#cos in a lot of cases it just. doesnt make sense to me that they would go for a kill

[dungeons-and-dragon-age]

I constantly forget that killing is not is fact just a game mechanic until someone references us killing someone and its like ah. oh yeah, that.

[ismellbitches]

Albatrio headcanons because I say so (all canon btw trust me I’m grizzlyplays)

Jay:

- she braids hair when she’s nervous. Especially in the Black Sea, Gillion and Chip have been walking around with little braids in their hair and Jay has an intricately braided bun with feathers, beads and wire intertwined with her hair.

- she loves baked goods. Every island they visit a small, wrapped box of regional pastries will show up in the kitchen. Her favourite has been a warm, iced cinnamon log from Joaldo.

- She reads the newspaper.

- She speaks primordial with a similar accent to Caspian. Since the water genasi are so nomadic, it would make sense for her to have teachers breeze through on short contracts to support their tribes, so she picked it up from her various teachers.

- she had a flower garden with Ayva before she passed. The garden became Jays passion project, a way to cope with the loss of her sister. She converted it into a memorial, with a small fountain and a bed of forget-me-nots. While Jay has been out at sea, May has been using some Druidic magic to keep the garden alive.

- she used to have cat named “Sugar”. It turned out to be a Quasit belonging to the local warlock.

- Jay collects sea glass

- she has aphantasia.

Chip:

- he has frequent nightmares about his crew and co-captains dying. It is not uncommon to hear quiet footsteps around the Albatross in the wee hours of the morning, as he checks the breath of each member of his crew.

- He doesnt remember his parents. But he has given them names, in his head, just in case they didn’t give him up. He’s told Reuben about that. He called it dumb. Chip never told anyone else.

- he has a stash of non-perishables in the floorboards of the captains quarters. Just in case.

- sorry these are all so sad but hhhhh he has body dysmorphia. He’s never felt “good-looking” and no one’s ever really told him, so he has a lot of anxiety about his appearance and uses the bandana constantly. This was made worse with his undeath.

- May cooked Chip a steak when they were at her tavern c.a ep 98, to help him and Jay decompress after the stress of Gillion’s near-death. It’s the best meal he’s ever eaten.

- He loves crabs. They remind him of when Arlin used to take him crab-spotting in the southern sea beaches. When they got back to Canella, Chip took Ollie too.

- Reuben used to teach him sea shanties he’d heard in and around the taverns by the port on Skullslice. He remembers all of them.

- there were a good 3 years from when chip was 9-11 where he wasn’t hugged once.

- he’s really good at darts.

- Chip has cried in front of four people in his entire life: Arlin, Reuben, Jay and Gillion. He has only ever really lost it to Reuben though. It was on his 14th birthday when he momentarily forgot what Arlin looked like.

- he has a lip ring. That’s it.

Gillion:

- Gillion would love Spider-Man.

- he really enjoys spicy, fermented, and salty foods. They remind him of home.

- Gillion didn’t talk for 3 days after shattering his Callnch.

- the elders wanted him to learn more languages, but it was a struggle for him to pick up common, so they abandoned the idea. Gillion still tries to learn celestial though, managing some very broken phrases from Chip.

- He loves pillows, but they can’t really be a thing in the undersea, so hes been working with Jay on making a waterproof pillow for him and pretzel.

- His coral gives him headaches.

- He suffers from asthma and joint pain due to the change in his environment

- Gillion had a small collection of mini stone leviathans he had been carving his entire life. He was almost done with Pelegus before he was exiled

- he has a love of history. It was his favourite subject growing up.

- He had so many imaginary friends.

- he and Edyn made up a secret language to communicate to each other without the elders knowing. He remembers every word.

[pseudowho]

hiya 🙂 i love your nanamin fics and i followed you for them way back when you wrote the pregnant reader one (and I still think about it). thought id ask you cos you seem to answer questions like this pretty wisely 🥲

i started writing fics for a pretty niche character in a fandom (not jjk) a while back and a friend/moot started then too. this character doesnt have lots of readers and thats fine im just here for the writing.

but since then ive noticed my friend has stopped reblogging my fics even tho they did before and even tho they obvs read and reblog everyone elses fics for this character (there really arent many of us).

they also seem upset about notes/likes a lot of the time. but I know they read my fics because I see lots of the same word choices and styles show up in their fics the next time they post.

its upsetting me lot tbh. i still read, like/comment/rb fics i like and its starting to feel like they do it because they think i have more readers than they do and mb theyre jealous.

anyway i dunno if you think i should raise it with them or just leave it?? they dont talk to me much anymore either after I didnt rb one of their fics i didnt really love.

First of all, well done for starting to write, and writing for an 'unpopular' character too, it looks like it's hard having a niche audience in the Tumblr-sphere. I'm always really grateful when someone writes for a niche character I love, every fic is like finding a diamond!

Second of all: I'm really really sorry this is happening to you. It has happened and still happens to me, too.

Thirdly: While I'll give my thoughts on it straight after this, one truth is that the other person maybe simply doesn't like your writing, and there's nothing mean-spirited about it at all.

Saying this, in your case, there seem to be too many little factors that actually makes me think... 👇

I have Thoughts™️💬 about Toxic Tumblr Reblog Culture...

There is a little phenomenon I've noticed with a lot of fic writers, where they seem to stop reblogging the fics of others who they view as competition. Even if they often read and reblogged another writer's fics before they themselves started writing.

They seem to think that if they reblog the work of you, their "competitor", then your work will get more attention than theirs. It gets even worse the more 'popular' you get, sadly.

I understand, because it's hard to see someone reblog most other peoples' fics about a character, and then pointedly ignore yours. You're not mad for feeling targeted. It can feel this way.

Equally, there can be a cherry-picking of moots' work, and a high school clique attitude to reblogging. Do two or three people band together and constantly reblog each others' work, making a huge fuss whatever it is, but leave you out even though you've historically been part of the circle before? Again, it's not as uncommon as you think.

A real "if we become moots, that means I reblog all your stuff, and you reblog all my stuff" as an unspoken rule. While that might work nicely for some people, it can also foster an air of pressure or entitlement, or of reblogging things even if you didn't really like them, because they're your friend. While fostering growth and circulation in the art community should be celebrated, I'd hate to think someone reblogged my work out of obligation, as opposed to passion.

I've had followers who loved my stuff, always commented and reblogged etc, but when they started writing for the same characters themselves, just stopped. I've also noticed a lot of the things you mention (them using similar word choices, stylistic choices etc to mine, in their new fics).

So, you know they're there reading in the background, and it doesn't make sense that they liked your writing one day, then just stopped liking it overnight, right?

I don't often muse aloud about "controversial" subjects on Tumblr, but this one really gets me. It turns writing, an already isolating art, into an even more isolating "competition".

It's sad, really.

Saying that, I still read, comment, reblog all the work of theirs that I read and love! It feels petty and ridiculous, but try to be the person that you want to see in the community. They'd probably notice they still get just as many readers as before, and actually, will be forced to address that their writing may be less popular for another reason.

I have wonderful friends here who read and reblog any of my stuff they like, just as I do theirs. I made a post a little while back, r.e. always reblogging stuff just because you're moots, and I'm glad to say I don't have this strange entitled relationship with these friends. It's low pressure and really fun.

Reblog in the best spirit; reblog stuff you love, that you think is great, etc etc. Don't fall into bad intentions! It's meant to be fun. It's not high-stakes. What are people competing about? I feel really bad for you, OP, and I know what it feels like.

Jealousy in the Tumblr fic writer community is strong!

Hang in there baby. You're doing great.

-- Haitch xxx

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Oh god I just made that post about Ciel only hanging out with weirdos and it made me think just a little too hard about the weird dynamics of Vincent/Ciel's inner circle

The elephant in the room is definitely the Undertaker. Like, theres that flashback scene in the circus arc where they show Vincent hangin out with all his illegal buddies that Ciel will inherit and hes just there, playin pool. But also he and Madame Red dont seem to know each other at all and he doesnt seem to care that she died. It seems like he only cares about the "actual" Phantomhives and doesnt give a shit about the people who married into the family or the relatives of people who married into the family and I guess I get that but still. (Although I kinda feel like hes just splitting hairs considering how circular the Phantomhive family tree gets. I mean yeah, they could be a whole lot more inbred but they could also be a lot less inbred yknow what i mean)

Lau and Madame Red seem relatively close but I forgot if he was originally part of the inner circle or if he was a post-Ciel addition, in any case the Undertaker doesnt seem to care about him either which makes sense but idk, he just feels so disconnected from this group its kinda funny

But he like, visits Diedrich so he can pick up that group picture and cry a single tear onto it so whats their deal? Is it gay do they have a little gay thing going on

SPEAKING OF did anyone tell Diedrich about Madame Red??? Does he know shes dead. does he care

Also, why on earth was he there with Ciel and the others in chapter 2? He doesnt seem to like Ciel, the only indication that he ever liked Vincent was the fact that he remained loyal to him for so long instead of just fucking off to germany and never contacting him again so why is he even there. Was he just in england and thought to himself "hm. well since Im already here I should visit that boy that I hate" Part of me feels like this might be a german thing but i cant say that for sure. Like Ive lived in germany all my life but my entire family consists of soviet union immigrants and all of my close friends for the majority of my life were people whose families also co sisted entirely of soviet union immigrants so Im not exactly entrenched in The Culture yknow what I mean

[ungirthed]

want to make a place for my thots of anything with no viewers if i remember to come on here. i cant believe i keep having to make these since i end up getting followers and interacting. but i'm an adult with shit to do irl and things to fight and this fandom is almost 20y old so idt i will do that. lol. just finished atla like 20y too late cos my parents hated me and my bro watching tv growing up. journaling/blogging thots!!! ugh. i wish i didnt hve adhd and dyspraxia lmao gonna split them up so i dont get overwhelmed reading my bullshit. if u stumble upon this it doesnt make sense sry

politically a lot of critique that i have to think about. character and plot wise it was pretty good and tight esp for a kids show. amazing female characters. can't wait for the bi agenda from LoK but i may take a while for that. p much i have to say these are great characters and i could talk a lot about them but i'm shocked at what i took away with regards to the romantic rships from the show and the characterization via it.

re love lines:

i wish kataang was written better in the show (MY opinion if any1 stumbles upon this). i don't ~ship~ zutara bc i am an adult and even back then no cos who cares lol but i see the appeal and am attracted to that. i do think we have to retire the trope of the "both sides but falling in love" not because it isn't possible but because post 10/7 (free palestine) i don't think it's worth it to look at it this way anymore. until someone proves themselves not worthy of death because of the resistance fighting back then they NEED TO PROVE THEMSELVES IMMEDIATELY. no more of this i'm in a concentration camp but he's a nazi bullshit. no more i'm a slave but he's the slave master's son (i mean in this case u could have been related but no1 listens to me!) it's repetitive, reductive, and untrue.

