#I use the shit out of it. both include and exclude

[yjdrabbles123]

little Misty has my heart ohmigosh I keep seeing angsty stuff by it. Especially @/cryingatwindermerepeaks and it breaks my heart.

Do you have any angsty little Misty thoughts you’d be willing to share? If not that’s totally okie of course!!! Luv everything you post!

Ugh ok so firstly thank you so so much for the ask and secondly sorry this was like a dissertation XD Let me know if you want more specific thoughts on Misty, this was more Lore lol

She would definitely struggle with being on the outside of everything- and it would be made the hardest by the fact that Van is both everyones favourite AND also the one who enjoys picking on her the most. Like in canon we see Van keeping up the mean girl bs into season 3 for no reason other than amusing herself and it's clear that she isnt taking it super seriously, she's not like 'Im going to bully her bc I hate her!', its like 'Im The Funny One and its funny when I score off Misty so I will and who cares how it makes her feel' bc like...Van is the funny one! She's nice! everyone likes her! How can she POSSIBLY be a bully in a way that matters? Especially when she jokes with everyone. Except bc she DOESNT like Misty like she likes the others, it kind of hits differently. And I dont think Misty exactly realises this herself, that someone who isnt your friend teasing you is different to a friend doing it: like to her, Van teasing her means they ARE friends. So there would be I think a growing frustration from Nat that Van cant just leave Misty alone and be nice to her and eventually she'd call her out on it and Van would be REALLY defensive, like what do you mean, I'm just joking! And she'd call Tai out on it too, bc Tai I think sees herself as beyond mean girls high school shit so she closes her eyes to the fact that Van really isnt. I think Nat would try sublty telling Van to back off and when that doesnt work, she'd snap: like she'd see Van making yet another comment to Misty and maybe getting everyone to hide from her so they dont have to play with her and she'd call everyone together when Misty was out and ask what the fuck is wrong with them. I think what would really hit home for Van would be Nat asking why Van doesnt make comments about her too- bc yeah Misty is the weird kid but Nat was also the weird kid, bc she was the poor girl with the abusive parents. And Van would be kind of silently horrified bc to her, ofc its different but Nat would make her see that it just...kind of isnt. Nat would also point out how much Misty has done for them all and I think from guilt, theyd all try being nicer to Misty, and from that, theyd be like 'Hm ok...yeah shes actually fine to hang out with-' and perhaps also realise how Mistys overeagerness thats so annoying is really just her being so so desperate for the friendship she never ever got. I think Nat would make a point of playing with Misty and including her and hanging out with her and perhaps make a subtle point of including/not including people based on how nice they are to Misty. Like oh you're gonna exclude Misty from your game? Cool, Misty and I are going to the park just us. You're gonna not give her space on the couch? Well I'm definitely not up for cuddling with you while watching cartoons- watch with someone else. And bc Nat is just....so nice and good, it really brings home to everyone how shit it feels to be excluded by people you just want to be friends with.

[xadeone]

The Ao3 tag filter system is my best friend

this is for those who despair over seeing ships or tropes that make them uncomfortable while they do their little scrolly-scroll on ao3, acting like they aren’t responsible for their own internet experience

(alternatively, the back button also works)

[hitomisuzuya]

OMG- SUZU'S REQUESTS ARE OPENNNN-

Could I request Scaramouche and Wanderer as the reader's step brothers?? They're twins, their mom is engaged to our mom-

When the parents started dating, they both thought about introducing their children to each other if the date goes well- their 5th date, they both decided to bring their children! So we meet them, bla bla bla-

She's an innocent little shi- purely because she doesn't talk with people, and was homeschooled most of her life-

Scaramouche and Wanderer both thought she was so fucking stupid, and they find it cute(somehow😭🙏🏻)-

When their parents got engaged, they(our mom and us) moved in with them(Scara, Wanderer, and Ei)—

She wore revealing things around the house and she doesn't know how Scaramouche and Wanderer thought about that, she wasn't really used to being around guys, considering that she's only been with her mother and stuff like that-

They've been holding out for weeks- one day, they both just couldn't hold back anymore- they waited until their parents were gone for their date, then they took their chance.

(can we also fast forward to the wedding day?? After the wedding, our parents went to- uhm- screw eachother-🙏🏻

While our parents got on with that shit, they also screwed us. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻) -exclude this if you want:>

(Something specificccc- can this include bondage?)

Have a wonderful and amazing day, Suzu!!🖤

Don't forget to take care of yourself!!🖤

Here, some flowers to my favorite writer 💐🌹🌷💐

🖤🖤🖤

stepcest, DNI if it makes you uncomfortable, please. scaramouche x fem! reader. wanderer x fem!reader. smut. threesome. bondage. degradation. scaramouche receiving. wanderer giving. sex toy for funsies.

thank you so much 🥺 it always makes my day hearing i am someone's favorite writer ❤️ this is kinda dirty.

scaramouche and wanderer certainly didn't expect for their mother to want to marry. or to gain a stepsister. a sweet, delicate stepsister they both wanted to devour.

you are so sweet and innocent. very naive having been homeschooled. dumb in an curious and quite frankly adorable way. quiet as a mouse. you didn't even like making noise at night if you knew other people were asleep.

you didn't have any idea what you did to them. you always wore things that highlighted every dip and curve of your body. tank tops and low cut shirts that your breasts spilled out of if you leaned over. short, pleated skirts with thigh highs. today in particular you'd woren a skirt wanderer in particular enjoyed seeing you in, with thigh highs that made him want to sink down underneath the table in the kitchen and fuck his tongue into your pussy.

tonight was the night. the moment the mom's left on their date, they were going to take you. they felt you were ready for them, and they couldn't hold back anymore.

you were also hiding a secret of your own. you had an enormous crush on both of your stepbrothers. you weren't supposed to have feelings like that. they were never supposed to know and honestly, it was no surprise that caved easily to them.

your cheeks flushed dark realizing the position you were in. you were laying on your bed, legs spread and naked. your wrists were handcuffed above your head, wanderer slotted between your thighs. his tongue is greedily enjoying devouring your hole.

had both of wanderer's hands not been busy holding your legs spread with one, the other wagging and teasing the vibrator they both knew you had on your clit, he would've reached down and stroked his straining cock feeling your body twitching in pleasure in his hand.

his tongue swept languidly over your pussy, drunk on your taste. he alternated between fucking his tongue into your whole and pumping the vibrator in and out of your creamy cunt. he moaned shakily, latching his lips around your throbbing clit.

scaramouche was kneeling at your head, his cock pulsing as he watched your face contort in pleasure. wanderer was pulling moans from you that quite frankly made him feel jealous. grasping the back of your head, he turned it so you were looking at him. he poked his leaking cockhead against your lips.

your cheeks flushed as he smeared precum on your lips. you opened your mouth, scooping his cock head into your mouth to suck on. "who knew our stepsister was such a slut," he groaned, gritted his teeth as your mouth sucked wet and eager. grasping a handful of your hair, he bobbed your mouth up and down on his cock.

wanderer's eyes rolled closed, tasting your pussy clench on his tongue. his thumb turned up the settling on the vibrator, drool pooling from the corner of your mouth as you muffled moans on scaramouche's cock. jolts of pleasure shot through your body, your clit throbbing harder from the increased vibrations. "fuck, she's so close to cumming," he moaned huskily, his mouth sucking and working your pussy over in ways you'd only fingered yourself at night thinking about.

you were helpless, wrists delicately cuffed above your head. you wanted so badly to reach down and tangle your fingers in wanderer's soft hair, pressing his mouth down onto your cunt while you grinded your clit shamelessly on the vibrator.

scoffing, scaramouche pulled his cock from your mouth. a string of salvia connected your tongue to his cock. "shaking like a leaf, what a whore," as good as your pretty mouth felt taking his cock, he was quite content to fist his cock watching your body twitched with your impending orgasm. it was a treat watching you struggle to keep it together.

"please, please..feels so good," you choked back a whimper bubbling up behind your moans. scaramouche was far more pent up than he thought he was. your plea made cum spill out onto your chest. the frustration of not fucking you caught up with him.

as much as wanderer wanted to taste you creaming on his tongue, it was intoxicating to keep you on the edge. you sure had been slowly edging them without doing anything when they first met you. he shut the vibrator off, smirking at your whimper of protest as he took his mouth off your cunt. "be a good girl, and take it, slut," he teased, delivering a wet tap to your clit.

your cheeks flushed with adoration, your back arching off the bed, moaning from the teasingly rough treatment. scaramouche moved away from your head, as wanderer moved to your head. pulling you down the bed some by your ankle, he hastily spread your legs, grinding his cock head on your clit.

your hips immediately rocked up to rub your clit on the tip, your breath hitching in your throat in anticipation. your pussy was puffy and aching to be stretched apart by scaramouche's cock.

"stroke, but don't make me cum," wanderer hissed, taking your hand and putting it on his cock. he wants so badly to cum inside of you, even though your breasts would look twice as good spattered with his cum mixing with scaramouche's.

you stroked and pumped your hand on wanderer's cock, massaging your thumb on the head. the blush on your cheeks darkened feeling his cock pulse in your hand. "good girl," he sighed shakily, rutting into your hand.

your moans rose to a shameless octave as scaramouche pushed his cock inside of you. you gasped in pleasure feeling him slowly stretch you apart,your body shaking as he bottomed out with a harsh but languid thrust. the chilly metal of the handcuffs rubbed against your wrists as your fingernails dug into the palms of your hands.

"slut was practically been begging to be fucked by us," scaramouche moaned huskily, firmly grasping and kneading his fingers into the soft flesh of your thighs. he didn't hold back anything in his thrusts, pumping his cock into you almost carelessly, all his frustration of holding himself back all this time releasing all at once.

you saw stars as his cock bullied into your sweet spot, bringing you even closer to the edge. your poor little body was wracked and nearly limp with pleasure. you struggled to form words to tell him how good his cock felt, but another burst of pleasure only caused them to fall away broken into moans.

wanderer's fingers dipped down to tease and pinch one of your hardened nipples, sending stronger shocks of pleasure to your clit. "fuck, i can feel you cumming," scaramouche hissed, letting out a satisfied, husky groan. his cock pulsed as your walls clutched tight while you creamed on his cock.

scaramouche's milky cum ribboned inside of you, your pathetic moans of pleasure fueling his thrusts as he chased his high. wanderer batted your hand away from his cock before his cum spilled into it. you hadn't even come down from your orgasm before wanderer was bullying his cock inside of you.

a softer part of scaramouche showed briefly for a moment, moving up to your head once he pulled out to rest your head in his lap. "you are all ours now, doll," he purred condescendingly down at you, taking hold of your cuffed wrists to keep them in place, the fingers of his free hand stroking through your hair.

