#and it is very much a show of her learning to deal with those consequences and also seek treatment and form healthier relationships

[giantkillerjack]

Watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend from the start so I can finally finish the show, and I forgot just how badly Paula enables Rebecca's bad behavior immediately right out the gate in the biggest ways possible.

Also the actress playing Paula is fucking fantastic. Simultaneously a great best friend, an overbearing mother, an unfulfilled woman looking for better things, and an evil mastermind with an incredible voice! I'm excited to see where her character goes in the 4th season!

[cerastes]

You know, I was just thinking, there's this game I like, I've talked about this one both on and off stream, it's Luminous Arc 2. It's one of those Way of the Samurai 4 games that are garbage games that did some things REALLY well but are still very much not good games overall, but that I LOVE. You know how much I love Way of the Samurai 4. I also love Luminous Arc 2, it's not a good game, it's a game that merits 0 playthroughs, and yet I gave it 2 full playthroughs.

With WotS4, I can explain to you what parts of it are genius hidden in an ocean of shit, but I can't with Luminous Arc 2, I've not done the mental homework on that one, so I did this weekend, and...

Luminous Arc 2 executes the Nanoha-style Magical Girl formula very very well.

Now, you may have heard that Nanoha is a mecha show but instead of mecha, there's magical girls. And that assessment is absolutely 100% correct. Luminous Arc 2 somehow distills the purely Magical Girl elements from Nanoha's mecha-magical girl execution and pulls them off REALLY well.

Allow me to elaborate.

Nanoha nails down the Good Fight Scene. Not just in fight choreography, but also, in essence of what a good fight scene aims to accomplish for an overarching narrative as an element in the bigger scheme that you can't just skip. Think about Code Geass for a moment: Is Code Geass a mecha show? It sure has mecha, but it's not a mecha show. You could replace the mecha in Code Geass with tanks and helicopters and nothing would change. In fact, at least one adaption of Code Geass does exactly this. Code Geass is a great show but it's not mecha in its themes and execution. Code Geass is a not mecha show with mecha. Nanoha is a mecha show without mecha. You can't remove the fights from Nanoha without it not being Nanoha anymore, and in each fight, we learn more about the characters, the characters learn more about each other, and even if any given fight does not move the plot forward, it does move the character arcs forward, on top of being fun to watch.

And Nanoha accomplishes this by making the same characters fight each other a bunch. Symphogear also does this. Each fight between the same characters feels different each time, because they are growing in terms of motivations and themes.

Luminous Arc 2 does the same with each of its big arcs. In the optional sidequests, you often just fight some mooks and a stronger, sometimes recolored version of a generic monster. The main story stages of the game, though? You are always fighting someone important or a consequence of someone's important's actions. Initially, you fight an ice witch named Fatima and her cat familiar and companion Josie a bunch. As the plot advances, your rogue's gallery keeps expanding, from the bandit Karen and her gang, who initially seem to be disconnected to the overall plot and is more of a Team Rocket deal, to actual lore powerhouses like Master Matthias and others who I shall omit for brevity. Luminous Arc 2 has three big arcs, and each of these have an evolving cast of reoccurring bosses that you fight for plot reasons, and you get to know each other a lot more with each fight, shedding light on their motivations, and them shedding light, in turn, on the motivations of your own side, which are actually not immediately discernible to you in their entirety.

And this is all really good! You get used to their signature moves, their animations, the way they usually structure their units, a bunch of really cool little things.

And maybe this game is sounding good to you, but make no mistake, it's a pretty fucking mediocre SRPG that you can play with your brain turned off. No cohesion, very little unit identity, incredibly self-indulgent first and everything else a distant second, it's NOT a good game... But what it did good, it really knocked it out of the park.

In terms of getting to know your enemy, their motivations, and how they in turn get to know and let you know more about you... Luminous Arc 2 does it better than most. Which is hilarious because this game sucks in every other department. It's not a good game. I did two full playthroughs and I would do a third.

[elliespuns]

hello!! first of all, i don't intend to say this as a way to create a fuss or anything like that, i just see your blog as a space where we can debate a lot of tlou related topics and i want to know your opinion about it :-) anyways, while i did enjoy the hbo series, i also think it was very flawed in translating both joel and ellie's personalities - but i want to focus on joel's atm.

i don't think joel is "insensitive" on the game, but i do believe the fact that he tried so hard to hide his feelings and barely ever showed his soft side is a SUPER important characteristic of his.

i don't mind the way pedro played joel but at the same time i just cannot see both of them as the same man. and i don't talk only about the scenes where joel was visibly anxious or cried, but also the torture scene. i think it is one of the most iconic scenes on the game (also, I'm the one who asked you to take pics of it a couple weeks ago LOL) specially cause it shows us joel doesn't have to go out of his way to be a menace. the fact that pedro had to scream and etc to make them fear him bothers me sooo much.

i think pedro was more than capable to play a joel that is both too much of a father figure for his own good AND a tough son of a b*tch that can and will kill people with his bare hands to protect whatever is important to him.

from my point of view, crying during the "i saved her" scene is really out of character for game joel. when the guy just confesses he killed a bunch of people, "doomed" the whole world just to keep his little girl safe and then lied straight to her face, but his expression shows no hint of sadness whatsoever, that, for me, is the peak of his character.

"if somehow the lord gave me a second chance at that moment, i'd do it all over again". of course he's hurt that ellie doesn't trust him anymore, and of course he wasn't exactly happy to kill those fireflies, but he did what he thought was right and he'd rather have ellie hate him for another thousand years to come than know he just left such a sweet girl to die in the hands of a crumbling group, in the name of a cause he never really cared about. he knows his actions will have consequences but he doesn't cry cause he is willing to die for it (and he really did).

sorry for rambling but i really want to read other people's opinion about it!!

First of all, I love how perfectly you've just described game Joel. This is exactly how I feel about our man, and even if I tried, I could never put it into words like this. Hands down, bro, this is so well said.

Both Ellie and Joel were portrayed differently in the show (it's not the worst thing; I know that people who don't follow the game fell in love with these versions of them, and for them it's as magical as it was for us when playing), but I guess, for the game lovers, it's harder to see past this fact simply because getting to love a character and having to learn everything there is about them, growing up with them only to find out the creators (people who gave them this exceptional and amazing character) didn't care enough to stick to what they came up with is kind of a bummer. I mean, you can choose to ignore it on the screen, but yet it's something so 'palpable' you have to watch with a little *sigh* in your mind.

"It shows us joel doesn't have to go out of his way to be a menace. the fact that pedro had to scream and etc to make them fear him bothers me sooo much."

I agree. Game Joel has this death stare that makes people fear from miles away while show Joel doesn't. I think Pedro could pull it out without a blink of an eye—if only they'd given him this Joel to play.

People say that making show Joel more "sensitive" was to make him more realistic because in the game, the characters are portrayed as having to deal with the impossible (like killing 10 clickers and a bloater without any damage, etc.), while in the show, he's a real man, so real attributes and emotions are needed. I get that; that makes perfect sense. But I still also agree with folks who say that keeping Joel's "detached" and "thin-skinned" characteristics wouldn't hurt anyone because what's unrealistic about that?

Game Joel and show Joel are completely different characters in my head. I love them both. I can switch them in my head and tune into both Joels, but I still prefer the game when it comes to the story and the character Joel is.

It's funny because when I watch show Joel, I can't help but see a puppy version of game Joel, tbh. Pedro is literally able to play anything, so his version of "sensitive" Joel serves me just right when I tune into the show. But knowing Pedro would kill the "callous" and "unaffected" version of Joel, and it bugs me so much we'll never get to see it.

Btw, I'm working on your request, more photos of Joel torturing David's men are coming!

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

What do you think of book&show!Rhaenyra as characters? And who do you like more?

Hi anon! I've been turning this one over in my mind since you sent it, because I wanted to give it some thought (and anyone who is sick of reading show critical stuff, just skip this one. I don't hate the show, I just think it's interesting and fun to dig a bit deeper). What it comes down to for me is that while book!Rhaenyra is fun, I wish the show had been braver with their depiction of Rhaenyra.

While book!Rhaenyra's motivations are not particularly complex, I feel like I understand her better than show!Rhaenyra. She hasn't heard a prophesy, nor does she feel any real responsibility toward the kingdom to make her second guess the war; her father had made her heir and that was that. Anyone who disagrees can go ahead and die. Her motivations are not particularly noble or self-sacrificing. If anything, it's the opposite. Book!Rhaenyra loves the finer things in life, she's headstrong, and a bit of a mean girl. She goes after what she wants unapologetically, lies through her teeth and never backs down. Book!Rhaenyra never weighs the consequences of her actions, she is vengeful and reactive. She is given terms which would allow her to keep Dragonstone in perpetuity, and unlike her show counterpart, she doesn't even consider them. She says no outright, even before Luke is killed, and replies to tell Aegon that, "I shall have my crown or I shall have his head." And while surely she values the lives of her sons, you get the sense that she never even considers the danger this war puts them in because losing isn't even an option for her. She's going to win because of course she is. And as a reader, you never question her motivations really because, whether you agree with her or not, it is easy to understand that she is fueled by a self-righteous conviction that she will be taking what she feels belongs to her, and woe be to anyone who gets in her way.

