#I can’t build up a friendship without this character being….more than a plot device…

[boundinparchment]

The realization that I will likely need to make another OC for Spillways just stabbed me…

#like it’s FINE but also god damn it #I can’t build up a friendship without this character being….more than a plot device…

[sleepless-in-starbucks]

Hi could you talk more about why youd recommend not watching ww84?

Sure!

warnings for under the cut: spoilers for WW84 and a bit of the first wonder woman; i only saw WW84 once a few days ago + it’s been a hot sec since i saw the original so if i get a few details wrong i apologize

tl;dr with no spoilers: WW84 is a poorly executed movie that insults its viewer with its messy and self-proud plot, bad character/relationship portrayals, and offers a personal slap in the face to a majority of its audience in their various discriminations, generalizations, and plot points.

the first point is the racism, made well by the post i reblogged here, (edit: found a second post that goes more in depth here) so i’d just suggest looking at that for that matter

next is just How they portray wonder woman in this one

i really appreciated the way the first movie portrayed diana because they did very well in keeping true to her Amazonian raising and life while still clearly showing she was a woman

when i say this i mean that a lot of media has a tendency to either make women who are very fem and keep to traditional gender roles or women who more or less shun femininity and attempt to largely fulfill only male gender roles

diana in the original is a warrior, strong and fierce, but still a woman, not trying to shun that or anything. she wears styles that suit her while still being woman’s styles (she doesn’t force her way into a suit), she talks of and addresses her womanhood proudly and without issue, etc

i want to note here i have no issue with female characters who act extremely masc and reject femininity- i love them tbh- but it’s important to remember that it’s not inherently against womanhood or anything to be a strong fighter who doesn’t stick to every stereotypical social gender norm

and the first wonder woman movie shows this very well

WW84... oh boy

first of all, wonder woman’s changing outfits every other scene. even between scenes where it makes no sense! i’m not saying she can only wear one set of clothes but Geez this was too much

not to mention an entire scene dedicated to her helping steve pick a fashion look? i understand this was to highlight the ‘80-ness of the movie, and it would’ve been fine if it seemed diana was helping him pick a period appropriate look, but it was clear she was trying to help him pick a ‘fashionable’ look which. wonder woman? from the island without a sense of popular outfits or fashion? what?

and the amount of focus on her wearing high heels.... ugh

i’m not saying you can’t have a badass woman who also likes social gender norm fem things but it felt clear that wasn’t what they were going for

wonder woman in the first movie liked practical fashion and not only were many of her outfits not that, her high heels? one hundred percent not practical

it didn’t fit her character and felt horribly out of place, clearly just the producers / directors / whoever going ‘oh, wonder woman is a woman how can we show this? fashion! high heels!’ and i hated it

(warning: imma be jumping from thought to thought as they bump into each so uh... enjoy the train-of-thought style of flaw informing)

and starting at the beginning like.... wow that scene had no purpose

wonder woman cheats in a competition and is punished for this by losing it in the end. except. this is stupid for two reasons

as the audience is shown she didn’t cheat on purpose. she made a mistake, lost her horse, and made a strategy to get back into the race despite this. honestly? i thought the story was going to be a lesson in ingenuity in the worst looking situations. but it wasn’t, which is bad storytelling, because the lesson is then based on a point that isn’t even that true

it is literally Never important again later. unless you count what was going on with the wishstone as ‘cheating to victory’ which i dont. that’s not even what the villain did. he wanted to take over the world. there’s no victory there you get without cheating. wtf. why did that message even happen

going into the actual story we meet the cheetah pretty quick, when she’s still whatever-her-civilian-name-is

and the cheetah... she’s such a bad villain

she doesn’t have the same backstory as she does in the comics

in this one, she uses the wishstone- which is a whole ‘nother thing in and of itself- to wish to be like diana, because ig being smart as hell but social awkward as hell too is so bad you need to desperately wish to be someone else? i hate that trope, but onwards-

she gets that, but in exchange for not only diana’s likable personality she also gets her wonder woman powers (and she loses her glasses, because pretty and cool means no glasses, right? /s), she loses her kindness bc of the rules of the wishstone- in exchange for your wish, it takes smth u care about a lot from you; for her, it was her kindness

this makes her villain! just because she lost her kindness. yep. honestly not a good look regarding all those people out there who are low/no empathy and can still be wonderful nice people but i digress

at one point she complains about why she needs to keep her power rather than go back to being just Her and i fucking wanted to scream

she has like. half a dozen degrees, clearly a couple of friends even if she’s awkward, and she’s got a life that was perfectly okay before she made the wish. as someone who is also socially awkward as hell, it infuriated me to here her acting like it was the fucking end of the world she couldn’t be more extroverted or whatever. there are ways to work on that!!! the movie trying to convince the audience she had a legit reason to not un-wish her wish (for the good of the entire world) was stupid and insulting

also her transformation between ‘looks human, wearing cheetah-pattern clothing‘ to ‘humanoid with cheetah fur/skin/appearance’ literally just. happened. for no reason. that was stupid

y’know what else is stupid? the wishstone. it was clearly just a plot device, and a poorly executed one at that. it isn’t even consistent in how it works

and they did a whole side thing with like. how it had the language of the gods written on part of it and it appeared in random locations across history around the time of great tragedies and,,, that was it???

they never explored the divine connection??? who planted it or why??? how it location traveled or anything????

like i said. poor plot device

i move on now to steve

oh boy steve

he’s brought back to life by diana’s wish on the wishstone, but... it causes him to come back in someone else’s body, quantum leap style. this is. weird. and is never ever addressed by him or wonder woman except once in a throw away comment. like. diana and steve kiss and are implied to have sex while steve is in someone else’s body and neither of them seem to care. this is not good!!

and then his relationship with diana? HORRIBLE

in the first movie they were barely starting to fall in love, only barely a couple even if that. more importantly they were friends, and that night he died diana didn’t lose a potential lover so much as she lost her first non-Amazonian friend

but WW84 portrays their relationship as if they were not only already a couple, but one close enough that even after forty years since steve’s death diana is still completely and hopelessly in love with him to the point that she’s literally hanging off his arm as soon as he’s back and making love that very night

it plays again once more into the misrepresentation of wonder woman’s character (how stereotypically hollywood female to fall over herself at the sight of her love interest) and it wrecks their relationship, which had been a lovely friends-who-could-be-more

what they should’ve done was focus on that friendship, build it back up after the long gap for wonder woman, and then started to rebuild that possible romance (and tear it down at the perfect moment... right when steve had to go again... ah that would’ve been lovely)

but they wanted to go in full-haul on the romance and it just felt. wrong and weak to me. diana’s refusal to consider giving up her wish (to get her powers back and save the world) is bc she doesn’t want to let steve go again, which makes more sense in the context of a first and true friend rather than a hastily slapped together love interest

steve’s character was generally good tbh but the way he played into the story? bad

moving on... the main villain of the movie? sucks. he’s just. fucking awful

despite a motivation being given that he wants to have money, he launches into wanting to take over the world for no real reason. he takes advantage of people for this and almost destroys the world he wants to rule for it. the main reason he stops this is for his son, who up until now he largely ignored and didn’t seem to care that much for outside of basic obligations. and the movie dares try to make him sympathetic by throwing in the fact he grew up poor and was bullied and not liked which i HATE

lots of people are/have been poor. lots of people are/have been bullied (myself included). that does NOT justify them DESTROYING THE WORLD TRYING TO TAKE IT OVER. can it be used to show the audience why he does what he does? yes. but to use it and clearly try to make it a reason to hand-wave-away what he did? NO. FUCK NO

also fucking. y’know how wonder woman took down this villain? she talked to him and the world. she gave a stirring speech while she laid slumped against a wall, not injured, just too weak to beat a bit of wind. she talked and she looped her lasso around his leg so she could talk to the world to to convince them to give up their wishes

once again... the mischaracterization

in the first movie, wonder woman gives a stirring speech while fighting Areas. it’s done in her battle, beating the god of war up while reminding him of what she stood for, who she was, why she would keep fighting for a broken world

it was BEAUTIFUL. it was MEANINGFUL. it was BADASS but SINCERE

this was weak. and it clearly wanted to be more than it was

the whole movie wants to be more than it is- it wants to have an important meaningful message like the first movie, about wishes for the self and war and the world and whatever. and it wants it so badly it does it horribly

the message is ham-handed yet messy and unclear and not right. it doesn’t make sense, and it feels poorly plotted. the movie thinks it’s more than it is and that makes it very hard to watch

and to finish my rant off... WW84 lied to its audience

did you see any ads for WW84? i did. they were bright, vibrant, funky music, stunning moments, action and intrigue. i was thrilled for a movie like it

the actual movie isn’t that

it’s not nearly as action filled, it’s not as ‘80s-focused as it leads you to believe, some of the most prominently featured moments barely matter

the lightning swing? pointless, as at that point in the movie wonder woman’s learned how to fly and does it for no reason but the trailers

and that cool suit? introduced in a random myth for no reason halfway through the movie, brought in at random with no explanation, only there for show and the trailers

WW84 is not the movie is lead people to believe it was, and the movie it is is poorly executed and insulting to a variety of peopler/minorities

if you’re gonna watch it, pirate it. i can give you a link. just don’t give dc your money or your legit views for it

#that got long #but what can i say? im passionate about my bad movies #and ww84? #that was a bad movie #if anyone wants clarification on smth let me know #wonder woman 1984 #ww84 #ww84 spoilers #the cryptid speaks #lost in the fray

[konaizumi]

A Tale of a Thousand Stars ep 2 thoughts/reaction

Tian’s father was part of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and I know this show is related to environmental conservation efforts so I wonder if his father’s position is ever going to come into play later on in the series, bc I have a feeling Tian’s wealth and him leaving with just a note is going to be some kind of plot point later, like they’re going to find him and try to bring him back

I said it last week but i fucking love the opening, the gentle music and the cute graphics, it’s nice and simple and I love soundtrack in general

I like that all the children had actual introductions, I hope they stay as actual characters bc usually children in BL are just there for a bit as plot devices or almost props (that may be a little harsh but I can’t think of a better way to phrase it), but here they have their own personalities

I need the scene where Tian learns how to braid hair so he can do the girls’ hair

1000 stars is doing this evil thing where they’re making me fall in love with a characters that’s already dead

okay but they really just sent tian out there to be a teacher without any kind of training or lesson plans, really just said ‘figure it out,’ huh?

oof, the UST, i love it

“I don’t have time for you all day” aww, phupha, acting like its not your choice to be with him

i see tian checking phupha out and he seems to be aware that’s what he’s doing, so i really hope that means tian is queer and we can skip the whole ‘am i gay?’/’i can’t be in love with him, i’m not gay’ plotline bc its very tired and more and more recent bls haven’t been using this plotline so i’m hopeful but also gmm, off the top of my head, always uses this plotline so we’ll see

phupha’s smug little grin when tian finds out about the actual bath

phupha’s evil little smirk when tian tries to food

I absolutely love tian and phupha’s dynamic bc it’s enemies to lovers but like, soft enemies--they don’t hate each other or anything, it’s really more of a playful dynamic, they like teasing each other, and there’s a bit of competition in that tian feels the need to prove himself

also, do you think some of phupha’s initial dislike of tian is just a result of his feelings of torfun’s death being misdirected towards the person who’s taking her spot?

anyways, tian directly going against serious doctor’s orders over something that might be life threatening just bc phupha provoked him a bit is great

it’s also all the little moments like these that are building up to the reveal of tian’s heart transplant that are going to make that reveal even more emotional, i’m betting they find out when he collapses at some point after pushing himself too hard

so the chief’s son, longtae, is khaotung’s character and i really hope he shows up next ep even tho he wasn’t in the next ep preview

tian teasing phupha about how he set up the net for him then phupha taking it down so tian has to do it, these two are such children

i would like some clear confirmation on whether phupha loved torfun romantically bc i would prefer if he didn’t

the aesthetic of phupha playing the flute and cutting off mid-note when he accidentally pictures tian and then smiling softly to himself

we love yod exposing phupha like that

who wants to bet what episode tian gets lost on ghost hill?

i’m in love with drake’s character already

how old are these children? bc i’m guessing around 9? but i’m also horrible at guessing children’s ages

okay so i would die for tian, but my son, my boy, where are you getting all this baseless confidence from? i cannot deal with all the second hand embarrassment from this episode. tian please just listen to people who know better than you

i don’t think it will happen but it would be cool if tian at some point was forced to reveal his heart condition to the forest ranger doctor (idk his name yet) and he promised to keep it a secret but they formed a friendship over if and the doctor looks out for tian and tries to help prevent people from trying to make tian do things he shouldn’t (also probably save this dumbass from himself bc he did eat food he shouldn’t have bc phupha called him a chicken) this could be used for both emotional and comedic purposes

when do we get the scene where the children call phupha green giant

y’all, i am vibing so hard with this flute music

i think that after this tian will maybe calm down a little and think things through a bit rather than trying so hard to prove something, he’ll start doing things bc he actually wants to make a difference and connect with people and not just out of pride

i’m not a huge fan of flashback montages, especially when they’re in the first few episodes, but this one was done pretty well

phupha totally gay panicked in the face of tian’s confidence at the end there

also more shows need to have these fluffy after credits scenes

god i love these two so much

so, another good episode, please keep it up, i’m excited for next week’s episode

#a tale of a thousand stars #1000 stars #atots #1000 stars ep 2 #1000 stars spoilers #a tale of a thousand stars spoilers #konaizumi reactions

[chonidale]

i understand the writers want to put an effort into showing they’ve changed and want to address criticisms there have been about toni and choni and want to write her as less passive and i support it. always here for writers realizing their shortcomings and actively trying to fix them, especially in regards to showing development in a character or ship. it’s not usually a fun time to sit through as a fan (or at least a shipper), but it’s needed to make toni a more fully realized and independent character (but so is a backstory and yet), and it’s important to show for when they get choni back together later on.

but would it kill them to come up with something - anything - resembling a coherent and consistent plot to do this? i knew they’d throw cheryl and choni under the bus to try to right their wrongs after roberto acted like there was anything but his own racism stopping him from giving toni her own storyline while choni were together, because that was always going to be the easiest way deal with their own incompetence and again, racism, but the sheer laziness and lack of build up or consistency even in that, not only from one episode to the next, but from one scene to the next, is truly astounding and so damn frustrating.

time jump choni started out so damn good in those first two episodes and i was so looking forward to their dynamic after toni showed how well she knew cheryl and got her out of the house, and then they’ve just completely dropped the ball these past two episodes in an near ship ruining way, i can’t even. i knew they couldn’t keep up with the quality they started off with, but jesus christ. there is no way you could’ve convinced me that this is where they’d be by the end of 5x08 after 5x05. like what the actual fuck?

it’s so clear that they have these moments/beats they want to hit, but they put zero effort into building up a story that logically leads up to those moments/scenes. last week, toni gave cheryl a speech that she’s earned more than once, but what ultimately got it said to her was... scheduling a second vixens practice without telling toni. and that’s all it was, because toni was literally smirking at her dance off and calling the vixens names in the previous scene?? and then this episode, we have toni saying that they could be together and try to make it work (for the second time in five episodes) and then acting like all she wanted was a ~normal friendship? and like yes, i get it, cheryl way overstepped and was being ridiculous and bad, but in that case, why didn’t she just say that? “yeah, i did want to try, but not if you’re gonna act like this, you’re clearly not ready to be in any kind of relationship, let alone around my baby. this was a huge mistake.” that would have made sense, hurt, and still accomplished what they presumably wanted (toni not being passive, cheryl being vulnerable for ms marble to swoop in), but instead they went with their nonsensical speech that was full of things that were either an attempt to retroactively give toni a voice about something they failed to do before that’s long over, or just completely nonsensical. 

i hate them even more than they hate choni, i really do. the fact that they did this in toni’s last episode for who knows how long, without even setting up her absence, and after teasing it all week, feels so hateful. archie cheats, veronica gets married and they get to be flirty and friendly for episodes and are already back together! cheryl breaks up with toni for a selfless reason, they spend seven years still being in love, and now they’re fighting over the most asinine and lazy shit in existence and are further away from each other than they’ve ever been. the day they realize that what they really need to do is give toni a backstory and her own storyline instead of these fanservicey things they think people want to see and stop exploiting cheryl’s mental illness for ~chaos when they need a plot device, is the day i’ll finally know peace.

#love that i spent days and days redoing fyeahchoni and now the thought of venturing into any riverdale related tag on this hellsite makes me #wanna d*e lmao #anyways [closed] for like a day or sumn while i'm dramatic #choni #cheryl blossom #toni topaz #seriously which antis blog did they scroll through to write these past two episodes jesus

[thetypedwriter]

Chain of Iron Book Review

Chain of Iron Book Review by Cassandra Clare 

You know, I was actually really irritated when this book came out because once again, the Dark Artifices seems to be shafted for this new series (that nobody asked for) to shine, but fortunately I wasn’t as bothered by it as I predicted I would be. 

In case you are in the small minority of people who haven’t heard of Cassandra Clare and her millions of Shadowhunter books, Chain of Iron is the next nephilim installment in Clare’s never-ending series. 

Chain of Iron is the sequel to Chain of Gold, and the series as a whole is a sequel to the Infernal Devices series, but a prequel to the original Mortal Instruments as well as the Dark Artifices which is the sequel series to the Mortal Instruments. 

I would be surprised if you weren’t baffled right now. 

I’ve said this before for other Shadowhunter installments, but these books are not user friendly for new folk. You genuinely need to have read the other series to get full enjoyment and understanding of these books.

 If you do read them without having read the others, I'm sure it would still be enjoyable to a certain extent, but a large case of ensemble character and relationships will be lost to you and a big portion of these novels are the relationships within them. 

To delve right in, Chain of Iron has our main cast of friendly teenagers nicknamed the Merry Thieves (which I just abhor, sorry, not sorry) return from Chain of Gold after fighting one of the princes of Hell, Belial, and now with Cordelia and James being married as to avoid a scandal of Cordelia’s reputation and James’ criminal record. 

In addition, there is a new serial killer on the loose murdering shadowhunters at dawn and stealing their runes. Most of the book is dealt with trying to catch the culprit, the Consul and Inquisitor along with the whole of adult shadowhunter authority being inconsequential and inept as usual (how these people became parents are beyond me as they never have any sort of clue what their children get up to) along with side plots including raising Jesse Blackthorn from the dead and romance galore in typical Clare fashion that makes you want to rip your hair out because if everyone just communicated and was honest there would be no issues. 

The beginning of the novel is molasses slow.

I’ve come to expect this with Clare’s books. Actually, I think I’ve figured out the formula entirely. Here is is:

Mostly nothing of consequence happens for nearly 400 pages except for character building and small instances of plot 

Intersperse some random demon attacks for flavor 

Everyone is beautiful, everyone is in love, and love is the most groundbreaking, earth shattering thing in existence 

Get into the last 200ish pages and shit hits the fan with action, misunderstandings, and confessions 

Nobody is honest with anybody and lying is commonplace

End the behemoth on a cliffhanger so that the audience is kept in suspenseful anxiety until the next installment 

You can’t see me, but I am bowing right now. 

Genuinely, that is how 90% of Clare’s novels pan out. Obviously, as she has a very successful and long-running book series, the formula works. 

That being said, there are some vices and virtues to it. 

For this book, the beginning was slow. Almost nothing of significance happens for most of it and it's a dredge to get through. 

However, it’s mundane to get through in the same way that reading fanfiction of your favorite characters is mundane. What Clare does for 400 pieces of paper is build up her characters and their relationships. Normally, you would do this interspersed with plot, but not in this case. 

It’s not very conventional, but it kinda works?

I definitely struggled connecting with the characters from this series more than any other of Clare’s novels. The Mortal Instruments, as the original, were beloved if a little cheesy. Then came the Infernal Devices with witty Will, soulful Jem, and intelligent Tessa. Then we got the Dark Artifices, which to me, is still the best as Julian, Emma, Mark, Christina and the others are the most flawed in any of the series and I enjoy that. 

I enjoy that they’re not perfect, I enjoy that they’re devious and conniving. It makes them more interesting and more worthwhile to read about. 

Instead, the main characters in Chain of Iron and the subsequent series are mainly James, Cordelia, Matthew, and sometimes Lucie. I would argue that no one else matters in the book and are just added in for some sugar, spice, and everything nice. 

Some of you might be outraged at this statement. What about Grace? You might say. Or Jesse? Or Thomas, Christopher, Alistair, Ariadne or Anna?

They don’t matter. 

They matter in a very small, plot convenience, fluff ensues kind of way, but not really in any way of substance. Or, at the very least, that’s how I feel. 

Anna is just there to be cool, Thomas is a gay gentle giant with literally no personality, Christopher is so basic and is essentially the Trader Joe’s version of Henry who was better and more interesting as the first, Alistair is a redeemed bully, and Ariadne is an orphan who loves Anna. 

The end. 

Once again, sometimes Clare bites off more than she can chew and I wonder if she just throws these characters in there just because it makes her happy. 

As for our main protagonists, they’re mediocre. Matthew is definitely the most interesting in the bunch and I was jubilant to see him get more screen time this time around. The increasing realization of his alcohol abuse, his feelings for Cordelia, his nonplussed attitude. 

All of it is intriguing. I still don’t like him as much as other protagonists from other installments, but he is by far the winner of this triad. 

James is too perfect, too beautiful, and a worse version of his father. If I wanted more Will I would have turned to fanfiction of the Infernal Devices instead of imagining up his son. The only interesting thing about James is his demon connection which is not even something he does, but rather something that is done to him. 

Cordelia is banal. Once again, she’s too perfect, too brave, and too kind. Literally nothing is wrong with her. She’s level headed, intelligent, forgiving, and fierce. 

Basically, she’s boring to the brim. 

I do think Clare did a better job this time around to include more of Cordelia’s Persian heritage, but it still mainly fell to the backburner of her lackluster and blank personality. In fact, I think James made more of an effort for Persian food and culture than Cordelia did, but I digress. 

Also, a small note, but still with weight, why does Cordelia have eight names??

It bugs the living daylights out of me that in a single sentence she will be called Cordelia, Layla and Daisy. 

Clare. Give the girl one name. My god. 

Actually, as a side note to this side note, Clare is talented at many things, but nicknames are not one of them. EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER IN THIS NOVEL has a nickname and all of them are horrible. I have never in my entire life known a Matthew that has gone by the nickname Math. 

What. In. The. World. 

Anyways, the only other character of note is Lucie. I like and dislike Lucie. Lucie is also boring and her novelist passion is aggravating to me. However, I did like her turn with necromancy and her increasing desperation to save Jesse that drives her to work with Grace and lie to her friends and family was a much-needed note of interest. 

Overall, this book did make me like the characters more than I did in Chain of Gold, but it took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get there, more than what I think should have been afforded. If you need to kill 400 trees in order to make me like your main characters, that’s a problem. 

Whatever the method, I do care about them more than I did previously so I suppose mission accomplished. I do think some of the strongest relationships in the book are the romances, but then also the parabatai bond between Matthew and James. 

Matthew and James have one of the best relationships in the book and I’m equally frustrated and intrigued how things will play out with Matthew now having confessed his feelings for Cordelia. 

