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#(so i think her choosing a major for fun was actually very important and it makes me smile to think about <3)
ask-annie-edison · 7 months
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HELLO ANNIE oh shit that was in all caps, anyways! what got you into forensics? I wanna change my major soooo bad like you did but im literally in my junior year ALSO youre the epitome of standing on business, love you (ay it back or else!)
Hi there, thank you for the question! I think it was just a curiosity I’ve had in the back of my mind since middle school, but I didn’t think I’d ever get a chance to look into it at all, what with my extensively planned out life. But when I ended up at Greendale, completely out of my element with no foreseeable future… I decided to just have some fun! “Go with the flow”, if you will. It took me a while to work up the confidence to change majors, but ultimately I think it was worth it. I really love forensics, and I think that if you believe it’ll be good for you then you should change too. I really have no idea what it means for you, but choosing to pursue a genuine interest of mine, one that hadn’t been written down on every page slid in front of me since childhood, was one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself.
So, do whatever you feel is best — and I love you too ♡
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porcubus · 5 months
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removed from any shipping its genuinely notable to me that rodya seemingly latches on to gregor from the start. of course shes doing her little facade (and if you go back to the earlier episodes now, its a lot more egregious and easier to notice) but its curious that out of any of the sinners, its him she actively chooses to interact with and drop a nickname on first
shes very very teasing especially initially and seems to target him for his arm, a lot of her comments being based on him being bugmoded. it honestly could look cruel especially with the full context we have now, though notably these do all take place pre-gregor revelations, but if you jump to this being a signifier of rodya bullying/wanting to get actual pain or upset out of gregor you'd have to skip over this scene
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which is both silly but also i feel pretty significant for understanding something about the two of them and their relationship:
gregor is not actually a helpless pushover who lets himself be walked over and he will speak up if a line is crossed for him
rodya can read and understand when he's distressed, gets hesitant and will back off. her intention is not actual upset from gregor
what's important to me in my read of rodya is that she does have a facade, deliberately to be charming and likable, but i dont think her buttonpushing/ragging on of gregor (and later the other sinners) is actually entirely part of that, i think its the opposite. showing real honest affection is something difficult to her, so she skips a few steps and jumps straight into poking fun like you would with someone youve known a long time.
I think her "true" personality isn't cold and calculative, from further story context i interpret it as more jaded and sarcastic. these moments to me read as a sort of fumble or early mask slip, she's not baring it all with these bits but she has singled out gregor in her mind and is particularly hovering (based on how the majority of both of their interactions throughout are from the very start with eachother) around him, trying to get closer in an awkward way.
I think people miss that theres a lot you can take and learn about rodya from their interactions, whether its because of a focus on shipping or trying to outright deny there is anything going on there at all
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lvthkllr · 1 month
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Okay, so I am now willing to relent that the writers were hinting at Francesca’s queer identity from the beginning (though I will say that if the majority of your fandom didn’t notice it until it was in front of their faces, then maybe you were choosing the wrong way to hint at it and queer representation shouldn’t be reserved as shocking writing twists), HOWEVER, I am still peeved about they way they are choosing to play out this Francesca/Michaela storyline because FRANCESCA IS SUPPOSED TO BE IN LOVE WITH JOHN AND THEN FALL IN LOVE WITH MICHAEL/A.
Now before you all start with me in the comments, I could not care less about Francesca being queer or them gender bending Michael into Michaela, I actually think it’s a super fun way to shake up the pre-destined couples without fully changing who the Bridgerton siblings end up with. I just have a serious problem with the writers are choosing to play out this queer storyline. Based on the content that we’ve already seen in S3, it feels like trying to reduce the love and companionship between John and Francesca to comphet, because I don’t care WHAT Y’ALL SAY, THAT WOMAN IS A LESBIAN.
In the book, Francesca’s connection with John is soooooo important to her character because their love allows Franny to feel seen after years of being the quiet middle child in a sea of loud Bridgerton siblings, and it also gives a lot of nuance to her eventual relationship with Michael because it echos—what I feel is—the core theme of Bridgerton, to love someone is to choose them.
But removing all of that nuance to insert a comphet storyline feels a little …. cheap because Francesca’s love story was never about her finding “real��� love with someone else after John dies, it was her finding love after the loss of her life. I do want to point out comphet is still very real and it is essential to queer storytelling and the queer experience, but as viewers we don’t watch Bridgerton (or romance media) to see people in unhappy relationships, we watch to see people find love and happiness, to overcome their own failings to love someone, to discover the unbelievable joy of an exceptional marriage. And don’t get me wrong, I could have gotten on board with the writers doing a comphet storyline with Francesca, I just do not agree with this need to make John someone that she is not in love with. By placing Francesca in a relationship where she seems to feel very little for her husband, the writers turn John—a character that Julia Quinn had to fight to keep in the book—into an agent of misery for Francesca, someone who is keeping her from pursuing a fulfilling relationship with the person she loves. THAT is the main reason that this book to show change leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth.
And on a separate—but related—note, after the way the that the writers absolutely butchered Benedict’s queer storyline, I do not trust them to write a whole season’s worth of queer story well, because it honestly feels like they’re writing characters as queer to please the fanbase and not to create representation and nuanced storytelling on-screen (a good example of this would be the race bending on the show), which is really the only reason any writers room should be writing queer characters.
Please note that I am writing this post based off of my opinions about the content we have been given and making predictions for future seasons off of that, I am completely aware that we will not know what anyone in the Fran/John/Michaela trio is feeling until we get more content with them. My only desire is for the writers to handle these queer characters and the storyline with compassion and tact and instead of that, the writers seem to be relying on old and tired queer writing tropes that are more reductive than they are helpful to queer representation on screen.
If you want to disagree with my post please do so civilly, I’m here to engage in discourse not bullying.
*cough cough* STOP USING QUEER CHARACTERS AS WAYgg TO SHOCK YOUR AUDIENCE *cough*
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mysteryanimator · 16 days
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Do you think in season 2 Olrox will be more active in helping the revolution or will he just be killed off in a fight and that’s that. Because Castlevanja rarely shows vampires getting happy endings and I doubt Richter or even Alucard would let him live. What are your thoughts?
OK SO IVE THOUGHT ABOUT THIS A LOT HAHAHA (again all thoughts are my own, it’s also 3am rn!)
I think Olrox WILL have an active part in fighting with the revolution, especially since his partner beforehand fought with the revolutionaries in Amercia to gain freedom for people like him. What Ezerbet is doing is practically colonisation and turning a whole civilisation (humans) into slaves. I doubt Olrox is gonna let that slide. Also with the fact Ezerbet is already treating Olrox lesser than by calling him a dragon (his form is actually technically a serpent, calling him a dragon whitewashes his other form, which is on par for Ezerbet’s character, every other character is the character’s general ignorance), then forcing him to bow. Olrox is going to stop taking shit from her, but right now he’s… I don’t know how to feel put it, but afraid? I feel like it’s not the right term but he recognises he’s a “not powerful enough”. He can’t fully commit to helping Richter and Co out.
I feel in season 2, something in him is going to make him switch up and be super proactive, which I have a feeling Mizrak might be one of the catalyst. HOLD ON I know I’m a major Mizrox diehard fan but hear me out. Mizrak is very very similar to Olrox’s previous lover, which lot of people noted. (Olrox I see you have a type, you’re not so slick)
“He burned with such passion. About the world, about how the people, "the people", that's how he talked, could win this thing called freedom.”
“But he fought with them, the revolutionaries. He fought with them.”
While Mizrak at first was definitely more resistant, he came around after seeing the Abott abducting Maria, who is a revolutionary. Mizrak is also just very very stubborn/passionate to a point where it ‘burns’ others. Like his attitude get to people. Example how he literally just speaks his mind to Drolta and it gets on her nerves LOL. There’s a whole bunch of parallels between his lover and Mizrak but I’m getting sidetracked now.
I feel like Mizrak and then combination of the rest of the group will push Olrox to be more active. Olrox already gave the book to Tera which is already a nudge in the right direction.
Now onto Olrox potentially dying.
I see the Richter point, and I understand that Richter will not let it slide that Olrox killed his mother, however “there is always a choice.” Richter is going to see choosing revenge is not going to solve anything. It’ll continue a cycle of violence because then someone will come for Richter, then Maria/Annette and literally anybody else will come for the person who gets at slide at Richter, and it’s never ending.
It’s one of the big themes here is that you have a choice to be stand against the grain and fight, or be apart of the cycle. It is a core thing with practically each character in the show. Edouard chooses to go with Annette to France to find a Belmont. Maria chooses to fight and rally the revolution in Macheoul. The Abbott chooses to side with vampires. The list goes on. There is always a choice.
Also, optimistically, Castlevania in the past has given people happy endings, even to other vampires, consider Morana and Striga who are probably off in a cottage somewhere, even Dracula himself. He’s alive WITH Lisa (I miss them so dearly). Along with the message of Nocturne is that people will prevail against the colonisers/people in power. This is one of the most important messages of the show thus far. I also have doubts that a Native American character who has been through colonisation, witnessed the slaughter of his people and haunted by it will die in a show about fighting against colonisation and it’s power structure.
Thank you for the ask! All these asks have been very fun because you guys enable me to spill my internal thoughts about them and realise “oh, Myst is actually deep diving about these characters”
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yandere-daze · 9 months
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I see your writing for fire emblem engage and I really love that game and I just finished it for maddening. I don’t know if this is a request or not but may I ask in the context of the base emblems, can you rank them based on how extreme they would be as a yandere like I think I would rate emblem Celica as 12th cause even if she turns yandere she still very passive and more so she’s just clingy but I would rate Byleth a 4th due to him being extremely manipulative and overprotective
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Hii, welcome to the blog! I´d say normally I would consider this a request but I´m kind of in the mood to write for fire emblem right now so I thought this would be a fun little thing to do ^^
Now I must confess that for most of the lords ( which the majority of emblems are) I have some difficulty with trying to think of them as a yandere or in a self-shipping context in general. Don´t really know why that is. I also haven´t played all of the games yet so I can´t say too much about some of them, I hope that´s okay!
Also because I have a real hard time ranking things in order, here are just some thoughts on most of the emblems as yanderes ☺️
3.7k words
gn reader
tw yandere, obsession, worshipping, self-sacrifice, kidnapping, possessiveness
Characters: Marth, Celica, Sigurd, Leif, Roy, Lyn, Eirika and Ephraim, Ike, Micaiah, Lucina, Corrin, Byleth
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How are the 12 base emblems like as yanderes?
