#// and yet we've got more plot going than we probably need

[thanatologie]

also shout out to the female oc and canon rpers out there, i see you and have the plot you crave.

[sleepylink]

I was thinking about the "Someone will die" thing for Linked Universe recently, and like, if it IS going to happen, then on a story telling standpoint it HAS to be someone that will effect the ENTIRE group Dynamic.

---Deep Dive. It gets long---

If it's Sky, I don't think it'll effect much, he's a very quiet character, which isn't bad, he's just not actively changing the room's dynamic whenever he's in it. But if someone dies that's not him, I imagine we'll see the "God Slayer" 's True Anger-

If it's Four, There would definitely be a hole left, but I don't think his story has been even touched upon yet, and it would be a loss to not see his story told. We also know somewhat his fate with the Palace of the Four Sword (Legend Killed Four (Actually Canon)). So I honestly don't think it would be Four. But if someone DID die, then it would be an opportunity for him to show off some of his OTHER abilities. We've seen half his kit already, but not to the fullest.

If it's Time, Well considering he is the leader, YEAH- He's also the one who SAW the message, so he is currently the only one who knows. So Time is on the chopping block of characters that could be killed. Also, if Time dies, then someone else has to step up to the Leadership roll. BUT ALSO- We know Time and Malon have to have kids, and they don't have any (YET) we also know be needs to become more bitter before his death to make his TP appearance more canon. So I Don't Think It'll be Time. If anything him stepping back from the leadership roll would be best after the death. But he also has a thing that started where if he goes too far into the anger and hate side of things, (How he's becoming more harsh towards the others) he may need to die (It's a story telling thing). Lastly if someone ELSE dies, then I think he will gain said bitterness he needs.

If it's Legend, there are a LOT of death flags for this mf souly because of his items; The Switch Hook, lets him switch places with people and monsters, so if someone is going to get hit, he can switch with them. (But he also has MANY Invincibility items) Then there's the First Gen Ring which makes him look like Hyrule. Other than that, he has a lot of items that we haven't seen yet- WE HAVE NOT SEEN LEGEND GO ALL OUT- I don't think it'll be Legend, but we know he has many Items that could help protect people and injured himself. But then again, Legend is one of the more loud characters, and he lack of presence would be felt if he was gone. If someone ELSE is killed, then he will SPIRAL- He may also be the reason they can come back. There's also the fact that he and Rulie may be related (Without knowing (Hyrule Historia PG 106)) And he hasn't settled down yet, he has more adventures after this one. Also, there is a story line it looks like rn (June 2025) that he may be slowly becoming a Leader, even though he doesn't want to. If you look at the current teams in the Dungeon, Time, Wars, Twi and Legend are the leaders of their little teams.

If it's Hyrule, Oh Boy IF IT'S HYRULE- Rulie's got the Blood Curse! I know not a lot of people like the Blood Curse, but it's quite literally half the plot of Zelda 2. (Put the 6 Crystals in the Palaces and unlock the Triforce of Courage AND Avoid getting Killed because Ganon's Minions are going to revive Ganon with Link's Blood) Canonically Rulie also has the Triforce, but in LU it looks like he doesn't have it. Rulie is also a quiet character, and we've only seen him go all out once. We also know because his two games are the hardest, he is probably one of the strongest Links in this chain. But again, Rulie is a quieter character, so I'm not too sure if the group dynamic would change too much, it would definitely mess up Legend (These two are on the same level of skill, unlike the others). If someone else dies, then Rulie would probably become more determined to finish this battle.

If it's Twilight, he has been a rock for many characters and we already had a death scare with him, so I feel like it wouldn't be him. But then again that injury may be he reason someone else dies. Or he could heal up and be totally fine. If someone else dies, he will definitely have to be that rock for others.

If it's Wind, Child. The Child. Yeah, that would really mess up the chain! But he is also an easy one to kill off to make everyone sad. It would have that pit feeling. But again, he is technically not a Link and we haven't seen him at his fullest yet. He also hasn't discovered new Hyrule yet, so No, It really can't be him, his story isn't done. He also has a lot to prove, and if someone else gets killed, that's a good chance.

If It's Warriors, well, Actually this one is probably the best shot to kill off. Jojo already said she originally wanted to kill him off early on, but decided against it because she liked the character. But going back to the comic, Warriors is another rock in the party, he knows how to do this group work and how to deal with multiple enemies at a time. He's been through this before. (A War). But he is also like a second in command, and in being said second in command, makes him a good target to kill off. It would be felt and someone else would have to fill that roll. Also his little chat with Wild in the Dungeon is really funny "Where do you see yourself in 5 years". 1) We all look and laugh as we know Wild if going to loose an arm in 5 years. 2) Angst. Will Wars even be alive in 5 years? ITS FORESHADOWING. Anyways, if it's someone else, he would want to try and keep the group morale up.

If it's Wild. Cannot be Wild, we know he survives this to go onto Tears of the Kingdom. His story isn't done.

So from Least Likely to most Likely; 1 = No not happening 9 = Yeah, he's already dead.

Wild - TOTK

Sky - Needs to found Hyrule

Wind - Needs to found New Hyrule

Four - Palace of the Four Sword

Time - Heroes Shade

Twilight - Already had a Death Scare

Legend - Switch Hook

Hyrule - Blood Curse

Warriors - He is either a 1 or a 9

What your guy's 1-9 list of who's gonna die??

[shitposting-fox]

Personal head cannon: the reason Okarun gets depressed in his yokai form is due to the lingering effects of Turbo-granny and the location-bound spirit. Spoilers for the manga will be under the cut!

This is due to a few things:

1. The backstory of the tunnel, yokai, and spirit

2. "Dandadan" as a word's potential meaning (major manga spoilers at that point!)

First, the spirits. We've already seen with Momo her ability to view the past of a yokai (Arco Silky) and we know Seiko was aware of the ongoing history behind the tunnel both Turbo-granny and the location-bound spirit where in.

With a combination of the curse, it's not a far stretch that the lingering emotions from the deceased may be having a subtle effect on Okarun.

While it's not been very overt, we've seen how the origin of a yokai is important to how they act. Those who are more vengeful will be more likely to attack whereas those who are from grief may try to protect (albeit a violent way).

While Turbo-granny is in the maneki-neko and her powers are in Okarun, there's a chance that the feelings that helped form those powers may have a subconscious effect on him. Hence, the general depression but extreme protectiveness.

Spoilers from the manga below!!

We saw him literally get on all fours like a guard dog, and push his body to the breaking point repeatedly. Going with the assumption the deceased are subconsciously effecting him, it makes more sense why the protectiveness is amped up too.

Many of the girls were probably desperate for someone to save them, anyone, and that urgency could translate into the need to protect the others (especially Momo) as a result.

The second reason I have this theory is because of the potential meaning of "dandadan"!

This one is a lot more flimsy so bear with me here. While I've already wanted for manga spoilers I'm gonna mention again MAJOR SPOILERS for the manga.

Alright so! Dandadan as a word is similar to だんだん or "dandan" which often translates to "gradually".

I don't know very much about Japanese wordplay besides a few from songs (Love Ka, song based on the Japanese word for frilled shark and the English word love), so I could be completely wrong in this guess. But I feel like the word could be an original creation for implying the gradual change of an individual due to surrounding yokai and spirits

Before I get into the Shinto rambling, I'll mention the big point that got me thinking this was the effects after Okarun lost his powers. He still excelled is a lot of sport areas and, while it could be attributed to him working out consistently, there's also a possibility he has some... Influence, let's say, from a certain yokai.

We haven't seen much of him yet after all of this, so it could be very wrong, but the way it was brought up seemed to imply a greater importance than just normal athleticism.

Now for the Shinto rambling!!

