#Will any of this play into the concept? probably not. they dont really commit to concepts lbr

[faunandfloraas]

The Nobleman or 양반 (yangban): The smiling face represents the bluff and composure that an aristocrat is often known to have. The chin is a separate piece from the top of the mask, and the actors can lean forward and back to make the mask smile or frown as needed.

This monk who abandons his doctrines, or 취발이 (chwibari): Chwibari was originally a monk, but he had no intention of joining the monastic order, so he came down to the world and wanders. Represented with a forehead full of wrinkles and spots.

The widow or, 부네 (Punae/bune): represented to be a widow, or a kisaeng ( a woman who sang, danced, or played an instrument to provide entertainment for company at a drinking party), or a mistress of the Yangban. She has a very small mouth, round cheeks and forehead- giving a general look of happiness good-humor.

[3liza]

grim feels very conflicted about The Mailman as a concept because of course as a dog the mailman is his greatest enemy and as a guarding breed he is incensed whenever any stranger approaches the house. but he's also a big goofball with strong socialization training so he puts his hackles up and says "urrrrrrrrr" in this basso rumble without showing his teeth or snarling, but also does a goofy little wiggle dance and anyone with any dog familiarity immediately identifies him as Not Serious and laughs at him. i keep him on a running line on the patio when he's taking the air, so that he couldnt reach anyone on the front walk if he tried, so everyone is safe.

occasionally he will take exception very strongly to a particular person. im not sure what influences this. the other night he came out to the patio with me as usual and immediately let off one singular big Bark, which he only does when he thinks it's important. and he only barks once, he's been firmly trained never to bark serially. grim's barks are like the police stars in grand theft auto. i dont think we've ever seen a 4-bark situation, much less a 5 yet. and i said what the hell man why you barking. and sure enough a Guy detached from the shadows down at the sidewalk under my front walk and started speedily walking away in that "what? i wasnt doing anything" way (if you're in the act of committing a crime, never do this btw unless you are in imminent physical danger. the best way to make the person who "caught" you confused about what they saw is to play it off as completely normal and innocent and friendly. if you cant gladhand your way out of the jam you can always do the speedwalk later). so that was interesting. grim has never barked at anyone just walking by on the sidewalk before, day or night. the sidewalk is neutral territory as far as grim is concerned. something about this dude's behavior really got his attention. maybe this guy was the one who broke my mailbox latch, mail stealing is probably the most common property crime in this area.

anyway dogs are not magic seers and have no sixth sense about people, some of them just have a strong idea about whats Normal and what's Not Normal and will let you know about it. so far grim's ideas about normalcy have been really good. it's a constant process of upkeep with dogs and good manners. you cant just train them once and then let the skills they learned decay, you have to keep reinforcing them. so i gently discourage mailman reactions and reassure grim when he's nervous and then when he makes the right call about something i tell him "you were right, that was weird. good catch".

[fomfarms]

In this whole "is this character a virgin" I personally think that Juniper is a virgin (in part it would be kinda fun and on the other is bc I dont think anyone has ever been that close to her), other than that I dont think ANY of the bachelorettes isn't a virgin (maybe except for Valen)

honestly Juniper being a virgin would be kinda funny, but I feel like it's not likely.

Mostly cause I feel like on her most Cunty Night Out she'd pick someone hot to be her prize for the evening.

But then the next morning they'd wake up to being used as a test subject and peace out so hard.

The problem isn't getting laid, it having someone actually stay. That's the real prize Juniper can ever grasp-- long term loving commitment!

But yeah, for the other ladies--

Valen is def not a virgin. She's had multiple long term relationships, which all ended on mature respectful terms. (Well... most of them anyways)

For the other girls---

okay, so, full disclosure here, part of me wants to defend their game mostly cause I REALLY don't love the idea of assuming most of the female romancables are virgins just cause--- girl???? romancable??? REASONS????? idk. Women don't have to be virgins, that concept needs to die hard, we respect sluts of all gender identities on this page, and also women supporting women you do you boo boo

But past that knee-jerk societally loaded reaction, you might be onto something here for the same way that I'm def onto something in thinking that March is a virgin cause like----

WHO ARE THEY DATING, THERE'S LITERALLY LIKE 10 PEOPLE IN THIS TOWN???

But also on the other hand like---- honestly I could see most of the girls on this list having had past relationships and having moved well on from it. Especially since according to the dialogue, there was other people in the town before the earth quake.

Maybe not Adeline cause she's just as scatter brained/many tracked mind as her brother but with a more solid sense of responsibility so I could def see her like-- not just having some fling. Like-- she would full on have you meet her parents/family before you two even make out, I don't think she's looking to date so much as she's looking for a life partner. And bit of dialogue spoiler, but her parents finally getting together is honestly quite the romance itself so--- I feel like her standards are really long term oriented, and even if she HAD dated (which honestly I could see her being very serious at 16 with another nobles kid and the other person thinking they were moving too fast cause they WERE and them breaking it off cause they weren't ready for that level of commitment) I think it's arguable that her past relationships never escalated to that level of intimacy. Though I think you could also argue that she did, she seems like she would handle it really maturely (after crying her eyes out on Aunt's shoulder), wedding planning aside. Though honestly I think she's the kinda girl to see sex has less important than other steps in the relationship. Not saying it wouldn't hold weight to her, but it's not the part her mind is most focused on.

Reina has def dated in the past. She's absolutely the type to hold someone's hand and declare them dating on the play ground when she was a little kid. She's just a very sweet, sociable girl, so honestly I would peg her as the most likely to have a really long/close history with anyone she grew up along beside, and reminder that there were other townsfolk (in theory), before the earth quake that happened before the start of the game. So honestly, I think she lost a lot of friends when people started moving which is really sad to think about. Also she cooks and when that's your hobby you need people to taste your food so like----

look she's a pretty, sociable girl, from a loving supportive family, who seems to be down to befriend pretty much anyone and also she brings/makes the good snacks like----- she's defo dated, and probably not a virgin. Not that that's any of our business anyways honestly. (She also has def had her parents draped over her in a cuddle pile if she ever got broken up with. Lots of feeling your feelings and drinking something warm and sweet-- GOD I LOVE THAT FAMILY!!!! TTATT)

Now Celine--

I know everyone likes to think that Celine is the total sweetie, cottagecore baby girl, who just wants to pick flowers in the woods and maybe sing to a bumblebee or something--

AND SHE IS!

But.

...I could honestly see her with a bit of a dark side??

Okay, maybe not dark, but like--- just a liiiiiiittle crazy.

Not like, crazy crazy, she's not going to cheat on you, say it's your fault and then burn your bed kinda crazy. But she's like anger stalk your insta, be a little catty whenever you come up, start little rumors about you crazy. (like nothing that bad, but just stuff to make you look weird?? like 'oh I saw them eat mustard straight from the jar and they finished like have the thing before they even noticed I saw them' weird)

That's if your exes though.

When she's interested, she's like--- it's like when those cute girls do things that border a teeny bit on creepy like cyber stalking your profiles, asking your friends all kinds of questions about you, making you one too many little gifts even though you aren't dating yet. Not bad, just a little intense.

She's also quite the romantic, and I'm not saying she had a 'boy crazy/romance crazy' phase as a kid/teen, but she didn't NOT have one.

Some writing their name on the corner of her notes with hearts level of tween/teen crushing.

I'm not saying she necessarily dated in the past, but I could def see it, and if she DID date, then all her exes are dead to her low key. ('Who is that? I never heard of them before! They sound like a dumb jerk who never responded to my letters!' she says, hrmphing!)

Not March levels of never getting over it, but maybe March levels of kinda never fully letting it go.

I could see her still being a virgin though regardless, I feel like she's the type to like--- not necessarily wait for marriage, but def wait for a long term commitment, and I think her longest romance was like a sweet summer fling where all they did was hold hands and kiss and it ended in a week of tears.

But yeah, no, all of the romancables honestly are pretty up in the air as far as how much romance experience they've had, except for March who I feel I can firmly say has had like none.

[amoirsetpacis]

* ROMANCE HEADCANONS

NAME: Vash Saverem(-Wolfwood)

NICKNAME: Spiky

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: bi

PREFERRED PET NAMES: he likes just about any of the pet names wolfwood uses with him but if anyone else tried literally any of them he'd probably feel Really Gross

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: mawwied

FAVORITE CANON/FANDOM SHIP: you have one guess and one guess only . i promise you it is not hard

OPINION ON TRUE LOVE: guy who spends over a century and a half with the understanding that it wasn't something that could ever happen to him and he was okay with it but was sure about and happy that it could happen between humans gets smacked squarely in the face with the concept of it and proceeds to take 10 volumes to accept that it happened to him

OPINION ON LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT: again, not something he would ever have accepted for himself, not with who he is. honestly probably at least a little bit skeptic of it, but also will literally always eat up a cheesy rom-com. the concept of it is something he'd like to think exists-- it's a beautiful thought! and he's sure it's probably happened, but that doesn't mean he's entirely naive, either.

