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queen-of-hawkins-why-ler · 19 days

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Am I the only one who thinks that the thematic and narrative climax of s5 (and low key the whole show) will be almost a direct parallel to the "You said yes" scene from s2?? Like same exact narrative and cinematic setup of Will being controlled by Vecna to the point where he's nearly gone or on the brink of death, and Mike being able to bring him back to reality with words of love???

Like I low key feel like that scene in s2 was supposed to serve as a precursor and foreshadowing to the climax of Byler rather than just standing on its own as an isolated event. We always talk on here about how Mike's monologue to El in s4 was supposed to directly contrast that scene and demonstrate how false and unnatural Milkvan's supposed "love" is, but we never really talk about just how awkward of a placement it is for the true and "authentic" love confession (Byler s2) to precede the clunky and false one (Milkvan s4). Like, imo it kind of leaves things on an awkward note and kind of hanging.

The only way it wouldn't be awkward or unfinished is if there ends up being a followup scene/parallel to the "you said yes" scene, and I think this is what's going to happen. I think Mike's monologue to El comes after the more romantic, authentic confession not only because it's supposed to contrast it but because the show is serving us two different "choices," two different options for Mike, two different scenarios. Not just for the sake of his character arc but in a meta sense as well, kind of like asking the audience, "which choice makes the most sense for Mike given the events up until now and the themes of the show? Can he be his most authentic and happiest self with Will or El?" And the natural followup to posing this dichotomy would be to answer this question for us by showing us in no uncertain terms why Will makes more sense for Mike as a long-term love interest.

The other reason why I believe this to be the case is because of the blocking of the s2 scene and the way it's set up: with Will being unable to move, unable to say anything or regain any control, and with Mike opening up and being vulnerable about his true feelings for Will [here comes the most important part lol] IN FRONT OF the other characters like Jonathan and Joyce (I can't remember if it was the entire rest of the cast in this scene or just those two?? I think it might've been everybody bc weren't they trying to get Will to communicate with them using morse code? I don't remember lmao) but anyways, I don't think it was a coincidence that Mike gave his grand "Do you remember the first day that we met?" speech not only to Will himself but in front of the other characters. Remember as well that Mike also confessed his "love" for El in front of an audience, and I don't think that's a coincidence either. I think it's leading to a final confession from Mike that will also take place in front of an audience and will serve as the "choice" that Mike makes between El and Will as well as the "choice" the Duffers present as being the correct narrative and thematic choice for the show. It's important that Mike's initial two confessions took place in front of an audience and also that his final one will, because this will also serve as Mike's "coming out" moment to the rest of the characters and to the audience. I think that Mike is going to have a second speech to Will that isn't just "I love you I love you I love you" over and over again like it was to El. It will be sweet and unique to Will and Byler's relationship except this time it will be explicitly, undeniably romantic so that no one will be able to even think that what he feels for Will is anything short of genuine, passionate, romantic love.

I wouldn't even be surprised if what Mike says closely parallels what he said to El except basically the opposite, alluding to the fact that it wasn't "love at first sight" for him but a slow, gradually building and gradually cultivating love that blossomed over the course of his entire life. Instead of "I knew then and there that I loved you" like he did to El, he could say something like, "I didn't realize it yet when I met you, and I'm not even sure I know when it happened, but I think I've spent my entire life slowly falling in love with you." And he says it with tears in his eyes and in front of all of the rest of the characters, who will also be crying (especially Joyce lol). And of course Will will just be sobbing even through Vecna's control over him, but it will be Mike's love that ultimately frees him from Vecna's hold over him. This would make sense, because unlike El, Will's story has never been about independence and breaking himself free, but about him and Mike breaking themselves free through teamwork a la "I think that we should work together. I think it'll be easier if we're a team."

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thatonebjp · 6 months

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Been thinking about how you could try to represent the Djinn/Summon mechanics from Golden Sun in a Magic card, and I came up with a simple idea.

(Explanation below the cut)

In Golden Sun, Djinn are these silly little elemental spirits you can assign to characters to buff up their stats, among other things. So an easy way to symbolize that is +1/+1 counters. I chose four because that's how many you need for the strongest summons in the first game.

You can use Djinn in battle for a small effect, here symbolized by making a saproling, because Isaac attacks with earth and plant powers, and gaining life because he heals too. Doing that sets the Djinn to stand-by, which means they no longer give you a buff, hence losing the counter.

Then, if you have enough Djinn on standby, you can cast summons. Here I'm using Judgement the summon that required four Venus Djinn, and is one of the strongest summons in the game. (In the games it just deals a lot of damage, but a board wipe feels more appropriate, of course leaving your party of up to four untouched) Requiring four Djinn on standby is of course represented by needing to have lost all four counters.

In the games you slowly regain your Djinn one by one each turn after a summon, but I just game them back at once because I'd have no idea how to represent that without making things too complicated.

Now, of course this isn't a perfect representation.

The main problem I see is that having more Djinn doesn't increase the requirement to summon Judgement. If you have six Djinn you don't need to stand-by them all, it would still only require four.

I thought about using -1/-1 counters to represent the stand-by Djinn instead of +1/+1 counters for the active Djinn, but I don't think that would make as much sense thematically, and it wouldn't really adress the problem the more I thought about it.

Another option would be to just make a whole new kind of counter, or use +1/+1 counters and something like charge counters together, but again, I do want to keep it simple, so this is as good as I can do I think.

#custom cards #the Djinn also affect the characters' classes #but that'd get way to complicated lol #I could try to do something using Arena's Specialize mechanic #but I'd have to figure out how to apply the four kinds of Djinn to Magic's five colors #also anything to do with Specialize is the opposite of keeping things simple #custom cards misc

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