#// lots of relevant stuff for it considering. y'know

[dayplays]

Just as a heads-up, I may be being more active on my horror/monster/supernatural multi! Have inspo for it...

Will still be here! Just shouting out where else you can find me.

[rotationalsymmetry]

Steps to being politically active:

1. Find a group that does work you care about

2. Get put on their email or text action alerts list

3. Do a thing they ask you to do, like making a phone call to your political representative or going to a protest. (You're especially likely to get a sense that your involvement makes a diffefence if you pick a local cause, I used to do bicycle activism, and it was great to see new bike lanes getting striped all the time, but there's also tenant's union stuff, organizing to stop anti-homeless-people laws, organizing around how racially charged topics are taught in school, etc.)

Steps that are not part of the process:

Hanging out on social media and reblogging any random thing that crosses your dash that someone you don't know anything about says is politically relevant. (I mean...sometimes there's reasonable donation links or something, and I've seen people link to resist bot which is fine, but a lot of what goes around is just complete nonsense.)

There's also sort of the anarchist version, which is less focused on trying to influence politicians and more focused on protests and small-scale illegal activities from tree sits to removing bars from public benches (meant to keep homeless people from sleeping there.) but that still at least some of the time going to involve finding other people who are already doing something and joining up with them. I don't want to say it isn't focused on influencing politicians at all, I'd consider Act Up AIDS crisis die-ins to be about "influencing politicians" and also very much this sort of organizing, it just wasn't a letter writing campaign y'know?

[nerves-nebula]

The loose stitches voiceboxes are infecting my brain. There is a massive breach of bodily autonomy, a forced on "cure" of being mute, all in the effort of enforcing a single method of communication

Thats why I hate the concept of a "common language" in fantasy stories- it implies that all these cultures and creatures just *happen* to speak a shared language. Like English is widely spoken but we don't fucking call it common. English only spread this far due to imperialism- so when I see one language being called common I wanna bite

Which is also why I like loose stitches take on it, there is one "common" language spoken but its not cause people just happen to speak it, its enforced- and its not just the spawnlings housed by the organisation who are forces into this, its the workers aswell- implying to me that this is enforced by some greater state

Thats not even getting into how these voiceboxes could be tamperd with, or even monitored- for all we know this voicebox could be keeping a record of what people are saying- but that's getting into conspiracy theory territory and implies that the state is more competent than it actually probably is

Tldr dotty is being gaslight into believing that these voiceboxes are just there to help and I'm getting so pissed on its behalf

HEHEEHEHEHEHEE <<33 im SOOO glad you've noticed this. when i first conceived of loose stitches i was like 14 and the world was supposed to kinda be utopian, i wanted it to be a story about being born into the best possible world that cares about you from day 1 and STILL not fitting in, and then y'know, finding your place in it or whatever.

but as i learned more about SOCIETIES and HISTORY and OPPRESSION i started picking at the threads of the world I built and realized there was a lot of room for discussions of other stuff that was important to me, like ableism, colonialism, and how my desire to find people "just like me" might be more counter productive and divisive than I'd originally thought.

under the cut for things that i don't consider spoilers but ARE world building facts that haven't been brought up in the comic yet, so if you dont wanna read that uhhh yea

funfact that im not sure i'll get around to addressing in canon but is relevant to you mentioning a "common" language: people spawn knowing an accumulation of various languages spoken near their spawn point, often times they lean heavily towards one language/culture or another. if someone spawned in an area an spoke a different language than the people who found them, or was more familiar with different customs, it was customary to just go "oh this one's not for us ok lets send them to the people nearby that they are clearly influenced by"

since spawnlings are basically this worlds children, it was seen as kind of EVIL to just... remove them from the culture they've been spawned into. that's basically like stealing a baby.

spawnlings speaking different languages doesn't happen nearly as much anymore as there are way fewer spoken languages now :)

it should also be noted that language in loose stitches is an expression of communication via magic. not everyone who can speak aloud has a functioning mouth and vice versa, so there aren't as many languages as there are in our world in the first place. regardless, there's way less of them now!

[orange-orchard-system]

Y'know, there are a lot of genuine complaints to be made about how people respond to literatary analysis education with stuff like "the curtains are just blue", but I think at least a good amount of these complaints completely miss where these responses are coming from. They seem to think these responses just come from a handful of ignorant people dismissing the idea off the bat, but I've always viewed these responses differently, as coming from a deeper place of bitterness and genuine reasons to be frustrated. And dismissing that bitterness just contributes to it, so let's talk about one of the reasons someone may become disillusioned with literary analysis.

Literary analysis, as a subject, is dependent on personal interpretation and being able to turn something upside down and inside out, and ask it questions about what it means. It's a lot closer to philosophy than people think at first, especially if you're talking about novels or other creative texts and not random posts on the internet, like most schools use. However, this is at odds with how these schools run; a lot of school is focused on getting exactly the right answer, which really means "the state* approved answer". There is little room for encouraging individual interpretation; even in classes that include individual interpretation in certain assignments, the teachers are often limited by the tests they have to set, or actively limit the students themselves by setting specific answers as "the correct interpretation". As such, students end up feeling tricked or lied to when their individual interpretations and analysis come back marked "incorrect" on their papers and tests, or are outright told they're incorrect during discussions (which has its own layers of the shame that often comes from being publicly told off, no matter how gentle these "corrections" are). They're being told one thing (to explore the text for themselves so that they might understand it better and get more out of it), but taught another (that it doesn't matter what they think, because memorizing the textbook, already decided upon answers/interpretations, and a set of procedures on how to "tell what the text is saying" are more important). And of the two, what's being taught is obviously going to have a greater impact, since it's their grades and parental/guardian approval that hang in the balance.

Now, I mentioned asking questions is another part of literary analysis – this is another aspect where schools fail. As classes and teachers have limited time, questions are not able to be given the needed time to properly discuss and answer them unless they fit into a specific narrative the teacher is already expecting to get. Some questions may even be dismissed out of hand for being "irrelevant", no matter how relevant that question is to the student who asked it, simply because the teacher is not prepared to consider it, or actually give it weight and the attention it deserves or needs. With the "correct answers" already set out ahead of time, the teacher must focus on making sure their students can pre-emptively ask those questions and memorize the answers, rather than allowing them to ask their own questions and find their own answers. As such, "asking questions" becomes less about actual understanding of the text, and more so about anticipating what questions will be on the next test.

Following this, "the curtains are just blue" doesn't come solely from a lack of interest in the idea of literary analysis (though there's also something to be said about how the common feeling of being bored at school is certainly not helping favors) – it's more so frustration with these conflicting instructions that are being given. If you tell a student to be unique, but also punish them for being "weird", they're going to decide being unimpressive and "normal" is safer, no matter what you say. Similarly, if you tell a student that there are "no wrong answers", that analysis is "up to interpretation", and that they're meant to ask questions about the text, but then punish them for their interpretations being "wrong", and cannot allow them the time and practice needed to properly ask and answer any questions they may have, of course they're going to learn to dislike the subject as a whole! You just made them feel lied to about the whole purpose of it!

In some cases, this can go even further than just the students' interpretation – for example, everyone in my own literature analysis class had heard of the author who took a standardized literature test that included part of their work, but found none of the questions about it had answers that were accurate to their intentions and text. How are you meant to reconcile a story like that with all the assignments and quizzes that ask about "what the author intended"? With the supposed lesson of these studies being to foster your personal understanding of texts, whether you read or write them? Being told, over and over, that you are "wrong" for attempting to do exactly as the class claims to teach you and seeing for yourself that the "correct answers/intended understandings of the text" are just opinions agreed upon by a couple of strangers writing these test booklets – that's going to make anyone bitter. Of course some of these students are going to throw the whole concept of literary analysis in the trash – it was presented to them by the dumpster.