Show!Rhaenyra, on the other hand, is more thoughtful. We see this when she's crying at half-dead Viserys' bedside telling him that being heir is a burden, and we see it when she truly considers Otto's peace offer, when she tears up to see the page that Alicent saved from their girlhood. We see it in how she talks to her sons and in the way she apologizes to Alicent at the dinner table. She seems to have some concept of what is at stake, and understands that the throne is a tremendous burden and responsibility, and that the lives of her people are in her hands, and moreover that she does have the option of backing down. When she considers the peace offer, she very clearly states that the prophesy means that she has a responsibility to keep the realm stable, and maybe it is not the best thing for the realm is to throw it into civil war in order to sit the throne at all costs. But all of this, the added sense of awareness of the enormity of the the responsibility and the desire to do right by the realm, while they make her an easier person to support, also makes a lot of her actions that much harder to understand.

One of my main nitpicks with the show as a whole is that the actions of the book characters do not always fit the personalities of the show characters, and so the characterization seems inconsistent. Rhaenyra is aware of the gravity of her position, she learns about the prophesy and the threat to the realm, and then proceeds to have three bastard children (and this is a problem, because it jeopardizes her position. If she gets caught or Corlys/Laenor change their minds and disavow those kids, it's over for her). We have things like Rhaenyra asking for Aemond to be "sharply questioned," which comes from the book, when the episode before she was offering up a dragon and a Jace/Helaena engagement (a show invention, and even though it's not a great deal for the greens if you give it some thought, it reads to the audience as a peace offering). Or you have her telling Daemon she needs his help to fight the greens, and there's this whole conversation about making their enemies believe they're the kind of people who will kill to protect Rhaenyra's claim, but then in episode 8 they have this attempt at reconciliation between Alicent and Rhaenyra and in episode 10 Rhaenyra is going on about how Daemon has "gone to madness, gone to his war." She's seriously entertaining Otto's peace offer (which never happened in the book) while sending her sons off to muster support.

F&B has pretty thin characterization, but what is there comes mostly from the characters' actions and their dialogue. To create a consistent character, the writers needed to start there and ask, what kind of person would say these things and do these things, rather than taking the character they conceived, and trying to shoehorn canon events into that characterization. And the thing is, the show could have created a more fleshed out version of book!Rhaenyra and still made her sympathetic. Take Shiv Roy from Succession, for instance. Shiv is someone who is a victim of misogyny, but also undeniably not the best choice for CEO (neither, of course, are any of her brothers). She's overprivileged and not nearly as experienced or as smart as she thinks she is, she gets in her own way, and in trying to be "one of the boys," she consistently overshoots and alienates actual allies. But she's also a victim of misogyny-- she is expected to provide a woman's touch to delicate matters, but is expected to be as ruthless and cutthroat as the men. Her fuckup brothers are given endless second chances, but Shiv has no such leeway. The specter of motherhood hangs over her constantly-- once she becomes a mother, she will be cast out from the world of men, an asterisk beside her name. And show!Rhaenyra does lean into this a bit (think of Rhaenyra's boobs leaking in the small council, her being stuck giving birth at the moment when leadership is needed in episode 10), but it doesn't commit to the darker side of this. It is not brave enough to make Rhaenyra a bad person as well as a victim.

The thing about Succession is that the show never asked us to view Shiv as good, or as a better choice than her brothers. It didn't even ask us to find her particularly sympathetic, although I certainly do find Shiv sympathetic in some ways. She has a genuine love for her family that makes the moments when she betrays them even more bittersweet, and we can understand her as a pretty bad person while still understanding the ways in which patriarchy screwed her over. In fact, in some ways it was refreshing to see that a woman could be privileged, ruthless and occasionally cruel and still get fucked over (this article is a good breakdown of Shiv-- now imagine a Rhaenyra in this mold!). But central to the difference between HotD and Succession is that Succession doesn't ask us to view the "throne" as a force of good, nor the position as a force of change. The CEO position in Succession is pretty explicitly toxic. Roman refers to the company itself explicitly as a cage. The audience is meant to understand that the person who "wins" is going to be more miserable and more morally compromised as a result. And the Iron Throne is similar. It's a throne made of literal swords! The closer you get to it, the more cursed and compromised you become. But so far, HotD not only insists on casting Rhaenyra as a protagonist, with the addition of the prophesy and the vision of the white hart, winning the throne becomes something she must do for the greater good, her claim something she has been righteously chosen to uphold. And if winning the throne is righteous, then the throne itself must be righteous too. And that's a framing that I don't think can hold up through the Dance, but I fear that the show may have backed itself into a corner by casting Rhaenyra as the correct choice, which inherently frames the throne as something she is right to fight for, no matter the cost to the people, her family, or herself.

[snek-eyes]

Hi Vee! 🤗 I hope you had a wonderful few days! I'm back with more meta questions 🤭 I hope that's okay, if not, just ignore me pls 😅 I've seen some people say Aziraphale isn't empathetic, some say Crowley isn't empathetic, but I think both of them have a LOT of empathy. They just show it very differently, and I think the perfect example is the Edinburgh minisode. Azi is caught in his Heavenly indoctrination a lot of times, like when he thinks body snatching is bad before actually thinking about it in a more complex matter instead of just black and white and as soon as ge does, he's suddenly all in favour of it and what made him change his mind is his empathy. With Crowley, he seems very cool and suave on the surface but he always acts and helps and protects, like with Elspeth; he didn't just save her from suic*de but he actively changed her situation as much as he could (he couldn't bring Wee Morag back for her because it wasn't in his power so he chose the next best thing he could change which was her poverty) to give her a reason to live, too. Or when he talks to Job and Sitis - you wrote an amazing meta about that already but I think the gist of it was that he sees the big picture which is that he needs to find the kids in order to save them and knows he will save them and that they'll all be fine. I think they both possess a great deal of empathy but express it in different ways which I think actually mirror their love languages: Crowley acts on his empathy, he does what he can to help people but isn't vocal about it, and Azi is vocal about it but he sometimes needs a nudge from Crowley to see the big, complex picture for that. Whats's your view on the matter? I'd love to hear your thoughts! 😁🤍

- 💫

Aziraphale (and Crowley) vs Empathy

Hey there! This was really interesting to think about!

So from my understanding (and if you're someone that has a better one, please feel free to chime in!), empathy is the ability to understand someone else's emotions, whether intellectually or by sympathetically feeling them yourself. But lacking empathy doesn't necessarily mean that you can't care about people, it just means that you don't exactly understand their emotions.

I'm saying this because after thinking about it, I actually don't think Aziraphale is very empathetic. Despite the fact that he does care a whole lot! Aziraphale is a protector, from Adam & Eve to Job's kids to that one nameless child Dalrymple couldn't save to Wee Morag, etc etc, we see him acting against what he Should be doing because he cares so damn much. But it seems to be because he has a strong moral code and believes that the alternative to acting is an injustice, more than he is putting himself in anyone's shoes and thinking about how they might be feeling. It's the difference between "I care that this sad thing is happening to you" and "I care because I can tell you are sad."

Like in the Edinburgh flashback, when he realizes what happened to the child, he's devastated because it's a tragedy that a child died, horrifically, and that all that's left of them on this earth can be contained in a bottle. His previous moral rule that digging up bodies is a sin because it's just wrong is overwritten because he's been shown an actual tangible consequence.

It would explain a lot about the number of times, especially in s2, when he either does not recognize how upset Crowley is, or if he does, he doesn't get why or take it seriously.

Saying things like "Still a demon?" or "I haven't seen you since, the flood?" without realizing why Crowley might find those upsetting and not friendly banter material.

While he doesn't seem to pick up on Crowley's bad mood in Uz, by Rome it seems like he has learned to at least see it, if not understand it. Regardless, he's still making a go at cheering Crowley up.

Aziraphale doesn't get why changing the Bentley is personally upsetting to Crowley, until Crowley connects it to something equally relevant for Aziraphale: Selling his books.

This also made something click for me wrt his scene with Maggie when she suddenly starts crying about striking out with Nina. He is completely at a loss as to why all these details are upsetting her, right up until she mentions being in love. He understands love, aww! But, crucially, his initial reaction is more "Oh, being in love is wonderful!" than "Oh, I see that must be hard for you." And he responds by wanting to solve her problem, he doesn't get that she's probably just looking for advice from an older queer to help her feel better about it, more than an actual solution.

The scene that kicks off the modern day where Maggie is upset about not being able to pay her rent. Aziraphale doesn't really engage with the fact that she's breaking down in front of him, he's doing whatever he can to placate her so he can just leave with his records.

Alright, let's get to the final fifteen because this would explain something that's always caught me. During Crowley's confession, Aziraphale looks SO confused as to why Crowley is getting upset. Aziraphale is coming at this from what he sees as a logical perspective, and Crowley is making an emotional plea. Aziraphale straight up does not understand how the two halves of this argument are connected.