that being said: i just never care about the typical bildungsroman love story. you see the One Person bc i guess the kids tasked with saving the world have to be monk-adjacent (in aang's case quite literally) bc understandably theyre so fucked up lol. but it's always sooooo boring to me esp if it's f/m.

katara is such a complex character and mae whitman brings a wisdom to her voice that can be frustrating to connect with for me but her character arc, her strength, her MIND, her heart, and her fists. i think ppl probs like zutara the most when shes' going batshit and no one can understand aang's perspective. but aang is one of a kind and the cutest smartest sweetest loser ever. not my fav char but i love him. he's like if i had a younger brother and not an older one lmao.

of course they're (kataang) together. they were meant to be from the moment they saw e/o and that stupid cave kiss...this is why you don't wait until 32 to watch this lol.

but nothing surprised me and it was meant to be the way it was written. that's also why i find it understandable but shocking people in the universe and apparently outside of it were surprised at aang's turmoil over ozai. like are you joking? he's a 12 year old vegetarian monk. which: i loved his vegetarianism and obviously he was going to be but very casually they put in a line that hints as to why he would be and why many of us are...so i am dedicated to it again.

so wrt that and zutara...the episode where he's with her with the dude that killed her moms and his support of her i can see why people like them. the cave ep obviously but this show is veryyyyy free with affection i noticed and there's some jealousy but they all get over that pretty quickly. i read some of the comics and i could see different rships happening and i definitely think this world lends to queerness (me personally i love monogamy but a certain type lol so not rly interested in much poly but i do like a throuple) but i could see most being bi+ or having identified as that in the past, or labeling themselves but nto limiting. that's just an aside for meee...

so like katara was being katara. i could see suki and zuko being romantic but also a deep friendship that could be deeply affectionate either affect or physically or both bc that's who these ppl are. katara is a very intense person and that's part of why she can be annoying. that's part of why they ALL can be overwhelming. theyre intense, traumatized, repressed kids and teens with mostly good hearts (or just a person so disconnected from herself but also a fascist so u know. her going nuts lol)

hmm what else oh yea. so i came away with maiko......gjpasig the show was paced and plotted well. i am a libertarian communist (anarcho-commie) so MANNNNN i wish they did better on that front but again i must remember i am 32, ancom, and the world is diff. but anyway lmao so team avatar is who i would want to spend time with but i got so interested in mai and ty lee (mailee...). that beach ep conversation was so good, that whole ep, their argument. it was extremely teenage and showed how fucked up they all are. how confused and fucking lost and pathetic. how small their lives are. how boring....so mai...

[fourtyfourcatss]

[████████ 100%] — @gardenchan !

𓆸 RECORD #03 | ASYA

This clan has a rather odd temperament about them. Not much is known, and techniques run rare in their blood. Whether that will cascade down into a curse, perhaps we may never know.

nurturing love, soft soft soft, your breath on my shoulders, the light rendered you in a tender outline, and i can do not but love.

i know this is off topic, but do you think you are an enneagram 9?

𓆸 it is the distance between your values and similarities that draws you together, far in so many cases, but also so close. with what you’ve described about yourself, i think the two of each other can balance one another out naturally, not in the sense to change merely in order to fall in love, but change because of love. almost all the positives you’ve given me was based on what you can do for others— and yes, that may be your love language, which a person like geto can truly feel gratitude and return to, also hides a shadow of empathy and sadness to. you’re both people pleasers in the unannoying sense, but it’s almost always at your own expense. a sense of closeness between the two of you blossom from that mutual understanding, because he is observant and you are attuned to others. the two of you have the ability to save one another from the consequences of baring this “others before me” instinct because you both put each other before yourself, not because of low self esteem, but because you simply like to give and it ends up becoming that the two of you strike a balance that allows both of each other to be loved and taken care of. but geto, geto has been someone easy to crash. his esteem is the one which is low. the two of you do many things alike, and it’s ultimately from where it stems from that gives it its own unique difference. mainly, i want someone for you who you can give lots to, and truly feel like they are giving what you deserve back. geto is super baffled at this - jaw agape baffled - and your compassion for the things you truly care about, which is all around you. it’s from this that sparks his heart aflame.

𓆸 geto would adore your more domineering side— he finds it more endearing and enjoyable to experience rather than anything. you’d be boring to him if all you did was being calm calm calm, he needs someone who’s able to accept his moronic self and scold him for it if he accidentally pushes too far but also someone who can joke around with him— sound like you, doesnt it? being a jujutsu sorcerer has given him too much freedom at times, and he definitely needs to be humbled. your “boringness” only makes him admire your upstandingness as an individual. someone like you who do not care for the seething words of others, someone like you whose both bright in beauty and mind. would you care for a chess match? geto hasn’t played in years, he’s asking to be beaten essentially, but he’ll play because its you and he wants to. he’d breathe in the addictive scent of coconut from your hair, combing it for you whilst you read your books or watch your shows. geto is a romantic at heart too, but he’s never been in touch with shojo or other romance media until you introduced him, and the two of you would spend hours exchanging words on what happened and fun facts the two of you know about. usually it turns into a competition, and usually, you win. geto is just a happy man seeing the smile on your face or the laugh that rumbled through your chest. he’s in love hes in love, he’ll sing this song forevermore. is that a bit too cringy? haha. there’s a lot of spending time with each other and acts of service.

𓆸 slow dances in the dark is definitely your trope. he loves holding your hands even if theyre cold (he’ll warm them for you) but he also loves your dog, who he definitely did NOT take out to have BONDING time with to EARN your dog’s favor (he totally did, and pockets treats for your pet whenever he can). he also has a lot of cursed spirits that’s basically pokemon, and they all enjoy your company a lot too? what a strange development: my boyfriend, me, our dog, and the thousands of cursed spirits he keeps: our life. he’s going to take showers with you, and he’ll wash your hair for you and you’ll wash his. there’s something so affectionate and domestic in washing hair for another person. and speaking of affection, your relationship is just laced with it in every step. geto is someone who needs lots of love and lots of support, especially to sever him with the dangerous path. you’re someone who can do that for him.

RUNNER UP— CHOSO.

☄︎⋆ ༘ FIRST MEETING?

the two of you met during the the sweet midst of spring, when the school year has just started in april and the curriculum is still soft on your hearts. you were tending to the school gardens, dulled from principal yaga’s lack of a green thumb.

“Good day! You must be Geto Suguru, nice to meet you,” a girl said, her hands deep in the soil, sweat tracing the sides of her temples, “I’m sorry to trouble, but can you bring me that canister over there?”

He’s forgotten himself in the moment, drawn up in her dewy blue eyes. “Ah— yes, of course.

“May I ask for your name?” He switched to formal tongue, feeling nervousness creep up his chest. Was everyone in tokyo jujutsu metropolitan tech so refined and formal? No, they’re almost always unhinged. Was this girl not a sorcerer?

She smiled politely, “I’m Asya.”

It was a smile meant for anyone, but he found himself wishing for a smile meant for him. It was just a spring day for you, while he it would be the first spring he remembers so vividly. Under the draping humidity of spring, when the petrichor scent emerged through from the ground and the shade of swaying trees fell languid, the foam of interest bubbled in his chest.

Geto is a bit possessive. the two of you fall under the attraction at first sight trope on his end, he fell, and she fell hard, then he fell even harder.

☄︎⋆ ༘ CONFESSION?

It’s Valentines day, he has Asya’s flowers bundled in a bouquet in his hands. It’s Valentines day, and he’s giving Asya’s own flowers to her.

“You pathetic cheapskate,” Utahime spat, her eyes twitching in disbelief.

“She’s right, Geto. Even Gojo wouldn’t pull off this stunt.” Shoko pointed to their albino classmate, who was drenched in boxes of chocolate. If their school was not private property, he shudders to know what chaos that would bring.

He sighed, ashamed, “I know,” the blue shadows of his disillusionment hung over his face, “but… all the florist boutiques were completely sold out…”

His face fell further as he remembered the closed doors and the empty resignation on their faces. This year, there had been a new trend online of buying excessive amounts of flowers to showcase the proportionate love you hold for them. It was a rather recent trend that proliferated too fast for stocks to handle, and now, because he was so stupid to go so late, he couldn’t get any flowers. Even the ones from gardens on the sides of the roads were picked up! How shameless!

He scratched his cheek with a finger.

“Enough. Geto feels guilty enough as it is. Should you not all, as classmates, aid him in this endeavor instead?” A voice called, before an electrifying sensation ran through Geto’s body.

The entire school was assembled with the exception of Asya, and thus, it began.

When Geto asked for Asya to come with him, she had to admit it was odd, but she still trailed next to him as he wanted to, anticipating something good to happen.

First, when he led her through the corridors, cut, fake plants rained from the sky. Asya was slightly unnerved, and began thinking of her plants instead. Gojo gave Utahime a thumbs up from afar.

With correspondence, Geto led Asya through the entire school, standing by her side. The sun was setting, and a fizzle of peace bled though the clouds, an atmosphere of both contentment that has built up, alongside a passive intensity. It made her chest palpate, and, she’s close enough around him to smell the cologne he uses.

Finally, he could not wait any longer. The two of you stopped near the edge of the mountain, where the sun spun the brightest as it left. On a singular chest table, where the two of them frequented, was a bouquet of flowers. The flowers Asya grew with Geto.

“…” His face was flushed an adorable shade of red, reaching the tips of his ears. He’s looking down, and with two hands, held the bouquet.

“I’m in love with you, Asya,” he says, voice lower and tender, enunciating the syllables of her name softly, and now, his eyes are piercing right through hers, a shining fervor that has been bubbling in his chest from when they met finally emerging from his eyes. It’s a red hot line that ran straight to his heart. “Will you have me?”

☄︎⋆ ༘ grounds of edin

“edin” is an innate technique that BINDS the sorcerer’s desires onto and into the environment around them physically, creating a special kind of binding vow with the cursed energy around them to transform them. this technique is dangerous in a sense that its essentially a limited domain expansion, stealing cursed energy from the other user and acting like a domain in which the opponent’s cursed energy has to overpower this technique. the area of this technique acts like a strangler fig, simultaneously sucking the cursed energy from the opponent while poisoning them. i thought it would be rather fitting with your personality, and it’s something that can be used both defensively and offensively when you absolutely must.

however, not only that, rose thorns will appear on your opponents as indication of the poison, much like the cursed technique rot.

if you want more information of examples and how it can work, this is basically environmental summoning, which explains more in detail here.

