#The End of the Millenium

[1bjavier]

More Phantasy Star IV

[divorcedfiddleford]

You made a post saying “it has been zero days since our last alex hirsch hates ford so much bullshit” and i know it was mostly hyperbole, but you have some really good takes that I would love to be elaborated on in terms of how ford is written

it really wasn't hyperbolic. over the years he's just really shown a lot of hatred towards this one character.

content warning: discussion of abuse

i want to start with this clip from the commentary which i think of as a microcosm for how the writers and especially alex think about ford.

transcript:

rob renzetti: i mean he [mcgucket] should've basically knocked ford out, and... and destroyed the... you know, tied him up, and, destroyed... and... alex hirsch, speaking over him: yeah he should've beat ford with a wrench and taken this thing apart piece by piece! he's the one who understood how to built [sic] it, but...

... so that seems like a pretty violent course of action. shall we unpack that?

ford is a character who's pretty explicitly written as a victim of abuse, and who now has c-ptsd as a direct result of the abuse he experienced. alex hirsch believes that ford deserved everything bad that happened to him, that it's ford's own fault, and that he also deserved worse things to happen to him. this is why, given every narrative chance, alex hirsch has piled more suffering onto ford's plate. the biggest example of this i can think of is in the journal, when he wrote that fiddleford was actively erasing ford's memory (despite this being a massive timeline contradiction which i still refuse to accept). because god forbid ford even have one remotely healthy relationship with somebody. that would be too good for him. ford was manipulated and lied to by bill, but alex repeatedly compares him to icarus, a teenager whose demise was the result of his own ignorance. this comparison is still so fucking offensive to me. the sun did not lie to icarus, did not guarantee icarus all of the happiness and success and sense of belonging which he had been denied all his life, did not actively shut out the voices of those around him who would try to help him.

alex in general has a very strange relationship with abuse. he seems to get really upset when people read his characters as victims of abuse. the strongest instance of this is actually not with ford, it's with pacifica - especially in the nwmm episode commentary. the episode says "pacifica's parents have conditioned her to respond to a bell" and alex says people got "the wrong idea" about it. like. dude. what the fuck. you wrote abuse. even if you didn't mean to, that's what you wrote. you can't say people got "the wrong idea" just because you didn't think about the subtext of what you were writing. anyway, back to ford: i believe this extends to him as well. alex wanted to write a character who's a foil to stan and who was a selfish unlikable victim of his own arrogance. however that's not what he wrote. he somehow seemingly accidentally wrote a really compelling and relatable awesome autistic guy who had to fight for every good thing he he ever had in his life only for it to be taken from him every single time. but alex can't let go of seeing ford as just "the opposite of stan". when he talks about "how someone as smart as ford could fall for bill's tricks", he refuses to realize he wrote a situation in which a man was being psychologically manipulated and tortured.

it goes back further, too. people repeatedly theorized that filbrick was... not a very good father, to say the least. on top of the very explicit and canon fact that he threw one of his children out on the street (seriously, there is no defense for this), people pointed out that stan would flinch at filbrick, that ford seemed upset by things filbrick said but dared not talk back, that filbrick was mad at stan not for hurting his brother, but for "costing the family potential millions". but alex can't have people seeing ford as sympathetic. ford can't have it bad like stan did. ford had to have everything and he lost it all because he sucks so much. so he wrote the graphic novel story where ford is filbrick's favorite child and filbrick also is not even a bad parent you guys he's just stoic. ignore the whole thing in dreamscaperers where stan perpetuates the abuse that filbrick did to him. ignore the fact that ford was shouting at stan and then completely shut up as soon as filbrick entered the room and did not say another word for the rest of the night. ignore all that because i just made up this story where he cries at a present from stan. filbrick loved his boys for sure you guys!!!

i'm not even touching on how alex repeatedly villainizes traits commonly associated with mental illness and neurodivergence. ford's hypervigilance becomes arrogance. his passion for knowledge means he's a know-it-all. his difficulty socializing and making friends means he's a misanthrope. his lingering resentment for the way he was raised means he hates his brother and is the worst human being to ever have lived. i could go on, go even further into how the finale reaffirms this, but i feel weird talking about this too much.