When Crowley says he understands better than Aziraphale, it's like he's saying he has the intellectual high ground, and that's why Aziraphale decides they've reached an impasse.

Again, this isn't a knock on Aziraphale at all, it's just how he sees the world.

Meanwhile Crowley... I'm honestly not sure how to read Crowley on this.

He'll either project his own trauma onto other people or possibly recognize shades of it in their circumstances at the drop of a hat (the goats, the plants, lonely Muriel in heaven, the scene in S1 when he's hanging off his throne and goes from lamenting about how his fall was unfair right into to calling out God because testing the humans to destruction is unfair)

He is pretty good at knowing how people are going to react when he does his demonic mischief, although that might just be a logical extrapolation from experience.

On the other hand, he seems very confused when people go against his expectations (Jane Austen, Maggie and Nina not wanting help).

He seems to have a good handle on how Aziraphale feels in most situations, although Aziraphale's need to protect people is a huge blind spot he does not understand. So maybe that's just years and years of studying him and trying to understand. "Just enough of a bastard to be worth knowing," after all.

While he understands Elspeth's circumstances, he's not exactly, comforting? to her? When Morag is like "tell me that's not what I think it is" he immediately throws her under the bus in favor of chaos ("8D oh it most certainly is"). And when Aziraphale melts the body, he doesn't even look at Elspeth who's freaking out, his eyes are entirely on Aziraphale.

What do other people think?

[inconsistent-kuroshitsuji-blog]

Hello. If you don't mind, I'd like to ask for headcanons about the kuro characters and their favourite video game genres/series? ^_^

Absolutely.

Kuro characters and their favourite video game genres/series

don't know why, but he looks like he'd enjoy simulator games

if Black Butler would've happened in the modern day (and someone would've taught this grandpa how to use technology) he would probably used these to learn the things he needs to know as a human

cooking simulator (or Cooking Mama), school simulator, anything that could be useful like that

definitely also enjoys slasher games

simply judging by the way he enjoyed that bloodbath on the Campania, he'd looooooove extremely violent games

idk, I don't know too many in that genre, but Dead by Daylight could be one of his faves

but nothing with guns. Those things are beneath him. He wants the real thrill of the kill

oh, please, as if he'd even know what that is

he doesn't even have time for this

imagine the hours wasted on lines of code and digital pixels

do you know that one game where it's basically like a VR job simulator with different kinds of jobs like cook or office or gas station? Instead of humans, the NPCs are robots that insult you at every given opportunity and set you up for failure. Yeah, he'd like that.

also, Powerwash Simulator

ok, stereotypical, but dress up games

especially Style Savvy (ngl, these games are way too good)

other than that, she seems like a casual enjoyer of Animal Crossing

except that she bullies all the ugly neighbours off of her island and hunts for very specific characters (so basically like me)

another obvious choice is Bayonetta

I mean, have you looked at her? Slashing her way through demons and angels while having chainsaws for arms and legs? The cunty outfits?

Let me tell you: Bayonetta and Grell? An iconic match made in heaven

I can't decide

either he's a die-hard Mario Kart player or a huge Sonic enthusiast (the older games, not the newer ones)

he probably doesn't have enough time to really play though, since he's either out working overtime or out partying

he doesn't seem like a shooter person

okay, this is coming out of me because of a huge lack of sleep (it's currently 1 am where I'm living), but why does he look like he would drunkenly play Fortnite or Roblox?

"You got games on your phone?" No, back the fuck up dude. You're an adult.

Why did I just write that? Inco, what's wrong with you?

this is very specific, but that one Coraline game for the Wii and the DS

he's definitely leaning more towards psychological horror games

American McGee's Alice and Alice: Madness Returns. You can't convince me otherwise

he's an unfairly skilled Mario Kart player, to the point that it almost seems like he's cheating (he's 100% cheating, just like when playing Uno)

on the other hand, he's a huuuuge sucker for Kirby games

doesn't matter what type or gimick, he loves it and has perfected it down to the last frame

but you'd never know unless he wanted you to know (and I know it because I am God and run on my last bar of my batterie and because he's officially and undeniably my husband, deal with it. Omfg, this is so fucking cringe, I'm gonna go shoot myself, I'll be right back.)

well, first of all, you need to explain everything to him because he couldn't even read the instructions on the screen (I'm 100% convinced that his eyesight is pure batshit and he's just cheating his way through the manga through some deus-ex-machina type of shit)

newsflash, but he loves horror games

I really see him with games like Resident Evil or Don't Starve Together

also, Undetale

you know, because of morals and choices and consequences and all that (surely not because of a skeleton with dry humour)

maybe it would help to show him a bathing simulator so this crusty man learns how to clean himself

is it too obvious and on the nose to say The Mortuary Assistant?

omg, look at him! My boy! Finally animated! I love him so much! My boy!

ahem, so anyway...

Trombone Champ

he'd play it on his loudest speakers just to annoy the hell out of everyone

also, you know those really cheap horror games you can find on Steam that are really terrible? He lives for those

idk why, but he seems like he'd enjoy Portal

and Assassin's Creed. Especially the first four mainline games

continueing with puzzle games, he really enjoys Professor Layton, no doubt

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's it for now. It's almost 2 am and I have to help out at a sports event I only registered for to watch some random kids suffer in the heat. But now I have to wake up early for that... Oh, how ironically bitchy life is. And to top it all of I have to work the graveyard shift today. Coffee and energy will be my best friend today.

So, yeah, that's it for now. Or maybe not, maybe I'll pull an all-nighter simply so I can't oversleep. If you're up for a part 2 just slide into my requests and I'll see what I can do.

Until then~

Your Inconsistent Kuroshitsuji Blog~

[sepublic]

Really enjoying Humans-B-Gone! so far… It’s an indie web series on Youtube, with a blog on Tumblr, and its episodes come in very short, bite-sized chunks! It’s about a world in which the power dynamics are reversed, with bugs being the people, while humans are the tiny pests they look down upon. It’s got amazing worldbuilding based on so much scientific research; Humans-B-Gone! is a glimpse into a truly alien world that nevertheless makes perfect sense from the perspective of those within it, and the way bugs view us is like a mirror of how we view bugs.

The series really highlights how us humans take for granted what we assume is normal, by framing our differences from insects as the weird and strange thing, and even being reductive in how human bodies are described; All of which highlights the absurdity of how we discuss bugs and their anatomies, and really just things and lifestyles that are ‘different’ to us.

I’m having a lot of fun with Sophodra and Rose, and… Maybe I’m just projecting, but I kinda see a lot of parallels between Humans-B-Gone! and The Owl House?

There’s a central dynamic around our main protagonists. You’ve got this older, more experienced mentor who’s running her own business single-handedly, and basically the only one of its kind; Dealing with human-related things, which everyone else views as strange and foreign. This mentor is plenty flirty and definitely has her wiles while advertising, and a business-like attitude regarding her profession; But it’s quickly apparent that she is genuinely interested this human-related stuff, and is a total and utter nerd about it, being low key feral af.

The mentor is different from the rest of society, having an appreciation for life and a particular part of the world around her that most are indifferent to, or even demonize. This thing, she goes out of her way to preserve and learn about, and is deeply passionate and defensive over. The mentor has that lanky build and those kinds of hips (and Sophodra’s voice even reminds me of Wendie Malick, AKA Eda’s VA). There’s the chaotic, F around and find out vibe that’s kinda lax about dangerous things she’s messing with, only to get into the consequences of her actions.

By contrast, you have this younger and inexperienced apprentice, who unlike the more ‘ladylike’ mentor, has a more ‘girly’ vibe and aesthetic to her. She’s still learning and it’s essentially a coming of age story for her; She’s got interests and is actually quite knowledgable, but society discourages what she wants to do and thus she’s forced to settle for something more ‘practical’. The apprentice is introduced engaging with idealistic media about a hero defending the world against a great evil, amidst a familial environment.

The apprentice meets the mentor by chance, due to the mentor’s human-related business, and after showing her knowledge, is invited to be a partner in crime. The apprentice moves in with her mentor, visiting a new place, and is frequently perturbed by some of the things her mentor deals in, to comedic effect. Nevertheless, like her mentor, she has an engagement with the world around her, and is learning.

Said world is VERY biological, a living thing, with many devices and tools also being alive as well; Humans find this place alien, especially for how red it is. Society is divided into different groups, and they are dictated by a uniform, authoritarian police force, ruled by a monarch considered divine. There’s a mysterious masked human who opposes the alien world the viewer is introduced to, on the basis of defending humanity. Hidden lore and backstory is alluded to, amidst the grounds for a greater conflict.

There’s body horror, and the story emphasizes finding beauty in what is considered ‘grotesque’ and ‘unconventional’, how strangeness is all relative. Expectations are subverted, especially with how things that seem intimidating can be quite welcoming, while those once familiar are distorted to a dangerous extent; We even have a benign ungulate reframed as something alien and dangerous to both humans and the non-humans. It’s a celebration of nerds and weirdoes in a sense, people whose interests may seem unusual, as is their way of going about these interests.