☄︎⋆ ༘ 領域展開 — GARDEN OF ZION

the flowers from your foes’ beings drip down onto the ground, and from it roses bloom. the marble around you all are swallowed by the visage of crimson petals. they think its over, they can overpower you with their domain expansion too, that theyve escaped. but they havent. in reality, they have become associated with the environment as well, the mark on their skin that has ate their cursed energy attuning directly to them. this is like, prime body horror material, but you use it for restainining and widescale healing instead, since your cursed energy can travel through this wide space. a garden of zion, paradise.

☄︎⋆ ༘ platonic relationships?

— GOJO SATORU: “Oh, that nice girl who goes on missions to help mentor Nanami and Haibara? Asya?” His expression turns comical, “She’s totally my type!” In words, you are! But Gojo has a recurring respect for your individuality that he actually feels awkward if he hits on you like he does everyone else; but joking and laughing? the two of you would have to sniffle laughs whilst looking at one another, a silent communication striking through the two of you. You help him subtly mess with Geto a teeny bit, nothing so mischievous, but something to confuse him. Gojo is your friend who eats Geto’s pieces while he isn’t looking, that idiot. He sinks his hands into the soil and spots the tiniest of pests in your plants before they are even born. 10/10 friendship, would do again.

— SHOKO IEIRI: “Asya?” She visibly perks, “She’s amazing. Especially her reversed cursed technique.” Admiration and gratitude flickered in her eyes. “She saved me.” And indeed you did. The day you met her, she had been pulled into her first, and last, ever mission. There is a reason why they never sent you out again, and why the jujutsu system lets you bypass so easily sometimes when you get promoted. Without you, she would have lost her life on that day. To that end, she’s also a great friend of yours, likened to hang out with you whenever you wish.

— UTAHIME IORI, NANAMI KENTO, HAIBARA are all grouped together in this one clump of paragraph because, well, they share very similar yet varying thoughts regarding Asya. In similarities, Asya has been giving them advice and whatnot on their training. She was not inclined towards fighting herself, but watching people over the ages had brought her insight on the caricature of how to bring out the potential of others. Theyre excited around you internally, and act like theyre you’re younger siblings. What a funny trio to bond with, but, very heartwarming too. The three of you all have various personalities that bounce off extremely well, creating an amazing chemistry of dynamics. Utahime is hotheaded, nanami is the “boring” one, haibara is enthusiastic, and you are their favorite 👍🏻 you’re stuck with them now

For the rest, it would be a bit shorter!

— NANAKO & MIMIKO grow up adoring plants and animals, a new revitalization in their lives as they realizes how big a world is around them outside the cage. I’m not sure if you want children, but for now, they are the closest you have to some, kissing their foreheads and reading them to sleep.

— YUUJI ITADORI shares a deep connection to you. You’re Nanamin’s upperclassman? And you taught him all about how it is to be a proper jujutsu sorcerer? You got another bug on you now.

— MEGUMI and THE OTHER 2ND YEARS believe you amiable and hold you in respect.

— NOBARA AND YUTA are the two who are genuinely interested in you, your character, and technique. They both try to mentor under you because they feel a certain connection with you they cannot explain, and when you take them under your wings, they understood.

[hope you enjoyed!!! this was fun to write and i cant wait for my own!]

[livecharliereaction]

Im stopping now but really im clueless now who the hell is killing her. Can we juts go each character i remember thru rq ok lets go under keep reading

keiichi - Absolutely not. Too much pov to make any sense of that possibility

shion - same here too much pov it just doesnt fit in

mion - shes had so much screen time n stuff its clear to me that sonozakis arent behind it it was a red herring all along rly

satoko - No because...Well out of the main 6 she could be fun but absolutely not because like... Shes usually with us during the time rika dies i feel OR shes already dead... Plus so much screen time i cant imagine there wouldnt have been clues. However the concern is that idt we ever had ANY satoko pov but we had EVERYONE ELSES so not sure what to make of that. Its probably bcs of something else though

rena - We just went through her Whole LifeStory in last chapter p much i mean we dont know ALL about the shit she did at her old school so theres some gaps sure but rika murder does not fit in the schedule nuh uh!

irie - that seems a little too random but maybe if they wanted to make it about him wanting to adopt satoko then maybe and also rika has a dislike for him and also he knows a lot of stuff. But in MY opinion this would be super lame

takano - was my #1 suspect for a while esp for tomitake but really even if she does kill him n then suicide she always dies before rika. far fetched theory maybe shes some kinda witch thing too and shes managed to set it up so that she can already be dead by the time of rikas death. Cos i only super remember like one rika death that wasnt in directly in pov and that was the super random one where she kinda just Appeared naked and guts spilling out somewhere to keiichis proximity (i think it was tatarigoroshi chapter. satoko thought he killed her though that could also be the case that he was so distraught that he Did that. Idfk)

hanyuu - her wishes from her pov dont match up with rikas condition in a way that it would make sense to kill her n keep the timeloop going. Actually that would be a crazy thing to write too i cant recall seeing that. Just looping the time to kill somebody over n over lol But that could explain the random tatarigoroshi death (nobody can see her) (tbh i seriously need to find that scene cos what the fuck is that how it happened??? I didnt liveblog tatarigoroshi ugh...)

tomitake - No

ooishi - No + would be the lamest thing everrr

I forgot the rest of the characters hashtag oops. Cos its obviously not gonna be CHIE or like THE PRINCIPAL or TEPPEI HOUJOU or RINA so... Yeahhh

In conclusion? I dont even know. Now that i laid it out maybe it IS satoko????? But i highly doubt it n i think im influenced by the slight recall of there being a girl who looks like her in umineko (but probably not)... Or takano. But both seem a little unlikely. OK its 1 am goodnight

[higheldertala]

the power of the doctor commentary

a wise man once said ‘it could have been a lot better, it could have been slightly better written’

where was the qurunx being transported to? and why via train? oh well im sure it doesn’t matter.

‘the cybermen have a blocking fielding in action’ i mean i would presume you reason you can’t land is because they train is moving very fast?? but sure why not add in some pointless exposition.

why is the qurunx in a box/ cage? is it a prisoner? what are these people’s relationship to the qurunx?

dan’s train driver announcement is very cute.

what was the doctor’s plan for the cyber masters? just to say ‘stop right there!’ and they would say ‘ah sorry my bad’ and just stop?

‘i have reinforcements’ where? and also they still have weapons and regenerating healing powers, i don’t think you have the high ground here.

also the fact that both the master and the cyber masters escaped gallifrey meaning it was blown up and ko sharmus died for nothing, oops.

ch*bnall said this episode had the longest cold open in doctor who and it’s only 6:50, eve of dalek has a cold open of over 9 minutes so this like isn’t true.

why do sophie and janet have to share a title card?? we know this title sequence can accommodate for 5 people as seen in revolution of the daleks.

i am very curious to know how tegan and ace met but i guess that’s not important.

tegan’s line about not seeing the doctor is relevant but ace’s reply of of ‘alright show off just cos it’s only three decades for me’ is completely irrelevant??? literally just exposition. a brick to the face would be more subtle than chris ch*bnall’s dialogue.

also why would that be showing off??? she’s had to wait longer the doctor? this makes no sense.

also the doll thing is a bit weird, like did the master know that tegan would conveniently end up at unit? like she’s not working for them, they say she’s freelance. and it’s ace’s suggestion ‘they go in’ to which i presume she’s talking about unit. did the master know all this would happen? that tegan would call ace about it and then she would suggest they go into unit? you know never mind.

so they’ve in the middle of investigating a kidnapped child and dan was all like ‘but me date!’ dan’s priorities is getting laid first 😂

have we ever had a companion leave 10 minutes into the story? it’s so weird. why didn’t he leave at the end of legend of the sea devils? what was the point of dan as a companion at all?? because we needed to fill the quota of straight white men on the tardis??

dan story’s is so depressing. like it was partly the doctor’s fault that dan’s house got shrunk because she was chasing karvanista and she’s doesnt do anything to help or rectify this. like the doctor gives donna a lottery ticket and amy and rory a house and car for no reason other than wanting to provide for them, but nah fuck dan you can stay homeless. remember the ch*bnall era is about hope and friendship!

we’ve never had a doctor so mardy about companions leaving, which is so strange because it’s not like she has any emotional attachment to any of them. make it make sense.

‘not one for goodbyes’ don’t we fucking know it!! we just don’t them anymore in the ch*bnall era.

also even eleven ‘doesn’t like endings’ still said goodbye to amy (and rory) (think of end of the god complex).

‘a dalek invades my tardis with a message offering to destroy its own species’ JUST IN CASE YOU DIDNT UNDERSTAND IT THE FIRST TIME ROUND. yeah ch*bnall i got it the first time you didn’t need the doctor to repeat it immediately, how fucking dumb does he think his audience is. condescending ch*bnall dialogue i will NOT miss you.

‘that’s a new one’. it literally isn’t, have you seen doctor who chris i feel like i shouldn’t have to ask this.

i hate the close up shots, will not miss them. so glad to have rachel talalay back who knows what they’ve doing.

the doctor doesn’t tell yaz about the dalek because…?

i’m pretty sure that if there was a ‘second moon/ planet’ orbiting in earth’s atmosphere, that would severely fuck up earth’s gravitational pull?? that’s like basic science no??

i honestly believe they didn’t need to give sacha blue contacts… smells like whitewashing to me. like even if rasputin had blue eyes, this is fiction, literally no narrative reason for this.

don’t understand the point of the rasputin/ russia plotline. literally just tells the royals to fuck off so the master can have the place to themselves… like what?? this specific time setting has no bearing on the plot, we could anywhere and anytime and it literally just wouldn’t change the plot in any way shape or form, it’s so frustrating when so many parts of the story are just pointless!!

i am glad they have brought up the master’s hypnosis and im glad they said the thing (although i would have preferred sacha to say it because he has said he wanted to) but this is never brought up again!! what! is! the! point?!

this era insists on making the master’s tardis look ugly 😭 im so sorry baby.

‘your master awaits doctor. doctor what does it mean by that?’ are we all just fucking stupid or something? like aside from it’s fucking obvious, the doctor literally just reminded us that the cyber masters were created by the master like a minute ago.

in the trailer i said these were dalek shots, oh well i’ll take that L.

why didn’t you close the fucking tardis door when the cyberman were shooting?!?!?!

have you any idea what’s going on in outer space in 1916 right now? strangely enough no’ lol this was great.

