#but if they're not tagging spoilers now they probably won't later

[bogunicorn]

"Doesn't tag Absolution spoilers" and "boneheaded takes on Absolution" are part of my unfollow/block criteria now oops

[pixxyofice]

hey main tumblr. I've been normal. (Has not been)

Making ocs for the main party is super fun, especially if you like thinking a lot about the dynamics of it. Which I have! A lot!

This is Melodie! They/Them, maybe also drae/draer if I want to be obvious about them. Paper type.

Loop doesn't know who they are...

The funniest backstory ever I have for them is like. In the Hypothetical Reason They Are A Party Member is that in the pre-game canon game, like if it was normal, is that Melodie would be an EXTREMELY missable party member. If you don't talk to a random NPC early in the game they don't pop up later to be talked to and then recruited by Siffrin. In their first appearance in the game they haven't shaved that side of their hair yet.

Their backstory goes like this. They're from the country. you know the one. it's the reason i tagged this as spoilers. They were out of the country for a brief trip in Ka Bue, probably either a study program or to help out with something else. Undecided. On the day they were to return, something... happened to the boats, and they ended up on the continent Vaugarde was in.

A very young teenager, at most, spending time wandering alone. don't think too much about it! haha! this results in them being a lil' awkward, flip flopping between too quiet and too loud in a way that causes them to move on too quick. And then they are 23 (they think), and someone with white hair and an accent kinda like their own approaches them, and... they're with some people they've seen before, they think, the saviors?

and Melodie get introduced. and they want to travel with them more. and they open up. Melodie's still quiet at times, but it's so much easier to open up when people are encouraging and don't hound you for forgetting things that are supposed to be simple. Not in a mean way, anyway.

So by the game's start, they're... a little loud, but in a nice way. Creative. A lil' rambly (a bit much, but always nice to listen to, even if the points go in a bit of circles).

Oh, and, of course, i've thought about THE PARTY DYNAMICS.

Melodie and Mirabelle would be light novel fans together. They make silly poses together to make their lives better and to pose out what the characters are described doing. they laugh about it. They would get into discourse about their favorite characters.

I did mention Melodie was creative, right? Melodie writes some stuff in their spare time, and as one third of the book club, Melodie sometimes is like 'i could use this in my book' and when they say it out loud without meaning to once, Odile takes interest, and now Melodie and Odile have life experiences talk that Melodie can take to adjust things in their lil projects! and also Odile can be the contstructive criticism person.

One thing that helps Melodie out of their shell is that Bonnie is there. to vaguely remind Melodie of some people they can't remember. and be annoying with. And when everyone laughs about it, Melodie does it a lil more!! and bonnie actually does appreciate it! just... not all the way. (reminds them of their sister, too.)

... and...

hi guys i have normal thoughts about these three in particular. many thoughts that get crushed into paste whenever i even try to describe them. Um. I can try though.

Siffrin and Melodie are like. We're similar, but different in ways that makes us seek the other out for company. Our white hair, the way we form words, the small ways we mumble. Melodie breaks out of their shell with a shout, shaking and smiling, while siffrin slides out so slowly. They sit together, and they chat about things they know the others won't get. They remind each other of things forgotten if they remember but the other forgets. they love puns. Siffrin mastered making them, Melodie mastered understanding them and laughing along!! and, of course, the slowly approaching crush that both of them have been festering but have been COMPLETELY ignoring.

Melodie and Isabeau are shopping buddies. Melodie, as a way to get out of their shell, has been getting slightly interested in fashion, and Isabeau is so, SO eager to help out! Along the way this turned into 'get them some new experiences' and 'we make each other better we think about each other all the time we'll encourage each other until our dying breaths.' Melodie started getting used to touch due to Isabeau touching them casually and shouting at him to keep their hand there, and that spreading to the others. Isabeau calls Melodie Mel, and it... hasn't quite spread to the others yet. (Melodie wonders why.) Isabeau admires Melodie for the way they subtly change and Melodie admires Isabeau for the way he has Changed and... of course... the crush they have on him. which is 100% totally unrequited, because he likes Siffrin, and they just HAD to get a crush on someone who already liked someone else!

melodie knows odile is the one isabeau goes to for his own crush. so like, why not follow suit, right? it's not like isabeau likes them back, so it's totally fair. Odile would understand. (odile is the Sufferer)

the most hilarious and fucked up dynamic of three people all in love with each other of all time, i think. (siffrin unaware of both crushes, melodie only aware of the isabeau one, and isabeau aware of both. melodie is also aware of isabeau's crush on siffrin. help them)

I have more I want to say, but... um... getting embarrassed so this is all for now!! um! yay!!! posts this in the tags and flees

[neverchecking]

The Chain as AOT (And ASOT) People

As decided by me. And @lilac-and-daydreams and @angry-trashcan.

・❥・So, this all started because they were making fun of my taste in men and the pattern of it (Link, Vash, Knives, Armin, Hawks, Gordon Ramsey-)

・❥・Just let me set that straight.

・❥・ Ganon is Zeke.

・❥・Legend is Levi. Short, short tempered, good at everything. It just seemed to fit.

・❥・Time, is this might seem controversial, is Erwin. The man in charge, at first, and has bad eyebrows, knows things he won't tell the others. Plus, c'mon. They're practically the same person.

・❥・Hange is four. Both are wicked smart and a little unhinged. Maybe not like season 1/2 hange but DEFINATELY commander Hange.

・❥・And then we had two directions. Option A) Was Wild was Eren and Mikasa was Cal (Quiet, calculative, good at fighting bc lore accurate AOC Link is CRAZY) or Option B) was Wild was still Eren and Twilight was Mikasa (Protective, follows like a dog).

・❥・It will surprise no one that we threw out the idea that Wild was Eren. BUT Twilight was decided to be Mikasa. Again, super protective, dangerous, good on their own.

・❥・Anyway-

・❥・Wild is Connie.

・❥・Thats where we threw him. And I KNOW someone will be like? What about Sasha? He could be Sasha? IM GETTING THERE-

・❥・Bc Wild's personality is more than food, just like Sasha's and his personality is closer to Connie's than Sasha's. >:(

・❥・Plus Wild never knew his mom so I could make the "His mom is a titan" Joke.

・❥・Sage we thought at first would be Armin. He's Armin coded in the least. Manipulative, gaslighty, you know, the finer things in life.

・❥・But in the end Bailey was like "What if he was Eren?" And yk what? They were so right for that.

・❥・The lost in translation, blurred between good and bad, because, like Bailey said, Sage is the perfect Antihero/antivillain. Because he's self-driven. He's looking out for himself. He knows what he wants and how he wants it done.

・❥・And SPOILERS

・❥・ To be taken out by the only person who tried to help him? Divine.

・❥・END SPOILERS BTW

・❥・Now, you guys are probably like What about Armin? Who's Armin if it's not Sage?

・❥・It's Sky.

・❥・Sky, whom looks so sweet and innocent and will cry to get what he wants. Sky, who knows what words are need to make what things happen. Sky who's willing to step on those under him all the way to the top.

・❥・Sky is Armin.

・❥・We joked that Wars would be Jean for a while, but then we scrapped that idea and decided that Hyrule would be better funnier as Jean. The vibes man. The VIBES.

・❥・@fanfic-fairy-fountain said Cal could also be Armin. Which I also agree with.

・❥・As Lilac said it's the underlying manic pixie girl energy.

・❥・We knew Wars was gonna be a Yeagerist-- which Ironic we know bc he hates traitors, but also it just fit too well otherwise.

・❥・ BUT THEN-

・❥・Wars as Reiner, and then WIND as either Birth control or Annie. Because Wind follows Wars and when he...disappears, it'll destroy Wars.

・❥・Plus Wind as Bertllala and then getting along with Hyrule/Jean only to then get sniped? MMM.

・❥・Cal is Sasha. Both eat questionable things. 'nough said.

・❥・FIERCE. He's the OG titan. Iykyk you know?

・❥・Wild is a slap on titan Armin thank you. But just for this-

"Who's that babe you're with?"

"Wild? And their not a girl."

"Hey there Wildmina, you wanna take a bath later?"

"....Can I bring an industrial strength lightning rod?"

・❥・I love it sm <3

・❥・Anyway those were our thoughts. Tell us what you think or don't. I can't control what you do /lh

・❥・ I WAS DOING TAGS AND OMG

・❥・SAGE IS A SLAP ON TITAN LEVI

・❥・"Don't cry Natura...You're so ugly when you cry."

