#I have such a history with this character...

[gaywineauntsstuff]

He’s so eldest daughter coded? Why? Because he is nice to his younger siblings and has a poor relationship with his father?

ALSO

Men who experience SA in media aren’t ’woman coded’ men have historically under reported rates of sexual abuse and maybe if we didn’t make it sound like a woman only thing more people would talk about

Men who are friendly aren’t woman coded

Men who suffer silently in media and go through depression or anxiety instead of anger aren’t woman coded

And finally

STOP ASSIGNING SUBMISSIVE TRAITS TO MEN THEN ARBITRARILY REFERRING TO THEM AS FEMININE TRAITS THEY ARENT THIS IS GENDER ESSENTIALISM

I need to calm down sorry

“hes a woman to me” IS HE? or are you equating women with submissive character traits you've arbitrarily put on a random man

[cryptotheism]

I'm a Jew, but Judas is my favorite character from the Christian Torah. Are there any cool or fun heresies or anything about him?

Well you GOTTA check out the Gospel of Judas. Its a coptic text that resurfaced with the Nag Hammadi Library.

Tbh, as an outsider looking in on Christianity, I always thought that Judas ought to be more important. After all, without his betrayal, Christ would never have died for our sins. He is humanities greatest sinner, and therefore the one who needed Christ the most.

The Gospel of Judas is positioned as the secret wisdom given from Christ to Judas before his death. It positions Judas as the only truly enlightened apostle, who recognizes Christ, and the role he will inevitably play in the redemption of the world.

Imo, its an interesting Judas. I enjoy the idea of Judas willingly accepting his role as betrayer, allowing himself to be vilified by history in exchange for the redemption of the world. But it also doesn't quite have the sauce. This Judas isn't the same tragic figure. He is more noble madman, less ordinary flawed everyman.

[flofaiiry]

doctor’s orders — jack abbot x reader

warnings: fem!reader, swearing, reader is a med student, age gap (unspecified but pretty implied), maybe a little bit of doctor/patient roleplay?? but not really, smut!!, dirty talk, praise, spit as lube oops, unprotected p in v (cowgirl & mating press), creampie (maybe a teeny bit of breeding if you squint just right but idk), accidental sextape, etc- lmk if I missed anything!! this is literally just porn ;P

wc: 1.7k

note: gif by @ patrick-stewart . lawd i have not been able to write smut in… SO LONG!!! i’d try but literally nothing come out. so without further ado. enjoy!! ps. pics in the header don't reflect reader's appearance at all!!! she's kept as vague as possible except for having hair :P

join my taglist !!! <3

"Okay, it's filming now… I think,” you mumble, brows furrow as you have an embarrassingly hard time setting up your phone to record. The angle has to be just right, the lighting not too harsh- you’ve heard this prof is a stickler for the video looking good just as much as he cares about the content.

You’re in med school for God’s sake- not film school.

One of your classes this semester for a whopping forty percent of your grade- required you to turn in a video of yourself doing a mock patient examination on another person.

Naturally, you asked Jack to be your patient.

He was a little hesitant at first, but became much more willing once he found out you’d be wearing scrubs to get really in character.

He’s such a sucker for you in scrubs.

He lay on the bed behind you, propped up against the headboard with a pillow behind his head and a little cue card in his hands detailing the condition he was supposed to “present” with- even though he insisted he could improvise.

Once you were sure it was recording you turned back around to face him. “Alright. Ready?” Jack nodded and shot you a little hint of a smirk. You shake your head and walk over to him, “you’re gonna need to not do that if you want me to keep a straight face,” you smile.

He straightens out his expression with a solemn nod. “Yes doctor.” You meet his eyes for no more than two seconds before you both start giggling.

The soft laughter fades out into the air and you clear your throat- trying your best to plaster a professional look on your face. “Ready?”

Jack nods again- for real this time, “always.”

You start off the mock exam, introducing yourself as a student doctor and asking about his symptoms. He follows along the information listed on the index card, but also sprinkles in a bit from his own knowledge and experience.

You take his history, palpate his abdomen and listen to his heart. Once you’re done the exam you inform him of your probably diagnosis and next steps you’ll take for treatment.

“How was that?” You ask, eager for his assessment of you. Jack smiles, “good. Really good,” he nods. You look at him to continue, “anything else?”

He shrugs, “not really just… you’re so sexy when you’re doctoring.”

You shake your head and sigh, trying (and failing) to fight off a smile, “Jack—” “— What?! You said we were done,” he smirks, pulling you down to kiss him. “Yeah but-” you try to speak but Jack’s lip against yours don’t make that an easy task, “the camera’s still rolling.”

He hums, “don’t care.” Jack takes your hand in his and guides it down his body, stopping to press your palm over the space between his legs. Your breath catches when you realize what he’s on to.

“You feel this? Hm?” He’s half hard already and you swear you can literally feel him getting harder under your touch.

“That’s what you do to me,” he whispers against your lips, only a half second before catching them in another searing kiss. His lips work against yours seamlessly and the kiss easily falls into a familiar rhythm.

“What’s the doctor’s prescription for this, hm?” He presses your hand into his bulge harder and tries his best to keep his composure. “What d’you think we should do about this, pretty girl?”

The low tone of his voice sends a pulsing heat straight to your core and without another thought you’re straddled over his hips, grinding down into him and tangling your hands through his hair while you kiss him.

You’re both needy- desperate even. You make quick work of each other’s pants, pulling them down just far enough to free the necessary terrain. Jack’s cock springs out from his boxers like he’s been waiting for this all day. There’s a single bead of precum pearling at the tip, threatening to drip down the length but never actually doing so.

You wrap your hand around him and pump up and down the shaft a few times, eventually allowing a string of spit to fall from your lips down to his cock. Jack groans at the sight, the way you take exactly what you want from him. You coat his length over until he’s glistening and ready for you to sink down onto him.

When his tip prods at your entrance you prepare for the stretch. It’s familiar by now, but it never fails to catch you off guard. Your warm velvet walls stretch to accommodate every inch of him as you ease him into your cunt. The sting pricks a tear at your eyes- but it feels too good to care.

“So fuckin’ pretty,” Jack mumbles, watching in awe as you start to ride him. You set a pace that won’t let him last long, but neither of you are interested in dragging this out longer than necessary.

“This pussy’s the cure, yeah?” He rasps the words, “tight little hole’s gonna make me feel all better?” His eyes drift down to where he disappears inside of you every time you bounce on his cock, “fuck,” he rolls his head back against the headboard at the sight , “might as well be a drug with how fuckin’ addicting it is—”

“Shut up,” you mumble, fisting your hands into the material of his t-shirt and pulling him impossible closer to you. You cut off his rambling with another kiss, slotting your lips against his like they’re the missing piece of a puzzle.

Jack had a habit of being talkative in bed. Most of the time you loved it. Most other men you’d been with couldn’t even muster out a measly grunt or a single praise. As nice as it is that he’s vocal, sometimes you just need him to focus on the task at hand.

You were close- so close- and Jack could tell. The way your rhythm would stutter when your hips met his and your pussy swallowed him down to the base of his cock, the way your eyebrows furrowed and your eyes stayed clamped shut— he knew you too well.

“Almost there, baby?” He asked, though he knew the answer. You nodded quickly in response- stupid and wholly overcome with pleasure. Jack smirks at how eager you are, how desperately you’re chasing your release. “Yeah?” His tone is cocky- almost mocking. He tilts his head to look at you, taking in every inch of your body, his hands follow his stare, tracing shamelessly down your body before they land on your hips. You’re starting to tire- Jack notices.

“Pretty girl’s getting tired, hm? Need me to take over?” He smirks when you nod, your movements immediately slowing at the promise of him taking charge. Jack grips his hands around your hips and takes over for you. He pushes and pulls your body up and down on his cock, bringing himself closer to the edge with every facilitated movement.

It’s when your body starts to get a little too limp that he rolls you both over so that you’re on your back and he’s on top. He pulls out of you but only for a second, moving back just far enough to hike your legs up and press your knees back into your chest.

His cock slides back in with ease- your cunt practically sopping wet and dripping. The new angle allows him to reach deeper inside you- his tip rubbing perfectly against the spot inside you that makes your vision a little blurry. A broken wail rips from your throat at the sudden change, the sound makes Jack’s dick twitch inside you.

“That’s right baby, just like that, “he groans, “keep makin’ those pretty noises for me, come on.” Jack grunts with every snap of his hips, his rhythm more brutish and relentless than you could ever possibly manage on your own. “Feels so fuckin’ good— shit— so tight ‘n perfect ‘n made for me.”

“Gonna cum Jack,” you whine, one of your hands clawing at the sheets. “Yeah me too baby- gonna- fuck, please cum for me, come on, wanna feel you lose it around me.”

Jack brings a hand down between your legs, the tips of his thick fingers finding your clit with ease and starting to make quick, hard circles around it. That does you in.

“Oh my fuckinggodjack-” you moan, writing against the sheets at the new sensation. “Coming- I- fuck- I’m co-oh my god.” You can’t find the words, any sentence you try and string together comes out a misconstrued mess of syllables and whimpers as you cum around his cock.

“That’s it,” he drawls, never once relenting as he fucks you through your orgasm.

The world fades to white static, and when it slowly comes back- despite being literally full from Jack’s cock, you somehow still feel so… empty.

“Jack,” you whine in a tone that could only possibly mean one thing. Jack nods, picking up on it immediately, “want me to fill you up, huh? Wanna be stuffed full ’a me? That it?”

“Yes- yesyesyes please- need it so bad,” you should probably be ashamed of how pathetic you undoubtedly sound- but you cannot find it in you to care.

“I know baby, I know, I- fuck-” it’s with that that Jack is coming undone, cock twitching as he spills thick ropes of cum inside you.

His spend is warm against your skin when it spills out from your cunt, leaking down onto the sheets and leaving a mess that’ll be sure to stain. Jack runs a hand through your hair, smoothing it down before he flops down onto the bed next you you.

“You should be a doctor more often,” he teases, turning his head to look at you all breathless and panting. He snakes an arm around you and pulls you into him, settling your head on his chest like that’s where it’s meant to be.

It isn't until you're lost in listening to the steady deep thump beneath his ribs, that you look up and realize—

"Did we just make a- a sex tape?"

plsplspls leave your thoughts & feedback in the comments & reblogs!! it means more than u know !!! <3 reblogs&comments>>>likes any day, thank u sm!! 😙

taglist: @aryacoulson @bookoffracturedescapes @concentratedconcrete @sizzlingkryptoniteale

[starcurtain]

Mydei: Legend, Reality, Agency

A while back on Twitter, I saw an excellent thread going around about how so many in-game sources of information on Mydei tell his story as if recounting an ancient myth, an unreal epic tale of a fictional hero, rather than a "real," existing being. (Thank you to @ruby019x for finding the link to the thread!)

Reiterating the point of that original Twitter thread: Unlike the other Chrysos Heirs, whose stories get treated as contemporary "real" events or whose tales are told through their own perspectives, almost everything we know about Mydei is framed through the filter of third party observers, resulting in a character that feels less like a person than a myth made flesh. Mydei's story doesn't come across as the coherent timeline of someone telling us true events--it feels like a jumbled, highly exaggerated account that might spread as rumors through word-of-mouth, or, more accurately:

It feels like storytelling.

