#and i think its becoming a really big problem especially when you're also trying to combat stigma and misinfo from able people

[chirpychipslive]

im so serious when i say you need to advocate for disabilities that you don't have too

[thepeaklegendoffirstgen]

ok but imagine this.... zack with a shy little sister that he absolutely loves and spoils. hes so tough and angry all the time but does a complete 180 with his sister. imagine his friends reaction to this. is it okay if i asks for headcanons of this? its okay to ignore this if its not your thing :3

ZACK WITH A YOUNGER SISTER

Zack has a younger sister, a shy one. The dynamic between them is very much like Kenma and Kuroo from Haikyuu!!!

Growing up, it was always the four of you: you, Zack , Mira, and Johan. Tiny, happy, healthy babies 🥹 You were especially fond of Johan because, unlike your loud and chaotic brother, he was calm and gentle. That really pissed Zack off. Johan, on the other hand, adored you like his own little sister and quietly vowed to always protect you. Mira adored you too, often babying you even when you didn’t want her to.

Fast forward, Zack is now in high school, and you’re in middle school. One day, he tries to open up to you, awkwardly confessing that he’s trying to become a better man: for Mira. You just scoff and bluntly say, “You’re a bully.” That hits him harder than he expected. Especially coming from you. He knows you’re quiet and reserved and that you sometimes get picked on, and here he is, acting no better, even if he had his reasons. That moment becomes a turning point for him. The beginning of his real character growth, where everything involving Jasmine, Jiho, and Johan starts to converge and make sense.

Despite everything, Zack is incredibly loving and protective of you. He knows when you need a gentle push and when you just need to exist. He never pressures you. He’s highly attuned to your emotions, more than you realize, and infinitely patient. When you're overwhelmed, he knows to just sit near you, quiet and steady. When you need encouragement, he gives it, never as a lecture, but as a soft nudge.

You can see the guilt from the J-trio incident still weighing heavy on him. And so, you quietly sit beside him while he studies, and in your own way, you let him know:

“You’re a really good big brother.”

It’s not explicitly stated. Just said in small, careful words. But he gets it.

He tries not to cry. He’s the eldest, he’s supposed to be strong (Zack we understand 💀) So, he just ruffles your hair and mutters, “Go to your room.” But that moment loosens something in his chest. A little bit of the burden lifts. The guilt, still there, begins to dissolve.

When Johan eventually returns, you're the very first person Zack tells.

When it comes to boys near you? Swatted like flies. Zack doesn’t trust anyone. He knows how boys are. He’s seen what Mira went through. Mira, of course, is equally protective, she makes sure you know that if you ever have a boy problem, she’s there, no questions asked. She also helps soften Zack’s bluntness when needed.

Aside from Mira and Johan, Zack doesn’t tell many people he even has a younger sister. It’s not because he’s ashamed, it’s because of the kind of life he leads. The stuff they all go through isn’t normal. They’re teen gangsters with good intentions, but still, it’s dangerous.

If by some chance one of his friends does find out about you, Zack isn’t as hyperprotective as you'd think. He loosens up, but only a little. He’s still always vigilant.

Daniel and Vasco are two of his most trusted people. Daniel is sweet, polite, and never tries to pull you out of your shell—he respects your quiet. You’ve heard a lot about Vasco, and you instantly adore him. His innocence and pure-heartedness make him easy to trust. He genuinely wants to be your friend and make a good impression.

Jay is in the picture, too. With him, there’s a comforting kind of silence. He’s careful and gentle, knowing exactly how to act around you, he has a little sister too, after all.

Zack isn’t that close with Vin or Mary, but Zoe is his best friendo😁 !! Oh, she’s your favourite. She tells you every embarrassing story about your brother, and you laugh so hard because, yeah, that sounds exactly like him. Zoe unnie also gives you great fashion advice and the hottest gossip. She’s basically your icon 💋

Zack’s in a dilemma. On one hand, you’re happy, and that’s everything. But on the other hand, it’s Zoe. Zoe?!

[genericpuff]

Oi, just a heads up for future asks, because I get questions like this several times a week, I'm not gonna be responding to any more asks along the lines of "will [insert character here] be in Rekindled" or "how will you handle [xyz]".

I know, I know, that sounds really personal! But I promise it's not with any ill intent, I can totally understand why many of you are asking them because y'all just want that reassurance in knowing I'm not gonna do whatever Rachel did - and the best way to hear it is often from the horse's mouth - but when it comes right down to it these are often questions I've either already answered or simply CAN'T answer because that would involve me outright spoiling stuff. Like, most of the time I really can't tell you anything beyond "wait and see", and that's not me trying to be a dick holding out on y'all, I just don't want to spoil stuff! What DOES make me feel like a dick is answering with vague half-answers that don't satisfy your questions LOL But telling you outright what my plans are doesn't just run the risk of ruining the experience for readers, it can also ruin it for me because if I told you everything that was gonna happen, then I wouldn't have anything to surprise you with and it would suck all the fun out of it LOL

As a general rule of thumb, if you're asking about something in LO that I've adamantly criticized (especially stuff that's become popular opinion like the problems with the age gap, the SA plotline, the inclusion of Eris, the Eros x Psyche plot, etc.) then the odds are like 99% that I'm either not doing it or changing it LOL

I know it's a big BIG ask to "trust the process" after so much of that trust was burned with LO, but believe me when I say, I was one of y'all who got burned and I don't intend on making the same mistakes Rachel did, for my sake and yours. I'd like to think I've been doing a pretty okay job up until this point, but also much of that job is fairly easy to do when the bar is on the floor LMAO but I've got so much stuff planned that I'm super hyped for and while it may not feasibly satisfy every single person who's reading along - especially when it comes to the things I choose to remove or drastically change - I do hope at the very least it'll be a story worth following along with until the end. It's been an amazing year working on this project and sharing it with you all, so please just hang in there, whatever burning questions you have about the plot and its characters will be answered in due time as we get to them together <3 (and don't worry if I don't respond to any of your "what will you do with xyz" asks, it's not personal I promise, it's just that I've either already answered them or can't answer them fully without spoiling LOL)

[greeen-bean]

Thoughts on (slightly) toxic rooster?

Guys what did I say! Rooster resurgence!!!

Toxic rooster is fun, really none of these boys can have healthy relationships with each other and the only thing holding them together is love (and theyre technically co-workers lol) so theyre trying thier best.

I think communication would be their biggest downfall, especially of Rowan is still figuring out his sexuality while they're in the early stages of getting together (I still think rowan is straight (wrote a whole fic about it - go read "And all at once you started breaking down. Crying saying “please don’t leave me now.”") but this would work with him figuring out that he is bi/pan/etc too)

I think it would be a similar fwb situation as bicci, but less intense. Lister would definitely be having the voice in his head telling him he isn't worth anything more than a shag, and that he has no friends and people only care about his looks and want his around for sex, having Rowan be another person who in his opinion is wanting him for sex I think would hurt him a lot. Not that it's true, obviously, but that's how Lister is seeing it.

For Rowan, I think he would be completely in out of his depth, and he hates it! When you look at Rowans experience before, he has had one long-term girlfriend, and that's it. So suddenly being it with BAM, you're probably queer and BAM, you're in a casual situationship that you dont understand and have never been in before would be difficult for him. I think it would lead to him fluctuating between distancing himself from lister (which doesn't help with listers' feelings) and being overbearing of him. He would over analyse every interaction they had together and go crazy from it while Lister is just trying to test the waters of if they are still friends.

I am also a BIG ark polycule truther but I do think if we add Jimmy into the mix there would definitely be some jealousy being thrown around, not even necessarily in a romantic/sexual way but in a "these two are spending more time with each other than me and im feeling left out" but its all three of them feeling it and reacting to it at different points (like Jimmy feeling jealous when Rowan and Lister getting closer, but also Rowan feeling jealous and not understanding why at Lister and Jimmy) so it would make the times they all spend together a little awkward and maybe hostile (Listers all these bitches want you god life it hard) especially if rooster are trying to keep their thing on the dl from Jimmy, which would be another thing for them both to become insecure about

OH ALSO with how shaky Rowan and Listers relationship has been before (with the suitcase incident mostly, and how extreme rowans reaction to that was (with it technically not having anything to do with him but thats a conversationfor another day)) I think they would also be walking on eggshells around each other a lot at the start of them getting together, not wanting to say anything or do anything that could lead to them fighting, so they dont bring up any problems or have any talks about what is happening because theyre both on the defense and I think it could absolutely lead to some bitterness between them

Idk if any of this has made any sense, but I love rooster so much so hopefully some of it has come across

Also thank you so much for the ask 🥰🥰🥰

[aerinmoriarty]

What's something about Taylor's music that you're confident is true, even tho you have no proof?

