#ah. i'm rambling

[rustedhills]

Somewhat articulate Kris thoughts, ch. 3+4 edition. Heads-up for spoilers and discussion of the series' themes of familial abuse. And why "Kris is evil actually" sucks.

Man, the ending of ch. 4 is genuinely kind of heartbreaking, and even more terrible in a way than any of the others--because it's so obvious that Kris is just a kid dealing with way too much.

Beyond the Knight stuff, the delta warrior stuff, the prophecy... Kris is just the town weird kid who came home with a friend, saw their mom dancing wine-drunk with the convenience store guy (after an entire Divorce Gameshow Extravaganza and a Horrible Visit to Noelle's Household ft. her abusive mom ft. horrible soul hockey, not to mention all the exhausting darkworld adventuring), and who just has to deal with all that. Unrelated but someone noted that Susie saw a drunk parent and immediately left and I can't stop thinking about it.

Kris is pulling their soul out more and more--maybe we just haven't seen it until now, but it seems like they've had to do this for a while (Toriel mentions that Kris just runs the tap and acts chaotic on impulse sometimes, lol how quirky amirite anyways) and no-one has recognized or been able to help, except now Noelle (hopefully that proceeds well?). But of course, monsters don't have souls--and Kris needs a lot of help with a lot of things that their parents etc. just can't handle. Toriel checking out that book on human care so much speaks to that lack of resources / knowledge.

Even amongst their family, Asgore is a complete outcast, Asriel is away at college, and a lot of the adults in town are nice but ultimately unable to help them. Take away the fantasy, and you're left with a community of friendly but ineffectual guardians who can't--or won't--recognize that Kris is dealing with chronic mental and physical issues. Susie is the bad kid, Kris is a nobody, and Noelle is the nice girl. They all have to fight to be seen as anything other than the stereotypes people envision them as.

Maybe that's why the dark world is so fun(?) for Susie and Noelle--you can literally fight the things that hurt you. Lancer's dad sucks, so Susie gets to have her big arc by telling him off. Queen is controlling, so Noelle triumphantly says "no" to her. But Kris...?

HOLY [[Cungadero1997]]!!! KRIS, YOU [[little sponge]], YOU'RE FUCKED!!

Every character whose insecurity ties into Kris' own--Tenna's desperation as a tool turned to trash, trying to keep a drifting family together, Spamton's garbage life as a puppet controlled by a voice on the phone... they fucking fail. I think they're ok on some level? Even Berdly gets to have a more cathartic end-of-chapter arc than Kris!

Kris isn't Evil, or the ultimate secret bad guy, or whatever. They're a traumatized kid clinging to any guardian figure they have, even when that guardian is overly controlling and potentially abusive towards them, just so long as they promise a way out of the present situation. Especially Carol and Mike (if the voice on the phone is indeed Mike).

Like, with all the marionette strings and fucked up families in the previous chapters, it's safe to say that Kris is in a bad situation (thematically and narratively), and deserves empathy--even when / if they do hurt others. In the next few chapters, they'll likely lash out in some really nasty and terrible ways, but... so would a lot of people.

So would a lot of [[BIG SHOT]] [[puppets]]

[a-little-ray-of-fantasy]

"This show/movie feels like a fan fiction" isn't the flex people believe it is.

Do you have the slightest idea of how much passion writers, both newbies and veterans, put into their work? And how fan fiction is a great way to explore a movie or a show in new ways?

I'm a fan fic writer AND reader. If you say something feels like fan fiction, I'm happy!

GIMME THAT ANGST/COMFORT-SHARING A BED-CHILDHOOD ROMANCE GOODNESS!!

[chronicowboy]

we're going to see them facetime. we're going to see them talking like they're in the same room even two states apart. we're going to see them doing the exact same thing at the exact same time probably. we're going to see them still being each other's bedrock with 800 miles between them.

[lazylittledragon]

hi i'm unw el l

[shinobus-left-eye]

3D MV Teaser for "Fusion" ft. DI: Verse; Song composed by DECO*27

[tagarilaghost]

I SWEAR CELEBI'S THINGY IS COMING SOON BUT I REALLY WANTED TO POST THIS ALRIGHT

yeaah... future trio got me too...

and Darkrai is there too, because of course he is.

hey look i drew a cute Drifloon :D

...ignore the rest

whatever started at Darkrai doodles ended in brainrot of future trio + darkrai and I'm blaming @scribz-ag24 for this

[babacontainsmultitudes]

OUGH call me Big Shane Silva the way that episode had me falling over and torn into pieces fuuuuuuuuuck oh the Trudy and Francis heart-to-heart... The group hug... The gunkata... The middle-aged witch yuri... The hole in the stars... MAN.

[saltpepperbeard]

gnawing on my arm because i think there's something to be said about how stede not only dreams about himself with a beard, but ed with his full beard back too. like, the dream seems to be riddled with imagery that he thinks ed would want.

and i say this especially because of how stede reacted when ed had to shave his beard. he freaked out on his behalf. he shrieked in horror whereas ed was entirely unbothered. he feared he had ruined him, had dragged him down to some despicable level, when in actuality, ed was completely content to shed that part of his persona.

and then there he is dreaming about ed with that part right on back.

so there's very clearly still a part of his mind that's convinced that's what ed wants. because why wouldn't he? everyone else seems to. and why would he want the softness and femininity stede had been bullied for his entire life?

which in turn plays into his own imagery too. bearded, masculine, fiercesome, rugged...

because how could someone love what everyone has hated him for? how could someone want what everyone has tried to quite literally beat out of him?

