#(implied) (you can interpret the person here however you want be it a child or teen or an adult)

[snivel1]

Kinito in the computer of a person in an abusive family.

Horror&blood warning under the cut!

Transcript of the intentionally hard to read text:

"Friend! I made sure to give them a good talking to! They won't bother you ever again!"

[sage-nebula]

"Suffer No Fools" - Shiver vs. Marina Analysis

It's been a few days since "Suffer No Fools" released, but I wanted to go ahead and release my analysis of Shiver's and Marina's verse since that's the one that has caused the most discussion within the fandom. I've seen a lot of debate over Marina's section in particular, with people unsure whether she was being sincere or sarcastic, and I think the actual answer is a little more complicated than one or the other, at least with regards to the first couplet of lines both she and Shiver sing. Of course, people are free to interpret this song however they wish, but after seeing numerous interpretations I personally didn't vibe with, I just wanted to put my own out there, breaking it down line by line.

So! Here we go.

Exchange 1:

Shiver: "Your haunting voice -- there's no escape. How nice it must be for your fans." Marina: "You're far too kind! I love your vibe. I can learn so much from your style."

Analyzing from dialogue only:

Shiver is insulting Marina's voice by calling it haunting and saying there is no escape, insinuating she wishes there was one. She says how nice it must be for Marina's fans, again implying that she isn't one.

Marina says that she loves Shiver's vibe, which on the surface could be a compliment, but given the context (a music battle) it could also be a Mean Girl "ooh I love your [thing] :)" passive-aggressive drawing-attention-to-something-ugly insult. More direct though, is the "I can learn so much from your style"; you can learn what not to do from someone just as much as you can learn what to do from someone. Marina's engaging in plausible deniability here.

HOWEVER. Lyrics are NOT the only thing that need to be analyzed from this first verse, which is arguably the MOST important exchange between these two. Instead, we need to look at how these lines are delivered.

Shiver is singing in a traditional Japanese folk singing style, specifically a style based on Shima-uta, which her voice actress has a background singing in. Unfortunately, I don't know the actual term for this style of singing, only that it's not kakegoe, something Shiver also does that is different from this. Anyway, in these lines specifically Shiver is singing in her Shima-uta style, a style that she has presumably been practicing since she was a small child, a style that is probably culturally significant to the Hohojiro clan. Singing in this style is not something that just anyone can do. It's completely different from singing in a (for lack of a better word) "western" style. The way you breathe is completely different. The way you incorporate your voice into your breathing is completely different. So by singing in this style, which Shiver has been doing practically her whole life and which, presumably, only she of the four there can do, Shiver is FLEXING on Marina regardless of what lyrics she chooses to sing.

But then Marina, who grew up under the domes in Inkadia, who presumably has never heard Shima-uta before she started listening to Deep Cut and heard Shiver sing, who presumably has had absolutely no training whatsoever on this style of song . . . mimics it perfectly and flexes on Shiver right back.

Could Marina's words to Shiver be interpreted as passive-aggressive in turn? Yes. But does it matter? No, not really. Because in this first verse, Marina's ACTUAL comeback is to take the style of singing that Shiver has been perfecting her entire life and throw it right back in her face despite having never (as far as we or Shiver know) practiced it herself. Shiver was flexing by presumably doing something Marina couldn't do, only for Marina to do it flawlessly, being every bit as divine with a voice so fine as Pearl said she was previously. Marina says "I love your vibe" so she takes it. Marina says "I have so much to learn from you" but does she really, when she can already do exactly what Shiver can, and has, just now, right in front of her?

And Shiver noticed, hence:

Exchange 2:

Shiver: "You remind me of my neighbor's little daughter . . . What's that saying? 'Octo see, octo do.'" Marina: "Glad you approve -- your praise has left me moved. Thanks to your notes, I'll find my groove!"

Shiver drops the Shima-uta singing, because now there's no point. Marina can also sing in that style, so it's no longer a flex. Shiver lost ground on that one, so instead we're back to the same (again, for lack of a better word) "regular" style of singing that everyone else is using. For that reason, we can go back to analyzing purely based on the words alone.

Shiver is calling Marina a copycat, essentially, because Marina copied her Shima-uta singing style in the previous verse (hence why Shiver had to drop it, as previously noted). Marina then gives her "glad you approve -- your praise has left me moved" . . . basically noting that by Shiver accusing her of copying, Shiver is saying that Marina -- someone who just tried the singing style off the cuff right there on the stage for the first time -- was just as good as Shiver, someone who has trained in that style her whole life. The audience saw for themselves that Marina was able to emulate the style, but Shiver saying, "you copied me!" is basically admitting that Marina was just as good as her in Shiver's own eyes, and Shiver is a pro. That's Shiver's aggravation handing Marina the win and Marina smiling wide as she accepts it.

Exchange 3:

Shiver: "Oh, look at the time. Isn't it getting late?" Marina: "Not at all! I could go on like this all night long."

This one doesn't even really need an analysis. For all that she prides herself on being "so cool even sharks call her cold-blooded," Shiver is known for being easily irritated and riled when she's losing due to her competitive nature. Marina successfully got under her skin, and this is her trying to end the battle fast because she didn't have any further comebacks. Marina, meanwhile, gives the classic "I could go on all night" because she's not riled at all, and is instead perfectly comfortable in this environment, knows what she's doing, and has had the upper hand from the start.

It goes back to another post I made about Experience vs. Inexperience. Shiver and Frye are still new idols, whereas Pearl and Marina have been at this for a long while. And while off the stage Marina is a sweet, kind, gentle person who will go out of her way to help others, and can sometimes be a little spacey or naive, she's also a 23-year-old literal genius who has been in the music industry for years now and knows full well what a rap / music battle is and knows her way around a stage. Personally, I found it to be a little infantilizing to insinuate that she "didn't realize Shiver was insulting her," when not only do I think she knew full well, but also she was the one with the upper hand not because of sick burns (that's Pearl's department), but because of sheer innate musical talent.

But those are just my thoughts! Everyone else is free to have their own.

[spidey-555]

Things I hope the devs of CotL don't do, but a part of me feels like they'll do anyways (or might already be doing):

Revive Ratau if we chose to sacrifice him. Like I said on a previous post, it would invalidate the weight of our decision, and would open the floodgates of "can we undo other heinous actions we do?" If yes, then why should we care about the events of the game if they can all just be undone?

Make the bishops so unlikable and unsympathetic to the point where the audience ceases to care about them. I know they already aren't the most likable characters due to their abrasive personalities (excluding Shamura), but people still find them tragic, so taking away that would just be the nail in the coffin. Unfortunately, this one already seems to be happening, if the description for the graphic novel is anything to go by.

Make Narinder seem like the good guy or otherwise have the story take a side in the whole "sealing of the one who waits" debacle. This kind of ties in when the previous bullet point (especially with the "already happening in the graphic novel" thing), but if they did this, it would feel like they're just pandering to the Narilamb fans by having the story bend over backwards for it.

Have the Lamb be this flawless, unstoppable, and perfect being who everyone (except bad people) loves and will never lose ever. This one is kind of self explanatory. If the devs decide to go this route, then I feel many people would cease caring about the conflicts if this game. After all, if the Lamb can't lose ever, then what's the point of caring about any the conflicts in this game of the Lamb? I will admit that this one is more of a "me" thing than anything else

Cure the bishops of their disabilities. Heal the injuries, sure, but not the disabilities, please. In my opinion, it would be very ableist to do this, as it would imply that the only way for the bishops to be truly happy is them being cured of their disabilities.

Have there be a "canon" interpretation of the Lamb. At the end of the day, the Lamb is a player-insert character, and the fun about those characters is that they can essentially be anyone and can have many interpretations. Making a "canon" Lamb would take away the fun of those characters. This ties into the other Lamb related bullet point somewhat.

Have the Fox and Midas become followers once we beat them. This is assuming we fight them at all, of course. This one is also very opinionated. I feel like getting them as a follower would be bad because it would A) imply they have a chance at redemption and personally I like the fact that we have at least 2 villains we can just hate (here's hoping to more!) B) let us treat them however we want, which means they could not get the punishment they deserve. And before someone says that you can do the same with the bishops (the whole "not getting the punishment they deserve" thing), they already suffered in purgatory, which counts as punishment imo.

Rely too much on toilet and "naked people are funny" humor. This one is another opinionated one. Personally, I'd prefer if we got more character-based humor (hell, maybe some surreal humor as well) than humor that only a child would laugh at. I do want to post this one on the suggestions channel, but I'm afraid of the backlash.

I'll probably add more onto this when it comes to mind

[aihoshiino]

ive seen interpretations of both but do you think ayumi's abuse of ai only started once the stepdad starting to uh make eyes at her or if it already was a thing before but escalated due to it?

I'm pretty certain and always have been that Ayumi was abusive to Ai the entire time she was in her care - 131 just clarified the shape of it and its point of explosive escalation.

Even prior to that, I was pretty firm in my reading that Ai did not have anything resembling a normative upbringing in her mother's household. Even before we have any of the details about that relationship presented to us, Ai says herself in chapter 1 of the manga no less that she has 'always wanted' a family because she does not have one. As 131 tells us, Ai didn't leave her mother's house until she was nine or ten years old at the very least. She was raised by Ayumi for ten years and still considers herself to be a person who never had a family.

