't have any of the classroom scenes they don't have any of the Agatha helping Sophie as she’s failing classes horrifically. We also miss out on the scene in which Tedros chooses Sophie for the first time because they just didn't want to include it I guess.

We completely cut Tedros and Sophie meeting in the blue Forest as foxes which just cuts all of like Agatha's realization that maybe she is good and she likes being a princess and she likes Tedros, you missed the entire scene that goes from to 279 to 281 and I hate it. Why would you not include that scene in which it shows that Agatha is actually truly good.

 After this is when you get more of like Tedros really like not realizing anything but just being with Sophie and kind of throwing the school in the chaos. This is just not something that is taken so seriously in the movie I mean they go they jump right from like this idea to saying that the trial by tale is a challenge in the movie which is so stupid. It's something that happens every year and its well-established, it happens every year in the book but they looked at it and said “oh they're using it in the book to try and show that an ever and a never can work together I guess we are changing this entire thing”. So we just we miss out on how much of a threat the trial actually is in this moment because you have two whole schools that want to kill Sophie those threats are not present in the movie. The Trial by tale is literally just Sophie and Tedros and Agatha in the Blue Woods trying to survive that's it. Agatha is not mogrified in that moment she does not have a super fun reveal like she has in the book that is like devastating and terrifying, she just there.

By removing the chapter it also removes anything that kind of makes you feel for Hort because he's he's just a little guy he's just a little guy and they really don't get all of that in the movie in the movie he really comes off more as a shallow creep than he does like a little guy whose father is dead, whose father is dead and whose father has not been buried yet and who is in charge of getting his father buried in a good grave. He's a child and they do not manage to give him anything in the movie.

Because they completely removed the whole Nemesis plot line in the movie you also miss out on this moment in which Lesso is giving her the challenge to Sophie to kill herself (herself being a kind of phantom version of herself) in which she accidentally (panicked) turns a phantom version of herself into a chicken and kills it. This is something that I have always taken as a show of The Selfish acts that Sophie tends to lean towards more than anything else. We also miss out on interaction between the teachers about just how f***** up everything is specifically talking about Garrick and Bane and what happened to them when Garrick died in the trial and just like whether or not they're going to let Sophie be in the trial which is like valid concern. The professors are painfully aware that they ( the students) want to kill her this is where the Schoolmaster does have some influence on what is happening and I think this is what the screen screenwriters decided to pick up and run with because Sophie does not fail one challenge that she should be feeling she should not she should be failing all of these things and she's not. They took that and interpreted it as a Rafal is touching every single thing all the time. Which I'm not a fan of. 

This is awesome moment in which we see Dovey being a little bit more than she is, in which Lesso is the grounded one and reminds them what the f*** is going to happen. Sader comes in and says that as long as the balance is intact and the teachers can agree that the balance is intact Sophie will compete and Lesso basically comes to the conclusion that “well hopefully she dies terribly and no one will ever do it again”.

 and this is where I get to say that I hate the movie version of Lesso, I think making her devoted to the Schoolmaster was a mistake considering that the Schoolmaster forced her to abandon her child I think that giving her the storyline of they basically make her in to Evelyn Sader sucks because it removes like a level of control that Lesso has in the first book and completely ruined her character from here on out. 

This is another instance of Agatha and Kiko being friends that has missed out on with the page 303 “any a boy can choose to be alone if he wants a girl ends up alone she might as well be dead” we don't get that interaction but we're also not getting near as much of Sophie needing Agatha in the movie as we do in the book The lead-up to the trial in the movie is basically just like sprinting to the end in the book it establishes that Sophie is still very much leaning on Agatha for support and protection the movie does not care.

Chapter 20 is another one that we just we don't get we don't get chapter 20 because we've cut the entire cockroach storyline for the sake of, I don't know bulshit, so Sophie tells Agatha what she overheard from the teachers and just how like all the s*** is going and just it's so it just is so much that we miss out on to the movie. And then we break into Tedros asking Sophie if she cheated before and she says “no I lost on purpose” and he's like “you f****** dumb ass they're going to kill you” and “you know what's done is done. just like be safe” I guess she's hoping for a kiss in that moment which you mother f***** no no. Immediately after that we we see extermination happening because of Agatha coming in as a roach and we also see that the other evil students are threatening Sophie they want to kill her during the trial. they're not included in the movie.

