#in another story I'm writing i had a very similar line of dialogue

[chloecherrysip]

Now that I've had a few hours of sleep and am marginally a human being again, let's talk about the mario movie some more! SPOILERS ALL THROUGHOUT THIS POST UNDER THE CUT (if you want to see my non-spoilery thoughts and the first part of my spoiler talk as well, here's that post from last night! Be warned that it's pretty all over the place because it was 4:30 in the morning and I was really tired lolol)

After thinking about it more, I truly do have some PROBLEMS with this movie (will talk more about some of that below and I covered a lot of the issues in my first post too) and I do wish it was better overall and not so painfully surface-level with all the character interactions - I can understand why some people REALLY don't like it while others love it! It's joyful and energetic and BEAUTIFUL but if you spent months and months theorizing and speculating about deep character interactions and a very emotional story, it does really sting to finally see how there is virtually NONE of that and the plot feels kinda empty as a result. :(

But! I'm definitely not upset or anything like that, and I'm still gonna see it two more times in theaters with a smile on my face! TRUTHFULLY (and if you've seen my blog before, you know this about me) what I cared about most in this movie was getting to see Mario and Luigi be adorable onscreen and have a good, healthy, loving relationship, and you do get that to some degree, even if it's nowhere near enough. I can make my peace (and write a lot of fanfic, LOL) regarding the rest. :)

Here is a list of moments between Mario & Luigi that made me happy:

FIRST OF ALL, SOMETHING THAT I'M NOT ACTUALLY SURE I LIKED BUT WAS CERTAINLY A CHOICE: Mario's nickname for Luigi is Lu????? He calls him that 3-4 times and at big moments, too. It started to be cute to me, even if I wish they'd gone with "Weegie" or something similar, but it's a little jarring at the beginning for sure.

In general, they are just very physically affectionate with each other! There are one or two quick hugs in the beginning scenes before we even get to the reunion. Also, I can't remember the specifics but the very last scene is them basically teasing/poking each other before running off into the day together and it's cute. :)

Mario is SO protective of Luigi in the Brooklyn scenes and let me tell you, as someone who cares DEEPLY about that, i was LIVING. He gets mad at Spike and tries to pick a fight only when he insults Luigi, and there is also a silly scene with an angry dog and Mario just instinctively puts his arm up in front of Luigi when things get a little scary/focuses on making sure he doesn't get hurt, and I was just having the BEST time. Honestly, I loved the Brooklyn stuff so much that I sincerely wanted the whole movie to just be about that, and things took a downhill turn for sure when the separation happened. :(

Someone definitely predicted this before the movie but Mario hates mushrooms as a food and Luigi likes them. During a dinner scene, Mario is slyly separating mushrooms from his food and putting them onto Luigi's plate in a way that suggests he's done that a LOT. Such a quick shot but I just liked the detail!

THE RUNNING THROUGH THE CONSTRUCTION SITE AND MARIO DOING RIDICULOUS PARKOUR BUT ALSO STOPPING TWICE TO MAKE SURE TO TURN BACK AND OPEN THE GATES SO LUIGI COULD COME THROUGH NORMALLY. There was just something SO funny and sweet about [crazy jumping and leaping] [quiet, thoughtful pause to open the gate] [MORE CRAZY JUMPING AND LEAPING, WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING, SIR] [another quiet, thoughtful pause to open the 2nd gate], I loveeeeee

Once again, just gotta be obnoxious about being right that the dialogue in the warp zone was "nothing can hurt us as long as we're together!" I HEARD THE LINE AS THIS IN THAT PREVIEW FOOTAGE AND EVERYONE CONVINCED ME IT WAS DIFFERENT BUT LOOK WHO'S LAUGHING NOW (i'm sorry, just let me have this win haha)

There is a sad moment where Mario and Luigi's dad clearly doesn't believe in their business and he even says to Mario something like "the worst part is that you're dragging your brother down with you" which is clearly upsetting to Mario so he leaves the dinner table - but then Luigi leaves the table too to come and sit with him and reassures him that he's not dragging him down and it's just a sweet, comfortable moment between them that I very much wish went on a little longer (the theme of the whole movie lol)

(Also, Mario and Luigi still live with their parents and share a room, they're clearly pretty young and are treated like the "babies" of the family. I wish we had seen more of their room other than a very extremely brief shots!!)

Luigi DOES immediately sell out Mario when Bowser goes for the serious mustache damage, LOL, but the way it's done is honestly so cute and once again, just reemphasizes how much Luigi loves Mario XD He's basically like "YES, I know him, he's my brother Mario and he's the best guy ever!" (And then Bowser, who is preoccupied with Mario = romantic rival for Peach's affections, is like "would a princess find him attractive???" and Luigi is like "if she has any common sense, she should!" (lol, that line could be TOTALLY wrong, I don't remember, but that's the gist of it, I promise) or something like that - just hyping Mario up when he's not even there, LOL

in Mario and DK's "darkest moment" scene where things seem hopeless and they're arguing, Mario says something like "well, at least your brother's not going to die because of you!" and noooo, bb, it's not your fault ;; (this scene could have been done SO MUCH BETTER with a few tweaks, btw, but I will get into that)

Luigi bringing coffee for Mario at the end of the movie in their respective cups :) :) :) So simple but I am a very simple person who just wanted to see little moments like this :) :) :)

I have GRIPES with the final battle scene but seeing Mario and Luigi work together and take care of Bowser as a duo was still good!!! Nothing can hurt them when they're together!!!

Also, already talked about this at length in my first post, but one more time: Mario saving Luigi from falling into the lava and their reunion hug is just my favorite moment of the movie, no contest, it goes by so fast and I wish it was longer but I can be happy with that alone and I can't wait for the screenshots/gifsets where I can see all the details of it more clearly and don't have to rely on my awful memory. Literally just going to think about that split-second of Mario holding Luigi's face with both hands in an unbearably sweet, gentle way forever. These brothers love each other very much, your honor ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

ALSO ALMOST FORGOT: FLASHBACK TO THEM BEING BABIES (AND THEY LOOK SO FAITHFUL TO THE ORIGINAL DESIGNS TOO!) AND MARIO PROTECTING LUIGI FROM A BULLY (lol I very much wish it was a longer and/or more creative flashback, but STILL sweet)

AND NOW THAT I AM DONE WITH BEING POSITIVE ABOUT MY FAVORITE BOYS, LET'S ~*~COMPLAIN~*~

First of all, still CANNOT BELIEVE that "I'm not afraid! I'll do anything for my brother" didn't make it into the movie, are you SERIOUS, it would have been perfect in SO MANY PARTS, they recorded it and everything, why???? IS THERE A DELETED SCENE??? ARE THERE SEVERAL DELETED SCENES??? I DEMAND JUSTICE FOR THAT PERFECT LINE, I WILL MOURN IT FOREVER

The editing in general is a little odd sometimes and it really DOES feel like a lot of scenes should be there that are missing. Another VERY weird cut is in the scene where Peach, Toad, and Mario are crossing the bridge with the Cheep-Cheeps and they just immediately cut the scene when one latches onto Mario's face and don't even include the cute stuff from the trailer with Peach trying to help him??? Like, WHY???? WHY DID THOSE FEW SECONDS NEED TO BE CUT??? I DON'T UNDERSTAND

I think one of the most painful things about this movie is that, as a writer/creative person, I can see SO many small opportunities throughout the movie where a couple of extra minutes and some tweaks in the writing would have made SO much difference. An unbelievable amount of difference! The overall structure of the story and the plot is good! The story of Mario wanting to reunite with his brother and Peach wanting to protect her kingdom (that took her in and cared for her when she was all alone in the world) is solid! But they never give the EMOTIONS surrounding these things ANY space to breathe beyond one line here or there, and that is SUCH a mistake and I can't believe no one thought to do something differently here.

FOR INSTANCE: The "darkest moment" scene with DK and Mario! It goes by so fast, but there is some good stuff there that, if the movie took a MOMENT and really let their pain/fear for their loved ones and their shared complex of unsupportive fathers BREATHE, would work SO MUCH BETTER. Like, I can easily imagine a rewritten version of that scene with very similar dialogue but just MORE of it (more pauses, more emotion, more reactions to one another's problems, more recognition of their similarities, etc) would have made it like a DAGGER in the heart. SUCH a missed opportunity. I am itching to rewrite it, LOL. (I am itching to rewrite a LOT of scenes!)

ALSO: Luigi is my LOVE and he is adorable throughout this, but I'm gonna be the first to admit that his scrap of an arc in this movie (if you can even call it that) is so lackluster and his heroic moment at the end genuinely doesn't feel that earned! AND ONCE AGAIN, WITH A LITTLE EXTRA WRITING/ROOM IN THE RUNTIME, IT'S A VERY SOLVABLE PROBLEM

And the solution is: build out the prison scenes and have Luigi actually talking to someone else who is locked up!!!!! Other than a couple of lines and jokes, the prisoners don't TALK TO EACH OTHER and Luigi just spends a lot of time looking sad. We don't get ANYTHING about his thought processes while he's captured other than he is thinking of Mario and hoping his brother comes to save him like he's always done.

WHEN CRANKY KONG AND THE OTHER KONGS SHOW UP, HAVE THEM SHARE INFO ABOUT MARIO'S APPARENT DEMISE WITH LUIGI!!! HAVE LUIGI TALK TO HIM (OR THE PENGUIN KING, OR SOMEONE) ABOUT HOW HIS BROTHER'S ALWAYS LOOKED OUT FOR HIM BUT MAYBE SOMETIMES, HIS BROTHER MIGHT NEED SOME SUPPORT TOO AND HE'S GOTTA BE STRONG FOR HIM TOO

It doesn't have to be a long or especially deep conversation, but some lines of dialogue like this would make that moment where Luigi realizes that Mario is right, nothing CAN hurt them if they're together and he's gotta be strong for his older brother too and he jumps in to protect him from Bowser hit SO much harder. That's all it would take!!!

