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msnova-scotia · 3 days

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Maybe a weird idea, but what if for Fantasy High: Senior Year, it was set ~50 years in the future or so, where all the Bad Kids are seniors now (hence the name). This can allow the Fantasy High series to get out of just the high school setting, the huge time jump means the characters can be level 20, the plot doesn’t have to revolve around immediate things that happen a year after this last season.

Fig can have her separation from the group where she’s lived many years doing her own thing growing. Emily can even choose to keep her retired, saying she’s happy just being a rock star or arch devil in hell or whatever she wants Fig to ultimately do, and can have another character or bring Fig back for a little here and there if she wants, without it being expected to bring Fig back.

Fabian can have his little sibling all grown up, and we can explore more about that. Chungledown Bim can be defeated during the time skip or even as a side plot during the season. He can be retired and not have to worry about keeping up his maximum legend status all the time, and live peacefully but accomplished.

Riz will probably have spent tons of his time exploring other planes of existence, being a secret agent with his dad, taking down all kids of baddies across the universe. He won’t have to be so stressed all the time having to keep tabs on his friends and make sure they don’t get themselves killed (though now he does have to do this with all of the newbies at his job).

Kristen is finally living her best life with a huge congregation following her pantheon of gods, spreading the word of doubt and justice and the true meaning of what these gods stand for. And who knows, maybe Kristen resurrected even more. Now Kristen is making sure each god has a following that believe in and shape the gods in the way the gods want to be shaped.

Adaine has long killed her mother at this point. Her and Aelwyn are best friends, inseparable, though each with their own independent life. I’ve also seen a couple posts about how Adaine would make a good principal (much better than Augefort at least), so she could be doing that as well as changing Fallinel to be less stuck up and pompous. Also she’s settled into her role as the Elven Oracle, and while it may still annoy her that every elf and their mother seems to want a prophecy from her, she at least accepts that her visions are important enough to change the tides of the world and her role shouldn’t be taken so lightly.

And lastly, Gorgug has proven himself as the greatest wizard of all time. Barbaficer has become as common as any other class. He’s changed the world with his inventions, and could be head of some engineering department or whatever that’s brought the entire world of Spyre into the future with crystals and vehicles and all sorts of technological advances that could never have been dreamed of before he came along.

And after all of this personal growth each of the characters had, they have to get together for “one last adventure, for old times’ sake.” But none of them have really adventures in a couple years. Not like when they were younger, that is, but whatever’s going on can’t be stopped by just anyone.

I was also thinking that tbh, it would be neat to maybe explore permanent deaths for the characters at the end, whether it’s from the final battle or the epilogue where each Intrepid Hero gets to choose how their character finally passes, and ends their story. It can put the Fantasy High series to rest in a good way, maybe leaving an open ending to give way for a new generation of heroes but also a final ending to the Bad Kids (so fans don’t keep asking for another year, then another, maybe college this time, etc etc.)

It would also be fun to start off the season with their deaths, have the typical introductions and scene settings that happen with each season, and then the end of the episode: BAM! They all die, put to rest, who will avenge them, the story begins, the Intrepid Heroes start their actual characters, and the whole season is whatever the cast wants it to be, I’m just not sure how well that would work, or how it would still play into being Fantasy High without the main characters. Maybe it could be a side quest or even a longer one-shot or something if they did it this way

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #fantasy high senior year #dimension 20 fantasy high #d20 fhjy #dimension 20 fhjy #intrepid heroes #the bad kids #gorgug thistlespring #figeroth faeth #riz gukgak #fabian seacaster #adaine abernant #kristen applebees

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josukegappyhigashikata · 2 days

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Not every character is meant to be likeable: Jake Disventure Camp.

So, as of late I've been seeing people dislike and be annoyed at Jake and like... yeah! He is meant to be exasperating but I don't think that's bad writing at all.

Meanwhile I would absolutely never call Disventure Camp a perfectly written show I will say that it has had very good character writing with having delivered some high notes on both of the previous seasons so now I wanna talk about Jake's writing in All-Stars.

First of all, Jake's writing? Very consistent. Jake's title was the naive one and yeah he is naive. He is paranoid as hell, he is gullible as sin, he is easily tricked by others, he is so easily manipulable to the point of characters pointing that out and all of those traits have been consistent with Jake through his seasons. The newest trait found was Jake's jealousy over Aiden but that jealousy was born over his paranoia and naivety which are both part of his established traits.

Also, something to be mentioned is that just like Ellie, James and Riya he has a context and background for those tough edges. We know that Jake's family life is not the best both from the show and from extra material, we also know that he was in a toxic relationship that he later got cheated on which was the breaking point of the relationship. Living with a family that you feel that you're always waiting for a mess to happen, which is implied his parents don't accept his homosexuality, would have easily made someone paranoid which now with a toxic relationship and one of the actual worst things happened to him? Jake is always waiting for something bad to happen and when that bad thing happens he thrives in his own victimization. Meanwhile this was seen in his season this has been more focused on the latest season and not only that but it has been less sympathetic towards him how easily he falls into those spirals of negativity.

Jake has had a lot of focus on All-Stars but also he is one of the characters that has his arc not be resolved at all, just like how Alec, Aiden and Gabby didn't have their arcs finished on their seasons by having other characters take priority over them. Now it seems they're taking their time to finish almost all the arcs they didn't give a proper conclusion to.

Now, I will say that I don't adore how he is a grown ass man being coddled by women which now Ashley was used for his development even though I know a character like Ashley wasn't made like Grett or Jake where they really thought of making them deep characters. It's still no excuse to have a female character that had already not had a lot of time to shine just be a stepping stone for a male character but it has a reason for it even if I dislike it.

Is Jake a dislikeable character? For some people? Yeah, he is very much dislikeable but also the traits he is disliked for are things that are written to be traits you see as negative. You're not meant to say: "Oh, yeah. It's fine that Jake is a stupid dumbass that gets clouded by his feelings at any moment." because it's obvious that his arc is overcoming those flaws in his character.

You might find Jake dislikeable and that's alright but I don't think that's bad writing, it's also not wrong if you like him since not only is he an entertaining character in his own messiness (which is that messiness why I find him an entertaining character) but he is a sympathetic character with what we know of him.

