#but they can be applied RETROACTIVELY?

[corviiids]

genuinely so sorry to slide into your dm's like this, not sure that this is proper tumblr etiquette, etc., but i just got so excited when i read in your sayu-gets-the-death-note ask that you've been trying to talk yourself out of doing an entire statutory interpretation of the manga death note rules because i've been trying to talk myself out doing an entire metaphysical interpretation of the manga death note rules, so... if you, like me, simply cannot talk yourself out of a stupid idea once it sinks its claws in your brain and would at some point like to share notes about I THINK one of the sexiest and most broken parts of this series, i'd be delighted.

oh my god dont apologise im just excited a single person on earth besides me is interested in a pseudo-legal (very pseudo) perspective on the death note rules. high fives you. for the most part im just incredibly impressed that they manage to retain so much internal consistency especially since so many of them have the vibe of, like, random amendments which were included just for funsies. it's incredible they don't overtly contradict each other. ive been obsessed with them since i first saw them and have already spent way too much time reading over them but yeah i'd honestly love to dig into them more. HTR13 does organise them into something closer to Parts or Divisions which makes the structure a little more coherent. it drives me nuts that sometimes a numbered rule will have sub-provisions that have absolutely nothing to do with each other. drafting that gives me a stress migraine

[chiarrara]

One of the most important things to practice in analyzing or even appreciating media is placing that media in the appropriate historical context.

For example, it is incredibly short-sighted to criticize Revolutionary Girl Utena for being formulaic and reusing animation sequences based on preferences and standards from the 2020s, but it's also incredibly short-sighted to only rebut that the repetitiveness is thematic when it was animated in 1997 and directed by a guy who worked on Sailor Moon.

[nerves-nebula]

is it ok to convert to a religion just cuz you wanna hang.

ive often felt the wire that would connect my feelings of wonder and adoration of the natural world to any concept of religion or even spirituality was unceremoniously cut while i wasn't looking. I have the same affection for the world and ability to marvel but its like a broken pipe, yknow? it leaks out and is unable to be funneled into anything religious, spiritual, or even just like. daily routines.

and trying to make up my own routines feels like im attempting to trap leprechauns again. if i make it up and nobody else does it in community, it just feels fake to me. it doesn't matter how much interest and adoration is in there, those feelings die on the floor cuz they just can't connect to any real output in the world.

so like would it be chill to do that even if you are incapable of real belief in anything. or is that rude. i would come to the events.

[variousqueerthings]

as an aroace fandom person, a thing to me is that i need there to be an argument for why a character would want to be in a romantic and/or sexual relationship with another person

this doesn't mean that an original text doesn't support this read, but that if someone is interacting with characters, themes, narrative, whether it be meta or fanfic or gifs or art or amvs or edits or what-have-you "the way they look at each other" isn't going to be an automatically compelling read of anything (unless, ofc, the original text is about looking as theme in some way, like for example the queer nigerian movie "all the colours of the world are between black and white" but then this needs to be engaged with as well)

if im reading fanfic and characters want to have sex because i guess that's just what anyone wants/the author wants the character to have sex, it's fine, people can do what they want. but it's highly likely going to be missing any depth, for me

same goes for amatonormative and especially aggressively monogamous reads of texts in which it's all about fitting together x and y favourite blorbos at the cost of literally everything else that's going on in the story (including, often, characters who are also very important to x and/or y blorbo)

again, anyone can do what they want, but if im engaging with it, i need more than "because they like each other" or "because it's what people do" + i spend a fair amount of time doing write-ups on aspec subtexts, semiotics, themes, metaphors, etc. and while i enjoy that/analysing with that lens, im also kinda like. well, people should also acknowledge and actively work with the lenses they've got on, rather than pretend it's the most legitimate read just cos

bottom line really for me... is that if someone is:

a. allosexual b. alloromantic

as a read. i need to be sold on that. same basic principle as "you can't just say this character is hetero because that's the Assumption"

to me, you cannot just say this character is allo because that's the Assumption

[heirhonkful]

Okay, lemme ask. Is HS^2 good? I was reading it when it started, but dropped it after a while because I wasn't enjoying it and wasn't sure about it's status as canon to homestuck proper.