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Marth
Now I´ll have to be honest, I actually haven´t played any of Marth´s games yet so I´m not very familiar with his character. But as with most FE lords, he strikes me as a very kind and heroic character. In Engage he kind of takes the role of a supporter and protector of the Mc and we can see that in general, he is pretty gentle.
He probably wouldn´t be a very bad yandere to be stuck with, I can´t see him ever getting violent with his darling. He strikes me as a protective yandere (something that can be said for most of them) who will do whatever he can to keep you safe while trying to make your stay with him as comfortable as possible.
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Celica
I haven´t quite finished Echoes yet because I´m very bad at finishing games but I agree with your take that she also wouldn´t ever harm her darling. She´s a very devout follower of Mila and I think that same mentality could also apply to her darling. Slowly but surely, she starts seeing them as a divine being worth worshipping. She´s been completely alone for most of her life and after she had to leave Ram Village, she´s been craving more human connections. So when she finally met you, it was like Mila had sent down an angel for her. You were so kind to her, so trusting and good-natured, Celica was immediately fond of you.
She will do whatever she can to aid you in your daily life, she has to repay you for everything you gave her. She´s not very likely to attack other people, even as a yandere, because above else she wants peace. Nonetheless, if a monster or a criminal were to try and attack you, she would kill them no questions asked. No one is allowed to lay their hands on someone as divine as you, she won´t stand for it.
Due to a certain spoilery scene that happens in Echoes, I believe that Celica would also be willing to sacrifice herself for you. If there ever was a point where she would have to choose between your or her own life, she would choose yours without any regrets.
Your survival is of the utmost importance and if that means giving up her life in exchange for yours, then she is happy.
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Sigurd
I have only played the prologue and chapter 1 of FE4 and ragequit when Jamke was killing my units in the forest because I couldn´t get them out in time to recruit him. Oops.
Well from what I know with how his story with Deirdre develops, I believe that Sigurd would fall for you much in the same way: Hard and fast. And if nothing else, Sigurd is stubborn. Once he has his mind set on wanting to make you his, he won´t give up until he finally has you, no matter the consequences. I mean he was literally forbidden from getting with Deirdre and he still did it. He doesn´t care what anyone else says, he doesn´t care if you already have a lover. He knows that the moment you two shared together at your first meeting was magical for both of you. He knows the love between you two is true. And he´s willing to risk it all for you.
It´s a good thing if you actually do feel the same way about him and are single! Because even though he isn´t a bad person, he does conquer several territories in Fe4 without any specific orders to do so. He may not like doing it but if it means he can have you, he would be willing to kill any romantic rivals there might have been ( or any he might have imagined).
Once you´re actually with him, he naturally is very protective of you and doesn´t let too many other people get close to you.
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Leif
Now I have to admit, Leif is probably the character I know the least about here. As I said, I never played Fe4 to the point where you would get him and I haven´t played Thracia either. So most of this is just the vibes I get and a few lines from Heroes.
Now Leif has quite a tragic story and has been driven out of his kingdom when he was still young. Ever since then, he had made efforts to try and reclaim what had been taken from him. Because of that, he also strikes me as someone who would fight for his darling. He knows what it´s like to lose people that are important to you ( his parents) and now that he has clawed his way back from the brink, he doesn´t want the same to happen to you, the person he has decided he wants to spend his life with. He´s pretty desperate to protect you actually.
Still, he´s pretty young and so the love he feels for you very much still is a puppy-love kind of thing. He likes talking to you and finds it comforting to do so. He´s very nice to you and you aren´t really in any danger when being with him. I think being with him isn´t all too bad, he´s just a bit over-protective if anything.
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Roy
I´ll be honest, I know almost nothing about Roy so I´m sorry if this is short😭 Predictably, I haven´t played Binding Blade yet.
He´s also one of the younger emblems here and that shows itself in how hard he tries to impress you. He´s usually pretty dense when it comes to romance but he knows what he feels when he sees you. You make him happy. I feel like he could be a bit hot-headed because of his age but as far as I know, he´s actually one of the few lords that can potentially make peace with the final boss of the game so there definitely is quite a lot of kindness to him as well. He doesn´t really want to pick any fights with people he trusts, all he wants is to be with you and if you don´t resist then honestly, it´s all going to be okay.
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Lyn
Finally, after quite some time, we get to some more games I´ve actually played! And here we go with Lyn! Fe7 was actually the first Fire Emblem I ever played and it really hooked me even back then <3
Now Lyn actually doesn´t strike me as the type of person who would really actively be looking for any sort of romance. She´s lived alone for most of her life and so she does crave some companionship, but romance is something she really doesn´t have any experience in.
When she meets you, she does feel a bit strange but doesn´t put a lot of thought into it. Quickly as you two spend more time together, she really begins to take a liking to you. It´s nice to not be alone and you´re good company. The more you stay together, the more she grows attached to you. If you can fight, she´ll want to fight along your side, if you can´t or are frail in some way, Lyn will prefer you to stand on the sidelines, where it´s safe. She doesn´t know what she would do if you were ever truly harmed. The attacker definitely wouldn´t be living for much longer, that much is sure.
So to sum it up, Lyn is very protective of you and only trusts a select few people with you, anyone else could be a potential danger and she doesn´t want to risk anything.
I think it would actually be kind of tough for darling to figure out that Lyn is obsessed with them. Lyn doesn´t strike me as very physically affectionate. Only if you watch very carefully can you see the way her eyes soften when she gazes at you or the way her hand around the handle of her sword tenses when a particular troublemaker starts hitting you up. She definitely won´t tolerate anyone trying to flirt with you. She´s known you for way longer than they possibly could have, who do they think they are?
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Eirika and Ephraim
I know it´s mainly Eirika and Ephraim is only really present in the special attack but I thought this was more interesting.
So having one person obsessed with you is bad enough but two of them? And they´re siblings too? Things are about to get quite a bit more complicated. The thing is, you´re not really sure if this is better or worse than only having one of them?
Of course, having two people focus all of their attention on you is very overwhelming. It stresses you out, the way they both fuss over you, the way they look at you.
Eirika is definitely the gentler one of the two, speaking to you very softly and taking great care of you. She makes sure you aren´t lacking anything (except your freedom). She also isn´t very fond of conflict and would prefer to avoid it altogether.
Ephraim is the brash and more hot-headed of the two, always picking fights with people he deems a threat ("He doesn´t pick fights he can´t win" or whatever) and generally being bolder with his affections. He doesn´t hesitate to throw his arm over your shoulder to show off to others that you´re his while Eirika prefers to simply hold your hand in her own.
Them being siblings also causes conflict from time to time. After all, what kind of siblings never have any petty squabbles? Suddenly one of them believes that the other has been getting a bit more attention from you than them and the arguing begins. Wild accusations from Ephraim that Eirika is coddling you too much while Eirika complains about the brutish ways in which Ephraim disposes of rivals. It can get annoying really fast but it´s also something that you could potentially try to use to your advantage.
Playing clear favorites with them might make them argue with each other, potentially giving you an opening to try to make your escape while they´re distracted. Do be very careful with this though because once they realize that you´re gone, they´ll quickly get over whatever argument they were having and work together to find you again. Siblings tend to have petty fights with each other but they will have each other´s backs when it comes to the important things. They *will* find you again, who knows what dangers you might be getting yourself into?
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Ike
Similarly to Lyn, I can´t really see Ike as someone who is very interested in romance. In Radiant Dawn, he only has two paired endings, which isn´t a whole lot honestly ( and they´re kind of vague on how romantic they actually end up being). So maybe he would be more of a platonic sort of yandere? He cares a great deal about his friends and his family of the Greil Mercenaries and he tries his utmost to protect them. It would be much the same for his darling.
Ike wouldn´t be very physically or vocally loving in the traditional sense, he strikes me as someone who would struggle a fair deal with expressing his feelings, especially if we´re talking POR Ike where he is still fairly young. In the end, his confession would be pretty blunt, a simple "I like you." or "You´re important to me." maybe but nothing flowery or dramatic, that just isn´t the kind of person he is.
That being said, Ike cares a great deal about your well-being, even if he isn´t all that great at putting it into words. So to show you that, he does the one thing he does best: Protecting you. Ike is a very strong and capable fighter and so he will be quick to dispose of anyone that tries harming you. I don´t see him as someone that would try to isolate his darling however, especially not the Greil Mercenaries. These people are his family, he trusts them dearly and he would want you to grow connections with them and enjoy being around them. It would shatter his heart if you didn´t like being around them.
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Micaiah
Micaiah I see as another worshipper type of yandere. She´s had a rough life so far, only having very few people around her that she could call friends in the Dawn Brigade while fighting for the liberation of Daein. It´s a lonely life, even with Yune whispering into her ear that one day, she will meet the partner of her dreams, the one to make her happy.
And then, on a day like any other, she finds you. It´s a very unremarkable meeting, one you wouldn´t have thought much of afterwards, but to her, it was like all the stars aligned, as if all of her life and past suffering suddenly had a purpose. She was completely starstruck, a loud pounding in her chest when she laid her gaze on you. At that very moment, Micaiah knew that you were the one Yune had been telling her about all along. And so, she vows to let you know just how much you mean to her.
As a yandere, Micaiah is very caring and thinks of you as a higher being, someone who has more worth than any other mortal walking this earth. You are special to her and so she will be damned if anything were to happen to you. She refuses to allow it. If you were ever in any mortal danger, Micaiah wouldn´t hesitate to use Sacrifice on you to transfer over her own life energy to you.
But while she is very nice and caring with you, Micaiah can be quite a bit more snarky and ruthless than you might have initially thought. She doesn´t shy away from making negative or rude comments to people she thinks you spend too much time around. (Remember that scene where she snarkily calls Ike "the father of Sothe´s children" because Sothe talked about him so much? Yeah.) She´s also willing to do bad things if she feels like she has to. If it´s for you, then no crime is bad enough for her not to consider it. She doesn´t like hurting people but she will if her hand is forced.
Also, can we talk about her having a goddess on her side? Yeah, you´re going to have a very difficult time trying to get away from her anytime soon.
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Lucina
Lucina is someone that I think actually has great potential to be a yandere. She comes from a ruined future, a world where all her loved ones and friends died and the entire world is doomed. Now she has travelled back in time to change fate and make things right.
A particularly tragic possibility would be to have her witness the death of her darling in her future. It was an event that deeply scarred her forever and one that she is now desperate to avoid. She can´t allow you to die again, she can´t let it happen a second time. She wouldn´t be able to go on if she ever had to experience that amount of grief again.