[luna-loveboop]

HI

Time poll! I've separated Time into three parts, posted ereyesterday, yesterday, and today- what his physical age is, what his mental age is, and how big the gap between is. It's about time we saw each others thoughts on this hehehe >:)

Choose what is closest to what you think (in canon)

Quick refresh, there's a longer explanation below-the Hero of Time's mental age is more than his physical age by the time it took for him to complete his journeys. Due to time travel, he ended both Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask in the same body as when he started.

The gap between his ages is the amount of time he's spent time travelling- at least both his adventures.

Edit: And vote based on the numbers, not the words in the options!

I have tried. So hard to figure out good numbers for this. ....I hope I did ok TT

Evidence so far in Lu on Time's age:

-he is the oldest

-his mental age is different than his physical age-his mental age is MORE THAN his physical age. The difference is determined by how long his adventures were. This is because he time traveled- adding years to his memory and life lived, but ended up in his original child body by the end.

-He had to 'grow up again' with years of life from his journeys not shown in his physical age, hence the difference.

-Jojo put him as 'an older adult age' because in his games he was a child, teen, then child again, then more child while not changing from child, then we next saw him as the hero's shade, which is a skeleton ghost thingy, aka really old.

-the boys take bets on his age and apparently think he's 60 (making 60 an essential option in the polls)

-idk if you caught in there- from 'Malon 2', Epona was specified to be an older adult horse in Lu, having lived with Time from a fairly young horsie in Majora's Mask. So for numbers, this factors into his age because the time since his journey is comparable to Epona's. For reference horses live to 30 years on average.

Aaand I will be copy and pasting the explanation on his poll posts, sorry, I don't want to write this out every time.

-this does not account for his 7 year sleep at the beginning of Ocarina of Time. His sleep did not have an effect on his current bodies physical age, nor his mental age. For his total time with years he has lived (outside of this poll), that would add seven years.

All the art and words are from Jojo @linkeduniverse au :D

Time 1

<Time 2

Warriors>

masterpollst⛓️

.

...Here's a drawing- this one's my favourite

sjcjxjsjdndfjssjx

[microvibing]

Anyone who draws Vinnie w her tattoos instantly becomes my best friend btw

This is what I'm referring to btw I'm not making it up she should have tattoos pls and thank u

[ashlinxsloves]

Me: I can fix him

The him in question:

Even a guillotine can't take away the head I would give Tate Langdon.

[mbirnsings-71]

Struggled with today's art but I have to draw Scar Daily or I implode basically- also Ren for @pup-pee because I have to practice drawing him and Martyn after all-

Also I think Non-dog hybrid Ren is cursed but like it's what we're working with here we're balling-

[crumbledtoast]

I saw one of my moots do this, soooo I thought why not! (i think it was @localmentallyillwriter but i don't remember :P SORRY FOR THE TAG)

Listen, I'm just curious, lol :3

[quatregats]

Saw this post and had exactly one (1) thought

[queerofthedagger]

i want to say someone fucking warn a finrod girly but frankly nothing could have prepared me 🫡

[suudonym]

stream of consciousness thoughts about jp>en translation as it pertains to closeness in demon society, etc.

it's no mystery that when iruma asks azz and clara if he can think of them as friends, the word he uses is 友達/tomodachi. it's a casual word that denotes... you know, a friend. someone you like to spend time with. very straightforward.

there's also a more formal word for friend, 友人/yuujin, but to the best of my knowledge this one doesn't get used in mairuma, and this may be because it seems to strictly avoid using the 人 kanji (hito/jin/nin/person). it's often said that the way 人 is written makes it look like the two strokes are supporting one another, implying that people are things that live with the support of others. to my understanding this isn't the actual origin of the glyph, but it is a fairly common saying - and so it fits the worldbuilding nicely that the highly egocentric demons don't have 人 in their language. they do use the word "hito" sometimes, but I can't recall seeing it written in kanji

speaking of words demons do have, we see 仲間/nakama quite a bit, but while there are plenty of situations where it's valid to translate nakama to "friend," you don't actually have to like someone to consider them thus. someone is your "nakama" when you're united under the same banner, so to speak. it could be a classmate or a teammate or a coworker - anyone you share circumstances and goals with. the fact that this is one of the most friend-adjacent words demons have is also very like them.

demons also have 仲良し/nakayoshi and 仲が良い/naka ga ii, both of which describe getting along with and having a good relationship with someone. so demons do clearly have the concept of friendship, even if they don't have the word for it.

anyway, soulmates. the word iruma uses to describe what azz is to him is 親友/shinyuu, which is... I mean, it's really hard to translate this as anything but "best friend." it's a very close friend and/or someone you've been friends with for a long time. however, there's two reasons it's hard to translate 親友 to "best friend" specifically in the context of mairuma, both of which are summed up in this exchange:

it's a word that azz doesn't recognize. demons have the word "best" and azz knows the word "friend," so why would he have to ask what a "best friend" is? shinyuu sounds completely unlike tomodachi, so to have the same effect, the english word used to translate it also has to sound completely unlike "friend"

iruma's kind of embarrassed about it. "best friend" is usually a rather light term in english and not one we'd typically get flustered talking about. your best friend might just be the person you like spending time with more than anyone else. you could be talking about the past and say someone "was your best friend back then" and it doesn't necessarily suggest that you had a falling out or anything, you might have just kind of drifted apart or met someone else you got even closer to or something similar. I don't know if I'm explaining this completely accurately but from what I gather, "shinyuu" is more of an intimate, time-tested friendship. there seems to be a certain level of emotional vulnerability associated with it that "best friend" doesn't always convey by default.

if absolutely pressed for an alternative translation, I might posit "kindred spirit," but that doesn't quite feel like as natural a thing to say as "soulmate." I do think it's a shame that it has that automatic romantic connotation, but honestly that's society's failure. embrace the concept of platonic soulmates, you cowards.

anyway, them's the thoughts.