#and so i didn't want to sacrifice any of that because of some self-imposed need to churn out content

[xinganhao]

this milestone notification hit while i was in the middle of hiatus (which i am still kind of in! lol), so i'm a couple of days late ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )‧º·˚ but, once again: thank you so much for enjoying my work! whether it's a like, a kind message in my inbox, a reblog/etc., it has meant so much 🫶🏻 i see and appreciate all of it, even if i may not be able to respond to everyone!

as i slowly but surely crawl my way back here, i do want to know:

1️⃣ do we prefer to see more individual member content/ot13 content? i've been slugging thru my series work (i.e. svtflix, burner acc.s), most of which are really individual members. i have long-term plans of one series per member (similar to not for sale and catch you when i can), but i want to know if in the nearer future there's any preference. :") i intend to balance them to the best of my ability; this is more of a pulse check than anything~

if you want to explain why you've voted for either, my dms and inbox are very much open. :) speaking of being open—

2️⃣ opening smau and text imagine requests for the next week or so! i'm in need of some inspiration to get back into the groove of things, so throw your member/ot13 thoughts my way. 🌟 the status of this may change according to how many asks i get, so please keep an eye on my pinned. ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ usual disclaimers apply: i reserve the right to accept/deny a request, please be patient, etc.

feel free to check my frequently asked questions for requests that are okay, my favorite tropes, etc.!

once again, thank you sooo much for being here ٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´- i don't think i'm entirely back yet (semi-ia is probably the best way to put it), but i am around. i hope you're happier than me today and, as always: don't be a stranger!

‹𝟹 kae (@studioeisa)

[beevean]

"what did maxim do" Yeah, with everything established, it's hard to not imagine Maxim must have done something horrible.

Someone must have started the ritual of reviving Dracula, and Maxim is the one who found the remains so he is the likely candidate. And since the rituals usually involves sacrifices… Or he would want Dracula in a weaken state he could skip the sacrifice part? He still need to have learned some dark ritual, which still raises questions…

Maxim wanted to spare Juste of his fate but instead harmed Lydie (and who knows if he harmed more people) and forced Juste into his fate. Truly tragic.

So, this seems to be the timeline, at least from what I understood:

Maxim departs for his self-imposed mission of relieving Juste of his fate, and perhaps to even the circumstances because he felt now inferior to his friend.

He has the phantasmagoric idea of retrieving Dracula's relics and destroy them, to both "save" Juste and prove himself just as worthy.

The relics react with his soul, with Maxim's innermost resentment towards Juste. They don't possess him (like Albus with Dominus) or curse him (like Isaac with the Curse), but Evil Maxim is born, confined in Maxim's head.

Through the power of the relics, and called forth by Maxim's souls, the castle is risen, but unstable as it's tied to two souls not yet merged. Death is very confused by the lack of Dracula and sets to investigate.

Evil Maxim kidnaps Lydie and hides her behind the throne room, presumably to drain her of her blood to become the dominant spirit.

Maxim has some sort of fight: at this point, I can guess with himself, to drive away Evil Maxim. (Lydie's dialogue implies that she met the real Maxim and thought he was going to rescue her.) He loses his memory, which puts a dent in Evil Maxim's plans as he can no longer remember where's Lydie, and returns to Juste "covered in wounds", but remembering at least that Lydie needs to be saved.

Game happens and Maxim fucks everything up. good jorb 👍

I suppose what we don't know is exactly why the relics were still around. In both Simon's Quest and Symphony of the Night, they appear just as Dracula is about to be resurrected, and at least in the latter's case with people actively working on it. However, if you don't find any relic by the time of Sky Walkway, Maxim directly comments on this saying:

"According to legend, it's still too early for Dracula's resurrection. It is not like anyone is cursed right now either. At first, I was doubtful that I could find all his remains… But I uncovered six parts, as if guided by a higher being…"

So, it seems that Maxim himself has noticed that no one in particular seems to be working to resurrect Dracula earlier. So who knows what the "higher being" is? Death? Fate? The remains of Dracula's influence on the land? Maxim's own desires, making the relics spawn to "grant his wish"?