So when Lucina finally makes it back in time, her top priority is finding you again. To do that, she has to go back in time quite a bit. Maybe she makes it back to a time where you two aren´t dating yet, or maybe even back to when you hadn´t even met each other yet. You´re so overwhelmed and honestly confused when you´re just going along with your day when suddenly, a young woman rushes towards you and engulfes you in a crushing hug as she cries into your shirt about how much she has missed you.
It´s quite terrifying honestly and you don´t know how to react other than trying to rip yourself out of her grip, which only makes her cling onto you even harder. Her explaining to you that she´s from the future where the entire world has ended and you, her lover, had tragically died and that she now traveled back in time to make things right, doesn´t really put your mind at ease either. I mean, who would honestly believe that?
But no matter what you say, Lucina is determined to not repeat past mistakes. She had been too careless, letting you roam around freely without her at your side, it´s what led to you dying! She won´t let it happen again!
Lucina will try and be sweet to you, knowing how hard this must be for you to believe, but she won´t give you a choice in this. She´s going to stay with you and keep you safe no matter what. She´ll follow you wherever you go with her blade at the ready, prepared to strike at anyone who tries to take you away from her again.
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Corrin
Corrin has lived a very sheltered life for the most part, never really leaving the Nohrian castle. Because of this, they had many opportunities to picture what life outside the castle could possibly look like. What else was out there? What adventures or new experiences could wait for them there? Yes, they were always loved by their Nohrian siblings but they couldn´t help but yearn all the same.
Maybe being read some romance books in their childhood led to Corrin developing a fantasy of one day meeting their ideal partner, the one that would shake up their entire world, the one they would spend the rest of their life with. They had dreamed about it a lot in the comforts of their own room, delving into daydreams about what meeting you for the first time might be like.
And then they leave the castle for the first time and they meet you. And just like they had always imagined, Corrin feels themselves immediately lovestruck when you send a smile their way. This was it. This is the person they´re meant to be with, they just know it!
They´ll immediately be very friendly and way too trusting of someone who is basically a complete stranger. But they just can´t help it, their sheltered life hasn´t really helped them in growing a healthy sense of suspicion. No, instead the thought of you possibly doing something shady is completely off their mind.
Ever since that first meeting, Corrin would want to see you again every day. It´s the first real human interaction they had with anyone outside of the Nohrian royal family and the servants in the castle and they´re hooked on you. Listening to you talk about your mundane life is so exciting to them, both because they love listening to you speak and because it is genuinely interesting to them to know what a normal person´s life might look like.
And soon enough, they just won´t leave you alone. They´re sweet and their curiosity is kind of charming, but they are so very annoyingly clingy. They will pout and beg you to stay around for just a bit longer when you tell them that you have to leave. After some time they start inviting you over to the castle and you can´t really refuse to go when a royal carriage is standing before your home one day.
And then suddenly, one day you just aren´t allowed to leave anymore.
" The servants have set up your own personal room for you. I made sure that everything was just to your liking! Now we can spend even more time together, isn´t that simply wonderful", Corrin will simply tell you one day and then it is a done deal. Whatever your life was before, you will have to abandon it to fulfill Corrin´s dream of a happy married life alongside the person they adore the most.
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Byleth
Honestly, I´ve kind of strayed completely away from trying to rank them as yanderes ( sorry about that) but I agree that kind of everything about Byleht makes them a scary yandere.
First of all, they´re a trained and experienced mercenary, they have all the fighting prowess they might need to keep their darling in check or make sure that nothing happens to them.
Then, they have their affiliation with the church and a certain position of power. Whether you are a student or not, Byleth is still a respected figure in the monastery and has all the benefits that might bring. She has connections to the Knights of Seiros and even with Lady Rhea herself. If you ever were to run away ( or rather, if you were to be stolen away by bandits, is what they would tell everyone afterwards), several knights or even their students would be sent out to look for you. And do you really think you could get away with so many people looking for you? You´ll be back right by their side within 3 days.
Then there´s also the whole... a goddess is in their head talking to them and them having the ability to turn back time thing. Yeah, you´re very much screwed here. How are you supposed to fight back against someone who can simply turn back time? With this ability, they have so many chances to choose the right words when talking to you or to get rid of someone in secret, without you ever knowing these rewinds even happened. In-game we might have a limited amount of uses but I don´t think it´s ever been confirmed that this is actually something that Byleth needs to adhere to in the story.
And then last but not least, there´s the fact that Byleth is just impossible to read. They don´t show any emotions in their facial expressions and their voice is mostly monotone. You would not be able to tell just how obsessed they are with you from interacting with them. You think you´re just having a friendly tea party with them and suddenly you find yourself drugged and locked up in their room.
And even when they finally have you, they´re just kind of creepy with them staring at you for long amounts of time while not saying anything. They´re not very affectionate either.
But what help could you possibly count on now when everyone at the monastery loves the professor?
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theerurishipper · 9 months
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Hi~ Hope you have a lovely day. I want to get your opinions on my rant lol and ask.
Marinette is such a disappointment of a lead female character in a western magical girl cartoon. She isn't a good leader and all her team consist of yes men and women and sidekick Chat Noir where her real partner Alya is standing over to the side. I liked her in the first two season and maybe some in s3 but the s4 and onward just got to me ngl. It's her world and we're all just living in it. Miraculous is so weird when it comes to team dynamics because I get she's guardian but I really wished it were someone else and not her because she chooses people she already get along great with. It fun for team dynamics to add be different and broader.
The whole she's just 14 the fandom spouts only goes so far how many messes do you do until you realise you need to own up to them even at that age when you should know better on your conduct ?
I get it hard to communicate but onwards I always thought the bigger of the two in the conflict was her because of her secrecy and her controlling tendencies. I disliked it so much in the ephemeral episode and her betraying her partner disgusted me. Sorry to those who like or defend her character this much but I can't stan or like a character that does this much crap to a friend let alone a love interest and then gloss over or minimize it and not be called out for it. Like, are people standards that low they think she's a good leader or a good proper representation on feminism when this show reeks of misogyny and misandry. She's the ultimatum voice for Astruc.
A communication issue with her Chat was fine a long time ago but now in s5 she crossed it hell nah how do people still support a ship with her knowing she followed Hawkmoth command for Adrien. I literally can't anymore with this show. Every guy she likes gotta be so 100 percent in effort and like in the Shadybug special him always comforting her makes me so jaded whenever she cries what about a change in dynamics had we ever seen her comfort him in turn how are people invested in this ship? Like that time in the bench and she just thought of ways to woo or give presents instead of just comforting him is so sad to watch.
She really followed in Master Fu steps. The bar is in hell and she crossed it in the finale. There is no excuse no handwaving it away and i know in my heart they gonna minimize it for Adrien own good. Everything is for his own good huh? What good is it rooting for a ship that just reeks of pity points. Like, she was never my favorite but who knew 8 years ago she'd pull a stunt like this and people bending over and doing mental gymnastics to rationalise this insanity. She really is a good foil to Gabriel ironically to bad she has no sway in this family drama we call the Agreste.
I know she has good intentions and it's not wrong for her to wish to save her prince but like thats all that is intention. Her actions are also important and the effects she's done is so bad that if she weren't the Main character and we haven't spent the chunk of the majority in her pov alone she'd be disliked.
I feel like compared to other respective series Winx Club s1-3 Bloom, Danny Phantom, Ben 10, Totally Spies they have it much more harder and so many more all show the consequences of your actions and how you do them right and they're her age. I feel like whenever someone bring up consequences it's like people in this particular fandom think we do it to punish Marinette but no I just never ever saw it properly done in this show because she's very coddled in the narrative. I don't see other MC as coddled as her before in a show where when they MESS UP it's actually integral and important.
Rant over.
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You encapsulated all my thoughts perfectly, anon. I've said so many times before that I loved Marinette from Season 1-3 and even during Season 4 as it aired. What made me fall out of love with her character post Season 4 was the utter lack of acknowledgement of her actions and the insistence in portraying her as in the right at all times. Like you said, it's not just your intentions that matter. Your actions and the effects that they have on the people around you also matter. The writers don't seem to understand this, and it hits Marinette's character worst of all. She had so much potential to be such a great character, which is why I feel so sad seeing just how badly the writing failed her. Marinette deserved better.
Thank you for your ask!
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forgottenroisin · 4 months
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Malconaire Samain Traditions
AUTHOR'S NOTES
ok so!!! before i get into this too much, some author's notes, starting w fun facts abt irl samhain (which i wrote samain above bc that's the old irish spelling and we're mostly going w old irish spellings here -- caoimhe rather than keeva, etc) that im running w here are as follows: ancient celtic tradition holds w largely two types of major celebration on their quartered calendar: Beltaine and Samhain which occurred on opposite times of the year, and Imbolc and Lughnasa which also straddled the year. The latter set marked important crop rotations: sowing and harvesting the fields.
The former, however, are said to have been dedicated to the movements of cattle herds and their shephards. At Beltaine, the shephards and their flocks would wrap up their half year of having held their beasts at home amongst the village in the valleys where they were safe from winter snows. at samhain, the shephards would do the opposite: begin driving their herds home across the treacherous montain passes from where they had been grazing in upland pastures for six months, and heading home to the valleys. Both Samhain and Beltane were seen as liminal or threshold holidays. Yet, they were also seen as inverse of one another, with Beltane being a festival for the living and Samhain for the dead.
Many Irish and British Neolithic tombs are aligned such that they are illuminated by the light of the sun as it over Samhain and Imbolc.
In Celtic belief, all spirits appear to be interlinked, w ghosts alternately appearing as faries or gods and vice versa, so I've used guardians, gods, and ghosts here where I thought most appropriate as stand ins but yeah this is just my interpretation??? Anyway, fairy mounds are often literally burial mounds so make of that what you will! I did ultimately choose to include ghosts but I strongly considered restricting it to purely guardians and gods, but yeah! Lmk if you think I should go back and restrict it to just those two!
Samhain in Ireland and Scotland are pr similar, so there'll def bc riffs from both cultures but, bc Rosie's name means little rose, and the very related ancient Welsh tradition of Calan Gaeaf ties in both roses AND ivy v strongly, I'm gonna be pulling a lot from that, as well.
I'm also gonna steal some Venetian St. Mark's Day beliefs and practices and English St. Mark's Eve ones. I have zero excuse except that it dovetails really nicely, and that its frankly sooo fitting for our Miss Rosie.
all the 'tales' here are inspired and even drawn directly from ancient lore!
Cleansing fire and light, cleaning, divination, guising (dressing up and trick or treat-esque shenanigans), dancing, mummery, saining (blessings), feasting, belief that spirits (good and evil, human and fae and godly and demoic, etc) walk amongst us that night, and veneration of the dead are common themes, and it is believed that it is this time when the veil is thinnest between the various otherworlds and our own.