The way Mydei's backstory and all of the sources of information we have on Mydei in-game unfurl in contradictory and overwrought manners has the ring of a legend passed down through generations, losing and gaining details over time, being misremembered, aggrandized, and taken out of context, until the heroic figure at the core of the story no longer has a human identity but has transcended to become a mythological figure, real history fading into romanticized narrative.

Mydei isn't a living, breathing "person," he's the untouchable "king of kings," the "greatest conqueror, the mightiest protector."

Overall, this storytelling effect is very apparent, in virtually every source of information we have about Mydei throughout the game:

Mydei's character stories are all third party accounts of his actions and past:

Phrases such as "legends state," "rumors swirl," "the author boldly speculates" etc. abound in Mydei's character stories, making it clear that all of the information contained in them is suspect at best--these are others' perceptions of him and the events of his life, not his own perspectives on what occurred.

Unlike virtually every other character in the game, instead of Mydei's character stories being a chance for players to get to understand Mydei's inner world, to see him from his own perspective, we're given this strange distance, these observations from "outsiders" who clearly fail to grasp who Mydeimos is as a person or real his motivations. In one character story, Mydei's own advisors struggle with their complete lack of understanding, questioning his decisions and rewriting his actions as being "bewitched" by Aglaea and the Flame-Chase Journey, instead of genuinely committed to the cause:

There's even confusion and speculation among fans about who wrote the handwritten notes at the end of each of Mydei's character stories. Are these Mydei's notes, answering the accusations, setting the records straight, and adding his own personal perspectives at last?

While I'm still somewhat inclined to say these are Mydei's notes, the fact that these notes are supposedly from books "in the archive of the Library of Garbaniphoro"--a library this lifetime's Mydei shouldn't actually have had any access to--definitely complicates that reading, not to mention that Mydei doesn't seem to demonstrate the level of self-interest that would drive him to look up and read a bunch of books about himself in the first place...

The fact that we fans can't even fully tell whether these notes were actually written by Mydei or by someone else--such as Khaslana, seeking accounts and histories of the person he cared for, trying to set the record straight even in timelines where his blade would eventually spell the end of Mydei's life--is just another hallmark of the confusion surrounding Mydei's life. In practically every moment, we're still not sure if Mydei is speaking for himself or not.

Mydei's chapters in "As I've Written" continue this exact same trend, giving accounts of his life through third party observations, rumors, and questions:

"They say," "others guessed," "rumors rife," a "wild tale," and literally "the protagonist"--this isn't a first person account of Mydei's backstory, his own thoughts on his situation, or his true life's timeline. It's a dramatized retelling of events through the lens of outsiders looking in, turning a "person" into a "protagonist," making him a fictional character in his own life (this is very meta, by the way).

The mission and journal text throughout Amphoreus's plot, even all the way from 3.1, also echo this, with second person point of view instead of first person, emphasizing Mydei's title as if that were more important than his personhood, and dictating his feelings as if they're "absurd," not earned or valid, while mission text in 3.4 paints Mydei as a completely overblown figure, a larger-than-life myth:

Even NPCs, particularly the Kremnoans, often speak of Mydei in this way, as if he was not a person but a figurehead, a symbol they are rallying behind, rather than a human being with challenges, hesitations, and thoughts of his own:

The end result of all of this together is that Mydei comes across much more like a fictitious character than nearly any of the other Chrysos Heirs. Is he a lingering hero of the Chrysos War one thousand years in the past? Is he the re-embodiment of the spirit of Kremnos itself, son of both "Queen Gorgo" and "Gorgo, the Founder of Kremnos," as the game so likes to conflate? Is he a conquering tyrant, the king of kings, an embodiment of the sea, the Guardian of Amphoreus, the beloved crown prince of his country or the patricidal traitor?

Even in the meta sense, we players struggle to separate fact from fiction, leading to the sensation that all along, Mydei's single "story" has actually been multiple stories, at least two different timelines interweaving into a jumbled, incoherent past full of made-up events that couldn't have occurred, contradictions, and out-of-context plot points coloring even the player's perceptions of Mydei and his past.

And all of this, I think, is very intentional.

If you were to ask me "What's is Mydei's real role in Amphoreus's story?" I think the best answer to that question is: Mydei's role in the story is a commentary on the nature of storytelling itself.

The theme of storytelling is essential to Amphoreus's plot, with the "As I've Written" text being treated as the core model for each character's memory-identity that the Trailblazer is inscribing and bringing with them into the past (and therefore also the future) of Amphoreus. The idea of storytelling and narrative is so central to Amphoreus that the entire plot effectively revolves around it: The Flame-Chase Journey, and therefore the entire core reveal of Amphoreus being a simulation instead of a real world, is tied to Plato's allegory of the cave, itself a story about people who believe facsimile (their shadows cast by flame on the cave wall) is reality--in other words, a moral about mistaking narrative for truth.

It is only by rejecting the false reality--breaking free of Irontomb's simulation--that Amphoreus's people can become "real," escaping the digital unreality to enter the actual universe. In essence:

It is only by escaping "fiction" that one can embrace "true" existence.

But there's a second layer of the moral quandary: If the fiction is more beautiful, more entertaining, and more glorious than reality, would it be better to stay in the story, to turn your back on reality and just be the heroic protagonist of a fairy tale epic?

The game itself asks us to confront this idea:

"Do you care how true a memory is?"

Mydei is a walking, talking manifestation of this exact theme. Are we actually supposed to care how accurate his backstory is?

If Mydei is just meant to be a narrative symbol of kingship, of guardianship, of Strife, then does it really matter if things about his past do not add up?

If Mydei is a pure stand-in for the concept of "the mythological hero," do we really need his timeline to make sense?

Is an aggrandized, dramatized recounting of his past and deeds not perfectly in keeping with the way every mythological hero's past is told?

Consider our real world heroes of yore--Beowulf, Odysseus, Gilgamesh--do any of them feel "real"? Do we think of them as actual historical figures who lived and died like we do, or are they larger-than-life heroes whose actions are all so fictionalized and exaggerated that they never could have happened in real life? Do we understand our heroes as sentient, three-dimensional existences? Do we know their thoughts, their feelings, their struggles outside the narrow confines of their legends?

Or do they exist just to be morals, role models, symbols?

In fact, there is evidence suggesting that many mythological figures like Gilgamesh and Beowulf were real kings who actually lived in our real world--but we will never know the true stories of those men, because their truth has been entirely consumed by narrative.

Fiction eclipses fact.

We take the shadows on the wall to be "truth," and never see the real world beyond the cave.

Mydei's story is a microcosm for what is happening in Amphoreus's plot as a whole, a concentrated example of what occurs when memory becomes "blurry or gets idealized."

It's a pointed commentary on the nature of storytelling, because you never tell the exact same story twice. Over time, as you recall the tale, it changes, minute details being washed away in favor of remembered generalizations, hyperbole, and shifting interests. Every person who retells the story, every new perspective on the original material, brings their own agenda to the table, further altering the original until it barely resembles what really occurred.

As Trailblazer and Co. struggle with the question of how to make Amphoreus real from the memories we have gathered--and whether we want to recreate the world accurately or pen a different, much happier ending--we see that same struggle play out in miniature through Mydei, whose true life and true voice are being subsumed in before our very eyes by myth, by legend, by others turning him into a convenient symbol or source for their own speculation.

Through Mydei, we see the dangers of what can happen when memory becomes "beautified," capturing fiction rather than truth.

But more than its reflection on his overall role in the story, I think there's a fascinating side effect of choosing the concept of "storytelling" as Mydei's central theme: Writing him as a character whose real thoughts and feelings are eclipsed by other people's perspectives puts Mydei in a position normally occupied by female characters in media--the position of having to fight for agency.

(Before I go any further with this point, because the Star Rail fandom has literacy issues, let me doubly clarify: I am not talking about the experiences of actual real world women here [although they do often reflect fictional women's experiences]--I am talking strictly about the roles and struggles stereotypically assigned to female characters in media. If you can't keep that context in mind, stop reading here, because I don't want to deal with pancakes-and-waffles people who think saying "Media frames X as a feminine trait" is equivalent to saying "Real people can't be feminine if they don't experience X." PLEASE.)

Okay, with that out of the way, what I mean is this:

One of the most common experiences of female characters in media, especially in media written primarily by men, is being unable to speak for themselves. The stories of female characters are often told almost exclusively through the lens of their male protagonist counterparts, and female characters are often given less interiority. Even in cases where female characters are able to express their own individual thoughts and feelings, those thoughts and feelings are often dismissed in favor of others' interpretations. ("Oh, so you actually mean ____" or "You don't really feel that way.")

Because Mydei is a character whose role in the story is defined by his truth being eclipsed under mythology (his actual thoughts and feelings hidden behind the game sharing only the perspectives of outsiders), he also effectively becomes a character who does not speak for himself, willingly or not.

Obviously Mydei's character stories are perfect proof of this, locking us out of his own inner world by giving us almost entirely the views of others, one of whom even rejects the very notion that Mydei could be exactly who he is, saying "There's no way such a person could exist," no way this would be real behavior, no way Mydei could be an altruistic and kind person:

The "As I've Written" chapters double-down on this notion, stating multiple times that Mydei is "a man of few words" who rarely conveys his thoughts on any matter. He is repeatedly described as "going silent." Worse, even when he does convey his thoughts, others find his words to be "absurd" and abandon him:

Hell, even Mydei's marketing materials get in on this impression:

But this trend towards silence happens outside of Mydei's written materials too. Over and over again, the game puts Mydei into positions where other people tell him how he should be thinking or feeling. It isn't that other people are always wrong about Mydei's feelings, but that the game consistently frames Mydei's emotions through other characters, rarely letting him be the one to express himself.

It happens with Krateros numerous times, but most clearly in the memory fragment after Mydei kills his father, where Krateros literally tries to tell Mydei what he's supposed to be feeling and how he should react to what just happened:

It occurs with the Chrysos Heirs several times, such as Tribbie telling Mydei how he should feel after Phainon's failed trial (no, I'm not blaming Tribbie here; she didn't do this maliciously):

We even see this happen with Phainon, who ends up interpreting Mydei's feelings on Mydei's behalf:

There's actually a running joke throughout 3.0, 3.1, and Mydei's "As I've Written" about other people (read as: Phainon) acting as historian in Mydei's stead, to speak about his past on Mydei's behalf, instead of Mydei sharing his own perspective on Kremnos's culture:

In 3.1, we get to see a Mydei who struggles to articulate his own thoughts and find the "right' words, and a Mydei who is keenly aware of the many times his thoughts fall of deaf ears, when his words fail to move the people he truly needs to persuade:

And nowhere do I think this futility in speaking for himself is clearer than in Mydei's highly symbolic relationship with language itself. It's no accident that Mydei "rarely speaks his native tongue" and the Kremnoan dictionary is jokingly referred to as "blank":

Since Mydei is synonymous with Kremnos, we can say that the game's refusal to let him speak much Kremnoan--and the game's refusal to let the Kremnoan language speak for itself--is equivalent to Mydei's inability to express his "true" self on his own terms. The emptiness of the Kremnoan language, though played as a joke, also effectively mirrors Mydei's silence as a character. Just as Mydei does not embrace his native language, he's not comfortably able to express the things he wants to say as a whole.

