#but also theres a difference between posting about a character and thinking their actions are fine

[bumbleblurr]

out of the hundreds of tf ships that have massive drastic size differences, like proportionally comparable to a building and a chihuahua, I manage to mainly care only about the ships where one of them is like. Just a head taller than the other

[mysterycitrus]

Hi. Your posts show up on my dash and I think you have good and knowledgeable takes. What do we do when canon is inconsistent and contradictory? For example Winick!Jason vs Morrison!Jason pre new52? Like W!Jason says child sidekicks are dumb and shouldn't exist while M!Jason had him go get sidekick for himself. How should we reconcile this when discussing the characters? Thanks.

id say as a general point of reference that consistent, foundational character traits can persist regardless of bad comics. dick grayson is an example - in taylor's run he's written as a pretty idiot but in waid's worlds finest he's portrayed more accurately as a neurotic overachiever, and both runs were being published at the same time. it's about reading enough comics to be able to judge for urself what u want to keep and what u want to discard.

there's also broader metatexual reasons for why tangibly bad characterisation exists — winick and morrison mischaracterised and villianised talia al ghul in different ways to the detriment of her characterisation. talia's writing was a combination of bad writing and sexualised racism. similar issue w roy harper — his history with addiction is rewritten and his autonomy is undermined. it's always worth thinking about why a writer might interpret a character a certain way.

wrt to jason, he's an interesting case because unlike a lot of characters he has an actual, definitive comic thats the literal foundation for his existence in modern canon - under the red hood. jason's had the worst holistic writing by a considerable margin, and so people tend to discard his appearances depending on their taste (green arrow, batman and robin 2009, the recent gotham war arc, countdown, botc, etc) but utrh is his backstory and the context for his actions. winick's jason, through lost days and outsiders, feels like the same dude and is kinda the "base" version of the character. we also know what winick thought about morrison btw.

i actually don't think most of jason's actions pre-flashpoint are absurdly ooc, because he was conceptualised as a bad dude with hypocritical morals. theres a lot of dialogue around how bias has affected jason's writing historically but as red hood it feels like a believable radicalisation imo - winick's jason could be driven to hurt others. thats fine tbc because thats what makes him an interesting and complex character, but the issue is that no one was willing to commit to rehabilitating him into the bat-adjacent, generally heroic figure he's now recognised as. i personally think that him being chummy with the bats is a lot more egregious of a mischaracterisation than him blowing up a high school. there's no bridge between the jason that gloated when bludhaven got nuked and the jason that goes to batburger with the gang. i need more than the writer telling me that they like each other in a text box.

but again thats like. personal interpretation. every character with a book has comics that’re featured on every reading list, and then its a matter of ignoring or recontextualising the stuff u personally dont agree with. tis the nature of enduring canon. the picking and choosing.

[papakhan]

i think you misunderstood me. i wasn't trying to say you were misinterpreting the character, just that you approach him somewhat differently than i do, in some significant ways, and maybe not even him per se, just "what comes next", so to speak.

i also wasn't saying that boone shouldn't feel remorse about what hes done, because, like, yeah, he really damn should. and unfortunately the bias against the great khans that permeate the games writing rears its ugly head again--i mean, some of the fan favorites call them dirty people who need to be chased out of the mojave, and while that in itself isnt bad writing (characters can be bigoted and biased), it feels like the player is given very little in terms of retaliating against those statements and the games assumed status quo that the ncr supposedly has more legitimacy in its presence than the khans do. i was more getting at where that remorse would take him, because as you said, his storyline is largely concerned with his own feelings while the game gives you no real way to make him snap the hell out of it, stop justifying the atrocities he was a part of as some inevitability he sadly has to bear, and overall stop making it about himself and open his tiny eyes to whats actually happening and what can be done. like, yeah, he could go from suicidal gestures to groveling, and again to be clear he should feel sorry, but i feel like thats still centering his emotional journey.

as for defending bitter springs, like. yes, the refugee camp at bitter springs is in itself an ugly truth of an image of the ncr, revealing it as a force that tramples over people and commits atrocities and then names itself protectors of whats left. terrible protectors too, seeing how poor and understaffed the refugee camp is. i wish that in itself couldve had some sort of impact on the man as well. still, in terms of material consequences, boone protected the refugees, and while once again that doesnt Repay for anything or Make Up for anything, i dont think it was necessarily the ultimate point of the quest. as you pointed out, it wasnt great khans he protected from the legion, it was refugees from arizona and the handful of ncr staff. theres not any kinda neat bow put on it, there's no coming full circle. being denied a selfish "heroic" death in favor of, like, protecting some people he doesnt know, i think its interesting and could serve as a way to pull him out of this spiral. maybe its wishful thinking on my part, but the difference between novac boone and post-independent boone IS that ncr has completely withdrawn from the area and boone took part in the actions that lead to that. but i could just be wishing things had been written differently. oh! and you brought up giving him up to the great khans to judge, its something ive thought about before, and i wish it was something you could do in the game.

anyway... im sorry if i came off as confrontational in my first anon, i saw that you were answering asks about it and i wanted to offer my own perspective. none of it was said to undermine yours.

well first of all I'd like to say I'm sorry for being hostile, it's difficult for me to interpret tone at the best of times and even worse over text so I appreciate you telling me that didnt mean to sound confrontational and i'm sorry for taking it that way

i think its just frustrating to me that like. idk the Joshua Graham dickriding has died down a bit recently because people have finally figured out that despite the game framing him as the good guy hes actually still a terrible person and the writers were wrong for what they did (the racism most of all) but then people still lick Boones/the NCR's boots

but your perspective is refreshing i think youre right yeah, Boone shouldn't really be the centre of the "victims of the bitter springs massacre" because. he's not a victim. he is a perpetrator. on that you have made me realise that yeah even if hes begging for forgiveness even then its still bad for it to centre him at all

And the Khans being one of the power houses of Vegas pre-NCR is woefully underexplored but tbh given how the rest of the Khans are handled I don't even think its a time constrains thing its just a writers thing. i've complained enough about how the Followers treat the Khans in game not really lining up with how they used to work together / can work together in the future but that's a whole other thing

i still think the fight for bitter springs is still the climax of the I Forgot to Remember to Forget questline, its supposed to be what snaps boone out of it and lets the player come to some kind of resolution with him. They're not exactly good or helpful resolutions, because as I have said before he still doesn't respect the Khans and as you have also said this is a problem with the game as a whole. and he's still protecting people he doesnt know for ultimately selfish reasons. It's a step. I guess. and yknow its a video game with only two conclusions for a quest, the rest of those steps are kind of up to interpretation.

its the beauty of fanworks and what have you. like I said my perspective is more one of frustration. Me liking the Khans so much and examining the game from their POV when the game kinda hates them and that feeds into the fanart/writing and looking at Boone is just. I'm just tired