・❥・Natura would be petra in a slap on titan

・❥・I AM CRACKING MYSELF UP WITH THIS SHIT-

Sage: Kid, what the fuck was I to you? Batman?

Wild: YES.

Sage: Huauubh?!

Wild: NO.

・❥・

Sage: And wild child, just so you know-

Wild: Yeah?

Sage: I'm Batman.

Wild: OH MY GOD I HATE THAT MAN.

・❥・

Wild: Admiral Casual? Your nickname is Admiral Casual?

Sage: Look, Wild, I'm just going by reality.

Sage: That's why your nickname is baby dick.

・❥・

Sage: Listen, buttercup, Ima need you to tone it down several notches. You're at an eleven right now, I need you at about a four.

Sage: You have no idea the hangover I'm fighting right now.

・❥・

Time: Here's the truth.

Time: Most of you are going to die.

Time, pointing to each villager: Dead, dead, you are DEFINITELY Dead, you're cute so maybe you'll live, dead, dead. By the golden three I don't even wanna know whats gonna happen to you.

Time: Who knows how you'll pass? *Proceeds to describe several very graphic ways of dying*

Time: Literally all we do is die.

・❥・

Time: I used to have a job crushing cans.

Time: It was Soda-pressing.

・❥・

Hyrule: A black flare? We never went over this? Either everyone's dead or-

Hyrule: ...Or Voldemort's returned.

・❥・

Hyrule: This is why Wild always told you to mix it right or the hallucinations start kicking in!

・❥・

Titan: You again? Really?

Hyrule: Yes.

Hyrule: Come to me. My Waifu.

・❥・

Sage: Look, Wild, sometimes you gotta run. I've been running from people all my life.

Sage: The military police, debt collectors,

Sage: Some bitch I know named Hylia.

Wild: Do you even have a plan?!

Sage: Of course I have a plan! I always have a plan for everything.

Natura: OH MY GOD HE'S BLUFFING- HE'S BLUFFING, thats what he says when he doesn't have a plan!

Sage: HEY- HORSEFACE-

・❥・

Natura: Im sleeping with WILD.

Sage: WILDCHILD? That swagless BEAST?

・❥・

Wild: So this is what you do?

Wild: Drop tail and run away? Like a little BITCH?!

Sage: Wild, you're only saying that because I can't reach back there and pimp slap the shit out of you.

・❥・

Sage: I DO NOT care. What I do care about is that basement.

Sage: Through heaven and hell, fire or rain, we are getting to that basement.

Sage: And I am wearing your dead mother's panties ON MY HEAD.

Literally all of Episode 18 is SO THEM.

[amphiptere-art]

Heavy spoilers!

This is a barebone storyline for RBB. I am too fed up with keeping it down so we're posting it somewhere.

If you do want to read this, and afterwards want to talk about the events listed. That is completely fine. Even encouraged! But for others sake we are going to have to use code words if we are talking about it.

Start a ask with "The colorful mango" just those words! I will then answer the ask, and ask what you want to talk about. Of which then we can continue the conversation underneath read more blocks.

I will be tagging this for my convenience. Luckily though I will use code words. Which are going to be along the same light as the cherry incident wording. I will be listing these different code words next to each event.

Let's get started.

So. We have the generic storyline opening as everything else. Sun got taken over by the kill code. Moon was getting taken over by the kill code. Attempted to make some AI that failed. The computer merge those AIs together to create Blue Moon. Blue Moon lived for about a month alongside moon before they went kill code crazy. At some point meeting Golden in the process. The cube came a couple months later. Then blackstar. Then Earth.

That is a generic timeline everyone knows. This is what's happening after. What hopefully will happen during the ask series. Although the ask series is more of a tying of events. Plus almost a separate timeline. It's basically just a way for me to tie together events without having to think about the downtime.

But let's get started. Really.

So Black Star made a deal with Earth. Basically he caught her trying to mind control Blue Moon. Before he was able to get out of there he caught him. Forcing him to stay quiet under the preface that she will do the same to him. Black Star stays quiet then. If he doesn't mess with her she won't mess with him.

It's not until he starts feeling bad about it that he wants to do something new.

Do note that this listed string of events is really for the ask series. Probably going to steal things from there to fill up the story if I ever do write it down.

Basically blackstar and Blue Moon's relationship grows. Black Stars still a little shit, but he wants to care for Blue Moon. Which includes stopping the whole mess. Black Star doesn't know how to get into contact with Golden so he figures to go somewhere else. Roxanne.

(I don't watch the Roxanne and Gregory show on a daily basis. So yes her personality is very different from what it might be in the show. There's just a lot of things that are different in this.)

Unfortunately this idea is cut short. Blue Moon gets teleported to lost Lord. A place blackstar isn't familiar with. So Blue Moon has to defend him and themselves as they get attacked by the cursed spikes. Yada yada shenanigans. This is a more time filler space. Point is by the end of it Lost Lord's still hates Blue Moon. They're only going to hold back their fury because blackstar made a sort of an alliance.

When they get back Earth is lucky enough to find Black Star. Carefully leaning him back towards pizza plex. Much to his concealed disappointment. Set back up where sun and moon are angry at Blue Moon for getting teleported. Mainly because they teleported back on top of one of suns clean up supply piles. Which makes it so the black star has to attempt to calm them while Earth quietly threatens there life. She also makes sure Black Star realizes that getting help is to break their contract.

This is kind of the extent of what I have planned for the ask series as of now. So from here on it's bullet point events. Not a lot of stringing events together. I'm also regoing over some events that are in the ask series. Just because that's what they boiled down to in the basically ask series Canon.

Blue Moon is extremely tired with their life. Wanting something better that they've seen in all the other universes.

Worm in my apple.

Black Star gets introduced. Instantly knows something's wrong with Earth. Seeing her as an almost copy of him.

Blue Moon gets the taste of the virus.

The Cherry incident.

Blackstar gets caught and makes a deal with Earth to leave him alone.

Rambutan times.

Lost Lord. Blue Moon has to introduce blackstar to the first dangers He's probably ever seen. Black Star does something to help them survive through their stay.

Some good apples.

Eclipse Brothers world. worried about blackstar. Pissed but okay with blue moon.

Mutated carrot.

Beast maker world. Get to experience that nightmare.

Ripe raisins.

Old lunar getting worried. - visited?

A bunch of grapes.

Other wild world. -perhaps a lava world. -perhaps just CC -maybe filler.

Snapped celery.

Black Star feeling bad. It's getting out of hand.

They visit a world with an Earth. Blue Moon gets attached and unfortunately attacks a sun for her. Despite her not wanting them to.

Blue Moon deeply regrets and is extremely confused.

Rolling pickle.

Blackstar fleas to try and find help. Unfortunately leaving Blue Moon to get taken over by Earth's virus.

Black Star heads to EB to get help. Shy due to Earth's threaten but EB protects him.

Bell pepper.

Earth learns about the star from Blue Moon.

Black Star essentially gathers a mini army to stop Earth.

Smashed mangoes.

Earth heads to Golden and by pretending that Blue Moon is okay. Gaines access to the star.

The others try and stop her. Unfortunately Blue Moon taken over by the virus and fights for her.

Earth uses the star. It breaks. Blue Moon along with it.

Earth did not mean to hurt blue moon. In her sorrow, Golden gains back control of the situation.

Fruit basket.

Blue Moon is.. dead? Black Star kills Earth in revenge. He and Golden attempt to fix blue moon. Old lunar, The eclipse Brothers, anyone else, Go to try and get superior help.

The story is unfortunately stuck here. I struggle to link events together. There really should be a lot more downtime in RBB instead of just going to other universes. This is based on the most concrete story I've ever made. Which is correlated to a song. So there's definitely some creative biases.

If any of you want to talk about this stuff I'm happy to. My problem with the story is that there are no filler events. People asking questions about the story helps me think about how to fill those empty holes. It will help this story and the many events more complete. So please, I encourage questions.

[sharky-chan]

five comfort characters five tags

Tagged by @lipstickmata <3 <3 <3.

Not 100% sure what comfort characters are, but I'll just take a crack at it assuming it means "I was or am extremely fixated on them and/or I just think they're neat." Trying to avoid massive spoilers, but there may be some minor ones despite my efforts...

