Happy Sunday!

Welcome back to another episode of Nicole being let down by a hyped franchise. Today, the franchise in question is Death Note.

Death Note is one of the most well-known and acclaimed anime series, both inside and outside the anime community. Its fast-paced thriller plotline makes it easily memorable, and its dark themes provide great food for thought.

I'm going to put this out there: I LOVED the first twenty-five episodes. I honestly think they were amazing. But . . . *sigh* I didn't like the last . . . oh, twelve episodes or so? And since I'm pretty salty about that, I'm going to vent. XD

Before we begin, here are some things to keep in mind:

- This is my opinion. Clearly, it's a classic show for a reason. But just because it's a classic show doesn't mean I can't critique what I think is bad writing. You're free to disagree. I'm literally just writing this because I'm bitter.

- I'm going to be honest: I have not watched the entire show. I skipped some episodes in season two because I wanted the show to be done. (in case you're wondering, I skipped episodes 29-35.) I don't think these episodes will affect my analysis, however - my points have to do with the episodes I did watch. 

- Every single major spoiler is included in this post. If you have any intention of watching the show, I highly suggest you wait to read this. Then again, I don't think I would recommend this show for reasons I'll discuss in a second.

Now, since some of you don't know what this show is about, I'll give you a brief summary . . .

Seventeen-year-old Light is bored in school when he finds a notebook (the Death Note) that allows him to kill any person whose name he writes inside. Taking on the alias of Kira, he sets out to create a perfect society where there is no crime, no war, no evil. yes, he does that by killing people. Soon, however, opposition appears in the form of L, a super-smart individual whose true name is unknown (and so is safe from Light for now). L takes it upon himself to bring Kira to justice. Light and L enter into a war of wits - the first one to discover the other's identity will die.

Basically, the entire plot is filled with Angst and Drama and heart-pounding tension. 

And oh yeah. There's a lot of death. 

Death Note has such a dark premise that, again, I can't recommend it. But just because it has a dark premise doesn't necessarily mean it has bad writing. 

Let's start with something positive about the show, shall we? 

PART ONE: THE ANTIHERO

As you can probably tell by the summary, our main character, Light, is not the greatest person ever. He's basically a mass-murdering, psychopathic genius. 

I'm sorry, this was too good to not include

In Death Note, we view everything from Light's perspective. Because of this choice, we see what makes Light tick, what morals (if any) he has. And it really puts us, the audience, in a difficult position.

On the one hand, Light is a mass-murdering, psychopathic genius who is killing hundreds of criminals every week. He seems to have no concept of redemption or of saving human life, even if that life has done horrible things. 

But on the other hand . . . the reader can see where he's coming from. He, like the rest of us, has seen the world in all its imperfection. He's seen the evil of sin. He's seen people do terrible things. And we understand his reasoning about why he's doing the things he's doing. It even scares us, because we're forced to ask ourselves: would we do the same thing if we were given the opportunity Light was?

also Light is one of the most dramatic writers of ever

Light is the main character, but he's also an antihero, even the villain character (from a moral standpoint). I don't typically see antiheroes act as the main character, usually because they're doing horrible things. And why would we want to root for the character that's doing the horrible things?

well, I guess there are Light fangirls, but I'll save that rant for another time

But I actually appreciate the fact that we don't have to root for Light, though we're seeing everything through his point of view. There's a certain distance between us and Light; he almost seems unrelatable. He's immediately presented as a super-smart teenager who acts like a playboy and is distant from everyone. And while I suppose his loner qualities could be relatable for some, many of his other traits are not. I know I personally couldn't relate to Light at all. I felt light-years apart from him.

I think that's a good thing as well. We don't want to especially see ourselves in Light's shoes. I mean, morally, he's the bad guy.

But there's another reason why we don't necessarily have to root for Light. There's someone else with whom we can place our allegiance, someone who is slightly more relatable. 

Enter L, the best character in the entire show. 

At least for a time.

PART TWO: THE DEATH

In my opinion, L is one of the more "relatable" characters in the entirety of Death Note, possessing the most accurate moral compass out of the main characters. While his morality isn't exactly perfect (he's very similar in Light in many ways, except that he values human life slightly more), he's someone we can support. And in a show where morality is a key theme, this becomes important.