"good girl," wanderer moaned, surrendering himself to the tight, warm feeling of your pussy, "keep crying for me just like that."

you were made for them, after all.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Now that all the main cast's unique magic has been shown, can you make a ranking on your favorite unique magic from most to least favorite? Would be favorite unique magic from each dorm but felt some feels unfair especially Ignihyde when Ortho is confirm unable to have his own. You can include the other characters like Chenya, Rollo, Skully, and Fellow.

Originally I was gonna ask about your top favorite dreams, overblot boys' dream outfit, and chapter 7 SSRs (excluding the main Diasomonia uniforms), but there is chance there will be more dreams in upcoming chapter since some people theorize that we might see both Silver's and Malleus's now that Ace's UM is shown. Even a possibility of Silver having an SSR card. So I will be holding this question once chapter 7 is over.

[For a complete compilation of known unique magic (including name, incantation, first use, effects, and limitations), check out this post!]

To briefly explain what is mentioned in the second ask and the second paragraph of first ask, some fans theorize that with Ace’s new UM (which seemingly allows him to borrow, copy, or swap UM with a target?), he could use Malleus’s magic against him or on other characters too. This could potentially allow us to see his dream and/or Silver’s. As far as I could tell it though, there doesn’t seem to be a purpose for doing this provided by theorists yet.

Aaand with that aside, here’s my personal ranking of the UMs, with explanations for each below. It’s not numerical, but rather tiers. This is primarily based on how practical or fun I think the UMs would be to my daily life, NOT based on power level or some other metric.

“Useful overall”

Snake Whisper/Snake Charmer — At the risk of sounding slightly unhinged, this would make life in general easier. Shockingly few drawbacks or limitations too. (Big surprise, the person who says they are similar to Jamil puts Jamil’s UM as at the top…)

I See You/Arrow Afar — As someone that easily gets lost while traveling and easily loses things, this UM sounds like a godsend. Just tag whatever you want to locate and you’re good to go!

Far Cry Cradle — The idea of experiencing stories by touching a random object is so fascinating. Endless entertainment but could also help with answering questions. Bonus: reminds me of the Dimensional Scream from the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers games.

“Fun to experiment with”

Doodle Suit/Paint the Roses — The simple act of being able to change the smell, taste, or texture of something would make dietary restrictions so much easier to deal with. Other applications would be nice for comfort too, like adjusting the perception of brightness or loudness just for yourself in a group setting like a movie or concert. (There’s some ominous fan works and theories about Trey being able to use his UM to overwrite others’ emotions or thoughts too, but I’m only sticking to what he is shown to be capable of in canon.)

Split Card — I’d wanna see how many clones can be made at once and what each is physically and mentally capable of. (We already know the magical power of the original and the clones goes down, so what about other parameters?) Useful for multitasking.

Joker Snatch — It's basically the same has having multiple UMs. Would fuck around and find out what this sucker is capable of. :9

Fairest One of All — Such a flexible and customizable UM, honestly. You can basically set whatever conditions you like, just be careful about the wording because the curses get pretty locked in.

Meet in a Dream — The idea of hopping around dreams and seeing what weird shit goes on in people's heads sounds so fun! Then you can embarrass them about it in the waking world :>

Not All My Head —Ultimate stealth... You can bypass into some of the most secure places in the world just for the lols 🤣 or, y'know... sneak into the kitchen to steal some snacks or something.

“Messing with the forces of nature because fuck you, that’s why”

King’s Roar — Could be used for a fight, but also to clear an area. What's that? Destruction of nature/property? Potential for murder? IT'S OKAY, JUST BREATHE IN THE SAND PARTICLES FLUTTERING IN THE BREEZE AND DON'T CHOKE :))

Oasis Maker — Need clean water to drink? BOOM. Want to water your garden? BOOM. Making a random swimming pool? BOOM. Maximum output for minimum effort.

Fae (of) Maleficence — You become a literal god of time and space. Scary amount of potential for control.

“The trail mix where I pick out the bits I like and leave the gross stuff in there”

Laugh with Me — Not really useful unless for small pranks or you + the target are in a convenient location already (since you'd have to take steps forward to get the target to do the same).

Sleep Kiss/Crimson Slumber — Can be protective (but can't seem to be cast on the self, only on others). Also useful to put people to sleep. Would like to use to send my pet or loud neighbors to sleep early instead of staying up late and bothering me :v

Living Bolt — Very good for an extra boost of speed and/or power if in a rush or in a desperate situation. Unfortunately comes with electrical side effects so that's... not optimal.

Scary Night — Basically Off with your Head but also limits your movement, so I consider it an upgrade with applications besides just combat. Wonder what happens if you cook with those pumpkin’d people or smash the pumpkin on the ground… Is that instadeath? Gruesome to think about, but unsure of since we see so little of the UM in action.

“Requires rizz”

It’s a Deal and Life is Fun — Same reasoning for both; takes a certain amount of charisma to pull these UMs off and if you lack that then this magic sucks. Would be useful if you did have these characters’ sway though.

“Fistfighting central”

Off with your Head — Could shut down a hostile party’s magic, but if you’re not as trigger happy as Riddle is then how often would you realistically use this? And if the target has no magic then this basically does nothing.

Bet the Limit/Double Down — Assuming you’re not already dead from the blows you’ve already eaten and/or you can aim properly and get that shot in before you wipe??? Okay, sure 😂

Bind the Heart — Only deflects magical blows. Physical hits will still pass. Would get my ass beat anyway.

Dark Fire — Primarily useful only for combat, which most people don’t get up to on a regular basis. Must be a true hater or be surrounded by true haters to get the most power out of this. What happens if everyone holds hands and sings a song at you? Do you just pathetically whimper and die out in a pile of ashes/j

“Not a furry, don’t @ me”

Unleash (the) Beast — The idea of a big furry... creature... charging at me makes me want to run and hide 🤢 Could have its use for strength and speed, but… I still don’t want a massive dog around.

“This could have been an email”

Shock the Heart — Nothing a reasonable amount of blackmail research cannot do. Has so many limitations (eye contact, only one use per person, target may resist/refuse anyway, etc.) you may as well need a PhD in order to manufacture plans to effectively use this UM.

“So niche it has like no practical application”

Gate to (the) Underworld — Y-You just… open and close a door to a pit of Phantoms. Discounting opening the pit to retrieve Phantoms to test or experiment on, why would you not just keep this closed all the time and just never use this UM 💀

[scourgeofmyownbrain]

This took way too fucking long- Everyone, gaze upon the Megatron/Galvatron height chart I made. If someone could get me a cold drink, I would love one, I have been working on this for the better part of a month. 26 separate designs, for one character, across 40 years of history. And I had to exclude a couple, the grand total is like 30 different ones. I left those four out because they were just pallet swaps of a design I already had; It felt redundant to include them.

This guy just can not decide if he's named Megatron or Galvatron sometimes, he just switches between the two names at random. I think in Unicron Trilogy, he switches to Galvatron multiple times, and yes, he does switch back to Megatron before every one.

My brain is kinda broken after finishing this. I worked on this one and the Optimus one at the same time (the optimus one is so much bigger holy shit-) and I've lost the ability to feel pain at this point.

Quick Disclaimer, if any of the images look weird, it's because I had to stitch a few separate images together to create a full body shot of the character.

Links to my Bumblebee Chart and my Optimus Chart. !!NEW!! -> Shockwave, Soundwave, Ratchet, and Ironhide. For future reference, all these charts will be filed under my "Transformers Height Charts" tag and my "aka the adventures of a..." tag. Hopefully, my bumblebee post is acting up and idk if the same issue will happen here.

Master Post

Explanations below the cut, I have to justify myself for a few of these.

G1 Beast Wars V1 - ~9 Feet (PMeg. TFWiki, he's so small. Dinosaur Man is so small)

G1 Beast Wars V2 - ~10 Feet (PMeg. TFWiki, This fucker has roller blades. I'm not fucking with you, they gave the T-Rex Roller Blades and he uses them)

G1 Beast Machines V1 - ~12 Feet (PMEG. The Wiki doesn't have any numbers for Beast machines, sadly, but I found an old forum post comparing the heights to the Beast Wars designs, so I win)

G1 Beast Wars V3/Machines V2 - ~13 Feet (PMEG. The TFWiki says this bitch is like 11.5 meters tall, but no, I've done the math, he is not. If he was, Rattrap, a character who is consistently stated to be 1.8 meters tall across multiple sources in multiple languages is actually not that tall. So no, he's about 2 and a bit Rattraps tall, and that translates to about 13 feet. And I'm pretty sure he reverts into this at some point in Beast machines, though correct me if I'm wrong)

G1 Beast Machines V3 - ~16 Feet (PMeg. This design is identical to the Optimal Optimus design so I'm gonna be lazy and use that number. Not like I have many other options.)

Beast Wars 2 - ~16 Feet (Galv. Idk, the wiki had the number and his name is Galvatron, was I supposed to ignore this? Never gonna watch it, but here it is)

Earth Spark - ~16 Feet 2 Inches (Mega. There are no actual numbers for Earth Spark (yet), but I was able to find Bumblebee's height, which I then compared to Optimus's height, and now I can compare Optimus and Megatron.

Yay!- he's so short it's so fucking funny tiny short man universe)

One V1 - ~17 Feet (Mega. I am aware, of the supposed "Canon Heights" listed on the wiki. 32.462 feet, allegedly. But, have you considered A: These numbers are sourced from the Walmart Promotional AR Experience that came out before the movie. B: There are three decimal points, and that number does not convert into a whole number in meters (which is originally what I thought was weird about it). C: The director has said that this movie is both canon to the LA movies and its own separate canon. AND ALSO Meg is taller than Optimus the entire movie but his height is listed as shorter than him on the wiki. They are the same height by the end of the movie, I call BULLSHIT Walmart; these are not actual numbers I will ignore them POST HASTE! Sadly, Megatron has yet to appear in the KCV live-action movies as I make this, but we know Meg and OP are the same height by the end of TFOne, so knock a couple of feet off this one, and we get pre-cog height)

Netflix Cybertron Trilogy - ~18 Feet (PMeg. Slightly confusing, but there are two Megatrons in this universe, but they are two completely separate characters. This is Predacon Megatron, design-wise identical to his V1 Beast Wars counterpart, but he is much taller in this universe. So I did some admittedly deranged comparisons to other characters and I got this height. It's a similar ratio to Prime & Primal's height difference so I'm running with it)

Gen 1 V2 - ~ 18 Feet 6 inches (Galv. So the Wiki failed me on this one, but- and maybe this is backwards thinking, the WFCT Galvatron is this height, at least comparing him to WFCT Megatron, who I've decided is the same height as Gen 1 Megatron, who we actually have a number for- I am aware it's convoluted but it's all I got)

Netflix Cybertron Trilogy - ~18 Feet 6 inches (Galv. Okay so, Galvatron and Megatron are entirely separate beings in this universe, which is a large departure from Gen 1 where they're effectively the same guy, which means I could compare their heights, and this is about the height Galvatron is. And I have decided that the WFCT Megatron is the same height as Gen 1 Megatron because they're nearly identical otherwise, making the assumption that the Galvatrons are the same easy. The amount of hoops I have to jump through sometimes...)