Samhain is a last deep breath before the plunge. It is a time of preparing for the death of winter to come. Interestingly, Samain, the Old Irish root word for Samhain, is thought to come from an ancient word for 'summer,' though it was celebrated in November. No one knows why, but imma lean into it as a rebirth kind of symbolism -- yknow that 'spring in winter' sort of concept. Another explanation is that Samain comes from yet another ancient word that means 'reuninion, assembly,' and imma lean into that, too.
There was initially a fortnight of celebrations for Samain, which overtime got cut down to our modern night of Halloween, so idk how long this celebration should last hahaha and i deliberately left the timeline vague bc of that
Conveniently, I'd already hc'ed that Rosie actually views autumn as more a time of rebirth than spring (weirdly enough, it was actually one of my v first hc's for her!), and all this will allow me to tie it in nicely with her character theme of wonder <3
(Also disclaimer that you might notice some similarities between this and my TFW not!halloween traditions in which case...no you didn't ;DDDDD its just that i was inspired by the same sources hahaha except here i pulled in welsh and venetian things as my secondary instead of ancient roman and greek things aklsjdflkjdfdf)
SAMAIN TRADITIONS
like her sisters, rosie was born around the time of an ancient astairan holiday, causing the celebrations to overlap in malconaire
hers falling near samhain, an autumnal festival celebrating the midpoint between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, and is held to mark the beginning of winter
it is said that it is at this time that the veil between this world and the other is said to be at its thinnest and, thus, the guardians are feted in an effort to strengthen them during this most dangerous period, w seers and all the ppl of astaira gathering to do whatever they can to help
it is a time of unity and mutual faith, generosity and thanksgiving, of finding strength and hope and cheer in ourselves and in one another even as things grow their darkest
as twilight gleams its last, all the fires in the region are put out and a great bonfire lit by a seer at the local shrine. from this protective blaze, every fire in the region is relit so that cleansing, protective fire burns for the guardians against the gods in every home, every shrine, and every gathering place across all malconaire
it is said that on this night, sometimes even non-seers can hear the whisperings of the guardians -- and that, at times -- the howls of the gods echo across the world, but beware to any who hears ought, for gods can appear and speak as any being they wish and, it is said, one must never trust a stranger who arrives upon samhain who will not go into the light
according to ancient tradition, anyone who believes w a true heart may wield some of the powers of a true seer because the veil is so thin, and in addition to being able to hear the voices of gods and guardians, can also sometimes hear the voices of their deceased loved ones
sometimes this is said to be a trick of the evil gods, but many believe that deceased loved ones do in fact arise
in addition to the fires, many gifts of food and drink and harvest and flowers etc are offered to the guardians, in addition to gifts of delights and entertainments such as dances and plays
as it is said that ghosts rise from their graves at this time, whether crossing over from an otherworld or revived by the power of the wicked gods, welcoming feasts are held in every home and, during the feasts, in addition to offerings made to the guardians, places are set for dead members of the family who may be visiting their loved ones while they are able
hoping to thwart any wicked spirits or gods who might be walking the earth, many wear a guise each night when the protective power of the sun is snuffed out
bc it is said that everyone may have use of a seers powers, it is also tradition to go from house to house and give offerings and blessings back and forth there, and this is often when fires from the great shrine bonefire are brought to each home, as well
following feasting in homes, there is also a tradition of gathering around the great bonfire in the evening and sharing sweets
while there, dancing and plays go on with gift-giving continuing well into the night
traditionally, one carves their name into a stone and then tosses it into the fire. those stones that had had the name burned clean off of it will receive good fortune. those whose names are still writ upon the stones will do well to take care over the course of the winter, with death or misfortune said to hunt them
Myths, legends, and ghost stories are all frequently told around the bonfire, with some tales being considered specific to Samain, and others simply tall tales or simply invented stories, but whatever their origin, stories play a highly important role on Samain, both as offerings and as entertainment. i'll include one or two as a sample somewhere in here
traditionally, all across astaira, peace was delcared during samain and it was a great time of unification, of treaties, of mending fences great and small, neighbor to neighbor and nation to nation, alike, w any conflict or even grudge, save that against the gods, being seen as borderline blasphemous, and an insult to the guardians for all efforts must be communally poured into that conflict at this time
in this same vein, it is a time for housekeeping, both great and small -- houses are cleaned, spick and span, and great councils are called by the rulers to undergo yearly reforms
anyone who broke laws during this time would, therefore, be banished for the rest of the year for the grievous offence of having wounded the goodwill of the guardians
traditionally, astairans avoid crossroads during samain, said to be haunted by nefarious deadmen and gods
on the morning samain, young and unmarried people traditionally go out into the fields and collect ivy and autumn roses. traditionally, girls collect ivy while boys pick roses, after which they come together again, with the girls presenting the boys they admire with ivy and the boys presenting roses to the girls they fancy. if a couple's presentations are mutual, they then wind them together and create crowns of roses-and-ivy to wear. at the end of the day, each girls collects all the roses she has been given, and each boy all his ivy and mingle them till they do not know who gave which. then they toss one into the bonfire for the guardians are return home, placing the remaining plants under their pillow. it is said that they will then dream of their future and, if they remember any of the dream, some of it will come true in the coming year. it is also sometimes said that if they dream of a particular other person, they will likely wed that person.
unmarried women are instructed to darken their rooms in the evening, and then a married woman can look into the mirror to see the face of the future groom. If a skull appears in the mirror, the unmarried woman is meant to die within the year. If a future groom cannot be seen, unmarried women are instructed to peel an apple and throw the skin over their shoulders. The shape the apple skin makes is said to show the first initial of her future husband
just before midnight, any remaining children are bundled off to bed and, then, it is tradition for those who wish to see to gather on the holy ground of the shrine, for surrounded by the guardians is the only way one may safely witness what is to come. those who do not wish to see must return quickly home and close all their windows and close their eyes and try to sleep, for any not protected by the guarian who looks upon it shall die on the spot. those who stay at the shrine may see, but they must maintain absolute silence or it is said they shall never see again. at midnight, the dead walk. a whole squadron of them troop by, but if one should spot oneself or any known to one trooping with them, that person is doomed to die within the year. some say the cause of death may even be observed, drowned victims soaked to the bone or hanged men marching with nooses around their necks, and such the like.
games and friendly competitions around the bonfire are common, such as dares and apple bobbing
two hazelnuts roast near a fire; one named for the person roasting them and the other for the person the desire. If the nuts jump away from the heat, it is a bad sign, but if the nuts roast quietly, it foretells an excellent match. 
Items were hidden in food—usually a cakes and breads — and portions of it served out at random. A person's future is foretold by the item they happened to find; for example, a ring means marriage, and a coin means wealth
A salty oatmeal bannock was baked; the person ate it in three bites and then went to bed in silence without anything to drink. This was said to result in a dream in which their future spouse offers them a drink to quench their thirst
Egg whites are dropped in water, and the shapes foretell the number of future children
SAMPLE OF SAMAIN TALES
story of a seer who rushed up to the door to the otherworld in the repulsion of gods, but closed the door as the gods were sealed off on his thumb. he then sucked on his wounded thumb and, from that moment, was said to have gained otherworldly wisdom but the cost was that he was, too, a link that the gods had to this world so he ultimately sealed himself, too, away inside a tree using their own magic to bind himself so that he could harm no one, but it is said that the gods have no mercy and that they force his ghost to walk the world on the night of Samain and sow the seeds of their ill-will for the year to come.
the monstrous gods used to demand two-thirds of the ppl's crops and livestock and even children during samain before they were sealed away, causing many to starve
a certain god, it is said, would command three men to go to a certain goddess every Samain to seduce her. when they inevitably failed, he would take their lives and force them to walk the world as his undead vessels for the rest of the year, wreaking untold havoc upon the world till at least one did succeed and the goddess gave him her magical garter. before the god killed his two companions, the goddess' lover, said sometimes to be from the snail house and alternately from the frog house, warned the vile god that it would spell his own doom if he struck those men down. laughing, the evil god did so, and so the lover used the magic girdle to fight and defeat him and help the guardians seal him away ((fun fact, this is drawn from a story said to have been the origin of the bog men...hence the frog or snail house being involved!))
one samain night, before the veil was raised against the gods, the king offered a prize to any who could tie a band around a hanged man's ankle. each challenger after the other fled in terror to the king's hall but one. when the band was tied, the dead man asked for a drink so, feeling pity for the hanged man, the challenger carried him on his back, stopping at three houses. when they entered the third, the dead man drank and spat it on the householders, killing them. returning to the gallows to bind him again, the challenger spotted an army of the gods burning the king's hall and slaughtering those inside. the challenger pursued the host through a portal into an otherworld where he learned that what he had seen since touching the hanged man was only a vision of what would happen the next samain unless something was done. he returned to the hall and warned the king, and astaira began to arm themselves against the gods who plotted against them.
another tale tells of a man who fell deeply in love w a goddess before the veil was raised against them. so in love was he that he followed her to an otherworld, despite her warnings that if he followed her, he could never return home. they lived happily together for two years before he began to long for home. watching him pine away, the goddess agreed to allow him to visit the mortal realm on her own horse, but only if he solemnly swore never to dismount the horse which would take him there and then back to her. he hastily agreed and started on his way. yet, when he arrived, he found that in the mortal realm two hundred years, and not two, had passed and that everyone he loved had died. distressed to see their graves, he fell from the horse to kiss them, but as soon as he stepped upon the ground, mortality found him and he grew old and died on the spot, collapsing as no more than bones and dust upon the earth of the graves of those he loved.
according to legend, the tradition of presenting roses and ivy to a lover originated when a man of low social standing is said to have fallen in love with a lady of house malconaire known for wearing ivy in her hair. in order to win her father's approval -- who said he might only wed his daughter if he could prove his love for her was true -- he became involved in a distant war. he was mortally wounded in battle, but managed to pluck a rose from a nearby rosebush for his loved one. a companion was entrusted with returning the blood-stained rose to his lover, who cast the ivy from her hair and wore the rose until the day she died. from their graves, buried beside each other, ivy and roses still grow.
