#this is so long and incoherent sorry

[cosmickoshi]

Hi yes I'm still thinking about these two pages and about how Nakajima Atsushi really is the protagonist of all time.

Nothing could ever justify the orphanage director's treatment of Atsushi. Nothing could ever justify the pain and abuse Atsushi faced at the director's hand. But it is undeniable that the director has played a significant part in shaping who Atsushi is presently and has also aided him in times of need. It ties into BSD's recurring theme of how your past does not define you, but you also cannot flee from those memories because they have fundamentally influenced so many facets of your life — and acknowledging said memories is the first step to healing from them.

The director has been haunting Atsushi all this time and Atsushi so desperately wants to purge his voice from his mind, but he's also never lived a life where the director's presence doesn't plague him. What would he do once the person whose actions have shaped who he is today is finally gone? The director died and Atsushi cried because people tend to cry when their fathers die and now Atsushi is verbalising all of his loathing for his abuser in a way he couldn't for so long and yet he’s horrified by the prospect of being rid of his influence.

And the way Atsushi’s eyes are concealed from the reader until the director tells him that he’ll be gone “as early as today, even”, and there’s so little light in Atsushi's eyes when they’re finally revealed to us. The way they reflect these conflicting emotions within Atsushi surrounding the director's declaration — he'll finally be free of the very person responsible for so much of his pain and trauma, and yet that person has been such a significant part of his life that a world in which his abuser won't haunt him is unfamiliar and terrifying to him.

And I just. God. I can’t.

[bookhobbit]

As I'm rereading I'm thinking the thing about Vimes is that he is genuinely sooooo repressed. In many ways including sexually. This man is unbearably embarrassed by the concept of having marital sex. A lawyer says "fruit of the union" and Vimes freaks out so hard he zones out for the rest of the appointment. Man who is about to get married can't contemplate the prospect of future heterosexual sex with his lawfully wedded wife because this concept is too immense!

And I do think some of this comes from self-loathing in a very "that stuff's not for me" kind of way, that's extremely clear in canon. For me I think Vimes also reads quite demisexual/demiromantic, so through that lens it also kind of comes across as "I am Not Ready for the sex stuff to be part of this because that part of my brain is not switched on yet." But I think also some of it is just good old fashioned Being Surprisingly Straightlaced For Someone Of His Life Experience which is really funny.

I was talking about this to @overelegantstranger who pointed out that it's easy to read this, in G!G! and MaA, as "Vimes is kind of put off by the large, fat, strong woman he is marrying," but that it's absolutely not textually what's going on if you analyze it. Notably, Vimes (almost?) never views other women in a way that is at all sexual. Like, Angua is a canonical hottie but you never have ANY sense that Vimes has noticed this and in fact I think he'd rather die than think about her that way. He just doesn't Do that.

On the other hand, with Sybil he's constantly flustered and thinking about her Size and Power and Movement and Body so it comes across as, he's kind of into her but doesn't know how to process the whole concept of being into someone or even how to process the fact that what he's into is different from the conventional idea of attractiveness. He's so deeply alarmed by having Feelings that it comes across as him being terrified of her....but like.......in a slightly scandalized, titillated way. "Oh my goooood I hope that scary rich lady doesn't ravish me, twirls helmet, that would be horrible." I don't think there's Zero fatphobia in the way Sybil is depicted, nuance etc, but for me it definitely feels like Vimes is going. Fuck, finally met a woman who is large and strong and powerful enough to tell me what to do AND she wants to AND I kind of want her to. How do I react to this. I need to flee the scene immediately.

Anyways. You do see why Vetinari had to invent a whole BDSM dynamic to make their working relationship functional, is what I'm saying.

[honeycreammilkshake]

"you are me."

i have a lot of thoughts on this whole scene, both shipping and non-shipping ones. the relationship between yuuji and sukuna is honestly the most fascinating and complex one that i have seen in anime, and one of the reasons for that is just how much these two actually understand each other, which i don't think a lot of people realize. yuuji and sukuna see right through each other, more than anyone else does, and i think that's why their bond is far more personal than it seems to be.

yuuji and sukuna are enemies. they hate each other for their opposing ideals and characteristics. yuuji is caring, empathetic, protective, kind, and willing to put his life on the line for both friends and strangers. sukuna is narcissistic, self-absorbed, indifferent to suffering, murderous, unfeeling, and unconcerned with any life other than his own. they seem to be polar opposites in every way, so why would yuuji say something as contradicting as "you are me" to sukuna?

i think it's widely overlooked just how complex yuuji's character is. he's overall a "sweet" person, but he isn't very stable (he has been described by quite a few characters as being a bit "crazy"), he has a high tolerance for disturbing or gory things (he took learning about curses and fighting them very easily), he doesn't question the danger he's been put into (he actually runs headfirst into it), and he can be really violent and vengeful as well.

this is all explored very well in his confrontation with mahito, where he also says "i am to you" to the curse.

why are these scenes so different? mahito and sukuna both killed people yuuji knew and cared about as well as strangers that yuuji would die to protect. shouldn't yuuji be approaching sukuna with the same hate, disgust, and vengeance that he shows to mahito? shouldn't he be lashing out and making sukuna pay for all that he did?

why is he showing his "crazy side" to mahito but not to sukuna?

to give some context to this scene with mahito, the curse wanted yuuji to accept their similarities. and, in the end, yuuji did.

yuuji is acknowledging that he serves as nothing more than a weapon to keep killing the curses of the world, perhaps with no other deeper purpose than that. just like curses only exist to bring misery and prey on humans, yuuji's sole existence at this point is just to act on the orders of sorcerers: to keep eradicating curses and eventually help kill sukuna by dying with him. he doesn't need more meaning or roles than that.

but sukuna doesn't see yuuji as just another cog. he doesn't respect yuuji, true, and he loathes to give the brat any kind of credit. but he knows yuuji is the only one who really, truly cares about sukuna's devastating impact. the death of innocent strangers doesn't affect others quite as much as it does yuuji (even nanami in the vs mahito arc noted how much yuuji cared about the suffering of others).

and many of the other sorcerers are also not as horrified or repulsed by sukuna's actions as yuuji is. in fact, sorcerers and curses alike look up to sukuna. gojo actually seems to respect the king of curse's lifestyle. it feels like yuuji is really the only one to truly despise sukuna for his actions and ideals.

and sukuna knows this. sukuna knows how much the suffering of others gets to yuuji. which is why he gives yuuji such special treatment: he saves a unique brand of torment just for yuuji that he doesn't really give to anyone else.

sukuna intentionally returned control to yuuji's body just for yuuji to witness the massive damage and death that sukuna's domain expansion caused. it killed thousands of people, innocent strangers included.

it led to yuuji breaking down, even wishing for his own death. but yuuji is strong and, deep down, sukuna knows this. yuuji doesn't give up and instead uses his rage to fuel his fight with mahito, where he snaps and shows us his vengeful side. he doesn't need any other reason than mahito being a curse to want to kill him, over and over. that is yuuji's purpose. which seems like an uninteresting and boring one to someone like sukuna.

