#and yes obviously making things worse due to his own issues

[restlesshush]

Cas is a deadbeat dad for dying in 12x23 as well tbh – like oh your super powerful baby is being born and you’re going to risk your life against Lucifer and just leave your kid with your friends who are incredibly dubious re his existence even being a good thing at all? Excellent plan

[galahadenough]

I keep thinking about Sidon, and how totk handled him. I really can't help but wonder if one of the higher ups at Nintendo stumbled onto a fic for which he was very much not the intended audience. Because while no individual thing feels like it's horrendously bad, when it all comes together something does seem a little... fishy.

First and most obviously, there's Yona. At the most basic level, that is a classic reaction to having too much shipping. Throw a fiancee into the mix. And her design is interesting. It ended up working for a lot of people, it seems, but the head shape is almost edging into a cartoony look in comparison to the other Zora, and there are no other Zora with that vivid of a color. And for me personally, the english verbal aspects (yes, yes; sure) was somewhat grating. Sidon is also a distinct color, though, and it could be an indication of royalty. But it is still such a vivid green. But she is also lovely, helpful, supportive of both Link and Sidon, and really stands on her own as a character. All of these things ended up working really well for her, but it makes me wonder about the intentions behind the design.

So, we have tick one in the fishy column. By itself it wouldn't really stand out to me, but it keeps going.

With every other sage, you find the sage and proceed to work together. It is such a feeling of companionship, and support, especially in a franchise such as Zelda that is built on solitary questing for the most part. With Sidon, he sends you off on your own for nearly every step of the way.

He sends you off to talk to Jiahto at Toto Lake.

He sends you off to find the king.

He sends you off to figure out Floating Scale Island.

Oh! Finally! He goes with you to check out the beam of light... but he stays behind when you go through the whirlpool to the Ancient Zora Waterworks. Nevermind.

He goes with you to Wellspring Island, but immediately suggests splitting up until you reach the Water Temple.

So this is fishy point number two for me. It doesn't really fit his personality and actions in the last game, and it feels very distinct from the other sages. By itself, not too weird, but we're doing math here.

The water temple feels kind of off to me too. With Tulin, you have the Stormwind Arc, a Rito myth and children's tale come to life with a thrilling ascent into the sky. With Yunobo you have the Fire Temple, a gorgeous monument to the history of the gorons, rooted in the very depths of Death Mountain itself, buried among the rocks and lava of the earth, feeling so symbolic of the earth the gorons come from. Even with Riju, with the game not quite committing to the contentious history that the Gerudo have due to their association with Ganon, you have this epic and ancient temple rising from the sand, a monument to the Gerudo's past, a part of their history consumed by the very desert they call home.

The water temple is... pretty enough. I might have been a bit more impressed if it were my first sage. But it's not that big and it doesn't feel very connected to the Zora. It's in the sky. They are fish. It uses the low gravity mechanism. Which is fun. But why?? Why here, why for the Zora who are built for water more so than running and jumping? There isn't even that much water involved outside of the vases you fill to dump on the muck. No rivers. Nothing very deep, nothing with currents, nothing involving large or natural sources of water. Just. Water facets. And weird Zonai (Zonai, not Zora) water bubble machines.

That makes fishy point number three, and in my opinion the worse point against it (tying with my next point, perhaps). A lot of this post is based on opinions, and things that could be explained away. But it feels wrong that this temple is so disconnected from the Zora.

Fishy point number four. The Mucktorok. It... I have no real issues with it existing in a Zelda game. It wasn't my favorite, and I can see how people could enjoy it. I've enjoyed hearing other's perspectives on it. It's goofy and silly. It's interesting, in a way. But it's placement in the game is what makes it feel like a deliberate snub at Sidon and the Zoras. It is the only boss that isn't cinematic. It isn't dramatic or epic, and it doesn't give a sense of danger as much as a sense of comedy. We've had enemies like that before, but they are mini-bosses. On top of that, from what I've heard, you don't even get a cool fuse weapon when you defeat one in the depths. That, to me, feels a bit deliberate.

My last point doubles as an idea for improvement, and is somewhat connected to my issues with the Water Temple. And that is Sidon's sage power. Outside of the temples I get the most use out of Tulin's ability. Then Yunobo. I don't really use Riju's ability often, but I can really see the use. But Sidon's ability really doesn't seem that useful. The shield feels like a worse version of Daruk's Protection due to the fact that you have to activate it by tracking down Sidon's shade (and I think it expires if you don't use it quickly enough?), and while not useless, I don't think a lot of people plan to be hit. And the water projectile probably isn't useless, but it seems like more trouble than it's worth when you can use an arrow, or just throw something.

Inside the Water Temple it feels even worse since that is where the ability is supposed to be showcased. I had so many splash fruit, and that was so much easier than remembering to talk to Sidon and waiting for his ability to reset. I think I only used his ability for the water spout wheels. Maybe a couple of times in the boss fight, but that felt more difficult than using the splash fruit, too.

My idea for improvement is a bit of a rework of the temple and a different ability. Sidon is shown to be able to manipulate water and currents, so his ability could be the ability to do just that. He could create a current that runs up or down a river (or through still water), the current could be a stream of water that rises up above the water, straight up or at an angle. That could be a method of travel in the temple. Instead of using those odd Zonai bubbles to travel it would be a Zora ability in the Zora temple. That would also give more of a reason to have more or larger bodies of water. You know. Having water in the Water Temple. And this is all without even considering adding some mechanic for going underwater, like is so common in Zelda games. But that is another option that would have fit so well.

I could see this temple being either in the sky or on/under ground. And this ability would be so useful outside of the temple. You could travel more easily in the water. You could use it to travel up into the air above water to get a boost up, and that could fill a little bit of the gap from the lack of Revali's Gale. It would be interesting, it would fit the character, it would be useful.

So that's five fishy points. That.. kind of got away from me, but it's been cycling through my head for a while now. And like I said at the beginning, all of these points feel fairly innocuous by themselves. It's just so many things that add up to the feeling that someone in the creators really didn't like Sidon. And that bothers me because I really like Sidon.

Despite this (not) small rant, I truly love the game and so many things about it. And the funny thing is, I don't think I would have gotten so worked up about it if I hadn't gotten the thought of some horrified high up Nintendo executive reading shark-dick porn stuck in my head. I still find that thought hilarious.

And with that, I'm off!

[levitatingbiscuits]

I love some of ur atla metas revolving katara sm! People are really hard on her, when in reality she suffered the most in the show. I think people try to use her to prop up sokkas barely existing issues so he's more relevant, and as a way to excuse aangs flaws, but you don't do that.

Thank you! I am, first and foremost, a Katara stan. I'm like Aang straight out the iceberg. 10 year old me saw her and was like OH YES SHE'S THE LOVE OF MY LIFE and that hasn't changed in 13 years.

People tend to play suffering Olympics for this show specifically to shit on katara, even though it's primarily her trauma that the narrative focuses on as a lens through which to explore the war. Tellingly, most of her suffering she goes through alone, without the support she offers to everyone else.

People try to play whataboutism with Aang and Sokka's trauma, even though the show straight up tells us that she is their living emotional crutch and the reason they were able to move on. Katara can't move on. No one helps her move on. When she tries to take matters into her own hands, to heal herself the way she heals others, she's condemned by the fandom (and Aang and Sokka that one time), called selfish and cruel and a million other things.

I especially hate when people bring up the Air Nomad genocide as a gotcha, when Katara is also the sole survivor of a genocide, a genocide she personally witnessed and was in danger of dying in. People forget that bloodbending is very obviously a metaphor for the generational trauma she inherits ON TOP of the traumatic murder of her mother, who died in her place. Katara knew very well that Yon Rha was there to kill her for her bending. Her survivor's guilt is actually worse than Aang's, even though it's less focused on, because she never truly gets over it. She spends the rest of her childhood trying to fill the empty space her mother left. And she SUCCEEDED. For her father, her brother, for everyone else she supported and mothered. For the child she named after her mom, a child that carries on the almost extinct legacy of Southern bending the way Tenzin does for Airbending, even though her importance is just as downplayed as EVERY OTHER ASPECT OF KATARA'S LEGACY INDEPENDENT OF AANG'S. Katara fills that empty maternal, caring role for EVERYONE in the gaang but zuko and herself, then she plays the same role for Korra because she's Aang's successor.

That's why it's so galling that she never got to resolve the bloodbending story herself. Sokka and Aang do it for her while she's busy trying to repopulate the Air Nomads, because God forbid she be allowed to do anything separate from her husband. Legend of Korra shits on Katara almost as much as the goddamn fandom. "She doesn't get a statue because she didn't do anything after the war but mother Aang's kids" is the actual justification bryke gave for no one honoring or idolizing her the way they do for the rest of the gaang in LOK. And God forbid she get a fight scene or even attend her own granddaughter's mastery ceremony. After all, that's Aang's legacy, not hers. She was treated like a convenient broodmare still pining for him 2 decades after his death and training and healing his successor and being neglected and isolated by her kids, because of course she's not allowed to move on and be content without him. Katara is never allowed to heal from her losses. She's always, always left to suffer in silence and deal with her pain alone.

