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sandalaris · 4 years

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001 Umbrella Academy and 003 Seth Gecko and 004 Buffyverse/Teen Wolf

Thanks @yossariandawn for sending this!

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: Diego 💕 but Five is a close second.

Least Favorite character: Reginald! The only good thing I can say about him is that he brought the Hargreeves together. Oh, and I guess he did give Vanya her first violin. Still an awful guy though.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Not sure I have a full five, but in no particular order: Lila/Five, Diego/Vanya, Agnes/Hazel, Luther/Alison, and Five/Vanya

Character I find most attractive: Probably Ben, but Alison is a gorgeous close second.

Character I would marry: Maybe Diego? Possibly Klaus after season two if he could stay sober.

Character I would be best friends with: Probably Alison. I feel like she and I would get along well in that regard.

a random thought: I hope there’s not an apocalypse next season, and I hope the next time they do an apocalypse, it’s not because Vanya loses control of her powers but rather some other siblings who sets it off.

An unpopular opinion: Luther was just as messed up as the rest of his siblings by Reginald and deserves the same amount of understanding/forgiveness for his mistakes.

my canon OTP: Luther/Alison are such a cute couple

Non-canon OTP: Lila/Five came out of nowhere and grabbed my attention in both hands and demanded I pay it the respect it deserves :P

most badass character: Five

pairing I am not a fan of: I can’t really get behind Ben/Klaus. Most of the other ships I’m at least neutral on, but that one just isn’t for me.

character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): I can’t say that they screwed her up yet, but if they magically bring the Handler back next season I think that’d be a major screw up on the writers back. Once I get, and I love the character, but they can’t keep killing her off and then bringing her back without the whole thing losing the impact it had the first time. (Now if they find a way to have her past self pop in now and again to make things sticky, I could be down for that, but I don’t want her back as a main antagonist again.)

favourite friendship: Ben and Klaus... which also might be why I don’t ship them romantically. They’re too much of a brOTP for me.

character I want to adopt or be adopted by: all the little Hargreeves! :( And maybe Lila too, let them have more normal childhoods.

I did the Seth one last because it ended on a bunch of gifs

004 | send me 2 fandoms and I will give yo my crossover OTP

BtVS and TW aired at two such different times that I don’t think I’ve ever thought about crossover potential between them.

And since I couldn’t seem to think of an OTP, I went with three potential dynamics I wouldn’t mind exploring XD

Is it odd that I think there’s potential between Willow and Peter? There’d have to either be some history there, maybe they bonded in early school years. Or else Peter manipulated and pushed Willow, either because he saw her as an easy target or because he sensed the magic potential in her and was poking at it, to the point she snapped back. Once its established that there’s some hefty bite behind the fuzzy sweaters and nervous babble, he’d get curious. And curiosity would eventually lead to some kind of relationship, whether romantic or platonic. Peter would become weirdly protective over her, but not in a physical sense so much as a he speaks to her in a way that isn’t designed to provoke, and will glare/threaten those who he feels isn’t giving her the care she deserves.

I think I could also at least mildly ship Scott/Dawn for some reason. I don’t know why, but I feel like his puppiness and her sort of optimistic awkwardness could click. Plus he’d take the whole “I was a glowy blob of energy for most of my life” thing in stride.

Oz, being BtVS’ primary werewolf, would have been great as a Just Passing Through wolf who runs into the Hale pack circa Derek’s keeps-turning-high school-students phase and who ends up sticking around for a bit. He’s not an official pack member, he likes his lone wolf status just fine, but he’s discovered quite a bit of harmonizing with his inner wolf and ways of controlling a shift that he ends up becoming kind of a much needed mentor. He also has a plethora of much needed supernatural knowledge and unlike Deaton, he’s willing to share.

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you Seth Gecko

How I feel about this character: Sarcastic, grumpy asshole with selective morals! *heart eyes*

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Kate... that’s it, the whole list. No seriously, all the ship questions below have the exact same answer... Kate...

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Gecko Brothers are brOTP to the max. They are ride or die for each other and I love that they are such a package deal.

My unpopular opinion about this character: Not sure I have an unpopular opinion on him specifically. At least not one that I haven’t mentioned before, lol.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: Whoops, almost missed this one. The show did a pretty good job at showing Seth’s journey, I’m not sure there’s anything I would change per say, but maybe getting to see a bit more of what was happening during the time between seasons. The Mexican Honeymoon and the Seth and Richie integrating into the culebra world, that sort of thing.

my het ship: SethKate 100%

my fem/slash ship: I really only ship him with Kate... so maybe Kade, the stubborn preacher’s son trying to hold his family together after the death of his mama when they’re family vacation gets hijacked by a couple bankrobbers trying to flee to Mexico.... and I actually remember seeing I think it was a gif set, but it might have just been some pics, of someone’s idea of a genderswapped Kate Fuller and now I’m trying to figure out the actor they used...

I’m kind of picturing this guy (only with a dye job and maybe some green contacts), but he’s got a more masculine version of Madison’s jaw and his nose, while not perfect (she’s got a pretty unique nose) is long and slender like hers, and his eyes have that sort of slight downward angle.

I found one other guy that might work, his mouth was spot on and his eyes were practically perfect, but his nose is all wrong, his look much edgier (although that could be easily changed), and his jaw/chin wasn’t quite right. He’s here if you‘re curious. :)

my OTP: SethKate... yeah, I’m pretty predictable :P

my OT3: I’ve at least enjoyed the occassional Seth/Kate/Richie fic, so that’d probably be the closet I have to an OT3 for Seth

my cross over ship: er... I’m not sure I’d put Seth with anyone else. Maybe for funsies I’d play with the idea of movie!Seth/show!Kate and/or show!Seth/movie!Kate, but that’d be as far into crossover territory I’d take him romantically.

my kink: I don’t know that I have a go-to one, but that little one sentence prompt where Seth tries to seduce Ms. Fuller? I really want to explore more of that. So student/teacher?

a head cannon fact: Seth, for all his rebellion and bluster and rudeness, doesn’t know it but he wants the approval of those he sees as father figures, to himself and others. With guys like Uncle Eddie it comes out as trying to please them, charm them, make them like him and find him worthy of their approval and praise. For others, like Jacob Fuller, who he thinks will never accept him, will always find see him as beneath him, he goes of his way to try and prove that he doesn’t want or need their acceptance, shoving it in their face at every turn.

my gender bend: Michelle Rodriguez is the first person I thought of. I wish I could find more pics of her in Seth approved outfits, but you’ll have to make due with what I did find :P

Now I’m picturing female!Seth and male!Kate (who will forever be Kade in my mind) during their Mexican Honeymoon and that tearful good-bye at the gate.

#tua #fdtd #sethkate #btvs #tw #asked and answered

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our-happygirl500-fan · 5 years

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If DC had used her properly Steph could have been a major character in the world of super heroes, not only with everything she went through but the fact that she manages to keep up with the Batfamily and stand on level with people who have had some of the greatest training in the world through pure will power. Not only that but DC really should have done more when showing just how integral she is to the Batfamily.

- Let's start with Tim, she's his main love interest but also she's a huge light in his life. Tim's life only really starts to spiral once Steph dies, after war games things get dark. Though there are some issues here and there between the two Steph is one of Tim's closest allies and someone he can rely on. Steph is one of the most important people in Tim's life.

- Steph is Cass's first and best friend and the two of them are an integral team to the point where it is so incredibly rare both in comics, other media and especially fandom to see one without the other they are literally always paired together not just as Batgirls trained by Barbara, but also as best friends.

- Steph is one of the most important people to Damian, pre reboot, she was the Batgirl to his Robin and she's arguably as important to Damian as Dick is. Dick taught Damian how to be a hero while Steph taught him how to be a kid. Damian and Steph are very important to each other and have a little sibling relationship going on.