[torments-my-obelisk]

DSOD is such a funny movie. Kaiba comes on screen in his giant fucking space station molded into his company logo and I just laughed. He’s so dramatic. He misses his rival and is so obsessed with getting some closure for once in his goddamn life that he spent well over a billion dollars to excavate a cursed puzzle and build a space elevator to the afterlife but the minute anyone says anything about ‘hey maybe that’s a little unhealthy’ he’s snapping and snarling and telling them to fuck off. Except the cube guy. He’s has a duel disk and is also full of unprocessed grief so he can stay. Yugi Moto looks them dead in the eye and says “first of all, I’m only here because you both blackmailed me. Secondly, fuck you both for that, by the way. Thirdly, I’m gonna kick your ass”. Card games ensue, meanwhile Yugi tries his absolute best to show Kaiba the pharaoh is gone and maybe he needs to spend some time reflecting on his emotions and yes the invitation is still open to talk about Him BUT THEN THE NARRATIVE PROVED KAIBA RIGHT?!! AND THE PHARAOH COMES BACK AND YUGI HAS TO LOOK KAIBA IN THE EYE AND TELL HIM THAT HES SORRY FOR DOUBTING HIM?? WHAT. What Kaiba takes from all this is that a) his horrid coping mechanisms work after all, b) if he just fucks around enough and spends all his money he really can be king of the world and c) the best option is definitely to finish that space elevator and fucking. Go to the afterlife I guess. To duel his “hated rival” or whatever. Fuck off

[thedevilsrain]

a very special gustave doré sequel to my berserk penguin classics post...! just pretend theres various volumes for each arc lol

[one-vivid-judgment]

Starting to think Joongi is just a little freak of nature who's busted no matter what job you give him cause the amounts of damage this man deals is ridiculous. Which is weirdly in-character when you think about it cause I can totally see Ichi going "Oh hey Joongi I got you this job!" and it's just... being a cowboy. And instead of being taken aback, Joongi goes "Aight, bet" cause he's a professional like that and he's not about to half ass anything.

[blissfali]

hey guys. wasnt able to be on tumblr because ivr been busy building this he-man castle grayskull mega construct (knock off lego) set for the past 36 hours. doesnt it look awesome

[touhoutunes]

Title: 病床の耳 (Ears at the Sickbed)

Arrangement: イコ

Album: 悲しい知らせ

Circle: 深夜放送

Original: Gensokyo Millenium ~ History of the Moon

[yaldabaothadeez]

There are more Sikhs than Mormons, but not twice as many.

[koschei-the-ginger]

[radioves]

Elytrians are a very well known race- large, bird-like humanoids with massive clawed wings and the ability to harness the power of the wind to launch themselves into the air.

But they werent always like this.

There was once a time when Elytrians werent the kind mountain dwellers everyone knows. Instead, they were something... different.

quick tw for experimentation and weird sciency mutation bs the End people were kinda egotistical assholes //

...

Deep in the End dimension lived a race of people, known to most as the "End people". These inhabitants of the End lived amongst the scattered, broken terrain of the outer islands. They were known to be highly intelligent architects, building sprawling cities crafted out of a compound stone consisting of the end stone beneath their feet and the plentiful chorus fruit that thrived despite the barren soil.

The End people were even known to be profound knowledge in magic and alchemy, harnessing the levitating properties of the shulkers to support their perilous cities- and to create something that those without magic could only dream of having; flight. They created floating ships that they used to travel the end, powered by the mystical bullets the shulkers shot, keeping the ship aloft as propellers powered it through the dark skies.

But, as how it goes in most stories, the End people wanted more.

You see, after observing the large, obsidian scaled dragons that lived along side them, the End people decided they wanted to fly- no, they deserved to fly. Having harnessed the potential of every aspect of the End, they believed they could reach higher, to go beyond what was intended for them and become something greater.

They captured the old lesser dragons- small, wyvern-like reptiles that were the ancient ancestors of modern day phantoms- and took their scales and membranes, fashioning artificial wings not unlike the wax and feathered that belonged to Icarus. These were dubbed “Elytra”, named after the wing casing of the beetles they once made home with.