‘new freelancers, don’t be cross’ that’s the only heads up you’re going to give her?

omg who knew it would be so easy to see the doctor again that all ace and tegan had to do was go to unit and say ‘hey can you call up the doctor’ and they would be like ‘yeah sure of course we can’.

i don’t know why only tegan gets to off with the doctor, as ace has plenty of reason too but sure whatever.

yaz’s awkwardness is so great for this scene. honestly a perfect reaction to meeting past companions.

(i mean i still find it weird the retconning of a 2 year old book where 13 and yaz already meet ace but okay. i feel so bad for sophie 😔. and also they just miss out any of the emotional depth or moment with ace and 13 and yaz but who needs emotional beats in a ch*bnall story).

would tegan like to bring up the russian doll cyberman to the doctor? no okay…

also the fact that one of the first things the doctor does after reuniting with ace and tegan, both of whom have somewhat misgrudges with them, is to non consensually put a hologram ai into their bodies is fucking wild!! why couldn’t she tell them she was doing that? OR ASK???

i love all of mandip’s facial expressions at ace and tegan in this scene, it’s just a shame the script never follows up on it. points to mandip for trying, chris ch*bnall sure isn’t.

would love to listen to full lecture with sacha’s voice 😏

‘now do i win a prize if i guess how this all fits together or are you just going to tell me why you’re grandstanding’ i really like the playfulness of this interaction, sort of goes back to how this is all a game for the master and the doctor, but it’s like dropped immediately so… okay.

‘you killed all these people for what?’ im sorry it’s hard to take yaz seriously because she hardly ever takes command in front of the doctor and she’s barely interacted with the master.

‘i know, a bit of a conversation stopper awkward right yaz?’ this line is so unnecessary, is it suppose to be funny…? okay boomer. thank god this is the only cringe line they give sacha this episode.

‘i hope i’m going to unit’ this is like bright flashing lights ‘this is a trap’. no one questions how easy it is to capture the master?? of course because our characters are fucking stupid!!

they don’t even takes the master’s tce off him?? and like he must have it on him, he shrunk the seismologists.

‘give her a gun’ this makes no sense and is like literally never followed up on, not even a chekhov’s gun but whatever i guess.

‘clear up the tiny bodies and inform the loved ones for me would you?’ this was so camp i loved it.

‘you’re not going to shoot me, not in her tardis’ where was the ‘state of temporal grace’ reference?

i wish they had leaned more into the master playing mind games with the companions angle but i guess that would require the companions to be actual in depth characters so :/

why do we mention the cyberium when it literally never gets followed up on??

‘unit will keep you under armed guarded’ yeah because that’s always worked hasn’t it doctor??

vinder is now also here for… reasons. idk maybe jacob was still under contract who can say??

and vinder is investigating the missing qurunx because…?

why is vinder monologuing everything the audience already knows? what’s the point?

‘anyone want to join me? bunk up in the bunker?’ i would 😏

‘your dad was an idiot’ out of all the jibes from the master this is the most random one, ch*bnall couldn’t come up with anything better?

‘you’ll all feel safe then with me in the building’ im sorry but again he is literally telling you this is a trap, i… im done.

‘you’re not staying doctor, you’re not gonna leave them alone are you?’ this is a great line/ jibe about the doctor abandoning their companions. shame it’s literally never followed up on!

‘professor where are you going? she really doesn’t want us back in there’ why is the doctor being such a twat to ace and tegan, i mean she’s like to this to everyone so i guess it’s in character. doesn’t me i understand any of it though.

‘darling’ giggling, twirling my hair, kicking my legs etc.

‘doctor stop for a second, i can’t keep doing this you, running from one place to the next never explaining’ oh look an actual valid reasoning for leaving! yaz realising the doctor is not gonna change or open up and is unhappy with being treated this way! shame this is never brought up again!

‘sorry no time’ aka shut the fuck up yaz, how dare you question me and want agency in your own actions.

‘sorry i am really staticky today’ why is she lying about this!??? i don’t understand!! i’m banging my head against the wall.

‘has it never occurred to you that it could be a trap? of course it has’… that’s why im going in without any back up plan whatsoever! why is the doctor so happy with meeting the dalek on its terms, rather than like neutral ground? you know what never mind.

how are they not boiling alive inside a volcano?? you know what never mind.

‘no they’re already there, seismology, volcanoes, daleks and the master, no this is not good news’ why does she say this all out loud??

‘i really thought i’d seen the last of him’ weird line for ace seeing as she only met him once (onscreen) and didn’t even interact with him that much???

‘knowing what you would do with it, you’d keep it so close to you because you have nothing else’ i don’t really see how this matches up with tegan’s character, tell me if i’m missing something here, why would she care about not having memorabilia from travelling with the doctor.

the cloned ashad is completely pointless why is he here???

also how does ace know about the hidden compartments in the floor? she’s doesn’t work for unit she’s freelance. either kate gave them a very thorough run down of the building or she’s been here before?

at least unit tables can withstand cyberman weaponary that’s convenient i guess.

and the master hid this teleport when…? also is this suppose to be the tce?? im very confused. you know what i’ve got to stop asking questions.

i presume this master then goes onto the pretend to be rasputin?? or he is jumping between 1916 and 2022?? this isn’t clear, like with the painting and such.

‘i can do this i can do this’ i would understand the panicking and reassuring the self if this was a like a first season companion, but not like a third season companion.

‘why am i talking to you?’ does yaz not know the tardis is telepathic/ sentient?? like if she can fly the tardis surely she would know? and she’s seen the doctor talk to tardis before.

‘got to dress for the occasion’ tv movie stans represent ✌️

‘forced regeneration’ ah lads not again.

is the doctor suppose to be this passive here, i don’t feel like she really resists?? she doesn’t struggle, she doesn’t try to escape, she doesn’t try to reason with the master, she barely speaks, she just sits there?? does she not care? does she just accept death? ‘ah fuck it just kill me i’ve had enough of this shite’.

i can’t tell how much i love ‘the master’s dalek plan’ line, it’s not even that funny but i just find it hilarious.

the boney m rasputin scene is great because its like the only scene that doesn’t take itself seriously and doctor who is missing this (good) cheesy campiness.

i wish they had done a straight up body swap that would have been so fun… oh well 😔

‘i still need a companion to ask and bask in my brilliance’ i would be your companion 😏

also funny that marketing for this era refuses to call them companions and instead ‘the doctor’s friends’ when they still use the term in show so like what was the point? lol.

‘i stashed some of my stuff in here early’ because of course you did.

‘i am the doctor and you will obey me’ nice 😏

‘change back. can’t be done’ unless you force me back into the machine and put a lot of regen energy into it 👍

‘while i tarnish the name of the doctor, im going to make the doctor a byword for fear, pain, and destruction so when people hear that name in future they quake in fear’ this was already a thing in the m*ffat era??? with 11 in a good man goes to war. honestly i straight up believe ch*bnall didn’t watch the m*ffat era.

yaz really just stood there whilst the master got changed i… okay.

these two planets at war and the master claiming to be the doctor and have done this, is like so inconsequential to plot like what’s the point?? i am suppose to care about these two unnamed planets full of unknown species??

‘no one to stop me now’ unless someone like points a gun at me then that’ll definitely stop me.

wow yaz actually does something! well done!

also how quickly the plot of the master!doctor (however we are catergorising this) is like dropped is like so frustrating cos again what! is! the point! what’s the point if we don’t see the consequences of this.

‘guardians of the edge’ you just made that up ,this actually isn’t a dig, i’m completely fine with this as a concept i like it. i think this is the best way to include past doctors without having the doctors physically in the story.

‘i have been working on this literally forever’ that’s why this literally the first time we’ve heard about.

‘under the gravest of circumstances like if i’m no longer around’ so is this like personal grave circumstances like if they’re in distress or in a literal sense in that the doctor isn’t around. I’m thinking about this too hard, it’s literally a plot convient device because we need the doctor her because god fucking forbid anyone else is given a chance to save the day.

‘you could have told us you’d done that’ yeah but then you might actually have some agency in your character yaz and we can’t have that.

also the way that this is never presented as a learning moment for the doctor… like wow what a great message about consent for children(!)

‘whoa the emotional receptors on the ai are a bit oversensitive. apparently you’re annoyed with me? apparently i should apologise for something?’ you mean putting body modifications into your friends’ bodies without their consent that something doctor? and then getting mad when someone dares tries to question you? 13th doctor i hate you. literally! villian! behaviour!

at this point i would advocate for yaz to straight up punch her in the face.

the fact the literally no other nuwho companion would ever put up being treated with way.

‘only one chance i’ve seen it in extreme circumstances, it’s incredibly dangerous, anything could happen’ like it honestly just makes sense for this to be the reason why fourteen looks like ten, that it’s a result of the forced degeneration, like idk if russell will follow up on this or if the cause of fourteen is the toymaker, we’ll have to wait and see.

also curious to know what the dangerous part of this was? i’m guessing that it could not work properly and the doctor could die? i don’t know they never specific.

this whole exposition dump of what tegan has been up to is so weird, when did we ask for your life story tegan?

i don’t understand why she would need to specify her son is adopted?? is that what she calls him to his face ‘adopted son’? you would just say son, no??? wtf??? it’s so unnatural to speak like this. ch*bnall doesn’t understand that people don’t speak in the exposition dumps.

like the whole speech could have been reduced to something along the line of ‘don’t worry i can handle myself’ or just the air hostess joke i guess. never mind there’s more chance of pigs flying than ch*bnall ever writing a second draft for his scripts.

‘i used to be good with heights’ sorry to be a fake fan but what is in this reference to? i can’t remember.

where does the parachute go? it literally disappears out of the shot in the tardis.

ace doesn’t ask where the doctor is??? …okay.

does the master really just assume yaz hasn’t been up to anything or planning something whilst she went off??? …okay.

‘you think you left and i never thought of you again, i never forget any of you, i remember everything.’ wow ch*bnall how to actually write the doctor. i wish there had been literally any more emotional moments in the ch*bnall era.

‘what am i thinking seeing all these cybermen? adric’ 😢

‘i missed you. missed you too, now please don’t get killed’ this scene between five and tegan is perfect, i wish literally any of the ch*bnall era had been done with this level of writing!!!

and we go straight back to typical ch*bnall! why the fuck does ace have to apologise?? wtf?? yeah because the doctor is in never in wrong (!) fuck off 😡😡😡 i hate this so much!!