- Barbara is Steph's mentor and during Steph's batgirl run they two care about each other a great deal. Before Steph had become Batgirl Barbara had been actually having a rough few events after everything that happened in war games even leaving Gotham for a bit. Steph helped Barbara regain her hope and belief in what they were doing my favourite line that Barbara says in Steph's Batgirl run is “Remember Stephanie Brown saved me”. Steph is also said to remind people of Batgirl Barbara both Commissioner Gordon says that Steph reminds him of Barbara and Dick says that Steph reminds him of Barbara “before...everything”.

- Steph and Bruce's whole relationship is so complex you could write a whole thesis on it but he does care about her shown and acknowledged multiple times and even though she's not one of his kids he's still one of his /kids/ (Bruce has 5 sons a daughter and one Stephanie Brown). Also Steph's his future daughter in law anyway because she's Tim's only even remotely good relationship that or she’s going to marry Cass, Steph’s going to marry in we all know this.

- Alfred is shown morning Steph’s death and talks about how much it affected Bruce and is incredibly happy when Steph comes back to life. He also defends Steph saying Bruce didn’t need to test her when he comes back from the dead.

- We didn't get an incredible amount of interaction between Steph and Dick due to the Dickbats era only being around two years but the stuff we did get is very good, like she parallels Jason, Steph also parallels Dick. They both have their similarities, Bruce even saying that Steph reminded him of Dick at times, however Steph was also the batgirl to Dick's batman and when Dick starts to accept her and trust her he cares a lot about her. In the Batman reborn era where Dick, Damian, Steph and Barbara were Gotham's main protectors if Steph and Damian were siblings Barbara and Dick definitely had a parents vibe going on to the point where Dick literally called Damian and Steph 'the kids' if they were allowed to interact more I think people would have portrayed a father daughter relationship between Dick and Steph just as much as Dick and Damian have a father son relationship (Being Batman comes with Big Dad energy the moment you take up the cowl you start emotionally adopting every child you come across). Not only that but in Batfamily meetings in the Dick bats era Dick, Damian and Steph are almost always shown standing together (they're batman, robin and batgirl they're a team!) and the only time Steph isn't shown with them is when she's shown standing next to Barbara. In the 2016 Nightwing comic Dick is shown to be impressed by Steph to the point where he relies on her to hack into Strange’s files. Though Dick didn't know Steph much before she dies during the period where she was dead Dick notes how much her death affected Bruce and even tries talking about Steph with him multiple times.

- Duke though he hasn't met/ interacted with Steph, Steph is already important metaphysically to his stories. You could argue that Steph was the first We Are Robin kid in the sense that she was one of the first 'normal gotham kids' to just start fighting crime and she even made herself a home made Robin costume. Also the main antagonists of the We Are Robin kids were the Talons and the Court of Owls. You know the secret society that Steph's father was able to uncover by himself and steal from and a Talon killed Arthur Brown. So Steph has the potential to be really important to Duke's story.

- You can write so much about Steph and Jason. Jason though has had little to no interaction with Steph in comics is actually an integral character to Steph not only because DC repeatedly drew parallels between Steph and Jason (and then didn't do anything with it) from criminal fathers, drug addict mothers, growing up on the poor side of gotham, to being dead robins, to Black Mask the one who killed Steph being one of Jason's primary antagonists. Heck even in the new 52 Steph has Jason parallels what with homelessness, living on the streets and being betrayed by her own mother. Bruce's regrets about Jason are even the explanation to why Bruce used to act the way he does to Steph. Their birthdays are like a week apart, I've literally seen people jokingly call Steph 'girl Jason'. I think if Jason ever met Steph properly he'd be very protective of her like how Bruce cares a lot about Dick because they have the same tragedy yet Dick turned out as such a good person someone commented that Bruce sees Dick as the good version of himself I think Jason if he was feeling particularly angsty would view Steph as the good version of himself in the same way.

Let’s also not forget that Selina has been shown to care for Steph a great deal and even helped train her, Kate gets concerned about her emotional wellbeing and helped train her and even had Steph on her team for a little bit. Steph was Harper’s room mate and Jim Gordon states that Steph reminds him of his daughter.

Also Leslie was her guardian for nearly two years while they were in Africa and Steph had already gone back to high school before she told Tim and her mom she was alive and it was long enough that she made friends and got invited to parties but you can't register for high school without a legal guardian which we all know was Leslie which means Leslie was more likely than not, legally Steph's foster mother for the two years in Africa and for the first few weeks they were back in Gotham.

So yeah Steph is a pivotal member in the Batfamily even without DC trying so imagine what it would be like if they did use her properly.

#DC comics #batfamily #stephanie brown #tim drake #cassandra cain #damian wayne #barbara gordon #alfred pennyworth #bruce wayne #dick grayson #duke thomas #jason todd #selina kyle #kate kane #harper row #jim gordon #leslie thompkins #dc

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the-desolated-quill · 5 years

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The Tsuranga Conundrum - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Ugh. I suppose it had to happen eventually. After four great episodes on the trot, it was only a matter of time before Chris Chibnall ran out of steam and returned to his usual output.

Okay. That’s not fair. The Tsuranga Conundrum isn’t that bad. It’s not like Cyberwoman or his Silurian two parter. In fact had this come out during one of Moffat’s series, I probably would have considered this episode a highlight. But Series 11 so far has been a true return to form for the show, with episodes like The Woman Who Fell To Earth and Rosa featuring some amazing moments of characterisation as well as intelligent and quite often powerful writing. Somehow Chibnall has managed to defy expectations and demonstrated just what you can do with a show like Doctor Who if you were to actually put the time and effort in. It’s for that reason why I feel like The Tsuranga Conundrum is such a spectacular dud.

It’s funny how i mentioned Moffat’s tenure as showrunner because this honestly feels like an episode from that era just as The Power Of Three felt like a throwback to RTD. All the episodes so far this series have had slow deliberate pacing, giving the audience time to truly get to know the characters and the setting. In fact the characters are clearly the main focus this series with the plot and monster (if there even is a monster at all) being secondary. This I feel is what has made this series so strong. It’s what made even a weak episode like Arachnids In The UK have an emotional kick to it. The Tsuranga Conundrum on the other hand feels like the complete opposite of this. Everyone is dashing about, spouting exposition, with the characters becoming almost an afterthought. Obviously if you’re into this kind of plot driven, fast paced Who, then more power to you. It just feels really out of place after the previous four episodes.

What also affected my enjoyment were the character inconsistencies and general stupidity. I have had nothing but praise so far for Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor, but this... I don’t know what has happened, but this is not a good episode for the Doctor. For starters the episode opens with Team TARDIS on a junk planet and coming across a sonic mine, but instead of doing something sensible like running away, the Doctor just stands there like a twit waiting for the thing to detonate. Then when she regains consciousness four days later on the Tsuranga, she tries to hijack the ship so she can get back to the TARDIS. Yeah! Fuck the other patients! It’s not like their lives matter or anything! That has got to be one of the most unDoctorly things I’ve ever seen. I’m sorry, but the Doctor would never do something like that.

But wait! A UO breaches the shields and enters the ship. The Doctor’s doctor Astos, having just ordered her to return to her bed, demands she checks the much safer port side of the ship while he takes a look around the more dangerous starboard side. It was his tone and manner that really got to me. Can you imagine him saying that to a male Doctor? And do you know what the worst bit is? She actually does what he tells her to do. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. Again, there’s no way the Doctor would do something like that. I don’t care what gender they are. The Doctor in any of their incarnations wouldn’t have submitted to someone else. They would have taken charge. And yeah, she eventually does once Astos gets killed, but that scene still irked me. When I first heard the words ‘Chris Chibnall is going to be writing the first female Doctor,’ this was the kind of thing I was afraid we would get.