I'll go first...

When Taylor says, "Crestfallen on the landing" in Champagne Problems, I think that phrase has 2 meanings. First, the obvious one: I was feeling Crestfallen while i was on the landing.

But I also think it's a reference to the Smashing Pumpkins song Crestfallen, either literally playing while this moment occurs, or playing through Taylor's head while she remembers back to that moment, or perhaps just... it's a song whose meaning feels related to the stories Taylor's trying to tell us. And because of that, I think it's interesting to theorize about Crestfallen and how it might apply here...

First off, if you've never heard this song and you're unfamiliar with this song... I highly recommend you give it a listen, because it's incredibly moving on its own. And the additional context it could give us on Taylor's meaning is fascinating.

Who am I to need you when I'm down

And where are you when I need you around

Your life is not your own

I think the last line of the initial three is particularly poignant with the context that Taylor very consistently uses the theme that her life is not her own in her art. Especially recently. So it's easy to apply it to both herself and her lover.

And all I ask you is for another chance

Another way around you

To live by circumstance

Once again

This is another line that is particularly interesting because when someone lives by circumstance, they are just living in reaction to the things that happen to them. They aren't trying to manifest some master plan into fruition.

The opposite of living by circumstance is having some overarching plan that you're trying to make happen in your own life and I think, especially with the context of mastermind.It's easy to apply this to Taylor's life.

Who am I to need you now

To ask you why

To tell you no

To deserve your love and sympathy

You were never meant to belong to me

So, I think (like many things in Taylor's work), Champagne Problems is designed to be read as a song about her romantic problems in life, but also it's about her relationship with self and the person she wanted to be versus the person she is and also about Brand Taylor versus Real Taylor...

And I'm not sure which of those contexts makes this line the most heartbreaking, right? Because in one context, it's about your lover never being meant to belong to you, which is a statement that everyone should come to see as true: your lover is their own person with agency and sense of self.

Put in the context of herself or her sense of self, it is a heartbreaking statement about how little agency many women have under patriarchy, even those women who are incredibly wealthy.

Put in the context of everything she put aside to become Brand Taylor, it becomes an especially dark statement about the erasure of popular figure's "True Selves" and how you're not allowed to get big in the entertsinment world without sacrificing a lot of your True Self. About how: even though Taylor might like to think that she could have gotten through this ordeal and preserved her True Self... that's not how it works.

And you may go but I know you won't leave

Too many years built into memories

Your life is not your own

Again, this is a line that has a lot of different layers of meaning depending on the aforementioned interpretation. And to be clear, I don't necessarily think these three different interpretations need to be mutually exclusive because I think, like most things in Taylor's life, they are all complexly interrelated.

On the one hand, it can be seen as talking about a partner that you know will come back to you (or at least will never fully leave you) even though you don't necessarily deserve that or the relationship isn't necessarily healthy for them.

On the other hand, it really talks about how many of us are not in control of our lives, but especially many public celebrities who are very heavily controlled by the rich and powerful industry figures who determine whether or not they get work. Taylor's life is not her own to be with the person she wants to be with because of her career.

Who am I to you?

Along the way I lost my faith

There is such a prevalent theme of losing faith or being oppressed by your faith structure and choosing to walk away from it in Taylor's work. There's also such a prevalent theme of people losing faith in her, including the fans. I think every Taylor Swift song (but especially every fairly recent one) should be considered from the angle that it is about Taylor's relationship with her fans and how that impacts her relationship with herself.

And as you are you'll be again

To mold like clay, to break like dirt

To tear me up in your sympathy

You were never meant to belong to me

You were never meant to belong to me

You were never meant to belong to me

So many classic "Taylor" elements here. Molding and shaping others and yourself, heartrending words... and this line "You Were Never Meant to Belong to Me," is SO powerful.

First, from the context that it's about a lover and especially that realization that the relationship is not meant to be and is not mutually beneficial in the way a healthy relationship should be. Second, from the concept that Taylor's own life was never going to be her own to live, especially in every reality that she becomes reasonably famous. Either the opinions of her fans or the opinions of the media or the opinions of her bosses and management at the label were going to have control of her.

Who am I?

Who am I?

Who am I?

Who am I?

Who am I?

Who am I?

Crestfallen ends with Billy Corgan repeating "Who Am I?" in an anguished tone. And again, I think it can be applied a lot of ways here.

"Who am I to think I deserved you?"

"Who am I to think I could have found a way to have myself, my lover, and my career?"

"Who am I to think I could have masterminded this?"

"Who am I to think I could have been the person who lived in defiance of the system while also profiting from us?"

I think one of the reasons i'm so convinced Taylor's referencing this song is because it's so easy to make so many links between Champagne Problems, Taylors work as a whole, and the emotions present in Crestfallen, it's a song i can easily see her self applying to her own situation.

[mdhwrites]

I saw a post a while ago lambasting Amphibia for having its characters 'do the most horrendous shit imaginable' for the sake of comedic plots and get off far too easily for it. In their view, Amphibia took slapstick comedy way 'too far' sometimes. I thought this was quite hyperbolic; the protagonists made serious mistakes, but rarely anything I'd call unforgivable, especially since they'd almost always show a level of remorse. But it did make me think about the way immoral acts are portrayed in comedic shows, and how we, as viewers, can tolerate and forgive things we probably wouldn't in real life because of the way these acts are presented to us.

I mean, think about Hop-Pop using mind control on Anne, Sprig and Polly in Children of the Spore. If anything like that happened to you in real life, chances are you wouldn't react to someone violating your body and mind by shrugging your shoulders and going 'well, guess we pushed you pretty far.' You'd probably beat the shit out of HP and never talk to him again. But that episode is kinda self-aware about the awfulness of it all (which I love). Polly flat-out says the old frog crossed all kinds of ethical and moral lines XD

Going back to the whole 'too far' accusation, though, I'm pretty sure we're smart enough to understand the difference between a silly frog show and real-life crimes. I don't think there needs to be super realistic consequences to everything (as the post I mentioned was suggesting) when your focus is on writing a slice-of-life fantastical comedy. I guess the only real argument you could make is 'but it's teaching kids to forgive absolutely atrocious, unforgivable things!' And...maybe? But I'm pretty sure any kid with their head screwed on straight understands not to replicate or forgive immoral behaviour too easily.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is, do you think characters doing awful things for the sake of comedy or plot can go too far, in that they can unintentionally make characters far too heinous to sympathize with, or do you think complaints like those of the post I mentioned above are a result of taking something far too seriously? Is there even such a thing as 'too far' when it comes to slapstick comedy?

So let's talk about intent, tone and framing because these things REALLY matter to a story. It's actually part of the problem with fandoms wanting everything to be realistic, darker, etc. because they're really asking for one thing: For them to all be the same. To not be what they are because, you know, the fact that these are comedy cartoons for kids MATTERS.

But first let's actually shift gears AWAY from cartoons for a second to talk about things being genuinely irredeemable for comedy. MANY people are really against prank style reality tv because it preys so completely on human suffering. Because these people are doing terrible things to just normal people. I personally don't like the premise... But I like Impractical Jokers. That show frames it DEMONSTRABLY more about terrible things happening to these four friends, by these four friends, and usually the worst they do to others is leave them a little confused or a bit uncomfortable. One of the big elements to changing this is that all the challenges are effectively dares. Someone either commits to the bit or if it becomes too much, they dip out but they are ALLOWED to dip out, minus the final jokes which are always pretty much purely at the Joker's expense.

Are these four people bad people? No. But part of why we also know that is because it's television and they're doing it to entertain as part of being comedians. Bizarrely enough, a lot of modern cartoon fandoms seem to want to act like fiction IS reality. It's where you get people going "Oh, you're being so cruel to a 14 year old, nuerodivergent girl!" and me going "I'm being critical of a character in a narrative. Can you please stop telling me, an actual human being in the real world, to kill myself because of a fictional character?"

Because shock of all shocks, PEOPLE CAN TELL REALITY FROM FICTION! In fact, even kids can! The fucking video game industry had to go through this hell HARD to prove that killing people in a video game is not the same as having psychopathic tendencies in the real world. Do you know how many kids play CoD? And those kids are fine. At least most of them.

So with all of that preamble out of the way: When can a morality focused show fuck up?

It's actually incredibly rarely in the terrible things the characters do because the show USUALLY addresses these elements as part of the moral of the day.