Initially, I was assuming it was something like an "official fanfiction." Officially made by a group of people who own the homestuck license, but because it's not actually written by the same author and stuff, basically as 'canon' as any fanfiction. Which I thought was super interesting and a fun stance to take. But I don't think the team ever really took that stance, and I was just believing the interpretation of a friend at the time who was in the patreon. And realizing that I kinda lost interest.

I was mostly just wondering if it's actually a good story or not. Regardless of its canoninity with the original Homestuck, if it's good, I wanna give it a try, and if it's bad, well, I can just keep putting my attention towards other things.

And by god. I'm sure there's some stupid drama shit or weird controversy going on, as always with homestuck. I don't want any of that in the replies, I just wanna know if it's a good story so far lol please.

[sprout-senior]

demon old man and his forever 12 years old ghost adoptive son he hates and is stuck with.

terror speaks all prim and proper while dressing like shit, while moon dresses all prim and proper while talking like every 12 year old boy ever. does he know the meaning of the swear words he’s using? no but that’s not gonna stop him

image descriptions under the cut

[image one: a drawing of corrupted nightmare sans, done with black ball point pen and colored with a light blue marker. he is wearing a baggy unzipped sweatshirt and sweatpants with slippers. he has one hand in his pocket, and his stance is wide. his shoulders are a little hunched. his singular eye has a heavy eyebag, and his expression is neutral, but could be seen as annoyed. he has no mouth. beside him, written in purple ballpoint pen, is the word Terror, with a capital T. this is implied to be his name. end image one]

[image two: a drawing of passive nightmare sans, done with purple ball point pen and colored with a light purple marker. he is wearing a long sleeved collared shirt, with a very simplistic belt around his waist. his pants do not have a distinct style, but they are shaded to be darker than the rest of his clothes. he is wearing boots with two rectangular buckles. he has his arms resting at his sides, and his legs are positioned together in a way that implies he is floating. his singular eye socket is empty, completely colored in. half his skull is caved in, with a few cracks spiderwebbing out from various parts of the hole. his expression is neutral, but could be seen as frightened or upset. he is frowning slightly with his mouth open, revealing that he is missing a tooth due to one of the cracks in his skull. the rest of his teeth are not defined. beside him, in black ballpoint pen, is the word Moon, with a capital M. this is implied to be his name. end image two]

please let me know if there’s any way i can improve my image descriptions! accessibility is important to me!

[chicago-geniza]

She gets it, I think in part because she's often typecast in turn-of-the-century settings and does research to build the characters, which gives rise to the same sorts of thought exercises + experiments you engage in as an intellectual historian

[warpaway]

♡ :meowhehe:

●●●●● | ATTRACTION ●●●●● | AFFECTION ●●●●● | INTEREST ●●○○○ | LOYALTY ●●●●○ | TRUST

“to live in a world where i can talk to flayn every day should i find the need…  well, i can think of at least twenty scholars who would kill to be in the position i find myself in.  obviously, she's not very comfortable with discussing the reasons why, but i suppose i can forego asking too much in favor of learning more about her in other ways.  unrelated to my interest in her…  she's very kind.  it's no wonder that's a legacy that's survived for millennia.”

[mxjackparker]

no no no don't worry it's not generic bigotry, it's internalized, I can say it

[widowshill]

you forget, you're already married, etc.

[asexual-levia-tan]

either i dont know what an open world is or nobody knows what an open world is

[mijacoge0]

and if i drop out of university after 1 class?? then what

[hoyoverserpcpositivity]

genpactrpcpositivity ➝ hoyoverserpcpositivity

[auranym]

indie games are safe!!

good news! unity has walked back a lot of the runtime fee!

they made a blog post outlining their new terms, the link is here. but if you want a sparknotes version, here's the highlights:

1. the runtime fee is not retroactive. previously released games are safe.