‘i didn’t understand the burden you carried’ because ace was sixteen years old!! what the fuck is this line i…

what was graham gonna do about all the daleks???

‘i’m ace’ turns around to show the back of her jacket which has ace sewn on the back ‘yes you are’ this was very funny.

you know the last time kate faced the cybermen she threw a dismembered cyber head at them, now she’s quaking behind a table… okay.

do the cybermen and daleks know that their plans clash??? or are they all just very stupid?

tegan falling down that how many foot long shaft without getting scratch, now that’s what i call plot armour.

‘i think they make much better companions than you’ so fucking true bestie!!

jo martin my beloved

‘If you’re a friend of the doctor’s you aren’t going to use that’ i mean the master is aware of jack and like all of unit, so he does know that this isn’t a concrete rule with the doctor’s friends, but yknow we wouldn’t have a story unless everyone was fucking stupid.

do i think saying ‘not my doctor’ to a brown man is distasteful… yes.

when does yaz get given the sonic???

also im not even gonna ask how any of this logistically works.

like i would have accepted ‘reverse the polarity’ into explaining how they can do this. like literally the one time i want them to say reverse the polarity and they don’t!!

they just leave the master there!!! why?? he is going to escape you idiots!!

‘we used to be friends him and me’ she brings this up because...?

the complete whiplash of this doctor never knowing what’s going on to miraculously knowing how to solve everything and save the day in an instant (this thought process is never shown on screen).

the building collapses around them, they stand 5ft away from it and there’s not a single scratch on them… okay.

‘she’s still not explaining anything then?’ like it seems chibnall is self-aware of this but then never develops so like… what?

‘i’ll never understand it’ me talking about chris ch*bnall’s writing.

i don’t understand what the damage to the master’s body is suppose to be??? like the doctor is one who’s body have been through the most trauma this episode.

like i’m pretty sure yaz isn’t the only person to care enough about the doctor to run out to her, it’s just insulting to other companions imo.

wow yaz is buff as hell to be able to carry an unconscious doctor.

i don’t know this regeneration is so meaningless and so tacked on. like the doctor doesn’t sacrifice themselves to save the life of others, she just gets shot by big space laser because *checks notes* we need to regenerate by the end of the episode. like as with all ch*bnall writing there’s no emotional weight to any of it.

and i still think it should be the force regeneration that causes the inevitable regeneration that just makes a lot more sense to me. and then it would also be an actual consequence of the story and not just tacked on for the sake of it.

literally no goodbyes!! again!! i hate it here 😠

the cloister bells aren’t suppose to ring when the doctor is regenerating?? it’s for end of the world situations.

im sorry when the doctor says ‘i want more time’ it just sounds like a tantrum, like it comes across as so infantilising. like this isn’t anything like the ‘i could do so much more’ speech. idk sorry to compare.

‘i don’t want this to end’ that’s why i’m going to leave immediately as soon as you ask.

‘a wise person once said to me goodbyes only hurt because what came before was so special’ sorry to be a fake fan again, who said this???

i know the ‘no one else got to live our days’ is the second doctor, is it all from second doctor??

‘i think i need to do this next bit alone’ …but why???

not even a hug… oof.

‘how is she? how was she?’ don’t ask how yaz is feeling then.

JO! MEL! QUEENIES!!

big W for william russell.

‘are you okay? is she okay?’ why is yaz never allowed to talk about her own emotions!!! she is such a passive character it hurts!! why do we ever only care about the doctor.

like i think i’m in the minority but i don’t like the thirteen’s ‘tag you’re it’ line. like it’s really childish and just continues to infantilising this doctor. why does the female doctor have to be treated like a child all the time it’s really fucking weird and never sits well me.

final thoughts: so this post is long enough so i’ll try not to repeat myself too much. mixed reaction. i feel like the anniversary ep clashes with the regen episode. while i like the anniversary part of this ep, i loved the references and the fan service feel good and natural and not forced, so points for that. although the regen side of the ep let’s it down. there’s little emotional build up to the actual regen, lack of emotional moments period. having a good story means having good characters and good emotional depth and ch*bnall severely suffers on these fronts. because of any lack of emotional depth, the characters just seem to exist moving from set piece to set piece without any satisfying emotional journeys. i find it very annoying that tegan and ace (aside from their convos with their respective doctors) don’t really get any reconciliation with 13 and so i ask what’s the point. their inclusion in this story is not to progress their character’s stories and arcs, rather they simply exist for obligatory anniversary cameo which whilst is nice, is shallow and lacking substance. whilst yaz is actually active this story in saving the doctor, she is of course helped by the doctor, who is doing all the brain work, and so takes away from yaz who still appears like a sidekick. also yaz’s exit is the most passive companion exit i’ve ever seen, did ch*bnall forget to write this, who knows?? i don’t understand yaz’s exit at all and i’m sure i’m not the only one. sacha dhawan is great as always and this is his best performance so far! his dialogue is significantly better this episode too which is great. i love his earlier scenes in the lecture theatre (i know it’s not a lecture theatre i don’t know how else to describe it) and going into unit, i think he plays the camp perfectly. i only wished we’d (a.) had a proper body swap between the master and the doctor, dhawan!doctor my beloved or b.)) had much more focus on the master’s plan especially the emotional depth to it, it’s gets very convoluted very quickly. the master!doctor seemingly has very little consequences and is undone very quickly for my liking. i also hated how passive the doctor seemed this episode, she barely reacts to the force regen situation and doesn’t even try to fight again it???? anyway i feel like i’ve talk a lot now, thanks for reading if you made this far!

[apollotomyicarus]

alright i just beat spirit of justice and this is gonna be long and full of spoilers

tldr: lots of missed opportunities, i love apollo, and maya and athena got done dirty.

i think my biggest take away was that it felt like a missed opportunity. cases 1-3 were rather boring and case 4, which i liked, felt like a dlc case. case 5 was incredible, i liked that it deviated from the norm in its structure and leaned heavily in the visual novel aspect of the game in the first section, as well as how we got to see the WAA taking a case other than criminal law. i also liked that they did away with the twist villain. we already knew ga'ran was an antagonistic force so her reveal felt less like a twist and more like a breakdown. which was a good change of pace from the previous game(s).

apollo is my favorite ace attorney character, and i think this could have been ace attorney: apollo justice 2. particularly in regards to the final case, but also the magical turnabout. when a theme in the game is found family vs blood relatives it could have been a great time to reveal how apollo and trucy are half siblings, which could then cause more turmoil at the end when apollo has to choose being the WAA and kura'in. because choosing between work and your fathers legacy is kinda lame the way the game posed it. if they presented it as family vs family, it leaves the door open for further character growth from apollo.

one trend that i am really getting bored of is when culprits have a heel faced turn where they change their appearance. mannerisms makes sense, but a whole change in aesthetic is getting boring. between means (who i think was the first? i dont remember any earlier than dual destinies), the phantom, andistan'dhin, bonny/betty (to a degree), amara and ga'ran, the trend has been beaten to death. it also dehumanizes the characters who do it. thinking about means, who i think is the most disappointing case of this, and how he gets the mohawk. which 1, doesnt make sense for the established character and 2 doesnt align with the theme hes supposed to represent as a teacher and his desire for order. it makes him less compelling as a real person compared to say, april may who has a similar facade of rather pleasant but trying to hide her true feelings and anger. so when she snaps, it feels more authentic in how we can anticipate it coming with both her words and her expression instead of only one.

i also just think spider motifs are cool and i want gar'an to have them in her royal attire too, even if subtle, instead of just her prosecutor wear.

another thing that disappointed me was how so many of the female characters didnt feel like they did anything. athena was treated so poorly, she gets one case (no dlc case afaik) and its a filler and is co-counsel in the other filler case. shes treated better than trucy, but not by much. i was really disappointed that she got the gallery treatment in the final trial, she is supposed to be a main character and yet she got pushed to the wayside. but the character who got treated the dirtiest was maya. she plays the role of the sexy lamp. the accused in one case that she isnt present for most of it because shes unconscious by channeling. and shes kidnapped in another. im sick of maya being accused of murder, although when she starts being defensive in the 5th case about possibly being accused i thought that was a charming nod to how often she is accused. i liked that ema was back, of all the unchanged character designs from aa 1-4 i think she translates best into the 3ds style (trucy, apollo and klavier do not look like themselves). i thought emas relationship with nahyuta was interesting and i was happy to see her back from aa4.

i know a big gripe people have with the game is the colonial/imperialist undertones which i do see. i however think they werent intentional but the writers were aware of them and tried to minimize it as much as possible while keeping to the theme of revolution and succession in the game. namely in how it was never the japanese/american characters who lead the ideas of revolution, and for much of the game, seemed rather neutral to it and had to be pulled into support of the revolution. they could have explicitly made jove kurainese and that would minimize some of the backlash from the colonial themes and the overall "whiteness" of the ace attorney games (i know pheonix is japanese but no other character has a canonical ethnicity and everyone else in the main cast is very light skinned) and i know im rambling at this point but i think the revolution could have been handled with more grace.

the biggest highlight of the game was rayfa. i generally like bratty characters and she was no exception. watching her grow throughout the game was very sweet and she reminds me a lot of franziska with her brave face and how she deals with the expectations others have put onto her. i really liked her relationship with pheonix and how she grew rather attached to him. her desperation in the final case reminded me of the final case of dd and apollos desperation to be proven wrong. i wish we got to see more of her and apollo interact outside of just the final case because i think they would butt heads a lot but care a lot for each other, like siblings.

this is getting really long and its 2am so i dont know how much of this actually makes sense and i probably have more thoughts but im gonna leave it here for now

[tiphprince]

lmao marauders stans will say sirius grew up in an abusive household, but snape, who had it far worse then the rich entitled boy didnt? His brother died, yea didnt he hate them all? He went to Azkaban because he and james had a stupid last minute change of heart. Also if he'd succeeded in killing peter he would've gone to azkaban anyway. He doesnt bully kids but like, who's letting their kids around him? I like sirius as a character but hes interesting because of how casually deranged he is.

That's the magic of double standards in the fandom.

Sirius has a lot of issues, and many of them can be attributed to his childhood, but that's also the case for most characters, or hell, most people. The problem is when people start creating an order of "who's got it worst", comparing character's abuse, and then decide "Sirius having an abusive childhood explains his later choices, but Snape having an abusive childhood has nothing to do with him joining the Death Eaters". And I'm saying Sirius because that's the character you used, Anon, but it works with pretty much every other character.