For the example given of Hop Pop's mind control, it is shown as... Eerie to put it mildly. Even from go, Hop Pop only enjoys it so long as he doesn't have to interact with it. It is never framed as a positive besides a bit selfishness. However, Hop Pop is a good enough person to show genuine remorse and try to fix this. He puts in a lot of effort, is admonished as the lesson of the day is learned to not try to control people and to potentially compromise and then it MOVES. ON. Because they live in a fantasy world where anyone could die at any second. A day of none thoughts is not actually that big of a deal, especially since it wasn't done out of malice or even really on purpose. It's a part of the fun of the setting and of the fantasy genre as a whole that you can just do these weird concepts like this and move on because magic happens sometimes. You might grumble for a day or two but hey, at least it was your neighbor and not the king, am I right!? Hail King Andrias.

A big part of this though, and why so many morality driven shows can have characters do terrible things without imparting the wrong lessons, is because it's addressed. Pretty much explicitly. It is framed as wrong, addressed as wrong and then fixed because it was WRONG. Even if it gives momentary gain, that gain is almost always also included in being wrong.

It's actually a formula that Amphibia purposefully breaks for an episode, carrying it over from directly the one before, because there genuinely was one crime committed that hadn't been addressed and by the time it was, that sin had grown to a point where it was too reasonable to have a character still be mad to ignore it: The music box. Hop Pop hiding it is actually an AWFUL thing to do because it dooms Anne, it means her parents will never get closure, dooms the rest of Anne's friends, etc. etc. Hop Pop has to be okay with Anne never quite being fully happy because of always wanting to go home while also living with this false hope that he implanted into her. A trust he has not earned because of the lie.

So even after they theoretically have their morality episode about the box, Amphibia takes this time for such a PERSONAL attack on Anne to stick with her for another episode during The First Temple. It actually acknowledges that you don't get over everything immediately. That sometimes you need space. I don't even like that episode but the break in formula is actually meant to make the message more powerful, and does so successfully, especially because the crime was different. It wasn't of indifference or something quickly fixed. It was of long term AGONY and a complete breach in trust that would make one question what relationship they can have with another person. There's pretty much zero other crimes in the show like that besides Sasha/Marcy's betrayals, which aren't treated as easy fixes, and Andrias' betrayal is the heel turn that makes him the primary antagonist. These crimes, these personal, genuinely awful things to do to other people that could be replicated, unlike so much of the fantasy violence, are usually seen as something you do have to work on. It's a great, nuanced take on being a morality one off show while also being able to elevate some issues to being dealt with more seriously and consistently.

Also, quick note from someone on my Discord: They NEED to do bad things in order to teach! They are meant to be the bad example so when their actions lead to things going wrong, you understand not to copy that behavior. This is honestly storytelling 101 for most... Plots. Not just morals but plots. If the characters do NOTHING, nothing happens and nothing will be learned.

You want a show that will teach kids bad lessons and then reinforce there are no consequences for those? WELCOME TO THE OWL HOUSE! Specifically: The show that tells you to lie and keep secrets because your fear justifies keeping them!

I know that sounds shitty but like... Luz is the main character. For half of the show, she is portrayed as the second most moral character in the show behind Willow. She admonishes stealing, cheating, etc. as her contrast with Eda. Then after Yesterday's Lie... She literally can't stop lying and never faces consequences for it.

The closest actually comes in Falls and Follies where Amity at least forces a promise out of Luz to be more open with her. This actually though doesn't fix the problem, it just makes it WAY WORSE because one of the main targets of these lies, that kids can easily replicate, especially because Luz is almost always lying about things that might upset others which is the most common thing kids will lie about, is Amity. So now we have both lying and breaking promises. You know, two of the most basic morals any kids show should impart on the audience!

In Reaching Out though, Amity gets a little mad but then it's excused because of her dad! In Thanks to Them, no one gives a shit that Luz has been keeping secrets and lying for months. Camila makes sure Luz DOESN'T tell her friends the truth either about her plans. You know, Luz's MOM who should want her daughter to be an honest person. The show then constantly keeps cutting Luz off from telling anyone anything because it literally can't without revealing how bullshit what she's doing is until by the end of the show... Luz hasn't been punished in any way and the lies just... Drift away.

Completely unaddressed.

This causes a problem because while the lies theoretically hurt Luz... They hurt less than losing her friends. Hurt less than disappointing a parent. Hurt less than making her look bad. And this is the main character. The one kids are supposed to connect with the most. The one who usually most explicitly defines the morality of a show. And she is never punished or stopped from all. Of. Her. Lies.

(As a note: This is also how you get a lot of guys taking the wrong lessons from anime perverts. Sure, this guy gets smacked but he never loses his friends. Never faces real consequences. In return... He gets way more ass than the main character does, doesn't he? *gags violently*)

THAT is how you impart bad morals. It's not surprising to me that the fandom for TOH hides behind excuses so much for their show because their literal main character was justified, in fiction, to have all of the terrible things she did, all the choices she didn't have to make or the people she discarded, because she ALWAYS had an excuse. And so long as you have an excuse, by what TOH says, you can get away with fucking anything.

And mind you, that last part is NOT Luz specific. Have a bad uncle? Don't worry Hunter, the fact that you literally hunt, oppress and potentially kill wild witches can be entirely forgotten and ignored. Have a mean mommy? Don't worry Amity, we literally never have to properly address the literal years of bullying you did to another character or even how attempting to kill Luz was wrong. Collector? COME ON! You just had bad friends/family so now you just need good ones and we can forget all about you oppressing people for fucking months!

This isn't addressing these problems. These are excuses. And excuses can seem REALLY appealing to people. After all, how many hide awful acts or statements behind: "Come on, it was just a joke." Shields are useful for trying to avoid criticism after all. If you never acknowledge you were in the wrong, you don't have to feel bad for having done something mean, let alone terrible.

Just to bring it back to Amphibia: Sasha tries to do this. She believes she knows best so she feels justified in all she does because it will make everyone the happiest, at least in her own eyes. Then in Turning Point, she realizes the folly of her ways, addresses that she was a terrible person and plants her foot down FIRM. No more acting the part of protector while actually being a tyrant. She will risk her very life in order to right these wrongs. And we see it also in Commander Anne where she is taking the change seriously. These are two half episodes, a single episode in full, that lets us know that her actions were inexcusable and that they were wrong and now she is allowed to be a part of the good guys now that she has made sure the audience knows that they can look to her as an example.

One full episode to ADDRESS the fact that what Sasha did was wrong and to not excuse it but to learn from it.

That's why all these terrible things protagonists do in shows is fine. They learn from it. They genuinely regret their actions. They show the audience why they shouldn't have done it. It's never okay to the show that they did. Not that it can't be forgiven, because people should be allowed the chance to grow, but that it still wasn't okay.

For a kid's show, that is pitch perfect. It's why moral of the day storytelling exists and I can't really think of any huge errors in this department on Amphibia's side. It's pretty damn good at smacking someone over the head when they act like a jackass. At bare minimum, there are WAY worse examples out there.

======+++++======

This is absolutely one of those criticisms that has me look at the person making it and go "Just admit you don't like cartoons. Or children's media in general probably." Admittedly, there's actually plenty of adult stuff just as childish, no one stays mad in Family Guy, so it's probably just "You don't like cartoons." It's the sort of bad faith criticism that just reveals you as not having actually wanted the product but whatever you thought the product should be.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[frozenartscapes]

What crossover do you think would be the coolest/funniest/saddest for FE3H? ATLA? Sailor Moon? Etc.?

So... This may not be what you're thinking, but I recently had an AU idea (that I probably won't write but I just want to share). Having recently watched the Wild Robot, I had a thought:

Hegemon Edelgard as Roz

Ok, so the story would have to change a fair bit, but essentially, following the events of Azure Moon, it is revealed that Edelgard survived and escaped into the forests of Adrestia. She's not completely transformed - think her more human form in Heroes - and she has to come to terms with this. This transformation has not only altered her body, but she now has new abilities she needs to learn. On top of trying to survive in the wilderness, she also has to process the fact that everyone she knows and ever cared for is dead.

She's alone, in the wild.

Being half beast allows her to understand the other animals, however none of them are especially welcoming to her at first (and she isn't either). On top of that, she has new instincts she needs to fight and is completely lost on what her new motivation should be. (Which is a problem in itself because Edelgard's primary coping mechanism for all of the trauma she's faced in the past is to double down on a big goal - something to keep her mind occupied so she doesn't run the risk of thinking too hard about just how much her heart actually hurts. The old "if I stop and think about this for more than two seconds I'll go insane" trope.)

Then, through a series of events involving having to defend herself from an angry demonic wolf and haphazardly thrown fireballs, she hits an eagle nest. To her horror, she discovers the family has all died - except for a single egg. To stop herself from becoming completely consumed by guilt, she decides to take care of the egg. It hatches soon after, and taking care of an egg turns into taking care of the chick inside.