No wonder this fandom props up Aang and Sokka by undermining Katara. The creators did it first :/

People didn't used to be such weirdos about Sokka. This is 100% a result of the ex-klance people latching on to zukka due to the superficial aesthetic similarities. Remember all those Lance stans who would insist that he's the one who suffered the most and would shit on every other character to make him look better? And transplant the character traits of other characters on to him, ESPECIALLY the girl of color popularly shipped with his supposed love interest? (Waterbender/moon spirit sokka is just altean Lance with a fresh coat of atla paint.) That's literally what they did to sokka in the "Renaissance." Before that it was primarily the hard-core kataang/aang stans insisting that Katara's narrative mattered less than the male characters'. I still remember the rape and death threats I got back in like 2018 for arguing that she deserved better than to end up a permanently benched housewife healer propping up Aang's legacy rather than securing her own in LOK. Then the zukkas came along and insisted their misogyny was woke because it was in service of fetishizing a gay ship with barely any basis in canon. (Cmon guys, jetko is RIGHT THERE and their interactions are not exclusively about one guy's various girlfriends. Just saying. Hell, Zukaang has the most basis of any atla slash ship, but people aren't attracted to Aang so they don't bother. Mark my words, the upcoming atla movie is gonna cause a zukaang Renaissance.)

That got long lol. This is probably gonna be controversial but I don't care, I'm right. Appreciate you nonnie!

[sepublic]

Come to think of it, in Labyrinth Runners Amity AND Gus, longtime friends of Willow, both struggle with shaking off that perception of Willow as weak and timid. It’s obviously worse and a greater highlight for Amity, and essentially what allowed their broken friendship to happen due to Amity never bothering to trust Willow and communicate with her regarding her parents’ ultimatum and what they should do with it...

But even Gus struggled for a bit; Because for most of his friendship with Willow, he’s known her as that timid and insecure witch! Now Gus is of course much more open-minded and ready to embrace the real Willow, something he even corrects his friend over; But at the same time, you can’t blame him for believing that Willow might ever relapse, because she DID upon realizing she made a mistake in trusting Hunter the first time, and Gus was there to see it!

We shouldn’t really blame Gus for accepting a potential relapse on Willow’s part, nor should Gus do the same to himself. And I don’t want to say his friendship with Willow is any lesser than hers with Hunter’s, they both offer different yet equally good things; Hunter has only ever known and sees Willow as she is now and has secretly always been, and that’s freeing to Willow, like a fresh start! While Gus DOES have the memory of how Willow struggled but helped her through it, and that’s also valid.

Honestly, now I’m interested in a potential arc explore if Luz also struggles with seeing Willow as strong and no longer weak... If she even needs one, because she’s known Willow as a strong witch longer than she’s known her as a weak one, even if the latter was her first impression; In their third meeting together, Luz outright appraises Willow as one of the strongest witches she knows alongside Eda, so she clearly admires the girl and is certain of Willow’s power to a foolhardy extent, hence Wing it like Witches. Yes Luz tried to help Willow for her with the memory photo, but the strength of a friend doesn’t matter to Luz because she’ll always want to prove herself useful to them, it’s not the friends’ shortcomings that are the issue but her own alone.

And now that I’m discussing it; Like Luz, Gus is kind of a people-pleaser (like trying to get his HAS to pay attention) and so that enables him to overextend and offer himself so earnestly, which just makes him even easier to take advantage of, and thus more betrayed. While also affirming that this ‘useful’ part of him (his magic; his slacking classmate and the Glandus kids only cared about that) was the only aspect of Gus that actually got people’s attention, so he may as well just take what he can get and accept that, right? Like Luz thinking all she’s good for is being helpful to her friends, offering big gestures of kindness, but dreading the idea of admitting she needs help because she doesn’t want to be a burden and undercut how helpful she is... Both of these kids have BAD cases of RSD.

[soultronica]

doflamingo's conception of family as "Me and Mine" is actually something i wrote about before as a response to the relatively common question of "can doflamingo feel love?" and it's one of my favourite ways to understand his character.

the love question comes up as a reaction to his good treatment of cora and the flashback of him adoring his mother. the assumption some people seem to make from that is that doflamingo is originally fundamentally Good, but he was shaped by his trauma and treble&co into believing his special manifest destiny as a celestial dragon, and then kills cora out of hurt betrayal when cora goes against him. i personally don't think that's right at all.

in the first place, i never really agreed with the assertion that treble&co groomed doflamingo into believing (or reinforcing his belief) that he was special, i have to assume it came from a meta posted here somewhere because i've only ever seen it on tumblr and having reread the passage in the manga multiple times it seems like a bit of a reach. sure they're the 'yes men' that surround powerful people and there's a feedback loop in there but i don't see it as anything powerful enough to actually shape his ideology. it was already shaped in childhood.

you see it in the flashbacks, baby mingo thinks he's a different breed and he's entirely unable to conceive of anyone not of the same breed as human, their suffering and hurt do not even register to him. yet he loves his mother.

this is where his character gets interesting, i think. in children's media there is a tendency to portray the bad guys as bad all around, all their emotions are evil emotions. it's kind of what you'd expect from one piece as well, after all it's what oda's done with the celestial dragons we've met so far, down to their ugly character design. but with doflamingo he gives a more accurate portrayal of a bigot.

it's not that bigots can't love, it's that their love is inherently tied into a conception of "Me and Mine".

first of all, there's an in-group ("Mine") and an out-group: all people in the out-group are not worthy of being considered, all people in the in-group count as real human beings. doflamingo loves his mother, but it's only possible because she's a celestial dragon, like him. she's one of the chosen people. so is cora as doflamingo's brother, and it's why no one from the donquixote family is allowed to touch him, it’s an actual blood crime.

it's possible however to be booted from the in-group, and that's when an individual goes against their rightful special place in the world and the group's interest/ideology as a whole. that's where doflamingo's father comes in. the trauma doflamingo suffers due to this reinforces this conception. it was particularly interesting to me that during this gruesome scene oda chooses to have the villagers recount the things their own loved ones had suffered at the hands of the celestial dragons, and it's worse than what they're doing (making this not a milquetoast "all extremism is bad" issue like again you expect from children's media, but a more complex recognition of the violence created by structural oppression). obviously none of this registers to doflamingo, it's forever irrelevant. it seems to have registered to cora, who suffered the same trauma.

the second aspect is that the whole system centers around doflamingo himself ("Me") (i think the fact that he's the oldest son possibly matters here, i'm not sure if things would've been different if cora was older). thus, it's also possible for people from the out-group to gain special status, by subserving themselves entirely to doflamingo as dictated by their natural place in the world order. and that means total subservience -- we've seen it, members of the donquixote family are meant to die for him without hesitation. here again, i think doflamingo is capable of love towards these people, though it's always within that framework. he seemed sad that monet died, while finding it entirely natural that she would. similarly i think doflamingo was genuinely fond of law, grooming him notably in tactics ie his own strength, though he was meant to die for doflamingo in the end by giving him immortality.

but again, going against the ideology is punishable by death -- cora's crime of betraying doflamingo supersedes his privileged position conferred by his blood status. but up until that point, these people are still naturally his, as is his wont. i think it's an aspect of what the post before this was about, that doflamingo naturally expected law to come back right until he really crossed the line. of course there's a practical aspect to this, because immortality is doflamingo's main goal and only law can give it to him, but i also think he considered law his until it couldn't be denied that he wasn't.

of course this is just my reading of the character! but he's one i really like for essentially this reason.

[distort-opia]

Wish people who want Bruce to kill because " realism and rationality", try and see how TERRIFYING that man would be irl- a billionaire man, with anger issues, deep rooted trauma, abusive behaviours, child soldiers, who's hobby is beating people up at night( many of them mentally ill and poor), and playing law, and has money and power to control both healthcare and police, and to acquire any weapons he pleases, has connections to important people, can pretend to be a charismatic social butterfly and then flip a switch... If someone like THAT fired a gun at the homicidal clown, even worse walked out of that free, I would not see it as some hero bringing evil down but a powerplay between very dangerous men that should both be locked up somewhere far far away...

A great point, yes. At the end of the day, there's so many problems with the "Batman should kill Joker" argument, but a big one is that almost never all aspects of the comic book world are viewed through the same lens. If you insist on judging the universe of Batman using moral standards and rules of existence that apply to our world, at least do it consistently. I mean, it's illogical to do this in the first place -- the world of comic books functions so differently compared to ours -- but hey, if they did it consistently, at least hypocrisy would be something that'd annoy me less about the whole thing. Think I saw someone go "Batman should kill Joker because I think he's annoying. Lmao but I know he never will" at some point and you know what, that person was at least aware of this being due to their own personal feelings, and aware that it's a choice utterly contradictory to Batman's character :)) Good for them. Hope they're doing well.