I HAVE ACTUAL WORK TO DO TODAY AND CANNOT GO ON AND ON ABOUT THE MARIO MOVIE FOREVER BUT LAST THOUGHT FOR NOW: the more I think about the final battle, the more I'm conflicted, haha. The twist of everyone from the Mushroom Kingdom ending up in Brooklyn is definitely SHOCKING in the moment and pretty creative but I don't know, I had my heart set on a more classic version of Mario VS Bowser. It just doesn't hit as hard as it could in the end because of how silly the setting is. :( (But the Mario and Luigi teamup with the power star is great, and the music IS fire) (Also LOL at myself for thinking "Luigi won't fight at the end, that wouldn't make sense since Mario had to train" - he just knows how to fight, the movie goes with what's cool over what's logical and that's fair XD)

Also, the end of the movie is a tad confusing and has some pretty huge repercussions for this version of canon? ARE THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM AND THE REAL WORLD PERMANENTLY MERGED TOGETHER BECAUSE OF WHAT HAPPENED??? That's definitely what it seems to imply with Mario and Luigi waking up in their Brooklyn room and then walking out straight into the Mushroom Kingdom! It's pretty bizarre! (Honestly, what I was expecting was that the Bill would destroy the warp pipes and Mario and Luigi wouldn't be able to go home, which I might have preferred, as sad as that would be.)

That's all I got for now! I'm sure I will have more thoughts in the future, haha.

#mario movie #mario movie spoilers #super mario bros movie #super mario bros movie spoilers #would love to hear your thoughts if you agree/disagree with anything i said! #it really is wild to see such STRONG reactions on either side of the spectrum #seeing a LOT of positive feedback and then a LOT of people who are MAD and yeah. i honestly get both sides. i am both of you lol #cherrysip hc's & rambling

[lyssified]

HEY GUYS HERE'S PART 2 OF THE HEMINGWAY RANT ! ask and you shall recieve :)

you can read part 1 HERE and also read the trigger warnings there before you start, this one also has a lot of war trauma talk nothing too bad though

people that read the first one and I think wanted to be tagged in part 2: @mister3127 @crayonssmellgood @mack-anthology-of-noise @vampireboywife

okay welcome back to episode 2 of why the fuck am I hooked on the life of an american writer from the 1930s. so I have a couple more interesting facts about him because tbh this man was insane :D

so let's do a little compare and contrast game. hemingway grew up in the great lakes area and enjoyed big game hunting, solo fishing trips, had a father who was a doctor locally famous for performing c-sections whom he worshipped, was injured passing out cigarettes and chocolate to Italian soldiers in WW1, and spent time recovering in Milan

hemingway's most famous short stories are his Nick Adams stories. he created this character that he called Nick Adams and wrote stories about Nick's entire life. here are some things about nick: he grew up in the great lakes area and enjoyed big game hunting, solo fishing trips, had a father who was a doctor locally famous for performing c-sections whom he worshipped, was injured passing out cigarettes and chocolate to Italian soldiers in WW1, and spent time recovering in Milan. are we seeing the similarities???

so Hemingway was out here basically writing self insert war fic. most critiques will tell you that he based Nick Adams on himself, but they fail to tell you to what extent. like the similarities are INSANE. Nick Adams was literally Hemingway as a book character. and he very obviously wrote these stories as a coping mechanism for his war ptsd. the stories are often extremely plotless and sometimes rambling- you can tell it's just an expression of his brain to the point where while reading some of his work, my only thought was literally "go to therapy. talk this out with someone." like it might not help but also it might because some of these stories are insane.

the ones that I think best demonstrates this are "a way you'll never be" and "now I lay me," which you can read in THIS PDF, just ctrl+f for the titles. a way you'll never be is about Nick Adams being sent out to the front lines of Italy in American uniform to spread morale. he also has a head injury and also some mental issues and ends up going on a rant about grasshoppers to all the soldiers (because grasshoppers are significant in his childhood of fishing and whatnot) and just generally while you read it you can tell it was written by someone extremely mentally ill to the point where it's like. hard to read. "now I lay me" is a similar idea except this one is mainly about how Hemingway, for much of his life, could not sleep without another person in the room or a light on because he would get horrible nightmares. this one is pretty hard to read as well, and there's some dialogue at the end that makes very little sense out of context of the other Nick Adams stories.

essentially reading Nick Adams stories is like weaving a huge web of plot points and similarities of hemingway's life, and along the way you start learning the significance of things like trout and grasshoppers and the different representations of trauma and it all comes together in a huge pile of what the fuck did I just read please talk to someone about this, I am concerned and this seems really unhealthy. and also the wildest part is he literally did this, published these nick Adams stories, and people ATE THEM UP. they were like yesss hemingway another banger plotless ramble about war traumaaa!!! like people ATE UP his work. and even to this day I don't see anyone talking about how insane it was that he literally did this. someone please tell me i'm right about this I feel like a crazy person.

anyway on a happier note, to end part 2 I would love to tell my favourite Hemingway story.

so if you're familiar with f. Scott Fitzgerald (the guy who wrote great Gatsby), you might be surprised to learn that him and hemingway had a kind of love/hate/friends/kind of homoerotic but Hemingway was homophobic (read the Mother of a queen) relationship. they used to write letters to eachother and edit each other's work !! Hemingway once sent a draft of a story to F. Scott and F. Scott sent back 10 pages of edits. Hemingway sent a letter back that only said "kiss my ass." Hemingway also wrote a really sweet letter to F. Scott at one point that you can read HERE in which he wrote "you are twice as good now as you were at the time you think you were so marvellous," and also "anyway I’m damned fond of you" and then signed it "always your friend." which was cute. Hemingway also like. DESPISED f scott's wife with a passion. do with that what you will.

anyway here's the interesting part !! this is a pretty famous story that Hemingway wrote about later after it happened. so this one time hemingway and f. scott were having dinner in Paris and F. Scott expressed his concern that his dick was too small. so Hemingway said hey, come to the bathroom and we'll compare dick sizes don't worry. and then they did. and hemingway's response was "you're perfectly fine". so uh. here's some articles about that one time F. Scott Fizgerald and Ernest Hemingway compared dick sizes in a Paris bathroom...... 1 2

and YEAH !! thank you for reading part 2 of my insane Hemingway rants!!! hope yall learned something !!!

here's my list of recs of Hemingway stories if you're interested and want to read some of his shit, again all of them can be found HERE

so the 2 most entertaining reads are "the short happy life of francis macomber" and "the undefeated", those have the most plot, if you read short happy life please hmu send me an ask and tell me if you think margot was guilty or innocent

some concerning nick adams stories: "in another country", "a way you'll never be", "now i lay me", "big two-hearted river" parts 1 and 2

i wrote an essay on this one, it has some homophobic undertones: "the mother of a queen"

and finally my personal fave "a clean well-lighted place"

#lyss says things #rants and ramblings #ernest hemingway

[theprinceandthewitch]

I mean, to put it as simply as I possibly can - if they wanted to go the whole siblings route they... would have done it. Because of how detail-oriented this show is, the writers clearly have the capability to weave that kind of symbolism into the story...

...But they didn't.

I already talked about how detail-oriented TOH is here. And I also talk about how the Luz/Caleb parallels don't work here

So, for this one I'm going to point out all the... totally Sibling symbolism... between the two of them and specific details that tie them to Caleb/Evelyn.

Witches Before Wizards: Luz crushing on the prince character. First of all, you do know Nevareth didn't have to be a prince right? Also, Hunter, at this point in the story (Thanks to Them) is nearly identical to him, character design wise, because:

He's older than her.

2. The angsty, warrior teen prince archetype

3. Has a compelling backstory.

4. Is on a quest of vengeance with Luz,

5. Had an animal sidekick.

6. Very similar shoulder armor Hunter has when he's in his GG uniform. There's no reason for him to wear gold shoulder armor so similar to the only other prince character in the show. it's also on the same shoulder Hunter wears his on

7. Their hair length is the same and the hair on the top of their heads is slicked back

8. Missing eye. Okay so this one is a theory of mine. I think Flapjacks eye wound is foreshadowing Hunter losing his left eye - since he inherited Flapjacks eye color, he might "inherit" his eye wound. Hunter still has to give Belos a beatdown, so it's possible he's going to lose his eye in the Final Confrontation.

9. Edit: 11/20/2022: I can't fucking believe I forgot to mention this but Nevareth and Hunter now have the same eye color.

Now you might be thinking "Oh, that episode was a deconstruction of romantic expectations." and I'll say...

No.

Because first of all, this entire episode was a deconstruction of The Chosen One story archetype - which is what TOH is in it's entirety. Secondly I'm literally just pointing out Luz's taste in boys, because they keep bringing up she likes princes after this episode. They even gave her a fake-out kiss moment with Hunter in Hunting Palisman. They didn't have to do that you know... just like they never had to tie Luz and Hunter to the Caleb/Evelyn story.

Sense and Insensitivity:

"Luzura's tears fell on the frozen prince bringing him back to life."

So, I just wanted to highlight the dialouge here:

King: Luzura's tears fell on the frozen prince bringing him back to life? It feels a little unrealistic.

Luz: I see what you're saying, but in your version Ruler just destroys everything. I think a little romantic tension can help the scene.

I highlighted that part in Luz's dialogue because that's... literally what Emperor Belos tried to do - and what he's going BACK to do. While i don't think Hunter will have another near death experience - I do think Luz will. Because of the foreshadowing on the stairs in Thanks to Them:

But yeah... how can I not help but think there's gonna be some kind of romantic scene between Luz and Hunter during their Final Confrontation with Belos based on Luz's dialogue... Because the parts with Luz and King feel like the writers are dropping story spoilers.

Like... Luz is literally writing a story with "Romance, magic, and heartbreak with shimmer tears" based on her self-insert character.

Also... WHO is the girl supposed to be on the heartbreak card... that's not Luzura because Luz pulls out her self-insert character literally seconds after - and she just looks like Luz in a witches outfit. So...

2. Luz drawing of herself kissing a prince that looks like Beta Hunter in a story she wrote about her self-insert character.