On page 311 we have Agatha kind of running around a little bit and she learns what a Seer is and figures out that Sader is a Seer and then Dovey confronts her about it after that it's just more interaction that we don't see between Tedros and other characters that just kind of ruined him as a complex character in the movie.

After that I mean the trial starts and Agatha is not there obviously because she's going to find a way to enter the thing in order to help Sophie trial by tell starts it is far more terrifying just because it is not just the three in the Blue Forest it is all of them in the blue forest and all of them want to f****** kill Sophie, all of them want to kill Sophie, so Sophie is trying to figure out where to go and then Agatha tells her what to do so they just they get through she gets through everything it's like some really terrifying Moments. I mean page 326 with the scarecrow's which has been reimagined into like some kind of stupid Reaper is terrifying and we just don't get that we don't get that. so Agatha is continuing to watch over Sophie as a bird not a person and everyone is trying to kill them everyone, everyone is trying to kill them they're trying so hard and then we hit page 334 and we see that Tedros is heavily under attack and Agatha tells Sophie to go to him and Sophie says “when the sun comes up” and it jumps into Hester threatening Tedros and Tedros rationalizing why Sophie isn't there with “she knows I'm safe to otherwise she'd be here to fight with me” he is obviously not safe in this moment Hester has a massive terrifying demon that is going to kill him and it really does like heavily try and kill him he barely manages to not be impaled by all of these various demon body parts Sophie does not once try and help him so what happens is Tedros almost gets stabbed and Agatha un-mogrifies and saves him and when Sophie turns back into a human all she can say is “I need clothes”. The movie fails to address this scene properly because it builds up their relationship is something huge but also the students in the movie Never interact with it. there is no;

“they did it!”

“they won!”

“Sophie and Tedros won!”

Bodies burst into the glen. Panicked, Agatha lit up her finger and her dove flew away just as the students flooded into view-

“ever and never!” shouted one 

“witch and Prince!” shot of another 

“all hail Sophie and Ted-”

The forest went quiet.

From a tree Agatha looked down at the unchosen Evers and Nevers surged in, then the Fallen competitors healed and cleaned by magic - all froze as they took in the scene. 

Sophie cowering behind a bush. Tedros glaring down her eyes on fire.

And they knew there would never be peace.

Evers and Nevers shifted apart, enemies eternal. 

Neither side could hear the laughter from the tower, half shadowed,  lording over them all.

We did not get that scene in the movie and by not giving us that scene The relationship has no weight in the movie.

We do not get anything with the Nemesis, anything with Lady Lesso freaking out, we don't get Agatha's makeover we don't get the interaction between Agatha and Tedros post-trial except for like one or two things that take place in like the very last few chapters. We don't get to see the symptoms forming we don't get to see any of the attacks that are happening on the school for good. WE DO GET SHITTY BLOOD MAGIC THOUGH BECAUSE RAFAL HAD TO BE A MORE PRESENT VILLIAN. We don't get the circus and we don't get Agatha’ s Talent, we don’t get the students realizing how fucked they are, we don't get the the never we don't get Hester being like “it's done that wins”. By missing out on all of those things were missing out on like some heavy s*** with Agatha and her character development and her understanding of what she is and who she is and why she is the way that she is and Sophie just comes in and the ever ball and the never ball pretty much starts instantaneously in like kind of a shity way where they don't actually have a ball they just like enter the ever ball and get made pretty and Tedros gets like a few scars on his face and suddenly he's a terrible ugly in horrendous and no one would ever want to look at him.

 We don't get chapter 29 with Agatha in the glass coffin we just don't get we don't get any of this like begging between Agatha and the nevers, Agatha and Sophie, or Agatha and Tedros. We don’t get any of Tedros trying to be a prince, basically we don't get any of this we just jumped right to Sophie being in the tower and the Schoolmaster being young and beautiful  at his willy nilly choice. We don't get the scene between the Schoolmaster and Sophie and which Sophie says “but you're good and I'm evil” we don't get Grimm kind of pushing anything towards each other, we don't get Agatha desperately trying to get up to her, betraying the trust of her prince to do so. We get the kiss in the movie but the kiss is not built up to be like this hyper important thing that is happening in the story like it is in the book which is why the line line from 481;

“‘A kiss…’ the Schoolmaster whispered, ‘a kiss for never after.’” 