2. the fee only applies to the next major version of unity. developers can choose not to upgrade if they don't want do deal with it.

3. the fee is opt-in and number of installs is self-reported. if they'd prefer, developers can instead pay a 2.5% revenue share. (for reference, unreal is 4%.)

4. interestingly, the splash screen is being completely removed. this is probably a way to improve their reputation.

overall, this is a HUGE improvement! but, if I remember right, there was not any revenue share before, so, we are not at the same point we started. unity will still be taking a larger cut of developers' revenue if they choose to use newer features. but, it is nowhere near as drastic as we thought it would be.

overall, I think we're in a stable spot now, but I also think unity has lost most if not all of the trust it had. especially with indies. there has already been a mass exodus, and I kinda hope that will keep going.

[yes-these-obsessions-are-healthy]

“DATV is about hope and is escapist” then why is the story retroactively trying to paint Solas, the only person of the Evanuris who used his power and privilege to help end slavery and liberate the elves, as a prideful arrogant self-centered bastard who secretly loved being worshipped as a god when every single thing he has ever said and done contradicts those assumptions made by the Veilguard companions.

Oh I’m sorry, do you think slave rebellions can be accomplished through peaceful means? Through purely decentralized anarchist uprisings? Are we trying to argue that Solas didn’t rebel the “correct way”? Are we trying to argue that Solas actually wanted to be worshipped as a god by those he freed. Solas, a man who wanted nothing more than to be a spirit of Wisdom and act as nothing more than an entity that would help people act and think mindfully?

The game’s dialogue for the companions tries to make it out like Solas enjoyed being a rebellion leader, rather than it being one of the most frustrating and agonizing and embittering experiences of his existence. The game is so clumsy that is seems to imply that Solas trying to do right by the elves with the rebellion was another mistake on his part, as if someone trying to fight for the rights of an oppressed people is something that is ever a mistake one could make.

Real liberal (derogatory) hours here. Even at your most uncharitable—Solas helped give the elves bodies and helped the Evanuris secure their power—he was trying to correct that mistake and was the only one of the Evanuris that was actively doing so. Mythal was dragging her ass the entire fucking time trying to be a fence-sitting centrist that thought you could actually parley and negotiate with slave owners. Oh but wait, Veilguard conveniently proves you can! Just look at Dorian! Apparently all you needed to dismantle centuries upon centuries of brutal inhumane slavery was a dandy saying “please let the slaves go” and everything is all but resolved in ten fucking years. Solas, why didn’t you try taaaalking to the blood magic warmongering slave sacrificing Evanuris? Maybe things would’ve gone better if you’d just asked nicely 🥺

Veilguard tries to go the “Solas is corrupting into Pride” and they botched it so terribly. Solas is prideful, but the writers made him out like his problem was a secret vanity or desire for power. No, his problem was that he thought he was correct. That is a 100000% entirely different issue and it shows that the writers have no concept of nuance for psychology or even what Wisdom and even Pride are. And for people to swallow “Wow Solas was just a power-hungry arrogant bastard all along” is like reading Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee —the abandoned prototype of To Kill a Mockingbird that was meant to remain an unused manuscript—and thinking that is the real story and everything established in TKaM about Atticus Finch was just smoke and mirrors. Like come the fuck on.