But how are we actually supposed to interpret this silence?

Is Mydei being spoken over or is he just choosing not to speak? Is this solely a case of Mydei making the mature decision not to respond to others' provocations, not to lower himself to deny false accusations? Does he just want to keep all his feelings hidden deep down?

I think you could easily interpret Mydei's constant returns to silence, interpret the game's decision to have all of his story told through others, as an example of classic "manly" stoicism, a male character simply refusing to be vulnerable or speak his true thoughts or feelings out loud. Maybe we could argue that Mydei simply doesn't see the point in telling the truth about himself, because he knows people will invent their own stories anyway.

But... to be honest, I think the framing is a little different with Mydei. He's not actually that stoic or detached from his feelings. In fact, he's frequently rather candid about his emotions, significantly more so than Amphoreus's other primary male characters, Phainon and Anaxa. Although he rarely speaks his own inner thoughts, Mydei readily tells others (namely Phainon) to stop trying to hide their emotions, and in 3.1, he does actually try repeatedly to share his personal concerns, frustrated by the irony that his own language supposedly doesn't even have words for the things he's feeling.

While he is certainly reserved, Mydei does not seem to ascribe to the toxic idea that men should never express their feelings, and he doesn't aggressively hold his cards close to his chest. I don't get the impression that Mydei wants his life to be eclipsed by rumors and others' distorted, biased perspectives--I don't think he really wants to be silent.

In fact, in several moments across 3.0 and 3.1, Mydei tries quite hard to articulate his true wishes and thoughts... only for others to talk over and dismiss what he is saying.

We see this happen even all the way back when Mydei was a child, trying to express his dreams:

As a joke, this happens during 3.0 with Phainon, who "translates" Mydei's lofty way of speaking for the Trailblazer into different (inaccurate) words during their journey through Kremnos, even at one point going "Yeah, to be honest I have no idea what Mydei's trying to say either. Let's just move on."

We see it happen in 3.1 with Aglaea, who (for her own valid reasons) refuses to acknowledge Mydei's feelings about the coreflame of Strife, writing his reservations and fears off as "foolhardiness and indecision."

We see this happen even with Chartonus, who questions why someone like Mydei would be "terrified" of fulfilling his destiny, only for Mydei to struggle to explain the depths of his fear of losing himself to Strife.

"Why wouldn't I be terrified?" he says in 3.1, only for literally everyone to ignore him.

We see this happen with Krateros and the Kremnoan elders, who both explicitly scold Mydei for acting like a submissive (read as: stereotypical impression of femininity) prey animal instead of an dominant (read as: stereotypical impression of masculinity) predator.

I've written about this elsewhere, but this is the direct rhetoric that feeds into Mydei's "As I've Written" story based on the proverb "Until the lion has its own historian, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." This proverb directly targets the duplicitous nature of storytelling, where one side of the story often gets told and the other is forgotten--clearly intertwined with Mydei's case, where the truth of his story goes untold in favor of the other side's perspective, where predator and prey are switched, and the lion becomes the victim, not the victor.

In fact, Mydei taking this supposedly "prey" role (serving another's cause, where his wishes are a distant second to the wishes of others), becomes one of Eurypon's foremost complaints when Mydei is confronted by his father's ghost: Mydei is the kind of person to quietly support others (a role stereotypically given to female characters), which flies directly in the face of Eurypon's near constant attempts to project himself and his own violent, "kingly" emotions onto Mydei.

So, all together: A character whose actual feelings are dismissed, downplayed as too emotional and not befitting his station, who finds his words falling on deaf ears, who is perpetually projected upon by the men in his life, and is constantly having his thoughts interpreted by others on his behalf instead of getting to be his own "voice"?

It's literally the quintessential fight of female characters across centuries of storytelling, and Hoyo deciding to assign this conflict to what initially appears to be one of their most stereotypically masculine figures in the entire game is fascinating, because it changes what is otherwise a cut-and-dry story of the prodigal son refusing to carry on his father's legacy into a significantly more complex, gendered reading: What if the son is not intuitively an aggressive, commanding man, but someone who struggles to articulate himself, who despite being able to carry the banner of leadership whenever he must, actually seeks the quiet, supportive role for himself when given the freedom to do so?

When people say that they were pleasantly surprised by Mydei's charcter because he wasn't the macho brute they were expecting him to be, I think what they are actually perceiving is this, the incredible dichotomy of taking the most classic masculine story of all time--son surpassing his father, prince becoming king--and assigning it to a character whose central emotional conflict is, historically, feminine. This is cool! This is really, really unique and cool!

But if all that isn't enough to convince you that Hoyo is doing crazy interesting (and surprisingly gender-nonconforming) things with Mydei's role in Amphoreus's story, then that's fine, because I haven't even actually gotten to the wildest part:

Setting aside entirely whether Mydei is able to speak for himself, the game deliberately and constantly goes out of its way to put Mydei into situations where he has no say in the things that are happening to him, once again assigning Mydei a conflict typically given to female characters across centuries of storytelling: the quest to gain agency.

Despite the game initially framing Mydei as powerful leader and strong decision-maker who could never be swayed by others, a warrior who would fight against fate with his very life on the line, drilling down into his story reveals a character who has effectively had no control over the course of his life at any given point in time, both in a conscious sense and in the meta sense of being a simulation in Irontomb's loops.

From the time of his birth, a prophecy dictated the entire course of Mydei's early life, setting his path in stone in a way that he seemingly couldn't have avoided even if he wanted to. He's thrown into the sea, left with no choice but to fight every day for survival--but even inside the sea, despite actively saving fishermen, Mydei never saves himself, simply staying in the ocean he supposedly despises until... what? He achieves a level of power sufficient to fulfill his future prophecy? 🤔 Later, Mydei will go on to describe his destined clash with his father as merely an "obligation to be carried out"--not something that ultimately made him happy or felt like a choice he was making of his own free will, but a moral duty to avenge his mother, done in the service of her honor.

Even serving as Kremnos's crown prince isn't actually portrayed as something Mydei was ever excited about, something he truly wanted for himself. In his memories, it's his closest friends and Krateros constantly urging him to take up the throne, and it's of course the Kremnoan people as a whole endlessly begging him to guide them in their pursuit of Strife and glory...

Outside of just his thoughts and words, the game constantly shows us scenes of Mydei being told, as the crown prince, how he should act, what he must do:

Essentially, Mydei escaped from the sea and in very short order was thrust into the role of stewardship with little (to no) chance to choose a fate separate from Kremnos. This happens despite the fact that Mydei is personally and repeatedly framed as "the least Kremnoan of them all," a boy who seemingly never grasped the faith of his fellow Strife worshippers. In his flashback with his mother, Mydei's very first question is "Why do we have to learn to fight at all?"--not something a "normal" crown prince of Kremnos would ever be asking.

Yes, yes, before you get up in arms: Of course Mydei loves the Kremnoans and has enormous pride for his people, don't get me wrong. I don't think he hates being their crown prince at all. I think he would never give up the position unless he was 110% confident that his people were ready to lead themselves or that someone else could truly and completely rule them better than he could. All I'm saying is that it's also abundantly clear that Mydei never actually had any say in whether he would become the Kremnoans' leader; that the role was something put onto him from the moment he was born, with fate once again dictating the course of his life.

Before going into the events that take place during the game's actual plot, I also think there's one other major aspect of Mydei's overall character that should be read as a denial of his agency, and that's Mydei's "curse of immortality." 3.2 tried to reframe Mydei's immortality in a weird way that frankly makes no sense (claiming that it was Mydei's choice all along, and that he was the one deciding not to die), but literally everywhere else in the game, it's made pretty clear that Mydei's immortality is indeed a curse, one that he can't be rid of unless he is stabbed in his tenth vertebra, and thus even the circumstances of the end of his life are largely outside his control. Phainon remarks on exactly this when Mydei describes losing all his friends, sympathizing with how Mydei was prevented even from joining his loved ones in death no matter how many times life was taken from him, no matter how many times he sacrificed himself on the altar. (This is why Khaslana's parting words to Mydei in the cycles are so meaningful, because Khaslana is actively choosing to view his violence against Mydei as a way of setting Mydei free.)

Okay, now the more recent stuff: The first time we see Mydei seemingly exercise any form of agency is in making the decision to bring the Kremnoans to Okhema, but from the players' perspective, we ultimately know this is no real agency either: The simulation demands that Mydei join the Flame-Chase--"fate" was always going to guide him to Aglaea in some shape or form. Furthermore, the decision to join Aglaea is framed by literally everyone else in the story as Mydei "submitting" to her authority, Mydei giving up his power to a "usurper," and Mydei being "bewitched," all phrases once again implying an inability to make his own decisions.

This ultimately proves true not long later, when, throughout the first portion of patch 3.1, we actively watch Mydei be manipulated, against his explicit wishes, into taking the coreflame of Strife.

Even though he says he doesn't condemn Aglaea and Tribbie for their manipulations, it doesn't change the fact that Mydei was being manipulated, pushed into a corner by Aglaea choosing to use the safety of the person he cared for as a weapon against him. It also doesn't change the fact that Mydei spends the entire first half of 3.1 admitting to multiple people that he's terrified of becoming the demigod of Strife and having that fear continually dismissed by people who basically tell him to just deal with it, because that's his role in the prophecy and his fears that taking on Strife will ultimately lead his people into meaningless death are really not that important in the grand scheme of things.

3.1 was literally "Watch the entire cast strip Mydei of his agency," the patch.

And then the craziest of them all: Finding out that it isn't just Cycle 33,550,336 Mydei who was struggling with a lack of autonomy but seemingly every Mydei, all the way back to Cycle 0, where he's once again put into a situation where he functionally has no choice but to comply:

In Cycle 0, we're told that Mydei brought the Kremnoans to Okhema and then went before the Okheman Council of Elders to sue for civil rights--literally all he asked for was equal rights for his people.

In return, Aglaea pulled the strings on the situation so that Mydei would lose this duel and she could make her demand of him: Join my emo band Flame-Chase Journey. (Again, nothing against Aglaea, she was doing what she thought she had to do, but damn what a cutthroat way to do it.)

Effectively, in 3.4 we get to once again watch Mydei trade himself to ensure the happiness of others, giving away his own freedom so that the Kremnoans could just have basic equal rights. What the fuck, Hoyo?

This was extortion in real time, right before our eyes.

Hell, Mydei not getting to make his own decisions happens even the game's silliest joke media!

Can't even sleep unmolested, constantly getting dragged around by Phainon? Just shaking my head, for real for real. LET MY BOY BE! 😂

Okay, back to being serious: Overall, Mydei's lack of agency is so consistent and so clear-cut, that even Mydei himself seems to be fully aware he has very little freedom amidst the crippling demands put upon him by his station and his prophecy:

This is why Mydei's decision in 3.1, to dissolve the Kremnoan dynasty, is framed so intensely as "taking back agency for himself," as choosing to make a decision that wasn't aimed at trying to make everyone else happy:

Making a decision that isn't to please others? Oh Mydei, you are so "single female protag finding her independence" coded.