…Seriously. At this point, all we need is an equivalent to King for Humans-B-Gone! Maybe… that random Housefly neighbor? Professor Gregorsa? King did have an interest in researching demons. Plus, I’m reminded of how the original drafts for Emperor Belos portrayed him as Emperor Pupa, an insectoid tyrant who claims to speak for the true ruler of the land, whose screams only he can understand, as they have yet to emerge from their cocoon… No thanks to Pupa’s hidden sabotage. You can see the visual remnants of this in how Belos’ mask and outfit resemble a stag beetle, too!

[eerie-night]

i always like stumbling across fic rec lists so i thought about compiling a list of some of my favorites and linking the tumblrs of the authors (but if i cant find them ill link twitter or ao3) bc theyre all fucking awesome

BSD

and all i loved, i loved alone- @featherxs

“An ability?”

— on the past, present, and future of one Edgar Allan Poe.

SOOOO GOOD!! its what originally got me so into bsd and its such a good reread too

(don’t) stop the rain- miniekooki

Akutagawa Ryuunosuke finds himself taking care of the Twain family after an unfortunate turn of events.

And he also finds himself considering Mark Twain as more than just an annoying prick.

(ALTERNATIVE TITLE: the domestication of akutagawa ryuunosuke)

i loveeeeeeeeee this and how it goes about describing the family its sooooooooo good

Haikyuu

as bright as a blackhole; and twice as dense- cereal_whore

“Kageyama’s being bullied,” Yamaguchi grits, expression steeled.

Tsukishima lowers his book quietly, and stares, eyes wide.

“As if he has enough social competence to realise he’s being bullied.”

“Tsukki, please.”

Meant to be 5 times Tsukishima accidentally and very reluctantly saved Kageyama from his own social ineptness, and one time Kageyama does the same for him, but we ran into problems bc OP can't count.

(or: everyone is srsly stressed over kageyamas existence, but kageyama, despite having the common sense of a Five Minute Crafts video, is like those buff himbos within the tsundere category. so he somehow ends up wholly unscathed throughout this shit, while everyone else doesnt)

tldr: kageyama lacks forethought, and everyone but him suffers the consequences of it.

i eat this shit up omg omg its great its funny and it makes my day better read it

but not for spring to well up- tookumade

Miya Brothers

Sellers & Buyers of Antiques & Curiosities

Suna Rintarou squints at the small sign attached to the front door of the brick shopfront.

He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. Something flashier? More brass? The Miya brothers could do with a pot plant out the front. The shopfront has one single large window that’s covered by a plain white curtain, so maybe they could open that up and have some of their antiques and such on display so people get an idea of what they buy and sell. Maybe a paint job for the door, which is the most boring brown Suna has ever seen. There is nothing he can say about it—it’s not nice nor ugly, it’s just boring.

Or, maybe Suna could stop giving any more of a damn about this shopfront and just get his appointment over and done with.

After ending a relationship with a fiancé, Suna returns home and tries to heal from heartbreak. Here, he finds friends in the form of the Miya brothers, and learns patience, forgiveness, and what happiness means to him.

this sounds repetitive but…..SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOD i love the emotion and how it deals with sunas ex and like everything about this fic is gold

JJK

“To Chase”- @diggingupgrave

Megumi has never thanked the man who raised him.

god…no words except read it you will not regret it

FE3H

A Fair Day’s Work- featherhearted

“I may have some coffee in the place for you,” said Prime Minister Aegir. “Let me show you how much better I have become at brewing it to your taste.”

“If you insist,” said Minister Vestra but he sounded pleased. To Delarivier, who had literally made it her profession to attune herself to his tone (usually ranging from sort-of-murder-y to extremely-murder-y), Minister Vestra sounded very pleased indeed.

Ferdinand and Hubert's long-suffering aides figure out a way to work fewer hours.

im a whore for outsider povs and this one takes the cake and does laps around my brain when i try and sleep

TMA

a glass essay- fairbanks

Right out of university Jon's run out of time to run from the Web. The only way he knows to escape one domain is to give yourself to another, and he's always been good at being alone.

He really wasn't imagining the Lukas family would take him in at all, let alone arrange him to marry some smarmy ass named Peter Lukas.

yet again something to reread till you memorize every word and still cant get enough

now for authors that i recommend HIGHLY and a fic or two from them:

@blackkatmagic

i recommend everything shes written but my top favorites currently are:

Cor Cordium

Fox dies. He wakes up. And then things start getting weird.

its so so good and kats soooo good at characterization and descriptions and could prob make paint drying interesting

out of night (out of nothing)

It's the duty of the Temple Guard to keep the Sacred Spire, the Force nexus at the heart of the Temple. Feemor's always done his duty gladly, kept it safe, kept the light burning. Order 66 changes everything. Changes him. Changes the Spire, too.

Hevy, Cutup, and Droidbait are just caught in the currents and trying to make the most of their second chances, but an unstable Jedi and new powers don't make anything easier.

the concept is so cool and the execution is even better she could probably sell me air and id go crazy for it

trade your heart for bones to know

A week after an attack that nearly killed him and his son, Jaster Mereel finds Mostross dead on a battlefield. His killer is a Jedi, grievously wounded, who Jaster takes into his care. By Mandalorian tradition, Jon Antilles owes him a life-debt, and Jaster is cunning enough not to let such a thing slip away.

It's meant to be an entirely political arrangement. It doesn't stay that way for long.

not to sound like broken record but god this is fucking fabulous

i totally recommend checking out ALL her works but these were the first ones i thought of out of the ones that are currently updating

@x-authorship-x

she has written sooo many good fics im just going to recommend my favorite series and you can go from there

Eyes

Shisui is way too strong to have his eye taken by Danzo

He's the only one smart enough to master the simplest of techniques to legendary proportions

He was sweet and kind and, despite everything he'd seen and all the things he'd done, he wasn't afraid to hope. To dream for something better.

A series for Shisui

the characters, the plots, the descriptions all add up to something amazing

llamallamaduck

do yourself a favor and check her out, you will not regret it. unfortunately, i will restrain myself to only recommending one fic but DO check the rest out

With no root in the land —(To keep my branches green)

He is not a human and he is not a beast and he is not a creature, but he is. He is a being, then. A being that changes and learns and lives. He thinks his name is Ani.

this is the fic that i first read by llamallamaduck and its a really good introduction to how fucking amazing she is at doing crossovers and writing in general

i hope you enjoy these as much as i have :)

[mdhwrites]

I don't know if you've watched Gravity Falls or been deep in the fandom but I just realized how similar Luz and Mabel kinda are. They're both young quirky girls whose selfish actions helped the main villain achieve their goal (supposedly, in Luz's case) and learn the lesson of facing reality instead of being stuck in a fantasy world where they get everything they want (although Luz doesn't really learn this even though it was kinda set-up for her in s1) (they also have a girl rival with shit parents that the fandom ships them with but anyway-)

I'm not saying this to shit on Luz though, I like Luz. But it mind boggles me how Mabel gets shitted on way more than her does despite being younger, actually learning her lesson, and apologizing for it. It might because they're different shows but I know a lot of TOH fans were/are GF fans because of the creators' relationship so the fandoms aren't that different from one another. It MIGHT be because Mabel trusted Blendin so easily despite the situation being shady as hell (while Luz just thought Philip was a normal human in the demon realm) but to be fair, Mabel was cornered in a moment of vulnerability and she literally didn't even know what she was giving him. Abandoning her friends and family for her own fantasy land while an apocalypse going on was really horrible, I won't deny that, but Luz also pretty much did the same when she chose the demon realm (place she doesn't know anything about with STRANGERS) over her own world in the first episode. Sure there wasn't anything horrific going on in the human realm so her ignorance of it wasn't as bad as Mabel's– BUT THEN in TTT she thinks of leaving everyone behind by staying in the human realm while the Collector was doing who knows what???

I don't know, this might be kinda petty, I haven't rewatched GF in ages, but I just think it's unfair Mabel gets more hate than Luz. I feel she's had more character progression compared to the latter and at least she always got called out when she did something wrong and learned from it.

So take all of this with a grain of salt because while I've heard a little of this discourse, I haven't watched a lot of Gravity Falls (recently tried again and found myself not loving the first episode if I'm honest) and have never been a part of its fandom. However, this is a chance to talk about why Luz is so liked and 'relatable' to so many because it is not hard to figure out why people like Luz. Why? Well... A lot of it comes down to framing and how the two shows see the two girls.

Gravity Falls sees Mabel as a tweenage girl.

The Owl House sees Luz as the embodiment of what a teenage nerd wishes they were/could be.

Those are VERY different goals and framing.

One, Mabel, is going to be INCREDIBLY fallible. Neither her or Dipper are anywhere close to perfect people because... Well, they're teenagers. They get way too into certain things. They're awkward when it comes to those obsessions. They're awkward about how to deal with change, consequences, etc. like that because that's just the age they are. They're figuring out the world and are going to run face first into it and that will be awkward, clumsy and often destructive without any sort of excuse besides they didn't think the consequences through. That's kids for you.