HOW ‘ROMANTIC’ ARE THEY?: decently! it's not something he necessarily has a lot of practice in but he likes to spoil wolfwood when he can, regardless of what form that takes. for someone like him there's a lot of 'romance' to be found in doing silly little domestic things together; neither of them are really huge 'grand gesture' types

IDEAL PHYSICAL TRAITS: tits guy who's obsessed with his husband, like that guy was engineered to tik off every box but really though it varies. i dont think he's even really aware of it himself. he's a big dude, even if its mostly Lank, so probably people that could even come close to physically keeping up with him.

IDEAL PERSONALITY TRAITS: understanding, kind, patient-- able to keep up with his bullshit, because he's completely aware that he's A Lot

UNATTRACTIVE PHYSICAL TRAITS: he's not gonna judge you for having an unattractive face, but it's definitely a turn off lol

UNATTRACTIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS: cruelty, lacking remorse, apathy for others

IDEAL DATE: bonding over Activities! doesnt matter if it's parallel play or sharing the thing one of them is interested in, he's literally happy just sharing space and these sort of intimate moments

DO THEY HAVE A TYPE?: guys that could feasibly throw him around like a frisbee if he let them . headstrong women

AVERAGE RELATIONSHIP LENGTH: his current relationship is the only proper one he's ever had, lol.

PREFERRED NON-SEXUAL INTIMACY: vulnerability and being soft. the world they come from is harsh, and wouldn't allow it. so like genuinely just any physical contact where they're both comfy in like sweats or something with absolutely zero bravado. cuddling on the couch or leaning on each other when theyre brushing teeth or standing at the counter. real big physical touch guy but literally only with wolfwood lol. super clingy/your personal space is actually also my personal space in private

COMMITMENT LEVEL: these guys may as well have been common law married in the literal series so like pretty fucking committed lmao. it'd be a lie to say he doesn't get nervous about commitment sometimes because he's spent his entire life Not being committed to staying in one place, let alone with one person. it's a super radical life change that he can even be that way-- i joked about what happens in the series but you can see in real time when he starts to realize that commitment that he'd already made without realizing it. part of the reason he had like a panic attack meltdown before they got married is because of that fear

OPINION OF PUBLIC AFFECTION: sometimes i think they do it to be Deliberately Fucking Annoying for the bit to either each other or other people, but for the most part it's mostly like. hand holding. sometimes a Smooch. they're both honestly kinda shy in public most of the time. he's still clingy but it's turned down by like 95%

PAST RELATIONSHIPS?: lol

--

TAGGING: you . do crimes

[lexydakitten]

ok game cvrashed and im mad about having to go on airplane tomorrow so im gonna use that as an excuse to ramble abt what im gonna 50/50 possibly do. is rift stuff. mostly just stuff im considering over rn with it. i may be a bit too tired to make sense but thats ok i dont need to👍the middle of the night is a good time to talk about creative thoughts i can articulate, myself,,.

what i KNOW im gonna do is redesign whisk . i dont think i've posted any art of him yet but his ref is the most outdated - all of them get refreshed about once a year, but his ref is from the beginning of 2022. my style has changed a lot since then and i've had some thoughts. mostly how does this man get around bc he doesn't fly, i am almost certain him being a deity probably also gives him the ability to use rift magic to his advantage in going hella fast but like. he still has places to be . he has to keep engaging in perpetual fighting for a would be eternity. well he probably has to swim, i think he could do that pretty easily, but i want to incorporate stuff that makes him able to do that . im giving him fins now they're not ahuge change. and also his split double tail is somewhat resemblant of rna strands because im in honors bio and im going to use that for artistic purposes rather than critical thinking . it fits anyway because that's what the deity of. i refer to him as life and death but death isn't even his domain, it's xeilrens (and xeilren's domain is more time itself than afterlife) hes just done so much slaughter too that i think it's honorary. via plague and famine

i've been spending some time thinking about rift magic in general recently. taken to thinking of the deities as conduits. i think something i already established awhile back was that rift magic follows the rules of cannot be created or destroyed like real world matter but also that it all channels through sg , and her antlers are a great reservoir of it, there was more depth to that but that distributed it so that it was heavy in the background of the entire world. she also directly distributes it to each deity, they get their vast quantities of magic from her, but i think they would also on a smaller scale are conduits like i just described too and some of it channels through them as well. primarily whatever magic is most adjacent to their own. i do remember i had a document awhile back where i went into depth on the kinds of rift magic, i should dig that back up because i actually was cooking with that and because thats one thing that never committed to memory. i'd rather not rethink it from scratch considering i probably have notes abt it somewhere

i was also thinking about genetic variants / morphs / whatever they're called, in rift species. there's probably plenty unique to the rift, especially due to the nature of rift magic. there's unintentionally a pattern with rift magic making things have buglike characteristics and i ended up deciding some time ago that that's actually intentional now, though i havent had a lot of time to think about why that might be advantageous. i can say that it does also contribute to really high genetic variation in areas where the magic is most concentrated, there was a particular (more boreal) biome on some of the crappy old maps where this was extremely prevalent and a major definer of it but i want to flesh that out more so it makes sense too. regardless, im thinking particularly about in animals actually with this. i had already established (designed even, for a few species) stuff kind of like morphs that were named as blessings of the respective deities, and they weren't really colors and more actual traits following a theme but i've been considering playing around with that concept more. atp im too tired to phrase that in a way that make sense but if you get me you get me trust

but like. for example you can get a creature with traits of what is currently named as terchu's blessing (not an actual blessing , it's for the traits. i named it in context that it probably would be culturally seen as one though all of these terms need to be renamed) and they get traits themed around storms. but in my mind i could take that and say there's more variation in that based on region, make it more of an actual genetics thing that a lot of species exhibit in their own way. like, they're all caused in a similar way, but in one region it might be significantly more common that if you do see it it's themed around snowstorms specifically, and in another it's more themed around droughts. OR how lakuta's version would be traits themed around light, but because light levels in the rift are weird (they're based on lakuta distributing it ! while the planet of the rift orbits a star [...itcouldbecoolerifitdidntbutnowisnotthetimeforthat] and it does get light from it, because i said so some areas dont get bright anyway. some areas will be blinding like its afternoon in the middle of summer, maybe brighter than that, even during the day, just because lakuta put a buncha light ther for a stupid long amt of time. bc it gradually fades out over time. and then another area is in perpetual dawn light levels even at the brightest point of day. in a normal rift where lakuta behaves himself the light levels are distributed evenly but in the actual rift where hes constantly getting into skirmishes it's brightest wherever he fought at last.) because those light levels are weird you could get in a region that's had high light levels for awhile, more common to see that trait as being very bright and colorful, whereas in a darker area you may get a creature that's very darkly colored but their internals are bioluminescent and glow brightly. etc. i dont think i've explained this well but it's a fairly recent idea i want to build on and draw out at some point, and it is 9 pm i am FIGHTING to articulate anything i'm typing. good for you if you've understood any of this, if i ever look back on this i probably wont lmao

its funny bc this took me like 30 minutes to type and the game still has not finished crashing. peace and love there's a problem i'm too tired to deal with it

[bichaels]

3, 8, and 16 for the violence :shaddab:

this post uses general pronouns throughout! and untagged and slashed because im a coward 😇

3. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

TNCWII ISNT A BAD GAME!!!!!! like okay its probably one of the weakest, but it has a bad wrap. if you even scratch the surface of the game you'd see its really solid. it had a lot of potential that just... didnt work out because of thq fuckery - look on the wiki, you'll see all the concepts and work that just never saw the light of day. im biased on a few fronts, but trust me, its worth a second chance, play it on dolphin using a keyboard. i really wish it was canon or at least had Respect.

8. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

this might not be the WORST, but the first that came to mind was this graph. i dont care for the other media but HOW CAN YOU SAY RW/BY HATES WOMEN? what VERSION of rw/by did you WATCH? like im inclined to think the only perception of rw/by you have is from bad-faith RW/DE critiques.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

HAREM JAU/NE. HAREM JAU/NE. HAREM JAU/NE. its as if we didnt watch the same fucking show. to me his character is like... the antithesis of "harem fodder". you see the man traumatized by the people he's lost and had to kill, especially pyr/rha, being fundamentally changed to the point where he's previously tried to commit combative-suicide, and you think "ah yes. this man would be a serial womanizer that has 47 girls hounding on his dick at any given time". maybe im a bit biased, ive loved him with all my heart for years and years now. he had his brief little macho personality for like 2 volumes max, its like so many people have never seen past his growth after the fact. i wouldnt even be this annoyed if his tag is almost exclusively harem content, or if this content was tagged. good LORD. its all nsfw and untagged and unavoidable. i dont mind seeing nsfw, but it being untagged is a problem to me.

bonus tangentially-related thing: "jau/ne is just a mi/les lu/na self insert" claims are so stupid. not even entertaining this one. cant believe people are still saying this in the year of our lord 2024. leave mil/es "duracell bunny" lu/na alone pleaseee!!!!