Nero tol Scaeva (Final Fantasy XIV) I am pretty sure my first comment upon seeing Nero in RR was "Who is this loser? Looks like a worthless midboss that won't even make it to the end of the game," and boy was I wrong (about making it -- 100% he's a loser and worthless midboss). Now, 4 expacs later, he's my forever baby girl thanks to his incredible arrogance, sassy mouth, and "uncomfortably in love with Cid while also being divorced from Cid"-ness...

Revolver Ocelot (Metal Gear Solid) Ocelot is the OG "war criminal loser who is completely amoral outside of being wholly devoted to a single person, for whom he'd give up everything" so I obviously love him for the same reasons I love Nero. Every time Ocelot shows up in an MGS game, it brightens my day even as it makes the day of everyone around him worse <3. Meow.

Akemi Homura (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) Hmm...looks like we're just on the "loser who will burn down the whole world to save the one person she loves" train, but it's a good train and I like it here! I wasn't a fan of the movie's take, but Homura's characterization (and magical girl powers) in the original show is simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking. Is it too much to ask that Homura be happy forever? No, I think it's not.

Sam Vimes (Discworld) I started with the Rincewind books, and while I do love them (and the academia references have only become more real to me over the years), imo the Nightwatch books are the heart of Discworld (yes, even more than the Death books, yes, I know this is contentious). Vimes is such a wonderful combination of rage, cynicism, kindness, and an unwavering adherence to justice.

Trico (Last Guardian) It's probably more fair to say all of the Team ICO games are comfort games, but a special shout out to Trico, who is the cutest kitty-bird-monster of all time despite eating those naughty, forbidden Trico Treats. I definitely had to lie down for a long time after finishing Last Guardian, and I was already emotionally prepared for having to lie down after finishing any Team ICO game ^o^;;

Not sure who wants to be tagged, so tagging @illuminesce, @songofkeys, @thistleburr, @penquinlori, and @poor-punctuation but feel free to ignore if you don't wanna play!

[jinzouactor]

Thank you for all the recent love on Mayfly in Milk, it means a lot when people share and leave their thoughts on my comic.

I don't plan to stop writing it, it's been a major passion project for me for over a year and there's so much content in the works.

Even though there hasn't been romance so far.. I'll say that there is going to be ShimaMine at a later stage. Given recent events I understand if people don't want to see that, and I'll also probably stop using the series and character tags on my comic just so people don't come across it who don't want to.

I already established a few chapters ago that Minegishi and Shimazaki are age 21 and 23 in the flashback, putting them around 27 and 29 after Claw, and that's what I'm rolling with from now on.

I'm also going to leave my mayfly scripts here.. partly as a record of where i got to before the fanbook release, in case i stop continuing. they're in a rough shape, obviously since this was the first stage of the creation and im slightly self conscious about the state of them. but I feel like having them here because i probably won't touch this folder again, nothing's been updated here since about August 2022 anyway.

But if i DO continue, well the scripts have mayfly spoilers. obviously.

[sextonsharpwinhalstead]

Yeah, I was trying to say without saying and being more long-winded than I already was. That there are a lot of men in the Med writer's room. And that was the quickest thing they could do without completely damaging her character. But it was just enough that it would tack on to everything else they already had planned and I refuse to believe the writers and showrunners don't understand how negative storylines will also get a character trashed especially black and other nonblack poc characters. Because there's no way they thought their writing in 5 made sense. From her and Choi openly flirting in the ED for the first time in what 3 seasons. Then her random crush on Marcel, the kiss. Then her not exactly apologizing for it and being sort of callous when she's still working with CM and Ethans offended. And lord Ethan crying to Ms. Goodwin yeah that will really get to the fans, especially the anti-Chexton fans who want to make it clear they're not anti-the actress they're just so ToXiC. While forgetting that Halstead was a total asshat to Natalie in the beginning and they fought and broke up for dumb sxxt too. And all the people still crying over Ava and Rhodes all these years later as if it isn't weird that all Ava did was basically neg Connor and Robin in the beginning. How is that not toxic? And if April is a B like everyone claims then Choi needs to were an asshole hat too.

I search the tags when I can't sleep and the number of fans losing their shit here and on Twitter when April probably has been on the screen for longer than 30 minutes in the 2 episodes we've actually seen her face is insane. Many of them are mad because their fave isn't back, so that's one aspect. The others are laughing because her show was canceled and basically doing everything but calling her u---ty for daring to leave. And swearing that she's only back because of that when there is evidence to the contrary. We can't hold our breath but if the spoilers I've seen aren't OC trolling us with pictures from scrapped storylines, then these haters better prepare to be sick of me. Because I won't rest if Chexton gets the happy ending Brian wanted in 2020.

There are always too many men. That's it that's the thought lol. The way they play in our face like we don't notice is wild.

The more I thougut about it the more I think that they added Marcel because they remembered that April started the show with a fling with Kelly. Which meant that she was capable of that kind of fun hookup. The problem is they didn't do ANYTHING to further that in six seasons. Neither before or after Ethan. And they are capable of it because we've watched Will and Connor bone their way through Chicago. Like a common problem with One Chicago is they forget to write anyone who isn't white a love interest/personal lives. They forget that many fans find them desirable.

Back when they introduced the Marcel/April story and everyone was crying and whining in my f*cking inbox about poor Ethan I wanted to make a meme of Vicki sipping tea because ETHAN CHEATED ON HER WITH APRIL and NEVER came clean. It was just kiss for both of them but you'd think that April murdered his sister the way people act. Or that Ethan wasn't capable of the same. I guess because it was in service to Chexton no one cared. 🤷🏾‍♀️

I truly believe Chexton is going to get a hopeful ending. Yaya is on her way to joining the cast of The Lincoln Lawyer, it's Netflix which is about as bad as Fox so I hope it works out but I think Yaya was interested in giving her character the closure she deserved and Ethan too. I just like knowing April finished her program and works independently. Now she gets love too and folks can die mad about it.

You don't have to like Chexton but folks might wanna check why they are so bitter seeing these two characters happy in a farewell, KNOWING Ethan has grown is... telling.

And yes it's wild that ppl still bitch about Ava and Rhodes and Manst*ad. Those ships were toxic AF. You have to be an Ava apologist to pretend you didn't see how batshit she was the ENTIRE time, people are like "you ruined her" and I'm like, "Are yall okay?!" Natalie was snotty AF to Will and Will was misogynistic AF to Natalie. Everyone hated her and only cared about her in that ship. Mess.

[quietbluejay]

wait i'm not done re: MTMTE and this isn't salt so I won't tag it that but anyone who doesn't want late game spoilers for MTMTE avert your eyes unless you want spoilers lol also i have no clue how common knowledge this twist is

"JRO made his self-insert god" bug me. no!!! bad!!! every word is wrong!!! in addition that's not where the problem is!!!

wanted to expand on this

RUNG IS NOT A SELF INSERT like honestly I think this is the sort of thing that only people who don't write can say, or people who don't do original characters/original stories. Is he kinda based on Roberts physically? yeah, but nothing I've seen says he's based on him in terms of personality or is meant to be him, like, you can tell when a character is a self-insert for the writer even if they're not the main character. Rung was created to fulfill a specific role as a side character. And I think that's actually part of the problem and why exactly he didn't really get a proper arc as I know Roberts has mentioned he should have done. Yeah Roberts wrote fic but also he was a 90s fic writer, and a lot of 90s fic is very different, tonally and in how OCs were written (and also genre etc etc etc), and Rung fits into that kind of OC people would create, as a side character that expands on the Real Canon Characters but doesn't have an arc of their own, a lot of people wrote little fics or ongoing series with this kind of character that sometimes spawned a real plot but didn't always, now okay most of my 90s fic reading was for comics fandoms or LOTR so maybe I shouldn't make blanket statements haha

RUNG IS NOT GOD. Like. did you miss the entire point. The point is that "Primus" is not a god, he's just some guy who happened to be the first Cybertronian and everyone ended up worshipping him later. The point is that there is no "Primus". I know some people probably do get this just fine and they're just saying it because it's fun or hyperbole or whatever but also. gah! it just misses the point entirely.

[timeloop-observer]

welcome to my hyperfixation hell.