but for all that sukuna keeps calling yuuji uninteresting and boring, he shows a lot of investment in yuuji's growth and in their fights.

he's even invested enough to show disappointment when yuuji lost to choso. (if he thought yuuji was so weak, why did he seem so bothered by yuuji's loss here?)

and then sukuna looked surprised and curious when choso got hit with some kind of false memory empathetic attack that included yuuji in it. he's having a lot of strong reactions to someone he claims isn't interesting enough for him.

sukuna also loves to aggravate yuuji, somehow knowing how to provoke a strong reaction from him.

there's a lot of interesting things about this scene, one of them being that yuuji refers to sukuna as a "curse" which is technically untrue. sukuna is a sorcerer who used a set of cursed objects to send his soul into the future, but he isn't a curse himself.

but to yuuji, sukuna is nothing more than a curse because he doesn't show any sort of positive traits. sukuna's mindset reflects that of a curse since he only exists to please himself and loves to cultivate the kind of negative emotions curses are born of (fear, hate, jealousy, selfishness, etc).

there's also a clever reference to sukuna being a cannibal through yuuji saying "let's see if you can chew up me and my suffering." yet what we've seen throughout this story is yuuji essentially cannibalizing sukuna by eating his cursed fingers, which he calls the taste really gross. so i wonder... what would yuuji taste like to sukuna?

every human has a unique taste but all of them are fleeting to sukuna. there's no actual meaning or savoring to it. it's just a way for him to pass the time until death.

both yuuji and sukuna are cannibalizing as a form of destruction. but while yuuji is eating the cursed fingers so that he can hold all of sukuna inside of him for them to be exorcised together, sukuna was eating humans simply because he wanted to. he ate whatever he wanted because he was at the top. he is an apex predator with no real rivals or threats. it was for a completely self-absorbed and depraved indulgence while yuuji is giving up his life on this plan to save others.

yuuji and his suffering is the complete antithesis to how sukuna's eating only serves himself. which is very interesting to see when yuuji challenges sukuna to "chew him up." yuuji is proving to be more predator than prey and is far more of a challenge than sukuna wants to admit.

but maybe something about yuuji's resilience does please sukuna? maybe he actually finds worth in yuuji never giving up?

though he still underestimates and discredits yuuji's strength, he actually looks impressed with yuuji and seems even a bit eager to take him on again.

for someone who claims to find yuuji not worth his time, sukuna is showing yuuji far too much special treatment that he doesn't give to anyone else. he even calls yuuji a specific name (kozou) that he doesn't use with anyone else. others are just various offensive terms, but only yuuji seems to have a name just for himself.

sukuna is a really contradicting and complex character, and his relationship with yuuji really shows that.

i've seen a lot of anti-sukuna sentiment after his death, and i understand why a lot of fans hate him and celebrated when he died. however, i think a lot of fans have this somewhat inaccurate view of him being nothing more than a static villain with zero complexities and no chance of any kind of character development.

some of sukuna's most underrated and interesting traits are that he is actually pretty smart (he has an overall plan and is making all the right moves to get there), he's cultured (a poetry snob who hired a chef just to cook him humans instead of eating them raw, and perhaps he even knows more about flowers than he lets on), he shows respect to those he deems worthy and even seeks to learn from them, and he might not actually be the most "evil" person in jjk (which I consider to be kenjaku, but that warrants another post).

overall, sukuna is and has always been more than what he first seems, but a lot of fans don't want to see this or they overlook it.

after sukuna reveals he was an unwanted curse of a child, there was pushback against fans who interpreted this line as sukuna having a tragic backstory that explained his current self.

i understand why these fans don't want sukuna to be a sympathetic villain and i've read posts on how gege writes his villains to be intentionally unsympathetic.

from here (https://x.com/soukatsu_/status/1520796590612566022)

sukuna is the perfect example of a villain that is unsympathetic. he is horrifyingly strong, lives as he pleases, murders people for fun, is a literal cannibal, acts and appears monstrous, and makes our protagonist yuuji suffer over and over again. he represents exactly all the ideals and traits yuuji despises and the two of them are fighting each other because of this.

however, one thing i want to point out is just because sukuna is completely unsympathetic now doesn't mean he couldn't have had an actually tragic past that made him into this.

i believe that sukuna was seen as a curse from his birth on. much like how jogo wanted curses to be the true humans (sukuna calls this jogo essentially wanting to become human) sukuna became purely curse-like to escape being human. whether or not you empathize with him is irrelevant, because after he became the king of curses, sukuna has committed countless irredeemable horrors that even i, as a sukuna fan, don't ever want him to be forgiven or easily justified for doing.

having a tragic past doesn't justify his crimes, it only provides a catalyst for them. it explains why he, who was born human, became more of a curse than some curses are. you don't need to have sympathy for him after that. just like he has no sympathy for those he considers weak and inferior, he has no more reason to be a tragic character.

a lot of people acted like sukuna potentially having a tragic past that turned him into the monster he is now makes him "uncool" or "uncharacteristic" of himself but, to me, it makes his character all the more detailed without changing the fact that he is still purely "evil" and irredeemable.

but does this all make him incapable of character development?

i personally believe that yuuji has been affecting sukuna throughout the whole series, especially in these last few chapters.

i recently came across a post on reddit on why sukuna could never be more than a static villain character. one of the arguments was that gege never intended for sukuna to have any kind of redemption arc.

(https://www.reddit.com/r/Jujutsufolk/comments/16vphxl/sukuna_is_different_from_other_strongest/?rdt=36326)

(now, i couldn't find the original source where this interview came from, and it's not worded very well so i'm thinking it's been quickly translated. and there's always missed meanings and alterations to the original message when translations have been made, especially with japanese. i'm also not sure if the "him" being referred to is mahito or sukuna, but i'm assuming it can apply to both of them.)

this post was made about a year ago, so i assume this interview with gege is also a bit dated now. i think gege is intentionally vague in their interviews because they don't want to reveal too much, but my own interpretation of this post is that gege never intended for sukuna to get any sort of redemption because he is incapable of being redeemed through any kind of love.

and i agree with that. i don't want sukuna to get redemption. what he has done is unforgivable and i don't want him to get off easy for it. but him showing character development is not the same as him getting redemption. and him being affected by love isn't the same as him fully accepting it either.

in these last few chapters, yuuji has offered mercy to sukuna multiple times, despite how even he himself considered it to be a lost cause.

as i wrote earlier, yuuji is the only character who really understands how terrible and curse-like sukuna is. he hates sukuna on this fact alone. yuuji told mahito that his purpose is to kill curses, and sukuna - in the end - is nothing more than just another curse.

so why did yuuji suddenly change all that up and show empathy and genuine concern for sukuna in these last few chapters? why was he trying so hard to convince sukuna that they can co-exist?

one of my sukuita-cult friends (flight-of-death) pointed out that during his fight with yuuji, sukuna explicitly recalled his conversation with kashimo about not needing another person to fulfill him.

while sukuna saying he didn't anyone else to fulfill him was relevant during his discussion with kashimo, it's very interesting that he was remembering his own exact words about it while facing down yuuji, who was making sukuna doubt some of his previous statements.

