#critque

Hell Is Supposed to Be Eternal Suffering… But It Isn’t

Characters have superpowers, regeneration, and immortality from anything except angelic steel, physical suffering is temporary and trivial.

Also characters can regenerate if they're not killed by angelic weapons which should be a bigger deal but it's only mentioned like twice so inattentive viewers could have easily missed it.

Hell fails as a punishment because the physical consequences are negligible. It rewards characters with power rather than stripping them of it.

The Pride Ring Problem

Sinners are confined to the Pride Ring regardless of their sins, the other six rings serve no real purpose. If a sinner’s greatest sin wasn’t pride, why are they forced into the Pride Ring anyway? Why does the Greed Ring exist if greedy humans can't go there? Why does the Sloth Ring exist if slothful humans can't go there?

If God or Heaven created Hell’s rings as punishment, why create seven rings but force sinners into the Pride Ring anyway?

If Hell created Hell's rings, why would demons create six rings that don’t serve a clear purpose? Why would Hellborn be punished in rings for sins they didn’t commit, but not sinners?

I think it was a big mistake to make all of the plot take place in the Pride Ring. The rings were made to punish specific sins, restricting sinners to the Pride Ring renders the other 85% of Hell's geography useless for its intended purpose.

When Hell Is Other People (And When It's Not)

Lucifer's punishment is that he can't harm sinners. But he doesn’t have to interact with them and avoids any consequence for his sins. A punishment that can be negated by just staying home is not much of a punishment. So the punishment doesn’t functionally punish him.

Everyone has died and gone to Hell… there is supposedly no worse fate. This should result in total anarchy. The social contract relies on the fear of consequence. Hell removes that fear, yet society continues functioning normally. If the core concept is "Hell is other people" then the narrative has to show those people being unbearable. Most sinners act only slightly more cruel, wicked, and selfish than real-life people. Most characters aren’t tormented by anyone. They just… live their lives.

Characters work, eat, drink, and date.

If sinners cannot die permanently except through angelic weapons, cannot be further condemned, and have no fear of worse punishment, then why would they obey any social order?

Why isn’t society far more chaotic?

There’s crime, but it’s not apocalyptic.

There’s an economy, jobs, and functioning businesses.

There’s recognizable social order and power structures.

Why does an economy exist? Why is there food, drink, and currency? If the punishment is eternal suffering, why are there comforts?

Is the greatest thing we could come up with for eternal suffering is having to continue living but the average person is slightly more cruel, wicked, and selfish?

Hellborn Don’t Make Sense

Hellborn species (Imps, Hellhounds, etc.) are born in Hell. They did not choose to sin. They are simply born. Why do they suffer the same fate as condemned sinners? Why are they subject to the same eternal suffering as serial killers?

If demons can procreate and create new souls, are those souls automatically damned? If yes, then Hell is creating new souls, which contradicts the idea of Hell as a place where damned souls arrive after death.

This implies a cruel universe where a sentient being can be created solely to suffer without ever having a chance at Heaven. This changes Hell from punishment and eternal suffering to a biologically diverse dimension where bad humans happen to go after they die.

This undermines every moral or cosmic justification the setting could possibly have.

Why are there imp children? If demons can have children and create a soul, why? And why are they condemned to eternal suffering for the sin of being born?

Alright, let’s get into it…

Jack:

I would like to start off by saying that, on multiple occasions, Jack as proven to be incredibly helpful and resourceful during missions and dangerous situations, such as when he was able outwit Arachnid in Predatory and Crisscross, and defeat an Insection in Orion Pax, Part 3 all on his own. He is also protective of his friends and has shown good leadership potential.

However, despite that, his personality is severely underdeveloped. We don’t know what his other interests are besides motorcycles, how his father leaving affected him, or anything that gives him real depth. Also, some of his interactions with Arcee in season one felt rather… uncomfortable when they took on a rather flirtatious tone.

Raf:

Raf is a sweet boy and his computer skills have made him a valuable asset to the team. His relationship with Bumblebee and Ratchet were also nice to see. And the moments where he’s a bit sassy are pretty funny, too.