It's so impactful in the moment because up until now we have heard so much about not so much but we've heard a decent deal about Never After to understand that like the villains who get that s*** high rank high rank. and also the kiss is terrifying in the book I mean he is withering away as he is kissing her and the minute that Sophie realizes that he is not beautiful, that he is pure and true evil, Agatha pulls her out of that Tower and they drop into the lake and then the Schoolmaster tries to kill so kill Agatha end it is not the storian itself trying to kill them for interacting it is the school Master holding the storian going to kill Agatha. 

Sophie's sacrifices herself and this is one of the few times that we see Sophie actually break the rules in a way that can make you question whether or not she was evil (this is used in book two HEAVILY). The school Master is then confronted by Sader who allows the good brother to take over him and then they fight and he kills Rafal and then everything kind of like snaps off and the teachers are released everyone is realizing what has happened.

 the line on 486 is specifical; “in front of them the children gathered around Sophie dying and Agatha's arms.” Which I think is a very impactful see specifically because of the words the children that is a reminder as to how young students are in that moment and then Agatha is holding Sophie and Sophie is dying and Agatha kisses Sophie and Sophie is brought back to life and in that moment everyone else understands what this is this is true love's kiss because the idea that true love's kiss is only ever prince and princess is something that can be challenged in the story.

However the movie takes the scene and decides that after this the schools can be United that their the schools are so perfectly fine now everything's fine everything's gorgeous everything's pretty there wasn't a massive battle there wasnt a lot of people that got hurt and it's not a choice for Agatha and Sophie to go through the portal they are just Zapped home that's it. 

Agatha is the one who realizes what is happening and she says wait because she knows what she is found there and she is now being forced to abandon it because she, in the goodness of her heart, wanted to save her friend. That ending scene is quite reminiscent of Princess Uma that we are given in the third book in which she abandoned her prince and I think that the reality of what Agatha is done is apparent in the ending of the first book and in the next book but it becomes even worse when you are given the third book and you read Uma’s backstory.

 So I didn't really like the movie I thought that there were some good bits some Salvage bits, but for the most part I really didn't enjoy it but I didn't hate the casting for the most part but I also didn't love it with certain characters, not like Hunger Games style hatred but more like there are plenty of plus-size actors they could have gone for. And the fact that they didn't was idiotic. Yeah I don't know it it was a movie I thought that it felt really bad just because we were missing a lot of like the obvious Exposition and the character development in the character interaction that happens in the books in favor of whatever the f*** they were trying to do. girlboss moment at the end where I get the kills the Schoolmaster was Terrible. It felt extremely patronising similar to like Marvel girlboss all the women Stand Together moment. but you know the movie didn't really understand how the books were subverting a lot of like the heteronormative society Vibes probably because the books were written by a gay man and the movies the movie was just bad the movies Vibes were bad 

goodbye. 

EDIT: The antisemitism in the movie is VILE. The books never once describe Sophie as anything other than an old hag. Reference pages:

Book One: 444, 461, 465, 469

Book Two: 422, 423

#the school for good and evil #tsfgae #sfgae #school for good and evil #school for good and evil movie #I hated it #the school for good and evil movie

[goodbyegoldenboy]

About me

I go by many names (Roy, Copper, Havoc, Kain, Denny, Hunter, Epoch), I am 18, and I use He/They/It/Kit/Mew pronouns! This'll probably get updated semi-often with new Guards and any added rules

Follows come from @handnsanitiziser

Find pics of all of them on my TH!

Rules

NO NSFW! EVEN WITH MY 18+ GUARDS! You WILL be blocked!

Any slur usage will be an automatic block

Do not harass me to rp!

Please please do not come into my DMs just to vent! At least ask first, and don't get mad if I say no

ASK BEFORE WE RP IN DMS FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS GOOD FUCKING PLEASE-

Meet everyone below...

Agate🔪, 15-16, He/Him, Gay

He's on the run from Belos and thinks everyone he sees is trying to turn him in. His lovebird palisman, Toast, is trying to show him that not everyone is like that.