"The curtains are just blue" not as in "blue curtains may never hold any meaning", but as in "I don't even want to look at another question that claims to care about what I think the curtains represent, since I know it's all false platitudes anyway, so the curtains might as well be meaningless."

There's more I could say here about the different layers of "the curtains are just blue", and I probably will one day, but here's one aspect that's been on my mind lately. Contrary to how a lot of people seem to think when it comes to "piss on the poor" comments, you're not going to be able to shame people into something (developing their individual interpretations and interest in analysis) that they were shamed out of in the first place. So, maybe just keep that in mind the next time you see someone missing the point of a post, and try explaining it to them instead of reacting with derision.

* using "state" here to refer to multiple types of states, not just states in the USA.

[mizukagami-takamagahara]

Favorite and least favorite Blazblue characters?

Yay~ finally getting to this ask. I’ve got a lot of really cool asks (thank you everyone so much) that I’ve been wanting to get to, but my health is Rather Poor, and when I do answer these things, I want to be able to put a lot of energy and attention into them.

Now, getting to the ask! I had a lot to say, and it all came out messy... and somehow, I only ended up talking about one character, Nu 13. Who fits as both one of my favorite and one of my least favorite characters, for reasons detailed below. To not make this an entire fucking novel, I'll cut the post off here and consider it an early birthday post for her.

That said, here's a quick run down of some other stuff I didn't get to talk about, relevant to your question.

My other Hated Fave is Nine/Konoe. One of those “I love the character but if we were stuck in a room together I’d maul her” situations. I consider her to be a misandrist, and I have a very charged history of like, generational reactive sexism in my family, so her generational reactive sexism (relationship with her father coloring her relationship with men overall) enrages me. On the other hand, it’s so well written, SHE’S so well written, she’s an incredible character and I adore her as an art piece. She is like a cathedral to me. The most beautiful symphony in a key you hate.

Touched on briefly in the post below, my all time absolute favorite is Terumi/Susano'o. That's a story for another day. I like him in a very particular way where he's like, the best character ever, but also he's constantly on probation. Or reverse probation? I need to see him try to kill/maim/ruin someone once a month or he's at risk of being evicted. Being the champion is a title you have to defend, y'know?

I think the character I study the most and talk about the most is Noel, although to my tastes, she's very middle of the road. I feel neutral about her. I just use her as a guinea pig for all my BB related project. You know Dangan Ronpa? How they used Sayaka and Leon as a starting point/beta test for everything? It's kind of like that, except I haven't gotten so sick of her yet that I'm killing her off or anything.

With all of that covered, allow me to get into the actual post! Thank you for your patience!

Off the top of my head at least, I can’t honestly think of BlazBlue characters I dislike. Every character that comes to mind shares something that makes me hesitant to actually claim I dislike them. That is, the characters I like the least are the characters I understand the least. Spinner Superior and the entire Bloodedge Experience cast make the list… but I haven’t read BE. Valkenhayn makes the cut- another character I really don’t pay attention to. Bullet, Hibiki, maybe Amane- all characters I really just… haven’t paid much attention to yet.

I don’t really want to claim I dislike them at this point, because when I really think about it, I’m like 99% sure that I lack interest in them BECAUSE I haven’t taken the time to look at them.

One of my hobby/goal/things in my free time is working on these BB character documents, analyzing everything I can about each character in the series for my own personal work. I have a feeling that when I get to really analyzing and writing about these characters, I’ll find things I like about them.

Here's a quick look at my files, to see what I'm talking about. Have mercy, it's very WIP.

There are two characters that stand out to me in an… almost “love to hate” way, but not quite. I have a lot to say about these characters, but I’m still tired, and this post is going to be LONG as is, so I’ll try to keep it brief.

Author's Note: I fail to keep it brief.

Before BBDW, my least favorite character was DEFINITELY Nu13. Ironic, because she almost got me into BB back in the Continuum Shift days. I saw her and some of her crazy behavior and thought... well, not much, just kind of an error message in my head going “hot woman spotted.” So I looked into her, and her story!

And got bored immediately. At first I was intrigued- I love violent characters that could arguably be described as “rabid” or “feral,” but upon further inspection, she had one of the few character flaws I just can’t look past. She was absolutely static. Immutable. The only character she was willing to interact with was Ragna, and even when interacting with him, she couldn’t hear a thing he said. In my interpretation, at the time, this made her a character that couldn’t connect with the outside world in any way. To me, she was an island. Absolutely remote. And completely useless to my interests.

A fear years later, a few months before the launch of Chronophantasma Extend, I ended up getting into BlazBlue anyway powered by sheer Terumi thirst. Are you guys starting to get a picture of my type yet? From then on, BB has remained my all time favorite series, and Terumi/Susano’o continues to be in my top three favorite characters, usually comfortably wearing the “#1 all time fave” crown. I suppose that answers the other half of your question.

Throughout this time, Nu still didn’t appeal to me at all. Locked in as my least favorite, definitely. Eventually, I got my college roommates into BB. One of the girls fell in absolute love with Nu. I couldn’t understand it at all. In hindsight, she’s right on every point about Nu that she likes, and I really appreciate those traits now too- but I couldn’t see it at the time. She was able to see Nu as an incredibly tragic character for the same reasons I saw her as inert. In the C-Series, Nu is alone, horribly alone, locked in her pain and her delusion. I saw that and ultimately felt she was beyond saving, but my associate felt that made her into a beautiful tragedy, a princess more worth saving than any other. Maybe I’m getting a little abstract out of nowhere here, but I now feel that’s the best way to look at Nu’s story- she’s locked away in this fairy tale delusion. Ugh, I have more to say on it, but look at how long this has gotten already!

Anyways, then BBDW came out, and Mori gave us a glimpse of what he intended to be the next step in Nu’s story. Juusan, XIII, Thirteen. And hooooooooooooly shit my guys, I absolutely love Nu, XIII, and her arc now. It’s her fucking healing arc! It’s her fucking growing arc! She’s finally able to start becoming a person, fleshing out, interacting with the world!

I’m not the type who really needs or even WANTS redemption arcs for characters, but Nu DESPERATELY needed this chapter. My biggest gripe with her, as mentioned, was that it seemed impossible for her to have any kind of relationship with ANYONE. I guess I was a little close minded- I needed to see evidence that Nu could be reached, that she could wake up from her fairy tale slumber and start really living. And we have that now, in XIII.

Looking back on the writing from the earlier games, when I hated Nu so much, I see those scenes in an entirely different light. Her first fucking scene in every route is waking up, our sleeping beauty. But she wakes up to the same dream every time. She’s put right back into her coffin, death, to dream and dream and wake and be killed again. Isn’t that kind of beautiful??? Her CT story mode IS a dream, it’s a desperate dream, the one she holds most dearly but doesn’t even understand- Nu is a character who THINKS what she wants more than anything is a romantic love with her prince charming, but we see in her story mode there, and in the relationships that finally save her, that what she really wanted was a full relationship as a real person. Platonic relationships, with no expectations, just someone seeing her and maybe offering her a smile. She craved, needed, the ability to connect with others, but that was a dream so far out of reach she couldn’t understand it. I KNOW I’M RAVING AT THIS POINT, I DIDN’T MEAN TO, BUT C’MON IT’S BEAUTIFUL.