This is framed as Mydei finally getting to make HIS OWN decision, his way to make a better future for his people. We're supposed to perceive this as Mydei casting off the shackles of others' perceptions of him to take the brave step forward and do what he believes is truly right. It's not about making others' happy, but about securing the only real way forward to a future, and the game tells us that Mydei only feels comfortable with his own fate after he's able to make this choice on behalf of his people--not with their permission, but by the virtue of finally finding his own voice.

Except thatttt... the moment you actually think about what is happening here, the illusion of Mydei having free will falls apart, and Amphoreus's cruel irony sets in.

Early in 3.1, Krateros says that Mydei is a headstrong person who always does what he wants:

But as we delve deeper into Mydei's story, it becomes clear that even Mydei's most headstrong decisions (such as bringing the Kremnoans to Okhema) aren't done in his own self-interest or simply whatever Mydei "pleases"--all of his decisions, every single one we're shown in the game, are done in the service of others, doing what Mydei feels compelled to do to fulfill his duty to protect the people he loves. He didn't bring the Kremnoans to Okhema just because he personally wanted to--he brought them there because he believed that was the only way to save them. He didn't join the Flame-Chase Journey of his own free will--it was just the only path to secure any future for his people at all.

As I've written before, even this decision in 3.1 (to dissolve the Kremnoan dynasty, take up the coreflame of Strife, and go home alone to fight the Black Tide) wasn't actually for Mydei himself.

In fact, it flat out runs contrary to Mydei's most deeply held personal wishes. Mydei didn't want to become Strife. Mydei didn't want to return to Kremnos's ways and spend every remaining moment of his life at war. Mydei was seeking a home to call his own--a land to finally belong in--and then had to give away all the peace and happiness he'd found in Okhema as his final gift to his people:

The decision in 3.1 doesn't actually represent Mydei gaining complete agency over his own decision-making or finally getting the freedom to pursue his own personal dreams--it's once again a decision he was obligated to make by his own unyielding sense of honor and his (admittedly noble) sense of responsibility for his people.

The fact that Mydei's decision to become the demigod of Strife still doesn't represent agency becomes doubly true with the reveal in 3.4 that all of Amphoreus is a pre-determined simulation, running on rails, with Mydei himself being a programmed figure unable to deviate from his assigned path. Every major decision simply leads down the same exact road that was decided eons ago: Mydei was always going to become the demigod of Strife. He was always going to leave Okhema. He was always going to die to Flame Reaver's blade.

The decision to return to Kremnos and take up Nikador's role is presented initially as Mydei's free will--but all along it was nothing more than playing into the "prophecy," playing on the side of the Black Tide and Lygus's goals. Mydei's character arc in 3.1 revolves soooo intensely around exercising agency, only for us to learn in 3.4 that he never stood a chance in the first place. (If this sounds familiar to Phainon's arc, that's because Mydei's arc is literally Phainon's arc, by the by.)

Ultimately, having the benefit of multiple patches of story now, we can look back over Mydei's current contributions to the plot and see the truly fascinating dichotomy of his character.

On the one hand, Mydei is a hyper-masculine character with a design that unquestionably insists on his identity as a man. A surface-level examination of his character presents a quintessentially masculine archetype: the wayward son, rejecting his father's shadow, growing into a role of stoic, solemn leadership, suppressing his own grief and loss to unwaveringly fulfill his duty as Chrysos Heir, prince, and king.

The obscured, hyperbolic retellings of his past paint him as a "hero of eld," an unmistakably male mythological figure akin to Achilles, Odysseus, or Gilgamesh.

Mydei refuses to be or even see himself as a victim, returning time and time again from death, stronger and more full of the wrath needed to survive in an apocalyptic world. Even when he has no freedom to actually make his own decisions, he does keep trying. He keeps fighting, endlessly, to make himself heard and to try to break the shackles of his fate, situating him firmly in the (traditionally) masculine figure of the "warrior."

But despite all of this exterior masculine trapping, Mydei's core inner conflicts are surprisingly feminine (that is, they're struggles more typically given to female characters in media):

Over and over and over again, we watch others speak for Mydei, rather than Mydei truly getting the chance to speak for himself. We're denied access to his inner world by the "they say"s and the "rumors rife," every single person getting their chance to weigh in on Mydei's story but Mydei.

In real time, we watch other characters dismiss his fears and hesitation as "foolishness," and interpret his feelings through their own lenses, without Mydei stepping up to correct them. We get to see Mydei struggle to articulate himself and make others take him seriously. People constantly tell him what he should do, what he shouldn't do, how he should act and how he shouldn't... His central conflict is explicitly centered on his fears of being unable to please everyone, and his ultimate role in the story is one of sacrifice, giving and giving and giving of himself to aid others.

One of the most common complaints about the roles assigned to female characters in media and one of the core litmus tests used to determine whether female characters have agency is the question "Does the plot happen to this character or do they drive the plot?"

The truth is that, for all his raging against the dying of the light, Mydei is a character who has things happen to him, rather than actually getting the chance to freely exercise self-determination in Amphoreus's plot.

So, so, so much of Mydei's character revolves around seizing back agency in a world that seeks to control every aspect of your existence--and this a story that has been told, time and again, with female characters. That's not to say that it's never been done with male characters before, of course it has, but that there is something incredibly interesting about making "finding your voice in a world that dismisses your feelings" the plot for a (supposedly) hyper-masculine character in a gacha game with a primarily male target audience.

Mydei, by all rights, should be one of the characters with the most power and most agency in all of Amphoreus. He's an extremely strong warrior, a kingslayer, a god. He's ripped, he's got a wicked heavy metal gore-filled trailer... On paper, he's "Man" with a capital M.

But Hoyo chose to do something more complicated with his character. They chose to do some truly interesting play on the question of autonomy, placing a Hero (also capital H) into the stereotypically restricted, silenced role where female protagonists have so often been relegated in the past, then left us players with the disconnect and discomfort of watching a male character be so bound by the expectations of others that even his greatest moment of defiance and free will turns out to just be playing into the hands of yet another person oppressing him.

Like so many female characters have in the past, Mydei doesn't get to be a "real" person with fully examined interiority. The game denies us this by insisting on his story being told almost entirely through the perceptions of others, by obscuring the truth of his past in a fog of confusion, by Mydei making the choices he is compelled to by duty and loyalty, not those that truly match his own inner wishes and dreams.

Mydei almost never gets the chance freely express his thoughts, have his feelings validated, or reclaim his freedom of choice from the systems exerting pressure on his life. The lion doesn't have its own historian, and we only get the truth of Mydei from Mydei himself in brief and barest flickers.

At the heart of Mydei's story lies a fascinating conundrum that creates a truly intriguing and layered character--all-powerful and yet powerless, hyper-masculine and yet voiceless, a myth more than a man.

Say whatever you want about Amphoreus's plot, pacing, etc., but geez, Mydei is a cool character.

[stupid-elf]

Idea to counteract this:

Give more men Women’s Work jobs (traditionally speaking, housekeeping, child-rearing, secretarial duties, cooking) (yes what is traditional exists in a cultural milieu—I’m speaking from an American context, don’t @ me with the “most chefs are men” thing again).

Then, and this step is important, continue to give them narrative respect. If anything, play it up. It’s not an accident of history that jobs gain prestige throughout history when men occupy them—it’s patriarchy. Women used to be kennel masters, but we didn’t call them kennel masters: They just “took care of the dogs.” So invent fancy titles, invent prestige classes, give them honor and dignity. In a fantasy world I built, there’s a culture that believes it’s a woman’s job to raise children age 0-3 and a man’s job to raise them 3-12, then they’re raised by the community until they pass the trials that give them a role in that community and mark them as an adult. And this isn’t necessarily male and female parent—it’s more of a permanent daycare situation, where there are Guardians (generally women) and Teachers (generally men) whose role in the community it is to take in children of those ages and teach them skills. Like a shepherd but for kids. They travel with the guardian/teacher, live with them. It’s like a stay-at-home parent collided with a boarding school. Kids are brought to one when they’re of age and then move on when they age out.

That’s just one idea. And it wasn’t even really a central part of the story—it was only relevant in that a character used to be a Teacher and feels he failed his children by dying and leaving them behind. The binding of love and honor that he feels for his kids and his community is his central motivation, but he was just one not-even-main character.

Give your male characters women’s work. Treat them with dignity. (None of this “oh he’s cooking and cleaning so we’ll put him in a maid costume and play it for laughs.”) Do your part to envision a world where we have diversity in all professions and the diffusion of respect that comes with it.

The fastest way to dismantle patriarchy isn’t uplifting people and pretending the lower rung ceases to exist, it’s interrogating our societal expectations of men and women and the respect they receive, then taking it a step further to ask why people are treated differently at all. Bring the lower rung up to level with the higher rung. No second class society.

I don't know exactly how to articulate this but... if you repeatedly show historical fiction women rejecting traditionally female skills/duties and doing swords instead, because swords is obviously the Most Important Thing, you are kind of implying that all the work that has been traditionally done by female hands for millennia was useless all along and not, you know, keeping civilization going. Because it's usually rejected not as a personal preference but as This Is The Important Stuff (male work) and That is The Dumb Useless Stuff (women's work) and that kind of bothers me. The message was supposed to be Vital But Underpaid and Underappreciated, not women's work is insignificant so let's all go do swords.

[boundwithpurple]

but fandom in general has this boner for the crux of all characters being highly imperfect self-knowledge - your repressors, your delusionists - but those types are not necessarily the most interesting to me. i think a lot of people have self-awareness but whether this changes things is the operative question. i think this reversion to this as ultimate character type - that there is some BREAKTHROUGH that must come for one not to be miserable, and it is the challenges to that breakthrough, whether it will happen or not, that drives narrative tension - is very sort of historically specific, structured by kind of a psychoanalytic gaze. it’s an framework where what is in the MIND is the most vital part of a life, always, more than material conditions or structures, and the character arc is about battle between individual and mind with other characters as additional opponents providing obstacles or getting in the way. but straight up a lot of people especially in the epic span of human history have not conceived of life this way, you know? and so like what if you took what they say they want seriously. they probably actually do want it. people want things that are either not to their benefit or not actualizable all the time.

[impishjesters]

Hey love your writting and i love how you portray your characters. This is gonna sound odd but could you saja boys seperate or any saja boys, really with an omega significant other who's building a nest which is an indicator that the reader is pregnant? How would the boys react to their impending fatherhood? Apologies if this sounds weird.

Not weird at all! In fact, I really fuckin love this idea so much ;w;

I went a little overboard and kinda all over the place... I fried my brain writing for all of them in one go, so unfortunately, a few of them suffer in quality. xD

Jinu 🐦‍⬛

▶ Jinu is a little out of date when it comes to the behaviour involved in nesting. He knows omegas do it and take comfort in their nests, not letting just anyone into them. At first, he chalks it up to you starting your heat, until he realizes you already had your heat and… well, when was your last heat??

▶ It takes one of the other Saja Boys to mention something off-hand for him to basically go "What?"

▶ "Omegas usually make a nest when it involves their heat or pregnancy…" Romance grimaces. "Did I ruin a surprise or…?"