I’ve got nothing against Jodie Whittaker of course. She’s still giving it her absolute all, but there’s just very little for her to work with here. Another scene that really stood out as weird was the scene where she asked Yasmin to pick a number to set the bomb timer to. Why?! That just seems like such a callous and inappropriate thing to do in that situation. Matt Smith’s Doctor I could buy doing that. That’s just the kind of dickish and plonkerish thing he would do, but Whittaker’s? It just feels like an excuse to do weird, kooky shit. And here I was hoping we’d left that behind with Peter Capaldi and the dreaded sonic sunglasses. Not to mention all the moments where the story stops dead in its tracks so that the Doctor can witter on at length about hope and anti-matter. Again, Jodie Whittaker does her best, but there’s a time and a place. It’s hard to marvel at an anti-matter drive when there’s a fucking alien eating the spaceship.

Let’s quickly discuss the Pting. I liked it. It’s a good design and a different kind of threat for Doctor Who. I’m impressed this series how Chibnall so far has managed to stay away from the usual ‘alien invaders wanting to take over the world’ schtick, finding different kinds of threats and motives for each episode. The Pting isn’t evil. It’s just hungry and looking for something to eat. That’s so innocent for a Who antagonist that’s almost charming. Unfortunately it’s undermined by yet more stupidity. The Doctor is alarmingly slow to catch on to the fact that the Pting isn’t interested in killing the crew. It just wants to eat the ship. I would have thought the computer describing it as ‘strictly non-carnivorous’ and seeing it scoffing down her sonic screwdriver would have been a bit of a giveaway, but there you go. She acts like this is a big revelation, but we knew this from the start, didn’t we? If the audience are further along than the Doctor, something has gone spectacularly wrong. And then Chibnall drops the clunker that the Pting feeds on energy. Wait... huh?! If it feeds on energy, why was it eating metal earlier? And if the Pting ate all the energy in Astos’ life pod, how did it explode?

Characters are another issue. Because the episode is zipping along at a hundred miles an hour, there’s barely any time to really get to know anyone. Lois Chimimba’s medic character I thought had potential, having to take charge of the ship after Astos’ death and maybe taking inspiration from the Doctor and following her example, but she’s too busy dealing with a comedy male pregnancy (that I didn’t much care for by the way. I didn’t think it was particularly funny and it just felt like Chibnall came up with it at the last minute to give Graham and Ryan something to do). You’ve got this famous general and her engineer brother who aren’t particularly interesting. There’s the usual sibling rivalry you’ve seen done millions of times before the eventual reconciliation where the two spout ‘I love yous’ over slushy music (this is the closest composer Segun Akinola has gotten to Murray Gold territory and I very much hope we don’t come any closer). Then the general pops her clogs due to Plot Contrivance Syndrome and the engineer ends up saving the day piloting the ship... which begs the question why didn’t he just pilot the ship in the first place if he knew how to do it? Makes the general’s death seem a bit silly really.

Whereas previous episodes managed to tug at the heartstrings with subtle, but effective moments of characterisation, The Tsuranga Conundrum goes the RTD route of bashing you over the head with gaudy sentimentality and melodrama. Nothing can be left to chance. Everything has to be spelt out so that even the idiots at the back of the class can understand the emotions on display. The Doctor’s speech about hope. Ryan talking about how his mum died and how his dad was never there for him. Ryan then using that experience to tell Yoss how to be a dad. The android giving the final eulogy about stars guiding you through bollocks (I’m paraphrasing obviously, but that was the gist of it). It all just feels incredibly forced and not in the least bit affecting. The one moment I think sparked a genuine emotion out of me was Graham and Ryan laughing about how Grace would react if she saw them delivering a baby on a spaceship. That was a nice human moment that. I liked that.

It isn’t a bad episode. It’s certainly not the worst thing Chibnall has ever written. If I close my eyes and cover my ears during the stupid and annoying bits, I’d probably enjoy it. But compared to the previous four episodes, it’s hard not to see The Tsuranga Conundrum as a massive step backwards.

#the tsuranga conundrum #chris chibnall #doctor who #thirteenth doctor #jodie whittaker #graham o'brien #bradley walsh #yasmin khan #mandip gill #ryan sinclair #tosin cole #bbc #review #spoilers

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zhenyakatava · 6 years

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[last goodbye]

hello and welcome to the Most Extra Request Ever™. welcome. pls strap in! this request is for a cohort of people that (mostly) graduated from magnolia high in the class of 2011, and who are all interconnected through recently-deceased sam friar. as it often goes in small towns, kids who spent their whole lives being around each other tend to part ways at graduation and never see each other again. in this group’s case, they have no choice but to come back together for better or worse, and it’s done a great job at pointing out any cracks that still remain from years ago.

if you want to look at the chart above, pink = romantic / green = friendly / red = antagonistic / purple = familial. each character has a p...retty extensive blurb with lots of connections so we can try and ensure connections and interaction, but i think it’s rly important that everyone knows that these were relationships in high school (for the most part) and definitely don’t have to represent current relationships unless specified (like people who dated in high school don’t have to be dating now, people could have gone away even if it doesn’t specify, etc etc). also!! there will obviously be more connections made, i just could only put so much into graphic and writing before it got to be Too Much!

if you’re interested in a spot pls reply to this or message me or send me a lil msg on discord (morg#3278). xoxo bless

G1 - loren friar, 23, kat mcnamara (played by morgan)

G2 - graziella zavala, rafa constentino (played by betty)

G3 - heidi hope, 24, danielle campbell (played by maddie)

G4 - teddy townsend, 24, zoey deutch (played by suki)

B1 - noah foster, 24, quenten a (played by nicole)

B2 - first last, age, charlie rowe (played by liv)

B3 - micah friar, 24, carter jenkins (played by nick)

B4 - first last, age, face (played by emily)

samson friar (deceased): brilliant but lazy

sam grew up as the kid who acted out, who threw fits in class and got into fights on the playground. not many people really knew how hard sam had it, with strict evangelical parents who took all their frustrations out on him. at the end of the day, after using most of his time and energy being the protective big brother for twin boy 3 and little sister girl 1, he didn’t have much left for school. even though he’d always been smart, brimming with potential, he fought forces both external and internal - including only later-diagnosed borderline personality disorder - on his short-lived path to success. as he got older, the bad boy persona he’d acquired by acting out stuck hard and he rolled with it. he had his siblings and best friends since childhood, boy 4 and girl 3, to fall back on. their ragtag bunch got a pretty gnarly name for themselves, skipping class to smoke and throwing parties in abandoned houses. no one ever expected sam to start dating girl 4, universally known to be an uptight prude bitch. something clicked between them, and even though girl 3’s longstanding crush stood in the way of their relationship, it flourished regardless. for a while, she influenced him for the better. he shaped up, got his grades up, even made plans for college. that phase of their relationship was clearly a manic one, since those dreams died quickly. the romance was intensely passionate but also toxic, and despite the animosity she held for him for convincing her to stay local for school to be together and the personal struggles he faced, they refused to break up. in fact, they even decided to get married. about six months before his death, on the heels of the discovery that girl 4 had fallen pregnant, they got engaged. despite the romantic gesture, it couldn’t save their relationship or stop fate from intervening. when girl 4 miscarried, sam went off the rails. a minor drug habit that was once recreational became much more, and not long ago he ended up overdosing, leaving the carnage of family, friends, and lovers behind.