Apatite🪱, 17, He/They, Gay

He's a necromancer that takes pride in his work. Using a forbidden magic, he takes great care in bringing the dead back to life. He has a vulture palisman named Garfunkel, who allows him to preform his magic.

Birch🪵, 20, He/Him, Bi/Demisexual

Based on epilogue Hunter, he carves palismen for a living. He's pretty laid back and is very fatherly to those around him. He's still got an adventurous side, but is quite ready to relax, at least for a while. His palisman is an opossum named Kip.

Bismuth🌻, 16, He/Him, Pan

Twins with Tin, they do everything in their ability to piss off Belos. Bismuth is a bit more emotional than his brother, but he doesn't mind it at all. He's both meaner and nicer than Tin.

Carnelian🔨, 17, He/Him, Gay

A big softie with a big love for building, he's not the brightest but he's certainly one of the kindest. He loves the craft, even if he can't build using magic, he's taken the time to learn the ins and outs of the construction coven.

Chromium⚙️, 15, He/Him, Gay/Demiromantic

He enjoys tinkering on mechanical bits and bobs, and somehow managed to infuse a small amount of magic into his prosthetic hand, which allows him to do simple spells. He also has a mouse palisman named Ike.

Citrine🦎, 16, He/They/She, Pan

Citrine is one of the few surviving basilisks, and to continue to live, he's taken up the look of a witch and has become the golden guard. She regrets joining Belos, but doesn't see a way out…

Curium🌈, 13, He/Him, Undecided

A gullable and naïve child, he's still under the impression that Belos is a genuinely good man. He doesn't know of his uncle's actions or the harm he's caused to those around him.

Gold⭐, 16, He/Him, Gay/Ace

Emerald🪡, 18, He/They, Gay

He's an amalgamation of an unknown amount of different DNAs, made in a panic by Belos, as he just needed something that would work. He's got back problems as he slouches heavily, and his tail doesn't offer enough counter weight. He enjoys using his uncanny looks to scare others.

He's long learned how Belos' temper runs wild and has long been a victim of the man's wrath. He tries not to start fights, but will defend himself against anyone but the Emperor. He will lose a limb to keep himself or a loved one alive, and will willingly give his life to keep someone he cares for alive. He's not quick to trust, but he's fiercely loyal. His palisman is a desert cardinal named Oatmeal.

Hematite🔥, 15, He/It, Queer

He's a Grimwalker based off the kind of biped demon that Eberwolf is, with a similar yet somehow more chaotic personality. He refers to himself as an angent of chaos.

Howlite🥀, 16, He/Him, Demiromantic/Bi

Cursed after angering Belos, he's destined to always have an open wound. As one heals and scars, another soon opens. Due to this, he's extremely timid and cautious of the world, yet also nonchalant about injury that befalls him.

Jade🎵, 15, He/They, Omni

New to the responsibilities of being Golden Guard, he's a gentle soul who finds comfort in music. He plays the cello, flute, xylophone & is actively learning the piano.

Jasper🦉,17, He/Him, Gay

He's the first successful Grimwalker made by Belos and isn't in great health overall. He's got a lot of allergies and autoimmune issues, but that doesn't mean he's not a spunky kid. He's relatively left alone by Belos, the Emperor using him more as decoration when he sees fit, even if it harms Jasper. He plays the guitar in his off time, and has a greater sooty owl palisman named Crepe.

Kunzite🪶, 16, He/Him, Pan

After pissing Belos off and getting cursed with the same owl curse that Eda & Lilith have, he's used his newfound abilities to learn the gossip around Bonesburough. He's a bit wild, but knows when to chill out, and somehow knows nearly everyone… yet he refuses to reveal how he knows so much about everyone.

Kyanite🍄, 17, He/Him, Gay/Ace

In his time, Luz had been completely manipulated by Phillip and joined his side. He sees her as an enemy, and has no recollection of ever being on the same side. He doesn't hate her as much as he does Belos, but he heavily dislikes her.

Larimar❄️, 15, He/Him, AceAro

At 11 years old, he was lost on The Knee during the mountain training session. He's been surviving there on his own since then. He's extremely skittish and rarely speaks due to a mental block in his mind that completely stops him from being able to talk in times of high stress. He communicates more through body language, pointing, and other vocalizations.