▶ Jinu's life flashes before his eyes, and it's not all bad. He worries most about what kind of father he'll be. He lives with the guilt of betraying his mother and sister. What if history repeats itself and something happens and he betrays you and his child too? He can't handle it again.

▶ Contrary to his fears, he's excited, excited enough to probably throw up more than you did the first few months of pregnancy.

▶ You're going to have a baby, his baby. He's been alone for so long, and his omega is giving him the gift of a family of his own, one that he'll do anything for. Once the news is confirmed, he's simultaneously over the moon and drowning in a pit of anxiety. It takes a lot of reassurance on your end, but the fears and anxieties do dwindle down; his focus is more on the excitement of watching your tummy grow.

Abby 💪🏻

▶Abby catches on to your recent nesting, but you normally nest outside of your heat, so he doesn’t think about it at first until you start throwing up. The news of your pregnancy is met by excitement from him; he’s nervous as all hell, but he’s happy.

▶One dumb comment to his friends about having “just that good of sperm” to knock you up is met with multiple smacks to the back of the head—including you. None of them let him say something stupid like that in public.

▶The talk of having kids popped up once or twice. He was pretty fine with the idea of having a family with you, but now that it’s a reality? He’s in full dad mode and the baby ain’t even here. You have to physically hold him back to stop him from already going out to buy a baby crib to put it together—because, of course, he’s going to do it; he’s the big, strong alpha after all.

▶He’s not always perfect, but he’s usually pretty good at handling your mood swings and the late-night trips for random food cravings. Abby’s also got a pretty good stomach for your abomination cravings. Every time you ask him to try something, he does it—he spits it out behind your back. (He’s got the stomach to see the nightmare combinations, not to stomach eating it.)

▶Honestly, Abby’s in some form of dad mode the entire time. He’s got his little late-night fears that pop into his head, but all he has to do is roll over, see your belly, and the fears disappear. Man’s is so dad mode he’s already settled on making sure they have a sibling—providing you’re okay having more kids at some point later on.

Mystery ❔️

▶Mystery has a nose for change; the smallest things almost impossible to go unnoticed by him. At first, he's perplexed with the change in your scent. Were you hanging around a pregnant omega? No, that couldn't be it… You've been home for three days, no contact with anyone, so…

▶He's blunt when he brings it up, and at the confirmation that you're indeed pregnant, he's as still as a statue. It takes you pushing the hair out of his face to realize he's not frozen in fear, but happiness. His eyes are watery, and there's so much love in his eyes that it ends up making you cry as well.

▶Never once has the thought of becoming a father crossed his mind. Why would it? Prior to you, Mystery couldn't tolerate most omegas' scents and therefore didn't think about having a mate, let alone having a family.

▶Around the other Saja Boys and fans, he's completely normal, cool as a cucumber when in reality he's a hot mess on the inside. When do you need to start buying stuff? Is it too early to do that now? What kind of crib is best? Will you breastfeed or formula feed? His brain is running laps at all the questions, but you know him well enough that even if his entire face was covered, you can see the faintest quiver in his hand or how his fingers suddenly start idly playing with his pant leg or sleeve. He's like a firework with a delayed fuse.

▶It's hard to say when Mystery stops being a hot mess, but rest assured he's happy. He's nervous as hell about being a bad dad, but the fact that he's worried about that shows he's already going to be a great dad.

▶Every month that your belly grows, Mystery has his face pressed into it like a dog. Just got out of the shower? His face and hands on your belly. Taking a nap on the couch? He's already on the floor with his head on your belly, especially in the later months when there's movement.

Romance 💕

▶Romance is crying before you can. It’s been so long since he’s been able to think about family, the Saja Boys being the closest thing he has. He’s excited and nervous, touching your flat belly any chance he gets. It reminds him of when he was a child and his mom was pregnant with his little sister.

▶Every now and then, he’ll have a moment of fear that he’ll turn out like his own father, but pushes that down because he knows he’ll be better. Moments like this are rare, and he doesn’t let himself linger on it.

▶Talks of having kids or a family were never brought up, intentionally by Romance. But now that it’s happened, unintentional or not, he’s realizing just how badly he’s always wanted this. And he’s incredibly grateful that you also want it, a family with him.

▶Gradually, throughout the pregnancy, he’s prone to getting a bit more anxious and clingy. He doesn’t like letting you out of his sight, and outside of the Saja Boys, he doesn’t want anyone near you or the baby. He can’t explain it. No matter how many times you ask him, he just has this gut feeling all the time and can’t risk anything happening.

▶As a man with a wonderful skincare routine, obviously that extends into helping you care for your skin, but while pregnant? Non-negotiable, the entire pregnancy, you are glowing and pampered by him. Little spa dates at home, especially when your belly starts to get bigger. All the foot rubs while you munch away on some horrific combination of things, all while telling him about whatever’s on your mind.

Baby 🍼

▶Baby is probably the one who reacts the most differently compared to the rest of the Saja Boys. At the news, he has no clue how to react, and he does that dick head move and actually leaves to process the information. He’s not gone for too long though, just long enough for a short trip to the nearest convenience store and back. He has no clue what pregnant omegas eat; he just knows they eat a lot and eat weird combinations. He’s confused, but he’s trying…

▶Nothing much really changes at first, it’s still a lot of processing his feelings and fears because babies were never brought up before. Baby’s neither liked nor hated children; sometimes they’re cute, sometimes they’re obnoxious. Would it be different because it’s his kid? Could he really somehow accidentally end up hating his own kid?? Worse, what if his kid ended up hating him?

▶Baby is anxiety central, but somewhere along the line—probably the first ultrasound—he starts to mellow out. Something about seeing the baby, even so teeny tiny, really hammers something into his brain. After that? Baby’s more on guard when it involves you being out in public, especially around him. He’s incredibly territorial during your entire pregnancy, more than normal. There’s at least one headline involving Baby nearly biting someone’s throat out for something ridiculous.

▶Similarly to Mystery, his fixation with your belly over the months grows. He’s not sure how true it is, but he read online that talking to the baby or playing music while in the womb helps brain development or something. He frequently stops what he’s doing when you enter the room or walk past him and just squats down to the ground, cradles your belly, and talks/sings at the baby in your belly.

▶It’s definitely worth noting that the baby seems to react fondly to hearing Saja Boys music, as well as when Baby is on TV. It’s an active pregnancy to say the least, enough to the point where when Baby is gone for a couple of days, you’re stuck balancing your phone on your belly while an episode of something he’s in plays, or he’ll call and talk to your belly over the phone.

[heytherecentaurs]

This is how you make a lore dump interesting!

Brennan has a lot of info his players need and they've reached a point necessitating they have it to move forward. The success of this lore dump is how tied to backstory, drama and emotions it is. It doesn't seem like we're sitting through characters sifting through documents (which we are) because we have concurrent plots happening and very clear character motivations.

The initiative Emily took to in-character check in with the other characters was masterful. It took a huge narrative weight off Brennan's shoulders and allowed him to worry about the big picture. The players have become exceptionally good at running scenes unprompted. It lends a naturalness to the story and enriches it. After eight episodes Cloudward, Ho! feels like the fullest story they've told; everything has texture, no right angles, brimming with lived-in details, places with histories, people with complex histories, relationships, and psychologies.

Watching both Emily and Siobhan silently work themselves up into elevated emotional states was spectacular. They're just so in it. They have emotional scenes separately and then finally together and it gives us such satisfying narrative structure. I appreciate their scene partners stepping back and allowing these stellar performances to shine. Monty really excels at being a sympathetic listener. Max really tried.

I noticed that the Gotch family seem to talk AT each other because it's all about status, and Max tries to take that approach with the crew and they tell him to knock it off. He's slowly figuring out how to talk WITH others. He's learning to establish real bonds with the crew and becoming more comfortable being himself. It's like a closeted queer kid from a rigid conservative family going to college and discovering a community that wants him to be authentic and will accept and love that version of him.

Olethra is being set up to have split loyalties. She's become incredibly close to the crew and when they finally meet her grandma, I think she's going to be put in a quandary and asked to pick a side in a conflict. And I think that's going to be thrilling.

The lore dump itself was so cool. The wealth of stuff they found and the rich description of it all really satisfied me. You can feel the dust and smell the biblichor. I even imagine the slapping down of files on a desk as Monty went through them. The introduction of Zern and its Queen was so cool. Everything they've done this season makes the setting feel so full and verisimilar.

Meeting Freyja was a great break from the heavier aspects of the show. Between the heavy lore and emotions we had some very funny stuff happening. Zac being the serious gunslinger who's actually comic relief isn't what I expected. I love the characters planning how they'll interrogate her outside the door and Brennan saying that the prisoner heard everything. It seems like a move he directly borrowed out of Aabria's tool box. She loves to be like that person you're talking near has heard everything you said. Freyja's so cute and I'm glad they're taking her with them.

Torse is interesting because of everyone he's seen Comfrey most recently. He's also full of lore and I love that. His entire backstory is interesting.

This is such a fun and interesting season with such deep characterization and we aren't even halfway through. I love that this romping adventure season has so much depths and I really can't wait to see where it goes.

[kabukiaku]

I don’t know if you’ve done this yet but what is your lore for Terzo (and everyone in general I guess) and how did it divide from the original lore? Like how do you head cannon all the Papas (Nihil to Perpetua) and Sister (if at all) I just love your stuff and wanna know all the world building you’ve done for these guys :3

I think for that im gonna scramble together a rough presentation with what each characters' role is in my own version. cause- i like to visually present things!

warning this post gets long and i dont think ill get to everything. just some of my most notable differences.

here's a family tree i made a while back. now, mind you, I tried my best to represent nihil's insane situation in having multiple affairs thus resulting in the brothers. so, i apologize if it's not correct, I don't think this is very common for family trees xD

So, to set a few main points, I see Papa Nihil as the father of all 5, 3 of each had different mothers. To make it more believable that Primo was a son of Nihil, I am aging him down just a bit. The years I haven't quite nailed down for Primo and Nihil.

Terzo and Secondo, brothers from another mother- yet spent the most time growing up together. Secondo was born in 1957, while Terzo was born in 1962, giving them a 5-year difference. I wanted to do the 3 months thing, but given how I've depicted them as boys, I think it makes more sense lol. if tobias can retcon his own lore, i can too.

In my AU, Copia was raised in the Clergy by Siblings. He had no idea he had parents, yet Sister was always attentive to him. I haven't given much thought to Perpetua to be honest, but maybe something will come to mind soon.

His relationship with his half-brothers is as complicated as a Rubix cube.

Copia never had a normal childhood thus it derived him from developing healthy (can we all relate)

one very obvious deviation from the canon lore is that the ghouls are demons, summoned from the Pit. These are otherworldly beings who have adapted the likeness and language of the humans over the centuries.

