#actually this is really more me rambling and calling it meta but you know what?

[theonlyadawong]

a lot of people tend to think leon is constantly very angry with, or at least frustrated by ada, on account of her lies and manipulation, and while i do believe that feeling of his applies to all of their interactions of re2, i believe this frustration is not that present post re2, and it is in fact is because so many players project their own anger, frustration and even hatred of ada onto leon in the later games, as the more time he spends as a government agent, the more he understands ada and the world she comes from.

leons core tenet is that he wants to help people, so what does he do? he becomes a police officer because he believes cops do the most good (a sentiment that shows he is wearing EXTREMELY rose colored glasses lol), and then he heads to Raccoon City, and while in RC he helps everyone he can. and he is SO good natured that the idea that ada could be lying to him is so far from his mind (NOTE: this is NOT a sign of him being the heavily infantilized man fans make him out to be, and more a sign of general ignorance of the world, as frankly, nobody besides annette has any reason to believe ada would be a spy) because the world of mercenaries and espionage are so far removed from what he believes to be his reality. this is a man who fully believed becoming a police officer was the right way to help people. (and yes im aware of his established backstory where a cop saved him when the rest of his family died due to some crime. this still doesnt make being a cop the right thing to do.)

and so ada strings him along for her own personal gain, and at the end leon learns of her deceit. and the biggest betrayal leon experiences is not from ada, its just that the confrontation scene is the 11 o'clock number for leons half of the game, thus making it stick with us longer, as we the player have also been fooled by her. but no, the biggest betrayal happens when the government decides to cover up the horrors of raccoon city and use sherry as collateral to get him to work for them. and, unfortunately, this is only shown for a few minutes in resident evil darkside chronicles and in the epilogue screens of the original resident evil 3 (re 4 remake might add more to this, but that game hasnt come out as of yet, but heres hoping lol), so we dont fully get to see how he reacted to that outside of these moments and a few other passing thoughts in the series.

but!!! leons entire worldview crumbles after the events of 2, and the next time leon and ada meet in 4, he is wise to the world, and he has seen firsthand the atrocities the united states government is willing to commit under the guise of helping people. and people like ada, people who lie and manipulate and work for evil, greedy organizations (well intentioned or not) are now everywhere. theyre a dime a dozen. they are annette. they are luis. they are krauser. they were his recruiter. they are his boss. they are the president. they are the entire government he was so excited to work for.

ada just has the benefit of being his first introduction to these kinds of people

to be clear, im not saying leon is suddenly okay with her half-truths, but i am saying after he is forced to work for the government, he understands her, or at least, understands people like her, so much more so he knows exactly what to expect. just not when to expect it.

[williamrikers]

The Undeniable Queerness of Enchanté the Series

(thank you @ranchthoughts for letting me ramble about this in your inbox before turning my thoughts into a post)

there are bls and then there are bls. right? there are dead fish kisses and there are characters who kiss each other like their lives depend on it.

and enchanté firmly belongs in the second category. 1,500-word essay under the cut.

there is such a consistent and tangible queer undercurrent to everything that's happening on this show and i'm not just talking about the fact that several scenes look like they could be the opening scene of a gay porno. or the surprise bondage. or force in drag. or proposing marriage in front of the eiffel tower. no, there's this aching, desperate desire underlying everything. theo has--in addition to his main love interest--four very hot gay suitors who all very obviously desire him carnally... this is some sort of gay manic pixie dream boy wish fulfilment fantasy and i am absolutely eating it up.

there is a vibe to the show that @ranchthoughts called "fanfic-like", and i would argue that that's because enchanté is actually fanfiction of the little prince. (i'm planning on making a separate post soon about how the book was referenced on and used as inspiration for the show.)

enchanté is fully aware of its own fictionality. it is on-the-nose fictional. but that's what makes it so much fun--it's not trying to be something it isn't.

take the reading memories segments in episode 4 [3/4] for example: these scenes were incredibly cringe, like, full-on bad-green-screen terrible-costumes-and-wigs hilarious-acting cringe, but fully aware of their own cringe-ness. (also, gawin was both in drag and naked in the same scene as two different characters, like. get on enchanté's level.) (incidentally, can anyone tell me what character aou/phupha was supposed to be? i got detective conan, monkey d. luffy and momotarō for the others, but i'm stumped on phupha's character.)

and that self-awareness makes it camp! there is such a level of camp to the whole show which feels extremely intentional (especially in the first two thirds), almost like a meta-commentary: "this is the genre. we know it's stupid but we love it here", and i adore that. they know the tropes, they know the bl landscape, and they're just having fun with all of it.

and the whole set-up in itself is a queer allegory, isn't it? theo and akk are "from different worlds", so to speak, hindered in their love not just by their complete inability to communicate but also by their forced separation as children. when they meet again, theo doesn't really belong anywhere, he's an outsider both in france and in thailand, he is unable to act the way thai society expects him to act (e.g. failing to show the proper respect to the seniors), unable to get his parents to understand him while being actively lied to by them (the whole ocean of miscommunication in that family deserves its own post), harboring feelings for his childhood friend his whole life but unable to voice them in a normal sort of way, instead falling back on concocting the most convoluted, immediately backfiring plan to try to make akk jealous and get him to confess his feelings first.

theo is fundamentally isolated because he grew up between two cultures, and neither one quite fits him: when he's in france, he is comforted by thai food and the only people he's close with (his grandmother and sun) are from thailand like himself; but when he's in thailand, he can't quite get used to the social conventions and makes social blunders, he is very slow at writing in thai.

it's such a poignant queer allegory in my opinion. they didn't end up making as much a point of it on the show as they could have, but it very much informed my whole reading of the show and the characters. there is a sort of inability to articulate his experience surrounding theo that makes him even more isolated and screams "baby gay in need of a community" to me. having akk share his experience at the end is something that i'm not a big fan of for other, unrelated reasons (might make a separate post about enchanté's ending and why it fell flat for me), but when looking at it through this lens, it is the only way for akk to really get theo, to really understand his struggle on a fundamental level.

which brings me back to that desire i mentioned earlier: theo desires akk, very much so, there are a whole handful of scenes where akk gets close to him and theo closes his eyes, expecting to finally be kissed by him, but more than that, he desires understanding. he often brushes off his own difficulties and has a tendency to be emotionally clueless (for example about his parents' divorce), but what i see most in his character is the desire to be understood, to be seen by akk, for akk to see him for who he is and to love him for who he is. (akk, of course, has been doing both of those things all along. he's constantly taking pictures of theo, he's watching him through his window--with theo's full knowledge--he is always looking at him, he's always loving him.)

it's not inherently queer to want to be loved as we truly are, i believe heterosexual people experience this, too, but in the context of queerness itself, being perceived as queer by other queer people is indeed a fundamental aspect to experiencing queer love (maybe not in gay for you bls, but i haven't heard of much gay for you happening in real life). not to be unscientific about this, but the vibes of the perception aspect of enchanté are just very queer to me, you know?

oh, and speaking of desire: enchanté in general is very physical. there is a level of intimacy between the actors and the camera that seems incredibly intentional: there are several shower scenes, scenes of theo and akk shirtless, TWO (2) nude gawin scenes (though one of those is sadly a fake-out and he is actually wearing shorts), many, many scenes that include bare feet, which is not something i see super often in bl, at least not to the point that i notice the frequency of it.

enchanté is very rooted in the physical reality of desirable bodies: theo is allowed to openly, physically flirt with saifa, even though that's not even his endgame love interest, phupha uses physical touch in his pursuit of theo, natee shows his obsession with theo by drawing his face/body about a hundred times, and akk and theo are wholly unable to keep their hands off each other. i've joked about the intricate rituals, but seriously, they are constructing so many intricate rituals. there are two separate scenes in which they make up excuses to kiss each other's elbows/arms/backs. they keep touching each other in a thousand ways, in every possible way they can that is still plausibly deniable as physical desire--until they kiss while watching that movie and then it's just a game of chicken of who will confess first. because their physical attraction to each other is undeniable. it's obvious. this was really refreshing to see in a genre that so often plays with the blushing maiden trope, and one character is so often made to pursue the other: on enchanté, akk and theo are equally horny for each other. it's not their lack of physical attraction that keeps them apart for so long.

(sadly, the show then shies away from actually getting very sexually physical: after their desperate, stunning, amazing balcony-kiss, they aren't allowed to be horny for each other in the last two episodes, when they're actually in a relationship. this is just one of the many aspects that i didn't like about the conclusion of the story, because you simply cannot tell me that these two as we got to know them in episodes 1 to 8 would really be as chaste with each other as they're shown in episodes 9 and 10.)

leaving that aside for the moment, let's talk about that kiss. as mentioned right at the beginning, when these two kiss each other on the balcony, it's desperation in its rawest form. these two--and especially theo--crave each other. theo kisses akk like he will die without him. theo kisses akk like he can finally breathe. theo kisses akk like he never wants to do anything else ever again.

i'm a bit obsessed with book's acting here, because of all the kissing scenes i've seen him in, i think this is THE most desperate one. force plays it a bit more subtle, but book's expression is full-on anguish. theo waited his whole life to be kissed by akk, and book portrays that so beautifully, with such depth. it's one of my favorite bl kisses for sure, it's played with so much heart, so much feeling, that it's hard to even think of kisses that compare, apart from the bad buddy episode 5 rooftop kiss.

anyway, all of this to say that enchanté to me is deeply, lovingly queer, and it's a shame that so many people are sleeping on it. (and that includes myself, i was wary about watching this show for a long time because i'd heard so many negative things about it.)

but i'm here to tell you: watch enchanté. it's wonderful, it's hilariously funny, it's endearing, it has book and force in it, and it is extremely queer.

[adachimoe]

Interpreting Adachi's actions during Persona 4

One of the things I've noticed on the internet is that when it comes to Adachi, people are very quick to say, "He did it because he was bored", "he was manipulating people", "he was playing a little game"...