[dreamlanders]

i think you are blurring the lines between symbolism and propaganda .. toontown cogs r metaphorical characters who laugh at and imitate the capitalistic dull buisness man type imagery.. if anything, toontown is anti capitalist propaganda for how the cogs are villainized throughout the game for their actions . besides, its a little disrespectful to compare real life colonization to a video game like toontown.. i definetly dont think people who enjoy making content abt cogs or anything deserve that kind of slack

lmao ok so heres the thing

im korean right, and as all koreans do, i have MANY family members who have experienced imperialist oppression under both the japanese and the united states’ neoimperialist project. i know a lot of americans or non-asians in general dont really get taught about this, so im gonna summarize this quickly because im not getting into the absolute horror of it all on my goddamn toontown blog

japan annexes korea in 1910 and violently exploits korean land and labor for 35 years, and along the way they attempt to systematically destroy korean culture, language, and history, down to banning the korean language outright and slaughtering native dogs. as is often the case with the imperialist narrative they adopt a false pretense of “modernizing” the “backwards” koreans. anyway they lose ww2 and we all know how that goes, so south korea is under new management from the united states, who installs or backs a long string of authoritarian dictators who wipe out hundreds of villages in jeju island and shoot protestors post korean war. again, a very rough summary

where im going with this is that with my family history in mind (because all of my grandparents lived through the japanese occupation and korean war and have the stories to prove it), i approach a lot of media asking questions about imperialism and exploitation. yeah including the kids mmo, because theres plenty of things that coincide with these in, admittedly, toned down ways (its a kids game)

clash cogs’ motivation is, as far as im aware, to use toontown’s resources for profit by means of fuel. this reminded me of the way korea suffered under japanese occupation, during which koreans were kidnapped by the government and used as unpaid labor for mining and for manufacturing by companies like mitsubishi, on top of the agricultural exploitation and the theft of korean natural resources for both japanese demand and profit

the rewritten cogs have a slightly different motivation, with the same endgoal. by trying to “convert” toons to coggish practices and trying to get them to stop being toony, its an act of cultural destruction. being toony is part of toon culture, using jellybeans for money and hosting parties and doing slapstick comedy are all important parts of toon culture. the chairman is trying to destroy this. this is what sticks out to me the most, because the colonizing bastards tried to beat the culture out of koreans as a whole, and this is whats always been emphasized in the family stories. you think my grandparents know japanese for the fun of it? no, because they were quite literally forbidden from participating in their own cultural practices because someone thought that their culture was superior to ours.

its disrespectful to compare the lived experiences of my fucking flesh and blood to media i consume? disrespectful to who, anon? to fucking who?

anyway i never said toontown was pro capitalist propaganda what the actual fuck. first off symbolism is often present in propagandistic media pieces, but also more to the point, since i would not call toontown propaganda: no shit theyre representative of capitalists, but the problem with capitalism is that it allows for a system of violent colonialism, exploitation, and displacement in the name of profit, and its natural for this to be evident in media focusing on capitalism. and i said this last time, but i dont have a single goddamn problem with people who like the cogs, but 1. im just a little frustrated 2. yall gotta stop making them the good guys and unironically hoping the chairman wins.

donate $100 to palestinian relief efforts or buy the equivalent amount in esim cards for gazans and post the receipt on your public blog if you want to have me answer any more of these kinds of asks. this aint a discourse blog put up or shut up

[staarry-skies]

gonna be insane abt usamamo for a second im so sorry esp to my moots who do not care about sailor moon my heart goes out to you

read more bc this is so much longer than was intended

i see a lot of the same "theyre only in love because of fate/their superhero alter egos/their past" takes A Lot (to be fair its usually directed at the 90s anime, to which i do agree n understand, however ive also seen it directed at the manga which is why im talking abt it) and i just Do Not Agree, so im gonna talk abt it in a twt thread bc im insane and twt is my outlet for my insanity. (this was originally written for twt but got too long oops.)

starting with the whole "theyre only dating because of past lives" because its the easiest to debunk, its just flat out not true. mamoru n usagi never really got the chance to officially get to together pre-past lives reveal in the manga but its pretty damn clear they were going to, probably the next time they met as civilians and swapped their different keepsakes that they have from each other.

theres also the whole "oh well their feelings are remnants of silmil" which i think takes away a lot of their agency as characters and also just isnt true and is also pretty easily disprovable, usagi likes mamoru for being there for her and supporting her when she needs it, and mamoru likes usagi for being this incredibly strong heroine but also being a normal cheery girl all at the same time.

which leads me to the next point! "they only like each other because of their alter egos", two rebuttals here, they dont exactly stop being tuxedo mask/sailor moon just because theyre out of costume that is still them but i do see why this is a popular criticism. my other thing is that its definitely not true for mamoru, whos usually the one criticized for not truly liking the Real Usagi™️ and only liking her for sailor moon (or serenity but we just went over that and funnily enough this criticism should be directed more to usagi but we'll get into that later).

for this lets go back to why mamoru loves usagi, according to earlier in this post i claimed it was because of the dichotomy between her and sailor moon, the crime fighting warrior, and usagi the happy-go-lucky school girl who always brings a smile to everyones face, thus showing that he loves /all/ of her not just one side over the other.

but me saying so isnt really enough so lets hear it from the boy in question: "its true... for a long time the crystal was the only thing i wanted... but now when i see her... angry one moment then laughing the next... the crystal? no thats not what i really want... usako youre what i want" - (crystal ep 7) so... yeah thats pretty cut and dry, oh yeah nows also a good time to mention that ill be pulling stuff from crystal too because of the nature of crystal having been more closely supervised by naoko and being a stricter manga adaptation, any scenes it adds are retroactively canon to the mangaverse (at least to me, but if youre looking for a similar line from the manga: "youre strong today sailor moon, everyday i feel like im seeing a different side to you, is there other versions of you ive yet to meet? i want to know everything, who are you really?" - (chapter 8) same idea as the crystal quote just a lot more vague lol)

also this is reflected in more than just words, its actions too, tuxedo mask is a lot more closed off towards sailor moon earlier on and its not until chapter 4 that he starts being a lot more openly caring and affectionate, and you wanna know what happens in chapter 4? he finds out sailor moon is usagi, and it doesnt take a lot of media literacy to put two and two together to figure out why that shift happens there.

now for usagi, remember when i said the whole "liking the alter-egos" criticism applies to her more but is never directed at her? well heres why, we never really see her civilian relationship with mamoru develop much on her end before the reveal, she is of course attracted to mamoru but on a way more superficial level (usagis pretty notorious for her immediate, but ultimately kinda surface level crushes on people: see rei).

she denies her crush but its pretty obvious she has one, for example when mako points out that usagis blushing after one of their interactions and asks about it and she insists pretty loudly that she "doesnt like him!" but never really explains the blush (earlier in the same scene when she sees mamoru she blushes and b-dmp! is written in the bg, keep in mind he hasnt done or said anything yet so its not embarrassment) and then theres chapter 3 where she recognizes that his profile sorta looks like tuxedo mask which she'd actively try to deny if she didnt like him like she says she does, so its pretty obvious she has a crush on mamoru.

but her relationship with tuxedo mask is what gets more development, she goes from that superficial crush she has on mamoru to liking him for deeper reasons than just: pretty guy! i.e. helping her, being there for her, and grounding her when she needs it. also in the same vein as her recognizing him in chapter 3 the reveal is her just recognizing him as tuxedo mask, which obviously she has to like mamoru quite a bit to do (even if the evidence was quite literally all around her) (in saying all of this i do think pgsm does a much better job at showing her genuinely falling for all of him but pgsm also skews more towards the 90s anime in terms of characterization so i wont be using that).