I do feel like female parabatai get shafted in a lot of Clare’s novels compared to the boys. The coed pairs often do well like Clary and Simon or Emma and Julian. Otherwise, the boys far outrank the girls in terms of bond and friendship. 

Even in this novel, the “friendship” between Lucie and Cordelia is laughable. They barely talk to each other or spend time together and when they do is shallow.  Whereas Matthew and James seem much more involved in each other’s lives. 

That being said, if you noticed I didn’t speak much of the plot it’s because for me plot comes very much second in a Shadowhudenter novel. It’s there of course, and it’s entertaining, but I do enjoy the characters and their relationships more than anything else which makes Chain of Iron  better than its predecessor but still worse in my view than any other of Clare’s novels. 

Plot just doesn’t compare to the soul crushing love and friendships shown between the pages, for better or for worse. 

Recommendation: The Dark Artifices > Infernal Devices > The Mortal Instruments ...and  The Last Hours fall somewhere after the Mortal Instruments and the trillions of side novels that Clare has co-written with other authors and all seem to be about Magnus Bane.

Score: 7/10 

#chain of gold #chain of iron #cassandra clare #shadowhunters #the mortal instruments #the infernal devices #the dark artifices #ya fiction #YA Books #YA literature #book blog #book #book review #YA Book Review #popular fiction #Popular Books #Book Recommendations #book rec #book reccs #LGBTQ fiction #7/10 #ya books #ya literature #book recommendations

[supercharmed-forever-mine]

On the rating of 10, how do you rate the writing of each legacies characters, why and who deserves better? What aspects should be improved?

I updated some of the opinion for clarity and also added Finch because I forgot her originally

I'll just make a list and go down it and I'm sorry in advance I love responding but I'm horrible at grammar/punctuation and also I might tend to ramble but I'll try to be as concise as possible. It should also be noted anything I state that might possibly relate to ships is a personal opinion and I have nothing against any ships/characters gay or straight/Good or Evil. However would it be said that I definitely mean more towards the gay/Badass with a Golden heart side of shipping with any fandom.

Hope Mikaelson- As of now I would rate her writing at about a 6. And I only say that because as we know a majority of her characters personality slightly has always but this season especially related to her relationship with Landon. And I wish we would see the Badass Tribrid Hope we've been promised since season 1 I mean sure there are no lack of examples of her bravery and martyrdom. But I am tired of her always feeling down on herself and like she's a cosmic mistake when it has literally been proven by Lizzie's wish in season 1 that their life would be infinitely shittier without her. What they can do to improve it is have her focus on friendship and herself instead of trying to always focus on Landon. She deserves more than just to be a boy obsessed character I mean she's the daughter of Klaus F****** Mikaelson for Pete sakes she literally descends from the most powerful supernatural family ever to exist and is rightfully the most powerful being on the f****** planet.

Note: I found Handon's relationship cutesy in season 1 but now not so much especially since they use him dying as a plot line way too often it just doesn't have the same effect that used to***

Josie Saltzman-As of now I would rate her writing at about an 8. I like how her character at least for a while had her own storyline going off the mystic falls High School plotline and how she lived with delena because it was a good call back for us TVD fans but I think it could have definitely lasted longer than a few episodes. We all know it was just used as a lot device to introduce Ethan as a series regular and as an introduction for her to Finch's character. But overall I feel throughout the seasons she has experienced at least some personal growth as exhibited even in 3x15 where she admitted she has to stop saying sorry especially to Lizzie for not always jumping to do what she needs / she wants all the time. Whereas before Android AU version aside because she literally had to do what she was programmed to do. She has an exhibited that she's starting to do what she needs to do for Josie before others most of the time or she's trying to. And as far as her relationship to Finch well I don't see them being endgame I have no problem with them and I do see Finch being one of her major loves of the series that teaches her whatever lesson she needs that leads her to whoever her endgame love is. With her relationships I will always miss Posie and I wish they could get Lulu back at least just for one episode. Also I feel these last two episodes of the girls being a trio they have a really Been serving Hosie with the looks but also I feel like in general Josie and Hope have been really in f****** tune. In conclusion I just don't know because Kaylee's acting skills and just turning general I would rate a billion she could choke me and I would literally thank her.

Lizzie Saltzman-as of now I would rate her at about a 7. I feel as if she has had great personal growth over the series and hell even this season. I also like hell despite everything in her life especially her eternal struggle with her mental illness she is always trying to do better and not just for herself but mainly for others and some people would say that's not good but I like it because it truly shows what she stated in 1x03 during the gargoyle incident that she never wants to be the bad or evil one. She has all this s*** thrown at her being called broken, being seen as the lesser than sister, and not to mention the absentee parents. Yet through all this she manages to only get stronger especially once she builds a genuine friendship with hope. However what I will say is that I don't like the regression of her friendship with Hope in correlation to her progress of especially her mental illness. And what I mean by that is it's almost been shown that once she had even the seeds of a true friendship with Hope that Hope would never give up on her hell not but like even an episode or two into their newly formed friendship in S1 Hope went to Josie when she Lizzie was on the verge of a bad episode and "sweet" Josie was basically like fuck her she needs to fall on her ass for once and Hope ass was appalled y'all she was like Lizzie can't control her brain chemistry and was so defensive/protective it's like once they got over that hurdle that mainly Josie gave them everything clicked into place and they were almost instant bff's. So for them to do so good in season 2 and then it seems like it showed especially in these last several episodes black magic incident to bring Landon back aside that Lizzie's old issues of resentment and jealousy towards hope are starting to come back and I don't like that because the more Lizzie had A Friend in Hope it seems like the better she got at coping and doing better mentally.(sorry if this has been a confusing several sentences). And no by that I do not mean that Lizzie is mental progress has solely relied on Hope but I do think it has helped significantly for her to have a true friend. Also let it be noted now out of every ship though I should Hosie too HIZZIE is my #1 ship on Legacies two phenomenally beautiful woman also the enemies to friends to lovers trope *chef's kiss*which might be plausible as I always wondered what they meant in the Hosie crush confession scene of season 1 when Josie said that she always went after everybody josie liked hinting that Lizzie might be at least bisexual or maybe that was just what Josie perceived at like 12/13 years old. Also on the note of relationships Mizzie was a cute concept at the beginning but I do love the fact that MG is finally finding himself and standing up for himself but he did also do it and I kind of a******-ish way towards Lizzie. And that's all I can say for her. Actually I could probably write a novel on this women and also Hizzie but I won't lol.

Alaric Saltzman- As of now I would give him a rating of like a 4 . In the last several episodes I think he's been trying to make progress at being a better person but that's about all I can say I'm not an anti. But he definitely will not be winning the father of the year award anytime soon and like many people have pointed out he was a great guardian to Elena and Jeremy so he has the potential in parenting he obviously just ain't using it or lost it over the decades. I don't hate him but I do believe they're doing a discredit towards the better man he was in The vampire Diaries especially at the beginning.

Landon Kirby-His writing is like a 3. He is just there to be arm candy for hope. Until the last couple episodes where he became this for once realistic not optimistic hardened badass he literally brought nothing to The season other than someone for Hope to obsess over. And to be someone that they repeatedly kill for shock value even though it literally shocks no one anymore. I don't hate his character but he doesn't tickle My Fancy as much anymore. His character has a lot of potentialy especially if they ever bring back in his Phoenix side and truly explore it beyond his almost endless ability to revive and being a "Bird Boy" lol. I mean truthfully they're doing him a disservice Aria is a phenomenal actor who could take his character places if they just let him be more than a basic ass plot device. Also can we talk about how gorgeous of a man Aria is especially in these last few episodes looking love it and fine as f***.

As it has become apparent to me I ramble too much and I just don't have the capacity as it is now almost 1:00 in the morning my time to do anymore characters in depth so I will be doing a simple excerpt for the rest now that I have done the main 5 people.

Kaleb Hawkins- His writing is a 8. I do like how he's coming to himself over the years and is a a right hand man to Alaric now instead of being just a uncontrollable vampire(the only hate on this part not towards Kaleb but Alaric is that it shows he will virtually mentor/uplift almost any teen that ain't his own daughters). Though in my opinion he always kind of had a point on some things especially about the hypocrisy of Alaric in season 1 especially on the bmood drinking thing. Him and Mg's relationship is awesome I'm glad they made up in the last episode and our brothers again. Also I was rooting for him and Cleo I think they would be a cute little couple. Also I need his backstory immediately especially after saying to Cleo the last time he was vulnerable he died I need to know how he turned.

Milton Greasley(MG)- His writing is a 9 the season. I say that because he is really came into his own and stopped being the punching bag. Though I think the idea or used to think at least that him and Lizzie would be cute together I am proud of him for standing up to Lizzie finally even though I liked him always being there for her I was tired of him being a fallback for her when it didn't work with whoever however I do think he could have went about the rejection a little bit gentler especially with how he knows of Lizzie's emotional problems. And don't even get me started on Alyssa that was just a disaster that should have never even been brought to fruition her cheating with Jed was probably the best thing that could have happened. I liked his little side adventure with Ethan though I do think they could have wrote it a little better I was sad when he had to compel the memories away like they still could have been friends he just couldn't have known about the supernatural stuff also I'm still not convinced Ethan won't become supernatural later in the series if he stays on. And that's all I have to say on that one love my baby.

Jed Tien-His writing I can't really give a writing I don't think it's horrible but I do think overall they could give him a better plot line as a series regular other than just being used for the comical relief eye candy/mentioning how he's the alpha. Though it was funny the whole pool tournament to decide who was alpha will Finch was just exactly that so bad it was laughable. However I do respect the fact that he even admitted to her that he knew she threw the game and that he is a genuine man of his word and has become better over the series from like this dumb jock stereotype to this genuine dude the Alyssa incident aside. He is a cinnamon roll and I will protect him at all cost.

Ethan- Again as he just became a series regular this season and barely showed up in his premiere season. I will not be rating him in any traditional sense. His writing is not totally horrible I liked his adventures with mg they could have been written better and they still could have let him be MG's friend without supernatural knowledge instead of compelling the friendship completely away. And I am still not convinced he will not become supernatural in some way depending on how long he stays in the series truthfully it's actually almost inevitable unless they go the whole route of making him the Matt/Token Human of the show which I really hope they don't I mean he can stay human but don't make him a supernatural hater.

Cleo-her writing is 10. I say that because she has been a phenomenal character and I've never seen the actress before but she is obviously phenomenal as well. I like her whole connection to Malivore and how it's a legitimate one that seems to be interwoven with the story that's already been presented and add something new. I also like how she tried and really wanted to genuinely be friends with all the characters especially hope but at the same time she was also very realistic and new probably and truthfully the only way for Malivore to be defeated was for Hope to Go full Tribrid and she wasn't above actually trying to murder hope to save herself and just get rid of Malivore which I can't blame her.

Malivore-after the end of season 3 / the first couple episodes of season 4 which were supposed to be the original ending to season 3 I better never hear the name again I am so tired of it this should have ended like at least a season ago at this point it's dragging on. This was supposed to be a monster of the week type of series which is okay me personally I have always appreciated having one big bad of the season and then a couple of minor baddies that get their characters arcs and take a few episodes to defeat or something as like a B or C plot. Point being is that this character and plot line has gotten stiff as can be. To be honest I think half of us aren't even here for plot line anymore we just want to see which of our ships get together.

Finch-I am loving her character and I do think she's cute with Josie. Also I stan anyone who is a sarcastic b**** Queen. I think it's nice how her will backstory was different than the traditional one but also I hated how sad it was like she literally didn't even know what she was doing. Though I will say calling Lizzie the "evil" twin that she can fight me because you don't talk about my blonde cinnamon roll like that is based on one impression from something that was only meant and done out of a good place and Lizzie's heart trying to find out her backstory. But other than that I have no real qualms with this character and it is too early to have a real in-depth analysis/opinion of her.

Thank you for reading this long rant hope I answered your question well enough if not PM me on anything specific.

#tvd #legacies hizzie #legacies hosie #handon legacies #cw legacies #hope mikaelson #josie saltzman #lizzie saltzman #alaric saltzman #landon kirby #ethan machado #kaleb x cleo #kaleb hawkins #finch #mg greasley #hosie #hizzie #mizzie #legacies #handon #tvdu

[quickspinner]

That is not what a friend does

You know what I really can’t get over in the NY special? Don’t get me wrong I have Thoughts about the dangling plot lines and themes and the behaviors of just about every character, but the one thing I keep coming back to? Spoilers under the cut. 

Alya. The writers did her so dirty, and it was so unnecessary. First of all, “fake it till you make it” is an absolutely valid and necessary part of moving on from someone, so having Alya constantly mock Marinette for that, it’s not only frustrating for me as a viewer, it’s infuriating for me as a parent. That is not what good friendship looks like! This is not how a best friend acts! My kids are too young to be into the show, but if my daughter were older we would definitely be having some Talks after that mess about why what Alya did was not okay. 

The worst part of it is, there was a way for the writers to achieve all their goals without going this route, and it would only have taken a little bit of tweaking. 

They could have Alya questioning why Marinette has decided to move on. They made it pretty clear that Marinette is trying, but she’s also still holding on to a lot of things (because heaven forbid there be any doubt, at any point, that she’s still in love with Adrien). It would have been absolutely fair and valid for Alya to say, “Girl, you know I support you, but are you sure this is what you really want? Moving on is going to be hard and if you’re not really committed to it, you’re just setting yourself up for more pain. So think really hard about whether you’re actually ready to let go, or if you’re just doing it because you think you should. If you’re not ready, that’s okay. There’s still time to fight for him if you want to. But you need to decide what it is you really want.” The entire New York plotline could have continued with Alya supporting Marinette in exploring what she really wants and asking her gentle questions instead of mocking, and encouraging Marinette to find (dare I say it) clarity about whether this is really something she wants to do, or if she’s doing it out of obligation to Kagami or Luka or because she just doesn’t want to suffer anymore. 

Instead, the entire narrative made it feel like Marinette was doing something wrong, like she was in denial, that somehow she was causing everyone trouble by not continuing in her crush. They had Alya acting like she knows Marinette better than Marinette herself, mocking her attempts to mitigate behavior which Alya has pointed out in the past as being kinda over the top, and actively sabotaging her wishes, and basically saying that her entire situation with Adrien is her own fault due to her failure to be clear with her feelings. I’ll agree that Marinette bears some blame for her own suffering, for not being able to clearly confess her feelings to Adrien, but it’s not a magic bullet (it’s also apparently not allowed to actually happen because she has tried). Marinette confessing is not going to change his feelings or teach him anything about his behavior. So, while I would love to see Marinette confess once and for all, it’s pretty presumptuous for Alya to be pushing Marinette into that without knowing for sure what Adrien’s feelings are. 

I hate that this is what’s presented as friendship. I hate that they made it look like giving up on someone and moving on is a wrong choice and a lie that you’re telling yourself. 

I also don’t really understand the way Alya acted in the rain scene. I understand why Marinette reacted the way she did; she’d just lost Chat, she was in a vulnerable place, and then Alya gets in her face and screams at her as if she has any kind of control over what Adrien does or what Gabriel makes him do. They were only going to be in New York for one more day. Why is this moment, right this second, so important that she sent Marinette off chasing Adrien in the rain, in the dark, in New York City, with a supervillain on the lose, minutes after all the heroes in the city told everyone to stay put for their own safety? What was the point of that? But nobody’s going to address the fact that Marinette went missing for hours while the city was full of rampaging superheroes, random missles popping out of buildings, and the threat of world war. 

And then at the end, Marinette seems finally ready to have a conversation about it, and Alya’s like, meh, it can wait until you get back. I just...I don’t get it. They didn’t have to do it the way they did. They could have let Alya be the supportive best friend instead of a cheap, largely nonsensical plot device. 

#quickrants #I'm sorry I couldn't keep it in anymore #ny special #New York spoilers #New York special spoilers #ml spoilers #ml new york spoilers #United heroez spoilers #spoilers #ml new york #ml salt

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Keeper of the Spire

You wouldn’t know it upon first watch, but today’s story is one of the few non-filler episodes of season two. 

Summary:  In order to acquire the third scroll piece, Rapunzel, Eugene, Cassandra and Lance travel to the home of the Keeper of the Spire and meet Calliope who informs them the third piece is kept inside the Spire’s vault at the top of the mountain. The group begins the long journey to the Spire's vault the following day and become increasingly annoyed by Calliope’s rude, arrogant and inconsiderate behavior. Despite Calliope's treatment, Rapunzel insists they still need her help all while they being dangerously pursued by the vault's protector, the Kurlock. The group eventually reach the Spire's vault, but again encounter the Kurlock and discover Calliope is not the real Keeper of the Spire.

Once Again, ‘Destiny’ Isn’t a Goal

If you want to build up some sort of mystery with the scroll pieces and what awaits Rapunzel at the end of her quest, then that’s fine. But at some point you have to actually explain what her destiny actually is, how the scroll connects to it, and most importantly, why she needs to fulfill it. 

We’re never given a reason for why Rapunzel needs to reconnect to the moonstone, nor why she couldn’t have just stayed home and did nothing. The scroll itself doesn’t tell her anything and what it leads up to has nothing to do with ‘destiny’ and ultimately comes to nothing in the grand scheme of things.  

Indeed, much like the quest itself, things would have been better for everyone had she not found the scroll at all. 

Meet the Best Written Character In the Show

No, I’m not exaggerating. Calliope is the only recurring character in the series not to get royally screwed over by last minute rewrites and poor pacing. In fact her arc may have actually been improved by the dumb creative decisions of season three.  

Which is a problem because she’s not a main character. Her story and arc shouldn’t be more well rounded than Rapunzel’s. It’s also clear, given how the writers try to pitt her as annoying thorn in the heroes sides that is only tolerated because she’s useful, that they weren’t expecting the general audience to identify with her, and so her subsequent portrayal as the most developed character in the show is fully accidental.    

We Finally Get Some Indication of Cassandra’s Age

Well first off, we probably shouldn’t be getting such information about our deuteragonist this late in the game, but also, putting Cass in her early 20s recontextualizes her arc the same way Varian being 14 recontextualizes his conflict, but in the opposite direction. A 24 year old is more accountable for their actions than a 14 year old. Always will be. 

And before people try to get all pedantic on me; yes she’s only 23 here, and Varian is currently 15. What I meant is those are their ages at the start of their villain arcs, because the linear progression of time is a thing. 

This Joke Actually Highlights One of the Bigger Problems of Season Two

I laughed when I first heard this joke, but that’s cause I was under the assumption that they would go on to develop a friendship between Cass and Lance as the season went on. But they don’t. 

Cass never has any focus episodes that aren’t about her failing relationship with Rapunzel. She never interacts with the other four people that she’s traveling with outside of group scenes like this. Not even with Eugene, who we spent the whole previous season establishing a bond with. 

This undermines Cassandra’s arc in several ways. She less well rounded and developed without other people in her life besides Rapunzel; it ignores her place in the show as the older and wiser friend if she’s so majorly co-dependent upon only person. It also ignores what was set up in season one in order to push a certain narrative later that clashes with what we the audience already know.  

Plus there’s the added effect of other characters getting poor representation within the story. 

So Why Didn’t the Others Come Along Again?

I understand not being able to take the caravan upto the top of the mountain, but the road was wide enough to get it up this far. Also it didn’t take you all day to get here so you could just walk back to camp. 

But let's get to the real reason why the caravan was left behind. The writers wanted and excuse to get rid of Hookfoot and Shorty. Because they didn’t want to write them into the story. Because they have nothing to do with the overall plot and together they’re one too many characters to keep up with and give stuff to do to. Which begs the question of why they were ever included into the season at all. 

Also why leave Adria behind? She was the one who sent them up here. She’s the one who has a vested interest in getting Rapunzel to the end of her journey. She’s the only one driving the plot at the moment, so why not have her present to do just that?  

Rapunzel is a Hypocrite 

There’s not a single description that Rapunzel says here that couldn’t be applied to herself. 

Which would be funny if the writers ever actually acknowledged this within the series. 

Having parallels simply exist on their own and not actually inform the story is bad writing. Same with character flaws; acknowledge them, use them to advance both the plot and the characters, and build off of them to establish character dynamics. This is in part why Calliope is the better written character between the two of them. 

Behold, the One and Only Time Lance and Rapunzel Hold a Conversation with One Another! 

Speaking of characters not getting enough focus.... It’s just a set up for a recurring gag in the episode, but this is indeed the only point in the series where Lance and Rapunzel talk, about anything. 

It’s not just Cass who is prevented from establishing relationships, it’s literally everyone. All of Rapunzel’s focus episodes alternate between Cassandra, Eugene, or a random side character. Cassandra only gets focus when with Rapunzel. Eugene only gets development with either Rapunzel or on his own. Lance is only ever shown interacting with Eugene or Adria, outside of some highly specific one off instances like here. Hookfoot is left out in the cold save for three episodes and two of them double as New Dream folder. 

We’ve managed to pair the cast down to only six, as opposed to a whole kingdom’s worth of characters, and yet they have less development here than they did in season one. The group does not feel like a group, and that is a problem. 

How is This Meant to be Encouraging? 

Ok, I get what the writers were going for here. Calliope has low self esteem. she feels useless because she’s lost her only support group, her mentor. So Rapunzel is ‘inspiring’ her to fulfill her dream of becoming the new keeper of the spire. 

However, this is an incredibly bad take. 

Calliope lacks self esteem because she’s lonely. Her dream of becoming the keeper is directly tied to her father figure, who up till now was the only person who gave a damn about her. She only wants to impress Rapunzel because she wants a friend and she believes that she needs to be useful in order to get that. And here is Rapunzel and the narrative reinforcing that belief under the guise of ‘achieving a dream’. 

No fuck that! 

You don’t need to have a ‘purpose’ to have friends.You shouldn’t have to prove yourself useful just be respected and included. Also, Rapunzel doesn’t even befriend her. She just uses Calliope to get what she wants and then avoids her for the rest of the show; only checking up on her out of obligation in season three. 

So not only are we denied another female friendship in a show bereft of female relationships, but we also have a character who can be easily read as autistic by the audience needing to prove she’s useful to society in order to be accepted. 

Ugh! 

And yeah, I said autistic. We have a character who fails to pick up on social cues, hyperfixates upon her special interests, is rejected by society for trying to share these special interests, and she even pulls out her magic linked rings to fiddle with when stressed, which can be coded as a stim. I’m not saying that this was the writers’ intent, but nevertheless these are traits that people on the autism spectrum tend to identify with. 

So how insulting is it to watch this episode and see someone you could relate to being constantly put down by the heroes behind their back and then never apologize for it, even when said character admits their own fault? 

So Are We Ever Going to Get Any Background on this Spire? 

So the spire is one of the few places that is plot important in the show. Yet we never find out why it exists, who built it, how it came to hold such important plot devices, nor the story behind the keepers who guard it. It’s just there, and that’s infuriating because it’s both a lack of much needed worldbuilding and lore. 

Still A Better Dad than Frederic

Leaving for months on end without telling you loved ones why and where you’re going is a shitty thing to do. Doubly so if its just to teach your kids ‘a lesson’. However, The Keeper still winds up being a better parental figure than most of the other dads (besides Cap, who is awesome) in the series. That’s how low the bar has been dropped by Chris and his weird ideas on parenting. 

So What Was the Lesson Here?