~ about me ~

> name's ari, you might know me better as @the-timewatcher though (or @timewatchertunes on youtube if you're weird)

> 20-something nonbinary (they/them) with brain worms for meta stuff and good game design

> timezone's cet/gmt+1 (or cest/gmt+2 in the warmer seasons, CURSE YOU DAYLIGHT SAVINGS)

> this blog started bc my Sheer Blinding Normalcy about these games is too much by now

> i'm not above swearing and write in lowercase unless it's for emphasis or for Proper Essay Purposes, get adjusted quick

~ about the game(s) ~

> the blog is centered on In Stars And Time, but will also feature content from/about START AGAIN: a prologue, its prototype/better demo than the actual demo don't @ me

> they're both rpgs by the ever-wonderous INSERTDISC5 (not gonna @ her on this thing) about a fella getting stuck in a time loop at the tail end of an unseen jrpg adventure (i don't think i need to specify, but the time loop also Stands For Some Things)

> the art is striking, the music is bopping, the gameplay has some of the best ludonarrative harmony ever and the story/writing/characters are immaculate, especially with how they can seamlessly give you fun comedy, the warm fuzzies, The Horrors and intense gutpunches of raw emotion in rapid succession!

> that being said, it has a content warning page for a reason - it's not for the faint of heart, though there's not any cheap jumpscares

> also the ludonarrative harmony i mentioned often comes at the expense of gameplay being all that riveting later on, so don't expect to rpg the daylights out of this rpg,

> othewise, if you're still interested and somehow haven't played it yet, go check it out! in particular i would recommend getting a taste of it online though - the one thing i will criticize about it is the first 45 mins of the game as is (or just start again, which you should check out regardless of it being a prototype) would work far better as a demo than the actual demo

~ about the blog ~

> like my main, probably skewing towards rapid fire reblogs

> sometimes i'll even reblog things that aren't explicitly about isat if i feel like they fit here

> will spoiler tag the following:

#isat spoilers - anything from act 2 onwards that would give away the game's main plot

#start again spoilers - mostly about the game's main endings, since it's so brief spoilertagging the middle would be like giving a sandwich a halfway break

#isat achievement spoilers - for sidequests that aren't required for the main plot, with the exception of

#twohat spoilers - without specifying what this means exactly, if you only saw one hat at the game's credits, filter this tag out

> #usual day in siffrin's torment nexus is for anything with canon typical content warnings. on reblogs, this will be the only tag specifying these things, unless there's also canon-atypical cws to worry about (ex. you won't see it next to #cw children in peril on a reblog, but you might on an original post, or on a reblog next to #cw gore)

> will only tag in greater specificity (canon typical content warnings, character specific tags, etc.) on original content, since the algorithm side of things on tumblr doesn't bother much with rbs

> will tag my ships (different strokes for different folks in the fanbase, i understand), but i'm not here to start discourse. if i catch you clowning about what pairings feature on here, i'll tell you to touch grass and block.

> for original posts, expect shitposts, analysis/gushing, some original writery and maybe a smidgen of art or music if inspiration strikes

> feel free to shoot asks, submissions and dms at me, but i apologize if i'm slow to respond...

[memorydragon]

So I thought I was going to take a day off from ranting about how mental I am because of these gay cops, but nope. Normal levels have not receded.

First of all, I really do adore Bu Chonghua. He's a condescending prick at times, but I love him and I love how Huai Shang lets him be so very wrong at times.

Even when that wrong hurts like fuck.

There's this moment when they're both out of town-ish to interrogate someone and they stay in the same room because it's too late to go back. That morning, Bu Chonghua sees Wu Yu walking around, half asleep and shirtless and completely relaxed, and he realized that at some point, Wu Yu has marked him as 'safe'. And yes, I'm normal about that, but the point is, when exactly did Wu Yu mark him as such?

I made that post about misunderstandings being well done in this plot, but I need to clarify that there are sometimes Bu Chonghua is a condescending prick and Wu Yu is very correct when he's calling acab. The first time I read through it, I was like, yeaaaaaah, Hua-ge, I love you, but you're really being a condescending prick. And Wu Yu was well deserved in bitching him out.

The second time I read through it, it hurt like a fucking truck. Putting aside my personal flashbacks of being othered by someone who thinks you're part of 'them' while being completely and totally dismissive of my identity, when Bu Chonghua tries to draw the line between criminal scum and say they don't change, he was off. He was so off by miles and Wu Yu sneers and says he'll never become like Bu Chonghua because he really, really fucked that one up.

Which is why not even half an hour later when Wu Yu gets triggered so badly he's throwing up his stomach lining (onto Bu Chonghua's shirt XD), it had to be so jarring. Because Bu Chonghua correctly assesses his ptsd (which he knows, because he's been living that same empty life and have I mentioned I'm Normal about these trauma kittens?) then says 'I want to pull you back from that.'

If you saw my post from yesterday, yes I've been thinking about this all day to the point I can't even keep reading because massive fucking ow. Now, if you've been following me for a decent length of time, you're probably aware how I feel about spoilers. Namely, I don't care a wit about them. You can spoil me anytime and I won't care. Honestly, I prefer spoilers on some things (not to be hipster, but I was into tgcf before any of my friends and I would have really liked a spoiler about certain things but had no one to give them to me) and my enjoyment always comes from the journey rather than the destination in most cases. My spoiler tag is a polite accommodation for everyone else, which I sometimes completely forget to do, but I do try to keep up with it. (On that note, I'm so sorry, tgcf donghua second season was completely untagged for that. I completely forgot. -_-;;; ) That said, what I'm about to discuss is one of the few times I've actually danced around a major spoiler, because this one is quite big. I've avoided mentioning it explicitly in my previous posts about Tun Hai, but I'm about to mention details. So this is your warning, I'm about to talk about a spoiler that even I consider to be a significant one. If you don't want spoilers, scroll past and don't click the read more.

Because the only two people in his life who have ever genuinely cared about him and not who they thought he was wanted to take him out of that hell. Because his aunt gave him a name he can no longer use, because Xie Xing came back just for that promise. Because he's been forced to live someone else's life, the life of the only person who gave a damn, because he wants so badly to escape to a place where poppies aren't grown and he can't do that as himself. Because he's carrying Xie Xing's wish that he lives on for the both of them. And just fucking ow, little fish, please stop breaking my heart.

And this is where Bu Chonghua is marked safe, even so close after he fucked up so badly, because that's the one thing he's been promised by people who actually see him, that they're going to take him out of that hell and into the light. And Bu Chonghua just casually says this, not understanding why Wu Yu is stunned by something that to him is just normal amount of caring. Because two people died before they could make good on that promise, despite how hard they both tried, and how hard Wu Yu knew they both tried and died in their attempts. And I'm so fucking unhinged by this.

Because when before Bu Chonghua has even realized it, he's put himself along side what only two people have ever tried in in Wu Yu's life. All of that night, when Wu Yu shows him his favorite 'movie' (this little fish, Wu Yu, baby, why are you like this XD), when he follows Bu Chonghua out, when he watches Bu Chonghua basically take on a whole street gang while venting, only stepping in when Bu Chonghua was actually in danger, when Bu Chonghua is sitting there thinking by himself that Wu Yu deserves so much better, and when he realizes that Wu Yu can occasionally stick his head out of his shell and look around if someone is patient enough to wait (Abso-fucking-lutely feral). All of that time, Wu Yu has marked him as safe and I'm so Normal about Them.

[iaintyourbro]

The Unknown Journey Continues

Part 1

I know it's been a while... but I've been going down a rabbit hole with @starlight-samurai regarding time loops, Jenova, Minerva, and more fun. So I figured I'd try to put it into one post to get the insanity out of my head. Everything in here is based on things we've found by either going through more obscure Ultimanias, learning more about Dirge of Cerberus and trying to decipher what the hell Jenova is by putting together various sources - including other Square Enix games - and how they handled freakishly similar scenarios.

Did you know there is a companion mobile game for it that was out on the good old flip phones? Did you know there was an online mode in Dirge of Cerberus only available in Japan, but had story elements that were not in the main game?

The sad part is, there's still so much to go through...

(I've also had various discussions with @ourfinalheaven, Manu, who doesn't have Tumblr, so here is her Twitter. and Somebody's Nightmare (here is her Twitter). So I wanted to tag them here, as it's much more fun to discuss these ideas as a group, since it'll only help you build on and strengthen your own ideas.)

Please be aware, there will be Spoilers for FFVII - Almost all Compilation titles, Xenogears, and NieR Automata throughout this.

So let's go on a journey where we explore what actually already exists in the compilation - including the idea of the whispers and timeloops - how Minerva may play into everything, and what exactly Jenova is capable of doing.