That being said, though, he doesn’t really have much going for him outside of being a child genius. We get snippets that he has some issues in his home life, such as feeling ignored by his family, but it’s never truly expanded on. Plus, the fact he can understand Bumblebee without any real explanation doesn’t make sense.

Miko:

Now, for Miko, she does have more personality compared to the boys. And she has proven to be very loyal and shows real bravery on quite a few occasions.

Despite that, it doesn’t drawn much attention away from the fact her habit of charging into dangerous situations without a plan, or just because she wants to see something cool, is problematic, especially in season one. In the Shadowzone episode, she gets herself and the boys stuck in an alternate dimension with a Terrorcon because she sneaked off after the Autobots when she should have stayed put. After that, you would think she learned her lesson, but she does the same thing again by going into an active battlefield without anyone’s knowledge in T.M.I., which lead to events where Bulkhead almost got killed. Now, while she does acknowledge her mistakes in both episodes, she’s never truly held accountable for them by anyone, instead having things said to her that would assuage her guilt, which didn’t help her character development.

And, until she dons the Apex Armor in season three, she doesn’t really contribute anything noteworthy to the team. She does what she can in situations, but she’s just not as helpful as Jack and Raf. In the Tunnel Vision episode, we get the idea that Miko wants to be of more use, but they never truly went into depth with it and it wasn’t properly resolved (and it was Jack who said she wanted to be more helpful, not Miko herself). She did save Wheeljack from Hardshell, but she might be getting a bit too much credit for it as she just pushed a button while Wheeljack did all the fighting (I’m not saying she should have faced Hardshell up close and personal, she used what was available to her, but I just don’t think it was the most impressive feat in the show).

Also, she severely lacks real depth to her character. The only things we know about her is what she’s told us in the introductory episodes, which isn’t a lot to go on at all. We see that she loves metal music and likes to draw occasionally, but it doesn’t really lead anywhere. There is also no explanation behind her words and actions in some episodes, she just says and does whatever and the show leaves it at that.

Conclusion:

Overall, while the kids have some good moments, it doesn’t take away from the fact that all three of them lack proper depth and character development. They also become pretty irrelevant in the later seasons.

I think the writers didn’t really try that hard to make them more interesting or have them stand out as individuals, which lead to them falling flat as characters. And, occasionally, all three of them have shown to possess Gary/Mary Sue-like traits as things work out for them a bit too well sometimes.

I don’t hate the kids, really, but I also don’t love or care about them very much.

Adorkable Twilight & Friends - “The Forever Constant"

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I keep thinking about how Free is my least favorite song in the movie, and I think it's because its placement is so weird. It comes at the tail end of the second act, and then we go straight into the third act. The ending, while good, felt rushed.

MASTERLIST

A magic dimension is obviously going to be full of magical creatures. Fairies, witches, pixies (do specialists count as magical? To be discussed later), and several others. But what makes a fairy a fairy and a witch a witch? Aside from aesthetics and alignment, there’s always been a lack of information about the differences and makings of the various beings that exist in the magic realm. There’s also a lack of information about important beings like the Great Dragon, Daphne—nymphs in general frankly—, Faragonda, and many other people & events. Hell, no one can even tell how long the war against the Ancestral Witches lasted. Was it 16 years or over multiple centuries? Like seriously, why is Faragonda old as balls but the war started when she was a teen / young adult, but Bloom is only 16 and nobody remembers her or the war? (Even if she was born at the end of the war, that’s still not enough time for everyone to forget about it).

Read it on Webtoons or A03

So yeah, finally it's here - the reason it took so long is also the reason why I didn't spam stupid comments while refreshing the Soul Eater tag on tumblr - wastes of times, poor impulse control, getting distracted and scatterbrained - so yeah, I'll try to finish this arc, then do the iceberg, while not really engadging with the "community" (because of this and many other reasons which if I tried to explain would only confuse people and make them hate me lol ((even if I say LOVE EVERYBODY))

need help writing

need something proofread