And, and!!! As I mentioned, the relationships that finally save her, finally wake her up from the dream the same way the BB world is being woken up from ITS looping dream (WHICH IS ANOTHER AWESOME CONNECTION AND GREAT WRITING, THE WAY NU AS A CHARACTER CAN BE SEEN TO EMBODY THE LOOPING WORLD, NEW AND BROKEN AND UNABLE TO CHANGE WITH NO HOPE OF TOMORROW)

Ahem, ahem-- It’s familial connections. She so badly wants that romance with Ragna, but it isn’t the love of a prince that saves her- it’s when he accepts her as his sister. It’s when he accepts her as a victim and her own person and not a bastardization of Saya, and comes to save this lonely girl. An echo of his little sister he couldn’t save. HIS ENTIRE JOURNEY WAS TO SAVE HIS SISTER AND HE FINALLY DOES. IN SO MANY WAYS, INCLUDING IN THAT MOMENT OF REACHING OUT TO NU.

And then it’s Noel. And Lamba. Her sisters. Again, people who once saw her as a disgusting representation of what they feared the most, a replacement or a copy- when they let that go, see past it, and really face her, they take Nu in as their little sister. And its their patient love that heals her. Just like Ragna, when they first met Nu, her connection to Saya and themselves terrified them, infuriated them, but now they look directly at that connection and don’t see it as a threat. It fills them with compassion. It can be a lovely thing, to share something so fundamental as your creation with someone else. There’s love in that. They see it now and are able to offer it to her.

This answer has been very messy and very long, but hey, let’s pretend it isn’t that bad. Give me some mercy, I’m on so much cough syrup.

[greatstormcat]

Can I have some advice from one writer to another? It's okay if not, feel free to ignore

Basically, I'm fairly new to posting my fics and art here on Tumblr and I can't stop myself from feeling a little inadequate sometimes. I've been posting for about four or five months now and my writing posts rarely get more than 20-30 notes, if that. I've had my more popular posts, one of which hit almost 1000 notes, but other than that I don't really see much attention.

I feel bad for thinking like this, since so many people say that I should be writing for myself and not the validation of others, but I really want to share my work with people. I've been writing as a hobby for a while but I started my writing blog because I want people to find joy in my work as much as I do.

But when all of the stuff I post doesn't get much reach, it just feels awful. I keep getting the feeling that my ideas/works aren't that great, because if no one else finds them interesting then why should I?

With all of this said though, I feel so superficial for thinking this way. I want to be happy with my work but none of it feels meaningful the more I post and the more my stuff gets put to the wayside, y'know? A few of my mutuals have hyped me up and it feels good, but then it wears off really fast when even after weeks I barely see any notifications from anyone other than them.

Sorry for the long message, but I just wanted to see if you had any ideas on how to stop myself from starting to dislike my work because no one else really enjoys it, or at least don't show that they enjoy it.

Ahhh I know this thought process very well, and I promise you that everyone else that reads this that’s running a blog of any sort knows it too! We’ve all been in this exact same spot, some more recently than others. My first piece of advice is cling to those mutuals, hype eachother up because those are the people that will look after you. Getting a load of notes from faceless internet denizens isn’t going to sustain you anywhere near as much as you think it is. Getting random/insane asks and comments from people who interact with you is so much more important. (Sending hugs to all my mutuals.)

But, that said, I know you want to get your stuff out there to the people that will enjoy it, and this is hard work. I’ve not been going very long although I’ve been lurking around Tumblr since it was first created. My top tips for you are firstly nag the shit out of people to reblog your stuff. Unfortunately a lot of people are happy to hit like on something but leave it at that, they forget that unless stuff gets reblogged it sits still and dies. Reblogs are the lifeblood of Tumblr!

Secondly don’t be afraid to use a load of tags, just make sure they are appropriate ones. Don't tag spam, you’ll get flamed for that as it is terrible etiquette and will piss people off and get you blocked. Use as many tags for your subject/character as you can get in there and your post will pop up in the following tags section for readers. You can also use the scheduler which looks at when you corner of the site is most active.

Third, interact with other people who like the same stuff and they’ll likely end up looking through your blog and sharing your work. This is the one I struggled with the most because my autism is a nasty huge hairy bastard that stops me behaving like a normal human being in conversations. 

Fourth bit of advice, stop comparing yourself to who you consider ‘big blogs’. Behind every screen here is someone writing an idea on their tea break sitting on the toilet. There are no celebrities in fandom, just a bunch of normal people like you and me who happen to enjoy the same thing. Don’t think ‘oh I’ll never be as good as X blog’ because that person is thinking that same though about someone else. 

Last piece of advice following on from that, enjoy what you’re doing. It's really obvious when someone is just making ‘content’ because they think they have to keep up posting to be relevant. Only post stuff you have enjoyed writing/drawing and if you need a break, take one.

The biggest thing is to not hang your selfworth on this, it's just a bit of fun and doesn’t reflect you as a human being. 

That turned out like a huge motherly talk, and I hope it doesn’t come across as condescending because tone is hard to convey. Feel free to use or ignore as you see fit! If you feel up to it feel free to tag me in something you’ve written or drawn.

[fyrets]

I know this is a PB blog that has been very VERY open about their support of the project, so it would be uncouth to say anything negative about it but I'm thinking about how extremely unprecedented PB is in.. a way that isn't necessarily bad but, weirdly off-putting when thinking about it.

this got long so under the cut it goes

PB is the most funded petsim on Kickstarter. It raised over $80,000. That's an incredible achievement, and they absolutely deserve it! But that already puts it in an incredibly unprecedented position. Petsims using crowdfunding platforms for their projects is already pretty uncommon all things considered, at least historically in the grand scheme of things where most are just passion projects made in the spare time of a handful of people. many of them manage to stick around through the sheer force of will a dedicated userbase can bring, but most stay pretty small and more completely fade into obscurity. And that's fine, y'know? A little sad for the ones that go dark, but it is what it is.

But ever since FR's success I think a lot of people have almost forgotten that a petsim becoming a smash hit isn't the norm, or at least they don't realize just how uncommon it is and how much work goes into making something as successful as FR past the KS stage. probably the most notable examples are Dappervolk (the previous holder of the "most funded petsim" title) and Lorwolf (most recent KS funded game that is quite derivative of FR to launch).

Now Dappervolk is a bit of an outlier by virtue of it being a pretty different game to the typical petsim and it being more of an avatar game but yeah yeah yeah everyone around me at the time called it a petsim so I'm counting it. It's pretty well known that it had a very strong start with a pretty big playerbase during beta and launch, but people lost interest rather quickly for a lot of reasons. I'm admittedly out of the loop for those reasonings (my reason for dumping DV was I Just Forgor) but from what I've heard it was a combination of the gacha system, heavy grind, and some paywalled monthly content. Now I have heard that it has gotten better recently, but I wouldn't know myself and it still hasn't recovered the numbers it once had.

Lorwolf is a much more relevant point of comparison both because of recency (fully launched earlier this year) and it operates a lot more like FR in many aspects like having limited color slots, a wheel of pre-selected colors, and a bunch of other little stuff, making it a more direct competitor to FR. I didn't find out about LW until after the beta period but I was managed to sign up for the "Early Access" it had, and it was pretty good! Spirits were very high and though the full launch got delayed, when it came around it made a big impact. Much like DV did in its launch, lots of people rushed to cross-site trade their FR stuff for LW, indicating a lot of confidence for the game and its future. Unfortunately, things aren't looking good now 6 months out from full launch. There is a lot to consider when assessing how we've gotten to this point of very low morale, but I guess the biggest thing would be the community having to deal with feelings of being unheard and abandoned as a result of very inexperienced developers. I genuinely hope things turn up sometime soon, but I'm not sure for how long I can keep that hope.