This is based on what he says when the gang confronts him inside of the TV. The Investigation Team asks why he sent Namatame on a quest to "save" people, and he says he did it cause he could and that it was fun. He goes on to describe the cycle of "Namatame puts someone in a TV" -> "the protagonist and his friends save the person" as an entertaining little game. But to be honest, I'm not sure why people take this all at face value. Even just what he says in the present day conflicts with the flashbacks the game shows you from April.

This also gets turned into, "Adachi murdered people because he was bored!" But even then, him murdering Mayumi was an accident, not an act of boredom. Even in the flashback where he pushes her into the TV, he's surprised that a whole body can go into the TV. In his very first scene in the game, he rushes by to throw up after seeing her dead body. I don't think he was expecting that outcome.

In my opinion, Adachi's goal was actually to get Namatame (and specifically Namatame) to kill someone on accident, and then get Namatame accused of Adachi's murders as well. This way, Adachi himself would be free.

While the game doesn't outright tell you what Adachi was doing, I think it does provide you with a lot of hints about what Adachi has been up to. And by pinning them all on a board like the Always Sunny meme, perhaps it can explain the disconnect. As the game never really directly states or confirms anything I'm about to say, this is in theory and meta and incoherent rambling territory, but I hope by the end of the post you get where I'm coming from.

What Adachi says about his "game" and his "manipulation" of all players involved

When you confront Adachi in the TV, he describes the cat and mouse game as this:

Adachi: Of all the people who could've received Namatame's call, it ended up being me. Talk about luck! All I did was give him a little push... And he completely bought into his vision of this world. The more people you guys saved, the more he'd kidnap... Both sides had the best of intentions, so the game of cat and mouse would never end... Haha, it was awesome. Kanji: You gotta be shittin' me! Yukiko: Why...? What reasons could you have for doing that!? Adachi: Reasons...? None, really. I could do it, that's all. And it was fun... I guess that's my reason?

I think it's strange that people take this at face value considering Adachi says all of this inside of the TV world where he is also later seen with yellow shadow eyes. As we know from the game, the shadows don't tell the truth, they tell heavily distorted versions of the truth. Persona Q also explains this as someone being overtaken by their shadow.

I feel like you can tell there's a disconnect in the TV on December 7th between how he talks about himself, versus what we see in the flashbacks. In the TV, he talks like Mayumi "betrayed" him, but we know she was just already with another guy. In fact, her affair putting her in the news is probably why she appeared on the Midnight Channel to begin with. It's like he's just feeding his own delusions.

He then talks himself up to the IT, saying that he had called Saki in for questioning to see if she had found something about the body or knew something. But in the flashback, he immediately backs her into a corner against a TV and then tries to force himself on her. He called her there under the false pretense of talking about the crime scene. He is already distorting the truth on his own.

When Adachi first told Namatame to "save" people, he knew from experience that whoever Namatame put into the TV was going to die. Adachi probably did think it was funny, but Adachi was also the real culprit all along and he had something to gain if Namatame accidentally killed someone and could take the blame for Adachi's own murders. I'm pretty sure he was expecting and anticipating Namatame to produce a dead body, not for a gang of high schoolers to show up and rescue the abducted person.

At this point, people go, "Oh he didn't know about the Investigation Team from the start, he just started manipulating both sides and kept the 'game' going". And yeah, it's true that he manipulated Namatame, it's also true that both the IT and Namatame thought they were rescuing people, and he did definitely try to manipulate the IT into killing Namatame.

But I don't see how this all means that Adachi figured out what was going on between Namatame and the IT and then "kept the game going"? This seems more like something Adachi figured out long after the fact. It comes out as a bunch of bullshit that sounds correct from a dude who is 5 seconds away from being overtaken by his shadow.

And we do know he didn't find out until later because of the letters, the dungeon deadlines, and the figure in the shopping district.

The letters and the mystery figure in the shopping district

On October 20th and November 5th, Adachi sends the protagonist those letters telling you to quit rescuing people. If the cat and mouse game that Adachi describes as his source of entertainment is, "Namatame pushes people in -> IT saves them", why does he send the letter telling you to stop? Additionally, the letter proves that he been looking for a dead body rather than an infinite loop of throw in -> rescue.

Some people seem to reason that, "he sent the letter because the game was getting boring and now he just wanted to see more people die". But I think the date he sent the first letter indicates that he didn't really grasp what was going on until after Naoto's dungeon, and this is demonstrated by the figure in the shopping district.

Starting with Yukiko's dungeon deadline, a mysterious figure appears in the shopping district on the foggy nights. Here are the relevant dates and everything for the victims, whether the mystery person appears in the shopping district, and what they say:

Yukiko, April 29th, mystery figure appears and says "..."

Kanji, June 4th, mystery figure appears and says "Again..."

Rise, July 9th, figure does not appear

Mitsuo, August 12th, figure does not appear

Naoto, October 5th, mystery figure appears and says "Dammit... Again?!"

Nanako, November 20th, figure does not appear

To summarize:

It shows up for Yukiko, Kanji and Naoto's deadlines

It does not show up for Rise, Mitsuo or Nanako's deadlines

It's obvious by its 3rd and final appearance that it has been showing up expecting a dead body to appear in the shopping district, and it's frustrated that there's no dead body

I'm gonna cut to the chase here: I don't see how this is anyone other than Adachi...? It's expecting a dead body (see: Adachi's letter), it knows that dead bodies appear on foggy nights, its outline even looks like his.

The dates where it doesn't appear (Rise/Mitsuo/Nanako) make sense for what Adachi knows at those points in the story too:

Rise: Adachi saw Namatame's delivery truck drive by during the Rise part and he also knows Rise went missing, but he tries to distract the team by focusing on the photographer they just caught. As an officer, he knows Rise later shows up and is fine so he doesn't show up in the shopping district expecting a corpse

Mitsuo: Adachi put Mitsuo in himself, as an officer he knows Mitsuo turned up and was arrested, thus he doesn't show up in the shopping district expecting a corpse

Nanako: Adachi knows Namatame put Nanako (and himself) in, Adachi knows they're out of the TV and is even at the hospital with you, thus he doesn't show up in the shopping district expecting a corpse

If Yukiko, Kanji and Naoto went missing, and as a police officer Adachi knows they're back home, then would he appear on their dungeon deadlines expecting their bodies if he *also* knows they're who Namatame put into the TV? Him appearing on Yukiko, Kanji and Naoto's deadlines just means he doesn't know that they're who Namatame put into the TV. This might sound insane because the player and the Investigation Team know, but that doesn't mean that Adachi knows too.

Look, honestly, I think Adachi was just jealous of Namatame's rizz

Accidentally murdering Mayumi presents a problem for Adachi. Despite Adachi's bitching about SOCIETY, his complaints about SOCIETY are that he's girlfriendless and stuck in Inaba. This isn't anti-establishment, this is someone who wants to belong to the establishment. He's already sunk down to Inaba. Being a murderer would certainly be worse for his social standing and put him on the outside of the establishment.

But what if no one found out that he's a murderer? And this is where the "frame Namatame" angle comes into play...

I think the real "game" that Adachi was playing all along was the "ruin Namatame's life even more" game. If Adachi was just trying to get away with murder, then he was practically in the clear when the police were desperate to pin the crime on Mitsuo. But he was the one going, "Hey but wait what if the killer is still out there?" and he conveniently shuts up about his suspicions and fear-mongering after Namatame gets apprehended.

I think he specifically wanted it to be Namatame who took the fall for his actions, as the game makes it seem like he has a hate boner for the guy:

We can infer from the bits and pieces we're given that after Adachi was lonely and heard about the Midnight Channel rumor. He tried watching it one night, saw Mayumi (we know from Namatame's flashback that Mayumi did appear on there), awoke his Persona similar to how the protagonist did when seeing Saki, thought Mayumi was his soulmate (which was the rumor about the Midnight Channel), and tried touching the screen. When he gets a chance to meet Mayumi (it seems unclear if he was actually on her security detail or pretended to be so he could talk to her), we see in the flashback that he got angry when he found out that the rumor about her and Namatame being together was true, and put her into the TV. Adachi totally thinks Namatame stole his soulmate (Mayumi) or something.

Adachi reaches out to Saki specifically because he knew she had been talking to Namatame earlier. He misinterprets their interactions to mean that Namatame and Saki were an item after Mayumi's death. When Adachi calls Saki into the station, he tries to force himself on her and she slaps him. He reacts by comparing himself to Namatame - he's not good enough for her? And in Saki goes. He called her in under the guise of asking her questions about the body, and then knowingly put her in the TV to die, and this all started because he thought she was dating Namatame.

Namatame called in to the TV station and says he saw Mayumi and Saki on the TV, and now he sees a 3rd girl. Adachi's misconception that the Midnight Channel is "soulmate magic TV" isn't going to get corrected because he already associated both women with Namatame. If anything, what Namatame said would just reinforce Adachi's misunderstanding. Adachi probably thought Namatame seeing a new girl on the TV means he already had another girl lined up after Saki died. Meanwhile, Adachi himself is still single. I imagine it would be very funny to him if he could manipulate Namatame into killing what Adachi thought was Namatame's next girlfriend.

I imagine that Adachi wasn't really happy to learn that his special power to touch the TV is one that he shared with Namatame.

Seriously, it's like Adachi was jealous of the dude's rizz. Adachi is pretty cringe imo. Love him for that tho.

Adachi's goal during the end of the game

Adachi has a new goal in December, but only after he enters the TV. When you visit Adachi in the TV world in December, he talks about how the shadows see him as a friendly, and wonders if it's because he has the same goal as them. As revealed, his (new) goal is merging reality and the TV world together.

Let's take a look at some of the alternate endings to the game first, because I think they provide some information about this:

If you get a Bad ending (throw Namatame into the TV, or fail to convince your friends), then the game fast forwards to March. The fog is thick, but everyone in town is still human.