Ok first off, Calliope didn’t need to be reminded of anything. The Keeper says as much. She was always persistent. The only lesson that she does learn is not to lie but apparently that’s not what we’re supposed to take from this episode. 

But what are we supposed to take away? Because Rapunzel doesn’t learn anything either. There’s no admittance of wrongdoing on her part  and she does not change her outlook or behavior from this encounter. 

Calliope at least learns to become more self assured after this episode and remains honest and true to herself once the episode is done with. Rapunzel however is the same. You can’t claim that this is ‘Rapunzel’s story’ (Chris’s words not mine) if it’s only random side characters who are allowed to grow.  Which is yet another reason why the main cast of characters don't get the development and interaction that they should.

That’s also why Calliope is better written than the main character and she shouldn’t be. It’s a bewilderingly oversight of basic writing.

Conclusion 

I don’t mind this episode. As I said in the beginning, it is one of the few non-filler episodes in season two. However, there’s a lot of problems with it to the point where I can’t actually call it good, just mediocre. 

#tangled #anti-tangled #anti-rapunzel #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure

[taocastleprincess]

shaman king (2021) ep 1

i said i was going to type smth up last night but teaching is literally so exhausting sooo i'm here now!! i have watched the episode like a million times since Thursday LMAOOOO i think i mostly have the dialogue memorized, that's how much i've watched it. i'm just so happy though, i've been a lifelong fan of SK, i was obsessed w it in my teens (still am but i was on a DIFF LEVEL in HS), and i'm just SO HAPPY we finally got a reboot!!! Shaman King deserves a canon adaption, so glad that Takei got it :)

this post got super long rambly so my thoughts/glows/concerns are under the cut!

gonna start w the GLOWS

-- honestly, i am in LOVE w the new OST!!! i have had it on repeat since it was released in Japan!! Megumi is a godsend and i feel like both the OST and the ED kept the same vibes as the og adaption OSTs and EDs. can't really explain why that is but the melodies and the feelings you get from the new OST are very authentic to the SK-verse.

-- the animation is absolutely beautiful and i could hardly focus on anything else the first 2 times i watched it. i was really scared about how the animation was going to look bc so many weird rumors about the animation team were circulating on twitter but it is nearly perfect. they stayed true to Takei's style and the background scenery is out of this world. i also think all of the characters look brighter and more... like them? like, i love the og SK but even as a kid i felt like the animation did not really capture any of the characters (especially Yoh, Ren, and Joco) in their true essence. Like, it was just very dull and didn't accentuate any of their key features. The reboot is beautiful and I love the way certain characters' eyes are drawn. I thought that the look of Ryu's crew was a great example of the animators highlighting and emphasizing defining features of certain characters. They aren't major characters at all but we know they are important to Ryu (and his story) so their designs are given their rightful due.

-- i know that a few people didn't appreciate the beginning scene of the episode for a myriad of different reasons and i find them all totally valid and understandable, tbh. however, i think the opening scene was really great. i had a few problems w it (i do think the 'chosen one' set-up for Yoh was heavy-handed and weird bc i don't think the source material really wants us to believe that Yoh is the stereotypical 'chosen one' and i think it pushes back on that trope quite a bit but i'm open to hearing diff opinions on that) but overall, i think it gives a very cool and mysterious set-up for the anime. i don't think it does much to spoil the eventual ~Hao is Yoh's twin!!~ reveal because, to me, personally, it wasn't that big of a reveal/plot twist. what i WILL say is that the opening scene was very diluted in comparison to the manga vers and that was a bit disappointing but i think they might revisit the scene/make it more dramatic later on in the series when there is more context around the events of that night so that may just be a little tease, you know?

-- this should not be shocking to read from an account that is named 'taocastleprincess' but... AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH THE ENDING SCENE WITH REN AND BASON WAS SOOOOO PERFECT AND I DIDN'T EXPECT IT!!!! ON MY FIRST WATCH I RAN IT BACK LIKE 300x!!!! THEY BOTH LOOK AMAZINGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!

moving on from glows and to CONCERNS, i spy a lot of possible issues w pacing, character development, and authenticity. the series is currently only slated for 52 episodes, a whole 12-eps shorter than the OG adaptation, and the entirety of the series is supposedly being adapted so... 52 eps for 300 chapters? to me, that seems extremely rushed even with best-case scenarios. i have read opposing views on twitter, people think that 52 eps is just enough if they cut 'filler' and 'stick to the most important arcs.' i don't think i can agree with any part of that argument. i really think that it's a REACH to say that Shaman King has filler chapters or filler arcs. there is a purpose for each and every chapter/arc in the series. plot development, character development, foreshadowing, etc. those all hold distinct and important purposes and the love, thought, and time put into the SK manga is exactly why people love it. 'filler' does not have a true narrative purpose, it only serves to lengthen the story, so to say that there are scenes/chapters/arcs that can be glossed or skipped over you would have to make the argument that they have no narrative purpose or bearing on the story. i personally think it would be extremely difficult (near impossible) to make that argument for anything within the og 300chap work but, again, i'm open to seeing if anyone can change my mind.

the first episode of SK flew through and glossed over a lot of important scenes for character study/development. by the end of the first episode, you don't really understand or relate to Morty as one might have done after the first episode of ogSK. and although Yoh is supposed to remain mysterious/confusing/weird for the first couple of chapters/eps, at the end of ep1 there is no GRAND interest that has been developed about him. The first episode operated at a breakneck speed and to its detriment. the characters so far are extremely flat regarding everything beyond character design. the viewer is hardly invested in the partnership between Yoh and Amidamaru because there is (little to) no build-up of their partnership and both of their characters are... not real to us yet. even the scenes regarding Amidamaru's past and his friendship with Mosuke doesn't affect or interest the viewer at all because it is referenced, addressed, problematized, solved, and wrapped up all within 3.5 mins.... huh?

what REALLY destroys me, though, is that the anime seems to be foreshadowing that Manta's character will be playing a backseat role.... the first couple of adventures are from Manta's perspective. he asks the questions that we have, situates us in this very weird world and helps to world-build without it being obvious or heavyhanded, and we start to understand the nuances of his character. none of that was present in 2021 ep1. it kinda felt like Manta was a plot device instead of a character. granted, like i said, none of the characters feel real yet but Manta getting this sort of treatment so early on is dismaying. i really do feel like Manta and Yoh's (developing) friendship and trust in each other is the heart of the first quarter of the series (and is continuously referenced and exalted throughout). rushing through (or, really, just straight up cutting out) the first couple of subplots/mini-adventures that they have together feel really weird and detrimental to the overall tone and purpose of the series. those early adventures cement so much and really lay the groundwork for the rest of the story. it's disappointing that they didn't get their due.

this isn't a very organized review/breakdown, i'm just typing as i think, but to sum up what i am REALLY worried about is this: if the series continues at this extremely crazy pace, i'm a bit worried that the characters will never feel fully developed. not only that, but SK has a lot of heart-wrenching scenes and also a lot of scenes that are beautifully filled with hope and care. i just don't see how those scenes are gonna hit quite as hard or even as they SHOULD if the pace doesn't slow down and let us really sit with these characters and their feelings and motivations.

i mean, i know that this is only the 1st episode of a 52ep series but a lot of things don't look too promising... anyway, these are my initial thoughts/concerns/feelings. i'm way too busy to actually sit down and plan out all of my millions of thoughts but hopefully this was good enough!

#shaman king #episode review #yoh asakura #manta oyamada #personalshy #shy's sk thoughts

[maariarogers]

Why Webtoon!Suho is Superior and K-Drama!Suho Needs To Catch Up 👏

Hello, everyone!

Am I here again with another semi-controversial meta? Why, I might be.

If you’d like to catch up with my last meta, which was: Thoughts On True Beauty and Why I’m On Team Suho, you’re going to get a whole butt-load of information on why I’m mostly a Lee Suho-simp, thank you very much.

With that said, to cut the story short, I’ll be listing down some points I’ll be bringing up on this particular topic. Feel free to skip some points if that’s your cup of tea, or if you’re just cruising and find that the points I’m bringing up are not of your interest at all and you’re scrolling by? That’s fine too!

If you’re sticking around though, thank you!

The Points:

Intro: What Do I Mean?           a.k.a. What’s The Deal With Suho (Again)?

Webtoon!Suho vs. KDrama!Suho           Is K-Drama Suho ‘Mary Sue’?

Why K-Drama!Suho Needs To Step Up

How K-Drama Lowkey Didn’t Capture Seojun and Suho’s Friendship

Conclusion: #TeamJugyeong

Full disclosure: I absolutely, completely adore True Beauty — both the drama and webtoon — and this is purely written from my own point of view, based on the thoughts I’ve accumulated by my own deductions. There certainly will be criticism, but mostly I just want to put it out there to hear out what others are also objectively thinking about this. So, let’s go!

I will try to make this one short, but let’s see how this goes :D

Now.

Intro: What Do I Mean? a.k.a. What’s The Deal With Suho (Again)?

To start this, if you’ve read my first meta, then you would know first-hand that I’m completely fascinated with Suho. That is, the webtoon version that’s been presented of him. I find him intriguing for a character that is quite “dull” — but only because that dullness played a part more than just him being a “cool” and “distant” character.

I’ve mentioned before that I do critically think Suho is clinically depressed. It’s actually proven in the original Webtoon that, especially after Seyeon’s death, he went to a therapist and was taking medications for it. Though I’m not quite sure if he’s still following any medical routine in this current arc (the adult arc), we do see a recurring theme in Suho wherein he seemed to struggle with finding any proper passion, it became an important plot device when it was made clear to him that “he never tried hard enough [for anything]”. and him falling back into a certain habit (studying) to avoid the sadness.

(I’m not quite sure the exact quote, but it’s been mentioned again that he was studying to distract himself when his sister confronted him about it.)

I find the way the author portrayed what I’ve perceived as a protagonist with this prominent mental illness was quite refreshing? Not in the way that it glorified the mental illness or the trauma Suho was experiencing which some authors or dramas tend to do, no — what the author had planted was precise, it was realistic.

Suho struggled in a way that’s consistent (from his teen years up to his adulthood, I mean), but you can’t really tell. And that’s the thing with mental illness, a lot of the time, we don’t really see it – but it’s there. In Suho’s case particularly, it doesn’t just go away when Seyeon’s death was finally accepted and the friendship between Seojun and Suho were amended. It’s still there.

That’s quite intricate for the author to do, isn’t it?

Of course, there is so much more to Suho — which I think I’ll be implying here and there throughout this meta — but if you’d like to read more on it, the first meta is just me fangirling from the start till the end.

Now that that’s over with...

Webtoon!Suho vs. KDrama!Suho

I think I briefly mentioned that, for a moment there, I was kinda scared — but also superbly interested and excited – when they announced that True Beauty will be adapted to a drama.

For the first few episodes, especially episodes 1 - 6, it was super engaging, it was sweet, and the chemistry between the casts were absolutely *chef’s kiss*

Now, episode seven was where it went a little downhill for me.

I’ve always had a slight problem with how they’ve portrayed Suho being a “fighter” — that is, him picking up Jiu Jitsu in the drama.

Now, I know! I know! I have the same thought — the drama and the webtoon are two completely different adaptions that really mirrored one another based on characters and premise, and that’s about it. I’ve made peace with that, I enjoyed it even! But I was still a bit iffy about this particular trait because, for me particularly, it was important for me that Suho wasn’t perfect.

And guess what? He wasn’t.

In the webtoon, Suho can’t fight. The one time Seyeon and him almost got into a fight when they were in middle school, Seojun was the one who actually had experience in street fighting or brawling to defeat the bullies. And this is quite important, especially if you’ve been a writer or an author or, hell, even an audience to these mediums, “perfect” characters can often become “mary sue”.

But the thing about the k-drama is, Suho’s ability to fight was purposeful — which was why it was okay for me in the end. It was a way to introduce his father and the strained in relationship they had, he faced foes several times, and, most importantly, he had to protect Jugyeong (karaoke scene).

Now that I’ve seen (SPOILER FOR PREVIEW EPISODE 9) that he could also be musically-inclined? ...yikes. And, yes, okay, I get it! The actor is an idol, so it’s a great homage to his career, but it was still...

It felt like the writers were desperate to fill the gaps for Suho possibly being “dull” as this typical cool and distant character — when, in reality, Suho’s existence as is was quite enough. He didn’t need to steal Seojun’s fighting ability, and he especially didn’t need to rob Seyeon’s musical passion too, to be interesting and have depths of his own, do you get me?

In fact, he was without all of that, and his romance — however short-lived — with Jugyeong was still so sweet and enjoyable in the webtoon. And that’s the appeal of Suho, I think; Suho doesn’t need to be “more” for Jugyeong (like, all he did was study and read horror comics with Jugyeong), just as Jugyeong doesn’t have to appear “more” (with her make-up etc) for them to be interesting to each other. They like one another in spite all of that.

To be honest, if they had made the room about Suho’s mom, which would've thrown people off because “aren’t we still stuck in the Seyeon Arc”?, that’d be an interesting plot line since I have a feeling that the webtoon will be using that as a major plot device soon BUUUUUUT that’s a theory for another day! So—

Why 👏 K-Drama!Suho 👏 Needs 👏 To 👏 Step 👏 Up 👏👏👏

Because, honey, being unnecessarily possessive doesn’t look good on you.

I’m so, SO GLAD that Seojun actually talked some sense into him! Seojun’s absolutely right! In the end, it’s up to Jugyeong who she will choose as her romantic partner! All this, him-walking-in-and-demanding-Jugyeong-to-come-to-him-in-the-slightest-chance-she’ll-be-going-out-with-another-guy is getting boring. And you know what, my guy, you haven’t even asked her out or anything! (Besides from THAT scene at the end of Ep 8, you know what I mean lol)

Like, I didn’t mind when he was just following her because he was curious and jealous, and that led him to quietly “put a stop” to Jugyeong's blind date because the man obviously had bad intentions. I also understood when he threatened Semi Lee’s boyfriend into apologising. That’s fine - while he was manipulating the situation, it wasn’t exactly him telling and/or demanding Jugyeong to blindly follow him and/or go with him or anything.

I actually find it so, so sweet when it became a common phrase between them for Suho to always ask Jugyeong how she’s doing ( “Are you okay?” ) because that’s essentially what his character builds up to: this protector, that goes beyond keeping Jugyeong’s bare-face a secret. He’s really out there making sure Jugyeong is safe, and that’s okay!

That was the character he was establishing to be.

But then the writers pulled out this obsessive and possessive jerk out of their ass? That isn’t Suho. That’s contradicting through the whole build-up of Suho and Jugyeong’s characters from episode one to six. The whole point of why they leaned on one another is because they trust each other so, so, so much.

But in episode seven, Suho was falsely blaming Jugyeong (for sleeping when he was the one who napped) just because he’s “flustered”, taking it out on her when the baseball player just asked for her number (which, well, was understandably creepy, but like, chill bro); and in episode eight, Suho was glaring at Jugyeong the whole time just because he thinks she’s ignoring him and she was around Seojun so much?

Dude....... you never even apologised for those words that you knew hurt Jugyeong in episode 5.

Suho, babes, I love you, but - no.

I get so frustrated because ‘anger’ was never Suho’s default expression; he never truly has a temper. That was always more of Seojun’s trait and it worked with Seojun because it’s consistent throughout his character (in the webtoon). The few times Suho was actually angry to the point of nearly instigating violence in the webtoon are only because he’s pushed by this deep sadness [over the loss of Seyeon].

Rather than a glare in the scene in the beginning of the camp, it’d be more in-character if Suho’d looked like a sad puppy. Because if anything, wouldn’t Suho feel threatened since he has this deep-rooted belief that he doesn’t deserve happiness (a canon line admitted by Suho, himself, in webtoon, and spoken by Seojun towards Suho in K-Drama) and therefore, would have this inferioty complex and would never think Jugyeong would be interested in him? Which was why she’s going to Seojun a lot?

Now, let’s talk about Seojun.

How K-Drama Lowkey Didn’t Capture Seojun and Suho’s Friendship

I think one of the most prominent thing about Seojun and Suho’s friendship was how much they respected one another — especially when it came to their shared love interest in Jugyeong.

This K-Drama? (Sighs) Butchered it a little? Yeah.

Which isn’t wrong, no! But I felt like... firstly, it’s overdue; it’s making Suho look really, really not pretty (character-wise) next to Seojun, which I think is a misstep for the production because shouldn’t your male lead be persistently desirable? (But I didn’t mind lol, my heart is half-rooting for Seojun already *sighs dreamily*); and it really, most importantly, hurt the absolute loyalty and pureness that Suho and Seojun shared together in the webtoon.

Because when Seojun knew that Suho and Jugyeong liked each other? He backed off. He did. He didn’t say one word — not even a slip of a tongue — about his feelings towards Jugyeong.

But Suho somewhat knew, right? And he backed off when he knew he was disappointing Jugyeong by his departure. He makes way for Seojun to be there, however he can be, for Jugyeong while he’s not around. And when they started dating, Seojun and Jugyeong? Suho was supportive throughout.

He was never jealous, there was never one instance where he showed his dislike, and even when Jugyeong casted doubt or talked with Suho about her relationship problems, Suho was always rooting for the both of them. He wanted them to work.

They were all excellent friends.

I understand why and how the K-Drama ended up the way they did currently at episode eight, but in my opinion, I feel like it’s a bit disrespectful to the true friendship that Seojun and Suho shared in the webtoon only to present them as these unending rivals when... when you think about it, it isn’t really Seojun and Suho?

Cause obviously webtoon!Seojun and webtoon!Suho, once they’ve made up that is, were extremely reliable towards one another; they were very encouraging (besides from the slight hiccup when Seojun got a bit jealous); and they were incredibly loyal and understanding of one another’s situation.

I hope we’ll see glimpses of it more in the future, ‘cause I’d pay for nice and slightly-realistic progression of friendship that’s somehow mixed up with romance and how these people are coping with it, rather than just seeing two boys glare at one another while my girl Jugyeong just wanted to go to the toilet 😆

Conclusion #TeamJugyeong

I just want this girl to stop being pushed-and-pulled and happy, man.

I’m still looking forward to more of the episodes and the webtoon, though! I still love the casts, the production, the way the story is flowing so far (because I wanna know what’s gonna happen, you know?) but I do think Suho could’ve been written a bit better? Or, at least, with a bit more consistency?

Or, I mean, maybe he could just start apologising for every reckless actions rather than him getting away with it because he saved Jugyeong? Maybe?

I really still adore him, and I’m still rooting so much for Suho because the times when he was alone with her, he was super sweet? And immediately the sincerity and the core of what made Jugyeong and Suho so appealing to me just came out? Like he has that potential that webtoon!Suho is already at.

I love them so much, ugh.

(Although Seojun, bro, I’m lowkey on your side too. That bracelet he did for her was 💗💗💗💗💗)

I hope everyone’s doing well, keeping each other safe, and if my head’s running wild again, I’ll keep you posted akdjksjhskdhf

Thank you so much for reading!!!!

#True Beauty #Lee Suho #suho x jugyeong #team suho #im sorry why am i like this? #BUT #YOOO #ENDING OF EPISODE EIGHT #AHHHH!!!! #me: im angy at character development #also me a simp: wow the 3227864387 fanfics idea i already have #True Beauty Meta

[fuckyeahharryhart]

BECAUSE NO ONE ASKED ME, HERE IS MY DISSERTATION ON KINGSMAN THE GOLDEN CIRCLE AND WHY IT DIDN’T HAVE THE SAME MAGIC AS THE SECRET SERVICE

What do we want from a sequel? Personally, I want to see all the characters that I love again. I want them to be true to how they were in the first movie. I want consistency.  I want to know more about them. I want them to build stronger relationships with each other. I want to see them grow. Evolve. Change if they need to. I want good things for them. I want them to be able to face conflicts.

One of the great reasons to have sequels is that we want to see our favorite characters grow and develop.

In TGC, right away, we’ve lost Roxy. More on that later. We lose Merlin. More on THAT later. Right there, they’ve lost so much potential for the third movie. We’ve lost relationships that were meaningful and could have strengthened. So much could have happened within this core group. Their experience could build on experience and add so much history and depth. Their loss wasn’t even handled in a way that really made us feel like it was a crucial point of the movie. It was more like “That sucked, but oh well.” More on THAT, too.

We were introduced to new characters, but no relationships were developed between the Kingsman agents or the Statesman agents. There would be potential to create new relationships to replace the ones that were lost. But that never really happened either. We weren’t given a reason to REALLY care about Statesman. I mean, they were interesting and entertaining. But they weren’t even super helpful in the mission, and they mainly provided the resources that the Kingsman agents needed since the Kingsman HQ was blown up. And they saved Harry.

I can’t really name one close bond between the two agencies. Sure they sent over Tequila in the end, but we don’t even know anything about him other than he’s kind of a bad boy, does drugs and was from “the wrong side of the tracks”. Wouldn’t it have been more interesting if he and Eggsy developed a friendship? Both of them are from the wrong side of the tracks. It would make it more meaningful when Tequila got sick. We were supposed to care about him, but we weren’t even given the chance to. There was so much potential that was not taken advantage of. Basically, we met Tequila, he got sick, got better and then got sent to Kingsman.

There are so many other premises that could have worked for TGC. My main issue with THC it that it didn’t have “heart”. It didn’t have the same emotional impact that TSS did. We were invested in TSS in a way that we’d weren’t in TGC. They set up conflict, introduced new bad guys and new good guys, but there were no relationships between them, we had no particular reason to care about them or what happened to them. There wasn’t anything really behind the show, behind the action. No real character or relationship development. Everything that happened was a plot device or really had nothing to do with the story or the characters at all.

I understand that they wanted to keep things light and fun and entertaining and not be to serious, but that doesn’t mean that the movie can’t have depth and feeling. It was more like a group of kids got together and said “wouldn’t it be cool if we put this in a movie” and tried to build a movie around different scenes rather than starting from the heart. Like “wouldn’t it be cool if someone got tossed in a meat mincer? Or how about an out of control ski lift spins around and then then crashes into a tower? We can show it sliding down the side of a mountain!” And then the kids high five.

My point is that most of the action scenes were sort of superfluous, whereas the action scenes in TSS were crucial or at least connected to the plot or the main characters. Like the car chase scene in the beginning of TGS was cool and fun to watch, but would the movie be the same without it? Kind of. And it certainly didn’t need to be that long or drawn out. They got to show off cool gadgets, which seemed like the only purpose, other than Charlie’s robot arm hacking their computer.

I could start anywhere. So I’ll just start somewhere. Let’s say the beginning.

The movie starts out with Eggsy. He is now a Kingsman agent and seems to have his life together.

Immediately enters Charlie Hesketh, Kingsman reject. He had a beef with Eggsy. There was a huge car chase action scene. Charlie has a robot arm. They both survive and get away.  We get to see some old and new tech. Entertaining to watch,  but no real substance.

Bringing back Charlie would not have been my first choice. He was an asshole in the first movie and he’s more of on asshole in this movie. He had a satisfying comeuppance in the first movie and there were no loose ends in his case. We assume he died with the others from the exploding microchip. He had a complete character arch in TSS. He was established as an upper class asshole. Got kicked out of Kingsman for being a pussy. Still carried a grudge with Eggsy and held him at knife point in Valentine’s lair and ratted him out. Got shocked by Eggsy for his trouble. Assumed deceased and that was fine with us.

