#I love how I'm the only one who knows their original story had them beat eachother up to prove a point bc I've never written it down

[scintillyyy]

actually it is interesting how dixon has tim discover his feelings for steph over the course of and in contrast to what was ultimately his failing relationship with ari & like. listen i'm not here ti cast judgment on either tim or steph here, but it was very much written by dixon as like. steph knowingly was very pushy about wanting to be in a relationship with tim even knowing he was actively in a relationship and fundamentally did not care about tim's girlfriend as a human being because steph saw tim being in a relationship already as basically minor inconvience because she wanted tim & tim clearly seemed to want her so he should just be with her instead. and like tim's hands clearly aren't entirely clean here either, because he did kind of ultimately just going with the flow and letting things happen. (but!! i am on the side of both of them are messy teens in their first relationships & neither deserves lifelong castigation for 14-15 year old messiness, let's be clear). but the circumstances around this messiness even being able to happen is because ariana is fundamentally unable to truly know what's going on as she's never privy to the secret. she had no way of knowing what tim is doing or who he's meeting--sure she gets jealous when she sees tim notice steph, but she never knows that there's another girl in tim's life exists & can't know. meanwhile the whole time steph is flirting with tim she is well aware that ariana, or "tim's girlfriend" exists. tim & steph exist because at the time of his relationship with ari, tim was allowed to actively and consistently interact with another girl while actively in a relationship with another one & steph was well aware and a participant in that.

and that's kind of by design--dixon, i do think dixon fairly early on decided that he was more interested in tim&steph over tim&ari, but i do think it's important to note that when dixon created ari he's on the record of conceiving of her as a lois lane type romance interest for tim, she was clearly originally intended to have long term sticking power for him. but then--*readers* didn't vibe with her. there's letters in old issues basically asking--"hey, is steph going to come back, hey is steph going to date tim, hey love steph when are they getting together". so while dixon got fully on board with tim & steph i think it's safe to say he was also. probably very cognizant of readers deciding they like a different love interest better.

so there's an interesting pivot in dixon once tim & steph are firmly on the "getting together" train and it's that tim is not allowed to exist of breathe near other female characters without being chaperoned by steph or it involving steph somehow in deference to steph's jealousy issues. with steph's entrance into tim's life, tim is moved away from the mixed more sex friend group (that existed with callie & ariana) of gotham heights high to 1) homeschooling in keystone 2) all male boarding school brentwood. the only female friendship he gains is star, and that's used in a story for steph to misunderstand and start stalking star and her brother in an attempt to find tim & catch him in the act. tim is no longer allowed to team up with girls his age or a little older without stephanie there. he's not even allowed to be concerned about random adult woman dana (his stepmom) without steph breathing down his neck despite the fact that once they start dating tim is doggedly pretty loyal to steph as far as girls were, far more than he ever was with ariana. & like. in universe this is an interesting character beat for steph considering the start of their relationship being that steph pushed tim while he was in a relationship & is paranoid of all other women, that they'll act like she did. but from an out of universe perspective you can tell dixon was absolutely shutting down any other relationship possibility for tim other than steph. he knew the pain of creating a love interest that got subsumed in interest by another and was under no circumstances going to let anyone else in that that could become a threat to his girl. hence, every time he teams up with a girl after steph has to be there, monitoring & chaperoning. which is very interesting. considering their beginnings and steph's own willingness to hang out with a guy known to be taken without his girlfriend there & her eventual disallowment of tim to do anything with girls who aren't her.

[welcometomybraincomics]

Just saw a comic where 2 people are on a road trip and the one in the passenger seat got bored so they decided to give the driver the suck, and now I can't not make a sillier, non-sex NSFW version of such a situation

So now I just have a scene of Fumi and Heimdallr on a road trip, not sure who's driving bc the one doing the antics is interchangeable really, and the one in the passenger seat is bored, looks around the car for something to do, finds nothing, and casually asks "do you think it would be dangerous if I sat upside down?"

It's interchangeable bc that's something they'd both do.

On one hand, it's really funny with Heimdall bc he's Tall and they're on the highway, meaning he intends to like, just wiggle around and pretzel himself until he's upside down while being really tall.

On the other hand, Fumi wouldn't fucking ask, he'd just start flipping himself and Heim would fucking swerve bc "Wtfareyoudoing!?stopthatitsdangerous!!!whatifwe crash,youdfuxkingdie!!!!!nglogkwnka!!!!" And he would try to reach over to stop Fumi mid-pretzel

Ngksmnvks XDXDXDXD

[yoru-no-seiiki]

Shit, I just saw you had different accounts for different genres and I already requested on your main non smut(??) account😭😭 Okay, okay, I have a new totally original idea. What about.. male pervert yandere enemy x gn or female reader? Like enemies to lovers but one is only in on it because of their masochistic tendencies and they just love being dominated. And please add nsfw of him jerking off, finding her sweaty (sweet) gym tshirt and it being mentioned that he has, I don't know, JERKED OFF TO THEM IN FUCKING CLASS. (The oneshot could be in class👀👀)

- I'm 🙈 anon from your main account, you don't have to complete both of the requests, either one I know would make me cum, but please I'm so desperate for cocky ass bakugo katsuki like bitch guys who are so submissive and vulnerable on the inside IM BEGGING YOU.. omg, now I'm like them, fuck.

This got me pissing my pants ngl- but aaaaa yess. This came at a perfect timing! (long story short i got sum good news from my scholarship stuff in Ateneo) Your audience with me has been approved.

(also I don’t think I received your other request unfortunately uhu)

YANDERE! PERVERTED! RIVAL OC x GN! READER

tw/cw: dddne, yandere themes, male masturbation, semi-public masturbation, yun’s trauma with enrollment procedures.

MINORS/AGELESS DNI OR I WILL BLOCK YOU.

University was hell before it even started. Due to complications with your scholarship, you and your parents had to repeatedly go out to get a whole bunch of documents in searing summer heat to ensure you kept the damn thing from falling through.

It was safe to say, you weren’t going to just take all that for granted.

You wanted to be the best student in the history of the institution, no — the whole country. Anything less than perfect would tarnish the effort your family has put into you.

But a certain Ricardo Peralta was making that oh so difficult for you.

Not only was he already a member of the student council and potential president for the following years, he was oh so disgustingly well-rounded and rich. You thought you were a try-hard? Well think again. Ricardo had you beat in many aspects.

But not all of them.

You are a people person by heart. Charismatic, and sociable. You knew how to mingle, how to get a person wrapped around your fingers. Ricardo may have the vantage point with connections now but in the future? It wouldn’t be long before everyone will turn to you instead.

And so began your petty rivalry.

It was subtle at first. Smirking at the one who got a lower score. Congratulating the other for winning second place while having a golden medal dangling from their neck. Scoffing at their rival for having a life outside academics ( pfft imagine having good time management? The two of you can never! )

And then it steadily degenerated into full blown petty fights. Violence at times. Anything aside from murdering each-other was free rein and even then there were days you two took that sort of route. It was mostly you though. For some reason, his parents were quite fond of you and would always let you into their mansion. This gave you plenty of opportunities to drug his ass.

You didn’t know it was because of a deal his parents made with yours to give him access to your room.

Ricardo studied you harder than the academics he worshipped his entire life. He knew you far longer than you did him. You were the reason he strove so much to be perfect. The only reason he wanted to be perfect was for you.

He knew your parents would never think to pay for the outrageous fees the University you (and by extension him) wanted to go to, so he made his parents start a scholarship program for gifted students (Anything to make their son happy). You were already guaranteed to get in from the beginning, and he felt bad for having made you panic from the strings he had to pull so that you’d always have the same classes/schedules.

So he let you win some of the little games you two had. In any case, nothing beats the reward of your smile. And the smug smirk you’d give him as you loomed over the desk, your chest almost resting on his face.

He shook his head, he can save those thought for after he stole another set of used underwear.

He usually came to your locker after P.E. it was when your scent wouldn’t be covered by whatever you sprayed on yourself. Don’t get him wrong, Ricardo was a germaphobe and a half but those cheap perfumes and deodorants you slathered all over yourself so you wouldn’t smell half bad after your exercises couldn’t compare to the scent of your body.

In anycase, today Ricardo got greedy. Impatient. Something his parents were sure to have reprimanded him on. But he couldn’t help it. Could you really blame him? It suddenly started raining out in the field. The way the water made your shirt cling unto your clothes practically made you irresistible.

“Ngh . . . [Y/N]. J-just like that . . . use me . . .” Tears formed at the corner of his eyes as he mumbled in pleasure. If you just walked a little more, perhaps leaned your head around the corner. . . god, he could imagine the disdain on your face. The utter disgust you’d show him.

It didn’t help that you were slandering him just a few feet away.

“That piece of shit, Ricardo. He totally fucking cheated.” You cursed, so unlike your usual polite tone with your fellow batch-mates and the faculty. He hears a resounding thud right after wards.