To keep it pretty short: the body plays a major role in Shinto. We've seen it with the golden balls (strong life force amped up by a yokai) plus the give and take of various yokai forms (physicality for Okarun, hair treatment for Aira).

Shinto itself has the body on a pretty high importance. Most Asian religions tend to have more focus on the body, weather it be on asceticism (bodily denial) or purity

Dandadan has shown a lot of Shinto aspects already, from the existence of Yokai and Kami to the various interacts people have with the world.

Since the body is important, it's not too far a stretch to assume the continued themes of religion and the body are going to continue through the rest of the series.

While it may not be as overt as Okarun attempting to get the rest of his genitalia back, it's still likely to appear as a major plot point.

Hence, the potential implications of "dandadan"

I could be remembering wrong, but I believe at one point Count Saint Germain even asked someone if they knew the meaning of the word, which implies it may be crucial to his current purpose in the story

We already know there's a large group of aliens who want to steal the yokai and Kami abilities so they can take over Earth and colonize more planets, and many are looking into ways of stealing them.

With the introduction of Kouki and people's powers being able to be stolen from a direct injury, we can reason that the current goal is for the aliens to find a way to get more people's powers to be then transfered to themselves.

If we go under the assumption dandadan is the gradual bleeding over of powers and/or merging of aura to where it allows a human to gain more supernatural powers they wouldn't have otherwise, it makes sense that Count Saint Germain and/or the invading aliens are attempting to find a way to utilize this ability

Of course this could be completely wrong, but it's been rotating in my brain for a while. Wanted to get it out there somewhere lol

[redux-iterum]

There haven’t seemed to be any strongly neurodivergent coded cats in the story yet (unless I missed them LOL that’s very possible for me), so I was curious! Would their clan mates be more accommodating to whatever they struggle with, or would it be seen more as a personal failure since they don’t have concepts for these things? I know that many end up as seers, but surely others wouldn’t fit in that role too. I know they are very community focused and don’t expect everyone to be good at everything— but would those with social deficits, attention span issues, or sensory issues end up in conflict with their clan mates? Would a clan cat understand tics or stims? I know that it probably wouldn’t be explored in detail in any of the books, since the focus is more on the communities at large than on one or two individual characters like in canon, but I like to make up my own cats with two of my friends based on this lore and I would love to hear a little about how neurodivergent cats interact with their community outside of the seer role!

I'll give you this for now: a major character in the third arc will be neurodivergent. I hesitate to use any specific labels, because these cats don't experience mental disorders or conditions the same way humans do (both for plot and worldbuilding reasons), so I won't be using them except as a comparison. I guess the best I can say is that this character will lean very hard into traits you'll see most often in autism, even if they aren't one-to-one with it. Along the way, as we plot out the second arc, we may add in more divergent characters (or alter characters to be divergent), but I won't declare it as a certain thing, in case we don't or can't get to it.

Now, for the lore questions! I'll give a rundown of the big information here, so we have a main post to link to people when they want more context:

We've mentioned before that conditions that affect the brain are not super easy for the Clans to handle. They can understand a broken leg, but (for lack of a classier term) a broken mind is invisible, and you can't just fix it with licking a wound clean or giving someone prey until they can get up and go hunt themselves. This is mostly in the cases where one hallucinates, or is severely mentally handicapped, or struggles with suicidal thoughts or depression - the Clans do not have therapists or a rank specifically built to handle such issues. The best they often can do is provide physical care and work around these disorders to keep the cat alive and as happy as they can be in the Clans. That doesn't always include becoming a seer.

Gooseleaf was extremely lucky that he happened to be in tune with the spirit world and became a seer apprentice, otherwise his schizophrenic episodes would have landed him in the elder's den as soon as he got his name. There have been plenty of challenged cats (and other disorders are included in this) that were just regular warriors, and some became elders quickly in their lives (though there have been perma-apprentices before, but they're treated as elders are all the same). It all depends on the severity of their condition and how it affects their quality of life.

As far as the Clans are concerned, you do the best you can to contribute to your community, and if you simply can't because you're mentally a kit or beginning apprentice, or you can't do much more than sit there and stare at nothing, then it becomes time for the community to contribute to your survival. Often, this includes retiring someone early, or limiting them to staying near or in camp if a caretaker isn't around. In some cases, these cats do end up going to the Houses - not that anyone wants to do that, per se, but sometimes it's just better to let the apprentice who can't learn basic hunting or fighting techniques go be a kittypet, where they'll be safe and warm and cared for their entire life.

The way a Clan decides if a cat needs to leave the territories entirely is pretty simple: if the cat is in significant enough danger from their issues that they need a guard with them at all times, even when they're in camp, it's just not a life anyone considers worth living. The Clans may have contempt for kittypets, but they're not fools; they know that kittypets live longer than any other class of cat in the known world, and they don't have to struggle. The logic then follows that their challenged Clanmate won't have to struggle either, so it's best to ensure their safety and happiness and take them to the Houses. Not anyone's favorite thing to do, but they consider it for the best.

Now, for less intense disorders, such as cat-ADHD or cat-anxiety (simply referred to as "nervousness"), where the cat can function but just has a few "quirks", no one would probably think twice about them as anything but that cat being that cat. Little Cherrypaw is just a fidgety molly who's easily distracted, she can't help that. Better get her a mentor who can keep her active and help her focus in her best way. Oh, and Ravenkit? Yes, yes, he's scared by default, so let's all approach him carefully and back off when he starts to shake. Hey, don't get upset with Mosstail, she's wandering in her mind again. You know she does that sometimes. Don't shake her, she'll get upset and yell. Just let her come back when she's ready.

The nice thing about Clan life is that the community adjusts to whatever issues crop up as quickly and as well as it can, because they need to work together to survive. This can cause friction sometimes, yes, as we've seen in CL with Bluestar - some things are harder than others to work around. But warriors care deeply for each other by default, and they'll do whatever it takes to keep each other alive and happy. If that means taking extra precautions to keep a wobbly cat standing, or letting an apprentice sprint off their energy until they can come back and focus again, or learning how to speak in sign language with a deaf warrior, then they've got no problems with that.

[autumnmobile12]

I've seen more than a few posts by now asking why Horikoshi doesn't just kill Dabi off by now, and frankly I agree with that question. Let's be honest, killing him would be a mercy at this point and in spite of everything he's done, I don't thinking another prolonged coma with sporadic moments of consciousness is a punishment that fits the crime. He killed 30+ people, caused mass destruction, and tried to overturn an entire society.

Giving some crossover insight, Light Yagami probably killed millions with the Death Note, and I don't think even he would deserve the fate Dabi got. His poetic justice was he was an arrogant psychopath who died a pathetic death in a warehouse. The vampires of Castlevania Netflix have killed and tortured millions of people over the centuries they've been alive and out of all of them, I think only Erzsébet Báthory might deserve that fate, and that's only because she's ascended to goddess status and may be unkillable at this point and eternal imprisonment might be the only option.

So why doesn't Horikoshi kill Dabi off already?

Well....Horikoshi does have a problem with killing off characters unless its for shock value. There's no reason Nighteye, Magne, or Midnight had to die other than shock value. Most other characters that are killed off are barely in the series long enough to consider them a noteworthy death.

You could argue that Magne's death was to show that Overhaul was a new villain that meant business, but given the fact Overhaul doesn't kill or maim any other character the same way unless it's one of his nameless henchmen, his power doesn't prove to be that much of a threat to the main cast.

When Midnight reacted to Majestic's death, I legitimately asked, "Who?"

Endeavor confronts Dabi about killing Snatch and even Dabi asks, "Who?" (Also, why? Did Endeavor even know Snatch? Why bring that up?)