L is also a powerful antagonist of the show (if you define antagonist as the opposer of the main character). He's smarter than Light and is able to match wits with him at every turn. He is the reason why we sit at the edge of our seats the whole time - we're wondering if he'll finally catch up to Light this episode, if he'll finally bring "Kira" to justice.

also, can we talk about the fact that L literally is a hermit who eats sweets all the time, only wears sweatshirts and jeans, and spends his entire day staring at screens? #relate

this GIF has no significance to anything, I just think it's funny XD

In a show as smart as Death Note, the antagonist needs to be just as intelligent as the main character in order to keep the plot fast-paced and engaging. As a result, the rivalry between Light and L is at the center of most of the storyline. It brings emotion and action, as well as some character development on the part of L. 

At least for the first twenty-five episodes.

*sigh*

And then Light manages to kill L.

Let me repeat that.

Light manages to kill L.

This is a game-changer, and not entirely for the best. Because by choosing to kill off the main antagonist, the writers unleashed a whole host of problems. And let's see how they did with that.

also I lowkey sobbed over his death and was dead for a solid 14 hours after. so. there's that.

the fORESHADOWING *cries*

First, there's the issue of what this death causes in the plot. By killing off L, Light removes his only opposition to getting what he wants: to make a new world where his word is law. So in episode 26, he essentially gets what he wants. His goal is, in a sense, completed. To be sure, creating this world will take some time. But as we see just an episode later, he's well on the way, and he views himself as accomplished.

In order to TELL us that he's in the midst of completing his goal, the story time-jumps and info-dumps. The time-jump is fine. The info-dump . . . is quite clunky. It's very unlike the fast-paced plot of the first 25 episodes, and such a difference is jarring at best, not to mention confusing at times.

Then, there's the issue of the antagonist in question. As stated earlier, Light has gotten rid of his only opposition. No one else is left to oppose him.

Or so we're led to believe.

In the middle of the aforementioned info-dump, the writers add two completely new side characters with whom we have no history or attachment. One of them, Mello, is just about the blandest villain one can think of. He just wants the Death Note (the killing notebook) for personal gain, and his only personality trait is that he loves chocolate. I mean, I relate, but it's still annoying. He never truly feels like a threat, even though he kidnaps Light's sister - because in terms of intelligence, he can't rival Light. It's even stated that only L could do that. And L's gone.

The other new major character is Near, and in essence he's a slightly less smart version of L. He even looks and acts like him. While L is supposed to have been his "mentor" of sorts, we have no past history or knowledge of him. We don't have any rivalries between Light and Near to care about.

At this point, I just didn't care. I couldn't root for Light because his morals were way off-kilter. I couldn't root for Near because I didn't know him, and I didn't care about him. And even if I hated both characters, there was no emotional undercurrent to get sucked into.

So the following sequences were just intellectual battles between two people that I had no interest in seeing win. And when I don't care what happens, I tend to skip episodes or stop watching.

So I did.

If you kill off your antagonist, you HAVE to replace him with another one that's even more threatening, or else the stakes just collapse underneath your story. And that's exactly what happens after L dies. I went from being able to watch 8 episodes completely engrossed, to watching 1 and feeling bored, checking how close I was to the end of the episode.

#calledout

In a show that's literally built on intellectual battles, that's not a good thing. Intellectual battles are hard enough to make interesting. The logic has to be advanced enough so the audience can't follow it on surface level, yet simple enough that when it's explained, it makes sense. And Death Note did a fantastic job of this. But I didn't care enough to follow the logic, so I also found myself lost on several occasions.

Look, it would have been better writing for Light to win for good after he killed L. If the show had ended there, I wouldn't have been happy, but I would have been satisfied. 

But the ending even ruins the chances of that. Because Light ultimately loses.

And ironically, I didn't like that. . . .

PART THREE: THE ENDING

I realize that I skipped episodes 29-35 and went straight to 36-37 (the climactic episodes). Surprisingly, I was able to follow almost everything that happened in terms of new characters and plot twists.

But my general feeling after the final episodes was that of complete and utter dissatisfaction. Let me explain, before you all start yelling at me that "Light was defeated, and since you weren't rooting for him, shouldn't you be happy about that?"

I was. And I wasn't.

Yes, throughout the show, I consistently rooted for L. I wanted Light to go down and get what he deserved for murdering all those people. 

But the way the climax does this is so unsatisfying. Light is defeated not by L, but by Near, the "L rip-off" of sorts. And as I said before, the intellectual battles against the two were never as interesting or intense as the ones between Light and L. L was the true antagonist, the true opposition to Light.