The movement around his shaft only gets faster. His grip tighter, harsher, as he imagines the way you’d abuse his cock. If he added any more force he’d probably tear himself apart. The thought of disappointing you is the one thing keeping him from harming himself.

His hand only ever stuttered due to the sound of your friend’s voice, ear piercing and grotesque as it is in contrast to yours, “Aray! Nadamay pa talaga yung mukha ko-“

“Shut the fuck up!” You angrily replied, this time slamming the locker behind Ricardo, making him moan stumble forward a little.

“I’ll fucking kill him.”

Streams of white leave the tip of his cock, your threat shoving him off the ledge of pleasure. Your rain and sweat covered shirt now drenched with another type of liquid.

[Notes]:

Aray! Nadamay pa talaga yung mukha ko — Ouch! You really just brought my face into the fray.

[palmettoshenanigans]

also ALSO-

I know the old "AFTG is badly written" jokes but hold the FUCK on for one goddamn second

I have been writing for almost 20 years. I got my college degree in English and the only reason my specialization wasn't creative writing is because I had bad time management skills and missed my chance to do my final creative writing workshop. I'm autistic and Storycrafting and Wordsmithing are my special interests. I understand writing pretty well.

AFTG opened my fucking eyes to a blind spot of the utter craftsmanship of writing sticky characters that infect you with brain worms, and here it is:

The Conflict of Material and Form

AKA the Character Creation version of Nature versus Nurture

"This isn't who I truly am. This is who I've had to become, what I've had to fashion myself into to survive. The original me is buried in there somewhere, if only you knew how to look. If only you knew to look beyond the mask."

Easily exemplified with our fave lil guys-

Neil Abram Josten:

Material: smartass with a smart mouth, attitude problem, cares about people deeply, sharp tongue to cut a bitch with, kinda feral, a lil unhinged, oblivious idiot

Form: quiet and hidden, liar liar pants of fire, run rabbit run, docile and tame, hyper-vigilant and hyper-observant

Andrew Joseph Minyard:

Material: caring, protective, strong sense of justice, gentle even, cares deeply, give me sugar or give me death, yearning

Form: cold, apathetic, ruthless and unforgiving, allow me to introduce you to my knife, regret? don't know her, i want nothing nothing nothing

Why am I using 'material and form' instead of 'nature and nurture'? Because I am a subscriber to "Characters are not meant to be real people; they are mirages of real people meant to encapsulate a function or idea that serves the story". But use whatever terms click with your noggin.

This isn't about 'want vs need'. This isn't about 'lie believed and truth learned'. This is about Presentation and Basic Action - how would this character react here? Which part are they reacting from?

With Material vs. Form, one isn't the 'true' version and the other the 'false' version of the character. They are both true and real in their own right. The Secret Sauce is that the Material and the Form fight 1v1! And regardless of which part wins, there will be consequences and rewards; so which rewards do we want and which consequences are we willing to suffer? And this fight happens beat by beat, scene by scene, plot point by plot point.

At one point in TFC Neil laments his inability to shut his fucking mouth because his Form of 'don't stand out dipshit' and his Material of 'initiate smartass.exe' are disagreeing with how to respond to his circumstances! It's that fucking meme "My healed and unhealed versions of myself deciding who is going to handle this situation" but as Storycraft!

Now, I don't think this is a new idea by any means. But sometimes to make the essence of an idea truly stick, it must be presented in multiple different ways until one triggers a "Eureka! By Jove! Aha!", and this was the way that truly made this concept stick for me. And why did it stick? Because AFTG is a labor of deep love and passion for Characters and all their complexity and inner machinations, and that depth of devotion had to manifest as some good ass writing somehow my homies in christ.

I have a collection of my favorite Storycrafting Wisdoms and one of them is effectively:

"Put Compelling Characters into a Compelling Situation and see what happens."

And Nora does Compelling Characters beautifully

[hearts-are-connected]

Twisters - 2024

Okay, so let me start with this. Twister (1996) starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt is, and always has been, one of my favorite movies of all time. It's definitely in my top five. That being said, I went into this movie expecting to have a good time but that it would be no where near as good as the original.

I'm pleasantly surprised to say that not only did I absolutely love this film, but I feel it stands toe to toe with the original!

Of course you can't beat Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, but Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell knock it out of the park! Their chemistry was incredible, and I fell in love with all the characters introduced. I missed the old crew, but I had a great time with the new.

The callbacks to the original film were absolutely fantastic! They're integrated into the actual shooting of the film through cinematography and costume choices. While they're obvious most of the time, they don't take away from the flow of the story. The director of this film has captured what I love about the 1996 film and also made it his own!

Twisters stands on it's own two feet, not needing piggyback off of everything done in the original. It's more hardcore than the original as well. So many people lose their lives, and the devastation portrayed by these tornadoes is on a whole other level compared to the original. I honestly cried a few times and was literally holding my breath during parts of the finale.

This movie left me speechless at times, where all I could do was stare at the screen slack-jawed because of the insane power on display. Of course, I know it's not a real, but the terror of these storms is felt through this movie. At least it was for me. I've never been through a tornado personally and I can't imagine how utterly terrifying that experience would be.

Overall, I feel this movie is a great time as a summer blockbuster, but it's also a reminder of how quickly lives can be uprooted and destroyed. Not to mention the people who truly don't care for human life lost and only see the bottom dollar. It's a sickening truth that's displayed in this film as well.

I cannot recommend seeing Twisters in theaters more to anyone interested in checking it out! I can't wait to display this right beside the original film on my shelf. They both do what they do best, and I love them equally. I can't pick one to love more because both have so many things they do incredibly!

[ryin-silverfish]

LMK S5 trailer, Chinese pantheon infodump, and some ideas

…Man, normally, I feel the urge to write fix-it AUs after rewatching episodes and coming across particularly bizarre theories and takes, not before the new season's even out.

Thanks, S5 trailer.

Consider this your spoiler warning, because the rest of this post will all be my personal opinions about a few major story beats that were revealed + the rough outline for a fix-it AU.

It's also a bit ranty, and features some criticisms of the general narrative, so if that's not your cup of tea, feel free to avoid this one.

Li Jing becoming JE/the regent of the Celestial Realm is just hilariously absurd. I mean, it makes a teeny tiny bit more sense than the "Nezha will be the new JE" fan theory, but that's not a very high bar.

1) In-universe, he had done a grand total of nothing while shit was hitting the fan, and only showed up after it was all over. Which, tbh, isn't too far from his role in FSYY. No, wait, at least in FSYY, he killed Luo Xuan via a pagoda to the head, after the guy had all his fire-based magical treasures neutralized and taken away by Princess Longji.

Yeah, congrats, LMK's Li Jing, you've somehow become even more useless than your FSYY and JTTW counterparts——which is a true feat.

2) Even if someone's making him JE/regent, it wouldn't be the Ten Kings. To put it simply: the Underworld doesn't have that authority. They are the most pathetic of all divine bureaucracies, who pretty much only show up to get pushed around and revive the occasional dead guy in JTTW (and I still love them).

Like, they ain't no Hades or Satan. Just the 10 judges of the Dead People Supreme Court. To heavily paraphrase Di Ting in the original JTTW novel:

"How much power do Underworld gods really have? (幽冥之神，能有多少法力)" "...Certainly not enough to stop a rampaging demonic macaque who's as strong as SWK, if I say the truth out loud in here and piss him off. Just send them to the Buddha, please."

An analogy: if the Celestial Host is the imperial court, the Underworld is the ministry in charge of judicial processes and prisons. They don't even have authority over the imperial censors who answer directly to the emperor, let alone the power to determine a successor to the throne during a major crisis.

If this was to make the tiniest bit of sense, Li Jing would be the one commanding THEM, not the other way around. Or if it's Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha himself giving orders to Li Jing…for some reason.

But we know that ain't happening bc of the show's strange aversion to showing Buddhist deities on screen, not to mention it would be very OOC for Ksitigarbha, whose job is granting relief and salvation to souls in the Path of Hell, not judging and punishing them like the Ten Kings.

3) If you must make Li Jing the emperor/regent, you have a more mythos-accurate and obvious choice than the Ten Kings, considering you already got the Four Divine Beasts involved!

Yes, I'm talking about their bosses, the humanoid "directional + elemental gods": Lord Father of the East (Wood), Queen Mother of the West (Metal), Emperor Zhenwu of the North (Water).

No South though...because our mythos can't agree on a single directional god of the South, but for shit and giggles, just imagine Zhurong, Yandi, Huaguang, and the Star of Fiery Virtues all sitting on the same narrow bench, staring awkwardly at each other.

Maybe we can have Ziwei, Great Emperor of the Central Sky and North Stars, who is one of the Four Sovereigns(四御) in Daoism (two of which could also be an alternate choice, but maybe a bit too obscure for foreign audiences).

He commands the stellar deities and heavenly bodies——which the Four Divine Beasts would technically fall under, as guardians of the four quadrants of the sky, each in charge of 7 Lunar Mansions.