Solas’s issue is that as a mortal he is inundated with mortal feelings that interfere with the purity of Wisdom. All mortals have levels of dignity and pride that are inextricably linked and mutually dependent to their recognition of their own personhood. Self-esteem, if you will. Wisdom is the act of deliberating and determining and enacting the best—most morally correct, most benign, most “good”—course of action in a scenario based on an aggregation of information and experiences. Solas’s “Pride” and biggest flaw is that he believes his judgments are the most objectively correct or best because this guy has spent tens of thousands of years watching and observing and experiencing people make the same mistakes over and over, behave in similar cyclical predictable ways in matters of love, power, violence, hatred, greed, tyranny, cruelty, ignorance, oppression, pride, grief, etc. Because Wisdom is derived from being able to apply knowledge and history and experience to solve a present problem, Solas naturally thinks he’s no spring chicken to all this and that he’s got a better grasp than most. Where Wisdom turns into Pride is the nature of the mortal mind, which for many likes to rely on rules of thumb and shortcuts and patterns to solve issues. While this is present in the dissemination of Wisdom, the flipside is that it can leave one vulnerable to stubbornness and partiality to one’s viewpoint regardless of new developments. Again, the mortal mind likes shortcuts because it saves time. Puzzling out whether this person or that scenario is truly uniquely unique every single time, wastes time. This is how presumptions and stereotypes arise. That Solas could only observe modern Thedas through what was reflected in the Fade gave him a half-understanding of people. That he chose to develop a resentment toward the Dalish after one bad encounter and remain detached from other races before joining the Inquisition meant he had fallen prey to these intellectual pitfalls, which is the result of his mortal nature interfering with his Wisdom nature.

It is also why he seems so philosophical and open-minded and lofty in some conversations and extremely definitive and judgmental in others over the same topic, notably modern elves and Dalish. This is the humanitarian nature of Wisdom—the pacifistic thoughtfulness—having been granted reactive, if at times impolitic claws. He is a man in flux, frustrated at the presence of pride in others; flush with his own thread of pride as an ages-old being; forced to endure ignorance of the Dalish that he cannot alleviate because he tried to once and failed, and to try again now while in the Inquisition would risk his identity being found out; and in his frustration forgetting what he knows very deeply, which is that the reason the Dalish are ignorant is because elves have suffered centuries of erosion of their civilization and culture, on top of enslavement, conquest, and cultural genocide. The Wisdom part of him knows that. At times he can remark and highlight very astutely on the plight of people when the topic of oppression comes up. The mortal part of him that is “active”, i.e. flossed with personality, esteem, and cognitive bias, obscures this clarity granted to him by his original nature. It clouds his thinking, it makes him forget, and it is even harder for him to recalibrate and remember their circumstances because once his Pride radar is pinged, it’s what he latches onto and mirrors. Unfortunately, Pride rarely conquers Pride. They only amplify each other, like gasoline on flames, so Solas’s mirroring unintentionally encourages more of what he detests. The pure material world is not like the Fade where strength of will can consume or cancel out another will. He should know that by now, but as stated, he’s in flux. His grasp on How to Be a Person is far more extensive than Cole’s, but it seems former-spirit-turned-mortals possess some lingering cognitive habits from their time as spirits, and this throws their mental gears out of whack.

Solas has never wanted to rule over people. He has never once wanted to be worshipped even at his most manipulative and Machiavellian. He wants to sit under a tree in the summer and idly discuss whether fire could be considered alive and if good requires evil to exist and the pros and cons of allowing collective memory to remain unchallenged. He wants to explore the Fade and see what new gentle incorporeal friends he might encounter.

Like of all things, the butchering of Solas’s character pisses me off to no end. Dislike him if you want, hate him if you want, but don’t for a second try to misconstrue that his problem is that he has secret aspirations for godhood. Does he think ancient elves are a superior race? There are definitely indications. But he doesn’t think of himself as someone to be worshipped by anyone, least of all other elves. Very huge distinction.

Edit: proof of what I’m saying about spirits and Natures straight from the horse’s mouth

[chimerafeathers]

party pov of the Siffrinless run through the House during the Loop hangout has a hold on me rn…

i spoke broadly about it in this post but each of them would have much more personal conflicts and thoughts about Siffrin just…..disappearing without a word on the day of the final battle.

i was gonna talk about all of them in one post but i kept having more to say about Mirabelle. and i don’t talk about Mirabelle in depth as much as she deserves. so!