Edit 10/27/2022: I forgot to point out how King's dialogue in the picture above is extremely suspicious

(/looks suspiciously at the the writing board in Sense and Insensitivity because the word "prince" comes up 4 times)

Edit on 11/14/2022: I forgot to mention Luz's line in the episode, "The First Day"

"And maybe [I'll] meet a hot yet vulnerable upperclassmen."

Amity IS NOT Luz's upperclassman, since she tells Luz exactly what she needs to do to get into her class in "Adventures in The Elements".

Hunting Palismen:

Fake Out Kiss moment:

This...

Is literally a callback to this (proof of concept video)

I mean... do I really need to explain that this isn't a sibling thing? Luz is into boys like Hunter - the angsty warrior princes who are older than her - that... is enough of an explanation for why this isn't something you do for characters who are always meant to be siblings.

Moving on....

3. Hunter is... i don't really know how to describe this - but he's associated with princess tropes. In this episode he's "the sleeping princess needing to be woken up by a kiss" and " the princess stuck in a tower guarded by an evil sorcerer"... And Luz frees him from the evil sorcerer in Hollow Mind... as if she's like his knight in shining armor...

Must i really go in depth about why these concepts are romantic... to you, the viewer who watches a Disney cartoon?

Here's his tower:

4. Thanks to Them makes a connection back to this episode by putting Flapjack in the play... an incredibly specific detail that didn't need to be here because the painting in Hollow Mind doesn't show him. The collage of paintings is further down so you can see what i'm talking about with your own two eyes.

This means Evelyn carved Flapjack for him.

The point is though, without Evelyn, Caleb would have never received Flapjack. Just like how without Luz, Hunter would have never received Flapjack.

I want to go more into this detail: This play and the vial of titans blood confirms for me that Flapjack was not hers and her palismen was an owl.

Because if you look at the vial of Titans blood in Thanks to Them, you can see it has an owl head for a plug.

And the way she is depicted in the play is heavily inspired by Eda. Her name is very similar to Eda's actual name: Edalyn (who is an actual Clawthorn by blood btw), So, for me, this is the proof I need to say her palisman was an owl, just like Eda's. And that she definitely carved Flapjack for Caleb because Clawthorns are famous for being Palismen carvers. She looks very similar to Eda so that it's undeniably clear to viewers that Evelyn was a Clawthorn:

Another reason why Flapjack is Caleb's and not Evelyns: Flapjack was searching the house for the rebus... because that was Caleb's house... he knew Caleb hid it somewhere under the floorboards. Also, Flapjack is based on an animal that's not a native species of TBI...

ANYWAYS... Now do you see why Luz giving Flapjack to Hunter is inherently a romantic gesture?

Any Sport In a Storm:

When looking for a first and last name to call himself by, Flapjack coins in the name "Caleb". Which Hunter uses for his first name.

Hollow Mind:

We have the Grimwalker that looks the most like Caleb running away from Philip with a witch from another world... Both at the end of the episode and during the episode. You might be thinking, " that monster wasn't Philip"... but... that is what he looks like as a monster...

This is the episode where we get these portraits, which by the way were not shown in this order during the episode. Someone on reddit put these images in this order. Again, TOH was made for nerds who like to look for the hidden details and find out how they fit together (me, im the nerd this show was made for.):

... The first portrait in the second row is a memory of Caleb running away from Philip with a witch from another world... shown to us in an episode where Hunter runs away from Philip with a witch from another world... Hunter by the way, is the only Grimwalker who meets a witch from another world...

I just want to say: in the painting where Caleb and Philip meet Evelyn for the first time, Caleb looks around Hunter's age - I'm basing this on how young Philip looks here and that he's holding the mask Caleb carved for him. So, while the play implied they met as adults it actually looks like they met as teens.

Also take note of the fact that Evelyn is pregnant in that painting.

OH WAIT, I need to point out that they did these parallels WHILE LUZ IS DATING AMITY. This episode comes after Knock Knock Knockin on Hootys door, the episode where they officially start dating.

[I wasn't sure where to put this point... but another connection Hunter has with Caleb is that he's also a witch-hunter... His name is a short-hand for witch-hunter... Belos has been training him to be a witch-hunter without his knowledge because he expects every clone of his brother to be a witch-hunter... because you know... Caleb WAS a witch-hunter before his "betrayal"...]

Kings Tide:

This is the first instance where we get Philip calling Hunter "Caleb".

2. Both Caleb and Hunter run away to another world with an expecting witch. Philip crosses worlds to hunt both pairs down.

Luz counts as an "expecting" witch because she is waiting for her palisman to hatch... MUST I say anything more about this one? Like... why are they doing this when Luz is dating Amity? Isn't it suspicious as fuck?

Thanks to Them:

Okay where do I begin with this one... Let me say this again, they're doing these parallels WHILE LUZ IS STILL DATING AMITY.

First of all, they didnt need to give Hunter Calebs hairstyle. It's the same length but Hunter's is more unkept. They could have done that trope where the possessed characters hair returns to normal after they're unpossessed.

2. They did not need to make Luz look like Evelyn

3. Philip calls Luz Evelyn before he tries killing Flapjack right in front of her. Then moments later, when Philip leaves Hunters body, he calls him Caleb AGAIN.

4. So, this isn't a parallel but I still want to talk about it: When Hunter asks Luz how she feels after what happened in Hollow Mind, she gives him a straight answer and even tears up in front of him. This is a big deal because when Luz has been prompted by other people, including her own girlfriend, about how she feels after a great emotional upset, she'll be vague, make something up, or tell them not to worry about it.

(more in detail here. and here, aaaaand here. one more)

5. Hunter has his most vulnerable moment with Luz and not the girl he's crushing on.

6. While I don't know every single detail about Hecate (the goddess) i do notice some similarities between her and Hunter. I also want to point out that the wolves on the shirt are Luz, the Hexside gang, Vee and Camila.

... People do not fucking get that this shirt didn't need to look like this... but they went out of their way to make it pretty clear this is supposed to be Luz, Camila, Vee and the Hexside gang.

The wolf with red eyes is obviously Hunter, the one behind it is Luz, the biggest one on the bottom left-hand side is Camila, the brown one is Vee, the blue one is Gus, the magenta one is Amity, and the greenish one is Willow.

But isn't it suspicious that the wolf representing Luz is right behind the one that represents Hunter...

7. Hunter has the same death pose as Caleb:

8. Philip : "Caleb, you would stab me in the back?"

Luz : "You did it to him first."

... Please just look at the painting of dead Caleb...

9. Flapjack only let Hunter and Luz use him. And he flies to Luz when he's badly injured.

10. They also made sure Luz was the one to express the most worry over Hunter drowning and not the girl he's crushing on. Luz was about to jump into the water to get Hunter if Camila wasn't faster on the response.

Sooooo.... do you see why none of this shit looks unintentional to me? Especially in a show like TOH, which pays attention to the details - and even goes out of it's way to add story details in the background - even though MOST people watching this show aren't going to notice them or even LOOK for them?

NOBODY thinks that's worth noting? Really? All the OTHER details matter, but not the ones that tie Hunter and Luz to Caleb and Evelyn?

OK.

I wasn't sure where to put this point but: Luz and Hunter have parallel storylines where they go through a deconstruction of the chosen one archetype. Luz believed she arrived on TBI to fulfill some kind of grand destiny while Hunter believed the Titan had big plans for him... While Hunter's isn't as indepth as Luz's, because he's not the protagonist, it's still there.

Again, it's not like Luz and Hunter are minor characters: Luz is the protagonist and Hunter is a major character (and former secondary antagonist) who has deep history with the MAIN VILLAIN. They parallel past lovers whose actions are the only reason this story exists in the first place...

But I'm sure this isn't intentional... i'm sure this isn't working up to some payoff down the line... I'm sure they put all this effort in for nothing LMAO.

#lunter #this show was made for nerds like me #im... pretty sure I covered all my bases... and I dont see any fatal typos so just take it

[bloodymarymorstan]

Ok so I just watched the latest episode of What If where Captain Carter (Peggy if she was Captain America) fights the Hydra Stomper (Steve if he was the Winter Soldier) because I KNEW they were once again gonna do the thing where they give all of Steve and Bucky's interactions to Peggy and Steve and say that this time they are romantic even though they definitely weren't when it was 2 very straight bros (lol) so. Let's get into it (spoilers for s2e5 of What If, obviously):

When Peggy finds out Steve is alive she goes to Nick Fury and he tells her there have been rumors of this for decades; Peggy's angry he and Natasha didn't tell her - this is interesting because in TWS Peggy was part of the organization that was hiding rumors about Bucky from Steve. Peggy is objecting to something she was part of in the actual MCU

Natasha says "the Steve Rogers that you loved died in 1953" - a similar sentiment to what people were saying to Steve about Bucky but more overtly romantic. They throw the word "love" around in the episode quite a few times, like they need to make it extra clear

Bucky (who's old and working for SHIELD) finds out Steve is alive and his reaction is pretty tame, like he's surprised and I guess happy but he doesn't really seem to care that much which is just ridiculous (especially bc in this timeline Steve and Bucky kept working together for several years after the war) - Bucky is also stated to have had a wife and kids and has clearly moved on from Steve in the way Peggy did in the original movies

The Hydra Stomper (Steve) is going to kill Bucky, Bucky stands in front of him to talk him down. He doesn't want to kill Steve which is obviously good and in character. The thing he says to try to get Steve to snap out of it is "let's get a drink" which cracked me up because is that the no homo version of "end of the line" for these writers?? Anyway, Steve does lower his gun but then he raises it again (we don't see if he would have actually killed Bucky because Peggy intervenes at this point)

There's a romantic scene where Peggy and Steve bond over their shared traumas which... shared life experience, anyone? (What If I threw myself off a cliff?) - it does turn out that Steve is secretly still brainwashed at this point and is trying to lure Peggy in so idk how seriously I should take this scene

In terms of dialogue, the final fight scene between Peggy and Steve is very similar to the one with Steve and Bucky in TWS. Eventually, Peggy drops her shield and tells Steve that she doesn't want to fight him, and is going to let him kill her. The line she says that gets him to stop is "I want to be with you. Even if this is the end. I want you." She also says "I can't lose you again." This is basically EXACTLY what "I'm with you til the end of the line means", but a bit less ambiguous (and also less poetic, the original line is obviously much better)

Steve doesn't kill Peggy, he flies off (but he also doesn't save her life like Bucky does for Steve in TWS so. Inferior)

At the end, Peggy is planning to go find Steve, even though nobody thinks she'll be able to save him (again, basically the exact same as TWS)

My concluding thoughts:

It's hard to say what Marvel's exact goal is with the phenomenon of giving so many of Steve and Bucky's interactions to Steve and Peggy in EU content, but it's definitely gotten pretty ridiculous and out of hand. There is an instinct to accuse them of homophobia and wanting to rewrite Steve and Bucky's story to make it straight/less significant, but I also wonder if the bigger factor is that the writers know that Steve and Peggy's canon ending makes no sense considering how underdeveloped their relationship was, and they want to trick viewers into thinking they had a better written romance by giving them more meaningful moments in What If (and also Rogers The Musical but that's for another post). That being said, if the best way to write a better romance you can think of is to use the exact same plotline the supposedly straight protagonist had with his male best friend (but that people have been interpreting as a romance for years and years) then maybe you should be reflecting on why that is. Ultimately though it's just lazy writing (have some originality!) and will never erase the fact that the real movies were gay as hell. I'll definitely be taking this as further proof that TWS was a romance all along.