4) But if you already have these deities, why the hell would any of them make Li Jing the regent? Wouldn't it be more likely for them to create a Celestial Council of Regents themselves, with Devaraja Li Jing under their command as the leader of what's left of the celestial army?

Like, you can still have them, or one of them, going after the gang and ordering Li Jing to put the fillet on SWK.

I can see Zhenwu the Demon-Vanquisher doing that, since the fillet isn't too different from what he did to Huaguang and a lot of the demons he subdued in JTTN: feeding them magical water/fire pills that would corrode/ignite their insides whenever they tried to resist.

(Yeah, compared to that, the fillet would look like the lenient option, since it's just pain and won't actually dissolve/cook you alive from the inside out...)

And it wouldn't be bc he thought SWK was to blame for the Brotherhood's epic fuck-up...somehow. Like, what even is that logic?!

I mean, I can kinda see the Ten Kings doing it as a pre-emptive "Don't blame us for our shitty security, blame that guy over there!" move...except they are no longer answering to any higher authorities who'd hold them responsible at that point!

"What about Li Jing?" You may ask. Yeah, WHAT ABOUT LI JING? Why does Li Jing have to get involved in this?

If he's forcing the Ten Kings to pass judgement on the gang (which surely doesn't look like it in the trailers), why's he enlisting the help of the weakest faction and not, y'know, his celestial soldiers and other gods?

If the Ten Kings get Li Jing to be their enforcer...well, how the Eighteen Hells did they manage that? What could the Ghost Supreme Court and their crappy prison-torture chamber-soul customs office complex even offer Li Jing as a bribe?

And if their goals were to avoid responsibilities by blaming someone else, how stupid did they have to be to actively involve/create a higher authority who can punish them once the cat gets out of the proverbial bag, instead of, I dunno, just stay where they are and keep their head down???

So in my fix-it AU, it's more of a "Better safe than sorry" scenario, where every demon working for the new Celestial Council must prove their loyalty via swallowing the water/fire pill, now that even more dangerous demons have escaped and are running around in the aftermath of S4.

And Great Sage and company are not exempt from that new law either——"If you are truly righteous and Not Like Them and not planning to rebel, what's there to be afraid of?"

Horrified by the Demon-Vanquishing Mansion's 16th century standards of "justice" and "mercy", they naturally would not have any of it, and thus the conflict begins.

Not only would this show the fallout of Azure's misguided rebellion——that, in trying to make a better world, he had made it 120% worse for both humanity and demonkind in less drastic and more realistic ways aside from dooming reality to irreversible destruction, it would also help with the major show-not-tell problem about Celestial cruelty bc the "good guys" in power saw no problem with this kind of shit.

If you want your lawful antagonists who take Order to its extremes, the warrior sovereign in black leading an elite army of demon-hunters + penal legions made of "reformed" demons would be a better choice than the Ghost Supreme Court, don't ya think?

(Fun fact: in Zaju plays, Zhenwu was often said to be the boss of Nezha and Erlang, so him commanding Li Jing wouldn't be too out of place either.)

Now, you may ask, why do I even care? After all, isn't it clear that the show is neither mythos-accurate nor trying to be, considering the JE got K.O.ed by a Bodhisattva's cat of all things?

Not to mention the season's not even out yet, so why jump to conclusions so quickly? Maybe the actual episodes will have explanations that make sense. Relax.

...Cause I don't mind less-than-stellar animations if the story's good, and since I keep noticing the less-than-stellar animations, it clearly isn't good enough.

Also, it's not like it's only the implications that are absurd——my problem is with the whole premise of "Li Jing becoming the new JE/Regent" and "The gang is prosecuted by the Ten Kings for bullshit reasons, even though these guys should not, and never have the power to enforce anything over SWK."

I don't like calling narrative choices "wrong" per se, and prefer to see it on a gradient of "least to most narrative potential". When it comes to adaptations, if the option that is faithful to the original work will result in a less interesting story, then I'll happily take the one that isn't as faithful and takes creative liberties, but makes a better story.

And here, I feel like being faithful to the Chinese mythos inspirations will add to the narrative potential instead of subtract from it, and the idea they come up with kinda...goes against how Chinese pantheons work, in a very simplified and "westernized" manner.

Mostly bc I am a Chinese Underworld mythos lover and think they deserve better than being ominous Hades/Grim Reaper knockoffs. And out of all the possible Chinese gods, Nezha's asshole dad is the least qualified or interesting candidate to fill in the power vaccum left by JE's death.

[journalsouppe]

The Touchstarved DEMO by @redspringstudio! I had so much fun replaying this DEMO over and over, I truly cannot wait for the full release. The art is gorgeous, the writing is excellent, and I am surprised at how much I really loved each character, I expected to at least hate one or two of them like with My Next Life lol. I highly recommend checking out the DEMO if you're a fan of otome games or gothic stories!

The DEMO can be found here on itch.io or here on steam! All the stickers are from different Hallween stickerbooks from Michael's Art Store ^^; (ngl I think this is one of my favorite spreads, I even did do some studies of the color/rendering fhdjsf)

Writing typed below! (plus extra notes)

Rating: 9.5 (demo score - great demo) Played: Sp 2024 Port: itch.io Play full? Y YES!!!!!!

Comments:

First Route: Origin - Unnamed. RO - Leander

love you have a choice of 3 origins

GORGEOUS ART!

this game made me realize I do really enjoy otome games and not as a joke or for irony lol fjdkfal

from initial appearances I like Vere and Mhin ^^;

all the gold on the angel doctor is so gorgeous

killer music

okay I thought I wouldn't like Leander but holy shit --

LMAO NOT HIS SEX ROOM

LETS go I got the special Leander option on the first try

I need to do studies of this art oml I need my art to look like this <3

DAMN, now I'm bummed I missed the kickstarter, I would LOVE the art book

I need the stickers too esp for when I journal the full version

not only do I like the art, the writing is very good too

Vere is so pretty...

I LOVE all the fun marketing lore and illustrations on the Red Spring Socials

ooo damn does Vere have a red option or did I do his route right without one

only three red choice dialogue. 4 recently for Kuras (no Vere)-- Vere has one now!!! Kuras and Vere should have them whenever the DEMO gets an update ^_^

I'm learning I'm good at making the correct decisions lol

I honestly didn't know you could die until after I finished Vere's route (2nd route I did correctly -- 1st was Leander) and was curious what submit surrender did (aka I didn't die initially but went back to see what would happen(

LMFAO NOT MHIN BLUSHING WHEN I TELL THEM OFF pfft

LMAOOO and now Mhin is scolding me

amused with who has slept with who

deathly curious on how fucked up Leander will be

Kuras's nose!!!!! <3

I love the concept designs of Sen and Elyon, I can't wait to meet them

LMFAO 'BASTARD'

ngl I love Ais's mullet

This should not have been one of my first otome games bc now my standards are so high, esp in regards to character design

I wonder if the flashing soulless in the title screen means we'll see more soulless in the full game (than just the one)

okay damn I also really like Ais, these are some really well written characters

LMAO I was not expecting this music for Kuras

oh interesting I didn't realize Mhin's red choice was during your first encounter if you're an alchemist

okay Kuras is very silly and goofy 10/10 guy

ooo good theories about Ocudeus and control on tumblr - "obedience" -- reference to someone thinking the "obedience suits you" line on Ais's character card was actually from Ocudeus not Ais

Summary:

I thought when playing more otome games it would be really hard to beat My Next Life, simply because I am a huge fan of the source material that preceded the game. But wow, with the way this game is setting up plotlines, the full version of this game could easily make it onto my top favorite games list. Otome games are all about replayability, and the way just the DEMO is so rich with content and alternating paths makes me so excited and hopeful for the full game's release. I am bummed I got onto the Touchstarved train late and missed the kickstarter, but hopefully a shop will open around release bc I'd kill for an art book. The art is just so gorgeous and I cannot wait to do some studies, especially with color and rendering. Before playing otome games, I like to look at the character profiles beforehand and predict who I'd like and dislike. And I am very delightfully surprised that any initial dislike I had of characters all but vanished because the writing and personalities of these characters were so well made. I thought I was going to hate Leander but he ended up being the character I'm most curious about. Although I would say my least favorite is Kuras simply bc I'm not a fan of romancing doctors, I am still curious about his background story and connection to the others. In other words, great character who is just not my type. I am also delightfully surprised at the "vulgarity" in this game without being overly explicit -- I have grown so tired of how sanitized a lot of games and shows have been that it's always really nice seeing indie companies play by their own rules. I am so glad I stumbled across this game!! At this point I've done every route favorably but haven't tried all the "wrong" options -- more to play whenever I think about how excited I am for the full game! I've also seen the sneak peaks of an upcoming update ^_^. Highly recommend the game!!