Eggsy never did anything mean to Charlie, certainly not enough to warrant serious violence. Apparently, Charlie was that much of an entitled asshole and sore loser that he took his rejection as a blow to his ego, especially being beaten by a pleb like Eggsy. I didn’t like Charlie. We weren’t supposed to like Charlie. We were fine with Charlie dying.

So why would they bring him back?  Well, I suppose it’s a way to link the two movies together. It provides a reason to rehash what happened at the end of TSS for people who did not see it. Introduced some old tech, the electrocuting signet ring, the shoe blade. The car chase was a way to show off all the old and new spy gadgets.

My problem with Charlie right off the bat was that they didn’t give him a reason to come back. How did he and Poppy find each other? How did he get mixed up with their group? We know he doesn’t like Eggsy and the Kingsman, he decides to blow all of them up? Was that Charlie’s idea or Poppy’s idea? Is Kingsman more of a threat to them than any other independent intelligence agency? Charlie no longer lives a life of privilege and considers himself a pleb. He is still bitter about Eggsy beating him.

We have no idea what happened to Charlie between TSS to TGC. We have not been given a reason to invest in him either as a threat or a source of conflict. There’s no complexity to his character. He was an asshole that came back a bigger asshole.

If they wanted to bring back Charlie, wouldn’t it have been more interesting for him to come back as an ally? Who after VDay and losing his family and life as he knows it, decides to change his ways and upon meeting Eggsy and he actually asks for his help? He doesn’t know anywhere else to go but Kingsman. They could  still have a car chase scene with an unknown enemy that attacks Eggsy, but Charlie helps Eggsy against the enemy and they have to work together to survive. Thus proving that Charlie has changed his ways.

BUT- PLOT TWIST - he’s a mole for Poppy to get inside Kingsman to take them out from within. And this is all part of their plan to destroy Kingsman. And then we have to see him struggle with his role as a double agent as he gets to know all the Kingsman better. They are accepting of him in a way he never accepted them when the roles were reversed. He was always just a competitive jerk. So he’s conflicted. And we want to know, well, will he turn out bad or good in the end? And of course, this is all off the top of my head. Just some examples of things that could have been done differently that would have made the movie more interesting (at least to me).

I’m going to be jumping around some and might go off on tangents. Sorry.

In TGC, I didn’t feel like the bad guy brought anything new or different to the table. The issue of a drug cartel taking over the world with hostages was too broad and general. For me, there was no real urgency. Other than blowing up Kingsman, there is no link between Kingsman and the Golden Circle.

Let’s say instead of Charlie, Poppy and the Golden Circle as the bad guys, well, we could still have something like the Golden Circle... but it’s an underground network of bad spies who want to take out all the good intelligence agencies. Like spy vs spy. Could be interesting. One of the problems I have is that the Golden Circle only blew up Kingsman? I’m assuming because Charlie had a beef with them? But what about all the other intelligence agencies around the world? I guess it would make sense if we knew Kingsman was a direct threat to TGC, but Kingsman didn’t even know they existed. My point is that TGC could have done everything they did, release the virus, hold the antidote hostage, without having to blow up Kingsman. Kingsman was not an obstacle that TGC had to get rid of. So for me, it didn’t make any sense. The only reason we have is that Charlie’s fragile ego couldn’t  stand that he was rejected. Would the biggest drug cartel in the world take the risk of blowing up a whole agency over some dudes hurt feelings?

So what are the alternatives? Well, other than double agent Charlie. Let say we have a scenario where Charlie has a little sister who survived VDay. She was on a retreat to save endangered animals on a remote island far from civilization so she was not affected by the SIM card transmissions. She survived to find everything and everyone she loved gone. We’ll call her Kay. Kay was genuinely a good,  kind, sweet person.  But her entire family was killed and she was devastated losing them, particularly her brother. She was the one person who Charlie didn’t treat like an asshole. She loved her big brother and had a close relationship and when he and her family died, her entire life changed. So we learned that Charlie was actually not an asshole ALL of the time and that his soft spot was his little sister. (Eggsy could relate to this as he is protective of his half sister)

So let’s say, she wants revenge. She wants to destroy Kingsman and take down Eggsy, Merlin and Roxy and everything they love. Just like they did to her. There doesn’t even need to be a Poppy. No drug cartel. Let’s bring the threat closer to home. In the first movie it was a “save the world” type situation. How about doing something different for this one? This time, Kingsman is being directly threatened.

Let say a mysterious group of people took Kay in the aftermath of V day, when no one else would. BUT she discovers they are actually an international syndicate- like Kingsman- but for bad instead of good. They can be called the Golden Circle.

Let’s say she’s super smart, both tech wise and with weaponry and she has mad skills that the syndicate can use. So she joins forces with them with an ulterior motive. Even though she doesn’t agree with everything they do, it’s a way for her to have the resources to get her revenge against Kingsman.

Let’s say this group wants to take out all the international intelligence agencies, since they are a threat, starting with Kingsman. The Statesman are next. Kay plans on only staying for Kingsman, so she can take them out and specifically Merlin, Eggs and Roxy. Then she plans on running away on her own. Because, as much as she wants her revenge, she isn’t essentially evil herself. She is just so angry and alone. She’s a complicated character, linked to Kingsman and the plot of the first movie through Charlie, but she presents new challenges. Unlike Charlie, whose issues just rehashed conflict from TSS.

Then there’s so many options from here. I’m just going to brainstorm so stick with me if you want.

Let say, the movie opens with Roxy and Eggsy both coming out of Kingsman, joking around and teasing each other after completing a dangerous mission and want to celebrate. Merlin is on the glasses comms, telling them to behave and not drink to much or get in trouble. They are about to get into the taxi to go get a drink but then Kay comes out holds gun on them with her underworld support. She knows who they are, calls them by both their code names and real names, but they have no idea who she is.

They try to identify her, but as there is no existing reference to her, their first scan comes up with nothing. So they don’t know who she is, they just know she is a threat and she has backup. The car chase and everything can be basically the same, but with Merlin’s help on the comms, they are able to get away.

So the main conflict is that Eggsy, Roxy and Merlin need to find out who is threatening them (the TGC evil syndicate) and at the same time find out specifically who Kay is. They don’t know she is Charlie’s sister yet. They find out later in the debrief where they compare her facial structure to their database and Charlie comes up as a match.

So how does Harry Hart come back into the picture? I’ll get to that soon.

Well, Kay/syndicate blow up all the Kingsman agents, but Roxy, Merlin and Eggsy survive. But now they have no resources. They can do the same doomsday scenario as in the movie,  but Roxy is still alive. (It was horrible how she was killed off for no reason. She deserved better.)

All three survive the explosion. Maybe even because they were doing something fun together, or bickering over something silly, showing how close they’ve become.  This way we can strengthen the relationships between the three of them before anything happens to any of them. I thought the “Roxy as my Best friend and she was killed” plot device was forced. She had a couple lines helping Eggsy with Tilde, and he calls her his best friend and agent. (At this point I’m not even sure if we need Tilde in the picture.) And then Roxy gets blown up. Sucks.

I’d forget about the whole Tilde relationship angle and focus on the friendship between Eggsy and Roxy instead. (Don’t worry, they’ll stay friends. They don’t get into a relationship together.)

There are so many other ways to show they are best friends and agents who rely on each other, so if or when one of them dies, it’s much more meaningful. We feel her loss as Eggsy or Merlin would. Her death in THC was essentially meaningless.

BACK TO THE FILM:

Kingsman HQ and the shop have been blown up. Roxy, Merlin and Eggsy are devastated but Merlin pulls himself together and takes charge. He says that they need to rely on their training. That they’ve lost people they love before and yet they keep on going, to honor their memory, because that’s what a Kingsman does. (Reference to Harry)

They go to the winery, proceed to get drunk, which would be funny with the three of them together, when they discover the Statesman logo on the whiskey bottle and go to Kentucky for help. All that is fine. It can be the same as the movie.

The three of them go to Statesman. They try to break in and are overtaken and tied up by Statesman agents.

This can be all the same as the movie as well. The three of them are tied up and Tequila is questioning them. He’s also flirting with Roxy at the same time because he’s a southern boy. But he still doesn’t believe them.

BUT WAIT!....(READ MY EXCERPT OF FAN FIC ON HOW HARRY RETURNED HERE: https://fuckyeahharryhart.tumblr.com/post/635251512219729920/kingsman-the-golden-circle

KEEP READING HERE IF YOU WANT THE SHORT VERSION:

Ok. I had a real issue with how they brought Harry back. Don’t get me wrong, I am sooo, sooo grateful that they brought him back at all, but the character that he became from the amnesia, for me, was not Harry at all, not even a young Harry.

I know some people liked the soft, timid, shy Harry. And that’s sweet. But he was the antithesis of the Harry I grew to love from the first movie. During the whole TGC movie, I didn’t really get the same energy and presence as the first Harry Hart. (Ok, I know this is kind of Eggsy’s movie, anyway.)

Sure, we got background on what Harry was like when younger. He wanted to become a lepidopterist. He had the choice of being one or joining the army. He joined the army and then Kingsman. This doesn’t really add anything to the film or to Harry personally. I don’t feel like I know him better. I know facts about him. I want to know what was behind the choices he made.

I want to know, why did Harry chose the Army? Did something significant happen that led him down that road? From the film, we know he missed his mother, but doesn’t mention a father. What happened to his father?

Maybe his father was military, and was away for most of his life. His father never understood Harry’s butterfly fascination and hoped that he would follow in his footsteps and become a military man, but loved him and supported him none the less. Let’s say his father was killed in action and that is why Harry joined the army and gave up Lepidoptery. For the memory of his father.  So when he mentions to Merlin that he wants to see “Mother” that is why there is no mention of the father, because he already died.

And then we find out that he relates to Eggsy so much because “what’!?!” Harry lost his own father the same way as Eggsy did! In action, on a mission. BUT, Harry feels even more guilt because HE was the reason Eggsy’s father was killed. It’s his fault that Eggsy had to go through the same loss that he did. So he knows exactly how Eggsy felt. He feels extra responsibility for him and wants to be his mentor and be the father figure neither of them had growing up! Now we understand Harry sooooo much more, what motivates him to be the person he is and the relationship that he has with Eggsy is that much more meaningful.

(WHAT!?! I would soooo watch this movie.)

So, at least it would be helpful to know what happened to Harry’s father. It would give us more motivation on why Harry is the way he is. Our dear Harry Hart. You are so quiet and so brave that we forget you are suffering. Our hearts go out to him. We imagine Harry as a young man who lost his father and joined the army to be close to him and honor him. Sigh.

How much weight has Harry Hart carried with him? Never complaining, never using it as an excuse. We only know through his actions that he wants to make up for his past mistakes. We love him that much more. Underneath his stoic polished exterior lies a young man who lost his father. But he also has to carry the guilt of being the reason another boy lost his own father, as Eggsy’s father was saving Harry’s life, while sacrificing his own.

So back to the movie. Amnesia Harry, to me, was not Harry Hart. I can’t believe this soft, timid man became the brave, sophisticated super spy that he is now. I think it would have been more effective for amnesia Harry to still have qualities of spy Harry, but the amnesia makes him forget KINGSMAN. And it’s painful for Eggsy Roxy and Merlin, because at first, he seems like the Harry they know and love. But to Harry, they are complete strangers. Imagine if your significant other lost the memory of you, but other than that they were still the same person. You had a whole life of memories that you shared. They wouldn’t know that you shared them. What would it be like to be so close to someone, yet at the same time, just out of reach? Harsh.

STAY WITH ME HERE. This is what I would have imagined for the return of Harry Hart. It would be fairly similar to what happened, but with some crucial differences. AGAIN: ONLY IF YOU WANT, REFER TO:

:https://fuckyeahharryhart.tumblr.com/post/635251512219729920/kingsman-the-golden-circle

Let’s go back to the scene where Merlin, Eggsy AND Roxy are tied in chairs getting grilled by Tequila, who is actually flirting with Roxy because that’s who Teauila is. And Roxy is having none of it because that is who she is. This dynamic could be pretty funny, with Eggsy teasing Roxy (but that’s for later).

So all three of them are saying they were only following clues from their doomsday scenario protocol. They lost everything and all they have left is their honor. They are still getting threatened by Tequila. They aren’t budging because that’s the truth, they aren’t lying about the circumstances that brought them to Statesman.

Teauila has to change this up a bit. And what does he do? Threatens to bring in their finest interrogator. Says how this agent is skilled in ways they can’t even imagine. He is not someone that they want to fuck around with. Nothing gets past him. If you don’t tell him what he wants to hear, don’t worry, he will make you. He is definitely someone who they don’t want on their bad side. They still don’t have anything else to say.

Tequila calls in the agent. And who is that agent?

IN WALKS HARRY HART, in all of his secret spy glory!!!! (OMG I WOULD DIE) He’s impeccable in his familiar suit, hair immaculately in place, posture perfect. The only real change are the shaded eyeglasses to protect the eye he lost and the Statesman issue gun he carries. Everything else is exactly the same from his pocket square to his cuff links.

Roxy, Merlin, and Eggsy are mindfucked.  They can’t believe this is THEIR Harry Hart. But Harry doesn’t recognise them, doesn’t remember them AT ALL, as he has lost all of his memory of Kingsman. BUT, he has retained all of his skill and personality as an agent and individual. The only thing different is that he doesn’t remember them.

They are confused and overjoyed at the same time. They don’t even know how to react when they try to get Harry to remember them and he doesn’t. We get all the delicious visuals of Kingsman Harry, but are faced with the fact that he actually doesn’t remember Kingsman at all.

Statesman Harry continues to interrogate them as if they are the unknown quantity and possible enemy, because to him, that’s exactly what they are. They are speechless at this point and don’t know what to do, or how to react, or how to get Harry to believe them. They don’t know how to prove they are who they say they are. They don’t know how to prove that Harry knows them, and that they know Harry.

Harry, not for wasting time, unholsters his revolver and points it at Eggy’s head. Are they ready to talk now? They yell for him to stop, not to shoot, to let them explain. Harry starts  to count down from three, and just as he gets to one, Ginger Ale comes in and throws Harry the umbrella. Their story checks out. Harry inspects the umbrella, sees the statesman’s logo and pauses. He looks over the umbrella turns it over, twirls it in his hands almost in a familiar way. Does it help him remember Kingsman and his friends? It looks like it might. He contemplates the umbrella for a moment, but then he says “not good enough” and aims his revolver at Eggsy and switches off the safety.

Eggsy and the others are beyond panic, when Eggsy throws a Hail Mary. He tried to look at Harrys right hand, but the gun is blocking his view and he doesn’t know for sure, but fuck it, takes the risk and yells to him that Harry wears a signet ring on his right pinkie finger. That gentleman are traditionally supposed to wear it on the left hand. But Harry wears it on his right hand because his right hand is dominant.

THIS makes Harry pause and slowly puts down his gun. Because he does wear a pinkie ring on his right hand. He was wearing it when he was shot and wanted to keep wearing it. He doesn’t know why, just that it feels right to him. He asks Eggsy, “how do you know that?”

“Eggsy says, “Because I’m wearing one too.”

(WHAAAT JUST HAPPENED!!!!????)

Statesman Harry holsters his weapon. He says, “It seems as if we have a lot to discuss.”

Ok, so that’s just an idea I came up with while writing this. Let’s see if I can continue.

Because TGC needed much, much more of the Harry Hart we know and love.

This cuts to the scene where they are in the Statesman HQ dining room. Harry is also there but sits on the Statesman side. Ginger and Tequila are there as well.

Merlin, Roxy and Eggsy sit opposite the Statesman.

They meet Champagne/Champs - who wants to know what’s going on.

Cut to when Ginger explains how Statesman got readings of low frequency waves from Valentine’s test in Kentucky. All of this can remain the same. Ginger Ale and Tequila save him by using the alpha gel, they help him recover. But when he does, he can’t remember anything from his past.  He knows his name, he has the same personality and all the same skills, which they discover when he wakes up.

When he wakes up for the first time, Ginger ale and Tequila are there. Harry is slowly coming to. We don’t know how he is though yet. As he is coming into consciousness, his agent reflexes kick in. He scans the room, finds the exit, determines any possible threats and locates the nearest weapon. In a flash, Harry sits up, grabs Tequila’s gun and points it at him. Harry asks them who they are and what is he doing there.

They look at each other and say that they have a lot to talk about.

I’m just gonna go with this and see how it plays out....

Statesman knew he was intelligence from his eye glasses, but they didn’t know whose. And Harry couldn’t tell them anything. They knew he was possibly British as he spoke the Queen’s English. But he could still be from a number of other places as well.

Obviously, international intelligence agencies are not going to be listed on the internet, but while Harry was recovering, they put out feelers for possible missing persons that matched his description, particularly in Europe and Great Britain, and then broadened their search to the commonwealth countries.

They scanned news on anything surrounding the Kentucky event, who was involved, but they only found information on Valentine and his cohorts. They even kept their ears open on the secret spy wire, to see if an agency was looking for an operative, or had an agent who had gone rogue, or had one go dark. They didn’t have any luck. It’s not like they could put out an “if missing an agent, please call” flyer.

But as Harry got better, they found out the extent of his abilities. They were far greater than Statesman expected.

—-here can be a montage of him going through his skills, slowly getting better and stronger until he is at full capacity.- plus it would be really hot and sexy to see Harry Hart’s repertoire of skills. (I heard that Colin Firth is pretty good at archery, too.)

For some reason he can’t explain, he insisted on only wearing suits, styled exactly the same as the one he was found in, shirt, tie, cuff links and his pinkie ring. The only thing he would carry is the Statesman issue pistol and the occasional custom weapon or flask. Or maybe a fedora.

He was grateful to Statesman for saving his life. We find out that Harry started working for Statesman, actually becoming close to them like he was with Roxy, Merlin, and Eggsy and becoming an integral part of their organisation.

His English mannerisms often pop up, much to the amusement of Statesman. They respect him and find him endearing at the same time. They still kept an eye out for someone matching his description gone missing, but without as much urgency since they liked having him around.

The others are overjoyed that he is alive, at the same time devastated that he doesn’t remember them. It’s like he’s almost there, but just out of reach.

(OMG, I NEED TO SEE THIS VERSION OF TGC.)

How does he get his memory back?

There are a number of ways. We could still do something similar to the puppy scenario, let’s say that Harry, for some reason he also can’t explain, wanted a cairn terrier. So he has one  that follows him around Statesman HQ.

This scenario could play out similarly as the movie. As a last resort, Eggsy threatens to shoot his dog, triggering the memory of Harry when he was a trainee having to shoot Mr. Pickle.

OR let’s say at a certain pivotal moment, something happens where Eggsy is tied to train tracks just like in TSS, but this time, there is no false floor. Eggsy is in a life or death situation and as seconds tick by, it’s looking more like death. Eggsy is yelling at Harry to please cut the ropes, when Harry’s memory is triggered. The combination of the bright lights of the train, the roar as it barrels down the tracks, Eggsy screaming, fearing for his life...Harry starts to remember the same circumstance during Eggsy’s training when he was almost hit by a train.

While Eggsy is struggling, Harry’s memory is flashing back to all the significant moments in his life, like a seizure he can’t control. His father. Butterflies. Harry joining the army. Eggsy’s father sacrificing his life to save Harry’s. Meeting Eggsy, training him, being a father figure to him. Everything to the point when he is shot by Valentine.  Harry is trying to process all of this when he hears Eggsy yelling to cut the ropes again and Harry comes to, just in time to save him.

As Eggsy recovers he notices something different about Harry. He stops and just waits, looking at him.

Out of the blue, Harry says “bloody well done” which is what he said to Eggsy when he passed the training. Harry pauses and then says with meaning “Eggsy” (not eggy as he’s been calling him)

“Hello Harry.” Eggsy says in return and goes up to hug him, which Harry returns. And he says Eggsy’s name again as memories return to him. Agent Galahad is back.

Eggsy finally had his chance to say I’m sorry to Harry and how much he meant to him and how devastated he was when he thought Harry had died. And how happy he was to find out he survived, and how devastated he was when Harry didn’t remember him. It doesn’t have to be all mushy and serious, it can just be simple and touching. Like Harry saying something like “It takes a lot more than a bullet to the head to kill Harry Hart.”

I had an issue with the dynamic between Harry and Eggsy on their first mission with Whiskey. Obviously having Harry back is the best thing in Eggsy’s life right now. What a gift to basically have him back from the dead. I personally would be extra considerate and caring of any lapses that he may be experiencing due to the gunshot. And knowing that he was still recovering (as depicted in the bar fight scene) I’d make a concerted effort to look out for his well being.

So when they are all trapped at the cabin in Italy and Harry out of the blue shoots Whiskey, my first reaction wouldn’t be “Harry you’re a fucking idiot! You’re out of control!” It was be “OMG, what’s wrong Harry? Why would you do that?” And make an effort to understand what Harry is going through. I know they’re in a life or death situation and they don’t have time to have a heart to heart. But if my best friend and mentor came back from the dead, like, days ago, I wouldn’t be calling him a fucking idiot. I first reaction would be worry and concern.

Back to my alternate scenario. This sets up a new conflict. The call of Kingsman is strong and wants to lure Harry back to Great Britain, with Eggsy and Merlin and Roxy, but he will be forever indebted to Statesman for saving his life, helping him find himself and giving him purpose and meaning within the Statesman family. He knows he will have to choose eventually, but at the moment, the pressing issue is the Golden Circle and to defeat them, the two agencies will have to work as one and who better to do lead them than Harry Hart. (I love Harry Hart so much)

What else is a possibility? Roxy is slowly won over by Agent Tequila’s charm, but she gets kidnapped by Kay and the Golden Circle. Now Agent Tequila and the others have to race to rescue Roxy before The Golden Circle blows up, because why? BECAUSE KINGSMAN HAD ALREADY SET UP EXPLOSIONS TO DESTROY THEM! So if Roxy dies in the blast, it’s basically because of Kingsman.

What else could Roxy’s story look like? Hmmm. Kay is the same age as Roxy. So despite each of their misgivings, they begin to relate to each other. Roxy is sorry about Kay’s loss and recognises that she isn’t an inherently bad person like the rest of Golden Circle. She’s just a sister, a daughter, a person like Roxy. She is just in pain and doesn’t know how to handle her grief. Kay realises that Roxy was just looking out for her friends and trying to do what’s right despite insurmountable odds. Without really realising it, they begin to bond. They really don’t want to hurt each other, but are afraid they are too far down the path of destruction and revenge to turn back.

Let’s throw in Whiskey, too. Because I don’t like how they utilised his character in TGC at all. First off, his reasoning behind wanting all the junkies to die was weak. Almost 22-23 years since the death of his wife and he was still willing to kill all the good people as well as the bad? He didn’t differentiate someone like Tequila, his fellow agent, from the meth heads that killed his wife?

I don’t think that an agent who has dedicated his life to save others would be that selfish as to want the deaths of all those people. So I’m going to throw that whole plot device in the can. Plus, the foreshadowing that Whiskey was a bad guy and that Harry was on to him and shot him was weak, of no fault of theirs, the story was bad.

Let’s say In this version, he is not a bad guy. Let’s say he’s a Statesman through and through. And he is very very protective of Statesman and is determined to protect it and the other agents at all costs, in a way he wasn’t able to protect his wife and unborn child.