#stucky #stevebucky #i'm scared to tag other things in case people come for me

[nostalgicatsea]

5-fic self-rec!

Thanks for tagging me for this, @oluka (and the last line thing too except I had to pass on that one because I haven't written anything in a while other than the last excerpt I posted on here 😅).

Except for "Apricity," which is near and dear to my heart despite how much I itch to edit it (a constant issue I have with things I write), I went with some of my favorites that have flown under the radar.

Hm...this ended up more of a "hey, good job, me" post than a "I'm trying to find what's compelling about these fics to rec them" post. Oh well.

In order of publication:

Apricity (616 Steve/Tony, T, 1.5k)

My first fic on AO3! My first Steve/Tony fic! And somehow it was 616 instead of MCU. I love dark Steve, but I'm particular with how exactly he's unhinged and this is how I like him. Even-keeled despite being off his rocker. Rational in his own head. Soured on the world, but in a way that pushes who he is to the extremes so his core is still visible even if it's mottled with rot. And, of course, obsessed with Tony. I also like the tempo of this; I used to have a good grasp on tempo, but I feel like I've lost that a bit over the years.

Unraveled (Warrior (2011) gen fic, G, 1k)

Since it's a movie that doesn't have a lot of fanworks for it and it's a gen fic to boot, barely anyone has read this, but I don't care because it was written for a friend, @luxover. I love writing little stories to gift friends. If you haven't watched Warrior, watch it! Brutal tearjerker about a broken family and broken men and one of the few good sports movies out there. No, you don't need to know anything about MMA to enjoy it. I don't.

Okay, I should talk about this ficlet. I'm fond of this one because it's so different from my usual writing. It's stream-of-consciousness and entirely voice-driven like someone sat you down in Brendan's head and he's talking and talking even if he naturally isn't saying of this out loud. Because he and his brother Tommy are emotionally constipated; even if they love each other a lot, they don't know how to reach out to each other. They don't know if they're wanted. This also has one of my favorite last lines I've ever written. GUT PUNCH, if I do say so myself. ONE-TWO HIT, K.O. Sums up every layer of their relationship.

Hidden Declaration (Brad/Ray (Generation Kill), T, 728 words)

Another gift for a friend (the same friend)! Brad/Ray and MCU Steve/Tony share some similarities despite being drastically different, so is it any surprise I liked these two unhinged idiots? I never open for fic prompts, but this was when I was on a roll and then I got scared because lux asked for this. I never wrote for Gen Kill, I read maybe 3 GK fics in my life, and Ray is one of those characters who are impossible to write well imo (to be honest, I also feel the same way about Brad though the difficulty is subtler). He's an unusual guy with a very particular way of speaking.

And somehow this flowed out of me quickly. It's not without its flaws, but it was so different from what I usually write and how I do that it was really fun to write this! Very dialogue-heavy too which isn't what I'm known for. And the crassest (also...some language that's not okay as a warning, but if you know GK, it comes with the territory) and most sexual (it's still not very sexual lol) out of my fics. I think I captured how much they're best friends and they're so comfortable in each other's presence well. Plus I put a little wink for my friend at the end and it's one of the few times I like being indulgent with my writing. Also, tattoo fics are a trope and I guess this counts as my one tattoo fic though it's not an AU and there's no actual tattooing involved.

A Long, Final Rest Among the Stars (MCU Tony-centric/Nebula & Tony gen fic, G, 2.7k)

My tribute to best boy Tony, my first and ultimate love (along with Steve, of course) along with an expansion of the lovely bits of Nebula and Tony's tender friendship that we got to see in IW which I adored. They share a lot in common.

Writing this made me so sad because I felt like I was preparing to say goodbye to Tony. It made me reminisce about how it all started, and everything came full circle. His past is his present. Tony's trapped on a dark spaceship injured and far, far away from home. Tony's trapped in a dark cave injured and far, far away from home. There's a kind spirit with him, and even if they try to keep him alive, he's a dead man walking. But he's also come a long way from the man he used to be. I'M REALLY PROUD OF HIM, OKAY? I LOVE HIM.

The Burning of Flowers (616 Steve/Tony, G, 1.2k)

I secretly really, really wish more people read this fic. I wanted to write a Hanahaki AU for a while, but I couldn't figure out what I'd do that would feel fresh and then I came up with this subversion of sorts. Hanahaki AUs usually involve someone pining for their love and refusing to let go of it because it means so much to them. I thought I'd write about someone who doesn't have it—and simultaneously wants and doesn't want it—and wishes ill on the person he loves by hoping their love has it. And what better era to situate it than Hickmanvengers? You don't need to know Hickmanvengers to enjoy it, though.

I'm extremely proud of this one because it's one of the best fics I've written if I'm allowed to toot my own horn for a sec! Please let me because it's so rare for me to feel like I don't want to rip apart chunks of my fics and sew them back whole again, new and improved. I think this is one of my most complete fics in that way; I can probably tweak it, but I'm satisfied with nearly all of it if not all of it.

Anyway, I was in a slump and then suddenly the old magic returned and I slipped back into the writing style I used to have back in the mid-2010s except better. I could actually see that I've developed as a writer even if I'm still learning. But the atmosphere, the sensory lines, and the rhythm returned. I like the pace of this a lot and feel like it follows Steve's relentless rage, much like the unmoored, slower pace of "Apricity" reminds me of a colder Steve who never fully woke up from the ice.

Tagging @kiyaar, @meidui, @sineala, @whenas-in-silks, @sabrecmc, @magicasen, and two artists (rec your art!<3): @kappamairi & @massivespacewren

#me: i have no fears #me: what if people don't like these fics and that's why they're underrated #one (1) fear....except kdfjksafjalfjla i don't really care because i enjoyed writing these and that's what's important! #i don't care if i'm embarrassing myself because maybe i should take a break on getting annoyed at myself when it comes to writing #and pat myself on the back for doing the best i could at the time and still liking these now #okay i need to sleep soon bye

[call-me-rucy]

hi rucy!! i'm not sure if you've talked about this before, but i had a question about the difference between the names of the Azran in English vs in Japanese. i know in the English version of Miracle Mask, they say Rutledge found the word "Azran" on all their ancient sites, which is where they got their name. is there a different explanation for it in the Japanese version? i know it's called Civilization A in Japanese, so i'm curious about how the lore diverges, if it does at all.

Hi! Thank you so much for this question, it’s been a while since I got to do this style of investigation, and it’s been SO FUN. Also quite long. I apologise for the length.

LONG STORY SHORT: “Civilization A” is a title rather than a name, never used outside of the title of the game afaik and in-game the Azran are called Azran.

NOW THE LONG STORY LONG:

I checked the class dialogue of Miracle Mask, to see how the Azran are referred to and if the explanation changed. The dialogue is fairly similar to the English version and the word they use is “アスラント” (“asuranto”, could be interpreted as “Aslant”). Here’s what Collin says, in the style of my usual comparative translations:

C: He surveyed archaeological sites at various places and found out they had something in common. (“found out”, no “looked for” like the eng version)

C: He was also the first person to discover that the civilization he had found had the name “asuranto”.

C: Nevertheless, the age of the “asuranto” civilization is still shrouded in mystery to this day.

So, seeing this, it’s clear that Azran is just the translation of “asuranto”. This is the word used in both Miracle Mask and Azran Legacy to say Azran.

Now, the “Civilization A” thing comes from the title of Azran Legacy, which was revealed after Miracle Mask was out in Japan and when it was already in process of translation. Checking the timeline:

02/2011: Miracle Mask JPN

06/2012: Teaser Trailer Miracle Mask ENG (They already had voice lines translated here)

08/2012: Title of Azran Legacy JPN

10/2012: Miracle Mask ENG

Surely they were already well advanced in the translation of MM when the notorious “Civilization A” first appeared, so the chance that the new title had some influence on the translation process of MM is little.

Let’s take a closer look at the title that was announced more than a decade ago now. (T.N.: Im SO OLD >_<)

レイトン教授と超文明Aの遺産

Reiton (Layton) Kyouju (Professor) to (and) Chou (Super) Bunmei (Civilization) A (A) no (‘s) Isan (Legacy)

Literally: Professor Layton and the Supercivilization A’s Legacy.

It seems like an overly complicated title. And it kind of is. But there is a reason for this!

And the reason is: up to that point Layton titles DID NOT use English words (apart from “Layton” and ignoring the “VS” cause 1) “VS” is a very, very international word 2) We’re only considering the main series here).

A while ago I got an ask about why Arianna’s ocarina is called “flute” in the title of the game. The conclusion I reached is that they didn’t want to use the loan word “ocarina”, but Japanese words as they had been using.