[clockworkslick]

oh. its 10/16. so short summary before i talk about nothing for a bit too long: a year ago i came up with the idea to actually go through with taking one of my silly ideas and turning it into something that other people could read, so i started drafting the concept of providence, a webcomic i make and thats updating everyday. more talking under the whatever.

so ive always made little stories that i would run through in my head for like two or three months when i had mental downtime, and then move on to some other goofy idea. this is either a totally normal thing or im a freak, honestly i have no frame of reference for how other people act. anyways i was home from college last year and i had this idea for an rpg fantasy story, initially an idea for playing modded minecraft with some friends (god i wish that was a joke), but i started writing shit down in a google doc. i wrote out a handful generic slots for various fantasy classes: witch, dryad, ranger, knight, vampire(not a class but i dont give a fuck), blacksmith, etc. and then i named some of them. i finished naming and writing out plot nonsense in november and changed the name of the comic from "Drive-By" to "Liberty" to "Providence."

honestly i think that was the easy part because its totally non-commital. unfortunately after that i had to actually start making the pages. the original plan was to finish act one before may, which was an optimistic goal to say the least, but also maybe if i didnt have to do anything else it would have been totally possible. or if i was just faster in general. anyways i started drawing everything at the end of december and then didnt stop for 6 months. actually thats a lie, i started drawing pages and havent stopped since then, but what i meant is that i started uploading the comic in may. i had a backlog of about 75 pages and the art change just in that time was nuts. comparing act 2 art to act 1 is more nuts but im not about to redraw the 170 pages of a1 just so that its APPEALING and PALLETEABLE. i learned way more about web design from doing this comic than from my actual web design class. like insanely more. you have no idea how little that class helped me with anything aside from making friends through mutual hatred of being poorly taught.

sixo de mayo (may 6th) came and i started doing this thing for real, and its been so surreal having people actually talk to me about these guys that have been in my head for months. my sister recently asked if deacon was my self-insert, which is sort of true but only in the sense that we both have social issues and like to be dumb on sort-of-purpose, and then she told me that her favorite character was reagan. theres not really any deep meaning behind her telling me or that reagan is my favorite too, but its just so surreal to me that people can have a favorite, or any opinion, on these characters i obsess over.

alright i think im done for now, i just wanted to talk about the comic on its sort of birthday, and also the day that the gang got pulled into the story. i mentioned that vaguely in the story once already, but im cool with being more direct about it. ill probably go on another rant again about this sometime, maybe on sixo de mayo, but probably sooner because im obsessive and like to type. happy birthday comic, heres to a million more. or however many years it takes to make a 5 act story at a rate of like 200 pages in 10 months. hopefully that number will go up.

[nyandereneko]

So with the dawn of the new Studio Trigger furry anime dropping this Spring and the trailer and stuff that just came out yesterday I’ve thrown every remaining sliver of caution to the wind and I’ve been discussing furry shifter/kemonomimi AU for my f/os with a friend...and I know I’ve mentioned really being into that/mythological type AUs before so they can all be extra hot and have animal traits like Nova...so anyway until this anime gives me a new f/o (not even entirely convinced it will, despite the premise none of the character designs I’ve seen so far have SUPER stuck out to me, but that could always change ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) this blog and anything I make is probably gonna be heavy on discussing/mentioning/making things for furry AU and nothing else.

[philosophicalparadox]

Cough, it’s me, hi

Regarding our clown:

What kinks doesn’t he have? Where does he draw the line, as red as his red flags?

Thank you 💀❤️

He has his limitations. He's rather keen on keeping clean, so I suspect any kind of Scat or disease kink is gonna be a big ole nope. Omarashi/piss kink though? Well, technically urine is sterile until it makes contact with something, so as long as his partner is clean down there I think he'd be okay with water sports 😆

Also, simple as it is, I think he'd turn away someone who just. Wasn't attractive enough. Hed also likely turn away any partner that Just didn't smell appealing to him in one way or another. Be it medication, illness, age related things, or just an accident of genes, if you don't smell appealing he won't smash.

Other turn offs include being unnecessarily sycophantic (especially as a sub) and bad acting. He's all for role play, but you gotta really commit to the bit.

He's all for every facet of BDS(S,S)M(M) but his partner can't be too wishy-washy. He's uh. Not the guy you wanna go to if you're just trying certain kinks and haven't got a feel for them yet (especially Sadism/Masochism or CNC) cause he will run rough-shot right over any boundaries in pursuit of his own pleasure if he gets too interested or excited. So putting him in a position where he's already supposed to be breaking rules and actively ignoring "pretend boundaries" when his partner isn't too confident in their ability to play along is not going to end well for them most likely.

I also get the feeling he prefers very much to be the one in pursuit so to say. He doesnt mind people trying to seduce him per se, but man you'd better be good at it. I dont think he'd tolerate someone who was always trying to get past his pants and doing it badly. Unless it was so terrible it was cute. That is its own form of entertainment and can be a valid (and effective) strategy.

Which leads me to an important distinction: Sexual desperation? Total kink. He goes hard for edging and toying with people's libido. He lives to turn people on and then watch them writhe with uncertainty, want and even confusion.

Emotional intimacy kind of desperation?. Hard pass. He has no room for that ugly color in his wardrobe and won't be seen standing next to it either if he can help it any. Though it can come in handy sometimes, that is something he prefers not to do to the greatest degree possible. Especially if they're gonna be all clingy and touchy feely. Nope, nope and nope. He doesn't mind fulfilling people's psycho-sexual needs if they're useful to him, but he draws a hard line at anything approaching lovey-dovey, obsessed-with-him, or truly Romantic in its intention. Or, at least most the time. :) Even he has his own psycho-sexual thing going on now and then and doesn't mind cuddles or intimate physical contact to that end. But the concept of "making love" is not something he really understands nor enjoys partaking in. (Nor being expected to partake in).

Honestly I feel like he probably says no more often than his prospective partners do, because he's busy, or not in the mood, or they just don't have enough significance - or the wrong kind of significance, like with his own staff - to be worth the while. Sex feels great but even it gets dull after all that time. As horny as he is, even he has his limitations.

:) hope I answered sufficiently.

[just1gnome]

some questions for your dsmp su au!

Do you have any ideas for possible fusions, what they would look like, what gems, etc? I would be happy to make some concepts if you do (if you don't want me too thats fine also!!)

What weapons would the gems have? I have a few ideas if you need them!

i got REALLY carried away so im puttin all that under the cut

im thinking a lot of thoughts sporadically rn but OBVIOUSLY the iconic duos fuse at least once, ie clingy duo, emerald duo, (wildcard but) foolish and eret probably fused back in the day in their shared backstory to commit the Atrocities

em duo and happy duo tend to casually fuse pretty often(when the Horrors arent happening) and i think it would be CRIMINAL not to make em duo watermelon tourmaline. for happy duo tho, i was thinking black opal with primarily blue accents for their fusion, but then i remembered that i made bad a black opal with primarily red accents so i cant do that

clingy duo's easy answer would be bloodstone. so im gonna go with that one, and they usually fuse to punch things good. bee duo on the other hand, i dont think they fuse ever. its just not something they do

the schlatt/quackity fusion would be so fun to play around with theyre so awful for each other and i eat it up(the fiances have also fused and it was much better)

OHH i think maybe MAYBE in the butcher army arc when they go to techno's house, quackity makes them all fuse to fight him (he kicks their ASS) and that sorta put ranboo off fusing in a sorta "hmmm no thank you" kinda way

going back to tommy for a sec, i think MOST of his fusions are for power. like if they need to get the upper hand in a battle he'll ask to fuse but its not a common thing for him. schlatt/dream also do that but like in an asshole kinda way

i think wilbur also doesnt fuse. like an extension of his early l'manburg ideals but more personal "youre free to fuse but its not my cup of tea"

doomsday trio fused once but phil wasnt a big fan of it

this is NOT fusion related but i keep thinking about it SGFHFSDJ that one phil stream where kristin was walking around as him and got day drunk(i think about it often) i think that was her sorta 'white diamond'ing him, temporarily taking control of his body from a remote location to experience everyday gem life(ofc this was voluntary unlike white diamond's)

now WEAPONS

techno has the classic rose shield but thats about it for Gem Specific weapons, he has his sword, but he forged that himself, and of course, later down the line ranboo gifts him his axe which he ALSO made himself and everybody is shocked by this

phil has a scythe and it CAN shatter(angel of death teehee)

tommy, tubbo, ranboo, wilbur and probably a few others dont have traditional weapons. for the most part they have lights or gem powers, but no weapons as theyre not built for combat theyre built for other things!(the sword phil stabbed wilbur with was a rejuvenator that wilbur owned, but that also was not his 'Gem Weapon'. he also never used it ever and that certainly has implications)

ive been writing this for like 30 minutes thats all i got rn BUT i love a bit a' bantah and i would love to hear your ideas! if they are yummy enough i might use them perhaps no promises <333

[meruz]

once again i am answering asks in a big compilation post. included is... gotham, patrick stump, tips about drawing backgrounds, tips about drawing in general, links to my faq, and infinity train

like.... the tv series? No... I’ve drawn dc comics fanart before, though. But it’s been years since I’ve been really into it. I like jumped ship like 10 years ago when the New 52 happened LOL.

AFJHDSLKGH I’m sorry I (probably) won’t do it again??

Actually full disclosure I have a truly cringe amount of p stump drawings/photo studies in my sketchbook right now LOL. He’s just fun to draw... hats, glasses, guitar, a good shape... but I don’t think I’ll rly post those until I can hide them in another big sketchbook pdf.. probably Jan 2022. Stay tuned........ (ominous) 

(ominous preview)

These are all sort of related to backgrounds/painting so I grouped them together even though they’re pretty much entirely separate questions.... ANYWAYS

a) How is it working as a BG artist? Is it hard? What show are you drawing for?