and finally "usamamo are only together/feel pressured to be together because of fate/chibiusa" short answer: no. long answer: noooooooooo. no but in all seriousness this flat out isnt true, if you'll remember the first 14 chapters of the manga are kinda. yk. dedicated to this. their fate isnt to "be together" their fate is to literally DIE if they dare attempt to be together again, they are together DESPITE fate, like i dont even know how else to put it because multiple characters comment on fate repeating itself when it comes to dooming usamamo, they werent reincarnated to be together they were reincarnated to be happy and live normal peaceful lives.

as for fate as in the future, thats pretty easily disprovable because its ALSO something the manga goes over, during the dream arc when mamorus suffering from nehelennias curse he starts feeling guilty and selfish for constantly being a burden on usagi to the point he asks her if she really does want a future with him, even saying that he feels horrible for potentially tying her down to a future she might not want, which yk would kinda not be a concern he would have if he was only with her for the creation of crystal tokyo (side note: nowhere does it say usamamo NEED to be together for crystal tokyo to exist, usagi could very well rule alone like queen serenity or with any other partner, its just that the current timeline has them together in ct) as for usagis response, mamoru falls asleep before he can hear it, but she says point blank that she can change the future if she wants. So. Yeah. dont really think i need to say much more than that on that front.

And the last part of the "fate saga", "theyre only together to have chibiusa" which is such a crazy and lowkey highkey misogynistic sentiment, but for arguments sake lets take a look at why its completely wrong, first off, again. "i can change the future as much as i want" - (chapter 40) she could have chibiusa by other means (for example the way queen serenity had serenity) but also, the reason they care so much about chibiusa is because she's a product of their love, they obviouly care about her as a person but they wouldnt just force themselves to be together just to have her and her alone (if that makes sense i have no idea how to phrase what im trying to say) in any case its a really gross thing to say because it insinuates a lot of really weird things!

if you made it through all that you deserve like a medal or something but thanks for listening to my silly little thoughts about my favorite couple right now

[darkcrowprincess]

Every time I see someone dissing on Colleen Hoover I want to roll my eyes. Everyone is entitled to their opinions. And I am most certainly bias because I genuinely like her books so far. But I wouldn't be so annoyed if they complained about her writing choices. And her flaws in her writing. Constructive criticism you know.

But no they complain about how she writers her characters. How 'toxic' their actions are. How 'toxic' the romance is. How toxic the plot is. Especially when it has dark twists. How you shouldn't write books like that because they're are "problematic". How you shouldn't like the characters because they're "problematic". How you shouldn't keep the dark twists secret because they can be triggering. That last bit I get, you shouldn't false advertise because people do have actual triggers to these things. But at the same time, it is not the job of the author to put a warning label on their book. Especially if it gives away a good twist that makes the book worth reading. Also its not the job of the writer to be your guide in morality, or write books with characters that can be good role models. The point in fiction, especially fiction by Colleen Hoover is to entertain. Thats it. If the characters are doing messed up things or have messed up romances, it's fine because its fiction. And if reading this piece of fiction messes up your morality and screws your sense of what is right and wrong, than dont read it! But dont judge other people who can tell the difference between reality and fiction and still enjoy it. If Colleen Hoover is this popular than theres probably a genuine reason in her books that resonates with a lot of people. I personally found it(though what do I know? I can't genuinely speak for everyone, and again I'm bias because I like her books). Her books are fun good reads. Easy good reads. A person like me who has adhd, who can't always keep her attention while reading difficult long books. Love these kind of books. So yes I love Colleen Hoover books, and I think its pretty shitty to shame someone about that. Especially when you have personally never read any of her books.

(Don't like don't read. Post hate and I'll block you)

[liquidstar]

that re:zero rabbit video made me curious about the show so I went through your re:zero tag and now I have more questions than what I started with... only course of action now is to watch the show. do you recommend starting with the anime? should I also read the light novel(s)? ty 🙏

i started w the anime which i feel is easier to get into, i dont think theres anything wrong w just sticking w the anime if thats what you wanna do either! the simple answer is just watch the anime and the ovas in-between season 1 and 2. if you like that then you can totally pick up the ln, thats what i did! but the more complicated answer is

start with season 1, obviously. and there's a "break time" short for the first 11 episodes, these are optional but i feel like they add a bit to the story

then watch the memory snow ova, followed by the frozen bonds ova. you could ALSO watch the memory snow ova between arcs 2 and 3 of the anime (after episode 11), since that's when it takes place chronologically. this is up to you. memory snow is light-hearted character fun so it doesn't matter much, but frozen bonds is actually important and should be watched before season 2.

so yeah after frozen bonds watch season 2 (arc 4). season 2 ALSO has break time shorts which are actually more high quality and relevant (but still generally comedic) than season 1's, so i actually really recommend watching those after every episode. you wont lose TOO much by not doing so though

after that is the upcoming season 3 (arc 5). you can wait for it to drop sometime in 2024, or you could read the light novel. there are a couple of things that sort of get skipped over in the anime... but as long as you read the post-arc-4 interludes you should be fine and you'll figure everything else out w context clues. unless you want to go back and reread, thats a different story

and if you do decide to read it, the website witchculttranslations translates all content from the webnovel! including the main story and a lot of sidestories!! (sidestories optional)

aaand if you do that, then i also recommend checking out the what:if routes. these are special stories that get posted every year on subaru's birthday (april 1st) that take place in alternate timelines. timelines where subaru makes the wrong choice at a certain juncture, and the story takes a completely different path. there isn't an important read order for these, but here are the places in which they diverge:

pride:if diverges from arc 1, wrath:if diverges from arc 2, sloth:if diverges from arc 3, greed:if diverges from arc 4, and gluttony:if diverges from arc 6.

i recommend not reading any of the what:ifs until after reading/watching arc 5, and not reading gluttony:if until after arc 6!

[notthestarwar]

@starrrgazingbunny lol so I do this thing where I write absolute essays in comments and replies and then never ever see them again. And then I start thinking about that thing and I'm like. I know I have opinions on that. I know I've explained it before. But can I find it? Can I?

So I think I'm gonna copy some of them in to new posts and introduce a new tagging system where I go

About: Jango

About: clones

Anyway that scrambled post was pretty much this (under the cut)

But I'm low-key obsessed with your translation lol

ok so thinking about how on the surface Jango doesnt really make sense as a character. there are all these contradictions, a cold cruel man, who hurts children, yet loves his son. an ignorant man who died because he let himself get tangled with dangerous people, who is also considered to be one of the best bounty hunters out there(he's clearly intelligent, and observant). and thinking about why

i've been thinking about how Jango seems to be a contradiction because he is two men, not one.