I asked Sesi if he'd ever played any of the NieR games, because he'd said something that made me wonder if they were going to take a similar approach. As a very, very quick high level summary: NieR Automata deals with a time loop type of idea. The androids will be rebooted and repeat the same things over and over again. This is broken when 2B is killed by A2 because she becomes infected with a virus. That being said, you have the option after Ending E to either erase all of your data and end the cycle OR you can try again. The Pods have a discussion, and one asks, "But won't they just do the same thing again?" and the other replies with "Maybe. But it could also be different this time."

Here's Sesi's message back to me when I asked him about this (cleaned up a bit since we were having a casual conversation over Discord):

Maybe I could just guess based comparatively on the Dirge storyline, because that was sort of SE's first flirtation with “robots and androids” since they’re all programmed and locked behind like task managers and shit that can shut them down. The story of the online mode for DoC that came out in Japan, we never got to see it, you’re basically an Android OC and you have to get to “the end of the level” and then essentially die, and a new one takes its place. This keeps happening until Weiss is essentially freed from being able to be task managed by the guys who are suppose to be able to control them and I know from tons of years with Square games that they’re verrrrry bad at differentiating their narratives they tend to just keep “ripping themselves off” so is it anything close to that?

Cuz if so I think I kinda know what you’re saying and yeah, I agree, I think with CC bringing in its poetic symbolism and LOVELESS, and DoC bringing back the cyclic nature of the lore, whispers, premonitions and future visions, proto-Materia and the perversion of this next cycle since the planet can no longer cleanse and protect itself and its will is weakening lesser and lesser to the point where it’s fate is “in a true sense of jeopardy This time essentially it’s all tied in together and sort of played as though it's a fated track; a cycle of events and something has hitched it, thus the whispers manifesting and Sephiroth's higher implied control over his destiny. Of course, even all that is just their new red herring game, but it’s definitely a part of the lore they want to play with, in order to go back and reMAKE the OG with the comp inserted from inception. Also gut punch a lot.

Time Loops

I was somewhat surprised to find out that this concept is NOT new to FFVII's universe. It's discussed in Dirge of Cerberus... probably one of the least played and least understood of the compilation. (Trying to sell a third person shooter with terrible controls to a market of mostly people used to turn-based combat wasn't going to go well.)

On top of it, we didn't even get all of it, since online mode was never released outside of Japan, and the Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode was on Amp'd Mobile and Verizon flip phones back in 2006. Were you around for the cell phones in 2006? I had the ones on the list, and how somebody could play a game on those blows my mind.

Square has a tendency to reuse themes from their other titles. Probably one of the most blatant is the similarities between Xenogears and Final Fantasy VII. They were both being developed at the same time and a lot of ideas that didn't make it into FFVII ended up in Xenogears.

NieR

So how does this work? In NieR (both Replicant and Automata), you play the same path multiple times. Each time, it's slightly different depending on what side quests you did your first and second playthrough, but there's also other subtle differences throughout the story. In Automata, you get to play as 2B your first playthrough and 9S for your second. They follow the same path, but you get it from his perspective the second time and it reveals a bit more of what is going on. However, even with some slight differences, the main plot points stay the same and the ending result it also the same.

Then on your third playthrough, you wake up in the Bunker, and you're getting ready to go on a new mission. This time, though, 2B is killed and shit hits the fan. Things get crazy, you play as a new character: A2. In the end, pretty much everyone "dies", but you can choose to "reboot" and try again. You also can say you are done and let them all rest and delete your save data (the game gives you the option for both Automata and Replicant, and with Replicant, it actually leads to a new ending).

The striking thing for me is... There are certain events that will always happen, no matter what.

Fixed Points in Time

It's been years since I've watched Doctor Who, but there was something that stuck with me, and that was the fixed points in time. You can read about all of them here, but here's the basics:

Now, of course Doctor Who goes into this with much more detail and it's a recurring theme. However, as you read through that page, you'll probably find many aspects that have been used in various JRPGs that you've played. And Doctor Who most likely pulled some of the idea from classic Science Fiction novels. Each story puts its own spin on it.

How does this relate to FFVII Remake? Well, when they say that the major plot points will stay the same, it reminds me of this. No matter what, Cloud must fall into the Sector 5 Church, the Sector 7 Plate must be dropped, Aerith and Zack both must die, and Meteor has to be summoned, to name a few. So, with a time loop, those things would still have to take place in order to prevent a complete collapse of reality (at least in how Doctor Who uses it).

Therefore, the Whispers are ensuring that the Will of the Planet is followed.

One of the major themes in FFVII is that of loss. People die and they do not come back. Yes, other FF games do allow this to happen (FFX, FFXIII, FFXV), but VII is not those games. It was written with that idea in mind, that once a person dies, they, just like in real life, are dead and cannot be brought back.

I've previously written that I think they'll make us believe we are able to change fate, but we will eventually be slammed with the reality that we can't. That is because the planet has determined that certain events are fixed points.

Xenogears

Xenogears takes a bit of a different approach to the loop idea. Instead of repeating the same time period over and over, it has the characters reincarnated, and the same outcome happens each time: Elly dies. However, each time it's different. After all, they're in various time periods, in some cases thousands of years apart.

In all of the lives of Fei (who will have a different name in each time period) and Elly (who is always Elly/Elhaym), Elly will end up dying trying to protect Fei and the others. In one life, she is a religious figure at a totally not Catholic church, in another she's the wife of a scientist who was working to create children from nanomachines due to mass infertility issues. But she is ALWAYS with Fei, even if his name changes.

In her Mother Elhaym time, this is when Lacan (Fei) finally snaps. Though he's not fully aware of his past lives, he becomes aware, the anger consumes him, and he becomes Grahf. Fei is then reborn into the time period you play the game in.

There's a lot to unpack with this, so I won't go into it. Grahf wants to destroy God (Deus) because he thinks if he does, then it'll stop the suffering (his suffering).

If you do want to read more about Grahf, you can do so here, but it probably won't make much sense unless you've played Xenogears up to that point... Since it's much later in the game that this is all explained.

Lacan's desire was to stop the cycle of Elly always sacrificing herself for his sake. Though Grahf is not a perfect existence - he's not fully "The Contact", he sacrifices himself in order to let Fei move forward, and hopefully stop the cycle, by destroying the Deus system. (Elly also tries to sacrifice herself here, but Fei goes after her and stops her.)

Now, some people may think I'm saying that Cloud or somebody is going to do this in order to save Aerith or Zack (or his village or mom), but in FFVII if they do the loop method, I don't think Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and the others are aware of it. Most likely, it's only 'Sephiroth' and Aerith who are aware of it.

How this Could Be used for Final Fantasy VII

I'm stressing could because there's so many different possibilities on how they use this (if they are using this), so please, don't take this as fact. This is based on speculation based on what we know.

A time loop is a great way to explain away the differences in the story that we've seen: Biggs being alive, Wedge living for longer than he should have, etc. Since these are not major plot changes, they can simply say that this time it'll be slightly different... but your fixed points (major plot points) will remain the same.

It's a way to pull in some of the more obscure themes from Dirge of Cerberus and also play with the LOVELESS lore.

It could all simply be a big red herring and it's really just a remake of OG, but with the compilation tied together nicely... since it works much better when it's combined and not in 50 different games, books, movies, etc.

I don't think it's a "sequel" per say, not in the way I generally perceive a sequel. It's more of a loop of the same thing. The question is, when is the loop started and what will cause it to end? When will the planet (if it even is the planet) determine that it's good enough to begin moving forward?

JENOVA, Sephiroth, Genesis, and Minerva - Oh My!

Let's be real... Genesis isn't exactly the most popular character in the FFVII Compilation... but what if they make him one of the most important to the story? //Ducks as various fruits and vegetable are thrown in my direction//

I think what Genesis is probably most known for is his love of LOVELESS. He has the entire thing memorized and randomly says lines from it throughout Crisis Core. LOVELESS lore is still something I'm trying to grasp, so I am not going to comment much on it. Once I understand it more, I'll update this.

...And then this happens. The secret ending for Dirge of Cerberus, where Genesis picks up Weiss. Weiss, who has now been introduced along with Nero in FFVII INTERmission and is an optional ridiculously hard boss in the Shinra battle simulator in chapter 17 of the main story. There is some lore associated with the battle sim - so if you don't plan on beating it or you just can't, you can look up the pre-battle and post-battle cut scenes on YouTube. They're very short, but interesting. (I beat this asshole last night - it's a hell of a fight.)