THIS SCENE WAS GOLDEN

If L had discovered Light which he kind of does? it's complicated it would have been SO SATISFYING. Not only would Light have been toppled by his biggest rival, but L's suspicions would have been confirmed in such a dramatic way. It would have been rife with emotion, since L had begun to consider Light a "friend."

But since nothing that emotional happened, I just . . . I just didn't care when Light was killed. I didn't. I should have been happy that he finally got justice. But there was nothing truly special about the way he was discovered. He was just discovered because he messed up. There was no underlying emotional history with Near to make this scene truly impactful.

Maybe I would have cared more if I'd watched those episodes I skipped. But I honestly don't think so. I don't think Near could have been a better antagonist than L. It's even stated that he's not as smart as L. 

Near found him. Good triumphed over evil at last. Yay. 

If only I cared.

And apathy is just about the worst thing to walk away with after a TV show, especially one with so much excitement.

It felt like the true fight had ended twelve episodes prior, when Light killed L.

So how can I summarize this behemoth of a blog post?

- Making an antihero/villain character your main character can provide for some really interesting interactions between the character and the audience and, when done right, will force your audience into being EXTREMELY conflicted.

- You can kill off your antagonist! Just make sure the stakes don't drop, and create a new antagonist even more powerful than the first one. (Even better - foreshadow that this person exists before the first antagonist dies, so that this second one doesn't appear out of nowhere.)

- Your climax should be both physically and emotionally intense. Your audience needs to feel like they have some stake in the showdown for them to care about what happens. Even if your ending is more of a tragic, real one, it should still, to an extent, be satisfying.

*deep breath*

Yep. That's the post about Death Note. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go crouch on my chair and stare at my laptop screen while eating some junk food.

-Nicole <3

Have you seen Death Note? Who's your favorite antihero main character? What are your thoughts on killing antagonists? Let's talk! (also, if you've seen Death Note, please don't take this post as me saying you can't like it. that's not the case! I'm just bitter that my favorite character died XD)

Happy Sunday!

In my July Happenings post, I mentioned that I finished the first draft of Project Chaos during the last week of July!

*screams forever*

In the 100 days I allotted to write this draft, I ended up with 67,000 words, at least six late nights, one attempted cup of coffee, and my first experience with crying over something I've written. So on the whole, I'd say the endeavor was pretty successful. XD

Since I haven't really talked about what Project Chaos is, I figured I'd do - you guessed it - another dying tag. I've been wondering what these characters would do in quarantine, so let's find out . . .

THE PLOT OF PROJECT CHAOS:

Fifteen years ago, a mysterious force known as the Corruption invaded the country of Levende, destroying villages and technology, along with wiping out thousands of people. But for Karina, it's a bit more personal. The Corruption took her gift - a special ability - making her the only giftless person in Levende.

When a risky trip into a restricted Corrupted area is discovered, Karina and her worrywart brother Morten are sentenced to two years in Exile, a juvenile reformation center. But barely three days into her stay at Exile, it burns down. And the survivors are blamed for it.

Karina is forced to team up with the fire's few survivors in order to clear their names and track down the true culprits. But everyone has their secrets, and can they truly trust each other?

And what happens when the answers they seek are darker than they were expecting?

yeah, it's not the best summary ever, but it was pretty spur-of-the-moment. basically, fugitives are forced to clear their names while having trust issues

Happy Sunday!

I realized a little while ago that I haven't done a writing update in a very long time. And, since it's Camp NaNo and none of you know what my WIP's condition is, I decided that this week I was just going to spew my thoughts on writing The Inhumans (my current WIP).

Originally this was going to be a YouTube video, but that turned out to be a complete rambly mess. This post is slightly more organized, but it's still very rambly. Proceed at your own risk. XD


So, as a few of you know, for the past two years, I've been working on this duology/trilogy/series thing called The Inhumans. (I wrote a post on it about it back in 2018, but it's more than a little obsolete at this point. XD) Basically, so you don't have to go read it, it's about a boy who's attacked by this mysterious person, and through an unfortunate series of events, he discovers an entire underground society of people with superpowers.

if it sounds like a mess, that's because it is XD

I started writing the first draft in April 2018, during Camp NaNo. Over the course of the next two years, I revamped the plotline 3 times. Like, it went from being a trilogy, to a duology, to a trilogy, to a duology again. Basically, nothing is exactly the same from the original outline. except for one scene but it's like the most emotional scene in the entire book so #yikes

During this Camp NaNo, I'm working on draft three of the first book. And I've been experiencing something that I've had over the past year. It's not writer's block, exactly. I know what I need to write in the story.