The jango fett we are presented with isnt a real person. he is an image created by the real jango fett. its a diguise a misdirect. he wants people to believe in his ruthlessness, his viciousness. he doesnt want people to believe him capable of love or mercy. he wants people to think him cold.

so we are left with 2 jango's: the person he is trying to make everyone believe he is, trying to make himself believe in. brutal, unrepentant, the best. This is the jango on the surface. and then there is  who he has always been in truth.  pushed down, twisted, but still there. a person that does know that the things he does are unforgivable, a man that does know he could be better, and more than that, a man who is scared. who has seen the worst happen more than once, and stands in its shadow. a man who is angry, because he is overwhelmed by grief, by the helplessness of it all.

i've said before that i think the grief of losing his family, then jaster, then his people, and then the trauma of slavery, kind of broke him as a person, right? his past defines him. it is the only reason he keeps walking & it is the only reason he cant live.

i think that trying to escape from that grief results in him being numb in a way. he does not see the self corruption as it is happening as he is not willing to see it. that denial, the ignorance, his refusal to see the truth of his actions, their futility, that all feeds in to him becoming the kind of person that he hates. he was a leader, of a group of people that valued children (which the clones were), valued their language and their culture (which he pretty much leaves behind), and valued fairness. its about punching up (or laterally)  not down. they clearly believed in him! they followed him to the end when he was barely more than a kid and then some of them even followed him to kamino  betraying themselves, because he asked them to. For him to have been accepted as leader (by mandalorians who clearly wouldn’t shy from deposition) I think that he could not have always been the man we see in aotc. I think that he was once someone different, who wouldn’t have done the things that he did, but that then he lived a life that made him in to someone that could.

theres an obvious conflict there between the person he was, the person jango might have been in a better galaxy, and the person he is and i think thats because he's forcing himseld in to a new mold. theres this image we see of him as someone cold and efficient, with the confidence to always believe he’ll win. He is brutal, someone to be feared, not someone who fears. he's made himself in to someone that always wins. but he didnt. he was clearly smart enough to notice that he was wrapped up in something that'd kill him. he didnt make any plans should he survive, in fact he made plans for the opposite, setting Boba up to find people that would 'continue teaching him' (be cruel enough to steer Boba away from vulnerability) it makes sense for a man with a death wish, but the image we are shown of jango doesnt seem like someone that wants to die. because what we see isnt real and the real jango, thinks himself already dead. death is a certainty to him. then, the glimpses of his love for Boba that we see. he says its about building a legacy, and maybe thats what he's told himself, but there is something more there, lurking beneath the surface. what we see isnt the real jango, it is something he has crafted.

he is lying to himself. he is so inauthentic, even to himself, that he's pretty much forgotten who he is. who he was. i think his whole thing is about telling himself that he is right and that the choices he has made are the only ones he could have made. that anyone in his position would do the same. But he can’t believe that, he knows that he could have done better, so he makes himself in to someone that couldn’t.

when i look at jango i see a man telling a story. a man who is desperately trying to tell it in a way that concludes with him, the victor. he is trying to rationalise, to find a way that he can still win, but he has already lost. he was dead from the start. jango only exists, as background to all the characters that survive him. he led a hard life, it twisted him in to someone that would do terrible things and then he died before the story had even started really. he only exists, he only went through those  awful things, to help set the main events in action. he is the clones terrible childhood. he is the man that lost himself, betrayed children, before anakin ever did. he is the man who enabled the clone plot (because would it have happened without him? maybe. but it doesnt matter, it never needed to , because jango was always going to be there to play his part)

so he's telling this story, he's made himself in to a character, one that nobody looks beyond, but its not a story that anyone is there to hear. jangos story doesnt matter ultimately, because it could have been anyone else. the galaxy is full of people who've lived lives like jango fett. he puts all he has in to telling his version of this story. but nobody seeks it out. the only person he is telling this story to, the only person who cares enough to ask why? why did he do those things was he justified? is himself. the story he has built, the person he has created, dont matter to anyone else. there is noone there to hear jangos story, so the whole pursuit was pointless. he destroyed himself for no reason.

he's so repressed he doesnt even remember its a lie. he doesnt remember he ever was anyone else. and nobody really sees it. because they are all so far away. in the end jango doesnt need to push people away, they dont even try to get close. because the persona he's put on, isnt someone that would ever need anyone. would ever want anyone. he is empty, flat.

there is no point to any of it. he's doing this for revenge but has he asked himself if this is what they would have wanted? of course not! the dead dont desire revenge, they are dead. revenge is for the living. for the survivors. jango is the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. he understands people. he can read them. he can see their next 5 steps. but he can never know himself. because he will not allow himself to

his rational falls apart as do his motivations. whatever he comes up with, will always be a lie. he doesnt know himself. its always the wrong answer. because the truth doesnt matter. jango isnt defending himself. he isnt being introspective and trying to process anything. he doesnt need to. he isnt living. he is telling a story, one that in the end, doesnt really matter.

[molluskmirage]

going to talk about some personal qualms about role play in general with Minecraft as the backdrop. If thats not your jam, you understandably disagree or have your own opinions, well, this discussion is for me to organize my own thoughts on it so you can either disregard this post entirely or view it as a spectacle for your own gain, or whatever the case… I shall dive in now.

Qsmp is my first heavy role play server and I have to say in general I really despise role play. However in trying to state what I dislike theres a lot of things to it, somethings that are technically role-play that I do enjoy verses that which I dont.

there is what I will call ‘natural roleplay’ that occurs in a natural sense. Characters aren’t necessarily ‘really’ in the situation but they play into it by the feed back or for the fun of it. This is something that happens in real life, it particularly happens in areas of high stress as a playful way to navigate or center people in a chaotic world. An example of this (there are many examples in the life series but im going to choose for this ) the clockers from limited life. Now they weren’t really a ‘family’ but they played into being a family because it was funny because it bonded them while dealing with the high stress parameters of the server. Which leads me to my next set of role play which I adore which I'm going to call ‘elements’.

Now elements are any set of rules/mechanics that is what gaming is. There are stakes, ways to win and lose and actions and reactions can seamlessly flow into natural role play. Theres a genuineness to it as you play that your outcome is determined by your merit, skill, wit, charisma, luck, your agency. Because it is so genuine life itself sets the stage on wether you are smart or ignorant, abled or disabled, skilled or unskilled. Life sets the ‘uncontrollables’ while you the player navigate the stage props that are ‘elements’ decided by the host.

Those two example’s of role play are what I can enjoy now for role play I really cant stomach. Now I was an actor for 2 decades before falling ill, I can very much enjoy scripted work however ‘scripted role play’ is my absolute beloathed. For me it falls into the uncanny valley of storytelling and I just hate it. If there is the parameters of everything being a dream I can do it, but with out that statement my pleasure in said material plummets to the ground. Reason being is that the content is rife with contradictions and stakes that are set to whoever's controlling the stories whimsy which can completely assassinate characters to fit to these ideals. I think in part I really hate this because I have a language disability that while making language difficult for me I became hyper attuned to things like lying. There are pitches and inflections that come about from lying and not lying and very very few people can act appropriately when they need to for the story they are weaving which is unsettling for me to many degrees. And very often I know the ‘twist’ the creator has set up too far in advance. There is also the issue for me that when in choosing options for yourself its too absurd degrees because the ‘sky’ is the limit, however thats not really the case because most people write the same story over and over, either being a cartoonish hero or cartoonish villain that’s reminiscent of playing pretend with 4 year olds (and then my laser shoots you, ah! But I survive because I have a nuclear blaster and I shoot you-etc.)

all that to say I find it boring and tired. Now completely confined scripted works means that the author has set stakes for the characters and they can act and react accordingly (results depending upon an author’s skill varies) but characters tend to make sense and because no person is behind each character individually characters are free to be flawed without it being silly and free to consequences without it trying to be stopped because the difference between a play and role play is that people in a play are trying to tell A story while role-players are each telling Their story. With so many tellers it can become the adage ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’ for me.

so thats the general outline of what Id like to discuss now for the applied principles in regards to the qsmp itself.