We see this clarified in chapter 8 where Ai more explicitly talks about her abuse: Ayumi abandoned her to the care system after her arrest, which Ai frames as preferable to "getting hit", making it more or less explicit that Ayumi was, in fact, physically violent towards her outside of the incident we hear about in 45510. However, the most damning part of this scene to me comes from elsewhere:

"I don't remember ever being loved."

Even by her own mother. Ai has no memory of ever being loved by Ayumi. We get a reiteration of this idea during Ryosuke's attack on her, as Ai says over and over: she doesn't understand love. She doesn't know how to love people, no matter how desperately she tries.

This by itself is all very alarming before you ever account for Ayumi's violence. Remember that Ai cannot be any older than 11 or 12 years old here and yet this is still how she chooses to describe herself: as a person with no memory of ever being loved. As an antisocial liar, a people-hating liar. A twelve year old child should not be able to even think of herself in these terms, let alone articulate them.

There's a lot of other small hints scattered around, too— Ai is implied to have some anxieties relating to food security and she is shown to be quite short and slight even by the standards of an average Japanese woman, which possibly implies a history of not being fed enough or not having access to food as and when she needed to eat. During her big Ai research session, Akane even directly says that, with the way Ai's personality turned out, there's no way she could have come from a good home environment.

Ai's personality isn't the only red flag here, though. Ayumi herself and the way she talks about both Ai and her abuse of Ai when Aqua finally speaks to her in person paints a very clear picture of the sort of mother she likely was, even in the short amount of time that we have page time with her. I did a much longer analysis of her in a previous post but to TL;DR it, Ayumi spends the entire conversation simultaneously backpedalling at breakneck speed from any claim of agency and responsibility in her abuse of Ai while also placing the blame of that abuse on Ai herself.

Not only that, but here's something I just caught on reviewing the chapter right now — Ayumi never even actually admits to abusing her daughter. Pay attention to how she describes the series of events: She became angry at her boyfriend, jealous of her daughter and then… their family just 'fell apart'. There is a glaring hole, a missing step in this process and that missing step is her violence towards Ai. The closest she ever gets to acknowledging any sort of mistreatment is her saying that she would just "wind up hurting" Ai if they were together again, which is about the most understated nothing sentiment imaginable. Of course Ayumi can never atone for what she did. She can't even fucking admit it.

The way Ayumi disavows herself of agency while centering Ai as holding responsibility for her own victimization and abuse combined with Ai's own personality pretty much makes it explicit to me that Ayumi was emotionally abusive to Ai for all her life. Specifically, I think Ayumi was probably the sort of mother that is colloquially referred to as a "narcissistic mother" - specifically, I think she falls under the umbrella of 'covert narcissist'. While discussing this type of behavior, psychologist Craig Malkin said "Covert narcissists feel special because they believe their pain is more important than others". Covert narcissism is defined by jealousy, difficulty maintaining meaningful relationships, projection of insecurities onto others (in this case, from mother to daughter) and an inability to handle criticism or cop to their own behavior. Sound like someone we know?

Another big tell is just… honestly, looking at any list of the long term effects of this kind of abuse on children. Growing up under this kind of parenting leads to a whole host of issues, but most relevant to my point here is as follows:

Hyper-vigilance towards other peoples' feelings

Poor emotional intelligence; specifically, a lack of comprehension of your own emotions

Unhealthy desires for validation from other people and tendencies towards codependency in relationships

Perfectionism and/or self destructive tendencies, either separately or in parallel

Low self esteem, poor self image, high levels of self doubt and self criticism.

If you're reading that list and going wow! this is basically just a Greatest Hits of everything wrong with Hoshino Ai! then congratulations because you successfully completed my thought experiment for me. I've described the effects of Ayumi's abuse as running through Ai like fault lines before and this is the sort of thing I mean.

I also don't want to leave it unspoken that like… violence the likes of which Ayumi subjected Ai to does not come from nowhere. A normal, loving parent does not escalate to putting fucking glass in her daughter's food no matter what the hell else is going on in their life. It's unclear whether Ayumi's physical abuse of Ai was something that only started after the incident with her stepfather or if it was an aspect of the ongoing abuse she subjected Ai to all her life, but I simply don't think it's possible with everything the manga has laid out, explicitly and implicitly, about their relationship that Ayumi was ever a loving mother to Ai or that the two of them ever had a remotely normal relationship. In a horrible way, Ayumi's abandonment of Ai was the kindest thing she ever did for her, because it means she finally got the fuck out of her life.

[mastersoftheair]

So just to clear the air (and I guess my massive confusion) Harry never slept with Sandra, correct? I gotta say I need to read his memoir at this point as he is so intriguing to me, as well as masters of the air book, but like you said it’s a “blink and miss it” thing. I didn’t interpret it as anything more than having a few friendly conversations. It was more about emotional infidelity to me than physical, but given the circumstances and that exact heartbreaking point in time for Harry I can’t find it in me to blame either of them.

for me, ig i'm coming at my position from a place of bias. i'd read crosby's "a wing and a prayer" sometime in either 2021 or 2022 (those years blend together tbh), so i've had a lot of time to think about those 2 and their relationship and i lean towards "yeah, it likely happened" (this is a long response btw bc i'm quoting from the memoir):

crosby introduces his new friend, alexandra "landra" wingate (aka sandra westgate), in the chapter "learning about americans from the british" (this chapter was basically what we see in episode 6). moving on from this tho–

in the chapter "with landra in london", he expands on their growing relationship and the reader learns more about landra (she is genuinely Such an interesting person, and probably a spy). crosby writes about her with such admiration, regularly bringing up how smart she is. also, she's a captain!

this chapter's pretty important in how i formed my opinion on the matter. i understand the argument that the closeness of their relationship was intentionally left vague, but this chapter reads in a way that makes it feel Heavily implied despite not saying a lot (especially alongside crosby's emphasis on his wife jean being "four thousand miles away", as well as his own loneliness and despair wrt to all the missing and dead). there are some standout lines here:

-"I had Jean at home and Landra in England." (not a red flag, but it's a flag) -"I started seeing Landra every time I could." (cool) -"All I knew was that [Landra] was making my life much more endurable." (also cool) -"I did not tell Jean about Landra." (the last sentence of the chapter. it gave me pause and almost instantly reshaped the way i viewed that whole chapter)

the next chapter, "r&r with jean", crosby recalls how much the war took a toll on both him and his relationships. for a time, jean wrote more letters to croby than the other way around ("I began to skip writing to her."). i assume crosby must've been radiating Exceptionally negative energy bc he gets told this: "Croz, we can't stand to have you around. We want you back, but we want you to go home for a while." (i found the phrasing here really funny tbh. your vibes Suck! just Get Out of here!!)

so, crosby contemplates seeing jean again, wondering how both of them may have changed. he also brings up landra, for Some Reason: "What would I think of her? Protected in the States as she was, how would she compare to Landra? Now that I had grown so much, had such experiences, how would Jean and I fit together?"

the rest of the chapter Is about meeting and catching up with jean, however, and you can tell that he loves her a Ton. it's very sweetly written (he also basically ends the chapter saying "btw, we conceived our first child ;) ")

the final chapter about landra is "london junket" which begins with "When I returned from the United States and my idyll with Jean, I knew I had to do something about Landra." i think that sentence alone is pretty damning. if landra was just a friend, why would you be anxious about calling a friendship off? is it a guilt thing?

the context here is that crosby feels Far less lonely and depressed. he's met up with jean, life in london is finally "a delight". i found that important bc it gives me the impression that crosby desperately wanted companionship (possibly of two kinds), and he found that in landra– a friend and a maybe a [REDACTED]. now that he's having a great time with his friends in the 100th And he's met up with his wife, that itch's been scratched (that's just my opinion tho). bc of that, he decides to say goodbye to landra. they have this exchange:

"When a month passed after you were to return, and you did not phone me," she said, "I suspected that it was over. You found things good with Jean?" I told her about R&R in the U.S. I told her more about Jean. I told her about Stephen Patrick, Jeffrey Allen, or Evalyn. "When I realized you were gone," she said, "I no longer said no to a nice American at my office. I have been with him several times. I like him." (interesting) "I’m glad." (also interesting) "He is not married, He is not so dashing as you, but we have good times together." Me "dashing"? That was not my self-image. So much for Landra."

all put together (and with over 2 years to think about it), i Really kinda saw That Scene coming. but, like i said, i had that bias. and since i'd had a good amount of time to think about them, i came out the other end still excited to see them on screen. i found (and still find) landra a fascinating woman who must've had an exciting life (crosby's okay too ig lol). i also see them as a couple of imperfect, even selfish, 20somethings (speaking as an imperfect and selfish 20something). not to be corny, but "it takes 2 to tango". landra is Very intelligent, and crosby recounts how that aspect of hers left him in awe. she'd've 100% known the guy was married. and if signs point to her having had sex with the man, then she either made peace with it or simply didn't care (a lot of women are like that). plus, they're real people and real people contain multitudes idk. maybe some wife somewhere across the atlantic is hard to care about if you've never met her and never will. maybe it's hard to consider your wife's feelings in the midst of your own misery. a female character doesn't have to be wholesome and pure to be considered well-written. that certainly doesn't apply to most male characters. like you said, no one is perfect!

maybe, crosby left it vague out of respect to his wife. maybe it's vague bc nothing happened anyway (funny way to write it tho). maybe the wingate family wanted to avoid association with MotA bc it Literally didn't happen. or maybe they know it happened, but want to keep her name clean out of respect (who wants one brief relationship that happened 80 yrs ago to define you/your loved one decades later? that's 100% understandable). whichever the case, even crosby's kids are in a 50/50 split. i still lean towards "it happened", but it doesn't make me dislike either of them. they're flawed and i can respect that more than the show portraying either as picture perfect.