my friend has convinced me that sukuna and yuuji have found a "reluctant fulfillment" in each other. and i think this is proving to be very much possible.

yuuji was alone most of his life. without wasuke there for him, he could have turned into a ruthless monster like sukuna. yuuji has so much physical and emotional strength, but it was the catalyst of wasuke's death that motivated yuuji to use that strength for good. he might have chosen to be selfish and only concerned with his own wants and needs like sukuna did, but wasuke provided the role yuuji needed to be the selfless person he is now.

i think that yuuji, in all his loneliness, found a kind of closeness to sukuna, even if it was unwanted. and sukuna has definitely been affected by yuuji, too.

as sukuna is dying, megumi finally regains control. he notices how sukuna seems to be scared of death.

sukuna genuinely does look concerned about dying. his mouths are in the shape of a grin but are turned upside down and look more like actual dread. for someone who claimed that eating people was only a way to pass the time until death, sukuna now looks unwilling to die.

i think that this shows that sukuna gained some sort of respect for life, even if it was only in his will to keep living. he does seem to want to keep existing, and it's interesting that it's what yuuji offered him.

yuuji was created by kenjaku to be sukuna's vessel. the sorcerers wanted to use yuuji as a vessel to hunt down all the cursed fingers so that yuuji and sukuna would die together. no matter how you see it, sukuna and yuuji were bound to end up either living or dying together. that is their fate. but now that he has more power in making his own choices, yuuji seems to genuinely want to share the kinder fate with sukuna: to live together. and if you think about it, them coexisting makes a lot of sense.

sukuna has been described as a natural disaster, so how can yuuji have any kind of empathy for something as devastating and unfeeling as an earthquake or a tsunami? in truth, the human race has been coexisting with natural disasters since the beginning - especially japan, which has weathered many terrible calamities. yuuji is a lot like the embodiment of the resilience and strength needed to survive such disasters, so i think he's more than capable of handling a life with sukuna, especially if sukuna is far more subdued.

and sukuna being allowed to live isn't redemption at all. though it would be a form of character development for him, it would still be one of the most selfish things he could do, as it would mean condemning yuuji to an indefinite amount of time with sukuna.

but yuuji seems to want that. he is willingly offering up the rest of his life to sukuna, for them to live together.

personally, i don't consider this to be a form of redemption in any way. he is proving sukuna's mindset wrong, not forgiving him. just accepting his nature and still offering a way to coexist.

i think that by offering this to sukuna, yuuji would essentially become that person that sukuna claims he doesn't need to feel fulfillment. but it's clear to me sukuna wasn't satisfied with his life in the past, since he couldn't offer an explanation to kashimo about why he chose to cross the ages as cursed objects. he is obviously lying or beginning to doubt his own words.

and i think that's why he chose death.

accepting yuuji's mercy, finding that fulfillment sukuna denies needing, would be very un-curselike of him and he can't have that. he would rather be seen as an inhuman monster than something capable of accepting love.

so in the end, sukuna is doing exactly what gege said he would: rejecting love and rejecting anything that makes him less of a curse.

but yuuji isn't easily pushed away. he kept coming back for wasuke and i think that if he really does care that much about sukuna, that if he's wiling to live with him even if no one else accepts it, he won't let sukuna go without more of a fight either.

they can still find fulfilment in each other. they are capable of coexisting. and if sukuna decides to make that change, it doesn't necessarily mean he's completely broken character. and if they don't get to survive together in this lifetime, there's still a good chance for change if they're reincarnated.

[effietrinket1619]

At what point do the viewers start thinking Jess' videos are staged and what do the lanterns do about it

hello! excellent question

it's pretty early on, actually, as the audience becomes increasingly confused and suspicious of the fact that hal never knows what's going on.

this man is so horribly out of date with current affairs that he's genuinely shocked when jess tells him obama is no longer president and hasn't been in years. the theories come in from the viewers: confusion, brain damage, early onset dementia.

or maybe, just maybe, he's faking it.

part of the draw around hal is that he's very out of touch on internet things. this is thought to be because he's older but that's not quite it. hal just doesn't spend enough time on earth to ever bother to know what's going on and even though he's staying on earth a lot more these days, he's not the type to actively research the president.

there's other stuff too. it's entirely unbelievable that jess casually knows two green lanterns and everyone else there is a complete enigma and also really fucking weird. hal also seems a little too clueless at times while doing certain things and trends that are particularly connected to pop culture (he barely knows who taylor swift is, someone help him)

it gets to a point where jess is facing outright accusations of faking everything and things kinda do spiral. she doesn't tell hal (lord knows the pta meets do enough damage to this man's blood pressure already) but she does tell the others.

kyle suggests some kind of qna. jess vetoes that because hal probably wouldn't want to. jo says to maybe do some kind of challenge to distract? jess considers that but it's a fat maybe. simon kinda just grumbles that there's really nothing they can do because anything could be edited on the internet and they'd never have the trust of the masses. no one could ever get how weird hal is in person. jess's eyes light up.

the next dozen videos are all just to showcase how fucking odd this man is. he eats a spoonful of cinnamon with a straight face. hal even turns to jess and asks if she's got more (she doesn't give him any). he does the ice bucket challenge. hal barely flinches. the internet learns that hal jordan cannot do the worm but can toss jess and kyle into the air like a cheerleader effortlessly. his favourite movie is top gun and he doesn't know there's a sequel until jess tells him on camera (he then spends two minutes frantically googling before bolting out of the room to ask john if they have it on streaming). he can fly jets. he watched his dad burn to death (this garners a lot of alarm over the internet and gets zero follow up from jess). he dated a ceo. he has no clue what queer labels are but is 'auntie hal' just as much as he's 'uncle hal'. he's (allegedly) married to a man (no one knows to who and it's driving them nuts).

the point is, hal jordan is a wholeass enigma so who cares if he doesn't know who the damn president is?

the internet drop the entire thing pretty quickly. the lanterns become uber famous shortly afterwards and no one ever gets any answers ever. jess comes out on top as she always will.

[seriousbrat]

this says a lot about Snape's character development for me. There are many parallels drawn throughout the series between Harry and Snape; obviously, they're very different characters but there are similarities too.

I think here Snape is talking about himself. The teenaged Snape we see in the Pensieve is very much like this- emotional, heart on his sleeve, easily provoked, a definite wallower in sad memories... weak. Adult Snape, though he retains some of these characteristics that do emerge in stressful moments (in PoA we see how angrily he reacts to Sirius's escape, for instance) on the whole is a great deal more thoughtful, reserved, calculating, measured.

I think that Snape at some point had to force himself to become this. I think he actually relates to Harry here, and is giving him advice based on personal experience. In my fic he begins to learn to control his emotions partially out of a desire to protect Lily; he's fully aware that she's his weakness (or really, his strength, viewed a different way) and that openly displaying any sort of emotion towards her at all makes her vulnerable to the likes of Avery and Mulciber, who will have the perfect weapon to get to him if they want to.