CHARACTER HC'S
it was during samain, many years ago, that domhnall and later his heir, eilionora, offered roderick a treaty but both efforts he rebuffed. to the first effort to achieve peace he did not reply. yet when eilia tried again, he did, sending her only a piece of paper that bore simply a list of the countries he'd already conquered, with astaira's name listed at the bottom. eilia did not try again.
on the samain before bran and sorcha began courting, he decided that he would woo her with the traditional roses. sadly, however, he wasn't able to get out into the fields until late and, when he finally did, all that were left were very, very small roses, indeed. fortunately, she had the same idea and presented him with ivy as well. when she saw the wee rosebuds, which he presented with some embarrassment, saying he ought to have given her something far greater, she laughed and declared that someday he would -- if they ever had a daughter born in autumn, her name should be roisin, for the first gift he had ever given to her.
last samain, rosie presented edmund with ivy, forgetting he problably knew nothing of the tradition (and would likely consider it heresy, if he did!) realizing too late that he probably didn't know what she was telling him, she laughed and made a joke of it, weaving him a ivy crown, anyway, saying that if he meant to rule over astaira, someday, he best pay attention as he would have to know how to make a flower crown. she never mentioned it again.
bran threw eggs into water with sorcha the year they were married. when her egg predicted four children and his six, he was terrified it might mean he would outlive her and she laughed and told him that was a ridiculous thing to suppose, for he'd come to their marriage with two children already: his raven, and malconaire.
the year of sorcha's death, she stayed out to watch the ghosts walk, hoping for a last glimpse of a loved one whom she had just lost, while bran took the children home to sleep. she was drawn and white when bran awoke the next morning and, though she made jokes of it when he mentioned it and proceeded about her day, she seemed distracted, but would say nothing of what she had seen. at the time, bran only assumed that she was distressed about her loss, but after she died, he always wondered if perhaps she had seen her own spirit on the march that night.
though usually done privately for their parents, rosie always enjoyed mumming with her sisters at samain, telling tall tales and dramatic ones alike amongst themselves
while she hasn't done any mummery since childhood, as she imagines its likely not dignified for a lady of her age and position, she does still enjoy guising and generally dresses as favorite heroines from fairy tales and other stories. she is convinced cassandra would enjoy this as well and wants to bring her to such an event one of these years. no o ne can seem to convince her this is terrible idea.
cillian stays out late every year to watch the souls pass and, every year, he informs saoirse that he has seen her go by, but she says she'll have her revenge one of these days, because someday he ~will see her, and then he'll be sorry when he has to tell her so and she laughs in his face.
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jaydenix · 28 days
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Why Mirta is my favourite Winx Club character
I mean, the aesthetic helps. I like redheads and goths, which she is both of, also she has that black sleeveless top which seems to keep popping in my "literally me" characters (Susie from Deltarune, Dipper from Gravity Falls, and Hilda from Pokemon B&W)
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So what do I see in Mirta?... Idk I like her ig, what? I don't have to have super well-thought opinions every time, she's just cool! And you know it!
But I guess a little extra analysis wouldn't hurt would it:
So as we all know, Winx Club's witches aren't the best. The show takes a very simplistic view that fairies are innately good, and witches are innately evil. This essentialist view has been critiqued extensively overtime and for good reason: it's a major missed opportunity to have such a narrow idea of what fairies and witches are, and also is just not very original. Witches and witchcraft in media have been portrayed extensively as just simply evil with no real explanation. Winx Club could have chosen to have taken a more interesting and original interpretation, but true to the shows mission statement of being brutally average, it doesn't. I've got some of my own ideas of how they could've handled this and I'll probably share those in a future post. But sufficed to say: Winx Club's witches are definitely a disappointment (for a more comprehensive look at witches, see Unicorn of War's video on YouTube about the subject).
But then we have Mirta, the one good witch supposedly. Bar the Trix, the ancestral witches, and maybe Griffin she's probably the most important witch in the show at least earlier on. The fact that she's actually different by being good invites intrigue to her character, she actually believes in something which is really quite cool and a nice standout amongst the rest. The Trix clearly are the mean girls in Cloud Tower with other witches wanting to be like them or to be friends with them. Lucy, Mirta's best friend, is in this camp and is disillusioned with her looks and supposed status and seeks to remedy this by trying to be more like the Trix. Mirta on the other hand doesn't follow this dogma and tries to convince Lucy to stay clear of them. This is great, though as I've said it would've been nice if the show portrayed witches more broadly as being a bit less black and white. Her assistance to the Winxes was cool too informing them of the Trix' plans and actions. Wow! Isn't that so awesome! She was shaping up to be an interesting and well-developed and fleshed out side character and then they remembered it was season 1 and that's illegal so they turn her into a pumpkin so they can forget about her. Why? Because fuck you! That's why! Though seriously, I don't mind in theory she was turned into a pumpkin but like really? She could've been a really fun part of the equation throughout the latter parts of season 1 as like the Winxes' witch counterpart. ALSO, when they bring her back to Alfea in pumpkin form, did they not think to like, ask Faragonda to turn her back? The Trix did the spell pre-dragonflame I highly doubt it's anything Faragonda or at the very least Griffin couldn't handle which I'd imagine they'd probably want to inform her of what'd happen considering she's one of her students?! Man if I was Mirta I'd be PISSED off. #JusticeForMirta. Eventually she's freed from her pumpkinhood and once season 1 concludes she decides to become a fairy and transfers to Alfea. Like with becoming a pumpkin: I don't hate that she does this on principle, but I do think it says a lot about how the show writes its witches that the one they make out to be good-natured ends up choosing to become a fairy. Like the view of fairies and witches is THAT rigid.
Though I also do think it's a fun transgender analogy, the idea of being able to transition from witch to fairy and vice versa. The 4Kids dub takes this idea much more seriously with Mirta being described as "transmagic" and Darcy also states "she claims to be fairy who just so be happened to be born in the wrong body", this appears to be a very intentional parallel to the "born in the wrong body" idea that is often used to explain what being trans feels like*, and this was back in 2007 for crying out loud. Additionally Mirta and Lucy are probably the closest thing the main show has to a queer couple, obviously not canon by any means, but they have a very strong bond and are shown to dance together at the end of season 2 (or was it 3 I forgot). Mirta therefore arguably has the most going for her out of any character when it comes to Queer representation.
*Just to be clear, I know plenty of trans people dislike and discredit the "born in the wrong body" narrative, I'm just pointing it out because it does seem this is what the scriptwriters were aiming for.
I like Mirta a lot because of what she could have been. I really think she's an awesome character who had a lot of potential to be fleshed out way more and serve a more involved role in her allyship with the Winxes in season 1 and beyond. It would've been so cool and she deserved way better. I imagine many would be wondering if I think she should've been part of the Winx as she's probably the second most commonly proposed member besides Roxy to be one, and the answer to that is fairly definitive no. Six to me has always felt like a natural limit for these kinds of groups, any more and it starts to be a bit much, which is why I'm glad Roxy didn't become a proper part of the group when season 5 came around (though she still deserved more than what she got). Simply adding Mirta the Winx would ignore the problem that she doesn't get fleshed out enough as a character. Maybe it could've worked in some alternate timeline but she could've been a useful asset to the Winx and the show as a whole whilst not necessarily being a member.
So that's why I like Mirta, she's a fun character who I will defend that she should've gotten more until the day I die. This gay little goth redhead has been my favourite for a long time and I don't see that changing any time soon. Keep stanning Mirta people.
P.S: I really didn't expect this post to get this long LOL I genuinely was gonna post just the "idk I like her" bit and then move on but I was like "ehh, I'll write a little bit" and then I spent 2 hours writing way this whole thing it's 3am I need spiritual assistance okay BYE.
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bloodgulchblog · 2 months
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Important question.
Which halo book is the most gay
Sorry this took a minute, I've been dying on the job lately and this ended up longer than intended. (I am under so much stress and writing absurd amounts about Halo canon is enrichment for me.)
First of all: Is anything in Halo hard-canon, completely undeniable, text-only no subtext, gay? The answer is: not much.
Cards on the table, jokes to the side, Halo is overall very sexless and, when it remembers sexuality exists and maybe a character would have a feeling about that, it's usually heterosexual. Halo was born in the early 2000s and is one of those properties that wears a "mature" coat of paint but knows that a huge percentage of its audience is probably teenagers and thus it's very scared of what would happen if their parents got mad. (This was even true when they were still making the games M rated.) The games have a lot of incidental dialogue with the marines and sangheili allies but it's the kind of thing of thing you know people let skate in 2007 because lol gay, hilarious.
It's one of those things where the only way to square it with, you know, the fact queer people exist in reality, is that queer people existing is commonplace and not taboo ergo it's not brought up. This isn't a great patch job and fixes nothing, but these are the hoops available to jump through if this is your chosen circus and you're trying to have a good time. Do the tigers at the circus have a good time? Probably not, actually. Let's move on.
There are two instances of the written Halo canon specifically and undeniably mentioning gay characters. (...Or at least there have been two for the longest damn time. If I blinked and missed something recent y'all should yell in the notes. The gay couple they kill in the TV show doesn't count.) They are both supporting cast characters in short stories written by the same author, Tobias S. Buckell, for each of the two short story anthologies.
The older story is "Dirt" in the Evolutions anthology, and there are two gay women in it. The first is Felicia:
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The second is Allison:
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Both of these characters die (Allison dies in an attack that happens literally seconds after this moment, but Felicia is important through the story until she goes). "Dirt" is good, contains the first mention of the Rookie, the most detail we've been given on ODST training, and is a love letter to Contact Harvest so it's following up on the messy pre-Covenant insurrection vs CMA vs UNSC tensions we haven't seen in as much detail since.
The second story is "Oasis" in the Fractures anthology and there is much much less here. The protagonist of "Oasis" is a girl whose remote desert community is being ravaged by a virus, and she's the only one able to set out across the desert in search of help (where she gets caught up in some infighting among the planet's Sangheili).
Nearer the start, she finds one of her neighbors burning the body of his partner, who has died of the virus. I'm not going to post it, it's very sad. They're one-scene characters and one of them is dead before we meet him.
Tobias S. Buckell is the only Halo writer who has given us canonically gay characters, and they're only supporting cast in short stories. I can't know why exactly (fuck if I know what has happened internally on Halo) but the why socially (society homophobic) is pretty obvious.
Honestly, I think the only other direct mention is there's a bit in the first YA novel where one of the kids teases another about whether a third is "his boyfriend" because they've been talking a lot and he's like no stoooop!! about it.
Anyway.
If we have to choose a gayest Halo book based on actual mention of gay people, the award goes to Halo: Evolutions because it has one story where a lesbian is a major character.
Having crowned this dubious king, let's move on to the subtext. It's fine. We're all on tumblr, we all understand having to descend into these mines to have fun.
There are a lot of very gay moments in some Halo stories. Certainly not enough to recommend a whole book to someone, because these are always incidental, but hey. I'm a master at chewing the scraps off the bones.
I'll lead with trying to answer the original question: What is the gayest Halo book?