So what am I getting at with all of this? Am I expecting PB to fall a similar fate of having a very big beta and launch only to bleed players months later as a result of people either realizing the game doesn't suit their playstyle or because the game is seemingly abandoned with radio silence from devs? No! I have a lot of hope for PB to deliver a game that has something for everyone, and based on how well they've handled communication along with knowing so far I doubt we would be left in the dark. Despite my hope though, the odds are stacked against PB having the same level of success as FR.

But what if it does manage it? What if PB manages to be a smash hit and it stays a smash hit? What lessons will the people who hope to make their own games take from it? Will their takeaway be that this game was successful because it made the most money ever (and got additional investment!)? Or will people try to see what commonalities it and FR had and try to do the same? Will we see more projects try and fail to achieve success? Or will they manage to crack some kind of code and join the ranks of giants? Just what sort of impact will PB have?

[dragons-hoard-of-fandoms]

Well, that...

That was something. (Cut 'cuz spoilers. Long. Small angry rant near the end.)

I can't really say it was bad, but, y'know, can't say it was all that fantastic either. Just doesn't feel like the "conclusion" it was promised as - which is honestly understandable, given that the new show is on its way. And, y'know, having to pack everything into only eleven minutes doesn't really grant ya much wiggle room. I feel like there'd be a much better payoff if it had more time to work with - twenty-two minutes like the Wil Film seasons, or a full TV movie.

It's definitely more satisfying than "Endings," tho, so I'll give it that.

I think I speak for everyone when I say I wish we'd gotten more of Oni Lloyd. Considering it was being hyped up as this big final ultimate form that may or may not end up rampaging across the city, destroying everything in sight as Lloyd takes out all the anger and frustrations that have been building up within him probably since this whole "destiny" nonsense was dropped on him, enacting a role reversal of the Kryptarium fight when Garmadon tries to face him only to finally understand exactly how he made his son feel back then when (despite Garm actually genuinely giving his all) Lloyd nearly kills him, has him by the throat and tells him "I have no father," while the Ninja are forced to confront the possibility that the only way to save their friend is to destroy him...

Yeah, Lloyd going full Oni for like five seconds only to immediately back out before actually doing anything was a letdown. But who knows, maybe they'll come back to it in the new series. Get on it, writers! Let our boy go crazy go stupid! Don't make this another Tornado of Creation!

Garmadon's second redemption certainly has room to grow. He's clearly trying, and I appreciate that, but I wish he'd made a more obvious effort that he was trying to reconcile with his son. I get that he can't just come right out and say it, not when he still can't quite comprehend just what "it" is, and I get that Lloyd wouldn't be able to just roll over and forgive him, not when he's probably still having nightmares about Seasons Eight through Ten and his whole original motivation from Season One is now his greatest fear... But still. I totally called that Christofern was serving as a stand-in for Lloyd when it came to Garmadon's feelings about him, but it felt like they were trying to push it from an allegory to a literal - pretty much any time Garm's ability to care was called into question, Christofern was the example given. The only arguable exception is that one scene with Nya, but even then, it's deflected onto Christofern so bluntly that's it's practically calling us stupid for thinking Garmadon's empathy could extend beyond his plant.

Again, tho, the new series still has a chance to remedy this. Sensei Garmadon could still return to us in some form. The Dragon half could still claw his way out of the Departed Realm, reunite with the Oni, and give Lloyd his real dad again. I like to imagine Garmadragon has been barreling across the multiverse screaming "HAVE YOU SEEN MY SON" for the past eight seasons, and the only reason he hasn't shown up yet is because there are a lot more than fourteen Realms out there. He could still turn up.

Look all I'm saying is Lloyd and Garmadon's Oni heritage has gotten its time in the spotlight, give the Dragons their turn. And while you're at it, acknowledge Wu's inhuman qualities for once. He's DragOni too.

Other Stuff I Don't Have As Much to Say About:

"Compatible" really doesn't hit as hard as Tommy was trying to convince us it would. IDK, maybe what with Zane dying every other weekend we're just desensitized to the whole ordeal. It was cute, tho, I certainly won't deny that.

Clutch still has Nadakhan's teapot. Is that ever gonna be relevant or

I can't believe they had Zane fight Mr. F and not reveal Mr. F as Echo. What do we gotta do to make them bring back Echo?!

Did they really think revealing the Overlord was responsible for the Devourer was some big unexpected twist? Pretty certain we all gathered that WAY back the first two seasons.

On that note, WOW was she-whose-name-we-do-not-speak-in-this-household's heel-face turn stupid. You were literally working with the dude who released the Devourer in the first place! If it was so easy for you to blame Lloyd for that, you should've been able to trace it back to the Overlord right from the start!

Yes I still despise she-whose-name-we-do-not-speak-in-this-household with every fiber of my being. Yes I still would've laughed and cheered if she had been murdered on-screen in such a brutal and violent manner that it never would've been allowed on television if they weren't Legos. Yes I still want Lloyd to go on an insane Oni-powered rampage with her as the first and only casualty. No I am not sorry and no I will never forgive her and no I will never accept her as anything other than the thing that ruined Garmadon. SHE IS NOT HIS DAUGHTER AND NEVER WILL BE AND I WOULD GLADLY REWRITE THE ENTIRE SHOW FROM SCRATCH TO PREVENT HER FROM EVER EXISTING

Can't say I was expecting the Ninja to lose their powers again (I figured they would've permanently gone full Dragon or something - another "dead without actually dying" case à la Nya turning into the ocean), but, y'know, can't say I'm too shocked by it either. Last time this happened was, what, Season Five? If anything they were overdue.

All in all, a decent end to a season and an alright end to an era, but not so much to an entire series like it's being billed as. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, and I've definitely seen worse finales (*cough cough* Star vs. the Forces of Evil *cough*), but that's not to say there isn't any wasted potential here. Maybe there wouldn't have been such high expectations if it hadn't been played up as this heart-wrenching, soul-crushing eleven-minute epic. Maybe if it'd lived up to the hype I wouldn't be writing this. Or maybe regardless of how things turned out, there would always be a little disappointment mixed into it. Who's to say, really.

Either way, the 2023 series certainly has a lot to live up to, and a fairly solid foundation to build off of. There's still a few loose ends to tie up, plot points to resolve, mysteries to uncover, stories to finish. What's up in the other Realms? Where are the Time Twins? Will we ever see Morro again?

We're just gonna have to wait and see, I suppose.

[bigstupid69]

I love your headcanons what kinda horror movies would the choir like - 🐀

Oh boy this is gonna be a lot I bet so I'll put my thoughts under the cut;

I'll give them both horror movie picks relevant to the time period (before and during 2009/8) and ones after

These are all movies I have seen before so I'm sorry about the repeats, and you may not agree.

Ocean

I'm so torn between having Ocean be absolutely terrified of horror movies or being like a horror snob. Y'know the type to criticize unnecessary amounts of violence and gore, and only actually enjoy films if there's some deeper meaning out of it. She seems like those type of insufferable people. Like the female equivalent of the men obsessed with American psycho. She definitely hates most campy horrors and slashers as well as things similar to the saw franchise. I think she'd definitely enjoy some of those genres by picking it apart with a feminist lens though. So I feel like she'd definitely be more of a fan of psychological horror, but definitely stuff that isn't absolutely terrifying to watch like Hereditary.

My picks are; Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Stepford Wives (1975)

More modern picks; Last Night in Soho (2021), Midsommar (2019), I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

Noel

People who think he wouldn't like horror movies are completely wrong. Considering his ideals in his monologue, he would probably enjoy films with lots of gore. I think he'd definitely be into the saw franchise with Mischa. He'd also probably enjoy a lot of suggestive and or queer coded films as well. Also probably has a guilty pleasure for cheesy romance driven films, but he would not let anyone know that.