Each papa was tasked to summon their first ghoul, whom arguably plays the most important role for each papa and soon-to-be papa.

these two, had a history of course, being that they've played on stage together since Primo's era, and had a on and off relationship behind the curtain. they are my 'it's complicated' type ship. my toxic yaoi ship----Alpha still feels for Omega. Eventually the two (moreso Alpha) make peace with their past. That---my friends is something I am planning on in form of a comic.

the most obvious deviation from the canon--- Terzo and Omega. i sometimes realize how far i've gone from the band's lore, here I am imagining a multi-chapter rom-com-drama-supernatural queer story with complete imaginary versions of these stage personas xD

a relationship between a ghoul and a human is not unheard of. there may have been a few one-time flings here and there done in secrecy within the congregation, but nothing came close to the genuine connection Omega made to his summoner Terzo.

I would want to go a bit more in depth with how I have two different 'endings' for the Papas and how it shifts towards Frater & Perpetua era, but my brain is very much stuck in limbo during the mid Meliora era. (big chunk of my AU happens there)

TD;LR: it is VERY divided from the original band lore.

[jinftranda]

HELLFIRE: The Living Dead [Sevika x You]

Chapter 1

character introduction

sypnosis: a zombie apocalypse resurfaces after a group of scientists’ questions are left unanswered by history. Unfortunately, it also happens when you are pulling strings in an attempt to fix your relationship with your wife, Sevika.

content: modern au ( Sevika still has her left arm), reader and Sevika are married, reader wants to get divorced (but did not absolutely happen because of the apocalypse), side plots and ships : p, lots of genre in one fic, mild description of blood and dead bodies, gore-ish?, trigger warnings will be added, andddd a lot more that i will uncover later on!

notes: my 3rd au and i’m still working on my issues at writing, my first time writing something like this, this au inspired from different zombie movies/medias

additional notes: character status and health will be posted as soon as i get into future chapters!

JUST IN

A Group of scientists unfolds the mysteries left unsolved at The Nation of Zaun— reports say that one of the scientists started experiencing unexplainable occurrences after investigation.

Background story: The nation of Zaun suffered a deadly and terrifying pandemic a hundred years ago. The pandemic was caused by sanitary and cleanliness issues; scientists from the local laboratories had come to Zaun to investigate further. But according to the others, one of the scientists experienced unexplainable occurrences in his body, with eyes turning white, veins becoming more visible, and changes in overall appearance. The scientist is allegedly locked up in a laboratory for testing.

Comments (10k+)

—

Anonymous: OMFG, just leave that damn place alone for God’s sake!

Replies:

@sharksdontpoop: Agree! Past is past, they should just leave it there.

Replying to @sharksdontpoop

@diabolical_weirdo: There won’t be a future without the past. 🤔

Replying to @diabolicalweirdo

@__randa.x: omg shut your bitchass up

—

@jinjo__on: Can y’all delay the apocalypse? My package hasn’t arrived yet

Replies:

@yx._esxp: and the world keeps spinning

@immalosernlover: We’re literally about to go through another pandemic, and that’s what you’re worried about? Have a grip on reality girl 😭🤚

Replying to @immalosernlover

Anonymous: Most sane person in the comment section

—

@apobangpo4lifer: See? This is what happens when you’re messing with something that should be left alone.

Replies:

@sapphirezrela: thank you 4 saying this. i haven’t closed my eyes in days because i’m scared that i’ll get attacked by a zombie while i’m sleeping. and posts about it aren’t helping me ☹️

Replying to @sapphirezrela:

@apobangpo4lifer: Poor thing! I’m so sorry that you’re going through that 😞

—

@8_8crying.outloud: Thanks a lot to those scientists

—

@chronicoleyonline: “Just let the city breathe” well the city’s breath is going to kill us all

Replies:

@seokjinsarmpithair: I’m lit too afraid to go outside rn, and this made me chuckle 😭

Replying to @seokjinsarmpithair:

@chronicoleyonline: Chuckle only? Not laugh??

Replying to @seokjinsarmpithair

Anonymous: i think we should start talking about your username first

—

@totalrando.onthenet: And what are we supposed to do with this information

—

@alan.is.datboi: Kinda excited for a zombie apocalypse to happen tbh 🤣

Replies:

Anonymous: Are you also excited to get mauled by a zombie? 🥰

Replying to Anonymous:

@Justhere4yuri: LMAO 😭😭

—

You are currently sitting in the front seat of the car, next to Sevika. It was another dreadful ride home, and the two of you are doing absolutely nothing to light up the mood. You cross your arms and lean against the car window.

You’re holding your breath because the smell of the car is making you sick.

“What, are we just gonna go home like this?” Sevika asks angrily, her eyes still on the road. You didn’t answer her, and you kept looking through the window.

Unfortunately, you weren’t able to hold your breath for too long. Cause after you said that to yourself that you weren’t going to throw up, you were on the verge of releasing everything you ate earlier.

You tap multiple times on the car window, desperately trying to signal Sevika to stop the car.

Sevika pulls over, and she looks at you with irritation across her face. She unlocks the door of the car, and you immediately rush outside, finally breathing.

You look back at the car while still catching your breath.

Sevika’s expecting you to get back in, but to her surprise, you shut the door on her, and you walk away.

Sevika’s left annoyed, she grunts from frustration, and she catches up to you, still inside the car.

She lowers the window, “Get back in!” Sevika shouts at you, you ignore her, and you walk faster.

Sevika drives faster, but she stops driving just ahead of you.

Sevika’s about to open her mouth, but you spoke first.

“I can’t do this anymore!”

You shout at her face, you gasp for air while looking at your surroundings; you’re glad that no one is around to witness a somewhat telenovela scene on the highway. Sevika raises her eyebrows at you and shakes her head in confusion.

You stomp your foot out of frustration before speaking, “You’ve been too busy on your job, and it’s driving me crazy!” you exclaim at her, but you weren’t finished letting it all out.

“Don’t get me wrong, I understand that you’re working really hard so that I’d live with ease— but I can’t hold onto you anymore..” You stop. “Don’t even get me started when you start forgetting some of our important dates!” you continued.

Sevika could only watch and listen.

“And I still haven’t forgotten the car you gave me for my birthday,” you mutter.

“What?” Sevika asks furiously, every woman in the world would want a car.

But why are you complaining now about getting one?

“I’m carsick, Sevika!” you cover your mouth,

“Carsick!” you scream again at her.

Sevika’s eyes goes wide when she remembers that you’re carsick.

“I can’t help but vomit whenever I get in any type of car, but you gifted me one!” You can’t help yourself from sobbing. You gifted me that because, apparently “You don’t want me to use public transportation.” Well, that car is the reason why I’m riding public transportation!”

“And the smell of your leather seat covers is making me wanna throw up,” you manage to utter.

“I’m s-sorry—” Sevika pleads .

“I’m breaking things off with you,” you say to her, it almost sounds like a whisper.

Sevika’s eyes shoot open upon hearing your words. It’s obvious that she’s mad by just looking at her face.

“I don’t love you anymore..” you mutter quietly.

She gasps in disbelief and runs her hands through her hair.

Sevika heard it, clearly.

She palms her face and swears loudly.

She glares at you for a second, but closes the car window and drives away quickly.

You’re now alone.

You arrived home an hour after you ended things with Sevika, the drive with her is already unbearable and dreadful, but it only hits you ten times harder when you’re on your own.

You enter your home, and the first thing you see is that Isha is sitting on the dinner table with her iPad. You walk up to her, only to be pulled in a hug by Vi.

“You’re back!” She hugs you tighter with a warm smile on her face. Even though you can barely breathe, a smile creeps up to your face while sighing in contentment. But when Vi pulls away, your happy expression goes back to your dreadful state earlier. Vi raises her eyebrow upon the change in your expression.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Vi asks, she sounds concerned.

You gathered the guts to finally tell her what happened, and you sighed before speaking.

“I-I just ended things with Sev..” you reply without energy.

It was clear that Vi didn’t expect to hear that from you, after all, you and Sevika have been married for 15 years.

“Wait— you two got divorced?” Vi asks with almost a high-pitched tone. You try to avoid her gaze, but she won’t stop until she gets answers. You shake your head tiredly.

“Oh, so it’s not an official breakup?” Vi follows up on her question.

“Yup,” you reply, while walking in Isha’s direction. You were too busy eyeing Isha earlier that you didn’t see Caitlyn beside her.

”Hey, Ish,” you say as you tap her arm. Isha looks up to you with a smile on her face. She hugs you tight. Caitlyn’s too busy with the children’s coloring handbook that she didn’t notice your presence immediately. She took notice of you when Isha tapped on her arms, and she pointed at you.

Caitlyn’s face lights up when she sees you. She stands up from her seat and hugs you gently. “What took you so long?” she says while getting back on her seat. She nods to you to take the seat beside her. Vi walks to the three of you and sits on the chair next to Isha.

You're eyeing Vi to let her do the talking.

“M-Me?” Vi almost choked as she asked, you nod gently.

“Finally.” That’s what Caitlyn said after hearing that you and Sevika finally broke off.

“You’re waiting for this?” you ask with a high-pitched tone. You were surprised when you found out that almost everyone you’re close to wants you to divorce Sevika.

“How come I’m only finding this out now?” You were desperate for answers.

“It’s honestly sad to see you glue your relationship with Sevika every day.” Caitlyn fidgets with Isha’s crayons as she’s putting them away now that Isha’s tucked to bed.

“You’ve seen me grow up, and I’ve also seen how Sevika is growing distant from you.” Vi follows up after Caitlyn spoke.

“I-I’ve never thought about that, until now,” you admit. You were so blindly in love with Sevika that you weren’t noticing her neglecting you.

You were neglected for affection, quality time, assurance, touch, and almost everything that makes the bond between a couple stronger.

But you were too blind.

You’re a smart person, but when it comes to Sevika?

It feels like you’re an idiot.

She gets you every time, even without effort.

That makes letting go of her so difficult.

“Cait, have you seen this stuff about a zombie apocalypse?” Vi chuckled after she asked Caitlyn.

“Nonsense— don’t believe those slop.” Caitlyn rolls her eyes while answering Vi.

“Zombie, what now?” you ask.

“There’s this article online about some scientist who started acting like a zombie after investigating Zaun.”

“Isn’t Zaun a dead city?” Vi responds to you.

“Yeah, why did they even go there? Isn’t it dangerous?”

“They might start another pandemic,” you say.

“Maybe just a stunt that the media is trying to pull.” Caitlyn chimes in on your conversation with Vi.

The three of you joked and laughed around while talking about the “supposedly” zombie apocalypse.

After that, you all went to bed.

Without knowing that you’ll be living in a nightmare, for quite a long time.

Taglist: @djstinkyfartz

—

an: howdy! we’ll be getting into the zombie stuff soon, stay tuned everyone 😚

comment if you want to be on the tag list!

likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated :3

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi! I saw a recent post on the twst reddit where someone was asking If we got isekaied as Yuu at the start of the game, who’s one character you would tell of our situation?

Most of the replies on there already said they’d tell Idia and then followed by Lilia as the second most popular option.

I was thinking about this myself too, & i agree with both options, but I was more focused on if someone chose a different character, like the factors of trust, will they spill, will they believe you, will they use this against you? (probably? most likely? it’s NRC!)

I was wondering who would you pick first Raven, & why? Also, who’s the character you’d be LEAST likely to tell?