She meets other animals and forms bonds with them along the way. A solitary raven she saves from a trap, who decides he is in eternal debt to her. A songbird who offers the most advice in how to raise a baby bird. A stag who is always trying to challenge her at first, until he realizes she makes a better friend than competition. A wolf who teaches her how to properly hunt and fend for herself in the wild. A mouse whose kindness outweighs her terror to show comfort to Edelgard when she was obviously on the verge of a breakdown. A badger who takes it upon himself to fight off any predators who may try to harm them, no matter the size difference. A possum who, despite seeming rather lazy, offers a lot of advice about foraging techniques and building comfortable habitats.

It is revealed that the eagle would have been the runt and likely would have died had nature been allowed to take its course. There is still tension when she learns just how her family died, but she realizes that Edelgard did everything possible to make up for it.

Along the way, Edelgard becomes more and more in tune with her wild side, and starts to learn more about what the Hegemon can really do. She can give herself wings, and she and the eagle learn to fly at the same time. Her claws she once thought monstrous now protect the things she cares about. She incorporates her tail into fighting. She uses magic now - magic that is wilder than anything she learned in school and allows her to feel more in touch with the forest. It isn't long before she feels more at home in the woods than she ever did in civilization, and she is happy to let this life be her new one forever.

Until the Agarthans learn she's still alive.

Dimitri and Byleth might have killed Thales, but a new leader took his place and succeeded in evading the King's attempts to snuff them out. Once the Agarthans learned that one of their most powerful weapons was still alive, they tracked her down and captured her (not without a fight, mind you). It then falls on her animal companions to stage a rescue mission, led by the eagle Edelgard saved, who rallies not just the main animals but many of the forest inhabitants as well.

The Agarthans tried to force Edelgard to obey them, going so far as to push her transformation to what Thales had originally envisioned for the Hegemon Husk (I always thought the Hegie we get in the game was still a transition stage, and that the true form of the Hegemon Husk would be like a twisted version of the Immaculate One - or an approximation of what Sothis' dragon form would look like). The eagle finds her while the others are stalling, and thanks to the Power of Love, snaps Edelgard out of her rage state. She then turns on the Agarthans, and succeeds in wiping them out. However, as she kills the leader, he wheezes out that there will always be more, and they won't stop until they have their weapon.

The animals celebrate their victory, but Edelgard can't get the Agarthan's words out of her head. Their forest home sustained heavy damage in the attack, and a number of animals died. Even amongst her main group, the stag had suffered a close call while charging an enemy mage, the badger broke his leg, and the wolf has a permanent scar across her eye. She makes a decision, then.

King Dimitri is in his castle in Faerghus, busy trying to work out a peace deal between Fódlan and Almyra. Suddenly a guard bursts into his study, stating hurriedly that there's some strange forest witch demanding to see the king. Dimitri, exhausted by paperwork, decides to humour this and heads for the audience chamber.

That's when he comes face to face with a ghost - or maybe demon. She wears an old, torn cloak covered in moss and a dress that looks to have come from the forest floor itself. The tips of golden horns peak through the hood of her cloak. A black eagle sits on her shoulder. She offers a cordial bow, revealing hands armed with obsidian claws. "Dimitri," she says in a voice he has heard countless times in his nightmares, "It has been a long time."

"...Edelgard?" he breathes. Goddess... What has become of her?

Edelgard smiled, revealing a glimpse of her fangs. "I come to you today with a proposition," she stated, "How do you feel about finally ridding the shadows of Fódlan of the wretched snakes that dwell there?"

[stardustdiiving]

What popular familial headcanons do you not like? If you're willing to share, of course

This post was specifically about parent / child interpretations of Zhongli & Xiao and Nahida & Wanderer ! which r my favorite genshin character dynamics and also involve my two category 5 genshin blorbos . Like obvious disclaimer I don’t have a problem with people liking said hcs but I have kind of a bad grudge against both bc I’m a bit polarized out of people just Really Really insisting on them whenever I talk / make fanworks about the characters ☹️ along with just really not liking the characterizations attached to both dynamics esp in how they handle Xiao & Nahida

Elaborating on both for fun & how I like to characterize them under the cut

I like Zhongli & Xiao as a form of character study where you kind of lean into the god/follower power dynamic and the way Xiao’s idea of duty/devotion blends with his internalized dehumanization. The idea is Xiao gives Zhongli a lot of power over him bc he wants to be devoted to Zhongli as a weapon more than a person while Zhongli is, used to being in a position of power but trying to navigate around this bc he wants Xiao to learn to exist outside suffering

Its not a very actively destructive dynamic for either of them but it’s kind of challenging Xiao’s dehumanization of himself and willingness to die/suffer for Zhongli out of a deeply engrained loyalty and devotion to him. I sometimes enjoy zhongxiao (their ship) in the sense I think it can be fun to throw in very unbalanced complicated romantic feelings into this for added drama/ambiguity, though this is something I totally get people not being into, it just appeals to me the same way Pearl/Rose from Steven Universe was my gay awakening at age 11 ahshhxhx. Even then I don’t look to ship material very much bc I’m not really interested in a conventional romantic relationship with them, just a specific kind of Character Exploration if that makes sense?

But with that in mind I’m just really not into the father/son portrayal bc I feel it’s just really awkward and weird to do any of the complicated emotional introspection or w/e I’m interested in doing w the dynamic through that lens. People can be really pushy about the headcanon whenever I talk about it to a degree that’s kinda off putting….and im not a fan of characterizing Xiao as this edgy emo teenager like a lot of people seem to do with it you know?

Nahida & Wanderer I do enjoy exclusively platonically / even as “found family”, but I am a rare case of being more of a Nahida guy over a Scaramouche guy so it doesn’t do much for me when Nahida is reduced to being his mom/therapist/emotional crutch/etc especially when a big reason I love hat radish is the way both characters compliment each other and have a lot of basis for a very mutual and balanced relationship. I feel mom/therapist Nahida adds a kind of, inherent emotional imbalance(?) to their relationship that kinda contradicts with what appeals to me about hat radish in the first place. I think the way both characters narratively foil/contrast each other and become friends who very much seem to be on each other’s level when both of them have often felt alienated/isolated in their lives is what makes them very charming, so I’m only really interested in interpretations that maintain that mutualness & sense of them being able to learn from each other evenly you know!

I’m also just not fond of maternal/therapist Nahida in particular because I’m just really not a fan of the way female characters in fiction are often regulated to just being “the mom friend” or emotional crutch especially for male characters. This is especially off putting to me with Wanderer & Nahida because while yeah by technicality they’re both 500 years old, I think Nahida being childlike is very relevant to the narrative of her character, so I’m even less enthusiastic about making her dynamic with a comparatively adult man one where she parents him and helps him through all his emotional angst. Because when I see people portray Wanderer as this angry emo teenager who yells at her for telling her to clean his room (which I think is also ooc for him tbh!) or only exist to comfort him emotionally because they think it’s funny/cute the first thing on my mind is like….well, why do we think the idea of a girl being motherly and nurturing to fix a guy’s emotional angst is cute? Why do we think a teenage boy screaming at his mom in a very “boys will be boys, the girl is the mature one” way is funny? It’s just, EUHFHFJF. The undertones of it of it just don’t agree with me and I don’t like the idea of waving off potential bias in how we engage with gender, race, etc in fiction just because it’s “not that deep” or just one headcanon. And I don’t mean this as like a moral, personal judgement against everyone who does this headcanon of course, just that it does very much follow certain trends of how female characters are treated in fandom and I don’t think we have to tip toe around that you know

Like…I don’t know! Like I said, I think Nahida’s childlikeness is important to her character & how she furthers the themes of Sumeru; I mean that the reason she’s neglected her entire life is because Sages disregard the idea a child has any “useful” wisdom to offer them + feel emboldened to mistreat her because of that:

The same beliefs that lead the Sages to abandon Nahida are ultimately the same beliefs that lead them to collaborate with the Fatui to construct divinity for Scaramouche; it’s the antagonistic rhetoric of Sumeru’s story that Nahida exists in conflict with! Which is also foundational for hat radish, you know? Because I think something that makes them charming is how much they can contrast another—them ideologically crashing like this at first just makes any development where they get to know each other later on a lot more impactful bc stuff like this does a lot to ground the characters in a story!

Nahida & Wanderer are both characters who long for human connection after frequently being isolated/alienated/discarded, so naturally it would be great for them to make a friend they feel on equal standing with and feel understood by. People talk alot about what Nahida can do for Wanderer, and we see it very explicitly in Inversion of Genesis; she knows what to say to help him feel humanized while not feeling pitied or coddled, but this naturally in my eyes would go both ways where Wanderer being less bright eyed about the world I think would help Nahida feel grounded in a lot of places.