To be fair, I think Maxim merely wanted to destroy the relics, much like Simon planned to burn them and didn't know about the fang of Vlad hidden on the altar. He should have studied the Belmont history better, then.

Anyway, I really would love some sort of prequel narrating Maxim's journey, what he learned, and how he managed to find six relics, but most importantly what kind of thoughts were going inside his head.

[bryhaven]

EDUCATIONAL POST: Signs that Mikasa Ackerman is in a TOXIC relationship

Now I'll be saying from the get-go that this post is NOT meant to undermine any Mikasa ship, especially with Eren. And NOT undermining the author and their writing. I didn't want to have to do this. But I'm forced to put this out here because some shippers and haters alike keep claiming and some even harassing other shippers (mostly the RM stans), and say that EM is not toxic. And even add that our ship RM is problematic.

I am the type of person that when given a nonsense argument, I will slap you with facts. Or give you a witty comeback (if I feel bitchy enough). This person below called me toxic and judgmental, claimed that those of low IQ cannot understand what Eren did blah blah blah. And then blocked me once I gave them a comeback.

Hence, this post is here to define what a TOXIC relationship is. And please take note that I will only discuss the parts where the relationship became toxic. Because someone might come saying, "But before that..", "But after this.." and so on. It doesn't even matter what happened before or after. Or even all the reasoning behind the actions. Remember, the end doesn't justify the means. The fact remains that the relationship became toxic.

According to Dr. John Delony in ramseysolutions.com, there are signs to check and find out whether you're in a toxic relationship.

1. Not feeling safe. This pertains to both physical and emotional safety. I don't see Mikasa feeling emotionally and physically safe when she talked about her thoughts and feelings, especially in the table scene with Eren. Her voice didn't matter to him because he was only set in completing his goal. And whenever she tried to speak up further, he would just brush her off.

2. Bad (or nonexistent) communication. This type of communication includes gaslighting, manipulating words, and being dishonest. Eren didn't tell them the entire truth and also used words to manipulate them, particularly Mikasa, into believing something else that he made up. Again, to further his own purposes.

3. Feeling neglected and exploited. I don't see Eren honoring or even seeing the reason why Mikasa was being overly protective of him back in the day. He was always angered at her whenever she tried to just watch out for him, or whenever she was being clingy. This is a psychological need that she has which was developed from a trauma, and Eren couldn't tend to or even acknowledge that.

4. Feeling like you’ve lost yourself. It is needless to say that Mikasa lost her sense of self here after hearing Eren's words. Eren clearly set off an anxiety alarm.

5. Judgment—not curiosity—is the norm. The way this was phrased, even in the manga, seemed judging and imposing. It's like he's judging her ability to fight with that length of hair which ended up imposing on her to do something about it. To rephrase it into the lifeblood of a relationship which is curiosity, he could have said something within the lines of "Does it bother you in training if you wear your hair down like this/with this length of hair?". Or he could have exuded care like "Would you be alright fighting with your length of hair?" or "Maybe you should try tying your hair so it doesn't bother you?". But then, no. He did not.

6. Feeling belittled and ashamed. Eren made her feel less than, and rubbed her nose in something from the past.

7. Not receiving empathy. Eren would either dismiss her when she tries to share something important or speak her thoughts, and she is usually met with apathy. Because Eren would usually direct the conversation back to himself and even try to one-up her in conversations since he is mostly focused on his own goals; when Mikasa here is only wanting for him to be safe. He often saw her as a bother, and always reasoned that she had no reason to do that since she's not his mother.

8. Playing a dysfunctional role. Service and sacrifice are parts of a good relationship. But then, it should be mutually giving and supportive. In this one, Mikasa more than often fulfills a mothering role. She made that promise to Carla to look after Eren. She always goes out of her way to care for him, even sacrificing her own safety. And because of that, she has grown to believe that it is her job to fix him, at the expense of her own feelings, needs, and joy. Sure, he has given her a reason to continue on living, inspired her to fight. But she has paid him more than enough for that service.