Party POV of Loop Hangout Day - MIRABELLE EDITION

we don’t see the clocktower interaction play out after Siffrin agrees to hang out with Loop, but there’s no reason to believe it goes much differently than usual without the friendquests changing things. which means this probably happens

We’ll stay with you, Mira. Siffrin says it every time this conversation happens.

Mirabelle offers them all a final opportunity to back out. she’s felt guilty, this entire time, dragging everyone along with her on a quest that feels doomed to fail, and that more than half of the party shouldn’t even really be involved with—a child, and two travelers risking their lives for a country that isn’t theirs, just because they had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

they should be allowed to leave. she may not have a choice, but the rest of them do. so she tries to offer them this escape, even though the thought of what’s ahead fills her with dread, even if she’s terrified she was the wrong choice for something this important and may not be able to protect them, or even succeed at all. and it’s such a relief and a comfort that they all choose to stay anyway, and she doesn’t have to face the House alone. she has support, company, friends to rely on. people who believe in her even when she doesn’t believe in herself.

except when they wake up the next morning, Siffrin is nowhere to be found. not in the clocktower, not in the town. how long do they search? how long does it take them to decide this must be his real answer to the question Mirabelle posed the night before?

Mirabelle takes Siffrin’s act 5 behavior…very personally. in her hurt and anger, she decides that if nothing’s wrong, if he thought it was okay to say something like that in that moment, they must have always been a worse person than she thought they were. she was always uncertain of his motives, his attitude. she reassures herself that their teasing is friendly, like it’s something she has to convince herself is true.

but some part of her really did believe that he saw himself as better than the rest of them—even if she never treated them with anything other than kindness! she didn’t let her uncertainty or anxiety get in the way of treating him with warmth, ignoring the potential bad-faith explanations of his behavior and trusting that they had better intentions than her fears would lead her to believe…until she had evidence that, just maybe, those fears weren’t so unfounded.

the Housemaiden in the Prologue even says that she thought they were mean, at first. uncaring. an impression that didn’t turn around until Siffrin got hurt protecting Bonnie. maybe it’s cheating a little bit to bring Prologue dialogue into an ISAT discussion since they’re not perfectly identical timelines, but i think it lines up with ISAT Mirabelle thinking Siffrin saw themself as “better” than her.

Prologue:

ISAT:

she applies this judgement not just in the moment, but retroactively. whatever goodwill and trust she had read into their behavior before, it’s gone. the person she reassured herself that he was would never do something like this, so she must have failed to understand him entirely, from the very beginning.

there’s no confrontation, in the Hangout loop. just a silent disappearance. they have no context or explanation for what happens. no heightened emotions from the immediacy of insults and anger thrown in their faces. but whatever emotions bubble up have time to simmer.

i can imagine Mirabelle’s thought process might be quite similar to how it is in Act 5.

something must be wrong, for them to act like this. to disappear without a word after promising everyone that they’d stay.

but if nothing’s wrong…she must have been wrong about them. he isn’t the person she thought he was. how could they leave now, after what they already sacrificed defending Bonnie? or was it because of what he lost defending them—that he had given all he was willing to give, and no more?

did they finally decide Mirabelle wasn’t a person worth believing in anymore? that her mission wasn’t important enough to waste his life in its pursuit? that someone like them shouldn’t bother following someone as weak as her?

she gave them the option to leave. she feels guilty that it hurts so much that he took it. angry and betrayed that he would lie to their faces and leave without a goodbye, when for all they know they’ll never see each other again. did they all really matter so little to him?

or was he scared, and unable to face them out of shame? can she really blame them for that, knowing her own terror at what entering the House will bring? maybe he’s just as scared as she is, even if he never shows it like she does. it’s their choice. he has no responsibility here, no obligation to stay and put himself in danger for their sakes. she offered them this. she offered them this. they’re allowed to change their mind. what right does she have to be angry? she would have understood if they’d just!! said something!!! it would have hurt, still, but, but—

did she ever really understand them at all, if she couldn’t see this coming?