If you fail Adachi's dungeon deadline, Naoto calls the protagonist, and you hear her scream as a shadow murders her in reality.

If you do the Accomplice ending, then the game fast forwards to March. The fog is thick, but everyone in town is still human. Adachi asks the protagonist to prove your loyalty by burning the letter that was sent to your house cause if he's the killer then that letter might implicate him.

I feel like it's worth pointing out that only in the case of #2 -- where he's entered the TV world but you fail to meet the deadline -- does the thing about the TV world and the real world merging actually happen.

After his boss fight, he mentions that he has nowhere left to go. And yeah, that makes sense - you've cornered him IRL then jumped into a TV to beat his twink ass. But if the scenarios where he enters the TV being the only situation where the world gets screwed, and there's the flashback where he thinks the TV is dangerous and doesn't wanna go in... It seems that him jumping into the TV and the bit about the worlds being merged must come from his desperation.

I would guess that once he enters the TV world, he makes contact with or gets possessed by or just something involving Amenosagiri, and that's what initiates the plot where the real world and the TV world merge by the end of the year where people get replaced by shadows. We know from the dungeon deadline failure case that this threat was actually serious too.

The "in TV" and "not in TV" distinction feels important. Look at the various bad endings for comparison, where he's just going on Adachi-ing as usual. In these endings, the IT didn't corner Adachi in the hospital and he hasn't entered the TV world. The fog in town is thick in these endings, but it's unclear what else is going on with the metaphysical mumbo jumbo: Is everyone actually going to be replaced by their shadow here too, or is it a visual hint from the developers that the player still has a truth left to uncover if they leave Inaba like this?

I would assume he is (still) trying to get away with murder (see the little "test" he gives the protagonist) in the bad endings. There's no mention of more murders in the Bad or Accomplice endings, but there is the news report about Namatame being the suspect for the murders and him either being dead or awaiting trial. It would seem that by capitalizing on a bunch of teenagers being emotionally distraught after Nanako dies or nearly dies, Adachi finally successfully gets away with murder. Good job, Adachi. It only took you 7 months to figure out the plot dude.

tl;dr

There has to be some truth to his "it's a game, it was fun, I was bored!" sentiments for his shadow to be telling some distortion of the truth to begin with. Like, Adachi probably was likely bored out of his mind in Inaba, and he probably thought it would be incredible if Namatame accidentally killed someone, and him murdering Saki is probably something he did for the hell of it.

But to just accept the explanation for all of his actions as "I did it cause I could" and assume that he really was orchestrating or manipulating the Investigation Team all along is to ignore everything else the game is giving you.

Yes Adachi was bored and he claims the game made him less bored... but he also showed up to the shopping district and is frustrated when there's no dead body. Yes he probably thought it would be incredible if Namatame killed someone... but he stood to benefit if Namatame killed someone and was caught and he had something against the dude. Yes he shoved Saki into a TV cause he could... but the reason why she was there to begin with is because of his imaginary dickwaving contest with Namatame. "It was fun! I did it cause I could!", etc, is just not telling the whole story.

Anyway yada yada vine boom great vegetables.

[faejilly]

i absolutely love your sh meta so i was wondering what are your thoughts on Alec’d relationship with his sexuality bc i always sort of read it as him knowing that he was gay but absolutely not saying it out loud

absofuckinglutely nonny

There's an excellent post by amorverus that I cannot find the original of so have my reblog HERE that articulates it really well

I even wrote a fic about it! #shameless self promotion [tumblr / ao3] (That is, in fact, one of my favorite things I've ever written.)

I do strongly believe that Alec knew that he was gay, and felt no shame about that in and of itself. He is not offended by Magnus flirting with him, would not, I think, be offended by anyone else flirting with him, regardless of gender. (Tho prior to Magnus I also think he just... wasn't interested, but that's a separate conversation.) He knew, however, that it was not allowed in his culture and it would hurt his family and not just him if it came out.

(This is why Izzy makes me so uncomfortable in s1 regarding Alec, tbqh, because she lives there too, but refuses to see the danger to herself and, more egregiously in Alec's mind, because obviously she can chose to risk herself for him if she wants, for all he doesn't like it, but she's causing risk for their little brother if Alec is outed, and that's unacceptable. Even if I'm quite sure Max would agree with her priorities.)

I do, however, think Alec felt a lot of shame regarding his attraction to Jace. Jace was hurting and was supposed to be his brother and yet... Alec felt an attraction that he knew Jace wouldn't return. So he's got all the societal pressure on him not to be gay, and all this personal pressure not to manipulate or abuse someone in a vulnerable situation (because Jace was, even if he wouldn't admit it), PLUS all the normal human issues with feeling attraction for someone who is important enough to you that you can't lose them, and you can legitimately be terrified that if you can't get it under control you MIGHT... (Even more so for him than a mundane romantic vs platonic situation, obviously, because there's questions of command and exile and punishment, not just ruining an interpersonal dynamic in a way it never quite recovers from.)

Plus Alec's kind of also Jace's commanding officer which is yet ANOTHER unequal power dynamic, and he's supposed to be protecting an entire Institute, not just this one person, but he can't stop thinking about it because it's fucked up and he knows he should stop and he can't.

(Because, he realizes with the benefit of hindsight after he meets Magnus, by fixating on Jace he was safe, he was never going to fall in love for real with someone he might have a chance with, would never have to actually choose between his culture and his personal desires, while still telling himself that he already had, that he'd chosen his family and it was fine, he was FINE.

(He was so not fine.))

And so, even though he truly believes there's nothing wrong with being gay in general, he does believes there is something Very Wrong with him specifically being gay.

But he still never has any doubt about it. He never tries to project heterosexual interest in anyone, is very up front with Lydia about the terms of their engagement. (It seems clear, even if we never see that conversation, that they're both aware that their marriage would never be romantic or sexual unless they mutually decided to go the so-called traditional route for children.) And she agreed to it! She, unlike Jace & Izzy, had zero illusions about her relationship with Alec, and I ADORE HER FOR THAT.

And I've totally lost the thread of this rambling, I'm not sure I have a conclusion for you? 😅😅😅

Alec is, imo, refreshingly self-aware about most things, and many of his issues are legitimately external stupidity punishing him into a life of self-recrimination rather than him having internal bigotry or biases against his own sexuality in and of itself.

[swamp-spirit]

I’ve been resisting getting into Internet Fights about my Oshi no Ko opinions, but they have been building in my heart and I need to get them off my chest. It’s a long ramble, but the upshot is:

1. People are way to harsh on Akane 2. Aqua sucks, but also his feelings about Ai are way more nuanced than he gets credit for 3. Ruby also sucks, and pretending she doesn’t is a disservice to her as a character 4. Holy shit this got long

Ahoy for manga spoilers

With the first episode out, I want to start by saying this: I am putting Gorou’s comments about dating Ai to the side for this meta. Obviously it is wrong for a grown-ass man to hesitate when asked if he’d date a teen celeb. I see his comments towards Serena as just trying to offer comfort, but his comments towards Ai are an absolute NOPE. If somebody isn’t able to engage with Aqua at all after that, or engage with the show, I think that’s perfectly understandable, but I also think, to discuss any other aspect of Aqua and his relationship with Ai, I am filing that under ‘yup, that’s some creepy anime bullshit‘.

Now onto the meta.

So Akane’s pissed people off again. And what she said is pretty fucked up. Like “I know your dead Mom better than you because I studied her“???

The thing is, she isn’t wrong. Like she shouldn’t have said it. Akane is good at reading people, but bad at communicating normally. But like.... she isn’t wrong.

Ruby has a very specific image of her mother. I’ve seen a lot of people comparing her to Aqua and how much more pure her love is. She called Ai “Mama“ and Aqua only ever used her name! He never got beyond seeing her as a sexy object.

This doesn’t ring true for me at all.

Ai was emotionally stunted and starved for love. Like a lot of teens in that position, she went looking for it in bad places. She became the idol of people who saw her as an object. She had children in hopes they’d give her a family.

This is actually a really common thing for teen moms, and the stories don’t usually turn out like Ai’s. Toddlers are dependent on their parents, but they don’t have empathy. They’re temperamental and selfish, they’ll kick and bite and yell that they hate you and you’re a bad mom. And that’s normal and natural! That’s part of being a kid! Aqua wanted Ai to have normal kids, but I think it’s somewhat lucky she got two kids who adored her so entirely.

To Ruby, Ai was perfect. Serena didn’t have present parents. She was a lonely dying kid, and Ai was everything she didn’t have. Ai was loved. She traveled, she could move her body like she wanted, she was beautiful and bright.

Even though Ruby wasn’t a ‘real’ child, I think Ai was entirely her mother. Serena attached to Gorou because he was there when her parents weren’t. Ai was Serena’s first chance to have a parent, and Ai seems to be this perfect being to her. Only now, as she reaches the age Ai was and experiences the intense emotions of coming into adulthood, she’s starting to wonder if maybe Ai was unhappy too. She never once considers that Ai would want the world to know about her kids. To her, Ai was the perfect idol, and anything that threatens that is disrespectful to Ai.

But that wasn’t what Ai wanted. We know now she felt stifled by her image and wanted to share her true self. I was particularly hit by the short story where one of Ai’s Idol co-starts deletes a vulnerable message from Ai, wishing for friendship. She can’t stand seeing Ai as a vulnerable, full person and wants to protect Ai’s image as the perfect idol.

I don’t mean to say Ruby’s love of Ai is any less, but she very much feels like a child who isn’t fully ready to see her mother as a person. I think there’s some happiness for her in being an idol, but I think it’s tragic. I see people wishing it could just be a sweet manga about a daughter chasing her dream to feel connected to her mother, but... I think some of those people miss the point of what being an idol means in this story. Ai became an idol to learn to love and be loved, and found herself isolated and fake. Ruby chases a sick girl’s dream and the connection idoldom gives her to the two adults that first showed her love, but we’re seeing that she’s putting that over the relationships she has now. She’s chasing the same dream of perfect love and sabotaging her relationship with everyone in her life to get it.