Lolite🔮, 15, He/Him, Gay

He studies oracles closely, both due to his love for the craft & Belos' demands. Although he can only do tea readings at the moment, he's become proficient in it. He purposefully leaves Belos' readings open-ended so he doesn't anger or aid the man in any way.

Malachite🌿, 17, He/Him, Gay/Ace

Still actively working for Belos, he works as an assassin type guard for him. He works well with both poisons and swordsmanship, though if magic comes into the equation, he's pretty much screwed. He finds comfort in gardening, and hangs out often with the plant coven, along with Terra Snapdragon. He has severe epilepsy that Belos continues to worsen, and therefore finds himself with Hettie often.

Moldavite💠, 17, He/They, Pan/Demisexual

Despite having been trained to hunt and hurt, the kid has a love and knack for patching others up and healing them of their ails. He may not be able to perform complex magic, but he still does all that he can to help. His ocelot palisman, Epoch, helps him with simple spells.

Obsidian🕸️, 15, He/It, Pan

There's not much to him. He's just a feral kid with *way* too much energy. He has wings, though they're too heavy for flight. He doesn't mind having them, though, as he can smack people with them.

Onyx🫐, 15, He/Him, Bi

Even with his quiet personality, this kid kicks ass, though he doesn't enjoy doing it. Belos had raised him with a sibling, and once they were older, made them fight to the death to see who should be Golden Guard. Onyx won that battle. He and his mourning dove palisman, Pikelet, get through the harsh realities of the world one step at a time.

Opal☠️, 15, He/Him, Bi/Ace

He can see and hear the dead, and the dead can interact with him, though he cannot speak back. He suffers from insomnia and paranoia due to the near constant chatter of the dead and what they tell him.

Phantom🌹, 19, He/Him, Pan

He's a run away guard who joined the CATS as sOon as he heard of its existence. He's a valiant fighter and has a love for theatrics and dramatics. He's a bit of a flirt but an all around good guy.

Pyrite🌼, 14, He/Him, AceAro

The child has had it rough, as he knows Belos wants his death, yet he cannot escape. He doesn't trust the covenheads, fearing what they may do to him. Belos sees him as a failure and a weak link, as Pyrite is skittish and doesn't have it in him to hurt others.

Quartz⛓️, 16, He/Him, Unsure

He hasn't left the castle once in his life, Belos having scared and gaslit him into believing that the outside world was unsafe. It's gotten to the point that he rarely goes to any portion of the castle grounds that isn't inside.

Rhyolite🌘, 17, He/Him, AroAce

He's a puppet from the Collector that's come back to life. He has his own thoughts and feelings, and he vaguely remembers his life before he was turned. Though he's still unsure of how to process everything, and is largely unemotional.

Seraphinite🧪, 16, He/Him, Gay

He's got a talent for potions and hangs around Vitimir often, though letting him into a kitchen would end up absolutely disastrous. He's a sweet, excitable, kindhearted boy.

Silver☣️, 18, He/Him, Gay

He worships the ground Belos walks on, doing any dirty work the Emperor sets him to do with joy. He's been possessed by Belos for years, but he sees the sludge as a gift. Despite his possession, his actions are still his own. He's unreliable and reacts to everything with anger, he's loyal to only himself and the Emperor.

Sugilite🕯️, 19, He/Him, Demiromantic/Gay/Ace

The Guard who doesn't Exist, blink and you'll miss him. Sugilite keeps to the shadows and keeps quiet, hardly interacting with the world. He doesn't get involved much with what goes on around in the Boiling Isles unless he's told to.

Tin🪨, 16, He/Him, Bi

The other half to Bismuth, he's a bit more soft spoken (though he still jokes and messes around with his twin). He enjoys harassing Belos with Bismuth, though leaves his pranks to the Emperor.

Topaz🍇, 16, He/Him, Gay

Doing everything he can to look and act like his father figure, Darius, he tries copying the Head Witch's mannerisms to a tea. He enjoys working with abominations, even if he can't bring most of them to life.

Wehrlite🩸, 17, He/Him, Gay

A false titan made by Belos in hopes of getting titan's blood for the portal. His blood is too diluted by witch's blood to work, yet Belos still takes blood from him in hopes that it'll work as he grows older.