Gen 1 V1 - ~19 Feet (Mega. TFWiki. Hey look, it's the guy that's the foundation of like 5 other character's calculations)

Prime Wars - ~19 Feet (Mega. As I've said before, I have decided that this design is the same height as the Gen 1 design, because they're identical, yes one is 2d, and the other is 3d but I don't care)

Netflix Cybertron Trilogy - ~19 Feet (Mega. You already know what I'm going to say; it's identical to Gen 1. Just try and stop me)

Unicron Trilogy V2&3/ENG&CYB - ~19 Feet (Mega/Galv. He flip-flops so much in this universe, I think Megatron becomes Galvatron 3 separate times. For the uneducated, the Unicron Trilogy has given each of its 3 seasons separate names and 3 separate art styles. These are the designs used in Energon (S2) and Cybertron (S3). The Wiki had Cybertron's numbers but not Energon's, so for my own sanity, I decided the two were the same height. I could have done something in between Cybertron's and Armada's (S1) numbers, but there was a lot of float between the two)

One V2 - 19 Feet 10 Inches (Mega. As I have stated in the previous One entry: I don't trust Walmart, Meg and OP are the same height by the end of the movie, and the KCV LA and One are kinda one universe. Optimus is this height by the end of the movie, therefore so is Megatron. How many times do I have to explain this)

Cyberverse - 21 Feet (Oh sweet, sweet "I don't have to justify or explain my numbers, I have a source". This comes from a screen-shot of this video which has the Cyberverse height chart everyone uses, though the quality of the screen shot is iffy. If anyone has a better one, I would love to see it)

RID 2001 - ~22 Feet (Mega/Galv. TFWiki. Why are there so many Megatrons who become Galvtron at random and look functionally identical to each other why does this keep happening. Also this guy transforms into a hand)

Unicron Trilogy V1 - ~23 Feet (Mega/Galv. TFWiki. I am very tired, we have another functionally identical Megatron Galvatron conversion and I am in pain)

Bayverse V2 - 30 Feet (Mega/Galv. TFWiki, Movies 4 & 5. This time, they're actually identical, and Mr. Bay has once again blessed me with numbers from all of his movies)

Aligned Cont. WF/FOC - ~30 Feet (Mega. TFWiki. Look man, I don't know how he grows nearly five feet between the games and the shows, it's just what the video game info screen said)

Animated - ~31 Feet (Mega. Animated has no actual numbers, but the lovely @phoenix-inanis has provided a frankly astounding resource with their own calculations for the heights of all the TFA characters. Go look at it, it's wonderful -> https://phoenix-inanis.notion.site/TFA-Height-Chart-f6ad2960ca8c4c5b859ee4958723aaa4?pvs=4)

Aligned Cont. TFP V1 - 34 Feet 5 Inches (Mega. Yes, this is from Fandom. But, and I will continue to say this until my lungs give out, this entire universe is just fucking enormous. Look, I believe Bayverse is the most consistent tf universe when it comes to the transformers' models and designs, and if we do some comparisons between characters with similar listed heights (I did it at the end of this post), it's way too close for me not to believe it)

Bayverse V1 - 35 Feet (Mega. TFWiki, Movies 1-3. Look at this bitch, getting his secrets exposed by Mr. Bay. Look at him, he's going to shrink down in the forth movie, gonna get dumped down to 6th place on the podium. Get Shrunk, Idiot)

Aligned Cont. TFP PR V2 - 42 Feet 7 Inches (Mega. Look at this enormous bitch, look at the freak standing there, fuckin enormous n' shit. Wack ass Unicron- Did you know that this is probably the TALLEST base form transformer ever? Excluding any super modes or upgrades or a transforming Cybertronian Base/Spaceship, just default general body size, I'm pretty sure this Megatron is the tallest Regular transformer ever)

Not Pictured: RID 2001 Galvatron Pallet - ~22 Feet (the only thing that was different between the two designs was the colours, if felt redundant to include it), Unicron Trilogy Galvatron Pallet(s) - Armada: ~23 Feet, Energon/Cybertron: ~19 Feet (Again, just the colours changed, otherwise everything else was the same)

I have done it. I have conquered my Everest. I have finished the big two charts. If anyone has any suggestions for which transformer I should aggressively analyze next please tell me I don't know which ones to do next

Here are the different layers separated out into their own pictures, I know it's kinda hard to tell everyone apart when they're all on top of each other.

[cavegirlpoems]

So the is d&d queer argument is going around again, same as it ever was. And for whatever reason, talking about it with a friend reminded me of a conversation I had on the subject ages ago. During that they claimed Changling the Dreaming was queer friendly, I disagreed; I countered that if CtD was queer friendly, than any hidden world / conspiracy game would be, that Vampire the Masquerade would be. The argument never reached a satisfying conclusion, at the time neither of us were working off anything but vibes.

Now, I know you've argued that they are, and significantly so when compared to other rpgs of the era. Would you mind expanding on your arguments? What is it about VtM or about WoD products more broadly that makes them queer friendly?

OK SO lets define terms:

"Queerness" is ways of approaching sexuality, gender, family and romance that are excluded from hegemonic social norms.

a "Queer Text" is a text that deals with queerness in some way, either through direct depiction or through intentional allegory. In the case of games, a queer game is one where the intended activities of gameplay supported by the game's design deal with queerness.

So far so good?

So, easy first example. Original D&D. OD&D is a game about exploring a dangerous location to extract treasure from it. It cares deeply about resource depletion, logistics, and threats to the characters lives, which is why these things are given detailed mechanics. It does not give a shit about characters' love lives or genders; these things get basically no attention in the mechanics or expected experience of play. OD&D is clearly not a queer game.

Another easy example. Monsterhearts. Monsterhearts is a game about messy supernatural teen dramas. It has mechanics for flirting and sex (which ignore the hegemonic expectation to be limited to the opposite sex), and that reflect how your character is percieved by their peers. It is, very directly, dealing with queerness in its themes.

So. the old WoD games.

Both changeling and vampire have some loose mechanical support for dealing with romance, and both changeling and vampire present societies our characters belong to that have some degree of hegemonic expectations for these things. There is, further, certainly an easy read to see both as reflecting some aspects of queer experiences allegorically.

I'll begin with vampire. Now, it must be said that vampire fundamentally deals with weaponised sexuality. Sexuality is used to seduce as a form of power, or expressed when one feeds. That said, it's a sexy game that cares a lot about the unequal power dynamics in these exchanges, and how a given character can gain power through sexuality in one situation and then fall victim to the same dynamics in another.

Is this necessarily a queer thing? No, you could use this set-up to explore heterosexuality's imbalances. However, the game clearly intends you to apply this lens to queer relationships too. Many of the interestingly toxic relationships presented in the game's setting turn out to be gay, including some key figures. The triad of Antonius, Michael and the Dracon comes to mind, as does the relationship between Troile and Moloch.

Now, this queerness isn't central to vampire the way it is in, say, monsterhearts. Vampire is mostly a game concerned with political power structures, exploitation, and personal authenticity. Sexuality (and with it queer sexuality) is one of many lenses that the game applies to this set up. Social class, culture and particularly age stratification are also lenses that Vampire uses to explore its central theme of exploitation.

But. The queer themes in vampire are there, and hard to convincingly excise from the experience of play. Trying to play 'vampire the masquerade but everybody's straight' requires you to push against the game text a little.

Moving on, let's look at changeling. Now, changeling puts a bit more focus on romance than vampire does, with a society that's deeply concerned with courtly romance, and where different approaches to that courtly romance are a key social divide. This is a space where its easy to be queer, and again some of the examples the text offers are obviously so, but that romance is - to my mind - less thematically central than sexuality-as-power is to vampire.

However, changeling might be less of a gay allegory than vampire, but it's also a very obvious and on-the-nose trans allegory.

The central tennet of changeling is that for every changeling character they have a true inner nature (their fey soul) that isn't reflected in their outward appearance. Having to suppress or deny this nature is presented as a directly harmful experience, a fundamental death-of-the-self that comes from conforming to societal expectations. The solution to this problem, then, is to find others like oneself who you can truly be yourself around, and building comminity with them where you support one another and foster one another's self-actualisation.

This isn't subtext, this is dommetext. Changeling the Dreaming is a game about dysphoria and found community.

The trans reading of changeling is extremely obvious and on-the-nose. This isn't the only theme explored by changeling; it is also deeply concerned with growing old, and with class divides. But it's front and center to the game; its other themes arise as explorations of its central theme, which is dysphoria and community.

(For the record, I think that the queer elements of other WoD games are much less prominent. In Werewolf, Mage and Wraith, these things are much more subtextual than they are in vampire and changeling. But I'm not a huge fan of werewolf and mage to begin with, and wraith's cosmic horror is good enough to hook me in anyway).

So yes. I think its fair to call both vampire and changeling queer games. Their queerness is generally explored more thoroughly through allegory over direct depiction, but both do include - and expect you to include - directly queer characters as well.

Now, they aren't the most queer games. Vampire in particular is more concerned with class and power than with queerness, and they both have pretty broad thematic bases they cover. It's very possible to play a changeling game that downplays the dysphoria and focusses instead on growing old and infirm. And in the modern day, there are other games that are more overt and focussed with their queer themes.

But. The queerness is there in both games, and when they first came out, its inclusion was legitimately groundbreaking.