You're not meant to like every character, sometimes characters start dislikeable and you're meant to see them grow out of their flaws which after the tenth episode of All-Stars it seems that's where Jake is going.

Ever so often you have to take a step back and ask yourself: "What are the creators trying to convey with this story? Is it me not liking certain traits of a character an intended outcome?"

#Jake Disventure Camp #Tomjake #Disventure Camp #Campamento Desventura #Disventure Camp All Stars #DCAS #Odd Nation Cartoons

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aceptical · 16 hours

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Honestly I would love a Splatoon game geared at a 13+ / older audience- or even one still aimed at the same audience that really addresses the topics it brings up.

Splatoon covers darker / more mature topics. Child soldiers shooting each other, invading the land of another species for profit, suppressing another species for over a literal century, how extreme fame affects people, being ostracized / “found out” for being different, being terrified of change, etc. but it never really covers them.

They are there: especially when you look into things like the sunken scrolls or resources outside of the game, but that’s kind of it. And that’s fine!! You don’t have to address them more obviously if you don’t want to. It’s a kids game first and foremost (and even if that isn’t really a great excuse, whatever).

But I would love a game that delves more into these topics, or just getting into these characters heads more. Using outside information and reasoning stuff, we can analyze basically every character well, but we never really see any confirmation in the game for most of it. We know from the relationship chart and the squid sisters stories and whatnot that Callie willingly went to the Octarians, likely due to the pressure of fame and being on her own, but this is never really explored in the game which sucks because there’s so much potential there! Comments on how fame affects people, escapism, and Callie’s, essentially inability, to be alone (since she’s able to step back into the spotlight again once she has Marie with her, both with the squid sisters performances obv but also the news/map announcement thing). And I get that that’s not the story they were trying to tell, but it would be so nice to have a game that delves into this stuff rather than leaving it off to the side where most of the playerbase probably doesn’t know about it.

Splatoon has a really big problem with exploring character’s darker parts of them / adding complexity to characters. Take Callie again: hypnosis cannot make you do anything that you don’t want to do, so hypno Callie’s personality was still Callie, just those darker parts. And that’s just- kind of ignored, past a few one liners (deep cut’s introduction scene.) Then the same exact thing happens with Marina, except we don’t even get to delve into it as much because it is literal brainwashing or mind control or something where she very obviously has her free will taken away. Which sucks!! Because it would have been so interesting to delve into that desperation that comes with wanting things to stay the same, unintentionally hurting the people you’re trying to help / protect, all of that kind of stuff, and then it’s just shrugged off for the rest of the DLC. Which, again, it’s fine that they didn’t want to tell that story: but it’s still missed potential regarding Marina.

This even affects antagonists, too: mainly Octavio. This is kind of remedied by him helping us in Splatoon 3, but it’s never really explored. He does what he does to help his people because they are literally dying from a lack of resources + power. I like the fact that the Splatoon 1 story doesn’t address this, but it could have been really interesting to see- even just a bit of this- in Splatoon 2, especially since it’s the introduction of giving the player that mentality shift from “Inklings good Octolings bad” to “Well, it’s more complicated than that.” This one is explored in the sunken scrolls a bit, but it would be nice to get a little something more regarding Octavio’s motivations (beyond just steal the Zapfish to help his people)

I really hope that, come Splatoon 4, whichever characters it focuses on (since the inkling / octoling conflict is over at this point), it really focuses on: give us more of their flaws, that complexity, and do it in game instead of through easily ignorable twitter posts.

#Splatoon #text post #ramblings #dj octavio #callie cuttlefish #callie splatoon #marina ida #marina splatoon #this got much longer than I was expecting tbh #i’m bad at words i’m sorry #so sorry if this doesn’t make any sense lmao

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immediatebreakfast · 3 days

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It's proposal day! It's another Lucy day!

One thing that I noticed in between the suitors, and Lucy's non explained accepted proposal is how the tone in the paragraph where she talks about the sexist ideas of women being lesser than men seems to be... dejected, and I dare to say exhausted.

I suppose that we women are such cowards that we think a man will save us from fears, and we marry him.

The language that Lucy uses, the sudden inclusion of it when she is talking about the proposals, all of it feels like a rehearsed point that has been hammered into Lucy's head many times. It reads as she is is trying to interrupt her sadness over rejecting Quincey and Jack by reminding herself that her feeling don't matter in the situation.

This is not only simple misogynist ideals that Bram Stoker included in a female character, but also there is something deeper there that alludes to Lucy restricting herself because of her education as a lady.

Mr. Seward, and Mr. Morris are the ones suffering after the proposals, not her. She, the 19 years girl who is for the first time steping into the role of victorian woman, is the cause of their suffering, so Lucy as a woman cannot feel bad for herself because her own existance isn't noble nor worthy. Lucy must center her conflicting feelings, and her tears around the two gentleman she had to reject.

This is not an opinion for Lucy, it's a fact that her entire social, and cultural environment has been telling her since she was born. However there is this little detail that makes her comments a little bit worse for her mental space.

why are men so noble when we women are so little worthy of them? Here was I almost making fun of this great-hearted, true gentleman.

Remember that this is Lucy writing to Mina, and consequently Jonathan because she gave her permission to tell him; two people that she is implied to know since chilhood, and two lovers that definitely do not follow the picture that Lucy paints. In this letter Lucy is almost baring her soul enough to Mina, who despite most likely holding the same ideals doesn't experience the actual whole weight of them as a woman.

Even if it's very clear that she is utterly smittem with Arthur, does Lucy longs for the odd for the times dynamic of Mina and Jonathan? Does she feels that as much as she loves Arthur with all of heart, all of that stuff will still resonate in every step, and action she takes in their marriage?

Oh, why must a man like that be made unhappy when there are lots of girls about who would worship the very ground he trod on? I know I would if I were free—only I don't want to be free. ... I am very, very happy, and I don't know what I have done to deserve it.