There’s also just something cute about Wanderer being generally established to get along well with kids and him being friends with Nahida, because it really makes me imagine ur setting up for a dynamic where Wanderer probably likes Nahida’s more childish qualities that she was formerly very discarded for. Azar talks very disparagingly of Nahida’s capacity for empathy/compassion, but it seems to be those exact qualities that Wanderer comes to respect about her. He rolls with her being silly and playful with him (see: Hat Guy nickname) & just generally gives me the impression their friendship is probably one both characters could come to comfortably be themselves within. And i just feel I’d lose a lot of that if I did like a maternal or therapist route! So UM. That’s my long winded reasoning for why I’m not really into the dominating familial hat radish fanon SHUSHXJX

[anonymoushotsexyperson]

This post on twitter PISSED me off and I can't stop thinking about how no one cares about their friends anymore! SOOO here's a blog post about it.

LIKE ALWAYS THE BIG BOLD PURPLE TEXT ACTS AS STAMPS TO BREAK THE READING UP INTO SMALLER SECTIONS TO ACCOMMODATE THOSE WITH SMALLER ATTENTION SPANS WHO ARE MORE INTRIGUED IN ONE PIECE OVER THE ENTIRE POST! ^-^

Reading everything is encouraged though!

HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO CREATE THE LEVELS OF COMRADERY NEEDED TO OVER THROW THE GOVERNMENT IF YOU MOTHA FUCKAS CANT FIND THE SPACE TO TEXT YOUR FRIENDS BACK?? BESTIE BE SO FUCKING FORREAL!:

(THIS section is a little bit off topic from the rest but I can't HELP but mention it.) I think we should all start doing what the original poster did with our friends to be honest. We need to make space for our feelings and expectations in our friendship. Like learn how to fucking leave space for your community. I may have wrote about this before if not I will def be writing about it soon but the lack of community building and intimate friendship skills in gen z is so harmful in so many ways. Not only does it create this 'loneliness epidemic' ( if you're anything like me you've watched a million YouTube video essays on) but dude... DO YOU THINK ROSA PARKS JUST GOT ON THAT DAMN BUS HER DAMN SELF ON A RANDOM ASS DAY AND IT STARTED A REVOLUTION???? NO. They organized that! IT WAS AN ACTIVIST GROUP WHO DID IT AND PLANNED IT! How do you think black activism was able to prevail through the racist ass civil rights movement? COMMUNITY BUILDING AND GRASS ROOTS ORGANIZING AND GIRL LOOK AT THE STATE OF THE WORLD WE COULD USE THAT RIGHT NOW !

"SOMETIMES YOUR FRIEND IS DEPRESSED" IS AN EXPLANATION NOT EXCUSE (DONT SHARPEN ANY PITCHFORKS YET JUST LISTEN):

NOWWWW listen, I know we are all at our own pace with interpersonal relationships I get that, I can already hear the "Sometimes your friends can be depressed though so maybe YOU should consider that" crowd grabbing their pitchforks but, dude. Especially if you're an adult, you need to learn how to master these obstacles in certain situations. I know this sucks so bad and its unfair but your relationships are still half your responsibility hurting someone because you weren't mentally well still hurt them. I know this better than fucking anyone as someone who has borderline and had to come to terms with that myself. It's an annoying and unfair and hard truth but once you admit it to yourself you can become a better companion. We all have things going on but the people in your life deserve the respect of you at the least attempting to communicate on why you're not upholding the level of intimacy you have set for yourself with said person. Next section are two fairly easy skills to help manage your mental health but be a good friend. ALSO if you're doing the things in the next section with them and your friends still is an ass about it because they don't like the compromise you were able to give or whatever DO be mindful that the relationship is half their responsibility too. Friends should be able to leave space for their mentally ill friends (if they're being properly communicated to and their needs are also being taken into account) that can look like patience understanding and willingness to compromise or lending a helping hand or shoulder to cry on, meeting you where you're at. And if they can't do that after you extend that communication or compromise to them maybe you guys shouldn't be close friends who expect those things from one another or possibly not friends at all but thats up to you to choose!

A TIP FOR YOU DEPRESSED BITCHES :

( I use bitch and hoe as terms of endearment I love my depressed shawty baes)

You bad at communicating and you about to ghost all your friends? Well before you do or better yet when you're in a healthy state of mind tell them thats a problem you have and if its a friend you're really close to who might still need reassurance when you go ghost try to come up with some compromise like "I will still go ghost in the sense that I won't communicate but ill send memes I see to let you know your on my mind!" or "I will do a week/ monthly check in with you but thats all I have the energy for." (remember not to abuse these strategies though! throughout your journey of healthy confrontation you will learn how to discern between whether or not you are using them because you genuinely need them in that moment or if its because you are closing yourself away from the world a toxic amount and need to face your feelings around and with other people)

A TIP FOR YOU HOES OUT THERE WHO HAVE TROUBLE COMMUNICATING :

Muster up the strength to say or set up something like this maybe before you enter that state of mind while you're still in the good place! "hey I have a habit of doing ____ if i'm not in a good place. So when you text me I will text back this same funny meme or tiktok etc as a symbol to let you know i'm in I wanna die mode!" this is a way to communicate to your close friends that you're in a bad headspace at the moment and can't give much energy to the friendship without really having to say anything besides the first time you bring it up if you're uncomfortable all you have to do is send that meme or maybe emoji etc! (Make sure you aren't abusing this strategy to avoid working on your communication issues though because that can regress your communication abilities and friendships even further this is something you will learn and determine for yourself through trial and erorr)

Remember both of these sections are first steps but we also wanna work on being able to compromise SOMETIMES when we haven't left the bad place yet but I know many of you aren't ready for that. SO I won't scare y'all away.

OVERALL TAKE/ CLOSING STATEMENT:

Maybe you're someone who genuinely can't maintain close intimate friendships with sensitive people and maybe i'm wrong here and this might offend you but in most cases I believe thats not true. A lot of people are just scared of sensitivity and emotions. A lot of people are fed up with life and won't allow themselves to push passed their own imaginary limits to open up the can of worms that truly is making and maintaining intimate friendships.

The truth is a lot of us ARE sensitive, but we make ourselves smaller for all the people we love because "they have other stuff going on". I can't help but think if you agree with the qrt or had an 'its not that deep' reaction thats the qualities of being a bad friend (and its not your fault because within especially western individualist culture and patriarchal culture thats what we are taught to be but UNLEARN it).

Also I understand being traumatized by someone who was really sensitive and didn't know how to communicate and they became abusive, I also understand that having a sensitive friend again after that can be triggering. I'm so sorry that happened to you. BUT I hope you don't let your abuser take away this learning experience from you because healthy confrontation once learned is such a beautiful thing. ALSO healthy confrontation doesn't mean devoid of any emotion or things that make you uncomfortable don't expect people who are upset at you to shit sunshine and fart rainbows but its important to make sure you're NOT being verbally abused either. (I will make a post soon about healthy confrontation soon and what that looks like). Hey i'm not saying the original poster had the healthiest response either (im pretty sure the kms thing was meant to be a self deprecating joke not actual emotional manipulation keep that in mind) but it is a natural response to being hurt and more than likely the type of response you give after multiple offenses not just one thing. That is the behavior of someone who's felt ostracized for a while. I would not in any way shape or form consider it an abusive response though yeah it makes you uncomfortable, which circles me back around to the beginningof this. Stop making yourself smaller for the people you love, it's okay to make things uncomfortable by mentioning your feelings because they need to learn to be comfortable with talking about things.

If you continue to make yourself smaller for the people you love, one day you will look around you and you will see all the people you love, but you won't see the people who love you and... that? THAT is pain.

so reader, what do you think? Leave a comment even if you disagree! I genuinely wanna know.

[project-changeling-zero]

[ s**cide warning ] - a big problem i have with sonic prime s3 ( amongst several other ones i have ).

.

i've talked about this at length ( more or less ) with a friend of mine and this bothered both of us, so i wanted to see if anyone else had this issue.

according to one scene in s3, Sonic is canonically suicidal. not self-sacrificial ( which can mean the same thing, but often doesn't ), but suicidal.

for comparisons sake, let's talk about Leonardo from ROTTMNT, who was the example of self-sacrificial.

Leonardo and Sonic are in a similar boat. they made a mistake ( though, i firmly believe Sonic's was less of a mistake and more of an unfortunate circumstance ), and they try to fix it throughout the story.

while i'm not going to debate Sonic's characterization here ( cuz i think it's utter dogshit and is for an entirely different post ), i will talk about the mindsets that make these two different.