NONE of this is to say that i'm cool with cheating (or giving a "world war cheating pass", so to speak). while i find it realistic, it still wouldn't have been fair to jean, whether she knew about it or not (being a woman in the 1940s wasn't easy by any stretch). this Also isn't to dismiss anyone else's opinion on the matter, bc cheating on your partner is still a shitty thing to do. this whole spiel of mine is bc i like to share my opinions and i'm allergic to being concise. i write like i talk and on all levels except physical, anon, i'm giving you a long-winded rant over coffee and croissants lol

thanks for the ask!

[gettingfrilly]

Let's talk about Eddy's family

Out of the three boys, I feel we know the least about Eddy's family. We may have met his brother, the only adult to ever have a role in the show, but of the Eds, he talks about his parents the least. And I refuse to believe his brother is just Like That all on his own. Something happened to that guy and I wanna know what.

So, let's look at what we know:

Eddy was physically abused by his big brother. On the flip side, his big brother also passed his knowledge onto him, the show implying that his bro took on the role of a mentor in Eddy's life. Eddy also inherited a lot of his brother's stuff from him; whether Eddy's brother had a choice in that matter or not is unknown, since Eddy could have simply taken the items out of his brother's room after he was gone.

Bro is much older than Eddy, though we don't know exactly by how much.

in the episode 'Ed... Pass it on...' we learn that the older boys in the neighborhood (Kevin and Rolf), who would have clearer memories of him than the other kids, are terrified of bro.

Eddy idolizes his brother. He pulls his pranks, wears his clothes, and speaks his praises any chance he gets.

Eddy's dad is most likely a homophobe judging by the implications of the only direct description we get of him in the bible. He doesn't want his son to be gay and worries that he is.

Eddy's mom thinks Eddy can do no wrong. Now, I've seen a lot of people interpret the line about Eddy's mom as a continuation of the line about his dad, and that she, too, is homophobic but doesn't believe Eddy is gay. However, I think they're separate statements. Eddy is a guy who gets in a lot of trouble, and usually when a kid gets in trouble, their mom is the first to be told. I think what the bible is communicating to us is that Eddy's mom flat out doesn't believe the stories about the trouble Eddy gets up to. It's probably one of the biggest reasons he keeps making trouble without fear of consequences.

Here's where things get a little more up to interpretation-y:

Here we have Eddy throwing a mug that says "#1 son" out of his closet. So. Yeah. He's the favorite child and his parents aren't afraid to say it out loud.

Eddy's dad, like Eddy, seems to have a short temper and isn't shy of getting physical with people, including his own children (important to keep in mind that this is a hyperbolic, slapstick cartoon, and not any sort of canon proof that Eddy's dad is abusive.)

Then there's the way Bro is talked about in the bible. "Before his brother went... away," why the ellipses? Was there something else to be said other than just "away?" I think the hint here is that Eddy's brother didn't just grow up and move out. There was some sort of inciting incident that lead to him living on his own. There's also the fact that Eddy has no idea where his brother lives in BPS, and that when he does show up, the first thing his bro asks is "Do mom and dad know you're here?" Eddy answers "AS IF!" which tells me that Eddy's parents would not approve of Eddy being around his brother, and both brothers are aware of that. This is followed up by bro asking "Does ANYONE know you're here?" Which. Big scary imo. Really fucking weird thing to ask your little brother before you start beating on him. Like he wanted to know what he could get away with.

So with all that in mind, here's my own personal headcanon that is not in anyway present in canon this is just what i like to imagine happened:

Eddy's brother was the family's scapegoat, whereas Eddy (in his mother's eyes, at least) was the golden child. Extremely rarely do children grow up to be violent just because. I think bro learned that behavior at home. I've discussed before that I think Eddy has ADHD, and that shit hella genetic, so I think his bro has it, too. Their mom and dad were new parents when they first had bro, and probably knew squat about raising a neurodivergent kid, and neurodivergent children are more likely to be victims of abuse. When corporal punishment didn't end up working out so well on bro, I think his parents changed tactics for Eddy. I also personally think that his mom felt guilty for how bro was raised, which is why she's so lenient with Eddy. So now, bro is jealous of Eddy and bitter about his own abusive upbringing, and he takes this out on Eddy by being exceptionally cruel and violent towards him.

This led to bro eventually doing something bad enough to get his ass sent to either juvie or prison, depending on how old he was at the time. This was hidden from Eddy, who adores his older brother, and was told that his brother had simply moved out. And that's how things ended up how they are in the show and how Eddy's brother ended up the way that he is. Again, this is just my own imagination. While it makes sense as something that could be true when you look at canon, I don't think canon actually props it up as accurate in any way. Anyway, I'm curious to hear what you guys think of bro and Eddy's family!!! especially if any of you know what the hell "Eddy's genes are working the fastest" means.

[aroacemisha]

Luz & Gender

It’s no secret that I read/interpret Luz as not being cis, but I wanted to make a post about the elements in canon that support that idea.

I’ll mention one thing at the start though, and it’s that I don’t like when people use her design/appearance/gender non-conformity as “proof”. Dressing a certain way or having certain haircuts isn’t indicative of gender identity, someone can be very gender non-conforming while still being fully and completely cis.

I’d like to list some things I think are much better reasons for reading her as not cis/non-binary.

I) The Theme of Choices

One of the themes in Luz’s story is how she feels like she has to make choices that she doesn’t really want to make - like choosing a single Track when she enrolls in Hexside, choosing which realm she will stay in, or choosing what her palisman will be - but ultimately discovers that she doesn’t have to choose, or can choose multiple things, like choosing all Tracks in Hexside and later all majors in college, being able to freely travel between the realms through the new portal, and carving an egg to let her palisman choose its own form, with that palisman then hatching as a snake-shifter who, while having a base form, isn’t bound to that form.

This theme of not actually having to choose only one thing also reflects Luz’s neurodivergence, bisexuality, and gender non-conformity. And in a non-binary reading of her, it would also reflect her gender identity, not having to choose a single binary gender.

And this fits with any label, it could be non-binary, genderqueer, bigender, genderfluid (my personal headcanon), demigirl, pangender, etc. She can even use multiple labels, choosing more than one thing once again.

The rest of the points here are smaller things that I think hint at her gender identity not being cis, or that could be interpreted as such.

II) This book in Camila’s room:

It’s titled “Life Ain’t Binary”, which might imply that either Luz, Vee or both are non-binary. The word choice feels deliberate, especially given that there’s another book titled “Parenting LGBTQ”, which we can see when Luz comes in:

And underneath it is a book titled “Always My Child”, likely also on the topic of raising a queer kid.

(While making this post, I noticed that the first book actually says “LGRTQ”, which- Is this Disney censorship, a joke poking fun at censorship, or just a mistake?)

[Edit]: I’ve been told that “Life Isn’t Binary” is actually a real book! And the book is about both bisexuality and “non-binary gender experiences”. Bisexuality was my other interpretation of what the book could have been referencing, and turns out both of my interpretations were correct!

III) This outfit:

The purple and white shirt + green pants combo looks very similar to the genderqueer flag.

Now, genderqueer doesn’t have to mean non-binary or trans, it’s an umbrella term that includes anyone who “queers” their gender, regardless of gender identity, and can be used for both binary (cis or trans) and non-binary people.

However, the label is sometimes used interchangeably with non-binary. It can be used both as a gender identity on its own and as an umbrella term.

IV) This moment from ‘Enchanting Grom Fright’:

Luz called herself a bad boy.

V) The Egg

In the trans community, an “egg” is used as a metaphor for people who haven’t realized they’re trans yet, and them finally realizing they are is referred to as “cracking their egg”. Even if the egg wasn’t intentionally written to reference that, it can still be read/interpreted as an allegory.

If there’s anything else you think adds to a not cis/non-binary reading of Luz, feel free to add on!

[takumishu]

I don't want to get mired into that discourse at all because I just want to vibe in my corner, but just so I have the thoughts down somewhere; I wonder if debates on whether MVK is "abusive" are really just about the semantics?

Like the undeniable here is that Damage was Done, or else neither Franziska nor Edgeworth would even be like that to begin with + a framework for personal success as harsh and demanding as Perfection cannot be enforced without some level of violence (however you think that violence would look like: in the context of a parent and a child, it can look as simple as a threat to withhold affection and/or acceptance, two things that are crucial to any growing child's emotional and mental well-being).