[monpalace]

ships .. (skyward sword) link/reader, (linked universe) sky/reader

content .. what sky is like when he's in love, skyloftian culture regarding romance, and how miscommunication is inevitable when the two involved are from two differing cultures.

warnings .. miscommunication, but not in a dramatized way. written with linked universe in mind. they/them pronouns used for reader. i came back to this at different levels of tiredness, so a few thoughts left me and never came back (including the ending). not beta-read. remember the original ramble? ignore that.

notes .. based off this request, but i've never touched skyward sword aside from tauberpa's abridged videos, plus i wrote that original proposal thoughts while sleep deprived, so inaccuracies may or may not be present?? i focused on the romance/relationship culture of skyloft since i'm so unfamiliar with the game

but on the subject of feather proposal i think i got the original idea from cloudninetonine??? i truthfully don't remember because when it was first put in my head it felt like a fever dream

Sky had always been, and will always be, a hopeless romantic.

His Zelda, Sun, had shown him more than enough stories that included romance as they grew up. She had exposed him to just enough that it had molded and cast what he thought the perfect romance would, permeating his dreams with his other half and the blank spaces of his papers with what he could remember they looked like.

(For some time, Sun was all that he coveted. They had spent so much time together, he had felt as though she was The One, but after years of exploring his tastes, he had learned better.)

Loftwings had a large influence on Skyloft. Even someone taking their first step on the sky islands could tell.

Not only were they said to be borne from their rider's soul, destined to carry their Hylian counterpart through the waves of the wind; but they also mated for life, until the flames of their conjoined souls finally diminished.

Of course that would bear heavily on Sky's interpretation of romance (— alongside how a Loftwing's choice in mate more often than not influenced who their rider would choose to spend the rest of their days with, and how divorce between riders was often seen as taboo).

(But who was he to comment on that? He's soundly sure he and his other half would never part.)

On Skyloft, disposing all but one of a Loftwing's shed feathers was to be expected from residents once they hit puberty lest someone pick one up and get the wrong idea. Even those in relationships need to keep the habit to keep away suspicions of adultery.

Sky kept two of Crimson's feathers on his person at all times since he was a child.

One had been plucked from the plume of his head when they had first bonded as a sign that their souls were one and the same. It's always within sight of both himself and others, dangling freely from his left ear with the same amount of pride Crimson has when he soars through the air.

The other had naturally fallen from Crimson's breast not long after they had both matured. He keeps it close to his heart, tucked underneath his layers and layers of clothes, kept overtop his chest where his heart beats strongest by a form-fitting undershirt or a prick of his skin if it's something looser.

Because he's much better at working with wood rather than metal, Sky would always keep his whittling kit on him. It's not as large or extravagant as the one he keeps in his room on Skyloft, but it's small enough to fit alongside his other utilities without issue and he's able to use it just fine without any issue aside from the usual knick or two.

He always keeps the kit and a piece of raw wood on him in the event he meets his other half on his travels. He knows he wouldn't pop the question right after meeting them, but he doesn't want to be ill-prepared in case they ask for something.

Whether it be practical or for aesthetics, he's always willing to deliver the highest quality product.

Upon meeting the one he wants to spend the rest of his days with, Sky is a mess by his standards.

(It takes him weeks to determine whether or not he really wants to dive into the deep end and give his all to someone who may or may not like him— in a non-creepy way, of course. He knows better than to do most of what characters do when pursuing someone.)

He sleeps less, he and his items are constantly in order, and his usual appearance that screams “just got out of bed,” is cleaned up.

He strikes himself with the question of whether or not he should be this out of sorts when in love (no one in the stories he read was), but he accepts it.

If he were to find his dream person in his Hyrule where everyone knows him, it'd be obvious to everyone that he's interested in that certain someone.

If he were to find his dream person outside of his Hyrule with the other Links, it'd still be very obvious he was in love regardless of how long they'd been traveling together.

Prior to his supposed proposal, Sky would court his love interest with at least a gift a day; one every week or so if he's busy. It's always more intricate the longer he takes to finish.

The gifts are never something they have to imply they want. He takes what he hears from the grapevine and from what he's heard his interest said in passing and takes it from there.

On Skyloft, physical affection (both platonic and romantic) is an accepted practice because of how open Loftwings are to giving and receiving it with their riders.

Naturally, it carries on outside of the sky islands.

Sky had always slept closer to others than what was typically deemed acceptable. He gingerly knocks his head against those he considers family, grooms others when they have a leaf in their hair or wipes away a smudge on their cheek, presses kisses to their face when they look like they need it, and covers most of their body with his own when they speak of being cold.

Physical affection comes first nature to Sky, so he wouldn't put it past who he's interested in to think of it as them being good friends only.

The only thing is; he can't help but wonder whether or not he and the one he's been courting can consider each other more than friends.

There was no point in time either Sky or his interest ask to date or whether they were dating.

Eventually, their kisses drifted closer and closer to their lips, their hugs got longer and longer, and they had begun pressing against each other when sleeping to the point where almost melded as one.

When the time came Sky felt it was appropriate to propose, your response was lackluster, in his opinion.

You had said your thanks, held it up to yourself and asked if he thought it looked good on your person, kissed him on the cheek, and then went off to Wind because he usually had a colorful assortment of knick-knacks to decorate with.

Nothing else changes after that.

You still hold each other while asleep, you still walk shoulder-to-shoulder with each other with intertwined hands, you still press kisses to the other without shame, and you still accept any type of affection the other offers.

The only new thing is that, from his perspective, you're engaged and he doesn't know whether to feel giddy (you're engaged!) or anxious (did you even know?).

Whenever the topics of significant others, marriage, proposals, ideal type, and anything else relating to romance, during nights when everyone was tired and curiosity ran rampant, Sky's eyes are consistently drifting to you during the conversation.

When he brings up how riders present the feathers from their Loftwing's breast during one of those nights when the campfire is flickering down and it's hard to make out anyone's facial expressions, he knows something clicks when your eyes lighten and widen before relaxing.

You pull him away when the topic changes to Warriors and his stories of a younger Time (who swears none of them are true).

"You proposed?"

Sky has to lean in when you speak. Your voice is so low as though you were scared of the others hearing even though you were far enough you couldn't hear the belly laughs from the others.

And he returns the same energy.

"Not if you didn't want me to."

"I thought we were dating. Was the feather not supposed to be us making it official?"

"Dating?" It was a foreign concept in Skyloft. Most relationships went from courting to marriage. "Do you want to date?"

When you bite the inside of your cheek and shake your head, Sky watches as you finger the feather that hung loosely from your person. "We're already this far in. I don't see why we have to now; I just have a few questions of my own."

Sky answers all questions to the best of his ability. He's shocked that you aren't mad he swindled himself into a relationship (no less, a relationship), but he'll easily give you confusion.

Most of the other Links are asleep by the time you both return (Sky's halfway there himself) and those who are still awake know better than to say anything when they see the way you both wear your feathers in matching styles.

[respectthepetty]

I need to stress something somewhere. And I know you will be able to help or even help be observe but, I have a haunting feeling that in the clips we have of Mork reading to Day, is in the future and….Mork isn’t actually there anymore . … many reasons with the scenes set up but the main things for me is the fish. There is only one in the rank now in that scene. And the book marks in the book. 1 fish bookmark, the other an avocado? And their legs are covered with a blanket. So no 2 slippers of fish is shown……am I creating narrative things that are not there or seeing things wrong? it just feels almost a melancholy scene set up in front of the tank…… and I’m scared!!

What are your thoughts pretty please?!

Anon, I'm choosing violence first, then I'll be kind.

On Spanish TikTok, or as I like to call it Tea Talk, someone stated they saw the book's ending, and it ended with Mork dying and donating his eyes to Day.

The people of Tea Talk ripped that video to shreds. The comments section was not pleased with the mentiras (lies), and Indonesian TikTok even showed up in the fray with the actual book to prove the original poster was "Livin' La Vida Loca."

I don't know how this cookie will crumble, but let me remind you of two things:

#1 - This is GMMTV.

It gave us The Shipper in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, and I think it has been correcting that wrong since.

And it gave us Only Friends in 2023.

I wanted murder and mayhem. Instead it gave everyone happy endings except the slut because apparently he had too many "happy endings" and *morality* or some bullshit.

If you are watching Playboyy, it's what Only Friends could have been if Disney BL hadn't produced it.

I might sound salty (because I am), but I'm really just trying to emphasize that GMMTV wouldn't. Period. Full stop. GMMTV wouldn't give us a sad ending to a branded pair. It will kill a mom quick, but sad times for a branded pair? ¡Nunca! For example, how did we all know Palm x Nueng were gonna be safe and sound in Never Let Me Go? Our Skyy 2. Can't have Our Skyy 3 if it kills a ship now can it?

#2 - This is Aof

The director, producer, and screenwriter extraordinaire shot Pat (Ohm) on Christmas Eve.

He killed Papang!

Hell, he killed Singto before the series even started!

Mork (NOT GAWIN, NO!) got beat up and was hospitalized!