Why did Star have to die? To showcase how strong an opponent AFO/Shigaraki was? Uh, we already knew that...? To show why no other nations were getting involved in the fighting in Japan? A simple doomsday message from multiple nations that says, 'You're on your own,' would have sufficed. AFO could have been blackmailing world leaders into staying out of it. There could have been an international conspiracy of corrupt leaders who were in on it. They could have been having the same issue with mass prison breaks and couldn't help out. There was no need to invent a whole new character for any of that, so her death was a waste.

Arguably, Twice is the only character I can think of at the moment whose death was plot relevant. Realistically, how else was that fight going to go down? He and Hawks spend the entire battle in a weird standoff?

So either Dabi's current state is the result of creator cruelty or:

In the last couple chapters we have left, we're going to find out Eri's Quirk is not as damaged as everyone thought it was and she comes in clutch to save everyone. It's a cop-out ending, but I tentatively think this one might actually happen yet, mostly because it would neatly fix Bakugou's destroyed hand and some of the other characters who were maimed in Final War to the point their Quirks are barely usable.

Dr. Garaki cuts a deal where he biologically engineers a solution that saves everyone in exchange for a reduced sentence. Also a legit possibility. Would not be shocked if President Hawks visits the guy in prison and says, "Listen, a lot of people got really messed up in that last fight, so we've got a proposition for you." Saving both heroes and ensuring the villains actually live out a life sentence.

That unknown figure wandering around the wasteland does prove to be Shigaraki and he's got some unknown Quirk from AFO that could potentially save his comrades and we're headed for a Harry Potter Musical 'It's Not Over Yet' twist ending.

If the rumors about My Hero getting a sequel series are true, Horikoshi may be keeping Dabi around in case he has a use for him there. I don't know how that would even be possible, but I do admit the possibility of this conversation does make me laugh a little:

Pro Shouto: The plan couldn't have gone more wrong. Deku was in the wrong place. Bakugou was being Bakugou. Yaoyorozu had a relapse in nervousness and just created those weird dolls of hers instead of the materials we actually needed. The whole thing made the civilians laugh though. Not mean laughter, they were entertained and that's important, but if we were still in school, Aizawa would have expelled us all for sure.

Dabi: ...as much I just love our bi-weekly challenge of how long we can keep a conversation going before that heart monitor goes off and they put me back to sleep, do I have to listen to you bitch about work?

Pro Shouto: You said you wanted to hear about the outside world.

Dabi: Yeah, the fucking weather and shit.

Pro Shouto: You want a full forecast or--

Dabi: Don't make me come down there.

...

Realistically, none of those four scenarios are gonna happen, but the sequel rumors are preventing me from discounting them outright.

I would say there's no point in having that last minute 'everyone is saved' because that's it, that's the end, but then I remember Zuko's last line in Avatar is, "Where is my mother?" and opened up that whole subplot for the graphic novels.

So I don't know anymore.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

How much/quickly do you think AI is going to expand and improve materials science? It feels like a scientific field which is already benefiting tremendously.

My initial instinct was yes, MSE is already benefiting tremendously as you said. At least in terms of the fundamental science and research, AI is huge in materials science. So how quickly? I'd say it's already doing so, and it's only going to move quicker from here. But I'm coming at this from the perspective of a metallurgist who works in/around academia at the moment, with the bias that probably more than half of my research group does computational work. So let's take a step back.

So, first, AI. It's... not a great term. So here's what I, specifically, am referring to when I talk about AI in materials science:

Most of the people I know in AI would refer to what they do as machine learning or deep learning, so machine learning tends to be what I use as a preferred term. And as you can see from the above image, it can do a lot. The thing is, on a fundamental level, materials science is all about how our 118 elements (~90, if you want to ignore everything past uranium and a few others that aren't practical to use) interact. That's a lot of combinations. (Yes, yes, we're not getting into the distinction between materials science, chemistry, and physics right now.) If you're trying to make a new alloy that has X properties and Y price, computers are so much better at running through all the options than a human would be. Or if you have 100 images you want to analyze to get grain size—we're getting to the point where computers can do it faster. (The question is, can they do it better? And this question can get complicated fast. What is better? What is the size of the grain? We're not going to get into 'ground truth' debates here though.) Plenty of other examples exist.

Even beyond the science of it all, machine learning can help collect knowledge in one place. That's what the text/literature bubble above means: there are so many old articles that don't have data attached to them, and I know people personally who are working on the problem of training systems to pull data from pdfs (mainly tables and graphs) so that that information can be collated.

I won't ramble too long about the usage of machine learning in MSE because that could get long quickly, and the two sources I'm linking here cover that far better than I could. But I'll give you this plot from research in 2019 (so already 6 years out of date!) about the growth of machine learning in materials science:

I will leave everyone with the caveat though, that when I say machine learning is huge in MSE, I am, as I said in the beginning, referring to fundamental research in the field. From my perspective, in terms of commercial applications we've still got a ways to go before we trust computers to churn out parts for us. Machine learning can tell researchers the five best element combinations to make a new high entropy alloy—but no company is going to commit to making that product until the predictions of the computer (properties, best processing routes, etc.) have been physically demonstrated with actual parts and tested in traditional ways.

Certain computational materials science techniques, like finite element analysis (which is not AI, though might incorporate it in the future) are trusted by industry, but machine learning techniques are not there yet, and still have a ways to go, as far as I'm aware.

So as for how much? Fundamental research for now only. New materials and high-throughput materials testing/characterization. But I do think, at some point, maybe ten years, maybe twenty years down the line, we'll start to see parts made whose processing was entirely informed by machine learning, possibly with feedback and feedforward control so that the finished parts don't need to be tested to know how they'll perform (see: Digital twins (Wikipedia) (Phys.org) (2022 article)). At that point, it's not a matter of whether the technology will be ready for it, it'll be a matter of how much we want to trust the technology. I don't think we'll do away with physical testing anytime soon.

But hey, that's just one perspective. If anyone's got any thoughts about AI in materials science, please, share them!

Source of image 1, 2022 article.

Source of image 2, 2019 article.

[meatball-headache]

Occult Crescent is great, but the story feels like an afterthought. I mean... there's no "story," there's backstory. Lore. And I always think the same thing: so, are they finally revealing the secret history of Mhach, Amdapor, and Skalla? Or are they just making it up just for this content? See also: FFX-2.

It took me a long time to realize, but one time I had a friend who pointed out... I don't know exactly how it came about, but we were watching a movie, and she was psychoanalyzing all the characters. The movie was Kung Fu Hustle. It's not exactly about the characters, it's just wacky hijinks... or, maybe it is about the characters; the people make the story. Otherwise all you have is an encyclopedia, a map, a list of names and dates.

Bozja was fantastic. Right from the gecko it had a slew of characters and a great story with the requisite drama and plot twists and such. Also, someone in shout pointed out, the Bozja field records had a lot more text in them. Crescent's are very very short. And, there's a lot less characters to talk about. We don't even have an antagonist beyond the mysterious architect—what do you think? It's either the Archive (boring and predictable and the same as Arcadion, I bet), or an Ascian (boring and predictable and a deus ex machina), or someone we've never heard of (boring and predictable because who are you even?)

Crescent definitely wins in the aesthetics department, even though it is a rehash of environments we've seen before, Bozja was a bleak battlefield—sure, it's a battlefield, it's going to be bleak, but the Ghimlyt Dark, the Nadaam, these are battlefields too and they have some color and style to them. But Crescent is pretty and varied, you got your swamps, your ancient temple, your evil city, your caves, your weird bubbles in the sky. And I'm motivated by the grind; I want all the jobs, maxed out, I want all the armor, I want all the relic weapons... It just kinda sucks running this content thinking, "Well, just pretend the story isn't there." In Bozja we were toe-to-toe with the Empire, and we had named antagonists that we met in the battlefield and in cutscenes, and in Eureka we had the mystery of the Isle of Val—which, though we never went there, Minfilia mentioned it often enough that we knew it, and when Eureka turned out to be it, it was a "Whoa, no way!" rather than a "...where?" moment.