Now for Aqua’s feelings.

I think it matters a lot to learn about Gorou’s family situation. His life story is one of feeling he failed to protect women. And it’s made him real weird.

His mom died having him and like... lots of kids feel guilty for that, but he spent his whole childhood being blamed for it. Serena is the only genuine connection we saw him making and, by the way her carried that badge, I don’t think it’s just that his other connections weren’t on screen. He saw somebody else who wasn’t loved and did his best to be there for her. And watched her die again.

The crush on Ai is HELLA CREEPY, but, at the end of the day, he didn’t hit on her or put his feelings first. He focused on her health, and, when he was reincarnated, his thought was “good, now I can protect her“. He didn’t see her as a mother, but, unlike Ruby, he saw her as vulnerable. He wanted to protect his ‘fake‘ mother in a way he hadn’t been able to protect his real one, in the way he hadn’t been able to protect Serena, and he failed in the most brutal way. We see in his panic attack that he still feels like the responsible adult that should have been able to protect her, that Ai was a young woman under his care, AND that part of him feels like the scared five year old who was so small and tiny when a grown-ass man stabbed his mother in front of him.

It’s also defined the rift between the twins. Ruby sees herself as a victim, trapped on the other side of the glass as somebody took away her beloved mother, and who is still being shut out. Aqua sees himself as complicit, somebody who’d promised to protect Ai, that watched her get stabbed and bleed out. Ruby wants to protect her mother’s secrets and the perfect image Ai gave everything to, Aqua wants the world to know the human woman behind the image.

And it’s made Aqua weird around women. He doesn’t want Ruby or Akane or Kana to be another woman he fails to protect. He shuts them out, lies, and denies them agency to protect himself from losing them again. I think it’s also telling that, even though revenge was his reason for living as a child, when he thought he didn’t need to get revenge anymore, he wasn’t lost and without purpose, he was happy. (And declared he would now dedicate his life to protecting Akane, a chance to succeed where he’s always failed) He isn’t clinging to his revenge, he’s caught in the overwhelming feeling of helplessness and failure.

Akane is good at reading people. Kana and Ruby are both very much teens. Aqua’s actions are inexplicable and infuriating. Akane knows what’s up. She doesn’t know how to deal with it, but she knows what’s up. Aqua isn’t a baffling enigma, he’s a fucked up dude on a downward spiral.

She’s not trying to stop him from killing his dad because Murdering a Serial Killer is Bad. She’s straight up offered to help kill him. But she and the director are the only people who have picked up exactly how much Aqua hates himself, and that he very well might plan to die to do this. Aqua doesn’t think he deserves to be happy! He doesn’t value his own life! Shit is dire!

Aqua saved her, and is probably one of the few people she can truly talk to. Akane is a socially awkward weirdo who’s too smart for her age, and Aqua appreciates it and plays on her level. She’s emotionally clumsy and accidentally cruel, but I think she’s right that Ruby isn’t seeing her mother as a full person yet (which is normal for a teen! especially a deeply traumatized teen) and she’s right that, if left unchecked, Aqua will destroy himself because he feels like he deserves it.

Like, I totally get thinking Kana and Aqua are more romantically compatible, but right now, Aqua desperately needs somebody who can call him on his bullshit. I’m so sick of people hating on Akane for not being blindly supportive on what is pretty clearly a complicated suicide attempt.

[thatiranianphantom]

No, but it really is going to be okay, a rambly Nancy Drew/Nace meta

I'm just closing my eyes and picturing this:

I feel like you can sum up my thoughts on 412 as this:

But should you be in the mood for a brain dump (hopefully a reassuring one?), click that cut, my friend.

Okay, let's get some disclaimers out of the way to begin with.

I only read the subtitles, and watched certain parts, didn't see the entire episode. So there could very well be nuance here that I am missing.

I, too, am frustrated with how this season has shook out. Being disappointed that they are literally leaving things to the finale is valid. I would never have done the season like this given the chance. And being let down by that is okay! Goddamn, there was a lot of lobster boy in this season, and they, as of now, inexplicably expected the viewers to be emotionally invested in him?

I could end up being the world's biggest clown, and be 100% wrong on everything, or again, there is nuance here I didn't see or consider, leading to me being wrong. I am accepting that as a real possibility.

HOWEVER,

Here is what (to my understanding) the show would like me to believe:

Due to something maybe involving the pickled curse, Ace had to choose to save Captain Thom or the captain Alice, and he saved Thom but couldn't save Alice. Captain Thom and Ace are alive and do not remember, and yet Alice is still dead.

Ace was riddled with guilt and called Nancy, who on her own, erased this, mooting the conversation we saw in 408. This only erased the memory of the sin, not the sin itself. Nancy didn't undo the sin, she just erased the memory. We know this, because Alice is still dead.

Ace and Nancy are no different in 408 than they were in 409, the only thing that changed is the events of the night of 408, which they do not remember, thus it wouldn't have altered their behaviour.

George, Nick, Bess and all of the crew were unaffected, memories and behaviour wise, by anything that happened. There is nothing supernatural coming between Ace and Bess, nothing that is making Nick push Nancy towards Tristan, nothing that is making Bess and George particularly close.

The Nancy of 409-411, the one who referred to Ace as a "relationship" and her "ex", is no different from the Nancy of before 408, who was pining hard over Ace. Again, the only thing that changed, neither of them remembered.

Ace and Nancy are cold and bitter to each other in a way they've never been in 4 seasons. He didn't want her at the Seder, so much to the point that Bess panics when she shows up, despite inviting both her dads and her dad's girlfriend. And yet that relationship, which, again, is portrayed quite differently in 409-411 than before, is enough for Nancy to abandon the entirety of her morals and belief system to save and protect Ace. Instantly.

Nancy and Ace have some memory of being something to each other, enough for them to acknowledge them both not having moved on, but the actual interactions they are referring to are and have been extremely vague since 409.

Ace, the person who knows Nancy better than anyone, is attached enough to a ghost that he will yell at Nancy repeatedly and ask her why she has to solve something. A ghost he met what was canonically probably no more than a few days ago.

Tristan, who has been in 5 episodes, and the ghost, who has been in 3, are just as significant as love interests as the 4-season buildup to Nace.

George is moving away from Horseshoe Bay, and completely supports Nick's relationship with Jade (this one may be real, but my Fanson heart doesn't want it to be).

Very little from early on in the season connects to later in the season in a significant way.

The connection Nancy and Tristan have (a relationship 5 episodes in the making) is stronger than the connection she feels to Ace (a relationship 4 seasons in the making).

Look. LOOK. Look.

Maybe some of this is true. Maybe indeed, Nancy and Ace have truly just moved on, they are different people, they are interested in different people. Maybe platanchors can't platanchor forever, and they truly did intend to do away with 4 seasons of character development (How very HIMYM of them).

But in Nancy Drew, a show that nearly always lays out its mysteries with explicit, agonizing detail, and centers itself around the fundamental concept of love being the most powerful thing in the world, capable of spanning time and space, that is a lot to ask me to swallow at face value. All of this together makes very little sense, given what we've seen, not only in the past season but the past year.

And these are a few things that I find, at best, extremely fishy about the whole affair.

Why hasn't Nace or anyone mentioned the curse since 407? Nick is pushing Nancy to Tristan despite having a despondent Ace grieving over Nancy at his doorstep two episodes ago?

How am I expected to buy that between 408 and 409, Nancy and Ace just up and moved on, decided they were nothing to each other, and jumped right in with their whole asses to their love interests, if the sin that was erased only changed the events of one night, which until now, neither remember (and Ace still doesn't). The fights also really seemed to show that what they remember and what we, the audience, saw, is fundamentally different.

The mystery seems so lackluster. I don't know how to explain it except that the writing on the mystery seems so lazy in a way it never has before, unless there was a twist that upends the entire thing that they've been laying hints for this entire time. I believe we still don't know what started the fire in the first place. We know that in order for the Sin Eater to erase a sin, you have to pay a toll. What if the toll was Nancy and Ace forgetting what they were and Nancy being bound to the Sin Eater? That would explain both the forgetting and the connection with Tristan. We still don't know what Chief Lovett and Nashua's connections are. Via Kennedy, we still don't know Tristan's full importance.

The ND writers are very well aware of what the fandom wants. They are extremely interactive with the fandom. The writers are still talking to the fandom. I just have so much trouble envisioning a scenario where they essentially say "lol just kidding on that nace thing, enjoy the chronicles of nancy and lobster boy" in the penultimate episode, unless there is a twist we weren't expecting that brings the whole thing back to Nace.

Openly admitting this is thinner and more subjective, but I feel like Kennedy has been about as reassuring as she is allowed to be, the writers have been tweeting things like "there is nothing to be afraid of", and this episode has been described as setting the bases for 413's home run (or something to that effect, I don't sportsball).

It almost seems like they want us to take this at face value, to set it up for the Nace twist at the end. ND loves its ending twists.

And all of this (so close to shutting up I promise) brings me to the 413 description.

Few things here. While it is possible that Nancy figuring out the sin she erased was the "most shocking discovery yet" I have some...pretty severe doubts. And if it wasn't, we haven't gotten to that revelation yet. And we know based on this description that this revelation has something to do with Ace. Again, it is possible that this is Nancy finding out about her sin, but it almost feels like that's been dealt with in 412? Are they going to...rehash it again in 413? I doubt it. This lends a lot of credence to my theory that there is a twist yet to be had. One that will bring us epically back around to Nace.