Severus doesn't have the advantages of his peers, he's not pureblood, he wasn't born into money. If he wants to join the Death Eaters and rise in their ranks, he needs to be subtle, cunning, careful. he can't afford to be careless and entitled like mulciber or bellatrix or even sirius. what he's got to offer isn't his name or his money, it's his sheer talent and cleverness. moving on:

When Voldemort decides to go after Lily this becomes even more important. Imo the reason why Voldemort believes that Snape only "desired" Lily is because that's what Snape told him. He lied to Voldemort's face and told him something probably disgusting tbh because that's the only way Voldemort would accept it and agree, if it was a selfish, callous request that Voldemort could understand. We can see evidence of this here:

Asking Voldemort to spare a mudblood because he was in love with her would likely not have gone over well- and as we know, Voldemort actually bore his request in mind, though obv didn't give enough of a fuck about Snape to follow through. Because although asking voldemort to spare her must have taken serious balls, Snape's mistake here was trusting someone inherently selfish to do something selfless for him.

Clearly he immediately realises this and goes to Dumbledore, which is when controlling his emotions becomes of paramount importance, because now he's working against perhaps the most highly accomplished legilimens of all time.

It's also interesting to me that Snape in this conversation is probably the character who is most forthright and informative with Harry in the whole of OotP until Dumbledore at the end; Harry actually learns a lot in this conversation. And Snape also kind of gives him credit which is interesting too:

like for Snape that's high praise lmao. A shame because if he wasn't so bitter (i.e. didn't wear his heart on his sleeve so much around harry) then he might have actually been pretty helpful to Harry and a decent teacher. Again, during the Occlumency lessons his unrestrained emotion brought up by memories of James is a hindrance. He defies Dumbledore's orders to teach Harry Occlumency because of his emotional response to SWM, as well as honestly doing kind of a shit job before that (by not being empathetic and teaching Harry in a way that would've been actually productive.)

At this point Dumbledore believes that Harry learning Occlumency and controlling his emotions is of vital importance; he turns out to be wrong about this. In Harry's case, it turns out to be his emotional nature that saves him- unlike Snape, who is the opposite. Snape's journey is about learning that some things are more important than his selfish need to give into his own emotions.

By DH Snape's learned this lesson fully; his old hatred for James doesn't stop him from doing what has to be done, from giving Harry the tools he needs. Even in the final moments of his life, he can look past James and see Lily in Harry- and, by giving Harry the information that leads to his self-sacrifice, he can let her go.

[skunkes]

I might be stupid but is Al, Smunker, and Talon togetherrrr. Like a polycule or are they having a secret 3rd thing? Sorry if the answer is obvious jdjdj

theyre together! au (?) for cheye's survival

(general info doodle i made a few months ago) (i say au but idk it could become permanent in my daydream zone, Talon is meant to have his own canon but I like him too much and am bad at writing plots)

This is still a fairly recent development so the current needed-SOME-foundation lore is:

talon and al were as together as talon would allow at the time (so not really) but he liked Al most even amidst his anxieties about men. He leaves for a long while with no contact once he realizes he's getting toooooo comfortable with al, comes back for another round of comfort and gets attached again to both the guy he knew AND the guy's boyfriend

I dont think Talon actually likes being referred to as boyfriend by either of them, nor would he refer to them as his boyfriends, but the attachment and "role" is still there and that's what they loosely consider him (i have to explore this further, theres still a lot i dont know abt him) while also knowing he could just decide to leave again if he so wishes

[maskofenigma]

Fallen London's recurring topic of Love is really interesting to me as a sort of throughline between various stories and i want to ramble about discuss that briefly. i dont call it a theme because thematic statements are usually more complex than a single word, at least in my mind, but a lot of Fallen London's storylines incorporate love into their themes.

there's the obvious things ofc; the Manager and the King, the Duchess and the Canigaster, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Bazaar's whole situation. Love is a common motivator that many people can relate to, so it's no surprise that it appears in this capacity. Even so, these instances also underpin a lot of the setting's character, particularly the latter two examples, explaining why the neath is the way it is. but if we broaden our horizons just a bit, you can start to see it appearing all over the place (though maybe thats just confirmation bias lol).

the youthful naturalist loves discovery and life, and evolution in that context is a story about what one is willing to endure and sacrifice for that love. Love is a constant theme in the Light Fingers storyline, between moon milk and poor Edward, but also shows in Mr Fires's love for London (strange and deleterious though it may be) and the protagonist's love for either the Hybrid they protected or the diamond they'd been after. I don't know as much about the other ambitions (yet), but Nemesis is all about avenging a loved one by any means necessary, and you could see Bag a Legend as a love for the hunt or a love of fame, though even i’ll admit thats a bit of a stretch. Idk about Heart's Desire i’m still working on it but there's probably something. Its literally about what your heart desires but there’s absolutely a deeper connection with the Marvellous and stuff. No spoilers i'm still working on it :3

i dont know a ton about SMEN's story either, but i know from a ludonarrative perspective that it tests the players love for their character, forcing you to ruin this silly victorian who you are presumably quite attached to in the search for knowledge (perhaps another kind of love?) With what little i know of it, i’d honestly be shocked if there wasn’t anything there. if ao3 has taught me anything, there was definitely some kind of love going on between those two space bats, but im not sure if ao3 is a reputable source in this specific instance

The Flukes are literally sick with love for lost Axile, and a lot of the Masters are shown yearning to return to the High Wilderness. Many of the Irem Destinies regard love in this way, love for the sun, for the liberation, for ones partner, for london, for the people of the neath, and on and on. im not very far along with the railway but im 100% certain itll crop up again there, whether with Furnace Ancona or the Efficient Commissioner or the masters or whatever else. same goes for the Exceptional Stories and the myriad tales ive yet to unlock. Weve started to see a glimmer of it in firmament, with the imminent lucifer fire guy, but i wasnt really sure what his deal was. the idea extends to the other Sunless games from what i know, though ive yet to play those. Mask of the Rose is a romance, so thats pretty clear cut; sunless skies seems to have a lot of content relating to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert; and sunless seas seems to have it present in a few storylines, though i couldnt point to anything specific at this time. even small things, such as the way that the railway steel seems drawn to Hell and the sorrowful properties of sphinxstone, makes for a setting that is inundated with longing and heartbreak in a fascinating way.

viewed through this lens, fallen london's perspective on love is tragically earnest: love is painful and unfair and yet so very necessary. as someone who's aromantic and a hater, i call that an L. but from a thematic perspective its very interesting how often this occurs and how it connects a lot of fallen london. In so many other narratives, love is a conclusion, a reward or climax. In fact, mass media seems allergic to depicting an active and healthy relationship, and instead relegates such matters to a single ceremonious kiss. But for fallen london, a game where kisses are currency and romance is taxed, the concept of love is afforded such an interesting amount of care and reverence. Fitting for a setting wherein the insisting incidents all relate to love in some way or another

it may be comedic and at times quite absurd, but fallen london to me is a game deeply concerned with love and its influence on people. and idk i think thats interesting. if you're looking for the theme or message of a given fallen london story, look to love, always.

does that count as a thesis? i certainly dont know

[rriverrunning]