This is the same, I think. “Asuranto”, Azran, is a made-up English word. You can not write it with kanji (the Chinese characters the Japanese language uses). So, you choose another title that means a similar thing, maybe adds mystery and is in kanji (like they did with Spectres’ Flute). And you get “Professor Layton and the Supercivilization’s Legacy”. レイトン教授と超文明の遺産

This is how it would look btw:

最後の時間旅行 (Last Time Travel (UF) for comparison)

超文明Aの遺産 (Supercivilization A’s Legacy)

アスラントの遺産 (Azran Legacy with the english word) (Looks different, right?)

About the A, though? I’m lost.

I mean, “asuranto” does start with an A, but as far as I know they are never called “Civilization A” in either game, only “asuranto civilization”. I have to say I haven’t watched the 100% of the games in Japanese, but I have the most important parts. Apart from that, this is just speculation, the A could be because they are the first advanced civilization, and thus they deserve the first letter of the alphabet, as if it were a title of some kind.  Or it might be just to look cool, they may have definitely wanted to break the “only Japanese words” pattern but weren’t confident it would be properly “Layton brand” but since it’s only for one symbol it’s not that big of a deal. Maybe a bit like Dragon Ball *Z* or Pokémon *X*?

I don’t know. I have no idea. If there is any Japanese speaker reading this that could come explain the A, I’d be eternally grateful.

Well, that’s it! I hope this was understandable and helpful in some way. Please feel free to ask further Layton questions, I’m always down to spending hours researching obscure 2012 Layton articles. Thanks a lot for the question, too, I had a lot of fun and even found things that I will be talking about in later posts! ^^

#professor layton #azran legacy #comparative translations #ask #thanks for asking #professor layton and the azran legacy

[ojcobsessed]

hello, have you heard about the writers' guild of america strike happening? and now it's looking that the actor's guild may go on strike too? do you think that will affect the filming of surface season 2?

hello. yes i've been reading a lot about the ongoing 2023 wga strike as well as the seemingly imminent screen actors guild strike too.

i have already had a couple of people asking me about this in my inbox (not sure if it's the same person if so sorry i will only be responding to this one unless something new happens because they're very similar questions) so here is what i know as of right now.

as we know due to oliver's now-deleted instagram story from earlier today, surface s2 began filming this week in london, england.

an instagram follower theorized to me that maybe they were able to get started shooting s2 during the wga strike "because they had all the scripts for s2 finished before the strike started" or that perhaps they were able to hire uk writers to work on the show.

if the former is the case then while it's technically true that they can legally proceed with shooting, it also means that they can't make a single solitary change to any of the scripts until the strike is over and must shoot every single line exactly as written.

any change in dialogue or scenes is struck work and considered scabbing and anyone caught doing it including actors, will be banned from ever joining the wga.

that's a big problem for shooting because things change daily on sets and under normal circumstances scripts get rewritten daily. actors sprain ankles and have to do a scene sitting down or a character hase to be written out altogether or a planned shots don't work, locations weren't able to be secured in time or things simply don't sound right when said out loud. a thousand things can happen and none of that can be changed without writers during a strike.

if however they hired uk writers to finish the scripts or be on call for rewrites then the entire production is in violation of wga rules (source) as its an american production that would normally fall under the jurisdiction of a wga contract.

to be clear international writers themselves aren't prohibited, per se, from accepting the struck work, but doing so means that they'll be strictly banned from ever doing any paid professional film or television writing in america for the rest of their careers. that anyone would risk that for surface seems... unlikely to me. but then i'm not a tv writer.

as for the screen actors guild, their national board just voted today to ask their members to authorize a strike as well, which, yes means that the production of surface will grind to a screeching halt when that goes into effect.

an instagram follower asked if i was sore oliver was a current member of sag. yes i'm sure.

this is a screenshot of a search for "surface" from the publicly searchable production database on sagaftra.org:

as shown surface is under sag contract and if/when sag-aftra strikes, then the entire cast must strike as well, including oliver and gugu. as its a sag-aftra production everyone on it with a principal role must either already be or become a member of sag -- even if they're not american citizens and even if they are filming abroad. though oliver has likely been a sag-aftra member for years now, seeing how all of netflix and nbc's productions are the same.

for the record this blog is 100% pro-labour and my personal feeling is that if these contract negotiations mean we have to wait a few months for stranger things ands severance and hacks, all of which have already shut down in solidarity with the strike, we can certainly wait a few more months for another season of surface.

#support the wga #wga strike #wga strike 2023 #writers strike #writers guild of america #surface #surface s2 #asks #james ellis

[vikktoriouxgames]

Octopath Traveler 2 is one of the best JRPGs I've played in my life.

Octopath Traveler 2 is an instant classic, monumentally fantastic JRPG, and I recommend it on the same level that I recommend Final Fantasy 6 and Golden Sun. It is Amazing, however I can see that there is still room for improvement.

Octopath traveler 2 is better than Octopath traveler 1 in every single aspect. Dialogue, voice acting, writing, combat, exploration, items, world building and cohesion, connective plot, Characters, the literal only thing I can't bring myself to say Octopath 2 did better is the music because the music is absolutely amazing in both titles.

Most of the character's stories (Hikari's sucks) are actually interesting and compelling plot lines that made me want to see them through to the end. The connective tissue between these character's stories is much more present and makes them feel more tied together. There are a lot of very subtle references to things that occur in other character's stories or the places they go that make them feel like they're actually happening in the world. There much more character interaction, having 4 additional mini stories featuring groups of 2, and a lot of travel banter that is actually quite relevant and worth paying attention to. Towards the end of the game however we get to see all 8 of the characters interact and sadly it made me realize that if they could have had something of that level throughout the rest of the game it would probably be the best RPG I've ever played.

The combat is similar to the first game and you'll find no complaints from me there, I loved the flow of combat in the original. However, to freshen it up there is this new layer of strategy with some more mechanical depth that is very welcome. Every character in the game is given something unique to them and it just works, it's great!

The first game left me with a sour taste in my mouth at the ending because of how unresolved everything felt, but thankfully they were able to wrap things up in a MUCH better way. When I finished the first game I never wanted to play another game made by this studio again. I'm not quite sure what got me so excited for this one, but I'm glad I decided to give them another chance, because now I can't wait to see what they make next.

#game review #octopath ii #octopath traveler #octopath 2 #8path #jrpg review #I'm real fuckin happy this exists #been itching for a good JRPG for years and this finally scratched that itch GOOD

[thefearandnow]

Audio Drama Sunday: 11/29/22

So its been almost a full month since I stopped checking Twitter and one of the things that I always loved reading on a Sunday was all the lovely Audio Drama Sunday threads where I discovered a ton of amazing fiction podcasts. Inspired by those and my goal to write more on tumblr I thought it'd be fun to put together my first Audio Drama Sunday post and try to make it a semi-regular thing. Mostly to just get my thoughts down and get through my listening backlog but also for podcast recommendations!

Quiet Part Loud

I posted about this a couple weeks ago (I'm including the past two weeks in this post) but Quiet Part Loud is high on my list for favorite podcasts of the year. The Monkeypaw created, Mac Rogers written, Jordan Peele executive produced Gimlet show really delivered on the hype and I'm excited that there's possibly going to be a season 2. Though the premise sounds very similar to like a Limetown/Black Tapes sort of podcaster/investigator type of thing going on, the way it's written actually reminded me more of last year's comedy series Dark Air starring Raine Wilson (though of course this one is squarely horror, also very Burned Photo in terms of plot). They do an excellent job conceptually and aesthetically grappling with audio as a vehicle for social terror across history and mediums, which is the type of shit I live for! I thought the story was really well paced, the second half of the series had some incredible stand out episodes and the last two episodes were very satisfying. I think this show has a ton of re-listen value and I'm excited to see what happens in the next season. The only bad part of this podcast is that it's a Spotify exclusive so not as many people can listen and I'm not really sure it's worth a subscription if you don't already have it. But if you already have Spotify and love horror I can't recommend enough!

The Goblet Wire

The Goblet Wire is probably one of the more unique podcasts I've listened to: a surreal horror scripted role-playing collection of bite sized portraits (it'd be a stretch to call some of them stories). Very similar to John Darnielle's Wolf in White Van. And last week I finally listened to the last two episodes, which I thought really helped give the whole first batch of episodes a true sense of a series arc. Which I don't think it necessarily needed, but it felt like the end of a season y'know? I love the writing, the simplicity of the format but complexity of the imagery. It's such an open ended concept and I'm looking forward to hearing what the next set of writers do in the next batch of episodes. On top of the show itself being fun to listen to it's just like an incredible thing to exist as a platform for indie fiction podcast creators to collaborate on and make crazy shit. I've got a ton of other podcasts to check out from the plugs at the end of each episode and it just feels so like underground comics community vibe.

We're Alive: Descendants

We're Alive was the first audio drama I ever listened to but I dropped off somewhere in the middle. I tried to get back into with with Gold Rush but felt too lost from the original story line and felt intimidated by going all the way back. But when I saw that they were doing this most recent Descendants season I decided to give it another shot and... it's sorta like my guilty pleasure listening. Like it's nostalgic mainly. It's like their Hunger Games moment which I'm into but for the most part everything that I'm excited about so far during the season gets watered down in clunky dialogue or slow moving plot points. And overall the episodes end up being too long and kinda boring. This last week I listened to Episode 7 (parts 1 and 2 which is a whole other thing) and I can't tell if it all went over my head because of a ton of lore and character work I missed but I definitely felt confused. I'm still gonna keep listening cause at this point I'm invested in figuring out how it all goes down from a story perspective and it feels like this next episode will finally connect the two concurrent story lines. I'm curious to see if longtime fans have enjoyed this season; I've found it an easier entry point than Gold Rush and I like hearing about the regional evolution of the infected, I'm definitely enjoying it even if it's a bit slow.