girl 1 (22-24): baby bookworm

sam and boy 3’s little sister, girl 1 was always tagging along with them. she never really fit in with people her age, never really fit in with people her brothers’ ages, so she was often left feeling isolated from everyone. this meant she often retreated into herself, not pursuing academics because of passion but instead because it was all she really had, one constant she could point to that would always be there. she hadn’t realized that perhaps some of the turmoil she felt came from her repressed sexuality until one night, after a party her brothers had begrudgingly let her go to, girl 2 kissed her. she’d never felt a crush like that before and never thought it would be with another girl. when boy 1 moved to magnolia, the two outcasts got along very quickly, becoming best friends and hanging out every single day. understandably, girl 1 was crushed when she found out that girl 2 had taken a liking to him and, apparently, the feelings were reciprocated. caught between her friendship and the protection of an almost-relationship she couldn’t even admit to, she decided to cut off the friendship with boy 1. just before her brother’s death, she finally gave in to boy 4, her brother’s best friend’s long-standing crush, and it’s not that she doesn’t like him, or that she doesn’t like boys, but that she still sees girl 2 at the grocery store and wonders whether it meant as much to girl 2 as it did to her. there’s also the strange fact that, when she looks at boy 4, she gets subtle reminders of her brother that make his loss easier, and isn’t it close enough to love that they’ve gotten each other through this?

girl 2 (24-25): prom queen

never the smartest in the bunch, girl 2 had to rely on street smarts, common sense and good looks to get along. clever in her own way, she was always particularly attuned to people - how to make them tick, how to get what she wanted, how to make connections like no other. maybe that’s why she was always flitting from guy to guy - though girl 1 would certainly say otherwise. she went from one bad relationship to another in high school, trying to find something in a guy that she couldn’t find on her own. after an ugly breakup with her long-term boyfriend, boy 2, that ended in absolute chaos, she was surprised to find herself interested in the unassuming new boy, boy 1. her friends, including part-time friend and part-time enemy girl 4, were surprised that she’d go for a nice guy - but she knew she needed a change of pace. getting girl 1 to leave her alone in the process was just an added perk - i mean, she was never gay or anything, just curious, and was that so wrong?

suggested faces: nicola peltz, cierra ramirez, camila mendes, madelaine petsch, taylor hill, halston sage, sofia carson, natalie alen lind, virginia gardner

girl 3 (24-25): bad genes

girl 3 was hardly given a fighting chance by the Powers That Be. her drug-addicted parents abandoned her early, leaving her with her not-much-better relatives, a revolving door of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and the like. it was no wonder she started hanging out with fellow garbage kids, boy 4 and sam. it was a surprise to her, though, that she found herself head over heels in love with sam. the feeling was never returned, really, outside of a few awkward kisses or fondling when he was off with girl 4. everyone was always asking why she didn’t just date boy 3, but the girl was perpetually oblivious to his advances because she was always focused intently on sam. at least she thought she was - but his death proved otherwise. she had actually thought things were looking up, and had been given renewed hope for her repressed love after they slept together one night. when he overdosed despite everything she’d done and everything she felt, girl 3 blamed herself more than anyone. the only thing keeping her from going off the rails (just like her one-time true love) is boy 3, and she’s starting to see what everyone was always talking about when they insisted she choose him instead.

girl 4 (24-25): academic alpha bitch

how do you not crack under the pressure when the weight of the world is on your shoulders? girl 4 was always so good at that, not without the help of anti-anxiety meds and meticulous journaling, always keeping up appearances to be the good, smart, promising girl everyone expected her to be. sam was her break from that, something that shocked absolutely everyone. she was too good, too smart, and had too much potential to be with someone like that. really, though, he was the only thing that made her feel anything but anxiety or anger. she made enemies everywhere she went, seeing everyone as a competitor, from her so-called best friend girl 2 to sam’s best friend girl 3 to her class president opponent, boy 2. sam was always her ally, no matter what, even if they fought. everyone blamed it on him, but she made mistakes too - namely, sleeping with boy 2 after a particularly bad fight. in truth, she wasn’t even sure whose baby it was, but either way she was relieved in a way when she miscarried. sam… not so much. she watched his downward spiral but didn’t have the tools to stop it as he froze her out and distanced himself further and further away from her - and, as she saw it, toward girl 3. girl 4 was the one to find him, and it’s a memory she could never forget, something that makes her regret the relief she felt not to be inextricably linked to him. grief-stricken as she is, how can she not see this as a fresh start?

suggested faces: willa fitzgerald, haley lu richardson, naomi scott, jessica sula, saoirse ronan, olivia cooke, zoey deutch, alycia debnam carey, camila mendes, halston sage, daisy ridley, logan browning

boy 1 (23-24): foreign exchange student

texas was nothing like where boy 1 came from. when he transferred to magnolia high, he didn’t know up from down or this from that. he was helpless - and girl 1 helped him. he developed a crush on her quickly, warming to her southern drawl and the way she talked when she got excited about something she was telling him about. at the same time, he started getting closer and closer to his mentor, the girl who was assigned to help him get acclimated to his new home and his new school: girl 2. it was strange to him that, when he became friends with girl 2, girl 1 stopped sitting next to him in economics, stopped eating with him at lunch, stopped answering his texts or calls. he didn’t see the correlation until later, when girl 2 made tasteless a joke about girl 1 being a lesbian. he had to adapt, either sink or swim in the high school environment he found himself in, and being with girl 2 meant swimming - and anyway, girl 1 clearly wasn’t interested anyway.

suggested faces: timothee chalamet, tom holland, john boyega, noah centineo, xavier serrano, avan jogia, keiynan lonsdale, nick robinson, tye sheridan

boy 2 (24-25): big man on campus

boy 2 had everything he needed to succeed in life. his family had money in oil, he was exceedingly smart, he was good at sports and great with the ladies. he had everything going for him - well, almost everything. the only thing standing between him and success was a little temper that found him getting into fights on the football field or getting into screaming matches with his ex-girlfriend girl 2 in the middle of the hallway at school. he just needed something to channel all that energy into, so he signed up to run for class president, a good old fashioned competition that he could put some positive energy into. he never expected it to be such a tough battle, and much less expected to get into it with girl 4. perpetual rivals in school, their rivalry came to a head during the presidential election. she won, but he developed a fascination with her and a hatred for her garbage boyfriend, sam. he went off for college, but she never really left his mind. he came back recently after losing his job (he says he resigned, but that’s twisted the whole truth a little) and met girl 4 in a bar, and he thought their getting together would be a good thing for them - he could give her everything sam couldn’t, everything she needed and deserved. turns out he was just a distraction, and he told himself he’d draw a line. the line has been drawn even further since sam’s death, since boy 2 definitely doesn’t want to get involved with a dead guy’s fiancee. still, he can’t help but wish she’d reach out…

suggested faces: keith powers, dacre montgomery, ansel elgort, jacob elordi, matt noszka, carter jenkins, thomas doherty, gregg sulkin, logan shroyer

boy 3 (24-25): the unassuming one

boy 3 always felt positively boring, not good or bad but somewhere plainly in the middle. his twin brother sam was always getting the attention - mostly negative, but boy 3 quickly became a firm believer in life that all attention is good attention. he was always grateful for the protection he got, for himself and for little sister girl 1, but at the same time was resentful of his brother for his notoriety. they shared everything, like best friend boy 4, and everything else went automatically to sam. sam never respected what he wanted to do or who he wanted to see, including girl 3. sam always knew that he liked her, and yet sam used her crush on him to his advantage at any possible time. as close as they always had been, the resentment was too much for boy 3 to handle and, when he got the chance, he decided to go off and backpack across europe to find himself before going to college across the country. he’s back now for the funeral, and while he know better who he is now, he can’t help but hate himself a little for driving a wedge between himself and his other half. he’s falling into old habits now, trying to reconnect with the person he used to be in any way he can - like how he’s fallen back in with girl 3. now, he can’t tell whether this is growth, or if he’s just regressing back to his lesser self.

suggested faces: logan lerman, joe keery, nat wolff, cole sprouse, carter jenkins

boy 4 (24-25): class clown

no one ever took boy 4 seriously. he was always sort of dumb, this caricature of a class clown that had nothing else to offer. after a while, he sort of saw himself as that, too. he moved in a pack with boy 3 and sam, cracking jokes whenever he could and coasting along until high school would finally end. he spent so much of his young life hanging out with the twins that he became well acquainted with girl 1, their little sister. the boys had their own things, girlfriends and schoolwork and everything, and as they got older and boy 4 found himself devoid of any real passion, he spent a lot of idle time with her, learning from her and maybe, secretly, falling in love with her. he always knew how protective sam was of her, though, and as fiercely loyal as he was, he would never sacrifice their friendship for anyone - not even someone as amazing as her. sam dying was the worst pain he’s ever felt in his life, and if being around girl 1 is mutually beneficial, wouldn’t sam be okay with that? he has to tell himself yes, otherwise the guilt would overtake him and he can’t deal with that on top of everything.