Because in the end, the concern is never actually realism. It's simply that some fans want to see Batman kill, for one personal reason or another, and instead of just admitting it's a preference, they insist on justifying it as the universally "morally correct" or "realistic" choice. When it's obviously not, for a plethora of reasons, including the one you've described. If you transplant the concept of Batman in the real world, it's terrifying. A person with this amount of unchecked power should never be allowed to exist in the first place. But even leaving that aside, arguing for Batman needing to kill ignores the very basis of his character; the no-killing rule is not borne out of realism or rationality on his part, it came out of trauma. Bruce will not kill because it would destroy him, most of all, and he's perfectly legitimate in making this choice. No one should be forced to take a life and ruin themselves because other people think they should. And leaving that aside too, it's not Batman's failure that criminals like Joker or many others in his Rogue gallery continue to escape and to kill, time and time again. It's mainly a failure of the legal system, if we really want to get "realistic". Sure, they keep getting off by using the insanity defense, but in a world where half of these villains have supernatural/metahuman powers and origins, it falls to the legal system to adapt in order to protect its citizens. It's not the responsibility of one individual to commit murder, in order to protect an entire city.

[sigh] Anyway, this tired debate gets rehashed again and again, and it's just best to ignore it, I've found. Discussion is only worth doing with people who are open to it; it's useless when one side has decided from the start they will never change their mind.

[rubbersoles19]

Do you intend or have you addressed a more adult theme in your AU? Something emotionally heavy or something?

Yes, very much so.

One reason I'm drawn to cartoons is because I can balance the darker tones I enjoy with cool combat, humor, cartoon physics, and more mature themes. Those are the shows I'm drawn to, or else I'll just make them into what I want them to be lol

Obviously there are some serious stuff and spoilers mentioned below.

As I've previously said, I do openly handle the themes of mental and emotional health, and seeking help for those struggles. Drake and Gosalyn have to work Hard to keep the peace between them sometimes, and sometimes they don't do a very great job of it. But they always put forth the effort to make up. That's important to show. Over the series their relationship has to grow as Gosalyn grows up, and it's not always easy. More often than not it's messy.

Studio and Gosalyn Eternal both focus pretty heavily on declining health, specifically Drake's early onset memory issues and his struggles to find medical help and a medication that don't make the problems worse. Spoilers for Gosalyn Eternal, but Drake's entire arch is his physical turmoil with his medication, diagnosis, and declining condition, and his emotional turmoil in telling Gosalyn the truth. And the Whole Point of Studio is that Drake's mind betrayed him in the most devastating way possible after suffering a mental breakdown.

Studio also deals, sometimes subtly and sometimes not, with the idea of grief, suicidal notions, and mental instability caused by years of neglect and abuse in the case of Diver. Diver followed every step of someone who is planning their own death, and openly stated he didn't expect to survive the Studio confrontation. The abuse wasn't just at the hands of his brother, either, but that'll be expanded on later in the series... Let's just say sometimes victims of abuse attract other abusers through no fault or weakness of their own, but it statistically tends to happen. Diver is one of those types of victims. He's got trauma and CPTSD due to it.

Drake deals with paranoia and Gosalyn deals with anxiety and panic attacks, and self image issues. There is a corrupt police force and a persistent, invisible enemy throughout the series so far, and Drake deals with both loving and hating Darkwing because of everything the franchise has done to him and his family, everything it's done for others, and how much the character means to him personally. Gosalyn is preyed upon and her mind very much literally screwed with without her consent, Gosalyn deals with PTSD from and before Studio, and the Mallards are both chronically and deeply Alone, despite all their friends, it's stated multiple times that the Mallard brothers came from an abusive and neglectful household, and that there's a history of suicide and mental struggles in their bloodline.

Generational trauma is a Thing.

There might be more I'm missing, but that's what I can think of now. I don't dance around any of these problems, I make an effort to call them what they are, but I don't want to linger on any of these in the narrative. The ugly parts of the story are undeniable parts of the story, but they aren't the whole story. (Though you could argue Diver's entire arch in Studio is a result of his trauma. But that was Never meant to be the end of his story.)

[domreader-headcannon-scenarios]

This might seem like a pretty out of the blue question but, how do you feel about characters that, due to trauma or a bad past, act very aggressive and/or distant to hide their fear of being hurt again?

I'm asking because, in addition to characters from series like Black Butler (Ciel), Vanitas no Carte (Vanitas) and TWST, a lot of people tend to ignore their pain just to focus on how bad of a person they are/were.

I was reading a Chinese manhua I borrowed from my friend at her place, and the main female is a girl who acts aggressive and has a short temper but it turns out that she's trapped in an unhealthy and abusive relationship with a man who's obsessed with trying to bring back his dead wife. Why is it abusive? The man makes her wear a pendant that he monitors her with, uses emotional and psychological abuse and manipulation, gaslighting, threats of r*pe and murder to control the girl's life and keep her as his bodyguard for fuck knows how long. All the while, he sleeps with and steals the souls of several people, convinced that his wife would forgive him for his infidelity (?) and cruelty.

According to my friend, a lot of people who read the manhua dislike the girl because, aside from her temper and bluntness, she slapped the main protagonist for trying to help her (he said "I'm here to help you. Stop acting like this." which triggered some bad memories. He meant no harm, mind you.) even after learning of her relationship with the man, saying stuff like "She's a powerful mage, isn't she? She'll be fine." or "She shouldn't have slapped him. This is her karma for acting bitchy."

So as someone with severe trauma and a lot of fucking issues, there is SO MUCH to unpack here if I get into detail so lemme put this here

Ok, so I don’t mean this to offend/upset anyone, and let me say, everyone responds to trauma differently, the brain isn’t programmed to handle lifelong trauma which can lead to acting out or doing odd things as trauma affects the mental state of an individual

Trauma actually is proven to mentally age children people far faster as it forces them to ‘grow’ faster (ex: Ciel, Jamil, Riddle) which can have a huge impact on their life (almost never good)

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If you act aggressive as an adult and hurt people, it doesn’t matter the trauma, you don’t have an excuse to hurt others physically or mentally, you are an adult, how you acts is on YOU. I’m told I’m overly nice (especially for someon whose literally died briefly and was physically/mentally abused for my entire child hood)

In childhood acting out with violence is common especially when uncomfortable or scared is normal and expected as they have no controlling their emotions.

Adults are different, irl im distant for dozens of reasons but I don’t take it out on people, and yes I’ve verbally gotten aggressive when accidentally (or intentionally) triggered by someone but I have a brain so I know to fucking apologize since trauma doesn’t excuse such inappropriate behavior.

For instance, I have trauma that some of characters above have, and less than others but I HATE seeing people use it to excuse shitty behavior (Twst is a HUGE example of this)

People react differently to trauma, that’s normal but once your an adult, do know you are responsible for your own decisions, for what YOU do. For instance, that woman from a manhua (idk what that is/ hadn’t read) has no right to physically slap another individual (especially one openigly stating they are tryna help) she could have fucking said ‘no’ or ‘go away’ or WALKED AWAY. Honestly she’s just making me dislike her based on that (like what was the trigger? I obviously don’t know the situation but it just seems like she wanted to take out frustrations on him)

I’ve been r*ped, beaten/abused, neglected, etc. for 23 YEARS NOW (OBVIOUSLY NOT FIR EVERY SECOND BUT STILL). How many people have I hit because of it? 0 (minus the ‘trigger’ I had while I was defending myself once but it did nothing, actually made things worse) how many people have I yelled at? A fuck ton. How many did I apologize to? Almost all of them.

I don’t give a shit when you yell at people in an argument but know this, you’re trauma doesn’t excuse what you say and due, it’s a fucking burden you’re stuck with , that has no upside. Yelling/attacking people is turning you into the monster and making others miserable and guess fucking what? OTHER PEOPLE CAN HAVE TRAUMA. What if you just fucking lashed out at someone more broken than you? You feel good now?

Lashing out isn’t a good option, she didn’t deserve what happened to her, but she has no excuse for harming the hero AT ALL, trauma isn’t an excuse to attack others to help yourself, yes when scared you want to fight but, APOLOGIZE... What, did she think hurting him would stop everyone who will and has ever existed from asking her the same thing? What if that hero has trauma and had a breakdown? Is that still ‘ok’ for her to do? No not unless it’s her abuser.

Like with that girl, aside from being resurrected and a husband, I’ve been through all the trauma she has since I was a young child (actually a lil more since there’s a LOT I’ve been through she hasn’t but I’m younger). And I’ve felt with it, so many time since then and I have breakdown often. I’ve had people who remind me of my abusive father whose almost killed me more times than I can count and I have literally permanent injuries from.

It’s ok to hurt but it’s not ok to hurt others(without concent), I know I sound like a broken record but it’s important to remember to an extent you can control your trauma, get therapy or have someone you trust who you can talk to about your feels.

Basically it’s ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ that will cause more issues and fix nothing

If someone slapped me for ASKING if they were ok, I’d fucking panic and cry, running the fuck away and avoid that person till I fucking die. Like. You hurt me for asking if you were ok. That’s not ok under any circumstances what the fuck? I’d rather die in a ditch than talk to you…at least the ditch won’t hurt me.

It’s just, so BAD to hurt someone over a circumstance like that, unless he racked her to the ground or smn that physical violence is uncalled for completely.