Now, could I be wrong about all of this? Maybe. I haven't seen the finale, I am but a clown on the internet. And again it is valid to be disappointed in the way the show has chosen to approach this. I do think there is a conversation to be had about the somewhat aggressive way we consume media, especially when given access to artists via social media, but that is an entirely separate conversation. But do I think Nace is over and done for good and we should just give up now? All I can say is

[eldritch-horror-from-the-void]

big mood on the lack of dom!reader x maul. like listen. look at him. pegging that man until he cries would fix me.

UGGHHHEFOIJOIJFEWOIJF

Thank god someone else thinks this way! Almost everyone thinks he's a dom, which is fine, but I don't understand why it's as popular as it is. Idk, maybe it's just a difference of taste in characterization.

More 18+ below cut, kinda just me rambling and throwing out sexy/kinky headcanons.

I could see Sav being dominant, to a very small degree, anyway. Mostly because he seems like he has a breeding kink (you literally cannot convince me otherwise, with all that muscle, random growling, the fact that he would 110% want kids, and given the Nightsister/Nightbrother culture I wouldn't be surprised.) (Would be willing to do more stuff for him!)

Anyway-

Our favorite red Zabrak has internal and external pressures on him almost all the time, let him be a sub. That man needs to relax.

I also can't get the image of him getting pegged, and his horns being roughly handled at the same time, out of my head.

Whimpers when he's teased, might get a little demanding and start moving his hips on his own without permission.

Might tear apart your bed sheets on accident. (Or not on accident if he's being a brat)

Would not want a harsh dom. He's been through too much, and I know kink and trauma can be related to some degree, but I don't see that happening with him.

He'd want a soft dom to gently coo at him, and give him lots of kisses. Not in the degrading way, he genuinely wants to be given affection.

I don't think he'd have a mommy/daddy kink, but he definitely has a praise kink. You don't need to call him a good boy if you're not into that. You just need to tell him that what he's doing feels good.

At some point I started thinking about if Maul would enjoy/be okay with wearing a collar. I don't think he'd wear a strip of leather around his neck with an O-ring. However, he'd probably wear a dedicated piece of Dathomirian jewelry. Or if we're talking marriage-level commitment, he'd get his tattoos modified with something special. (I have a HC that Nightbrothers will get their tattoos changed when they begin to serve a Nightsister, anyhow.)

Sub!Maul getting teased outside of the bedroom would be so cute, and before you can take it too far, he follows you, giving you those puppy eyes, and you can't deny him the attention he wants.

A particular thought I've had in mind about Sub!Maul is about my Eldridge Horror!Reader x Maul AU. In the beginning of the story, Maul summons the reader, and they're drastically confused because he's clearly a male, and he's summoned them??? At first they assume he is an offering, complimenting his physique and power, their hands tracing his muscles and tattoos, circling him like prey. They're not even paying attention to his metal legs. Maul, however, doesn't reply to the compliments, but he really gets turned on likes being complimented by this larger-than-life entity.

This man has not been shown much kindness in the past, and craves it like a drug. From a traumatized child, a hurt teenager, to a lonely adult, his life hardly changed. Even if he'd rather die than admit that out loud.

(Interesting side note: I've been thinking of giving the reader a proper name, but something kinda meta and Lovecraftian/Sucker for Love inspired. So instead of you being referred to as merely "reader" or "y/n," you'd be called "Re'der." Similar to how characters such as Ln'eta have a name spelled/pronounced the way they are.)

I love it when the great Maul simps out there send stuff in. Thank you, and don't be afraid to send more down the line! :) (I might open actual requests or something, but I'm debating it-)

[sylvies-chen]

is titling your metas too tacky? I don’t know but here’s some ramblings on

reading anakin’s arc in ROTS as a journey of mental illness:

I wanna preface this by saying I’m not a mental health professional so this information and analysis is not expertly informed. This is based off of very mild research that I’ve done as well as just my lived experience with how I’ve witnessed mental illness in the people I know and love. If I say anything that is ignorant, please do not hesitate to respectfully let me know.

••••••••

First off, it’s well worth establishing that Anakin’s main grappling moments before his true turn to evil in episode 3 were caused by the fear of losing Padme. And when you see the way the news of her pregnancy affects him, it’s really easy to see that news/piece of information as Anakin’s central stressor or trigger. So it’s very important to note that whatever mental illnesses I talk about here would also have been exacerbated by both that fact and by Palpatine’s influence and manipulation.

Anakin’s big outburst with order 66 and his fight with Padme and Obi Wan could all speak to it being an episode of psychosis. Psychosis can be triggered by something as mundane as an extreme disruption in sleep— which was true for Anakin from the minute Padme tells Anakin she’s pregnant. Interestingly, he’s had a history of sleep loss since AOTC too, briefly mentioning to Obi Wan that he doesn’t sleep well anymore.

Further, psychotic episodes or disorders will contain one or more of five categories: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thought, disorganized behavior, and negative symptoms. We know already that both in AOTC and ROTS, he’s plagued with visions. (This one’s just obvious. Visions… dreams… hallucinations… Just because they actually come true doesn’t mean it isn’t a form of hallucination!! He’s seeing things that aren’t yet real!!!) But the twisted logic Anakin develops leading him to equate the mass murder of younglings with doing the right thing is akin to disorganized thought and delusion. His main delusion, obviously, is that he has to do unspeakable things and be a sith or else Padme will die in childbirth and this is the only way he can save her. This is close to what’s called a nihilistic delusion: when someone believes major catastrophes will occur if not for performing a certain action.

Now, sleep loss obviously doesn’t cause psychosis on its own but moreso is what pulls the trigger on psychosis in someone who’s been exposed to trauma or is already very mentally ill. That then begs the question: what are the broader underlying conditions to Anakin’s psychosis?

The most obvious answer is the trauma he suffered at such a young age. Anakin was the oldest youngling to have ever been recruited by the jedi. He had already grown to know the love of his mother, especially since it was the only true love he really had in his life up until that point, and then was forced to walk away from it. He also knew powerlessness, and knew the degrading nature of being someone’s property. Like even as a kid, you understand the lack of autonomy that comes with slavery. Oh, and as if that wasn’t enough, his mother had to be brutally tortured and killed! And as reckless as Anakin was at the beginning of AOTC, he wasn’t outright violent until then. Losing the first thing he ever knew to love and protect is a deeply scarring trauma, especially when it happens before you reach the age of twenty.

So trauma does play a significant part in triggering the psychosis in the 3rd quarter of ROTS, especially because having visions of losing Padme that were so similar to the visions he had of his mother dying, re-opened his trauma, sort of akin to retraumatization as often seen in people with PTSD.

However, many signifcant aspects of his character point not to PTSD, but to a type of dissociative disorder. We see so many small signs of complete dissociation in Anakin in ROTS, and hints of it in AOTC as well when he says he’s not supposed to be feeling angry, that there’s a war inside him, that he isn’t the jedi he was meant to be, etc. Already, he has a lot of identity confusion, a key component to dissociative disorders. To some extent, how could he not? He’s been pried from his mother’s hands and has been told by dozens of jedi and other people who he is and isn’t supposed to be since the age of 9. It’s not exactly giving him healthy and reasonable standards to live up to, nor is it giving him any room to embrace an identity of his own creation in any way. Before then it was Tatooine, and it’s not exactly like being a slave held space for him to really form and express an identity then either, apart from the identity of loving son. (The dramatic reaction to her death is starting to make more sense now, yeah?)

The depersonalization and derealization are very present in him, especially when he starts to confuse his dreams for reality/being set in stone and grapples with wondering who he even is anymore. Again, those two things are staples of dissociative disorders, which were likely set off and exacerbated by his trauma from childhood and youth.

Such a major component to the argument that Anakin has some dissociative disorder is the paranoia we see practically oozing out of Anakin’s pores by the end of ROTS. (Oozing like lava- I SAID NOTHING CARRY ON.) A huge part of the paranoia is Palpatine’s creation, because he wanted Anakin trusting no one so that it’d be easier to have him eating out of the palm of his hand. But extreme paranoia is indicative of mental illness, and you know it’s not a healthy and stable Anakin who’s shouting “LIAR!” at the love of his life and mother of his children, who’s lying to her hours before that, who’s distrusting of the man who, as he says in AOTC, is the closest thing he has to a father. Padme and Obi Wan were the people he loved most in the world, and so seeing the paranoia turn him against them is so heartbreaking, because it’s the true indicator that this is not the true Anakin we’re dealing with. We are not our worst moments. We are our happiest ones. And Anakin on Mustafar was not a mentally stable Anakin. Hell, with the dissociative disorder’s symptoms at play too, it was hardly even Anakin at all.

We also see partial hints of amnesia in Vader/Anakin, most notably when Palpatine has to tell him/remind him that he choked out his own wife. There’s such a devastating tragedy to Anakin asking “Where’s Padme?” like a dog who doesn’t realize he killed the crow he held in his teeth minutes before, and wants it for a companion to play with once more. But it also shows memory loss, a key component of dissociative disorders, further supporting the idea that Vader is of Palpatine’s creation, whom he metaphorically implanted into Anakin during his phases of dissociation to control Anakin and snuff him out, but Anakin’s love for Padme still seeps through in Vader for a moment and he doesn’t remember what he did. To this extent, I think Vader loves Padme as well. Vader/Anakin deep into a psychosis and paranoid rage, however, did not.

A clear pattern begins to form: the childhood trauma of slavery and of losing a parent led to the development of a dissociative disorders (which are often caused, studies show, by unstable and frightening environments in youth or just as a way to cope with trauma). Then, his dissociation sets off an psychosis episode, agitated by Palpatine’s influence and manipulation during Anakin’s most vulnerable moments. Thus, the fall of Anakin Skywalker through the lens of someone with mental illness.