Lucy is midly aware that her position is a cage, even if she chose the man she will marry she still views her own decision as the entrance of a cage. However, thanks to her upbringing, Lucy doesn't see this as an opportunity to try, and build a relationship with equal footing like Mina, instead Lucy tells herself that she, as a woman, doesn't deserve enough the happiness she feels.

And that is so tragic.

#New skill unlocked: let's examine the misogyny in this book in a deeper manner #Yes it's bad yes it was a product of its time (even thought some ideas are still today but that's another conversation) but why is it bad #How is it bad and in what way influences both Lucy and Mina within the narrative #dracula daily #dracula #lucy westenra

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zzthekaiju · 2 days

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Geez...

Call this whining, but now that Wingard's out of the director's seat (here's hoping they either get Dougherty back in the saddle OR someone like Guillermo del Toro on the line), I've been noticing a LOT of people wanting the next Godzilla movie to basically be "Godzilla gets fed up with humanity and turns on us all". And I really don't want that for a number of reasons (reinforces the bias against reptiles, been done before a million times, personal bias, etc.), particularly one specific detail...

It renders Serizawa's sacrifice, and the overarching themes of coexistence in the Monsterverse, entirely pointless.

That heart-tugging scene of him putting the fate of the world and its number one guardian above his own, of him making one last connection with the beast that inspired him, that moment they lock eyes before he gives his life to save him...it all goes down the drain if the ultimate endgame of the Monsterverse is Godzilla becoming our greatest threat when the OH SO PERFECT AND SQUEAKY-CLEAN APE gets to be the hero all the time (don't get me wrong, I love this version of Kong, but it just feeds into the "mammal good, reptile bad" trope I despise so much). Everything Serizawa and Monarch stood for as a whole ends up being for nothing if that's how it all goes down. And really, we've now done the whole "Godzilla gets pissed at us because of the actions of a few" thing with the Mechagodzilla situation.

NOW, I'm not saying Godzilla needs to be totally spotless. Absolutely not. I'm fine with him being kind of a jerk at this point...but what if he changed? What if, instead of just keeping him that way...we saw him develop? Y'know? As a character? Which is what he very much is, and NOT some glorified plot device?

Listen, making our relationship with Godzilla the centerpiece of the conflict isn't a bad idea. Not at all, as a matter of fact. A good way around it could be that the new monster he has to defeat is Hedorah, or a monster very much like Hedorah (considering the involvement of Yoshimitsu Banno, it feels inevitable). A horror conceived by our hubris and lack of care for the Earth. And yeah, Godzilla would be really angry at us...but he could also be tired. Overwhelmed. Borderline depressed at his Sisyphean life of having to undo every mistake we make. Maybe the real conflict could be him trying to find something, anything that makes his job worth it and not him not feel completely out of place in a world that's changed so much in the centuries he's been dormant. Maybe Monarch and/or a new cast of humans could help show the Big G that we appreciate him. They already teased this with how he acts around the Roman Coliseum (the novel confirms that he's homesick, awww), so why not give him that sort of emotional arc like they did for Kong? Maybe even give him more than just one scene with him and Mothra together, and show why their relationship works so well, ESPECIALLY when Big G's having a crisis! A unique jerk-to-nice-guy plot! I don't know, something that doesn't begin and end with him doing nothing but destroy things. That was cool for a while, but we need to get out of this "Godzilla can't be relatable because reptile" bunk that I have no doubt the higher-ups think. Heck, give him that son that Wingard clearly wanted to give him. Maybe the twist is that Little G absolutely adores humans and convinces his old man that they aren't so bad. That would work amazing! The possibilities are endless!

That, or they could go with my pitch for a "Godzilla X Mothra" movie. Please...?

I'm kidding, Twitter user Riamus came up with a WAY better premise, to be honest.

#ramblings #godzilla #gojira #kaiju #monsterverse

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k4pp4-8 · 5 hours

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Is there anything you wished the Show Ok. Ko Lets Be Heroes focused more on? Whether it be a character, relationship, arc, villain ect?

OH BOY THERE'S SO MUCH I WANTED TO SEE

1. FIRST OF ALL I REALLY wish they had more time to focus on the big reveal because I waited since season for them to talk about the whole POINT situation and when they finally DO reveal laserblast's identity it's completely rushed. This is such an emotional plot line for MULTIPLE characters yet we only see a fraction of it! LIKE PLEEAAAAASE I WANT TO SEE MORE OF HOW THIS AFFECTED CAROL!!! What she went through is so tragic, she lost her love, her dream, her friends, AND she had to raise the child of her dead lover alone. And yet she stayed strong through all of it and became the best mom ever. (Carol I love you plz marry me)

ALSO I WILL NEVER GET OVER THE FACT THAT WE DON'T SEE GAR'S REACTION TO THE REVEAL!! He literally blamed himself for laserblast's death, who was his teammate, his best friend's lover AND K.O's father. Just imagine how he felt like knowing K.O looked up to him as a father figure while thinking it's his fault K.O doesn't have a dad???

And also every other POINT member's lives were immensly affected by laserblast's death, like Rippy roo who dedicated years of her life trying to find a way to bring him back or Greyman trying to make a hero people could look up to or Foxtail still holding a grudge against Gar for what happened. I reaaally wanna know how they would react to knowing not only their friend is alive but he is also a successful villain.

2. Another thing I REALLY wanted to see was Rad and Dendy's relationship actually being explored! I used to think her "obsession" with Rad was nothing more than a gag but I saw that there was supposed to be an episode explaining that "she looked up to Rad because he's unashamed of who he is even though he comes from he considered as unusual family background." AND IT JUST MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!!!! I think that would've been an amazing way to explore both of their characters.

Also it's pretty ironic because Rad IS ashamed of who he is! Since day one he's been hiding things he loves and acting like a jerk to cover up his insecurities. I think Dendy telling him she looks up to him would've encouraged him to change the way he acts just like in the "Radical rescue" episode, when he tells K.O he doesn't want him to imitate his bad behavior.

3. Now we're getting to the REAL interesting part. BOXBOTS!!!! LISTEN I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THEM BUT I'M GONNA TRY TO MAKE IT SHORT AND UNDERSTABLE.