I think to me, the most sustained gay vibe in a written-out Halo story is whatever was going on between Romeo and Dutch in the short run comic Helljumper.
The actual text of Helljumper is: Dutch has put in for a transfer to a non-combat post in order to be closer to his wife, Gretchen. Romeo is really upset about this and they have conflict about this through a big high octane ODST adventure that ends with Romeo saying "hey Dutch I've put in for a transfer too" while Dutch goes "oh uh, I talked to Gretchen about it and I canceled my transfer request..."
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It's the intensity of Romeo's hurt feelings, and the obvious fondness between the characters. I'm not saying "Romeo/Dutch real." I don't like Romeo a whole lot (mostly due to later outings in the Buck novels) and Dutch is definitely very married to Gretchen. I don't actually care that much. But for the space of time where I was reading Helljumper thinking about it that way added more emotional interest and made sense.
For things that only last for moments, I have a little collection of bits and pieces.
First: The essence of the Lord of Admirals Forthencho oversharing with our poor boy Chakas about his Didact feelings. (From Primordium.)
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A moment where you know how bad the Arbiter and the Rtas 'Vadum wish they could be reunited one day, from Shadow of Intent:
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Also I think the strongest "oh you could build a romance out of that" moment with the Arbiter about the Chief is actually him fully prepared to tell Locke to fuck off over him in Halo 5, but having that conviction in the Arbiter's warrior crush on the Master Chief makes passages like the below (in Outcasts) fun:
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Uhuh Thel you are commissioning art of him in your home? Tell us more.
(Yes, I'm playing, I know the saga wall is an important Sangheili cultural piece, I know-)
Zita, you may ask, do you have even a crumb for the lesbians?
Alright boss, best I got is probably Adriana-111 making tea for Melody Azikiwe after the Big Stressful Book Events have concluded (from Halo: Envoy)
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Okay.
I think there might be more, so everyone feel free to use this post to shout out your favorite spots that you think are better if you read them gay.
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bonesandthebees · 1 year
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Ok, so, I've never watched any of the qsmp streams, but I read your rambling about it and read your one shots abt it, and uh do you have any advice on how to get into watching the streams? Like where do I start? How to catch up on missed lore? Stuff like that
well there are a lot of different POVs you can choose to catch up on and which one(s) you choose will definitely affect your understanding of what's going on. if you want to just catch up on the primary major story beats overall (federation lore, main egg lore) this channel on youtube has made 3 videos so far summarizing the lore as it goes on. I haven't watched these videos myself so I can't say how accurate they are or if they leave anything important out, but I've heard positive things!
now if you wanna catch up on more individual lore/character dynamics and all that then you're facing a bit more of a challenge. I believe quackity has most of his qsmp vods uploaded on his vod channel so you can definitely check those out for his story stuff. if you wanna understand my fics better wilbur has the smallest number of qsmp vods out of the cc's at least somewhat tied into the storyline so it shouldn't be too hard to catch up on his stuff. his vod from day 1 of the qsmp has one of the funniest moments from any wilbur stream ever (yes I am referring to that moment he was talking to max) but I don't think you need to watch a ton from any of the day 1 POV's after the first hour or so.
while phil is the pov I watch the most for qsmp, he's definitely less involved in the plot. but unlike what I keep seeing some people on twt and tumblr say, he DOES participate in the rp and does care about the lore. he just doesn't go out of his way to get super involved in it and likes making 4th wall breaking jokes. but yeah if you're looking for more lore based stuff, phil might not be a great pov to watch as your primary.
now bad is the english speaking cc most involved in the heavy federation lore stuff, so his vods are definitely good to check out if you're looking for an english speaking cc to watch. jaiden's also definitely tied into it and has her own very interesting plotline going on atm involving the federation, but she doesn't stream as often so there are a few more gaps with her compared to bad who's been daily streaming for months now.
now for the cc's who don't primarily speak english, it's definitely a bit more of a challenge to watch those POVs if you don't speak the cc's language, but when many cc's are in a group they'll usually switch to english since that's the most common language on the server. also there's the translator that most of them have up on their screen, but it's not super accurate and a lot of the time cc's forget to switch it between languages so I don't rely on it much. for lore stuff, cellbit is a great choice because he's been heavily involved in investigating the federation and solving puzzles and all that since he first got on the server. from the french side, baghera jumped into lore stuff pretty quickly too so I highly recommend her pov as well
again I don't know how detailed/what the summary videos do and don't include but if you see clips from certain streams on that summary video that look interesting, I definitely recommend going to the vod itself and watching at least a bit of it. the group dynamic between all the players on the island is so delightful to watch. so many great friendships have formed bc of this server and it's so much fun to watch them grow in real time.
more than anything though when you're trying to catch up, go through the tumblr tag! follow people who liveblog a lot! follow the updates accounts on twitter! I actually don't catch many streams, but I'm usually pretty up to date on the big plot stuff happening on the server at all times just from what I see on my dash. read posts and check out the tags to absorb info via dash osmosis. that's how I caught up on dsmp when I first got into it back in january 2021 lol
hope this helps :)
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queen-mihai · 1 year
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Ok I'm developing a theory.
Let me say this first: I don't care if it's true or not. I think it's fun and I'm going to choose to believe it's true even if the writers literally come out and say it's not. It's that good.
Valerie is V
In the movie "V for Vendetta", V is explicitly never identified. We obviously see that he is a man. He has heightened basic kinesthesia, awareness, strength, and reflexes. He's got a deep voice, is reasonably tall, and thin.
Those are all things we know.
He never takes off the mask in any way we can see. If the hair is a wig, it's DAMN solid on his head, and he's got severe burns over so much of his body that he no longer has eyes.
"He looked at me, but not with eyes, there were no eyes"
Now for some evidence:
V is very obviously a thespian. Sure, we could assume the "man" was one as well, but we actually have backstory behind Valerie that would perfectly set her up with the type of knowledge V seems to have in the arts. Especially when she says "I'd always known what I wanted to do with my life"
When Valerie is taken, she already has the same look on her face as Evey has when she said "I'd rather die behind the chemical sheds"
V is very in tune with emotions. Obviously men can be in tune with their emotions. But Hollywood generally plays to a low common denominator. Why include this personality detail when all he needs to do is kick butt? If we are doing stereotypes 👇 this scene plays fairly heavily against the "male" stereotype when V perfectly times the moment where it will be okay to reach for Evey, let alone knowing when it's okay to touch her
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Valerie falls in love fast. That's practically a personality trait we're shown in the story. With Sarah "it was her wrists". With Ruth, "the first time we kissed, I knew I never wanted to kiss any lips but hers again. This matters because when V says "I fell in love with you Evie" He mentions that he had thought of nothing but revenge until he saw her. That sounds an awful lot like something Valerie would do IMO
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"This is the most important moment of your life, commit to it" spoken like someone who has lived that *exact* experience to the letter. You might think if he was a man when this happened to him, his experience might have looked *a little* different. If it was Valerie, though, it would make sense that she knows exactly when everything is falling into place because that's when it happened for her.
The anger she had over Ruth being taken fits V's actions far more closely than anything we get from our mystery man. Yes, he was tortured, but so was everyone else.
Writers love these kind of Easter eggs. Come on, room V, Valerie, V,...geezus "V" could have been the nickname she got from Ruth when they were together.
"I fell in love with you Evey. Like I never thought I could anymore" fits SO much better if Valerie just didn't know she could love again after Ruth was gone. That hits SO much harder if she's a woman from whom love was taken away and who went on a murderous revenge spree.
This was written by the Wachowski sisters. They would know what transitioning does to a person. If the "virus" was some sort of super-soldier serum, we could assume that some part of that serum might have included heavy doses of testosterone, which would have deepened her voice, even down to the level we hear in the movie.
If V was forcefully transitioned, it would stand to reason he'd want to hide his face (her face?) And would say things like "There is a face behind this mask, but it is not me"
Valerie might well have known how to create masks and such
The damn Scarlett Carson roses! They make SO MUCH more sense when you consider Valerie would have already known how to take care of them before she got taken, (and maybe even knew where to find a stash of seeds?) rather than some guy randomly found out about them and then learned how to keep them
If she indeed got cast for major motion pictures, and gotten paid well for them, that might explain the VAST resources V has at his disposal in order to pull off his schemes
👇 This right here👇
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Soooo many similarities
"I had only told them the truth"
"I told you, only truth"
There's so many scenes that VERY MUCH make V look feminine
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Ugh, there's so much more
There's SO MUCH MORE
But I'm dead tired right now and I want to post this now while I'm still excited about it and I'll have to write an update about it later if people want to hear more.
Heck... one very personal but deeply powerful concept about this movie for me is that I have shaped some parts of my personality around V's character. His intelligence. His ability to be both a monster and a face of kindness, his love for the arts and passion in keeping up his skills. I was surprised as heck when I found out his favorite movie is "The Count of Monte Cristo" because before I found "V for Vendetta", that was already MY favorite movie (the 2002 version though)
I don't see there being any fewer similarities after transitioning and I found this movie LONG before I thought any part of me was feminine
If MatPat ends up stealing this idea for a video, my name on here (Ce'irth) is pronounced like "surf"
OK see you later
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trash-can-sam · 1 year
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OKAY this is a long one but I dont see people talk about Grace and I deeply adore her shes my second favorite (almost tied with first (Qi) tbh) and deserves more love.
Heres the line that I pretty much based this on:
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When I fist saw that line I was like oh thats interesting but then I learned about what she was and I was like OH MY GOD SHES TALKING ABOUT HERSELF. Because what are the chances she just happens to have a sister with a very similar job as her, and the wouldnt you get sick of a life like that implies she doesnt like her job even if she does actually have a sister.
(Also this line from her engagement letter)
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NOW THINGS THAT I IMPLY THAT ARE NOT CERTAIN BUT ARE TRUE TO ME (you do not have to read this to understand anything I just want to talk about her):
She genuinely is interested in archeology. Her collecting various things for archeolgy could have just been her making herself seem more convincing, but she does genuinely seem very informed on the topic. AGAIN, could be her being more convincing, but I wouldnt doubt if she actually majored in it (or at least took a few classes) because it would make sense to play a character with something youre kind of knowlegable about, and she seems to know quite a bit about specific school practices and genuinely be opinionated on archeology's place in the world. Also, her likes indicate this is something shes genuinely interested in and passionate about. THE DIGGING HOLES IN THE GARDEN THING ALSO IS NOT MADE UP, and she says "Old habits die hard I guess", implying (at least to me) that she did it for similar reasons or maybe that she found something that inspired her to be interested in archeology.