The other is... More idealistic. Luz doesn't face real consequences for testing her boundaries and is always bailed out. When she fucks up, she always does it with the best intentions and/or no one actually gets hurt. People coddle her and always make concessions to her desires with minimal push back and always end up on her side unless they're just a REALLY big meanie head. She always makes peoples' lives better, she never gets real criticism or ridicule for her interests and is always accepted by the right people for those interests. Always given more and more for being her quirky self!

A lot of this for Luz is because she's an audience surrogate and TOH wants the audience to feel good about themselves. It knows that a lot of nerds will be the ones watching it and leans in. This is actually contrasted by the fact that, well, Mabel isn't the audience surrogate or the absolute primary character of Gravity Falls. Her role is more complicated versus Dipper who IS the nerdy one who's closer to being the audience surrogate.

Just to really drive this home: People on my Discord have talked about this and one of the biggest 'crimes' as seen by a lot of the fandom is that Mabel causes Dipper to lose out on his dream of researching with Ford and staying in Gravity Falls. I could even see some arguments of things like "He's planning a future!" or "He's making the world better!"

But... Let's shift the framing for a moment from "Mabel caused Dipper to give up on his dream" to "Mabel made sure Dipper chose reality over fantasy." After all, his desire was to throw away his friends, his family, EVERYTHING to just continue hanging out with this one old dude and studying the weird phenomenon of the world, an inherently isolating job. He gets to go on this big adventure and follow his intellectual drive... At the cost of reality and everything he has known.

So why don't people get upset at Dipper for trying to do this? Well, there's a lot of potential reasons that I can't really narrow down without watching the show. It may have just been framed as a positive while Mabel's is framed as negative. It could be that while Mabel's is just a generic, girly fantasy that not much of the core audience actually wants, Dipper's is the cool, smart fantasy that is totally not just a fantasy, but a CAREER. Or it could go back to the root problem: Because Dipper is closer to the audience surrogate, closer to the main character, there is a bias to inherently see his actions as good. We could literally watch two characters do the same thing and we will root for the main character simply because that is who we are trained to root for.

A great example of this from TOH is how Luz is allowed to get mad at people for lying to her but not the other way around. She literally attacks Eda and gets the two captured in Titan, Where Art Thou? because Eda lied to her and she is supposed to feel justified in this anger to make the tragedy angle work. Meanwhile, there is ONE time when anyone gets mad at Luz for lying and honestly, the framing and reactions cause it to end up feeling much more like it was just for a prettier scene change during Reaching Out. After all, Amity still wants to fix Luz's pain before Luz even apologizes for breaking her word by lying. So why doesn't anyone call out the hypocrisy here? Why is NO ONE allowed to get upset with Luz about this?

Because she's the main character. Because we are trained to root for her and, well, Luz also is the one we are told to want to be. She is the every nerd. She is meant to connect to a very wide net of outcasts who feel like they don't belong and wish things were different. Wishes people weren't mean to them or didn't get mad at them when they made mistakes. That just let them be the hero of their own story.

So of course, they don't want Luz to be yelled at, even when that is the actually human and reasonable thing for someone to do. They don't want to question what she does so when the show gives them an excuse, or they have to go to reality if the show itself doesn't give an excuse (This is why people emphasize Luz's age and nuerodivergence to excuse her while bluntly ignoring Mabel's age when it comes to her actions), so that they don't have to recognize that Luz does some REALLY shitty things, especially in the back half of the show. It is simply more convenient for the narrative they want out of the show for Luz to be this way.

And that is okay from a casual standpoint. A lot of fiction is escapist. There's nothing wrong with wanting to jump into a world where you're never actually wrong and never in trouble. Where your angst is always met with hugs and understanding rather than actual human emotion. That's how media works. Most mass appeal products are escapist. It's part of why the Isekai genre is SO prevalent right now because it is one of the purest forms of escapist fiction out there, especially due to modern isekai tropes.

But if you're going to talk critically about something, escapism is very rarely a good jumping off point for it. It will make you ignore a LOT about the work because it's uncomfortable for you to ask questions about it. I'm not talking about "Why does this world have magic" sort of things mind you. I'm talking about, say, "Why does this character get so many power ups, so easily, and with little effort in earning them?" When you want escapism, the pacing won't bother you. If you're actually looking at themes and payoffs, it will bother you a LOT. And yes, this does tie into TOH because if you want to be Luz, getting the glyphs feels great! If you actually interrogate the story, you go "Wait, they hadn't actually done like... ANYTHING with her not having magic in a magical world and she already gets a spell? And two of these spells she does literally nothing for. Arguably three since she is put into timeout as a punishment and gets the glyph I guess for being a bad person." That TOTALLY is good storytelling and makes sense with positive themes and proper explorations of its own ideas.

*sigh*

It's a rough push and pull and it can make it so people, even if they like the show, who disagree with the popular opinion, the one that usually lifts up the audience flattering elements the most, are just in a rough position where they hear the same opinions over and over again. All while knowing that if they speak up, they'll be stomped on.

Just like Mabel was while Dipper was raised into the spotlight. At least by the fandom.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[dalekofchaos]

Things I would change about Life Is Strange True Colors

So after multiple replays of True Colors, I've finally come up with a list of changes.

My other LIS changes

LIS

LIS:BTS

LIS 2

First change would be the logo. This was the original logo and game menu. Just keep the True Colors logo and keep the record in the title and it's perfect.

Compare that to the bland logo we got, it really works better

To help make the game longer, I would've added a prologue chapter where it's about Alex's final days in Helping Hands. We get to interact with Alex's friend Chelsea, see what happened between Alex and Mari, see the reason why Alex wants to keep her power bottled up and tries to get away from strong emotions, get the call from Gabe and end with that final session with Dr Lynn.

In general, I feel like there should've been more consequences to Alex's powers. All we get is Alex beating the shit out of Mac and taking Charlotte's anger away from her turns Charlotte into a husk of a person, and Alex pisses Steph off and of course not telling Eleanor the truth causes her to turn against you. The trailers showed Alex has the tendency to be consumed by powerful emotions and Alex constantly talked about her power like it was a curse. There should've been more build up to Alex learning to control her empathy. High Empathy leading to good choices and good ending while low empathy leads to her friends turning on Alex.

I initially thought there would be more drama like helping Charlotte forgive Ethan. Her pain towards Ethan feels understandable when your loved one's death is indirectly caused by someone who's also dearest most.

Whether Riley and Mac continue their relationship or not, it doesn't feel if there's any impact in it.

Apparently there was SUPPOSED to be consequence for taking away Pike's fear.

"if Alex took Pike’s fear away, when she was down in the mines (apparently in this draft she wouldn’t have been shot by Jed but instead would have found an entrance to the mine another way) Pike would become this “weird emotionless serial killer” and would start chasing Alex around in the mines in order to protect Diane. If it isn’t clear to you by now, the game seemed to have a much darker tone than what we ended up getting in the final game. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if that’s a good thing or not."

Honestly more consequences to Alex's powers depending on our high or low empathy should've happened in general.

I feel like more time should've been spent with Steph and Ryan. To me neither of these relationships are believable. The difference between Alex's relationship with Steph and Max's relationship with Chloe is that we spent a good chunk of the game with Chloe.

And as little time as Max gets with Warren, there is at least some substance with those scenes Max has with Warren. Warren starts up the plot of the game by getting the flashdrive, Warren helps Max against Nathan, Warren offers Max to take mind off things by asking her out on a date, Max can help Warren with his science experiment, Warren helps Max make a bomb, Warren saves Max and Chloe from Nathan, Warren takes the picture that helps Max get back and Warren is supportive no matter what choice Max makes.

Yes Ryan helps Alex in the record store, patches up Gabe, helps find Ethan and we have Ryan dealing with his grief and sorrow of losing Gabe. But that's it. Everything else is obligatory detective work or talking about trails and birds. Ryan is boring.

What we know of Warren

He's a geek like Max

He's into sci-fi, horror and a lot of obscure media

He loves science

He's helpful

a kind and sensitive nature

very shy and insecure and struggles to express and deal with his feelings, so he tries to hide that underneath humor and bad jokes

He's dealt with bullying in the background "knows how to be invisible"

He will ride or die for his friends

What we know of Ryan

He loves Gabe and his friends

He loves his dad to a fault and has good memories of his mother

He protects people

He loves birds n trails

*Cricket chirps*

I'm about to compare screen time between Chloe and Steph. I replayed both games and I counted up all the scenes in their respective games where the player is forced to have an extensive dialogue with them, this discounts optional conversations and interactions that are made of a single choice. I am counting the bare minimum number of times each game forces the player to somewhat meaningfully interact with them. Let's start with Chloe.

The truck scene

The scene talking about Rachel

The conversation after Max attempts to fix her camera, Chloe gives Max William's old camera and they reconnect

The Lighthouse conversation

Reconnecting at the diner

Funtime at American Rust

Train track walk n talk

The Chaos Theory talk in Chloe's truck

"Scary Punk Ghost"/Blackwell Ninjas

Pool

The aftermath of finding out about Rachel

Alternative reality Chloe at the beach

Alternate reality at Chloe's home

Returning to Chloe via Warren's picture

There are a total of 14 meaningful scenes with Chloe not counting optional interactions

With Steph.