I REALLYYY wish we had more moments of vulnerabilty with them. Pretty much every single one of their scene is comedic and, while I do ADORE the comedy, I still wish they were taken more seriously. Like their whole situation is really tragic in many ways yet it's completely ignored. I know it's a mostly light hearted show but the boxbots are never given a genuine moment that felt like their feelings were taken seriously. It's probably just me who's wayyyy too attached to them but my favorite moments are when we get to see the more "human" side of them. Like when they act like an actual family, playing board games, having dinner together, hanging out, or bickering like siblings

I wish they explored how being robots affects them and the way everyone treats them. It's like robots are not considered like "real people" to some degree. We already know that in the okko universe being a certain species will change the way people perceive you and treat you (ie aliens and kappas) and it's shown to be a bad thing when it happens to Rad and Dendy, but when the bots are treated badly it's always seen as a joke and brushed bc you know , they're robots so who cares. There's like an implication that all robots are inherently bad because they're robots, K.O even said Mr.logic was "one of the good ones" implying he's just an exception (also it's crazy that he actually said that sentence and no one batted an eye)

And finally the ONE thing I really REEAALLYYY wanted to see more of is *drum rolls* LORD COWBOY DARRELL (who could've seen that coming)

LISTEN THERE WAS SOOOOOOOOO MUCH POTENTIAL THERE IT ACTUALLY MAKES ME CRAZY JUST THINKING ABOUT IT I WISH I WAS EXAGGERATING!!! Like for the first time we actually see boxman suffer the consequences of his actions, his kids FINALLY stand up to him after being treated like crap 24/7 and then he's forgiven in episode two??? And we don't even see how this affects the other bots!! Like Raymond and Shannon also loved boxman but they seemingly didn't hesitate to side with Darrell over him. I wish they explored how they chose their brother over their father who they were absolutely devoted to since birth.

I was actually disappointed to see Darrell forgive him SO easily and all the character development he could've had was thrown out the window in two seconds!!!! We actually get a glimpse of Darrell's potential but it's all forgotten as soon as Boxman becomes the boss again

I loved seeing Darrell actually fight back for once because he is one of the characters who gets mistreated the MOST by the whole cast. Half of his scenes are just him getting beat up and insulted, he's always treated like an idiot or a joke character so it was incredibly satisfying to see him actually stand up for himself and take charge. Like yeah he is goofy as hell and very immature and I love that about him! But when he became Lord Cowboy Darrell we actually got to see a whole new side of him. He was cunning and smart and resourceful and it KILLS me that we never got see that side of him again. I wish people aknowledged how competent and mature he can be instead of treating him like an actual child. I actually hate how infantilized he is sometimes

Anyway I could go on and on and on forever about the boxbots but that's just a few things i wish the show focused more on, there's probably more but I can't remember them rn

#sorry anon that type of question is the best way to get me carried away and make me start rambling #im just soooo invested in that show and the characters that i think about them 24/7 #i love it so much and i cant stop wishing there was more of it so i have to daydream about it constantly #maybe i AM thinking about it a lil too much but hey who cares im having fun doing it #thank you for giving me an opportunity to ramble anon #asks & answers

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sapphologic · 1 day

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Rings of Power Galadriel actually makes sense.

I'll die on this hill and maybe I'll die alone but that's not the point, if I hear another Tolkien “““loyalist””” piss and moan about her I will throw hands.

“She's not like in the movies!”

My dudes, so was Arwen when PJ replaced Glorfindel with her. That argument is hypocritical. And since when is PJ the measure for the fandom, as some of the haters even hate on these movies, despite them being masterpieces.

“She's so stubborn and rude!”

My fucking DUDES ... Her Elven name is literally 'man maiden'. Would you say the same about a male elf on a quest for revenge?

“Her lore is wrong!”

Well, the showrunners couldn't buy the rights for other writings of Tolkien than The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and the appendices. The Estate is ...well, the Estate. I wonder if Tolkien would like the way things are handled at all. If you have to worm your way around protected lore, you gotta do it.

“Tolkien's canon is fixed.”

Holy crap, the dude wrote on toilet paper and revised so many things. At one point you just gotta say fuck it and roll with what you like. Are we going to argue about Gil-galad's canon too? Oh wait, Tolkien left that out. Conveniently. He left as many things unclear as he revised previous statements. Over and over. And over. I'm getting whiplash from it frequently.

“Her character/personality is butchered.”

No. Just no. Again: Her literal Elven name is “man-maiden.” Tomboy. Did I stutter?!

That's what you call butchery is a character arc for an amazing heroine who has yet to learn and unlearn. Her ambitions and her hatred are obstacles on the way to become the wise and fair Lady of Lórien. Again: character arc. You should look it up.

She'll have her share of experience, change of heart, desires and hopes. She will change in the series, I would swear on the precious.

You're welcome. I did the work you should do to understand the character instead of being a crybaby about the changes you don't personally approve of. Prime doesn't need your approval. What you gonna do? Piss and moan even harder?!

Also, if you hate Haladriel, don't ever come to my doorstep whining about it. Exactly the kind of ambition Galadriel shows would let someone weaker than her fall in Sauron's hands. Take his hand in marriage. Rule. (and be ruled.)

Actually that ship is worth exploring. Galadriel isn't a bad person, at best she's misled by her thirst for vengeance.

And as an encore since the fanatic crybabies love to demand that every single word written by Tolkien ever has to be met with a 1:1 transfer into other media:

The movies and/or movies doing that would be unwatchable monstrosities and no one would have the patience for that. Same stupid reasoning as in WoT. Also: would be a monstrosity and also... some things you don't want to be seen through a modern media lens...bc then your straight white male “demi god” of an author would be considered racist or sexist or homophobic... Do you really want that? I don't think so. You don't have to embrace changes blindly, but having a hissy fit like a damn toddler about each and every inconsistency/discrepancy just makes you look like a fool.

#tv: rings of power #rings of power #galadriel #haladriel #c: galadriel #rop spoilers #saurondriel

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diocletianscabbagefarm · 2 days

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Wait, no, this Kalina thing is driving me slightly insane I feel like I need to write it out rather than do shower-thought-analysis.