My picks are; Repo the genetic opera (2008), Rocky horror picture show (1975), society (1989), Re-animator (1985), the lost boys (1987), I think he'd also maybe be into the buffy the vampire series (1997-2003)

More modern picks: X (2022), terrifier 1 and , 2 (2016-2022), warm bodies (2013), only putting this here since it ran for a longer time but the vampire diaries (2008-2016)

Mischa

Mischa's "canonically" favorite film is Saw 5, so obviously he'd be into the saw franchise and films like that. I think he'd really just also be into slashers, definitely the kid who dressed up as ghost face for Halloween with the mask that could squirt out blood. I think he'd also like horror comedies quite a bit as well.

My picks are: The saw franchise (canon?), scream (1996), sleepaway camp (1983), Friday the 13th (1980), the evil dead, and evil dead 2 (1981/1987)

More modern picks: The cabin in the woods (2011), the purge (2013), the scary movie series (both modern and time accurate 2000-2013)

Ricky

A mix between cheesy/funny classics and pretty much anything sci-fi. Not sure if he's into that much gore in the films but definitely isn't as picky as Ocean so it's not a complete turn off. Regardless his favorites are pretty much anything sci-fi but he makes exceptions.

My picks are: Rocky horror picture show (1975), little shop of horrors (1986), Alien (1979), lifeforce (1985), mars attacks (1996)

More modern picks: Annihilation (2018), Nope (2022), color out of space (2020)

Constance

I also think she'd really be into horror, she'd definitely be more into campy films and also have a soft spot for classic horror movies from her childhood. She's definitely not innocent and does probably enjoy some more fucked up ones on occasion however.

My picks are: scream (1996), Jennifer's body (2009), Coraline (2009), Shaun of the dead (2004)

More modern picks: Wendell & wild (2022), Anna and the apocalypse (2017), the babysitter (2017), happy death day (2017)

Penny

I feel like she would watch a lot of varying horror movies. she'd enjoy ones she could connect to in a way, but also just enjoy less meaningful ones to her and are just full of camp. Along with Constance she also enjoys a lot of horror movies from her childhood especially because of being slightly detached to it because of everything she's gone through at such a young age. (headcanon but also kinda true)

My picks are: Carrie (1976), Coraline (2009), The shining (1980), all the previously mentioned classic slashers, not a horror film but this is only for my gf; heathers (1988), hocus pocus (1993), child's play series (1988-2019)

More modern picks: Pearl (2022), bodies bodies bodies (2022), Possum (2018), the fear street trilogy

[leaflovingal]

Cawl rant time, plus other admech fan annoyances

TLDR: I'm fine with him as a character, he's just the face of Admech and I think that's stupid, especially considering the already massive lack of Ad Mech characters.

Okay so, I saw on the Ad Mech subreddit that there's a new book with Cawl and Fabius Bile. Dope. Looking forward to it. However, it got me thinkin; why Cawl? Why choose Cawl over any other Admech character? Well, there aren't any. There are no other Ad Mech characters.

While yes, obviously, there are other characters in other books, like Kostov and stuff, there are no other major Ad Mech characters currently alive in the setting as far as I know of. There are, say, Kane and Land, but land is dead and i believe Kane dissapeared. Cawl is the start and end of Ad Mech characters in the setting. And that's really fucking lame obviously.

Now, I do not have a problem with Belisarius Cawl as a character, however he should not be the face of the Adeptus Mechanicus. How many other factions have their main character, their big guy, go entirely against several rules that define their faction? Probably a few, sure, but I can't personally think of any. Does say, cato sicarius go against all the rules of the Ultramarines? I think he uses drop pods aggressively but other than that he's not very standout other than "im special boy".

Cawl made a fucking AI. Straight up. He invented a shit ton of new stuff. He uses xenotech. The vast majority of the Adeptus Mechanicus would flay him given the chance. They hate him. Why is he their poster boy? It makes no sense. I understand that the Adeptus Mechanicus are difficult to make interesting on an individual level, but holy shit do you have to make their main guy shit all over their religion?

Not to mention that he has been a part of all the important shit for the Admech as of late, if not the sole part of them present. Cadia? Check. Biggest upgrade the imperium has gotten in thousands of years? That was him. Nice game for my faction, would be a shame if I just *tricked a fucking c'tan shard AKA part of a literal god* making that previous ordeal seem lame by comparison. Good job fighting through a tomb world, i cheated a literal actual god.

It's just so tiring, especially with how Admech can barely pull a win anywhere else in lore, plus current rules for tabletop. Also, y'know, lion getting to deal with vashtorr. You know, vashtorr the evil machine god dude? The one that would work super well to bring the dark mechanicum back into relevance? The one that could offer a really good reason make a new faction for tabletop and update another? No. Dark angels. Lmao.

Fuck dude. Okay, trying to wrap this up, hopefully GW doesnt shit all over us in the codex. While yes the rules and abilities in 9th were a lot to learn, that idea of making a machine with your cogs is neccessary to give the ad mech an identity on tabletop. Medium to small army of mediocre units that can be buffed to a usable and deadly weapon if you're smart about it is what the ad mech are. They need that.

Hopefully the next none cawl admech book wont be half full of rogue traders, black templars, and eldar. Hopefully the next characters are from somewhere other than mars so i dont have to look at just red all the time. Hopefully the next characters are as good as the mechanicus game. I genuinely found the characters from that game more interesting than cawl, because there's a dynamic between them instead of a smartass who would say "I DONT KNOW, CAAAAAAN YOU?" If a kid asked "can i use the restroom" instead of "may i use the restroom" who then had a layer of pseudo fatherly lover put over him as he talks to a traumatized child soldier to make him seem fucking interesting when he's just being a cunt.

[universal-kitty]

Hurm, hurm, blog thoughts... Probably gonna get a little personal, but I keep idly spinning my wheels on what I'm doing with this blog.

Like. There's the Tumblr Scare to consider. Still thinking I'll likely move my fics to Ao3, since I don't want to lose them, and I'd almost rather bet on their longevity compared to Tumblr's rn. (Especially under current ownership; maybe...just maybe....someone else should take the reign. I would love to believe staff is as kindly as ex-staff say they are, but everything abt what happened prior still keeps me nervous.)

But there's also IRL stuff going on in my personal life that's... Hmm.

As mentioned before, continuing to look into OSDD as a possible diagnosis for what I've been going through almost all of my life. I thought it was quite normal- based on where and how I entered Fandom- to have characters in your head that spoke to you. They lived your life with you, offering commentary, and etc. Funnily enough, it was only "studying" fickin that I realized there was something else going on there....and that also led to alterhumanity (and geez, did that explain twenty more things-) and THAT is what led to plurality.

...Which has also been a journey and a half, considering my therapist can only do so much. I did the MID, it's just talking about this through parts language and...basically awaiting an appointment- in some future time- to get answers. (I want them, but am unsure if I want an on-paper diagnosis... Suppose we'll see if it means the difference between obtaining specific therapy for this.)

And THAT'S only relevant cause some F/Os are also fictives. Or were F/Os that became introjects, due to the comfort they gave me. (I will not specify who, for personal reasons. If you're curious, I may be willing to entrust my system blog to those who inquire for it.)

OH, and I made it into an apartment!!! That's so incredibly new to me. Nice, but trying to catch this space up with what's needed is...tricky.

Boyf and I have a lot of stuff- put together- and so trying to mentally assemble where shelves will go to bring it all together... Y'know? (But I'm excited to put some lowkey shrines together for certain faves.)