That enforcement doesn't have to be intentionally evil, nor does it preclude any softer, not terrible moments between the parent and children existing. But the thing is, the relationship parents have to their children is always to the child's disadvantage; it's a tight form of ownership and control, and children notably lack a lot of autonomy within their household growing up that just causes inevitable damage to them regardless of how hard the parents try to prevent them; as in, the parent can get tired, can lose patience, and (like is the case in most relationships) can hurt their children a great deal. It's just that it's especially worsened given the context of the power they inherently have over their children, and the little options children even have to escape it.

MVK is pretty undeniably not the sort of parent* who cares to tend to the minutiae of his children's well-being; like, he's obviously not a guy who would, say, preach for "soft parenting" or anything similar, but very clearly has a set expectation for how and what he wants the kids he is raising to be, all the while being a very controlling and imposing man who actively dislikes one of the kids he has underneath his roof. This is not a man fostering a healthy environment for a child to grow up in, but as far as I can tell most people can agree on that end.

^ all of this is what I think isn't much in question; which means that what IS is whether or not you can define this as "abuse".

I can see the argument for why you wouldn't, and would think that the (indisputable) harm done needs to reach a particular threshold of confirmed damage for it to qualify as abusive. There's nothing proving that MVK was beating his kids, for example, and I'd agree that speaking about him in terms of him doing so textually is inaccurate.

Though abuse also comes in many forms, some more subtle, but all imply repetitive harm done in which one party has explicit control over the other, to the point where the latter is scared of the repercussions of going against the former. What with the way Edgeworth and Franziska spend significant portions of their lives trying to stay within the limits of the standards MVK sets, and especially in Edgeworth's case where the man has never had a positive word to spare for him, there's just as much of a convincing argument for it all to be the effects of the subtle control of emotional abuse.

At the end of the day, what MVK does in the empty spaces where we don't see him at all is just a question you cannot answer nor argue for with certainty. All we can say is that there was damage done, and whether or not it was "abuse" depends entirely on how you personally define the word and/or interpret those gaps not taken into account by the text.

My personal stance is I'm not especially caught up in definitions, and my own personal politics are pretty harsh towards parents in general, so if there is damage done and there's no sign of remorse or introspection on the parent's end (which clearly doesn't exist in MVK's case, lol), then they're a bastard to me whether or not I think they're "abusive".

[beevean]

I went through the trouble of retranslating the MF manga, because you never know what you can find :)

A typical mistake: the translation keeps "Rosaly-nee-chan" as "Sister Rosaly", implying that Ted or all the children she's taking care of are her actual siblings. It confused me the first time around :P

English: "Adrian... Not just Hector, but now you too. Foolish betrayers..."

Japanese: "アドリアン…　ヘクターのみならず貴様までが。愚かな裏切り者どもめ…"

The translation is 1:1, but it's one that contains multiple nuances. Dracula calls Alucard kisama, the suffix ども implies a higher status of the speaker, and the suffix め is even more derogatory. Dracula is mad :)

English: "A great many of us will be coming..."

Japanese: "ほどなく、奴が来る"

"He will be coming soon."

I like the implication that Hector is lumping himself with the demons, but he's clearly talking about Isaac here. What makes it weirder, though, is that Ted asks what he means by "我らの"... something Hector never says. Whoops.

English: "I am the Devil's Sorcerer. At an evil castle to the east of here... I immersed myself in evil, and I commanded evil. My powers attract the ways of the darkness. They are cursed. Although I am human, I acquired the art of creating devils... and there is no doubt that they inflict harm on humanity."

Japanese: "俺は悪魔精錬師。ここより東、魔の城で…　魔を帯び、魔を従え、悪魔を作り出す術を身につけた。俺の力は闇の眷属を引きつける呪われた力だ。人の身であれど、人に害為す存在には違いないな…"

"I am a Devil Forgemaster. To the east of here, in the Demon Castle… I was entrusted with demons and I subdued them: I acquired the art of creating devils. Mine is a cursed power that attracts the followers of darkness. Although I am a human being, there is no doubt that I am a creature that causes harm to people…"

(sadly "followers of darkness" is not quite a reference to the tracks in CoD, the word is different)

The words are rearranged, but they are more or less the same. There are however some significantly different nuances.

One, "evil"/"demon". As far as I know, 魔 means exclusively "devil/demon/evil spirit", so I went with that. This changes the meaning of the verb 帯びる from "being tinged with, being imbued with" to "being entrusted with" (although it is canon that Hector was imbued with evil energy, so both interpretations are technically correct).

Two, the ambiguity of the subject in the last line changes the meaning. In the official translation, 存在 was assumed to mean the devils, and so they are the ones who inflict harm on humanity. But personally, considering the previous "although I am a human"... I think Hector is calling himself a creature that causes harm. Remember: he's really struggling to see himself as a human being :)

A bit of a funny detail: 悪魔精錬士 (akuma seirenshi, Devil Forgemaster) is spelled here as 悪魔精錬師. It's read the same, but the last kanji actually means "master" as in master of a craft, while 士 most commonly means "warrior" and in a suffix it merely means "person with a license". I wonder why this change.

English: "Hector! You disgusting child!"

Japanese: “ヘクター！忌み子め！”

1:1, but TIL that 忌み子 is an actual word that means "unwanted child, shunned child". Which hits even harder :)

English: "He's cursed... poor kid. How horrifying..."

Japanese: “呪われた…不吉な子。恐ろしい…”

"He's cursed... a sinister child. Terrible..."

不吉 means "unlucky", but in the sense that he brings back luck: he's a bad omen.

English: "And you brought home another black cat?! [...] I never should have given birth to you!!"

Japanese: "また黒猫なんて拾ってきて…　[...] お前なんて産むんじゃなかった…！！"

1:1, but Hector's mother uses the expression なんて, which roughly means "something like" and expresses disdain. In case it didn't hurt enough :)

Hector's father is an alchemist, but by looking up the word, I learned that in Japan "alchemist" is also used to disparangingly describe people who want to make easy money, without morals or shame. And the story says that the man was so concerned about power and wealth that the other villagers hated Hector also because of his dad. Huh.

(@the-crow-binary proposed a headcanon that in the past the father swindled a witch to gain money, and she placed a curse on him, which is why Hector was born with his powers.)

English: "When my heart grows weak... the devil comes speaking to me."

Japanese: "心が弱まれば悪魔は語りかけてくる。"

"If my heart grows weak, the demons come speaking to me."

Surprisingly, the nuances of the English translation are vaguer than the original, stemming from how akuma is liberally translated between "demon" and "devil" and the confusion between singular and plural: it's unclear if Hector is talking about the Devil as in Satan, the demon who caused him the nightmare, or even the fairy. The latter is because the word 使い魔 ("familiar") was translated as "servant devil", further muddying the terminology. In Japanese, it's much clearer that Hector is referring to the demons who torment him.

Also this is more of a nitpick, but the ば form implies a more hypothetical condition than "when". It's not a common occurrence: it's Hector's fear.

English: "For someone reputed to be the greatest sorcerer of the dark arts, you look pretty pitiful. I've been wanting to see you, General Hector!"

Japanese: "最強の悪魔精錬師ともあろう者がずいぶん情けない姿じゃあないか。会いたかったぞ、ヘクター！"

"For someone of your standing, the strongest Devil Forgemaster, you look quite pathetic. I missed you, Hector!"

Someone should have given the translator the proper terminology used in the game because they clearly struggled :P

I never liked how in English Isaac sounds as if he never met Hector and he's finally getting the chance to do so, not helped by the mocking "General". The Japanese version goes to the polar opposite: 会いたかった literally means "I wanted to see/meet you", but it can also mean "I missed you", which IMO fits Isaac's way of speaking much more and implies a former closer relationship. i'm saying that he had such an obvious crush that there is no other way to read it

English: "Why? Why do you attach yourself so much to these people? [...] They turned their back on Lord Dracula, who has protected that land for so long. Traitors who bit the hand that fed them!!"

Japanese: "何故だ？何故お前はそんなにも「人」に固執… [...] 長らくあの地を守ってきたドラキュラ様に背き、奥方に手をかけて裏切り者ども！！"

"Why? Why are you so fixated on those humans? [...] They are traitors who went against Lord Dracula, who has protected that land for so long, and laid hands on his wife!"

The English translation has a slightly different nuance: it almost implies that Hector grew fond of certain people, which is not true... yet :P in Japanese, it's more clear that Isaac is just taunting Hector's mercy for humankind as a whole, judging by his emphasis.

Also, as it was already noted, he specifically mentions Lisa in his speech, who was mysteriously cut in the translation.

English: "Otherwise... you'll fall victim to my spear right now, Hector."

Japanese: "さもなくば、今ここで我が槍のサビになれ、ヘクター。"

"Otherwise, become the rust on my spear, Hector."

The English translation works well enough. I just think that expression is raw :P it's expressed even better in French.

English: "It can't be true... there's no way. There's no way Count Dracula could be defeated."

Japanese: “そうだ…　そんな、ドラキュラ様が敗れるはず…”

"That’s right… Lord Dracula must have been defeated…"

... either I'm misunderstanding something, or the translator took some liberties. Not that it doesn't work, actually it might be better... but I'm confused.