[drdemonprince]

do you consider exorsexism to be an accurate/coherent concept in terms of describing structural discrimination against nonbinary people?

when i first encountered the term i thought it made sense, but now i’m wondering how it potential could tie into the ways transmisogynists use “binary trans woman” as a kind of dogwhistle. i have certainly encountered interpersonal bigotry from fellow trans people over my being nonbinary… but none of them had any structural power over me, so i tend to not feel particularly threatened by whatever “binary” trans people may feel about me. on the other hand, i do face a lot of structural barriers in a cis-binary world; but is that experience actually distinct enough from transphobia or cissexism to warrant its own term?

There is definitely a structural oppression of nonbinary people that exists and we need better tools to talk about. To this day a nonbinary identity is not legible to basically ANY government ID office, insurance provider, employer, school, hospital, or other large institution, that gender neutral or unisex restrooms and locker rooms seldom exist, and so many other public spaces & institutions are so rigidly gendered, such that nonbinary people are not allowed to functionally exist in society.

And speaking as someone who has inhabited both nonbinary and more binary trans identities, people absolutely do comprehend and honor the familiar binary options more, gender you correctly more often if you are binary, include you more often in social spaces and events, and are flat out more comfortable around you if you are easier for them to parse. It infuriates me when trans people shit on nonbinary folks as being self-centered and fake oppressed. This stuff is so clear.

And none of that erases the fact that TME nonbinary people often harbor deeply transmisogynistic views -- we live in a transmisogynistic society! all people are inculturated into those views and anyone who is not a trans woman does not get targeted by systems of transmisogyny. trans men are just as bad or worse wrt to all of this, so if anything the singling out of nonbinary people as fake, entitled not-really-oppressed trans people who are somehow uniquely bad to trans femmes is itself a manifestation of anti-nonbinary prejudice. theres nothing the "theyfabs" are doing thats any worse or an different from what you see from just about every trans man and cis woman.

Trans men often DO hold power over our nonbinary siblings, because we are men, often with many of the privileges attendant -- but also a group does not need to be positioned below another group on some straightforward hierarchy in order to experience a genuine and distinct loci of oppression. (see for example the differing experiences of bisexuals and gay and lesbian people). Lateral aggression is a thing, cissexism and coercive gender assignment at birth is to blame for virtually ALL of this, and of course, a lot of nonbinary people do in fact transition in some way (not just medically) and so moves to exclude them from discussions of trans oppression are a bad move.

[plaidos]

Im a trans man who was on the outside circle of a friend group led by another trans man, there was one trans woman in the friend group, and she was dating the guy who kinda led the friend group. I didnt talk to her much, because i didnt talk to anyone there much due to bad experiences with the people in that group (tried to bring up stuff like experiencing dysphoria before I was out and got screamed at by the lead guy for “appropriating trans culture” and how i couldn’t use terms like gender envy to describe how i wanted to look exactly like a cis man youtuber i watched. He also shamed me for my interests which he deemed morally iredeemable (homestuck) before getting back into it himself, and then it was fine) but yeah i didnt talk to her much, and then suddenly i was dragged back into the friend group to do an intervention for the lead guy for a lot of insane things, and the tgirl was the one who asked me to help. When i was known as the only girl in the group, i was the group therapist and mom basically, i didnt want to be, and when i pulled away/came out as a trans man it seemed they replaced me with the tgirl as the group mom. And we started talking. And oh my god. Anything they did to me wa %1000 worse with her. She had to convince a grown as man that being homeless was not in fact a good fall back plan to not being able to find a roommate and no it wasnt easy. But nothing compares to the way she was treated by the main guy she was dating. The things she told me were so awful, she was basically his bangmaid abuse prisoner, he convinced her to move in with him, and then she had to do everything for him because he was “too depressed” he would sit at his computer all day cheating on her with other trans men while she cleaned his whole fucking house, and cooked, and got physically ill from all of the mold that he had let grow on things like dishes. He only really interacted with her when he needed comfort or sex. And he literally forbade her from doing anything sexual herself including masturbating without his permission because “it made him feel like she was like the pedo that groomed him when he was young” any kinks she had she was told were perverted and degenerate, she age regresses which he compared to pedophilia, it was so awful on literally every level, and he had convinced her she was so worthless and unloveable that when i told her she should leave him she said it was fine and they were working on it. It never got better and when they did break up he spread rumors that she had been raping him. She then dated another trans man who did the exact same thing down to the rape acussations when they broke up. And i was one of the only people who tried to convince her to break up with either of them initially, i was the only person who was the first to speak up. Apparently the other men in the group agreed with me they just didnt say anything till after i did then suddenly they were all agreeing. Shes doing better now and her self esteem is slowly recovering, she still talks to that friend group excluding her exes, i dont talk to any of them except her anymore. Anytime i see a trans man say they cant be misogynistic or transmisogynistic i kind of hate them for it. I was literally screamed at for trying to come out because then the group wouldnt have their “token cis girl” yes that was my title in the group, to dump their issues on. And as soon as i pulled away they replaced me with a woman they treated even worse just because she was trans and easy to beat down. Literally the only two women in the group and we were forced into the mom friend role. Its awful and i hate that people cannot acknowledge it happens. Trans men are not magically exempt from misogyny, and the ones who claim they are are lying to themselves and others so they can benefit from it. That first guy? The one who was so awful to both of us? Hes on tumblr and hes a pretty popular fanartist, he reblogs save trans women shit all the time, i hate him so much and i hate people who are compicit to the abuse trans women face, sorry for writing so much

don’t apologise, thanks for having the courage to share your experiences. it makes my heart sink how familiar this story is, the amount of people who have shared fundamentally identical experiences to this — the belief that trans men do not and cannot utilise male privilege above trans women (even in trans spaces) is without a doubt the reason so many are able to get away with this. i’ve heard this same story dozens of times; trans girl who is being physically & sexually abused by her (trans) boyfriend, regularly being raped, yelled at, often hit & abused in countless other ways who then turns around and says “actually she raped me” when she finally has the courage to break it off. And people believe them, because they believe that trans women are all rapists one bad day away from hurting everybody, but trans men are biological victims who can never do any wrong.

im sorry this happened to you. i hope your friend is in a much better situation now. ❤️

[jennysparksandtheauthority]

The fallacy of realism in Life is Strange Double Exposure. Another more or less analytic rant :)

Okay. I lied. This is the real LAST commentary about Deck Nine's fiasco. Or maybe not.

ANYWAY. I'm reading a lot of discourse of how it's realistic that Max and Chloe would break up.

Even the devs have been on Twitter saying the most basic stuff you've heard a thousand times before:

As someone who’s been in a loving, committed relationship for more than a decade (and we met in our early 20s), that shit MAKES NO SENSE FOR PRICEFIELD. Move forward? Yes. Absolutely. But you can move forward with another person. Moving forward doesn't have to mean leaving your partner behind, and certainly not for these two.

Max and Chloe didn’t create a “trauma bond”. People seem to forget they were childhood best friends. They went through trauma together. There’s a difference.

Each time my wife and I went through devastating shit (cause life is a bitch sometimes), I leaned on her, we carried each other. We went through rough days, of course, we fought sometimes, but we grew together. I fell more in love with her seeing her taking decisions, reacting to me, dealing with her own shit, taking care of me when I didn’t have the energy to take care of myself as I would take care of her when the roles were reversed.

Sure, some relationships don’t survive when they go through bad times.

But Max and Chloe? These two literary broke space and time for each other.

Characters have to be profoundly CHANGED at the end of stories for them to be meaningful, for stories to move us. This has been established since we began to tell stories around campfires thousands of years ago. It's been engraved in conventional storytelling even way before Aristotle gave it a name in his Poetics.

At the end of the BAE romantic path, Chloe was ready to die for Max, and for a whole town of people who mostly despised her. She had changed profoundly. She had understood the meaning of love and loyalty and devotion, because Max showed her.

Max was ready to face the consequences of choosing Chloe. She had changed too. She had understood that loving Chloe made her better, braver, determined, that the past was in the past and that she couldn’t keep rewinding. That she had to accept herself, fight back, take ownership of her destiny.

When they left Arcadia Bay they were both devastated, but ready to fight for each other and move on. The Chloe that gave Max that reassuring touch and that loving look at the end of the game would NEVER, under no circumstances, break up with Max by letter saying all kinds of mean shit. This destroys both their characters' arcs from LIS1. It's an unsuccessful, poorly camouflaged reboot.

Maybe if the break up was presented differently it wouldn’t have enraged so many people. Maybe. We’ll never know. I’d still argue that having a path where Chloe is dead, the decision to break them up was absolutely unnecessary. But to have made that decision, and to justify the OOC behavior and the outcome of their relationship by saying “it’s realistic” (some people have taken the devs' discourse to heart) is just ridiculous and dissapointing, and just straight out unprofessional. This kind of revisionism and lack of understanding of the themes and motivations of the first game is truly baffling, so much so it’s hard for me to believe how NO ONE at Deck Nine or Square Enix with some level of responsibility and proper education in media stopped the madness.

Writers choose what to include in a story, meaning they bear responsibility for the narrative choices they make, regardless of whether those choices are realistic. Fiction is an inherently constructed art form. Authors decide what to include, exclude, emphasize, or downplay. Using “realism” as a justification can be seen as a way to avoid responsibility for narrative decisions, especially when those decisions are unpopular or ethically troubling.

This is writing 101, and I can’t believe a supposedly professional game dev studio is acting like children writing their first fics on Wattpad and falling into the realistic fallacy.

In “The Decay of Lying,” Oscar Wilde famously argued that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life,” suggesting that art should not be constrained by realism. Another example is the philosopher and literary critic Roland Barthes, who in “The Death of the Author,” argued that the meaning of a text is not determined solely by the author’s intentions, thus challenging the notion that invoking realism absolves a writer of their choices.

They CHOSE to break them up.

They chose to villainize Chloe, the canonically queer, fan-favorite character that was at the heart of the story along with Max. Together.

Crying realism doesn’t make it any less senseless, knowing damn well they knew how it would affect people.

So, Deck Nine, Square Enix: please take some fucking responsibility.

BONUS (Michel Koch ❤️):

[kradogsrats]

Signs of the Fall, Pt. 1

Since basically... forever? Look, idk I wasn't around for the first half of this fandom so I don't know when Aaravos as "fallen star" was revealed. But presumably since then, it's been a big question mark as to exactly what that means.

We're told in places like the artbook that—along with whatever else it may mean—Aaravos being a "fallen" star means he's significantly depowered, and that his "fallen" status was a consideration in designing his look. So, reasonably, there should be identifiable features of Aaravos as a "fallen" Startouch elf, and we've collectively already spent a shit-ton of time overanalyzing them and what they mean.