...Other misc. stuff I can't remember now. Reworking my self-inserts on the [quiet] side. Uhhhh, vtubing ideas. More lore for said SIs and ships, and also messing around with certain ideas that could streamline some of my Thoughts?? (We'll see on this. I'm hemming and hawing over it, since idk if this is From Me or outside influences again... Yes, I'm being vague!! I'm allowed.)

Anyways, that's my little update!! I've got drabbles I can post again, at some point, but... Real goal is to eventually post stories again. Esp so I can streamline the commission process, going forward.

(...In the meantime, I am ages behind writing for my LoZ stuff-)

[irbcallmefynn]

Oughhhh I'm at my mom's again today and I'm so fucking bored so time to talk about that old version of Fynn's lore that was in my head for several years. It's gonna be long so buckle up, folks.

Ok so I should preface this by saying I don't remember most of the details about this. Also a lot of characters and settings and events were not mine and were blatantly stolen and mutated until their unrecognizable. This'll just be focusing on a select few things that are actually important here.

Let's start with Fynn himself, shall we? Well, his name wasn't actually Fynn in this version. It was Wolfynn, and Fynn was just a nickname. He wasn't the main character in this version of the story, either. Just one of many side characters. Wasn't half demon, had a mouth, no real magical abilities. His main shtick was he was a natural born Minecraftian. I always pictured him as fairly large and bulky, with the reasoning of him being Minecraftian carries over to other worlds. He was very relevant still, just not exclusively the most important.

Nauno was also present in this version. Still gay, still kinda stupid, but not a kleptomaniac and didn't use He/They. He did have a gun though! Never really fleshed him out much in this version. Wasn't in a relationship with Fynn, but with another character which I did not own. Really glad nothing ever came of this story because that could get bad.

Now for the big complicated stuff. The world they lived in was a full multiverse called New World. It was called that because new worlds were being formed constantly by the thoughts and ideas of those in New World and our own multiverse (refered to as Old World). Travel between universes is possible, easy, and happens accidentally constantly. This is where the actual main character of this version of the story comes in.

Drax. "God" of the multiverse. I say "God" loosely because they were more like the Security guard of the multiverse, since they generally just went around helping people and making sure nobody destroyed the multiverse. After a lot of character development and retconning I won't go into here, I eventually settled on Drax being a gender fluid polyamorous panromantic shapeshifting robot dragon being controlled by a ghost dragon. Drax was basically the embodiment of power scaling. Was completely invincible, teleportation, time freezing, was a Pokemon trainer, had a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Blade. Basically if it was a power they could have, they'd have it. If it was an important object, they'd own it. His only real weakness was that he liked taking the Fun option for solving things because "Fun" was a universal force like in Undertale and they were researching it.

There were a bunch of other characters too that were also kinda half baked. Highlights include Fynn's girlfriend Lin, a fox OC from Starbound. Kari, Drax's girlfriend who was basically completely irrelevant because Drax just kinda, loved everyone around them (Drax had kissed Fynn on multiple occasions). And Aeon, the God of reality (because both New and Old world existed in the same Reality), and was the closest thing Drax had to a father.

You may notice there's no Euphi here. She didn't exist in my head until very recently. Drax was about the closest counterpart to heart that existed. Considering, y'know. Robot.

The thing is, things would happen in this story whenever I thought of a thing to happen. And when I couldn't think of anything? Still thinking about it except now nothing's happening and it got very boring and repetitive.

There was a whole dream world thing called the Dream Depot that Drax was put in charge of, there was Friday Night Funkin stuff, YouTube stuff I was watching. Basically this story was just a place to jam every idea and concept ever in my head and let it swirl around like a nightmare soup of worldbuilding. So I just. Stopped it after a while.

I decided I was done thinking about it. I ran out of ideas, the way I consumed media changed and didn't mesh well with this. And it just didn't interest me anymore. So I moved on.

And now we're here. A smaller cast of more fleshed out characters. In a more manageably sized world. With lore I can actually think about without cringing, getting things wrong, or talking for 5 months straight.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Oh and if you're down here? Hi! Go get a drink! You probably need it at this point! Thanks for putting up with this nightmare wall of text!

[tvlandofficial]

One of the fellas ralsei talks to brought this up, but it was with a buncha other stuff you ought not to look at so I'm just gonna share the part that's relevant to you.

Toriel is a mother, yeah? Her kids are Kris and Asriel and I'd assume she loves 'em a whole lot. Wants 'em to be happy. Now what I'm not saying here is that you are a mother to Ralsei, because I know you don't think of him like that. But considering Toriel's whole, y'know, deal, do you think it's possible she mighta... rubbed off on ya? In the way you treat Ralsei.

What I'm sayin' is, I don't think this is a bad thing. You serve your purpose, yes, but you also take care of all your Guy's. It's in your nature to want to help the little Guy's because, well, that's what Toriel would do. And although your primary purpose is, of course, your purpose, maybe you're supposed to want to make sure people are taken care of. 's that make sense?

📺 YEAH, I READ YOU.

📺 ...IT FIGURES, I'D SAY. WE ALL KNOW WE WERE MADE IN TORIEL'S IMAGE, SO IT FIGURES WE ALL GOT A LITTLE OF HER LIGHT IN US. IT'D TRACK TO MEAN REACHING OUT TO THE KID WHEN HE NEEDS IT.

📺 (BUT IF THAT'S TRUE, WHY'S IT...?)

📺 ...

📺 THANKS. I MIGHT BE THE EXPERT WHEN IT COMES TO KNOWING ABOUT TORIEL'S WILL, BUT EVEN I COULD USE A LIL' STRENGTHENING OF FAITH EVERY NOW AND THEN!

[airlock]

6, 11, 27!

(pertinent to this ask meme)

#6 - Who's your favorite lord/protagonist?

I may or may not have recently declared a crusade in his name.

(Claude is up there as well also!)

  #11 - A character that deserved better?

speaking of which, Claude would have been a prime candidate here, but at least, Three Hopes finally gave him a route that feels like it's his own and not the church's sloppy... firsts. although that route did bring with it a new candidate for this question (they did so little with shahid,)

anyway, god, how does one even begin to choose? I could nominate like half of every female cast from the Kaga era games for one thing. get to the modern games, and you get countless characters who would've benefitted greatly from not being under pressure from being a viable target for the resident customizable protagonist's gaping S-supporting maw. the ones in the middle of the maelstrom are safe from that sort of sweeping problem, but that's not to say they don't have any characters they inidividually did dirty... (Lyn deserved more story relevance, Elincia deserved more time in the limelight in Radiant Dawn, Eirika deserves more respect from the fandom if that counts, and that's just going through protagonists)

anyway, a solid chunk of Awakening's second generation deserved to be in a better game -- perhaps even their own game -- so I guess that's also a big one

  #27 - Any fanfics/fan content you’d recommend? (You can plug your own stuff it’s fine)

sneaky creature you are to ask that, considering how much of your stuff I'll rec in a half heartbeat,

anyway, I'm not nearly as avid of a reader as I should be, for being a writer, but here's some of the finest Fire Emblem fanfic that my terrible brain managed not to wander astray from:

Princess of Dawn and its sequels by @wyvern-dork are the ultimate gesture of dedication to a blorbo that I've ever had the privilege of witnessing, let's see, around 80 chapters of so far. y'know, out of the 193 total that are presently up. to describe it only as a novelization of the Akaneia Saga, starring Minerva and featuring Minerva/Palla, would be selling it short. I think the more accurate thing to call it, rather, is the Minerva bible.