I have stayed enjoying as long as I have for the qsmp because there are a lot of elements and natural rp within it, which is and has been expertly crafted by Quackity himself. The eggs are an example of elements (they are vulnerable having two lives and if they die they are cast out from the series) and natural role play (we’ll use charlie here as he is the most extreme in his rp) while Charlie may act reckless for a fun gimmick of natural role play because the elements are real the effects from losing a character from his behavior, his actions leads his character to handle grief and remorse. while he does do this as a ‘character’ there are genuine feelings that he allows to lead his natural role play, ‘going to kill all the other eggs’ in grief while would be extreme behavior for real life and is a larger then life sort of sentiment it is still a real sentiment. This behavior can be exhibited time and time again for humans in the ‘if I cant have happiness neither can you’.

now it is certainly risky setting up an element in which you both need to care for and can lose a player because while the highs of those elements are incredible the lows are extreme and you end up losing more then the players that died to elements, you lose all that were attached to them as the emotions are too strong and too real to navigate for most individuals. The brilliance of the eggs though is that there simplicity and needs are understandable across language barriers and because they act as children they also provide access for language learners to start their journey as well, as players that interact with them will speak more simply and delicately giving nursery rhymes and explaining concepts that allow for beginner language learners an easier introduction to the language. There is a lot of reason and success in the qsmp that’s absolutely brilliant full stop.

For the things that make me cringe or fall apart are the more ‘scripted rp’ aspects. I think q!quackity suffers from this most acutely. I really wish quackity had set himself up as a villain/more admin character from the jump. He as a creator knows too much and its hard to watch him play ignorant and angsty when he feels so detached and displaced story wise. My biggest problems with the server are the overall mechanics and world building. I think there is a solid interesting story there but it can only be accessed when the heavens deem it so and respectfully it sucks so much to me.

‘find luffy’ ‘find the eggs’ the admins playing those characters aren’t physically on the server there is no way to find them, which we the audience, and the content creators know but how can they act out as they would ‘naturally’ when there goal is physically unattainable, you cant, which then when mixing the fandom into it they extrapolate and make strange character dives ‘no ones looking for quackity’ ‘no ones looking for roier’ there’s literally nothing players can do to find them so of course theyre not looking but suddenly it’s angst and ‘these poor characters no one cares from them’, like I said uncanny valley of storytelling I don’t like.

I did understand right from the get go this would be an issue as the set up of being trapped on the island, being the minecraft server itself, was a very peculiar plot device as it serves basically the opposite of what you would want for your players. ‘You cant leave the island!’ Uh what if they dont log in? Theyve escaped, there free! had there been an actual island in game that if they tried to escape from there could be consequences ( while perhaps difficult to dm/manage (though you could make some cool commands/effects that could do a lot for you) I think story wise this narrative could have been soo much more compelling and not just players having to willingly submit themselves to torture while saying they dont want the torture and to be free for the plots sake.

just putting this out here too but Ive hated Dapper’s kidnappings so much. He is probably hands down my favorite character and the amount of character assainations they have had to jump through for ✨plot✨🙄. I can understand the motivation for kidnapping Dapper as his Father is highly contested and Dapper is a vulnerable point for Bad but I really need characters to put in the effort like Charlie did. that was entertaining and intense and every character involved got a great dramatic story. Any other time when he’s been ‘magically’ obtained it feels like a filler episode to me and my eyesroll into the back of my skull.

another point about scripted rp is that the further it goes the more effort put in and the less time you play because it would mess up story continuity and in general just because a pile of angst plots, I just dont find appealing, and I know the creators put in a lot of work (that deserves praise) and there are very clearly people that really appreciate that content and absolutely great for them, happy their getting content they enjoy but for me it’s lackluster.

to the point of ‘well if you dont like it then dont watch’ as stated there are plenty of things I like about qsmp but also I try to watch things I don’t understand and don’t enjoy at times as research to learn what others enjoy and see in it to further my own understanding and compassion. I may never like it fully but if I can understand why others do I can better support and encourage there interests and I very much like that, people are great and its nice to share thoughts and feelings. because I do have what I feel is more outsider/anti? views in general on this subject then most of the fandom Ive felt the need to compile some thoughts from my perspective of it, now done I think I’ll go back to hibernating until a next thought.

[littleguyconnor]

why is trauma a red flag why is trauma a red flag why is trauma a red flag why is trauma a red flag why is trauma a red flag why is trauma a red flag why is trauma a red flag

MEDIC YELLS??? MR. CALMLY MADE A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL YELLS??? i could see him MAYBE being manipulative but also theres a difference between manipulating the literal devil and your partner so even that might be a mischaracterization??? what??? DOESNT DISCIPLINE ARCHIMEDES??? YOU DONT DISCIPLINE ANIMALS ANYWAY THEY DONT UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY DID WRONG ITS NOT LIKE A LITTLE KID YOU CAN EXPLAIN STUFF TO??? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO PUT HIM IN A TIMEOUT CORNER AND TELL THE LITERAL BIRD TO THINK ABOUT HIS ACTIONS???

"spy is still trying to live like hes 20" OKAY GOOD FOR HIM. "if you start to age he will leave you" MR. CANON MILF LOVER "OFF TO VISIT YOUR MOTHER" WILL LEAVE YOU IF YOU GET OLD??? WHAT???

sniper absolutely wouldnt argue. look at that man and tell me he has it in him to argue. hed just stew in his own emotions or something. hed take time off or something maybe SO THAT HE HE WOULDNT ARGUE but he wouldnt leave forever or whatever crap that is

SCOUT IS MISOGYNISTIC??? AND THINKS PERIODS ARE GROSS??? RAISED BY A SINGLE MOTHER SCOUT??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? LITERALLY SCOUT "SORRY I CANT HAVE SEX WITH YOU BC IM SO LOYAL TO MISS PAULING WHO IM NOT EVEN DATING" WOULD CHEAT ON YOU??? WHAT??? "HAS DADDY ISSUES BUT NOT IN THE FUN SEXY WAY" WHAT????????? SO TRAUMA IS A RED FLAG EXCEPT WHEN ITS PARENTAL TRAUMA YOU FIND FUN AND SEXY???????

that whole fucking post is a dumpster fire and you are SO right. none of these are red flags theyre just downright abusive

Thank you for being the only normal person so far in my inbox dear god 😭 every single one of your points is correct and I agree a hundred percent. It’s just mean. Like straight up. Like who is that post even for it’s not like some fun hc’s or anything it’s just talking about the different ways they think your favorite character would abuse you… like huh :( Also “so trauma is a red flag except when it’s parental trauma you find fun and sexy” YEP. Goddd that’s what I’ve saying

[calmingpi]

This isnt an unboxing vid but rather an unboxing description. A review, i guess, of volume 20. I think i did a kickstarter backing when i was like 12 or possibly 14, which was also when i took the resulting book to my therapists office and ranted about gg for like twenty minutes, but my mom backed it that time and i didnt get nearly as much Stuff as i did this time

So, first off:

I have multiple copies of beetleburg clank as it happens, but theyre either pdf or black and white on newsprint so this is easily the highest quality print copy ive got. IT LOOKS GREAT! Obviously i love the first volume cause thats the first one i read and i was soooooo obsessed with the art when i saw it as a kid. One of the best things about the big paperbacks is being able to see harder to read details like the honk lessons in the bg, for instance. Weirdly though, some of the panels with gil look really different than i remember? I may have to cross reference them to see if im crazy (im probably crazy)

Also, cheyennes coloring is really so good in volume one! I really love the subtlety that was put into it, and also i think he should do more monochrome sometimes. The way he uses value is great to begin with

No real comment on the story cause like, its beetleburg clank. I was there. In beetleburg. It was rad and i have no notes. The inclusion of the side story is also really fun. I remember this one from the website, and i wasnt really expecting it in the paperback for some reason

Volume twentyyyyyy! LOOKS GORGEOUS! Absolutely delighted. Money well spent. Fascinated that trogulus has a character entry and not rakethorne. Or kjarl, for that matter!