I do want to recognize that people with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) are often poorly stereotyped as these very“Dr. Jekyl vs. Mr. Hyde” evil alter ego archetypes that are very harmful and not accurate. I do not intend to perpetuate these stereotypes any further. Identity alteration is a symptom of various dissociative disorders, not just DID, and so there can exist within Anakin that alteration of his identity to something so far removed from his original self during a dissociative episode or during psychosis without it necessarily being DID. To me, that’s what happened. Vader and Anakin, though treated like two distinct people by more than one character, are too enmeshed to be separate personalities. They aren’t the same, but it’s also worth noting that Anakin was able to do the right thing when it came to saving Luke. He never truly left. It was a matter of giving him a purpose, after having lost so many, to break free from the dissociative episode and the identity alteration and to return back to who he truly was, even at the risk of re-opening those old and painful wounds that time could never heal.

Finally, and most importantly, Anakin’s displayed symptoms of mental illness, his rage and trauma, and his grapplings with identity are not inherently evil things. Vader would not have even been so dark and so cruel a person if Palpatine hadn’t seen/felt/identified that space in Anakin for something wicked to grow and taken advantage of that, as people with mental illness often are. Palpatine planted the seed where something good or healthy could have grown, an identity that could have protected Anakin from his past trauma, from his visions, from himself, and instead Palpatine made it the thing that destroyed Anakin and everything he held dear.

And that’s a wrap!

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. I love you from the bottom of my heart and I mean that. You have thoughts? Share them! Comment or reblog or don’t be afraid to dm me!

TL;DR Anakin is mentally ill as fuck and somebody had to figured out what was going on in pookie bear’s twisted little neuron nugget

[jadethest0ne]

03!Mikey-centric meta posts for your perusal! I'd also recommend checking out the notes. https://www.tumblr.com/soleminisanction/85582131847/mysillylittlesoapbox-this-post-all-his-eps https://paperlifted.tumblr.com/post/693062242993930240/you-need-to-watch-the-tmnt-2003-series-over-again (Again, if you personally didn't jive with this version of the character or didn't prefer how the narrative treated him, then that's perfectly valid, but hopefully you find these alternate takes interesting all the same. :) Have a good one!)

I know you just sent these to me via an ask because the comments wouldn't let you, but I must make something clear! I very much like 2003 Mikey!

If I gave the impression that I disliked 2003 Mikey, then that was on me! This is a Michelangelo hype zone! He deserves the best!

I was very brief about my reasons for being upset at Mikey's characterization in my previous answer, mostly because I address a lot of this in the essay I'm writing and I didn't want to repeat myself. I will try to be more clear here without overlapping what is in the essay.

I actually fully agree with the above posts! Mikey is awesome and epic! The Battle Nexus episodes are among my faves because they are largely Mikey-centric. I like any episode where he teams up or has a moment with Leo, because I think they have the best dynamic in that series. And the dude has major nb swag - he cross-dresses multiple times in the series, and everyone is just chill with it.

My issue with Mikey is not because (to use your words) "he’s a one dimensional goofball that only exists to make quips and one-liners and get smacked". It's because the narrative treats him that way.

He gets these cool episodes and moments, and yet practically no one in the show treats him with any kind of praise or respect. At times, the narrative itself seems to try to do its best to paint him in such a terrible light, making him almost unlikable at times with certain comments and rude jokes (for example, when he keeps calling the Underground City folk "monsters"). His bragging about his win at the battle nexus is portrayed not as well-deserved self positivity, but as having an obnoxious ego which his family shames him for. His interests are constantly mocked, and certain episodes often have him losing his comics, or his collections being destroyed because it's "funny". Even Splinter is an ass to him on multiple occasions. It gets grating to have that much negativity thrown at a character who really does not deserve it.

When I said that "he would've been my favorite had it not been for how the narrative treated him" I meant that I liked HIM, but not the narrative surrounding him.

As for that second link regarding the "abuse" of Mikey; I also absolutely hated that pretty much every time he makes a joke, talks about things he likes, or acts like, ya know, a teenager, he gets smacked upside the head. After the first 50 times it gets a little stale.

But frankly I think it's silly to call it "abuse". What I would call it instead, is "bad writing". The creators think that's funny. They think that's showing a good, silly brotherly relationship. I, personally, do not. But to call it "abuse" is missing the point that I'm trying to make with both the hitting and his character in general. And that is that the writers did not know how to allow for any meaningful depth in a comic relief character and make it stick, nor do they give Mikey any of the respect that he truly deserves.

And THAT'S my issue with 2003 Mikey. Not that he's a bad character, but that he deserves better!

Thank you for these links! I know these were sent just for my perusal, but I had a lot to say about Mikey, and, well, you gave me a good excuse to ramble more about him haha!

[optiwashere]

So curious about what you think of Lae'zel vs Shady at the start. That fight over the prism. Saw a comment on reddit (I kno I know) /r/BaldursGate3/comments/17p2nov/least_favorite_companion/k837nqh/?context=3

Yeah, this is one reason I stay away from meta discussions on the subreddit now. I'd be such a killjoy lmao.

Because this is part of the "excitement -> backlash -> backlash to the backlash -> excitement for the backlash's backlash, etc." loop that happens on social media. People that aren't fans of X (in this case, Shadowheart) eventually feel like they have to speak up. Then it goes round and round until we all die.

It's a weird cycle, but it happens to every character. In a year's time, there's gonna be some fucking absurd fandom wank, I guarantee it. There's already the hilarious Halsin guys. Give it time and we'll have the Lae'zel brigades (anti- and pro-) beating the shit out of each other in the replies and an eternal war between the Shadowheart simps and haters.

Long ramble ahead to actually talk about the comment, so here's a read more.

The fight made sense to me. But, to dig into... well, everything else before that.

Being cruel to a githyanki? I feel that some folks in the BG3 fandom need to learn what the githyanki are and remember who Lae'zel is. The githyanki are not a sympathetic people, at least not anymore. They're an actual empire trying to expand via all the hallmarks of traditional imperialism. They are slavers and raiders almost to the man, and there is factual evidence of them wanting to rebuild a great empire that spans realms. Calling them fascist frog people is only, like, barely a joke. Lae'zel, at the beginning of the game, is a quintessential brainwashed child of a fascist regime.

Not having more githzerai in the game, other than a fucking brain and, arguably, the gith monks you fight, really kneecapped people's understanding of the -yanki. I know there's a whole thing about alignment, but the githyanki are almost the poster children of Lawful Evil.

Stealing from them and being worried about the fallout of that is one of the most normal reactions possible lmao. Shadowheart's a Sharran that doesn't trust any of her companions. Why should she just play along?

And not having remorse? I don't know, but I'm an admittedly vindictive and petty person and I am very, very loathe to forgive people if they've slighted me. And I'm not even dealing with possible ceremorphosis! So, I guess I get where Shadowheart is coming from and it never struck me as even remotely strange for her to require a lot of work to even trust Lae'zel, let alone "bury the hatchet."

It's also perfectly in keeping with Shadowheart's character, especially that early on, to not respect an honorable duel and instead try to kill Lae'zel while she has the chance.

Mix this with Shadowheart starting as a not-at-all-trusting person? I mean, I don't know. It's just a tastes thing. I'd have been confused if everyone in camp was just cool with Lae'zel, which after a point they are. I don't really buy that some of the others would put up with her, but I like her character enough to let it slide and enjoy what's in the game.

And just let a character have negative traits, flaws, whatever! The companions are great for that reason!

Plus, she's a literal abuse victim. Compassion is in some ways a skill, and a lot of people lack it.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hello! I really like your analysis and ramblings on episode 7(and everything you write in general)so I wanted to know your thoughts and opinions on something that has been bothering me since I started reading episode 7.

I originally thought that the fact that Yuu came from another world was like a secret between them and Crowley(and Grim), because there were absolutely no signs that I know of that could've hinted at the opposite. So the fact that now it is hinted at that everyone knows about it like it's just regular news just rubs me the wrong way. Like, no one doubted their word? No one was suspicious of them and asked for proof? No one asked any questions about their world ? It feels very out of character for me if they just, took the info at face value without questioning the source.

Idk I just thought it would be important somehow, as it is one of the only things besides mickey and the dreams that make Yuu interesting in any way, as it had so much potential for for world building and character development and potential interactions between them and Yuu, which if I remember by my former interactions with the Fandom, people really like, they want Yuu to be more active and involved.

[Both my analysis masterlist and creative writing masterlists can be found here!]

I find the subplot of Yuu finding a way home to be just that: a subplot. It (and Yuu, by extension) takes a backseat in favor of addressing the struggles of the OB boys; this is why I often hesitate to call Yuu the “main character”, because it doesn’t feel like they are. It feels more like the OB boys are the main characters and that Yuu (due to their minimal involvement) is one of many mob students witnessing their breakdowns. (The only times where Yuu was pretty active in the story was like episodes 3 and 4.) It’s because of this that the sudden shift and focus on Yuu finding a way home early in 7 feels weird and stilted to me.

Yuu discovering a way home in episode 7 feels particularly abrupt because the only other major times when this problem or a potential resolution is brought up is all the way back in the prologue and as a joke in episode 4 when Crowley fucks off for vacation. (I’m not counting the brief dream sequences and meetings with Mickey because we didn’t have context for this as actually being tied to a route home until very recently in 7.) No one (and especially not Yuu, oddly enough) has been making a conscious effort to find them a way home. The situation isn’t treated like the serious problem that it should be for Yuu, most likely because the focus of the narrative is not ON Yuu but on the characters around them and for the meta reason of “it’s a game, we need an excuse to have the player present”.