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[frostfall-matches]

[ matchmaking... ]

@kazuyummy : [ match report ready ]

your match is…

✦ Miya Osamu

Osamu seems to check a lot of the boxes you have in mind for an ideal partner. He’s on the quieter side, and yet he’s self-assured and confident. While he’s not the most talkative, he can carry a conversation decently and isn’t uncomfortable sharing his thoughts and opinions with you. He loves banter (it feels like a love language coming from him honestly) - and while he might go a little bit too far due to bad habits from when he and Atsumu bicker, he has no problem sucking up and apologizing. Because as much of a rascal as he can be sometimes (and thus as much as he enjoys pushing your buttons here and there), he hates making his partner feel lousy or upset. On top of all of that, your personalities complement each other well.

You meet his more toned-down personality with a brighter, more energetic one. You’re more social and really enjoy making friends, and it’s quite easy for you. While Osamu isn’t unfriendly, he’s not a social butterfly who goes out of his way to make friends. That being said, he does like having friends, and befriending you is such an easy process. He likes that you’re able to carry out a conversation, but also make it a point to listen and ask questions about the people you’re conversing with. This is especially important to him if you meet him when he’s with Atsumu - he likes when people can treat them as a pair (because for better or worse, they’re a package deal in some aspects!) but also value them as separate individuals. And you seem to do that so effortlessly!

You two are likely to butt heads fairly often, considering how stubborn each of you can be on the occasions when you decide to dig your heels in. While you two will most often butt heads over small, petty things, there may occasionally be a bigger issue you find yourselves disagreeing on. In particular, Osamu tends to kick up a fuss with your martyr habits; perceptive as he is, he is quick to pick up when you’re stretching yourself too thin. He questions why you’re sacrificing so much for others when you don’t actually need to sacrifice that much in order to still help them. And the more you dig your heels in on your perspective, the more he digs his own in. This issue in particular tends to often end in a sort of stalemate, something you each apologize about and move on from until it happens again. All that being said, though, it’s actually quite rare for you two to get into big fights, despite how stubborn you both are. Minor disagreements, yes, but you’re both quite willing to communicate and come to some sort of compromise or solution.

Obviously, Osamu is down for a good dinner date, whether you two eat out, have a picnic somewhere (for some reason he knows a lot of really good, scenic spots for picnics), or cook at home. However, he also has no qualms going on fun, adventurous dates with you. More than likely you’ll be the one proposing the more adventurous ideas, but he will happily plan them with you and quite enjoys his time once the day comes! Like, he would never have considered going sailing, for example, but he ends up having an absolute blast out on the water with you. The variety is really nice, especially as the two of you get older and he’s stuck running his restaurant all the time. (He loves his restaurant, he really does, but it’s so nice being able to get away and just focus on you for a while).

He loves how energetic, creative, and optimistic you are. Being around you is like being around his own personal sun; he feels warm around you, affectionate, and always in a good mood. It’s hard not to let your happiness and positivity influence him. You definitely get to see his warmer, playful side more often than anyone else, especially if the two of you are alone. Osamu is constantly interested in how you choose to live your life, and enjoys seeing whatever new hobby you’ve picked up recently, enjoys seeing whatever projects you start (and is endlessly amused by how many you leave unfinished). You obviously love to live life, and he’s honored you’re willing to let him into your busy life.

There’s definitely a lot of friendly competition between you two. All the sports you play? Of course, you two will try to show off and one-up the other. There are sports that you’ve played but he hasn’t, but that doesn’t stop him from giving a solid - and frankly quite good - attempt. Cooking or baking showdown? You bet; and Osamu insists he’s going to win that one. Video games, while perhaps not as frequent of a battleground for you two, are absolutely fair game as well. Osamu will pout a little if you best him (mostly just for sympathy points), but he genuinely has fun competing against you regardless of who wins.

He finds your dedication to volleyball and coaching/running camps for younger players to be both sweet and admirable. He likes that the sport that’s important to him is also important to you, and he especially likes where you tend to direct that passion and interest. Osamu is happy to supply food for the kids in the training camps that you run! And this is regardless of where your relationship is with him at the time. If you two aren’t together or even very close with him yet, he’s still happy to help because the idea of it is nice and while he doesn’t play volleyball professionally, he’s still fond of the sport and all the memories he’s made with his brother and teammates through it. If you two are together by the time you get around to asking him if he’d help supply food - great! He has the same reasoning as before, but with the added bonus of being able to do something for you.

[agena87]

ur story suck 👎🤮 kyiochi was sweet than hes a asshole its stupdi

and ur sims areugly speciality alfie 🤢🤢

OK. So, I didn't intend to answer this, BUT it made me think. Because, yes, Kiyoshi was sweet IN THE START.

So. I obviously didn't show every thing that happened in my gameplay (mainly because I was starting to get bored when things started to change). But more and more often, principally when Alfie was talking (just talking, not flirting or anything) to Wolfie or Mal, Kiyoshi would be jealous (I did show you Kiyoshi autonomously insult Mal on the pier, though). Then, once he was alone with Alfie, he would insult him or just be plain mean. All of this was AUTONOMOUS. I didn't wake up one day and decided that then-sweet-Kiyoshi would turn into an abusive bastard overnight. It started slowly and ON ITS OWN.

That's how abusive relationships (or at least some; let's not generalize) work. The abuser lures their victim with a sense of security, they will be sweet, maybe even appear devoted to their "prey". And then, the abuse will start. At first, it'll maybe "only" be a few mean words in the heat of a dispute, or a slap that the abuser will (in appearance) immediately regret. They'll swear that it'll never happen again. Yet, it will. And each time it'll be worse and worse.

Also, Kiyoshi is a domestic abuser, which mean that he would abuse his victim (here, Alfie) only when alone with him. So, obviously, he would not show this kind of behaviour while in the presence of Alfie's family (who he lived with); that why the few fights I did show in my gameplay, were always in isolated places, with no witnesses.

And Kiyoshi also has a very short fuse and some angry management issues (mainly due to the treatment he, and his family, suffered from his own father, a fellow domestic abuser; WHICH IS NO EXCUSES!), hence the beating Wolfie received. And no, the fact that Al cheated on him with Wolfie does not justify violence.

I never intended for the story to take this dark turn. I even made them promise to each other not long after Kiyoshi started living with Alfie and his family (and I really wanted them to have a happy future together), but It was clear after a few, that Kiyoshi was not as sweet as he appeared and that he was hiding a very dark part of himself, hence where we at now, story-wise.

TL;DR: Kiyoshi started as a sweet kid, but quickly showed signs of an abusive nature, and I rolled with it. DEAL WITH IT!

--

(as for the "ugliness" of my sims? I don't make supermodels, I make real people; but I don't think they are ugly either*)(also, why is Alfie specifically uglier than others?🤔)

*I did have made purposely "ugly" (as in: not universally-seen-as-pretty) sims, but they aren't in this story. Also, who cares if they are ugly or not?

[terminaxshowtime]

1 to 5 with any of your comfort blorbos :]

OKAY! As always, my current "main" comfort blorbo is a bit complicated and will make anyone go 'huh' if they haven't read one specific fanfic so I'll go with my secondary one :]

Massive Gravity Falls spoilers ahead! DO NOT scroll if you haven't watched. Because I will find a way to force you, one day.

this is about stanley pines :)

1. how long have i known about them

Since I first started watching Gravity Falls, which is only around 2 years ago. Kinda pathetic, I know, but it's unfortunately true. I don't think I ever heard of him before it, though.

2. whether or not they’ve ever made me cry

I shed a few tears in the finale, but that was also out of happiness? And I've cried rivers upon rivers whilst reading fanfic. Oh my god, my Stangst fanfic addiction might've been a little unhealthy.

3. whether or not i have any merchandise/objects with them

Yes? Kinda? He's mentioned a fuckton in Journal 3, which I have. Which makes sense. He's a main character. Also I just remembered I have Lost Legends. He's definitely in that.

4. what about their personality i like

Oh my god, what SHOULDN'T I like?

First of all, he's a conman. A wonderful conman who I fucking love. He is the guy ever. I love liars and I love conmen. He just has that vibe where he knows what he's doing and doesn't at the same time.

Second of all, he commits crimes. I fucking love crime. Tax evasion forever and whatnot. I love the way he just does not hesitate to do whatever the fuck he wants, illegal or not.

And of course, he is so fucking awesome. He is a badass who punches dinosaurs and dream demons and stuff all in the name of his family and the people he cares about. Like, he does all these terrible things, but it's all for his family and the people he cares about, and it's amazing.

Then, you know, he's funny. Funny, silly, you think he's just a funny old guy (who is Not Okay but you don't know that yet) and he is! Even though there's all these terrible things he got better and has fun around Soos and the kids.

He is neurodivergent as fuck. Have you fucking seen child and teen stan. Have you read Lost Legends?! He absolutely has ADHD, do NOT argue this with me, BECAUSE I AM RIGHT.

I literally cannot describe his personality because there's no words that really can describe it. But I fucking love him.

5. what about their backstory makes me emotional

What fucking WOULDN'T make me emotional?!?!?!?!