#tbh i think people vastly overstate the extent to which cat fits into the westerosi woman/wife/mother mold. because while it's not as obviously evident to the people around her like it is with characters like cersei ("i shouldve been born a man" etc to sansa, the way tyrion & jaime discuss her) or brienne (unable to fit into any traditional gender roles by her physical appearance and prowess as a fighter), she really plainly chafes against the constraints of those roles almost constantly in her own povs.

a lot of it happens in her head as she recalls her childhood as hoster's presumed heir, and reckons with her own lack of power to make political decisions (despite the fact that she is qualified, in fact likely more qualified than many of the men around her to do so) and save her daughters. but this resistance also does manifest in her actions, and she gets reprimanded for it!! robb sending her as an envoy to renly and stannis was explicitly a move to further push her out of the war strategy effort, something that's extremely complicated for her to deal with because it's coming from her own teenage son, who has also become a king, who is facing pressures from his own men. robb believes that he needs to present a strong front, something that being advised by his mother compromises, so he compensates by removing her from the situation entirely. she struggles with this dichotomy between her son who she yearns to protect and care for, and her king who ultimately has this power over her, just as she struggled in her relationship with ned (loving him dearly as her husband, but also being subject to him and his witholding of information having a lasting impact on her).

and these are not conflicts cat deals with easily: a lot of her worst actions and decisions relate back to these issues, because in places where cat does have power she uses it, and sometimes rashly, but she uses it when and where she can!! i think it's a mistake to be fooled by her outward appearance as the purely dutiful, deferent wife and mother (as many of the people around her are) because that simply isn't consistent with what catelyn truly wants for herself, or what she does in the text!

[asterkatt]

I’ve been given permission encouraged to share my FNAF AU… that’s. a whole can of worms that I don’t know if y’all are ready for.

But since a few people mentioned they’d like to see it, I’m not going to say no!!!! (I’ve been desperate to yap about this for YEARS)

No knowledge of FNAF is required for this - everything will be written out as if it’s your first time encountering the story!!

For today, I’ll start out by introducing you to Michael Afton: the primary protagonist of the story!!

(really old sheet but!!)

Michael is the firstborn child of William and Cynthia Afton. Growing up, he had a very close relationship with his mother - but had always admired his father from a distance. (William was often too busy with his work to pay attention to him).

Around the age of 3, Michael became an older brother to Elizabeth Afton, and again to Evan Afton at the age of 6.

The Afton home life wasn’t great, but it wasn’t the worst it could be. William Afton was often too busy trying to start a business to attend to matters at home, which left Cynthia Afton to essentially raise all three children on her own.

As Michael got older, he began to notice his mother struggling (extremely observant, that boy was) - and he started helping her wherever he could. Whether that be chores, caring for his siblings, or simply being as obedient as possible - he tried as hard as he could to make his mother’s life go smoothly.

Our story officially starts in the Summer of 1979. William Afton had just opened a restaurant called Fredbear’s Family Diner with his business partner, Henry Emily. This was a small diner - but there was something that made it different to every other place that had come before it: animatronic entertainment.

Michael and his siblings (and their friends) spent a large portion of their time in that diner. From birthday parties to play dates to accompanying their parents to work - Fredbear’s was like a second home to Michael.

Other than his house and Fredbear’s, though, there was one other place that was like home to Michael - and that was the home of Henry Emily.

Henry Emily was a father of two - Charlie and Sammy Emily (twins, only a year or two younger than Michael). It was hard for Michael to not compare Henry to his own father - Henry was warm, caring, and friendly - characteristics that his father only seemed to have when they were at Fredbear’s. Only for the guests.

Michael often found himself wondering what it would be like to have Henry as a father instead - someone who didn’t treat him as if he were no more than a mere inconvenience. He couldn’t help but see the way that Henry interacted with his children and feel jealous that he never received such affection.

Things went on this way for quite a while - Michael slipping deeper into his confusion and hurt over why is father doesn’t seem to care for him (here’s a story note excerpt that better explains it)

So yeah. Michael Afton is not doing the best - and it’s hard for him. Because he is a very very very loving kid - he is by far the most emotionally vulnerable of the Afton kids. This child will tease and get into little squabbles but overall he's just extremely kind - a trait he shares with his mother.

Which only makes the tragedy that happens only a few months later so much worse - but I’ll leave that for a future post ;))

Here are some additional story notes that I couldn’t quite fit into the post itself to help you get a grip on who he is!! I love this sweet boy :((

there is so much more I could say but I fear this is enough of an introduction for now so uh. bows and runs away. thank you.

[foreststarflaime]

Which Final Fantasy characters do you think are lactose intolerant? 

Genesis because the guy already has so many problems why not add one more lmao (and imagine the Angeal being considerate fluff you could milk out of that) (haha milk get it) (sorry lmao)

I think it would be funny if Vincent did too—big scary werewolf vampire guy defeated by cheese. Then one of Avalanche, Tifa maybe? does the he asked for no pickles meme but with cheese. Perfect

And also Cloud. Again, guy has all the problems. Collecting them like pokemon cards. Well here’s another one buddy enjoy <3

[tigersharktheautisticseawing]

first murdle post ever, but man do I have to yap about vol 1 or else I'll explode (spoilers below cut)

So I got vol 1 back in November when my sister (whom I love with all my heart (remember this I'll yap more about it later)) saw it in an empik and was like "Yeah my autistic gay sisbling thing would love this book" and got it for me. Also fun fact, I saw the book in Empik like a week or so earlier but I decided to pass up on it in favor of books that I was sure I wanted (rookie mistake, fortunately I've got big sis to correct it <3).

Then I got to what I think was about riddle 25-30 before putting it down for like 2-3 months (Epic the musical entered my life with a bang about that time and is only now slowly letting me go from its clutches).

Now, about a week ago, if not less, I saw this book again in my travel backpack and was like "You know what? I really do want a good puzzle." and began solving it at home and bringing it to school with me.

Then puzzle 50 happened.

Up until that point I genuinely thought this book was just some loreless riddles and I didnt discover the lore for a while (before the hiatus but a good week at least from when I got it innitially), so imagine my fucking suprise when the answer to riddle 50 cointained some of the least veiled gay angst I've ever seen in a physical book. Actually scratch that, the least veiled gay angst I've ever seen in a physical book.

So I was like "holy shit I gotta go on ao3 right fucking meow" and found many a fic with the lovely oxymorons ship (well, as many as our sadly ridiculously tiny fandom can produce) and began a-reading.

About that point I started seeing stuff like "spoilers for riddles 75/95/100/etc" and I was like "man tf is happenning in riddle 95 dawg"

(side tangent, I solved the irratino+mr.shadow plot twist in like riddle 61 or whichever was the one where shadow was the culprit with the "fammiliar laugh". Fun enough, just before that in the very same fucking riddle I noticed that we are given different information on mr.shadow at different times and stockpiled the info I found, which left me missing only his height, and upon seeing the phrase "fammiliar laugh" my neurons fucking fired and I frantically skimmed the book to find that one case around 36 with Irratino as a suspect to find his case file and sure e-fucking-nough all the info matched except for the missing height, which couldn't match due to being missing, and I was this close to screaming out loud (which I couldn't cuz I was in some class at the time))

So I work my way through chapter 4 like a champ, the autism helping for once, feeling proud of myself for basically never needing hints.