As a result he is less welcoming to strangers and outsiders than the others. He has a long history of tradition within the Statesman family and wants to preserve that legacy. He is the one that was less than excited to have Harry join the agency. Whiskey was the one that continued to be suspicious, and at times could antagonise Harry, implying that no matter how good an agent he was, that he would never truly be a Statesman. That he would be an outsider. Which he now feels is justified because they discover Harry is actually a Kingsman. Whiskey avoids spending time with them, outside of the mission and continues to remain standoffish.

But slowly, as they all work together, the Kingsman agents especially being open and accepting and kind to their counter parts, Whiskey begins to slowly, begrudgingly come around. He begins to thaw and we realise what a cool guy whiskey really is, he is just ultra dedicated and loyal to Statesman and will do everything he can to protect and honor his agency. He gets to know everyone, realises that all of them have experienced their own personal loss and that their losses are what drives them to help others. And this common understanding of loss brings them together.

What if, instead of getting killed because he tried to double cross both Statesman and Kingsman, he ultimately shows his true self, when they are all trapped in the enemy HQ, by offering to stay behind, fight off bad guys, to give the others a chance to escape, including the Kingsman, at the risk of his own life.

Perhaps he asks Harry, Merlin and Eggsy to go and save Roxy and lead everyone out of danger. And to take care of Statesman, and Ginger and Tequila as Whiskey would and has his entire life, because they are ALL family now and families take care of each other.

(ALL THE FEELS. RIGHT HERE.)

What if Whiskey demands that they have to go and leave him behind to his own fate. That even if he gets overpowered, Whiskey won’t go down without a fight. They all do their agent handshake of brotherhood and leave him to fight the enemy. So Whiskey, instead of being put in the mincer, gets one last epic battle, fights harder than he ever has before because he wants to give the others a chance to survive. This is why Whiskey became a Statesman, to serve his fellow man, to protect his family. His whole life has led to this point.

The scene could be intercut with Whiskey battling the enemy, with the others making their way out of the enemy headquarters. Whiskey, the entire time fighting to keep the bad guys from following them. Let’s say that during Harry’s and Whiskeys handshake, Harry passes Whiskey his lighter grenade, as a message, agent to agent, never let the enemy capture you. If it gets to that point, use the grenade and take the bastards out with you.

The battle gets more and more hectic, Whiskey gets cornered. He’s out of options, save one. He triggers the grenade, but not before he says “this is for statesman”.  Or something else along those lines that’s super cool and badass. We don’t see the blast, but it cuts to the others who hear the bomb go off and they know that Whiskey did as much as he could and even though they are running for their lives, they take a moment to acknowledge his sacrifice.

(OMG- I’m going to make myself cry.)

How much of a better end would that be for Whiskey? Such a better part for him to play rather than the secret bad guy plot twist at the end of TGC. In this new version, we get to see his compete character arch. We feel compassion for him, we root for him, and we mourn his loss. Ugh. I just hate how so many of the characters deaths got the short shift.

Or if it’s not whiskey, If Merlin still has to die, (which I don’t think he does) he could be the one that stays behind. But death would be more than accidentally stepping on a landmine. There would be more at stake, more on the line. More urgency. If both Whiskey and Merlin had to die, what if they had to detonate a bomb, but the bomb had a fail safe where to detonate the it, two people have to trigger it at the same time, and the likelihood of survival is slim. But they offer to stay behind, one man from each agency. There can still be an epic battle, but this time Merlin gets a chance to fight, too. And he fights alongside Whiskey for as long and as hard as they can until they have to detonate the bomb. Merlin gets his moment.

In TGC, Merlin didn’t even get half the chance to be a bad ass in his own Kingsman suit and glasses. It wasn’t fair to him. He should have had more of a chance to be a part of things in the end. Merlin deserved a much more meaningful send off. There were so many other ways to handle his death.... if he had to die at all.

Let’s say in my version he survived the blast, we don’t know, there’s a chance he did. And that gives us hope. We really want him to be in the third movie with Eggsy and Harry, the three of them have such a good dynamic.

I felt like Merlins death in TGC should have been much more impactful. It seemed like an afterthought. After he died, his name was only mentioned 4 times. Eggsy said his name when he killed Charlie, Harry said his name and Rest In Peace, when explaining the heroin injection to Poppy. Whiskey said his name about putting pieces of him and Harry into a bucket, and lastly, that releasing the antidote was in Merlin’s honor. But emotionally, it didn’t feel like they felt his loss at all. They nodded their goodbyes, and then went dead in the eyes before they went after poppy’s men. That was the extent of it.

Merlin wasn’t recognized at all after the whole poppy ordeal. Not at the meeting at Statesman or at Eggsy’s wedding. I know they were planning on having Merlin survive the blast and be there when Eggsy got married, just with prosthetic legs. And at the last minute decided not to. I know Merlin and Ginger ale were supposed to kind of be into each other. We got a little of that with them working together. But that relationship was cut from the final version. As a result, it felt abrupt. We didn’t get her reaction when Merlin died. Or get their reaction when they found out that Whiskey had double crossed them.

Back to Kay and Roxy...

Let’s say Kay is ordered to take out Roxy. Kay actually begins to feel bad, begins to doubt herself, but is determined to stick to her plan. She is supposed to shoot Roxy and then join the rest of the Golden Circle bad guys to get the others.

As she points her gun at Roxy, Kay says something along the lines of “I’m sorry that this actually IS personal and it’s something that she has to do. For her family. For herself.”

To Kay’s surprise, Roxy is calm, collected and replies in understanding. Roxy can imagine how she is feeling, because if she lost her family like Kay did. If Eggsy, Merlin and Harry died, her own family now, she would feel the same way as Kay does. And she doesn’t blame her for wanting revenge. Roxy says simply, do what you need to do, so you can get over their deaths. I accept my fate. And closes her eyes.

Kay, switches off the safety and takes two shots at Roxy. Roxy flinches, but realizes that she is not dead. Kay has actually shot off her handcuffs that were binding Roxy to her chair. Roxy takes a moment to be impressed with Kay’s  sharp shooting skills.

Kay, feeling defeated and empty, tells Roxy to go. To hurry and find her friends and escape before the GC men return. Kay gives her the gun. Roxy is set to leave, but stops when she realizes that they will kill Kay when they realize that Kay didn’t kill Roxy, but instead set her free. She says so aloud to Kay.

Kay replies, “I know. It doesn’t matter anymore. I’d rather be with my family, anyway. Like you said, I accept my fate. Go. Now. Before it’s too late.”

Roxy hesitates before deciding. She asks Kay to come with her. That she truly doesn’t belong here. That she’s just lost and afraid. But that she doesn’t have to be alone.

Kay is taken aback at the offer and tells Roxy that Kay blew up Roxys headquarters and tried to kill them all and kidnapped her and was about to shoot her in the head. “I’m not the kind of person that you want to have around and I don’t think your friends will be to excited to see me again.”

Roxy says that it wasn’t really Kay, that it was TGC, that took advantage of her grief and skill. Kay is not a bad person. She’s just trying to deal with a bad set of circumstances, with bad company. Come with me. Instead.

Kay asks her how does she know that Kay is trustworthy. Roxy tosses her back the gun and says, I just do. Kay looks at the gun for a moment. Realizes she had nothing to lose, gives the gun back to Roxy and pulls a second one from behind her back. And tells Roxy “let’s go.”

Perhaps Kay can become a new agent to help fill all those they lost in the explosion. And Agent Tequila came to Kingsman to help as well AND because he likes Roxy.

So at the end of TGC, we have Harry, Eggsy, Roxy, and Merlin (he survived the blast. Excuse I wanted him to. RIP Agent Whiskey) and new agents Kay and Tequila. We have all of these characters for the 3rd instalment. How amazing would that be?

OK, NOW IM DONE. IF I WAS RICH I WOULD FUND THIS MOVIE JUST SO I COULD SEE IT. I’D PAY THEM (COLIN FIRTH) WHATEVER THEY WANTED SO THEY WOULD COME BACK (AND LOOK REALLY HOT AND SEXY IN A SUIT.)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE FOR THE NEXT/FINAL INSTALMENT OF KINGSMAN?



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#kingsman #kingsman the secret service #kingsmanthesecretservice #kingsman the golden circle #kingsmanthegoldencircle #kingsmanmovie #harry hart #harryhart #galahad #agent galahad #agentgalahad #fandom #fan fiction #fanfic #kingsmanfanfic #kingsman fan fiction #kingsmanfanfiction #hartwin #merlahad #roxy morton #merlin #eggsyunwin #moviereview #review #alternate universe #kingsmanAU

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket, SE02, Ep23

Love is in the air is the theme of this ep! All kinds of luv~ for everybody!~ kyo/tohru (main), yuki/machi(new!!), rin/haru(on going), Arisa/Kureno (dead-end?), hiro/kisa (babies to luvers...), hana/tohru/arisa (sisters love!) yuki/kakeru (friendship), momiji/tohru (cutest friendship!) kyo/haru (underrated friendship), hana/kyo/arisa (living to tease*torment* you friendship!XD), kyo/kazuma (parental love!), Haru/kisa (big brother care), yuki’s fanclub (toxic love), hana/food (OTP). What an ep!! One of a kind where you start off crying of laughter & end up crying from broken heart!

-Arisa’s second outburst:

The best thing abt this play is that you can’t tell if they’re following a script or not for the most part. XD, However, for some it IS clear when they bring in their personal feelings. Arisa was fine acting her role with improvised jokes on kyo’s expense. However, due to kyo’s refusal to meet the princess, she got angry to the point of screaming in front of the whole school & visitors? The outburst was treated seriously with climatic music, audience reaction, fellow actors surprise & narrator-san pointing out it IS personal & not scripted. But afterwards arisa is fine. Even though I’m not into love at first sight, I acknowledge it exists in fiction & in reality. No problem. But the extreme intensity of kureno/Arisa’s love is higher than everybody’s without enough basis from those two meetings they had before... Sure, she can fall in love with him, wish him to meet her.. but her outburst is too much, too painful, too heartbreaking. However if you look at her outburst as a plot device to get kureno involved once again & complicate things, bingo, you get why it was planted there. Momiji’s footage will reach him. cool. but too forced in my opinion.. everything abt their interaction is too forced, from her first outburst at his few words that got her to cry her heart out & leave the restaurant & get nearly kissed on the lips to her second outburst in front of the entire school. Arisa likes ppl who are tohru-like. The narrative hints that kureno is tohru-like. First, his clumsiness, second? being content with his unjust life? what is tohru-like abt him so far that gets arisa to scream her heart out? I’m sure we’ll see more of his tohru-like qualities. but so far, it comes across too forced for me.

-Machi SEES the real yuki:

It seems that the confirmation that any female is heading to yuki’s heart is to be bullied by yuki’s fans. lol.  Machi not seeing yuki as a prince is her unique thing. Everybody including tohru see him as a prince & put him in a pedestal. In the play yuki descended from the sky, emerged from underground, said deep lines & glowed. Yet, machi saw thro the acting. I was cheering for yuki to step in & put these toxic girls at their place. Machi can be saved by kakeru’s indirect plan, sure, but this toxic behavior has been going since ep1. tohru was saved from them by hana & arisa. Bullying is always used as a plot device in furuba & unfortunately a comedic gag (there’s an entire ep dedicated for the fanclub). Sure furuba isn’t going to fix every issue or even provide solutions. It can’t. it shouldn’t. bullying is one hell of hard issue to solve. furuba wants to use bullying for plot. no problem. but also decides to comment on it quickly? yuki & kakeru’s argument abt the proper reaction towards bullying with each one of them taking an opposite opinion while machi herself is being bullied behind them felt too philosophical & untimely. Only for all this to end with a gag. Yuki is stuck paying the consequence cuz they’re his fans?.. ok. I’d love if the entire scene didn’t involve this argument. For example, yuki finding the girls, him listening to machi’s opinion abt him, him about to step in & defend her, then kakeru makes a prank abt photo-session with yuki, unknowingly saving the situation. Cuz the whole point of the scene is for yuki to know machi is different & sees the real him! Not that I hate how things played out, it is just furuba’s treatment of the issue of bullying is always weird to me. Similar to its treatment of violence, sometimes it’s serious, sometimes it’s comedy.

-Tohru’s best visual presentation ( show-NOT-tell): YES!

I’ve complained plenty abt furuba not treating tohru with enough visual presentation when it comes to hints for her issues or thoughts. but NOT today! This ep is tohru’s heaven! Tohru was torn apart between too many things & she didn’t inner monologue abt anything, YET, the visual imagery was enough to talk in her behalf!!! They showed tohru’s reaction to arisa, they showed tohru noticing haru/rin connection, they showed tohru react to Hana’s words without showing any of her inner thoughts & it works 100%. I’m so satisfied with this kind of treatment. You can show tons of silent emotions & trust the audience to make the correct conclusions without making your character spoon feed the audience on what they’re feeling. Hana’s “ do you plan to keep on deceiving yourself, locked in the castle, until you die?” is too close for comfort! it triggered kyo to react & say exactly his reasoning behind his decision without bringing the real world “ So what if I do? Does it hurt anyone else?” Kyo is sick of believing that he’s causing harm to his loved ones (mother, father, kazuma, kyoko, tohru). He agrees to be locked till death cuz this way no one will be harmed. ONLY him. he thinks he DESERVE it for existing & causing harm to these same ppl. His response prompts tohru to forget herself & react. What did tohru say? ( you are loved? you need to live? don’t hurt yourself? ) NO. It is NOT abt kyo. it IS abt HER!!! It is the (true form ) scene again but this time symbolically with 10 times harsher consequences!!! kyo’s true form’s final scene is NOT abt kyo deciding to stay, it IS abt tohru saying what she wants. That day tohru talked abt HERSELF. “ I want to listen to your complaints cuz u listened to me”. “ I want us to stay together” By demanding things & acknowledging herself, she got kyo to come back. This time, too, she react cuz SHE wants kyo to stay. “ I wouldn’t..” It is ME. I’ll be hurt if you’re locked. it is abt ME. I need you. I want you. I’m too scared to loose you. You’ve been my true support for long time now. Don’t Leave me, too!!!. Tohru stops herself cuz tohru doesn’t allow herself to want things or even acknowledge that she is worthy of things!! Just focus on her dialogue with others “ if I’m not troubling you, it is forward of me, please allow me” she’s talking to her friends! tohru has the lowest self esteem in furuba!

-Kyo, being an expert on reading tohru, knew the rest of the line. Kyo notices she’s in love with him. but again sinners don;t deserve love! You can’t love monsters? you’ll end up hurt!! hello!! tohru bled in the true form ep. he can’t hurt her again!!! NO way!! Enough causing her pain & tears. “ I wont take anything away from you again” he said in ep, 9. So, kyo forces himself to NOT see the truth. Forces his eyes to close tight. He’s an expert on that. Last ep, his eyes were forced to open to the reality that he doesn’t really hate yuki, but hates himself. Now, you want him to un-hate himself a little & acknowledge tohru’s love? if he did, where will it lead to? they’ll both confess & live together without him telling her abt kyoko?? that’s deceit! Him telling her abt kyko? she won’t forgive him, she’ll hate him! it is better to leave with happy memories than leave after causing tohru harm. Heck! tohru forgiving him or not IS not the issue, at all. the issue is HIM. he can’t forgive himself. he’s unforgivable!

-The most tragic Foreshadowing: (Symbolism DONE Right!)

They meet after the semi-confession, things are not the same anymore! they try to awkwardly get back to normal. Kyo says “ it couldn’t be, (I won’t let my self think it)” we know why. tohru says “ I wont (let my self think it)” WHY?!!! what is the show hiding for tohru? we know kyo’s issue. it is the BEST untold issue!! but tohru? What is stopping her more than her denying herself? it gotta be convincing & deep. otherwise, the writer would ruin the best complicated emotional dilemma that she is building her climax on! I know I’ll like what’s in store for tohru. No way such writer will miss on this. This will be EPIC. The tear between them is one of furuba’s greatest visual symbolism. One image only causing enough heartache to balance & take away the laughter from the entire ep!! One image leaving you with a punch in the gut. leaving you frustrated as to “Nooooooo~ stop! get back together”. I’m not usually into romance as I’m not a romantic person, but furuba has weaved this tale of emotionally abused children with traumatic experiences & tied them together with faint romantic direction & one of the best slow burns in anime! steadily building up their romantic connection without making it forced or in your face or apparent. I still can’t pinpoint when it first happened! Well-done writer & anime team. 10/10 scene!

Side Notes:

Narrator-san is the BEST! He kept everybody in check! & did it in style!

I’d like to thank the director for bringing their A+ animators to this ep! Kyo mostly looks hot & handsome but not HD, but there’s this kyo animator that kills the kyo animation!! kyo’d have three long strands of hair on his nose & his eyes would have more light animation than the mono-light. You can TELL the eps they bring this animator on! (such as Se01,Ep5, kagura ep, etc. ) & tohru!!!! my girl was done right!!!! no weird animation, no extra small baby hands, no shoulders that start around chest area, no bangs that are drawn like they suddenly ran out of brown ink mid coloring! lol. yuki is pretty & HD in every ep & so is hana!!

Hana is the prettiest furuba character hands down! 

Let’s be honest, yuki could’ve said 1+1=2 & the school would’ve celebrated his wisdom! XD. I kinda wish he’d deliberately say sth stupid jst for the heck of it. part of breaking the perfect yuki image. XD.

The opening gag of the men ogling kisa is the most unnecessary scene in furuba, eww~ Not funny!

why is every character MUST be part of romantic couple in furuba? Even children? & they have their own mini love complications with jealousy & misunderstanding, pinning & all. lol

Kazuma. that’s it. that’s the note.

Hana was mocking fiction tropes (animosity in families, traditions pressuring youth, helpless heroine, love at first sight! XD, romance for romance, happily ever after romance, main male protagonist loving main female protg, magical beings saving the day). Best play ever!

why does it feel like kyo just came from war? XD. He was in last ep. perhaps cuz he was absent for most of the season after kagura’s ep, with cameos here & there, few lines & not much focus. But they made up for it & brought his face expressions game up! from annoyed, cat ears, love struck, teased, blushing, a white cartoon-ish cat with an orange cat inside his mouth, shirtless hot, childish jealousy for his papa, his fangs, his cat reflexes. Name it & you bet there’s a kyo face for it. XD.

Speaking of funny faces, prince yuki got one today! all thanks to machi. that’s what I call women power! XD.

What is this weird skin-colored thingi? school mascot?

I love that hiro is questioning the play. XD

momiji is back, I feel that it’s been long as I last saw him!

haru is hot. Haru is kind.

I love the small awkward tension between kyo/tohru as they met after the play, tohru’s faint sweat drops as she does her closed eyes smile & kyo’s sweat drop as he takes the food from her & talks abt shisho.

Shisho & kyo mini manga. is it published yet?

kyo & hana’s interactions are life!!!! XD.

Ayame deserves praise! costumes on point!!

Hana wins the one liners game. sorry haru, XD.

You know it is serious when kyo monologues! I used to think, it happens ONCE a season (ture form SE01,Ep24, akito confrontation, SE02,Ep,9)!! but he got one or two inner monologues lines today, if you count him repeating tohru’s line! Sh*t is going down! Will I hear more before the season ends???!! or will the honor goes to tohru?!! I can’t even imagine what’ll happen next!!!!

#Fruits Basket #Anime Only #excited paper #happy paper #SE02 #tohru honda #queen hanajima

[hirazuki]

Ooo I'm curious about your hot takes on the Inuyasha reboot after reading your tags 👀

Ahaha, where to start XD Idk if they are hot takes, but here are my thoughts in bullet point form for coherency, I couldn’t figure out how else to organize them. Under a cut, as usual, because it got lengthy... as usual :D

We are 13 episodes in, and I still have no idea wtf is going on or what the series is actually about. And yes, I’m aware that we didn’t know of Naraku’s existence or of the overarching plot until at least episode 16 of that series either and Inuyasha was still very episodic in nature at that early point too, but here’s the thing: Inuyasha did not build upon a pre-existing series. For better or for worse, Yashahime has certain expectations to live up to that the original anime didn’t, by virtue of its being a sequel. Unfair? Maybe, but tough; that’s what happens when you make a sequel. Additionally, despite us not knowing The Main Plot™ of Inuyasha until later, the basic framework for it was laid out clearly by... episode 2? I think? Find and collect the Shikon Jewel shards. Boom, done. Were there distractions or fillers? Sure, but you never got the sense that the characters simply up and forgot about the shards. Even in fillers, the shards often made some kind of appearance. With Yashahime, there’s like three potential storylines going on: 1. The most obvious: most of our main cast from the OG is missing; where are they? Apparently no one in-story cares! :D Inuyasha, who’s that lol. I’m all for a sequel focusing on the new generation with cameos of the old crew; after all, they already had their own series. But this is like... no one cares about them? No one talks about them? And the more characters go about not mentioning them, the stronger their absence is felt. Like, for instance, Kaede knows Moroha is InuKag’s daughter. Moroha grew up on her own, doesn’t know her parents. Kaede doesn’t mention them to Moroha, doesn’t even spare a passing thought about them for the audience’s benefit, Moroha doesn’t ask. Kagome’s family in the present day meet Moroha, recognize her as Kagome’s daughter and... say nothing??? Souta shows Towa Kagome and Inuyasha’s old photos, but doesn’t say a word to Moroha?! Like. It makes no sense. By people not even acknowledging their existence, it makes the fact that they are nowhere to be found even weirder. Also the new gen girls don’t care about their parents or finding out who they were/are... like, okay, it would maybe be in character for one or two of them, but all three don’t give a fuck??? 2. Kirinmaru/the rainbow pearls: Idk how familiar you are with the story, but similar deal with Naraku and the shards here. Kirinmaru is being set up as the villain, still a mysterious figure; our new gen trio is supposed to collect the rainbow pearls that... some of his henchmen have? Or he is after them? Or is that Riku? Unclear. ANYWAY the new gen girls often forget all about the pearls’ existence :D 3. Setsuna’s memories: Setsuna’s dreams have been stolen by the dream butterfly and they need to get them back, because without her dreams she has no memories and is unable to sleep. Cool! Finally a solid, easy-to-follow plot line! Except wait! Towa, who supposedly made it her goal to get Setsuna’s sleep back, forgets all about it! All the time! Like, none of them make an effort to look into this other than being like “oh yeah, know anything about the dream butterfly?” to random folks every now and then. The Inugang back in the day was putting some grad school level research towards their goals, just saying. It just feels like everything’s all wishy-washy and there’s nothing really solid tying the series together. People just remember shit exists when it’s convenient.

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Character development is MIA. I’m not expecting ground-breaking char dev in 13 episodes (though I do know 12 episode series that were phenomenal in that regard), but like... I do expect the series to focus on building the dynamics between the main three characters. So far, the series is more focused on teasing the audience with glimpses and promises of the OG cast instead. The creators are using nostalgia and bait (esp of a certain pairing) to drive interest in the series, rather than developing the new characters as fully-fledged characters for their own sakes. 