Black Lantern conversation

Foosball

The LARP

The investigation after the festival

4 meaningful scenes. That's it. There's just a total lack of content regarding our two romantic options in True Colors, now sure the number of times we interact with a character doesn't necessarily dictate how much we grow to like or sympathize with said character, but it's glaring just how few meaningful interactions are had with Steph or Ryan.

Also, really? Steph and Ryan are really willing to run away with Alex so quickly in the amount of time they've known her? "I wanna spend the rest of my life with you" you knew each other for an entire month, calm down.

And I feel like there could've been more time and substance in regards to Steph & Ryan if the game were longer and were developed as an episodic game in terms of being developed like LIS 1 & 2 were. I felt like they just got all the superficial aspects of a young adult relationship, slapped it all together and called it a day. So yeah more time with Steph and Ryan is definitely needed.

In regards to the Jed & Mr Chen Twist. I felt like it was unnecessary.

Jed as a pawn for Typhon works. The whole Mr Chen being one of the miners left behind and emotion guiding Alex was so contrived and convoluted. Also it changed from Typhon to being an evil and soulless corporation to Jed being the guilty party and I strongly hate the notion of changing the perceived big bad to a lame twist from someone you trust. In LIS 1 it was Nathan and his father as the perceived villains but what a twist! It was Jefferson all along! Now it was Jed. Stop. Doing. That!

And boooy don't get me started on how impractical Alex surviving being shot and thrown down a mine shaft is.

Like if Alex can survive all that, Chloe can survive Nathan's gunshot in the bathroom.

So an easy fix would be Jed and Alex going down the mine together and Jed shooting Alex and leaving her for dead.

Just keep to the "Jed doing "Typhon's work for the devil" Add a subplot that Typhon was responsible for the death of Ann Lucan via lead poisoning or some other heinous crime. Jed and Pike were working together to bring them down. But the mining & Gabe's accidents happened. Typhon gave Jed a choice. Either he goes down with them or he gives him and Ryan a chance to live. He's a puppet, but he's being blackmailed into doing Typhon's dirty work instead of being the only guilty party of being judged. Like Pike, you should've been able to turn Jed up against Typhon in the end despite what he did to us. Honestly instead of Jed, Alex's judgement should've been reserved for Diana's boss Lena.

However, the bit I mentioned about Pike being turned into an emotionless serial killer, What we can do is have Pike purposefully screw up his and Jed's investigation and when the mine accident happened, Pike made everything go away and Typhon gave Jed the deal. Pike takes Jed's place as the hands-on villain, where he was always on Diane's side (because ACAB), and Alex thinks she's taking his fear of Diane, but in actuality, she takes his fear of everything coming to light, so that's what sparks him to take Alex to the mines, then chase her through them to try and kill her. Lena the big bad. Diane was a reluctant party and now Pike just doesn't care and wants to kill Alex to save Diane. Also because ACAB

As for the endings. This reddit post sums up what could've been.

After finishing True Colors for the first time, it felt wonderful. But after I finish the game for the second time, I don't bother to play it again as the outcome is pretty much the same. True Colors' endings don't affect me much emotionally compared to LIS1 & LIS2 endings.

Whether you choose to forgive or condemn Jed, he just broke down into tears in similar way. Unlike LIS2, you can spare Lisbeth's life and let her witness her downfall or have your revenge by killing her; you can spare the vigilantes by breaking them out of custody or let them remain locked or even killed them.

Outside LIS franchise, there're other games (e.g Bioshock 1 & 2, Dishonored 1 & 2, etc) that also gave different endings based on how the players play. Kind merciful gameplay -> optimistic endings; Harsh brutal gameplay -> darker twisted endings.

In LIS2, you can actually transform Daniel into a law-abiding citizen or a career criminal based on your morality choices. Your treatment towards your little brother will also affect the brotherhood.

Tell Me Why is another worthy mention because it's a choice-based game developed by DONTNOD. Despite it's not a LIS game, it's still able to capture similar energy with LIS1 and your choices do matter. Since the game focuses on twin siblings reunited after many years of separation, good choices will strengthen their bond; bad choices will strain their relationships -> their conversations become less compassionate but more awkward.

Since True Colors is about empathy, they should give us different endings depend on how Alex treat people around her in Haven Springs.

High Empathy rewards happier endings like we have in game. Every council members sided with Alex for showing kindness to them. Empathy also increased by forgiving Jed, calming Mac down that earn his respect, helping other people in Haven (e.g a guy who lost his dog, telling two people that they were in love with each other, etc). In the end, Alex would use her power to help people in need, also being kind, merciful and show forgiveness.

The worst ending is nobody believed Alex in the final confrontation, Jed & Typhon got away and Alex was forced to leave Haven and go back to foster care. Harsh reality, some bad people do get away (e.g Chad & Mike in LIS2 EP4; if you chose to hit Hank & steal the camping gear, Hank would be labelled as a 'local hero' in the newspaper in LIS2 EP2). Low empathy would cause Alex abuse her powers to manipulate others, make others look worse like how Alex chose not to calm Mac down.

Second-worst ending is low empathy with nobody believed Alex except Pike. Alex hard-exposed Jed & Typhon that they had to face their crimes in the end. The whole town resent Alex as they were still in denial how their local hero turned up to be a liar, miners losing their jobs in Haven.

Neutral ending is half of the town believed Alex. Jed & Typhon were exposed and the town initially was in denial but eventually accept it. Alex would use her powers to help good people, but manipulate others who are bad (I'll show you kindness if you're kind, I'll give you asshole treatment if you're being an asshole). Neutral may be achieved like Alex calmed Mac down, but condemned Jed.

What bugs me is there are absolutely no consequences for the actions you take in the game. In LiS 1&2, and BTS you can get people killed if you do the wrong thing, you can ruin lives and end relationships if you commit to the wrong choices. There is absolutely no consequences in this game in the end. No matter what you do it ends the exact same way and you get to choose your own happy ending it feels so unearned.

So yeah big things I would've changed.

Helping hands Prologue chapter

Episodes are longer lengths, episodically releases and more development for the game in general.

More negative consequences to Alex's powers

Actual development with Alex's relationship to Steph and Ryan

Keep Typhon as the villain with Jed as a blackmailed pawn

Actual consequences to our choices and endings

[armoricaroyalty]

a brief ramble about character flaws

I was reading this blog about a very bad YA book I'll never read, and these paragraphs really resonated"

[The book] tries to acknowledge [the protagonist] more as flawed, but it is also afraid to show her as too weak. As much as she doesn't know how to rule, people who call her out are considered assholes. As much as she is impulsive and dramatic, [her love interest] is prepared to babysit her until she calms down. She blames herself for a lot of things during her depression arc, and it's great she learns to like herself, but she never really improves any of her flaws in the process. It's like [her] flaws are things only she is allowed to fully perceive. Most people around her see her as near perfect, especially her love interets. So when [she] is made to confront [her flaws]...the crux is not overcoming her flaws, but seeing herself as [her love interest] does. As just kind of perfect, no real work needed.

I feel like this is a really common thing I've encountered a lot in various arenas (simblr, fanfiction communities, roleplay communities) and it was nice to have it laid out so succinctly.

A character's flaws need to go deeper than textual acknowledgment, and they can't be solved just by finding the right love interest. If a character is meant to be sloppy and careless, we need to see the consequences of her half-finished projects. A hot-headed character can't have arguments smoothed over and forgotten because that's just how she is and the love interest knows she didn't really mean it.

The second paragraph was especially resonant for me. It's a tricky issue to discuss because obviously, a supportive relationship can boost your confidence and enable you to tackle other issues in your life, but I don't like it when a character's primary flaw is "lacks self-confidence" and that hole is neatly plugged by "unconditional support from love interest."

Reading stories like that, I almost never get the sense that the character has actually grown or changed. She's exactly the same person she was when the story began, she just has a boyfriend now. In those stories, the love interest serves as an emotional crutch, and I'm always left with the sneaking suspicion that if anything happened to them, the protagonist would fall to pieces again. That's fine in a longer story where the character either builds confidence in their own right or loses the love interest and has to deal with the consequences of that loss, but it's often treated as a happy ending. For me, that's just not satisfying.

In general, I don't really like stories where the protagonist's major failing is imposter syndrome. I feel like it's the 2020's answer to all the clumsy (but otherwise perfect!) romance protagonists of the early aughts. It's not a real flaw (in fiction) it's just a placeholder that stands in for a different, more well-developed flaw that might drive character action or compel the reader in any way.

As much as we'd all like to think that we're perfect and just too hard on ourselves, a character who is literally, textually perfect and just too hard on herself isn't actually relatable or interesting to read about. The conclusion of a character's arc can't just be accepting that she didn't need to change.

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

*points* you've been talking a lot about ruju lately so let's do fear, guilt, hunt, and secret for him (for that ask meme) >:)

oc asks: not-so-nice edition

Ty so much for giving me an excuse to talk about The Rat™ even if this is very, VERY late... And long. Whoops. This is going under a cut, I think all of your dashes will thank me for that later.