She definetly seems to not really have faith in the system shes in, or at least doubt in it. Im not saying shes radical or anything (IF WE ARE GETTING SPECIFIC (Using current day terms) she seems reasonably moderate, pretty center left yk but I wouldnt be surprised if she believed in more socialist policies and shes clearly informed in whats going on, partially because of her job and also because I think being informed is important to her) and she still does work for the government, but she seems to not really be completely content with it. I dont really have any concrete proof for that besides this line which is really just how she thinks:
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NOW she says she wasnt really involved in politics, which I think at the time shes saying this is true. I wouldnt be surprised if she was more involved when she was younger, but I think for the most part she has ideas. She really likes to think (also proved by this line, I think she thinks a lot of thoughts in a similar vein but for the most part doesnt share them because they dont really fit her brand) and I feel like that would translate more into thinking more of ideals than actual politics, especially since she feels like people who are noble and want to make a difference cannot under the current system.
I feel like there were more lines in quests and what not with her being more disillusioned but full disclosure this could entirely be an illlusion of the mind palace.
Since she also mentions specifically making a difference, I also decided to extrapolate that was strongly about her as well. Wanting to make a difference being attatched to her choosing the job is also something not said at all, but something I decided to connect because it makes sm sense to me
I THINK THATS ALL. But a lot of this is largely headcanon since we dont have that much info on her (Character development is still low, therefore I cry and sob and make things up completely BECAUSE ITS FUN.)
please think about her more so i dont have to make another 12 page kind of comic, mostly illustrated writing.
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esther-dot · 1 year
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you’re only a show!jonsa shipper? not book!jonsa ship?
https://www.tumblr.com/esther-dot/718783613684039680/sansan-is-always-be-problematic-ship-no-matter
I was a GoT fan first (*ducks tomatoes*) that’s how I began, theirs were the moments that moved me. I think it’s important to stick to my roots because we got so much shit for it, so I’ll always be a dirty show Jonsa!
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I do also ship book Jonsa, although it’s very different because I have some qualms about them due to Sansa’s age, and, we have very little canon interaction. We have lots of what I would call...bridges between them. Parallels, clues about R+L=J, Jon killing Slynt, many things that connect them, so they feel associated, but we haven't seen how Martin will write it. We even have very different ideas about their pre canon relationship, some people read it in the very positive way, some read it as more conflicted. We also have Jon’s assassination, so there are many different directions Martin might choose to go depending on what he determines about pre-canon stuff, and what tone he'll pick for Jon post rez. I mean, did Jon actually die? Is it a coma like Bran? Either way, he warged, how much will that and the betrayal impact him? Are we getting feral rage or deep depression? It’s a lot to explore which on the one hand, fun! But it’s hard to fix on their dynamic with such major questions floating around.
Also, the books are getting darker so it’s hard for me to figure out what it will feel like? I've written some book Jonsa drabbles, but they're very cute, and Martin is very interested in grief, in longing, in loss. Jon has a lot of shame and anger. How will he manifest those in the relationship? Will Sansa be traumatized by LF/her journey North and therefore be withdrawn, or will she be resolved and more assertive? How hard will it be for them to trust each other?
We all have fun theorizing, but we don't know, so I kinda, blindly ship them knowing Martin could make this very angsty and painful or very heartwarming and healing. Show Jonsa was the second for me, until it wasn't! 😂
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penig · 1 year
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I feel a little creepy bringing this up, but I also think it's important for people to realize it. Especially people who work out their issues through fandom a lot - cheaper than therapy, often more effective, been going on for millennia, go forth and do what you need to do.
Authors engage with their fiction at a personal level, too. Authors work on their own issues in fiction, and don't necessarily understand that they're doing it until afterward.
I have a writer friend who was in an abusive relationship. She got out of it about the same time I had a personal crisis that deeply involved my marriage. We were able to talk about these things to each other in a productive way. One of the things she said was: "When you reread what you wrote during X time later, you'll see that you were already telling yourself about this."
Most of this author's mid-career was spent writing thrillers, about being trapped, misled, and harmed; about making mistakes and taking responsibility; about choosing options that other people think are bad for you, because for you they are the safe options. Once you know some details of her experience, you can see exactly where the abusive relationship began and roughly how it played out, and how all of the stories she wrote during this time, and during the long period of her recovery, had him for a villain, until she was finally able to kill him off the way she needed to. Since then, she's written a joyful celebration of art and community; she's written a medievalist fantasy of self-discovery; she's done the work she had to do and gone on with her life at last. But it wasn't until she was safe that she could even admit to herself that she'd been writing about her abuse the whole time she was being abused.
Lots of people have engaged with her thrillers at the surface level; we will never know how many people engaged with them to do the same kind of work she was doing; or how many engaged with them to do different work on different issues; or what qualitative difference it makes to all those processes to know how her personal history shaped her work. This is the nature of the beast.
One of the ways people work on their issues with art is through creating for themselves - fanfiction, meta, formal litcrit, adaptation to other forms of media. This is normal. Usually it's healthy. But it doesn't have to be. This is not something that can be judged from outside. Sometimes people who really, really ought to have therapy cling to a fandom instead and this...is not always productive. And sometimes people get into parasocial relationships with creators in which their own real issues get all mixed up with their imaginary construct of the creator.
So that's enough vagueblogging. It's time to talk about Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Who were two very different people who were best friends forever. Who were both writers doing what writers do. Who early in their careers collaborated on a religious satire in which their work got so mixed up together that they couldn't always tell who had written what in its final form, and which featured major themes about friendship, including two best friends forever collaborating, not particularly effectually, to save the world. Who had fun identifying themselves with those two characters. Who liked the idea of a film adaptation, who actively wanted a film adaptation, but couldn't find an acceptable way to do it within the industry. Who verbally worked out the details of a sequel, but never could actually sit down to write it together, but who continued to influence each other's work in ways that anyone reading both of them could see easily if they cared to look.
(Coraline and The Wee Free Men were written and published almost at the same time. I read them one after the other. The two books are very different reads, in different genres, but at the high concept level, they are the same story. Tell me that's a coincidence and I'll shake my head and say "Bless your heart, child.")
And then one of those friends got a debilitating disease and died.
And the survivor became determined to bring about the film adaptation and to get the sequel made, explicitly for his friend's sake.
Even though his friend would never see it, and it meant new collaboration with new people.
Good Omens (TV) is the best film adaptation of a text work I have ever seen in a longish life of being disappointed by film adaptations. S1 made me happy; S2 made me happy and sad and ultimately (perhaps inevitably) dissatisfied; I hope that S3 will make me happy and satisfied. But there is a level at which that doesn't matter. Gaiman has repeatedly expressed gratification over the way people have embraced it; but he's not doing this for us. And he's not only doing it for Pratchett.
He's doing it because he needs to process what happened when his best friend got Alzheimer's and died. Maybe he doesn't know that's what he's doing - but he clearly is.
Pratchett's illness and death are all over the adaptation. We saw it even in S1, we talked about it, the difference between Crowley and the Bookshop Fire in the book and in the show, and people openly recognized that the difference was between a young artist working with his best friend and an older artist whose best friend had died. That was simple; we all got it. Some of us didn't like it, but we got it.
But it's all over S2, too, and here it's not simple, it's a big complicated mess. The villain of S1, who wasn't in the book at all, shows up sporting the most noticeable symptoms of the disease that killed the member of the creative team identified with the character the villain goes to for refuge. The original creative team's avatars are suddenly working at cross-purposes when they seem to be allying where before they were allying when they appeared to be working at cross purposes. Mirrors function in the plot again but they're confusing. Memory is a huge theme but it doesn't resolve. And the character who is the avatar of the creator who died goes off to a Heaven it knows is a horrible place and leaves the avatar of the creator who survived angry and miserable on Earth. All in the service of setting up that long-deferred sequel.
And the thousands of people who are in a parasocial relationship with the survivor and are livid, or feel betrayed, or otherwise take this personally - really need to accept and remember that.
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forffax · 8 months
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returning the favor with oc asks since i always wanna hear about yours !! if you had to pick like your top 5 favorite characters who would they be and why 👀 bonus if you want to pick your favorite like settings/worlds/universes youve made for ocs too!
OOOUH thank u chase!!!
I'm gonna list out my favs then talk abt my main oc universe a bit ^_^
This got ridiculously long so it's going under a readmore <3
1. Tos Family (sorry this is going to be. the whole family bc I cannot possibly choose between them)
i. Lux Tos (he/him)
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(realizing now i haven't drawn him in a hot fuckin minute)
MY DAD. guy of all time ever. everyone's favorite half-human time traveling alien war vet. it always feels weird referring 2 him as part alien even if it's technically true sdjfgs. fun lore fact: he was the Dead Older Brother in original iteration Zephyr's Sad Backstory but I liked him too much so I decided he got to live <3
Lux is one of my older ocs that I still actively draw and think abt (late middle school...) and he's changed a LOT over the years but he's so so so dear to me. my guy who has Seen the Horrors and is now happily gay married with a kid :') sdfkjsk most things abt his story is just me being So Incredibly Self Indulgent (cool powers, complicated sibling relationships, gay) but it makes me happy and I love sharing it with ppl! Someday Voided 2 will be real and ready to share with the world...
ii. Ferdinand Tos (he/him)
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Dad....2!!!!!! I don't remember when exactly I thought him up but it was probably around when Lux's backstory was getting a major overhaul... He's a man out of time he's training to be a doctor and his will to live is so strong he spent the better part of nearly two decades building himself a new body! Guys who died but got better <3. I think I literally got brain blasted one day and decided he's a non-op trans man and it was the best thing ever for him actually. He's a southern californian stuck in the cold northwest (probably. either that or the northeast im not settled on that aspect yet skdjfs). He's been super fun to write from a worldbuilding perspective too bc his main goal is to pioneer a new branch of medicine using his powers! His relationship with Lux and the rest of the family (and his reconciliation with his sister) is sooooo important 2 me :]
iii. Athanasius Tos (she/her)
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THANAAAAA most normal sibling (lie). She was adopted formally right after Lux "died" and had a bit of a complex about just being a "replacement" for a good while, and she THOUGHT she had worked through that when Lux suddenly re-appeared... they're on great terms now but it was Tense. She's a biochemist and probably makes the most out of the household (she shares an apartment with Zeph!) It's very important 2 me that she can let herself be vulnerable with her family and close friends after years of bottling everything up... Epic nerdy autistic butches in your area <3 Fun fact she is the only full human of the main cast!
iv. Zephyr Tos (she/him)
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My fuckign auncle. Within the story she only recently realized he was bigender and is much happier for it, even if you couldn't tell by her permanent scowl skjdfgs. Zeph was the original protag (along with Thana) of the short story I wrote in middle school that turned into Voided 2! In-universe he was very clearly supposed to be the protag but missed/ignored the "call to action" phase and just got a shitton of Issues and Traumas instead <3 She's so everything 2 me he's a freelance writer/artist she's kinda cringe and he is trying only as hard as she absolutely needs to in order to get by. While his relationship with Lux is MUCH better than it was when Lux first came back, she's completely inseparable from Thana and would do anything for her (I feel like they spent equal times protecting each other from bullies as kids...) He's changed so much from her original incarnation but developing him has been SO much fun <3 Since Voided 2 runs on real-world time (in that I have specific real-world dates for most major events) she turned 50 fairly recently and that's fucked but also funny. old.
v. Alan Tos (any)
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Alan! Love this kiddo. He's Lux and Ferdinand's adoptive kid! Xe doesn't learn about it for a while but she was a government secret experiment test-tube baby (they were trying to artificially fuse souls together, distantly related to the later Child Soldier School ze was placed into) (kid cannot catch a break). He's a good kid, if not a little clueless and naive... someone who would hold no ill-will if you had to cut their leg off (this is not a hypothetical GJSKDS). Somehow, despite all this, she is by far the most Normal out of xer family <3 His fashion sense is some kind of spectrum between 60s businesswoman and scene and tbh? Very fun to draw! Her friends and family are very very dear to them and at the moment xe's just kind of letting life take zem wherever.