What's annoying, is that the people who say that Sirius suffered a lot in Azkaban, and that the 12 years spent in the company of the lovely Dementors affected his mental stability (which I completely agree with), are also the people who will start foaming at the mouth the second a Snape fan starts to give an explanation about why Snape made the choices he did.

I mean, not long ago I had someone tell me "well at least Sirius didn't become a bully". Like... what?

The fact is, that both became bullies, and both at the same time in their lives. Not same age obviously, but when you think about it, they were both bullies when they were in power.

It makes sense of course, for someone to be a bully there needs to be some kind of power imbalance. Sirius was extremely privileged in school, the rich and powerful Black heir who defied the bad daddy and mommy, got into the most popular house, and became, with his friends, the rulers of the playground (or biggest bullies in the playground, to quote Sirius). Sirius was a bully during the best time of his life, when

Snape couldn't have been a bully at Hogwarts (as a student I mean), because he had no power at Hogwarts. If we were to establish a hierarchy in the student body, he'd be at the very bottom of it, and Sirius (& co) at the top. But then Snape became a teacher, and bam, he's at the top of the food chain. Maybe not amongst the teachers, but he reigns over the students.

Sirius and Snape are similar in many ways, and that's just one. They have no issues taking their anger on others who don't deserve it, and the fact that Snape is a late bloomer in bullying doesn't make him worse. Specially since his bullying consists of insults, while Sirius thought straight up murder was a fun prank.

In the end, the main difference is that Sirius bullied people the audience isn't supposed to like. Nameless students, so who cares about randoms, and presumably a lot of Slytherins, and well, Slytherins are evil and future Death Eaters, so they deserve to be bullied because of what they'll do in the future (logic? we ate it), and of course our feral greasy boy.

Snape on the other hand, bullied our heroes. Harry, Hermione, and Trevor Neville, which makes him a lot more despicable from the get-go, and makes it a lot harder for the reader to look at it from an objective point of view.

[kof-xiii]

about the aa5-aa6 stuff — i think the best parts of those games are the parts that, whether intentionally or unintentionally, feel like they fit into the love ans spirit of the previous games. certain cases, jokes, and characters from those games are GREAT because they feel like they have genuine investment into them instead of just “ooooh look at our shiny 3D sprites.” a good majority of the rest of those games have potential imo but were just not expanded upon, and i feel like there are probably a lot of factors that went into that :/

god yeah…..,, maybe its just me bc despite everything theyve also somehow decided to latch onto my tired brain and i think there ARE parts of them that are good and i really appreciate. simon and athena and their family, i absolutely adore them. the exiled sahdmadhi family and co in pre-soj, my heart weeps for them. their interactions and motives imo theyre fascinating to me. you get to the actual stories however…theyre executed so poorly and it just overshadows/ruins everything else

thats one thing, they werent expanded on enough!!!! they ended up being hollow!! dd/soj introduced these new characters and plots that definitely needed way more than just a single grand final case.

while we have aa4 which should be given an actual proper sequel, aa5/6 either 1) shouldnt exist in the first place or 2) aa5/6 should have been separate standalones instead of mainline. they could have been, ok not astronomically better, but i think there would definitely be improvement if the parts that were original to dd/soj were actually…written separately from the previous games?? without having to involve its predecessors? if that makes sense?? i feel like what ended up happening was the focus just kept on jumping back and forth and back and forth between dd/soj’s high stakes stories AND them still trying hard to remind everyone about aa1-4, and how phoenix and apollo are the protagonists, ((at the cost of athena being reduced to an inexperienced lawyer and assistant shadowing them?????))

you got these new characters but instead of seeing them fleshed out and grow throughout the course of the game, they also had to compete with the spotlight of the recurring cast as well, but it's a losing battle

why attempt to write a large-scale story if you’re just gonna haphazardly force it into the limited confines of a single last case, why write new characters if you’re just gonna. abandon them instead. you know??? and it doesnt help that the whole atmosphere jump from aa4 to aa5/6 is so. jarring

[magioffire]

☀ What's your rp pet peeve?

weeeeeeeeeee salt time ; accepting

uhh im sure this is a pet peeve of anyone with an oc or canon divergent canon, but when people obviously have not read your bio in-depth before rping with you and mess up really...basic stuff about your character. now, i dont mean like when a character assumes something about another character based off their own experiences or lack of experience or things they've heard, that just makes sense. but like when a character will do something to another that really should be impossible, or at least very difficult, or doesnt work the way they assumed it worked.

usually its very minor, we all mess up sometimes, and it would be selfish to ask people to memorize every single minute detail of my oc in order to interact with me, however theres some stuff that is just....so obviously stated in the bio, and would become apparent ic. like people interacting with and acting like vali is skinny and frail looking because hes a mage and a fae/elf like creature and therefore he *must* be weak and skinny, because all mages and fae/elves are skinny and weak! thats an example of ooc assumptions that can stop an rp dead in it's tracks, because it's obvious from just one look at vali that he is not skinny nor frail looking. and this is on purpose to subvert the idea that all elf/fae like creatures have to be these tall lanky white people and all mages have to be frail weaklings with not the slightest understanding of martial arts and fighting. and i dont think it's too much to want people to refer to your bio while interacting with you, or ask questions. also this leads me into my next one

when people completely underestimate and miss the point of your character entirely. now im not one of those types thats like "your character *must* respect my powerful character, even if your character is equally or more powerful, has reason to be rude, or is in general the type of person to push their luck', i love conflict, i want conflict, and honestly it makes sense in my case for a lot of characters to immediately underestimate vali upon meeting him, but i also understand the frustration that comes when people just seem to not....get it.

where your character is in a position of power, or is supposed to be feared or extremely well known, or being around them literally can give you a glimpse into just how powerful or strange they are, and it just seems to fly over your partner's head, and they dont seem very keen on learning about your character nor delving deeper into them and are content to just stick with the surface level assumptions so they can treat your muse like a punching bag. like a dick measuring/ one upping contest. and it gets even worse when they wont even really allow your character to retort or fully retaliate without the interaction ending unceremoniously, them being upset, or them just straight up godmodding so their character *always* ends up on top, i tend to lose interest in those types of interactions real fast.

and i dont want this to read as me not wanting conflict in my rps, or trying to give off that vibe those annoying posts have that are like 'respect muses of power!!' (bro stop co-opting the phrase people of color for fucking rp stuff. it aint that deep) or that i cant handle people talking down to vali or agitating him or picking fights with him, in fact i fucking love that shit, some of the most interesting rps when done right. im just saying that being either 'being a doormat for other people's characters' or 'being the person who walks all over people's characters for the sake of your own muse' is never fun for really anyone involved. rp is a two way street! and communication and equal back and forth is key. i think in an rp, each partner's characters should have equal amount of spot light and that a good rp partner strives to learn more about your character's strengths and weaknesses. instead of decided where and how your character is weak and strong and always putting the odds in their favor.

[eitelle]

— chapter 5 | “what a basic bitch”

“KIYOKO NEW CUSTOMERS,” you hollered to the back of the store at the sound of people yelling outside.

“ARE WE EXPECTING ANYONE?” kiyoko yells back, as its the fourth of july and there have been no customers, everyone staying at home making their own barbecue.

“UHH I LET IWA AND CO THAT THEY COULD COME?? IDK WHY BUT I DIDNT KNOW THEY WERE COMING TODAY OH SHIT IT IS THEM HIDE ME-” you scream slowly lowering your voice to a mere talking voice as kiyoko comes to the front.

“ok tanakas ready for you, ill handle them,” she says as they kiss you on the cheek and lightly shoves pushes you towards the back.

“haha, hey tanaka,” you say as you launch yourself in almost crashing into the metal table.

“yo be more careful. i know your the manager and all but like down girl this is my turf,” he says with a slight bark at the end. no like a dogs bark.

“shove off we have customers ok? we cant have them thinking we have a rabid animal in our kitchen,” you tease while rolling your eyes.

“ooh who?” he asks. “are they the pretty boys from the other day?”

“our family friends..?”

“yup those are the ones!”

“yeah, yeah it is them,” you sigh, leaning on the wall. tanaka wasnt just kiyokos boyfriend, or your best friends boyfriend. no, he was a family friend and practically a brother. kiyoko had been here for a lot but tanaka was here for more. hell, youre the one who introduced them in the first place. as you lean reminiscing on your memories with the people you called family, you hear tanaka snort and chuckle under his breathe ruining the moment of silence you two were having.

“what.”

“NOTHING,” he said putting his hands up. “well, i was just thinking how stupid you were-”

you didnt let him finish, cutting him off by throwing a towel at his face.

“no more out of you. im the manager here, i can literally cut your pay.”

“-to never see how madly in love mattsun was with you. thats what i was going to say now stop threatening me,” he finished with a joking pout.

“oh shut up ok how do you even know he ever liked me? much less loved,” you scoff. as kiyoko sends over the order, you look at it finding mattsuns immediately.

“a blt? still? and with no pickles. wow,” you say dragging it out. “what a basic bitch.”

“in all my years of working here,”

“youve worked here for 8 months.”

“in all my months of working here, ive never gotten a customer that put no pickles in their sandwich. this must be a new record. i mean doesnt he know you make them fresh every day and thats why were popular?”

“he must not. well i mean think about it this way, if he does get pickles, not half as good as mine if i do say so myself, hed give his s/o the side pickles.”

“TRUE TRUE,” tanaka said agreeing very loudly with you. “but what if its a how i met your mother lily and marshall olive situation?”

as you gasp your finger rests on your mouth wondering if that really could be the case. “than why did he not order mine? thats all people come here for anyways.”

“i think he really just doesnt know y/n.”

“ok then. are the sandwiches done?” you ask in an attempt to change the subject.

“yup im about to send them over,” he replied, knowing that talking about mattsun this much was enough for today, letting you change the topic.

‘well at least these are the last customers of the day’, you think to yourself.

‘i wish i would get his side pickles’ the 15 year old in you screams in silence.

pickles | m. issei

— now working at a sandwich shop, you think an old love that you cant stop thinking about is finally slipping your mind, until he walks right in your shops door. old flames resurfacing and new sparks forming, the million dollar question is will he give you his side pickles?

<< prev. | chapter five “what a basic bitch” | next >>

a/n: so a lil tanaka n yn background, mattsukawa random fact thing (he legit didnt know and hates pickles 🧍🏻‍♀️) and the synopsis and story explained more now! very eventful chapter w no real events if that makes sense.

taglist: [open send an ask or comment to be added] @m1lfluv3r @tsukkisboo @d0llpie @sergeant102105 @krbkwya @airheadpillar @bakugouswh0r3 (users in bold could not be tagged)

[let-this-ship-sink-already]

Hey! This is a pr thing mostly, but i just realized how similar this tomdaya thing is with the kristen stewart/robert pattinson situation before.