Welcome to Night Vale

Seems a bit basic to be adding WTNV here but I have been inspired recently to go back to some select episodes, all of them recommendations from this post. And yeah: Night Vale is still such a classic with hilarious writing, fun concepts and undeniably influential style. So far I've only listened to a few early episodes (The Glow Cloud episode is 100% gold) that I was already familiar with and it's been really interesting to listen back to them after listening to Start With This for the past few months. I have a completely different appreciation for what they were doing with this show as it was coming out, like when I was heavy into Night Vale I think I took it for granted that this show existed and was perfectly weird and couldn't really wrap my head around the talent and thought that went into making it so special. I'm really enjoying my trip down memory lane but I'm also really excited to hear some new ones y'all recommended so I'll probably be carving out some space for future posts about my wtnv backlog.

Honorable Mention:

This isn't audio drama but I do want to note that the "Qatar's World Cup" episode of Throughline was really a great listen and worth the hour or so for anyone who's even vaguely following the World Cup or if you saw that John Oliver video. Throughline is one of my fave non-fiction podcasts and episodes like this one feel especially valuable in terms of their research and production.

#audio drama sunday #audio drama #fiction podcast #quiet part loud #jordan peele #monkeypaw productions #mac rogers #the goblet wire #ester ellis #we're alive #we're alive descendants #rusty quill #kc weiland #welcome to night vale #wtnv #start with this #jeffrey cranor #joseph fink #haha first one #lets see if i can do this again next week/in 2 weeks #my writing

[mousegard]

As one fic writer to another: what's your approach to revising/editing previous chapters?

Once I'm finished with my current fic, I'm planning on absolutely churning through the first half of it to better match how my style evolved over previous portions (paragraph blocking, dialogue clarity, characterization, character thoughts vs. third-person limited narrative, splitting up longer chapters, etc. etc.). When you edit, do you go for a hammer when revising to "published" chapters, or for a scalpel? Do you ever feel like an "original" version of the work should be left as it is as if it's a physically published bit of fiction, or could/should/can it be modified with impunity by an author given that it's a digital work?

when it comes to revising things, i prefer not to change things up too much. but that's because the fics i write are so goddamn long that even if i wanted to go back and totally rewrite the beginning parts my stamina would give out. the biggest after-the-fact edit i made to an eagle among lions was in changing edelgard's nickname for dimitri from the fandom-created "dima" to the canonical "dee" after the latter was revealed in a datamine leak of three hopes prior to its release. other edits included updating the names of minor characters who weren't named until three hopes came out, such as count bergliez and count varley. i also completely rewrote all of monica's dialogue to better match her characterization in three hopes, but given that she had like less than half a dozen lines across two scenes in the entire fic that was very easy (sorry monica). a few chapters also got renamed here and there, and a handful of continuity errors got fixed and minor plot holes got plugged

i don't think it's useful to get hung up on comparing digital media to physical media when it comes to whether a work "should" be edited because physically published media gets modified after the fact too. anime tv series get touch-ups for the blu-ray release, as will serially published manga chapters when they're collected into tankobon volumes. novels get touched up between editions as well; jrr tolkein went back and revised the part of the hobbit where bilbo meets gollum well after its initial publication to make it fit into the continuity of the lord of the rings. so physical works can be and are modified by their authors with impunity after publication, it's just not as easy as updating a webpage XP

if you have the stomach for it, i think it's a great idea to go back to earlier chapters and edit them to be more consistent with how your writing style has evolved since then. however personally i don't mind seeing somebody's style evolve throughout the story they're telling. for example in jojo's bizarre adventure araki's artstyle shifts midway through part four; in the middle of a chapter even iirc, and it's a little jarring when it happens but being able to see araki's development as an artist as he refines his style adds to the overall charm. and there are plenty of webcomics where you can see the artist's style evolve over time in a similar manner, such as, um, pretty much all of them

[tacit-semantics]

ah fuck it im having a bad day and talking about my projects always helps. oc and original writing rambling under the cut for anyone who might be interested, but also mainly for me

So both of the ocs ive got right now are intended as characters in short stories, and honestly exist more as a function of those stories as opposed to the other way around- as in, the stories themselves aren't particularly character driven, and thus these guys suffer a bit for it. all this therefore serves as a means of hashing out those stories too, neither of which is actually written. So it goes.

first off we've got Adam, who tends to refer to himself jokingly in story as madam-I'm-Adam (mentioned him in a different post a few days back), whose defining characteristic is being annoying as FUCK, partially on purpose. He stars as the main character in his story alongside his neighbor's dog god-dog the guard dog, a dog with a head on either end, who is also a very good boy. a really shaky excerpt goes:

"I found that this was much of what I expected. That said, while novelty wears off quick I have always been in it for the long haul; so even as I danced my fingers back and out of reach, I looked at God-Dog and I took him in and I read him for filth right then and there: see, he looked like me, and sounded like me, and moved like me, so I knew him whole and entire in the same way that I knew myself, and so I also knew within the moment that though he had a head on either end, neither was any good for conversation. 

Not that I was much good for conversation either, of course, nor was I all that likable, but at the  very least, and for all our similarities, our one big difference lied in the fact that I was raised right: I knew not to bite the hand that feeds me, and I knew not to bark up the wrong tree, and I knew not to mix my metaphors, because it only takes one bad apple to burn the bunch. "

You'll notice this is phrased weird. That's because Adam's whole thing is tongue-in-cheek pretension, in part because I needed an excuse for copious amounts of wordplay and in part because his core conflict is based in isolation and separation, from both other people and his environment, and somewhere along the line he decided to lean into and attempt to embrace his oddities, to... questionable success, though he's not entirely aware of that. He's also meant to be 15 though, so i cut him SOME slack. Another excerpt, because I like it (warning for bullying):

"“Adam,” [the various indefinite bullies] would tell me, crowded against the wall of my white-hot house while the white-hot sun, the great equalizer, beat down on us all, “We find you disturbing and off-putting, and thus are going to physically harm you as a means of expressing ourselves, which is good and encouraged. This is all simple cause-and-effect, understand, and the cause is that you are annoying as fuck.”

“That’s not believable child dialogue,” I would reply, “And that was exceedingly obnoxious, so I’d very much appreciate it if you got it over with and threw me in the old dried-up river.” 

And then they got it over with, and threw me in the old dried-up river."

The story itself is intended to be surrealist and cyclical; thus the naming conventions. It deals a lot in doubling and mirroring, as well as recognizing and connecting with another living being on the basis of the very thing that makes others reject you. It's difficult at first, but like. He keeps at it, mostly through attempting to feed god-dog in a number of increasingly obnoxious ways. Here's that particular excerpt (warning for emetophobia and mentions of feeding animals things that they should not be fed):

"To this end, I try to feed him: 

Raw meat, cooked meat, meat medium-rare; 

Blatant corporate propaganda; 

Hex nuts, once, after which I was so delighted by my own cruelty that I vomited into the old dead river; 

A particularly juicy bit about modern martyrdom that even I found a little too obnoxiously self-indulgent; 

Dog food, unopened, which made him look at me in such a way so as to imply that were his divinity any less metaphorical, I’d be dead where I stood; "

Yes, this whole thing is a thinly veiled metaphor. Yes, I get excited about it again every time i make the mistake of opening the document. No, i never managed to hash out the details.

Next up, we've got the unnamed protagonist of my thinly veiled ocd allegory story, a woman who upon moving to a new house, discovers a time loop in the attic. This one deals a lot in isolation. She has people in her life- a wife, family, etc- but struggles to connect with them, and generally views the world through a shaky, dreamlike lens. I should mention that the time loop itself is not considered strange by the standards of the world; a good chunk of the story revolves around her wading through various nonsense in an attempt to get it removed. If this sounds familiar, then well. Yeah.

This one was initially intended to be epistolary, though I don't think that would've panned out. if i remember right, i was reading catch 22 around the time i thought of this one, so if i was gonna write it it was going to include a lot of cyclical nonsense as a means of illustrating bureaucracy in a similar way, as well as to parallel the time loop ocd thing. Here's like the one bit of dialogue i actually did:

"“Hello!” I say with my careful, cheerful voice. Not at all put-upon, not at all strange. “There’s a time loop in my attic.”

From the other end of the line there’s an explosion of clacking keys, a flurry of long-nailed, slim-fingered convulsions, and I give the person a name, a face, a beehive hairdo and a manicure at six; it occurs to me, as I’m adding her long, beaded glasses chain, that I might have some internal prejudices that I need to examine. 

“Alright,” the lady on the other end says, and I feel a little twist of guilt. “Can you prove it?”

“There’s a time loop in my attic,” I repeat, somewhat taken aback. 

“Alright,” the lady on the other end says, and I feel a little twist of guilt. “Can you prove it?” 

“There’s a time loop in my attic,” I repeat, somewhat taken aback. 

“Alright,” the lady on the other end says, and I feel a little twist of guilt. “Can you prove it?” 

And on and on we go. "

Anyways, this character was meant to be very spacy, a little unnerving, and somewhat lacking in self-awareness. It's also very important to me that she's established as someone who was like, already sorta struggling. She's very much meant to give the vibe of someone, well. Stuck in time.

As for other original writing projects, I had a satire piece that I actually basically finished, but i don't like how it turned out- it was a cover letter (like the sort you make for a resume) but it specifically leaned into the over the top flowery language they expect of you. It was meant to mimic like, a 19th century love letter, the point being to illustrate how damn ridiculous some of the ways you're expected to interact with people in the corporate world can get. There was a lot of intentionally ambiguous language and the like, and the whole thing was just meant to be. Very over the top. Yes, I was writing an actual cover letter at the time. Yes, I was very bitter.

The issue with this one was that it just wasn't funny enough. Had a fantastic line in there about uhhhh longing for the gentle caress of the invisible hand that guides the free market or some bullshit like that though. Seriously, I loved this one conceptually because it would've functioned very well as satire. clarity of purpose, etc.