....To Be Continued because apparently Tumblr won't allow more than 10 images per post now.... Next will be more on JENOVA and Sephiroth along with Minerva.

[asknarashikari]

Minific idea: (in relation to the training asks you've been getting) how about Juru asks to compromise the training he gets from his well meaning teammates with training with someone he knows, he knows someone who does karate. maybe Right or Hikari, but Juru's unaware that they're his senpai but Right or Hikari are aware that Juru's the new red sentai.

Hmm... I hope you don't mind but I'm actually gonna go pre-ToQ for this prompt ;)) And no spoilers in the tags either, haha!

"You're enrolling in a dojo?" Shiguru asked, pouting at Juuru. "But, aren't I supposed to teach you...?"

"I know, and I appreciate it, honestly!" Juuru said placatingly. "But I really can't keep up with the pace you're setting! I want to learn some basics first..."

(Not to mention, he really couldn't concentrate on what he was supposed to do when his crush was right there being hot and everything!)

Shiguru sighed, sounding disappointed but conceding nonetheless. "Alright. I understand." He said. "Keep me posted, alright? Don't think you'll get away lightly just because you have classes now."

"Right, right..."

~0~

Juuru laid on the floor of the dojo, panting heavily, struggling to catch his bearings. If this was beginner's class... how did Shiguru exactly expect him to keep up with his?

"Alright, take five everyone." The teacher announced, and the class dispersed to the sides while he went over to him. "Atsuta, are you alright?"

"Yeah, let me just..." he said, sitting up and shaking himself. "Sorry Sensei, it won't happen again." He said, picking up his bokken from where it had fallen after he was disarmed.

Sensei chuckled. "It's alright if it does. You're here to learn, after all." He handed Juuru an ion drink. "Here."

"Thanks, sensei." Juuru accepted the drink.

"So, what made you decide to join the dojo, anyway?" Sensei asked him. "No offense, but... you don't really look like the type to be into kendo."

"Ummm..." Juuru said, not knowing how to put it. "Circumstances made it necessary for me to learn how to defend myself... and this place was pretty close to home, haha."

Sensei looked entirely skeptical of his answer, but didn't comment on it. "Well. You're doing a great job, for a complete beginner," he replied. "Or did you get some training before?"

"Ah, I did a little with a friend, but they're a bit... advanced." Juuru admitted.

"Hmm. Well," he patted the boy's head. "Keep up the good work, alright?"

"Yes, Sensei!"

~0~

"Dad. About that new student of ours."

"What about him, son?"

"I'm sure of it. Atsuta Juuru... He's that new Red that showed up a few weeks ago."

"Ah, Atsuta-kun, huh... He's the same age as you back then." he noted. "I wonder why he's enrolling in a class though..."

"He's probably one of those guys they call Rookie Reds," the son groaned. "So I'm gonna have to teach this kid how to fight and not get killed doing it."

"Well, if there's anyone who can do it, it's you, my boy." He ruffled his son's head. "Besides, he's your Sentai kouhai, isn't he? Even if he doesn't know it... you can impart some of your wisdom to him."

"I don't know about wisdom..." he said skeptically, "but I'll try my best, I guess."

~0~

A few weeks later...

"Great job, Juuru!"

Juuru blushed under Shiguru's praise, opting to look at the sword he had just divested from his teammate. "Thanks, I guess..."

"I guess those classes paid off after all," Shiguru admitted. "Which dojo are you attending, anyway?"

"There's one near my house. It's apparently a really old one, and the owner is like a 16th generation head?" Juuru explained. "The Rippukan school."

"Wait, what." Muryo sputtered, having watched their sparring. "Rippukan. As in... Rippukan Souji? The master of the Peerless Sword? That Rippukan?"

"Oh, you know Sensei, Muryo-san?" Juuru asked.

"Know him? Juuru, he's one of your senpai! He was the Slashing Hero, the Zyuden Sentai's Kyouryu Green!"

Juuru blinked once, then twice, before his eyes bugged out. "EEEEEEEEHHHHHH?!"

[the-lincyclopedia]

4, 7 and 18 for fic asks!

Thanks for the ask, @jonsaremembers! I really appreciate you inviting me to talk about my writing even though we don't share a fandom.

4. What piece of writing are you most proud of?

Looking over my fics from the past year, I think overall I feel more affection than pride. Like, I don't think most of them suck! But it's more "oh, that was fun!" and less "oh man, that's that Good Writing (TM)." I think the one I'm most proud of "who could ask to be unbroken (or be brave again)," partially because, at 14k, it's definitely the longest fic I've written in the last year. (What can I say? I do one-shots.)

The fic is the third installment in my a cappella AU, which got started because I thought it would be funny if SMH stood for Samwell Men's Harmonies instead of Samwell Men's Hockey (and then I spent nearly 30k exploring the idea). In this installment, it's Jack’s junior year at Samwell, and SMH adds three new singers, including a baritone named Eric whose classical vocal training is more of a liability than an asset. Somewhere along the way, Jack falls for him. This fic has so much vocal music technique and pedagogy in it, courtesy of @themeaningoflifeischeese.

7. What's the story or fic that you're most excited to work on or share next year?

I have very little in the works right now, fic-wise, largely because I'm trying to focus more on original stuff. That said, I'm participating in a New Year's exchange for the Murderbot Diaries, which is a pretty new fandom for me. So I've written a one-shot for that, and I think it'll be revealed either later today or tomorrow. It contains spoilers for the latest book in the series, which may limit its reach, but the title is a lyric from the musical version of Legally Blonde, so obviously I had fun with the assignment.

18. Do you have a fic that you wish received more attention?

I think you asked me this last year, too, and I've got a similar answer: it's a weird thing to go from writing a popular crossover of two popular fandoms as a teenager and having well over 1,000 people subscribed to one of my fics, to writing in small fandoms as an adult and struggling to exceed 1,000 hits on a fic, let alone subscribers. I know this is about the sizes of the fandoms I've been in, and about switching to AO3 late in the game and not having name recognition there, so I try not to let it be sad, and I'm pretty successful at remembering that it's not a comment on my growth as a writer, but it's still weird.

So basically: it's tempting to say I feel this way about nearly all of my fics. But the one with the most disappointing effort-to-attention ratio is probably "You Won't Grow Out of It; You Will Find Clothes That Fit." It's a Harry Potter/Check Please crossover, and I think that might be why people have avoided it, since the Check Please fandom doesn't seem super enthusiastic about crossovers. It's set in the Check Please universe, and it's about Ginny Weasley being roommates with Lardo, and how they both come to realize over the course of college that they're nonbinary. It's another one of those fics that I poured myself and my own journey into, and only one person commented (and I adore you, cricket, but ideally your comment would be one of several, you know?).

I just realized that my answer to this question last year was also a nonbinary!Lardo fic. I wrote four fics with nonbinary!Lardo this year (though I only added that tag to three of them because Lardo's pretty minor in the fourth one). Those fics are never super popular, but it's easier to let that go when they're under 1k versus over 5k. I think the overall unpopularity has more to do with people preferring my Zimbits than with people actively disliking the way I write Lardo, and I'm not mad. It can just be disappointing to put effort into something that people don't wind up reacting to all that much.

Anyway, thanks for the ask, @jonsaremembers! Get in on the ask game!

[inessencedevided]

The Untamed, episode 45 - watching notes

I'm at this stage of fandom rn where it's really hard to concentrate on anything else 😅

Every song I listen to gets dissected for how it relates to wangxian

I need to concentrate on my thesis but instead I'm pondering how the untamed raises questions about collectivism vs individualism and how my western perception of that might differ greatly from a native chinese person or even the author's intention

Can't I just write my thesis about THAT?

Alas, I digress ...

Back to our regular programming :D

Last time one Sophie watches the untamed wwx went all Sherlock on us and used his formidable skills of deduction to expose Backpfeifengesicht's plan of killing everyone and blaming it on wwx

I've heard from several people that the next few episodes are their favourites, so no high expectations at all :D

Nobody wipes the blood on their chins away. Might be about the aesthetic

I adore detective-duo-wangxian so much!! Especially because wwx does 99% of the talking but then lwj will chime in with a single word and it's 100% devastating :D

If anyone knows any well written case-fics for these two, please, I need recs! (For after the show)

Backpfeifengesicht makes good one point and that is that jgy already is at the top of the cultivation world. So what does he gain from all this?