A minor note: when Hector is invested by the waves of the Curse, and he hears what appear to be demonic voices, they say "you killed it", as in his cursed power. In Japanese it has no object, it's just "お前が殺した". Killing a power isn't exactly natural, so I believe it's actually Dracula, shown in the vision, accusing Hector of killing him.

English: "Hector, damn you! You, I'll never forgive!"

Japanese: “ヘクター！貴様だけは許さん！”

The English translation always sounded off to me, but now I understand the intent. Isaac is specifically singling Hector out: he's saying that he is the only one (だけ) he won't forgive, even though he has realized that Trevor has killed Dracula. But without italics it's hard to convey this emphasis on "you", so I can't blame the translator too much.

(extremely minor note, but Isaac switches from omae to kisama the moment Hector makes his Peak and Raw speech. Which is to be expected, of course. The weird part is that he uses omae again when he rants "if you and I had been there, Belmont wouldn't have...!". An involuntary request for camaraderie?)

I just noticed that the official translation, when describing the aftermath of Trevor's victory on Dracula, calls him "the young lord of Belmont". In Japanese it's simply "若きベルモンド家の英雄", "the young hero of the Belmont family". accidental nfcv foreshadowing?

English: "You alone always kept yourself looking human!"

Japanese! "お前は昔から…　自分だけいつまでも人間のような顔をして！"

The English translation is very literal. I think I would translate this as "You always were the only one who kept yourself human!", even if literally it means "you alone always had a human-like face!" lmao

(also notice the omae again. It's as if Isaac can't be too derogatory on Hector when speaking in the past)

English: "You possessed more powerful sorcery than I! And you were able to get closer to Count Dracula over me!!"

Japanese: “俺より強い魔力を持ち、俺よりドラキュラ様の近くにいながら...!”

"Even though your magic is stronger than mine, and you were closer to Lord Dracula than me...!"

That "even though" (ながら) subtly changes the nuance. Isaac isn't just venting: he's confused as to why Hector, despite being Dracula's special boy, insisted on "looking human", or clinging onto his humanity.

As I pointed out here, chapter 4 is not called "redemption", but "atonement". The two words have slightly different nuances :)

When Rosaly tells Hector that the priest has spread the news that Trevor saved everyone, she speaks in a respectful way. She calls Trevor "Belmont-sama", calls him an exorcist, ("悪魔払い") and uses keigo when talking about his feats ("救って下さった"). It's cute and it shows how much Trevor is respected for his feats :)

English: "It might not be a bad idea to stay here for a while in this sunny place..."

Japanese: "ほんの少しだけこの日だまりに身を置くのも悪くはない。"

"It wouldn't be bad to stay under the sun for a little while..."

Kind of. 日だまり means "sunny spot". The translation works perfectly fine, and it paints Rosaly's house as a warm, happy home... but I think this is meant to be a callback to the first page of this scene, Hector standing under the shadow and Rosaly dragging him to the light. Hector is finally accepting to stand under the sunlight :)

[spiderqueenpc]

The case for Kris Dreemurr's monsterhood

Last year, I made a reskin mod for Deltarune called Kris is the GOAT that "makes Kris a goat monster", as the summary states. Today, however, I want to show you why I believe that the canonical version of Kris is already a monster- just a human-bodied one.

Part 1: A crash course on otherkinity

(If you already have a decent understanding of real-life nonhuman identity, feel free to skip this part. This is for those who are new to the topic.)

Otherkin are individuals whose species identity is incongruent with their physical body. In real life, this definition is simplified to "identifying as nonhuman", but the broader definition is more helpful for talking about the Deltarune universe. Like, Toriel also identifies as nonhuman, but that's obviously not the same situation.

Some otherkin are fine with their bodies as they are, while others experience species dysphoria and desire to species transition. I believe Kris fits into the second category.

Different people ascribe different origins to their otherkin identities, some spiritual and some secular. There's a lot, but all you need to know for this post is that imprinting is a very common one.

Part 2: The evidence

Kris was literally raised by monsters, which is the prime condition for imprinting to occur. As I established in part 1, imprinting is a common cause of othekinity.

So we've established that it wouldn't be surprising for Kris to be otherkin. Now for the evidence that they are:

First, the horns headband dialogue. We've all seen it, but let's talk about it. Here's a refresher on exactly what Toriel says:

So, when Kris was a child, they asked when their horns would grow in. After that, their parents bought them a headband with horns on it so they wouldn't feel bad about not being able to grow horns. Kris apparently wore it for months, and the wording here implies that the reason they stopped wearing it was because it got lost, not because they actively chose to. It's likely that had it not gotten lost, they would have continued to wear it until it didn't physically fit on their head anymore.

That does not sound like the behavior of a child who sees themself as completely human. I also wear horns and trust me, even small ones can be surprisingly inconvenient. You would have to really care about having them to be willing to wear them all the time.

But that was when they were a child, you could argue. People change as they grow up. Is there any evidence that Kris doesn't see themself as a human now?

Well yes, yes there is! Here's the second big piece of evidence: the "How to Care for a Human" flavor text.

Some people have interpreted this text as Kris hating humans, but nothing in the flavor text actually suggests that. Kris doesn't slam the book shut violently, they don't throw it, nothing like that. Nothing that indicates anger. They just close it quickly. That indicates discomfort, but not anger. (Borrowed observation from JaruJaruJ on YouTube.)

Instead, what I believe is happening here is that Kris is uncomfortable with the reminder that they look like a human, that the body they're in makes others perceive them as a human. And perhaps worst of all, that their own mother perceives them as one.

In real life, nonhuman folks are pretty used to constant reminders that "this is what a human body looks like". But for Kris, who lives in a small town full of monsters, who possibly hasn't seen another human-bodied individual in person in years, that's not the case. It'd feel a whole lot worse for them, hence the reaction.

Before I move on to anticipating counterarguments, I would also like to address one more piece of evidence that is less direct: this flavor text for the mirror.

The primary meaning of this is pretty clear: It's about how Kris' body is, at the moment, really just a puppet for the player. However, I think this line of flavor text could potentially have a double meaning, with the second meaning being "this body's appearance doesn't represent you". It makes sense both ways and it certainly wouldn't be out of line with Toby's writing for a line to have an extra layer to it.

Part 3: "But what about..."

"...the fact that they don't react when the other characters call them human?"

If they are a monster they're obviously not out about it, so they're not going to correct anyone. Additionally, it's possible that they haven't fully realized why they feel the way they do, or that they don't have the words to articulate it.

And it's worth remembering that we rarely get to see how Kris feels about anything unless whoever we're talking to actively comments on their tone or expression. Nobody has ever commented on their reaction to being called a human. It wouldn't be surprising if they're hiding their discomfort.

"...the Prophecy?"

Alright, this is basically a whole 'nother theory. I'll try to make it quick.

I believe that the human in the prophecy is not Kris, but is instead the player soul. The major points of evidence for this are:

-We originally weren't meant to be controlling Kris at all.

-The world is only said to be covered in darkness when we hit quit instead of retry, not when Kris dies.

-Despite the fact that Kris is said to be the only one who can seal the fountains, when they get sealed Kris just kinda... stands there while the soul does a thing.

This isn't the only way to explain how the Prophecy and Kris' monsterhood can co-exist, but it's (imo) the most elegant and plausible, so I won't make this post longer than it already is.

//

In conclusion: Kris clearly has some complex feelings about their species and I believe that otherkinity is the most straightforward explanation. Thank you very much for reading. Please feel free to share your thoughts about this theory, just keep it respectful.

[ruki--mukami]

is there absulotely no way to dominate ruki? Is he a top 100%?

🧩 Canonically, he'd never allow it. We can see throughout the entirety of the series that Ruki is a bit of a control freak and once you take that control from him, he feels threatened and even holds a grudge. Everything from his family going down in shambles, the orphanage torturing him, and essentially losing all his status as a child reflects in a fear of losing everything that is important to him in his adulthood. Once he loses that control, I suspect it would be like a cruel reminder of his past, which is why he always tells Yui never to pity him or say 'sorry' in his presence in reference to his suffering.

There are also many hints during some more 'innocent' scenes of the game that would imply he prefers to top 100% of the time. In Dark Fate (Ecstasy 5), there's an option Yui has to either offer her lap for him to rest his head on or simply hold hands with him. If the heroine offers her lap, he makes a comment along the lines of "this is nice, but I prefer to look down at you." I know this was not a NSFW scene at all, but I like to think you can infer from this that this reflects his preferences with other things as well.

Given what we know about his personality as well, or at least my interpretation of it, I honestly think Ruki would react poorly to someone trying to dominate him. Poorly as in he'd probably snap their neck if it goes too far. 💀

However, I have written a situation in which Ruki was not a 100% top. Not on Tumblr because if you couldn't tell already, I get quite the kick out of writing him as a 100% top, ahaha. And honestly, as someone who tries to portray him as canonically as I can, it's very difficult to write a Ruki being dominated for me. His justification is always changing, because there just is no good justification for it by his logic other than "you can do what you want now, but know that I'll return it to you tenfold" since it's at least a better reaction than "I'll kill you."