- Kalina was pretty adversarial with Kristen at the start over what their plans should be, but that seems pretty understandable considering A) they were literally fighting to the death the year before when she was the NMK’s familiar B) her goddess existence - and by extension her own - was super precarious (or “instantly killable” as she put it) with only two followers, with the cleric kinda dropping the ball on their responsibility to spread Cassandra’s worship. Cassandra was noticeably anxious about straight-up dying, and Kalina was forceful on her behalf in advancing the argument since Cassandra was afraid and hesitant to be pushy about it C) Her character trait is being a petty bitch like that and honestly good for her; maybe she was even trying to be Cassandra’s favorite over Kristen but that’s just inside politics.

- Kalina advocated going to the mall, which is where the attacks took place and that can be construed as suspicious or purposeful, as the Bad Kids concluded later in the season. However it could also just be a story excuse for Brennan to get them at the mall to use the battlemap, and there are some alleviating factors; before the attack Kalina went to Adaine at the strudel bar to ask her if she could get Kristen to come (if she orchestrated the attack it would’ve been better to keep a high level cleric absent), and as Cassandra was initially affected by the shatterstars she again told her to get Kristen there asap. During the attack Brennan described multiple times through insight checks that Kalina was horrified, stressed and panicked.

- She threw herself in the path of a shatterstar headed for Cassandra (bloodily piercing through her paws to halt it), and even then first rushed to heimlich the shrimp out of Cassandra’s throat before the rage effect took hold (her eyes go red) and she says she liked Cassandra more when she was the NMK and slits her throat. Before being affected by the shatterstar she also quickly shouts out Ragh’s name as a hint to the Bad Kids to help them solve the mystery.

- Aelwyn said Kalina had come to her to modify the spy’s tongue curse so that it’d work on herself (being a non-humanoid) at some point near the end of freshman year (so before the Bad Kids destroyed her in Sophomore), so working together with Porter seems to have been an old plot from back when she was the NMK’s familiar rather than a recent thing. Aelwyn also mentioned she seemed rather pissed about needing it, and of course she mentioned Ragh’s name already to try and lead the Bad Kids down a trail of questions that’d end up pointing them to Porter (how did Ragh become able to see Kalina -> barbarian healing)

- In Baron’s Game she manages to push through the rage to repeat Ragh’s name again, and then when Cassandra offers her a moment of clarity she clarifies the hint (“it’s the only name I can say”) and < SNAPS! HER OWN! NECK! < in order to not be a threat to the Bad Kids anymore, like how hardcore do you want your sacrifice to help the heroes be because even if you can be brought back, that one is pretty hardcore.

- The Bad Kids discover some medicine in Porter’s desk to help with cat allergies. Could be recent, but could also be old from when they worked together in the past. This seems to be what leads the Bad Kids to conclude Kalina is still evil, but I can also construe it as Brennan trying to offer confirmation they correctly identified the link between Kalina and Porter.

Like, with all this I find it kinda hard to square Kalina was being evil and working against Cassandra; her actions at the start of the season speak more of protectiveness and anxiety, and after being shatterstarred she used every opportunity available to help the Bad Kids crack the mystery, why would the final reveal be she was actually still a villain - why actively sabotage herself, without any payoff? I can understand her to be bad if all she did was trick Cassandra into going to the mall in the astral, and that was the end of her role in the season, but she did so, so much afterwards to help the Bad Kids. To me this speaks at most of her having been a participant in the past, prior to being reconstituted, unless I am missing something major.

The logical followthrough for a Senior Year season - if it were to happen - would be to run with the thread that accusing her of being evil was a hasty judgement, and that because Ankarna was all to happy to smite her wife’s cat she never liked (even at the end Cassandra meekly protested, but was overruled by everybody), Kalina knew to make herself scarce. Great story potential, with the reason for the Kalina-Buddy teamup being that though wrongfully accused she was now on the run and grabbed the nearest ally to hand. Being able to be summoned by Bakarath could indicate Kalina was forcibly disowned from Cassandra as her familiar, and if I were a familiar unceremoniously dumped like that because someone else said you’re bad, I too would probably become the champion of a tiny god of rage because I’d sure be a teensy upset about it. Imagine the potential emotional payoff and catharsis to resolving such a false accusation during the story, Brennan doing one of his monologue things, and proving the faith Cassandra seems to have in her familiar correct despite everyone else insisting otherwise. I really really really hope that’s the direction they take it, rather than doubling down she was bad the whole time (fully ignoring the ways her help was integral to sabotaging the plot) and randomly slaughtering her in a Night Yorb treatment.

#Kalina #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #dimension 20 #fantasy high spoilers #dimension 20 spoilers #Okay I just needed to get all of it off my chest in one go because it drove me insane to have these arguments in my head with myself #pls Brennan prove yourself to be the great storyteller we know you to be instead of an anticlimactic non-sequitor #I’d be so devastated if it’s just ‘oh evil actually. just ignore 90% of the things she did this season’

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doberbutts · 11 hours

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it's very funny to me that exactly 2 people I follow are posting a lot about BG3 and one of them hates Astarion and loves Gale, and the other (you) hates Gale and loves Astarion. Opposite polarities, I love it

I don't hate him hate him I just think he's very uninteresting and the vibes are bad. The most interesting he's been was when his bestie told him his ex said "kill yourself now [but point it at the Big Brain]" which like. That JUST happened right before I started Act 2 so I'm waiting to see if he continues to be at least mildly interesting or if I can officially say my game did not change for not using Gale like at all and I could have left him in the portal with zero overarching consequences.

And see that's kind of my problem with him. Panic's big into theology so he struck an almost instant friendship with Shadowheart, who has been following him around a bit like a smitten puppy ever since he saved her from the pod, because they got onto the discussion of gods and Shart was happy to discuss her faith once she knew she wouldn't be judged for it.

But when Panic tried the same tactic with Gale it was "yeah I fucked the divine embodiment of magic" "oh okay, good for you I guess? Can you tell me anything else about her?" "The sex was great BTW and I am a very good lover" "that's... nice... but not what I meant" "I could show you if you want" "oh, no, no thank you, actually I just wanted to have friendly conversation" *pop-up in the corner Gale disapproves*

Unfortunately that's how many of our conversations have gone which leads Panic to avoid Gale because he's more persistent about it than Lae'zel (who ironically is both more aggressive in her come ons and yet also stopped when Panic put his foot down about respecting boundaries) and he was already put off Lae'zel for similar behavior.