BUT now that s6 is out and we have a chunk time seeing Aaravos before anything that would normally have been assumed to be his "fall" (more on that later), I wanted to return to some of the ones that have been most discussed.

The Eyes Have It

Previous assumption was that Aaravos's eyes not being the luminous Startouch pink outside of flashbacks was related to his status as a "fallen" Startouch elf and related to the darkening of his chest star:

This has not been cleared up by s6, where he is shown both with

and without the full-pink Startouch eyes

in contexts that are basically identical, aside from medium (one being a painting, and one being animated), in the same damn episode.

So what, if anything, does it mean?

First of all, I want to acknowledge that this may be entirely a choice of artistic convenience. Having arted a time or two, myself—characters without human-standard visual distinction between sclera, iris, and pupil are an unbelievable pain in the ass. A huge amount of microexpressions that humans subconsciously rely on to convey mood and intent are entirely down to the spatial/size relationship of iris and pupil to the surrounding eyelids. Leola and TMO are animated with full-pink eyes, with the irises barely distinguishable and pupils invisible, sure—but Leola has a shit-ton of emotional body language to compensate and let's be real, TMO is intended to be serenely inscrutable and alien.

It's just really, really hard to have a character convey the depth and nuance Aaravos requires when you're effectively barred from using one of the most critical aspects of facial expressions. Rather than fight that uphill battle, they may have chosen to handwave it in one context or another. (That is, the state of Aaravos's eyes is linked with his "fallen" status, and in the scenes with Leola they are meant to be different but it turned out to be way too annoying to handle.)

It could also, like Leola's single horn, be explained as a unique feature of Aaravos or this particular physical manifestation of Aaravos, except that they did go out of their way to include the full-pink eyes in not only the painted s4 flashbacks, but also the s3 promo art:

To be completely honest: I'm not convinced at this point that this is a feature we're meant to attach significance to. Unless we get additional context of another Startouch elf with eyes like Aaravos's, or conditions under which Aaravos is actually animated with the full-pink Startouch eyes... I don't think we can really know for sure.

Star Up, Star Down

In the same vein as his eyes, we've attached a lot of importance to the orientation of Aaravos's chest star. Since the Star primal symbol is actually used very rarely, and in just about every context up to s6 it was in its "upright" orientation—that is, the opposite of Aaravos's chest star. And like, obviously a fallen star would be upside-down.

It seems like s6 is determined to mess with us in that respect. For the most part, Aaravos's chest star is upright, or opening-down:

Until his grieving, when it is opening-up (and also darkened):

HOWEVER, when TMO appears in the same scene, their chest star is also opening-up, though lit:

We also get a LOT more usage of the Star primal symbol at the Starscraper:

And—excluding when it's on the floor so you can't know for sure what the "proper" orientation is—it is exclusively opening-up:

Also noteworthy is that we don't see the mark directly on Leola's chest, but on her clothing it is opening-up:

As is her star in the constellation:

So whatever the orientation is meant to signify—and unlike the eyes, I do think this is still significant in some way—it's unlikely that it's a strictly negative symbol. There's some other dichotomy at play that it's indicating.

Body Bling

This one doesn't come up as often, but it's suggested (at least in the artbook, IIRC) that Aaravos's body stars are brighter before he's "fallen," when he's at full power. Is this objectively true? Well... yeah, not really.

In arc two, they're very similar levels of brightness across s4-s6, independent of his chest star:

In arc one, the mirror effect tends to be more pronounced than the one scene where we see it in arc two, so it sometimes looks like they're not as bright. I think they actually are meant to be, though:

And then, of course, at the end of s2 when he's casting, everything is brighter:

So that doesn't seem related at all, except in the sense that magic is shiny. Maybe we'll learn something at some point about Aaravos's relationship to the primal sources that will explain that, but for now we can put this one to bed.

—

aaaaand I have actually hit the "images per post" limit so we'll be concluding in Part 2!

[hollow-lime-green]

Okay, as promised: tell me more about the Gojo clan in FIYM, please? You've mentioned ascetism and ties to Buddhism and enlightenment 👀👀👀 Also the other clans. I love it SO MUCH when authors do something with clan politics, and I'm very excited to learn more about your take on them!

okay, finally I am free of my burdens (big thesis presentation) and I can answer this! but I will break it into two posts, first clan politics, and then later I'll talk about ascetism (or my take on it, anyway).

full disclaimer: we don't learn much about the clans in canon, so all of this is basically headcanon and not necessarily supported by the text. but I'll point out first what I think the text hints at.

so. all jujutsu clans are conservative, meaning they want to uphold existing power structures. however, I think they are conservative in different ways, which is interesting to explore...

The Clans

1. The Zen'in clan, who we get the most context on, is socially conservative and extremely misogynistic. However, within the in-group of men, their hierarchy is merit-based (sorcery).

They have two clan techniques: Ten Shadows and Projection Sorcery, plus some minor techniques we see among the Hei (good catch @detta-pica)

2. The Kamo clan is also known to be more traditionally conservative, and they are kind of obsessed with blood(line). Their hierarchy is family/lineage based. They are the weakest of the Big Three* in our canon time, excluding Kenjaku's power as an individual (they are not working in the clan's best interests).

They have one clan technique: Blood Manipulation, however, through Kenjaku, they have ways to create guaranteed sorcerers (Cursed Wombs).

3. The Gojo clan, which we know almost nothing about, has all of their eggs in one basket, and only has a real egg once every 400 years. Their hierarchy is unknown.

They have one and a half clan techniques: Limitless and Six Eyes.

* When Kenjaku and Gojo are taken out of the equation, I'd say that the Gojo clan is actually the weakest due to their CTs.

Gojo Clan Politics

Let's talk about the Gojo clan first, since they are most relevant to FIYM.

When 6E+L are together, they produce an extremely strong sorcerer. Separately, they are, in technical terms, dogshit. Limitless is extremely difficult to use without the Six Eyes, and the Six Eyes doesn't have any offensive capabilities. So unless you get both, you're kind of shit out of luck. (Although Kenny implies they've been fucked by 6Es without L before, but this is probably alluding to schemes, not all out fights). Since they only get both every 400 years, and the 6E+L user is only alive for a human lifespan, the Gojo clan has to spend a lot of time with no one powerful behind the wheel.

If you DO have 6E+L, then obviously, because that person is essentially a god, you would elevate them to clan head as soon as possible. And one interesting thing here - that would include women. We don't actually know the gender of previous Six Eyes, but it would be pretty unlikely that none of them were women. There were powerful female sorcerers in the Heian era. When you have a lot of people at, say, Grade 1-2, B-A level, you can afford to be misogynistic. When you get one SSS level sorcerer every few centuries, you're gonna take what you can get.

All of this definitely colors their power structure and politics. When 6E+L is off cycle, the Gojo clan has to appoint someone to rule. It might be a holder of 6E or Limitless, but it could also be an elder without a CT, or with a different CT**. We never meet another Limitless user, even though Limitless does not have a one person cap. Although sorcerers are rare, this is still kind of interesting. We know that the Gojo clan is a 'one man army' due to the power difference between Satoru and literally everyone else alive, but we liiiiiterally never see any Gojo clan backup***. (No, Yuta does not count). By the end of the manga, we've seen a good number of people with BM and PS, so the lack of other Gojos is particularly notable

** Now, if you had shitty inherited techniques and a whole lot of powerful enemies, what would you do? The obvious answer is: get more techniques. In one sense, the Gojo clan has the strongest heredity-based hierarchy because they will always default to 6E+L, but in another sense, their heredity rule is the weakest because it consistently produces weaker sorcerers than the other two families (subjective opinion). So to fix that, the Gojo clan has a unique incentive to marry/reproduce outside the clan.

*** Here's where you have to put on your tinfoil hat with me. I think Mei Mei is/was a Gojo. I am not the only one with this theory (1,2), and to be honest, I don't think it's true, BUT I think it would make sense and be cool (so Gege definitely didn't think of it). Why does this make sense:

Good Strategy for Gojos. To protect their clan, the Gojos would be looking to grab strong techniques that give them power and control, and they can't grab techniques from the other clans. Mei Mei's technique is an extremely good way to level the playing field in terms of information and personnel.

Mei Mei is hiding her family name. Why is she doing that? This is also extra points for the "was a Gojo theory", which also, imo, fits with her rogue hypercapitalism.

Vibes. Yeah idk, she and Gojo just have a level of trust that, to me, could support this theory. They have also been co-workers for a long time, so it could be that. Second vibes - her intellect/control-based technique fits the vibe that I get from the Gojo clan.

So, with everything I've just said, the Gojo clan is conservative (wants to maintain order and power among the clans), mystical (cedes ultimate authority to 6E+L and works off of the reincarnation cycle), and open (must build external alliances for survival).

Because of the reincarnation cycle, they have a slightly more complex hierarchy. Without a direct bloodline or merit system, how are they maintaining order over generations? How do they decide who rules? It's probably not based on a person's strength. Combining this with the inspiration that Gege draws from Buddhism and monastic traditions, I believe that the Gojo clan would be led by a council of elders.

The clan is essentially a cult of 6E+L followers who are just waiting around and keeping the house neat and tidy in between reincarnation cycles. The difference between the Gojo clan and real cults is that their prophecy does objectively come true (and of course they are in a world with confirmed magic). So there is some actual trust here. It would be more important for the off-cycle leaders to prioritize stability/protection than dominance (as opposed to the Zen'in clan), so I think the leadership they would pick would be the most traditional, boring old monks they can find.

Inter-Clan Politics

The big three clans will naturally always be vying to be the best/strongest. But every 400 years, one of them gets a bullshit unbeatable trump card, and the other clans just have to roll over or get obliterated. I think that on top of the expected inter-clan tensions, the other clans probably resent the Gojo clan to some extent, especially when the 6E+L user is alive.

The Zen'in clan tries to amass power for themselves by being extremely combat-oriented and hoarding a massive armory of cursed weapons (and either in the past, or also in the present - marrying in and buying powerful techniques - again see the Hei). With what we see of the clan's meritocracy, I think the Gojo and Zen'in clans would butt heads a lot. There's a huge philosophical difference between the ambitious Zen'ins and the controlled, traditional Gojos. I think Naoya in particular would take this very personally, being outclassed by his peer Gojo essentially since birth. We'll definitely get to that in FIYM.