I just . . . really don't want to.

It's weird - it really is. I would literally rather do anything else than add words to that manuscript - including homework XD.

I've been thinking about what might be causing it, and, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure. But I've come up with a few options.

1. The main character

For me, the main character (whose name is Ben) is not the most interesting character in the series. Is he important? Sure. But . . . he's not the character who sparks the most joy for me to write about. And I feel like a protagonist not sparking joy in the author is kind of a red flag. XD

While there IS a character who definitely sparks joy for me to write from his POV, his story is also kiiiiiiinda dark. And I don't know if spending an entire book in mainly his POV is the best idea. *shrugs*

2. Stress of the past year

Because, being fair, the last year has definitely added on stress and more things to do. And it's hard to focus on writing when you have to make decisions that will influence the rest of your life. I think that's why I haven't gotten as much writing done this year, and that's okay, I think. Right now, it's all about writing when I can.

3. Loss of passion

. . . If I'm being perfectly honest, I really hope this isn't the case. At the same time, though, I am seriously considering if this is the fate of The Inhumans.

Don't get me wrong, I'm passionate about certain aspects of this WIP. There are two characters in particular that I love to death (sometimes literally). There are some scenes that I'm really looking forward to writing.

But I've also put a loooot of pressure on this novel. This was the first book that I thought, "hey, maybe I'll publish this!" And, because my mind likes to be Very Contradictory, it then came up with 20398 other story ideas. And then focused on only those ideas.

Besides that, I've also noticed that when I go back and reread it, it's missing something. Sure, there's a chase scene in one draft that I actually do get breathless from. But I think it's missing heart.


Okay, that kind of got depressing fast, so, to alleviate that, here are my two favorite snippets from the current draft! XD

How curious that the fate of many would be decided by one swipe of a knife. this is my first sentence and I'm actually extremely proud of it. XD

Ben awoke to sirens and screaming.

...

So I'm not really sure what this post turned into. It's kind of just my ramble on my thoughts toward my WIP.

To all my writers out there, I'm curious - how do you know if you should set aside/shelve/move on from your WIP? I genuinely don't know.

In the meantime, I hope you all are doing okay through all this. <3 And good luck with Camp! You guys got this!

-Nicole

Happy Sunday!

Originally, I was planning on finishing the theme of TV shows with a post on My Hero Academia, my current watch and obsession. (If there are any fans among us, tell me in the comments so we can fangirl together. XD)

However, although I talk about writing on a general basis a lot on this blog, I don’t really talk about MY writing except in monthly wrap-ups. I’ve been having a lot of mixed feelings lately about my stories, so I just wanted to talk about it.

So, welcome to another Brain Dump with Nicole. There will most likely be no direction to this at all. You’re welcome.


Something I’ve been learning is that no amount of how-to books and videos you read and watch can prepare you for actually writing a story. The saying goes that practice makes perfect, and that’s definitely true in the case of novel-writing. The more you write, the more you get better.

It sounds logical, doesn’t it?

Apparently, it isn’t logical for me at allllll. Yay.

I . . . haven't been writing a lot. I'm not one of those people who just casually finish 100k stories in four weeks.

But I also just . . . don't write much in general. Part of that is because of my busy schedule, and part of it is because of procrastination, and part of it is because, well, I just don’t feel like it.

For the past six months, I’ve been trudging through second-drafting the first book in the Inhumans trilogy. The reason it’s been taking so long is because everything feels off about it. And I can’t quite figure out what it is. I’ve gone through many, many ideas. For instance:

- I have a bad habit of not world-building unless absolutely necessary, so a lot of details in The Inhumans are . . . messy.

- I also have a lot of insecurities about my writing style. To me, novels have a certain writing style to them. And whenever I read through my writing . . . it doesn’t feel professional or logical or coherent at all.

- This is a small fact, but my “elevator pitch” is super long and I can’t figure out how to shorten it. And I also still can’t figure out a name for the book. Whoops.


A week or so ago, I sent what I have of my second draft to my first ever alpha reader (!!!). It’s both exciting and terrifying, to say the least. A few days ago, she got back to me with initial critiques, which were SO helpful. (Alpha reader - you’re awesome. <3)

The thing about having other people read your story, though, is that you realize JUST how big of a mess your draft is. XD

So back to the title of this post. I have no idea what the heck I’m doing - with my prose, with stories, with everything. It’s like my mind forgets all creativity whenever I pull up that second-draft document. And the revisions of The Inhumans #1 - both what my alpha pointed out and what I know I need to fix - is very daunting.