And while these faux wings worked for the most part, the End people were still unhappy. These wings couldn’t power flight like they hoped, as they were only able to glide through the air- they weren’t biologically designed to fly, something only reserved for those who have been given the gift of flight.

So if they couldn’t be given it, they would just have to make it.

They experimented, taking in subjects to test on- some willing, others... not so much. The subjects were given elixirs brewed from the gathered dragon scales. The hope was that the magic imbued into the concoction would grant the End people the ability to grow wings- ones that were strong enough to carry them aloft, unlike the artificial ones crafted from the membrane of wings.

And it worked, but it wasn’t exactly in the way they expected. Instead of the large, swooping wings they long strived for, their bodies morphed into something... grotesque. Their bodies became thin and fragile, losing weight down to their inner bone, as those became hollow as well. Their nails grew sharp and twisted, not unlike talons, as did their teeth grow pointed and long. They began to walk on their hands, their feet elongating as they learned to walk on their toes, resembling something that could’ve been quadrupedal in nature.

Strange scales sprouted across their bodies from head to toe, and even down to the tail that sprouted from the base of their tailbone, a wild and wiry thing that lashed at the slightest hint of annoyance from the person it was attached to.

Their eyes grew large and bulbous- even despite the End peoples naturally large eyes, they had the benefit of artificial light; glowing rods that lined their pathways that illuminated the cities despite the eternal dark of the End. The lesser dragons didn’t have this aid, and as such evolved large eyes to help them see in the dark, and by extension, the experimented people were given them as well.

What once might've been hands morphed into talons at the wrist of their wings, only 3 fingers remained as their fourth bent backwards to form the edge of their wings, the rest of the membrane attached to their skin down to the hip.

But even still, they could barely fly. While they were still able to glide from platform to platform, they could only weakly flap- their bodies were simply too weak due to the muscle atrophy they experienced during their transformation. Even with larger wings that were now attached to their bodies as opposed to the false mimics of their old ones, they still were never build to handle it.

But the End people didn’t know when to stop.

They refused to give up, desperate to experience flight for themselves. They moved on to more magical possibilities, something they were more used to- shulker levitation. They imbued the hybrids with the magic from the bullets, hoping that with the added lift of the levitation spell their race would finally be able to fly.

The winged were able to harness this magic, using it to lift them up high into the sky, only to flutter back down to the ground. They couldn’t control it the way they wanted, only able to use it for quick bursts of levitation instead of the hope they could use it long-term to hold them aloft. There was nothing left they could try to save their experiments.

The End people had failed.

They would throw out the elixirs they had painstakingly spent ages perfecting, closing down the experiment and ridding of all hints it even existed. As for the winged, they had been dubbed “Elytrians”, after the wings they had been hoping to have for their own. They were seen as embarrassments, the End people being ashamed they had even been created in the first place. They weren’t even seen as the same species anymore, seen as something primitive, nothing more than offshoots of the creatures they had been fused with.

As a result, they had been banished. With wings bound, the Elytrians were thrown off the islands they once called home, with the hope the End people would never have to see them again- to never be reminded of their mistakes.

But it was apparent the Universe was merciful.

Though many succumbed to the pressure of the void, a scattered bunch of the Elytrians awoke to something... unexpected. Rolling green hills with a blue sky arching far above them, fluffy clouds rolling and fading and forming marching across the azure air- nothing they have ever seen before.

And despite the unfamiliar land, it was kind to them. Instead of the harsh land of the End, where you could only find refuge in the scattered cities, here in this lush world they could find ground that was soft, sweet berries that were nothing like the tart bitterness of the chorus fruit of the End, clear water that was cool to the touch that reminded them of the sun- and the sun! The sun was warm against their scales, a far cry from the pressing cold of the End.

Eventually they would later meet another race that were almost similar to them in some aspects- Avians, they would learn they were called, with feathered arms that resembled wings and bend legs with talons at the end.

The ancient end-bred Elytrians would soon evolve, combining with the Avians and being replaced by something that was finally intended to be the way they were, something nature could smile down upon instead of turning a pitiful blind eye. Soft feathers coated their bodies, albeit still scaled, though they now come in varieties of color instead of the charcoal black they once were. They learned to walk on their legs again, their limbs shortening back to a natural length- even if they still sometimes crawled around when hunting.