I'll stick to just his Commander verse for this batch!

fear: What is your OC's greatest fear? What do they do when confronted with it? Are they open with their fear, or do they hide it away?

At his core, what Ruju fears most is feeling helpless.

There aren't a lot of times in the present that he's truly cornered, but in his youth it was a lot more obvious; he learned early on just how cruel his peers could be, and how eager they were to circle even the smallest hint of blood in the water. So he stopped showing the world he was scared. He buried it all deep, deep down and put on the air of confidence and aggression worn by so many Inquest because, well, nobody dares to mess with THEM, right? Better to blend in with the sharks than wind up as chum for the real deal.

But helplessness is more complicated than just being cornered in a fight. He's afraid of so much more than that; that his choices won't matter, that everything he's done will be for nothing, that forces he can't control will steamroll it all no matter what he does, that he just plain isn't enough for the role he's trying to fill. That fear only grew more and more as each dragon fell, the next picking up more and more new powers from each one he's taken down. What if he's just making it worse? What if that monstrous version of himself from the Infinity Ball was right-- what if the future really is unavoidable?

What if the one obstacle he'll never be able to surpass is himself?

Ruju doesn't let anyone see the deeper layers of his motivation, though. He pushes harder, fights fiercer, burns brighter. He won't let anyone see him falter. At its worst, it creates a vicious cycle of intense impulsiveness and aggressive independence, rushing past everyone else to reduce the number of variables and just deal with it. His solutions are direct and violent; as long as it works, he doesn't really care what the consequences are. And more importantly, it gives an outlet to his burning need to do something.

It takes a long time and a lot of work for Ruju to start trusting and leaning on others more instead. Even then, though, his most natural instinct is still to bristle like a cornered animal-- and if you jam your hand where it shouldn't be, he might not pause long enough to consider whether you're a friend or a foe. Watch your fingers, he bites.

guilt: What is your OC guilty about? How do they handle their guilt? Do they try to avoid guilt, or do they accept it?

While there's lots of little things-- rude remarks, losing his temper, impulsive choices, and so on-- those he usually apologizes for shortly after. He hates leaving things to fester. Ruju knows himself well enough to recognize that if he doesn't deal with it right then, he'll default to option 2 which isn't particularly great for anybody.

By far Ruju's heaviest guilt is the knowledge he bears of the future, and what he might become for reasons not even he understands. The only person who knows prior to EoD is Zojja-- and he had no more contact with her than anybody else by that point. While he wants to believe that he's fighting to make the world better, there's always a part of him that's afraid the 'Sovereign' was right and the path he's following is going to doom the entirety of Tyria. Ruju hopes that he's making better choices this time, but how can he know for sure?

What if he's just leading all these people right to their doom?

But he handles that just about as well as he handles his guilt about being a notorious college bully: avoidance. He just tries not to think about it, focusing on the future and keeping himself busy and hoping it never comes up again. It doesn't work particularly well, though, once the void finally shows itself-- and at that point he cracks.

Ruju has something that his other, doomed version didn't, though.

When he falters, he has people who care enough to catch him.

And once everything is out in the open, he does confront it; it's a complicated conversation (and one not even Taimi dares to make more than a single jab about) but it does lead to Ruju becoming much more honest moving forward. After all it's not like he can get any worse than THAT, right? 'Possibly causing the apocalypse' is a bit hard to beat.

hunt: Who or what is your OC hunted by? A person, a feeling, a past mistake? Is your OC able to let their guard down, or are they constantly alert?

The shadow looming over Ruju's shoulder has always been his own-- his past and his future. He never really felt its weight until the Infinity Ball showed him one of his potential futures in all its grisly, self-destructive glory, but knowing what he does now? Ruju is keenly aware of his own impulsiveness and is in a constant fight to choose a better path; in more ways than one he really is his own worst enemy.

And if not that, there's his unstable magic to worry about, too. His fiery disposition isn't just in personality; Ruju's power is destructive, and at times it can be a genuine challenge to keep it in check.

But as time progressed and he gained meaningful bonds of trust, learning to lean on his friends and allies... He's gradually come to realize that the best way to keep himself in check is to rely on people who can catch him when he stumbles. Ruju has found exactly the support network that his doomed timeline never had-- and together they ensure that the future he witnessed will never come to pass.

The Doomed Sovereign was wrong; there may be no delaying the future, but that doesn't mean you can't choose how it goes.

By the time the Dragon Cycle ends, he finally knows they've won.

secret: What's one secret your OC never wants anyone to know about them?

There's actually a reason Ruju's magic is so potent and unstable.

His parents worked at the Crucible of Eternity, with his mother being a high-ranking researcher working directly under Kudu. As a refresher crash course: Kudu's whole deal was controlling and weaponizing dragon corruption, with him even applying Branded corruption to HIMSELF so that he could control powerful dragon minions.

His mother wanted to be home more, but her position also required long hours-- so she took to bringing some research materials to her home lab, continuing her studies right under their roof. While she was out, Ruju got into her lab and tried to 'assist' with her research; after all, if all her work was done then she'd have more time to spend with her family, right? But, well, he didn't exactly know what any of this stuff was, or just how dangerous it could be.

The ensuing lab accident destroyed basically all the records they had so far, along with making him deathly ill from exposure to multiple heavily altered strains of dragon corruption. They didn't expect him to survive, let alone make a full recovery seemingly unscathed.

But when he did recover, while Ruju didn't show any obviously visible signs of dragon corruption... He did develop some extremely unusual qualities that they couldn't quite explain. A lot of the top secret research that the asura kept under wraps about dragon minions? They confirmed it from secretly studying him. The biggest breakthroughs were confirmations of dragon minions absorbing magic-- something they directly observed from him accidentally draining nearby power sources and reacting to ambient magic-- and being able to stabilize strains enough for Kudu to weaponize.

Ruju never knew about this until he got into the records at the Crucible of Eternity, though. Zojja saw it too, but they never really talked about it; after all, what was there to say?

And after seeing how the world felt about the sylvari... He decided that there was no way he could EVER tell anyone what he was.

If they couldn't even handle the comparatively stable liberated minions of a dragon, they definitely wouldn't be able to handle a medically inexplicable volatile freak like him. Most running theories in the present are that it has to do with being the Champion of Aurene, and he's certainly not about to tell them otherwise.

[geoviki]

Jian Yi:  From black-listed baby to favored Jian grandson

A few months ago when the backstory of Jian Yi’s parents was unfolding, I ran across a small article that said in Sichuan, unwed mothers would now be allowed birth certificates for their child.  Which means that before 2023, these kids and those across China didn’t have birth certificates. 

Jian Yi’s mom was an unwed mom, so how would that affect him, I wondered?  That is, if he’s living in the China in the real world, and not the one that seems to have an abundance of very fair-haired natives living there.

So I poked around the internet, like you do, and learned a lot.  I thought I’d share.  Chinese readers already know these facts and consequences, which means they’ve figured out a lot about Jian Yi’s family.

Here’s the bullet list of important facts that were in effect when Jian Yi was born:

Three important documents are normally issued when a child is born in China:

               A birth permit

               A medical certificate of birth

               A hukou, or household registration

A soon-to-be-mom has to apply for a birth permit before the birth of a child in China.  This permit means that the state authorizes a birth. 

A marriage certificate is required to obtain a birth permit.

A new mom without a marriage certificate and a birth permit is illegally violating China’s family planning policies and is frequently fined.  She must also pay all birth medical expenses herself.

After a child is born, a medical certificate of birth is issued; it shows the baby’s age, relationships and nationality.  The father must give permission to be listed on the child’s birth certificate.

With the required birth permit and the medical certificate of birth, the parents register their baby for a hukou (adding the child to their household registration) in the local police station.

if the child is born out of wedlock, the parents can still get a hukou for the baby as long as they present the results of a paternity test to prove that the child belongs to both parents. 

If a single woman chooses to give birth alone, or if the father goes missing and can't complete the paternity test, then the baby can’t obtain a hukou.

Heihaizi or "black child" is a term for children who aren’t registered in the hukou.  Being excluded from the family register, they do not legally exist.  They can’t use most public services, such as education and health care, can’t inherit or buy property, don’t get insurance coverage for medical or social purposes, can’t collect financial aid or attend school unless financial penalties are paid.  These “black-listed children” are also denied many rights as adults. They can’t apply for government or other jobs, get married and start a family, or join the armed forces.

Local governments make the rules about granting hukous to children born to unmarried parents.

Jian Yi’s mom choosing to go it alone is a much bigger deal than I thought!  A woman in her position is expected to have an abortion, as her father insisted.  When she refuses, I think she expected to reunite with her lover and marry before the birth, solving the problem.

And then he dies.

(I’m pretty sure he’s dead, or else severely handicapped and unaware of anything.  A father would not knowingly subject a mother and child to such extreme punishment for being born out of wedlock)

But…

Jian Yi is in school.  He’s using hospital facilities.  So how did his mom overcome the stigma and get that all-important hukou after her own family disowned her?