Anyways, I also do a lot of prose poetry, but my interest there lies more in the language itself so its mostly nonsense. I also highly doubt any of these will ever amount to anything, because try as i might i cannot figure out how to structure things in a way that makes sense. Then again, that might be due to a misunderstanding on my part in regards to the construction of the story itself, which in turn might be a result of my habit of researching everything to death and b) misunderstanding literally everything always anyways. So it goes. If you wanna hear more about any of these, please ask. I will talk about literally anything.

#tacit rambles #writing tag #i think. im gonna give god ol god dog a shot again. I get so excited every time but it never works out #lacking direction lacking clarity. Ill figure it out eventually

[fluffywolverine]

sooooo moon knight finale innit? at the beginning i must say that sadly, this wasn't my favourite episode :(

it wasn't as bad as i feared though, difinitely better thannthis awful wandavision finale, so at least there's that. ofc spoilers under the cut. you have been warned

starting with the things i loved - relationship between marc and steven grew to be extremely wholesome and comforting. i love how visibly good they feel with each other and how they can cooperate e.g. in combat.

oscar isaac. that's it, you know what i mean.

i also loved layla, how strong she stayed and how she didn't let khonshu enslave her. her suit looks EPIC, not only it's pretty, but also it looks very comfortable. comparing it to, let's say, black widow from 2012 avengers, i appreciate how mcu changed over the years. although internet kind of spoiled one scene for me, the one when she says that she is an egyptian hero. someone told that it's basically just tokenism, and frankly, it is. i don't think we needed it, being violently put so deeply in our throats.

did you notice how khonshu said "i will release you both". BOTH. meaning marc and steven, but nothing when it comes to jake. touche, marvel. touche.

i also liked how marc was given a choice and how well he used it. he chose himself to be a better person, which was a nice turn for him. kind of a new beginnig one could say.

and, ummm, that's pretty much it, i'm afraid.

when it comes to what i disliked, first thing that striked my eye was how quickly written it was. what i mean is that it resembled me of how i often write my own stories. when i start, i write slowly, carefully, i savour small details, i like doing it. but when i'm close to the end i get tired, i just want to finish this, so i start rushing, don't pay attention to details and it's visibly worse than the rest. here i felt the same, especially at the end. i had a thought that it should've been about 10 minutes longer to close everything nicely. because what happened with layla? how are things between her and marc? what was the thing with the psych ward? too many questions without answers. and whereas i'm a huge fan of comics, which are very chaotic as well, a cinematic/tv experience is different, it should be different. it leaves much less space for understatements.

i also didn't like how neither marc nor steven acknowledged there is a 3rd alter. they saw a bunch of dead bodies and where like "that's weird, but nevermind!". there could've been 2 or 3 lines of dialogue, something simple like "marc, there must be another one" "ok, we'll get it sorted later, now there are more important things", and then something similiar in the flat like "ok, now we've got time, we need to go to a real psychiatrist". i know this would be a lot of telling instead of showing, but at least we would've got something.

next thing is jake himself. first of all: why spanish?? that's not important though, what i didn't like is that he was being hinted thorughout the entire show (e.g. in episode 1, there were 2 independent reflections in museum), and then we see him appear in the mid-credits scene. yeah, i am salty, because i was really hoping for something better than appearing only as a plot device, to get rid of unnecessary characters.

next thing: two cgi monters fighting each other. sigh. i don't think i have to explain, i'll just say that this was completely unnecessary and just wasted precious time.

and the last thing - the villain himself. i really like how harrow is shown not as a cynical persona, who just wants to hurt people. i totally bought that he was doing these terrible things, because he actually believed he was right. the rest though... i'm a fan of this trope of a villain with similar motivations to protagonists, but only when it's well executed. here it was just stated, that punishing people before they do something evil is bad, and that's basically it. one can even argue, that ammit was the one to be right - given that she knows everything, even the future, she is sure that person A does something evil, right? she sees that it's certain, correct? so why others have to suffer, why not punish before? i'm not saying that i agree with that, i don't, but there can be seen some logic in that thinking. i also didn't like how harrow himself ended. first he was knocked out off-screen, then there were some spells (honestly, it was that easy? and it hadn't been possible earlier?), he's in a hospital,and then BAM he's killed in the mid-credits scene. it felt like they didn't know what else to do, and just decided to get rid of him as quickly as possible.

and that's it.

this seems long and complicated, but when you think of it, i only hated small details. that actually makes me even angrier, because it was so easy for this show to end great, to finally have a good marvel show from start to finish. so close, and yet so far.

well, gonna go watch daredevil again, and cry at the thought of how they will eventually massacre my boy.

#moon knight #marc spector #steven grant #jake lockley #layla el faouly #oscar isaac #may calamawy #marvel #mcu #disney+

[kmze]

Dry-ass (Sorry not sorry) didn't just cause damage to SC.She caused damage to the characters as well.Caroline and Bonnie were established as self-empowered women in s6.By the end of s7,they both were in a devastating state,emotionally, psychologically and physically.As for Stefan,the damaged,layered,dark yet intelligent and intutitive Stefan was gone.Instead,he was acting more Damon-like.While Damon played the bad guy for kicks,Stefan enjoyed being bad when he wanted to but he chose to be compassionate and showed empathy too. His IQ level had dropped severely and was getting easily outmanipulated,despite being a great social manipulator, although whether by choice or not that is up for debate.What happened to the "Better Villain"?Was it actor's choice?

His story was so close to that of Tyler's in s4-big bad with British accent,dumb revenge schemes,mom's death,keeping caroline out of the loop,going on the run.In fact,there were a couple of scenes which were similar to that of TC e.g When Stefan was watching Caroline from outside of her house like Tyler did in s2 possibly.The only difference was this time Caroline was with that low-life.Another was when Stefan and Caroline had a heart to heart.TC had a similar conversation in s2.The dialogues were so similar that I just didn't understand what the hell were they even trying to do.It's like playing out an old relationship using different actor and maybe creating a slightly different circumstance not for any narrative purpose but just for drama which was blatantly manufactured.No wonder Stefan's choices didn't make any internal sense for him.And since you mentioned about Stefan's ripper gene,I remembered how that was like Tyler's werewolf gene.Both were unaware of it until they were informed by a family member.I know the mythology may not be similar in any way but I think the writers had simply lost control over what and how much they would recycle.At least Klaus being a 1000 year immortal hybrid banishing Tyler made some sense.Why and how were all the century old vampires so scared of Matt F***ing Donovan banishing them from Mystic Falls???Just snap his stupid neck!!!With Tyler they never bothered to show how he broke the sire bond.They just told it.With Stefan,the phoenix scar was such a terrible plot device to separate SC.It reminded me of Elena being sired to Damon in s4.Hell even the tvd half of the crossover was unnecessarily contrived and melodramatic.They had Klaus tell Stefan something along the lines of- misery,paranoia will strip you off your desire to live- which was similar to what he had said about Tyler to Hayley after banishing him from MF.Klaus was giving unsolicited advice to Caroline and restricting her identity to simply being a mom while the narrative was desperately trying to convince that Stefan lacked emotional intelligence and wisdom to be in a real relationship.He was making unilateral decisions while Caroline was a whole another story. However,the TO half of crossover was much better written keeping the history of Klefan in mind.Not sure who wrote it but they gave the respect to SC which they deserved in just one episode that their own show didn't in 22 episodes.

Sorry this got so long.Talking to you brought back so many memories.

LOL Dry-ass I forgot that well deserved nickname *snort*

Yeah anon I agree, S7 was such a letdown season because I just don't think CD is capable of writing things she doesn't personally like, I remember even the first episode SC felt "off". I mean they were very cute but some of it lacked substance and the dialog didn't feel like them (except the last scene) and it was written by her (should have been my first clue about that season). Whereas 7x04 was vintage Steroline, the dialog, the chemistry even the story of teaming up to "babysit" the murderous heretics was so them (they love playing the game).

That's a really interesting comparison to Tyler in S4 though that I never really thought of, I'm getting into Tyler and Caroline's story in S2 so I'm going to look at for what you brought up in comparison to SC in S7. It doesn't surprise me that CD would do that either, like I said I don't think she cared enough about the S7 characters (her favorite was Katherine IMO) so going back to older seasons and rewriting it fits her MO. I absolutely agree on him being outsmarted that season like ugh, I felt a lot of that was CD making a concerted effort to not have minimal Lily and Stefan interaction and she never continued the ripper-gene talk (and yes the werewolf gene is genetic too). I also don't think CD cares about the character of Stefan outside of him being Katherine's prize. The revenge plot wasn't out of character for him but Julian was very *snore* it felt like murder-Thanksgiving was much closer to how Stefan usually operates as the "better villain to beat the villain". I just remember Dries talked sooooo much before the season aired about Damon/Lily/Stefan being the new "triangle" and we got like 3 scenes of that and then she was dead by episode 8!

I probably need to rewatch S7 to really remember how the storyline really played out, it's been a while so my memory is foggy but yes like WHO CARES WHAT MATT SAYS! Moron shot his fiancée accidentally and I'm supposed to believe supernatural creatures care what he says, please. I was more bothered by the show trying to undermine how much Stefan knew Caroline and vice versa, that was all Dries and I'm glad JP tried to fix it in the second half but still, I hope CD steps on a lego everyday for her transgressions.

#anon for ts #S7 what could have been #I don't even hate the season I'm just mad at what dries did

[iasconsumesmedia]

20 questions for fic writers!

I got tagged by @crestfallercanyon, thank you!

How many works do you have on AO3? - 68 apparently.

What’s your total A03 word count? - 219K words. Wow. Considering most of my fics are under 10K that's a lot of words. More than I thought.

What fandoms do you write for? - the Maze Runner and Teen Wolf mainly, but I've also written, or intended to write for a few others, like recently Avatar The Last Airbender

What are your top five fics by kudos? - All of them are Teen wolf fics, and essentially all Sterek: Mother's Day, It's only words except it's not, Thanks Dad, Provider, New Years Eve. I'm too lazy to link all of these. I've written most fics for Maze runner though, but the fandom is so small there and I don't write Newtmas, so none of those fics have any impressive kudos count.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? - Look, I try. And I almost always do. But if all my comment would say is Thank You, then sometimes I don't. I am very appreciative of every single one of them.