I think you’re the first person to ever ask me about my job! Being a background artist is great. It’s definitely labor intensive but I think that could describe pretty much any art job (If something were rote or easy to automate, you wouldn’t hire an artist to do it) and I hesitate to say whether its harder or easier than any other role in the animation pipeline. Plus, so much of what truly makes a job difficult varies from one production to the next, schedule, working environment, co-workers etc. But I will say that I think while BGs are generally a lot of work on the upfront, I think they’re subject to less scrutiny/revisions than something like character/props/effects design and you don’t have to pitch them to a room like boards. So I guess it’s good if you don’t like to talk to people? LOL

A lot of my previous projects + the show I’ve worked on the longest aren’t public yet so I can’t talk about em (but I assure you if/when the news does break I won’t shut up about it). But I’m currently working on Archer Season 12 LOL. I’m like 90% sure I’m allowed to say that.

b) ~~~THANK YOU!! ~~~

c) What exactly do you like to draw most [in a background]?

@kaitomiury​ Lots of stuff! I really like to draw clutter! Because it’s a great opportunity for environmental storytelling and also you can be kind of messy with it because the sheer mass will supersede any details LOL. 

I like to draw clouds... I like to draw grass but not trees lol,,, I like to draw anything that sells perspective really easily like tiled floors and ceilings, shelves, lamp posts on a street etc.

d) Do you have any tips on how to paint (observational)?

god there’s so much to say. painting is really a whole ass discipline like someone can paint their whole life and still discover new things about it. I guess if you’re really just starting out my best advice is that habit is more important than product. especially with traditional plein air painting, I find that the procedure of going outside and setting up your paints is almost harder than the actual painting. There’s a lot of artists who say “I want to do plein air sometime!!” and then never actually get around to doing it. A lot of people just end up working from google streetview or photos on their computer.

But going outside to paint is a really good challenge because it forces you to make and commit to lighting and composition decisions really quickly. And to work through your mistakes instead of against them via undo button.

My last tip is to check out James Gurney’s youtube channel because hes probably the best and most consistent resource on observational painting out there rn. There’s lots other artists doing the same thing (off the top of my head I know a lot of the Warrior Painters group has people regularly posting plein air stuff and lightbox expo had a Jesse Schmidt lecture abt it last year) but Gurney’s probably the most prolific poster and one of the best at explaining the more technical stuff - his books are great too.

e) Do you have tips for drawing cleanly on heavypaint?

@marigoldfool​ UMM LOL I LIKE ONLY USE THE FILL TOOL so maybe use the fill tool? Fill and rectangle are good for edge control as opposed to the rest of the heavy paint tools which can get sort of muddles. And also I use a stylus so maybe if you’re using your finger, find a stylus that works with your device instead. That’s all I’ve got, frankly I don’t think my drawings are particularly clean lol.

f) Tips on improving backgrounds/scenes making them more dynamic practicing etc?

Ive given some tips about backgrounds/scenes before so I’m not gonna re-tread those but here’s another thing that might be helpful...

I think a good way to approach backgrounds is to think of the specific story or even mood you want to convey with the background first. Thinking “I just need to put something behind this character” is going to lead you to drawing like... a green screen tourist photo backdrop. But if you think “I need this bg to make the characters feel small” or “I need this bg to make the world feel colorful” then it gives you requirements and cues to work off of.

If I know a character needs to feel overwhelmed and small, then I know I need to create environment elements that will cage them in and corner them. If a character needs to feel triumphant/on top of the world then I know I need to let the environment open up around them. etc. If I know my focal point/ where I want to draw attention, I can build the background around that.

Also, backgrounds like figure compositions will have focal points of their own and you can draw attention to it/ the relationship the characters have with the bg element via scale or directionality or color, any number of cues. I think of it almost as a second/third character in a scene.

Not every composition is gonna have something so obvious like this but it helps me to think about these because then the characters feel connected and integrated with the environment.

Some more general art questions

a) Do you have any process/tips to start drawing character/bodies/heads?

I tried to kind of draw something to answer this but honestly this is difficult for me to answer because I don’t think I’m that great at drawing characters LOL. Ok, I think I have two tips.

1) flip your canvas often. A lot about what makes human bodies look correct and believable is symmetry and balance. Even if someone has asymmetrical features, the body will often pull and push in a way to counterbalance it. we often have inherent biases to one side or another like dominant hands dominant eyes etc. you know how right-handed artists will often favor drawing characters facing 45 degrees facing (the artist’s) left? that’s part of it. so viewing your drawing flipped even just to evaluate it helps compensate for that bias and makes you more aware of balance.

2) draw the whole figure often. I feel like a lot of beginner artists (myself included for a long time) defer to just drawing headshots or busts because it’s easier, you dont have to think about posing limbs etc. But drawing a full body allows you to better gauge proportion, perspective, body language, everything that makes a character look believable and grounded.

Like if you (me) have that issue where you draw the head too big and then have to resize it to fit the proportions of the rest of the body, it’s probably because you (I) drew the head first and are treating the body as an afterthought/attachment. Sketching out the whole figure first or even just quick drawing guides for it will help you think of it more holistically. I learned this figure drawing in charcoal at art school LOL.

oh. third mini tip - try to draw people from life often! its the best study. if you can get into a figure drawing/nude drawing class EVEN BETTER and if you have a local college/art space/museum that hosts those for free TREASURE IT AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT, that’s a huge boon that a lot of artists (me again) wish they had. though if youre not so lucky and youre sitting in a park trying to creeper draw people and they keep moving.. don’t let that stop you! that’s good practice because it’s forcing you to work fast to get the important stuff down LOL. its a challenge!

b) I’ve been pretty out of energy and have had no inspiration to draw but I have the desire to. Any advice?

Dude, take a walk or something.... Or a nap? Low energy is going to effect everything else so you gotta hit that problem at its source.

If you’re looking for inspiration though, I’d recommend stuff like watching a movie, reading a book, playing video games etc. Fill up your idea bank with content and then give yourself time/space to gestate it into new concepts. Sometimes looking at other art works but sometimes it can work against you because it’s too close. 

Also something that helps me is remembering that art doesn’t always have to be groundbreaking... like it’s okay to make something shitty and stupid that you don’t post online and only show to your friend. That’s all part of the process imo. If you want to hit a home run you gotta warm up first, right? Sports.

I should probably compile everytime i give tips on stuff like this but that’s getting dangerously close to being a social media artist who makes stupid boiled down art tutorials for clout which is the last thing i want to be... the thing I want to stress is that art is a whole visual language and there are widely agreed upon rules and customs but they exist in large part to be broken. Like there's an infinite number of ways to reach an infinite number of solutions and that’s actually what makes it really cool and personal for both the artist and the viewer. So when you make work you like or you find someone else’s work you like, take a step back and ask yourself what about it speaks for you, what about it works for you, what makes it effective, how to recreate that effect and how to break that effect completely, etc. And have a good time with it or else what’s the point.

for the first 2, I direct you to my FAQ

For the last one, I don’t actually believe I’ve ever addressed artwork as insp for stories/rp but I’ll say here and now yeah go ahead! As long as you’re not making profit or taking credit for my work then I’m normally ok with it. Especially anything thats private and purely recreational, that’s generally 100% green light go. I only ask that if you post it anywhere public that you please credit me.

(and I reserve the right to ask you to take it down if I see it and don’t approve of it’s use but I think that case is pretty rare.)

a) @lemuelzero101 Thank you!!! I haven’t played Life is Strange but actually  that series’ vis dev artist Edouard Caplain is one of my bigger art inspirations lately so that’s a really high compliment lol. And yeah I hope we get 5-8 too...!

b) Thank you for sticking around! I’ve been thinking about Digimon and Infinity Train in tandem lately, actually. They’re a little similar? Enter a dangerous alternate world and have wacky adventures with monsters/inanimate objects that have weird powers... there’s like weird engineers and mechanisms behind the scenes... also frontier literally starts with them getting on a train. Anyways if anyone else followed me for digimon... maybe you’d like Infinity Train? LOL

c) @king-wens-king I’M GLAD MY ART JUST HAS PINOY VIBES LOL I hope you are having a good day too :^)

a, b, c, d) yessss my Watch Infinity Train agenda is working....

e) aw thank you!! i think you should watch infinity train :)

[eremiie]

i saw this post here and just wanted to dissect everything lmao

aot 139 spoilers 

“Eren admits that he literally killed 80% of the world’s population, he then says he only did it so it would look like eldians stopped a threat”

eren admit to killing 80% of the population bc he did... he’s admitting to what he did, and he says that he wanted to paint them to be the heroes— but not only did he do that, he ended the curse of ymir and gained freedom for his people. it wasn’t just to paint them as heroes