The Kamo clan's strategy is relatively unknown, but by the time we get to canon, they've been dealing with the repercussions of Noritoshi for many many years, AND I believe Kenny would have maintained control behind the scenes even after they hopped out of Noritoshi. They're mostly out of the conversation in terms of power level. If I had to make them interesting, then I think what could set the Kamo clan apart would actually be their jujutsu experimentation. Obviously Kenjaku was behind a lot of the Cursed Womb stuff, but given how many 'sub-techniques' we see with BM, it somewhat implies that the Kamo clan has more of a history of jujutsu scholarship than the Zen'in clan. That may be their flavor of trying to get ahead/build power.

Other Clans

Apart from the Big Three, we have other minor clans like the Inumaki clan, and we know that there were more major clans that died out. The political structure that we see in the canon time period probably isn't representative of how they did things in the past, especially in the Heian era where we might have seen a lot more clan vs clan fighting and power mobility instead of the firmly established Big Three.

Aside: We also know that in the Heian era, sorcery was more common. This would mean there are more sorcerers, including non-clan sorcerers (higher chance of jujutsu manifesting = higher number of random/new manifestations). So power might not have been as concentrated in the clans. The chance of manifesting in bloodline/non-bloodline could be unchanged, but with the total % of sorcerers decreasing, it's probably more difficult to find non-clan sorcerers (this is a huge part of FIYM Suguru's backstory and may be part of his future motivations 👀). Anyway, clans in this era would have to deal with rogue sorcerers more, either by making deals to absorb them into the clan, or probably by murdering them. This is probably how Zen'in got two techniques originally (and has multiple minor techniques now).

Anyway, so we have both rogue sorcerers and minor clans. I think Zen'in is too egotistical to make alliances (but has absorbed rogues/CTs over time), Kamo is too hung up on bloodline, and Gojo needs to make alliances.

Inumaki Clan - While I was reading up on this, I was reminded that the Inumaki clan is in a pretty strange position, being considered jujutsu outlaws and intentionally trying to stamp out their own bloodline. So Toge is in a weird spot, but his acceptance to jujutsu tech and all that follows is probably a side effect of Gojo being in charge. We know Gojo Satoru is nontraditional and progressive (in terms of jujutsu but also he's gay as hell). When he is the clan head, the Gojo will act according to his more progressive ideas. However, in some ways, Satoru will still split from their ideology - but I think this is mostly on the mystical side. More on that when I talk about Buddhism/ascetism.

One Last Thing - Geto Suguru

It is well known that in FIYM, the clans hate Geto Suguru. Why? The Zen'in clan hates that he is powerful and not aligned with them. The Kamo clan hates that he is powerful and not clanborn. The Gojo clan hates him because he is powerful and his powers are evil-coded (of the three, Gojo CTs are the most divine/enlightenment-coded, and the Gojos are the most mystical.)

You notice that I mentioned power in all three reasons. I think this is important. While obviously in a different time/power dynamic, we don't see vitriol towards Toge, for example, who has a blasphemous technique. But the clans immediately want Yuta and Yuji dead in a ditch. (And, if they ever get the opportunity (thanks Kenjaku), they are absolutely looking to depose Satoru).

Not only do the clans hate Suguru, they are very actively afraid of him.

The order in which the clans hate him is Kamo (bloodline essentialism) > Zenin (slight respect to his power) >> Gojo (probably historically more open to outsiders, not threatened b/c 6E+L).

Under Satoru's leadership, the Gojo clan obviously will not take direct action against Suguru, but they won't defend him either. Which is part of why Suguru is in his current position in fellas chapter 1. (Wait what? What position, what-)

I can't wait to go more into this in FIYM, because in Japan, things have certainly happened during Satoru's little winter holiday. And while some of it is gay angst, there is a looooooot of clan politics happening behind the scenes due to the fact that Satoru decided to remove himself from the equation.

@tea-maker This definitely did not answer your original ask, but it's a side topic I've wanted to talk about so I hope you found it interesting regardless. When I get the chance, I'll talk about the Buddhism/ascetism takes I have in the context of FIYM's version of the Gojo clan. :)

[sailorblossoms-rankane]

What's your most traumatic ranma1/2 ffic experience? I'll go first, dont remember the name, but 'ranma gets roofied at a houseparty and gets pregnant.'

i don't think i can top that if i'm real... i have trauma from other fandoms so i use ao3's filter system so there's a lot i don't see (i assume the most fucked up stuff is in older fics or outside of the rankane tag...) i also avoid very old fics (recently read one where ranma's solution to everyone chasing him was "i'm gonna let them kill me" and somehow this was humorous in tone lmfao meanwhile akane was traumatized?? it also commits the sin of grouping akane with the clowns chasing ranma, which i'm gonna blame on the old show) especially knowing people were just doing whatever back in the day (including people writing fics based on other's fics without having ever read the manga or watched the anime???) i can tell you things that annoy me instead lol (not including summaries that served me only to add more tags in my "exclude" bar cuz you couldn't pay me to read those)

akane struggles with insecurities but "a person who has zero confidence and is always on the verge of breaking" she's not.

ranma and akane fighting or their banther is not easy to capture, is it. a lot of fics overdo it. it shouldn't feel like they might kill each other for real or there's real HOSTILITY lol

casanova ranma: the manliest of men with the biggest of dicks, written for the female reader who might or might not want to fuck him or for those who might be self-inserting with him. this ranma will fuck anything with a pulse and a skirt cuz he's a grown man with needs! (nevermind that canonically akane is the one who gets anywhere near horny thoughts and that ranma runs from intimacy, self sabotages, is emotionally stunted and mentally younger than he is, moves and "grows" at a very slow pace, gets uncomfortable by the horniness of the guys around him, is generally uninterest in people's looks other than his own... fanon is fanon but surely more fics could take inspiration from that) (somehow i'm always jumpscared by this one... i remember a fic where every man was a fucking pig and after already meeting akane he sleeps with another girl and then goes out on the balcony to smoke and stare at a billboard with akane's picture hahahahahaha that's where i dropped it. i read it because, dumb bitch that i am, i wanted a cute idol/bodyguard fic, i was thinking more about the 90s movie in terms of vibes but anyway)

fics where ranma is just some guy. even in normal aus i feel like we need to have that curse! where's my girl! (even worse if it's paired with casanova ranma)

anything that uses ukyo and/or shampoo as exes for ranma or "they could be together and perhaps even be happy if it wasn't for akane" is an automatic "you haven't thought about this boy that much, have you" and also a "you're not catching what these girls actually want, romance-wise, and how little patience they have for ranma's actual self" ... they are specifically girls ranma is incompatible with mind you!

holy shit this fandom has a problem with shampoo. i will spare everyone the details of this one but writers who both like and dislike her fail to see her as anything other than a sex object or some sort of seductress she's never meant to be or an extremely promiscuous woman. she's a complicated character who's used for fanservice, but she's never meant to be "seducing" ranma, it's not something that crosses her mind or that ranma is in danger of. bro is a modest maiden here, more likely to faint. she's meant to be innocent in this area (in a way that doesn't match her actions but there's not a single thought behind those eyes when she jumps ranma! she's childish!) hate it when i'm jumpscared by "ranma ogling at shampoo/being hypnotized by her charms and/or using her for sexual relief" because "it's realistic" or some shit. girl fuck you. respectfully. let's look at the panels and pages with ranma and shampoo together because clearly, there are things we are misunderstanding here, things we aren't catching. the guy is freezing and shitting himself, he doesn't know to react. he's not being fucking seduced. i also promise we can use shampoo as an antagonist in fics without bringing sex or the prospect of it. i can say this with confidence because a lot of her antagonism in the manga is her using her brains and her abilities

i feel like i'm forgetting a lot of things but you know what, love that for me

[bowtiepastabitch]

Good Omens Fandom Data 2024

Raw data, calculations, and graphs. Fancy graphics Here!

This post is less organized than usual because I just spent two hours turning it into fancy infographics, but here's the raw data for those who are interested:)

All data was pulled December 17th between 10pm and 3am while logged into ao3. Due to the archival function of ao3, it is not uncommon for numbers to fluctuate as readers can choose to remove their works (or parts of them) as they please, which can affect total numbers as well as date categories and tag organization.

The dates pulled are for 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-16 for the year total and 2024-x-01 to 2024-x-30/31 for monthly pulls. Fics are filed by their most recent update, rather than date of first publishing, on ao3 meaning any fic updated this year will be included in the data even if it has been a running WIP for multiple years.

Word and comment counts were calculated using the natural "pages" layout of 20 works per page to assemble a calculation of the average or total when sorted numerically in the archive. The top 20 entries are entered independently, and from there intervals are used to get an estimate of the larger body of work. For example:

(SUM of top 20 wordcounts) + (wordcount of item 21 + WC41 + WC61 + WC81 + WC101)(20) = total wordcount items 1-121

As the tail end of the data creates larger swaths of entries with essentially the same average accross smaller intervals, the intervals used become longer as seen here:

From this estimated total wordcount, I'm able to get an estimated total for the set. For wordcount specifically, I excluded the wordcounts of two large H*rry P*tt*r fics with crossover elements in the top 20 out of both spite and a desire to maintain some level of numerical purity. This more than balances out the effect of pulling representative samples on the high end of each interval.

All content data is dependent on tagging, which is not standardized. Thus, the numbers represented are only as accurate as the authors' tagging abilities. For example, while you'll see genitalia identifiers as a common tag for smut fics, they're still only present on the fraction of fics that choose to list them. The lack of a tag does not automatically imply the opposite. Likewise, some fics containing some explicit content that are not pornographic in nature/focus will choose to list as Mature instead of Explicit. The two categories are both "adult" content, so it's an author's choice which rating best suits the material.

My ask box is always open if you have questions!! I love talking about this shit it's one of my favorite little hyperfixations. :)

Tagging @queer-reader-07 because xe consistently enjoys these types of posts:)

[slvt4em1lyprenti2s]

Hello! I have a requesttttttt…

Could you possibly write a JJ x Reader where the team just finished a case and are celebrating with a night out, and whilst the fun activities that clubbing/bars include… another woman starts hitting on and dancing with reader and JJ gets really jealous…

Could possibly include JJ and reader dancing together 😝

Can end however you’d like! But I’d love to see your take on this idea!

Of course, if you’re busy or don’t feel like writing this, thats totally cool too, thanks!

I love this idea sm!! And thank you for the request!

Summary: A girl started flirting with you at the bar, JJ get jealous and comes to rescue you

Word Count: 937

Jealous JJ, fluff, kissing

Pairings: Jennifer Jareau x fem!reader

!NOT PROOFREAD!