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Moroha is was the only thing I actually liked about the series. She is a little spitfire and you can somehow instantly see both Inuyasha and Kagome in her, while she also remains very uniquely herself; I have never seen such a successfully developed main pairing child in any series. She featured quite prominently in the first few episodes -- and unlike both her parents, she’s got a great memory and knowledge of lore -- where she balanced funny moments with badass fighting moments and being the token supernatural encyclopedia. It was great! And then... they’ve like... forgotten her. She’s been left behind so many times by the twins. She’s the butt of every joke. She’s become the type of comic relief that’s, well, insulting. More like a buffoon than anything else. And it’s basically all for the sake of giving the floor to Towa :/

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Setsuna is okay. Not offensive, but unremarkable. She’s got her dad’s personality but like way toned down due to her different growing up circumstances, which is nice, but like... I feel she isn’t given any room to grow or breathe or anything. She’s also basically there as a device to enhance Towa’s development.

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Towa... oy. I tried to like her, I really did, but she just doesn’t work for me. They set her up having a very Kurosaki Ichigo type deal with beating up bullies and getting into trouble at school and shit -- I’m fine with that. That’s cool. Esp if it’s linked to not feeling like she fits in bc she’s a hanyou? Awesome. Except once she travels back in time to the feudal era it’s all “Oh killing is bad you shouldn’t kill people” and “even though they attacked me I can’t possibly hurt them” and “you need to empathize and talk things out” and “friendship is magic” and shit. It feels like she had a personality transplant, it literally makes no sense. Her design is totally nonsensical too -- out of everyone at her school, she’s the only one dressed in a bright white suit? Do protags not wear the school uniform? Someone should tell Kagome lmao. She’s a pro at hand to hand, and she can absorb demons’ powers and fling them back at them like a personified Tessaiga, and she has a lightsaber sword, and she’s immune to miasma, and -- like... you get it. It’s too much. It’s way too OP for the type of universe that Inuyasha/Yashahime is set in. She’s hanyou for fuck’s sake; remember all the training Inuyasha had to go through? When he couldn’t lift his sword? When his sword attacked him? Sango, Miroku, Kagome, even Sesshomaru all had trouble with their weapons and had to work to become stronger. But Towa? Nope. Towa is straight out of the Yas Queen/Girl Boss manual, so she gets a free pass on everything.

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UGH they are doing the VLD/bad writing thing where things happen (like, BIG THINGS) and none of the characters actually react to them. Or stuff happens and there are no consequences. No one ever talks about anything. It’s wild.

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Everyone has amnesia!! :D People either don’t know or don’t remember anything or anyone. People who absolutely should know things all of a sudden magically don’t know them. Like, Kohaku -- traveled with an undead priestess, spent years in the company of demons, traveled with Sesshomaru... and yet had NO CLUE that Setsuna is Sesshomaru’s daughter or that she is hanyou, despite her living and working with his team of demon slayers all this time. Like... how, man. How. And Kaede! Don’t get me started. Since when does she perpetuate random demon-boogeyman type stories as facts? Demon children will kill each other in the nest so that only the strongest one will survive, therefore Setsuna must have killed Towa when they were infants. O_O What are they, sharks? Has she been hanging out with Kisame? Wtf?? And she’s speaking about Sess’s kids as though she doesn’t know him or anything about him, when she has had Rin under her roof all these years. It just makes. no. sense.

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Things that happened in the original series are happening again now! Because that’s the best we’ve got, recycled plot elements wooo! No, but really, characters that died or things that were resolved in Inuyasha keep coming back. Why? What was the purpose of bringing back Kinka and Ginka? To have a foil for Towa and Setsuna as twins? Someone please tell Sunrise they can just create new characters. Like, it’s one thing to have call backs to the original or cameos, references, whatever. But like... this is entire (dead) characters and interactions.

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No one knows how long it’s been since the original series ended. Fans initially heard 20 years from promo material, then “over 15″ and “10 years since” in-series regarding two different events, and now in a future episode summary we’ve gotten 18 years since Hosenki II gave Inuyasha the black pearl. But like, which black pearl? Because the one in Inuyasha’s eye doesn’t exist anymore, but Hosenki II had told Inuyasha that it would take 100 years for him to produce one. So, are we retconning that or where the fuck did it come from? Also, this doesn’t help one bit, it just confuses things even more. Back to the point, though, we have no coherent timeline or real frame of reference whatsoever, and I’m betting it’s in large part to keep the mystery of who is Sesshomaru’s wife going, as it keeps Rin’s age very vague. Everything is vague and mysterious in Yashahime, to the point where no one knows what’s going on, in fandom or in-story even. It’s kinda like how too much plot twist/shock reveal ruins a story, too much mystery does the same. It’s insane that both shippers and antis of that ship can lay equal claim that the “18 years since” announcement works in their favor.

tl;dr: Idk man, Yashahime is a clusterfuck of a series. Even if the mother of Sess’s twins is either of the characters I ship him with, I will still not like the series. There’s no saving this writing. Every episode feels like this:

#baked-hylian #i've been wanting to rant for a while about this series thanks for enabling me! :D #i'm actually not upset about this sequel which is amazing; i thought for sure it would impact my love for the OG but nope! #it is so wild and out there that my brain literally cannot comprehend it as part of the same material #i'm just watching it out of the kind of morbid curiosity you'd watch a horrifying experiment with #and watching the fandom drama too ofc #popcorn in hand #so it's a win-win all around ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #talk: yh

[class1akids]

would you care to shed some light on your take for the provisional license exams???

Sure. I think it was a hot mess with some good moments that in the end failed to deliver a consistent message.

It seems that the arc narratively had to achieve the following things: 

make Bakugou fail, so his fall from top applicant to rock bottom of the class can be complete, making him ripe to explode in Deku vs. Kacchan 2 and give a huge turning point to his character;

show how Todoroki was not over the whole Endeavor-thing to set up the Pro Hero / Endeavor redemption arc;

take both Bakugou and Todoroki fully out of the picture for the Overhaul arc, so it can concentrate on the Mirio vs. Deku comparison with regard to the “who was the best OFA-candidate?” question;

put Bakugou and Todoroki in a situation where they grow closer from the antagonistic relationship the Sports Festival left them in; if Horikoshi was already planning ahead to the Endeavor agency arc and beyond. 

So the exam had to be designed in a way where the weaknesses of these two would be their downfall, while nobody else gets caught up in the net. 

So in-story, the exam had two stated, main objectives:

Part 1 -  Select the 100 candidates with the best potential (because the streets are saturated with mediocre heroes) - quality over quantity.

Part 2 - See how these candidates do in rescue-under-pressure situation and fail them if they make too many mistakes.

So let’s look at Part 1:

The exam is designed with the three balls in a way that you have to be the last one to tag someone to pass. While this honestly feels like an everyone-for-themselves kind of situation, the narrative tries to push how teaming up is the way to go, to the point that many schools seem to come with pre-cooked strategies to target specifically Yueei students. 

Except it doesn’t make sense - there is a time pressure; you have to be in the first 100, which is pretty crap for team cohesion when it’s situations like this one:

A team of ten going after one single student known to be one of the strongest hero-candidates in the country? Why waste their time instead of pick on someone weaker? If they managed to corner Todoroki, which of that team would have gotten the pass? The leader? Why would the other nine follow him? Are they all that dumb?

Same with Momo and the Seiai students. Why waste time playing tea-house when Momo’s team was only 4 people? It didn’t seem very intelligent for a girl whose quirk was literally super-intelligence to come up with this plan??

Then we have Inasa who single-handedly eliminates 120 people, because - plot??? Also, those people are either total morons for not hitting the ground protecting their targets or it was impossible to evade, in which case, wasn’t there a single good candidate among the 120, who just got really unlucky?

Then, the exam is designed to favour students with a stealth quirk - how the hell is Tooru not one of the first ones to pass?

Finally, a lot of the Class1a seem to pass because Iida refused to pass until all his classmates got through. It shows how selfless Iida is, how insanely seriously he takes his class-rep responsibilities - but it doesn’t in any way imply that people like Aoyama have proven that they have what it takes to make it on their own out there, let alone to be in the top 100.

These are just a couple of examples - but it shows that Part 1 of the exam in no way selected the best 100 candidates - though some of the best candidates did make it to the second phase, pulling with them the people they cared about regardless of their individual potential.

That takes us to Part 2:

So here, the students are graded on their mistakes solely, but not at all on their positive contributions. 

The rescue part supposedly looks at things like:

How well they can triage

How effectively they can get people out from under rubble

How well they can connect with the victims to make them cooperate.

OK, so let’s not get into how Deku gets told by the first victim how the test is graded and what he should look out for, because that feels just like massive cheating to start with.

Let’s look at other things:

Uraraka almost collapsing a building because she goes in all gung-ho gets no consequences, because Momo is there to warn her. So Uraraka has great potential as a hero, as long as she’ll always tag along next to Momo or someone else sensible and listens to her?

Bakugou gets down-graded into oblivion for being a rude asshole (rightly so), but Kirishima and Kaminari who visibly get by on Bakugou’s impeccable triage skills get no negative consequence for not being able to make the right decisions by themselves. They’ll be fine out on the field, because surely Bakugou will always tell them what to do (oh, except he won’t be there, because he failed…) as long as they are nice…

Then comes the part where the exam raises the stakes by putting the “villains” in the mix, seemingly trying to measure if students will make the right call about fight vs save. 

Except the students fighting Orca are basically Todoroki and Inasa (with a bit of help from Midoriya here and there)… They hold Orca and his gang back until the very end of the exam, even after their own chances of passing the exam are gone. Again, the rest of the students are not tested on their own skills to see what they would do under villain attack, they pass on the backs of the people who took the biggest risks and who will not be there out on the field, because they failed.

To me, it really felt like the exam was designed to reward mediocrity over excellence. Although, although it fits in with the hero-spirit demonstrated during the sludge villain incident, where the pros stood around waiting for someone with the right quirk.

It somehow managed to target very specifically the weaknesses of some of the students with the greatest potential, but never managed to target other student’s well-known weaknesses, like Aoyama’s cowardice, Grape-boy panicking under pressure, Kirishima running into the fray without thinking things through, etc and it’s not because we have seen those students outgrew those weaknesses (they haven’t) - but because….plot. 

On Bakugou specifically:

In the first part of the exam, we see his character development - how he looked out for Kirishima and Kaminari, telling us he’s overcome at least part of his own selfishness (although illogically in the part of the exam, that was designed to play into his natural strength - to look out for himself only and pass as fast as he can).

Then in the second part, we see very little of him, other than yelling at the first people he encountered - but for example, we don’t know if he lost points for not going after Orca. 

But fine, despite development, he’s still an asshole and only respects his peers and not the victims, so he deserves to fail. 

As for Todoroki:

Narratively, he doesn’t need to be put in his place. He’s a good students, great skill, power, judgement, true hero heart which we saw in action in the Stain or the Kamino arcs. So it feels really a stretch for him to run into the one single thing in the exam that would make him lose his cool. 

And Inasa doesn’t feel like a real character, but really a plot-device designed to push Todoroki’s buttons specifically. 

He’s a cheerful, friendly character, who somehow has been so scarred for life by a one-minute interaction with Endeavor a decade ago that upon running into his son at the UA entrance exam (where Todoroki wasn’t even that bad???), he simply forgoes going to the best school because he can’t stomach the possibility of being together with Shouto??? OK, whatever.

Then he goes out of his way during a high-stakes exam to push Todoroki?

While other people are saved by the power of friendship / team around them, somehow it’s the one time none of Shouto’s friends intervene until it’s too late??

Nothing about this plot makes sense, other than Horikoshi really wanted Shouto to fail. 

So at the end of the exam, we have the entire Class 1A and 1B pass. So, apparently by the parameters of the exam, everyone is ready to be unleashed on the streets as heroes other than Bakugou and Todoroki. Nobody other than them have any shortcomings to correct. Right. Sorry if I’m not buying it.

Sure, there were a couple of students who really excelled like Midoriya, Momo and Iida, but it’s really hard to believe that all the others passed on their merits alone, proving that they are ready to be heroes and have no weaknesses, while what we saw was them getting lucky (like Uraraka) or being pulled along by others (basically half the class in part 1 of the exam) often.

In the end, it doesn’t matter of course, because the only ones who will get to do anything with their licenses are Deku, Kirishima, Uraraka and Tsuyu (and Tokoyami is out there, but not involved in the Overhaul- plot). While other students who showed much better potential at the exams, like Momo or Iida don’t get anything out of passing it so well - there is no correlation between their performance at the exam and their hero debut. (I mean Momo helped both Tsuyu and Uraraka pass, and yet she doesn’t get a work-study and a hero debut, but the other two do???)

So, it wouldn’t have made a narrative difference to have others fail too - but Horikoshi didn’t just want Bakugou and Todoroki to fail, but he wanted them to fail as badly as possible, to be as humiliated as they can be - to get that desperate explosion out of Bakugou (and unfortunately, it feels that Todoroki is more collateral damage in this, because there is absolutely no narrative reason to push him down so badly).

Like, was this supposed to be funny??? Because I could cry rage-tears any time I see this. Also, great demonstration of your newly-minted hero license, asshole! I’m so convinced you deserved it.

All these things make it that it doesn’t feel real - the exam just feels like a giant plot device serving the goal of making Deku’s biggest rivals fail. 

In the end, the only thing I really agree with the Hero Commission on is this:

Yep, from what we saw, some of the best potential is among the failed students (Todoroki, Bakugou, Inasa even) - which just tells me how spectacularly the Hero Commission failed in designing this exam to really select the best candidates.

TL; DR: The exam was badly designed that was completely illogical in order to achieve its stated goals. It was instead plot device after plot device to achieve the narrative goal of having Bakugou and Todoroki fail in the worst way possible to set up future arcs targeting their very specific weaknesses, while failing to identify anyone else’s shortcomings. It rewarded mediocrity over excellence. The internal logic of the exam didn’t justify this outcome. 

Though, there is good coming out of this. The Remedial arc is really good and the TodoBaku friendship that grows out of this makes up somewhat for this mess. 

Meta masterlist

#bnha #bnha meta #bakugou katsuki #todoroki shouto #yoarashi inasa #provisional licence exam arc #class 1a #i don't like this arc #it felt very messy #without a clear point to make

[rowanthestrange]

Doctor Who Meta: Cyberium AI Meta Masterpost

@grassangel​ said: A thought for you because of your meta: the Cyberium as the fluid in the opening credits.

It definitely does have a resemblance, doesn’t it. And that fits in with the Chibs style of ‘if you think it’s odd/wrong it probably serves a bigger purpose’.

The Cyberium AI is weird as hell. It’s clearly really important, not just as a plot device, but as itself. It’s got characterisation. It’s got a mirror important enough to be in the first episode - Tzim-Sha’s Gathering Coil, the first thing this Doctor ever faces.

And it mirrors the Doctor and Timeless Child’s ‘Power’. I mean it really mirrors them. To the point where, like with the Lone Cyberman and Rassilon, I’m not sure if it’s mirroring the character ridiculously heavily, or if it just straight up is the character. Just like working out Clara was going to be the Doctor with a TARDIS - I knew the result but I didn’t know what form it would take, literally the character or not, until the end. Cus that’s Doctor Who and its shapeshifting for you.

You know how my preferred method is to just point out all the metas as I see them, so you can draw your own conclusions if they’re different to mine, but I will actually put my thoughts as to what this all means at the end.

So click below for every bit of Cyberium AI meta from not just Series 12, not even just Series 11...but all the way back to Season 25)

(Under a cut because there was so much more than I thought there was)

In episode order then:

The Woman Who Fell To Earth

(The Gathering Coil as double-layer, mirroring the Cyberium AI’s role itself; but also therefore as its Doctor character mirror, and Timeless Child ‘Power’ mirror)

-See the title of the episode. The title with at least three references now.

-It crashes into a train when we meet it. A few moments before the Doctor does.

-“What are you? Okay, you don't like questions. More the private type, I get that.”

-Its data is absorbed into the Rassilon-mirror Tzim-Sha.

-In doing so also implants into him - and I quote the Doctor - “Micro-implants which code to your DNA. On detonation, they disrupt the foundation of your genetic code, melting your DNA.” Sound familiar?

-It’s being used - against the laws of the user’s species - in order to attain leadership. (Like Rassilon/Tecteun)

-Looks like one creature but is actually a huge number in the appearance of one. (The Doctor).

-The Gathering Coil might look like an Eldritch horror, but it never actually kills anyone on purpose. When it first shows up, the woman driving the train dies from shock, (“Shock” get it? Like...) Grace dies in an attempt to stop it by electrocuting it. The most damage it itself deliberately does, is short-circuit a crane.

----

The Haunting Of Villa Diodatti:

(Heavily as Timeless Child ‘Power’ mirror(?))

-The Lone Cyberman confirms the Cyberium AI to be both a lifeform and ‘weapon of some kind’. Like the Ux.

-We meet it already inside Doctor-mirror Percy Shelley - suicidal, social activist, and a great believer in the importance of society having Hope even if not so good at it himself. He is not trying to use its powers, but as Guardian of them doesn’t want others to take and abuse them. The word ‘Guard’ is also used by Mary in regards to the child. (And we could leave this episode and say how Irish Metaphor Doctor was a ‘Garda’ but you get the point).

-It hides in a house that appears to warp and change and shield and use a perception filter - theorised to be the Cyberium AI warping the perceptions of people in the building, even though none of them are remotely Cyber in any way. Shelley says directly only some of the changing is his doing. On a practical level, it must have strong telepathic abilities - like the Doctor. On a meta level, it hides itself in a place that mirrors a TARDIS.

-The Doctor can’t find it at first because it’s “hidden away, cloaked, too big to register.” Like the Timeless Child memories.

-The Doctor seemingly genuinely didn’t know what it was a minute ago, when she was asking Ashad what it was. But now suddenly she does know: “Cyber technology. The knowledge of the whole cyber race and AI from the future, containing the knowledge and future history of all Cybermen”. Almost as if she’s remembered.

-This next bit’s important and connected so we’ll just do the whole lot and break it up afterwards:

Percy: “They scorched and split the sky. Built the army of all armies. Left behind only pain, rage, fear and death.” Mary: “How is he seeing all this?” The Doctor: “The Cyberium is burning through his mind. It'll destroy him if it stays in him much longer. An epic battle. The Cyberium at the heart of it, controlling data, strategy, decision-making. Clever! Very clever. Someone took it from the Cybermen, sent it back through time here in an attempt to change the future.” *The Lone Cyberman tries to break in* The Doctor: “In an attempt to protect you from that.”

-Like Donna with the Doctor’s memories, this is burning Percy up. -An epic Battle, like with the Ux - a great battle referenced and not explained. The Cyberium AI instead of the Ux at the heart of it, used to fight it. (If anyone’s still assuming the Timeless Child(ren) thing was simply about regeneration power, there should be more focus on the Division and the Child as weapon). -The Doctor again coming in with extra information. -Possible Future Meta: Someone attempted to change the future by taking the source of power from the Rassilon (see the mirror).

-Thirteen tells the Doctor-mirror to just let the Rassilon-mirror have the power. (Reminds me of how the Timeless Child ‘would not yield any secrets’). But the Cyberium AI has been sending Shelley (Doctor-mirror) symbols and numbers. So Possible Future Meta: It wasn’t just the regeneration power Rassilon got from the Timeless Child, it was also information. (Of course - the Doctor, especially this one meant to mirror all this, is the Builder And Destroyer, after all)

-We confirm the Cyberium AI’s own sentience, separate from its host, (and its reluctance to leave). It changes the mental map of the house specifically to avoid the Lone Cyberman.

-The Lone Cyberman believes the host must be killed in order to get the power out. Mary Shelley immediately talks to the Lone Cyberman about fatherhood, and how he doesn’t want to do this. (Rassilon/Tecteun)

-The Doctor convinces the Cyberium AI to leave by showing it Percy’s future. (The mercury-like substance exits Percy quite like the poison with Ten. Given the amount of Ten-era-mirroring, this one’s cute).  (Possible Future Meta: The Doctor meeting Timeless Child self, like with Martin!Doctor).

-The Cyberium AI goes to the Doctor, who calls herself its “true Guardian”. Says it feels “Very at home”. Going with how she seemed to remember what it was without ever being told earlier...

-The Doctor, when her friends and the planet is at risk, decides to give it over the the Lone Cyberman, and the Cyberium works with her in a way it refused to with Shelley, meaning she didn’t need to die, even though she says it had already started fusing.

-Next after the Doctor-mirror/Doctor, the power enters the Rassilon-mirror.

-(Yaz restarts the Doctor-mirror’s heart. That’s not important to this meta, but it sure is important to other ones).

-We talk about ghosts just as we enter the Ghost Monument.

----

Ascension Of The Cybermen:

(Both as Doctor mirror and Timeless Child Power mirror)

-Cyberium!Ashad says “The Cyberium does know you. Both you and humanity will be destroyed, and I shall bring the Cyber race to its greatest ever glory.” - the Cyberium AI has already seen the Doctor’s death before. Or it’s lying.

-The Doctor’s blatantly obvious talking-to-herself therapy speech is to Cyberium!Ashad.

“The Cyberium has given me understanding. It has distilled my purpose. I am the perfect vessel.” - A container, a ship for the Cyberium AI.

“Everything is in me for the ascension of the Cybermen, and beyond. ... All your deaths. The death of everything is within me.” - First, mirrors the ‘life’ within the Timeless Child. Second, considering before this was previously an AI trying to avoid conflict and entering Ashad, the fact that Ashad and his death particle gets convinced to go to the Master and Gallifrey, makes me wonder how much the Cyberium AI was forced to go along because that’s its nature and it has to follow instructions, or whether it was planning and pulling the strings. Or both - TARDIS-style.

----

The Timeless Children:

(Heavily as Doctor mirror, minorly Timeless Child Power mirror)

-“Oh. Oop. Excuse me. Check my notifications. Oh, goodie! The Cybermen are here, at the Boundary. Better extend the hand of friendship. Breaker 1-2 calling all Cybes.” So the Master knew that the Cybermen would come. How? They haven’t interacted from our perspective at all.

-The Master says to Cyberium!Ashad “I want you to think of me as your new best friend.”

-Master to the Doctor: “Don't heckle, dear. I can always decide to cut you short.” -Master to Cyberium!Ashad: “Oh, shoot. I should've said, somebody needs to cut you down to size, then zapped you. I was just trigger-happy. I'll use it next time.” (Plus, a ‘next time’ - we haven’t seen the last of him).

-The Cyberium AI is revealed to have been the one to create the Death Particle. Which again makes me question who’s pulling whose strings. As the Master points out Ashad is more organic than most, and Ashad simply says that he’ll mechanise when the process is over - ignoring the point that this didn’t work before. And Ashad seems to think it will wipe out everything, ignoring the reality that its coverage is only a single planet.

-The Master is clearly talking to the Cyberium more than Ashad at points.

Ashad: “The Cyberium will process and dictate the strategy.” The Master: “The Cyberium. I've heard a lot about that over the millennia. The heart of all your power. The centre of all Cyber knowledge.” -Sounds very like the other Timeless Child(ren) mirror - the Ux.

-The Master actively flirts with it. “Oh, come on, Cyberium, show us some leg. What do you actually look like, hmm?” And after shrinking Ashad without so much as a close-up, like he’s been nothing to the plot, “Well, aren't you pretty? And fast. You made your exit very swiftly there. Worried, were you?”