#fmsrp #here it is #my life's work

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bern33chaser · 5 years

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How to Write a Novel: 10 Crucial Steps

Whatever you write: blog posts, short stories, client pieces – I suspect that, at some point, you’ve at least considered writing a novel.

Maybe it’s something you contemplate every November, when NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) rolls around. Or maybe you’ve had an idea bubbling away for years now, but you’ve been waiting until you have more time to write. His response Writing a whole novel might feel rather daunting, especially if you’ve only ever written shorter pieces before. You may well wonder where to even begin.

Whether you’ve always wanted to write a novel, ever since you started reading “chapter books” as a child … or whether it’s a more recent ambition, this post will take you step by step through what you need to do.

Step #1: Choose Your Genre

In fiction, “genre” describes different types of novel. For instance, “science fiction” is one genre and “romance” is another. Within big genres like that, there are also subgenres (e.g. compare “dystopian fiction” with “space opera”, or “steamy romance” with “Amish romance”).

Some authors know exactly what genre they want to write in: they enjoy reading, say, psychological thrillers and they want to write something similar.

Other authors aren’t sure. Perhaps they have an idea for a novel that doesn’t really fit an established genre. If that’s you, think about where your book could potentially be shelved in a bookstore. What other books are similar? What books are definitely not like it?

It’s important to pin genre down before going much further because most genres have quite specific requirements. Romance readers tend to expect short novels, for instance … and a happily ever after ending.

Step #2: Settle on an Idea

You might have a bunch of different ideas for novels, or maybe just one idea that you’ve been carrying around for a long time. Novels have all sorts of starting points – C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe stemmed from an image that Lewis had in his head of “a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood.”

If you don’t currently have an idea that you’re interested in writing about, don’t force yourself to come up with something. A novel is a big commitment of time and energy – you don’t want to embark on it if you’re not feeling engaged with your idea from the very start.

Do, however, be open to ideas. They might come from anything – a hobby, a news story, a very different novel, a piece of art or music, a friend’s dilemma. Wait until your idea arrives.

If you have an idea that you’re unsure about – maybe it has mileage, maybe it doesn’t – then try writing it as a short story or a novel excerpt. See if it falls flat, or if you find that you want to continue working on it.

Step #3: Develop Your Characters and the Relationships Between Them

What’s more important, plot or character? It’s a trick question, really: you can’t separate the two. The plot of a story is driven by the characters’ actions; the characters’ growth (or “character arc”) is driven by the plot.

Personally, I find it easiest to develop characters first, then think about the ins and outs of the plot. If you’re working in a plot-focused genre (like action adventure) then you might prefer to start with the plot and then develop characters to fit it.

When you’re thinking about characters, you’ll want to work out a core cast for your novel. Don’t be tempted to throw in everyone – regardless of how “realistic” it might be. Yes, your characters probably have parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, best friends … but you don’t need to include all those unless they actually have a place in your story.

One technique for working out your characters is to get a piece of blank paper and draw a mindmap. Put each character’s name in a circle and work out how they relate to the other characters. Think about their key characteristics. (Are they cripplingly shy? Dangerously hubristic?) This is a good point to start working out which characters might come into conflict.

Your story may not have a “villain” as such, but it’s likely that there’ll be some major characters who play an antagonistic role. They could be well-meaning (e.g. a bumbling office-mate), a bit unpleasant (e.g. a glamorous and witheringly sarcastic mother-in-law) or downright nasty (e.g. a neighbour with serious anger-management issues).

Step #4: Decide How You’re Going to Tell Your Story

With novels, you’ve got some crucial choices to make about how you tell the story. You need to decide on whether you’ll write it in the first person (“I”) or the third person (“he/she”), and also whether you’ll use past or present tense.

(Technically, using the second person, “you”, is also an option, but I’ve never seen a novelist pull that off! It can work for a short story.)

There’s no “right” answer about whether to choose first or third person. With first person, present tense is fairly common (“I roll over in bed and reach for the alarm clock…”) but plenty of first person novels are written in past tense (“I rolled over in bed and reached for the alarm clock…”).

Third person present tense is seen as a slightly more unusual, literary choice (“He rolls over in bed and reaches for the alarm clock…”) but if it’s a good fit for your novel, go for it.

You’ll also want to think about how many viewpoints (also called perspectives) you want to use. With first person novels, it’s fairly normal to stick to a single viewpoint, but that’s not a hard and fast rule. With third person novels, it’s common to have more than one viewpoint, but to stick with one character’s perspective for each scene, only showing their thoughts and feelings.

If you’re not sure how best to tell the story, take a look at what other novels in your genre do.

Step #5: Think About Potential Sources of Conflict

Stories are driven by conflict – with no conflict, there wouldn’t be much story! Conflict comes in different flavours. Here are some key ones:

Internal – this is when a character’s struggles come from their own mind. For instance, they might be very anxious or shy, or they might find it very hard to connect to other people due to trauma in their past.

Interpersonal – this is conflict between characters. For instance, your character might get into a parking dispute with someone else in their block of flats.

Environmental – this is conflict that arises from an aspect of the character’s environment: for instance, it could be a physical limitation that they have, a financial problem, or a snowstorm that prevents them from getting to work.

Obviously, the different types of conflict can overlap – a financial problem might lead to interpersonal conflict (e.g. one spouse hiding difficulties from another) and to internal conflict (e.g. if the character needs to steal in order to feed their kids).

Look at your main character(s) and figure out what conflict you could throw in their path. Who might they end up arguing (or even fighting) with? What internal struggles are they trying to overcome? Is there anything in their environment that could make their life harder?

Step #6: Work Out a Rough Plot

Some authors write highly detailed outlines in advance … I’m not one of them! I do think it’s important to have a rough plot in mind, though; otherwise, you risk writing pages and pages that simply go nowhere.

Here are some good questions to ask yourself at this stage:

Where does your story begin? What kicks off the action? How do things get worse for your protagonist? How does it all end?

You can be as detailed (or not!) with your plans as you like. Keep in mind that you may find you want to change things as you go along, especially if this is your first novel – so don’t spend so long on planning that you’ll resist making necessary changes.

Novelist K.M. Weiland has some great resources on story structure that you might want to check out when you’re plotting your novel.

Step #7: Write the First Draft of Your Novel

This is a pretty big step! You might be surprised that it comes so far down the list – but there’s no point starting your first draft without any idea about your characters and plot.

Some authors like to write their first draft by jumping around between different scenes: they write whatever inspires them on a particular day, then they piece it all together at the end. I don’t think that’s a great approach for most novelists – it can lead to you leaving all the hardest scenes till last, for instance (and running out of steam altogether), and it makes it really tricky to have a natural flow of action and of character development.