Then case 91 rolls around and I get hopelessly stuck.

It was last weekend when I was at my dad's house (split custody) and I genuinely could not figure out the suspect statements, even after using the hint, and was so close to just checking the answer that I decided to just take a break.

Then, on what I presume to be Monday, I got it.

It was late but my night owl mind was sharp and I was kinda embarassed for not figuring it out earlier, but hey, autism was cooperating for a suspiciously long amount of time, so my defeat shouldn't've been a suprise at all.

Then, between 11 PM and 1 AM I solved cases until case 97 (it was late at then and I was fucking tired (pretty sure I had to go to school at 8 am as well)) and had fun

And when case 95 rolled around I was really excited to see my boys hanging out finally and bonding further, but the detective code made me really curious.

So, somewhere between the witching hour and 1 in the morning, I painstakingly flipping what seemed to be the entire fucking book back and forth for every letter I needed to decode. I was extremely excited to find the answer, and giddy because I love a good mental challenge.

I got the gist of the message about halfway in, but refused to believe it until I got the whole thing decoded.

"[on zaczął] się w nim zakochiwać"

"[he started] to fall in love with him"

I was so close to screaming, because I genuinely expected the oxymorons to be this thinly-veiled thing that isn't ever stated outright but is also never denied, and yet here I was, staring at the words that seemed to burn into my retinas with their simplicity and message.

And, as the dust settled in my brain, one thing hit me.

Holy shit it's canon

I finished the book in its whole glory on a PE lesson on Wednesday, and immediately knew I needed to get the second book right fucking now.

Yet, poland continues to be poland, and as I input the book into my Empik app to find which store has vol 2, I am met with the answer of Westfield Mokotów, which is about an hour away by public transport. Coincidentally, that same trip by car happens to be only about half that time, leading me to devise my epic plan

Ask Mom if she'll drive me there

If yes, let Mom drop me off and get the book (success!)

If no, go there by public transport and get the book myself (longer, but still success!)

Well, after my mom came home literally as I was writing the texts to her, I presented the plan, which got interrupted by Mom giving me three pieces of information:

That mall is close to my mom's workplace

She cant get me the book today, but she could the next time she'll be working stationally (she works from home most of the time to take care of me and lil' sis and the dog better + it's more convienient)

My big sister's workplace just so happens to be not far from the same mall as well

So, plan now revised, I go to my chat with sis and ask her.

I did not even start typing the actual logistics before she agreed to buy it for me. Not to drop me off there, not to take the money from me so it's like I'm buying it anyway, but to actually buy it for me.

So, after writing something along the lines of "OMG TYSM ILYSM!!!!!! <3 <3 <3" and her writing back that she'll get it on Thursday when she goes to work stationally again, I walk away on could nine and go scrolling this very tag for content of my precious idiots.

Thursday (today) rolls around, and my day is okay. Math test first period, but I'm math autistic so I came in late and finished first, instead of english the six of us in our split class group go listen to a lady present a powerpoint about forest day to some year 0's (zerówka) and then chill (I'm mostly filling in the spots in vol 1 where I haven't written out the murdlers by word yet).

Then, two lessons from the end, we have commonroom period (godzina wychowawcza, with your assigned class teacher yapping on about something). We didn't talk about anything since there was a poem contest due Friday and our Polish teacher guilted homeroom teach into letting us make the poems (I wasnt making one, but like at least two people did and there was a grand total of like 12 of us so yk), and towards the end of my lesson I started feeling weird. I went to the bathroom and felt cold, so I grabbed my coat from my locker, and yet I still felt cold. And not oh-no-too-cold cold, but I-am-having-a-fever-so-everything-else-seems-cold-by-comparison cold.

(Forgot to mention, but just before commonroom my sis texts me that she got the goods and that I can just drop by and pick it up anytime. This is important for later.)

Then, just before WOS (wiedza o społeczeństwie, it's like politics jr and stuff), I ask my teacher to let me go to the nurse. Long story short, waited 15 min for her to tell me I'm fever-free, so I got back to class, still feeling queasy, and do the lesson stuffs (fortunately it was just a question sheet that our teacher was just actively telling us how to fill in and giving us good grades for that + 2 quizzes on knock-off kahoot, so it was chill)

Back at home I'm feeling queasier than ever (plus dog almost gets run pver by a bike on the fucking sidewalk right in front of the gate to our house), so I take my temperature, and, wouldn't you know it, 37.8C (deep in fever territory for the americans).

So I text my sis a pic I took of the thermometer with the caption "Me sick".

AND THAT ANGELIC CREATURE FUCKING DECIDED TO DROP IT OFF TOO!?!?!?!?

Like, our next texts were just me saying variations of "TYSM ILYSM <3 <3 <3 <3" cause she was doing me so much favors this week oh gods

And now as I sit here, unstarted yet vol 2 under my arm...

I CANNOT FUCKING WAIT TO START!!!!!

Happy to be her with y'all <3

[younglingslayer300]

something that i find really interesting is that i think anakin is actually a very sociable person - we don't see much of him off tatooine, but in that first film he invites complete strangers into his home, and he's talking to them without any reserve. he does have friends, and the conflict he does have with the other slave kids mostly seems to be because he has so much hope of escaping slavery, something they also want, and they resent his hope more than his abrasive personality, something that never happens again in the whole series. (also, they're children in a horrible environment who need some kind of outlet for their resentment, and that conflict is something anakin understands - he may argue with them, but at the end of the day he's still one of them, which is a sense of security that he doesn't achieve with the jedi)

and then you get the next films, and he's much more awkward, but he's still very direct - he likes talking to people, and he doesn't really like being alone. but, crucially, he frankly doesn't seem to like most of the people he's around, and i know that can be explained by saying that actually he is antisocial, and his behaviour as a kid was just a childish lack of inhibitions.

but tbh i find it much more compelling to imagine that he is very sociable, and he does like people, and naturally gets on with them. and the reason this is pretty much the opposite in the 2nd and 3rd films is because he's so completely out of his depth. he hates tatooine so much, and he obviously hated being a slave, but he's never been able to shake that from his identity. he can't be sociable anymore, can't click with people, because they're so completely unreachable to him; he doesn't know where he stands with them, because he's only ever felt 'right' as a slave (he's so ill), and he can't connect with people the way he naturally would, because he can't fit in anywhere else. he never feels confident as a jedi (e.g. interrupting padme when she calls him a trainee, and getting overly angry when the council doesn't make him a master), because he has an entirely different set of values to them - succeeding, to him, is proving that he is good at violence and does not need to be violenced - and knows that his view of life is just incompatible with the rest of the jedi. he can't feel comfortable, he never knows exactly where he stands with them, and their mindsets are completely incomprehensible to him, so he can never be sociable again the way he was as a child.