[ The original Twst subreddit thread on the topic can be found here! ]

Y’all are going to STUDENTS for help?? 😭

Mmmm… I do think Idia might be more willing to believe the absurdity of my story given that he’s an otaku familiar with isekai + quickly buys a similar story that Ortho tells him in book 7. However, assuming that the events play out in the same order as the main story, I don’t see Idia being useful or even trusting a newcomer enough to bother helping with them or even wanting to converse in the first place. Prior to book 6 (which takes place all the way in February), Idia is extremely closed off, down about his future, and basically only willing to interact with Ortho. I don’t think he’d give me a chance to talk, much less drop everything and jump to aid this random normie at the start of September.

Of the two popular choices, I’d say Lilia is the better option since he’s wise and friendly right off the bat. We even interact with him early on, all the way back in book 1 during a cafeteria scene. However, I would personally be hesitant to tell Lilia because he’s honestly not a consistently responsible or reliable person 🧍‍♂️ The way he behaves feels so slap dash and without consideration for potential consequences, and I feel this could exasperate the situation rather than help. For example, he insults and eggs on Leona (which causes him to OB) in book 2, enables many of Malleus’s worst tendencies + doesn’t commit to telling him off, delays telling Silver he is adopted and laughs about the reveal(which causes Silver emotional distress + to run off), etc.

My first pick in this case would honestly be a responsible and dependable adult (which knocks out Lilia, Crowley, etc.) and preferably a teacher (since they would have more sway at NRC + more knowledge of the world). I would probably go with Trein (since he’s the oldest staff—besides Crowley— and the one the headmaster entrusts with leading school trips and overseeing the school while he is away). My second place pick is Crewel, since he is our homeroom teacher (thereby being very accessible). They, as actually responsible adults with an understanding of the world, would listen to my story and surely be able to guide and advise me. Trein especially, since I feel he would know a lot more about weird magical shenanigans. Me supposedly being a seer wouldn’t be so strange in the grand scheme of all the other crazy stuff that has happened in Magic History. They would also be in a position to raise the alarm bells to people and organizations (school board, department of magic education, etc.) that would be able to intervene or at least prepare themselves for the eventual OBs.

If I had to pick a student… I’d go with (*checks clipboard and sighs*) Leona… King… scholar… 🫩 NOT FOR ANY WEiRD REASONS, OKAY… LEMmE EXPLsiN mYSELF

My parameters for this are:

Someone we meet relatively early on in the main story (to maximize the gain + assistance I’d get from them)

Someone willing and able to believe me

Someone intelligent

Someone with access to resources

And Leona just so happens to fit ALL of these.

Leona is someone we meet relatively early (around October). At that point, one OB will have already occurred and I could use this to my advantage by leveraging it to imply I have useful information on future OBs. Even if Leona doesn’t believe me (which is highly likely) and the events of book 2 still unfold, I could use that opportunity to spout out highly specific predictions at him post-book 2. When they come true, he’ll have no choice but to stop and consider me because there’s NO other explanations for how I was able to pull “On XX/YY, Ace will score 92, Deuce will score 88, and Grim will score 85… 220 students will be anemone’d by Azul… exactly 30 students will score perfect 500s…” out of thin air and be correct on all accounts.

In the current main story, Leona’s already noticing tons of things the other characters don’t, like the fact that there are traces of magic leftover from Vil’s OB around the stage. He makes note of Grim eating blot stones but doesn’t outright remark on it. Leoba also susses out that Kalim and Ruggie are imitations created by S.T.Y.X. technology in book 6. Surely Leona would have the capacity to realize I’m not bsing him just based on my behaviors or something.

Book 3 also established if you annoy him enough, you can break him and get him to do what you want. Do NOT underestimate me, Kingscholar. I WILL throw myself on the floor and kick and scream all night to disrupt your sleep until you agree to help this wimpy human out 😤 WHINING ALWAYS WORKS/j

Like… in all seriousness, Leona is nothing if not opportunistic. Even if he doesn’t necessarily give a shit about ME in particular, he will want to preserve himself and his own interests. If I told him so-and-so is next to endanger the world, he’d do what it takes to save his/his dorm’s own ass(es). I’d imagine he’s put even more effort into preventing it if it’s an excuse to get a dig in for someone he dislikes, such as Malleus.

Finally, Leona actually has the assets to be helpful. He’s got the brains to plan things out, he’s got the money and the connections (including knowledge of S.T.Y.X.) too. Moreover, he doesn’t care what he has to do with these h things to achieve what he wants. Other characters that have similar levels of wealth, power, or connections would hit roadblocks. For example, Kalim has all of those things would lacks the ability to strategize or would be held back by things like morals or other characters (like Jamil) acting skeptical. Leona is okay with playing dirty if it means getting what he wants, and that’s useful to have on our side.

As for the person I wouldn’t want to tell… yeah, it’s Azul 💀 Maybe he’d believe me, maybe he wouldn’t. It doesn’t matter, cuz I would NOT trust that guy (especially pre-book 3) with information this valuable. Azul would turn right back around and use it for blackmail or to orchestrate situations to work out in his favor. Then we’d all must end up in an octopus-run dystopian future because I fucked up and blabbed to the Wrong Guy.

[gordonengineswifenirmal]

I’m not autistic. I do have e complex ptsd n bipolar. Some symptoms can crossover. Let me tell you, trains are a therapy. There’s something pure about them. They are fascinating, they smell incredible, they cause u to learn about history. They r simply stunning to the eye.

People have traumatised me. They trigger me. I’m not a fan of many people. In fact I prefer to keep a distance from most.

Trains and cats bring me a serenity. There’s an incredible salubrious value in their simplicity. They heal the wounded inner child, even if only temporarily. They won’t harass you. They won’t treat you like shite. The feeling of that simple joy is better than anything another human could give.

And sentient trains are even better - they’re fictional engines. They are human enough in the imagination to converse with n relate to emotionally, n machine enough to not make u cringe. I love chatting to fictional engines on character ai for that reason. I know they’re fictional, everything about it is fictional - and that is incredibly therapeutic.

not sure why obsession with trains is seen as an autism thing when i think any reasonable human being with joy in their heart should be at least a little obsessed with trains. decently reliable public transport? with a rhytmic soothing motion but steady enough on long distances that you could read or draw while riding? getting to see the sights as you speed past? 10/10 best way to travel.

[casscainmainly]

Duke Thomas and Perception

One of the major recurring themes (and in my opinion THE major theme) in Duke's story is perception. Whether it's being perceived or being the perceiver, Duke's character is steeped in motifs of vision, perception, colour, and light, which often relate to his various identities. This post explores Duke's story through the lens of perception, tracing how it manifests in different areas of his life.

This is really just a collection of thoughts about where perception crops up in his story, it's not really a cohesive argument or anything. Also this will dive into a lot of Duke's history so spoiler warning if you're reading him!!! VERY SPECIAL THANKS to @stephexmachina for inspiring this one, particularly the opening section and for getting me on the track of perception in the first place!! And happy @dukethomasweek2025 , this is for Day 4's theme of 'character study' :).

Self-Perception and Control

In We Are Robin, one of the main things about Duke is how self-aware he is. This isn't the same as being self-conscious - Duke isn't a person that bites his tongue and stays quiet. But he is always aware of how others perceive him.

We Are Robin #1 sees him modifying how he speaks to not "talk like an idiot". He's overtly aware of how others will see him as a Black kid talking non-Standard English, so he adjusts himself accordingly. He does this again when facing a disguised cop Alfred in WAR #2:

He's honest and direct ("Don't wanna be a cop. Don't trust cops") AND being careful ("That ain't... isn't me" "No offense"). Though Duke values honesty above all, he's responding here to the very real threat of being Black in a police holding cell, and is balancing his obvious distrust of Alfred with his survival instincts too.

It might seem contradictory to be both honest and adapt his speech, but ultimately what Duke wants is to control his self-image. He's extremely aware that other people will project their beliefs onto him, and a lot of the times his haterisms stem directly from rebuking other people's perception of him:

Robin War // Batman and the Outsiders #1 // DC Rise of the Power Company

Duke is particularly sensitive to being perceived as child needing to be coddled. In all these instances, he's reacting to "superior, dismissive" behaviour from an older adult - Duke perceives Dick, Jefferson, and Jace as treating him like a kid who can't make his own decisions. He rejects any perception of him that reduces even a bit of his agency. It's very important to Duke not only to have control over his image, but to be perceived as someone with control.

This is, as I mentioned earlier, tied to his understanding of his racial and gendered positioning.

Robin War // DC Rise of the Power Company

As a Black boy, he's hyper aware of other people's biases. Duke's grievances with the jailing are almost all about how they impact his perception - he resents Dick thinking of him as a child, and is bitterly aware of the stereotypical image of a boy like him in jail. I like that the statistic he thinks about is beyond his age range. It plays into the way Duke likes to adopt older responsibilities, and also nods to Black child adultification. These are both parts of Duke's thoughts: he knows he's more likely to be held to a higher standard than non-Black children (see the Power Company quote), but he also genuinely holds himself to those higher standards.

It's a super interesting dissonance in his character. Duke believes wholeheartedly in the power and agency of youth, yet he also dislikes people seeing him as young. He is also aware of the privilege non-Black children have, which sometimes manifests in an overly judgmental attitude against Dre (whom he judges for being a "mob kid") and his friend Danny in Gotham Knights #8. The Danny incident is really key to Duke's character:

Danny, a Chinese kid Duke knew from the Narrows, has joined a gang. Duke confronts him on it in a somewhat patronising way, and Danny yells to "Stop calling me "kid"!" This incident mirrors Duke's rebuke of Dick in Robin War. Duke is a deeply empathetic person, but he can have a one-track-mind - he's constantly on guard about controlling his own image, so he can miss how he's not letting other people control their image. This confrontation with Danny reminds Duke that he's not only fighting for his own self-perception, he's also fighting for the kids of Gotham - particularly kids of colour - to take control of how they're perceived.

Robin and Signal

What this means is that perception is the crux of Duke's vigilante philosophy. In Robin War, right after thinking about the statistic for Black men, Duke thinks "Stats look even worse for Robins under eighteen". He connects being Robin to being a Black boy - his vigilantism is inseparable from his everyday lived experience.

We Are Robin #1

Alfred himself, when creating We Are Robin, connects kids of colour to the Robin colours. The future is "a place... of color," he says, while staring at the Robin uniforms and hiring mostly minoritised teens. The weirdness of Alfred doing this aside, diversity is the core foundation of We Are Robin, and thus a tenet in Duke's philosophy (since Robin is where he began and influences everything after).

WAR is defined by visuals, from the R logo to the outlawed red colour in Robin War. Robinhood and being a minoritised kid intersect in visibility - to be either of those things, but particularly to be both, is to be seen.

We Are Robin #12

Duke even phrases his decision to be a hero in visual terms. "They say that when you have your whole life in front of you, it's impossible to see all the angles. I think there are really two angles that matter... hero or villain." For Duke, who believes so much in truth, what you are seen for is who you are. His vigilante self isn't a persona or a secret identity, but another way of presenting his true self. He doesn't wear a mask to hide, he wears it to amplify his visual presence.

This emphasis on sight follows him into the identity of Signal.