And yet, we got a happy ending each time.

The man wants to make use cry, but he has never ended with queer trauma to do so.

Which is why there are still two fish in that tank.

And I think the avocado is a shout out to Jimmy's love of them (because who doesn't love avocados, am I right?).

So as much as I do not think the reading scenes we keep getting are set in the present,

I don't think they are setting us up for a sad future, especially because Korea already did this trick.

If you watched To My Star 2: Our Untold Stories last year, you know that shit hurt, every, single, episode,

and because it hurt, we were too blinded by the pain to notice the happiness sprinkled throughout.

The happiness we were seeing wasn't flashbacks of their past relationship or even snippets of their current one.

THEY WERE GLIMPSES OF THEIR HAPPY FUTURE!

Korea gave us The Eighth Sense and Strongberry's Choco Milk Shake, both which had the perfect premises to fuck us over, and yet my only complaint was NO POLY!

If Korea can delivery happy endings, Disney BL can too (but not the kind it punished Boston for. Never those kind). It isn't Taiwan, and it certainly isn't Japan who is ALWAYS itching to give maximum pain. This is "soft power" Thailand, GMMTV, Aof, and a branded pair. If GMMTV brought out Gawin to get Krist and Joss back to kiss a homie, I greatly doubt it would tank the JimmySea ship for a sad ending (did you get the pun?). If there is one thing I can count on GMMTV for, it's to secure the bag. Sell merch. Sell novels. Sell a special box edition of the series. Sell the ship. That won't happen if this is sad.

Also, color-coded boys in love get happy endings.

It's science.

[sordidbask]

My thoughts on the announcement of Life is Strange: Double Exposure

I'm going to preface this by saying I am incredibly conflicted about this title.

On the one hand, I am excited beyond belief that a new Life is Strange is coming and that MAX CAULFIELD HERSELF IS COMING BACK. The OG, the protagonist, the hippie photographer, the main character we fell in love with all those years ago. Her return to the franchise is something the fandom has been asking for (with varying degrees of toxicity) ever since Life is Strange 2 was announced back in 2016-2017. In the middle of all the fanart and the fanfiction, we always thought a new Life is Strange with Max and Chloe was an impossibility and that was something we had to come to terms with for years. Past Sordidbask had resigned himself to a timeline where any piece of LiS media featuring Max and Chloe outside of the first game was only possible in fanworks and too troublesome to bring to canon. Not anymore, biatch. I am one of the Bae over Bay supporters but that ending was noticeably lacking in development and felt way too open-ended to give any sense of resolution to a storyline that spanned five chapters and dozens of different choices. As such, seeing her return (even in a brand new unrelated story) is the perfect opportunity to tie up loose ends from the first game and to see how Max has evolved as a CHARACTER given everything she went through in the original and to which exciting new places will Double Exposure take her.

This leads me to my main gripe with this new chapter in Max's life: Deck Nine.

Not gonna lie, when I watched the trailer and saw their logo instead of DONTNOD's, my initial excitement at seeing Max (once again voiced by Hannah Telle, let's go!) died down way too much. Beats me why DONTNOD has given up on their baby franchise but whatever reason it may be, Deck Nine is now at the Life is Strange helm. If it were up to DONTNOD, the franchise would have ended with Life is Strange 2. That said, comparisons are ugly but clearly DONTNOD's titles are superior to Deck Nine's.

Life is Strange 1 and 2 and even Captain Spirit, for all their flaws are more cohesive, well thought out and overall charming stories with more interesting characters than True Colors or Before the Storm (and at least some choices matter at the end of LiS 2, that can't be said for LiS 1, TC or BtS).

And I don't mind Deck Nine doing their own thing in this universe (True Colors) but them taking a fan favourite and a loved by all character from its original creators and from the place we initially met her scares me way too much. I don't mean to say they will ruin Max's character because that would be unfair but Deck Nine's games always seem to follow the same formula, a lackluster murder mystery where our choices ultimately lead up to a binary choice at the end. I guess I am terrified that D9 is hyping up Max's return after so long only to 🤡 us and put her in a lazy, drab, boring or uninteresting place.

To be honest, the most exciting part about that trailer was Max and Hannah. I did not care for this new friend character that gets killed off or any other D9 character for that matter at ALL. That may be unfair but given D9's track record with unremarkable, unimpressive and not bold enough stories, I have come to expect very little of them (other scandals not withstanding).

I can't help but wonder, since Max is going to use her powers again, is this going to be another time-travel story? Does D9 know how to pull those off? DONTNOD showed masterclass storytelling regarding time travel and it's consequences developing the themes brilliantly and with the amount of tragedy, inevitability, heartbreak and acceptance these stories always carry. That was imprinted all over LiS 1 and it's characters, Max's power was an ironic echo of her character flaw, she couldn't move on, she was nostalgic, she lived in the past. Her power is who she was in LiS 1 and I'm very interested to see how will Max using her powers again be handled in Double Exposure character-wise, story-wise and theme-wise.

Regarding Max's design, it's okay. I think people overreacting saying it doesn't look like her and calling her ugly are just trolling. She does resemble Steph more this time around. Deck Nine's style has already worn me out (this game looks too much like True Colors) where I wanted to see an improvement to the engine or even a brand new style, more handcrafted and more akin to the lighting in a bottle style and charm that LiS 1 had.

I believe it all comes down to that, the lighting in a bottle that was LiS 1 and Max with which we fell in love that I'm afraid D9 may not be able to live up to.

Regarding the elephant in the room: Where's Chloe? I'll choose to believe Deck Nine is keeping their cards close to their chest and not showing anything remotely associated with Chloe until the game releases because if they don't fear success, they will find a way to incorporate Chloe into this story in a way that feels essential, important and coherent to Max's character development as well and not just an afterthought or a cameo/mention when looking at an item. All of this taking into account all the theories we're seeing regarding the "parallel timelines", the Double Exposure title and the binary choice at the end of LiS 1.

If they don't mention or include Chloe at all, it would be a gigantic wasted opportunity and personally, a game-killer for me.

All of this makes it seem like I'm just spewing pessimism. But I want to be excited for this title, I love seeing everyone happy and glad Max is back and I love seeing how passionate and loving this community can be (mostly) every time a new chapter is announced for this little franchise that has changed our lives. I love Max, I love Chloe, I love this franchise and these characters.

If D9 is the only reason we are getting new Life is Strange games with our beloved characters in the first place then I am grateful to them but I won't settle for anything less than this franchise and these characters deserve. The bar set by the first game:

A rich, well crafted, engaging and meaningful story with deep and charming characters and themes that resonate in the audience. A memorable installment.

Not another stab which is uninteresting, unremarkable and forgettable but with Max as the MC.

D9 can choose which they want to make but by including Max they sealed their fate and are now forced, OBLIGATED to make the former option. This game may be superior to True Colors, I want it to be so much more than True Colors was and I hope D9 are able to pull it off.

Max and Chloe deserve it.

Thanks for reading.

[randomthefox]

I want you to PLEASE do me a favor and put Yakuza 0 out of your mind. Also please disregard Yakuza Kiwami. Pretend that this and the scene with Majima at the beginning of the game is the ONLY content with Majima that exists in the entire world. Ten years ago Majima beat the shit out of his own underling because he disrespected Kiryu, gave him some psudo advice on how to run his family which everyone expected was going to happen soon, then walked off. Next thing that happens is Kiryu goes to prison for 10 years for killing his boss. Majima has no reason to think Kiryu didn't do it. Suddenly Kiryu is back in town and running around with some little girl, so Majima kidnaps Haruka and lures Kiryu to the batting cages EVERY SINGLE OTHER ENCOUNTER that Kiryu has had with EVERYONE ELSE in the Tojo Clan so far has been them going "FUCK YOU KIRYU YOU KILLED YOUR BOSS YOU'RE A TRAITOR WE'RE GONNA FUCK YOUR SHIT UP >=o " OR has been saying "hand over Haruka because she's vaguely important." So obviously the assumption would be that Majima is doing the same kind of thing. But what happens?

Majima just tells him where Haruka is and says he's free to take her.

Because Majima DOESN'T GIVE A FUCK about the main story.

ALL Majima wants is to fight Kiryu. He doesn't care about ANYTHING ELSE. He kidnapped Haruka as a means to an end, and if anything his motivation for wanting to fight Kiryu is BECAUSE HE LIKES HIM. Fighting to the death is Majima's love language.

Majima calling him "Kiryu-chan" also cannot be overstated. I literally don't even have time to unpack the layers of meaning in him applying that particular suffix to him.

Majima literally throws himself in the way to stop one of his own underlings from stabbing Kiryu. In the original english dub he says "Kiryu is my friend." In the Kiwami sub they actually chose to translate this as "he belongs to me." The subs I'm using naturally went with "Kiryu is mine." Everyone was on the same page here. Majima wants to fight Kiryu because he LIKES him.