and that follows him his whole life. he tries desperately to escape tatooine, and prove himself worthy of personhood, but there was never anything to prove, so he never manages it. i think it's one reason he's so comfortable with padme (possibly @husborth said something similar in one of their posts?) because even though he doesn't want people to know about his childhood, the fact that she understands him, and knew him in the only time of his life where he didn't feel out of his depth, means he can relax around her. i also think it's one of the many reasons he's so miserable in adulthood, because he desperately needs lots and lots of friends, and has 0, and also he hates everyone around him. that hatred isn't natural to him, but he can't relax around anyone because he's been taught, as a child, never to let his guard down. on tatooine, he knew the stakes: disobey orders, get blown up. everywhere else, he has had to navigate this nuance-led structure, that involves feelings and frowns on violence, and frankly he never adjusts to that change. even though he wants to be friends with people, naturally likes people, he can never relax around them, and so he automatically dislikes + distrusts them instead, which exhausts him. he is not a naturally mistrusting person, but it's been beaten into him, literally

[callizinc]

oh my god i went to search for ena stuff on this blog and got hit with a wall of phone guy did you know youre funny to me. anyway do you have any ena theories about literally anything :-)

Oh my god i fucking forgot i made the entirety of my searchable tags Phone Guy.

Well. 😭😭😭 DHSKSHAOHDSJDH WELL :D This is such a fire question so Thank you so much BUT... I do have to say, im not entirely sure? For me ive never been one to make theories on anything Ena related at all because i prefer to just enjoy the madness, really, but given dream bbq's nature i think it definitely warrants some deeper thought and could have really cool stuff going on :D

Do i have ideas on what that stuff could be? No. ❤️ BUT I will give you some things i found interesting...?

I think it's all but confirmed there's diegetically multiple Enas; the way everyone hates her for no identifiable reason, The literal fucking hundreds of mannequins everywhere which all seem to come from her after she?? Dies??? Maybe if we want to be fucking crazy we can say the Shaman's lines about one person being in two places at once also supports this???

I have no idea... How so, though. Like some characters seem to hate our specific Ena while others seem to hate her like. As a concept 😭 Free my girl

The "I'm not doing ANYTHING!" scene is also really interesting. Why are there BULLETS RAINING FROM THE SKY What the fuck happened to her 😭 Though given how Ena wants to Kill The Boss and has guns in the trailer there might be something going on with her and violence, too?

The fixation on blood is strange; Blood seems to be just as common as water, blood samples are a normal way of identifying people (as also seen in the Ena shorts), It's kind of strange to imagine even that all these abstract characters have blood in the first place, but??

There's a slight fixation on coral, also. The pants guys look like coral, Coral Glasses, you can find what looks like or is confirmed to be dead coral in uncanny valley and the starting area. Shrugs

Why is Ena christian. Why is she talking about God and blesses half the people she talks to. Help me

So do i have theories. No ❤️ But i do have whatever this is

[sscrambledmeggss]

For the brutally honest opinion on ships, klaine, Finchel and brittana

OKAYOKAY SO, i’ll end with klaine because i don’t like them, so i’ll add a cut off so people don’t have to see that if they don’t want to :) (this post will also be tagged correctly !)

Finchel:

i think finn and rachel definitely have issues and they are not a perfect couple, BUT i appreciate them comedically, LOL. like am i rooting for them to end up together? maybe not. but i am always entertained when they are on screen together. i think they are messy in the way only a glee couple can pull off.

so i guess my “brutally honest opinion” is that i don’t necessarily ship them, but i think they are really funny together :)

brittana:

my favorite canon ship <3 i love them so so much. like any glee couple they are not perfect, but i think their dynamic is really sweet. i am a sucker for best friends to lovers and slowburn. i love how they never try to change each other, but always support each other. :) i will say s4 brittany is a bit hard sometimes because of how they infantilize her (santana is one of the few consistent glee characters imo!), but i absolutely adore s6 brittany and brittana so much.

do not click “read more” if you don’t want to see anti klaine takes 🕺

this is going to be really long 😭 anyone who’s like followed me for awhile knows how annoying i was when i was younger </3 tdlr: it’s complicated, it’s meta, it’s writing.

when i was like 15-18 i was definitely LOUDLY anti klaine, but i am 20 now LOL, so i think although i still dislike them, my reasonings now are more meta/writing based then how i used to view it in the past 😭

i’ll start out with the good of klaine, they mean so much to people and helped SO much with queer representation, because of that i don’t think the show could’ve pulled them off ending up with anyone that wasn’t each other. i could never belittle what they did for gay media, and their impact on the world.

that being said, my issues with klaine rely so much in the writing. yeah they had issues in s2 but there was *promise*. i think as soon as blaine transfers to mckinley things start to fall apart imo.

blaine in s2 was a fully developed character, so when he’s brought back in s3 they basically have to “devolve” him. he also lacked a character outside of “kurt’s boyfriend” my issue is that they proceed to never give him a character outside of that. every action blaine does in the show is literally only because he’s dating kurt. like he doesn’t go to nyada because it makes sense for his character, he goes to nyada because kurt is there. his biggest crime to me now is not his actions, but the way he had potential to be a good character and instead the writers…did that with him. blaine never really faces any obstacles within the show he just kinda, gets stuff?? his biggest consequence for any of his actions was kurt breaking up with him, but then they get married in the end 😭

i am obviously bias and kurt was always my favorite </3 but kurt was also a fully fleshed out character. he had inspirations, goals, etc. outside of his relationship with blaine. but as the show goes on they side step him and put him in the back to just be “blaine’s boyfriend, rachel’s best friend” i LOVE kurt, but in s5 they end up “just some guy-ing” him. i still like him in s5 but they stop caring about his outfits, and he’s just there to be support for blaine and rachel :(

now finally, the relationship of it all: i think it started out with a lot of promise, but in s3 onwards they face A LOT of issues, and none of their issues are ever fully addressed. the scandals parking lot scene is really really bad, and handled just as poorly (also blaine never tells kurt he sleeps with him for WSS, something even rachel is called out for 😭). the tony role scene is bad, and is also handled poorly.

kurt and blaine’s actions are also not handled the same by the narrative (the chandler situation AND sebastian situation being the same exact thing, but only kurt is held accountable for that), and it gets tiring. the s4 cheating plot line is ugh. i don’t think it’s out of character for blaine to do, i think part of his character is that he tends to be emotional and impulsive, while kurt tends to be defensive and avoidant. but the narrative basically begs you to forgive blaine because he’s blaine, and the audience loves klaine.

then they get engaged in s5 with a really manipulative proposal scene :/ and i feel like they haven’t unpacked ANYTHING. then they can’t live together, then they move in together again, and break up. then in s6 they get immediately married. i feel like they never worked on their problems because the writers knew klaine drama would pull in intrigue, and because of this they filled the relationship with senseless drama which made some audience members feel disillusioned with the relationship.

it made kurt fans fill bitter because kurt got sidelined and loss so much of what made him “kurt” solely for the klaine relationship.

and i can see how blaine fans would be bitter because he never fully leaves the role of “kurt’s boyfriend”

i think both characters end up being so vastly different that they are no longer that compatible. kurt is independent, a little mean at times, and not overly affectionate.