Yuu being from another world is so scarcely brought up in the main story narrative that I wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking it was a secret between Yuu, Grim, and Crowley. I myself thought this was the case for the longest time too. However, upon a rereading of the text, it seems that it has been mentioned a few times (mainly by the boys in Heartslabyul). As Yuu’s closest companions, Ace and Deuce seem generally aware of their circumstances. Additionally, Trey mentions Yuu being from “a world without magic” in episode 5. Kalim also says Yuu is from another world, but this occurs during an event, which is considered not a part of the main story timeline. In any case, what I’m trying to say that it wasn’t made clear prior to 7 that Yuu being from another world was common knowledge among the student populace; I was under the impression that only Yuu’s closest friends (Ace, Deuce, Grim) and Crowley knew, while everyone else just understood that a student was picked by the Mirror of Darkness yet had no magic so they had to enroll under “special circumstances” with Grim. I guess this information was never that relevant to the plots introduced in each episode, but it would have been a smoother transition if the characters offhandedly mentioned Yuu’s true origins a little more often 💦 or each episode had a little segment where Yuu is making some kind of effort to do their own research to get home??

I do find it odd that now 7 is treating Yuu being from another world like it was common knowledge (for the other first years, for Malleus, etc.) 😅 Like… when did Yuu have the time to tell them (especially since they aren’t super friendly with most characters and don’t seem to spend time with them)?? It couldn’t have been something they overheard from Crowley, since the students were all herded off to their respective dorms to be shown around before Crowley tried to send Yuu home. Yuu didn’t even introduce themselves to Malleus as someone not of this world when they first met in episode 2… It’s also just strange that everyone automatically accepts it??? Ace and Deuce had a hard time believing in Mickey until Yuu showed them a picture of him, so why is everyone else suddenly buying that Yuu is from another world? Okay, maybe people like Kalim would take it at face value but I can’t imagine the more suspicious characters accepting it so readily.

I’m guessing the reason why there wasn’t more focus on this aspect of the main story is that, as I’ve been saying, this is not the central conflict; it’s just the setup to insert Yuu into this world as an easy third party for the players to observe the world/characters and to have everything explained to them. Another thing to consider is that it would be difficult for the writers to have a segment every episode solely dedicated to Yuu unloading their backstory onto the new dorm and then trying to convince them all that it’s true. Again, Yuu is not a “main character” in the traditional sense; if they were and there was significantly more focus put on their way home, they would potentially be competing with the OB boy for the spotlight.

I do wish we had previously seen the NRC boys express a more overt awareness for where Yuu comes from. We are missing that, and it leaves us in a complicated place where 7 feels tonally jarring in sections pertaining to Yuu heading home. I guess it can be easily ignored if you suspend your disbelief and assume Yuu told everyone off-screen (which was probably the case for characters like Trey and Adeuce). Perhaps it was designed this way so people can “fill in the gaps” with their self-inserts of Yuusonas revealing the knowledge in their own ways??? But for those of us that just consume the story straight up, it certainly feels a little “off”.

[redjaybathood]

Honestly idle rambling on my part but the "Jason finds out Dick killed Joker" thing made me imagine like.

Stephanie and Red Hood had an understanding.

If they had some kind of common enemy, they'd be fine with collaborating, share info and the like. Jason would ensure to not make her an accessory to anything, and she'd not involve herself with cases against him.

The other didn't like it, even Cass tended to be a bit grumpy with her but barring Bruce rambling about manipulation and morality and unreliability nothing much came of it. He'd worked with Bane over a faux familial connection after all, and all of them had nominal enemies they could share a drink with, Catwoman not withstanding.

Thus, how Steph had found herself fighting King Shark to destroy some weapons shipments with Red Hood. And more to the point, how she found herself after the fact having a bobba tea with him as they wrapped up the traffickers files.

She couldn't say exactly what brought it out, something to do with gangs and wars and death led to her death and...

"It doesn't bother you? That thy let him walk? Not even a memorial in the cave." Bruce would say this was manipulation, Stephanie would say Jason picked morbid conversation topics with people he vibed with and not realize it was weird.

Stephanie threw back a cola stolen from the traffickers minifridge and answered. "I mean the last one pisses me off sure, but the others... Well I'm kinda pissy at the second one, we're vigilantes, nothing was stopping B from putting Mask in hospital once he got his shit together but that might have started another war so..." She waved her hand. "As to the first one, I made the call not to kill him, kinda regret it some days, but it was an honest decision at the time."

Jason hums, not seeming sure what to say or maybe realizing this was a weird topic to broach. "Fair enough I suppose, still always struck me as 'rude' though, not that its a surprise."

Stephanie arched her brow and without thinking said, "Hey you know Nightwing killed Joker over you right?"

Jason spat out his drink.

"wHaT!?"

"Oh shit you didn't know?"

Jason was staring at her intently, through two laters of material sure but it was still a stare.

"I was like fifteen, Joker was on some semi suicidial chaos spree and he'd caught then Robin. Nightwing beat him senseless but stopped himself till the Joker threw out your name and was all, 'I hit him harder than that, that was his name right?'" Stephanie at least had the good manners not to throw out people's real names in public.

She leaned back, arms folding, "At which point Nightwing lost his motherfucking mind. Pounced on him and just started beating him while howling like a beast, I have never seen such blood spatters outside of like, car crashes and Meta."

She shrugged, "Anyway Joker's heart gave out somehow and Nightwing sort of started having a breakdown about it. I didn't get it I was like, 'hey everyone who was alive before this is alive now and Joker's dead, cool right' But apparently I was the only one."

Jason nodded slowly, "Batman brought him back then?"

"Got it one one outlaw, some shit about not forcing him to live with it, which sounds weird to me but technically Robin the previous has killed a guy but cos he didn't actually die it didn't count I guess? I mean legally speaking sure but I figured this was always an ethics issue."

Jason shook his head not really paying attention to the forms anymore.

"You OK man?"

He shrugged, "I mean it doesn't mean anything now, Joker's still around, still killing people, but it was a nice sentiment. I definitely wouldn't have been making cracks about him if I'd known that."

"Fair enough, anyway if we're cool I'm gonna go hand these off to some worthwhile reporters."

"Sure, I got my own stuff to do, deniability for you an all that though."

"Yeah, yeah, have a good one man," She clapped him on the shoulder and he seemed steady so she left.

A week later Joker died in an Arkham break out attempt.

Also Dick got a very nice fruit basket several days before that.

Stephanie was the only one who knew the connection, but she kept her peace.

Things that I love: Stephanie and Jason partnering up, Joker dying, and this. Thank you for sharing!

[captaindarkiplier]

Soooo how did your idea of dark being the captain started ? how different would his role be compared to the y/n captain in iswm ?

Alright... Let's get into it

Question 1: It actually started as a theory that I gradually believed more and more in a short span of time as everyone was consuming ISWM part 1, and when part 2 dropped, it both lead me on further, as well as disproved it. … (but really Markiplier's live stream on it disproved the theories for real) But that didn't really bum me out, because I had been ready from the start for it to not be true, so I just converted it to an AU, because I was projecting my own measure of story/characterization into it anyway.

Question 2: I don't have 1 answer for this! Either a complicated one, or one that enables any kind of headcanon… Answer A: The captain's choices and behavior doesn't change because we are sharing a body with Darkiplier('s parts) -- I just really like the idea of "What if we (D/A) stayed with Dark" and how that would be like a dramatized version of DID (of which I have! /info) of the "D/A" part (us) (…on top of likely forgetting the events of WKM due to AU stuff, but then remembering after gaining the multiverse abilities of the paradox…) forgetting or not knowing what Dark is doing in other timelines, (my favorite characterization idea of Cpt.Dark is that he's fronting in the routes where he throws Mark around or generally leads us to demise that might benefit him in the looooooong run- aka how he somehow canonically "finds" the paradox gem for the box at the post-credits) … while the Captain chooses to get along with Mark in other routes, doing something childish as sharing candy, which is much closer to my personal "D/A" characterization, not at all what Dark would be doing ahhaha

Answer B: If I wanted a timeline to occur differently from the "Canon" events of ISWM, to characterize Captain Darkiplier as separate from Canon Captain… well, Dark could just do about anything he wanted,

(from here onward is rambling, not relevant to the question!:)

… if he could .. If he somehow escaped the inevitability of the causality of meta-narrative events of what has and will occurred in ISWM via the writing of Market Plier- lol Kind of like how Damien and Celine can't outrun their fate or Actor's bullshit as seen at the end of DAMIEN, which I think holds some thematic power or significance over the future events after the "seal" is broken on the multiverse stuff- aka everything After WKM. … Mark has said a lot in live streams but one thing that stuck with me is how he explained the "timeline" noting that moment when Dark picks up the staff , as the exact moment where the events of DAMIEN is condensed. IIRC. And then for this AU I kind of added more onto that- AHWM ISWM ADWM could have happened in a condensed fashion similarly… The glass breaking in the first video of ISWM, the ice breaking in DAMIEN twice… The lines Head Engineer speaks at the canon ending mirroring the lines spoken by Damien and Celine at the end of DAMIEN… It's as if it's like, a loop, or pocket, or spiral, some kind of non-linear shape… Whichever way it is, I guess the most important point is that it's non-linear. I like to call it wobbly time (a theme in my OC's as well) It's not essential to consume nor understand a story by understanding how its universe works. After all, we as people in real life don't know how our universe is shaped. Is it infinite, or does it loop? (Can you tell I'm a bit autistic about space?) But the desire to adventure and discover what's out there is sometimes commendable and a beautiful instinct of human life… other times, not so much. We could all learn from Head Engineer's mistake. But yea, Dark is powerful but not God of this Universe powerful… I think it'd be funny that if Dark tried everything in his power to defy the laws of the universe, once he finally got a hold on the time paradox that literally allows him to traverse the multiverse to find any timeline that gives him an upper hand on his #1 Enemy, when he travels to literally the ends of the universe, Mark (The Real Life Author) is like "no" so Dark has to go back to the main story line (or at least close to it, there's plenty of legroom for fanon things to occur around the "main timeline") Dark's like "ugh fine" and completes the ending of ISWM like it's a videogame to gain back his agency splitting from D/A (You and your choices in the "videogame") again, and to get away from Head Engineer- even though he's one of the more tolerable Marks, I GUESS- (Frenemies trope x The Unlikely Friendship trope x Doomed trope, and some other dynamic or development that can't really be similarly labeled as a trope, which hopefully I will be able to share to everyone who will want to know about it) I also like to think that's why he's dangling the box in front of us in AHWM instead of actually using it for anything. He can use us to get what he wants quicker than by doing it alone. Using the anomaly gem in the box for his own needs a second time would not work nor worth the risk of ISWM 2.0