FFXIV tried to play it safe with the story. We're constantly fighting the Empire, so they could say a lot about imperialism and whatnot, but they pull their punches and stop at "bad guys are bad." And outside of the main story... they kinda just phone it in. I mean, the holiday "events" are insipid garbage, one quest that takes ten minutes and then you're done. Bring back the FATE grinds! Have you seen LOTRO's holiday events? It lasts for like four weeks and you have daily quests, a daily quest to do a certain amount of daily quests, and another quest to do that quest a bunch of times. It tells you up front something like, "You'll need to do all the quests for 12 days to complete everything, so plan ahead!" Meanwhile FFXIV wants me to hand out fliers to personalitiless children and then get a hat that doesn't display on my character, if we're lucky, but probably just a poster and a table decoration that I won't use because spacing in my house is limited.

And yet... I'll keep playing this game, of course. I've been here for a long time, and there's a lot to love. But it's starting to show its cracks and frustrate me. The bigger it is, the more responsibility it has—the game's getting bigger, raking in more money, so hire a programmer to do Viera hats! Hire another writer to really flesh out the field notes! Hire another another writer to give this marquee long-term content an actual story with characters and a plot!

...that said, the battle content is nothing short of stellar. The stuff we get in CEs and FATEs in Crescent would make Bahamut's Coil blush. There's so much onscreen, fast-paced, flashy mechanics, all these multi-part attacks, big bosses with animated tells, mystifying telegraphs, mechanics layered upon mechanics upon mechanics. Jeuno, Arcadion, Crescent, all absolutely amazing combatwise. The dungeons... mostly very good, Origenics sucks and I don't buy the "Cauchia taught me how to upload your souls just now" in Alexandria, and it's clearly just trying to be another Amaurot or Dead Ends. The optional dungeons and patch dungeons we've gotten have been excellent, though, and Remembrance is probably a top-5 trial, honestly. All the patch combat content has been amazing. Story... remains to be seen. Which kind of means you've already failed, if you haven't managed to snag my interest early on. (To be fair, ARR's opening certainly didn't snag my interest; it was more of a Dark Souls thing: "okay, here's a video game, let's go around and see what it does," kinda thing.)

I signed up for a few Forked Tower runs this week. I didn't realize it was going to be sign-up hard, I was expecting more Dalriada and CLL-like stuff. Anyway, I'm proud of myself for signing up, what with the anxiety and all. We'll die, obviously, but I'll count it as a win if no one yells at me and I don't have a panic attack :p

Okay, that's all for now. I'm not sorry for being negative, I'm only sorry for not being more original.

[foone]

So if Threshold happens to different Trek crews, who gets who pregnant? Voyager is one of the few shows where it makes heterosexual sense, (for lack of a better word, "sense" not being the word anyone would use to describe threshold)

So for Voyager, it being Paris (pilot) and Janeway (captain) makes sense through that lens. Paris, sure, because he is a pilot. We could pick a Science Guy to do it, but then it might be B'Elanna who does the flying fast, and then who is she going to kidnap for Lizard Sex? Harry? ... Yeah it'd be Harry. Anyway once you've picked Paris, you've got to figure out which woman is funniest to have him abduct into Lizardry. B'Elanna? No, not funny enough. She'd be a Klingon lizard and beat him up instead of mating, even if they did get married later. Besides, what if she evolves into a super-advanced Klingon, not a lizard? *claps* PUT TUVOK ON THE SHUTTLE. Kes? No, they already did a Tom v Neelix episode. Seven of Nine isn't on the show yet, so Janeway it is.

Ok so for other shows, we gotta pick a pilot or science guy (who might be screwing around with transwarp, and thus get Lizarded) and someone they could turn into a lizard to have babies with. The show is assuming heterosexual pairings here, but we know about things so we are not so limited.

The original series: as much as I'd love to say Sulu and Uhura ("I'll save you, fair maiden!" "sorry, neither"), I think TOS was much less of an ensemble than later Treks, so it'd need to be Spock. Spock is doing some science stuff, he gets hyper-evolved, and he picks someone else to hyper-evolve and turn into his lizard bride. As much as I want to say "Kirk", I think it's more likely that he runs off with Uhura and then Kirk has to rescue them. Kirk was always about being the one who rescues people, having the Enterprise come rescue Lizard!Spock (is that antisemitic?) and Lizard!Kirk and it's called commanded by McCoy? Nah.

TNG: the direct analogy to VOY would mean we have Wesley and... Picard? No, no, and no. Sorry. Frankly, we already had this plot on TNG (Genesis), and canonically the answer is Worf and Troi. The problem with it being a pilot thing is that Wesley is a child and Data (the official science guy) is an android, so he can't really be hyper-evolving. We could go with Geordi, the other Science Guy, but then we've got the image of a black man kidnapping a white woman. Uhhhh no. We already did that episode and it is an example of Deep Shame for the show. So Worf and Troi it is.

DS9: so this is what inspired me to make this post. We all agree Sisko would be a damn good father to his lizard babies, but would it be him? If so, with who? You could have it be Dax, and she lizards first and kidnaps him, which makes some sense given that she's a Science Guy. But you also have to consider Weird Guys. Every Trek series needs a Weird Guy so that whenever an ancient alien artifact turns the whole crew into Muppets or whatever, they can be the one who isn't affected and can thus solve it. This is all to say, Odo/Kira could be done. We've had a few episodes where he's been shown to do very extreme things out of his pining for her, so it makes some sense. Odo/Quark would be funnier but given how the DS9 writers handled Profit and Lace, I really don't want to see them do a gay mpreg episode.

ENT: the series with canon mpreg! Direct translation of would be Mayweather/Archer. Mmm. Probably not. I think it's gonna be a rarepair: Trip/Hoshi. Trip/T'Pol is too canon to be funny. The next best option is Archer/T'Pol and that's just kinda bleh. It makes sense but it's just the kind of thing they'd do and it'd be bland. We can do better. Honorary mention: Trip and Reed.

I've not watched enough of the New Treks to have an opinion there. Maybe SNW: Ortegas and La'an. Don't ask why.

[ebonysplendor]

Where Winter Crows Go Review ❄️🐦‍⬛

TL;DR: Chaga mushrooms ain't the only thing that Crowe be foraging, but this time he doesn't want to share the spoils with the squad for research purposes.

Game Link: https://prikarin.itch.io/where-winter-crows-go

Notable Features: Gender Neutral MC, Optional Reader-Insert with choice of pronouns, Yandere LI, 17+ Spiciness: 1/5 -- It gets a little flirty, but it's sweet and innocent LI Red Flags: 3/5 -- Manipulative, little hands on, has a temper

Want to know more? Well, let's get into it!

Okay, so, the full release finally came, and ya girl was SO excited! The demo was very promising, but I needed a little more convincing. That being said, this wasn't by any means one of the one's that I was the most ecstatic about, but I was still excited enough about it to check back occasionally for the full release. I just so happened to get lucky recently and saw that it had actually dropped back in November. So, I was late, but not embarrassingly so. Now, this review on the other hand... But listen! I just recently decided to take the plunge and start making reviews, so mind ya business lol.

Anyways, this isn't about me and my tardiness, this is about this pleasant little game that really went for it in the full version, and boi, did they go for it!

I'd classify this as one of those "slow burn" visual novels, simply because it's not obvious that our LI is a lil' psycho off the rip, and there's nothing too unsettling from the jump aside from getting caught in a blizzard. Actually, since we're on the topic, the LI -- his name is Crowe Lynn, by the way -- is actually pretty damn hospitable, and he's a full blown scientist. The most shocking part is, he isn't even doing anything sketchy! for the most part. He is deadass living in the middle of nowhere for research purposes and is writing books to know why nature is...well, naturing, for lack of better wording.