Is it any wonder Majima became so insanely popular as a character? And believe it or not, the developers didn't originally envision Majima as a very important character. The character evolved and developed over time. As originally written, he only has three scenes in the entire game and the character designer and voice actor kind of ran away with the concept and brought Majima to life in a way that did not exist in the script or design document.

This is why the Majima everywhere system in Kiwami actually kind of annoys me. It's a great and funny system IF YOU ALREADY KNOW WHO MAJIMA IS AND HAS BEEN PLAYING THESE GAMES FOR TEN YEARS. But if you *started* with Yakuza 0 or Kiwami as your FIRST GAMES? It turns Majima into this fucking meme and totally knees caps your perspective of his character.

Majima is so special and unique. A real wild card of a character that only EVENTUALLY had depth added to him starting with Yakuza 4 when his backstory started getting delved into. In the first game, he's actually kind of a yandere type character that has some tantalizing implied nuance to him.

[explodingchantry]

hi sorry to come into your inbox for this but i just need. to gripe. every new bit of info we get about the new DA game is making me more and more preemptively tired lol. mostly the way it's looking like eeevery bit of lore that's been revealed has something to do with such and such book. or this comic over here. or this podcast from two years ago. or THIS podcast that is happening now that's a ~discord exclusive~. or this youtube series. or this random VA talk show. etc etc ad nauseam. i am so tired of videogames coming with HOMEWORK you're expected to do just to know what's going on

Please never apologise for sending messages!!

I think its honestly REALLY funny how bioware just doesn't know what it wants. On one hand they say that the new game is fine for newcomers, the way they did for dai, and use this as an excuse for how dumbed down some of the writing is - but then in the other hand the majority of the characters and plot beats have origins hidden behind pay walls.

It was already bad enough when, to understand each game properly you had to have paid for the previous one's dlc (want to know anders' past as a warden? Buy awakening! Want to know wtf is up with Morrigan and the eluvians? Buy witch hunt! Want to know who tf corypheus is and what hawke and varric even have to do with him? Buy legacy! Want to understand ANYTHING about veilguard? Play the descent AND trespasser, our epilogue that we hid behind a paywall!!!!!) and you know at least the dlcs were pretty good on their own so I could forgive it a little bit.

But there's so much extra media now omg I haven't touched a single one of the comics because I'm not rly into American comics, I've read almost all the books and some of them are genuinely fucking mid. And at least back in the day the books were more... Bonuses? You DONT need to read the stolen throne to understand anything on the games, but it's INTERESTING. it explores characters you mightve been curious about. I love that ! Or the last flight is really interesting, just, to see how the 4th blight was beaten, to get to know those legendary heroes, and know why griffons went extinct. A bit annoying because you do need to read it to also understand how the hell they're coming back - but it still feels a bit more like a bonus than a necessity.

But then we have asunder, which also in general just kinda sucks as a book, that is really really needed to understand the mage rebellion, Fiona, Cole, and the cure for tranquility. The characters will explain a lot of those things to you in game, but it leaves you with the certain feeling that you're missing something. It's a huge advertisement for asunder.

Similarly wicked eyes and wicked hearts is hollow if you haven't read the masked empire which is also my least favorite book because it's so damn fucking boring I literally never managed to finish it, but it's mostly because I hate Trick Weekes' writing lmfao. Gaider was wildly misogynistic but my god at least he was entertaining as a writer whenever he didn't butcher female characters.

That's two major plot beats in inquisition that require reading one of the books. And ofc it's major villain and another major plot beat that require having played the previous game's dlc to properly understand.

And since then we've had so much more. I don't know. It's just complicated because I *like* book characters showing up and the books having importance in the sense that, I like reading and I'm a lore nerd lol. But I think there's a lot of frustration to be had as to the sheer quantity of extra media you need to consume if you want to be invested in the story. Because you could say "well just don't buy them then" but I LIKE dragon age, it's story, and plot, but omg some of the books and comics are also so hard to find and so EXPENSIVE. I think tevinter nights costs like 20£ if you want it on paperback rather than Kindle, and don't get me started on the dozens of comics.

At least the podcasts and discord only content isn't nearly as offensive, imo, because they're free. But also there's another issue with all of this extra content - it's that it doesn't get fucking translated. Not often, anyway. Not in as many languages as the games do. That means there are many, many many many players and fans who are just not allowed to learn more about their favorite game series because they don't speak English, because theyre not rich enough to buy 10 books and 20 comics. It feels a bit wrong

[fernsnailz]

i love reading your sonic loreposts i was wondering if you could please explain archie charmy to me, i have heard stuff and i am so curious but i am not a comics in general kinda person. the lsd poisoned friend or the brain damage literally just anything that happens to him your pick

hi anon i’m just going to go over everything that happens to archie charmy pre-reboot so i hopefully never have to talk about it after this. i'm sorry i'm so so sorry

Archie Charmy is subject to a lot of controversy and discussion because despite his limited role in the comics, he goes through some of the most batshit insane character and plot beats in the whole series (and that you’ve already mentioned). I’ll be skimming over some of the more boring parts, but the wild stuff I'll go pretty in-depth with.

I’ll also be attempting to explain WHY all of this happens to Charmy Bee of all characters, taking into account the context of the story, what was happening behind the scenes in the writer’s room, and even comic trends in general. I want to try and keep away from the very reactionary “wow archie sonic is sooooo crazy” discussion that happens around this stuff and hopefully provide a little more useful analysis. i talk about comic PSAs for a while so be warned

There are some very, very important content warnings that are coming with Archie Charmy lore: warning for non-consensual drug use and overdose (specifically LSD), child death, genocide, implied ableism, memory loss, implied age regression, breif homophobia mention (not related to charmy)

this is going to be a very long one. charmy lore under the cut

INTRODUCTION - CHAOTIX

Charmy Bee’s first appearance in Archie Sonic is in the Knuckles’ Chaotix special, which adapts the first game he appeared in. This issue introduces the entire Chaotix cast (six new characters) in a mere four pages, so Charmy doesn’t make much of an impression other than “bee who likes to explore and adventure.” He lacks that annoying little brother personality that he has in most Sonic media, and he’ll often speak with language that feels extremely out of character for the Charmy that most people know.

This is because this version of Charmy is based off of his character description from the Knuckles’ Chaotix game manual. Despite the series being based off of the video game franchise, the Archie Sonic writers were often given very little information about upcoming game releases from SEGA when they were asked to adapt them into the comics. Often they had to go digging for the canonical materials themselves - for example, the only way they were able to adapt Sonic Adventure into the comics is because Patrick Spaziante (one of the comic’s artists) had a Japanese version of the game that he bought himself. They had no English translation and zero guidance from SEGA, so they had to attempt to piece the story together without SEGA's help. This was the case with most of the game adaptations, and it was honestly a miracle that they had access to the manual for Knuckles’ Chaotix at all.

There’s just one problem: the manual for Knuckles’ Chaotix describes a version of Charmy that is very, very different from the one we know of today. It describes a 16-year old that is… sophisticated?

(sorry for the low quality, there aren't many images of the manual. also fun fact, there was no age for Charmy listed in the original Japanese manual)

Charmy's differing age and personality will lead to many, many problems, as the writers decided to give the “sophisticated” Charmy darker stories. This brings us to the Knuckles the Echidna mini-series.

The Knuckles mini-series is. Bad. Charmy Bee is certainly there for the first few issues (as are most of the Chaotix), but he doesn’t get much focus until issue 13.

I don’t know how to put this in a way that doesn’t sound extremely blunt: This is the issue where Charmy’s best friend overdoses on LSD and dies.

PART 1 - MELLO

Charmy's best friend is named Mello Bee. This is his first and last appearance in the series.

Mello started feeling strange on their return trip from Happyland, a sketchy theme park that recently reopened under new management. Charmy isn't sure why Mello died, but Constable Reminton (essentially the sheriff of Echidnopolis) reveals that there have been a series of cases similar to Mello's - cases where people were suffering from… Lemon Sundrop Dandelion poisoning.

The Chaotix go to Happyland to see if they can find the source of the poisoning, but what they don't know is that it's actually laced into the food. The manager of Happyland, Renfield T. Rodent, has been lacing the park's chili dogs with LSD in hopes of making everyone addicted to them. However, the amount of LSD he's been putting into the food is too much for most people to handle. This is probably the most insane paragraph I've had to write for one of these loreposts

Unknown to the Chaotix, they all start eating the chili dogs during their investigation (except for Julie-Su and Knuckles, who is absent) and start tripping balls.

Continuing the story into issue 14, Charmy’s LSD trip reveals that he’s actually the prince of a bee colony and has been running away from his responsibilities as a member of the royal family.

Charmy is knocked out for the rest of this arc as he goes through his trip - they have to operate on him and some other stuff happens I guess (Julie-Su gets thrown off of a roof, Knuckles fights some guys in a desert, Vector is a misogynist, stuff like that). At the end of issue 15, Charmy learns from his trip and returns to his family, temporarily leaving the Chaotix to return to his royal duties. Mello's family and his all mourn Mello's death and bury him back at their home.