Something i think is interesting is how the pages kinda fly by when theyre uploaded one at a time. Most of this book really is the exorcism, and then we get the seadwellers. A lot of pages covering a relatively short amount of time in canon. In general i tend to forget how much has actually been posted until i look up something for reference, and realized i have to crawl through like twenty pages to find the one im looking for, lol

Even so, the amount of actual story being covered hits on some really good plot points in this volume. Weve got BOTH exorcisms, a lot of godqueen shenanigans, ardsley (rest in peace, darling), seadwellers, kjarl nonsense, oggie backstory, higgs backstory, and overall just a lot of answers and obviously more questions. And i like that it ends with the martellus & seffie convo. A really fantastic way to wrap up the volume itself

Some of the colors here I like a little better in print than i did digitally, too. Thats always a struggle with art, the difference between how different screens display color vs what different printers are capable of. So youre always gonna get slightly or sometimes even dramatically different values and saturation depending on how you view it. Interesting to see in action like this

Some of the more high impact panels also really pack a punch at a size this big, too. To me this is especially the case with the exorcism, theres a lot of really dramatic panel layouts during that sequence, and it makes me very excited to see all that mess on giant rat island and how that will shape up in print

I picked heros & villains for my sketch collection, and its really cute. I think it's funny how i cant tell sometimes whos supposed to be a hero or villain, and i also like that tarvek and theo are next to each other in the book. Thats very amusing to me. My favorite sketches are probably both agathas, lucrezia, and zeetha. I always appreciate how lucrezia and agatha dont look exactly like each other, but theres still a family resemblance

... My envelope of madness definitely has a lot of madness in it. I LOVE the lil bookplates theyre very cute. Even though im not sure what a bookplate does. Got a cute sticker, my arch nemesis is some sketelon guy (what else is new 🙄), a bunch of bookmarks (especially love the exorcism engines one), some sort of guild of monsters... Poster? Thing? Which is delightful, and a TPU student ID, which is terrifying as someone who managed to graduate after like 8 years. YOU CANT DRAG ME BACK, MAN!

Especially delighted by how much of the stuff ended up having a muse on it. I love the muses dearly

Great haul, good times, very pleased

[cescalr]

thalia x reyna from percy jackson for the ask (i'm pretty sure you've read heroes of olympus but if i'm wrong, ronance from stranger things)

I will answer both and this is gonna be soooo controversial (for the second) lol ack

Also; I'm on mobile, and this is going to get long, and i cant link any suppirting posts that explain my perspectives better than i can, lol. If you want, i'll dm the metas. I hope I get the keep reading thing right, but if it doesn't work... sorry. Summary:

Tl:dr; I could see reynalia working, maybe, but I'd need to read some to get a proper feel for it. It might be one of those cases where I prefer it in polyamorous form, aka reynaliabeth. Reynabethalia. Or maybe when put alongside pipabeth (idk piper/annabeth...) Idk. As for ronance, just not my cup of tea for a variety of reasons. I prefer robin crossover ships, like my tiny little dingy of tarabin. (Tara Maclay/Robin Bucley).

Reyna/Thaila (reynalia??) Is not something I've ever considered, to be honest. I'm not sure how compatible they'd be, but I do ship annabeth/thalia (I should really look up pjo ship names, huh) and I've even given thalia/percy a go, because I'm firmly in the camp that you should give most ships a chance before you write them off completely (as it stands, the most controversial pjo ship I've ever read would either be luke/percy or nico/Sadie - that was written before he was confirmed as gay, though, so it's a grey area, like pre-confirmation romantic stobin fics, or willow/oz content, though differently so for the latter*).

Given all the above, I can't say I don't ship it, but I can say I'm not sure. I think given I like thaliabeth (??) and reynabeth, it wouldn't be a stretch to ship reynalia, though!

(*willow is controversial because of a clash between people who interpret her being called a lwsbian as biphobic vs people thinking calling her bisexual as lesbiphobic, its a whole deal I don't want to her into rn but... eeh, I guess I should state that I'm in the camp that her being bisexual is the most logical reading of canon, her status as a lesbian is a self-identifier because she swore off dating men, not because she isn't attracted to them - she cheated on Oz with Xander for purely lust related reasons, her whole thing with the will be done spell, and her actions with Amy when she goes off the rails (magically forcing men to dance half naked In cages in the bronze, along with other questionable acts) is... uh, not particularly lesbian behaviour, generally speaking; imo, Willow uses being gay as a mask for her insecurities same as she does her witchy power and her choice of fashion - to distance herself from the 'pathetic' girl she used to be. Its a whole psychological thing tied up in era-typical bigotry, unfortunately. It was the 90s. She wasn't going to be addressed as bi, even though she so clearly was. There's a reason I really like 2000s doctor who - it was the first positive representation of a bisexual I'd seen on screen, and being bisexual is clearly going to affect my opinion, here. Like. Duh. Same with lesbians who interpret her as lesbian. I don't think we should be arguing- at the end of the day, we all technically want the same thing; personal representation of our own lived experiences, and that's not a bad thing. Theres a good video on youtube about the controversy, which. Theres always a good video on youtube, lol.)

Um. Oops, rambling. Anyway.

So, ronance. Oh boy.

I see Nancy as straight. I'm also not fond of how she treats Robin in the little time we see them together. Im also not a fan of robin dating the ex that broke her bestie's heart. So, ergo, I don't ship them. I'm genuinely, as much as it probably doesn't seem that way, more of a fan of friendship, at the end of the day. I would see it as a betrayal (same way I see scolia and stydia as a betrayal). I tend to use romantic/sexual relations as a way to explore character because that's easiest to get my points across, but I prefer friendship. Romance is, at the end of the day, conditional. Friends can be friends still after three years of no contact, but that's a signal for the end of a romance. So what I'm getting at here - you can be tentative friends with someone the way robin and Nancy act (as is their canon dynamic), but I wouldn't be conformable with them dating. Nancy barely tolerates Robin. She displays annoyance at pretty much everything she does, from rambling to venting to expositing her mental state, Nancy's countenance just screamed 'I'm waiting for this to stop'. I don't like that in friendship, and I like it much less in romance. Even with my most controversial ships, there's still a kind of passion. Hate is not the opposite of love - it's apathy. Nancy seems often apathetic to Robin's mental state, her worries and concerns. She dismisses a lot of what robin says and does, at least from my perspective watching them. And it must be said - and I'll freely admit - I'm not Nancy's biggest fan, but I love Robin, she's my girl. That's going to cause some problems. Even with ships that are objectively questionable, I have to like both characters for me to get behind it, or I have to like both characters when in the context of the ship. This makes little sense, so I'll extrapolate.