That being said, I think the intro is long enough, and I'm really excited to tell you more about this game, because you guys have got to play this whenever you get the chance! As always, I'm going to tell you as much as possible about the game without ruining the game itself.

So, boom. We're -- or Aspen, should you decide to play through their eyes, but I prefer self-insert -- going on a trip in our favorite run down car to get to some town where there is supposed to be this really nice place to let off some steam via skiing. Trust me, we did research on this; we know what we're talking about. Anyways, while driving, we start noticing how we've been on this same road for a long time, and yet, we haven't seen anybody for an equally long time.

Run down car? Long road? No one for miles? You already know what's about to happen.

Yep, you guessed it, we get a flat, and as you've also probably guessed, we have no spare tire, but bear with me! The game isn't this predictable, I swear! You've gotta understand that it can just be a little hard to get away from certain tropes, and let's be real, they kind've have to happen for plot purposes. I mean, think about if we actually had a tire in the trunk. We would've been outtie, we would've had a great trip, and there would've been no game lol. Sometimes, you just gotta cut the devs some slack.

Anywho, so yeah, flat tire and no spare. Naturally, we hike it to try to find some help, but the weather kind've picks up, and the clothes that we have, while appropriate for the cold, aren't adequate enough for a full blown blizzard. No worries though, because guess who comes to the rescue? This guy!

Everybody, this is Crowe. Crowe, this is everybody.

As you'd expect (I know I keep saying that, but lmao it's not a overly predictable game, I swear!), Crowe is this really chill dude. Actually, more than a chill dude, he's a massive nature nerd. That's actually why he's out in the middle of the woods anyways! Like I mentioned before, he's researching why nature be naturing, specifically -- at least, his current topic from the way it was worded is -- partial migration. If you've never heard of that, don't even worry about it, in the game he explains it to us. Like, I'm telling you. This man is super into this stuff, and we love a smart man.

Getting away from that though, he basically ends up telling us that the town that we're in is pretty much deserted with the exception of like 13 other people, and because of the blizzard, the time it'd take to clean the roads, the likelihood of there being another blizzard right behind the one that just happened, and cleaning up after that blizzard, getting to our planned destination just wasn't going to happen. ...Well, shit.

What are we going to do then? Our car has a flat, we can't travel, and there's not any resorts nearby. No worries though, because the bae came through! He said "Oh, you can just stay with me!" Oh wooooooord???

So guess what we do? Make ourselves cozy in this bomb ass cabin. I'm not even exaggerating about that. Like, this cabin is REALLY nice! Take a peek!

That's just our room and the hallway. You can only imagine how bomb the rest of the place looks. Like, I'm telling y'all, it's super cozy up in here. But we must stay focused! And by we, I mean me, because I could go on and on about how nice this cabin looks.

Back to the topic at hand though, we've agreed to stay with Crowe, even though, we honestly don't have much of a choice, but it was just dope that Crowe was cool with everything. That being said, during our stay, we do all kinds of pretty cool stuff! We go foraging with him for chaga mushrooms and winterberries, we create some powders to add to other stuff, and we make some medicines. Everything was going super smoothly ... until it wasn't.

Crowe kind've has...a weird temper. Like, we had accidentally gotten hurt, and he had gotten super pissed about it. We love a man that cares about his guest, but he was a bit overdramatic about it. You'd think we would've lost a limb or something. The main thing that got him really pissed, though, was when we had mentioned our car and implied leaving. He did not like that, and when I say we got into it bad? Oh, the insults were flying. Like, look at this!

So, yeah, we fought, and what about it? It's whatever. Forget him...

...Actually, we felt really bad about the whole thing, and so did he. We talked it out, and everything was all good again; however, now he's acting really weird, we're getting really suspicious, and we still have to get home. That being said, we call it an early night, borrow one of his books, and pretty much make a gameplan so we can figure out how to get home as well as what the hell is going on that is not only making Crowe act weird, but what is going on in general.

And we do! We sneak out the next morning and ... we actually make things worse because now, we're REALLY confused. I'm not going to get into the details, but just know that there are more questions than answers at this point. So, yeah, while the investigating helped, it only helped a little, and I genuinely mean only a little.

One thing that we know for sure though...

This man is definitely crazy in love with us.

And that's all I'm going to tell you! Lol I'm sorry! But if I tell you the rest, it'll literally be the ending, and it'll ruin it! You know how much I want you guys to play it, so no way am I going to spill the details, but like most visual novels, how it ends is completely up to the choices that you make.

Guys...the full game delivered.

I prefer choice heavy visual novels like Darling Duality and Forcefully Yours, but this still wasn't bad by any means. I actually thought it was quite good! Like I said, the most shocking thing to me about all of this is that this man is deadass a scientist! Like, he really isn't doing anything entirely sketchy out there! That was the biggest plot twist of the century to me! But, anyways, letting go of that. Let me tell you more of my thoughts on the game, and why I feel like you should play it whenever you get the chance.

The visuals are absolutely stunning, first and foremost. So far, my favorite VN visual wise has been Mushroom Oasis, but this is definitely a solid number 2 spot. I absolutely adore the art style. I also appreciate the revamp that they did with Crowe. There is nothing wrong with femboys by any means, but to me, Crowe was a little girly looking, and he very much so looked like a small child lol. Like look at the difference in this.

This is the old Crowe Lynn

And this is the new Crowe Lynn

Lol you see what I mean? He looked like a child that wanted to be a scientist when he grew up versus the actual adult him that chose science as a profession. The redesign was definitely a good choice, and I love how he looks now, especially with the longer hair and worn out lab coat. What do you think, though? Which did you prefer?

Aside from that though, you know what one of my favorite things about the game was? The fact that -- and listen close, because this is about to be a tip! -- the endings that you get are based more on how the character feels about Crowe versus how Crowe feels about us. How curious is that?

In a majority of visual novels, the endings are literally dependent on how far we push the LI or their affinity for us, but it's not like that in this one. We get a different ending based on if we trust him or not, if we flirt back with him or ignore his remarks, and some other factors that I don't want to include and possible spoil the story. I just thought that was a really interesting take, and that was super creative of the developer. It was definitely refreshing to play as more of myself and base the gameplay on my -- or rather my character's -- feelings versus playing for the LI and his feelings.

With all that in mind, I definitely say give this game a go! It has a nice mystery/suspense to it, and not to mention, there is a really bomb song during the credits. I was so sad to see that it was not on Spotify! Well, let me clarify, it IS, but it's not available to me which sucks ass. It's not even on YouTube, and it hurts me so bad! Ugh!

Anyways, in case my feelings and opinions weren't clear -- play this game, play this game, play this game, play this game! As always, be sure to leave your comments on the dev's page if you feel like they've done a good job, and you want to give them that extra reassurance to keep making games. Of course, donations are always helpful to them as well! Like mentioned at the very top, here is a link to the game so that you can play it for yourself, and I really want you to play it for yourself!

That's all from me! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

Where Winter Crows Go

[otakween]

Digimon Data Squad (Savers) - Episode 12

Woohoo! The plot is plot-ing!

This was probably the episode with the most "serious business" tone yet. We also got some exciting foreshadowing for revelations to come. Also, new partner digimon (x2?) and a new bad guy! It's...(checks notes)...Mercurymon (メルクリモン)? Not to be confused with Mercurymon (メルキューレモン). Okaaaay...that's a choice.

Notes:

Okay, so apparently Masaru's mom knows way more about digimon than she's previously let on. She implies that her husband worked with DATS (or maybe just was associated with digimon) and that has something to do with why he's not around. Color me intrigued! Better than him being a deadbeat or dead from a mysterious illness. (I guess he could still be a deadbeat depending on where this is going lol).