At the same time though, I know there are a lot of DL OCs who also want to dominate, or maybe they are also a 100% top like Ruki. As you may have surmised, 100% top x 100% top probably wouldn't work out in a real relationship unless there is some compromise. And I know my RP partners didn't make a 100% top OC just to be dominated by Ruki 24/7, so I try to take that into consideration as well. There will be times when he lets his partner get on top of him, albeit rare and usually it's in a position where he's still the dominant one, lmao (since obviously top =/= dom or bottom=/= sub).

In other words, I try to bend his character as much as I can in terms of compromising here and there, but he will still be the dominant one primarily because otherwise he starts to feel less like Ruki for me. When I write a Ruki getting dominated by someone else, it lowkey feels like I'm writing a different character altogether and I don't know how to feel about it, which is why I don't do it often and he is only willing to compromise with characters who do it for the reason of "this is just how I show my love" rather than "I want to give you your just desserts" because the latter justification would just have him equate the muse to the people at the orphanage, which triggers his trauma.

Compared to other DL boys such as Laito who have shown switch tendencies (i.e., when he asked Yui to bite him), Ruki has yet to exhibit any of these signs himself in the canon material. Although I'm also very biased and possessive doms + doms who want to ruin your life are my kink, so yeah.

TL;DR: No, not canonically anyway, but I also try to take the needs of others into consideration in my portrayal since Ruki isn't the only character in the world who feels the need to be a top 24/7. 🧩

[spamtonology]

Hi, my mind has been wondering about how deltarune fandom mischaracterise spamton and make him completly another character for some reason

like i seen some people make his og form very tall, or completly get rid of his voice glitch (Which could be caused by not knowing how to write his glitch which is totally understandble tho), which are very small things to change but personally i think that still changing so obvious things about him is quite... Not in place, because there are just some aspects of characters that MAKE them their own characters, and taking it out of them is either "yeah i dont like that im going to change him So hes exacly to my likings now" or just making completly diffrent character

This also implies about how fanbase either treats him as

1. only joke character, that never intended to be anything else by that, which is very weird cause spamton plays quite important role in dr's lore

2. Too sad/scary character, spamton is totally intended to be goofy weirdo making every Player laugh, skipping it just to him being sad and obsessed about neo is Just not it!

3. Child some sort, where he cannot do a single thing himself and needs help, which is incredibly ableist, but i think this topic has been totally talked about already

Sorry for ramble/rant, but its quite common thing i noticed about deltarune fanbase and spamton, and wanted to know others opinion about it

Thank you for this ask! It’s a great one, and gives me a lot of room to talk, so it goes under a readmore. You do not need to apologize for your ask, feel free to ramble away anytime! I greatly appreciate it!

As usual I want to put in a disclaimer that ultimately, the only person that 100% knows Spamton is his creator, Toby Fox himself. All we as fans can do is interpret and speculate based on what evidence is given in the game, and as is fandom tradition, we can put in headcanons, alternate universes, and more to flesh out his character. All of this is perfectly fine and normal for fandom, however there comes a drawback in fandom, especially when we are met with a “tragic villain” type: woobification. The TVTropes link provided explains it well.

Let’s address your ask itself:

Making Spamton in his original form tall (in this case over 6′0″/182.88 cm, the average height for an adult cisgender man) appears to be a purely aesthetic, stylistic choice and is harmless. I do prefer him short (specifically 4′8″/142.24 cm), but there’s nothing problematic or offensive about changing his height. If you don’t like that, it can be safely ignored.

The voice glitch is another one...I think there’s nothing wrong with substituting the in-game text style for an easier-to-read format to make it accessible for screen readers and visually impaired people. As long as you can tell it’s Spamton, it’s fine. Here’s an example from my fic:

Original: “WH4T?” He set the spoon down, “S0METHING 0N MY [Hair Dryer]?” 

You can see how that would be difficult for some people to read. If I so desired, I would probably change it this way:

Revised: “What?” He set the spoon down, voice warbling in-between glitches. “Something on my--” He stammered, ad-speech taking over his voice yet again, “H-hair dryer?”

It makes the sentence a little longer since I have to translate this text in a descriptive way so the reader understands which part is the bracketed one. Again, nothing wrong with substituting the text in a way that stays faithful to Spamton’s character.

It would only be an issue if the author actively chose not to use the bracketed text because they dislike it greatly, or they want to “cure” his speech impediment. The latter stems from a rather ableist trope of curing a disabled character’s disability and therefore erasing that representation.

As for being unsure how to write his voice, there are some posts on Tumblr, and there is his Wiki page that you can look through for reference. While you might never get it 100% perfect and neither will I, looking through these references can help a lot.

As you said, these are minor examples compared to some others, but they are just as valid as the more major issues with the fandomization of his character!

Now, on to your list:

Points 1 and 2 work well together, and could easily be combined. People need to understand while he is not purely a joke character (example, The Original Starwalker is a pure joke character. Sorry, fans, but he is), he is also not purely a tragic and scary character that the player must fear. He is meant to be funny, but he is also involved in a big part of the plot even as a “secret boss”. Some of the greatest villains in fiction are, indeed, those who manage to be both hilarious and terrifying.

(Yes, he is, per traditional definition, a villain. noun: villain; plural noun: villains 1. (in a film, novel, or play) a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.)

People should not forget that a large chunk of his character is based around internet meme culture; KEYGEN is the most obvious (for those who do not know, it is a reference to a YouTube Poop, and it involves rapidly flashing lights which were much toned down on Spamton’s sprite), and Weirdmageddon has made the connection to internet personality Dril, whose tweets seem eerily similar to how Spamton speaks. Pipis is essentially kid-friendly Viagra.

However, in point 2 there’s a slight mistake, his obsession with NEO is crucial to his character arc and the overall story. While flanderization can happen, you can’t “skip” to him being simply obsessed with NEO, it’s a core of his character and cannot be avoided. It would actually be problematic if you ignored this point of his character (Exceptions being alternate universes and post-recovery situations).

As is true for many of Toby Fox’s other characters, he is multifaceted. He has nuance, and reducing him to one or two traits does Toby’s work a disservice. It is definitely difficult to balance out his character the way Toby manages to do, but it’s not impossible.

 The best way to figure it out is to do research using canon material (fanon is extremely unreliable, even the best fanfiction, and my own humble one, gets a few things wrong), and practice some writing using his character, put him in specific situations and see how he would react according to canon characterization.

The infantilization point has been the most oft-discussed issue with how the fandom treats him, correct, and I’m always happy to discuss it. Not only is it ableist in treating him like a child who is unable to take care of himself (when he displays many symptoms of severe mental illness), it also ignores many other facets about his character, which is so explicitly adult (In the sense that this is a man who was at his peak in 1997 and speaks/behaves distinctly like an older man with severe mental illness, not at all like a child, or even young.)

 However, there is a distinction to be made between this ableist infantilization of his character being helpless, and the very real possibility of being unable to take care of yourself due to mental illness. The latter is something that happens in real life, and people whose Activities of Daily Living are impaired deserve just as much respect and understanding as any other person.

Going by my experience in the fandom. I come to the understanding that some people do not address this disability/impaired ADL aspect and rather focus on making him act like a child and force him in situations that would only be appropriate for small children (See, the personally infamous rubber ducky scene from a fanfiction I will not name).

People who are mentally ill may act irrational in the perspective of non-mentally ill people, and from there comes the harmful stigma that they are equivalent to, or must be treated like, children or wild animals. Great care must be taken to avoid these stereotypes which I already see used so often on Spamton.

This does not include symbolic animal traits such as birds; the bird motif is symbolic of his want of freedom, for example. But while I can make an example for the animal side, I cannot make any example for the child side. There is absolutely nothing to his character that implies a childlike persona, not even his short height.

Spamton can be alluded to being like a bird without being treated like an animal, but in my opinion there is no excuse for infantilizing him.

While you apologized for your “ramble”, I started my own! This may be the longest I have written an answer, and I’m willing to discuss with other people over this, whether agreements, disagreements or additions. Let me know if there is anything you’re still confused on.

[dubsteplevi]

Okay, this is going to be incredibly long and a lot of this is going to be a repeat of one of my last posts but this one will just go a lot more indepth of my feelings and thoughts towards the, in my opinion, terrifying movie Skinamarink (possible TW for suicide but there's no details going into it but I'm putting it just in case)

Simply to start off, I found it really slow but it definitely kept me on my toes of "what's going to happen next". However, I did find myself not really indulging myself into it (I also have ADHD so that might've had something to do with it lol) apart from that, because I'm an English nerd, I was also trying trying to find symbolism and such.

It was dark the entire movie except for at the beginning, which in literature light means knowledge and darkness means a lack of knowledge. If we apply that here that means that it in a way shows the kids are confused without them outright saying it. Other than that I couldn't really find anything else symbolism wise. This could be a stretch but colors could play into it as well with blue meaning, in this case, sadness and isolation with red meaning passion of either love or hatred, to which in a way I think could be both in this movie because the kids loving each other and their parents and hatred could be the parents feelings towards the kids, or at least the dad's (explained later) Blue is kind of obvious cause the theme isolation shows because they're trapped in the house and sadness is shown because apart from all the terrifying moments in the end the movie is really sad.