I'm a fan of kristen since her twilight days. I loved her so much cause it felt like i can relate to her (at the time i didnt know i was gay, and we later on find out that kristen is gay/queer as well).

Her and robert were together for most of the twilight series, then kristen 'cheated' on him with a co worker from a different movie. Then fast forward to the last installment of the twilight series, her and robert supposedly got back together (in 2012, the same year when the last movie installment was released). But if you really look at it, it's funny how their relationship is so in line with the movie franchise, because once the twilight series ended, kristen and robert also broke up (in 2013, after the movie ended). THEN that same year, when kristen was free from the franchise, she started showing up with a gf and eventually came out.

I'm not saying that this is exactly the kind of pr tomdaya has, but it's VERY similar. I've always sensed that z has the same vibe as kristen (not speculating anything, but just sensing it a bit). Idk if anyone sees it as well, it just hit me earlier how eerily similar it is. And also there was an interview with kristen where she explicitly said and name dropped MARVEL. Her publicist told her to hold off on showing up with a gf because Marvel was considering her for parts, they didn't want an out queer actor. But kristen doesnt give a fck about Marvel so she just lived her truth.

Who knows if this is what'll happen with z as well? Hmm, just something to think about 😅 Sorry for the longass post!

Thank you for reaching out to me. Please don’t apologize for lengthy posts, I don’t mind them at all. 👏🏻 Thank you for sharing this information.

Kristen and Robert are yet another great example of how Hollywood still uses relationships, whether true or fake, for PR, even though it’s so old fashioned to do that. You would think after how many times Hollywood did that, people wouldn’t fall for it any longer but they still do. I understand the argument of people that say: “But they were cast as the lead characters for a reason, so they must have amazing chemistry. How is it far fetched, that they fall in love in real life too?” I agree to some extent.

Yes, it is true, that actors/actresses need to have chemistry, but they are actors for a reason. This is what they do for a job - pretending to be in love, creating chemistry out of nothing. If Hollywood cast, based upon, whether people are in love for real or not, we wouldn’t need actors. They’d just get two random people, who are a couple in real life, to play two lovers. (I’m going off topic a little, but I hope this makes sense somehow). So, I guess, a lot of people still fall for the PR aspect of two lead characters dating in real life too, which, as you pointed out with Kristen and Robert, always is so in line with the movie release/promotion. They just believe, that acting can only be so good until it’s no longer acting but reality.

It’s the same with Tom and Zendaya. When there is a movie to promote, their public interactions pick up again and the whole ”Are they dating?” cycle starts all over again. And people would be surprised, how good of a promo a possible relationship is for a movie franchise, no matter how big the franchise itself may be (and you’d think it wouldn’t need PR).

Kristen’s comment about Marvel not wanting to hire an out queer actor/actress makes me so mad. You’d think we are still living in the 20th century, where a person’s sexual orientation, other than straight, was looked down upon, made fun of, not taken seriously or people were generally treated horribly for it. Thank God, we live in a world, that’s more liberal now and simply “accepting“ towards the LGBT community. Not that these people would need “accepting”, I’m just trying to say that, finally, people have realized, that sexuality is fluid and people can love whoever they want and identify as whatever they want, without any sort of judgment.

You would think that, judging by how many LGBT movies Hollywood produces, the industry would be kinder to people from said community and not treat them any differently. Yeah, right. Hollywood is the most outdated, narrow-minded, homophobic place, you can possibly think of and it‘s sad, that so many people are being forced into an image, that is not them, because certain jobs (such as in Kristen‘s case Marvel roles) are then off limits to them. I’m glad, that Kristen has decided to stay true to herself, truly inspiring!

Thank you again for sharing. I apologize for the lengthy post in return and kind of going off topic at times.

[theunconcernedembalmer]

what’s the issue with elisop? is it just bc you hc aesop as ace? im so concerned by seeing ppl adamantly opposed to mlm/wlw ships but im also genuinely curious about why you dislike it and other lgbt ships so much lol

hmm. that is a strong accusation, n i find it just a bit odd. are you new here? or perhaps you are taking personal offense at my dislike towards a favourite ship of yours and using the lgbt argument as moral high ground?

whatever the case may be, i thank you for asking. if u r truly looking for an answer, its below the cut n it is very very long. mind u these are all my personal opinions n i am in no way policing how others enjoy ships. just in case this wasnt clear; i dont wish to start discourse on this blog, especially since my takes are probably... unpopular.

firstly i would like to address the “disliking lgbt ships” bit, because this has very strong implications in itself. i have nothing against lgbt ships. i enjoy them, even. if the two characters have chemistry between each other, i ship it. however, the moment characterization is broken for the sake of romance, i lose interest. this is generally my stance on ships in general, n this applies for both straight n lgbt ships. 

the ships themselves are fine. however, i do have issues with the ship dynamics, so ill let u in on that.

i want to touch on mlm ships in particular; i believe u are familiar with the top/bottom dynamic that is rampant in these kinds of ships? (i wont deny that this dynamic can be found in other types of ships, but for arguments sake i will be focusing on gay ships because i feel that this occurs more commonly here) its such a popular dynamic that is prone to stripping the personality from one if not both characters, only for them to be reduced to being dominant/submissive. for a character to be pigeonholed into a stereotypical category based on... preferred sexual positions? its just downright insulting, never mind the larger more problematic implications of it. top/bottom is not indicative of someones personality, by the way. flattening multi dimensional characters into these stereotypes is so so so insulting.

unfortunately this is The Most Popular portrayal of just about any gay ship around. ive seen it being used everywhere in so many fandoms n it just about becomes apparent to me that ppl come to stories looking for a Ship. not the stories, nor the characters, just a ship. while id like to say theres nothing wrong with that, keep in mind not everyone is just looking for 2 characters that look pretty next to each other. if i ship something, i see interesting n meaningful interactions between 2 characters, which is so often not the case once u bring in the top/bottom dynamic. why is it so popular? because somehow this is what ppl like from a gay ship n hence it sells. ppl want the drama, characterizations be damned. ppl want to see the big kiss that happens in the end, n maybe the sexy parts that come after. characterizations be damned.

so u can say im a little wary of gay ships when they cross my feed. hell, as a joseph aesop shipper i see this trope everywhere n im pretty disappointed as well. small tangent but i feel like this is the reason why zh0ngli n ch1lde is so popular in g3nshin. i try to see the appeal, i really do, but after a long while of analyzing their respective characters i dont think they have as much chemistry as ppl think they do. dont even get me started on how incredibly ooc they make either of these very interesting n unique characters in ship portrayals. all because of the top/bottom dynamic that ppl want to see. i say this for that particular ship, but this is pretty much the case for a lot of ships out there, n the latter part is painfully true even when the 2 characters do have potential between each other. ill say it again im disgusted by the blatant disrespect to the characterizations if all ppl ever want is 2 pretty puppets to mush lips together. cos thats what theyre essentially reduced to this way.

n its so obvious to see when an artist subscribes to this rhetoric, because u can so clearly see it in the way they draw their characters. the “top” generally has sharper features to go with their “dominating personality”, while the “bottom” has disturbingly softer, feminine, dare i say sometimes child like features “to submit”. n thats where the uwu soft gay trope comes from, i believe. which, in case u still dont know, i hate with a burning passion.

so again for ppl with impaired reading comprehension, im fine with ships, including lgbt ones, but the moment u break characterization for the sake of the ship, im not that okay with it. u want to do it for a short crack comic? fine. but if thats the only way ur portraying the 2 characters then im immediately wary of ur content. ill still look at it cos usually the art is really good, but im very very wary. so im not “adamantly opposed”, just very critical of how the ships are being portrayed. if other ppl want to enjoy their ships like that, sure. just dont expect me to join in on something i dont agree on.

.

now id like to address not shipping “because i hc aesop as ace”. for ppl who are new to the blog (hello there), im an ace in a romantic relationship, so thats definitely not the reason i dont ship elisop. its more of being in a relationship has largely shaped my views towards romance as a whole. even before i met my boyfriend, i hated the romance genre in stories n media. most of it comes off as incredibly forced, especially those love triangles they seem to love putting into teen novels. thats one reason why i stopped reading when i was younger, but i digress.

did i partake in shipping when i was younger? i did. for a gay ship too (if anyone really wants to know, its kurotsukki from haikyuu. at least this was one that i can remember, i was mostly working on my 20 odd ocs for the longest time). i also used to write little short romance ficlets that i never posted anywhere cos i hated (n still do hate) my writing. but writing romance when u dont have experience was really just a way of projecting n probably a way of coping for myself, not that i knew at that time. but after i actually started a relationship with my boyfriend (whom i love n cherish a lot thank u very much), i began to see how much all these have skewed my views towards romance n have actually done some harm to our relationship. the bullshit that the general media feeds u constantly doesnt help in the slightest either.

quick topic shift to elisop in particular (about time, right?). i already stated that i only ship characters if i sense chemistry between the two personalities, n if u have seen the part where i dont ship elisop then u must have seen how agonized i am over not being able to have a concrete personality for eli. that is the main problem i have with elisop: eli does not feel like a solid character to me. n that is a huge problem, because if he doesnt have any defining characteristics besides being mild n nice, then he can be whoever i want him to be. (i have done this in my exorcist comics, i will admit this. n the fact that i can just do that... it really does not sit well with me personally.)

n that is dangerous.

back to young me doing lil ship things. i think its also pretty safe to say when u really do ship 2 characters, chances are u kinda really relate very very hard to at least one of them. that very quickly can turn into projecting, n shipping therefore is not “exploring the relationship between 2 characters” n it becomes “my preferred dating simulator 101″. of course this isnt always the case, but at least it was for me, n subconsciously it might be for lots of ppl too. n since this is ur mental playground, u call the shots, n there is no consequences if u slightly (or even entirely) alter one or both personalities to fit ur desired narrative. n u wouldnt even notice or know, cos ur blind to ur own biasness.

we bring our perceived notions into real life, im sure u know that. so when ur partner does not become that perfect knight in shining armour, or when they get upset at things that u do (which is a very normal thing by the way), n u think (very subconsciously), That isnt what my otp would do, something is wrong here (nothing is wrong, actually its just ur skewed perception of a stable romantic relationship). why wouldnt ur otp do this? because u are both halves of ur otps, there is no hidden secrets between them (apart from the pining part but thats irrelevant), n again they have been altered to fit ur preferred narrative. 