Xanthite👑, 22, He/Him, Unlabeled

He, along with a small rebellion, managed to overwhelm and kill Belos before the events of the Day of Unity. He's taken the throne, and whether he's a better Emperor or not is up for debate. Those in immediate connection to him see him as much more watchful…

He has a jackal palisman named Abrax.

Zircon🌀, 16, He/Him, Gay/Ace

A demon/witch hybrid with too much energy to hold him, he was made to try and look friendly to the average Boiling Isles citizen. He's taken up illusions and looks up to his father figure and Head Witch, Adrian.

#mun post #toh rp #the owl house rp #roleplay #toh rp blog #toh ocs #oc rp #intro post

[cadmusfly]

could we hear about 3, 8, and/or 40 for the most-likely asks?

OC Ask Game: Most Likely

Heck yeah, let's answer this for the boat lads and the human characters of SbS!

3. turn everything into a competition? Among the boat lads- Captain Ryeland. Ryeland. 100%. Not amongst his crew because that's not fair but he loves competitions and games.

Human-wise, I haven't talked about her or the other Melbourne magicians but the first thing Daze, one of the witches of the CoQPWWVG*, does when meeting Shiloh is to immediately challenge her to a magic shapeshifting duel, so, yeah, her.

Daze also inherits this from her mother.

*The Coven of Queer Punk Witches Who Vote Green. They had an official vote on what their name should be, and The Coven Of Queer Punk Witches Who Will Eat The Rich was just narrowly second, followed by The Coven Of Punk Witches Who Don't Know Latin. They're a secret university club who would like to not be secret but magic eats people's memories.

8. burst into song every now and then? The officers of the Asterion if they were able to chill and drink would definitely launch into some good ol' "Spanish Ladies"-ing, but I'm going to say Thorne the marine lieutenant enjoys music the most, whether its singing to himself or accidentally tormenting people with a flute.

Out of the humans... Elyon the technomancer can and will rickroll you verbally if they like you enough, among other things.

40. break the rules? This is tricky for the boat lads as being a composite entity defined by naval hierarchy but some of them are definitely rule-benders and honestly Kay the purser and Crowe the surgeon as evidenced by the short story are very willing to creatively interpret rules, and also Kay is probably making a tidy profit out of fraud anyway. Ryeland would definitely break other people's rules if he thought he knew better than them, which is pretty much most of the time.

Shiloh is up for breaking rules she thinks are stupid, as are a fair amount of the CoQPWWVG like Daze, Kingsley and Teo, though the leader of the club I'm thinking is actually quite a stickler for rules.

#cad answers an ask game #cad answers an ask #eyyy thank you for the ask #elyon used to be part of the CoQPWWVG but left on fairly bad terms #basically activism via working in the system vs overthrowing the system #i should work out the CoQPWWVG more before they appear in the story which will be a while because i need to get out of reverse narnia first #cad talks about sbs

[talenlee]

Bloodwork — Abstraction

Hey, we’re talking more about Bloodwork, the card game about building a network of vampires in the context of a 90s aesthetic representing new and interesting ways the society we live in is parasitic and we’re going whoosh okay.

Bloodwork wants to represent vampires operating in communities centered around the intention of a single entity creating an organisation to take advantage of opportunities. The player is a vampire of different types building organisations out of the available pieces that express themselves in different ways.

And y’know, the fact I’m calling them ‘organisations’ is part of the trick here, when we talk about the fiction. The language you use for a game is part of how the game feels and that’s part of what anchors detail. I got thinking about what I want to call a group of vampires, the way I want a group of vampires to feel. There’s a lot of different terms available… and I like a lot of them. I like how different terms for vampires create different vibes, like:

Sabbbat

Masquerade

Cathar

Brood

Coven

Circle

Band

Gang

Order

Family

Now, I thought about these terms a lot in the context of which one to use for the vampires in this game, but now, I think, the solution is to use as many of them as I can. Each type carries its own vibe for the vampire and its type. A brood feels like a sort of organic, packlike structure (Pack is another title option, huh). An Order feels more like a religious group, and a Band feels more aggressive.

But okay, so if each type describes a different type of vampire, then mechanically those need to feel different, and this means delving into what vampires mean in this situation. I’m a little torn here because I kind of like the idea of vampires as representing sorts of ‘wrong’ consumption, which can be either forms of modern horror and parisitism or the idea of the way that we have communities of people who are subsisting on capitalism’s surface the ‘wrong’ way.’