Leonardo didn't want to die here. he was fine with doing so, but only because he believed that would keep his family safe. if he did want to die, we wouldn't see Leo put so much thought into his actions.

we see that he isn't looking for the opportunity to die. throughout the entire movie, he's self-destructive because he knows that, at least to some extent, the plan going wrong was his fault. he knows ( or believes, depending on how you view the movie ) that Raph sacrificing himself only happened because Leo didn't listen.

so, Leonardo isn't suicidal, but self-sacrificial. because he just wants his family back.

now, let's move back to Sonic.

( this is not the scene where he's suicidal, obviously )

when Sonic goes to confront Nine on his own, Nine says at some point:

"you want to save everyone. friends, foes, total strangers. you say it's because you're a hero and that's what heroes do, but deep down... after what you did, destroying your own home, it's the only way you can ever live with yourself. even if that means you won't live at all."

this is Sonic's self-destructive behavior.

rather than focusing on one goal, Sonic focuses on all of them ( to varying degrees, cuz the writer's don't know what they're doing ) at expense of his own. yes, he wants Green Hill to come back, but it's more of for his friends ( Shadow included ) than for himself.

at first, he misses Green Hill. he really wants to go home. but by s3, it's more or less him just wanting Green Hill to exist again. it's like he no longer cares if he's in the picture.

and considering how Sonic was the key to everything ( due to his Prism energy ), he'd have to become a sacrifice at some point, but this confrontation is different.

for one thing, Sonic is alone.

he tries to push his friends away before talking to Nine.

he doesn't deny that he can't live with himself if he doesn't try to save everyone.

the only reason Sonic stopped was because his friends intervened.

of course, Sonic might not show all the symptoms of a suicidal person ( unless ofc, you're looking into this as deep as i am ), but that's not because he's no longer suicidal. that's not how it works. it's because right after the intervention, it's never brought up again. it's just bad writing and it's disrespectful.

but as i see Sonic as someone who's suicidal, according to the suicide prevention resource center, the symptoms are:

feeling unbearable pain

Nine's comment on how it's the "only way he can live with himself" can be seen as Sonic feeling unbearable pain from his own guilt. this can also be related to Sonic in s2 when he's in Ghost Hill for the first time.

Sonic has been going left and right trying to help everyone else in their respective Gateways that his progress on returning home slowed. especially since he didn't know Green Hill didn't have its own Gateway, but instead was destroyed.

death, or a recent fascination with death.

his sacrifice could be seen as such. especially since this was after what Nine said.

feeling hopeless, worthless, or trapped.

throughout s3, Sonic repeatedly has doubt or hopeless about himself or the situations around him. of course, the moments are fleeting, but the amount of times he does this could lead to something a suidical person would say or do.

feeling guilt, shame, or anger.

aside from his guilt, Sonic has expressed shame ( it doesn't help Shadow kept beating it into him that it was his fault every 2 seconds ) in s2-s3, and anger was prominent within s3. it was towards Nine, mostly, but it felt almost unnatural or uncharacteristic anger.

feeling like a burden to others.

Sonic had tried to isolate himself from everyone else more than once, emotionally or physically, and only stopped once his friends made it clear they weren't leaving.

changes in behavior or mood that are relevant to Sonic specifically:

recent attempt ( again, sacrifice )

withdrawing from family, friends, or community ( his repeated attempts to do things alone // isolating himself due to his guilt )

losing interest in personal appearance or hygiene ( more or less out of Sonic's control, but we've only seen him take even a little bit care of himself when he was on Dread's ship )

a recent episode of depression, emotional distress, and // or anxiety ( repeated emotional distress, having to be pulled out of the cave, shaking or fidgeting hands, etc. )

changes in eating // sleeping patterns ( again, not totally within his control, but it would affect one's mental state regardless )

becoming violent or being a victim of violence ( ...*COUGHS* sha- *COUGHS* ni- *COUGHS* )

expressing rage ( Sonic's borderline threats about Nine )

recklessness ( ... )

again, because this is never brought up after, i wouldn't be surprised if people didn't think too much into this scene beyond "oh, Nine's evil and mean".

purely from a writer's perspective, i don't think Sonic Prime is a good show. it's what i consider a "junk food show". something to laugh at for its quality. but i don't consider it a good show.

so, i'm not surprised that Sonic's suicidal behavior or the talk about Sonic's mindset isn't brought up again, but it is still disappointing and offensive to those who struggled or continue to struggle with suicidal ideation or acts.

this is probably the only official Sonic media that has a suicidal Sonic, and they don't even treat it with respect. because of course they don't. what does it matter? Sonic's a dumb little guy anyway!

anyway, this is just my long way of saying that i see Sonic as a suicidal hero, not a self-sacrificial one ( or not only a self-sacrificial one ), and why Sonic Prime pisses me off for this reason.

it's fine to have a suicidal hero character. it brings a lot of things up for discussion.

but it's not okay to use it as a way to make your audience sad for a few minutes, then pull the rug from beneath them.

[iriswestallenn]

The discourse on Saltburn is so interesting to me because you either choose to take the movie as a fun romp or a movie "that had nothing [new] to say." Or that things happened just for shock value.

While there's definitely an argument to be made that this film had nothing/little to say, (as I am struggling with some themes they seemed to drop halfway through as well,) I just took this movie as a fun romp haha. You have to sit back and remember... they drew curtains back after a major character death and the entire room was RED! They isolate their black family member. They put a deer costume on Oliver during his bday party. A DEER. This movie was never trying to be subtle.

I've seen some crazy takes like "rich people good?" lmao Felix is arguably the 'nicest' family member right? Jacob Elordi and the script honestly do a really good job showing he's just as shitty as his family. After telling Oliver about his life, he asks Oliver, what about you? Cmon, what else? Siblings? ANYTHING interesting about you? Oliver should not have lied... if he didn't though, do you actually believe Felix would have kept talking to him? Felix gathered his family around and told them exactly "what happened" to Olivers mom and dad. No one would DO THAT! Especially if you've invited this person to your home!!

This internet age refuses to accept multiple things can be true at the same time haha when Felix learned from Farleigh that Ollie and Venetia hooked up, Felix STOMPED to the breakfast table. Folded his arms, ignored Ollie, made no eye contact. Then admitted he didn't want Ollie to be with Venetia, he had a problem with THE LAST GUY he brought to their home being with Venetia. They bring a new "poor" person their home every damn Summer. Multiple truths: 1. Felix shouldn't have been friggin killed. 2. Felix was a shitty person. Jesus

I understand the shock value critique. None of the three big scenes came across like shock value to me personally. I think it's because 1. It was all coming from Oliver. Oliver slurped the tub water, he fucked the grave, he put the period blood back in Venetias mouth. I think if everyone in the family was also doing weird fucked up shit, I'd be like, oookay. Now how is everyone here a weirdo? lol but it was just Oliver. 2. I thought this was a cannibalism movie lmao so I was actually expecting worse!

Obviously people can have different opinions but this movie and its discourse have been super interesting to me. I really enjoyed this movie but my main negative is that it does present itself in the beginning of the movie as though it has something to say but it doesn't have much to say? You're also not made aware that Olivers main objective was the house. Or if it wasn't the house at the start, at what point did it become about getting everything from the family?

Remember the friend Ollie had at the school that he later dropped? That friends last words to Ollie were, "he'll [felix] will get bored of you." Or something like that. That was so dumb lmao Venetia says this exact thing later in the movie. Why not make that friends last words to Ollie about status? Tie that into what Farleigh begins to tell Ollie and make Ollies goal clear to the audience even before the "plot twist."

That scene in school with the tutor. Oliver read the whole summer reading list. He came to college ready to go by the rules and succeed. There's no clear turning point imo. When Farleigh gets there late, doesn't care, definitely didn't read the reading list, and the tutor is like, "I knew your hot mom. We weren't friends, I just admired her from afar." I wish there was more focus on Oliver realizing following the rules would get him nowhere he wanted to be.

I ended up enjoying this movie because I'm satisfied with how fun it was, how GORGEOUS it looks, and how great the performances are. Not good, great performances truly. It's so sad that this could have been a 'no plot, just vibes' kinda movie. But instead there is some semblance of a plot lol it's just not fully fleshed out. I still think people are taking it way too seriously and the genuine distain for it is odd but there's a tug and pull here for sure.