So apparently a digimon appearing as a digiegg in this world is rare and the rule is that they need a human partner AND that human needs to join DATS if they want to stay in our world. Seems pretty strict, but I guess it makes sense from a public safety perspective. (From a real world perspective recruiting kids to DATS is crazy, but it's a shounen anime lol)

Feels a little random to bring back Biyomon for Chika. I mean, I know that they brought Agumon back for Masaru, but it's not like Biyomon was a fan favorite or anything (as far as I know lol, maybe they were). Maybe they wanted a bird since the ninja digimon is also a bird?

Speaking of Chika, it's a little surprising how big of a role she's played in this series. Masaru's mom too. I thought they would be more background characters but we've seen so much of both of them. Maybe they're trying to appeal to younger and older kids at the same time?

I kinda wish they stretched out this plot a bit, maybe keeping Biyomon a baby longer or something. It just feels like the emotional attachment between Chika and Biyomon was kinda forced and quick. (Of course, I've been saying that about digimon since Adventure lol). It was hard to be too invested in the "sad" scenes since we've known Biyomon for like two seconds.

I guess they made Biyomon masculine in this in order to differentiate from Adventure. Where's our feminine Agumon then? lol

Masaru beating up Biyomon was pretty intense. That was a lot of hitting before getting GeoGreymon involved!

(Someone call PETA!)

We finally see Sunflowmon again and they're extremely useless -_- (at least they made it into a gag this time)

Not really into ninja-themed characters. It's just kinda a boring character type to me. Still looking forward to meeting the final mystery MC from the OP tho.

Seriously, when they introduced Mercurymon I was like "wtf?" I thought he might be a digivolution of Frontier!Mercurymon, but no. They really just chose an extremely similar name. Anyways, I googled him so I could get a closer look at his design. Did not realize from this episode that he was humanoid! He's giving Indigenous God vibes with his outfit (Aztec was the first one that came to my mind).

[turbulenthandholding]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤️

thank you @ambeauty and @sutherlins for the tags! <3

my top 5:

All This Nothing is my 2024 advent Sydcarmy, a modern You've Got Mail-style romcom that I somehow managed to post almost daily in December. It almost feels like I was some kind of conduit for this story, in the way it just happened (narrator: it did not just happen. She definitely didn't sleep more than 5 hours a night at all in December.). (Now, if the second epilogue would only let the rest of itself be written...)

soul meets body is my take on a soulmate AU for Sydcarmy. It's the longest thing I've ever written and it has embedded itself within me like some kind of fanfic barnacle. I'm currently working on a spinoff fic (that probably no one will ever care about, because it's Richie and Kaitlyn, and it's probably the most explicit thing I have ever written, but I NEED it so it's happening) that is also informing a sequel, which is the story of Sydcarmy's daughter and her own soulmate. And hockey, somehow.

Gapers' Delay is a joint (background/side Sydcarmy) effort between me and @anxietycroissant and I cannot express how much I love writing it with her. (We are wrapping up and I am emotional about it.) The collaboration has been utterly joyful and I think we've done an excellent job of pushing each other as writers as we dig into Claire, the good and the bad and the fucked up. And there's a lot of fucked up lol.

Copenhagen, my first Sydcarmy, was the first writing I had done in five years or more and posting it led me to so many wonderful people and so much good stuff. The ending is still one of my favorite things I've written for Sydcarmy.

This is the Sydarmy witness protection AU I started when I was running into blocks writing soul meets body. I've only posted one chapter so far, but I did a crazy amount of plotting when I was travelling in December and this is probably going to be the next thing I focus on once gaper's delay is finished. A few tidbits about where it's headed: they probably get placed somewhere unexpected. They probably get a dog. Carmy definitely becomes a Home Ec teacher.

I feel like this has been well circulated by now -- so if you write and haven't gotten asked yet, consider yourself tagged!

[emilydorp]

You know, after top said in january he still feels guilty towards members I thought there’s no way it’s about 2017, something else must’ve happened, and then gd talked about “circumstances” that prevented bigbang from making a comeback in 2022, so the theory about the dearmoon project being the catalyst of what went wrong is the most plausible one to me…

How I see it - the comeback was in plans but then top found out about the dearmoon project and got obsessed with the idea and when it became an actual possibility he decided to leave the band so they can continue with their plans as 3bang. Obviously that didn’t happen bc they didn’t want to do it without him which might’ve made him upset/even more guilty for “ruining” their plans as he would probably think. I wouldn’t be surprised if the boys thought (just like a lot of fans) the DM project was a s*icide mission and they didn’t want him to do it so feelings got hurt there :( then the project got cancelled, and the realization that all of this was for nothing must’ve been really hard for him so now we are where we are. Obviously it’s all speculation on my part, I don’t claim it as the truth, just one of the possibilities of what might’ve happened.

I personally don’t believe they’re in contact just yet, so I take comfort in gd starting to openly yearn for top after squid game and top’s interviews came out, he knows him better than anyone which means he thinks those likes he keeps giving on ig can help reassure top he’s wanted back.

Imo, he absolutely needs to release solo music this year and establish himself as a musician on his own (and also see the public and media’s reaction to him), it’s long overdue and will be a huge relief for him and also might make it much easier to reconnect with members on a personal level and then consider joining bigbang for the 20th anniversary next year. But the main thing that I hope can happen soon is him forgiving himself for whatever he thinks he did wrong, he’s been through so much it breaks my heart he still has this enormous guilt hanging over him and feels the need to stay away from almost everyone he loves to protect them🤧  

Ohhh I’m in my feels now 😭 but I think things can only go up from here. I believe it. The universe is clearly plotting to keep them close, like wtf is this May 31st LA thing? Having their own gigs on the same day in the same city on the other side of the world? Talk about destiny haha it worked once when they reconnected as teens, eventually it’ll work again, trust 🙌 Sorry this is so long 🙈

Soooo sorry for taking my time with your ask lmao. I wasn't sure how to respond, but I think I'll simply speculate with you on this matter (we've been doing a LOT of speculating lately, idk how to feel about that, but it's fine ig, some things are just feels after all :D).

a) I can see why you have that head canon about the moon project, it is very plausible imo. It is, like you said, a catalyst and not the problem. And the members (especially GD, ofc) probably didn't want him to do it as well and it led to instability, not necessarily the break up. But yeah, I can see it being one of many factors that ended up creating distance between T.O.P and the other members, I agree with you on the matter that he probably got obsessed beyond any reasonable limit :))

b) Hmm, anon, yeah atp I think I'm the only one who thinks GD liking romantic shit means that he has some sort of confidence in the fact that Tabi is his/gonna be his. Like, just a few days ago, he liked these reels (possibly) on the same day (maybe also alongside a post about furniture).. like lmfao? Idk, this pattern of liking reels (this is just an example of the pattern of likes I've noticed) is giving confidence and pride, rather than yearning and wishful thinking (but that's just my opinion! Feel free to disagree!).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 👁️‍🗨️ CALUE | 캘유 (@calue.inspir)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 지몽 🐉🪽 (@amontageof_g)

c) Tabi will do everything at his own pace, I believe in him as well :)). He (or GD lmfao you never know) told the media slight details about his upcoming album for a reason, and I'm hoping that the reason is that he's almost done. But really, I just hope that he's in a peaceful place in his mind :))

d) Yeah, y'all, don't expect too much from that event, y'all hyped over nothing ngl (I'm usually an optimistic person, but the hype for this event is crazy, what exactly is everyone expecting? No, genuinely, I'm not trying to shade anyone at all, what exactly is everyone expecting? GTOP isn't a live romcom TTOTT). Even if I'm wrong and they haven't reconnected in any way or form, there is no way they're going to do so publicly, since GD will 100% want to return to the public eye as a duo with his husband in a 'cool' way, rather than a hush-hush way (and one of the last times GD attended such an event, I'm pretty sure he yelled "handsome!" multiple times, very loudly, soooo not exactly the GTOP launch he'd want, lmao). They've been secretly hanging out and dating for years now, there's no way we'll spot them together unless they want to be spotted (especially since Tabi knows we spotted him in Canada; they'll be hitting the streets at 3 A.M. as the usually did, if they hit the streets at all).