In the Vampire Diaries, I don't really like Stefan Salvatore, and unpopular opinion time, I hate Klaus. I really, really hate him. At this point, it's straight-up loathing. But I greatly enjoyed their dynamics, from 20s to modern day, and that they shared an ex was funny to me (same way it is with Zutara, and making jetko kinda-canon for that reason alone half the time, akfjqlfjwk) as well as being an interesting thing to happen. (I mean, what are the odds, really?). So there's that. I also liked stefan and Katherine's whole weird deal, which played an aspect. What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that there's a certain respect even in my most dubious ships (jetko, steo, fuffy, spuffy, etc) that I feel is completely lacking in ronance. There's a video by Jill Bearup about enemies to lovers ships that might give a good reason to one aspect of why I like it - they take each other seriously. There's an understanding of competence, an acknowledgement of thought processes, a certain level of understanding. Nancy has none of that for Robin.

When I compare the two ships of the 'fruity four', as people have taken to calling them, steddie and ronance strike me as two very different kinds of ships. And I only half get steddie (very not fond of popular portrayal) - there's no real chance for me to get ronance. It is what it is, I suppose. People like what they're going to like. If you want me to extrapolate on any of this, I'd be happy to! My thoughts are oft all over the place and need a bit of direction to make sense, though, fair warning. I think about a lot of stuff and only rarely coherently akdhlwkfkq but I think there is a throughline. At the end of the day, mutual respect is mandatory for me, in romantix relationships especially, but not only for that. If I can't really get behind ronance platonically, there's no hope for romantically. And for the record, as stated above, I did give it a shot. Read the most popular fics and then a couple of the most recent, as I always do. They didn't agree with me, and they left me feeling distinctly... well, not so distinctly because I can't find the right word, but I couldn't help feeling the way I do about the popular portrayal of Hermione is happening to nancy? She's perfect and flawless and a girl boss and has never made a mistake ever and I just.... eeh. Also the treatment of Robin is... not always great. But that's a whole 'nother topic I've already rambled long enough, I don't need to add that.

Basically, tl:dr; ronance is kind of disquieting, probably because I'm not fond of their characterisations within ronance fics, and I'm often affected by the fanon regarding a ship. I never liked Sterek, for example, but I could've tolerated it if a) it wasn't so prevalent in fandom that it appears often untagged like an accepted part of canon when it is not and b) if it didn't so wildly misinterpret the characters, plus didn't include a character that doesn't sit right with me (Derek - Nancy) and a character I love but portrayed in a way that doesn't even remotely align with my interpretation of them 95% of the time (Stiles - Robin).

Er. Yeah. Oof.

Tl:dr; I could see reynalia working, maybe, but I'd need to read some to get a proper feel for it. It might be one of those cases where I prefer it in polyamorous form, aka reynaliabeth. Reynabethalia. Or maybe when put alongside pipabeth (idk piper/annabeth...) Idk. As for ronance, just not my cup of tea for a variety of reasons. I prefer robin crossover ships, like my tiny little dingy of tarabin. (Tara Maclay/Robin Bucley).

:).

(As you can probably tell, I have... lots of very complicated feelings about shipping Robin (and like, shipping in general, being honest) with canon ST characters. I'm much less strict abt Riordanverse characters as a whole, for reasons I'd be perfectly willing to extrapolate on/discuss if you'd like to do so!).

♡♡

[sankttealeaf]

Hello there - I was wondering when did you first start liking durgetash? How did you get the inspo for your story? ps Im a huge fan ❤

hi anon!! thank u!! <3

the thing that dragged me headfirst into the depths of durgetash hell was the prayer for forgiveness! i went into the dark urge playthrough knowing very little! (started rue's run in early september but only got around to actually playing her in early october! (act 3 was lagging so bad on my first playthrough i needed to jump ship to simpler times)

seeing other peoples interpretations of their durge & gortash got me thinking a little more about rue & gortash and what they couldve been like! i went into rue's playthrough knowing i was going to romance gale and went woah, theres some similarities between the two there. rue has a type!

(fun fact: my first tav playthrough & the beginnings of my durgetash era overlapped so when i got to meet gortash as my tav, cassiopeia, i was only slightly taken in by him. did not trust him at all, though. stupid man)

i think i love the tragedy of it all. no matter what relationship your durge has with gortash, its still one of closeness. and to have someone you worked hard with ripped from you, only to return now wanting to destroy everything youve made? thats gotta hurt.

as for my fic it kind of started as a series of one shots i started writing, never really with the intent to publish them! i wanted to work out how rue acted before the tadpoling and how different she was then!

the original plan was just a collection of moments shared between rue and gortash throughout their time together. back then rue was still called rue, i hadnt given her another name to further separate her life before & after being tadpoled. i also really wanted to make little letters and notes that you find in the game to go along with the writing. however i only ever made gortash's initial request for a meeting.

(as u can see below. i thought it was a cool concept. no idea how i wouldve fully executed it though)

then it sort of spiralled from there! what if rue and enver were friends as kids? what if they keep finding each other over and over again? what if they always fall to the same fate? i love tragic romances, friendships that are doomed to fail, relationships that can only end one way, so it was very fun to explore all this with them!!

the title was originally a title from a one shot i started writing about them. i think the phrase "let sleeping dogs lie" is very them - after all, why disturb what is a peaceful alliance? why ruin it by admitting feelings or saying words they shouldnt? also dog imagery & rue go hand in hand (despite me saying she's cat coded)

i had key events planned from the start that i wanted to happen, the main thing being how rue lets down her guard over the course of their friendship & how that becomes her downfall!

i also wanted to use this as a way to not only explore rue and gortash, but rue and orin, too!! it meant i could write in their povs, get into their brains and work out why they do what they do! i love villainous characters and finding out the root cause behind their actions (im currently running a curse of strahd dnd game and did the exact thing for strahd - writing up his motivations and intentions to give me better access into his headspace & why he acts like he does!)

at the start i never really intented to publish it on ao3. i added the little prologue after writing the second chapter, and then i decided to bite the bullet and post it! i made this account to share my writing, why not do that!!

im still a little in shock at how many people have enjoyed reading it & especially how many people love rue. ive never written any oc x canon before so it was a little scary putting her out there for the world to see!! sometimes i get that little voice in my head that goes "gr. youre being cringe" and i have to bap it away before it can rot my brain. im allowed to have silly characters and make them kiss other characters - no one can stop me!!

this got a little longer than i intended, but thanks anon!! <3 i hope this has been a lil insightful about the behind the scene of my very chaotic brain behind this fic! its all ive been thinking about for 6ish months now (oh gods)

[tryingahandinholdingapen]

one thing I'm currently finding v frustrating is that I'd like to know more about canon dc but I am just....not good at reading comics.