-The Master hoped the Death Particle would activate and laments to the Cyberium AI that his “nice little gamble” didn’t pay off - as in it didn’t kill him. (Assuming Timeless Children plural, that may be the only thing that would work, and that he is telling this to the Cyberium AI again could fit nicely with the narrative idea that it knows what it’s doing).

-“Oh, sorry, were you close? Candidly, I think you can do better.” ... “Wow, that was quick. Wa-ha-ha! Whoa! Woohoo! At least buy me... dinner!” - (And considering we all had a giggle at the clearly intentionally funny ‘a piece of you is in me’ line that’s going to happen either in about a minute, or in the world of the episode and making adjustments for simultaneous storytelling, right now...)

-“I ransacked the Matrix of the Time Lords, distilled all the knowledge, all the experiences, all the discoveries, into these brains up here. All the Cyber knowledge, all the Time Lord knowledge. Put it together, what do you get? Absolute supremacy in the universe. Choose me.” - (The Master pointing out we’ve now got two sets of incredible knowledge. Rule of three has me wondering about the Timeless Child’s ‘Knowledge’.)

-After the power was originally in the Doctor-mirror/Doctor, it then went to the Rassilon-mirror(?) and then to the Master. If you’re a fan of Timeless Children Plural theory.

-The Master: “No, Doctor. As of now, I wish my enemies a long and healthy life, so they may witness my many triumphs, because they will be legion.” - (So, in case you’re not familiar with the Legion thing, two points: A Legion was a division in the Roman army of about 3000-6000 men. We will be coming back to Rome - oh God will we - but just slot that information away for later. Point two - For another use of Legion, we need to head to the Bible, Mark 5:1-9. ‘Who cares, Rowan?’ Well, this is the story in which there is a man living among tombs, who no-one can bind, not even with chains. He cries out and attacks himself, and on seeing Jesus in the distance rushes over and kneels before him, screaming that he’d put him under oath not to torment him. Jesus doesn’t talk to him, but to what is possessing him, ordering it to come out, and asking its name. And it, not the man replies: “I am Legion, for we are many.” (Fun fact, we eventually get rid of the demons by exorcising them into animals who then run off...a...cliff. *sighs* Ok.)

The Doctor: “You're looking peaky.” The Master: “Oh, yeah. The Cyberium lives in me now, Doctor. Yeah. Yes. See, I've been looking forward to seeing your face about that. I can feel it flowing around in me. The information, the strategy, the... the... the consciousness. It's a beautiful thing. And look at us. I have broken you and created a new race. And now? Now I shall conquer... everything. Oh.”

-“See, I've been looking forward to seeing your face about that.” - This is a quiet point that exemplifies a major one. The Master’s story is different to ours. He knows things that we do not. The Doctor in theory (though I doubt in practice) had never come across the Cyberium AI before, she hasn’t mentioned its name or anything about it to the Master. In theory (again press x) the Lone Cyberman carrying the Cyberium AI just turned up when the Master dragged the Doctor through to Gallifrey as pure happenstance, he should know nothing about that incident with the AI and Shelley (and yet he quotes him). Why has he been looking forward to seeing her face in regards to that? What does he know about it that he expects her to remember? Just like with the Timeless Child infodump, we are fools if we take all this at face value, because the Master planned for all of this. And it seems like the Cyberium AI _itself_ is planning too.

Ko Sharmus: “You didn't start this. I did. I was part of a resistance unit that sent the Cyberium back through time and space. Though obviously we didn't send it back far enough. So this is my penance. Mine to finish. My journey ends here. But the universe still needs you, so I suggest you run.” (Ko Sharmus is treated way too important. We’ve got to see him again.)

----

Done? Done.

Well no, no actually we’re not. Because there is one final episode.

But we have to go back, just a little bit, to the Seventh Doctor. Stick with me. I promise you’ll be glad you did.

Silver Nemesis:

-A story revolving around a thing called Validium.

-To quote the TARDIS Wiki: “It was living metal that could think for itself and was capable of speech as well. When destroyed, it could reform itself.”

The Doctor: “Validium was created as the ultimate defence for Gallifrey, back in early times.” Ace: “Created by Omega?” The Doctor: “Yes.” Ace: “And?” The Doctor: “Rassilon.” Ace: “And?” The Doctor: “And none of it should have left Gallifrey. But, as always with these things, some of it did.”

-Catch that hint of the Cartmel Masterplan where it’s clearly meant to lead you to ‘And? The Other One’. It’s ok, you’re not reading too far into it, I promise.

-“It should never have left Gallifrey, but some of it did. A piece of validium fell to Earth and was found by the Lady Peinforte.” Can you guess what she did with it? Why, she moulded it into a statue of herself.

-A silver lady statue.

-(You remember how we just seemed to abandon Barton? Who is somewhat not human? Was involved with creatures from another dimension? And that statue? Seemed set-up for a cyber plan? Saw nothing wrong with a bit of familial murder? Ooh hoo. Welp.)

-Nazis are involved. Ill-timed notifications. The Doctor forgetting. A cellar. (A fez). A meteorite containing the validium crashes by a barn. On November the 23rd. Happy Birthday. We blow things up. A lot of things.

-The villains of the piece? Besides the nazis and the Time(travelling) Lady? Well it could only be the Cybermen. A bit of the Validium is held by each of them

-The Cybermen take their bit of the Validium to the tomb of the Lady, with an inscription “Death Is But A Door”. The Lady is not buried there, and it doubles as a pun, with a hidden door.

-One of the lead nazis betrays his fellow to be turned into a Cyberman. “Supermen are all very well, but the giants are the master race.”

-The Seventh Doctor is mirrored with the Lady, who describes herself as evil. They even have mirrored scenes with their equivalent companions.

-The Lady: “All power, all power past, present and future, shall be mine. Why, I shall be mistress of all of that is, all that shall be, all that ever was. Yes, all! All!” - Oh, doesn’t she sound familiar now...

-Point Of Interest: Like many of the concepts Chibs has been playing with from Classic Who - the Morbius Doctors, almost certainly the Valeyard - this was apparently a fairly controversial episode among the old guard. Why? Because well...

The Validium: “I am beautiful, am I not?” Ace: “Yes. You're very beautiful.” The Validium: “It is only my present form. I have had others which would horrify you. I shall have those again. You are surprised I speak?” Ace: “I know you're living metal.” The Validium: “I am whatever I am made to be. This time Lady Peinforte called me Nemesis, so I am retribution.”

-I mean this is all cute but it doesn’t explain why it’s here and-

The Validium: “And I'm to destroy the entire Cyberfleet?” The Doctor: “Forever.” The Validium: “And then?” The Doctor: “Reform.” The Validium: “You might need me in the future, then?” The Doctor: “I hope not.” The Validium: “That is what you said before.” The Doctor: “Enough.” The Validium: “And after this, will I have my freedom?” The Doctor: “Not yet.” The Validium: “When?” The Doctor: “I told you when.” The Doctor: “Things are still imperfect.”

-Oh well that’s...Hmm.

Lady Peinforte: “You are nothing. Only the Doctor matters, and he is but a pawn in the game of my making.” ... Ace: “The Doctor's not just going to give you the bow. Tell her, Doctor. Tell her.” Lady Peinforte: “Doctor who? Have you never wondered where he came from, who he is?” Ace: “Nobody knows who the Doctor is.” Lady Peinforte: “Except me.” Ace: “How?” Lady Peinforte: “The statue told me.” Ace: “All right, so what does it matter? He's a Time Lord, I know that.” Lady Peinforte: “Well, Doctor?” The Doctor: “If I give you the bow,” Lady Peinforte: “Your power becomes mine, but your secrets remain your own.” ... Lady Peinforte: “I shall tell them of Gallifrey, tell them of the old time, the time of chaos.” ... The Doctor: “You had the right game, but the wrong pawn. Check.”

-What used to be the Cartmell Master plan is now the Timeless Child Master...plan- Is this why it’s involving the Master? For a pun? Whatever, either way the Seventh Doctor is now a treasure trove of useful ideas - I did wonder why Chibs chose Ace in particular as the companion who should get a ‘Thirteen meeting them again’ book - trying to lure people in for a second look, clearly.

-So what happens in the story? In the Timeless Child, the Master ends up absorbing the Cyberium. In Silver Nemesis, the Validium absorbs our Lady Mistress Of All. How neat.

-The Doctor ‘wins’ by giving the Validium the Cyberleader’s instructions, confirming it understood them, and then the Cybermen let it fly off to their fleet. Which then blows up. Because it chose to disobey them. (As he knew it would).

-The Validium is left floating in space, until the Doctor calls on it again. I’m not saying this relates to opening titles full of goop, but I’m not saying it doesn’t either.

So. That’s a lot. While I would usually doubt the Validium would literally be the Cyberium, and that it would be for fans to join together as they wished or not... Honestly, given the use of lore in Chibs Who, I don’t actually feel certain of that anymore.

But either way, there’s your meta masterpost, you can commence your theorising now.

****

I know no-one comes to these things for my stupid conclusions, but in case you did, here’s a couple of my very disparate fever-brained thoughts, that I’m too ill to put together more...smartly, and might have to come back to if you’re ever going to actually see this post:

-The Doctor/The Other/The Timeless Child had a hand in the weaponisation of the Cyberium AI (forced/cajoled/whatever).

-The Time Lord empire, in at least one version of reality, is inextricably linked to the Cybermen empire, with the Cybermen showing similar levels of technology to Time Lords (a cyber carrier ‘more advanced’ than very far future humans have ever seen - “Coming out of vortex now”, implies it has time vortex travel. And “That’s my home planet - that's Gallifrey”. Immediately the image cuts to Cyberman, then straight back.)

-The Timeless Child was chosen as a vessel to save some form of living knowledge, rather than just being a mystical alien.

-((My nuttiest guess that is only 30% meta and 70% gut feel is it’s a TARDIS-kind, probably our own, which stayed with them because they carried her, and now she carries them. That concept, the little links we’re seeing with TARDISes and their sentience, the implied planetary genocide of all but a saved pair, cyberised humans and cyberised Time Lords - a TARDIS is a cyberised something, the question of living technology, the gloop of the vortex, the Ghost Monument, the Doctor’s agonised loss of her for her first episode that she then only finds at the end of the second on a dead planet ruined by space-fascists...))

-Are those two the same story? You could go in either direction. The stories are all about cycles and loops, so a strong case for mirroring, but at the same time we have a Lone Cyberman who can’t be converted properly and no-one knows why, which makes me think that is still Rassilon with either the ghost of a memory of an old plan, or - thanks to time travel - the old plan itself. That perhaps the Timeless Child’s Power would end up somewhat fused with the Doctor when they turned it into the weaponised Cyberium “AI”, explains why we see it in meta go from benign to weapon creator.

-The Cyberium AI created the Death Particle which would destroy all life and stop the Cyber-Time Lords from taking over. This feels like the exact thing the Doctor was trying to stop with the Time Lords in The End Of Time, and Day Of The Doctor, as their absolute last-ditch plan.

-Certainly the Battle that the Alliance are gearing up for, I would assume is the same battle that we keep seeing in mirrors, and is directly related to Gallifrey. It keeps coming up linked together, like with Ko Sharmus, and we first find out about the Alliance from the inside of a stolen Battle TARDIS.

-So perhaps that’s a point that history is hinging on, and someone - read: the Master - has chosen to interfere. Things all seemed to go wrong after he discovered the Timeless Child information - impossible Time Lords and TARDISes appearing, an Alliance, a Cyber Empire etc. Maybe originally the Doctor/Timeless Child (title, not necessarily youth) was used to control the Cyberium AI and win the battle. But the Master took them away from Rassilon so that couldn’t happen, so everything’s a catastrofuck of paradoxes.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We got a long time to think about it at least.

#doctor who #doctor who meta #the cyberium ai #the timeless child #the timeless children #rassilon #the assilon #(i’m so ill) #(so take it in...whatever form this is) #(too feverish for thinking) #(stupid partner socialising and teaching kids and giving me diseases)

[flightfoot]

The Poly Love Interests: Luka and Kagami in “Hold Me By Both Hands”.

Setting up Luka’s and Kagami’s relationships with Adrien and Marinette is a particularly tricky task; unlike with most of the other major characters in Hold Me By Both Hands, they were introduced in season 2, which means that they first appeared well AFTER @angelofthequeers diverged the story from canon. Because of this, there’s no scaffolding already in-place for them when the story begins. For Alya and Nino, for instance, it’s possible to just take their pre-existing relationship in canon (since they got together in season 1) and all the relationships they already had with other characters, and just drop them into the story. Same with Adrien, Marinette, and Chloe. All of them have firmly established backgrounds and relationships with the other characters before the fic starts.

The one exception to that is Lila, since TECHNICALLY the fic diverges at the start of Volpina, rather than actually at the start of season 2. However, Lila’s role doesn’t require as much relationship building – she’s an antagonist, and not a very well-developed one in canon. She just kinda has to do antagonistic things and have some sort of goal, and that’s sufficient. Plus, she’s fairly easy to slip into the story without crowding it. As an antagonist, she provides conflict for the protagonists to overcome, spurring the plot and character development. She just has a fundamentally different role from most of the other characters, one that has a very low threshold for needing character establishment and development, while also providing her ample screentime in order to develop her, without crowding other characters out.

Kagami and Luka are different. As Love Interests (and ones that move onto full-on relationships at that) they have a far higher threshold for character establishment and development. They need to not just be useful plot devices, as antagonists can be, used to spur on other characters and the plot, but be major characters in their own rights. Furthermore, with the romance angle (and with Miraculous Ladybug already revolving around the relationships of its two leads), in order to put them anywhere remotely close to equal footing with the Love Square in relationship development, they need a LOT of screentime and development – a difficult task, especially when taking into account how many OTHER subplots are going on in the fic already, and just the sheer length of it.

As it was, Angel kinda ended up taking shortcuts with developing Kagami and Luka and establishing their initial relationships with the other characters, so that they could get to establishing the poly relationship between the four of them, which DID get a lot of development. Understandable (I’m a fic writer too, I’ve definitely glazed over parts of the story I’m not as interested in to get to the parts that I really want to write) but it did hurt the establishment of the poly relationship some.

Kagami was first introduced during (or rather after, since Angel skipped to the aftermath rather than showing the episode itself) Riposte, which appears to have gone roughly like it did in canon. Nothing too notable there.

Shortly afterwards – I’m guessing a few days, maybe weeks later, it’s within the same chapter so it can’t have been TOO long – Kagami and Adrien sneak away from their assigned lesson with their fencing teacher (since he’s sick and forgot to cancel).

This is Kagami’s first on-screen appearance in the fic that serves to establish her personality and relationship with Adrien.

One of the first things that Angel hints at, in the first page she’s on-screen, is how isolated Kagami normally is – even more than Adrien in some ways.

“Because he’d get in trouble every time I snuck away if he didn’t,” Adrien says. “And…I think he knows this is the only freedom I get. He’s always been on my side.”

“Oh,” Kagami says softly. “That must be nice.”

Adrien frowns at her. “You don’t have a bodyguard? What about your driver?”

“We don’t have a driver. Our car is self-driving and responds to Mother’s voice, since she can’t drive herself.”

“Huh.” Adrien takes a moment to thank the heavens for Gorilla. God knows what he’d do if he was stuck with a self-driving car that wouldn’t be programmed with a shred of compassion. “Come on! While he’s not looking!” (Chapter 21)

This was a good way to quickly establish that Kagami’s isolated in somewhat similar ways to how ADRIEN’S isolated. There’s not much detail here – not a whole lot of info on her relationship with her mother or whether she’s had friends before, for instance – but most people reading the fic aren’t flying completely blind, and DO already know that Kagami’s really isolated, and at least canonically, does not currently have any other friends, and likely never did (though Angel does make it so that Kagami has had friends before; but that comes up way later).

But just having Kagami say softly how nice it must be to have a bodyguard – an adult – on his side, who allows him some freedom – it conveys that she’s in a similar situation, but WITHOUT that little bit of support and human contact, as small as it is.

It also emphasizes Adrien’s situation a bit, with the emphasis on the “shred of compassion” – because Gorilla’s the only adult regularly in his life (besides Fu in this fic, I guess, though even he’s not too present on that front) to SHOW him compassion – his father certainly doesn’t, not without some sort of ulterior motive, and Nathalie… Nathalie’s iffy. Gorilla will actually stick his neck out for Adrien. Nathalie, not so much.

Kagami lets out a giggle as Adrien grabs her hand and bolts down the street, weaving between the bustling Parisians who are thankfully so wrapped up in their own lives that they don’t notice who he is. Wow. Is that the first time Kagami’s laughed? It’s so…weird being able to empathise with someone, to actually know what it’s like to be in their situation rather than just sympathising from afar. And she’s so…radiant when she laughs like that, just like when Marinette laughs. (Chapter 21)

That whole exchange up above gave Adrien a nice ‘hook’ with which to relate to Kagami, to deepen their bond more than a typical friendship, to give their relationship a special sort of dynamic, even so soon after having met. It’s not enough to really develop it on its own, but shows how it might develop later.

Adrien also has an initial, fairly superficial attraction to Kagami here – which makes sense, he seemed to have some in Riposte as well. The boy has a type.

I say it’s superficial because well, he doesn’t know her well at all yet, so it’s nothing deep right now – but it could grow to be deeper later.

Though the bit about how radiant her laughter is makes me wonder – because by this point Chat’s realized that he loves Marinette and he thinks about her in the same sort of terms as he’s thinking about Kagami now, but- how long did it take for him to consciously realize that?

Is he just better attuned to recognizing his own romantic feelings towards others now, so he can better recognize that he’s feeling similarly towards Kagami, and he just gets crushes super quickly? …Okay knowing canon that actually seems likely. Took the boy like, fifteen minutes to confess his love for Marinette in Oblivio after all.

It’s definitely still just a mild crush at this stage though – he empathizes with Kagami and likes what he’s seen of her, but there’s been no big ‘Wham’ moment like with Ladybug or even Marinette, and there hasn’t been time for his feelings to slowly grow as he sees more of her and gets to know her.

Adrien has at least been very perceptive when it comes to Kagami’s family situation, with being able to recognize how similar Kagami’s earlier sentiment in Riposte was to his own feelings regarding his father, a finding that he quickly shares with Kagami, though without explicitly mentioning his father.

“Interesting? This is just a normal day!” Adrien says. “At least you’ve only got the crushing weight of parental expectations without getting mobbed on the streets!”

“That’s…true. Is it that obvious that my mother’s like that?”

“Considering your speech to me before you were akumatised? Kinda, yeah.” (Chapter 21)

It appears that the episode REALLY went pretty much identically to in canon. I looked up the transcript for the episode on the ML wiki, and I believe that this is the line Angel is referencing;

Adrien: (Momentarily stunned by her appearance.) Let's do a... decisive match? (As he speaks, he notices Kagami's ring.) Kagami: What's the point? You won. There's no such thing as a second chance in my family. Goodbye. (She gets into her car, which drives off.)

This is very much a familiar feeling to Adrien, a familiar sentiment which makes it easy to see why he took Kagami’s line earlier in the chapter about his bodyguard the way he did, correctly identifying that she doesn’t really have a compassionate adult looking out for her and giving her any slack, further deepening his identification with her.

My first time reading this exchange between Adrien and Kagami, with Adrien referencing the speech Kagami made in Riposte, I hadn’t actually remembered that line though, as it’d been awhile since I’d watched that episode. I remembered the general sentiment, but not the actual wording, so while I still had the idea of what Angel was going for, it didn’t land quite as well. I didn’t feel like pausing reading the chapter and looking up the transcript at the time I was first reading it, especially since I understood the gist of the exchange well enough. That being said, it would probably have been helpful to have that line repeated in some way within the fic itself, both because people like myself may not have remembered exactly the exchange Adrien’s talking about, and because Angel’s fic rewrites season 2 and 3 episodes anyway. There was no guarantee that Riposte went exactly as it did in canon, word-for-word, and the only reason the reader knows that it DID occur that exactly, is that Adrien’s reference here to Kagami’s speech before she was akumatized makes no sense otherwise. The reader is obviously supposed to know what he’s talking about, and the only way we could know that is if it was the same as canon.

 Adrien’s fans spot him and chase after him and Kagami, prompting Luka to interfere.

“It’s him! It’s Adrien!” The speaker is one of the people down at the edge of the Seine, who’s looking right at Adrien and Kagami as he speaks. Adrien’s about to start planning a slow, painful demise for this arse, but the guy looks up over his shoulder and adds, “He just doubled back!” (Chapter 21)

Side note: still find it hilarious that Adrien’s first impression of Luka is that he’s an arse, even if it’s immediately proven wrong.

“Thank you,” Kagami says to the boy when Adrien says nothing.

“Y-Yeah. Thanks,” Adrien adds shakily. “I know I should be used to it, but it’s still terrifying.”

The boy snickers behind his hand. Adrien idly notes that his nails are painted deep black and his dark hair is dip-dyed teal and that Gabriel would have an aneurysm if Adrien ever painted his nails and dyed his hair like that. He’s the antithesis of everything that Gabriel holds dear. Dear lord, this boy is just perfect. (Chapter 21)

 Luka made one HELL of a first impression, and with Adrien’s background especially, it makes sense why he reacted the way he did. Adrien seems to romantically attracted to people standing up for others, especially against some larger, more intimidating opponent – I suspect because they’re modeling the sort of behavior that Adrien WISHES he could do with his father. Combine that with Luka looking like the sort of person Gabriel would hate, and well – it’s no wonder that Adrien gets a huge crush on Luka immediately, far more quickly and obviously than he does with Kagami. Funnily enough, the way he crushes on Luka here is reminiscent of the way he started crushing on Ladybug, while his crush on Kagami is more similar to his crush on Marinette – before she saved him from that akuma anyway and he fully, consciously realized he was head-over-heels for her.

Also, Luka’s pretty.

And then Luka plays a heart song for Adrien, and he falls for him even more.

The boy snorts. His teal eyes, alight with amusement, draw Adrien in like a magnet, scrambling his brain and leaving his mind momentarily blank. “That’s okay. You’re just socially awkward.” He strums a note on his guitar, something both off and yet perfect, something that punches Adrien in the chest and leaves him momentarily fumbling for breath.

“H-How did you do that?” Adrien finally forces out when he’s able to speak. The boy smiles.

“I can hear people’s heart songs,” he says. “Yours sounds delightfully perfect but if you stop to listen to it, there are little flaws.” The boy strums a few more notes that are both the same and yet so different to what he’d played before, in a way that Adrien can’t even begin to articulate. “Small imperfections. Ones that you wouldn’t see on the surface.” (Chapter 21)

Considering how often Adrien’s placed on a pedestal, seen as “perfect”, but not as a person? This is really important. Even Marinette’s fallen into that trap before.

But Luka can see it right away… and also because his sister’s Juleka and she talks about Adrien sometimes, so that helps. Luka’s observant, not psychic.

Being seen for who he is, as a person, with imperfections and flaws? Being told that it’s okay to mess up a little, it’s fine? That he’s just socially awkward, but not making it out like Adrien is bad or has done something wrong or disappointing? That’s just so DIFFERENT from the sort of thing Adrien would experience with his father, driving further home that Luka’s the antithesis of Gabriel – and causing Adrien’s heart to flutter even harder.

And Luka considers Adrien to be a friend immediately, something that Adrien just adores.

“Thanks again for saving our butts,” Adrien says to Luka.