So I’d recommend tackling your novel from beginning to end, drafting each scene as best as you can – whilst remembering that it is a draft that you’ll later be able to edit. Don’t aim for perfection at this stage.

Finishing your first draft will almost certainly take several months, and quite possibly a year or more. It’s easy to lose momentum partway, especially if this is your first attempt at a novel. If you’re struggling to keep going, there are some tips at the end of this article that will hopefully help.

Step #8: Read Through Your Whole Draft

Once you’ve finished your first draft, give yourself a huge pat on the back! This is the point in a novel where I like to break out some sparkling wine and celebrate having reached “the end”.

Of course, there’s still more work to do, but take a few days off first – not just for your sake, but also to give yourself the chance to return to your novel with fresh eyes.

After a break, read through your whole draft novel. I like to do this on my Kindle (you can send a Word document to your Kindle by following Amazon’s instructions here) – but you might want to print out your manuscript or even get it bound into a book by a print-on-demand service like Lulu. However you choose to read your novel, I’d suggest avoiding reading it in the same software in which you wrote it – you want to try to see it from a reader’s, rather than a writer’s, perspective.

As you read through the draft, jot down notes about any major changes that you think you need: chapters you might delete, scenes you might add, characters who aren’t really working, and so on. Don’t worry too much about little details at this stage – a clunky sentence here, a wordy bit of dialogue there. These might well get changed or cut during your revisions anyway, and you’ll do a close edit at a later stage.

Step #9: Redraft Your Novel

Redrafting is sometimes called “revising” which means “re-seeing” – this is your opportunity to see your novel afresh and shape it accordingly. You may well find that you need to make major changes – like cutting out big chunks of your story, fixing plot holes, removing or adding characters, and so on.

I know how frustrating it can be to cut thousands of words that you spent hours and hours working on – but ultimately, if those words are making your novel weaker rather than stronger, they need to go. The words you cut out aren’t wasted: they were an important part of the writing process, and they helped you get to this point.

(It’s very normal for novelists, even highly experienced ones, to make major changes at this point. Novels are complex, messy things!)

As with drafting, I like to approach redrafting sequentially: I start on page one and work forward. This means that I can incorporate major changes (like the removal of a character) throughout as I tweak other things, and I can make sure that the pacing and flow of the story still works.

Step #10: Do a Close Edit of Your Novel

The final step is to do a line by line edit of your novel. By this stage, you should be happy with all the major building blocks of your novel: your characters, the scenes, the key points in your plot. During this step, you’re not making major changes, just little tweaks.

As you edit your novel, line by line, look out for things like:

Awkward dialogue – maybe it sounds stilted, or it goes on too long.

Clunky sentences (you might want to read aloud to listen for ones that sound off).

Anything that doesn’t fit with your revisions – e.g. maybe you changed a character so they were much more decisive than before, but you have a couple of paragraphs where they’re dithering about a course of action.

Mistakes and typos – obviously check anything that your spell-checker has flagged up, but don’t trust it to have necessarily spotted all the mistakes. (Conversely, don’t blindly obey the spell-checker – sometimes its suggestions are wrong!)

Whew! You should now have – after probably a year or more – a finished, polished novel. This is the stage at which you could start thinking about submitting it to literary agents, or looking into self-publishing it.

I wanted to finish, though, with some key tips that fit across several of the different steps – I hope these will help you stay on track and produce the best novel you can.

Five Key Tips for Writing a Novel

Tip #1: Set Aside Regular Time for Your Novel

Whichever step of the plan you’re working on, you need to put time aside for it. (Even planning takes time – sometimes a surprising amount of it.) You don’t need to work on your novel every day, but if you want to see steady progress, I’d suggest finding 3 – 4 hours per week for it. That might mean 30 minutes a day or 2 hours every Monday and Thursday evening.

Tip #2: Get Feedback and Support

Most towns will have a local writers’ group (or several) – ask around! If nothing exists, talk to your local library about starting something up. A supportive group of writers will be invaluable in so many ways: you’ll meet likeminded people who “get” writing, and you’ll be able to get feedback from them on your work in progress.

Tip #3: If You’re Self-Publishing, Hire an Editor

If you plan to self-publish your novel, I’d strongly recommend hiring a professional editor. This won’t come cheap (you’re probably looking at $1,000 or more to edit a whole novel manuscript) – but it’s an essential part of publishing something of a professional standard. If you can’t afford to get your whole novel edited, at least pay for an editor to read and review your first few chapters – any issues they spot with those might well be repeated elsewhere in your novel.

Tip #4: Each Scene Should Have a Point

Every scene — in fact, every sentence! — in your novel should have a point. Avoid scenes where characters sit around drinking coffee and chatting, or even scenes where they bicker – unless there’s an actual purpose to it. It’s worth asking yourself, as you edit, “Does this scene advance the plot?” (If a scene reveals character, that’s important too – but there’s not much point showing us more about a particular character unless something is happening as a result.)

Tip #5: Keep a Writing Journal or Record

Every time you finish a writing session, make a quick note of what you achieved (or not)! This could be as simple as logging your wordcount for the day – but you might want to go further and include notes on how you felt about it (e.g. how focused you were, how much you enjoyed writing that scene) as well as anything you want to remember later on in the novel (e.g. that you’ve established a character has a brother, for instance).

Writing a novel is a major undertaking, but one that I hope you’ll find very rewarding. I think it’s something that every writer should attempt at least once. Work through the steps above, and this time next year, you could have a finished draft … and perhaps even a complete, edited novel. Best of luck!

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Original post: How to Write a Novel: 10 Crucial Steps from Daily Writing Tips https://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-to-write-a-novel/

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mrsteveecook · 5 years

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How to Write a Novel: 10 Crucial Steps

Whatever you write: blog posts, short stories, client pieces – I suspect that, at some point, you’ve at least considered writing a novel.

Step #1: Choose Your Genre

Some authors know exactly what genre they want to write in: they enjoy reading, say, psychological thrillers and they want to write something similar.

Step #2: Settle on an Idea

Do, however, be open to ideas. They might come from anything – a hobby, a news story, a very different novel, a piece of art or music, a friend’s dilemma. Wait until your idea arrives.

Step #3: Develop Your Characters and the Relationships Between Them

Step #4: Decide How You’re Going to Tell Your Story

(Technically, using the second person, “you”, is also an option, but I’ve never seen a novelist pull that off! It can work for a short story.)

Third person present tense is seen as a slightly more unusual, literary choice (“He rolls over in bed and reaches for the alarm clock…”) but if it’s a good fit for your novel, go for it.

If you’re not sure how best to tell the story, take a look at what other novels in your genre do.

Step #5: Think About Potential Sources of Conflict

Stories are driven by conflict – with no conflict, there wouldn’t be much story! Conflict comes in different flavours. Here are some key ones:

Interpersonal – this is conflict between characters. For instance, your character might get into a parking dispute with someone else in their block of flats.

Step #6: Work Out a Rough Plot

Here are some good questions to ask yourself at this stage:

Where does your story begin? What kicks off the action? How do things get worse for your protagonist? How does it all end?

Novelist K.M. Weiland has some great resources on story structure that you might want to check out when you’re plotting your novel.

Step #7: Write the First Draft of Your Novel

This is a pretty big step! You might be surprised that it comes so far down the list – but there’s no point starting your first draft without any idea about your characters and plot.

Step #8: Read Through Your Whole Draft

Once you’ve finished your first draft, give yourself a huge pat on the back! This is the point in a novel where I like to break out some sparkling wine and celebrate having reached “the end”.

Of course, there’s still more work to do, but take a few days off first – not just for your sake, but also to give yourself the chance to return to your novel with fresh eyes.