But he's like. Hmm. Nice Guy (tm) persistent about it which gives ME bad vibes because most Nice Guys (tm) are not actually decent people. And I have no way of knowing if that similarity I see in Gale is telling me that he also is that way, or if it's just an unfortunate coincidence, so I as the player am equally put off by this guy who seems to be coming onto Panic with every conversation and gets mad when Panic uncomfortably extracts himself from said conversation.

Anyway I referenced this post before but I saw a post that said you can find a hundred Astarions on grindr and you can find a hundred Gales in silicone valley and I would 100% agree with both character assessments even though the post meant it disparagingly. The difference is I'm attracted to the Astarions on grindr but can't stand the Gales in silicone valley lmao

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linkspooky · 1 day

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ON MADELYNE PRYOR

Shout out to all the comic book stans who follow my blog.

So X-Men 97 inspired me to do a re-read of X-Men from the beginning. My previous read of X-Men jumped all over the place, it was basically X-Men up to Dark Phoenix and then I jumped all the way to the 2000s to 2010s. In my current read I just got to Inferno and holy fuck mom, I never thought I'd like an X-Men arc more than Dark Phoenix but here we are.

This is an entirely personal opinion which I'm not as good at expressing because I prefer over-intellectualizing my feelings, but Inferno is the only other comic book arc to make me feel the way that Judas Cotract did in how tightly and perfectly written as a tragedy it is especially for the female at its center.

Are there any women in all of fiction more doomed by the narrative than Terra Markov and Madelyne Pryor?

I mean I've written about Judas Contract before but what makes that arc so special to me is how it's about a character, a victim, a girl named Terra who by all rights should have been saved by the heroes, but not only fails every step of the way but at every point in her life really. Terra is someone how manifests her victimhood in completely unsympathetic ways but the fact that she basically had no chance in life makes her sympathetic nonetheless.

This comes from the decision that Perez and Wolfram made right from the start to kill her off and never offer her any redemption, which while incredibly callous on the author's part just makes the tragedy even stronger. That's what tragedy is, it's meat to reflect the cruelty and unfairness of life, it's kind of like reality bleeding into fiction.

George’s strength was he also understood the characters 100 percent as I did so there was never any question. He knew. We had talked enough about the characters to know we were exactly on the same page with them. So I said, “Everyone keeps complaining that we’re like the X-Men” and the X-Men had just gotten Kitty Pryde. I said, “Why don’t we really screw around with them completely?” — this is the fans — “…and make them think we’re stealing Kitty Pryde only she’s gonna be bad from Day One.” You always had characters pop up, certainly at Marvel, who were bad that get redeemed. But this character would never get redeemed. She was insane. In fact, she was the catalyst for everything. She wasn’t working for Deathstroke. He was working for her in many ways and she was leading him because she’s crazy. She’s a total psychopath… and she’d be 15.

Terra's a total psychopath and she's fifteen and that's the tragedy. Was there really any other way that Terra could have turned out? A girl who has been abandoned, who was given incredible powers but no love, support, or nurturing and clearly doesn't have a home or any stability in her life if she's working as a mercenary at that young. A girl who thinks herself a villain and a player in the game but is clearly being manipulated by a fifty plus year old man who is smarter, more mature, and a serial user and abuser of people.

Terra's not just the villain, she's the protagonist of the tragedy walking through the play unknowing that her every single decision will lead to her inevitable end.

Judas Cotract and Inferno are two arcs that most evoke the feel of the Tower in Tarot to me. The Tower is just, ruin and destruction, a complete loss of control, the realization that everything you thought was wrong and in fact the world doesn't care much about what you think. It's a reminder that life isn't even cruel, it's nothing, it's random.

However, first you have to build up the tower before you start pulling the jenga blocks out one by one. Terra spends several arcs with the Teen Titans showing disturbing unchildlike behavior, but one of the so-called Heroes even notice that there's something wrong. When she does get close to blowing her cover, a violent incident where she nearly badly hurts Beast Boy after he comes onto her way too hard which is an understandable reaction as a victim of SA that gets brushed under the rug too.

It makes the heroes look worse as well. If they were heroes dedicated to saving people at all costs shouldn't they have noticed the trouble of someone right next to them? Yet, they all kind of collectively remain oblivious the same way that most victims in real life especially of Terra's kind of trauma are left to suffer in silence. Not to say the Teen Titans are bad, they are kids, and therefore it makes sense they don't have the emotional maturity to notice - it just makes them look more human.

So to summarize my point above what makes Judas Contract is a good tragedy and why Inferno makes me feel the same way narrows down to two reasons.

Madelyne and Terra are both doomed by the narrative, there was no saving them right from the beginning.

However, the fact that the heroes failed to save them reflects poorly on them.

Finally, Madelyne Pryor.

Oh Madelyne the world did you so dirty. I'm partially to blame because I skipped right to the 2000s in my first read, but before this point I'd known nothing about Madelyne other than that she was a clone of Jean Grey who died.

My first impressions of her when she was introduced shortly after Dark Phoenix weren't all that great either. Chris Claremont writes good female characters, that's not really a hot take. I'm sure you've heard of Storm, Rogue, Mystique, Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost etc.

However, I've noticed there are like two tiers of female characters he tends to write. There are the first stringers which are your storms, your rogues, these are characters who are meant to be independent and have arcs. Then there are the second stringers who are just meat to serve a role in the story. This isn't a criticism on the way Claremont writes women, I mean all stories have major and minor characters.

Madelyne Pryor was never meant to be a main character. There wasn't anything about her character that I disliked per se, she is independent, she seemed to have a life outside of Cyclops, she tries really hard to separate herself from the image of Jean Grey. However, she was clearly written to give Cyclops a wife and child in the aftermath of Jean's death and a reason to retire.

While the editorial mandate that made Claremont pull Cyclops out of his happy ending so he could rejoin a team with the original five x-men for the sake of nostalgia sucks, it is also the best thing to happen to Madelyne's character.