It’s not writer’s block. I’ve still been writing. But it’s like that spark is gone, and for the time being, I have no clue how to get it back.

You know, it might have helped me to start writing the story when I was inspired to do it, instead of waiting, you know, EIGHT MONTHS to begin the first draft. :D That’s just me being cynical, though.


I think I’m at some sort of transition period with my writing, when I have the knowledge I need to write a book - I just . . . have no idea how to write a book. If that makes any sense. And I'm just in a constant cycle of

writing --> rereading --> finding issues --> stress --> break

I’ve got a month until NaNo begins (and yes, I am doing it - for those of you interested, my NaNo username is nicoledustwriter). I know what story I want to write - and it’s a completely new one that I’ve barely even begun plotting, and I’m SO EXCITED.

But I’m thinking I might have to take an Inhumans break soon and reevaluate the literal entire story. So that’ll be fun.

Lessons learned?

Don’t be lazy. Seriously, Your hard work WILL pay off. Probably. World-building is not as scary as it sounds. For the most part.

Writing is hecking DIFFICULT. You’re not alone in figuring this stuff out.

Experience is the best teacher when it comes to writing - not any how-to materials.

Um . . .

I can’t really think of any other lessons, other than this was truly a ramble and I don’t know what the point was, except to yell at myself for not world-building and for being lazy. XD

Anyways, see you in October! (AKA Preptober! AKA the month when we begin to truly lose all our sanity!)

-Nicole <3

Happy Sunday!

I welcome you to the hardest post I have ever written. This is at least the fourth draft of my The Flash post that I've written today. It's very irritating.

So today I'm just going to ramble and rant a little bit about the mistakes The Flash made - in particular, two very big errors that the writers keep making.

And of course, this will be topped with a healthy dose of Cisco GIFs. Because why not.


Now, I'm not going to tell you to avoid this TV show. The Flash is actually a very enjoyable show with some interesting plot twists and fascinating characters.

But I will give you the brief rundown of what happens in seasons one, two, and three, because the plot twists and spoilers are essential to this post. So, if you wish to avoid spoilers, stop reading this post and watch this show.

okay this is funny in context

Ready? Okay, let's go.


In season 1, we meet Barry Allen, a kind-hearted forensic scientist who is bent on solving his mother's mysterious murder. After a freak explosion ripples through the city, he receives superhuman speed and becomes The Flash, protector of Central City. He meets Cisco and Caitlin, two scientists who help him fight crime from their laboratory. They share a common mentor: Harrison Wells, a brilliant scientist who caused the accident, but says he regrets it.

However, before long, Barry learns that Wells was the one who killed his mother. Wells also has super-speed, comes from the future, and calls himself the Reverse-Flash. In a climactic turn of events, Barry tries to send Wells back to his time, but fails. Barry also goes back in time and attempts to save his mother, but at the last minute, he stops.

Season 2 deals with Barry's guilt over not being able to save everyone - namely, his mother and, more recently, Caitlin's husband Ronnie. Cisco learns that he has cool mind-reading powers from the explosion, but that Wells also wanted him to have those powers. (This leads to one of the best self-doubt episodes ever.) A multiverse is also discovered, and from that multiverse comes another speedster villain, named Zoom. 


Barry is able to defeat Zoom (barely), but he also goes back in time and finally decides to save his mother - much to the annoyance of literally EVERYONE. Why?

Because Barry knew that if he saved his mother, he would completely throw off time and create another timeline - and he did it anyways. Season 3 explores this concept in more detail. Suffice it to say that Barry fixed his mistake, but changed things in his original timeline, like having Cisco's brother die in a car accident. (Oof.)

There's also another speedster villain (Savitar) and a new coworker with a suspicious past (Julian <3) but I don't think we'll need to dwell on that too much.

Now. Into the issues.


Barry, for the most part, has very low self-confidence. In fact, he was the very first character that I have ever seen have self-doubt issues. I very much appreciated that.

However.

Whenever Barry gets down about the slightest thing, someone always goes and has a pep talk with him. And this pep talk always works amazingly well, and he's able to defeat the bad guy.

Every. Single. Episode. Without fail.

Pep talks don't work like that. I'm sorry, but if the only way you can get your characters motivated is for another character to tell them, "You can do it," . . . well, you need to be more creative, because that's just lazy. I'm sorry.