I often somehow manage to read speech/action bubbles in the wrong order or even entire panels sometimes and I'm completely terrible at recognising people/characters so if I read one comic, and then read another with a different artists/colourist/etc I will NOT recognise the characters and will have to painstakingly try to guess via context clues which may well take me like 20 pages. And then I'd have to reread the whole thing whilst trying to remember what character from the second comic matches with the same character in the first one

My ability to comprehend different continuities and like, what belongs to what continuity, is fuck awful and tbh I'm continously confused by how the hell you distinguish between various comics series etc within dc??

For some reason I also really struggle with comics in that like...I don't know, for some reason my attention span and memory are both far worse with reading comics than reading a book ot watching TV. I have no idea what's up with that? But I just...can't read much of a comic before my attention span says "okay nah we're done now" and then my ability to remember what had happened in that comic so far when I come back to continue reading later is so fucking spotty

All that's without considering the fact that like. I don't particularly have money or storage space for physical copies of comics (and any sort of online version of any comic ever is even HARDER on my ability to understand and remember shit, again, idk why) and I also frankly have little idea how I'd get access to comics anyway?? Like. I rarely see them to buy and the library has some comics but I don't think many if any of those are dc and I can't remember seeing any I recognised or liked the look of...

I'd really like to get more into dc canon because sometimes I'll see something really interesting in a fic or a post from someone I follow and go "!!! that sounds so awesome how did they come up with that!" only to find out it's actually canon and thus immediately want to consume the relevant source material. But I just? Don't know how to? I don't get on with comics :(( and idk how else to get around that? Like I know theres movies and animated series or whatever but as far as I know those have different canon material/continuity/?? than some of the comics (which are also different to each other I think) so that's not really the same thing

[n7punk]

Do you think it’s a red flag if someone unironically likes shadow weaver? my friend started watching shera and she’s basically justifying Catra’s abuse because she likes shadow weaver. Ik it’s just a show but I’m actually reconsidering my friendship with her lol

Might be controversial, but yes if someone justifies Shadow Weaver's actions, that is a red flag. If they just like her as a character - because she is an interesting character, and you can like the fact that a character is well-developed without justifying a single thing they do - then that's totally fine, but if they completely dismiss the fact that she is abusive, and especially if they place the blame for that abuse on her victims, then I would not personally be comfortable talking to that person. SW's actions are not something purely of the realm of fiction (unlike, say, opening a portal that tears apart space-time after being tortured with lightning magic), and the harm that they cause is one of the reasons so many people relate to Catra and/or Adora.

SW is an interesting character because of how well written she is, and how accurately the show portrays that relationship between an abusive parent and their ward without justifying it. It even shows Adora and Catra still caring about her in some ways without making it seem like it is something they are obligated to do, but rather that it is a reality of their situation - a consequence of being raised by her, despite the pain that she caused them.

I often feel like people take the war and Catra's actions in SPOP "too seriously" (treating the war as if it is a real one, rather than the metaphor that it mostly serves. The show itself portrays Mermista as handling losing her kingdom to the Horde the same way one deals with a break up), but the way SW's abuse is depicted is extremely realistic to how many people with abusive parents experience it (there are, of course, different types of abuse and abusers, but the show nails its portrayal of SW’s type).

There are, of course, nuances to this conversation. Catra does bad things too, because she is a young abuse victim who doesn't know any other way given that she was raised entirely as a child soldier in an environment of abuse, without even things like TV to show her another kind of life. She improves and takes steps to remedy her mistakes by the end of the show.

Shadow Weaver, by contrast, is an adult who repeatedly, for decades, abuses and uses people, never improving as a person, even if she changes to serve the "good" side (which she only did after Hordak imprisoned her and tried to send her to Beast Island. Friendly reminder that Catra joined the side of good without being sentenced to death by her current boss - she in fact was placing that sentence on her own head by freeing Glimmer, but she did it anyway). Shadow Weaver changes allegiances just to chase positions of power where she can continue to abuse people - Catra tries to secure a position of power as self-defense, and because she has never been given anything else to aspire to in the Fright Zone, whereas Shadow Weaver has known both the light and the dark and purposefully chose the one that would serve her best.

Villains are fun - loving villains is why I love Catra, and She-go, and any other number of "evil" (or actually evil) women, and I don't expect every post someone makes about a character they like to include an asterisk that links to a meta about the problems with them as a person (especially one that treats them as if they were they real, because most of the time that doesn’t even make sense for the piece of media), but if they are claiming she isn't abusive or it's the fault of her victims, then that's indicative of a questionable personality type to me.

Catra to Entrapta: "I'm sorry."

Shadow Weaver to Catra: "You're welcome."

That's really all you need to compare the two by the end of season five.

[mine-curse]

Im going off this post, but making a new post since i feel like the point of that one was more the excitment of getting to see what the dsmp narrative will be like in the hands of Wilbur Soot writing in a more traditional medium.

But the differences in medium and particularly how much they "ask" of the veiwer is something that deeply fascinates me.

There's a concept in comic art that what happens in the "gutter", the space between panels is vitally important, almost as important as what you actually put in those panels. Its the space that exists in tension between the information of the previous and next panels, and its important to consider the flow of that information and if it makes sense or not. But its also a place for the reader to fill in the "missing" action. Like creating inbetweens in animation. There is also the lack of sounds, and often color, in a comic. While these things could be considered to be lacking, its also an oportunity for the veiwer to bring their own spin to the story. The "sceans" the veiwer creates in their head are what finish the story. Ahh, it all gets kinda philosophical about the relationship between the veiwer and and creator and how the work is a medium for "conversation" between creator and veiwer. Its difficult for me to explain in words because i am not a philosopher, but its beautiful to think about.

Im talking about comics because thats the medium I've studied and thought about the most. But this doesnt just apply to comics or minecraft rp. It arguably applies the most to prose, since it lacks all sense information except what is discribed to the reader, which is then filtered through that reader's experiences and personal interpretation of words. I think the the closest comparison to the dsmp, in terms of the level of sensory information presented, is something like a fiction or roleplay podcast. But those tend to be more focused. And i also think theres a LOT that can be said about how minecraft mechanics and gameplay do affect the baseline story of the dsmp. Stuff like the importance of places/buildings and instances of very direct and powerful environmental story telling are my favorite. But stuff like the importance of the discs is also an example that comes to mind. And the structure of the narritive being almost compleatly character driven from multiple perspectives is something that comes directly from the fact that its livestreamed from multiple different perspectives. I also think theres a lot to be said (and i will, Someday) about how the narrative structure of the dsmp has ended up mirroring some of the best/most medium specific stories in single player video games themself. It highlights that video games, even those that "dont have a story" like minecraft, have a narrative style that emerges naturally because of the nature of the medium.

In some ways i think a lot more of the dsmp's inaccessibility is more down to the non-centered nature of the story (making it difficult to properly summarize to an outsider), the fact that the livestreams tend to be between 1 and 4 hours (lots of people just dont have that kinda time), and the idea that minecraft is a cringe babby game for losers. (I also think all of those factors have specific appeal to them as well) I dont know how true this is, but i feel like to be into dsmp you have be at least a little on-board with the idea of watching a livestream of some dude playing a video game, story or no, which is an activity that a lot of people veiw as like... inherently cringe/"problematic".

There's more factors to it than just these ideas, but i do think this "lacking" nature of the medium has played a very big part in the size and devotion of the dsmp fandom. If you're a creative type, stories where there's room to make and show your own interpretation are a special kind of catnip.