2. Vague (it/they)
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unauthorized fucking thing kill it with hammers NOW!!!!!
Vague started as I think just a proxy for myself in vent art I drew in like early high school sdhjfgds they have since become. something. my mascot I guess? (I still end up using it for vent art sometimes bc it's functionally unkillable and it's fun 2 get narsty sometimes.)
originally it was just the weird cat-shaped angel thing but a couple years ago I gave them a human design that I really love too <3 vague technically has a place in Niko and my other cat furry ocs' story but their human form exists in the real world and is just Like That i think. vague is just a little guy okay? they're sorry about crying and bleeding all over the place (not bc it sees any issue with this they just noticed you looked upsetskjdfhs)
3. Niko (he/they)
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Baby's first fursona! Niko was always mostly his own character but now that I have new This is Just Me sona(s), they've been officially retired from that front <3 Niko's story is mostly planned out, I just desperately need to write it somewhere skjdbfs but the gist is that Niko works a shitty minimum wage call center job and finds meaning and love through forming a band with people he happens to meet... also there's some whistleblowing and betrayal and vague slams down out of the sky at some point <3 Niko's band doesn't have a name but they're the lead vocalist! (Niko 🤝 Blue (is blue and sings in their band)) This is a universe where everyone is cat furries simply bc I wanted to design lots of cat furries but also I haven't drawn like half of his bandmates/friends.... orz
Fun fact I found my original doodles of him in an old math notebook and apparently I seriously considered the name "chandler" for them. Help,
4. Larkspur (they/them)
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Laaark my friend lark :] they're my player character for a friend's tabletop campaign! *hands you a bug* *hands you a bug* *hands-
Their design was super fun to come up with and they're fun to play as :] They were raised on a farm and have a deep love for animals (insects in particular), but they have a hard time connecting with others and understanding why people act the way they do.. They wear an eyepatch to cover their multiple other eyes bc it gives them bad sensory overload to see with them! They also spent quite a bit of time as a bounty hunter before they were blacklisted from further work bc they let a target escape on purpose... Lark is a ranger/bard and they play the hurdy-gurdy! They're dear to me and I really need to draw them more sjdfhgs
5. Chungy Fresh (she/he/they)
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Chungy my belungy.... she's a mimic who spent most of his life being a chest in the temple of a forgotten goddess until they gained sentience and saw a fursuit from far away and decided yep! I'm gonna look like that Now <3 She didn't get all the details right but he's never been happier! I think Chungy spawned from me drawing a weird fox thing and simultaneously thinking "hey wouldn't it be funny if a character had a verbal text/forum signature and it was also their name" skdjfgjskdfls. Chungy is def up there with "most fun ocs of mine to draw" bc she's so Noodly and Malleable... I started playing as him in a friend group's tabletop oneshot thingy (where multiple ppl write different unrelated oneshots but we use the same characters for each session) and it has been a lot of fun!
OKAY OC UNIVERSE TIME. I call my main oc story "Voided 2" bc it takes place in the same universe as my v personal self insert oc story "Voided" that I have been working on/writing/thinking abt since late middle school... It's kinda vaguely modern fantasy/sci-fi? Main things are that there are beings born at the beginning of the universe made of pure energy called Lunoirs. There are countless universes, and each universe has Lunoirs in some capacity. They mainly exist to "keep the balance," but if you ask any specific Lunoir what that means you'll get a million different answers. Mainly they gravitate towards any life within their universe and integrate with them, observing them and protecting them from Shadows and Vacares. Shadows are the unliving souls that will eventually be reborn and reformed into a living soul inside any given universe-- they exist in the space between universes, called the Void. the Void looks different to any being that crosses into it, and it's hard to say what its "true" nature is. Vacares are Lunoirs that have had their souls corrupted and eaten, usually by other Vacares. While Shadows, being amalgamations of soul energy, are strictly neutral, Vacares seek to cause chaos and eat more Lunoir souls, increasing their numbers in a vain attempt to satisfy their endless hunger.
The Lunoir population on Earth is fairly numerous, and since Lunoirs can take on whatever form they choose, many of them live and love and have children with humans, making partial-lunoir children (physically they are nearly indistinguishable from full humans, save for longer lifespans, odd hair and eye colors, and sharper teeth. also they have semi-physical wings, but these have to be manually brought out and often ppl don't even know they have them (*cough* zephyr *cough*)
Lunoirs aren't fully immortal, but they have a different life cycle to most other forms of life. When a non-lunoir dies, their soul disintegrates and is amalgamated with the souls of others in the Void to become Shadows. When a Lunoir dies (outside of having their soul completely corrupted/destroyed), they instead go into a sort of stasis and are reborn later; they have no memories of their previous life (the ones on Earth don't, at least) and they can take on wildly different appearances.
Lunoirs and partial Lunoirs have powers in the form of energy manipulation, particularly when it comes to the energy of their own souls... They can use their souls to form weapons, mainly to fight against Vacares that tend to be immune to physical weapons. Most people have one weapon that they specialize in, but in a pinch nearly everyone can form a knife. Humans can manipulate their own soul energy in this way too, but this ability must be taught/"unlocked" by a Lunoir or a partial Lunoir first (Zephyr, at some point, did this for Thana without either of them realizing it). Lunoirs can also manipulate the energy of the very universe to create Rifts in time and space, sometimes leading between separate universes... These rifts also open of their own accord from time to time, and there's a good number of people who have been displaced from their time or even their universe by unwittingly falling into one.
Every living being has a "soul" (a collection of their life energy), and through a kind of "reaching out," one can feel/taste/smell/hear/see another's soul... every soul is a bit different, so this is an easy way to identify people even from a distance!
The Earth Lunoirs once had a country where they congregated called Saluria, which was the site of a brutal multi-year war against an army of Vacares that wanted reign over Earth... Many Lunoirs and partial Lunoirs across all of Earth's history felt drawn to Saluria, often willingly or unwillingly being rifted to the time of the war to go fight in it... Some partial Lunoirs especially believed it was their sacred duty, while others believed it was a curse leading them to inevitable death... there's even whispers that Saluria itself is alive, luring in young partial and full Lunoirs out of self-preservation.. who's to say. Ultimately, the Salurian War was a victory, but not an easy one.
Lux and Zephyr are half Lunoirs (their mom being full), and Ferdinand is 3/4ths Lunoir! Alan is a bit of a weird case but functionally he's also half Lunoir :]
This is v much simplifying Years of worldbuilding ssjhdfgjks and I can FEEL I missed a bunch of stuff but it's all very very dear 2 me :]
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9w1ft · 10 months
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I loved your answers about CP and folklore. Something I had to accept with the entire folklore/evermore concept, and really, a lot of what’s she’s done with the vault songs and even midnights, is she has leaned into her folklore and her fans’ views of her personal life and found a way for people to attach whatever fits their own thoughts about her personal life onto her songs. And because of that, there is no “right” answer to what they are about. In a way, we’re all both right and wrong at the same time. The way most of her work also doesn’t entirely fit her established public narrative is similar (why write divorce songs while with joe? Why write relationship songs while saying you’re not dating?) It’s a deep and artful approach to her work and in my opinion, necessary for her progress as an artist and a person. It’s fun to have two or three very different interpretations to a song’s meaning and just sit with that, and not have to choose one definitively. It’s fun to have friends you can discuss the meaning with, even if you don’t agree on the best interpretation. And it’s also fun to know that you might get more information later to help you decide which interpretation might be the most true. It’s way more interesting than simply writing a song that fits everything. Some of the vault songs are very clearly fan service, and other than the initial “ah ha! This is about X!” they really are not very interesting songs (one reason why they were left in the vault.) They add to her folklore, but are forgettable as art. But when her folklore is her art, it’s still fun.
Just as an example, you and I have had many discussions about her song meanings and we definitely don’t always agree (happiness, it’s time to go, CP) Sometimes one of us convinces the other (Maroon, labyrinth), but that’s not what’s important. What’s fun is the process. It’s why people compare her work to literature. To borrow a popular meme about symbolism in literature, people can write an entire thesis about the meaning of the blue curtains but in reality we’ll never know if the author actually meant anything deep about the curtains. But the point is the intellectual exercise, not the right answer.
Art is amazing like that.
i think i keep the majority of my wild song ideas to myself or maybe share them one on one with like minded people who will tolerate me 😂 so thank you for this 🫶 means a lot coming from you.
another thing i love is how thoughts on songs can evolve over time. like sometimes i’ll have had one idea about a song for years and then suddenly a switch will flip and i’ll see it in a different way and never be able to listen to it the same!
and one thing i do like about tumblr as a system, which i think actually you mentioned to me before, is that by and large it’s set up to be less about debate (it’s set up that way) and more about the journey of collecting favorite ideas and sharing stuff for others to collect. like.. a post sinks or swims over time based just on how many people resonate, but if things don’t resonate it’s usually just on to the next thing. by contrast i think some social media holds each statement up for immediate judgment and people rush to agree or refute each thing they read. and so people might write things in a way that avoids or elicits a certain response, instead of just writing what they wanted to write. in this way i think that tumblr (at its best) can be a great way to engage with her art in a fun way. at the very least, not everything becomes a federal case.
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