Okay, first of all, he was constantly berated as a child for not being able to control himself and his impulses, having the best of intentions but always messing up, to which his father verbally abused him.

When he was a teen it only got worse, and he got some pretty bad self-worth issues due to everyone calling him essentially an idiot and just overall useless. Like what the hell.

And then he got rejected by Ford, the only person he really cared what he thought of him, and got kicked out of his house onto the streets at the age of 17???!?!?!?? Like hello?? Is that legal?????!?!?!??!

He was forced to do some pretty bad shit to stay alive, likely dealing with illegal stuff and maybe getting cursed or whatever, completely in debt and forgotten by his family, until one day Ford called him over after 10 years...

...only to find out that he just wanted him to take some journal and leave, get as far away from him as possible. Understandably, this makes more sense in Ford's perspective, but Stan doesn't know shit and he didn't even get an explanation, so he was rightfully pissed off.

They fought, and he got branded, which made him even more pissed and he didn't even hear Ford's brief apology (God this whole scene tears my heart apart and stomps on the pieces) and then he pushes his brother into the portal, and-

He doesn't hesitate to fake his own death, but obviously feels remorse at accidentally taking his brother's identity. Like, he had to pretend to his family for 30 whole years that he was Stanford when he wasn't. What the hell.

And then after 30 long, hard years- of learning physics, and sciences, and whatever he needed to turn on the portal and get his brother back, persisting despite always being told how fucking stupid he was- his brother punched him in the face and yelled at him.

No wonder he was, once again, pissed.

Of course I was emotional about his backstory. What the fuck.

[merrilark]

I keep seeing the argument that Five only ever did what he did for his family. which is true from his perspective, but ignores the fact that he actually went against his family's wishes a lot if not most of the time. in season 1 he worked mostly alone, only offered bits and pieces to his siblings who sometimes got frustrated with him, sometimes were the source of frustration for him. but you know, it was difficult circumstances, they had a strange dynamic after so many years apart, yadayada. season 2 is in some ways worse: his siblings actively tell him they don't want to help and/or leave the 60's. yes, he has very good reason to make them and forbid them from bringing their loved ones along but I think we can at least agree the way he went about that was pretty shoddy (but in character for him). also, he once again did stuff on his own without telling anyone (killing the board members). season 3 sees the roles reversed: Five is the one who doesn’t give a fuck anymore, which is understandable. now he's the one getting dragged along unwillingly (in some cases). let's not forget Allison didn't make the decision that Harlan had to die by herself, the whole reason Five gave his villain speech to Viktor was a result of the majority vote (it was also lowkey ironic that he of all people gave that speech). she didn't have to kill him herself but she also didn't just do it out of nowhere. I realise Allison's actions seem more extreme because they are "out of character" after she had to be the bigger person for 2 seasons, while Five was never portrayed as anyone but the killer assassin who did his own thing regardless of what his family wanted, even when they were children. and obviously his power is very different from Allison's, so when he uses it against his siblings it doesn't have the same negative connotations to them and is. (pointing this out because luther, viktor, ben and Allison abusing their powers has very different consequences to Five, Diego and Klaus. just take Luther and how much the fandom hated him in season 1 -- and ironically, loves him now even though he still misuses his powers for his own gain.) there's a reason the sibs called Five arrogant and an asshole in season 1, and was appalled by what Allison did in season 3. only instead of talking about it and helping each other, they let Allison go off the rails until it was too late to stop her. calling her a villain because she said fuck this shit I'm done playing nice, and everyone letting her get away with it is a bit of a cop-out I think, because this family has continuously failed at holding each other accountable and working through things together, as a family should. you don't just become a villain over night. Diego realised this after she blew up at Viktor but let's just say his method of blowing off steam only addressed part of the issue, and did little more than to slap a bandaid on it. to quote the eternal words of uncle Ben: with great power comes great responsibility, and we've seen the fallout of Peter shirking that responsibility even just for five seconds and out of spite. if Allison wasn’t who she is, she couldn't have hurt Luther or Viktor the way she did. it's just that she, especially with her power upgrade, now has a very similar problem tothe one Viktor had in season 1 (and to a lesser extent 2): her ability has become hard to control and VERY easy to abuse. especially for someone absolutely losing her mind due to grief, PTSD, and the general craziness of time travel, multiple apocalypses, and being crushed by the pressure she's been putting herself under, to be the most perfect and poised version of herself, her entire life. we excused Viktor killing Pogo and losing his shit at Allison because of his circumstances. why is Allison somehow put on this pedastal where she has to be the bigger person at all times, whose power-induced rage is regarded morally worse than that of her brothers?

I think my point is being misunderstood—and tbh I may have explained myself poorly so I apologize for that. But I'm not saying that Allison has to be "the bigger person" at all, or that I don't understand why she did what she did. I'll be the first to defend, sympathize with, and praise Allison's characterization in S3 and why it is extremely in-character. I'm not arguing that whatsoever. I love her, and I think her development in S3 is some of the best and most realistic in the entire show.

What I am arguing is that it's fair to consider her arc in S3 a villain (or perhaps more accurately put "anti-hero") arc because of the intentions behind her actions and the way the story itself frames those actions.

Five went against his family's wishes and frustrated them, yes, and wasn't always nice to them, but what he did was still for them, the protagonists, and none of his actions had a significant negative affect on the protagonists. This still makes him a narrative hero.

But the bulk of Allison's decisions harmed her family in much bigger, more direct ways, and what she did was for herself. It doesn't matter that the Umbrellas made a group decision to give Harlan to the Sparrows, what matters is that she made the decision to kill Harlan herself, something that she knew would hurt Viktor. Actively and consistently hurting the protagonists and being aware that she's hurting the protagonists for her own gain would make her a narrative antagonist, wouldn't it?

I think that, too, the awareness and willingness to hurt the protagonists anyway, is what makes her actions different from Viktor's in S1 and why I don't consider Viktor the first season's villain (that award goes to Reginald and especially Leonard). Regardless of the fact that both Allison and Viktor's actions were the result of PTSD and suffering a breakdown, Viktor was not aware of what he was doing as evidenced by his trance-like (fugue?) state when he became White Violin and at least partially his amnesia in S2.

Obviously Viktor is not blameless, none of the Umbrellas are, but I think the situations are different enough that Viktor and Allison can't be directly compared 1:1. And neither can Allison and Five—irritating his siblings, killing (not-innocent) board members that had 0 emotional relevance to the protagonists, and forbidding his family from bringing along their love interests into the future are hardly the same as Allison sexually assaulting Luther or killing the closest thing Viktor had to a child.

I'm not saying that Allison is evil, or some big, irredeemable bad. I'm not saying that her actions aren't sympathetic or in-character, or not a direct result of mountains of trauma. She's not even the most "villain" villain—that will always be Reginald, who is the core of all the Umbrellas' problems—but I am saying that by definition, she is an antagonist in S3 and her actions could be interpreted as villainous, as that is how the writing frames those actions. She may not be a full blown villain, but she certainly was heading that way, which could be the start of a villain arc (which is the primary point that started this debate; that whether or not it's fair to say that Allison had a villain arc in S3). Whether this carries over into S4 or not doesn't really matter. The point is that her arc in S3 as an antagonistic character could be considered the start of one.

Again, viewing Allison this way is not an insult to her character. If people disagree with me, that's okay, in the end it's just my personal interpretation, but I think that it is possible to see a character's actions as villainous while still sympathizing with them and understanding why they do what they do.

(Also, because I'm very sleepy and couldn't figure out where to squeeze this question organically into my reply, what do you mean by Allison's "power-induced rage"? Do you mean her rumoring herself? Because I really do not think that is the case. Saying Allison's actions are solely caused by her rumoring herself and not something she was aware of doing erases her responsibility for what she did in S3 but also the signs that she was capable of abusing her power this way in previous seasons. I wrote a meta some time ago that explains why I'm not totally convinced of that theory here.)

[the-lunar-system]

I’d like to preface this post by saying that I love Stardew Valley. It’s a comfort game, and I have over 500 hours logged on Steam. That being said, as a disabled person, it sometimes makes me very, very upset. Why? Because of  the casual ableism in how it treats George Mullner.

George Mullner is a character in Stardew Valley who uses a wheelchair. He’s an older man, and generally pretty grumpy. He spends most of his time inside his house, watching television. With how the other villagers treat him, I don’t blame him. George later reveals in his six heart cutscene that he uses a wheelchair due to an injury working in the old mines, not because of his age.

So what’s the big deal? There’s a disabled character in the game, isn’t that a good thing? Yes, but. The way that other characters treat George, the only disabled person in the game, is where the trouble comes in.

In Harvey’s two heart cutscene, you walk into George’s house, and accidentally interrupt a house call by the doctor. He is telling George to make some “lifestyle changes,” telling him to reduce sodium and do some moderate exercise with his arms. (George’s sprite indicates that he self propels his wheelchair, which requires a lot of upper body strength. He’s already getting exercise through that.) George responds to Harvey, saying that he knows his own body, and doesn’t appreciate being told what to do with it. Harvey replies that he is a doctor, and spent 8 years in school, and thus he knows what’s best for George. They then notice the player, and George requests your second opinion. Your options are:

A) Tell George to follow Harvey’s advice. This option gets you +40 friendship points with Harvey, and is marked green on the Wiki. It’s obviously the choice the game wants you to make. Harvey reiterates that he is only trying to help, and George capitulates. 