I think the Jian family stepped up and had “a little talk” with the local authorities, who could grant the hukou given enough rea$on. 

It explains why Jian Yi’s mom is so familiar with the Jian side of the family, when she hadn’t even met anyone outside of her lover before he died.  She must have gone to them for help.  I wonder if we’ll see more of her back story and watch this play out?

Just one more thing...this:

...is a horrible thing to do to a child in any culture.

[sarcasticsciencefictionwriter]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💗

Thank you! How nice! 💗

Enigmatic Confections - the Baking Show AU. Honestly, I didn't expect to enjoy this one so much, it started out as recycling a prompt to participate in my first Fictober. Also, people seem to really like it, which is nice. :)

Helen hosts a baking show. Nikola hosts a cooking show. They've hated each other since they met years ago. When their network pushes them together for a new show for the summer, they must learn to get along or suffer professional consequences. (Sactuary, Helen/Nikola, enemies-to-lovers)

The Abnormal X-File - the first multi-chapter I finished, though I don't have access to the ending right now. I adore everything about it and feel it's a very good example of my writing.

Mulder and Scully go on vacation to London in pursuit of an old story from Mulder's school days. The story leads them to a mysterious woman and the Network she runs... (Sanctuary + The X Files, Scully & Mulder friendship)

Bleeding Through the Blue - my second purely Sanctuary fic! Out of the Blue was the first episode I ever saw and I love it much. I also love Magnitt.

Helen is a painter, trying to deal with her anxiety and teetering marriage. But things are changing and she is rapidly losing sight of what is real and what isn't as she tries to hang on to her sanity. (Sanctuary, Helen/John)

Come Now, Little One... - the crossover of my two favorite shows because I heard the My Little Pony song 'Open Up Your Eyes'. Also self-indulgent in the fact that it's a dark!fic and I like those.

Sam has spent her whole life in the Sanctuary, being raised to take over by her slightly psycho mother. That life isn't the one Sam wants, but her mother has a very clear idea of what she should be. Rebelling against it for years, Sam searches for an escape from the darkening world she was raised in. (Sanctuary/Stargate SG-1, Sam and Helen mother-daughter relationship)

Bird Cage - This one is a rewrite of one of my favorite books, The Aviary, but I really enjoy how I've so far inserted Stargate and Sanctuary characters into it and mashed all three worlds together.

The rebellion against the Goa'uld in ancient Egypt failed. Since then, Earth has been under their enslavement. The Goa'uld use Earth as a pleasure planet, allowing technology progression in the interest of taking it for themselves, allowing humans some measure of power by enslaving their own people. The main commodity on Earth now is human women. Sixteen-year old Sam Carter has led a sheltered life, protected by her parents and her foster brother, Jack. But safety can only last so long. Sam falls victim to a Museum, where girls are displayed as art by day and 'entertain' men by night. Desperate for escape, Sam desperately hopes for Jack to come so they can return home to their family, while battling her mixed feelings for her new museum director. (Stargate SG-1/Sanctuary, Sam/Jack (budding), Sam/John Druitt (unrequited).)

I just realized that absolutely none of these fics are actually finished, but whatever. I love them.

[thatscarletflycatcher]

The fascinating thing about I'll Be Seeing You (1944) is that it is just so... paradoxical? Is that the word?

The plot itself is melodrama. The movie chooses to play it as naturalistic as it can be.

A lot of the plot hinges in classic tropes of mutual lies and misunderstanding. But Zack comes clean to Mary when he lies or acts erratically, the exact next time he sees her (and she trusts him). When he learns from Barbara that Mary lied about being a traveling sales-lady and that she was, in fact, in prison, he gets mad, but then he just... gets on the train. Thinks about it. Comes to the conclusion that Barbara is right about Mary not being a bad person. Comes to the conclusion that Mary didn't tell him the truth because he had made it look like so much of his recovery depended on her, and then just... goes to meet her at the entrance of the prison. No melodramatic dragged consequences. Just wounded people giving each other grace and forgiveness.

The movie deals with heavy subject matter (PTSD, sexual assault, and the justice system) but manages to do it deftly. It doesn't linger morbidly on the traumatic experiences of the characters, but doesn't trivialize them either. It avoids making sweep grand statements about any of those issues, and focuses instead on the concrete experiences of the characters it is showing us.

Sure probably a SA victim IRL wouldn't be as trusting as Mary is in the movie... it is also true that she was assaulted by her boss, a person she knew and trusted, so perhaps Zack's own strangeness felt safer to her. Sure the movie skirts the trope of "love cures mental illness", but it shows that recovery is non-linear, that the clinical treatment of Zack's PTSD helped and gave him tools to manage his condition, and that as important as his connection with Mary is (in part because it gives him a project for the future that he can work towards achieving), the fact that her family received him so well and made him feel at home was ALSO important to the progress he makes in those 8 days.

It's also interesting how the movie deals with patriotic sentiment. There's rationing going on. Mary feels bad about how her imprisonment prevents her from collaborating with the war effort. This coexists with a couple sailors being idiots, the reality of war being very small and different for the common soldier than what it appears in reels, and politicians thinking of soldiers as a mass instead of individuals with a wide range of opinions. Zack can be a war hero AND a traumatized soldier at the same time. And that's so nuanced for a wartime movie that can only address the topic as a secondary matter?

Somehow this movie about two people meeting on a train and falling head over heels in love in 8 days while making a bunch of mistakes... lands? Partly because of the great actors it has as leads, but also partly because the choice of having the couple be two people that are, for different reasons, alienated from both civilian and military life, and so they are unconsciously drawn towards each other, makes a lot of sense?

IDK. Fascinating to me.

[genericpuff]

same anon as last ask. I also have to note: i dont think there are any good reasons for domestic abuse. there are none. you said hades didnt deserve to get slapped but then had previously said "as if the victim of the slap wasn’t a guy who was just as if not more abusive than she was in that relationship in his own fucked up way". reading that it does feel like you are saying he deserved to be slap or trying to justify it. maybe you arent tho? btw i dont give a shit about that man lmao

No, and you're right! But that's always the assumption people make whenever defenses for Minthe are made - that by empathizing with Minthe, or by pointing out that Hades was just as shitty in the relationship as she was, you're excusing domestic violence and abuse - and they're very... strawmen assumptions, IMO.

(TW: abuse)

The issue with the Minthe debate is that a lot of people fail to hold every other abusive character in the comic to the same standards they hold Minthe, and they fail to recognize everything that led up to the slap.

Like, when Hecate slapped the shit out of Hades for being into Persephone, where were people then? It was played off for laughs.

But then Minthe slaps Hades once during an emotional breakdown and all of a sudden she's an irredeemable villain.

No one deserves to be physically or verbally assaulted whether or not mental health is involved. But when mental health is a factor in cases like Minthe - which it is because she was initially designed with BPD until Rachel retconned it on Discord - it's one of those "it's a reason, not an excuse" sort of deals. If LO Minthe was being written by someone who actually cared about mental health representation, she would have been given the same opportunity to grow and learn from her mistakes and past transgressions just as Hades and Persephone have been given.

Instead, Minthe is a villain for having a moment of cruelty during a breakdown, and Hades and Persephone never seem to have to own up to the shit they do. Abuse is never okay, but LO is essentially saying "abuse is okay if you're cute and rich and if you make funny meme faces while you do it."

Characters like Minthe are WAY more interesting than Hades and Persephone BECAUSE of their flaws, she isn't peddled as perfect, she's real. Minthe and characters like her are raw and genuine, they don't feel like they're putting on some act of "niceness", they feel like people, people who make mistakes and fuck up and suffer consequences for their decisions and their action. I've seen a lot of people empathize with and enjoy Minthe's character simply because they do see themselves in her, they see her vulnerabilities and her flaws and her fears and recognize that she's not perfect. Some people truly are irredeemable beyond repair, but Minthe... Minthe still had a fighting chance. We had that chance when she first dumped Thetis, it was so cathartic to see her take control of her own situation and healing... but then RS backtracked on it immediately because she accidentally made the character who she knew she wanted Persephone to turn into a plant way too empathetic. So instead she opted to dial up Minthe's shittiness to 1584923108 in order to get her audience to hate her - and to ensure anyone who did still empathize with her look abusive by extension.

She didn't need or deserve 'another chance' from Hades, or Hecate, or the other people who she had already hurt countless times. But she does deserve to give herself the chance to grow and learn and move forward to something better. We all do. It's why forgiveness is one of the most essential first steps in growth.

I'm tired of reading about H x P "forgiving" themselves for what they do with false platitudes of TherapySpeak. Because they never learn, they keep acting like shitheads and much of their behavior comes across as fake and disingenuous, like they're just putting on a show. And that's when they actually acknowledge their behavior, more often than not their bullshit is celebrated.

I don't want to celebrate abuse. I want to see character development. You can't develop or grow if you're deluded into thinking you're not doing anything wrong. Persephone and Hades have nowhere to go. Minthe had an entire life ahead of her away from Hades and Thetis... and we were robbed of the chance to witness it.

But that's just my two cents.