(also the pep talks usually begin with "Hey" and now my family makes fun of it all the time)

probably the writers looking back on these seasons

What can we learn from this?

It takes more than a pep talk to change a character. Instead of having side characters encourage your main character all the time, maybe throw a short scene in where action prompts the main character to change his mind.

Your character's motivation needs to be strong. Whatever your character's goal is, he needs to want it enough to face his fears. If he doesn't care enough to do that, you have bigger issues.


The other major issue of The Flash is that characters do not learn ANYTHING. They repeat the same mistakes over and over and over and over.

For example, throughout all three seasons, the characters hide secrets from each other. Some of them are somewhat warranted, like Barry hiding his identity from Iris, his girlfriend. However, why on Earth would Wally, Iris's brother, hide the fact that he's been seeing the main villain EVERYWHERE?????? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT??????

Ahem. Sorry.

Even though in season 3, the characters make a pact to not hide anything from each other, they STILL DO. These secrets nearly get everyone killed at one point or another, yet still they do not learn.

If you don't let your characters learn from mistakes in your writing, not only will your audience roll their eyes in frustration, but it will also stunt character development.

Let me explain.

Season One Barry:

a guy still grieving over his mother's murder --> a guy who, although still sad, has begun to accept that she is gone for good, and even going back in time will never truly make it right.

I thought that this character development was spot-on.

Season Two Barry:

a guy trying to accept his choice to keep the past intact --> a guy not able to accept his choice and changes it

I mean, it was decent development, I guess, although it did cause all the fans to yell at him.

Season Three Barry:

a guy still trying to accept his choice to change the past --> a guy not able to accept his choice and changes it

Are you seeing a pattern?

Barry goes through the exact same character arc in seasons two and three. He doesn't feel like he has changed at all in those seasons. And I understand that his personality involves a lot of self-doubt. However, he does not learn from his mistakes, and he does not listen to his friends. This leads to a LOT of facepalm moments.

(Obviously, this is very dumbed-down. A lot of other stuff happened to cause this. But at his root, Barry doesn't really change, and it's a result of the writers not letting him learn from his mistakes.)

this GIF worked better in my head to be honest

What can we learn from this?

Even if you don't have your characters learn from all their mistakes, at least have them learn from some. Don't have your characters keep making the same stupid mistakes over and over again. It's very eyeroll-inducing.

Obviously, we're human - we don't always learn immediately, and your characters should be the same. But PLEASE, LET THEM LEARN SOMETHING.

Let your characters change. It's true - some characters will stay stubbornly stuck in their misbeliefs and fears. If that is the point of your story, then that's fine.

...

Wait, what's that I hear?

BONUS ROUND?

totally haven't been watching many TwoSet Charades videos, nope, why would you think that

I'm going to stop bashing on The Flash and instead focus on one character that they actually did CORRECTLY: the one and only Cisco.

(#CiscoRamon4Life fan club, here is our moment. I'm looking at you, Isabel and Sarah.)

Cisco doesn't really have a character arc in season one - which is actually okay. There's way too much other stuff going on during season one for him to become a main focus. We do learn a little bit about his motivations and fears. For instance:

I relate way too much to this statement

At the very end of season one, though, we begin to see the start of his character arc: namely, when he begins to show signs of a superpower. When he tells his evil mentor about it, Cisco is told that he will do great things.

Seeing as that came from Mr. Bad Guy, though, he begins to have serious doubts.

Over the course of season two, we see Cisco get slightly more serious. (Note: slightly. Does he completely sober up? Of course not.) He battles doubts about turning evil, as he meets his doppelgänger from another Earth, who is evil. EPIC scene, by the way.

simultaneously the greatest reference and saddest line ever <333

By the end of the season, Cisco has gone from being uncomfortable in his own skin to owning his ability.

(of course, then season three comes around and kicks his life upside-down again, but you get the point)

*screaming*

Anyways, if you get nothing else out of this post: please, please, please do not have pep talks solve all your problems. It's annoying and I might just chuck your book across the room. XD Just saying.

Also, this is a random question, but how do I make the section that has the search bar up above unsticky? I've been messing around, trying to figure out how to make my navigation bar unsticky. I got my menu underneath the Header, which I wanted, and I made the sticky area transparent somehow, but I don't know how to get it to stay about the header image, and Google isn't helping. XD

I will see you guys in about two weeks! I'm not sure which TV show I'm going to do yet, so it'll be a surprise to both of us! ;)

-Nicole