What I love about Markiplier's cinematic universe is that it involves both distortion of identity and distortion of time/space- anything and anyone can happen. I relate to it and my chaotic (and also very analytical and ""DeeP"") creative style is very compatible with it. :)

Thank you for the questions !! Feel free to ask as many questions as you like about what I said here if it didn't make sense, because damn it's compact. It could be explained better if paced out (or storytold?) instead of all dropped into one post heheh

[lyxthen]

Extremely mildly niche academic-ish rambling ahead. Might wanna skip this one. It is long and boring

One thing that does make me happy is the Latinoamerican Literary Boom was so big it actually went on to be translated in other languages. There are still authors that I feel need to have their works translated (mostly women, I wonder why) but many of the video essayist I watch keep mentioning Borges in their videos, and truly I can't blame them because his work is rad. I don't know about him as a person but he lives 30 layers of post ironic meta fantasy or some shit like that. Cortazar is really cool also. In terms of living authors I really like Juan Villoro, his writing style is very fun. The Wild Book is a children's book about literary theory, like, Theory of Reception, Death of the Author, stuff like that. It was a really fun read as a child but the themes are interesting as well.

I feel like, I don't know, it's so hard to find Latin American fantasy books these days, or at least they are not as available. The YA genre is dominated by books originally writen in English or on books written in Spain (think Laura Gallego, which I just found out has a Netflix series made out of her most famous series of novels, but I am derailing) with the exception of Benito Taibo, who is Mexican, and has one (1) high fantasy trilogy that is kinda mid. The ideas were great, but they could've been expanded, you know? Camino a Sognum had so much potential, and you can *see* that it was inspired by classic epic fantasy like Earthsea, but it needed some more *spark* to actually work. I have not read Normal Person, but I plan to. Maybe it is better made?

And it's funny, because a book like Mexican Gothic, that was written in English, is so darn good! But only if you read it *in English* because the Spanish translation did this thing where they try to "neutralize" the accent and manerismd of the characters to make it appeal to the wider Spanish-speaking world and it doesn't sound or feel Mexican at all.

I am not sure where I am going with this. I have been discovering the local literary scene lately (and I mean *local*, like city-wide local) and it is mostly so boring because no one is writing fantasy! No magic realism! It's all kind of depressing dwellings on how we are being gentrified and indigenous people keep being oppressed by the mestizo majority and corporations and the goverment keep stealing the land to make Coca Cola and we are dying of diabetes and we don't got water and Capitalism sucks. LIKE I AGREE BUT CAN YOU PUT FAIRIES IN THERE OR SOMETHING. And I guess that's why I've never wanted to read Cómo Agua para Chocolate, because it is just *too real*, cuz it's a story I know by memory and I don't wanna live it all over again verbatim. Probably a great book, but I just cannot.

I don't know man idk idk.

The funniest think about this is that my favorite book ever (like actually, for real) is a children's book, written from the perspective of the imaginary friend of a child, and it is so gracefully narrated, and the characters so well constructed, and it touches real problems like Teen Pregnancy and Childhood Depression and Anxiety while also managing to be funny and whimsical? The very premise of the book (memories of an almost true friend, it's called) is already so creative and the execution is masterful. BUT I AM THE ONLY GUY ON PLANET EARTH THAT SEEMS TO KNOW ABOUT ITS EXISTENCE ITS DRIVING ME INSANE.

Where was I going with this. Ah yes. Youtubers talking about Borges. Well. Um. I. I think imma translate some of my own texts to English and put them on Wattpad or something. They are not the kind of thing Wattpad people are into but I gotta archive them somewhere and doing it on AO3 feels wrong since they aren't fan works. And on that note, I also wanna write more fan works.

Ugh I could be writing an essay but you got me writing a Tumblr post. What is wrong with me. I'm too bad at word weaving.

Aaaa (??????

Thoughts?

Help

I did take my meds today BTW. I don't know what is happening to me I just wanna WRITE ok I LOVE WRITING BUT WHY MUST I DO TUMBLR INSTEAD OF MY PASSIONS?

Oi I'll end it there

[jemandthesingalongs]

ziskandra

oh my god you’re so right for all your wynne feelings like…. people really do think every mage should be like. dismantling the system with their bare hands and it’s like. that’s not how it works!! and calling the MAGES part of a cult?? Out of everything?? what on earth… and yknow what if she is trapped in a cult like. free her. Christ FJDJDJJDJ

I hope you don’t mind me taking this reply as a further excuse to ramble about Wynne dslkfdsf...

But yes, it’s always struck me as strange Wynne is never given the same understanding as Anders, or really any other mage character that’s been in the Circle. Anders is the one I focus on because he’s the most developed and there is Something Different that I can’t just put my finger on about him vs Wynne. A true mystery.

After skimming her page for answering purposes, and they are actually so similar.

I learned she never even had a name herself, she was also named for where she was found! Just like Anders! Both of them taken in young, no true names, and alone. They took different paths with how they coped with this, Wynne turned to the Maker and by extension took on the belief that mages need to earn their place and help humanity, and Anders tried to escape several times. Both of them even took on romantic partners, and Wynne even bore a son from it (and the heavy implication/confirmation? that, Rhys’ father was a templar SO).

Of course, this doesn’t matter in the slightest since it’s not so much similar backstories as just, hating Wynne because? She’s a woman? Not actively trying to free mages with explosions? Old? Upset you because she made you mad about your love interest? All of the above?

And I’m not against disliking her character, but Wynne, along with characters like Aveline and Cassandra never get the mountains of meta concerning their worldviews, their place in the world, and the wider implications of their writing and flaws. Wynne stood out to me more because, well, she’s a victim too. Just because she’s not “actively fighting” doesn’t mean she’s not, and in fact pretty much states in Asunder that she knows it’s either accepting your fate within the Circle or fearing a mass genocide.

And guess what happens after DA2 lol!

[fayesdiary]

31 and 35 for the Engage ask game!

31) Are there any easter egg-esque details in the game that you really like?

I really like the meta reference of Lucina and Lyn being the Emblems who save the day in Ch11, given their games saved the franchise from oblivion.

Also specifically, Corrin reciting what Xander said in the Fates prologue during her Paralogue.

Something about she who was once a scared, unsure child who was constantly plagued by uncertainty and guilt for her choices being the one who act like a mentor now.. gets to me for some reason.

I know it's the same for all the other Emblems, but something about Corrin repeating what Xander said to her makes it even more clear.

Also, something I just realized- the stone Veyle gives Alear in their S support to meet each other again- it's a magic trinket she could make due to being part Mage Dragon!

35) Spoiler slot! Talk about whatever spoilery thing you want and how you feel about it. (Ask this one at your own risk.)

Ok, huge ramble incoming.

Something I found particularly interesting about Alear is how they never actually become a full fledged Divine Dragon like you would expect from Engage's story beats. Sure, they are 100% Divine in their Emblem Form, but that's just that- a form. Not to mention even in that, you can find red everywhere from their partner to their combined attacks.

In their regular form their red hair, symbol of their Fell heritage, stays even in the credits and during their coronation.

Their Fell nature is an inextricable part of who they are.

And what I like about it is that it's never treated as baggage after their friends instantly refuse to let them leave after the reveal. In fact, Alear just becomes even more resolved to rescue Veyle, and you could argue it's what makes Mauvier finally decide to help Alear save her.

And every other comment the Hounds and Sombron make about being a Fell Child is met with a figurative eyeroll (and a roast in Sombron's case)

After all, so what if they used to be a Fell Dragon?

Veyle is a Fell Dragon and she's one of the sweetest people they've ever met, to the point they had to overwrite her entire personality to get her to do Sombron's bidding.

Actually, about Past Alear- it's really telling that even at their literal worst, as an emotionless, mentally broken, Corrupted-like puppet, you can still see evident glimpses of the person they'll become despite, well, all of the killing they've done.

And what's really telling is, they extend this acceptance even to their past self. You know, the literal face of their nightmares.

And yet they keep being worring about their mental state and safety, ignoring the fact they're... well, them, so they reasonably shouldn't worry.

They actively risk their life by giving Veyle, a little sister they've just met, their Dragonstone to comfort her and hopefully see her again, despite how terrified they are of being labeled a defect and getting Sombron'd and how lacking a Dragonstone would make them significally weaker and so... more prone to being called the d-word.

So it's evident that for me by the end of the game they've grown to accept their Fell heritage especially since it's a symbol of their bond with Veyle. And who knows, I have an hunch that when the Fell Twins join their family they might even grow to be proud of it.

And when they see a stranger holding an Emblem Ring, first they ask them to hand it over multiple times instead of ambushing them, then when the stranger very evidently retreats they let them regroup, challenges them and their allies to a fight and lets them prepare for battle.

For a so-called mindless puppet terrified of being discarded, these are two strangely kind gesture to make, literally the best they can do in their situation which puts their life way more in danger. No wonder Lumera saw something special in them.

Edit: Also the irony that in the world where Alear was born a Divine Dragon from the very start everything went to hell.

In this I actually have to give the localization a rare W- while in JP the species is apparently called "Evil Dragon", in English the title of Fell Dragon gives it a bit more nuance, because it symbolizes an affinity for darkness. Sure, this often overlaps with being evil, but it doesn't have to.

Just because Sombron is a complete monster doesn't mean his children or tribe (you know, from his home world) have to be.