Step #9: Redraft Your Novel

(It’s very normal for novelists, even highly experienced ones, to make major changes at this point. Novels are complex, messy things!)

Step #10: Do a Close Edit of Your Novel

As you edit your novel, line by line, look out for things like:

Awkward dialogue – maybe it sounds stilted, or it goes on too long.

Clunky sentences (you might want to read aloud to listen for ones that sound off).

I wanted to finish, though, with some key tips that fit across several of the different steps – I hope these will help you stay on track and produce the best novel you can.

Five Key Tips for Writing a Novel

Tip #1: Set Aside Regular Time for Your Novel

Tip #2: Get Feedback and Support

Tip #3: If You’re Self-Publishing, Hire an Editor

Tip #4: Each Scene Should Have a Point

Tip #5: Keep a Writing Journal or Record

Get our premium subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily. It costs less than a coffee per month! Click here to activate your Pro subscription.

Publish your book with our partner InstantPublisher.com! Professionally printed in as few as 7 days.

Original post: How to Write a Novel: 10 Crucial Steps from Daily Writing Tips http://bit.ly/2VuygFf

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jolteonjordansh · 7 years

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Thoughts on Kurata Arc

We got a doozy, guys. I have no idea how to start this other than oh God. Lots of changes to talk about, lots of characters, and lots of opinions. But in one sentence: Digimon Savers did but also didn’t go in some of the directions I expected it to and I’m kind of blindsided by it.

Let’s deal with this below the break.

I can’t believe how many risks Digimon Savers took in a single arc that it could have screwed up so easily. I was so ready to get so irritated with this series if they screwed up so many specific and particular things, but they managed to nail it in a way that made things work miraculously.

So there's a second opening in this arc! Digimon has never done a second opening before, but it's a Koji Wada opening! And I'm so torn because both the first opening and this one, Hirari, are super catchy and great. Seriously, I don't think I can pick between the two. But regardless, go listen to Hirari. Any Koji Wada song is worth your time.

Anyway, I'm ready to tear Kurata apart, but let me try to keep some order in this post. I do like how this series goes between the Digital World and Real World, but it's not as convenient as it was in Digimon Adventure 02 and there is some danger to it. This is especially an issue when Kurata destroys the DATS headquarters and the only Digital Gate the cast had there. Thankfully, there is a Digital Gate in the leftover basement of Keenan's parents. Naturally, they're against seeing Keenan go to the Digital World with the rest of the cast after finally seeing him again, but they eventually agree to let him go. Unfortunately like Adventure 02, this show felt the need to do a set of comedy antagonists. While I do think Arukinemon and Mummymon had some merit and humor, Savers' comedy trio... doesn't quite catch my interest.

Kouki, Nanami and Ivan are examples of people Kurata takes advantage of, and I can say I like that much of their characters. Nanami is vain and wanted more in her life and knowledge, and Ivan worked with Kurata to get money for his siblings. But this is about as much depth as they get. Nanami is mostly fanservice with boob jiggle physics, and Ivan is a really annoying comic relief character who wants to bone every girl he sees. There's also Kouki, who basically serves as Marcus' rival in that they both want to punch the shit out of each other, but that's it. There's no reason for him to offer himself for Kurata's research other than he wants to fight things and feel powerful. I guess you could argue this was part of the reason Marcus joined DATS, but he also joined them to be Agumon's partner, so there is some depth for him. I can't help but admit that these three being humans fused with Digimon is actually Frontier done right to an extent. Silly nonetheless, but there's some sick cruelty behind it that characterizes it as part of Kurata's insanity and sadist nature. If not Frontier done better, it certainly feels like a Take That to Digimon Frontier. The trio of dumb does prove to be strong adversaries if anything, supposedly killing Richard as the main cast escapes to the Digital World, but I don't think Richard's dead yet. I just don't think he would die that easily and to such loser characters. Plus, they can't get rid of my adorable Kudamon that Digivolves to this badass!

The main three characters also manage to achieve Mega level almost simultaneously. They have to train with BanchoLeomon who I know is going to die too, and this somehow fixes their Digivices after breaking them from a sudden surge of power in their last fight with the trio of dumb. I do appreciate how Marcus' achievement to Digivolution to Mega with Agumon was done since he fought hard the entire time in BanchoLeomon's dojo, but Thomas and Yoshino's felt sort of sudden. Hell, Yoshino didn't even fight the wooden dolls that BanchoLeomon had. They just made it work. I'm glad they do all achieve Mega level at least, but I will agree what does bother me a little bit is that the development of characters doesn't quite feel balanced. It's not to a point that it ruins any of the characters, but I do feel the lack of balance. You can really feel this for Keenan and Falcomon a bit in this arc, who don't achieve Mega level until the very end of the arc because they leave to do their own things in the Digital World and don't get the same experience as the other three. Even then, their excuse to leave was kind of flimsy at best. But again, not enough to ruin any of these characters for me.

I am glad we get to know the mysterious old man more--Homer Yushima. The main group ends up running into him and he does provide a funny supportive role, and his partner Kamemon is a funny partner with his odd shyness. I would classify him as a badass old man, but he doesn't really do anything really kickass. He's just there to be a cool old guy and be quirky. The supporting cast, in general, is pretty good, like Miki and Megumi actually participating (even if they are mostly back-up) and Marcus' mother and sister. There's a couple of Digimon on the "holy capital", ElDoradimon, but most of them really don't mean or do anything and one of them, Baromon, has about as dumb of a death as Seraphimon's in Frontier. But other than the supporting cast, some big changes happen in the main cast within this arc, and the writers could have totally screwed this up so easily.

In the midst of the Digital World part of this arc, Thomas gets pointed out ways he may be inferior to Marcus or even similar to him but not as good. This starts to set up the potential rival mini-arc, kind of like with Tai and Matt in Digimon Adventure, and this really started to irk me. I did not want to see Digimon Savers copy this plot point of Digimon Adventure, especially since Marcus and Thomas already had their fight in the beginning of the show and generally recovered from it. It definitely comes across this way, especially when Thomas decides to "join forces" with Kurata and fights Marcus for the sake of his surprise younger sister's health. It really frustrated me, but thankfully Digimon Savers somehow managed to land right on its feet and make this whole elaborate plot that shows just how clever Thomas really is, when initially it made him look really stupid.

The whole thing comes across as Thomas letting his emotions take over his intellect, between his supposed "grudge" against Marcus and his love for his younger sister, but no. Kurata is just a really clever asshole who put Thomas in a terrible position by having a bomb on Relena and having Thomas figure it out, so he knows fighting against Kurata would only end up getting Relena hurt. But he also makes his whole non-existent grudge against Marcus all the more convincing. And it's convincing all the way to the very end, down to Thomas creating a faulty device for Kurata to control Belphemon and to agree to Relena's surgery to do a human to Digimon fusion until the very end and utilizing his actual doctor title. It's here we also see Thomas kind of has an asshole dad because he was neglectful of him and his mother, but still loves Relena. It's still a little confusing and I'm hoping we get some depth on that.

This whole "betrayal" also leads to the inevitable Dark Digivolution of the series, which I had honestly forgotten about because I was becoming so immersed into it. It's all triggered by Marcus' anger towards Thomas for seeming to betray him, and the raw anger of his DigiSoul transforms ShineGreymon to his Dark Digivolution, ShineGreymon Ruin Mode. It actually works really well with the whole theme of the soul in Digimon Savers and Marcus' negative emotions are personified really well into ShineGreymon Ruin Mode, who is overcome with so much of Marcus' negative emotions that he just continues to rampage until he will destroy himself. Marcus is thankfully able to stop this... but at the cost of ShineGreymon reducing to an egg once more. This does lead to a good character arc of Marcus having to understand how to control his raw emotions and deal with the despair of losing Agumon--especially since it's speculated that all Digimon who are reduced to DigiEggs lose their memories. Lucky for Marcus, this doesn't happen, but they do a kind of funny fake-out with it that just fits Marcus' relationship with Agumon. Their reunion is honestly pretty emotional, as silly of moments as it has, and it just really solidifies how much more I like Marcus and his Agumon. Also, the way Marcus carries around the egg towards the final fight is weirdly adorable.