Sorry it isn’t very long!!

Reader pov:

I’m sitting at my desk filling out an after action report for the case we just closed when I hear a door swing open and Rossi walk out.

“Okay I’m so done with reports and I’m sure you all are too, who’s up for a drink? I’m buying the first round!” He walks down to the lift after saying this and we all collectively scramble to put away our things.

“Ugh I’m so happy he saved us from that, our desks are so far away it’s u fair I couldn’t even talk to you.” I hear a familiar voice complain from behind me. I turn around to see my gorgeous girlfriend JJ.

“Agreed, now, let’s go I really need a drink.” She giggled at my response and clasped my hand in her own and we headed out the bau with the rest of the team.

Time skip to when they’re at the bar:

JJ pov:

“SHOTS OMG LETS DO SHOTS!” I hear Penelope yell over the loud music.

“Ooh yeah let’s do shots!” I hear Emily respond to her. They both head off to the bar to go get their respective drink while I stay seated still nursing my cocktail. Y/n was sitting to my right, Rossi was across from us, Spencer was next to him and the rest of the team was either at the bar or on the dance floor.

“Come dance with me Jayj, please!” My girlfriend pleaded with me, using her best puppy eyes. In all honesty I was far too tired to dance right now, and my cocktail hadn’t quite kicked in yet.

“Maybe in a bit babe, alright?” I hear her huff at my answer but comply nonetheless.

“Okay fine, I’m just going to dance with Derek first a bit then!” She cheerfully skips off and starts dancing with Derek. I giggle at the fact she peeled a girl off him just so they could dance together, he would not be happy about that.

I sit back in my chair a bit and watch as Penelope and Emily come back with the shits they ordered, clearly not just for themselves.

“We knew you’d say no to shits so we got you one anyway!” Emily explained as she sat a small glass in front of each of us, excluding Spence obviously. I put my glass down and picked up the smaller one with a questionably coloured liquid inside it but downed it with the rest of them anyway.

“Oh my god that’s.. oh god that strong.” I wince as the drink burn my throat. As I take a second to readjust to the sensation I look around and see y/n taking a break by the bar, but not with Morgan. A blonde who I’ve never seen before was cozying up to her side and whispering things in her ear. I could tell she was trying to ignore her but it still made my blood boil.

“Oh no, JJ’s jealous!” Rossi called out to everyone. Collectively all eyes then landed on my girlfriend and this woman at the bar.

“Oh damn JayJ she’s got your girl, what you gunna do?” I hear Morgan say to me as he walks up to the table.

“I’m going to wait a bit, see what happens.” Everyone shared a look that I didn’t care to analyse right now and went back to staring down this random blonde and sipping my drink.

After y/n was handed her drink she went back to the dane floor, I’m assuming to look for Derek, but instead she was met with two hands in her waist and a girl practicing grinding on her. That is my breaking point. She was visibly uncomfortable, what is with this girl?

“JJ!” Y/n shouted as she saw me approaching. I smiled sweetly at her and then glared at the woman now standing next her, with an arm resting on her hip.

“Uhm, who’s this?” The snarky girl asked. Y/n tried to sneak away from her to me but she was having none of it.

“I’m her girlfriend who are you?” The look of shock the flashed across this girls face was priceless. Instantly she let y/n/n go and she walked off.

“Hey are you okay?” I ask as she practically falls into my arms.

“Yeah I’m fine, just hated her.” I laughed at this then said, “You and me both. You’re mine, and no one else’s.” She looked into my eyes and gave me a small peck on the cheek and began to sway, with a shit eating grin on her face.

I smile at her antics and sway along with her. I pull her in by her hips and her arms find their way around my neck pulling my head to meet hers in a sweet kiss. Our lips moved together and it was like the world around us was drowned out. As if we were the only two people in this place, y/n/n had that effect on me. I tugged on her bottom lip and like clockwork she parted her lips to give my tongue entrance. We explored each other’s mouths like it was the first time again.

As we pulled away she smiled at me when her favourite song came on and her face lit up.

“OH MY GOD JAY WE HAVE TO DANCE TO THIS ONE!” I agree with her and we begin dancing together. Not with any real coordination, just enjoying ourselves.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #7282:

Writing this on July 16th 2023 a few days after the DDOS attack on ao3 because I know it may be some time before this is published.

Not that I expect the """Anonymous Sudan""" hackers to see this.

But what did you get out of this. If the leading theory ive heard of your motives is correct...

Pretending to be Sudanese and fighting for religious and politically motivated purposes, You attacked a non profit organization for fanfiction. "because of lgbtq+ and disgusting smut and NSFW".

But within hours all of the Fandom community knew you are actually Russian hackers. That you were trying to cause infighting between two minorities (a common Russian tactic) by making Muslims look worse by westerners and cause them to be angry with muslims, all so you can point at westerners as being racist and islamiphobic so muslims and middle eastern countries will side more with Russia. And even possibly so that yall can raise oil prices or whatever and crush Ukraine (I'm not entirely sure of the validity of that or how that works)

Not only did you fail to do that. Spectacularly. And very quickly.

You failed to keep a fucking volunteer run non profit website from being down consistently and failed all together after two days. So much for you "hacking and DDoS history"

And you failed the dumb 30k bitcoin "randsome" you were holding ao3 for. Which BTW again you couldn't keep down for more than an hour at a time by yourself. AND you tried bluffing and saying it's "practically impossible to mitigate our DDoS". So much for that huh?

So not only did you fail your main objective of causing tension between western countries and middle eastern ones. But you didn't get a single fucking cent out of us either.

Thank you to all of the volunteers at ao3 for fighting this shit for free and winning. For handling this case perfectly and making sure no racism arose from this issue. Or atleast no more than already existed, and for shutting down people who already were trying to racist from having the space to do so.

On a slightly unrelated note

I hope some of the "endotwracism" crowd have realized OTW isn't that fucking racist (I cannot speak as if I know all the workers personally) and that the existence of racism in fanfic shouldn't be censored. Because OTW and ao3 both do not condone racism. They don't condone attacking and harassing and bullying of /individuals/ for any reason whatsoever. Nor works that aren't fanfiction. Like advertisements in the fanwork format or whatever. Censoring "Abby the white racist from Ohio writing torture porn of poc" is not going to help poc in any way shape or form. Like anything that's censored "Abby" will just not properly tag her works.

Please ao3 is an archive. It was never meant to be a main hub for fanfic it's simply meant to archive it. All of it, so long as it is not illegal or attacking an actual identifiable person(s).

If you want a website for fanfic tailored specifically how you want it then use ao3 open source thingy (I forget what exactly it is or called) and make your own. This isn't anyone trying to exclude poc. But ao3 is meant for everything and that includes the "other side". if you don't want that then make a site to exclude them.

Like I'm sorry but ao3 is popular because it's an archive. Because it includes everything. And yall don't even stop to think about the resources needed to moderate something like that, who gets to decide what is racist and what isn't, or even the background of that supposed moderation team.

Poc aren't being driven away. They are just throwing a tantrum because they think the existence of something that offends them I'd a attack on them personally. When. In reality, and I know this depends on the Fandom, most fics I see that include racism in one for or another aren't made because the authors are racist. It's because they are comfortable exploring those concepts in fiction. Hell there are poc who for this too. Even outside of fanfic there are books that do this. And I'm gonna say it but alot of people don't believe that can be possible because of an author like J. K. Rowling. But even with her no one really says her books should be burned or that the Harry Potter Fandom shouldn't exist.

There are fandoms for media that is full of racist themes but that doesn't mean any of the fans are racist. While yes fandoms like that can tend to have more racist fans in comparison to others. But People being comfortable with exploring the concept does not inherently mean they are racist themselves.

Wish people understood that.

Anyway. Moral of the story is give the middle finger to russia not the middle east and to always be skeptical of who you hear or claim is doing what. Because of shit like this

I am so proud of the Fandom community for handling something like this better than anything else would or had. But honestly idk how people can just assume the work of a few particularly bad people means anyone "like" them are also bad and deserving of hate. And why anyone would believe or take seriously people doing something bad "for" a certain group. Like why would a group WANT to be seen as evil or whatever by others? And for no reason?

What did they think would happen? "hey " muslim" hackers hacked this gay porn site and now the users of gay porn site are mad at muslims. You should hate them back"

??? Like even IF the hackers were who they claimed to be, I highly doubt Muslim people are so stupid as to think it's unreasonable for users of gay porn site to be a lil peeved for being antagonized for NO REASON by Muslim hackers. Religious or not no one can be that stupid right? You can agree with the hackers all you want but you have got to recognize the fact that gay porn site and gay porn site users were provoked first.

Maybe it's just me and I can't understand stupidity like that.

I'm just glad they weren't able to achieve their goals in the first place.

Anyway as of today ao3 seems to be running normally. I'm still be a bit wary since they have not the declared the attacks over AFAIK. But honestly. It really seems like they've done nothing more than a lil two day prank and gained nothing from it.

If this gets posted earlier:

please be wary of ANY anti Muslim sentiments. Anything that would try and paint them or anyone in a bad light really. And do not go after Russian citizens. They have no control over what is happening either and just like you and me are not connected to whatever racist war bullshit the world leaders and governments are trying to pull these days. Please think critically and ask yourself who and why something is being said about some group or another. Even if you don't like a group for whatever reason, it is not worth it to try and beat anyone down. It serves no purpose other than to make the world worse for everyone and to put more power in the hands of people who should not have it.

Thank you.

[kratioed]

𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐅𝐈 & 𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐈 , 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐎𝐊𝐈

It’s clear that Hel will one day appear in future releases, as hinted in both GOW(2018) and GOWR, but anyone who is a myth enthusiast knows that Loki had other children besides his monstrous offspring in Norse Mythology because interestingly enough, GOW’s wiki community decided to include "Narfi & Váli" despite no evidence of their existence whatsoever throughout the Norse era.

Of course, it’s also a fandom site; while they can be a reliable source, said sources on their encyclopedia are sometimes inaccurate. Knowing the impossibility of their existence, I also thought about how they can coexist throughout GOW.