[overflowchute]

i figured out how to phrase a problem i feel ygo is constantly struggling with nowadays

i finally figured out how to phrase an issue that's kind of unique to ygo as card games go and part of what i think is a big problem regarding its market. what makes ygo unique compared to the other major card games is just how much it changes fundamentally. power creep is part of it, but it's also because of how ygo changes its rules system completely every master rule. this creates a very strange situation where, unlike other card games where speed and individual options change but the structure stays about the same, if you like ygo for a few years and then check back in in like 5-10 years the game is gonna be something which isn't even remotely like what it was when you played.

this is its niche, and it's not necessarily bad. but it does lead to the scenario where the people who play ygo are either hardliners with one major hobby who live and breathe it and will literally play and buy product no matter what the fuck happens, and then, like, people who randomly got into it recently and just like the style as it is now. that's part of why historical formats are so popular in ygo, goat and edison aren't just weaker power level or whatever, they are literally fundamentally different games

but this also kinda means that if you like those fundamentally different games, for instance if you liked the pre-duelist alliance xyz era, or the pre-link era, you're kinda fucked because they're never going to make new cards for that sort of game again because it legit doesn't exist. or if they do make cards it'll always be a weird "casual" thing you can only play with fellow "casual ygo players" assuming you can agree on a ruleset.

the main exception to this are konami's occasional nostalgia formats and games like duel links. but duel links is a great example because it wasnt based around a specific niche, it was based around just doing ygo again from the beginning, so we repeated the cycle - liked synchro only era? you got a year, duel links has moved on, gg. speed duel never went past gx and cut out a lot of stuff. and rush duel is just konami starting a completely new thing because ygo is too much of a hassle to make appealing to kids anymore lol. they're never going to try to create a format that exists as a "lower power level" where they also consistently print cards into it and aim to not power creep it, it's just not how konami works. so in general certain eras really only exist as memories and single formats where like 4 decks were playable na dif you don't like those or wish they'd get a new card injection there's really nothing for you lol

they try to deal with this problem through legacy support, which is not a bad idea, but realistically legacy support runs into the exact same problem as everything else where there's earnestly only one ygo format that matters and if you play a shit deck you're going to barely get to play the game. so legacy support has to all be pushed to make a deck vaguely playable or be obviously made to make your deck just slightly less of a laughing stock. and realistically the vast majority of decks are not going to become playable from legacy support, especially if their gameplay style is outdated. so most cards as usual have no reason to exist except theoretically being playable somewhere some day maybe if we hope

that's not even getting into how power creep does fundamentally make ygo a different game over time on its own, with how game speed and hand trap design and extra deck use really changes what non-engine is played. or even what non-engine means. so it's all a bit of a complex situation that makes ygo hard to manage and i think feels like it's just gonna keep on shrugging and doing random stuff b/c the main audience buys it anyway

[genericpuff]

(about the bell post) i dont know anything about lore olympus but is there something inherently bad in using free stock images? like, thats what stock images are for right? i know that its probably lazy or whatever but is that the only problem? /genuine

Part of the issue with using stock photos is licensing. Like fonts, they're in abundance online and easy to snag for "free", but as soon as you enter commercial work, it becomes a legal minefield. Stock photos typically belong to either individuals or corporations that rely on people buying the rights to those photos to use them; if they don't, they could very well be sued for copyright infringement.

In that respect, emojis fall into a similar grey area. Some emojis are public domain/open source meaning they're free to use for everyone. But many are not. It's why different social media platforms and different phone providers use different emoji's - it's not purely for branding (though that is a factor as Facebook emojis have become distinguishable from Android emojis) but also for ownership.

So, in the legal sense, I do not know if the bell emoji that Rachel used in LO is legally hers to use, or if it's even subject to such laws (it could be an open source image meaning it's free-for-all). I'm hoping for her sake she's not breaking any sort of copyright ownership laws, but I'm also not a lawyer and wouldn't know how to get that information even if I wanted to lmao

Aside from the legal, it's also just... sigh I'm gonna get into more opinionated territory here, but even if something is open source, even if you're legally free to use a stock photo or other tool to create your comic, there's also the ethics/integrity of it. Lore Olympus is not a Canvas comic. It is not an indie hobbyist project. It's a commercial product with multiple people working on it behind the scenes, book deals, merch deals, a TV deal, and an upcoming feature at this year's SDCC, with Rachel headlining alongside Cassandra Claire (Mortal Instruments) and Jeff Smith (BONE). Webtoons is trying very hard to market LO as a 'flagship' series and convince the public that it can stand alongside other literature juggernauts.

What I'm trying to say here is, if Rachel did legally use it, it doesn't make it any less cheap. There's a lot of discussion in the art field over the usage of external tools and assets in art creation, especially here in the west. 3D models, AI shaders, gradient maps - there are tons of things that exist now that stand to benefit artists, but can be abused or used poorly, being used as less of a tool to benefit an artist with pre-existing skills and more as a cheap shortcut to circumvent actual skill/effort.

The bell emoji isn't the heart of the issue I pointed out in that post. If it were an isolated thing, if LO were an otherwise impeccable comic with high-effort art and just one little picture of a bell, it wouldn't be that big of an issue.

But LO isn't that comic. The recipe of its art development week after week has become very cheap and low-effort, and the bell is really just the cherry on top.

And just to make it clear, I do stand by artists being able to use tools that make their lives easier. None of this is to say it's wrong to use stock images, or 3D models, or gradient maps, or whatever have you. Those tools exist to help and can be used in fun and experimental ways to bring new perspectives and life to your work. And I'm not going to scrutinize whatever shortcuts are being used in a comic that's being made for free by a hobbyist or someone who's still learning.

But like all tools, there are still ways to use them to the detriment of your own work, either due to a lack of understanding as to how that tool works, or lack of effort to blend it into your work. It can make it glaringly obvious that third-party assets are being used, and can often distract from what you've drawn (the complete opposite of what most people are trying to achieve).

When I think of art shortcuts and tools being used poorly, I think of Let's Play and its stock photo background characters.

I think of Time Gate: [AFTERBIRTH]'s stiff default 3D models that result in lifeless poses and restricted body types, which I am VERY eager to move on from LMAO

I think of LO's 3D backgrounds with only 1-2 colors thrown in and the characters floating in front of them. Or sometimes no characters at all even when people are speaking.

And of course, I think of the emoji bell, which could have easily just been drawn as a door or an actual doorbell, and not some random grey bell copied and pasted from a Google search.

All that's to say, too much reliance on poorly-implemented assets can take a great piece of work down to a mediocre one. Of course, the assets definitely aren't the only issue with LO, but they are definitely a piece of the problem. There might not be anything 'wrong' with using assets, but they can still be used poorly or result in cheap-looking work and that's primarily what I'm calling out here.

[p5x-theories]

I dunno if it's because it is built on the foundation of Persona 5 and its in-universe rules and me not being too familiar with many gacha plots, but I've been finding it so much easier to follow what is going on in P5X compared to most other big gachas' stories.

Like in comparison I was watching a stream of somebody trying out that new miHoYo game Zenless Zone Zero, and despite my best efforts to pay attention I had such a tough time trying to understand what was going on that it was becoming too mentality taxing for me to continue further × ×

I personally found it relied too much on terminologies and less on what those exact things do that it made any attempts to be emotionally invested in its narrative difficult.

Do you think I'm too biased in what stories I prefer and I'm not being patient enough in its supposed long burn or is this like a fundamental problem that a lot of these types of games suffer with? ; ;

Hmm, that's a fair question, and I'll admit I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer it, since I don't play any other gacha games, heh!

That said, I think you're probably right that having a familiarity with P5 itself is helping you understand P5X's plot, whether you would have struggled to follow the plot without the prior P5 understanding or not. As much as P5X is meant to be for newcomers to the series too, it does often feel like it's built enough on P5 that you'd enjoy it more if you actually know P5 already, at least to me.

Without much knowledge of other gacha games, I can see how they might be overwhelming gameplay-wise, and cause you to lose the plot because of that, at the very least. I can't speak to their individual writing quality because I don't know them, but gacha games sort of have a lot going on, to my understanding! P5X, even, has a ton of different things and game modes and game mechanics to worry about (to the point that I made several posts about it, hah). I think what's helped there- besides familiarity with P5- is the fact that these game mechanics aren't really directly tied into the story, and usually aren't introduced at the same time as the story is progressing (or given to you in pieces, if they are). So maybe that's part of the difference? Admittedly, I also had a much easier time understanding how everything in P5X worked when I started playing it myself, rather than having to watch streamers play the beta tests I couldn't get into.

At least as for "not being patient enough in its supposed long burn", though, I think I have one piece of advice that I consider applicable even outside of gacha games: a "long burn" plot should still have a hook that draws you in, if it's good. Something that catches your attention and makes you want to learn more, even if you're missing some of the details and not understanding all the plot yet. If it feels like a chore to sit through the story up to the point where it'll start to make sense- especially if it gets mentally taxing to try to do so!- I think it's completely understandable that you don't want to keep trying. Because if the game (or whatever it is) can't even give you something to care about and hold onto, why should you sit around for however long it takes to get to the point?