Or is it simply that he's afraid of wwx because he's a rebel and might act against him? (Don't answer that. I wanna find out through the show ;))

Wwx just casually revealed that he's been to cloud recess and that he handles went to the restricted section forbidden chamber. What will you do about, Lan Qiren? Huh? 😂

Oooh! Backpfeifengesicht is the ghosted faced man! I thought it was Jiggy himself!!! 😱

That makes way more sense though!

Lan Sizhui! Jin Ling! Oh you brave boys! 😭

Someone hold me 😭

But why does he not take zidian now? He's done so before!

"You little fool!" Is "I love you" in Jiang-Cheng-speak :D

"We're done for! What can we do??" - wwx *strips*

Sorry

Bahahaha 😂😂😂

I just burst out laughing waaay to loudly for the fact that I've got people sleeping in the room next to mine

But look at Lan Qiren when he sees wwx strop to reveal anat is probably his nephew's undershirt 😂😂😂

He's probably questioning every decision that's let him to this point :D

This is completely inconsequential,but I couldn't keep quiet about it anymore because I every time he makes this motion, it always sends a shiver down my spine!!! Notice that wwx (or rather Xiao Zhan) is one of these people whose fingers bend in the opposite direction??? I know it's just a normal thing some people can do, but I can't watch it!! It makes my fingers hurt just looking at it 🙈🙈🙈

Is he turning himself into a demon lure flag?? 😱

Lan Jingyi 🥺🥺🥺

Also does wwx now just transfer his self-sacrificing tendencies to lwj?

Nothing is as hot as these two together in a fight scene

Jiang Cheng doesn't want to leave them behind. He does care! :') he just never unlearned how to unravel his love from his anger

Sizhui running up to greet his dads :')

Look at them! I'm soft guys 💔

He called him Yuan!! 😭😭😭

So this is it. Any doubts I ever had about Sizhui's identity are gone

Will he finally recognize him??

Why don't you say anything lwj? This one time, I beg you!!

Sect Leader Yao still at his gossip shit even 16 years later 🙄

Lam sizhyi is seasick! Why is this so cute! 😭

Oh Wen Ning!! He recognized A-Yuan? Right?

I want to hug Lan Sizhui for his openness and kindness towards everyone he meets, no matter their status or what other people say about them! (Wen Ning now or who he thought was Mo Xuanyu the supposed mad-man) and I wanna hug lan Wangji right after for raising him to be like this :')

Oh Wen Ning! 😭

That's how I'd look at Sizhui, too, if I met him - poor unadulterated wonder :')

And just think about what that means for Wen Ning! He's not the last of the Wens! All their fight wasn't for nothing. This child, their legacy, survived 😭😭😭

"Can I call you A-Yuan" "Of Course." God I'm gonna burst into tears 😭

I'm actually bursting into tears!!

Isn't this the dream of anyone who has ever lost someone? :')

"He's like a brother and father to me" :')

And he raised him from when he was 4 or 5? So ... A-Yuan was about 2 when the Wens died? Right? Then 5 would fit with lwj's 3 year isolation

Ob god, it's the butterfly-toy!!! 😭😭😭

Wen Nings smiling through his tears! I can't! 😭💔And he's got the one from the market!

Aww, wax isn't wearing the white undergarment anymore. Too bad

Oh poor Jin Ling ...

So much grieve that he could probably never process. There so many lost kids in this story, hurt by things they had no control over 😔

I mean, I get it. That's the person who killed his parents (without being in control, but he doesnt know that) and everyone is just talking to him as if it's normal and that didn't happen. But he can't forget,but he doesnt really understand either and he has no outlet. Of course he'd just ... crash 😥

And who would have thought I'd ever try at a flashback of Jin Zixuan's death :(

For once, it'd be nice if the adults actually acted like the parent figures they're supposed to be and explain things to their children 🤦‍♀️

I'm so thankful though, that no one even thinks of scolding him for crying. Jismg Cheng only asked who it was that made him cry (and looks like he'll kick their ass). Generally, thus show has a very healthy attitude towards tears. Most characters cry when they are faced with tragedy, regardless of gender. Men being allowed to have appropriate reactions to grieve (instead of a single men tear or just punching things) is really nice to see

Oh Yao dude whose courtesy name I can't remember, shut up!

Thanks Ouyang Zizhen! You get me

I live for these children standing up to their elders

Meanwhile Nie Huaisang is just on the sidelines, enjoying the show :D never change!

The Lotus Pier theme song alone is making me cry rn 😢

Why can't wen Ning come in?

Oh Sizhui!

He many times do you want to make me cry happy tears today?? :')

Little turnip-baby ❤

But why doesn't lwj say anything ??? 😭

Lan Wangji raised A-Yuan smong a bunch of rabbits??? 😭

Now he's a turnip baby with a taste for carrots, how cute is that? :')

Holy shit, wwx and lwj are really joined at the hip these days of lwj won't enter the hall if wwx isn't allowed to :D

Lwj 😑 "no misbehaviour"

Someone. Knows. Their. Husband.

Okay sorry, but as painful as these cuts must have been and yes, while you do see scars on this prostitute's face, they in no way warrant these horrified gasps as of they had all seen a monster 🙄

Xue yang. Fancy seeing you here in this not at all disturbing sub-plot 😬

Okay that's creepy. That's really creepy

Shouldn't Jin Guangyao have a bit more compassion for these women?

On the other hand, he was born to menacingly stand behind a curtain 🤷‍♀️

W. T. F. ????

Jin Guangshan??? o___O

That's the most skin we've ever seen on this show and it's in a scene like THIS? 😬

THIS IS HOW JIN GUANGSHAN DIED? 😱😱😱

How?

How can you die from sex?

And then jgy made them keep going?

UGH

These poor women :/

So there's someone who set her free on purpose, right?

Bicao has really interesting eyes!

Oh wait, took me some time to catch up. This is about Quin Su and why she killed herself, right?

WHAT??

They were siblings o_O

They just went full game of thrones on this ...

Hey Jin Guangshan, screw you for raping that woman

Wait, is that why jgy had him die like THAT?

I'm so confused about how that happened btw

But why would Jin Guangyao merry quin su anyway? Was this some kind of political marriage that he couldn't call off?

This episode answered some of my questions but raised about a dozen more 😅

@sweetlittlevampire @fandom-glazed @elenirlachlagos @allhailthedramallama @luckymoony @kyrrahbird @i-love-him-on-purpose

5 episodes to go. I'm both happy because I can't wait to brows the untamed tag without looking for spoilers and extremely sad 🥺

Right now I'm planning to watch one episode each day until friday and then watch the last two on Saturday, hopefully quite early, so I can spend the rest of the day crying my eyes out over it, without having to worry about such trivial things as being a functioning adult or a responsible student 😅

[monstrouspegasister]

Homestarloween Specials: Ranked from Worst to Best

Since Halloween is right around the corner, I decided to rewatch all the Homestar Runner Halloween cartoons and rank each from worst to best!

Note that this list is excluding the shorts (Halloween Commercial, That-a-Ghost, Halloween Safety, etc), or the silhouette teasers. I also won't be including The House that Gave Sucky Treats or Halloween Potion-ma-jig, since those have a bit of an advantage since they're actually more like games than toons. (But if you're THAT curious, I prefer Halloween Potion-ma-jig.) I also won't be including Which Ween, cuz it's more compensation for not making a Halloween cartoon for that year.

Finally, please remember that this is just my opinion, and not the end-all, be all on this sorta thing.

Ready, go!

13: Homestarloween Party (2000)

This is the worst one because it was just boring. It also doesn't help with that sucky ending, where Strong Sad ends the story on sour note. (Maybe you should let him START the story next time.) But in the Brothers Chaps' defense, this WAS their first Halloween cartoon, and they were still trying to figure out the website's identity.

12: Happy Hallow-day. (2006)

This one was pretty boring, too, what with the entire thing taking place in broad daylight and everyone else looking for Halloween night. Spoiler alert: they DO find it, only for the sun to come back not even a minute later. The only good thing I can think of is Homestar's costume of the Teen Wolf. I recognized that costume immediately, and to this day, I've STILL only seen that movie once!

"So... what do we do now?"

"Um..."

"HAPPY DAY OF THE DEAD!!!"