And now, I can finally talk about Kurata. Ho. Ly. Fuck. I hate this guy. Everyone hates this guy. He's the actual definition of a douchebag. No, seriously, if you look it up in the dictionary, you'll see his picture there. He's despicable in every way possible. He's a spineless coward. He takes advantage of people's emotions and fears. He's a liar who claims he's out to do one thing like destroy the Digital World for the safety of the Real World (even though that was wrong to begin with), then he decides "Fuck it, let me rule both worlds!". He kills hundreds of Digimon for their life energy, all to revive one of the Seven Great Demon Lords, Belphemon, without a care in the world for Digimon or even people. Seriously, he's despicable in every way and is just an awful human being. Thankfully Thomas was smart enough to sabotage part of this plan, but ironically Kurata tries to force this to work by transforming himself into data and basically fuses with Belphemon to turn him into the destructive beast he wanted to control. This eventually bites him in the ass as Belphemon's consciousness takes over Kurata's... only for Kurata to come back and create this ugly abomination. Thankfully, he does get his just desserts when he gets exactly what I wanted--Marcus and ShineGreymon punching him straight in the fucking face.

During the fight with Belphemon, Falcomon does get to achieve his Mega level--Ravemon, who's honestly a neat looking bird samurai. On that note, I should talk about the other Mega level Digimon. ShineGreymon is a neat take on the Greymon line, and I think I prefer it over WarGreymon. He's definitely not Gallantmon, but pretty neat. MirageGaogamon is probably my favorite of the Mega levels here, having a sort of knight theme to him, maybe mixed with a ninja theme considering how fast he is. As for Rosemon, she's... well, Rosemon. She's about the same as I would say about Rosemon when watching Digimon Adventure tri. I'll give credit that generally they've avoided doing jiggle physics with her (though they did some with Lotusmon, but Evil is Sexy). There's a couple of bits of fanservice like ass shots, but nowhere near as bad as... Ugh... Fairymon. There's also an advanced form called the Burst Mode, and ShineGreymon manages to achieve ShineGreymon Burst Mode, and it looks even better. Again, it's a really awesome design for the Greymon line. I just hope that the other three Megas get Burst Modes too, but I won't be surprised if they don't necessarily.

Still, the final fight in this arc is so freaking satisfying. Again, Kurata getting his punch to the face was something I was clamoring for since the end of the Worlds Conflict arc. It feels like a truly challenging fight with high stakes, and it's probably my favorite fight in Savers so far. While Kurata's fate isn't made clear in the very end, my mind tells me he's either dead or stuck in limbo in space-time. So either way, he suffers. And that's good. Because Kurata sucks. I can say without a doubt in my mind that he's the worst Digimon villain--not from a writing standpoint, but as a human being. He's the cruelest, most manipulative, jerkish villain I've seen in these series. And if the next arc somehow changes that, I'll be shocked.

This arc overall was really good. Once again, Digimon Savers continues the trend of getting better as it goes just like Digimon Tamers. I don't know how it can get better in 10 episodes, but I'm willing to let Digimon Savers try to convince me if they can execute things as well as they did in this arc where they could have screwed up so easily. It looks like with this whole rip in space-time that's colliding the worlds, traveling between the Real World and Digital World might have more freedom? I'm curious to see how it goes.

But before I can close this out and move on to the last arc of Digimon Savers... Surprise! Digimon Savers has a movie! Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode!!. This movie isn't canon, and you should only watch it until after this arc because it spoils ShineGreymon Burst Mode. You may be wondering why I don't have a separate final thoughts post on this movie. Well... That's because this movie kind of sucks. In fact, it's probably the worst Digimon movie of them all. Yes, worse than Hurricane Landing!!/Transcendent Evolution!! after all of the hell I've given that movie. Not to mention, this movie is only a mere 20 minutes long. So yeah, it doesn't deserve its own post.

One of the worst parts of this movie is that the human characters are barely even in this movie. There's just Marcus. No Thomas. No Yoshino. Not even any Keenan or even Falcomon. The movie just focuses on the three main Digimon--Agumon, Gaomon and Lalamon. But even then, Gaomon seems kind of out of character as apparently the humans are trapped in these weird cocoons, but he tells Agumon to give up hope on them ever waking up. Seriously Gaomon? Aren't you the loyal one in this group? Why would you not have faith in Thomas or even try to help him? It just comes off as really out of character.

But then the movie spends five minutes--a quarter of its runtime--on a really clumsy fight scene that doesn't do anything for the "plot" as the three Digimon try to save this little girl. But she's not a little girl! She's actually a Digimon named... Rhythm, and not something like Rhythmmon? Yeah, okay, I get it Digimon. You wanted your loli bait for the movie. Fine. Do whatever Japan. You're just trying to beat around the bush with the "B-B-But she's actually a Digimon!!!!!" excuse like with Fairymon, but whatever. They don't do anything fanservice-y with her at least, but the problem with Rhythm is she’s just... really boring. With the 20 minutes this movie has, they do nothing to really give her a character or give us a reason to care for her other than she got in trouble and the Digimon want to help her. She's just being chased by the Digimon in charge of all of the destruction in this movie, Argomon, for... reasons. They don't really explain. But Argomon's motives to dominate the world is... he's mad at humans for destroying the environment. Oh come the fuck on! A freaking environmental message!? Even the Pokémon Shaymin movie wasn't this transparent about the message! The West always sucked with environmental movies like Ferngully and Once Upon a Forest! Why are you trying this in 2006!?

So yes, this is a dumb movie with a dumb premise, dumb plot, and does nothing interesting. The Digimon are basically just running away constantly being unable to Digivolve due to not having their human partners, making it really boring until Marcus comes in last minute and Digivolves Agumon to ShineGreymon Burst Mode, but that's it. Even main antagonist Argomon is boring because his designs are very reminiscent of Diablomon and he lacks any originality. It's just a bland waste of time. Honestly, this movie has just two redeeming factors.

One is the animation. It's really, really good. Nothing quite as revolutionary and timeless as Our War Game!, but it's still really nice to look at. The fight scenes look great and there's some really fluid animation with nice shading. But what sucks is that it was wasted on this movie and not something better. There aren't any Digivolution animations (though I'm glad they didn't do the shitty cropping from Runaway Locomon), but I gotta say that ShineGreymon and the effects on him just look awesome. I really loved looking at it. But again, it's just a shame this budget was wasted on this. I wish they had just done a special episode with this, but even this movie is basically just a bad episode of the show. It's just bland and a waste of time. The other redeeming factor, which is related to animation, is that this movie has bloopers in the credits oddly enough. It's silly, but it's funny and I like it. I don't see a lot of 2D animated films do bloopers so I can appreciate Digimon doing something fun and lighthearted here. I just wish I didn't find the bloopers better than this whole 20 minute movie. It's just a waste of time, and I can't recommend watching it unless you really like Digimon and want to see some pretty animation.

So yeah, the Kurata arc was great. The Digimon Savers movie sucked. But despite that, I really hope to see that the final arc of Digimon Savers is great and that it makes watching this show all the more worth it. Ten episodes left, let's see how much they can do in that time.

#Shut Up JJ #JJ DigiWatches #final thoughts

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