Madelyne before that point was a perfectly functional character for her role but she wasn't all that dynamic, she liked planes, she didn't like Jean's ghost hanging over her, she's pretty spunky and headstrong but she was at most a good supporting character but that's all she was. Claremont just decided to double down on that, Scott actually treats his wife like she exists to do nothing but support him and his emotional issues. Madelyne gives all the support that she can give and then Scott just up and leaves anyway. The woman who only existed to be a love interest to give Scott a happy ending, now has no other reason to exist without the man she's supposed to love and her happy ending turns to ash in her mouth.

This is the same feeling I was talking about with Terra, this is a person who was basically failed at every step of the way. A person who has no family. no support, it's almost worse in this case because Madelyne thought she did only for that person to toss her aside.

There's no saving Madelyne, and the fact that Scott didn't save her, that he didn't both trying until he was too late makes him the villain.

If anything Inferno is better than Judas Contract at dragging the heroes down to their lowest points, because The Teen Titans failing to save Terra is understandable because of how young they are but there's no excusing Scott's actions. Madelyne may run around in a skimpy outfit calling herself the goblin queen but the villain of this story is named Scott Summers. He had a responsibility and obligation towards Madelyne to save her and he failed, and it makes him a bad hero and an even worse person.

One of the key components of a tragedy is also agency. Agency is basically the freedom a character has to choose and how much their choices matter in the grand scheme of things and impact their narratives.

Tragedies are often defined by how little agency the characters are shown to have, and how limited their range of choices are. One of the biggest themes of tragedy is fate and inevitability at all. For example one of my favorite tragedies antigone is about a girl with very little power in the ancient greek city of Thebes who still makes a choice to give her brother a proper burial even though she knows she'll be executed for it.

Dark Phoenix is all about agency. Jean Grey is dealing with three different forces trying to take her mind, her agency. There's the corrupting influence of Phoenix, there's the Hellfire Club who wants to make her into a puppet, and then there's Charles Xavier who wants to put a lid on her tremendous powers. Everyone trying to take agency away from Jean eventually leads her to snap and try to take all of that agency back by embracing godhood because who has more agency, more control than a god? Even Jean's act of killing herself at the end was reclaiming her agency, it's her choice to die as a human rather than be executed, or to lose herself to the phoenix.

What breaks Madelyne is not Scott leaving her. Which made me like her character a lot, like the moment Scott left Madelyne was shown just how stubborn and determined she was. Madelyne stood out as the only normal human amongst the x-men who still held her own like Moira did (i guess Moira is a mutant now but I'm still in the 80s so w/e).

What breaks her is the revelation that she never had any agency in her life to begin with. Scott was always meant to fall in love with her, he was always meant to leave her, because she was nothing more than a womb for Sinister's breeding project. Once again it's masterful how Scott looks equally as villainous as Sinister in this scenario in how neither of them regards Madelyne as a person, just an object to project their desires upon.

(Honestly Jean Grey doesn't come out looking all that great either considering how little sympathy she has for Madelyne because she just sees her as an obstacle to getting back together with Scott. If anyone Jean should sympathize with Madelyne the most because they've both been toyed with cosmic forces out of their control, but I guess it goes to show how selfish and destructive Jean and Scott's love for each can be).

Is there any sequence more tragic in all of comics than this series of panels?

The symbolism in these panels too and how it relates to the themes of agency with Madelyne's character. Madelyne was a free and self-driven woman (or at least she thought she was) living out her dream of being a pilot which to her the ability to fly her wings represents her freedom and indepedence. The only thing she thought that could make her happier was Scott, but in the end not only did Scott take her wings away, he took away her everything and gave it to someone else.

"Time to lose those wings, Maddie. You can't really fly, anyway. You're not special like us."

If there's any words to express the inherent tragedy of Maddie's character is this, she's a person who thought she was free to fly, that she was real, that her life mattered only to have all that taken away from her. Maddie like Terra thinks she has agency that she's making decisions but she had no real choices from the beginning.

That's also a good way to express what makes tragedies hit as hard as they do. Tragedies slap you with the realization that you're not special. The hero is not a hero, they don't have plot armor, they're not immune to consequences, they're human and just like all humans they fail.

Even the act that Madelyne thinks is reclaiming her agency by gaining power as the Goblin Queen is in fact, not her choice. She doesn't choose to sell her soul, she's tricked into doing it by a rebellious demon that wants to kick Illyana out and reclaim limbo for himself. In Madelyne's one act of trying to steal back her power and freedom she is still just a pawn in another person's scheme.

There's also Madelyne going through literal hell itself to reclaim her son, only to make the decision to sacrifice him along with several other infants which seems to make her usympathetic but ironically makes her more sympathetic to me.

There's the obvious reference to Medea there. If all the parallels aren't obvious enough already, Jason and the Argonauts gets namedropped during the arc.

One of my favorite things about Medea the tragedy by Euripedes is that Medea is not just a girlboss who gets revenge on Jason and then walks away. Straightforward revenge narratives are bad because revenge is... bad actually. The decision to inflict more pain and suffering in the world doesn't break the chain of suffering.

Medea kills her children to show that Jason is not entirely in the wrong, and Medea is not entirely in the right. They are two human beings who's relationship is blowing up in the worst way possible. I mean Jason himself does have some points in the play, he's making a political marriage to save both of them, the only reason he's exiling Medea is because Medea made loud death threats at Jason's new bride. It's not just the heartbreak of being abandoned that drives Medea, it's her pride, the whole play started because Medea didn't want to settle for being a side chick.

Medea wants revenge against Jason but she doesn't take her revenge on Jason, she takes revenge on everyone around him for the purpose of making him feel as alone and lost as he did her. She'll kill her own children, even if it kills her to do so, just to spite him a little more.

Which leads to one of my favorite scenes in all of fiction, Medea holding the knife over her own child's throat, bargaining with herself trying to convince herself to do something she objectively knows is wrong.