9. Feeling controlled or manipulated. Aside from manipulating her with words in the table discussion scene, Eren tried to tip the balance in his favor. This is in the sense that he makes use of her strength in the attack on Liberio. Even though this is Mikasa Ackerman with superhuman strength we are talking about, he still put her in harm's way by making her fight in the frontline. Whether or not it is in her will to do what he asked her, you can still see the hesitation and uncertainty in Mikasa while knowing what she was about to commit. And she follows anyway because of Eren and his reasonings. And a recurring theme in her thoughts is something within the lines of "Is this what Eren wants?" or "What if Eren will..", and her mind always spirals back to Eren. Mind control right there.

10. Living under a cloud of rage. Needless again to say (and for a picture since Tumblr doesn't allow more than 10 pics in a post. Urgh. Lol), Eren has been a chronically angry person. He is always frustrated by something, and often explodes in episodes of rage. A person like that cannot be fully supportive in a relationship. And though he has his own reasons for it (and some are understandable), it doesn't justify the things he made Mikasa undergo. And a crime is still a crime in the end.

And there you have it. EM has actually ticked all 10 boxes.

Again, I am just explaining the toxicity in the relationship. Not taking bias over something just to explain this, and not hating on any character. You can still understand or even like a character even though you don't align with their intentions, or even if you don't like their development.

If EM is your cup of tea, then by all means, go ahead and ship it. But DON'T go harassing others for it, or reblogging their posts with nonsense captions, or calling them out with rude descriptions, and then block them if they finally give you a comeback.

And DON'T go claiming that EM is not toxic, dysfunctional, or unhealthy in any way when you don't even have the FACTS to back it with.

Over and OUT!

[idkwhoiamanymorebutwtf]

How would you deal with Marcy’s arc(assuming no major plot points could be changed?)

Okay, so, if I can't make any major changes- like giving Marcy a bigger role besides "being possessed" for all of season three or keeping her in Amphibia (whether permanently or just letting her go back sometimes by doing away with the "oops, portal's gone, they can't go back" thing)- I think my biggest change would be regarding Marcy's own feelings and attitude.

I think Marcy's biggest issue has always been that she doesn't have enough agency, self worth, or assertiveness, honestly. Her friends have seriously hurt her and she doesn't even seem to realize it, much less be in a place where she feels like she can say something about it. Even in Newtopia, where she seemed to be happiest, it felt like she was being taken advantage of to some extent with just how much work was being piled onto her by people who didn't really appreciate her. And I know they didn't explore it much and just kinda swept it under the rug to some extent, but I really do not get the impression that she had a good home life before coming to Amphibia (which, if we're making changes to marcy's arc, i'd also absolutely elaborate more on the things that pushed her to the point of being fully willing to never see her family again, because no teenage girl runs away for six months, let alone forever, and doesn't miss home once, unless there's a serious issue, which apparently the writers didn't think about). She's been hurt a lot, but she's always putting her feelings on the back burner to help other people.

Taking all of that into account, I think Marcy needed to learn to know her worth and realize she's allowed to say no to people/have negative feelings about things. That she doesn't need to fix everyone else, that she's allowed to ask for better for herself, how to set boundaries, etc. I think that would have been the logical evolution of her character arc. Honestly, that wouldn't even have been that hard to do without changing anything. Andrias blatantly took advantage of her! The core literally forcibly imposed itself onto her mind! It wouldn't have been difficult at all to use those story aspects to lean into the lesson she needed to learn!

Instead, in canon, it just kinda felt like Marcy was punished for wanting what Anne learned she deserved. Marcy's big moment was putting everyone else over herself again (not that it wasn't the right thing to do in that circumstance, i didn't want her to stay in the core forever, but narratively i don't think the writers should have made it a matter of self sacrifice or let everyone in the real world die! i think the writers should have made breaking free a matter of self assertion and individual identity!). She gave a whole speech about not running away from reality or whatever, said nothing about how she's been hurt by everyone around her, and decided to move away with her parents (iirc she didn't even consider another option, actually, i think we were meant to take her moving away as an extension of the 'lesson' she learned when she rejected the core offering her everything she wanted).