Batman and the Signal #1

Duke's decision to work in the day is influenced by his mom in two ways. First, his mom says "it's the best time to see things clearly. To see them in a new light." I love this line because it harkens to two of Duke's biggest beliefs, truth (see things clearly) and redemption (see them in a new light). The daytime is a metaphorical and literal way for Duke to 'see', to perceive others correctly and kindly. Both him and his mom are aware that their people, people from the Narrows/the Black community/People of Colour/Gotham as a whole, are often perceived without either accuracy or grace.

Secondly, his mom considered herself "the first knight on the battlefield[... the] signal." Signal's role is not only to see but to be seen, to inspire. Like the first knight, Signal 'signals' help and the turning of the tide. Duke's community-oriented belief system means this is his most important role - to show people they are not alone.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #10

This is a really insightful tidbit from Batman: The Brave and the Bold. This villain (Nameless) has felt unseen for ages. Duke recognises his fear, and says "it wasn't until someone gave me a little help that I felt like I wasn't invisible anymore." For Duke, "powerless[ness]" is the same as "invisib[ility]," and therefore being seen = gaining power. So when Duke goes out as Signal, when he sees others and is seen by them, he is essentially giving and receiving power - his strength comes from his community, and their strength comes from him.

The Cursed Wheel and Colours

Robin and Signal are identities steeped in sight and vision. It's no wonder, then, that Snyder makes Duke's training arc about colours.

All-Star Batman #1

The Cursed Wheel is a kinda confusing training program surrounding different colours which each symbolise something. Bruce doesn't name any of the symbolism except black, which is "about evil". The colour black being associated with evil is a tale as old as time, and has obvious anti-Black implications. It's interesting that not only does the Cursed Wheel associate black with evil, it's the only colour that gets a named theme.

Black is supposed to represent 'pure, unmotivated evil'. Yet when Bruce tries to say Joker is evil, Duke responds like this:

All-Star Batman #4

Duke's time in the Cursed Wheel is not really about learning from Bruce, but about redefining what the colours mean for himself. He highlights that nothing is 'just evil', and he applies this to his parents: "that's the motivation behind the blackness". He rejects the notion that black represents something evil or irredeemable. Instead of accepting Bruce's definition of black, he is forging his own understanding of colours rooted in his love for his parents and community.

But the other colour Duke wears is, of course, yellow! Yellow harkens to the sun, which ties back into Elaine's comments about seeing things in the daylight/being the first knight out. I like that his costume is yellow and black - an outfit of contrasts, where both light and dark are used in heroic ways. His journey with colours (from the banned red in Robin War to black in the Cursed Wheel) is often about reclamation. Others may perceive his colours negatively, but he wears them proudly, and in doing so redefines what they can mean.

Powers

Speaking of light and dark, Duke's powers are also a rich site of analysis. For the majority of his existence, his light powers were centered around perception:

All-Star Batman #9

The first time he awakens his powers, Bruce's narration states "It's an outsider puzzle. You have to see it differently." Duke's powers were not initially about manipulating light, but about seeing light differently. I think it's highly suggestive that he gets his powers after his mom saves him. When Duke is rebuking Bruce's request to move his parents, he says "every horrible thing out of their mouths? They're actually telling me how much they love me" (see above). Now, when his mom temporarily breaks free from her Jokerised state, she does use the horrible words to tell her she loves him!

I can't describe how good this moment is but basically she's been saying "nothing... no one... not special" this entire time, but when her eyes begin to glow and she saves Duke, she says these final lines where she ends with the word "special." She manages, for an instant, to use an echo of an insult to tell her son she loves him. Duke's trust in her love is proven correct. His ability to see her love for what it is, his belief in her kindness and goodness, is what unlocks his powers.

His powers are born out of seeing people for who they really are - not as they are at their lowest, but as they can be given support and trust. In the actual All-Star Batman storyline, which runs concurrently to Cursed Wheel and is really important to understanding what Snyder was doing in those back-ups, Bruce and Duke have this conversation about Harvey:

All-Star Batman #4

I tear up every time I read this it's so important to me akjfbsb. This is Bruce speaking, but it's clearly about Duke too (he says, "I get it"). I think Snyder made Duke's powers perception-based because that is Duke's power, meta or not. This "force of will" to see people as they can be. It's not optimistic or naïve but idealistic. Duke isn't purely believing everyone's good intentions (he is critical of Harvey in this same storyline), but he does believe that everyone can be good. And he doesn't just believe it, he sees it.

If you can't tell I'm a little annoyed they made Duke's powers light manipulation instead of keeping it like it was. It was so cool that his powers were sight-based, and I haven't really liked the additions they've made since (rapid healing, shadow powers, photokinesis). However thinking of his umbrakinesis in Batman and the Outsiders, it could fit into a reclamation angle (similar to Duke's journey in the Cursed Wheel). Despite Duke's focus on the light, he has never been averse to the darkness. His whole thing has always been looking at things as they wholly are, and believing that people will ultimately choose their better nature. His ability to so quickly accept his shadow powers and learn to use them alongside his light powers could be a nod to that.

The Future

But I haven't touched on the main use of his powers, which is his 'ghost vision':

Batman and the Signal #1

What makes him see light "differently"? It's his ability to see into the past and the future, "where it's been" and "where it's going". Duke is a character steeped in both heritage (his parents, the legacy of Robin) and the future (We Are Robin, the creation of Signal). He often stands at the precipice of change; the first knight on the battlefield, a herald of things to come.

Batman & The Signal #1 // Dark Nights: Death Metal Robin King

Duke's ability to forge a new future is what Bruce admires about him ("a new way to be a hero in Gotham. Something independent of the past"). In Robin King, Duke leads the next gen of Bat heroes (Cass, Tim, and Steph) to beat up an alternate universe combo of Bruce and Ra's, who both represent the status quo - Ra's because he's immortal, and Bruce because he's a patriarchal figure for all of the heroes present (which is reinforced by Bruce associating himself with 'the past' in the B&TS quote). The Robin King panel is a great encapsulation of what Duke represents both in and out of text.

From the beginning Duke has been a vision of the future. From the promotional WAR art asking "Are you ready?" to Alfred calling WAR the future to Bruce saying Duke will be "better" to Robin King, Duke represents radical change. Not only can he literally see the future, and not only can he see the possibilities of the future in other people, but they also see the future in him. And this is wrapped up in Gotham, with Duke being a Gothamite to his core and representing the city's future, but it has wider implications that that too.

Batman: Urban Legends #9

Brandon Thomas in particular highlights this Duke-as-future aspect, and the future figures in a lot of his stories (like the cool Future State Outsiders). In Urban Legends (which is kinda the same future as Outsiders), Duke is the representative for the entirety of humanity's future - the monster says "your future is ours," but Duke and the Outsiders stand against that. Duke's desire to control his self-perception is ultimately a desire to control his future. Nobody can tell him who he is now, and nobody can tell him who he will be.

But it's also about his vision of humanity. It's like the conversation Bruce and Duke have in All-Star Batman: "they will be heroes". Duke looks at people and believes they can be better. They will be.

Conclusion

Finishing off with this panel from Detective Comics #982 that actually has nothing to do with Duke but he DID cameo and I will always read it through a Duke lens. Watching the sun come up over Gotham - there is actually nothing more Duke Thomas than that. He represents a vision of a new, brighter day for Gotham City, one that only needs to be seen to be believed.

If you managed to read all that, thank you and have a happy Duke Thomas week!!! Every week is Duke Thomas week if you perceive it that way :).

[marzipanandminutiae]

All art reflects the period it was written in but like ...

It shouldn't be right now but everyone is dressed oddly. I'm currently writing a book series about surviving abuse and becoming an adult and being autistic and disabled and queer that's set in the 1850s/60s. And guess what?

All the points I'm making are through the lens of 1857-1862! That's the point! If you want to write about today without filtering it through the time period the story is set in, then don't do it!

Imagine if Mad Men had every character and character conflict be something that you could find identical today. Cool then why is it set in the 50s.

And I keep asking myself this when looking at period dramas. Why is it set then. What drove you to exploring this time period. Because clearly it's not the time period itself, so what

y e p

like OP of that post made another post last year, that my friend found and showed me, complaining that "costume accuracy people [I guess they can be gender-neutral about it when they want to]" hate when women are Allowed to be even a bit gender-nonconforming in period dramas

and like. that's a common misunderstanding of a critique that boils down to "period dramas are often lazy about when and how they use gender-nonconformity in female characters' costumes, preferring to fall back on modern norms rather than contextualizing the characters' dress and behavior within the era"

which, once again, comes back to Why Period Drama If Not Period

sometimes, indeed, it's obviously a commentary on the time in which it was made- one example OP cited was the Crucible, which is indeed basically using Salem to comment on McCarthyism (although why it had to age up a historically 11-year-old girl and turn her into an Evil temptress is uh. beyond me. HUAC didn't do that, my guy). or even Pleasantville, which isn't a true period piece but is definitely using a quasi-historical setting as a commentary on the romanticization of pasts that never existed

but like...that doesn't apply to ALL period dramas

adaptations of things that weren't originally historical pieces, for one thing. My Fair Lady doesn't have inaccuracies because it's Really About the 1960s- how can it be, when the plot was written and set in 1913? and if it's not being used for Deep Commentary On Its Era, then costume/technology/speech/whatever inaccuracies are just...an imperfect understanding of the past, a lack of research, or an active choice to make things more familiar/appealing to modern audiences

and in that, yes, every period drama bears the fingerprints of the era in which it was made. and studying them as historical artifacts in their own right can be really cool! but there's no Unassailable Deeper Reason for all of the elements that were modernized, all the time, which seemed to be what that post was saying

and far from this being a narrow view that can't handle a movie without a "perfect empire waistline" as OP said (hmmmm discussions of centuries-old misogynistic associations between women, clothing, fashion, and "silly frivolity" ABOUND there, but we'll leave it for now), I see it as expecting media to provide a fuller interaction with the real history it's chosen to portray, and an understanding of and appreciation for the era in which the creators elected to set their story

it's easy to put Jo March in menswear from the waist up and call it a day, costume-wise. it would have been a lot more complex, nuanced, and interesting to explore why she couldn't just wear that to essentially a job interview, in 1869, and the historical (and sometimes current!) link between ability to buck gender norms and socioeconomic privilege. or to put her in clothing actual 1860s women wore when they wanted menswear inspiration but couldn't- or didn't want to -go all the way with it

and I don't think saying that makes me a silly narrow-minded ~*Costume Accuracy Girl*~ who just doesn't understand film-making, personally

[owlphibiaisthebest15]

Mr and Mrs Boonchuy have to be my favorite pair of parents in Disney TVA history. I love how they're unconditionally loving and supportive of their daughter, accepting the Plantars as part of their family, and just being fun characters altogether.

[amethystsadachbia]

I will be open and honest here. I don’t like most kinks. BDSM in particular gives me an ick because I have a long history of self-loathing and self-harm.

That being said, you know what I do about it? I don’t consume that content. I don’t think it should be banned. Other people like it, and since I am not the main character of all society, I don’t get to set rules based on my opinions.

Is it really so fucking hard to just let people do what they want as long as nobody is harmed?

I'm gonna be real with you, i don't think weirdo kinksters should be considered acceptable collateral damage when banks/credit card companies enforce adult content bans on sites like patreon and ko-fi