But yeah, everything will eventually work out anony, you're right :D

Edit: and to help my delulu, GD made a new outro for Untitled 2014, a soft and hopeful one. GD PLZ I'M TOO DELULU FOR THIS.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Gdaisy-88 (@sour_orangex)

[tonguetiedraven]

You approve of Yukio even after he threatened to kill people and tried to kill Rin and Ryuji?

I have answered this question at least three times now, and I know you're just trying to bait me, but woooowwwwww I must have missed something in the manga. When did Yukio try to kill Ryuuji? If you're referring to the moment when Yukio points his gun at Ryuuji, that wasn't trying to kill Ryuuji. A dead Ryuuji would not have been a Ryuuji who could talk, and that was what Yukio wanted. Answers. Ryuuji wasn't threatened with death in that moment, and Ryuuji -- the only injured party in that scene -- has forgiven Yukio and worked with an armed and loaded Yukio since then, so I think they've both moved on. Ryuuji had also kind of helped lead to one of Yukio's sort of adoptive uncles dying a few days earlier, so I think Ryuuji mostly thinks that was earned. (It was a very messed up little while in that section of the manga.)

I feel like every couple of months everyone in aoex needs to remember that none of these characters are real and none of these situations are real and that they are story devices and plot devices and that they are young teenagers in the canon story and teenagers make stupid choices. Especially when they're tired, stressed, and being made feel like they're older/more mature than they are. (IE, when they're given jobs and responsibilities for others life's well beings.)

I could talk about Yukio being a mentally ill character who has been living in some form of fear since he was born. I could talk about him knowing he was Satan's bastard son for his entire life and knowing that his twin was a ticking time bomb of awakening into a possibly massively deadly demon, but likely no one will care and they'll already know that.

I could talk about Yukio being brilliant in pretty much every way but reading emotions, but people will still assume that any time a gun appears on screen that it is loaded with the most lethal of bullets and wielded entirely with the intent to murder. (And yet not make the same assumption about the flames of Satan that have killed vastly more people than we've seen shot on screen.) And they will assume that Yukio intended to kill instead of intended to interrogate or frighten or slow someone down.

Again, no one would really care about that and they would realize it if they read the manga because it talks over and over about the kind of bullets Yukio uses not being particularly harmful to Rin who seems to take Yukio's bullets like they're the kind in a nerf gun.

I could point out that no matter what Yukio does -- even when he unloads every Armumhael bullet in Rin that they have and he makes Rin entirely human for a few minutes -- that Rin is still the more powerful party. That Rin is the dangerous one in the situation. That one thing we should all be getting in this current arc is that Rin is a god next to these exwires. He got disintegration and disembowled and ripped apart and destroyed in a horrifyingly large number of ways and just kept on going like it was a big old nothing. He can go toe to toe with Satan so I feel like mortal Yukio and his little pistols probably can't do a damn thing against Rin even if Yukio wanted to.

I could talk about the fact that literally the most avid Yukio haters will never loathe Yukio as much as himself or the fact that Rin thinking he wasn't the most incredible person on the planet never even occurred to Yukio as a possibility despite the fact that Yukio thinks of himself as not worth being alive and can't see the way he's admired by a lot of people.

I could talk about the fact that the only person we've really seen Lewin comfort is Yukio, which means that even "I have no empathy for others" Lewin Light could tell that the boy was drowning under the weight of his own self-loathing and endless guilt, or that Shura has been watching him crack, or that Toudou, Lucifer, and Satan all picked him to be the one they tried to manipulate and crack and even pulled Renzou in on their drive to do that, and that Mephisto has also been manipulating and toying with him to try and push him to his own ends. Yukio just might be the most manipulated character in the entire damn manga.

But at the end of the day, the manga is there and people are capable of reading and looking at it themselves and I'd rather just read it and write my stories and draw my pictures and just. Be okay with a well written character who has acted pretty damn human in pretty much every scene he's been in. Who has fought with his super human brother and loved his super human brother and hated himself and is trying to make amends and still hates a lot about himself but is loved by his friends and is trying to save his world from his horrible extended family.

And once again, who is a fictional person that has committed fictional crimes and fictional acts of kindness. Drink something warm and soothing and touch some grass since Yukio and co are stuck in the frozen arctic and can't. (And fictional.)

[lentendays]

Kuroshitsuji 209 Theory

Snake will be a bizarre doll.

Let me explain. I don't think Snake's role is over. Yana hasn't really been in the habit of fridging characters without payoff, and Snake's arc hasn't paid off yet.

When Snake reappeared at the end of the Murder Mystery arc, we established two things:

1) Snake wanted to kill "Smile" for doing something to his family, the circus troupe

2) Ciel employed Snake under the lie that they were going to find his family

These two things immediately foreshadow future conflict, where Snake will inevitably find out the Phantomhive household massacred the Noah's Ark circus. At the start of his employment, he wouldn't have hesitated to try to kill them for it. But we get to know Snake more - he's kind, insecure and shy, willing to give a job his all, and responds most to kindness from others. He gets treated well by Ciel and the servants; told that his looks don't matter, given an education and housing, and has saved Ciel on more than one occasion. We don't know who he would choose once the truth comes out, and that presents great conflict. With Doll showing up, we knew this reveal was going to come.

And it did, and it broke Snake, then he died saving a boy from Doll. But that doesn't seem to be the end.

The major deaths we've seen in Black Butler have all happened for a reason to drive the plot forward; Madame Red was discovered to be Jack the Ripper and her death served to introduce Grell and shinigami. Her story was over. Agni died at peace, protecting Soma, who has now turned into a vengeful possibly inhuman force. His story had little arc beyond protecting Soma and suspecting Sebastian, and it heartbreakingly concluded well. We are still picking at the mystery behind the Phantomhive parents' deaths.

Snake's death offered no new information and did not conclude his arc. He was still in denial and wondering what was happening in his last moments. If Yana wanted to kill off a major character for shock value, Bardroy could have died in the previous arc. We had his backstory and there was nothing new to share. But he didn't die.

For Snake - who has a lot more story to tell - to die for a child we just met, having been unable to process his love for the circus and the Phantomhives and what he's just learned about both or take any action, feels too abrupt for what's been set up. He *is* dead; the shinigami's presence and his reel proves that. But will he stay that way?

We still don't know how the bizarre dolls are made, only that they require a constant supply of blood. Snake's corpse is now in Doll's hands, and we know she definitely is a bizarre doll. We never got to see her actual death onscreen but it's extremely unlikely that Sebastian would miss a kill shot.

Hence: Snake will come back as a bizarre doll.

We do know that Bizarre dolls retain the memory and probably personalities of who they were before they died. Doll remembered everything and while she's more violent than she was in the past, that can be explained by the trauma she went through and her desire for vengeance. Same for R!Ciel and whatever he has planned.

Yes, there was a shinigami for Snake, but notice that this isn't anyone we've seen before. Why introduce a new shinigami when there are so many established ones?

One potential reason: because everyone we know is already investigating the Undertaker.

In the Campania arc, we know the prototype bizarre dolls were created by editing the reels. We don't know if this is still the case, but if it IS, and the Undertaker needed Snake's - it would be easier to get from a shinigami we don't know. We don't know their loyalties, or how strong they are, whether they've heard of the Undertaker situation. And if it comes down to it, we don't like them enough yet to feel any way if Undertaker ends up offing them for the reels he needs.