“He also did it so the rest of the world couldnt murder them”

he didn’t “also” do it for that reason, it was an effect, the rumbling ended up killing so many people that they can’t wage war on the eldians like eren says, it keeps them a little safe which they needed especially since some of humanity knows that paradis is what started the rumbling. it’s a cause and effect type thing. because eren killed 80% of the population that remaining population won’t be able to retaliate and try to kill the eldians since there are so little of them

the tybur family is treated like some of martyr and apparently pulling the strings which led to the deaths of millions of innocent eldians was actually a GOOD thing

this scene was interpreted wrong, armin says “...so you want us to be like the tyburs after the great titan war? we’re supposed to protect paradis from reprisal from humanity outside the walls?” he’s asking eren if that’s what they’re gonna do, he never says it’s a good thing. then that’s when eren explains that either way so much of humanity is destroyed that they wouldn’t be able to retaliate if they wanted to

Armin THANKS him for it

armin thanks eren for doing what he did to free them. not thanking eren for for mass murder period. it’s because of eren that the curse is lifted and that they are free and that’s what armin’s thanking eren for. mass murder is inexcusable, and eren knows that. that’s why after he panics and goes “but i dont want to die!” he comes to a realization that all the people he killed didn’t want to either, that the only way to atone for his sins is by dying himself. even if he didn’t die he would’ve probably been executed, or imprisoned for the rest of the life. just like in mikasa’s ova, “eren’s death is inevitable, no matter what reality you go to eren will always die because he carries death within himself.” 

in another translation of the chapter armin thanks eren for being the bad guy so that they could win. he knows what eren did was bad. he’s not excusing it, he just understands why eren had to do it and that eren had no choice if he wanted them to be free. 

from the get go freedom was one of the themes of eren’s character. if eren lived the whole entire world would be ruins and eren would’ve been even sadder than now, there would be nobody and it would’ve been worse than it is now. eren killing everyone was definitely not the ending to go. the ending we have could’ve been executed differently, sure, but in my eyes since i get the gist i think isa did an amazing job portraying what he had in mind. 

“Armin is more upset with Eren saying he doesnt know how he feels about Mikasa moving on than mass genocide”

once again, armin isn’t all that upset with eren because he understands that eren had a path laid out for him that he had no choice to follow. the point of eren committing mass genocide keeps getting brought up as if it’s not know that mass genocide is a terrible thing. it is and that’s why everyone was so angry about it from the get go, that’s why that one plan of blackmailing humanity with the rumbling and not actually go through with it was brought up once— because they knew how cruel it is. armin knew how cruel it is as i believe it was him who brought that up

he’s upset with eren about mikasa’s feelings in like a banter kind of way. it’s like “this whole entire time this is how you felt but you couldn’t tell her that and let her suffer???? don’t forget what you said to her, she went through hell!” kind of thing. they had already talked about the whole mass genocide thing, mikasa was the next topic of discussion

“Eren then finally shows some fucking emotion and cries abt how he doesn’t want mikasa to be with anyone but him”

in another post i say, "okay so first i think the issue is that a lot of people fail to realize that the way eren acted all throughout season 4 isn’t eren really, that is him putting his emotions at bay so that he can complete something that he laid out for himself for his friends.eren from season 1-3 still exists, and that’s lowkey the eren that was talking the whole time in chapter 139— you can see the how he cares for his friends, you can see the desperation again, the compassion, everything in between.” 

eren is still that s1-3 eren, season 4 eren just had to put his emotions aside so he could walk on the path that ymir put in front of him. 

him crying over mikasa was one of his selfish desires coming to light, and it was realistic. it’s finally dawning on him that he’s gonna die, he’s finally getting to sit down and ponder about mikasa, he’s getting desperate, he’s panicking, and that compassion that he’s always had for his friends is showing through again. this gives realism to his character— it makes his character all the more human. one second he’s complaining about how he doesn’t want to die and wants to be with his friends bc its crashing on him, and the very next second he’s trying to be at peace with himself, realising that the only way to atone for what he caused is by dying. one second he’s complaining about how he wants miksa to be with anyone but him, the next second he’s coming to terms with himself and that mikasa needs to move on, because he loves her and wants her to live a long and happy life even if it means without him. the selfishness that showed for that mere second makes his character realistic. it shows that he’s still whiny, that little whiny angry boy from s1-3. he was never heartless and he was never cold. he was and is still eren jaeger, and you get a glimpse of the eren we know in that scene.

The founder ymir was apparently in love with the king???? another women stupidly devoted to a man, great.

i’m not too in depth with ymirs story so im not gonna speak too much about this because i myself do wish that whole love thingy went more into depth. i get how mikasa and ymir parallel each other, but other than that i’m not too sure myself, and i’ll admit that. it could be a case of stockholm syndrome, it could be that bc ymir was infatuated with living and she was confined to such a familial role she wanted to live in that role again with the king bc he’s the only person who gave her that familial lifestyle. i’m not sure. but if anything mikasa was im pretty sure the only character “devoted” to a man in aot. and it was because of the role eren played in her life, she’s not a bad written character, she has her developement. which i explain here

apparently mikasa’s unhealthy devotion to eren is what took her out of it????? in fact the series overly romanticizes mikasa’s love for eren despite the two having no chemistry and eren being an ass to her

in a sense, but that’s a simple minded way of saying it. ymir’s devotion to king fritz was unhealthy, eren describes it as “agony of love” because it was pretty unhealthy obvi. like i said ymir and mikasa parallel each other, and seeing mikasa be able to let go and kill the one she loves was that realization for ymir that she was able to do the same thing— that’s how i interpret that scene personally.

and in mikasa doing so, killing eren lifts that curse of ymir and frees ymir regardless, so ymir was happy about that as well. thanks to mikasa for cutting eren’s head off. 

the series doesn’t necessarily over romanticize mikasa’s love for eren in my opinion. how i see it is that since eren is a big part of mikasa’s character he was necessary for her development as well, and her development was to let eren go because of how infatuated she was with him. this being said the series points out how unhealthy the way she loved him was especially in s1-3, and her love becomes more healthy when she gets her development in chap 139, finally being able to let eren go and move on. compare that to in the s1 when eren almost dies and she’s ready to die as well. thats development if you ask me. 

one of the themes of the show is sacrifice, and almost every character has made one, mikasa sacrifices eren— she kills him and she chooses to go through with that decision despite how much she loves him. 

eren was definitely mean to mikasa in s1-3 because she was overbearing, and thats one reason why i say the way she loved him was unhealthy at first. eren wasn’t able to reciprocate her love in the way that she loved him because it wasn’t healthy. eren also wasn’t able to reciprocate it because the last thing he was focused on was the concept of love. once again he had a path laid out for him that he had no choice but to follow, and mikasa didn’t have any play in this path until the very end, so the boy who keeps moving forward does just that and doesn’t pay her much mind, doesn’t get to sit down and think about his feelings for her, what she is to him.

(and i dont think i even need to explain the “mikasa i’ve always hated you seen, the chapter covers that enough)

they do have chemistry time to time, the eren v dina fritz scene, the scarf scene, “what am i to you”, little stuff like that goes into play and gives them these little sparks of chemistry. they couldn’t always grasp onto the full scope of the relationship they had and it was only some times they were able to do that with everything going on.

apparently the titans are just gone now….??? i cant even tell if its because Eren died or because Mikasa really made Ymir calm down

... eren controlling rumbling, eren dies rumbling stops, ymir finally lifts curse bc 1) eren died 2) shes able to come to realization that like mikasa lets eren go, she needs to let fritz go and the curse go. ymir lifts curse, eren’s goal is complete, if titan curse is lifted there are no more titans

Characters who murdered thousands and were the cause for AOT’s entire plot in the first place are now treated as heroes to the eldians… despite the shit that they did.

everyone in aot did some “shit” they all are murders, eren commited mass genocide, reiner commited mass murder, annie murdered so many people, reiner, armin destroyed thousands of people in one go, they all have killed somebody. they are seen as “heros” because they stopped the rumbling that was going to kill everyone else...... idk about you but if you just saved me from a horrid death, my racist opinion on you doesn’t really matter because you just saved my fucking life lmao, yes despite the shit that you did— because they have killed people too, and they were ready to kill the eldians still until armin told them that they killed eren, that they saved their lives and eliminated titans for good.... like whew???

the series went from “The military is cool” to “the military did a lot of fucked up shit” to “the military is SUPER cool”, and buffed it up

i’m not really sure where you got that tbh,, like the military wasn’t really a big thing up until the whole marleyan thing??? and they didn’t have much plot in the story besides it existing so like i’m not sure what to say ab this, i can’t really remember many times the military was even mentioned until now, but if anyone wants to elaborate on this for me that’d be nice

oh and they buffed up the military because since paradis had eren jaeger who started the rumbling, just in case, they had to be ready to fight again if the rest of humanity wanted to do something. after marley they updated all their technology, why can’t they update the military as well? it’s realistic, new weapons, new military, and all that

The military was buffed up bc the eldians are scared of the rest of the world retaliating, so Eren didn’t really fix shit except giving the Eldians an upper hand in the war

eren jaeger was the one who always screamed “i will kill all titans, we will get freedom” ya de ya de ya.... didn’t he do both of those things????? i thought those were some of his main goals as a character, he fixed those issues, the issues that have been issues since the start of the show

the rest of humanity don’t know the full scope like the eldians or marleyans, they’re probably just as scared and like in real life not all nations are at peace with one another. this is just another realistic factor— attack on titan is becoming a world closest to the real one we live in, there are militaries, there are still conflicts, there is still all these little aspects that bring the manga even more to life.

in my opinion it’d lowkey be weird if the rest of the world was just like “oh yeah those mfs that started the rumbling we love them haha” no... it killed 80% of the population like eren said... that’s not something to love.