not looking for a work that will beautifully gobble up your entire life like that, though? first off all, why aren't you? but second of all, you can still get your Minerva/Palla from the same tap in shorter form: in Blades of Champions, where the two of them are some of the tryhardingest fencers in the whole modern alternate universe

and to complete the hat-trick on recs for this particular friend's works, there's Fingers Through the Sand. in this fic, Luthier dies at war and Delthea's journey to completely mishandle her grief eventually takes her across the sea and to befriend another magical powerhouse with a heart full of grief -- Linde. it will hurt you perfectly while dazzling you with stuff about magic

but lest you think I'm letting you off without another Akaneia rec with lots of magic in it -- as if; here's simplicity by name, the delightful gift I was given for nagamas 2021. it's Merric/Arlen, albeit with some flexibility as to how romantic you read their interactions here exactly, also they're both magnificently trans of gender in there

and I'm not done with the magic yet, or with the ones I've managed to prompt out onto existance. after all, @dornishsphinx‘s May You Arrive at Fertile Phthia dotted that year's FE Rarepair Exchange for me with some of the most evocative (and, at least once, haunting) descriptions of magic I've ever seen. besides that, it also has an intriguing Erk/Nino story largely set after Binding Blade, ie, well after they've both disappeared. it is deliciously detailed, and even has a bunch of Homeric references if that happens to be something you're interested in

while we're at Elibe, @royaltyjunk's the pain in my heart cannot be shared (i really miss you) deserves a mention at the very least because Lyn opening a text convo with Hector with "order bitch" remains one of the most beautifully in-character things I've ever seen for her and it's the first line of the piece- besides that, it's also a modern AU story taking place in our here world, but one might say that it's still about how much Lyn misses the plains.

anyway, let's cap this off with a hat-trick of @queenlua recs, notwithstanding that this tag there is entirely redundant with the other notifications she's about to be getting for this post- anyway, the first one of them is Silent World, a three-chapterer in which Naesala attempts to ruin Micaiah and Sothe's relationship for shits and giggles. it's not quite SFW and it does in fact feature Micaiah/Sothe, but if you're fine with both of those things, then you may join in me suddenly finding Sothe a much more interesting character than you may have originally figured (plus, that Micaiah and Naesala are great characters should require no convincing, but they're still in peak form here, so, that's just Oops! All Interesting)

and here's another three-chapterer while I'm at it -- Where the River Meets the Sea. it's a Claude/Hilda story that doesn't skirt around the dodgy history between Hilda and Almyra -- the opposite, in fact, as that's one of the central themes. the other being that these two are both extremely nonconfrontational people and, sometimes, that's not a good thing. anyway, Lorenz writes a strongly worded letter in this, so, that's the real #1 reason why you should go read it right now

and I'm not done asking you to enjoy Lorenz content either; for that matter, neither am I done with the modern AUs. because summer is miles and miles away is the white whale that I will always be kindly, playfully, yet persistently prodding the author about picking back up someday. it's a Claude/Lorenz story where all the Garreg Mach people are Harvard graduates, Claude is the tech startup bro he was always meant to be, Lorenz hasn't matured quite as fast as he did in canon without a war to light a fire in his ass, and Hilda is great

plus, there's always my own work to recommend, but I take in pride in all the stuff I got to make these days, so, it's hard to pick and choose just a handful. you could always check out my ao3 page and read every last one of them. but to select a few regardless: The Winter Bird is my love letter to all of the Dawn Brigade's obscure underappreciated blorbos; Forests and People features Jamke, Edain, Dew, and probably some of the funniest lines I've ever managed to get into a piece; Building Trust, slightly longer-form than my usual fare, is an ongoing effort to make Catria/Clair happen -- you know, on my part, on their parts, and on Minerva and Palla's parts, with the time they have to spare while they're not flirting with each other -- and if you're in luck I might actually finish the fourth and final chapter this year; and then there's my most recent piece, MozghuzCon, where I drastically exceed my own expectations vis-a-vis story length for a spot of modern AU Bernadetta/Marianne where they're both very transgender, very neurodivergent, and very nerdy.

[thevoiidspeakz]

Okay, major season 4 vol 2 rant here cuz I'm stupid and need to share my thoughts. Bare with me cuz these are my opinions and you can think whatever you want and it's okay!! I'm not here to fight anyone!!!

(And before you comment, I know I'm probably delusioning myself, I know I shouldn't get my hopes up, but y'know what fuck it if it's not canon in the end I'll keep being a byler truther fuck everything)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Starting off with the obvious; byler.

Being fully honest with you? We may still have a chance. I watched it with my mom and she actually helped me come up with explanations that still point to byler being endgame.

(before we get into that, I just want to say that a lot of the stuff mentioned, shown or implied by cast or writers, was marketing. I hate it but there's always money involved.)

The first and most compelling one to me being Mike's internalized homophobia. We all know about that, but that can very much explain his behaviors here.

My mom had a friend that only actually accepted the fact she was bisexual on her thirties. Everyone knew, but she just couldn't accept it, and she also grew up in the eighties.

I feel like it's really important to consider the way Mike is raised. His father is extremely conservative, his mom isn't very present in his life, and he has absolutely no other role models, it was the eighties. Understanding that, let's get into the van scene on episode 8;

So, here we have a couple of options:

1. Mike didn't notice Will crying at all. The way the shot was taken made it look like Will was completely turned around, and Mike couldn't see his face. The reason for Mike not noticing, which would be very uncharacteristic for him, could be the fact that he was genuinely worried about El (he doesn't love her romantically, but he still loves her a lot platonically.), and also just the fact that the Byer's house was shot up, and they had to bury a dead man's body. I find this theory a bit less compelling considering Mike's usual behavior, but then again his usual internalized homophobia also plays a part in this.

2. Mike did notice Will was crying, but didn't say anything about it. That may seem shitty as fuck (and it is tbh), but let's analyse this;

They were in the van with two other people. We all know Mike doesn't want to accept himself, so he most definitely would NOT want to have a heart to heart around other people. He's already struggling to open up to himself, himself alone, so imagine saying how you truly feel around others, especially that you're not so close with? It can't be easy. Either way, his internalized homophobia plays onto it like always.

Him not comforting Will does seem extremely ooc, but he's changed a lot. He feels like he can't just be there for his "best friend" without it being weird. Could he have brought it up later? Yes but I feel like that's a different problem, considering they literally barely showed up at all this season. They didn't have any time alone like on volume 1, only the scene on Hopper's cabin, but they used that to make Will plot relevant again. (because he's only important when he means something to the plot of course of course/s)

;;

Still on the same scene, we get Will lying to Mike that it was El that commissioned the painting (goddamnit Will Byers I love you so much my baby). In my opinion, and really, really just my opinion cuz there isn't anything really pointing to it, Mike would've known that wasn't true. He knows El doesn't even like DnD, and maybe he even noticed that Will was talking about himself, and not El, but didn't comfort him because... See above. (Also yes I am very upset that the painting wasn't the swingset and I am also very upset that neither Will or Mike got vecna'd but see my point about marketing (which was also brought up by my mom))

;;

Moving on to what I feel is what most hurt my byler heart: Mike's 'i love you ' to El. Shit, here we go again, I'm being so delusional but idfc anymore. Here is my *possible* explanation to that:

Spur of the moment. They probably thought El was fucking dying right there, his 'i love you' may not even have meant anything romantic (we see Eddie and Dustin saying 'i love you' to each other when.. yeah.). There's also Will pushing forward their relationship. This feels sorta like a hate crime, but I stopped to think about it and.. it didn't do anything. Sure, Mike's 'i love you' helped El fight back and whatever whatever, but she still didn't talk to him much after that. Their relationship didn't really chance much. Coming back to Will pushing forward their relationship, it may have made Mike feel the need to say it, cuz at this point Will was practically making him say it.