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? - Without You, I'm Nothing A Thominho fic where the Main Character Death is very very real.

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? - Tricky to respond to, honestly, because what does happy ending mean? Most my fics include characters ending up together and in a happier life than before, but I think the happiest ending I've ever written was The Name simply because so many people were made happy in the end.

Do you get hate on your fic? - Not to my face, no. I'm sure I've pissed people off, or rather I hope I have, but if so they haven't told me so.

Do you write smut? - Occasionally, but I'm not very good at it and it often turns out a little too dry.

Do you write crossovers? - No, and I will not, and I also avoid them like the plague and frankly, if there's a hidden crossover in a fic I will stop reading and never forgive that fic writer.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? - As far as I know, no.

Have you ever had a fic translated? - Yes! For the translation event @its-tea-time-darling ran, don'tbeshy translated my fic Calm into French. That's one of my favourite fics I've ever written and also I think, one of my most appreciated ones.

Have you ever co-written a fic? - I have not, but I would consider it if someone felt we had similar vibes about relationships.

What‘s your all-time favourite ship? - Well. Hard to say, but I think it's Thominho and a big part of that is how well it works in canon. Even Trashner himself said it's the strongest relationship, even if he meant it as only platonic. But that's what I want to see to really ship two characters, that I don't have to add too much to canon to get them together. I also very much enjoy Thominho and of course Sterek, for probably very similar reasons.

What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? - I have a WIP where the gladers are all Sorcerers and there's a thing about reincarnation and it's a Thominewt fic and I love it very much but hand over heart - unlikely it will ever be finished. It also isn't posted, so that only affects me.

What’s your writing strengths? - As a fic writer, I think I can take very small traits or lines and turn them into key features for a character and expand on them into some good fics.

What’s your writing weaknesses? - I think a lot about mental health and healthy relationships, and as a result, most of my characters know what advice to give each other and they don't get themselves into too bad situations. This can sometimes lead to more dull stories than if I enjoyed fucking them up. When I do fuck them up they usually make the right decision in the end.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? - See this? This entire message? And also every single fic I have on Ao3 except one? Yeah it's written in another language already. I'm Swedish. This question is weird.

First fandom you wrote for? - Harry Potter. First I published for: Maze Runner

Favourite fic you’ve ever written? - Oh dear.

Hm.

You're just like magic, a Thominho fic, is one of them. But I tihnk other than that, all the ones I've already mentioned. But Also Hey there little red riding hood with Thomas in a Red hoodie and Teresa as a werewolf, which I still like very much and which has received very little love (but Thomesa fics aren't that popular at all in an already small fandom so)

I think everyone I would tag have already been tagged, but if you want to do this, do it and say I tagged you!

[novelmonger]

Tagged by @authortobenamedlater: 20 questions for fanfic writers!

How many works do you have on AO3?

95. (It should be noted that I started out on FFNet, and still cross-post there, where I have 166 fics.)

What's your total AO3 word count?

682,370

What fandoms do you write for?

Primarily FMA and Captain America these days. I've also written a sizeable amount for Zelda and Sherlock, besides a smattering of other fandoms (usually just one or two fics apiece).

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Lol, these are all Captain America fics :P Nice to know where my primary readership comes from!

Make Me Whole - 269 kudos

Shards of Me - 107 kudos

Your Arms Feel Like Home - 78 kudos

Let This One Remain - 58 kudos

Remind Me Who I Am - 55 kudos

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I make it a point to respond to every comment unless it consists of just one word or a string of emojis or something. Or if someone makes a whole bunch of short comments all in a row, I might only respond to the most recent one. I know how rare it is for someone to actually comment, and how hard it is to think of anything substantial to say even if you truly loved a fic, so I want to show some gratitude for those who take the time to do so. Also, it's the best way to make friends!

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I'm going to go with "In the Morning," an FMA fic in which Ed dies at the end, cradled in Al's arms ^^' (Currently only posted on FFNet.)

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmm...maybe "Expecting the Unexpected"? It's a Captain America fic that ends with Steve, Sharon, and Bucky all sitting on the kitchen floor, laughing and crying together, so that's pretty happy.

Do you get hate on fics?

Hardly ever, except for the very rare troll. Most of the responses I've gotten have been very nice indeed.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Lol, no. I don't read it, so I certainly have no idea how to write it.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Not very often, but occasionally yes! I actually have a very ambitious seven-fic one that I'd like to do someday when I have time (ha!), but that's a long way off. I don't know about craziest, but the main one I've written was an FMA/Captain America one called "All We've Got to the End of the Line," in which Steve and Bucky are alchemists trying to get their bodies back, and Ed is a superhero fighting Al and trying to get him to remember that they're brothers. Basically, just putting the characters in each other's stories/roles, because they're my top two bromances and they actually have quite a few similarities.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! There was this one random EdWin fic I wrote eons ago that someone translated into Spanish!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I think @sergeanttomycaptain has been involved enough with my Whole Shards fics that she counts as a co-writer at this point XD Particularly Make Me Whole and my current WIP, Take Me In.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

Royai is my OTP <3

What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I completed the first draft of a Death Note chapterfic that I know I'm never going to finish and post because of some drama between me and the friend I was working on it with. Kinda sucks, because that was a good story.

What are your writing strengths?

Whenever I'm asked this question, my gut reaction is always, "Lol, I have no writing strengths because if I ever write anything good, it's only by accident," but that's lame. I think maybe I'm good at endings? Scene endings, fic endings, endings that are punchy in one way or another. I know I can also make people cry, since it's happened plenty of times ^^'

What are your writing weaknesses?

Everything. Action. Differentiating dialogue styles between characters. Humor. Switching things up by not writing in complete, grammatically correct sentences all the time.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I'm very timid about doing that, because I'm paranoid about getting something egregiously wrong if I just use Google Translate or whatever. But I tried to put a little bit more of that into my WIP, and indulged myself by writing some dialogue in other languages that I can speak.

First fandom you wrote for?

Final Fantasy X was the reason I started writing fanfiction before I even knew what that was. I wanted to capture the incredible story of the game I was playing and share it with friends who didn't have the opportunity to play it, so I started writing a novelization of the game. It's pretty bad by my current standards, but it taught me a lot about how stories are put together and how to stick to a novel-length project like that and actually get it done. I also learned a lot of my fanfic preferences through writing that - for example, I posted it as I wrote it, and realized that I hate doing that because I find it really stressful, and then it's annoying to realize you want to edit earlier parts and have to go back and revise them. That's why I always finish writing my fics before I post them now.

Favorite fic you've ever written?

Make Me Whole is my baby. It still is, five years after I finished posting it. It's the beginning of my favorite AU. I have so many wonderful memories associated with coming up with the idea, writing it, sharing it with others.... I've made wonderful friends through that fic. It was the first story idea I've ever had where I got a very clear sense that God wanted me to write it, and I didn't just want to write it because nobody else would, but because I wanted to write it. Even if a dozen other people came up with the exact same idea, I wanted to write it because no one else would write it quite like I would. I can't even describe how important that has been for me. I've also seen God use it in other people's lives, which is indescribably awesome.

Tagging @rainintheevening, @kraytwriter, @katarena, and any other fic writers who want to do this.

#tag games

[elvenbeard]

22 J for your V dude!

Thanks so much for asking!! :D

22. How does jealousy manifest itself in them (they become possessive, they become aloof, etc)? 

Honestly, V is actually not a very jealous person overall. Since he tends to need quite some time to be able to open up to others it's more or less a normal occurrence that some will lose interest or turn elsewhere when he cannot give them what they need or want. That's okay with him. It happened before it will certainly happen again. Obviously it's not a nice feeling to be left behind, or to have someone you love "taken away" by someone else for example. But as much as he wouldn't want others to act extensively possessive of him, he wouldn't think of acting like that the other way around. The keyword for him is clearly establishing boundaries and speaking openly about expectations to avoid any feelings of jealously and whatnot from even popping up in the first place. At least that's the theory, practise may differ or not be as plain and simple.

J) Did you have to manipulate or exclude canon factors to allow them to create their character?

I think the Corpo lifepath I chose for him and the general timeline of events predating 2077 leave just enough gaps and wiggle room to fit all my headcanons that make my V my V only and shape him into the person I want him to be xD I did consider aging him up a little bit from the canon age, because in my head he "feels" a little bit older than 27 (I think?)... but I mean, he went through some stuff and had to grow up kind of fast so, it works still!

As for the actual game canon and story and events, some of the special dialogue options I got actually inspired me to shape him more into one direction or another... But there definitely are a handful of dialogue choices here and there that feel very out of character for him. Or at least where I would have wished for a third, more neutral option than the two polar opposites presented.

Most of these I can think about revolve around Panam's storyline, where oftentimes I wished there was a third option to tell her "hey, I think you're pretty cool, we could benefit from keeping in touch, maybe be friends, but nothing more" but instead being given choice A: "I always wished to be a nomad and lead a quiet life, also, I want to spend the rest of my life with you" or choice B: "I'm an absolute dickhead with zero empathy and helping you solely for my personal gain (even though there really isn't that much to gain here financially or otherwise, so why is this even an option?)". There are one or two similar instances with Judy where I would have wished for more variety in dialogue choices, but it was a lot less annoying than with Panam for me personally (I do love Panam, but I feel it's so obvious she was written as male V's main love interest that it really overshadows her character too much for me. I love love love her text messages regarding the other main characters, and how philosophical she gets about life and family and all that which in turn does get my V, who grew up in a very shitty family, to really think what "family" even means to him... I could probably write a whole essay about this so I'll leave it at that for now XD in my head my V and Panam become friends, but it takes them a lot longer to grow close and in general play out a lot different than how it's happening in game, simply because they're from such different worlds but V isn't a coldhearted pragmatic bitch)

There's also one line V says in the Sun ending that I really hate and choose to ingore xD But that's about it for things I changed in my headcanon, everything else worked very well for me personally.

#vincent ezaki #cyberpunk 2077 #ask games #cyberpunk v