It’s the ‘queers or corporations’ dichotomy.

Another thing is like what surface do I have to convey this fiction? It needs to exist and explain the world, but also, importantly for the game, I don’t want there to be any element of the game rules that doesn’t connect to the fiction and I don’t want any fiction to be present that asks ‘hey, where are the rules for this?’

The main way I have to convey information about stuff in this game the faces of the cards. That’s front face and card back. There’s tokens, counters, and currency, box, rulebook, but the thing players are going to look at and are going to form the texture of what players build is the cards. Dice are probably going to act more, but that’s it.

This means that anything on the face of the card is going to need to be important. And now we’re running into a space where the abstraction and stuffness interleave. Because every thing that I need to convey fictionally demands space to do it. And things that the fiction needs and the cards can’t convey presents a potential problem.

These are vampires! What about day/night cycles? How do I represent them feeding? What don’t I need on the card, and if it’s on the card, do I have a fiction reason for it?

How specific do rules need to be on the cards? Do I need text boxes?

Cards can have names? But do they need them?

What about the numbers? You know, the numbers you roll?

What kind of thing can these abstractions represent on the limited space of a card?

And here’s an example of how the abstraction and the entanglement of the game design get snared with one another, and with the stuffness. The idea of a cost is something I assumed a card needs to convey, because it’s a resource and you’re acquiring resources. But that also suggests that people have, in the context of this fiction, that people have a price and that price is consistent. People are, you know, really good at accurately gauging their value, right?

If we strip away the cost function on a card, we need to find some other way to make it cost something. I tried a few versions of this idea, with a line representing value but now I’m liking a 3×3 grid. hen you pick a card, you have to put a blood counter on every card adjacent to it orthogonally. This means the card in the middle needs to be really good for you to bother taking it, but also, it will, over time, accumulate blood counters. When you take a card, you get all the blood counters on it. This means that cards become valuable just because of being left alone for long enough to accumulate value.

This creates a bunch of knock-on effects in the fiction:

A thing is harder to obtain because of its relationship to other things

Recruiting someone or something requires creating opportunities that others benefit from

People don’t have a fixed price, it changes over time

That’s one element of the design shifting space and it lets me get rid of the costs.

Another thing to consider is the problem of the day-night cycle. The vampires shouldn’t be active all the time, so how do I want to handle day? Should there be human cards that can operate during an off-cycle part of the day?

When the game design started part of the point was that you were going to roll a dice and bluff it – either lie about what it showed or not – and that if everyone lied, and you didn’t, it meant you had a chance to get a sort of special artifact. There was a Prisoner’s Dilemma part of the game, about raiding an ancient tomb for the bodies of ancient vampires to claim power. That element isn’t really as important any more and I feel like it would involve adding another centralising element to the game – something that sits in the middle of the board and everyone needs to pay attention to it.

I think what I want is for the market to be central and maybe have a trench on a side where there’s another thing to track. Not super important, but something there, there’s room for a little bit extra.

But without that lying/truth element (since the dice are drafted), what does the night/day cycle look like? I think there should be cards that do things ‘during the day,’ which might mean they do things at the end of each turn? Or should half the turns be day turns?

Another thing is, there’s a lot of different ways to organise these differently flavoured vampire groups. Particularly, while a MLM scam looks like a pyramid, I want to also add crypto bro vampires, and they’d be decentralised, but also constantly cycling thralls as suckers, and quietly eating suckers discretely.

That means that suddenly, I have this new idea and direction based on the flavour: Each vampire type is building something different. The cryptobros are limited to six vampires, but they’re decentralised. Damaging one of them doesn’t damage all of them. My thinking there is they’re kind of ‘space base’ like – stacking effects on numbers, knowing that each vampire can be icked.

Another type, maybe a gang, is like a deck builder, their ‘night’ phase being when the card is in the discard.

Another type I’m thinking is a blackjack style. The dice roll represents how many vampires you can flip, and each extra card you flip can risk ‘busting.’

For six players, I need six game modes and I need to reconsider what demands they put on the cards. Is it possible that thralls aren’t cards, but are tokens, and you can cash them in when you turn them for Young Vampires in the marketplace?

Anyway, notes.

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#Games #Making

#Games #Making