I mean, think about it! You're a 4 year old child who can't find their dad, you just fell down the stairs, things keep disappearing in the house, you have to piss in a bucket cause the ghost took away the toilet (the most scary thing in this movie /j), your mother cancelled her life subscription and your sisters face disappears halfway through whatever fever dream you're experiencing. In the sense of a 4 year old child that's terrifying but sad because you don't know much of anything else other than playing and whatever else kids at that age do.

Now, talking about scenes that kept us up, a lot of people talk about Kaylee's face disappearing or the mom dying but the scene that kept me up was the scene where we hear the repeatinng music (I don't remember what it's called even tho I saw it in the captions like 6 times with how much it repeated), Kevin screaming and us seeing blood splatter onto the floor again and again and again. At first I just saw that and I was like :o, then I saw it repeat and I was like :O then I heard the entity laughing and I was like 😧. It bothered me to a whole 'nother level cause that just implies that it's been happening for 572 days (I think that's the number).

Personally I really wish they played around with the idea a lot more, or at the least create a sequel to it if they want to keep that slow moving feeling since it is analog horror. I would've really liked to see some sort of story behind what's going on like why the dad being gone and possibly even an ending to what happens after but at the same time I like how they left it open to interpretation cause it just lets the audience fill in the blanks and create their own interpretation of the movie.

On how I interpret it, I see it as a metaphor for abused children (yes I think that because that's one of the most popular theories but that's not the main reason). It makes sense because the entity could represent the father abusing the children, Kaylee being "silenced" because her face disappears, the mother committing because of the chair literally hanging from the ceiling, etc. Another theory is this is all a dream from Kevin being in a coma because there's a constant theme of sleeping in the movie and I think it happens after he falls down the stairs. Little side note, can we talk about how calm the father was during that scene? Like sir your son, who is just barely becoming a little kid, fell down the stairs and it must've been bad cause you took him to the hospital how are you so calm and nonchalant about it???

Anyways I think it could be a mix of both. I think Kevin and Kaylee are heavily abused by their dad and their mother committed. Kevin at some point fell down the stairs and thus caused him to go into a coma and the whole movie is a nightmare (literally) and everything that happens is a reenactment of what happened in real life but more enhanced and dramatic because it's through the eyes of the child/children, which makes sense on why the jump scares aren't as scary as they would be because in nightmares, they seem scary for a second but then it just continues on and that's exactly what happens in the movie, every scare is for a few seconds then it continues as of nothing happened but we know something happened. That could also explain why the entity says "I'll protect you," even if it's in its own pretty twisted way cause it's trying to protect the child from the father's abuse.

Just now thought of this while writing but what if the entity also represents foster care systems?? Cause it claims it protects the child but then proceeds to hurt the child for its own enjoyment? Just a thought but like what if, y'know?

Anyhow I think that's all my thoughts on this absolutely wonderful movie. Even though it's done more psychological damage on my brain than any ex or break up will ever put in me through, it was so fucking good. I beg of y'all PLEASE watch it if you can. I have it on a Google drive but it's also available to rent on Amazon for like 5$ or something and on YouTube to buy unless someone has already uploaded it for free. Even though its slow paced, I'd argue that it made the movie better now that I've thought about it for a while cause it gave you time to process whatever just happened. But yes watch it, especially since it was done on a 15,000$ budget and it's made back like 2-3 Mil. It's worth it even if you don't like horror movies.

(as promised here's the @ @eggmixercortex )

[acacia-may]

For the headcanons request game, may I ask 💚 and 🖤 for Gashu Satou (YTTD)? After the mini ep I started loving him as a character, but I understand if it makes you uncomfortable and want to skip this. if that's the case I apologize

Hi there, Anon-friend! Thank you so much for the ask and for playing my Bye Bye Writer's Block Headcanon's Game! This is my second YTTD ask ever which is very, very exciting for me so thank you so much for that! 🥰

Thank you also for being so polite and respectful. I really appreciate it, and I hope that I can treat you with the same respect in this post. 💕 Overall, Gashu, to me, is an extremely complicated character, and, truthfully, I did have to give this all a little bit of thought when I saw your ask come in. Ultimately, I decided that I do feel comfortable taking your request; however, for personal reasons, I would not feel comfortable posting these headcanons without including some semblance of explanation as to why I felt comfortable taking the request in the first place (if that makes sense?). Therefore, I apologize in advance for these unsolicited ramblings about him. (A/N: I'm also sorry that I've never been asked about Gashu before and therefore don't have an existing post that explains my complicated feelings towards him that I could have just linked here).

Please feel free to disregard this entire section of the post and skip to the headcanons under the cut, if you'd like. 😅 (A/N: This section did end up being a bit lengthy and also a bit critical of Gashu as a character (though I really tried my best to be respectful, constructive, and sympathetic to him). That said, I really wouldn't blame anyone for skipping it as it really is only here for my own comfort level. Thank you again for being respectful of that).

(Warnings: MAJOR YTTD Spoilers especially for the Kai mini-episode. Implied/Referenced Child Abuse/Neglect. Please proceed with caution)

I completely understand what you mean about the Kai mini-episode dramatically shifting your perspective of Gashu's character. I definitely felt much more positively towards him after playing through that and was genuinely surprised to learn that he wasn't nearly as terrible of a parent as I had originally imagined. That backstory really added this element of genuine tragedy and deep sadness to the Satou family and really left me wondering how different the relationship between Gashu and his sons could have been without ASU-NARO's corrupting influence. It also raised a lot of questions about Gashu's overall motivations and his culpability for his poor choices and actions, especially those surrounding his family. Was he being manipulated or brainwashed? Was he just trying to survive? ASU-NARO is incredibly shady and cult-like (in my opinion) so it wouldn't surprise me if Gashu was either essentially brainwashed by the organization and/or coerced into these heinous things out of fear for his life; however, I don't feel like the canon really dove into that enough for me to make a clear judgment on Gashu and his culpability--at least not yet. (We'll see what happens in the final chapter or any other mini-sodes that come out).

Based on this information, my personal interpretation (at least at the time of writing) is that Gashu may not have intentionally hurt his children in the way I had originally expected prior to the Kai mini-episode, but his poor choices (even if they were made for understandable reasons) and his failure to protect his sons from ASU-NARO ultimately did end up hurting them. And what I felt I needed to say the most about Gashu before writing anything about him is that (at least in my opinion) it is a terrible tragedy when a parent chooses anything over the safety and well-being of their children--no matter what the reason is. Gashu very well may have loved his sons, but he let them down in a major and extremely important way when he chose ASU-NARO (and/or himself/his own personal well-being) over what was best for them, and his poor choice(s) as a parent had serious, life-altering (and life-ending) consequences. Even if it may be an understandable choice given the circumstances (perhaps even the "only choice" Gashu felt he had at the time), it is still a very tragic one to me, on account of the suffering it brought to both Kai and Sei. They were children. They vulnerable, and they deserved better. No amount of diminished culpability, love and affection Gashu may have had towards his sons, and/or understandable/sympathetic reasons he may have had for doing what he did can ever really excuse the fact that, ultimately, he failed to protect his children when they needed him most.

Obviously, Gashu is written with a lot of dimension and complexity. In many ways he feels very human in a fact that he is so flawed and often makes selfish choices rather than the harder, more selfless ones. Just as in real life, no one can make the perfect choice or the right choice all the time (especially in a situation as difficult as the one in which Gashu likely found himself); however, while it feels unfair to label a person as "all good" or "all bad" based on their choices (especially without taking all of the contributing factors into account), I think that it is fair to label certain choices themselves as objectively good or bad ones (regardless of the culpability or guilt of the person performing them). In my opinion, some of Gashu's choices were objectively bad, and (even if his culpability for them is diminished due to outside circumstances) there is a certain level of personal responsibility that Gashu has for his actions (I just can't make a judgement on how much or how little that is given the remaining unanswered questions in the canon). No matter his reasons, it was still his choice on at least some level, and even if he didn't intend to hurt his sons, his poor parenting choices had consequences which Kai and Sei, unfortunately, were left to suffer. My heart breaks for them and for this family's situation because the real tragedy here is that a father really let his children down (even if he had understandable reasons for doing so), and, in that way, a lot of the suffering which befell this family feels like it could have been avoided under different circumstances and/or if different choices were made. For that reason (and after taking the surrounding circumstances into account), I think I feel more sad and disappointed towards Gashu than angry. He could have and should have been better.

All of that said, with so many unanswered questions still lingering due to the unfinished story, I really feel like I can't make a clear judgement on Gashu's character whether positively or negatively at this time, and since there are those lingering doubts and since it seemed to me (at least based on the information we have at this time of writing) that he was more guilty of failing to protect his children rather than intentionally hurting them, I have decided to proceed with this ask. Thank you.

In summary, I have complicated feelings about Gashu and am probably not his biggest fan, but he's not on my (metaphorical) "no fly list" either, so I'd be happy to try my best to write these headcanons for you. (I apologize in advance if they are not nearly as good as if they written by someone who had much more positive feelings towards Gashu and/or had been writing for this fandom for a much longer period of time 😅 Also, I'll warn you upfront that I don't usually get asked to write for many villainous characters so these may be a bit rocky, but I really tried my best to come up with something nice for you, Anon-Friend. I hope you will like it 💕).