EDIT UPDATE 2/1/2024: Recently, the GOW's wiki community updated Atreus' "uncertain future" category and the links to Váli's & Narfi's wiki pages no longer existed. Doesn't mean it'll stop me from enjoying my fun. 😎🔥💯

EDIT UPDATE 7/22/2024: Nevermind, they're mentioned on Angrboða's wiki page for some reason…Váli & Narfi aren't the same as Fenrir & Jörmungandr ☝️🤓 but okay. ☠

And the more I thought about it, the more apparent it became that they’re essential for the franchise…but it’s more like my personal headcanon rather than my “crack” theory so might as well call this an AU for shits and giggles. I thought it would be fun to share my overly long detailed analysis with those who are fixated on Atreus’ other (im)possible children as much as I am because I need this to get it out of my system since they have been living rent-free in my head for almost a year just now. This blog is now officially a Narfi & Váli stan account and Kratos would have LOVED his grandsons if they ever appeared in GOW, but it's very unlikely that would happen. This analyis is going to be a long one so bear with me!

I think it would be poetic for GOW to end off including Narfi & Váli (alongside Atreus) for the final conclusion of the franchise; and yes, Hel would be an adult in this timeskip, contrary to popular belief that they were children in Norse Mythology. Despite their unfortunate demise, their backgrounds are nothing like their half-siblings’ in the Norse Mythos, making them the most ordinary of all Loki’s children. But you know what? The concept of Narfi & Váli being the epitome of normality of all Loki’s offspring gave me an a idea...I’m not sure if anyone has noticed, but Narfi & Váli exhibit some similarities to Kratos & Deimos.

Before the Olympians (Athena & Ares) pursued one of the brothers due to a doomsday prophecy, Kratos & Deimos believed they were mere mortals during childhood as they still fit the epitome of normality as children, similarly to Narfi & Váli. They’re also gods at birth, but the only difference is that Narfi & Váli most likely knew about their divine nature, whereas Kratos (excluding Deimos) only discovered it later in adulthood (a silly parallel, but I still think it counts).

Another example would be in the parallel dynamics of Váli & Kratos, as they both had experiences where they succumbed to their primal instincts in different circumstances; Váli unwillingly turned into a wolf and killed his brother driven by primal instincts under the Æsir’s (or presumably Odin’s) influence, almost similar to how Kratos was deceived and unaware, killed his first wife and daughter fueled by his primal desire for blood under Ares’ influence. While Váli’s fate remains unknown after Loki's Punishment, we can infer that both Váli & Kratos are the only survivors other than their brother.

While the deaths of Narfi & Deimos are an obvious parallel, they're also linked to Bounds and Punishment in distinct ways; like Váli, Narfi was punished with his entrails used as bounds in retribution against his father, as well as due to his relation with Loki while Deimos, on the other hand, was bound and punished due to his existence as the "Marked Warrior" (same thing goes with Kratos since he too was also bound and punished at one point in Ascension).

On top of that, they were also subjected to violence as children inflicted by Gods. Consequently, it ultimately led the downfall of both Æsir & Olympians, as predicted by their prophecy. The prophecy of the "Marked Warrior" bringing destruction upon Olympus began the moment they abducted Deimos. The sufferings of Kratos' family (including Sparta and Pandora) at the hands of Gods contributes the downfall of Olympus. Their tragedies are the major cause of Kratos' justified vengeance to destroy the entire pantheon, ultimately leading the devastation of the Greek world.

In Norse Mythology (with my limited knowledge); the Æsir's (mostly Odin's) retaliation on Loki's monstrous children, particularly Fenrir, due to prophecies contributes their downfall in Ragnarök, especially with their involvement in Loki's Punishment. However, I believe that the suffering of Narfi & Váli at the hands of Æsir Gods is the primary cause for Loki's justified desire for vengeance. The Æsir's use of Narfi's entrails, his own son, as restraints adds insult to injury, intensifying Loki's anger. Obviously, Loki joined forces with those against Æsir Gods with his army of Hel's people while the events of Ragnarök lead the devastation throughout the lands.

But since this is GOW, I found this YouTube comment (which I've kept for quite some time) that perfectly said my thoughts out loud:

With the absence of Loki's Punishment; not only Kratos saved Narfi & Váli from Æsir's (particularly Odin's) wrath, he also prevented a similar tragedy that would inflict upon his grandsons the same way that Gods once inflicted upon him and Deimos as children, in which, fits the overall theme of subverting prophecies in GOWR.

𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

Santa Monica could have easily had Atreus name his sons "Narfi & Váli" as everyone expected from Norse Mythology. But given Santa Monica's innovative approach to myth characters through creative liberties, using "Narfi & Váli" wouldn't work within the narrative structure of GOW's distinct retelling of Folklore, especially the Prose Edda of all settings.

From what I've heard, there has been a debate about whether "Váli" is a son of Odin or Loki, or both Valis existed as sperate characters. Additionally, in GOWR, there's already a boss character named Vali (The Oath Guard), which I assumed (correct me if I'm wrong) it's a cultural practice for parents to name their child after a Norse figure in Scandinavian countries, but I find it unlikely for Atreus to name one of his children after an Æsir or any God in general. Similarly, Narfi shares a name with another Giant unrelated to Loki whatsoever...but given the wide variety of Gods and other myth characters we've seen from Greek Mythology depicted in GOW, it wouldn't be surprising if other Narfi, and particularly, Váli Odinson were to mentioned or featured in future releases.

If you're not aware or need a reminder, Atreus gets to learn about Deimos during "Animal Instincts" side quest. Whether you choose to bring Atreus or Freya doesn't matter, it doesn't change the fact that Santa Monica had intended for Atreus to know about his uncle, it's still canon either way.

Atreus' identity has roots that go beyond his Norse counterpart (both symbolically and narrative wise along with the origins of his Greek name) and very likely that Santa Monica would take a similar approach with "Hel" in future releases (I've seen people suggest her name could be Faye/Laufey or Calliope, or even Callisto or Angrboða's mother). It's only fair that "Narfi & Váli" should get the same treatment…so imagine how moving it would be if Atreus were to name his sons after Kratos & Deimos.

"Váli" 𝐊𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐒 𝐈𝐈, named after his grandfather, transformed from a monster into a benevolent God due to his ability to change and open his heart, representing the beacon of hope...and "Narfi" 𝐃𝐄𝐈𝐌𝐎𝐒 𝐈𝐈, named after his great uncle, whom Atreus had known but never met (but wishes they had), honored his uncle by naming his youngest son after him.

EDIT UPDATE 3/7/2024: Just recently discovered in Greek Culture, it's common for children to be named after their grandparents, in which, aligns with my case for "Váli" to be named after his grandfather! While "Narfi" is named after his great-uncle, I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) the naming tradition also involves material/paternal relatives, which is fitting within the context of GOW. ^^

There are hearsay, or statements from Cory Barlog, that Kratos couldn't bring himself to name his son after his brother due to past memories…Atreus, on the other hand, seems open to the idea of naming one of his own children after his uncle he never met.

𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐅𝐈 & 𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐈/𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

Besides Narfi Lokison and other Narfi, their accounts become somewhat unclear when Narfi's brother is addressed as "Nari." This time, it's Narfi who turns into a wolf and kills Nari. However, some sources later changed Narfi's name to Váli, both in historical texts and modern media...

EDIT UPDATE 7/21/2024: Initially, I thought this version was made based on the notion that Váli was Odin's son rather than Loki's. But after some further investigation, I'm inclined to believe that Váli is a singular character while Narfi & Nari are Loki's sons. It's also possible that "Narfi/Nari" is referred as the same character, as the belief that Váli is Loki's son is a common mistake in today's media. It would have been so easy to overlook the mistranslation and go along with the usual understanding of "Narfi & Váli"…but thinking about it now, this could actually work within the narrative structure as prophecies are ambiguously depicted in GOWR.

How about this: "Váli & Narfi" (or "Narfi & Nari") can shapeshift into wolves. Not only it emphasizes their connection with Atreus/Loki, but as a reflection of Kratos & Deimos through Speki & Svanna.

EDIT UPDATE 7/26/2024: This might be a overreach...but if Kratos' presumption that Speki & Svanna were boys did reflect something, then it could be described as a projection of his experiences as a military general as well as an extension of subconscious affection. For Kratos' case, people form stronger bonds with animals than with human (and Gods) since often times they can be deceitful/malicious, conceited, narrow-minded, backstabbing, or calculatively manipulative through obligations/false promises while animals (wolves) would instead be much more pragmatic about survival and tender care.

Speki & Svanna (+Fenrir) have been usefully vigilant and reliable wolves that aid him and Atreus, and given the history of humans surviving in collaboration with animals, there is precedence for Kratos subconsciously associating the wolves with memories of Spartan warriors he had by his side almost as though they were his own family, where survival relied on the coordination of his armies and the care given to ensuring that his men were left standing after battle.

This can very easily be associated in the mind as symbolic of a dedicated and responsible soldier as a result from a pivotally formative part of his life revolved around the Sparta's military…and out of remorse (for the casualties of people under his care amidst the war he's wrought) and love (for those who've either perished or lived as well as the people who stood by him), it felt plausible that he could've associated this with Speki & Svanna (shout out to my irl friend for cooking this up!).

Regardless, I can also imagine this as a foreshadow of Kratos' doting relationship with his future grandsons!

𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍

EDIT UPDATE 7/21/2024: As much as I adore the relationship between Kratos and his grandsons, I personally think it would be better if they never met in person (rest assured, Hel is fortunate enough to know their grandfather as a child). As I mentioned before, Narfi & Váli should appear by the end of the franchise, and what better way to conclude Kratos' journey than being remembered as the benevolent God even after his death?

Kratos once quoted, "Death can have me, when it earns me" might foreshadow his potential death for the final installment. Given that Kratos had "died" in previous games and even evaded his predicted "death" in GOWR, I think it would be flitting to conclude his journey if the franchise comes to an end (in which, would have opted Atreus to name one of his sons after their grandfather). But it's just a personal theory of mine, so I digress.

Narfi & Váli serves as character foils for Kratos & Deimos, illustrating their childhood origins from Ghost of Sparta to the narrative's conclusion with Narfi & Váli emerging at the end. With wisdom gained from experiences and mistakes, Atreus, aged with greying hair, gazes at his sons and feels as if his father and uncle are reunited once again…relieving their childhood they never had as children.

If you made it this far, then congratulations! Here's a quick (and old) sketch of my variant of Váli would look like:

EDIT UPDATE 12/19/2024: Tried my best to replicate his facial structure. He's basically Kratos 2.0 with a decent childhood who smiles a lot more than his grandfather ever did in Sparta (he also has his grandfather's eyes and freckles from his father). Narfi, on the other hand, looks a lot more like his father with the iconic mark as a homage. They're basically Yuki & Ame (+Atreus w/Hana) from Wolf Children (I never watch the movie, but it's the vibes I'm get from them)! ^^