So. What was the fucking point of all that

In the long-term, Charmy returning home to his family essentially writes him out of the story for a while. Knuckles the Echidna issue 15 released in 1998, and Charmy doesn't really return until 2001. While I'm not entirely sure what the reason for this was, there were so many members of the Chaotix that I honestly think this was an okay decision.

However, there's one very important question left to answer: Why was LSD and a drug overdose included in this arc at all?

When I first read this arc, I had a burning thought that I couldn't get out of my mind:

PART 1.5 - wait is this an anti-drug PSA?

(if you want to avoid me talking in-depth about the abilities of LSD and my ramble about comic PSAs for a while, you can skip to PART 2 where I continue the Charmy lore)

Comic PSAs (Public Service Announcements) and propaganda are a fundamental part of the medium’s history, whether it be to aid their country’s war efforts, give health information to their readers, or warn kids about the dangers of drug abuse. While a comic being used as a PSA isn’t inherently a bad thing, it’s usually VERY obvious. One of the most interesting ones I've found is a PSA that features Green Lantern debunking misinformation about the AIDS crisis. The image quality isn’t great, but the comic doesn’t hold back when talking about how the AIDS crisis is spreading homophobic ideology - if you read this, you know it’s a PSA and you know what message it’s trying to send. Sometimes propaganda can be subtle, but PSAs are usually loud.

(cw: homophobia)

This is why anti-drug PSAs are so common and so remembered - they’re over the top, they’re blunt (lol), and they have a very specific message they’re trying to send. For example, there’s an issue of New Teen Titans from 1983 that introduce a character called the Protector to teach kids about drug awareness where the issue literally starts with the Teen Titans in an auditorium telling kids about a dangerous drug. This issue also includes some bad trip imagery, and it’s uh… honestly i kinda love this

Anti-drug PSAs usually don’t work for this very reason - showing how a drug affects fictional characters can increase interest in the substance, and a single superhero telling someone to stop smoking is not going to break someone’s addiction.

So. Is Knuckles the Echidna issues 13-15 an anti-drug PSA?

Probably not, but if it is it’s doing a fucking terrible job of it

Some of the main factors of a PSA are the information it's presenting, the opinion it wants the consumer to develop, and the bluntness of its presentation. While this part of the Knuckles series is certainly over the top, the rest of these factors are really muddy. First, anti-drug PSAs usually don’t create a fake drug to replace the one they’re advising against. An anti-weed campaign will just tell you that weed is bad because that’s the opinion it wants you to walk away with. So when Knuckles issue 13 introduces a substance called “Lemon Sundrop Dandelion” and never actually refers to it as LSD, it’s less of a message about “drug bad” and more just a sly nudge and wink that goes “hey you see that? yeah, that’s drug.”

Then there’s the problem that there isn’t really much of a lesson to be had from these issues regarding drug use. Yes, Mello dies horrifically of an overdose, but most of the cast is able to walk off the trip like it’s nothing. Charmy needs to be operated on, but the doctors literally treat it like it’s fucking NOTHING

he's literally talking about how he told a patient that couldn't afford surgery to go to the butcher like HUH?????

In fact, Charmy’s trip seems to help him in the long run - he’s forced to face his past, and eventually returns to his family because of the literal guilt trip he has. It’s a fundamental part of his character arc.

This isn’t to say that I wish these issues were explicitly drug PSAs - I bring all of this up because these issues were released in 1998, in an era where the anti-drug movement was arguably at its peak. The people working on these comics would KNOW its content is similar to and even promotes the anti-drug movement. While I don't consider these issues to be an anti-drug PSA, they can definitely serve as anti-drug propaganda.

With this in mind, considering Knuckles the Echidna as a form of propaganda really opens up how utterly terrible these issues are. These comics can be genuinely harmful pieces of anti-drug propaganda because the way they use LSD to advance they plot is untrue to how the drug actually works and relies entirely on fear mongering. While LSD can be laced into other substances like drinks, it probably wouldn't last long in cooked meat - LSD usually degrades at higher temperatures, and telling comic readers that they need to be afraid of LSD-laced fair food is fucking stupid and likely based on false urban legends. Not only that, but Renfield T. Rodent’s plot to addict everyone to his LSD chili dogs is also fucking stupid because LSD is not considered an addictive substance. It can be extremely dangerous at high or multiple doses, but LSD does not normally lead to compulsive use.

I don’t talk about all of this to be a cinemasins guy or to nitpick a comic from 1998, and I also don't want to imply that PSAs can't spread lies and misinformation (anti-drug PSAs famously over-exaggerate things). I bring all of this up to show an ineffective and possibly dangerous use of something that could be considered anti-drug propaganda. Spreading blatantly untrue information and placing false fears into a reader’s mind is truly incompetent on the writer’s behalf, especially considering that this comic was targeted at kids. And that’s not even mentioning that there’s barely any moral to all of this. There’s no lesson and they never talk about this again.

Do I think this was all intentional on the behalf of the writers? I have no idea. I have no goddamn idea what they were thinking with this one, and I honestly don't think much thought was put into this arc at all. Maybe this was a strange attempt to make a Sonic-themed anti-drug PSA, maybe they were just inspired by the drug PSAs of their time when writing this, or maybe they just did not care. I don't know man. Anti-drug propaganda is stupid and it doesn't work and these comics drive me crazy

alright enough of that. let's talk about genocide

PART 2 - SAFFRON

don’t worry this part will be shorter (cheering and clapping)

Like I mentioned a while back, Charmy is essentially written out of the story for a while after the Mello incident. While living in the Golden Hive Colony, he reunites with another friend, Saffron Bee. Saffron becomes Charmy’s girlfriend, and they’re together for basically the rest of the comic. Usually if Charmy shows up, Saffron is there too.

(image of Charmy and Saffron I stole from... the Shipping Wiki??)

They eventually return to help Chaos Knuckles, a green version of Knuckles who is uh. Kinda going through it. Not much important Charmy lore needs to be discussed here, but some of his actions do eventually lead to him creating a genocidal villain that will cause many problems later. Don’t worry about it.

Things are quiet for a while for Charmy and Saffron. That is, until Eggman attacks their colony and wipes out most of its population.

Charmy and Saffron are the only survivors we see from the Golden Hive Colony. Eggman transforms the colony into a new base and traps its residents in an invention of his called the Egg Grapes - basically, he puts Mobians in these little pods that sap all of their life force, powering his empire. Most people do not survive the Egg Grapes.

The two bees return to join the Chaotix for a little while, and the rest of the Chaotix confirm that the Golden Hive Colony and its residents are truly gone. Espio destroys what’s left of the colony so Eggman can’t use it as a base, and no other survivors from the colony are found.

So. yeah what the fuck

Archie Sonic is known to have a LOT of characters - I’ve talked about the sheer number of echidnas the series has before, but there are a lot of characters that have massive extended families. The arc where Mello died introduced like eight new bee characters, but most of them were background characters that didn’t need to stick around.

Most people cite writer Ian Flynn’s debut to the series as when a lot of these unneeded/background characters were written out or killed off, and I agree since one of his objectives as a writer was to tighten up the story. However, the trend of “Archie background characters getting killed off or written out” started a little bit before he joined the team. There’s the destruction of the Golden Hive, and many echidnas in this arc suffer from the horrors of war - a number die off after Charmy and Saffron rejoin the Chaotix. yeah it's kinda fucked up

This is the second major arc where Charmy has lost people close to him - first Mello, and now his entire family and kingdom. The same goes for Saffron - they only have each other left. I mean the Chaotix are also there but still, trauma is trauma

How could it get any worse?

PART 3 - CHARMY

Remember how Archie Charmy is based off of the Knuckles’ Chaotix manual? The one that said he was sophisticated and 16?

This is about to cause a few problems.

At this point, it’s around 2007. The Knuckles’ Chaotix manual is terribly outdated, and most versions of Charmy within canon are 6 year-old kids. Charmy is known to be the annoying comedic relief, which is the exact opposite from how he’s portrayed in Archie Sonic.

So when SEGA asked writer Ian Flynn to change Archie Sonic to be like his video game counterpart, the solution was uh. well. it could have been handled better

Like how he obliterated the Golden Hive Colony, Eggman’s next target to destroy is Knothole, the city where Sonic and the Freedom Fighters all live. It’s a surprise to all of the residents, and he manages to teleport most of the population into his Egg Grapes. Before Sonic can save them, Eggman singles out Charmy to be used as an example of how the Egg Grapes work.

Sonic and friends manage to get Charmy out, but not before the damage is already done. In the limited amount of time the Grape sapped his life force, Charmy’s memory was partially wiped and personality changed forever. After this, Charmy has very little memory of the Golden Hive Colony at all, only seeming to remember Saffron and his friends. His becomes much more child-like, similar to his game counterpart.

the fucking sigh i just sighed

For clarification, Charmy is still 16. The only thing that was altered was his mind, with the intention to make his personality more in-line with his goofy video game counterpart. The problem is that giving a character brain damage to turn them into a comedic relief character is fucked up and unintentionally ableist.