Historia has a really disturbing speech about how the fight isnt going to end until either the Eldians or the rest of the world are exterminated, despite Gabi has an entire arc about her being deradicalized and learning to see the other side of things.

and yes i am not kidding, the heroic conclusion is that there’s still going to be a war, eldians are going to commit mass genocide (which was proposed by eren) and people straight up thank eren for the evil shit he did.

“this fight will not end until either eldia or the world dissapears. this is what eren said and he may be right.” she doesn’t say that it’s for sure gonna be a fight until one or the other is wiped out, she says there’s a possibility of this being the case because of the fact that these nations aren’t at complete peace yet. 

not everyone is gonna be able to see the other side of things, and this applies to the whole word— us as humans will never be able to agree on one thing, and that’s what this shows. no matter what the cycle of hatred will always continue, and this applies to real life and this manga. we are human beings and that’s what makes what historia says even more real. “this is the world we live in, a world without titans.” titans are no longer their conflict. now it’s only like the real word— humans against humans, and as far as humanity existed it’s always been humans against humans. historia’s speech shows that.

the heroic conclusion is that as a human race nothing will always be agreed upon, eldians are going to fight if they need to like our military fights when they need to. people are thanking eren for freeing them and ending the curse of titans that they suffered with for 2000 years. nobody’s thanking him for his actions of mass genocide, they are thanking him for the motive behind his actions, and thats what makes him so heroic.

that he endured and did something so terrible so that anybody who lives after him can be free, and humanity can continue existing as humanity should’ve existed from the beginning.

and that concludes this for me, thanks for reading<3.

[maschotch]

The problem with Hayley is she had a child with Hotch knowing exactly who he was and what his job was and then she was angry about who he was and what his job was.

mm we dont really know much ab their relationship so obvi im just guessing but to me at least haley seems like the type of person who knew she wanted kids, and i doubt she'd get married to someone who didn't want any. i can see that being something hotch would put off: wanting to finish law school, wanting to get a career established, wanting to change professions, wanting to come back from seattle, wanting to get settled in the bau. there was always some reason to push it back, but by season one they're both pushing forty and they really can't wait much longer.

i'm not really sure how hotch felt about becoming a dad. i don't think he was opposed necessarily to the concept of having kids (he seems genuinely happy in 1x01 when they're discussing baby names and setting up the nursery), but i think he was afraid of failing... worrying that he's not good enough for the child, or fearing he might turn out like his own father. so while it was something he may have initially agreed to when marrying haley, he used his work as excuses to postpone starting a family.

idk. im not someone who thinks they were a perfect couple either. while they may have loved each other, their priorities in life were so different and trying to continue on without addressing the source of the problems built up a lot of tension over the course of their marriage. but i don't think it's fair to blame it on one person or the other. they both probably should've done things differently--hotch should've been more up front about his reservations, and haley should've made it clear how important this was to her from the beginning--but i think they loved each other so much they were willing to chisel away at their individual happiness for the sake of the relationship.

like.. i think she knew who hotch was when they decided to have a child. i think she just hoped that things would be different. she'd played the doting housewife for so long, patiently waiting for her own wants/desires to be fulfilled, that she hoped he'd prioritize her happiness/their family since she spent so long supporting him in his career. she felt like he led her on, making false promises while continuing to commit more to his job than the family she hoped they'd have. i don't blame her for pursuing her life goals, and i honestly can't fault her for wanting to seek that happiness with the person she loves

[roystory4]

Subverting neonoir with Nick Valentine, hm? 👀

ok heres the deal. film noir almsot always reduces female characters into either devils or angels; those who tempt the lead further into a life of crime or those who represent like, puritan ideals or something. this isnt to disregard the female characters who DONT fall into this dynamic bc those definitely exist and are wonderfully complex but when it comes to how modern audiences interpret the genre THOSE characters kind of get waylaid, along w other more complex themes in noir, in favor of Sexy Man in Trenchcoat Gets Dames. 

and honestly if your detective isnt unconventionally attractive, like just a little weird looking, then youre doing it wrong . im sorry its just the truth.

WHAT IM GETTING AT IS that in the concept art and in like, general, nick valentine is absolutely supposed to embody every film noir detective that ever existed. he’s can also be a reference to deckard from blade runner, who, if youve read the original book is kind of a super dick. which isn’t bad, because most detectives in the old movies and books were not good people. dashiell hammett’s continental op covers this really well; it is stated MULTIPLE TIMES by the op that some of the long-timers at the agency have lost their compassion, and are quite cruel. in the maltese falcon as well, its pretty obvious sam is not a good guy by any stretch of the imagination for the same reasons. and that’s interesting!! that’s complex. but that’s another aspect of the genre that got forgotten in favor of Sexy Man. or at least, it’s still there, but lacks the depth that the originals had; he’s bad because he’s tough and macho, not “he’s bad because he sucks major ass”. probably the msot common examples of this, outside of the genre, is like, james bond and don draper. both are absolutely not really good people but because theyre suave, a large portion of the audience can justify his shittiness.

as a sidebar, if you want to go full steam into that, that’s cool too because it’s a great character type to examine especially in the context of post-war america. this isnt abt how My interpretation of nick is the end-all, be-all, or somehow better than anyone else’s!

anyway basically what it boils down to is that nick is very bad at playing detective because he cares too much. how he handles eddie winter kind of falls to pieces at the end because he just cannot commit to the vindication of it all (which is exacerbated by the fact he cant remember what jenny even looked like... this is a mild subversion of it but essentially she is not “his” to fight for and justify crimes over) and honestly its supposed to be a little pathetic lol. he has a big fight w tua during the eddie winter case bc she basically called his bluff and it freaked him out.

(the fight also served to disarm the typical angel/devil dichotomy bc nick was absolutely in the process of putting her on a pedestal, as a bastion of prewar law and order, and tua walked)

lastly since nick IS an embodiment of this specific character type, then inherently he’s a tragic character. at the end of the day noir is tragedy, either bc Crimes Doesnt Pay/hayes code or otherwise. so if you see nick as someone who cannot change, is doomed to act out this shitty prewar person and BE the mean detective type, to effectively isolate himself for the rest of his days, that’s really interesting. but imho its interesting as well to go the opposite direction and subvert the neonoir stereotype of a badass, gritty, hard-boiled op - to make nick caring, and emotional, and ultimately failing pretty badly at what he’s “supposed” to be. because in doing so you can prove, without a shadow of doubt, that nick is his own person

tl;dr nick cares too hard to be a successful detective type but thats ok bc they were all women-hating jerks anyway and it just means he isnt a direct copy of prewar valentine and hes allowed to be something more.

[axemetaphor]

wwwhats up its 430am I cant sleep and I dont think I've ever done an annoying headcanon ramble for jdate on here so here we fuckin goooo I'm on mobile but I'm gonna try my damnedest to do a read more and if it doesnt work and looks stupid well sue me

amy is the one routinely awake before the other two. I dont mean shes always the first one to wake up, but her back pain is more likely to have her up in the early hours of the morning. shes also the only one who has anything thay resembles q sleeping schedule of the three as john is just like, completely fucked in that department and Dave's insomnia/depression-sleeping fucks him over sometimes. basically amy Has A Brain and also lost likely schedules it so that she can be falling asleep as her pain pills take effect.

amy also is the one who's like fairly into self care stuff like fuckinuhhh face masks and shit—look, I dont inow jackshit about self care, but I mean amy strikes me as the kind of person to actually maintain her appearance in a fairly regular manner. john will just like "forget" to take care of himself and then just Be Decadent for a week and then "forget" again (either going on a bender or just actually being normal for once) and all dave knows of self care is "when I get the urge to eat an entire pie, and give into that urge, That is self care"

anyways Partially because of that I headcanon Dave gets acne like Pretty Much All The Time and hes just kinda stopped caring about it. amy gets acne Sometimes because it just like Happens. john is that one lucky motherfucker who just is somehow naturally immune. perpetually clear skin on this man. I hate him

also dave Kind Of strikes me as the kind of guy fuckign "3 in 1" shampoo is targeted towards the man just Does Not Care. other girlfriends have tried to get him into actually using different kinds of soaps and not just defaulting to "3 in 1 wherever I think soap should go" but its amy who actually succeeds in breaking this terrible habit hes had.

also I think that Despite his hair being described as frizzy and all that, John actually takes care of his hair. except for times when hes Less Than Functional. and also yknow when the world is fuckin ending but I doubt anyone really has time for a haircare routine when they gotta be fighting monsters and shit

amy again is just a normal person about hair. but shes the only one who can actually cut hair and tbqh I think she does it Pretty Well! shes no professional but shes not john either that's for sure (if you let john close to your head with scissors, well— it's your funeral, man)

this is completely projecting and also like totally Useless but I just think it would be funny if Dave has exploding head syndrome. if you donf know what that is it's a phenomenon-or-something where right when you're dropping off to sleep your brain just liek idk gets bored I guess? and comes up with some phantom Loud Noises to startle the shit out of you. it's great! and by 'great' I mean terribly annoying! but in general I think Dave is a Very restless sleeper so him suddenly flinching himself awake isnt exactly Abnormal.

amy sleeps like a normal human being Mostly, I think she Might be one of those sorts who likes to sleep curled up in the fetal position which is so very valid. she gets night terrors sometimes though because ✨trauma✨. the best way to comfort her with that is a tight hug cause I feel like her Main fear would be that shes all alone again and a hug sure does help people feel less alone I think,

john either starfishes out when he sleeps (also I headcanon he likes to sleep at least Partially on top of Dave and Dave only pretends to hate it) or grabs hold of something and clings to it tightly. hes a very light sleeper, though, and snaps awake at any loud noise or especially if he gets bumped into too strongly. this doesn't always play well with Dave's restlessness and tendency to Sleep Fight but they manage.