11: Doomy Tales of the Macabre (2009)

In this one, Strong Sad wasn't invited to this year's party, so he takes out his anger by writing a revolting rhyme detailing everyone else's demise (or in some cases, a rather unfortunate event in which the character in QUESTION WISHES they were dead). This is probably the mosted hated Halloween toon in the Homestar fandom, but the only reason this one is so low is that abysmal ending. At the end, Strong Sad makes it look like everyone threw him a surprise party when it turned out to be a lie. But hey, at least it wasn't boring.

10: Later That Night... (2016)

In the Brothers Chaps' defense, 2016 was a pretty busy year for them, what with a twentieth anniversary toon, as well as not one, but TWO live shows for said anniversary. So, I should be thankful that we got a Halloween special AT ALL, even if it IS less than five minutes. Though it's a bit of a bummer that we only caught a glimpse of what that hilarious Halloween adventure was.

9: Halloween Fairstival (2004)

Strong Bad tries to get rid of The Cheat's hiccups, which sounds easy since it's Halloween. We witness Bubs' questionable sense of humor, Coach Z's haunted locker room, and the King of Town's S-tier costume, but The Cheat's hiccups keep persisting. I would like to give away how they go away, but I think it's worth watching all the way through just for the resolution.

8: Pumpkin Carve-nival (2002)

Now we're getting into the better ones. So basically, Homestar hosts a pumpkin carving contest and judges everyone's pumpkins. But the big twist is that it's not Homestar hosting it, but Strong Bad disguised as Homestar. For what it's worth, the twist was much better than anything better than Shyamalan, especially for a short that's less than seven minutes.

7. 3 Times Halloween Funjob (2003)

Strong Sad holds a seance for Marzipan's ficus plant. Strong Bad, Strong Mad, and The Cheat try to scandalize and vandalize, but the King of Town keeps tagging along. And Homestar tries to get "a million pounds of candy". Honestly, numbers seven, eight, and nine are all interchangeable, so it was pretty hard to rank these three. But ultimately, I had to go with this one, simply for the puppet easter egg at the end. That's right, there's an easter egg of Puppet Homestar, dressed as John McEnroe, reenacting his infamously poor sportsmanship. We haven't gotten that sort of thing before or since.

6. I Killed Pom Pom (2014)

I wasn't fortunate enough to witness the joy of Homestar Runner until 2015, so I couldn't really appreciate the joy of a new Homestarloween toon until later.

That's pretty much all I have to say with this one. 🤷‍♀️

5. Mr. Poofers Must Die! (2018)

While telling a ghost story for everyone to hear, Homestar is having trouble killing off this one character called Mr. Poofers. Soon Coach Z, Marzipan, Strong Sad and Strong Bad try their ha ds at it, but to no avail. I love how the implications for why they couldn't range to Mr. Poofers being an eldritch horror, to the characters being unable to bring themselves to kill off an innocent dog. And I always sing along to that little song at the end.

4. Jibblies 2 (2007)

"'Original' and 'horror movie'? Not THESE days."

Remember that horrible painting from Strong Bad's bottom 10? No? Well, too bad, 'cause it's going around, menacing the citizens of Free Country, USA and giving them the jibblies, one by one! And it's up to Beetlejuice and Artie, the Strongest Man in the World- I mean, Strong Bad and Homestar- to stop it!

This special is famous for being the very first one to introduce the silhouette teaser, as well as being the first to use an inside joke as a central part for the plot! In fact, I think this might be the ONLY one. Also, I love the little gags the Jibblies Painting uses to catch up to everyone.

And despite bot liking "Later that Night", I TOTALLY ship the Goblin with the Jibblies Painting. And if nobody else, will, I am SO going down with that ship!

3. The House That Gave Sucky Tricks (2015)

I'm with Dave from the D-List on this one.

Remember how I said I wasn't fortunate enough to truly enjoy "I Killed Pom Pom"? Well, I think everyone watching THAT had the exact same feeling I had for watching THIS. In fact, if "I Killed Pom Pom" was the Brothers Chaps' spooky return, then "The House That Gave Sucky Tricks" was their return to form. From the classic sbemail formula, to the return of Teen Girl Squad, and even Homestar coming in to muck up the whole thing in the end, is TRULY is a Strong Bad email without the email!

Trust me, you have NO IDEA how satisfying shouting "SHUT UP, LADY!!!!" at your computer screen is, especially after not hearing it for so long!

2. Most in the Graveyard (2008)

After getting bored with the King of Town's Halloween party, most of the guests decide to explore the two-hundred acre cemetary that's been behind his castle all this time (hence the title). Just about everything about the cartoon is perfect. The gags, the plot, and yes- even the costumes- were as on point as the On Point Kings! There's even an extended dance mix of the classic Goblin song! For a long time, I thought this was as good as a Homestarloween toon could get.

That is, until i saw the number one BEST Homestar Runner Halloween cartoon of all time...

1. Haunted Photo Booth (2017)

At Marzipan's Halloween party, Homestar and Marzipan find a spooky specter in the picture. Soon, everyone starts getting it- that is, except for Strong Bad and The Cheat. And like before with "Halloween Fairstival", I'm not gonna give the ending away. This cartoon is just THAT good.

After the disappointment that was "Later that Night...", this cartoon was a breath of fresh air. By far, the best part of this special is the costume lineup. Out of all the specials so far, this one had the most costumes that I was able to recognize- from Coach Z as PaRappa the Rapper, to Strong Mad as Powdered Toast Man, to The Cheat as Maxwell from Scribblenauts, to Pom Pom as Violet Beauregarde, yo even Homsar as Greg from Over the Garden Wall! But aside from Coach Z, the BEST costume is Bubs as Grunkle Stan, simply because the Brothers Chaps did work for Gravity Falls. This was the biggest reason for the hiatus, and from what I've seen so far, I think it was worth it.

Maybe I should've ranked the costume lineups instead, but oh well. Either way, "Haunted Photo Booth" was a sweet delight. Just one big almond paste-filled sweet delight!

So here's to THIS year's Halloween toon! ^^

[wolfwind3writing]

Trying to decide how much of a heads up I should give my readers now that I know where this story is going and I'm pretty sure it's not what they expect.

I think I will need to add the tags Asexual Character and Aromantic Character. I don't know exactly when I should put them in - I've known about it for almost a year, but I didn't think it'd show up in this story very much. I just got ideas about the rest of the plot, and it's totally a big deal, so now I need to tag it sometime. Probably soon.

I don't know if I can just drop that in the tags without a mention in the Author's Notes... but I also don't want to give too much detail about where the relationships are going for people who don't want to be spoilered.

If anyone wants to read what I'm thinking of explaining and give me their opinion, that'd be great. Otherwise, I'm just talking to myself, which is also useful. :)

Super long Author's Note that is optional to read, explaining the new tags:

Yes, Harry is aroace. To anyone who's expecting romance, well, love will be there, it just won't look how you're probably expecting it to.

One important note here is that the asexual community is firmly against gatekeeping. If you feel like you're ace because of trauma, welcome. If you feel like you have trauma but it didn't cause your aceness, welcome. If you think being ace is an unchanging part of you, welcome. If you think the label fits and helps right now, but it might change later, welcome.

So I'm neither saying that Harry is aroace because of the abuse nor that he was Born That Way and would always have felt the way he does regardless of the abuse. Make your own headcanons. The label feels like it fits. (Or, it would, if it existed in-universe. Which it doesn't, so none of them are going to have the vocabulary to discuss this. Instead, it will be a mess. That should not surprise you at this point.)

They're all soulmates, but the relationships between them cover a whole gamut of romantic relationships and QPRs, and the one(s) they end up with are not necessarily healthy or good examples, even if the characters themselves are happy with them. (Once again, you knew this, right?)

So there will be some romantic bits that I'm planning out. They're cute. There will be relationships based on reasons that have nothing to do with romantic love. That doesn't make them bad. (Other things may make them bad, but not the lack of romantic love by itself.)

There will be guilt as a driving motivation for some choices. There will be manipulation. There will be secrets that will never come to light to be forgiven in a cathartic moment. They will never be entirely honest and open with each other.

I promised a happy ending, and I plan to deliver it. I'm sorry if I've led you on with the hope of a fluffy romance in the end, where romantic love makes them want to be together despite their pasts. Instead, they'll be together because they realize that each of them trusts both of the others with his life and with his happiness. And I like that. I hope you do, too.