Their bodies shaped back into something more natural once again- their eyes shrinking back down, no longer needed to capture more light to see in the eternal dark. They gained weight once more, now that they lived in a land not only with more gravity, but with more food, more chances to hunt, to work, to fly.

They learned to shape their old ability into something different. instead of a influx of levitation magic, they could channel it into the air around them- creating a gust of wind they could use to send themselves high up into the air, where they could then glide across the sky, free to explore the lands with this power.

Soon, they would begin to flock to the mountains. They gained a preference for higher places, the cold causing them to grow thick plumage across their bodies to keep them warm in the cold climates. Despite their unfortunate upbringings, with the way the cold air swirled around them and the galaxy could be seen clearly high up in the mountains,

It reminded them of what was once called home.

[laski-and-sage]

Major: WAS ZHAT ON PURPOSE?!

Integra: What, your birth? I hope not that humans plans something that evil and ridiculous...

[fooligancity]

idk how anyone could expect arthur to like. actually live at the end of bbc merlin like out of all the common arthurian legend knowledge like sword in the stone. wizard. excalibur. mordred killing him is right up there with em lmao like it was always gonna end that way from the start. sidepoint i just don’t think a happy ending would have made for a satisfactory end to the show from like a narrative standpoint i feel like it wouldve been hollow..

[cyberstevie]

stopping horizon forbidden west right at the beginning of the quest "faro's tomb" and then forgetting how to play over the course of six months and then coming back to it and relearning the game and going into the main quest "faro's tomb" was a pretty remarkable experience i have to say

[humanmorph]

friends at the table

PARTIZAN

[bother-blame]

it's really funny how 0 opens up the business minigame so early.

i know it stops you from completing it until after you unlock the JCC but, as far as i can remember, there is absolutely nothing in place to stop you from making a trillion yen & buying out half of kamurocho before you continue the main story.

[tophatz]

Plots, please! Any character that you're musing/have ideas with the most!

⤏ send me “plots please”… and I’ll respond with  3  (or more)  interesting  plots / relationships / connections  I can think of for our muses! 

For you? ALL OF THEM.

1- w/ Ryou: My favorite fellow gets to be first ( um, sorry Otogi??? ), they have a VERY under-explored dynamic in the show tbh, so the possibilities are endless. I'm thinking maybe a thing in which they both mess around with an Ouija Board, chat, get a liiiiittle philosophical?? THEY NEED TO GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER MORE, BASICALLY. I mean, I can see them hitting town, attempting to find leads on the dumbest conspiracy theory Ryou can find/ come up with.

2- w/ Marik: He's actually the first I thought of ifugewb, we talked about them bonding over makeup and LIKE, JUST A WHOLE DAY OF THEM BOTH BICKERING A N D SHOPPING FOR MAKEUP? Or, something more serious, maybe. Like, there's a common enemy and they have to defeat them together- or one of them's having a problem and the other is the closest one that could help??

3- w/ Otogi: HIM, THEM. At this point, Yami's one of Otogi's dearest friends ( and I live for it ); I'd normally suggest chaos but that pretty much happens whenever they so much as exist in the same room- So maybe something heartfelt?? A simple, heart-to-heart conversation about. . . x subject?? Idk?? Maybe Yami needs advice on something serious, and Otogi ( surprisingly ) helps?? Or vice versa!

4- W/ Anzu: F R I E N D S H I P. With Anzu, I always think friendship time. So casual friend stuff??? Wholesome?? Sad?? BOTH?? EVERYTHING. First idea that came to mind is a thread in which they just sit and talk about the friend group ( practically gossiping but it's noT NEGATIVE-ish ).

5- EVERYONE GOES ON A ROAD TRIP. THAT'S IT.

6- Also, because I just realized the potential, SHERRY??? I think we used to have a thread in which Placido came to the dm world?? I LOST IT IDK WHERE THAT IS- but, something similar??? She's very calm and mature, I feel they can mesh pretty well? Also, she could definitely take him for a spin on her d-wheel ( and then he can brag about riding one to Otogi, who will die )