a real relationship requires a lot of communication between parties, because newsflash, liking someone doesnt mean that u have to like every single thing they do, they will make mistakes n it will hurt u, n guess what, the reverse is also true. if u do go with absoutely anything that they would do with 0 objections whatsoever, ur not crushing on someone, ur idolizing them, n that power imbalance is detrimental to a relationship. these things are not obvious to ppl, especially when the whole climate is hell bent on getting into romantic relationships by a certain age or some bullshit. communication is key n is pretty much the only way to solve relationship issues, because the other person has a lot that u r not seeing n vice versa. as similar as 2 ppl can be, i doubt u can have 100% the same thoughts on all things. i dont make the rules.

so in ur mental playground u focus on the fluffy parts, maybe there is communication, but rarely is there any meaningful conflict. thats unrealistic, n if u bring that mindset to an actual relationship, thats not going to end well. i say meaningful conflict, because yes, generally u shouldnt have conflicts with ur significant other. but inevitably when ur with each other for long enough, u will realize that there are habits that u must change in order to be with the other person. habits that are harmful to the other person directly, or harmful habits towards yourself that indirectly harm the other person. these are meaningful in a sense that if left alone, it will manifest into larger problems that will harm u, the other person n the relationship as a whole. its meaningful to the relationship.

all these is made even worse if ur neurodivergent. maladaptive coping practices, self sabotaging behaviours, inherent disabilities. all these must be adjusted n addressed. im so incredibly thankful for my boyfriend for being incredibly patient with me when working all these out, n it has not been easy for me to work on myself n all my problems, n im still not done working on them. this aspect is often not explored in romance in general (or properly), n there is a very good chance i would have still been stuck in the unhealthy mindset of “this isnt like my otp, maybe we’re not meant to be”. because loving someone is a choice. no one is made for each other, it is a conscious choice made between 2 ppl to make things work. this is how arranged marriages work, i am told, n i do see the appeal, not that it actually does appeal to me culturally.

special mention to the kurotsukki ship, cos from there i found a very, very good fic that explored their relationship before n after getting together, n it actually showed aspects of this problem in the incredibly slow burn of (at that time) 20+ chapters. it was just one fic (n a very good one at that, i believe it was called Leviticus), but it had a lesson i never thought i needed to learn, n learn it i did, with a lot of help from my dear. 

this is also probably the reason why i dont really want to delve too much into romance now. i know its a lot of work, n everything (mostly) that the media feeds u is really false advertising, but ppl eat that shit up n so it remains one of the most popular genres to date. im just very wary that if i do start on a romantic story, i want to be able to show it in a way like that fic did, the truths of relationships, because i dont want to make something that sells, i want to make something that meaningful to me, if a little indulgent. n that also includes being very careful in how the respective characterizations will change in a relationship. almost too careful now that i think about it, but its not something that i mind. i was never one for romance from the start, n now im very careful about shipping because of what happened to me persoanlly.

okay enough about me, lets talk about aesop. in any au u put the character in, the essence of the character must remain despite the change in environment. so lets say we have ur typical modern au. dead mom, check. shitty mentor doing illegal stuff? also check. autistic boy with social anxiety? we’re good to go. all these have implications on aesop as a character, n while ppl are aware of this, again the way they go about portraying it can go, in my personal opinion, very wrong. ppl who immediately woobify aesop completely because he has autism annoy me. ppl who reduce him to uwu soft boi cos he has social anxiety do not know how the disorder really works n as someone who has that i hate it to the core. ppl who do all these for the sake of ship have lost my respect. its insulting.

remember the top/bottom dynamic? not that elisop is completely free from that (even if i dont know much about eli, to put him in either one of those stereotypes feels very insulting to his character. i wont even say anything about doing it to aesop its so upsetting), but its not entirely made up of either. but now i want to introduce another trope i am very wary of, which is “i can fix him”. im sure u guys have seen the meme going around poking fun at this trope (for those who havent, its along the lines of “u can fix him? well i can be his worst nightmare”) n no doubt yall would have seen it n gotten sick of it in some forced hetero romantic bullshit. we have one damsel in distress with a saviour that solves all their problems just by existing n being romo with each other.

remember “my preferred dating simulator 101″? this is not mutually exclusive n from my point of view this is dangerously close to this trope. lets be real, if it was actually a thing that all ur deep rooted trauma magically disappears if someone were to waltz into ur life, we would want it. definitely. no painfully dissecting ur own problems n constantly facing them head on. real life states that this is not the case, but it will not stop us from dreaming. n so this trope is born n lives n will go on.

(finally) pulling aesop n eli into this, at least in my mind, u have one severely traumatized boy with lots of issues n u have this. nice mild guy who can be anything u want him to be. i hope u can see where im going with this, n thats the direction i see some elisop heading towards (i dont read a lot of elisop to be fair). if u came from my eli character talk, i mentioned that it is incredibly one sided. this is exactly what im talking about.

putting it all together in case u havent already, aesop is the damsel in distress, whose problems magically disappear because of elis godly kindness n little to no work on improving himself, n they lived happily n gayly ever after.

can u tell how much that does not appeal to me. 

never mind the butchering of character that inevitably happens somewhere somehow, the unrealistically perfect themes n implications of this trope makes me so viscerally uncomfortable. this is, of course, due to personal reasons, n i definitely see the appeal of this dynamic because i would probably have been interested in this once upon a time as well. but as i am now, with everything i have explained up there n everything i have been through, i would politely rather not.

n its difficult to think of another dynamic, because of how little i know about eli apart from him being this saint, which easily makes him a candidate for being aesops trauma panacea. never mind aesop rarely, if ever, does anything for eli as a character in return, n its so damaging to buy into this rhetoric, where a person like this who would solve all ur issues no strings attached exists somewhere in the world. they really dont. a relationship has to be mutually benefitting, or it will be draining n disastrous. maybe u say, Oh its nice to imagine it once in a while. n yeah, i agree, except once in a while is a little difficult to keep track of n that is sort of what happened to me. id rather stay as far away as possible from this kind of unrealistic fantasy, i just got this shit sorted out with myself n my boyfriend.

i have some other reasons, but theyre more personally problematic, so i wont go into them here. but this is mostly n generally why i do not ship elisop romantically. if u do, u do u, and have fun, but again dont expect me to join u. thank u for coming to my ted talk, this took a lot longer than expected.

[calangkoh]

All this discussion of CoS had me rewatching it and wow, something is... off about Alphonse? Like the memories, etc Did Ed's resurrection of his brother truly succeed or... is Al just an advanced homunculus? It's making me think of the buildup to Alphonse wondering if he really is Ed's brother

[this became one of my more rambly answers. i apologize for the essay. im also writing this with a LOT of background noise so it might be a little all over the place]

you are not alone in this feeling because al is DEFINITELY “off” in CoS. i dont KNOW if its intentional the way he feels sorta....unhinged? but he does to me, and im relieved to know others feel the same. there’s actually a theory about al not being al, which was originally by @fizzybubblespop [x], and i expanded on it in a different direction here [x] (this was written years ago so it might be a little cringe in quality lol). both are takes on the idea that al was never really al to begin with. sad. i dont believe them, tbh. i dont think canon has the intention to ever imply al isnt really al. but its still an intriguing theory that makes you question life and existence. the fun stuff. 

but yeah, i think ed really did manage to do the first ever successful human transmutation, because in 03 (unlike mangahood) its implied to be somewhat possible. that it can be done, except no one can do it right due to problems with the alchemist themselves. i interpret that ed created al’s body (because while they do question “maybe als body is still in the gate” it doesnt make sense for him not to have aged, since wrath was able to age somehow--idek how that works either tbh), and was able to pull al’s soul from the gate like al was able to do with ed, because they had JUST died. 

so i think a successful human transmutation, a true resurrection where the person is definitely the same soul and not a copy, requires: knowledge of how to create a body with alchemy, a proper transaction (which im not sure how that works either, because alchemists dont choose what they sacrifice, and when ed DOES choose, the gate still takes something different. and the gate in 03 isnt operated by a conscious entity like Truth--either way, al’s transaction was the philosophers stone, which included his own soul. ed’s was his arm and leg, undoing al’s sacrifice, and also him ending up in london. because a life doesnt equal a life. ed had to give up something more.), and the soul has to be “within reach,” as in, it has to have just died and be waiting at the gate. sidenote that in al’s case, he had ed’s fresh body right there with him (ew thats a creepy sentence)

and since most alchemists lose the person, and then spend tons of time developing the theory before doing the transmutation, it has never been done. 

just to expand, and the following is just me brainstorming...i think ed’s sacrifice makes sense and did work because of his experiences up to that point. yknow how in mangahood, you could say “wow but couldnt ed have sacrificed his gate way earlier?” but it doesnt really work because the lessons he learned to arrive at the conclusion “hey i could sacrifice my alchemy” were necessary to the sacrifice? like, the sacrifice wouldnt have worked or made sense if he just...thought of it with no work. if he just one day thought “hey i have an idea ill sacrifice my gate of truth” it wouldn’t have worked. at least imo. because the point of his sacrifice was the journey he had to finally look Truth in the eye and say “ive been through everything ive been through and i know i dont need it.” 

similarly, ed’s sacrifice at the end of 03 only works because of his experiences. all the adventure and excitement as well as the pain and hardships had meaning. the lessons and the bonding with al and the way everything shaped who he is. it had meaning to him. maybe by ending up on the other side of the gate, he’s essentially sacrificing the meaning to his suffering, and since he has been through so much, he’s sacrificing the meaning of most of his life, and the meaning of your life is what would be worth more than the life itself (because a life doesnt equal a life). so, if ed had made the sacrifice earlier, to just give up his whole mind, body, and soul, it wouldnt have worked. the gate wouldve just taken him and he woulda gotten nothing from it. 

both series have the optimistic nihilism approach (though 03 leans more into addressing the nihilism, while fmab kinda contradicts it to lean into the optimism), where yes we’re all just tiny specks and are insignificant in the long run and cant fight the flow of life, but that just gives us more power to give ourselves meaning. 03 ed gave up that power by ending up on the other side of the gate, and he can understand the war veteran more than ever who says not all losses and gains are material or visible. they cant be adequately quantified or explained by logic or rules. we assign the meaning. and maybe the gate takes that into account, and it knew ed assigned the most meaning to his shared experiences (cough shared trauma cough) with al. hence, hohenheims speech explaining what ed had to have given up to be worth more than his life to bring al back.