I feel like its fairly common to Assume john has tattoos but specifically I feel like a lot of his tattoos are things he or his friends have drawn, I wrote about it Once Or Twice but maybe not here so I'll just like say it again, I think he asks his friends to draw shit on him then goes and gets it tattooed later (or, hell, right then and there lmao) and it's like a Mark of Friendship. he claims Dave has drawn the most on him because Dave's his best friend but whether or not that's true, who knows. the first one was from Dave, though, and john did it himself stick-and-poke style the night of. that happened while they were still in high school and Dave was actually Slightly Embarrassed because what he doodled was just like really stupid looking and fuckin hell john now you're gonna have that on you forever what the hell man? but the rest of John's tattoos, if not done by friends they're either things he drew (I maintain he still draws in his downtime I love the idea of artistically talented john so much-) or weird shit he found online.

I honestly didnt think Dave would really get tattoos because he does state hes afraid of needles BUT as someone Also afraid of needles who paradoxically wants tattoos .. he could probably power through it and get like A Few. one of them is from John (stick-and-poke style, again,) and I am Not actually sure how many hed have but definitely less than John. amy only has that one tattoo that I keep forgetting when I draw her godfuckendammit-

John is the one who makes the most Food Monstrosities (Dave barely even bothers to cook) and he does this by making just the worst decisions both technical-wise (as in, hes Definitely the "just turn the oven temperature up to speedrun cooking" kind of guy) and taste-wise. dave on the other hand is likely to make terrible drinks like jack daniels + mountain dew which my buddy Ben so fantastically dubbed "jack and piss." the sheer Concept of jack daniels + mtn dew tho is thanks to that one kurtis conner video about becoming a country boy which is entirely unrelated but everyone needs to know. ANYWAY.

john and Amy like playing pranks on each other (and dave). they're in an ongoing low-key prank war and Dave is Mostly just spectating but sometiems they Conspire to commit mischief against him. it's annoying sometimes but ultimately more endearing than it is annoying so he never gets Too mad.

john and Amy absolutely have Gaming Nights(tm) that sometimes include dave as well unless they wanna play some like fps game, I'm fairly sure hes said he doesnt really like those. but they also can get Competetive which, dave tends to act as a bit of a buffer to keep them from getting Too into it ... but sometimes he gets a little competitive too. what I'm trying to say is them playing mario kart is absolute chaos and also an event i woudl buy tickets to

john has a youtube channel for sure. he is So obnoxious. he hardly has any audience because let's be honest his videos kind of suck— they're all either kinda boring vlogs or him recording the cases he and Dave go on (when he can convince Dave to let him) which are almost always declared Fake by the commenters. amy is subscribed to him. dave probably doesnt even have/use his own YouTube channel so he was not subscribed until john stole his phone and did it for him. (he never watches the videos) the videos are not edited much, I dont think any of them really knows too much about video editing shit.

dave cant fuckin do math.

John and Dave do Not know how to handle crying. like Dave's learned what helps Amy, in specific, but anybody else? clueless. Dave also just does not cry very often in general (shut up lemme project again LMAO-) and tends to just refrain from doing it even if he wants to/probably should, rarely ever actually breaking down and letting it all out; he'll stop himself from getting there/even crying much in the first place. he doesn't exactly have a Reason for it or at least not one he can recite (it's the bullying. we dont get details of how that was beyond The Locker Room Incident which I wont go into but I'm just going to project the rest of it was similar to shit I went through, It's The Bullying). John also kinda Doesn't Cry and actually hes even more restrained about it than Dave, because he won't even cry around either of them if he can avoid it and if it happens he 1) will Not address it, 2) prefers no one else acknowledge it, and 3) will Run The Fuck Away if it's acknowledged. they both try Really Really Hard to help amy when shes crying though, if shes crying for a Big Reason, cause they both also understand she just cries easily and doesnt always need or want comfort.

that,s all for now BUT if I come up with mroe. there will be a reblog. also these are not all like "I am the only one who's ever tho ig ht this" or w/e a lot of them are from me talking with other people or Absorbing much older posts on here because I read Everuthing I can find.

I sure hope I can sleep soon, this is probably mostly incoherent. gnight

[akechicrimes]

I'm a brand new goroboy and have questions if you don't mind answering any of them 1. Was everything that Akechi said about the PTs being unjust a part of his detective act or did he really believe that changing hearts was bad prior to the engine room? 2. When did he first suspect the PTs? Did he figure them out immediately at the TV station or did he just become interested in Joker cuz he's gay and figured it out afterwards lol. Basically who sussed who out first? (1/2)

hello welcome!!!!!! we are happy to have u!!!!!!!! 

unfortunately we dont have concrete answers to a lot of these, but i will do my best!!!! these are some really excellent questions so i want to do them justice. and by do them justice, i mean theyre under a cut because it got really long lmfao.

thanks for the ask–this was really fun to write, instead of doing literally any of the work that i was supposed to.

1. Was everything that Akechi said about the PTs being unjust a part of his detective act or did he really believe that changing hearts was bad prior to the engine room?

SHORT ANSWER: we don’t know.

SLIGHTLY LONGER ANSWER: we can’t say for sure but there’s strong evidence that he was probably telling the truth, actually.

VERY LONG ANSWER: there’s strong evidence he both is and isn’t telling the truth in the TV studio scene, but with the qualifiers that (1) he never necessarily says theyre unjust, he says they’re dangerous. (2) he probably thinks the phantom thieves change hearts in the same way that he makes people go psychotic. (3) his sense of justice is basically entirely based on righting wrongs that have been committed against individuals, not what the law says. (also, when i say “individuals,” i mean himself.)

to the extent that he’s lying–he does say that they’re operating outside the law, and that they have unknown and apparently very effective power that cannot be stopped by traditional law enforcement. traditional justice says that if you operate outside the law, that makes you automatically bad. akechi is playing the part of someone who’s lawful good, so when he says, “they’re dangerous and operating outside the law,” he has to say, “that makes them unjust.”

to the extent that he’s telling the truth, that’s basically everything else he says. i do think those viewpoints are his own for a lot of reasons.

when he talks about the changes of heart, he makes it sound like it’s a thing that could just happen to anyone–even people who’ve done no wrong. when akira voices support for the PT, akechi argues back against akira to say “If [Ryuji’s] heart suddenly changed, wouldn’t you think it was the work of the Phantom Thieves?” like it could just happen to any random joe schmoe. he’s acting like someone could just one day change their entire attitude–possibly for the worse–resulting in terror amongst the population.

we have to keep in mind that at this point in time, akechi has no idea that you can steal treasure to change a person’s heart. he doesn’t even know treasure is a thing, let alone that you have to send a calling card to make it manifest. morgana is the person who knew all that stuff, and akechi definitely didnt have access to morgana when he started his hitman career.

so with the way that he’s talking about the changes of heart, i dont think he assumes that changes of heart always change the person for the better. he has no idea that it’s literally removing a person’s distorted desires. i’m like NINETY-FIVE PERCENT SURE that he thinks changes of heart operate in the same way that his psychotic abilities work: you cast a persona spell, and a person goes apeshit.

from his point of view, that’s kind of what’s happening. when akechi casts call of chaos, a person starts behaving in a way they never would under ordinary circumstances in the real world. the changes of heart really look exactly the same way to an outsider’s POV. and to akechi’s understanding, call of chaos can be cast on even good people. from the phantom thieves’ POV, only people who’re mega-dicks can have their hearts changed in the first place, because the requisite to have a palace is a certain level of distortion. (futaba, of course, proving that you don’t have to be a mega-dick to have a distortion, but the TV studio scene happens before futaba.)

akechi’s argument is that leaving that sort of power in just anyone’s hands is dangerous. because that’s a LOT of power for one person to have. akechi would know, considering that he’s in the same position. he’s wary of the fact that there’s no guarantee that that person will use it for good.

that, of course, brings us to the question of “well, what does akechi think ‘using power for good’ is in the first place?” does he think that the phantom thieves are using their powers for good? does he think he’s using his powers for good?

when asked why he seeks justice, akechi says: “Because of sickening human beings… Yes, my contempt for such people drives my sense of justice. It isn’t some grand reason like society’s sake or some lofty ideal. It’s simply an absurd grudge… and extremely personal.” 

the traditional, lawful-good way of thinking about justice is that if you operate outside the law, you’re automatically bad. but akechi’s sense of justice seems to be driven primarily from the hurts he’s suffered, the grudges he still bears, and his conviction that wrongs personally done against individuals should be righted. it’s an end-goal oriented sense of justice.

if wrong-doers are punished and the grudges are appeased, then justice is delivered. how that happens does not necessarily constitute justice. my best guess at this time is that he’d qualify a lot as “the ends justify the means,” since his concept of justice is end-goal oriented. 

of course, i think akechi definitely shows throughout the game that he knows that how you achieve those ends is… not irrelevant. i think his black mask outfit (and a bunch of other things he says) implies that he feels like he is a “villain” of sorts. he demonstrates feeling a type of way about killing okumura. he definitely knows that his actions are morally wrong under particular lenses. take a look at this section:

Akechi: Who cares? My targets were all doing the same damn thing in this eat or be eaten world. [referencing that all his victims were dicks who kind of deserved to get glocked]

Akechi: How is that any different from the Phantom Thieves?