This is something that writer Ian Flynn identified pretty early and openly regrets (I’m not sure what the source of that statement is, I’m assuming an episode of Bumblekast but I’m don’t know which one. I’ll edit this if I find it). Because of this, he mostly kept Charmy out of any comedic situations for the rest of the series. Charmy has a very limited role in the series after this until the reboot, only appearing sporadically and in one Sonic Universe arc. When he does show up, his childish demeanor is usually met with the patience of the Chaotix and their sad expressions.

Although the intention was to make Archie Charmy more like his game counterpart, in practice I honestly think this action only made Archie Charmy even MORE distant from his game character. From the Egg Grape incident to the reboot, Archie Charmy’s trauma never leaves my mind and leaves me feeling strangely hollow.

CONCLUSION - WHAT THE FUCK

I find the Archie Sonic series unfathomably fascinating. While I love the series, I can’t deny that most of the events I went over are poorly handled by the writing team and leave the series with such a strange legacy. With Archie Sonic, it’s often incredibly easy to see the biases of the writers and how they affect the characters and stories, leading to some genuinely fucked up moments that could have easily been avoided in my opinion.

Archie Charmy was really one of the characters that got it the worst, but it's honestly so strange that all of this happened to him specifically. The fact that all of this shit happens to a silly little bee is so, so Archie Sonic to me. Charmy is such a simple character to understand - he's a funny kid who's kinda annoying and hard to handle. So when I look back and see the 3,000+ words I just wrote about Archie Charmy... fucking hell why did i do that

In conclusion. I am sorry and do not become a comics person

thanks for reading if you got this far. as always let me know if i need to tag any other content warnings or if there was anything i got wrong! alright good night tristate area

[psychicvoidtale]

I don't usually create stories or write fanfics so sorry if this is very bad, aslo i'm bored

on a "normal" day Izaack was returning from work, he is lost in thought as he goes to the door for the doorman to open the door for him to enter his apartment

his thoughts were interrupted when he saw the D.D.D doing an inspection in the hallway

Clearly his curiosity was ignited, from afar he tried to see which doppel tried to imitate one of his neighbors, he was scared when he saw what a doppelganger of Robertsky was.

"heh.... another one?" He said that to himself trying to calm himself down.

After a few minutes, the D.D.D took the "doppel" away from the hallway, Izaack is slightly annoyed by waiting, he just wanted to go to his apartment and see his loved one.

He walked lightly but stopped and saw a wallet on the floor "hmmm....." he said thinking it was one of his neighbors, he took the wallet to return it to the neighbor who had slept on it

He opened the wallet slightly to see who the careless neighbor was, not only to make it easier to hand the wallet to the person who forgot it but also because he was too curious

His expression became slightly worried when he saw what Robertsky was, he quickly tried to calm down again thinking it was a fake wallet.

"hehe, how curious... I didn't know that doppelgangers had a walle-" His belief quickly collapsed when he realized that it was not a doppel, he saw a particularly intimate photo

He and robertsky had not said or given any clues that he was in a relationship with Rob, neither of them really thought it was important to give private information to the neighbors, really people who were too trusting like Albertsky and Elenois,It was an old photo from their recent vacation, Rob and Izaack weighed the vacation together

He quickly realized that it was not a doppel but rather the original,Tears quickly began to fall down his cheeks, his heart began to beat hard knowing that his loved one had died due to a misunderstanding,While crying he began to stagger, he leaned against a nearby wall, he sits on the floor while crying, he hugs his legs crying knowing that he was already living alone again

THIS IS BASED ON HEADCANONS AND SHIP GAY❗❗❗

[tragedycoded]

ah, shit, here i go talking to myself about dmls again.

Chat, I think I have to write draft 6 in chronological order. Like actual chronological order. Like the whole fucking thing. The original iteration + seven fucking loops.

Usual warning about heavy spoilers and low probability of this shit making sense.

And if I do that, then I need to reframe the Bad Ending's purpose as a plot point. It shouldn't be the climax of Book 1.

Powell and his party's purpose is totally lost where it currently is. I could be doing a lot more with the time loops/memory as a sacrifice if I showed what information was gathered when Sullivan and Hofer went down there alone.

Deep cut: in the run immediately preceding the one I show you in Book 1, Sullivan left Royston in the stockade and Hofer ended up going after him because he and Turner didn't come back. Hofer had to go down into the cave after them. I don't know if Turner opened the door that time. He might have. Which sucks that his fate that run is to open a creepy-ass door against his will.

I think if I follow a 5-act structure, and I end the first three four acts with them ending up there, then it won't feel super repetitive to keep looping. They end up in the City the very first time, and then they don't even make it that far the next three times because everyone is so fucked up.

The fucked-uppedness also allows me to give Gott a ton more time on the page than she currently has. She fucking deserves it. Having her be actively involved as a supporting character enables her to steer the plot so it isn't fucking her quite as hard as it is in Book 2.

Exposing more of what the conversations they had during previous loops look like in flashbacks, I'm doing her a huge disservice not giving her a few thousand words to establish that she is trying to help Royston. And showing how much bullshit she's had to put up with yet still considers him her friend.

Contrasting the men's responses to either knowing they're in a time loop but thinking they're insane and keeping it to themselves (Hofer and Royston) vs. the one fucking time Sullivan can remember anything, he's like "No. I'm making different choices and getting us out of this"--I think that would hit way harder if I made the reader endure all of it with them.

Not to a degree that we're beat-by-beat going through it, you know? Conservative endurance. The run that Sullivan has autonomy in, the other two can't remember what's going on. It's the ultimate fucking trust fall. Showing how Sullivan broaches the existence of the time loop vs. the other two being too chickenshit to say anything (if Royston isn't manipulating it for some reason) I think would only make Sullivan stronger as a protagonist. I also think there's an opportunity to show Royston trying to figure out who Hofer is way earlier. Like, show you guys what a jealous piece of shit he is. (Or else show the time loop was causing him actual psychological distress due to his blatant ADHD coding.) I love him, he's my awful son, but Sullivan had to be patient to get him into the state he's currently in. He was going to bring him to meet his mother the very first fucking iteration of events, knowing what a shitbag he was. That's something that doesn't change regardless of what happens. That needs to be on the page.

Like I know there's people who would read that much of it. Y'all are insane. It's just dawned on me that jesus christ, this isn't the best way to tell the story, I have to unfold the time loops.

[heythereimb]

This is cross posted from Reddit. You can find the original here vvv

If you don’t know me, hey there I'm B.

December of 2022 u/mrtechnodad gave me the challenge of finding something good in every day, no matter how small. Since then I’ve been sharing monthly updates with a few of my good things from that month.

Anyone who's followed my updates has probably noticed that the title is different and I missed part of my usual intro.

That's because today's list only has one thing:

- I'm officially cancer free

After 708 days, countless hours of chemo, and 4 major surgeries, I have beat almost impossible odds.

Along my journey I've lost too many people who were important to me. Each of them gave me a new reason to keep going. My first roommate taught me how to be strong, how to push through the darkness. My second roommate taught me the power of compassion, how to use my voice to help others. A friend taught me how to laugh, how to see the fun in even the worst situations. And Techno, Technoblade taught me how to fight, how to win any war.

It's no secret I've struggled with survivor's guilt for almost as long as I was sick. I've asked the question, "Why them and not me?" so many times it's become a mantra. I've realized it isn’t about me or them. I think it's about finding what my purpose is. Their lives had purpose, they were full of love and joy. For so long I didn't think I had those things, that there wasn't a reason for me to still be here. I still have a purpose here. I think I know it. At least part of it.

I'm here to share my story. I'm here to share the good I see in every day. I'm here to live.

I'm alive to live.

And so are you.

Be alive. Wake up to wake up. Laugh, cry, sing, dance. Feel everything, sadness, joy, grief, shame, love. Watch the sunrise and live to see it set again. Then do it all again. And again.

Be alive to live.

Today I sat on a beach and watched the sunrise with the love of my life. For the first time in almost two years it wasn't tainted by the possibility of being my last. Instead the sun rose on the first day of my future. It's the first one of a lifetime of new days. Sunrises are no longer a symbol of bitter relief. Now they represent the promise of tomorrow.

I am beyond grateful to be alive. Since my diagnosis I was so sure I wouldn't make it. I had so little hope. Now my voice can shift from the cries of a fighter to the laughter of a survivor.

I am a survivor. Those are words I never dreamed of speaking.

Thank you to everyone who followed my journey. Thank you for your love, your support, and your endless compassion. Without this community my story would be very different.

Remember, "no matter how ridiculous the odds may seem, within us resides the power to overcome these challenges and achieve something beautiful. That one day, we'll look back at where we started and be amazed by how far we've come."

Until next time.

Your friend, B