blaine is quite codependent, sensitive, and needs a lot of validation.

so at the end of the day, i think the writers accidentally made them out grow each other, and i think they need like different things that they are not really getting from each other 😭 i also wish that we saw more of them actually working through their relationship issues instead of the show just sweeping it under the bus.

i will say, this is just how i view it, because i know a lot of people who love them and i am genuinely glad for that. i do get the appeal because they start out SO sweet, but later on they are just not for me. and i think the people who create stuff for klaine are really talented and nice <3

[shadowlinktheshadow]

In all honesty, I love your ideas about Green and Shadow. Green looks like he's about to implode, and Shadow simply adds more fuel to fire. I may or may not want to know more haha. I wonder how Red, Blue, and Vio play into this?

first of all. uh. thank you 🥺 it's just the long hidden away love for Green growing. and some of my own personal experiences? maybe?

but uh. im not the best story builder / writer in general 💀 so I havent really thought of what would happen with Red, Blue, and especially Vio

but this is a good chance to think of it so uh. take my raw ideas.

Vio

biggest problem I see is with this fella. where do we put him if Green is dealing with Shadow?

Desert of Doubt • this is probably the easiest answer: just flip Green and Vio's positions. I do like this idea because I associate Vio with the Earth Element, and I mean. its sand • ive also just recently finished four swords adventures, and i think it would be funny to see him interact with the puzzles, as theres a lot of riddles even before the Desert Temple itself • I uh. forgot the name but even perhaps have Vio meet with that weird race in the desert?? (the green ones) >EDIT: coming back to this while writing the final paragraph. It would be cool to see Vio snap here I think. the only time hes visibly upset (like. ANGRY angry) is during the fight with Green during their battle. so I think itd be cool to see the "calm and collected" guy finally break down (perhaps over a puzzle? maybe he realizes that teamwork isnt so bad? hes not as smart as he thought he was?) Dark Forest • in this scenario Shadow is already beating up Green and weakening his spirit, so Vio may or may not come up with the idea to join Shadow (I think not) • I would assume he comes in right as Shadow is about to win Green over and save him • I dont really know 💀 Green and Vio is also a really rare pair and while I see them as opposites (like Red and Blue) I think it would be equally interesting to see them paired up like the latter

>EDIT: coming back to this after writing Red's section, but i think the Robber's Town or whatever from FSA would be a cool place to see them go to (the place where Red got the Fire Rod in the manga). in the game there's a gang of bandits you have to hunt down and I think seeing the two brains/logical Links go on a detective style hunt would be neat

Red

with Vio out of the way, theres no REAL reason to swap him with anybody, but I guess this version of Four Swords im just creating underrated Link pairs

Anywhere with Vio • just like Green and Vio, this is another pair I wouldve loved to see more of. Red's undeniable admiration for Vio, and Vio just brushing it off like it's nothing. In this scenario id like to see Red realize that. as cool as Vio is, he has his own weak points as well. (and maybe have Vio realize that too) whether that be with Red having to save Vio/support him or Vio asking for help. I dont know >Places where Red & Vio pair could go? • Death Mountain: Green's mental state would be in shambles, but otherwise there would be no reason to go to Death Mountain besides the Maidens so maybe the two of them go do that? • Frozen Hyrule: how would they obtain the Fire Rod? I dont know. this ones a little half boiled but this could be a good reason for Vio needing help. feel like this guy would have a low tolerance for the cold. >>EDIT: NEW IDEA DROPPED. while we're on the line of talking about interesting pairs, I think having a Red and Green pair would be cool too. not as strong as the others in my idea of who goes where, but I just REALLY want to see Red fight for himself. hes always being saved by those around him, and when he DOES work independently, it was with the Fire Rod (in the manga). I wanna see him use a SWORD. fight for HIMSELF. perhaps following the events of Red receiving the Fire Rod from that twerp, and Green and Red solve the town's mystery (instead of Green and Vio pair that I talked about above)

Blue

same goes with Red for Blue. no REAL reason to swap/change him (and I personally do like Red and Blue's interaction in the manga) but theres one more pair I wouldve loved to see

With Vio • Blue really wanted to fight Vio in the battle between Green and Vio in the manga, so he has some kinda grudge or reason to want to test his strength against him. theyre not necessarily the nicest pair to each other, so I think their interaction would be a nice "hey you arent so bad either" moment for them >The Swamp: this place is kinda nonexistent in the manga (but it is shown as the Big Poe moment in the manga). The Swamp was one of my least favorite places (because it was so difficult. control wise mostly) so having the two haters together there would be fun. just like the game I think they would finish the poisonous swamp and head over to the Graveyard. I also think that in the Graveyard is where they'd start arguing (and even fighting? Id love to see them fight) to have them be interrupted by some boss where theyd have to team up to defeat With Green?? • another interesting pair. Im still strongly leaning towards Green and Vio being the better pair for this story, but id also love to see Blue throw hands for Green. Green became leader and not me? Who fucking cares?! hes still my friend and he's Not having a good time™ so I gotta help him!

Reuniting with Green

this is uh. a new section I just made while writing my last thoughts. I don't know what path I'll eventually take for what Links go where in this scenario (I may never will 💀) but just a really simple meet-up with Green would go something like this: > Red, Blue, and Vio find each other and head towards Death Mountain (arguing along the way? Blue is trying to lead but so is Vio. they get snappy. Red wants to lead too, but is shut down by Blue?) Shadow has Green held captive at Death Mountain, and Green is in no good mental condition to bounce back. im thinking of 2 scenarios A: Shadow uses Green in his weak state to fight against the other 3 (not really effective but just a thought) B: Shadow fights the 3 himself (I like this one better personally)

Green

LAST SECTION I SWEAR 😭

ALSO just thought of this. this isnt really an interaction with the other 3, so dont mind to skip if you want to. just a new thought about Shadow and Green. I really wanna use the fact that Shadow can transform into the other Links (and perhaps other people?) the biggest torture method on Green that Shadow would use is shifting into the other Links (and maybe even their Dad?) to absolutely destroy him. theyre all mind games and not actually real, but for Green that doesnt matter. hes really not in it right now anyways.

uh. sorry for yapping. I think the other three are the easiest to customize. I dont think theres a set place for them to go to of Green goes to the Dark Forest.

but if I had to rank them.

Green and Vio pair go to the town and have a detective party

Blue and Vio get into an argument at the Graveyard

Vio goes to the Desert of Doubt by himself. cue riddle solving and falling into traps montage

[oceansreducedtoshallowcreeks]

The second you demonize the character, the second you remove the nuance that it needs to be handled with. The second you say the character is a monster, the second you remove the accountability that the subtext held, you destroy the point of the character. No one is 100% good, or 100% evil. Terrible people have done good things. Good people have done something bad in their past. If you say that the character is 100% evil, then you remove the plot point of human nature. Humans cannot be 100% good or evil. Humans change, adapt, they’re irrational. Removing a characters humanity removes their accountability. It removes their ability to show something real. Their ability to spread a message.