So it's not impossible that Snake comes back as a bizarre doll. And that would put his loyalties further into question. Does he side with R!Ciel and his friend Doll and the memory of his troupe, who were kidnapping and killing children for bone prosthetics - in addition to the fact that they would be the only faction capable of keeping him "alive" as a bizarre doll? Or does he help O!Ciel, who lies aside has treated him kindly and given him peace and an education, at what would be Snake's own "second life" as cost?

This would be a far more interesting story than him dying confused with little resolution.

Narratively, in a meta sense, there are a couple reasons this makes sense. We already have Soma vying for revenge; there doesn't need to be another similar story. We saw that it was possible for Lau to go back for Bard in the previous arc, despite having little reason to and not really knowing Bard in the first place. So why was Finny, who's always been shown as ride-or-die, the heart of the servants, who clearly cares about his colleagues and Snake, not allowed to do the same for Snake (in a narrative sense)? Because he needed to leave Snake behind to let a different story start.

Anyway that's my theory. Thoughts?

[scentedsstuff]

We Free the Stars

By Hafsah Faizal

Rating: 2.5/5⭐️

The sequel to ‘We Hunt the Flame,’ a book which I have raved over and easily rated 5 stars was always going to have a lot to live up to, and the sequel, whilst enjoyable simply couldn’t do that.

Spoiler alert for any readers who have yet to read this and are meaning to, I will be discussing specific scenes and details within the books so beware.

Quick Plot Summary:

The Zumra have made it out of Sharr but the battle is far from over. Though Altair has been captured, time is of the essence and so Zafira, Nasir and Kifah must make their way to Sultan's keep if they wish to save not only their friend but their people.

With the stakes so high and an inevitable confrontation with the Lion looming near, Zafira and Nasir have to deal with far more than just personal trials and trepidations.

Thoughts:

Yes, we have our main band of characters whom I adore, and we've got a mission that has since expanded since the first book, but along the way it all became too much.

What I mean specifically is that there was so much happening in the book at the same time that I felt the plot was lost at times. The author dwelt on certain parts of the book more than needed and this was done multiple times which made it feel as though the book was dragging on, especially in the first half of the book.

All the drama and overall commotion seemed to overshadow certain revelations and plot twists. At some point I stopped caring and was just watching it all unfold. I still cared about the main band of characters, Zafira, Nasir, Kifah and Altair and side characters such as Yasmeen and Lana, but best believe when other names, characters and situations were being introduced I was not trying to retain any of that information anymore.

The romance: do I still enjoy the pair? yes, yes I do. My annoyance with them was the fact that it seemed like their problems were so repetitive and being dragged on for much longer than it needed to be (in my opinion). The book is already lengthy, and had so much going on, adding this onto it didn't help.

Another part of the book I just couldn't get into for some reason: Altair and his temporary villain streak. I don't know, I just couldn't buy into it, the whole time I was like 'ok do what you gotta do I guess, but he's probably going to go back to the Zumra by the end of this so....." Even with the whole "plot twist" of Aya betraying the gang, especially with her being Benyamin's wife and all, we had just met her in this second book so I honestly didn't care. In my mind all I'm thinking is 'man I feel kinda bad for Benyamin.' I didn't care that she did this due to her own personal pain, or that she still loved Altair or that Altair still loved her, there was not a single fiber of my being that cared for this plotline.

Nasir and Zafira are at odds for a good portion of the book whether its jealousy or unresolved feelings or fears. I would've cared more but again, so much was already going on. There is more time given to Lana (Zafira's younger sister) and her understanding of her gifts and talents and where she finds herself in the world. Through Altair's time with the Lion (who he's since found out is his father) we get a glimpse into his past, backstory and overall driving motivations. We get a glimpse into Altair and Aya (Benyamin's wife) and their whole situation/doomed lover's tale. The sultan (Nasir's father) is a reoccurring character and has moments where he is so petty (which at times entertained me because he was stirring up drama) but this ultimately sets up future reveals. Nasir's mother pops up again. Kifah's former troop makes an appearance and gets her thinking about her past and how that affects where she'll go from here. And so much more which I've probably failed to mention.

But it's all so much, and this is only the final book in this duology. To each their own, but overall, I was disappointed with this book. The concluding chapters were very sweet and there were moments found within the book that I genuinely enjoyed but not enough to warrant anything above 2.5 stars.

[thewebcomicsreview]

Happy 10/25, the third most important religious holiday in the Homestuck Calender, and we got a new HS2 to celebrate, focusing on one of the new kids. The new kids were one of the parts of Homestuck 2 I actually liked, so let's see how the new writers handle them! With a Jailbreak reference, apparently.

Wait, hold on, deep lore: thespiansGlamor is Harry, glutinousGymnast is Tavros. RecidicivousGainsayer and gavageCunctation are names we haven't seen before. GC fits into the AGTC DNA theme of all the screen names we've seen so far (it's Terezi's acronym), and RG doesn't. They might be random NPCs, but they might also be foreshadowing. Also, neither Rose nor Kanaya appear to be on their daughter's friendlist, unless they're under the scroll bar, but maybe that's not weird.

What, uh, what did she draw the key with, HS2? That's her blood color, but she's not bleeding.

Also, who's narrating this? This has been a question in HS2 all along, but the narration here calls attention to itself more. It's much more "Homestucky" than HS2's had been.

We even have narration describing conversation, which is something HS2 has never done and HS1 restricted to carapacians.

You suggest to Vriska that you should go the other direction. Vriska says nah this is definitely where we wanna be. She says between the two of you, you've probably got enough luck to take this whole place off the map if you really wanted. You ask her what the fuck she means by that. She says you know like with your Thief of Light powers. You tell her you don't have anything like that. She says huh, weird!

Oh FFS now I have to go look up if post-Retcon Vriska met Aranea, her own dancestor who was not a Thief of Light. That's such a weird thing for Vriska to assume, that Vrissy not only has Vriska's powers but has mastered them. Also, I wonder if this narration style, besides being a Jailbreak reference, is because the new writers aren't confident writing the HS2 characters yet? Or maybe they just don't want Vriska/Vrissy dialogues because they're kind of hard to read.

I like these expressions. I also like this continuation of Candy Lore, that all the HS1 characters see Candyland as a "fake" universe and that's part of why they fucked around so much and got so fucking weird, whereas we see here that the actual Candy Natives do not see their planet as "bootleg". The fact that the HS parents don't think of their own children as entirely "real" is actually super fucked up, but I guess Yiffy's got the main right of complaint there.

I like that Vriska, who can fly, still makes Vrissy give her a boost. What a jerk!

Vriska says now THAT sounds like some shit a REAL Vriska would say! You roll your eyes and start to leave when Vriska calls out to ask if you're going without wishing her good luck. As you start to wish her luck she cuts you off and tells you to keep it, as she already has aaaaaaaall the luck she needs. You say okay dude.

I don't know if the original HS2 writers intended for the resolution of the "Vrissy kind of idolizes Vriska" subplot to end with "Vriska's so fucking Vriska that Vrissy is disillusioned within literally minutes", but it's honestly kind of funny and I like it.

JANE: From the conversation recovered from Egbert's phone, we've learned that Roxy has been... conspiring alongside the rebels for months now. Operating a lab deep within the ruins of the Troll Memorial Meteor, she and her coconspirator Calliope are preparing some kind of super weapon they've dubbed "The Plot Point". JANE: Heretofore referred to as The Point.

This feels a little like shade.

JANE: Let’s get to The Point!!

A lot like shade.

It's a little convenient to the new team that they took over right when HS2 was starting to actually go somewhere, but regardless, that was a neat page. I got a soft laugh out of it, the plot is starting to move, and there was some decent worldbuilding.