B) Say that George does know his own body. This option gets you -40 friendship points with Harvey. Harvey sighs, and threatens to tell George’s wife on him. George begrudgingly capitulates, and Harvey lectures you for sending his patient mixed messages.

What’s so bad about this? For one, doctors don’t always know best, especially when it comes to their disabled patients. If I had just listened to the first doctor I talked to about my disability, instead of self advocating and getting another, my degenerative condition would have gone undiagnosed and untreated for much longer. Potentially years. As a disabled person myself, I believe George when he says he knows his own body, because I know how wrong doctors can be. 

The other main issue with this cutscene is how infantilized George is. He’s a grown man in his own doctor’s appointment, even if he is making a mistake in not listening to Harvey, he’s a grown man, and entitled to his own choices. But Harvey threatens to tattle to George’s wife about it. He’s treating George like a child, unable to make his own decisions, who has to be “managed” by his more abled partner. 

The second ableist cutscene is Penny’s two heart cutscene, and in my opinion, this one is much worse. In it, George is checking his mailbox. He tries to reach a letter wedged in the back, and has some difficulty. He asks himself how he is going to reach it. Penny sees him, and comes over. She grabs his wheelchair and pushes him out of the way, grabbing the letter for him. George gets upset at Penny for treating him like he’s helpless. At this point the player comes on screen, and Penny asks if you were watching. The player has three options:

A) Say that no, you were just walking by. This has no effect on friendship.

B) Tell her she did a kind thing. Penny thanks you. This option gives you +50 friendship points, and is marked in green on the Wiki. It is the choice the game wants you to make. 

C) Tell Penny she should have asked George before trying to help. Penny then apologizes to George, but you lose 50 friendship points with her. This is obviously not what the game wants you to do.

Regardless of what option you take, George apologizes to Penny for snapping at her. Penny asks the player what they think about growing old. 

What’s bad about this scene? Well, for starters, by moving George’s wheelchair without consent, Penny commits assault. But George is framed as being unreasonable, because he’s upset that he was physically assaulted. Penny is a great character, and I love her, but in this cutscene she is both legally and morally in the wrong. And while the game does technically give you the option to call her out for it, it’s barely there, and strongly discouraged by gameplay. The real kicker is that this is the new dialogue for this interaction, as changed by the 1.4 update, *in an attempt to make it less ableist.*

Lastly, in George’s six heart event, he expresses quite a bit of internalized ableism. He says he wishes he could get up from “this infernal chair.” He tells the story of how thirty years ago, he was injured in a coal mining accident. There is no option for player interaction.

This cutscene is one that is somewhat more nuanced for me. It is true that some people hate that they’re disabled or need a wheelchair, especially in older generations. Internalized ableism is a real and terrible thing. The issue with it is that George is a fictional character, as written by a real person, who as far as I know is abled. And this is the problem. When a disabled character is written as having internalized ableism by an abled creator, that’s not internalized ableism, that’s just plain ableism. Why is it that almost every disabled character hates themselves or their disability? Why are they always unhappy? 

Why does Stardew Valley have these scenes, and this ableism? Is it somehow important to the plot, or the characters? I don’t think so. And for me, and other disabled people playing the game as a form of escapism, or because the Valley is supposed to be a better place, It’s simply a jarring reminder that the real world hates us.

[devildomdisaster]

I’d like to request a body switching scenario with [Satan, Asmo, Beelz, Solomon, Simeon] and an Gender Neutral MC with undisclosed chronic health issues. Like brittle bones that break if you step a little goofy, stress ulcers, sensitivity to light, joint pain, poor stamina, etc. I just want to see the boys go “You live like this?!”

Satan:

Satan has a habit of collecting rare magical objects. Somehow quite a few of these cause body-switching incidents.

The cursed object causes the two of you to lose consciousness for a few minutes. When he wakes up he is in immediate pain.

His first thought is that the spell must have caused this and you must be in pain too! If he, a demon, is in this much pain it must be excruciating for a human.

He rushes to you or tries to. But falls to his knees in shock as a shooting pain runs through him.

He blinks watering eyes and sees his body stirring on the floor and realizes you’ve switched bodies.

You sit up feeling better than you’ve felt in years. Wondering if this is ‘normal’ or if that cursed object gave you super healing.

It’s only when you hear your own voice calling your name that you realize you and Satan have switched bodies.

You can see the tears in his(your body's) eyes and know exactly what's happening. You’ve had chronic pain for years. And Satan is sitting in just the right way to send shooting pain up your spine.

“Lay down on your back,” you order him. He has just enough control to follow your order and lower your body down slowly.

You can see Satan’s relief on your face as the pain eases slightly. It takes a moment for the worst of the pain to subside and his breath to even out.

He’s staring at the ceiling when he speaks, voice still a little shaky, “You live like this?”

You hum out a yes.

“All- all the time?” he asks, horrified.

“Sometimes it's worse than others. If I move or sit in certain ways it gets real bad. But if I avoid those movements it’s bearable.”

Satan turns to you “This is what you call bearable?!”

You shrug, “That position is usually pretty safe. So yeah probably.”

He is careful to move your body a little as possible as he shifts to point at a spellbook. “That book-”

“Are you going to change us back?” you ask.

“I-” he hesitates. Clearly not wanting you to be in pain again.

“Look, Satan it’s not that I don’t enjoy being pain-free. But I’ve dealt with it for years now. I’ve learned how to function around it. I had to. You on the other hand are going to be laying on the floor for most of the day if you stay in my body.”

“I’m going to find a way to fix you.” He says firmly as you place the book in his hands.

“Promises, promise,” you sing, preparing yourself to experience the pain in your body again.

“I mean it. As soon as I can move again I am going to find a way to help you. Devildom magic has to be better than human medicine.”

Asmo:

Asmo bought you matching bracelets. “Look Mc, I bought us these bracelets! They are supposed to bring us closer together!”

Well, they did bring you closer together. Just not in the way Asmo intended.

When he clasped the bracelets on, you felt a shiver go down your spine and when you opened your eyes you felt...different. Better. There was no aching pain. For once the dazzling lights of Asmo’s room didn’t cause you to wince. That's when you realize you’ve switched bodies.

Asmo on the other hand immediately cringed and squeezed his eyes closed, clutching his(your) head.

Asmo groaned pitifully, teary eyes squinting at you “Mc, how do you do anything like this??”

He curls up beneath his covers, and you make your way around his room turning off all the lights and closing his curtains. Once the light is gone, Asmo peers out from beneath the covers, “Do you live like this all the time?”

“Mostly, yeah.”

“No wonder your room is so dark. I thought you were just being dramatic.”

You shrug at him, “The Devildom is better than the human realm. There’s no bright sunlight here.”

Once the spell wears off, Asmo keeps the bracelet on both as a reminder of how you live with this chronic illness and as the intended purpose of showing how close the two of you are.

He buys you super dark glasses to try and filter out some of the bright light that bothers you.

and asks Solomon to help him find any magical treatments that might help you.

Beel:

Beel and you switch bodies after eating some of Solomon’s cooking.

Neither of you wants to eat Solomon’s cooking, but you had the misfortune to be the only two people who couldn’t find an excuse to get out of it.

Beel doesn’t know how it happened, Solomon doesn’t know how it happened, you sure as hell don’t know how this happened. But here you are with a strange magic ‘cake’ in hand, looking at your body from Beel’s eyes.

Your first thought is how strong you feel in Beel’s body. Like you could do anything. The exhaustion and joint pain you normally deal with is gone.

Is this how normal people live? Although you suppose a demon doesn’t count as a normal human, so it’s not such a good comparison.

You watch as Beel catches himself on the counter as he adjusts to the symptoms of your illness.

He lowers your body to the ground. Sitting gingerly as the movement causes the joint pain to flare.

“Mc, is this how you feel every day?” He is so so concerned about you! How do you function if you feel like this all the time? “Why haven’t you told anyone about this?”

“It’s ok, Beel. I’ve figured out how to deal with it.”

“It is not ok. Mc, we could have helped you!”

It’s strange to be lectured by your own voice and body. But Beel does a good job of it. He insists that you have to tell him when your symptoms act up and convinces you to let him speak with Lucifer about trying some magical treatments.

The potion doesn’t wear off for several hours. You feel a tad bit guilty about enjoying this when Beel is so obviously suffering, but you can’t remember the last time you felt so good. So capable.

Once the spell wears off Beel insists on carrying you around so you aren't as fatigued and to avoid aggravating your joint pain.

Be prepared for trying a string of different potions and spells to treat your illness, under the watchful eyes of Beel and Lucifer.

Solomon:

After hearing about Lucifer and Satan’s body-switching incident Solomon went looking for another cursed book.

He’d heard some rumor about Satan’s book having a twin and was determined to find it.

And find it he did.

You accidentally touched the book at the same time as him and switched bodies.