Obviously there may be some exceptions, but that's kind of my personal metric to figuring out if I want to keep going with something. Is there a character, or an aspect of the worldbuilding, or something like that, that I want to learn more about and I'm willing to stick around for? Or does it just sort of feel like floating in the middle of the ocean with no life preserver, waiting for a ship to sail by? And there's nothing wrong with leaving if it's not clicking with you, even if other people really like it. Sometimes something just won't work for you, and that's okay! Worst case scenario, you can always come back to it later if you feel like giving it another shot.

[sunstream7]

I want to talk about chiara enjoy or disregard the incoming essay <3

Starting this off with the fact that Chiara knows she is very reactive. She’s aware of how she is, and isn’t too thrilled by it. Prior to the game events, she’d spent a lot of time doing her best to establish predictable routines and a sense of stability so she doesn't accidentally set herself off; it was easier to band-aid the problem of poor emotional regulation than it was to devote the time to fixing it at that stage in her life.

I was going to add her character and oc relationships to this but it is already far too long. so that might be its own thing one day

Now, having said that.

 I’d say her getting lumped into the jerk squad was actively the worst thing that could've happened to her at SSB. I made a joke in her fic about solitary confinement, but i think it is relevant. She lived in new york all her life and through a lot of it, she was very volatile and had a bad hold on her emotions, so shes spent almost seventeen years of her life in that apartment with her mom (and later sister, but chia and del is also a whole other thing) and had the same three friends and a (relatively) stable life, and then her mom fucking dies. In the span of three WEEKS she goes from spending weekends with her girlfriend and sister and any scrap of time she can get with her overworked mother, but fully having agency in her life- fiercely independent out of necessity since a young age, a lot of which came from having to take a leading role in making sure Del was alright- and then shes in an airport across the country with a man she's only met once for about a year when she was nine/ten, his wife and kids, and they're expecting the two of them to all be a happy family and to start calling her mom and just being a generally overbearing force in her life and Chia, a bit too explosively, lashes out, and then gets sent to a goddamn boarding school. Twenty one days from ‘why isnt ma home yet’ to ‘who the fuck is this nurse trying to talk to me’ And sure, she had a… bit of a bad track record (nothing warranting legal action- mainly trespassing and truancy- just warnings to not do it again) but was rather prone to blowing up and getting physical when people prodded her or her friends the wrong way, and then getting dumped into the MOST antagonistic lot of people at the school- of course shes going to become her worst self- there wasnt any other option for her.

Side note, delilah has NO relation to the hey there Delilah song, yes, even the ‘whats it like in new york city’ line, her name was supposed to be Dahlia but i cant spell it right on the first time and i CAN spell Delilah.

Chia and Del are a whole different issue. Their ages at the start of the game are 16 and 8 respectively, chia’s birthday is the 23rd of august (Social development fuckery, her mom didnt feel alright with sending her to school when she could barely function as a kid, so she got to do a year at pre-k instead of kindergarten. Maybe she wouldve been better. or worse lmao), but she was 10 when Del was born. Kids are expensive, especially when their POS dad dips AGAIN after the first year. Marena Ramones I love you but you're the reason your daughter thinks dating awful men is alright.

So while Chiara wasn't ever really a parent, staying firmly in a big sister position, their mom was at work a lot- and between that and night classes (trying to get a degree to get a better job and hopefully benefit her kids) Chia had to do a lot more of the menial tasks. She never really had any set rules outside of making sure Del stayed alive and had all her limbs intact, so she mostly took up these responsibilities of her own volition (and often against their mothers request. Chia and her would often butt heads over it- Marena wanting Chiara to be able to live her life and be a teenager, and Chia wanting to take some of that burden off her ma’s shoulders) . But this role that Chiara had just made her feel guilty about her own behavior- and especially guilty that she resented Del for being the reason their mom wasn't home as much. She loves her sister more than life and is perfectly fine with putting together lunches and helping with homework or walking her to school but the older she got the more that resentment builds; slowly morphing into a somewhat self destructive cycle of working herself to the bone to try to help her mother, creating a nasty little mix of ‘Del isn't the reason it's so bad but it was all fine before her’ and being FIERCELY protective and thinking that if she cant ensure a good life for her then all of it was a waste.

Good(ish) news though! Her mild upset with the situation becomes full-on hatred the SECOND she meets their dad again! She finally has the person who (in her mind) is the real reason it all went to hell! 

Her dad has five kids in total. Chiara is the oldest, Delilah is NOT the second oldest. He (needs a name. Suggestions are open) and Marena were pretty young when they got together, and he bailed- very mature of him :eyeroll: and then for a whole damn decade (almost. Closer to nine years) he had moved back to Nevada with his family and met someone else, had a full other child there, and then this CLOWN is back in New York on a ‘work trip’ and decides the perfect vacation from playing house with his child in Nevada is to play house with his ex girlfriend and daughter, and congrats that's how you get a Delilah. He scoots back home to plead forgiveness and his (now wife) takes him back and they have two other kids who are significantly younger. All in all then we have Chiara (16) Kid 2 (12) Del (10) and the twins (4). Congrats to them they have two new kids who are NOT integrating into this family well. Fights ensue, they decide that boarding school is the best option, Chiara agrees, Del comes with.

[yangscowlick]

You're tags about early hiatus leading to calcified headcanons makes me think about why certain parts of the fandom are so against the idea of yang being butchier and cling to her beacon persona so hard. Odd to me beacon yang's whole thing was she was putting up a front to hide her insecurities, yet early fandom portrayed her as some femme fataleish fashionista that flirted with everyone and talked about her boobs nonstop. But even beacon yang was never like that, and now we have a yang that wears big butch boots and overalls and bomber jackets and likes to manspread and actually it's her gf that likes to get prettied up for their dates while yang watches with heart eyes from afar. Sorry for the essay, I just wonder why early fandom saw a show that telegraphed pretty well that it's about turning tropes on its head and decided "no I want the surface level version of these characters and any change or development that differs from it is bad"

I totally agree and ended up writing an essay in turn!

I think it’s especially annoying when fandom does that with Yang’s V1 “persona” in particular since (1) she got the least amount of development of the girls in V1 (we really don’t “meet” Yang til we get her backstory in Burning the Candle — hell we don’t even get an explanation of her semblance until Painting the Town) and (2) all the girls have grown and changed since we met them, so why are some folks SO stuck on early Yang? But I do think it taking so much longer to really “meet” Yang means there were huge chunks of time between the Yellow Trailer and V1 and then V1 and V2 where people filled her character in how they saw fit and have clung to that.

I think there are sort of two buckets. In the bad faith group are the weebs who saw big boobs and an empty vessel of a character they could project onto. To your point, the show told us from the get-go in her trailer and in her song that she was “more than meets the eye”, but the shonen-brained who are accustomed to fanservice and 2D female side characters saw Yang and assumed she was for Them (and feel betrayed that she isn’t and have made it everyone’s problem). I dont have a lot of patience for those types — they can go watch 99.9% of shonen anime if they want that (though I hope for their sake they expand their media diet…).

I have some more patience for the second bucket who just don’t really understand the lesbian experience and how it can be to re-contextualize your identity once you’ve figured yourself out. Because in some ways you only really “get it” if you’ve gone through it. Yang settling into herself is SO cool to me, because I was similar. In high school, I was pretty femme / assumed I was straight / etc. And even once I understood I liked girls, knowing your identity and integrating your identity are two different things. It’s so normal to me to see Yang “become” Yang as she has (from the way she dresses, her posture, the way she sits, her chivalry, etc) because I lived it. But I think it is lost on some people who just see her “dykeyness” as a retcon and not a development — so to them, I want to try to be patient because I realize what’s obvious to me comes from my lived experiences. (Again, the bad faith folks who wanted surface-level digestible anime waifus don’t get my patience here).

But to those coming at Yang in good faith, Yang coming into herself and getting more butch as time goes on (Yang was always going to be more than her first projection - they spelled it out) is no different than Weiss and Blake settling into their ‘true’ selves (and their color schemes have slowly come to match their aura/soul colors). It’s also a pretty common experience when sexuality is yet another thing piled on top of the identity crisis that is your late teens/early 20s.

I also find it a little silly that people glom onto V1 Yang as this flirty party girl because it’s not even supported by actual canon. Yang plays video games and is like a super-nerd about the table top game they play in V2, but none of those “I miss V1-3 Yang” types are like “why doesn’t she play video games and board games anymore? What a betrayal of her character”? Like why isn’t “gamer bro” Yang part of That fandom’s flanderization of her character? There’s more support in canon for that than her supposed puns…

Anyway, went off on a tangent there, but TLDR: Yang’s butch-ness is completely organic and part of her settling into herself, just as the other characters have settled into their true selves. I dont have time for the folks fueled by entitlement, but I can have time for the folks with empathy who might not have all the inputs to understand it but are willing to listen (and my inbox is open!).