Additionally, I do want to thank you again for the request! It's so wonderful to have the opportunity to write a little bit about YTTD (especially since I have so much brainrot about it right now). I also really appreciate the opportunity for completionism since I've written HCs about Kai & Sei already so once I write some for Gashu I'll have headcanons for the whole Satou family (except for Ranger, I guess... Does he count? Sorry Ranger)

Headcanons are below the cut! Thank you again for your request! 🥰

Gashu Satou Headcanons

💚-- General

Gashu's favorite drink has always been black coffee. (It’s one of the main reasons he loves Tiramisu so much 😁). When Kai was very, very little (before Sei was adopted), he used to ask for cups of coffee because he wanted to be like his father, and he would often toddle quietly behind Gashu holding empty coffee mugs. Eventually when Gashu began actually giving Kai and Sei coffee, he could tell that they didn't care much for the taste (and, in fact, Sei would help Kai sneak sugar into their cups to make it a little more palatable to two young boys. Gashu pretended not to notice but secretly kept the sugar bowl well-stocked). The boys, however, continued to ask for coffee for the sole purpose of following in their father's footsteps, and though Gashu never discussed it with them, he began making twice as much coffee each morning so there would always be some leftover for his sons.

🖤-- Angst

(A/N: I've written two for this prompt so pick your poison, I suppose😅)

One of Gashu's biggest regrets in life is that he never got to take Kai and Sei on that holiday. Sometimes he lies awake at night wondering if things would have been different if he had.

OR

Gashu hasn't been able to eat Tiramisu since Kai left home. He has tried to eat a slice of it only once after losing Sei and found he could no longer stomach the taste of it since it drudged up such painful memories of his sons and his own feelings of guilt and inadequacy as a father.

[thecreelhouse]

i still have a massive headache from ugly crying over the finale, so this will probably be messy, but here’s some thoughts if anyone cares !

maybe i missed something but was there any more of a reason as to why the upside down was frozen in time? idk maybe this is me being nit picky but that feels like suuuuch a major detail to mention and reference to and then not have it really amount to anything important? idk maybe it’s just me! but like i’m really interested and would love if that was explained a bit further if possible next season.

look i’m not one to kiss the duffers’ asses by any means like i can respect valid criticism abt the show and a lot of it i get behind, but it hasn’t even been 24 hours and y’all are ripping it apart already? everyone can feel how they feel, that’s normal! it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea… but damn, y’all are getting so harsh about plot points that have been under our noses this whole time lol come on now

which brings me to my next point: everyone acting like the stancy nonsense is coming out of nowhere. i’ll admit, it was jarring to me too! steve deserves better and a chance to move onward imo, and it’s great that him and nancy are friends at least!! but it doesn’t mean they have to pick up a relationship that had no future to begin with. however, it’s not surprising (at least to me idk?) that steve was still longing for whatever he thought they could’ve had. it seemed like since s3, he’s been searching for a distraction, i guess? maybe not so much from nancy herself, but the loss of love itself, and how he hasn’t been able to find a connection he felt so strongly about since. the mention of his dream of having a family isn’t far fetched imo. was it cringy for him? yeah maybe. but looking back at how he’s an only child, was constantly ignored and neglected by his own parents, it’s not an insane concept that he would want to start a family of his own. he would want to be a better parent than his parents were to him. that guy has the biggest heart in hawkins, it’s almost baffling people are angry that he voiced wanting a positive future. and while he values the found family he has with everyone now, it’s really still not an outlandish concept that he would someday want to live a “normal” (in hawkins’ standard at least) life.

the way max talks about how she wanted billy, her abusive step brother, to essentially have something awful happen to him— that’s a very common trauma response. to be afraid and compliant around an abuser in person because you’re too afraid to defend yourself? that’s incredibly common. same with how she goes on to say she eventually wanted to die herself, that was textbook survivor’s guilt right there. (doesn’t she even say something like that herself? i can’t remember i need to rewatch. but it’s heavily implied.) it’s kind of frustrating seeing some of y’all say it was a disservice to her character, when it was showing a more realistic, albeit textbook, side of surviving abuse/a specific abuser. not every survivor reacts in these ways, but to say it’s ridiculous or out of line for her character is just … silly, to say the least. not trying to justify her fake out death; i know a lot of fans are sick of that by now, but it definitely made sense in the grand scheme of things.

people are upset about will’s coming out scene and how it’s left up to interpretation. and in a way, i get it, but we have an incredibly safe, loving and supportive coming out scene with robin opening up to steve about her sexuality. and that’s not to say media can’t have multiple happy queer moments! personally, i’d love to see it more everywhere! but i also really appreciate the subtlety of will’s scene. because not everyone reacts the same, especially in the 80s, it just wasn’t as accepted back then. shit, i was just as terrified as will was when i came out in the 2000s lmao so like. it can be really terrifying for some lgbtq+ folks. i get wanting specific representation, i.e. if you don’t identify as a lesbian, rather a gay/queer masc person, i get you wouldn’t be able to fully relate to robin’s story. but that doesn’t mean we should ignore the fantastic queer representation we already have, loud and proud as all hell. i’ve seen multiple fandom blogs mention how it feels like lesbophobia, and i think that’s a justified feeling. we can appreciate the fact that coming out, especially in that decade, is on a whole spectrum of emotions. it was very realistic imo, but maybe that’s just me being an annoying ass *~*~elder gay~*~*~ or whatever the fuck.

i could word all of that better i’m sure but my brain is still fried from staying up earlier. so my apologies to anyone who actually reads this if it doesn’t make sense. i know i have some other things i wanna ramble about but i can’t remember rn.

im so so so open to discussion and theories and opinions !!!! as long as you’re not mean. i’ll leave reblogs on and my ask is still open but please don’t use it to be rude. i definitely do not have the spoons to handle that today lol.

was it perfect? fuck no. was it the best season? imo i think s2 is still the best, but this definitely was better than s3 imo. they weren’t kidding when they said this season was bigger than anyone could imagine. i thought it was really worth the wait!

[cristalknife]

Hey so I read your cute kid Chay fic but I wanted to let you know midget is actually a slur and not a word that should be used. Not sure if you knew that but it's something I recently learned as well. Could you use a different word instead? I'm not a little person but it's a word that little people ask not to be used in general.

Hello there, so first of all thank you for contacting me I really appreciate the opportunity to discuss things. TLDR: context is key to determine the meaning of a term. In the specific case I do not believe the context support that interpretation of the word. However since I do believe trigger warnings should be treated seriously I've added a warning tag to the story. For the long version explanation.

Preface: while I was raised bilingual, I'd like to point out the English I grew up with was British English, later on diluted with (or corrupted by depending on who is talking) American English. This will be an important detail when you check out the references To answer your point, I do know that the word itself could be used as insult and slur, but its meaning depends on the context. If it was used to refer or address to a person who has dwarfism with the implicit meaning that they are less, then I totally agree that it's derogatory and should not be used. But I do not believe this meaning of the word applies in here.

For one Chay was physically and mentally de-aged, he didn't acquire a medical condition, he just returned to be a small and a little naughty child.

The second aspect of the context to consider is this is that Big has canonically the tendency to be an ass at times.

We see that on when he set up Porsche and outs Kinn in the span of a single instance.

We find it in how he acts when Porsche get punished.

Descending a little bit on the intersection between head-canon and meta, if we analyse the known background details we know of current bodyguards, and apply a little bit of logic and projection of personal experiences, few if not none of the bodyguards would come from safe, happy or wealthy enough families. Politically correctness would be a low priority given where they are now working.

Story wise there is the power dynamic between Chay and Big's position to consider, part of the family vs hired bodyguard. Big is on the disrespectful/offensive side because he can't exactly start swearing against Chay. If reported to Khun Korn there is still the mitigating factor of not sounding so bad once deconstructed and analyzed

Last considerations, as far as I know and I've found the official definition across dictionaries concur it's an informal offensive way to refer to a very small/short/not very tall person (see Longman, Collins, Merriam-Webster, Oxford, Cambridge ). We have also the fact that before the latest purge in records from respected societies like the Entomological Society of America's project Better Common Names midget was used a lot to refer to the different species, one of them being the tiny biting flies and other very tiny kind of insects, of then of the annoying/dangerous kind, term that can be seen on sources like this Story wise in the end Big had meant using it both as indication that Chay was now small, but also that he was an annoying little bugger. To be honest I do not know what other term would fit in the situation: - munchkin is too cutesy for how Big is characterized, - half-pint (other than me personally having problems with it) is not really that culturally fitting (Thailand uses the metric system not the imperial one so it refers to foreign concept) - runt could be an even worse term because it implies disproval on top of being offensive, kind of sentiment that would be hard to explain upon review and that's all the alternative I could come up with that are closer in terms to what it's meant. That said suggestions are welcome, so please feel free to reply.

For now I'll just add the warning as additional tag, since I do not see an alternative solution that fits the story's needs.