Solomon is more intrigued than anything else. “Do you live like this all the time? If so, you do a remarkable job of hiding it.”

He is going to test the limits of your body’s capabilities. He wants to know what situations cause pain or discomfort so that you can’t pretend to be ok when you aren’t.

You’ll have to warn him if he is doing anything that might permanently harm your body.

Unlike some of the others, Solomon doesn’t immediately look for a way to switch back.

When the spell wears off Solomon has a near-complete understanding of your condition. He knows what causes pain, what doesn’t, and what situations you should absolutely avoid.

“Mc, you need to stop pretending you are ok when you’re not. I’ll be here to help you when you need it. And if that help happens to be stopping you from doing foolish things to save face then so be it.”

Solomon keeps a close eye on you from now on. He respects you enough to not tell anyone about your condition if you don’t want him to, but he will also come up with the strangest excuses to remove you from activities he knows will aggravate your condition.

If there is magic that can be used to help you Solomon will find it. Just be prepared to feel a little bit like a lab rat while he figures out the perfect spell or potion to help you.

Simeon:

Simeon wants to know what it feels like to be human. He thinks it would give him a greater understanding of humanity.

He mentions this to Solomon, who being the chaos loving wizard he is, makes a potion to allow Simeon to switch bodies with you.

The problem occurs when Solomon 'forgets’ to tell you both that he’s already put the potion in your tea.

Simeon is shocked. He finds himself in your body. Looking at himself through your eyes. And by god does your body hurt!

“Mc, I’m dreadfully sorry, but I think Solomon’s little joke may have gone wrong. I-everything hurts.”

You blink at Simeon...er Simeon in your body. Mind taking a moment to catch up with the sudden body switch. You feel great. Part of that might be due to being in an angel's body, but mostly it's due to the lack of pain.

“Oh, everything's fine on my end. So it must be my chronic pain. It’s worse today than others.”

“Wh-what do you do when it’s bad?”

“Usually I try to distract myself. Or try to take a nap and hope I wake up feeling better. But we’d made plans and I didn’t want to cancel so…”

“So you decided to deal with extra pain for my sake? Oh, Mc. You should have told me you live like this. I can help”

“There’s no point, Simeon. Not a single doctor I’ve been to has found anything wrong with me. I didn’t want anyone here to pity me.”

“I am an angel, Mc. I’m quite sure I can do a bit more than your human doctors.”

You help Simeon to his room where you spend the afternoon watching human world movies to help distract him.

Simeon sleeps fitfully next to you and as you drift off you wonder if that is how you always look when you let your guard down enough to show your pain.

When the potion wears off you are both asleep, curled up next to each other.

When you wake up you are back in your own body. Simeon is sitting next to you slipping a charmed bracelet onto your wrist. “This is from the Celestial realm. It should help keep your pain at a more manageable level until I can find a more permanent solution.”

[duckprintspress]

Ten Things We Hate About Trad Pub

Often when I say “I’ve started a small press; we publish the works of those who have trouble breaking into traditional publishing!” what people seem to hear is “me and a bunch of sad saps couldn’t sell our books in the Real World so we’ve made our own place with lower standards.” For those with minimal understanding of traditional publishing (trad pub), this reaction is perhaps understandable? But, truly, there are many things to hate about traditional publishing (and, don’t get me wrong - there are things to love about trad pub, too, but that’s not what this list is about) and it’s entirely reasonable for even highly accomplished authors to have no interest in running the gauntlet of genre restrictions, editorial control, hazing, long waits, and more, that make trad pub at best, um, challenging, and at worst, utterly inaccessible to many authors - even excellent ones.

Written in collaboration with @jhoomwrites, with input from @ramblingandpie, here is a list of ten things that we at Duck Prints Press detest about trad pub, why we hate it, and why/how we think things should be different!

(Needless to say, part of why we created Duck Prints Press was to...not do any of these things... so if you’re a writer looking for a publishing home, and you hate these things, too, and want to write with a Press that doesn’t do them...maybe come say hi?)

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1. Work lengths dictated by genre and/or author experience.

Romance novels can’t be longer than 90,000 words or they won’t sell! New authors shouldn’t try to market a novel longer than 100,000 words!

A good story is a good story is a good story. Longer genre works give authors the chance to explore their themes and develop their plots. How often an author has been published shouldn’t put a cap on the length of their work.

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2. Editors assert control of story events...except when they don’t.

If you don’t change this plot point, the book won’t market well. Oh, you’re a ten-time bestseller? Write whatever you want, even if it doesn’t make sense we know people will buy it.

Sometimes, a beta or an editor will point out that an aspect of a story doesn’t work - because it’s nonsensical, illogical, Deus ex Machina, etc. - and in those cases it’s of course reasonable for an editor to say, “This doesn’t work and we recommend changing it, for these reasons…” However, when that list of reasons begins and ends with, “...because it won’t sell…” that’s a problem, especially because this is so often applied as a double standard. We’ve all read bestsellers with major plot issues, but those authors get a “bye” because editors don’t want to exert to heavy a hand and risk a proven seller, but with a new, less experienced, or worse-selling author, the gloves come off (even though evidence suggests time and again that publishers’ ability to predict what will sell well is at best low and at worst nonexistent.)

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3. A billion rejection letters as a required rite of passage (especially when the letters aren't helpful in pinpointing why a work has been rejected or how the author can improve).

Well, my first book was rejected by a hundred Presses before it was accepted! How many rejection letters did you get before you got a bite? What, only one or two? Oh…

How often one succeeds or fails to get published shouldn’t be treated as a form of hazing, and we all know that how often someone gets rejected or accepted has essentially no bearing on how good a writer they are. Plenty of schlock goes out into the world after being accepted on the first or second try...and so does plenty of good stuff! Likewise, plenty of schlock will get rejected 100 times but due to persistence, luck, circumstances, whatever, finally find a home, and plenty of good stuff will also get rejected 100 times before being publishing. Rejections (or lack there of) as a point of pride or as a means of judging others needs to die as a rite of passage among authors.

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4. Query letters, for so many reasons.

Summarize all your hard work in a single page! Tell us who you’re like as an author and what books your story is like, so we can gauge how well it’ll sell based on two sentences about it! Format it exactly the way we say or we won’t even consider you!

For publishers, agents, and editors who have slush piles as tall as Mount Everest...we get it. There has to be a way to differentiate. We don’t blame you. Every creative writing class, NaNoWriMo pep talk, and college lit department combine to send out hundreds of thousands of people who think all they need to do to become the next Ernest Hemingway is string a sentence together. There has to be some way to sort through that pile...but God, can’t there be a better way than query letters? Especially since even with query letters being used it often takes months or years to hear back, and...

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5. "Simultaneous submissions prohibited.”

No, we don’t know when we’ll get to your query, but we’ll throw it out instantly if you have the audacity to shop around while you wait for us.

The combination of “no simultaneous submissions” with the query letter bottleneck makes success slow and arduous. It disadvantages everyone who aims to write full-time but doesn’t have another income source (their own, or a parents’, or a spouse’s, or, or or). The result is that entire classes of people are edged out of publishing solely because the process, especially for writers early in their career, moves so glacially that people have to earn a living while they wait, and it’s so hard to, for example, work two jobs and raise a family and also somehow find the time to write. Especially considering that the standard advice for dealing with “no simultaneous submissions” is “just write something else while you wait!” ...the whole system screams privilege.

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6. Genres are boxes that must be fit into and adhered to.

Your protagonist is 18? Then obviously your book is Young Adult. It doesn’t matter how smutty your book is, erotica books must have sex within the first three chapters, ideally in the first chapter. Sorry, we’re a fantasy publisher, if you have a technological element you don’t belong here…

While some genre boxes have been becoming more like mesh cages of late, with some flow of content allowed in and out, many remain stiff prisons that constrict the kinds of stories people can tell. Even basic cross-genre works often struggle to find a place, and there’s no reason for it beyond “if we can’t pigeon-hole a story, it’s harder to sell.” This edges out many innovative, creative works. It also disadvantages people who aren’t as familiar with genre rules. And don’t get me wrong - this isn’t an argument that, for example, the romance genre would be improved by opening up to stories that don’t have “happily ever afters.” Instead, it’s pointing out - there should also be a home for, say, a space opera with a side romance, an erotica scene, and a happily-for-now ending. Occasionally, works breakthrough, but for the most part stories that don’t conform never see the light of day (or, they do, but only after Point 2 - trad pub editors insist that the elements most “outside” the box be removed or revised).

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7. The lines between romance and erotica are arbitrary, random, and hetero- and cis-normative.

This modern romance novel won’t sell if it doesn’t have an explicit sex scene, but God forbid you call a penis a penis. Oh, no, this is far too explicit, even though the book only has one mlm sex scene, this is erotica.