“My pleasure. Any friend of Juleka’s is a friend of mine.”

Warmth pools in Adrien’s gut. “Friends? Really?”

“Of course, if you want,” Luka smiles. “And I promise I’ll never ask you to have my babies.” (Chapter 21)

Adrien LOVES his friends, he cares for them a lot, and he treasures any new addition. To have someone just come up and say “of course I’ll be your friend, I already consider you a friend, if you’re down for that?” He hasn’t had that kind of experience since Nino befriended him. Combine that with Luka saving his butt and really seeming to see him, even just the first time he’s met Adrien in-person? Not too surprising that Luka ends up being his bi awakening.

“Glad to see that you’re so responsible about it,” Luka says as he punches his number into Adrien’s phone. Adrien does the same with Luka’s phone and although he’s tempted to add Kagami’s number too, there’s no point in risking the wrath of Tomoe Tsurugi; it had been enough of a battle to get himself added to Kagami’s phone, and Tomoe wholeheartedly approves of him. “Your future wife will be lucky to have you.”

“Or husband,” Adrien blurts out. Why did he say that? It’s not like he’s ever really shown an interest in boys before, and he’s in love with Marinette…but the way Luka isn’t even fazed by that and instead just smiles is making Adrien question a lot of things about himself right now. (Chapter 21)

 Something else to note here; while Kagami technically meets Luka here as well, she has very little actual interaction with him during this sequence. The only interactions she has with Luka directly are when she thanks Luka for saving her and Adrien:

“Thank you,” Kagami says to the boy when Adrien says nothing. (Chapter 21)

Which Luka doesn’t actually respond to directly, instead responding to Adrien’s “thanks”.

And here, where Kagami introduces herself:

“I’m not surprised,” Luka says. “She’s pretty quiet until you push a guitar into her hands. And you are?”

Kagami immediately straightens and bows slightly. “Kagami Tsurugi,” she says, shaking his hand. “I’m a friend of Adrien’s, though I don’t attend Françoise Dupont.” (Chapter 21)

Kagami and Luka technically met here, but there’s no development in their relationship – they were just introduced so they each know the other exists. The whole conversation that unfolds, with Adrien as the focal point, makes sense and is realistic, but while it provides a good foundation for Adrien and Luka becoming friends – and later something more – it doesn’t provide that same foundation for Lukagami. Which helps explain why Angel doesn’t actually GO the Lukagami route, despite it seeming like an obvious path, with the later poly relationship.

 Next chapter and Adrien’s made plans to meet up with Luka.

“I’m sorry, Adrien. I know how much you were looking forward to it.”

“Yeah, well…I’d better go practice. Maybe if I’m up to his standards, he’ll let me come near the end. Better than nothing, right? And I was really looking forward to seeing Luka.”

“Luka? Who?”

“Juleka’s brother.” (Chapter 21)

Just generally nice to see that Adrien’s kept in contact with Luka, and has been trying to foster their friendship. Interesting departure from canon as well, where Marinette met Luka before Adrien did.

Speaking of which, Marinette goes down below to get Luka, since everyone’s waiting on him. It goes pretty similarly to how it did in canon.

She jumps again when she realises that he’s opened his eyes and is staring straight at her with a smile. His eyes are the same shade of blue as his mother’s, also matching the teal tips of his black hair, and he’s wearing ripped black jeans and a short-sleeved blue jacket over a white Jagged Stone shirt.

Holy crap. He’s gorgeous.

“Hey!” Marinette blurts out. “My name’s Mama – Ma-Ma-Marinette!” Oh god, she’s stammering again. Why is this her life? She takes a deep breath to compose herself and pushes on. “Your mum sent me down here. The groove – ah, the group’s waiting for you.” (Chapter 21)

She immediately finds him physically attractive, which – fair, like I said before, he’s definitely pretty. Nothing deep, it’s just an immediate “Crap, he’s cute” reaction.

The whole scene is copied from Captain Hardrock exactly, until this exchange, after the scene in canon had ended:

“Did I really –? Oh no! At least Adrien wasn’t here to see that. He’d never let me live it down, the dork.”

“Adrien?” Luka tilts his head. “You know him?”

“Yeah, he’s one of my best friends. You’re the guy who saved him from being mobbed, right?”

Luka nods. “He wasn’t ready for a child just yet.”

“Uh…what?”

“An inside joke. One of his fans was screaming for him to have her babies.”

Marinette shudders. “Ick. I can’t believe I used to be like that.”

“That’s not the impression I get.” Luka plays a few oxymoronic notes, somehow both chaotic and gentle. “You have a passionate heart. You just struggle with your chaotic brain. You’re not the kind of person to behave like that.”

“Seriously, how do you do that?” Marinette complains as blood rushes to pool in her cheeks and stomach.

“Just like I told Adrien, I can hear people’s heart songs,” Luka says. Whoa. Seriously? That’s…how is that possible? “And just like I told Adrien, I talk to Juleka. You’re a funny girl, Marinette.” (Chapter 22)

The little joke that Luka threw in there was funny, without seeming out-of-character, since he’d tried a joke with Marinette just before this – but accidentally made fun of her stutter and made her feel bad, which he didn’t intend.

I’m glad he talked to Juleka about Marinette, because otherwise it would seem that he was either psychic, or just making blind assertions without having a clue what he was talking about, regarding what Marinette was like around Adrien.

Marinette’s immediate attraction to Luka here seems pretty superficial in contrast to Adrien’s attraction to him – the bulk of it seems to have come from his physical attractiveness and him playing some really nice music on the guitar, from his looks and skills, rather than him as a person at this point. This is mostly an indictment of canon’s treatment of Lukanette rather than Angel’s handling of it however, since half of the scene is lifted directly from Captain Hardrock. Angel’s expansion of the scene at least adds a little more dialogue, a little more chance for Marinette to get to know him as a person, than canon did. It just seems like a fairly shallow attraction in contrast to how Angel handled Adrien’s attraction to Luka.

Lukanette fans probably wouldn’t mind much, since this was enough to get them to ship it in-show, but it doesn’t really give non-Lukanette fans much reason to start shipping it.

A few chapters later, and Marinette’s struggling with the realization that she’s in love with both Chat Noir AND Luka.

The problem is Luka Couffaine. Specifically, how Marinette’s insides flutter and tingle whenever she’s around him. Which totally isn’t fair. Aren’t you supposed to be in love with one person and be with them and only them?

To be fair, Marinette isn’t actually with Chat Noir. And yeah, there’s plenty of infidelity in the world, when someone decides that another person is hot and yes please, I’ll have some of that.

But that’s the problem here. It’s not just that Luka’s attractive. It’s that smile of his that’s so soft, like he’s reading your very soul when he looks at you. It’s how he looks so at peace when he’s sitting there, strumming on his guitar before Kitty Section’s rehearsals (that Marinette has definitely attended only because she’s friends with Rose and Juleka and Ivan, thank you very much). It’s how he never has a harsh word about Juleka, even when he’s doing his brotherly duty and teasing her, and how she immediately looks to him every time she’s starting to stress, such as when her guitar string had snapped and one of Ivan’s drumsticks had fallen overboard. (Chapter 25)

Problem is, this still doesn’t sound like an attraction that’s based on a lot of substance. It still largely seems to be based on Luka looking pretty and being talented at playing the guitar. Him being kind to Juleka is nice, and an actual sign of who he is as a person, but it’s still not a lot – and none of this is based with actual interactions with him, just observing him.

It feels a lot like Marinette’s attraction to Adrien earlier in fact – but without Marinette becoming as obsessive, and without knowing Luka as well as she knew Adrien, even back then. So to see her calling it “love” and equating it with her feelings for Chat Noir, which grew out of friendship and lots of time spent being with each other, interacting with each other – it feels out of place. Especially since it’s repeatedly been hammered home how Marinette’s initial attraction to Adrien slipped into being more superficial at times, and occasionally thought of him as more of a pedestal or an object. That’s part of why she’s refusing to acknowledge that she’s still in love with him after all – she wants to make sure she sees him as a friend and person first.

But with Marinette being attracted to Luka’s looks, his talents, and then what little she’s observed of his interactions with Juleka (which doesn’t seem to have been all that much at this point, she just hasn’t had much time to get to know him)? Without getting to know him as a person through interaction more, but mostly through some light observation? It feels like Adrien Crush 2.0, but more superficial. There doesn’t seem to have been much basis for a close friendship so far, much less actual love.

 Adrien and Kagami arrive on the Couffaine’s houseboat soon afterwards, causing Marinette and Kagami to meet again for the first time since Riposte.

An awkward silence falls on the boat as everyone sneaks looks at Kagami, who just stares right back evenly. It’s understandable, since she’s a newcomer and none of them know her, but in Marinette’s case, it also just might have something to do with how she’d panicked and ruled in Adrien’s favour back at fencing tryouts. Does Kagami hate her for it? Or had Adrien talked to her about it?

“Um – hi!” Marinette decides that she might as well take the first step. “I’m Marinette!”

“Adrien’s friend, right?” Kagami says coolly. Marinette’s cheeks flush, although she can’t decide whether it’s because Kagami most definitely dislikes her or because the way this cute girl is narrowing her eyes at Marinette is doing something to Marinette’s insides. Something that she most definitely doesn’t want to think about right now. (Chapter 25)

 Much as with Luka, Marinette’s attraction here is quick and superficial at the moment. She hasn’t recognized it as attraction just yet however, especially since she’s ALREADY caught up in freaking out about loving Chat Noir and Luka at the same time.

Being the only other person on the houseboat who doesn’t play an instrument, Kagami seems to naturally gravitate towards where Marinette is sitting cross-legged near the cockpit, safely away from the side of the boat, sketchbook once again open. As Kagami sits next to her, Marinette offers her a small smile and Kagami hesitantly smiles back. Then Marinette’s eyes are inevitably drawn to Luka, who’s just strummed a sweet chord, and he catches her gaze and winks at her, and she’s forced to stare down at her notebook so that she doesn’t spontaneously combust on the spot.

No. No. This can’t be happening. Marinette has a crush on Chat Noir. That’s clear as day. So, why must her insides flutter and tingle at the way Luka smiles and winks, charming and mellow with no effort or annoying flair at all?

To be fair, Marinette isn’t actually with Chat Noir. And yeah, there’s plenty of infidelity in the world, when someone decides that another person is hot and yes please, I’ll have some of that.  But Marinette can’t love two people at once. That’s rubbish, and it’s needlessly complicated, and Chat Noir was here first, so he’s her first choice, especially since she’d only met Luka the other day. (Chapter 25)

Again, attention is drawn to how she’s attracted to Luka’s “smiles and winks”, and along with the reference with infidelity, with deciding another person is hot – another more superficial quality - and that they want to have some of that, it just doesn’t seem like Marinette’s crush on Luka is based on really knowing him as a person.

Kagami and Marinette have a conversation, where Marinette talks about her difficulties with her crushes on Luka and Chat Noir, and her confusion about what to do about them. I don’t want to recount the whole conversation since it’s fairly long, but… they’re really able to sit down and talk about what love is, along with Kagami introducing Marinette to the concept of polyamory.

It feels like Kagami and Marinette are talking as people and friends first, rather than as potential love interests, getting to know what the other person’s like and their perspective on the world, in a way that wasn’t there for Lukanette. Kagami gave some of her (exclusive to this fic) background, for instance.

“Your astonishment is cute,” Kagami laughs. “It’s called polyamory. A girl I had a crush on back in Japan told me that she was polyamorous. She said that so long as you’re completely open with your partners, there’s no reason why multiple relationships can’t work.”

“A girl? You’re gay?”

“I rarely develop romantic feelings but when I do, their gender doesn’t matter. And I’m asexual. But my mother doesn’t know, because I’m not sure whether her reaction would be positive or negative. And it will stay that way.”

“Of course!” Marinette hastens to say. “I wouldn’t dream of telling her. Thanks for trusting me enough to tell me. But, uh…asexual? I don’t know anything.”

“Of course not, if you haven’t had any reason to suspect that you’re not straight,” Kagami says. “I’ve only known for a year or so, after I realised that I liked Rin, but I didn’t want to do anything physical with her. The thought of it…didn’t repulse me, but it didn’t excite or interest me either. I wasn’t drawn to her in that way at all. That’s when I realised that I was asexual, and I’m not attracted to anyone in that way.” (Chapter 25)

Even just this snippet is a lot deeper than Marinette’s attraction to Luka. It gives a lot more depth to Kagami, letting her tell her on story, making her feel like a character with agency and her own thoughts and feelings. Luka… doesn’t really have that. He mostly seems to exist for other characters, without having much in the way of desires or history of his own. It fits with his portrayal in canon thus far – he’s woefully underdeveloped – but leaves him feeling like more of a receptacle for the other characters thoughts and feelings, than an actual person.

With Adrien, Luka seems to have more agency and act more like a character in his own right, but not so much when it comes to Marinette.

 Speaking of Adrien, he has his OWN dilemma to struggle through.

Just like Marinette, Luka Couffaine’s creative soul shines brighter than the sun. Just like Marinette, Luka makes Adrien’s insides tingle and burn with as little as a smile. And yet, with as many similarities as he shares with Marinette, Luka is also nothing like her. Where Marinette is a hurricane, forceful and mesmerising and drawing people into her tempest of passion, Luka is a tsunami, appearing perfectly serene and soft on the surface with that stormy soul underneath, until it’s too late to realise that you’re about to be swallowed. And Adrien hadn’t realised until now, until there was no chance of escape. Not only this, but after their adventure that had resulted in meeting Luka, Kagami’s also starting to creep up on him like a thunderstorm, visible and foreboding on the horizon but not quite close enough to warrant action. At least, not until it’s too late to act, just like Luka’s tsunami but almost deadlier since she’s not yet registering in his brain as anything more than one of his closest friends underneath all the carefully deliberate suppression. (Chapter 25)

Adrien waxes lyrical more, which honestly I am DOWN for. Boy’s a hopeless romantic. It’s more cryptic than Marinette’s realization of feelings earlier, but since his feelings and perspective on Luka and Kagami have been developed more, that’s fine. He can be a little more oblique about his feelings.

The comparison to Marinette is interesting, though I don’t totally agree with it. It took ages for Adrien to realize he liked Marinette, while he realized his feelings for Ladybug, for instance, right away. If anything his feelings for Luka are like his feelings for Ladybug were, while his feelings for Kagami are like his feelings for Marinette, with how she’s slowly creeping up in his heart. I can see why he compared his immediate, massive attraction to his feelings towards Marinette though, since he DOES have that level of massive romantic attraction towards her NOW, even if it wasn’t so apparent initially.

Oh, and as if Adrien needs MORE reason to crush on Luka, when they talk about how Gabriel’s trying to keep Adrien away from his friends, he makes THIS declaration:

“I appreciate the offer,” Adrien says. “But elbow-dropping my father will probably make him lock me up again.”

“Then we’ll find Ladybug and Chat Noir and stage a grand rescue,” Luka says. If it wasn’t for the fact that Luka’s vow had pretty much set Adrien’s insides on fire, Adrien might have been more concerned about the fact that Chat Noir can’t really stage a grand rescue of himself. (Chapter 25)

Adrien just LOVES someone caring about him that much, standing up for him, defying his father, and making grand gestures in general. Adrien being this deeply attracted to Luka is no surprise.

Several chapters pass without Luka or Kagami making an appearance. Next time one of them shows up, Ladybug’s giving Kagami a Miraculous.

They have a long, in-depth conversation, which again I don’t want to repeat all of, because well, it’s long. But there’s some good give-and-take and here, with both of them airing their insecurities and giving support to each other.

“You’re autistic?” Ladybug gasps. “So am I!”

“What?” Kagami’s head whips around to stare at Ladybug. “You – but you’re –”

“An awkward mess outside the mask,” Ladybug says and squeezes Kagami’s arm. “I mix my words up all the time. I melt down and flip out whenever I’m really stressed or losing control of the situation. I have to plan out what I’m going to say before I talk to people about important stuff, otherwise I turn into a blabbering mess. I have to bounce or fidget or do anything to stim because I can’t sit still. I’m clumsy. I’m obsessed with fas – uh, my special interests. I can never seem to be where I should be because I just can’t manage myself, even before I became Ladybug.”

 “Oh.” Kagami tilts her head and ever so slowly reaches out to pat Ladybug on the shoulder stiffly. “You get it. I have to script my conversations as well. And…well, I don’t have meltdowns and I’m very organised, but…mostly because Mother would be extremely disappointed in me.” (Chapter 34)

 It’s a nice reversal of their earlier conversation, with Marinette (or rather Ladybug) providing support and advice mostly, instead of Kagami doing so – but still having it be a conversation with a lot of give-and-take. But this is a subject that MARINETTE’S more confident and knowledgeable about, while KAGAMI’S insecure about it, which is a reversal from their positions when talking about polyamory earlier. It’s just a really good conversation in general! It still feels a little rushed with how deeply Kagami is supposed to be ingrained into their friend group when she’s only had a handful of appearances on-screen, but the few times she HAS appeared, she’s made an impression on Marinette at least, so it doesn’t feel nearly as rushed as it could have.

I have a continuity nitpick here though; back in chapter 25, Kagami talked about Rin, a girl she had a crush on, and what she told her about polyamory. But in this chapter, she talks about how she’s never had friends before.

“It’s just…” Kagami sighs and looks away. “I’ve never had friends before. I don’t know what’s appropriate and when it’s appropriate. If I make a wrong move, how do I know I won’t lose them? Unlike fencing, I don’t get to come back for a rematch. And unlike fencing…I don’t know how to navigate this.” (Chapter 34)

Did she not consider Rin a friend? She talks about Rin some more later, and it looks like she DOES consider Rin a friend, even though she didn’t get to spend as much time with her as she’d like.

My bigger issue with this chapter is that Ladybug never gives Kagami the “test” that she gives Alya and Chloe, with saying that she has to give the Miraculous back. She knows Alya better than she knows Kagami; if she’s going to conduct that test on Alya to check that she’s willing to give it back, then it seems unfair not to do the same with Kagami, like she either feels like she knows and trusts Alya a lot less than she knows or trusts Kagami, or that her crush on Kagami (which she hasn’t full acknowledged yet) is blinding her, which… okay, granted, that is kinda a thing with Marinette. It’s not acknowledged by the narrative that way though, as far as I can recall, so it comes off as an oversight.

A few chapters later, and Marinette starts realizing that she has feelings for BOTH Kagami and Luka, and confesses she has feelings for other people to Adrien – who thankfully understands, since he’s been feeling the same way.

“I’ve, uh…got the same problem. I’ve got a major crush on Luka. And, um…Kagami. And it’s getting to me, because I’m pretty sure I’m polyamorous and Tikki says that it’s perfectly normal and it doesn’t mean I like you any less, but I’ve been freaking out because what if you don’t approve, especially of Luka and Kagami, and I don’t want to break up with you or make you choose or anything, but I also don’t want you to think I’ll go and cheat and –”

“Marinette!” Adrien wraps his arms around her from behind and squeezes. “Oh my god. I can’t believe you like Luka and Kagami.”

“Is that a problem? I mean, I chose you first, so I’ll always –”

“Mari.” Adrien presses a kiss to the back of her head, and Marinette shivers and melts against him. “No. It’s not a problem. It’s just hilarious because, well…Luka was the other person I liked when I brought it up on our date. And I think I’ve been falling for Kagami too, for a while now.” (Chapter 39)

 They both have known this for awhile, that they’ve liked more people – they just haven’t admitted it. Not surprised that Adrien was more transparent about who he liked here – he’s always worn his feelings on his sleeve, he isn’t known for being cagey about them.

They talk a bit about it, and decide that while they’re good with the general IDEA of being in a polyamorous relationship with Luka and Kagami, Adrien isn’t ready quite yet – especially since he’d have to stand up to Gabriel to do that.

Luka and Chat actually end up talking next chapter, with Chat seeking advice about polyamory… and it turns out that not only is Luka cool with the idea, he likes Chat and Marinette too… and he knows Chat is Adrien, and that he’s down with dating both of them if Adrien and Marinette would like that.

Also this happened:

Luka digs his nails into Chat Noir’s hand, then takes his hand away entirely and gracefully climbs to his feet. Chat Noir can’t help but flush when Luka holds out a hand to help him up, like he’s a damsel or something, but where other boys less secure in their masculinity might have felt degraded, it just makes him feel so loved and cared for. (Chapter 40)

So sue me, I was SOFT for this. This is why I actually sorta ship Lukadrien, despite not being a major fan of Luka personally; dammit I like someone being soft and gentle with Adrien. It’s why I like Ladrien, actually. Because seriously, the boy needs to be loved and cared for.

Marinette ends up confessing to Kagami later about wanting a polyamorous relationship, which Kagami is ALSO down for… so long as Marinette’s talked things out with the other people she wants to be involved with the relationship first, that is.

The four of them eventually talk things out some more, hashing out boundaries with their relationship. There’s this part here that nagged at me though;

“I’ve made my feelings clear as well,” Luka says. “I’d love to date both you and Adrien. But I understand if the relationship between you two takes priority –”

“Whoa, whoa, no,” Adrien says. “There’s no priority. You’re all equally important to me.”

“What he said,” Marinette says. “Adrien’s not more important just because I was with him first. We’re not gonna just shove you and Kagami aside when things get rough, Luka. That’s why we wanna be sure we’ve figured this out before we go jumping in.” (Chapter 41)

This is a good and healthy attitude to take when it comes to a polyamorous relationship, and one that I think is essential for making it work, but – well, this is where some of the general lack of development between all of them becomes a bit of an issue. Because while this is a good illustration of how to make a polyamorous relationship work – it doesn’t feel earned. ESPECIALLY when it comes to Lukanette. They like each other, but – they haven’t really been shown to TALK much, to really connect with each other, especially with any give-and-take. Though Lukadrien has that trouble a bit too – Luka provides support to Adrien, but it doesn’t really seem like Adrien can really engage Luka totally as an equal either. It feels like Luka’s more of a plot device for Adrien and Marinette, than a character in his own right.

Admittedly though, that’s a canon problem – that’s pretty much been Luka’s role to date. But it does make the whole “you’re equally important” thing feel unearned.

Kagaminette has probably the solidest foundation of the added poly relationships, with the give-and-take between Marinette and Kagami, the deep conversations, and the additional opportunities they’ve had to be around each other in different contexts, with Marinette picking Kagami to be Ryuuko. It still doesn’t have enough development to really make this feel totally right though, with the sheer amount of development the Love Square relationship has had by comparison.

Adrigami is in kind of a weird place here. It had a fairly solid starting foundation, and Adrien has at least clearly hung out with Kagami a lot, but they haven’t really talked or done that much together on-screen, so it seems like more of a background relationship than anything. Intellectually it makes sense with how they relate to each other and the amount of time they get to spend together, but since we don’t see that much of it, it feels like more of an informed relationship than anything else, where we’re told about them being super close, but don’t really get to see it happen as much.

Honestly, that was my biggest issue with this whole subplot regarding the polyamorous relationships; it felt like Luka and Kagami were being elevated to the same status as Adrien and Marinette, regarding their places in each other’s lives, without enough development of those relationships on-screen to truly earn that place.

#miraculous ladybug #hold me by both hands #fanfic analysis #my analysis #luka couffaine #kagami tsurugi #meta