Overall I just think "I started this whole mess because I wanted to escape reality, but I won't run away from it anymore" was a bad lesson for them to settle on. I'm not sure what exactly the writers intended with that. At best, it was a lesson about being positive in the face of a bad situation, which Marcy didn't need to learn in the first place because, save for the, like, one mental health crisis she had that started the whole series, Marcy is a very positive person and in fact tends to push her feelings into the background for the sake of not making things harder. At worst, Marcy is actively shamed for wanting what is freely given to Anne (and what anne's told she deserves) and is taught to be complacent when she deserves to demand better for herself. Either way, Marcy's story would have been better off with her learning a completely different lesson in her big defining scene with The Core.

[sophsun1]

Scream about Britin, huh, I can do that...that ending hurts so much! I can't figure out the point of Brian's 5 year character growth if it all lead to 'being true to your self imposed doctrine is what's most important about you'. They just spent all that time showing us that his lifestyle wasn't as fulfilling without Justin, that he's gonna lose ground regardless (Brandon), all his other found family were moving on, and there would be times (cancer) when he'd need someone who actually loves him to care for him, and that he could do the same. Plus both he and Justin acknowledge that he's promiscuous at least in part due to his upbringing, feeling unworthy of love. And then Justin nearly dies and he realizes what's most important. I feel like on any other show, that realization would've stuck.

As for Justin, they pull him in two directions, both away from Brian. On one hand, he's very domestic, he wants the house and kids and monogamy (that last part's iffy--he talks the talk, but he fucks around on a whim.) On the other hand, he's as restless as Brian. He wants to build a name for himself, and that means leaving (just the way Brian always thought he wanted--but Michael and Lindsey insisted his loved ones should be enough to keep him in Pittsburgh.)

I don't see the point of building this love story between them, continuing to teach Brian to prioritize it, while also writing them supposedly fundamentally incompatible so it can't actually work out. It just feels like they wanted Brian to stay this mythical creature, this forever young and beautiful single stud who can have any man he wants, and that's somehow more important than the love he finally allowed himself to value. Which makes all the struggle feel like a waste. After showing us how miserable Brian actually is without Justin, how do they expect us to see this as an empowering ending for him?

lol sorry so long and I won't be offended if you leave this ask to rot. I guess I just had a lot of feelings.

Hey anon!

Firstly never apologise for talking britin with me, I love it.

Listen I feel you on all points. I've made several posts regarding all of Brian's character growth being regressed in Season 5. It's such a poor season overall for most of the characters and I feel was rushed maybe due to issues with the show/cast leaving or just poorly written. You've basically hit the nail on the head with how I feel about it too. It seems they wanted Brian's fuckboy persona to be the lasting memory they didn't want to let that side of him go. But they had it all beautifully set up at the end of Season 4 post cancer arc where he was so vulnerable with Justin asking him to move in and saying he wanted to be a more prominent figure in Gus's life. That beautiful scene in the Liberty Ride with him hallucinating Justin showing what a tower of support he's always been for him. The magnitude of him basically wanting to be a family with him living together in the loft was lost. Brian became kinda unlikeable in Season 5 there were some moments where he reacted so blasé towards Justin eg the STD plot I hated and back to chasing youth again. They could have explored his past with his family more to showcase why he was like that but they chose a cheap and tired trope instead.

Justin's sudden desire to be exactly like Michael and Ben gave me whiplash. Yes he's always wanted a more domestic life with Brian that's true - but he's also been a part of their joint hedonistic lifestyle. When he first comes back and catches Brian at the loft with a trick he laughs because he knows that's him, he was enjoying himself in LA too. I guess they thought to parallel it with Michael and Ben moving to a new home in the suburbs and that Justin would want that too. Ultimately their ending was muddled and rushed they wanted to have their cake and eat it too - keep Brian's love isn't sacrifice mantra and join it together with his love for Justin but it came off really clunky they didn't get the balance right for either of them. I'm forever sad Brian essentially ended up all alone at the end and Justin's last scene was him fading out.

I'm not a fan of the open ending being left for us to interpret ourselves I wanted it onscreen explicitly stated. The writers did say years later that the ending never meant they weren't together in their eyes they bought a home etc and made it work living New York. It would've been nice to have this shown. I choose to ignore the bits of the final season that don't make sense and live in my own version where they're together and happy. As always the writers don't get the characters the way we the fans do.