Ann: We’re not murderers!

Akechi: (now looking kind of pissed) So what?! [launches into speil about how it’ll all be worth it when he exacts revenge on Shido]

obviously he knows that murder is morally indefensible. but i think he’s justified it to himself as either not so bad because he killed primarily corrupt people, and/or that it’d be worth it if he achieves revenge on shido. he’s doing some kind of weird karma cosmic-scale balancing of “how much can i get away with and still be able to call it justifiable and justice,” and it looks like his answer is “quite a fucking lot.”

ironically, this makes his views on justice fairly practical. rather than idealistically committed to some platonic edition of justice, he’s more of a “what do i need to do to get the goals i want achieved? what needs to happen to make sure that asshole abusers get what’s coming to them? what needs to happen to make sure that i get emotional closure?” the biggest issue with that is the danger of a Pyrrhic victory–the moment where the means so go far that the ends no longer justify them.

all of this is to say: when akechi is talking about the phantom thieves as potentially unjust, i dont think he has a problem with their methods. “methods” are like a knife–it’s about how you use it, and for what.

i think he knows that changing hearts, and turning people psychotic, is morally skeevy if your sense of justice is very puritanical, but his sense of justice isn’t puritanical. i think he’s wary of what they might be using their methods for. again: his big argument in the studio scene isnt necessarily that theyre unjust, only that they’re dangerous.

seriously, though–changing hearts is potentially a recipe for societal collapse if used the wrong way. imagine if the PT were more self-centered and they went the light yagami route with their new supernatural powers, maintaining peace and order through authoritarian fear. that is, actually, the entire premise of the P5 Vanilla Bad End, in which the PT enforce peace through relentlessly changing hearts and making people too terrified to keep committing crime. 

since his views on justice seem to be defined by what the end goal is, he’d have to know what those goals are before understanding if they’re “just” or “unjust”–which is probably why he keeps hounding akira for akira’s viewpoints on justice, tbh. the phantom thieves are only unjust if their end goal is unjust, not necessarily because of their methods. (see answer to question 2 for related/continued discussion.)

2. When did he first suspect the PTs? Did he figure them out immediately at the TV station or did he just become interested in Joker cuz he’s gay and figured it out afterwards lol. Basically who sussed who out first?

SHORT ANSWER: i pretty sure atlus expects us to believe that he figured it from even before the TV showing–he figured it out when he overheard ryuji saying “It’s not easy being phantom thieves” when they were in the hallway. it’s the same time and place where akechi did his famous pancake fuck-up.

SLIGHTLY LONGER ANSWER: the idea that akechi was just super horny for the guy who gave him shit on live TV and then realized that akira was a phantom thief later as a neat bonus is fuckign SENDING me.

VERY LONG ANSWER: because of the scene with ryuji, i’m pretty sure he knew that akira was a phantom thief, and also i’m half-convinced that he somehow got the TV host to specifically choose akira during the “ask the audience” portion of the show. it’s really too much of a coincidence. 

because of that, i think the other implication of the scene is that he wanted to see what akira was made of when he invited akira for a debate on live television, and was pleasantly surprised when akira had something very interesting to say on the topic of grey morality and achieving justice outside the law.

what’s interesting about that scene is that akechi becomes interested in akira regardless of what akira says about the phantom thieves. akira’s options are “They’re justice itself,” “They’re necessary,” and “They do more than the cops”–so it’s not like akira ever says that he dislikes the phantom thieves, but the level of support ranges and two of these imply a justification/reasoning for it. and then akechi fucking argues back on live television like this is some kind of debate, instead of a daytime talk show meant to distract bored housewives. 

like. akechi gets INTO it. justice is his THING. and here’s akira, who seems to be not only a metaverse user operating outside the law like akechi himself, but also has some pretty grey morality thoughts on what justice is and could be, also like akechi himself.

taking it as a given that he knows for a fact that akira is a phantom thief from the get-go, from even before the TV scene ever even happened, then akechi probably keeps hounding him because akechi’s interested in hearing akira’s reasons. he’s not fishing for evidence, since he already knows. this is very speculative, now, but my best guess is that he keeps hounding akira ever after this scene because he wants to compare notes, one vigilante to another, to hear how akira rationalizes his vigilante work as a type of justice. very possibly, he’s seeking reassurance to himself that his own actions are justifiable. (he certainly seems that way in P5R, especially when he wonders about if a “justice nobody wants” is really a true justice at all, or just someone being self-centered.)

so re: “did akechi figure him out or was he just gay,” the answer is. yes. akechi did figure him out, and also akira made him so intellectually horny on live television that he hounded the man down in public for follow-up dates. 

what a king.

3. Does Akechi have a Velvet Room? Does he experience rank ups with Joker and the game over stuff too? 

SHORT ANSWER: we don’t know. no, seriously, we have no idea.

SLIGHTLY LONGER ANSWER: i’ve seen compelling takes on him having his own velvet room, and i think it’s thematically very fascinating if akechi is quite literally akira’s counterpart in terms of cosmic chess pieces, but i would be surprised if he did. but again, seriously, since there’s no confirmation on the matter, i say akechi’s potential velvet room is fair game.

VERY LONG ANSWER: lore-wise, i’m betting no. akechi was yaldabaoth’s piece, while akira was philemon’s (if i’m remembering my lore correctly). philemon provides the velvet room to aid the people he chooses–yaldabaoth has no such deal. the only reason why yaldo was in the velvet room in the first place was because he wanted to fuck over philemon’s chosen trickster.

it’s the same logic for why someone like adachi wouldn’t have a velvet room: while souji/yu, namatame, and adachi were all given the power to go into the tv world by izanami, only souji/yu was selected by philemon to save the world from ruin, and was accordingly given the resources and aid to do so.

secondary bonus: the psychotic ability/call of chaos just removes a person’s bonds in their heart, which makes them behave as if they were crazy. it’s the exact opposite of joker’s ability to create bonds. yaldabaoth’s one gift to his chosen chess piece was to essentially undo the very social links that make akira strong. so again, i’d be shocked if akechi experiences things like ranking up, or any sort of velvet room/persona fusing mechanic.

personally i think the loki/robin hood divide just happened because he awoke to a persona twice. awakening to your persona just happens at moments of rebellion and strong resolve, and canonically even other persona-users “awaken” (sorta) twice when you max their social link. i’m betting that he just had two moments of resolve: one in which he wanted to be a hero of justice, and one in which he decided he was going to tear shido to the ground no matter how far into villainy he had to go.

but as always, it’s not like there’s a hard consensus on the matter. 

4. How did he kill the shadows of people who don’t have a palace? Does *everyone* have a shadow in mementos?

SHORT ANSWER: he probably kills them in mementos, and also i think we’re expected to believe that literally everyone has a shadow in mementos.

SLIGHTLY LONGER ANSWER: i’m almost certain that the mementos depths section of the game confirms that basically everyone’s shadows are in there somewhere, even if they’re just your average joe with no significant distortions. the palace ruler for that section is “the public,” and also we do see the shadows of palace rulers who’ve had their hearts changed in the mementos depths. so even if you’ve had your heart changed and are supposedly a perfectly good human being now, this evidently doesnt disqualify you for having a shadow in mementos.

VERY LONG ANSWER: morgana says that mementos is the collective distortion of everyone in the area, but not a lot more concretely than that. morgana also says that reality is fairly plastic and that reality is somewhat determined by how we perceive the world, so i think that we’re expected to believe that everyone has, to some degree, some level of distortion.

i could say that jungian theory, which is the theory that the persona series is based off of, says that everyone without exception has a shadow. but this seems a little bit of a doylist explanation. instead i’ll point to persona 3, in which people without shadows literally become comatose and apathetic husks of themselves. this is because having a shadow is actually a fairly important part of a person’s psyche, and not having one doesnt make you a good and perfect person, it makes you a nonfunctional vegetable incapable of cognitive thought.

so yeah, i’m pretty sure EVERYONE is in mementos. with the exception of the phantom thieves, because… i think we’re expected to believe that their personas are in some ways their shadows? but also their personas are like, real-life kinning mythological/fictional characters so hard that you bind them to your soul? frankly i’ve been confused about how shadows work ever since persona 5 had people’s eyes turn yellow when they go through their awakenings, since perosna 4 used to use that as a sign that the person was a shadow, so… maybe i have no idea what the fuck im talking about. LMFAO.