The difference between “romance” and “erotica” might not matter so much if not for the stigmas attached to erotica and the huge difference in marketability and audience. The difference between “romance” and “erotica” also might not matter so much if not for the fact that, so often, even incredibly raunchy stories that feature cis straight male/cis straight female sex scenes are shelved as romance, but the moment the sex is between people of the same gender, and/or a trans or genderqueer person is involved, and/or the relationship is polyamorous, and/or the characters involved are literally anything other than a cis straight male pleasuring a cis straight female in a “standard” way (cunnilingus welcome, pegging need not apply)...then the story is erotica. Two identical stories will get assigned different genres based on who the people having sex are, and also based on the “skill” of the author to use ludicrous euphemisms (instead of just...calling body parts what they’re called…), and it’s insane. Non-con can be a “romance” novel, even if it’s graphically described. “50 Shades of Gray” can sell millions of copies, even containing BDSM. But the word “vagina” gets used once...bam, erotica. (Seriously, the only standard that should matter is the Envelope Analogy).

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8. Authors are expected to do a lot of their own legwork (eg advertising) but then don't reap the benefits.

Okay, so, you’re going to get an advance of $2,500 on this, your first novel, and a royalty rate of 5% if and only if your advance sells out...so you’d better get out there and market! Wait, what do you mean you don’t have a following? Guess you’re never selling out your advance…

Trad pub can generally be relied on to do some marketing - so this item is perhaps better seen as an indictment of more mid-sized Presses - but, basically, if an author has to do the majority of the work themselves, then why aren’t they getting paid more? What’s the actual benefit to going the large press/trad pub route if it’s not going to get the book into more hands? It’s especially strange that this continues to be a major issue when self-publishing (which also requires doing one’s own marketing) garners 60%+ royalty rates. Yes, the author doesn’t get an advance, and they don’t get the cache of ~well I was published by…~, but considering some Presses require parts of advances to get paid back if the initial run doesn’t sell out, and cache doesn’t put food on the table...pay models have really, really got to change.

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9. Fanfiction writing doesn't count as writing experience

Hey there Basic White Dude, we see you’ve graduated summa cum laude from A Big Fancy Expensive School. Of course we’ll set you up to publish your first novel you haven’t actually quite finished writing yet. Oh, Fanperson, you’ve written 15 novels for your favorite fandom in the last 4 years? Get to the back of the line!

Do I really need to explain this? The only way to get better at writing is to write. Placing fanfiction on official trad pub “do not interact” lists is idiotic, especially considering many of the other items on this list. (They know how to engage readers! They have existing followings! They understand genre and tropes!) Being a fanfiction writer should absolutely be a marketable “I am a writer” skill. Nuff said. (To be clear, I’m not saying publishers should publish fanfiction, I’m saying that being a fanfiction writer is relevant and important experience that should be given weight when considering an author’s qualifications, similar to, say, publishing in a university’s quarterly.)

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10. Tagging conventions (read: lack thereof).

Oh, did I trigger you? Hahahaha. Good luck with that.

We rate movies so that people can avoid content they don’t like. Same with TV shows and video games. Increasingly, those ratings aren’t just “R - adult audiences,” either; they contain information about the nature of the story elements that have led to the rating (“blood and gore,” “alcohol reference,” “cartoon violence,” “drug reference,” “sexual violence,” “use of tobacco,” and many, many more). So why is it that I can read a book and, without warning, be surprised by incest, rape, graphic violence, explicit language, glorification of drug and alcohol use, and so so much more? That it’s left to readers to look up spoilers to ensure that they’re not exposed to content that could be upsetting or inappropriate for their children or, or, or, is insane. So often, too, authors cling to “but we don’t want to give away our story,” as if video game makes and other media makers do want to give away their stories. This shouldn’t be about author egos or ~originality~ (as if that’s even a thing)...it should be about helping readers make informed purchasing decisions. It’s way, way past time that major market books include content warnings.

Thank you for joining us, this has been our extended rant about how frustrated we are with traditional publishing. Helpful? No. Cathartic? Most definitely yes. 🤣

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[narniangirl1994]

I, like many other fans, was disappointed with several aspects of Lucifer's final season. Although it could have been much worse, I feel like certain decisions ruined several aspects of the show. For example:

They didn't show nearly enough of Trixie this season and didn't give her a satisfying ending. Not only did it make no sense for Chloe to ignore her child so often after Trixie just lost her dad, but she never officially found out about the celestials in her life and never got to say goodbye to Lucifer.

It was tough to care much about a new daughter from the future who was introduced at the last minute, yet had such a huge impact on her parents' stories. Especially seeing how sidelined Trixie was this season for a biological daughter (with Rory even saying Lucifer wasn't Trixie's real dad 😡).

I disliked the reasoning behind Lucifer abandoning his family at the request of a daughter who shouldn't have been that invested in Lucifer's calling. Yes it was important, but why was she willing to put them all through so much suffering for a calling that had nothing to do with her?

It was especially tragic to see Lucifer's choice essentially taken away from him because of Rory's insistence/coercion that he keep everything the same, after how much the show emphasized personal choice and responsibility. Not to mention his separation from his family for most of their lives is just needlessly tragic after everything they've been through.

Here's how I think the final season could have been made 100x better while still keeping the overall plot and taking into account the scheduling/COVID safety issues with Trixie's actress:

Instead of introducing Rory, have Trixie be the one who time travels back from the future to see Lucifer (therefore keeping her character relevant while using a different actress). This could be explained by her having asked Charlie to send her back in time. Not only would it make sense for Charlie to be the one to develop time traveling powers (since Amenadiel's powers were also time-based), but his powers could even be teased briefly with baby Charlie earlier in the season.

Her anger would be due to two reasons - Lucifer abandoning her so shortly after her father died, and Chloe telling Trixie that Lucifer was the only one who could have freed Dan from Hell, but that he didn't do it before leaving. Perhaps Chloe waited until Trixie was in her 20s/30s before telling her this, and that was the breaking point that made Trixie ask Charlie to send her back in time.

In the past, she somehow conceals her identity and uses tricks Maze taught her over the years to (pretend to) threaten Chloe in order to force Lucifer to bring Dan to Heaven. Lucifer knows he can't do that and it would likely make Dan a ghost, but Dan agrees to it anyway to save Chloe.

Once he's back on Earth, Trixie demands to know why Dan isn't in Heaven and gives up when both Lucifer and Dan convince her it's impossible. Realizing she failed her father, Trixie frees Chloe and leaves (obviously never intending to harm her in the first place). She later comes back, revealing her identity and explaining why she did what she did, why she's so angry at Lucifer, and how things go down in the future.

All the same shenanigans ensue, with Lucifer asserting he would never leave Chloe and Trixie, and trying to prove that he does actually love Trixie as his own daughter. He could do the same goodbye tour just in case, but this time spend a day at the beach with Chloe and adult Trixie.

Meanwhile, child Trixie can be off at a camp designed for children who lost a parent(s) and want to spend time with counselors and other grieving kids to help them recover. This would be a much better explanation than Trixie being off at a science camp and never seeing her mother so shortly after the trauma of losing her father.

All the other plots could still happen with Dan trying not to be a ghost, possessing Le Merc, talking to Lucifer and realizing he needed to speak to (child) Trixie, etc. Lucifer would still realize he didn't want to be God while Amenadiel would realize he did want to be God, yet more emphasis would be placed on Lucifer wanting to find his true calling.

Le Merc could kidnap adult Trixie, and she could similarly need to be talked down by Lucifer so that she didn't kill Le Merc in revenge. They could still figure out that Lucifer ultimately helped Dan get into heaven, and that he has helped other people (like Lee and Trixie) move past their own mistakes/flaws.

Rather than pressuring Lucifer to keep the time loop the same like Rory did, Trixie could explain how important it is to her that Dan was able to get into heaven because of Lucifer (and the time loop). And how important it is to her that other people who made mistakes, like her father, can get into heaven with Lucifer's help too.

Chloe's acceptance would be due to several things: wanting Dan to get into Heaven, being happy Lucifer found his calling, and - tying into the background plot of police brutality/inequality- realizing that many 'criminals' are a product of our broken system and deserve the chance to better themselves in this life or the afterlife.

Perhaps if they changed the focus of the Hell episode (where Lucifer helped the guy he hated confront his deepest insecurity), to his brother Michael instead, Lucifer would have a deeper connection to his calling. If he could learn to care about and understand Michael, he could care about/understand anyone. Perhaps Michael's issues aren't fully resolved by the end of that episode, but some sort of progress was made. This would enhance Lucifer's motivation to follow his calling/keep the time loop and give the ongoing Lucifer and Michael plot a real conclusion.

To emphasize that this really is Lucifer (and his loved one's choice) - rather than Rory or fate itself - perhaps they could even include a conversation with Ella, theorizing the possibility of creating an alternate universe if he chooses to break the loop, rather than making it seem like the loop is inevitable.

As such, he willingly chooses to 'abandon' his family (with their consent) for the next decade or two so that Trixie time travels and all of this comes to pass.

But unlike the finale, he can become a part of their lives again after Trixie has completed the time loop. That way, he isn't apart from Chloe and Trixie for the rest of their lives, but they all had a chance to learn and grow on their own before coming back together and understanding one another.

All of this would have provided a much more satisfying conclusion to the show. It would respect the relationships already formed (and affirm the validity of non-biological family), respect Lucifer's newfound ability to make his own choices, keep character motivations realistic, and more.

What do you think? What would be your preferred finale of Lucifer?