That last point might also explain why Mike's monologue was so fucking shit. It sounded fake, and forced, and nothing had been pointing to the reason he didn't say 'i love you' to El being that he was afraid of losing her. Nothing. If anything, they almost paralelled it with stancy, and we know that (at least back in the first seasons, now I'm not so sure :/) Nancy couldn't say 'i love you' to Steve because *she didn't love him*.

I still feel like that was like. Totally unecessary? They're making us doubt shit hard here, but I almost feel like they're doing that on purpose? I don't know, I'm delusional I'm sorry

;;

Some lesser points here.

I'm sad as fuck we didn't get a byler hug. They didn't parallel the hand hold scene either. Ffs.

Still tho, I feel like they might, they MIGHT do this on season five (I'm not putting my full trust on them anymore). Byler wasn't the only relationship with unresolved problems this season, Jancy did too. They're still lying to each other. I feel like the duffers are doing this to up the hype for the next season, again. There's money involved here and we all know that money's probably what they most care about 😐

Also, Mike and El didn't kiss once. Like not once. Idk that just. Feels important considering all they did was kiss on s3

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Moving on from byler, and continuing with my marketing point, they like. Lied to us so fucking much.

Started off with saying Peter Ballard was Henry's real name, and then saying that we'll find out why Will was the first one taken, and why the UD is stuck on the day he was taken... Those were all lies. For marketing, most likely.

Do I think we'll figure that out next season? Yeah. I mean, they made it seem very much like Will is going to be very plot relevant again next season.

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Everything else;

Honestly? I really liked it.

At least while watching, I didn't really get bored like I saw some people saying (then again, maybe I'm just weird).

Lumax made me so happy, and I'm so glad we got Jopper too!

Also the other character interactions like with Dustin and Eddie, and then Dustin and Wayne at the end :(

Fuck the duffers for making me think Robin's love life was destroyed but GODDAMN VICKY (idk how to spell her name I'm sorry) AND ROBIN ARE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER AND I KIND OF LOVE THEM???? Idk I fell in love with Vicky's character from the start, even though she showed up for like 5 minutes.

Am I sad we didn't get ronance? Yeah, but at least she isn't the classic "sad gay pines for straight person" shit.

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Final thoughts:

Was the way byler was advertised for vol 2 still queerbaiting? Yes and I'm still fucking pissed at that. I'm also pissed at how much we got lied to. Do I have my hopes up for byler? Nope, trust issues after today. Do I still have a tiny small insignificant slither of hope left? I hate to say it but yeah. If delusioning myself for the next year and a half is what I have to do to stay sane then it is what I will do. If I end up losing then well... At least I'll have my mom on my side. She's a queen. Love her.

I'm definitely way too damn hopeful about this but I am just self destructive like that I guess.

[madeimpact]

Verse Information - Sunset City.

So I added a verse on my carrd for my Discord server, primarily because those muses now have some common ground through there that's easier to fall back on than to completely redo their meetings and dynamics from scratch here. It's by no means the "main" canon for this blog, but here's a post explaining it anyway for anyone who cares enough to know.

Basically, the premise is that every muse in the server gets mysteriously added to a group chat that then gives them access to a hub world called bargain bin Twilight Town Sunset City. From there, they can access the worlds of all the other associated muses. Sunset City is a dreamlike city ( literally ) that gets reshaped based on the minds of those that access it. But lately, the muses have been trying to get to the bottom of what this place really is...

A lot of the major canon divergences apply to the KH muses, and they really just stem from the fact that there's a bit of a sense of linear progression in the server, so Sora was very much in step with my playthrough of the series, so when he died...I kind of had to improvise LMAO. I'll have to improvise again whenever we get more information on KH4, but for now, just consider this a completely alternate timeline to the main canon where he disappears to Quadratum. Some fun things also change for Roxas but not to nearly the same extent as Sora.

Edit: And then the same thing happened to me while writing Noctis. I was writing him in step with my playthrough, then dude had to go and get prophecy'd on me and I had to figure out how to justify continuing to write him; same with my friend who writes Ardyn in the server. So those changes will also be detailed here.

List of all the major divergences below the cut. Where relevant, I'll indicate when a Discord-only muse or mun is being referenced.

Let's start with Roxas, since he's got fewer divergences to hammer out:

Basically, just so I could justify writing him while he was canonically inside Sora's heart and not really existing, he managed to exist in Sunset City during that time, due to Sora's heart manifesting him there and the nature of Sunset City as a dream world. He sort of experienced stuff in Sunset and stuff through Sora's heart as if he were in both places at once. His physical body also couldn't leave Sunset until he was able to link to Xion at the end of KH3.

And for Sora:

Sora's ship in this verse is with my friend's Riku who doesn't write on tumblr, so you'll probably see Soriku referenced in relation to this verse.

After the events of DDD, Sora got a therapy Munna from Emmet ( Discord-only mun ). Sora had trouble sleeping after his Mark of Mastery exam, on account of, y'know, the whole "I almost never woke up and had my body used to house part of Xehanort" thing. Also, nightmares. Lots of them. So since Dream Eaters can only really exist in sleeping worlds, and he can only summon his Meow Wow for short periods of time outside of there, Emmet arranged for Sora to have a therapy Munna. She's a shiny that the Breeders turned over to Emmet because they trusted him to put her into good hands and not just ask for a shiny for its own sake. In fact, he didn't even really ask for a shiny. The Breeders just were like, "oh, this guy's reputable, we can give the shiny to him." Sora named her Munny on account of her gold color, and because Munna sounds like Munny! Munny is bred to be a therapy Pokémon, not a battling Pokémon, so Sora doesn't actively battle with her, but she can help defend him in a pinch.

Jingle doesn't really exist in this verse...yet.

And here's the biggest one: Sora is not in Quadratum, and has not been yet. This divergence is entirely a result of me flying by the seat of my pants and trying to figure out how to continue to write him in the server after he fucking DIED — think "anime adapting an ongoing manga and running out of source material and having to improvise" type of beat. Basically, because of all the friends he made in the server, as well as all of his friends from canon, Sora's heart was able to hold on and wake up in Anti-Sunset, a parallel nightmare counterpart to the pleasant dream of Sunset. He began trying to make his way back to the surface, but was interrupted by a mysterious woman who splintered his heart into several fragments again. Several of the muses in the server formed a rescue party to try and find him. Each of the ten fragments of Sora's heart sensed the group and called out to each of its members, requiring them to help him overcome some of the pain in his heart in order to dispel the darkness that kept them caged and separate from each other. After these ten fragments were obtained, the group was able to safely return home with Sora.

Whenever we eventually get more information about KH4, and potentially a release date, I'll figure out an excuse to eeby deeby him back to Quadratum, but basically, if you see references to a rescue operation for Sora in threads set in this verse, that's what's going on.

Noctis suffered from the same problem as Sora, where I was writing in-game events happening to him as I experienced them, not knowing that was eventually going to result in him perma-dying. This also ended up writing the server's Ardyn into a corner. So here's what we came up with:

After learning his and Ardyn's fate from Bahamut in the Crystal, Noctis decided that — as angry and damaged as Ardyn made him feel, it just wasn't right to kill someone who was also a victim. So instead, he appealed to any humanity Ardyn might have had left in an effort to make a truce, and try to put off the inevitable long enough to look for another way. Incredibly, Ardyn agrees to the truce, and holds back the miasma enough for the group to resume their travels, now with Ardyn in tow, looking for a way to change their future for the better.

Because the prophecy hasn't been fulfilled yet, there are still daemons running about, and the party is doing their best to keep things under control. They basically have Ardyn on a big ol' child leash while he menaces them in less apocalyptic, more just plain old annoying ways.

The point in the Sunset timeline that I write these guys at on the blog jumps around a lot, it just kinda depends how I feel lmao.