MEDEA I’ve made up my mind, my friends. I’ll do it—kill my children now, without delay, and flee this land. I must not hesitate. That would hand them over to someone else to be slaughtered by a hand less loving. No matter what, the children have to die. Since that’s the case, then I, who gave them life, will kill them. Arm yourself for this, my heart. Why do I put off doing this dreadful act, since it must be done? Come, pick up the sword, wretched hand of mine. Pick up the sword, move to where your life of misery begins. Don’t play the coward. Don’t remember now how much you love them, how you gave them life. For this short day forget they are your children and mourn them later. Although you kill them, still you loved them. As a woman, I’m so sad.

Why would Madelyne after going through all that trouble to find her son, instead choose to give him to the fire? It's because for a person who was given so little choice over her own life, the choice to self-destruct is still a choice. The choice to destroy something with your own hands rather than let it be destroyed for someone else is still a choice.

That would hand them over to someone else to be slaughtered by a hand less loving. No matter what, the children have to die. Since that’s the case, then I, who gave them life, will kill them.

I think I may like Madelyne more than Jean at this point?

The same way I like Terra more than Raven. They're very similiar characters, but it takes possession by Trigon to get Raven to attack the titans. Terra just tries to kill them by her own free will. She's willing to bury herself if it gives her one last chance at burying the titans to too. Madelyne on the other hand is willing to walk barefoot into hell, if it means she can drag Scott and the X-Men with her. Jean does things under the influence of the Phoenix, but she chose to die as a human being at the end of Dark Phoenix. Madelyne however made the opposite choice, throwing all her humanity away she gave herself wholly and unreservedly to the fire.

Also damn, x-men 97 did this arc so dirty by speedrunning through it in one episode. This is also one of the most well set-up arcs in the X-Men comics with so many threads like X-Factor, X-Men and New Mutants all coming together. It really deserved its own season not like 2 episodes, and then Madelyne dying halfway through this season.

#madelyne pryor #the goblin queen #scott summers #x men #spooky speaks #x men 97

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androaspec-drivel · 2 days

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My Observations and Opinions On Bitlife and It's Idea Of Trans People

Bitlife has 4 genders. Cisgender (he/him or she/her), genderqueer (ze/zir), non-binary (they/them), and transgender (he/him or she/her). You're first able to change the character's gender at age 4. You can change the character's gender as many times as you wish. When you change the character's gender to transgender, it will prompt you to change the character's name. The same does not happen when changing to any other gender or changing to transgender after the first time. There is a way to change name outside of this prompt. When the character's not cisgender, the character's profile then gets a new section: birth gender.

To transition, the character must be 18 and get 'gender reassignment' surgery. The correspending message is "I am now male." or "I am now female.", depending on the character's birth gender. If a character is genderqueer or non-binary, a prompt will show up to change their name, the name suggestions being masculine or feminine based on the character's new sex. When the character is transgender, they no longer have a birth gender (a genderqueer or non-binary character will) and their gender will become 'transsexual male' or 'transsexual female'. Gender reassignment surgery can only be done once. Other plastic surgeries, those regarding sex characteristics, correspond to the character's sex. If a character is married, they may be divorced upon getting gender reassignment surgery. There is an achievement entitled 'Ultimate Betrayal' for this, it's icon being a middle finger emoji.

If a character is a transsexual male, they can become a transgender female. If your character is a transsexual female, they can become a transgender male. At which point, their gender is transgender and they once more get the birth gender section. You can have female transgender female and male transgender male character but they still will be transsexual even if that information is no longer accessible in the character's profile.

This information is sort of accessible via going to change the character's gender. When a character is a transsexual transgender, three section will appear on the 'gender' prompt: gender, birth gender, and current identity. I say 'sort of accessible' is because the gender section refers to a character's sex and omits that the character is transsexual.

When a character with the 'birth gender' section is put into or asked to join something that is gender-segregated, it is segregated by sex. It is only after gender reassignment surgery that a character may join the opposite side of something that is gender-segregated.

When a character is looking to date and is gay, the randomized partner suggestions correspond to the character's gender. This is unless the character is genderqueer or non-binary. If such a character is gay, the randomized partner suggestions will correspond to the character's sex.

This is all I've observed. Onto opinions, of which I have many.

Bitlife does not understand the difference between sex and gender. Everything is gender to Bitlife unless a character gets their 'gender' reassigned, then they've changed their sex and are no longer transgender.

There is no escape from being misgendered when your character is genderqueer or non-binary because Bitlife needs to sort characters by sex so bad.

Cisgender characters are never said to be cisgender but every transgender or transsexual character is explicitly labelled as trans.

Genderqueer or non-binary characters aren't able to change their names until age 18.

The transition process is astronomically unrealistic due to the fact it's not even a process. You get a surgery, one surgery, and suddenly you're the opposite sex. A great lack of nuance.

Social transition/changing your gender only really applies to which genders you get to date. This implies that every family is transphobic, forcing children into gender-segregated school based on sex.

Bitlife presents sex as binary, making everyone one or the other.

Bitlife should have HRT.

Bitlife should different gender-affirming surgeries as opposed to one singular surgery.

Gender reasignment surgery goes to call a character male or female, even if gender isn't on of those.

Honestly sucks, but I imagine it realistic that there's a chance that a character will be divorced upon getting gender reassignment surgery. Why doesn't anyone leave when you change your gender though? Because they think it's a phase?

It's the worst fucking thing when I try to get my character's gender changed as soon as possible and still end up in an all-girls school.

Dysphoria doesn't exist and I think it would be nice to have even if it would make the game more difficult.

The only transphobia in the game is the unavailability of gender reassignment surgery in certain countries and spouses leaving. I want more transphobia.

I like that straight boys will say I'm not their type when I play as a transgender male.

Being trans has little to no effect on a character's life. Being trans irl really can fuck with you in both good and bad way, that should be reflected in game.

While writing this, I kept going back and forth on the number of genders because I do kinda believe that Bitlife sees transgender or transsexual men and women as a fundamentally different gender from cisgender men and women. The highest number you get is 8 genders, the lowest being 4.

What have you noticed? What do you think?

#im bored now so ill stop.#bitlife #lgbtq #queer #transgender #transsexual #trans #transmasc #transfem #genderqueer #non binary #nonbinary #pronouns

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